I found this discussion interesting...not interesting enough to coax me out of abstentionism but thought provoking nonetheless:

The Future of the Left in Australia. Adam Bandt and Andrew Leigh

http://www.themonthly.com.au/future-left-australia-adam-bandt-and-andrew-leigh-6641

Rhrosty, you wrote:

<< Putting the sitting incumbent last on the ballot paper is a good plan. It won't change much except who sits in parliament >>

A good plan that won’t change much?? ( :>/

Seems like a bad plan to me!

<< My plan is to place the incumbent last on the ballot paper, which is the only way to effectively say to both major parties, a pox on both your houses! >>

So um, you will be voting for a party that you consider to be a pox then?! Because if you vote against one pox, you will in almost all cases be voting for the other pox, even if you put them second last!!

Such is the DESPICABLE nature of the compulsory preferential voting system.

So if you really want to vote for neither pox then you need to submit a blank ballot paper.

Or you could just mark the candidate that you like the most and not number the other squares... or you could declare preferences to all candidates except the Libs and Labs and leave those squares blank.

Except that in both these cases your vote will NOT BE VALID, even though the intent of your vote is clear!!

Again; such is the DESPICABLE nature of the compulsory preferential voting system.

If they are both poxes (and I agree; they are), then vote for NEITHER! And the only way to do that is to submit a blank paper, preferably with some very strong expletives directed at both major parties... and at the CPV system, written all over it in thick red marker pen!!

Slashing the Public Service by redundancies or by "natural attrition" is the same thing, only one is faster than the other but the result is the same.

This can only mean that government services will be cut correspondingly.

My bet is that Abbott will quickly sell of Medibank Private and probably outsource Medibank itself to the private sector, just as Howard dumped the CES and started subsidising unemployment agencies under Centrelink. It was on their wish list last time around.

It's also a fact that the size of Public Service grew much faster under Howard than under Hawke/Keating or under Rudd/Gillard and they are once again just being used as easy target scapegoats to create the impression of waste coupled with with a handy solution.

Wind power will never be cheaper than coal because something which produces nothing can never be cheaper than something which produces something.

"Gillard, who is the politician of our generation, as Roxon said."

Hilarious:

http://pickeringpost.com/article/our-prime-minister-is-a-crook-part-x/924

Still struggling Cohenite?
Good for you.
A machine which uses up valuable resources compared to a machine which doesn't use up valuable resources, for the same result.
Hmmm, tricky.

The only Angst ridden wails over who will win is among the undeserving who would rule. Inner city Lefties, rabid Greens etc. (takers, not makers), the victims of this shambles have made up their mind. The Labor brand (not a party), whose byline is the amoral "whatever it takes" is fetid from machine hacks, spivs, shonks, rock spiders, crooks, bag men, slush funds, nods, winks, kick backs, stand overs, thuggery, kicks, and of course Julia's speciality, Lies.