It is difficult to see what those neocon contributors to this discussion and others are on about -certainly not the welfare of their fellow citizens.
It is however easy to see why they speak as they do when the opposition 'leader' Abbott promised the independents 'anything you want but my arse' and that same 'leader' whilst talking of a 'kinder and gentlier parliament' openly said his main objective was to'destroy' the government.
I suppose the only thing going for Abbott who has never had a real job in the real world is that this is a democracy; because if he (as a politician or citizen) was to set out to 'destroy' the government of any one of the majority of governments in this world he would be in jail/or shot for treason. That is precisely what his 'destroy doctrine' actually is-treasonous.
Oppositions can actually contribute to better government by constructively providing alternatives to leglisation rather than the current option of say 'no' to any and everything. A principle with which the author of this piece seems to agree.
The only actual truth of this article is mention of the shrillness of the opposition in their negative/destructive tactics.
And what for -nothing more than power.

Yes Peter Lang

Little do we realise who and what "the Labor and the Greens" really are.

If they are allowed to run amok under the likes of Gillard and Milne, Australia is headed for a socialistic nightmare !

But ! do we need a change !

GYM-FISH

Politics is two fold much like any sporting event.

If your losing you need to do something different unless you want to loose. The ALP just does not get this, they are losing and they think doing more of the same will save them.

Abbott has done very little either offensively and defensively, he has dropped the odd hand grenade here and there but if your winning you just need to keep on doing what he has. If anything the ALP in government has been acting like a typical opposition with panic politics. I personally don't like Abbott but he has out smarted the ALP by a country mile.

Quote
Nay-saying a la Abbott et al simply for its own sake is an abuse and degradation of the parliamentary process.

Who says ?
Also for most he has made the liberal party a small target, yes he might say no to the ALP but they pedal a lot of junk the electorate does not want. Given Gillard's lack of credibility the electorate still does not want to listen even when she says what they want.

Back to Abbott, yes it is the job of the opposition to both disrupt the government and hold them to account, Abbott has done a brilliant job with very little effort. I think where Abbott has gotten off very lightly is proving he can be a PM, in a tight competition he might have to do this..... with the ALP in self destruction mode, he should change his middle name to Bradbury, except the ALP starting to fall to bits after 2010. For Bradbury his opposition did it on the last lap (maybe that is what Gillard is hoping for).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAADWfJO2qM

Like sport, in politics you only have to be slightly better than you opposition ...... to do more risks failure and wastes effort, with the ALP setting a low bar ..... if you don't like the term Pri-minister Abbott ..... blame the ALP

FredBrown

What goes on in Gillards mind ?

She puts very little thought into what she says and the implications it could have like her boats comments ...... if you want to critique a government on a certain point you need to make sure your superior at that.

The other bad example ..... ALP lacks economic credentials so lets predict a surplus that never happened. Rudd went to the election in 2007 painting himself as a fiscal conservative .... failed that test then Gillard and Swan run around predicting a surplus was going to happen when in fact the deficit could be as high as 15 billion, more if you include the NBN. On many measures, and major key ones, the ALP is all talk. After the 2010 Gillard yet again got on her high horse again.

Scott, you seem to be an intelligent sought of a guy, so tell me, in response to this comment....We need to know how an Abbott Government will handle the challenges facing Australia and indeed what it sees those challenges as being.

How on earth can anyone even attempt to provide a clear way forward, when even the sitting government themselves don't know where we are financially, as we must remember, Mr Swan, the worlds smartest treasurer still can't say for certain whether we will have a surplus.

Of cause many of us, the ones in the 'real world' knew this was yet another pipe dream.

I say this because in just five years we have gone from having money in the bank, no thanks to Keating and Co, to a record debt that is still increasing as we speak.

About the only certainty moving forward is that we are in for a rough ride, if we wish to attempt to repay this massive debt, unless of cause we just take the line that we can leave it to future generations to worry about.

What opposition?
Is the 'opposition' the one always complaining but never proposing new viable productive industry to supply local and export markets?

There was no effective opposition to the non-productive NBN or the 'carbon' tax either.