so after the election with who are the ship of fools going to replace
Rudd after they knife him a second time?

'a fresh set of independent political figures who regard policy above faction, service above patronage' - who the heck are you talking about? Not the Liberals - been watching NSW lately? There seems to be something in the water which brings slime oozing to the surface,regardless of political persuasion. Though of course they are nowhere in the league of the Terrigals.

My biggest problem with Julia Gillard was that whenever she spoke I became functionally deaf. I found out more about what her government had been doing in a short ABC interview with Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott than she managed to impart in three years.

My problem with Tony Abbot is that he has yet to say anything worth hearing. Certainly not policy, although with 87% of legislation passed under Gillard having bi-partisan support, perhaps he just shares the majority of Labor policies but won't admit it. Voting for more than 430 pieces of legislation put forward by your sworn enemies is a bit weird if you seriously want the electorate to think you have a whole new policy framework on offer.

I for one welcome our new zombie overlords. And I wish them luck hunting for brains in the Labor Party.

It's a funny thing I often end up seeming to defend Gillard although I've often felt annoyed with some of the things she's said and frustrated with the way some policies have been handled.

Anyway apropos of nothing I've never had the impression Gillard "knifed" Rudd as much that she was given an ultimatum for the "good" of the party with the support of most. The knifing was going to happen regardless however the level of collateral damage was her responsibility to minimise.

Contrast her behavior to that to Rudd, who has been throwing spitballs from the back of the class for three years. Well Gillard seemed to show more dignity at least. With Rudd you get the impression it's all about him.

I miscalculated - the Coalition supported 513 pieces of government legislation, not 430. Oops.

Sounds like the coalition was positive and all of those complaints about Abbott being 'negative' was political spin.

A lot of legislative change is routine stuff, for instance up-dating details on existing laws, so one would expect reasonable agreement, accepting that the Bills would pass anyway where the government had the numbers.