Alan, you still don't get it. No matter what Murdoch thinks, people are not silly. Just ask the business community what a disaster labour has been. Just ask farmers what a disaster labour has been for them. Not a single one of them seems to know a thing about farming, our second most important export industry. They have paid a heavy price for the stuff ups.

I am no fan of Tony Abbott, but a change of Govt is overdue.

The New York Times - "News Corp.'s Tight Grip on Australia's Papers Shapes Its politics".

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/business/media/news-corporations-tight-grip-and-outsize-influence-in-australia.html?ref=business&

Your hot button link to Newmatilda doesn't work, Alan. I got chucked off that web site after only three posts for being a racist. Ironically, while I routinely attacked as a racist for making negative generalisations about groups of people that I don't like, it amuses me to see that you do the same thing to readers of "The Australian."

Are you a paid PR man for the Labor party, Alan? C'mon, don't be shy. Tell us your self interest in making a career out of making excuses for Labor at every opportunity.

And could you tell your mates on NewMatilda that they are a gutless bunch who are frightened of hearing any opposing view to their sacred orthodoxy? The last thing that they want to consider is any heretical rational argument that suggests that their holy belief in human equality could be wanting.

Poirot don't you find it just a little amusing that one paper likes to think than another paper, & by inference themselves, has a large effect on public opinion.

Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

I really can't remember the last time I read a newspaper. It was back when Kavanagh & Burton were with the Courier Mail.

I did buy a Gold Coast Bulletin a few months back. I'd run out of paper to wrap the rubbish, & it was the thickest paper on the stand.

Alan, regarding my statement to which you responded:

>> in most cases they effectively only get to choose between two parties which both pander like all buggery to corporate power <<

I reckon Labor is better than the Coalition, but not by much. In the greater scheme of things the difference is insignificant.

So Abbott asserts the Coalition’s right to accept big donations from tobacco companies, even when the stated aims of those donations are to influence government decisions in relation to those companies (Thanks for the link). That is certainly philosophically corrupt!

But Labor does the same, from all manner of companies if not from tobacco companies. It doesn’t need to be stated that big donations are given in order to sway government decisions and policy.

Rudd increased the already record high immigration rate in 07 as soon as he won office, despite no mention of doing any such thing prior to this. This is a biggie in the wishes of the big corporations! As I keep asserting; the immigration rate and hence the rate of increase in the demand for everything is a huge factor that can’t be dismissed or played down. It’s what the big boys want, in order to increase domestic markets as well as their labour supply.

In short, Labor is just about as bad as the Coalition.

The thing that puts them slightly in my favour is that they have introduced the carbon tax and other measures, which really are small imposts on big business that amount to nothing more than first steps in the right direction, and have been hounded by that sector for their efforts.

So I do appreciate that Labor desires to do much more to counter the bias of big business than the Coalition does. That aspiration does amount to a significant difference between the two. However, in the real world, given the real power of the business lobby, there is alas scant little difference between Labor and the Coalition.

And Labor’s positions on high immigration and the need for a carbon tax, etc really are highly contradictory!

what a joke, always blame someone when the people don't agree with you.

Poor journalism, as usual.

Powerful newspapers and business. What is new?

What is new, in 2013, is that a majority of Australians may have had enough of the ALP for many reasons