Eh? The liberals ultimately one enough votes and seats to form government.

In my case I didn't directly vote for either major party. A pox on both of them personally. I voted for a number of minor parties and ultimately placed liberal candidates one place ahead of the labour candidates followed by the other minor parties that I detest even more. I looked and decided who was the least objectionable of the likely winners

As far as the campaign went I was bitterly dissapointed. Even the minor parties that I detest put up a better debate and range of policies that were consistent and well argued than I believe either major party did. I looked at the majors and knew what they would do by looking at where they have come from. No real surprises since.

Sounds more like sour grapes from someone whose preferred candidate didn't win.

DKit

Well who would be surprised?
This is Liberal government, which means that they are there for the benefit of their purchasers i.e. big business..
Their whole core policy is devoted to making the rich even richer and to hell with the poor.
It was obvious from Newman in Queensland that the Libs had not changed their spots We just have to ride out three years of austerity and more rorts for pollies and hopefully common sense will kick in and the other lot will have another go.
They are not a lot better but we will be in with a chance if they claw their way back.
Oh for a really good benevolent dictator.
Or maybe a pollie free tropical island?

Well done Abbott for reversing the unjust taxes of the Labor Party. The author is a Socialist wealth redistributor of course. He's morally OK with stealing money from those who earn it, and of course, being a blind ideologue, he would be because should logic ever enter his head his ideas would reveal themselves as nonsense. Socialism has a consistent track record of failure which is always ignored by such people. The unemployment rate is going up anyway because the mining industry, which was despised and undermined by the Left anyway, has come off the boil.

Heaven help us if this is the future of the Labor Party.

A pollie free tropical island? I'm sorry Robert, I simply cannot find one of those on such short notice! Albeit, a few deserted islands might qualify.
But then it's not just pollies that they lack, but reliable water?
We didn't vote for an Abbott govt or an Abbott agenda, so much as voting Labor out of office.
And the worst part in this saga, is none of the austerity measures are necessary or desirable, neither is the foreign investment the cash strapped govt is welcoming.
Take the sale of AWB? Will any actual cash change hands, or will it yet again be an increase in foreign debt as the investment model, and the subsequent loss of profit to offshore owners, along with most of the tax this still Australian entity pays.
If you want to see what penny wise pound foolish really does look like, just follow the privatization of the wheat board, and the offers now on the table, from our foreign competition!
The Bligh Govt was smashed at the polls, simply because they, our servants, rejected the will of the people, and tried to govern like literal despots?
Ditto Howard, Newman and given the signs, Abbott as well?
Rhrosty.

I have a wonderful idea.

Lets give all lefties a calculator.

Then lessons in how to use them.

Then demand they do the necessary arithmetic to support their ideas.

Then have fun watching them go mad, trying to make those ideas work economically.

Julia Gillard admits that using the term 'tax', as in carbon tax, was an error of judgement on her part. This is ironic, as the author reminds us that socialists can't resist taxing everything that moves.

I can tell you how much I would increase tax. By about $20-$25 billion per term of government (today's terms) over three terms - In the context of a $1.6 TRILLION economy.

Priorities would be implementing Disability Care, increasingly the chronically underfunded Newstart payment, implementing comprehensive national aged care insurance; investing in infrastructure in infrastructure poor working class suburbs, investing in social housing, investing in renewables research and energy infrastructure, investing in fast rail and so on.

Even over a period of 10 years that would still peak at $60 billion to $75 billion in today's terms - ie: in the context of a $1.6 trillion economy. (ie: an increase in social expenditure of between 4% and 5% of GDP. Leaving us still far behind the Nordics.