It is easy to see and foresee Australia is already going downhill and will continue to do so under Howard/Abbott leadership-style of dangerously unreasonable cost cutting politics.

I knew that Phoney Abbott would be a disaster as a Prime Minister but, vastly exceeding my expectations, he has been an unmitigated disaster.

In 100 days, he has shown many of his shortcoming to the world BUT NOT ALL! He is surely the most lacklustre P.M. this country has seen. He seems completely clueless and stumbles his way from catastrophe to catastrophe!

He has already alienated Indonesia and China and that's only for starters. His Treasurer has seen off G.M. after a petulant, bullying display in Parliament. And it seems that Australia backs Japan in the dispute over Islands in the China Sea, a move which invites China to punish Australia by not buying our minerals.

The Coalition must get rid of Abbott now before he causes more harm to the party and the country. He is a liability we don't need. Let him go back to his mates in surf carnivals and bike riding where he is at home and looks at home.

Australia can't afford anymore of Phoney!

“..missteps like Indonesia...”

Come on! That one’s down to the ABC, and the spying incidents concerned occurred during the socialist Labor government’s regime. In any case, Indonesia is a childishly petulant country merely trying to squeeze more funds out of Australia, when what they are getting now should be stopped.

At any rate, talking about the ‘first 100 days’ of a new government is as predictable and as useless as the annual yabber about the commercialisation of Christmas. The important question is: can Abbott clean up the mess left by two terms of the worst Labor government in history?

At the moment, Abbott’s prospects don’t look that good; but, it is only 100 days out from the election!

Personally, I think Abbott will turn out to be a weakling; I think he misrepresented himself to the electorate, and made too many promises too soon.

But, who among us still believes that the politicians we vote for have the slightest interest in doing what we want them to do! It’s all about them, folks, not us. Politicians live in a world of their own.

All we can hope for from this lot is that they, unlike the previous socialist lot, realise that, as in the real world, when you are as financially knackered as Australia is, you have to stop spending and start saving.

Big spending and wasting of taxpayer dollars makes for big government – disaster as we, know from the socialist big-spenders.

One of the problems with compulsory voting is the number of people who vote for a persona, rather than policy.
Would Hawke have been so successful at pushing such a blatantly Neo-Liberal agenda, without his famous charisma?
Would Keating have been more successful, if he hadn't been perceived as the most smug and arrogant PM since Fraser?
Gillard proved to be a remarkably effective negotiator in a hung parliament, despite the most virulently negative Opposition in living memory, but could never shake off the image of “back stabbing bitch”.
Howard proved to be a remarkably persistent and strong willed politician throughout the course of his long political career, yet his public persona (shared to some degree by Rudd) was “mostly harmless”.
Abbott has 3 years to live down his well deserved persona -in Opposition- of a rabid attack dog, fully prepared to win at any cost and destroy his enemies for clearly personal, rather than public good.
His current strategy of staying out of the limelight is probably sensible.

Oh come off it Grim. What an imagination you must have.

"Abbott has 3 years to live down his well deserved persona -in Opposition- of a rabid attack dog", what utter twaddle.

It was only lefty Gillard/Rudd lovers who ever believed that rubbish, & only then because they had no one worthy of support in their lot.

Far from an attack dog, I'm afraid, like NeverTrustPoliticians, I'm seeing something more like a lap dog than attack dog. He needs to start getting tough, chucking all the socialists stuff out, along with Gonski the NBN, the ABC, & dozens of NGOs, along about half the bureaucrats.

At least then people will have something to vote for or against. This wishy washy behavior will only allow the lefties to spin their way out of the hole they dug for themselves, & should have been buried in

News this afternoon that the Abbott government has cancelled the meagre one percent pay rise for aged care workers promised under Labor. Of course they won't forgo their own inevitable pay rise because politicians have cunningly set up a system where they cannot interfere with their automatic pay increases. The message seems to be that Abbott and co don't like or care about poor people and also that they will undo as many as they can of any Labor initiatives just out of spite. No evaluation of merit - if Labor was for it they are against it. So much for the adults being in charge.