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.

First 100 days of half truths a back down and an electorate very unsure about why they voted for the slick advertising, now laughingly called the liberal 2013 election campaign.

The persona wasn't the 'real tony' What we have now is the real tony.
The man who shot Bambi, Tony Abbott. The man who went on national tv you tube and got a free leg up from Rupert and said Australia is open for business, and got the stumbles BAD.

Whatever the lib blue tie wearing set say, this is not good for business in this country. Lovely job our treasurer did with Holden, though the blue tie set will deny this with a vigour as yet unseen. Sends all the wrong messages to manufacturing and to small business.

Says to the 15 odd million registered voters better watch out who you vote for next time. Cos the bloke and the party you voted for this time wasn't and isn't who or what you voted for. Folks don't like to look silly and tony et al are doing just that, locally and internationally. Man on a mission tony abbott, just not sure he has all our interests at heart..maybe his own self interest/s

Come off the grass curious, that one won't wash. Are you really expecting anyone to believe a company like GM make decisions in a few days. They had planned to go for at least some months, & probably since the bankruptcy in the states.

They were delaying the announcement just in case Abbott was as stupid as Rudd/Gillard, & would keep pouring the money in as they developed their get out plan.

As with Ford, the cars are now orphans, & sales will drop like a stone. The longer they avoided admitting they were going, the less money they were going to loose with reducing sales. Well done Hockey for calling their bluff, & making them come clean now.

You can keep up this spin in your Labor knitting circles, & wishful thinking will probably get you applauded, just as you become a laughing stock among real people

Hasbeen,
I am neither a leftie or a labor voter but the front bench line up on the Govt side would have to be the pits when it comes to talent and ability.
Hopefully there are some further back in the ranks who do have some ability and get the chance to displace the current poor performers.
I would hate to think this front bench is the best the LNP can produce, we are in trouble if they are.
Take it easy.
SD

I am not a leftie or labor voter or socialist either.
I think the problem at present is the extreme right has control of the Liberal Party.
The Malcolm Fraser decent and fair type of politics is no longer steering the ship.

I too am concerned about the direction the current
government is heading. Doesn't Mr Abbott have people
to advise him? And if he does, then whoever's
giving him advice is not doing a good job and should
be replaced. There have been too many errors of
judgement thus far and they need to stop.
The fact that the Party is losing ground in the opinion
polls should tell them they need to improve, and
fast.

Why is it that the State Liberals are doing so much
better? What's wrong with the Federal Libs?
Perhaps they're remnants of John Howard's government -
and should be replaced? Perhaps they're living in the
past, and that can be politically fatal, especially
if they're out of touch with what voters want and
expect from their government.

All in all, things are currently not looking good for
the Party. Action needs to be taken to improve things.

'Doesn't Mr Abbott have people to advise him? '

Yeah like Juliar had Flannery and McTernan ( the much needed 457 worker). Give us a break Foxy !

Dear runner,

I'm glad that you agree in that case - that
Mr Abbott should get his advice from somewhere
else because it certainly isn't currently working.
A change of direction needs to take place.
Perhaps he also needs to look at some of the talent
on his back-bench as well. Keeping party hacks on
the front-bench out of loyalty is not longer good
enough in this day and age.

Foxy,
Yeah some fresh blood is what the LNP needs. The front bench are hasbeens from the Howard era.
Times have changed, as they do, and these people are not what we need. Australia has many challenges in front of it and back to the future thinking as displayed by the present front bench is just not up to it.
There has got to be some talent and ability a bench or two back from the front. Let them through, we need them.
SD

"Yeah some fresh blood is what the LNP needs," says Shaggy Dog.

Shaggy, all members of the current Parliament should be replaced. There are too many hasbeens hanging around waiting to retire so they can work for Big Corporations.

We also need to dismiss all people associated with the two main parties, all the union hacks, all lawyers, all ACTU minions, etc. Then we need to fumigate the Parliament from top to bottom, leave the place clean and ready to make a new start.

A new start means no ex-politicians, Rhodes Scholars, band promoters, rich country gentlemen, union thugs, managing directors, garbage collectors, American Barbies, lawyers of any kind, media hacks, seven day a week bikeriders, marathon runners, religious fanatics, Yank-apologists, millionaire miners, etc.

What we need are down-to-earth Australians who want to serve their country rather than themselves and who will not engage in criminal activity over expenses or frequent houses of ill-repute or sniff chairs used by women.

Shaggy, this is the way to clean up the show before we end up like America, a political garbage dump!

David,
You have no argument from me, could not agree more.
I was only referring to the situation we are in right now.
Voting these days does not consist of voting in the best people, it is more about the least bad of a very bad lot.
Dreadful state of affairs.
SD

What a laugh. All the old Howard haters are back out in force.
Keep it up you blinkered lot.
It only took you 10 years to replace John. With the current lot of union/labor dummies it will take a far bigger effort than that to replace Tony.
Lol keep it up. Like the ABC/Fairfax nexus, who few now listen to, you are becoming a hackneyed sneering irrelevance who cannot enter a rational debate without resorting to abuse.
Keep it up you are alienating more and more voters with that dumbed down approach.

Dear Julia,
I am an LNP voter but that said the days of John Howard are past, we need some people with vision these days not flogged out party hacks and that applies to both sides.
To bang on about the good old days is a waste of time, the world has changed and will keep changing, we need leaders who can handle change. People who understand what is in front of us not dreaming of past glory.
SD

Dear Shaggy Dog,

I, like you come from a very conservative voting family.
And in the past I've voted Liberal all of my life.
However, my criticism if of the current Party which I feel
is letting Australia down. I like my Liberal State Member.
She works hard and is the type of politician I would like
to see at the federal level. I would have liked to have
seen Mr Abbott's government really shine - but it's not
happening and while I admire people like Warren Truss,
and Julie Bishop, I find the rest of them more than a bit of
a worry. Mr Abbott needs to seriosuly take another look
at his cabinet as well as his advisors.

Foxy,
I think TA is having to pay back his supporters, part of the system I guess, but I feel most of these supporters are small thinkers of little vision. Not what a leader needs around him, especially in the times we are now experiencing. They will be his undoing.
SD

Perhaps Warren Truss would make a good PM if he could get past the lib monopoly.
I think John Howard is controlling the strings tied to TA, that was how TA won the lib leadership.
Cut backs will be the order of the day until the next election.
Meanwhile, name a productive new project TA is promoting.

Yeah and I'm a labor voter. Has as much ring of truth to it as people who won't give Tony Abbott s fair go claiming to be liberal voters.

Criticising a PM three months into the job of cleaning up the most momentous labor mess in history isn't what any fairminded rational person would do.
.

Albanese hit the nail on the head few days ago when he said Tony Abbott had a plan to get into the PM's job but no plan for when he got there.

And now Mr Abbott is going to give away Qantas to overseas investors.

Why is TA not supporting Qantas workers in their bid to own shares in order to keep the airline Australian?

Even Ampol is gone, our wool industry, just about everything it seems.

I wonder what new investor might turn up and strip Qantas of it's good aircraft and other good assets.

A Royal Commission should seek an inventory of what remains of the outcome of all the development that Aus family taxpayers helped to fund over the years.

J
Do you think those workers might negotiate a lower wage instead of expecting us taxpayers to stump up for their over generous pays.

To blame Tony Abbot for Qantas demise is just rank stupidity as is expecting a government committed to smaller government, lower taxes and free markets to bail out a business which lost 150million last year when in that year Qantas carbon tax liability was 105million.
How about agigating for the senate to vote to get rid of that tax and it's obvious negatibe impact on QANTAS.

Are you just plain stupid or to biased to understand mathmatical facts.

I've just read an interesting article in
The Saturday Age, Dec. 14th 2013
entitled, "Abbott could've saved Holden.
He must hang on to Toyota."

We're told that, "The 'perfect storm' of the high
Australian dollar, high costs and low volumes was
used as the official reason for General Motors
discontinuing domestic production of the Holden
beyond 2017. But the real reason was the policy
uncertainty displayed by the Abbott government."

"Indeed, policy certainty and policy continuity would
have ensured that General Motors retained Holden to
this country beyond 2017. Just think for a moment
about the messages the company was receiving from the
new Australian government. First, a cut of half a
billion dollars to industry assistance. Then a
Productivity Commission review that was well outside
the timetable of December this year, set (and well
understood) by General Motors. And finally, to rub salt
into the wounds, a deliberate leak by selected federal
cabinet ministers to the ABC questioning General Motors'
real commitment to Australia. Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey's
comments in Parliament on Tuesday only served to confirm these
anonymous and authorised leaks."

The article tells us that "these matters were seriously analysed
in Detroit and understandably taken into account in assessing
the Australian government's likely policy. And GM's
assessment was that if the Australian government wasn't
committed why should it bother, given those additional
'perfect storm' issues. What a shame."

"That is not to say that federal industry Minister Ian
Macfarlane didn't try. Indeed, he understands the export and
global supply chain issues well and was no doubt arguing
his case to Prime Minister Tony Abbott and other cabinet
ministers. Iam Macfarlane must have felt severely let down,
and undermined over the past week."

" There is no replacement
for the Prime Minster (and the premiers) taking up these
issues directly - meeting directly with General Motors executives,
understanding their need for long-term policy certainty and then
driving any outcomes through cabinet."

"None of this happened with Prime Minister Abbott. He appeared
like a passive bystander left only to utter commentary
through scripted lines."

cont'd.

cont'd ...

"Now attention turns to Toyota Motor Company Australia,
one of the most efficient and effective Australian
subsidiary companies... Toyota Motor Company Australia
exports most of its assembled passenger motor vehicles,
The Camry, manufactured at the Altona plant, is the taxi
of choice across the Middle East, supported by an extensive
and impressive dealer network."

"Toyota is a great success story, which is now under pressure
because of the Australian government's policy vacuum. It is
under extra pressure because the supply base it relies on for
component parts has lost a key customer in General Motors
Holden. This will inevitably mean that a large number of
these component supply companies (probably about 150 of
them) will also close their doors. Some won't, becaue
they have already diversified and found additional
international markets..."

"But here is the challenge for the Australian government,
how does ti access the supply base needs of Toyota, and as
a consequence find ways to secure this base and therefore
secure Toyota's future in Australia? A less dispassionate
and more hands-on approach from the Prime Minister would
be a good start."

What is suggested is that, "What about an immediate visit
to Japan, led by the Prime Minister and including in his
delegation the leaders of Toyota Motor Company Australia
and key Australian component part suppliers?
And while the PM is there he could seek some private
discussions with his Industry Minister and Toyota executives
on what assistance would be required to relocate
The Bangkok Camry platform to Altona, thereby enabling
Australia to have the only worldwide Toyota Camry
production."

And as the author points out, "We might have a chance of
saving the rest of the Australian passenger motor
vehicle industry."

Foxy
And which of the Age"s leftie, Abbott haters wrote that crap.

If it's crap you're after I suggest you ask your
questions of the people who have the wisdom to
see things your way. You'll be talking to kindred
spirits with the same level of intelligence at
least, and the same comprehension skills.