Relentless negativity!
Seems like a good description of Tony Abbott when he was leader of the opposition and quite rightly described as Mister No.
Of course relentless negativity is also the primary "policy" of the repugnant party in the USA in response to Barack Obama in particular and anything defined as progressive in general.

Meanwhile of course the Murdoch "news"-papers have been practicing a relentlessly negative campaign against the Greens for several years now.
The theme being that if it wasnt for the Greens everything would be hunky-dory in consumerist la-la-land. Or that all of our political, economic and even social problems are in one way or another caused by or exacerbated by the Greens.

Meanwhile this essay describes what a truly human politics may begin to look like: http://www.dabase.org/p8realpolitik.htm

Here is something that everyone should contemplate, Since 2012 there has been wide spread corruption and defamation in the media And The GOVERMENT KNOWS THIS. I am sure a lot of people remember the continuous comments of " The Paedophile kid" well that "saga" was actually defamation that was the direct result of Triangulation. If you do remember about what I am talking about ask yourself why was there no actual reports played on air after all it is the media, its what they do but there wasn't one single report, just continual slander about a kid who was supposedly a paedophile. What actually happened was that the media got wind of a hacking method called triangulation for a "contact" at the Sydney university of technology. Which resulted in whole teams of reporters hacking there way into authoritive agency's , governments official's house and the private lives of the public. that's how this defamation came about for 3 years this has being going on and even the police of local and federal jurisdiction and the government has being informed but still there has being no resolution to the issue. the talk on the inside of the media is this is investigative journalism and there "fighting corruption" but all that is an excuse to make millions of dollars of illegal profits to bump up there paycheck, knowing full well they are breaking dozens of federal laws ( commonwealth privacy act1988 ) and broadcasting laws. If you look at the time line for nova radio 96.9 ( it was this station that started the defamation) prior to 2012 they were on the bottom of the Sydney radio list now they are at the top of the list for ratings in 2012 when the defamation broke they were generating such big profits it go them a relaunch of there vega fm radio brand ( now smooth fm) also the launch of the smooth pay tv channel along with numerous contract such as close radio, a joint venture with us online streaming staion RDIO the first of its kind. along with dozen of concepts.!

If anyone can find any information about nova's progress since 2012 best of luck cause they have being hiding as much information from the public as possible even posting misleading information on the web to hide the truth about what is happening from the public. they have also submitted inaccurate records to commercial radio Australia so as not to raise suspicions as to why they had such high ratings. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how far this corruption has spread into the media. SO what I would like to know is how should this corruption be dealt with?

A federal ICAC now!

Some sort of accountability regarding pre-election promises. No more saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. There must be a better way of holding governments to account than waiting 3 years for a chance to vote them out if they break their promises without proper justification - too much damage can be done in 3 years.

A cap on political donations and more transparency regarding political donations.

More ministerial accountability.

Disallow ex-ministers from working in related sector for 5 years.

Reliable information: For citizens to make rational decisions we need good quality information - this is not happening. We know we are being fed spin (propaganda) - how many of us trust the media/those in power to give us the truth?

Rule of law - some Australians are below the law while others are above the law - this must change. The Magna Carta was signed 800 years ago - it is shameful that some of our basic freedoms are now being taken away.

Freedom of speech - how free is our speech when would-be whistle-blowers are gagged to keep them silent? How can that be in our national interest? The corrupt and powerful are protected, while the truth tellers risk losing their jobs, their reputations, and even being imprisoned.

Taxation without representation is tyranny. How is it that corporations who often pay little or no tax, are able to lobby politicians for favourable treatment? While ordinary workers are taxed a third or more of their pay, plus paying other taxes such as GST etc on many consumables and we don't have any lobby group speaking up for us? This is inherently undemocratic. Murdoch, Rineheart and their ilk are better able to defend their interests because they have greater access to politicians, lawyers etc. Ordinary people simply don't have the same access to those in power to protect their interests.

Our political system is broken and needs fixing.

What a dreadful article Don. Far too true, too close to the bone, & offering so little hope the mess can be cleaned up.

This followed by posts from 579 & the hound, showing they understood not a word of it, & highlighting how unlikely they would be to even try to correct the problems.

I have always blamed Richardson for the rot. Was he the first, prepared to implement dreadful policies to buy the ratbag green vote, or was that just the first time I stood back far enough to see what was happening? How the hell can you judge yourself in these things?

You & the hound really highlight how unlikely we are to be able to get anywhere with sorting the mess. When we have so many industry & political leaders prepared to ride the Global warming scam to wealth or power, & so many without the savvy, or the independence to even see what is happening, one really could be forgiven for joining them.

God help our kids.

@ Poirot

<<[Abbott] can't bat, he can't bowl, he cant field...but he's a damn good sledger.?>>

And that was from the person who was sledging the Abbott administration even before they took office --LOL a real pot kettle situation.