SPQR,

"<<[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."

Well, perhaps I knew something you didn't - and since the Abbott/Credlin administration has proved itself thus far an unmitigated disaster - maybe I was onto something.

In fact, he's turned out far more incompetent than even I dreamed he'd be.

The most negative thing the opposition could do is to pass all the government's bills. The fact so much bad legislation is getting blocked suggests the political system is working reasonably well despite the "short therm poll driven culture".

As for the article, it obfuscates a fairly good point and encrusts it in rightwing rhetoric! For instance:
| And twenty years of growing national wealth (no longer growing) have led to a widespread
| perception that there really is a money tree, and almost any problem that one encounters
| could be solved if only some medicinal money were applied to it.
Nobody actually claims there is a money tree, but the claim that there isn't is invariably used to try to persuade people that we can't afford what we really can afford. The lack of increasing wealth is due to economic mismanagement, with a compliant media failing to challenge the narrative that the government should take more money out of the economy than it puts in. And when almost everything is limited by the amount of money available, most problems can be solved with increased funding.

Hasbeen You don’t have much support for your type of govt; at the moment, and rightly so. They have not displayed the type of skills needed to run govt or anything else.

You must be happy with Abbott’s one man and one lady policy making, which are all failing to come to fruition because of no other than bad policy, unworkable, not even thought out. And rightly blocked in the senate, by all sides of politics.

This is far removed from what we voted for, like when Abbott was negotiating the hung parliament he was prepared to do and say anything to become PM. He used the same tactic to be elected PM. That means he had his own radical plans to become a dictator, by using his PM power to bully his own front bench. So much for his reconstruction of his front bench to eliminate any form of obstruction for himself, This implies he does not have the nation at heart he has himself at heart.
To stand over and bully ministers to get his own way surely proves he is not suitable for the job, and you would be best to reconsider your faithfulness to a rouge PM.

Time has come for his own party to stand united and eliminate the skum from their ranks and become a proper parliament. The wheels are turning as the top offices of our land are leaking, and ministers are jostling for position. Abbott is desperate to spend billions of $ to follow his dream of being an infrastructure PM, and worry about the consequences later. That is another ill thought out idea, with Vic not going ahead with a tunnel to give a handful of city people a short cut. Vic has more pressing infrastructure jobs which includes public transport. Shoot from the hip and you are sure to strike a nerve somewhere.

Aidan, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is supposed to have the best interests of the realm at heart at all times, as is the Government. If that were truly the case, then it would be rare for any bills to be blocked, because due process of Parliament would see the pros and cons of proposed legislation properly discussed (rather than debated) and modifications made or objections overcome through explanation.

Of course, it isn't truly the case, since the Parliament is no longer made up of those who have a strong vested interest in the outcomes of their decision-making process, as it was when Parliament was first conceived.

So Parliament is now a farce of preposterous peacockery, where legislation is written in back rooms to appeal to Party apparatchiks who hope it will be saleable as a product to the public and there is no discussion at all on the floors of the Houses, just posturing and silliness.

It's not just a shame, it's shameful.

The Abbott government would have a far better chance of blaming Labor and a recalcitrant senate for its disastrous budget if it had not so comprehensively lost the public debate.

Modeling clearly showed the budget pain fell disproportionately on the poor. A few policies were particularly toxic – including the $7 GP co-payment and paying unemployment benefits to under-30s for only six months of the year.
If these policies are not to be “barnacles” but remain as unimplemented government policy, it is hard to see how the government will escape the perceptions of unfairness. It hasn’t, and can’t, win this argument by claiming the budget is the only way to make spending cuts, because voters understand that governments have choices, and they really don’t like the choices this government has made.

Bill shorten.. on higher education . I’ve said before these reforms need to be scrapped and their proposals need to be taken to an election.”
Abbott said on Tuesday the “very good package” of higher education changes would be a priority when parliament resumed next month, but the crossbench senator Ricky Muir told Guardian Australia he was likely to oppose the bill.
At least two other crossbenchers, Jacqui Lambie and Nick Xenophon, have said they were not prepared to support the current bill, partly because the Coalition had not told voters about the plans before the 2013 election