If we are going to destroy what is left of the Australian economy after Rudd & Gillard, with left policies we might as well have a proper Labor left government, rather than a neither/nor left government led by Turnbull.

Even Shorten is preferable, if the alternative is Turnbull. The sooner we get rid of him, & get through the minor catastrophe that Shorten & company will be, the sooner we might get back on track.

As a lifetime conservative, the thought we may be looking at another Labour government is frightening. However, another term for the LNP with Mr Malcolm TURNBULL at it's helm, is in reality a win for Labour albeit by default? To me, Mr TURNBULL epitomes treachery and dishonesty personified, so where on earth does someone like me go, what options does a true conservative have?

I agree with HASBEEN, but the thought of actually voting for a Labour candidate, purely to rid us all of Mr TURNBULL, and his 'Left' leaning proclivities, in hiding is positively sickening?

Shorten has been very lucky to be treated with kid gloves by the taxpayer-funded ABC. What about the CFMEU for starters? Then there is his history and of many of his crew with the previous failed Rudd and Galah'd governments.

It is crucial not to be led by the nose by the hidden persuaders to dwell on the party leader 'US Presidential style'(totally irrelevant to here) and second, to waste one'e vote on a protest. Cut off your nose to spite your face? How rational is that?

Be independent and not an automaton.

Use YOUR critical faculties and YOUR judgement to choose the best candidate for YOUR electorate and what YOU see as the best candidates for the Senate.

Australia definitely needs more civics taught in schools - in lieu of that Marxist 'safe schools'(sic) malarkey and the rest of the PC stuff.

As for the ABC, it should be cut enormously and told to get on with serving country folk rather than trying to influence and sledge governments that are not to its 'Progressive' taste. Didn't the ABC's own CEO finally admit that it is redundant to the SBS in much of its programming? What he didn't admit and obviously wouldn't, is that both the ABC and SBS are completely redundant giving advances in technology over the last twenty years and more.

Politics these days is like a bloody contest of second rate Gladiators, watched with Schadenfreude

(warped pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune)

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So what is the result of the Next Election? I reckon:

House of Reps: a marginal Coalition majority. So marginal that Abbott may have the numbers to unseat "failed" Turnbull in a spill late 2016/early 2017

Senate: even more interesting.
Labor + Greens may = Coalition + rightwing Independents (no PUP now).
BUT 1 to 3 Xenophon Team Senators may have the Balance of Power in the Senate.

Blackadder

:) good one

What to say about the electorate though?

It seems that so many have faith in 'magic bullets' rather than the hard work of thinking and working to progress (the original meaning of that word of course) their lives.

No new government is going to magically make their lives and the world better.

However with every new dawn all have most of their choices anew. Cripes, some could even take some responsibility for their own choices and break out of that rut of a lifetime.

Nah, it is easier to be a moral bullsh*^^er and slack, expecting others to put their shoulders to the wheel, while constantly blaming others for one's lack of success and unhappiness.

It's all the gubbermint's fault. Yeah right!

Left wing politics are increasingly on the nose to the electorate, by virtue of the fact that lefties have been getting their way for the last forty years, and have made a complete balls up of everything. Throughout the western world, multiculturalism has brought high crime rates, terrorism, and endemic welfare dependency to entire ethnicities of imported migrants. Every western society is now heavily in dept because of the western leftist politicians penchant for using borrowed money to buy votes.

Here in Australia, Abbott was seen as a success for stopping the boats, and for at least trying to curb increased government spending. This did not suit our still overwhelmingly leftist press, who stabbed Abbott in the back at every opportunity. Everything was tried, from Abbott's supposed "misogyny" to hints that he was screwing Peta Credlin on the sly. Spurious "opinion polls" claimed that Abbot had lost public support, and this frightened the wets in the Liberal Party.

These idiots decided to turn the Liberal Party back to the political centre, at a time when all western countries needed to lurch to the political right. Having a two party system with only a cigarette paper between their already failing policies was not going to achieve anything. This is why Turnbull is so hated. Liberal voting people are generally a lot smarter than Labor voting ones. They look further into the future than socialists. They know that a Labor victory will simply create more dept and a wave of boat people, but that this is a short term problem.

Labor will again bugger things up so bad if they win the next election, that you would have to be a complete loon not to vote Liberal the next time. So what the smart people in the Liberals know, is that they have to get the message out to the Liberal wets to turn the Liberal Party away from centrist policies and start doing a Margaret Thatcher.

That is why many Liberal voters think it would be better in the long term for Shorten to win the next election.