"national interest" ha you actual used that phrase with a straight face it's clear by your writing that your a rusted on right wing voter. So why the pretense that your anything else?

Rightards like this one live in a delusional parallel universe to the rest of us.

Hmmm, one day to go and the rats are rallying. Fascinating that they go into bat for a Labor right-winger like Shorten.

Sorry, boys, the truth is - and you probably feel it in your bones - that Shorten is an opportunist: he'll use your vote, he'll duck and dive on policy, he'll use cleaners to boost Labor Party funds and thereby his political skin, he'll do deals with anyone if it means his political survival.

But get on email, round up a few more suckers, quick, (only one day to go!) to defend the indefensible Bill Shorten.

One way or another, my vote always went to Labor. Not this time.

Joe

Hawke and Keating were new labor and as they rung the changes, forced the traditional left into the waiting arms of the greens? If you want to see what traditional Labor actually looked like you need to go back to Curtain and Chiefly! And with their passing we've never seen their like again, the light on the hill and the impossible future vision they made into a doable nation building reality.

As for the power hungry Rudd, Gillard and their slayer Shorten, they're even further from those former Labor stalwarts and true believers? True believers able to bring the nation and the opposition with them in an age of pragmatic bipartisan governance which simply put the nation first!

Those days are gone forever along with the world weary but authentic folk who used to make up the bulk of Labor! Now they come straight from union Leadership or uni and need an army of advisors to ensure they don't create too many black holes in a finite and shrinking budget! I have the luxury of already voting with an action that says, a pox on both your houses.
Alan B.

If you look at how little our governments have spent on infrastructure, you'll see that it was the Howard government that was spending like there's no tomorrow. Labor governments have the sense to invest in our future, while the Libs prefer to pursue short term financial objectives. Thirty years from now, when the FTTN infrastructure is on its last legs, everyone will be cursing Turnbull.

BTW the fastest way to tackle the deficit is to increase it in the short term, to strengthen the private sector. Trying to cut the deficit while the private sector's still weak results in fewer jobs and less growth.