Albanese seems like a nice fellow, however he seems
to have difficulty in communicating. Not sure if people
would want him representing us on the global level.
Still I suppose Mr Abbott wasn't a great communicator
either, nor was Julia Gillard. Nor is Bill Shorten,
Come to think of it, who is? Malcolm Turnbull springs
to mind. But wait - what has he done thus far?

Damn!

Dear Peter,

«On Line Opinion should insist on real names from commentators»

So that politicians will know exactly who wishes the earth to swallow them?

Couldn't be more subtle than the fox and the cat asking Pinocchio to plant his coins in the ground, or for a paedophile to tell kids "come to my home and I'll give you more sweets".

There have been two leaders in the past decade willing to have a go, and both got axed. Tony Abbott and Campbell Newman. Both men had big plans which involved pain, but hey, while most enjoyed Kevin 07's free money, paying it back was not an option as they thought it was just a gift. Go figure. Newman went too hard, too quick and got railroaded by the dick from Redcliffe, while Abbott kicked too many own goals. Peter Dutton for mine. But either way Turnbull must go and fast.

Which politician do we want to lead the country?
We should just have a raffle and choose our leaders at random from the phone book.
- We could hardly do any worse than the current choices.
Vote 1 - 'None of the above'

Hi PeterBo,
"On Line Opinion should insist on real names from commentators . It would eliminate a lot of the garbage that passes for commentary,as commentators could not hide behind a pseudonym. It would lift the impact of the whole article immeasurably .With it it would lift the impact of On line Opinion"

Your arguments may have merit, but as an anonymous poster I'd like to argue the reasons why I'd oppose it.

I sometimes like to use every bit of section 18d without breaking 18c.
I may sometimes talk some garbage; (it's true) but other times I'm serious and I like to dig right into all of the pro's and con's.
Sometimes some of these things I say are controversial and often not politically correct. If I had to post under my real name I wouldn't feel comfortable saying some of the things I do
(Or risk being attacked on social media or elsewhere)

Forcing people to post under real names would effectively silence conservative or non-politically correct views.

This in my opinion would take away the whole appeal of OLO, (for me) which in my opinion is that the site is non-bias, that comments are not moderated or censored and that I'm able to speak freely on the type of topics and discussions found here.