"But they also want other things that the Federal Government currently ignores, which, given its massive budget surpluses, it could comfortably afford to provide. Workers want to be able to visit a bulk-billing doctor at short notice and close to their home. They want to be able to take time off work to have a baby, and to have paid parental leave in order to be able to take time off work to care for a new baby and still continue to pay the mortgage off. They want to be able to put their children into childcare and then kindergarten once they return to work, without needing to go on a waiting list and then have to pay massive fees.

And this is where Kevin Rudd and Labor can fill the void."

How?
Is the state the workers fairy godmother?.
A certain former Liberal leader said many years ago."Life was not meant to be easy"

And he was right too Vioetbou. Indeed, life isn't meant to be easy, but under the Howard led Government it's a downright bitch!

Why not get someone from the ALP to impregnate women. The burden of giving birth, child raising and associated incidentals would be met by the ALP. I seem to remember a 13 year period when the ALP had its captain in charge of the ship. Surely that was enough time to have all these systems established. Rather than the dynamic duo of a bypast period spending its time, a) constantly phoning Sir Peter for riding instructions and, b) planning raids on the very profitable cash cow known as T/A, that same dynamic duo may have found time to actually serve the public.

Kevin Rudd somehow seems to rhyme with dud.

I hope Kevin Rudd is no L-plate leader. The Howard government is at least 5 years past its use-by date and getting mouldier by the minute. We need an opposition that can challenge the government and maybe even beat them, and if Kevin Rudd can do that I think it's great.

I don't know much about his economic credibility yet, though. It'll be interesting to watch him lay out some new policies in this area.

Life wasn't meant to be easy? Maybe not, but the government isn't supposed to actively make it harder, either. And that's what WorkChoices is doing, and that's why Labor needs a strong leader and policies. Here's hoping Rudd can do something about it...

Here Here, for a fresh, dynamic leader of the Labor Party that can hopefully get the job done..

It is quite sad that Australia continues to support the Howard Government when they continusously disappoint and deceive on matter of national and global interest.

Electing a Prime Minister is not about getting the best man in....but more closely about keeping the Worst man out!
In this sense Howard definately needs to go. Kevin Rudd seems to have the academic and diplomatic capabilities that I believe Beazley lacked. He also brings a freshness at a time when the Australian public is in desperate need more social revitalising.
There really is only so much 'fear-the-other' crap you can take, before most people will pull their heads out of the sand and realise under Howard, Australian policy is going no where

As the L-A-B-O-R Party so strikingly demonstrated during the Hawke-Keating era, they are a party of Capital interests and will do little to alieviate the widening socio-economic gulf between 'The Haves' and 'The Have-nots' in our seriously divided 'egalitarian democracy'!

Thanks to the Accordians of the Hawke-Keating era, earlier prices and incomes policies were swept aside and The Economy made subject to 'de-regulation','re-structuring'and 'privatisation' of our public assets, 'strategic initiatives' continued with a vengance by our present 'leaders' after the increasingly worried and 'redundant' Australian working class and lower middle class eventually awoke from their consumerist slumber and voted L-A-B-O-R out of office.

As the those who 'manage' the numerous burgeoning 'charities'in our 'rich country' are well aware,there are today some 3-4 million Australian citizens effectively marginalised and alienated from mainstream society, forced top sunsist on 'benefits' doled out to them by well-rewarded senior public servants and politicians who retire on multi-million dollar retirement packages, akin to those received by 'executive' employees of huge national and foreign corporations. Even senior Telstra employees appear to recognise the reality by providing 'support' for "over 1.6 million Australians experiencing financial hardship".

In Victoria alone the Bracks administration ignores the worsening plight of hundreds of thousannds of citizens with deopendent disabilities under 65 with nowhere to live, except with ageing and exhausted parents or in aged care nursing homes.

Little will be allowed to be changed under Federal L-A-B-O-R!

"Time to turn federal Labor into the party that listens to families"-oh, YES, and it is time to turn Labor into a Labor Party not for a title only.