I'm definately one of those people who the author suggested it throughly disheartened by the ridiculous antics of Howard, Costello and Abbott. Parliamentry question time consists not of reasonable question/debate, but rather it's become a grab for the grubby spotlight amongst a couple of Howard's attack dogs, usually Costello and Abbott but with various other smaller front bench mongrels adding their high pitched yelps to the cacophony, while John Howard sits back enjoying the performance and grinning like the villiage idiot. All Rudd has to do to take out the next election is to remain calm and composed. The support of the Australian people will naturally follow.

And runner, I must say, I believe this religious nonsense has been done to death. Rudd has stated he's a Christian and that should be the end of the matter. Being a Christian is not about evengalism and bible thumping. It's about being pious and of not being "self seeking," something Tony Abbott cannot claim to be, otherwise he wouldn't be spruking his particularly dirty form of politics.

What we need in politics is to get as far away as possible from the dogma of religious sin shifters and back to a more balanced way of Government whereby that Government and it's members are entitled to express their religion as they see fit, or not have to declare their religion at all.

And who knows? Everyone's painting the up coming election as a race between Labor and the Coalition, but whilst our eyes are distracted by howling newspaper headlines (owned & run by Howard supporters) the other parties are keeping strangely quiet.

This article has too many clichés. On the one side we have 'the old guard', 'out-moded assault', 'an anachronism', 'un-reconstructed Old Labor', 'yesterday's man', 'Old Labor' (again), 'old guard' (again), 'the antiquated thinking that has dominated our public life for far too long' and 'this tired government'. On the other side we have 'new look Labor team', 'the new progressive politics', 'ideas for the future', 'the new battle lines of 21st century politics', 'New Labor', 'reinventing British politics' and 'Australia's future'.

Britain's New Labour is a pale imitation of the Conservatives, the direction that The Australian newspaper wishes our Labor Party to take by copying the Liberals' IR policies.

Being new, innovative and fresh is not enough. The Labor Party will win with specific promises such as undoing the IR laws, re-investing in education, indexing the tax-free threshold to movements in the minimum wage. It has to have a vision that is believable, not a lot of feel-good platitudes from Focus Group Central. Neophilia will not succeed.

I sincerely hope that if Labor wins the next election that it wont be comprimised by as Arnold Schwarzenegger described them "Girlie Men".

Call me a cynic or whatever, I'd like to see both the Liberal and Labor parties dissolved, and for all political parties to be in minor positions in parliment.

I like your sentiments Emma. Seems to me a lot of these boy politicians are variations on a theme. As if we needed it but hasn't the Burke business been an interesting insight into Howard's character or lack of it.
What an immature and spiritually bereft country this is. Nothing learn't and nothing gained, 82 Sri Lankan Tamils off to Naru, dispatched by that very Christian gentleman, Kevin Andrews, in a complete Kow Tow to the souless Howard.
Bruce Haigh

This process of lauding Labor leaders as great white male messiahs has been done to death. To date Mr Rudd appears a very conservative Labor politician. He may not seem close to the unions, but his statements, and the policies being announced are hardly new or different from the past.

The one policy that had the potential to be novel might have been Labor's pronouncement of an "education revolution". The title said one thing but the content was far from revolutionary, in fact it was more tired old back to basics education, that seems typically the thinking of Labor in government in Queensland.

The only revolution that would have any meaning whatsoever is the democratising of all schools and legislating the human rights of Australians so that all people in Australia, might, over time, enjoy the freedoms, rights, responsibilities, respect and justice that ought to be implicit in open, civil, democratic societies.

So far, I see nothing in what Mr Rudd has to offer that encourages me to believe there is anything new that Labor has to offer. Worse, the model of governing and communication being demonstrated by Rudd and his people replicates what has been happening in Queensland for the last decade. Communication is one way, from the ALP. Already one communication from me has not been answered. I've seen this happen often in the past. What doesn't suit Labor, its style of government and its often hidden social engineering agenda isn't permissible - just like a 19th century teacher in a classroom, holding and wielding all the power over powerless children.

Labor is all about having and using the power of government towards its own ends, to control the people, engage in social engineering but not for the benefit of or in the interests or the needs of individuals in the community.

Only when I hear that Labor will acknowledge that individuals can and will be supported in making informed choices in every aspect of their lives and take responsibility for the consequences of their choices, that I might be persuaded there may be something new on offer.

Someone once said that a gentleman is a patient wolf; Rudd, I think, is a patient Latham. Like Latham he seems to have concocted a background which should make him acceptable to traditional labor voters. Funnily enough I keep meeting people in Brisbane who were bystanders to some of these background events, and while nothing is a total fabrication the Ruddstory is told as though seen through a very peculiar prism.

Added to this it also seems that no-one who was in the Queensland public service during his reign has a kind word to say for him. Shades of Latham's council days.

As in the Latham days, we are being presented with a one-man-band labor party. When some of the more rabid lefties are eventually allowed to speak middle Australia is very likely to shy away. Every time Pinoccia (she of the nose) pontificates on industrial issues the rest of us take two steps backwards very quickly.