Lost opportunities says Peter. The Hawke-Keating locust years saw one glaring lost opportunity. Their time steering the ship exceeded 4100 days. But so crowded were their diaries that not one day was found to issue an apology to aborigines. Keating even waited until 1992 before he expressed our national grief and sorrow about the treatment of aborigines. However, Mr Hawke did manage to go fishing with commodore Bond in WA. And how refreshing it was to see Mr Keating grab the opportunity to visit all those overseas locations.

The Wolfdene Dam issue suggests that Mr Rudd is not in the business of nation-building.

I think the chink in the armour for Rudd may well be Rudd himself. Rudd is fine on stuff he knows but he looks like a bit of an amateur when he is forced into unfamiliar territory or hasn't had time to think up a line to take.

The other thing Rudd does is make definitive statements, remember that he said WMDs in Iraq were an empirical fact which was much stronger language than anyone else. That is high risk politically.

I think the other risk is that "New Labor" may emerge and we will be cursed with a rancid Blairite third way.

Let's hope this Big Kev from Queensland doesn't over reach and go belly-up.

Oh dear! There was me thinking the wheels were starting to fall off the Kevin bandwagon.

Although the Government keeps saying that Workchoices is good for us, for the first time the newspoll released today shows that 51% of people think it is bad.

This is the first time workchoices has topped 50% in the total bad category. Even 22% of coaltion voters think workchoices is bad.

This issue may be the one that breaks the camels back for Howard. A grave error of judgement in removing the no disadvantage test.

Kevin Rudd is not falling down and he will not do so.
He has Friends in high places in a news release today a government failure got air time.
That totally lost statement that unions need to stop the lies and anti workchoices campaign it is a lie not supported by workers!
A government that thinks like that is indeed on the way out.
The debate conservatives must have is being held behind closed doors but it is too late to turn this government around.
Can it be true that those who lie best are more likely to find a home on this front bench?
That plausible deniablity is other than just lies?
Sir Robert Menzies Mr Howard would indeed turn his back to you.

Wasted opportunity? Hardly. Record unemployment, highest interest rates, highest government debt those didn't extend from Hawke and keatings terms very far into Howard and Costello's reign. And if Rudd keeps up his current run on huge vague unfunded promises that smack of complete recklessness and wastefulness the trends in polls of today will be repeated up till the election.

All Howard and Costello have to do is keep the economic record 'of the wasted opportunity' in the public's mind. And given the woeful performance of Garret, Swan, Smith and co. ...well Howard will still be PM next year

keith

Keep it up, that is exactly what is needed for Howard to lose the next election. If unemployment was measured the same as it was under Hawke it would show an unemployment rate now of 9.8%

Highest interest rates? They were highest when Howard was treasurer. If they rise tomorrow Howard is is deeper poo.

What about shifting Govt debt to private debt? Do you realise the interest payments on private debt are $500 million per week. Remember it was the current account deficit that Keating was talking about in his banana republic speech.

20% of the worlds bulk coal ships are sitting off our ports because our Govt. has dropped the ball on infrastucture.

In the last week of parliament the govt. had one and a half hours of govt business. Disgracefull

And just what is the "unfinished business" in the work choices legislation?

Sorry this tired, dull, vindictive Govt. has finally run out of steam.

All of that Steve but wait there is more fuel was about 70 cents as Howard came to government.
He band aided his neglect with a rebate for LPG but like so much it was far from enough and not well spent.
He could have taken all tax from that fuel and used his rebate to pay 5 years rego for all LPG cars.
What a great result that would be for our balance of payments.
The insult Labor line is fuel for the fire John Howard's miss use of a mandate has put under his own party.
Conservatives must debate now or at their peril after a train wreck is he past it?

There once an air of impending doom that settled over the British Conservative Party before Tony Blair was elected in. I think this is what the Liberals have now, I have a feeling they maybe massacred.

John Howard is the liberals only asset. Costello,Abbott,Downer and the other clowns are seen to have little in common in with the average Australian.

There comes a time in every politician's life when they must call it quits. Labor was running the ads stating that "if you don't want Peter Costello as leader, don't vote for John Howard" almost 5 years ago. That line got old when it seemed that he would never leave.

I think this election spells a new beginning for Labor, but Howard won't go out without a fight.

Peter, we don't have to look back to see opportunities lost. Just read the news every day. It's not just the Feds by the way, it's all governments ignoring our needs and services.

Howard's unfortunate period of two residency regal "mates" is a blight on our history and our future. It's just lucky that he finally revealed all his glorious visions for us. Enough for people to say they will even take Labor instead. Finally, Howard's End. Will lose his own seat too.

Notice Howard getting desperate now. Pleading with busines to pay for his ads instead of us the taxpayer. Or should I say as well as the taxpayer. And they said NO, so far.

Does Howard spend any of his or the Libs money on anything political? Or just on themselves? Don't the Libs have enough money to pay their way? If not, off to jail for fraud, just like they did to Pauline. I'd like to see Howard show 500 members of his Party. In his seat of course where they hate him.

Yes we do have a tired and vindictive government and that is both sides.

so labor is keeping workchoices now, i am so not suprised
Unions did well out of the labor lies, we will tear up AWA'S
A Pay rise well lets see tax, union fees up,centrelink benefits down, unions win again with their pay rise from the people.

Policies
Anybody who has seen any of their policies can post them, as i have not found any except here say from them.

THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLES PARTY has real policies on their website,check them out.

Labor and the liberals are interested in themselves

IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE

THE AUSTRALIAN PEOPLES PARTY

members and candidates wanted

www.tapp.org.au

When many people think of 'Bad Government' the ALP immediately comes to mind.
Most states are doing badly, their slack Labor governments try very hard to pin their own incompetence on the Federal government and though they are shrill in their claims, very few really believe them.
To trust the whole country to Labor would simply be too risky.
They are not to be trusted at all.

This is what you hope the Australian people don’t know:
Labor destroyed the Australian economy, and socially engineered Australia almost into oblivion during the short, but insane years of the Whitlam Labor government.
……Labor was a full-on Socialist party, with all the jargon…all the plans for socialising the means of production and distribution….big government owning industries, huge public service making sure the country would be strangled by red tape..all the usual Socialist claptrap.
The union bosses had ensured that their incessant wages push on ever-decreasing productivity had pushed up interest rates in the very early 80’s…all the strikes…all the threats to ‘bring Australia to its knees’ etc.
Then , Labor decided it would be useful, in order to entrench themselves in power, to have an ideology transplant, steal their opponents’ ideology and policies ( those of the Liberal ‘dries’), and float the dollar.
Labor couldn’t handle the result, and we ended up with a roller coaster of manipulation, hubris, panic, boasting , bragging, and general mayhem, that left the Australian economy in a very precarious condition.
Labor failed because it’s rat cunning scheme had been to make the Australian economy its own exclusive province, to make Labor’s special relationship with the Union bosses such an integral part of the Australian economy, that the economy would be completely dependent on deals stitched up between Labor ‘mates’, and of course, those union boss mates would never cooperate with a Coalition government.
So, effectively, they had stitched up Australia as a one-party state ….never mind about democracy.
In doing this, they discarded the chance to make deregulation really work, because a vital component for success was real Labor market reform , and of course the union bosses wouldn’t allow that.
So, by 1996, after all the Keating hubris and shenanigans, the legacy of Labor was : high interest rates…high inflation….record high unemployment…huge government debt ( not private as now)….a downgraded international credit rating.
And the prosperity we enjoy preceded the commodities boom.
The truth is the opposite to your claim