No Mr Swan they have not stopped listening. They have been unable to get some important initiatives off the ground because the Labor States and the Federal Opposition have blocked them at every turn.
How do you suppose it feels Mr Swan to be one of those people who volunteers hundreds (or in my case thousands) of hours on projects only to have them halted by the refusal of the Opposition and the States to cooperate. Being in Opposition should not mean trying to prevent an elected government from governing. This is what you and your ALP mates have been doing for the last eleven years. The saddest thing of all is that you may well win the next Federal election on that record...and then you will expect the Coalition to cooperate with you.
It's no good arguing that you make all the decisions on what is best for the country - you are making decisions designed to get back into power. You will do whatever it takes. I am sick and tired of hearing that everything in the garden will be rosy when the ALP is back in control, that the economy will be in better shape, the environment will no longer be a problem, that education funds will be better and more equitably spent etc etc. It simply is not true. The Coalition has spent more on some areas that are traditional Labor areas - and they still get given no credit by you or the media.
I am fed up with your holier than thou attitudes,

Do you also promise Wayne not to increase the GST that our Labor State Govts have wasted on growing their bureaucracies.Will you also control your Govt spending and keep the Unions under control?

We only have to look at our various State Govt's lack of discipline with no money for infrastructure/services in times of plenty.

Govt policies set the climate for interest rate changes and your party does not have a good track record in this area.

Just pray for another cyclone to wipe out the rest of our banana plantations and then we cannot become a "Banana Republic" if Labor rules us again.

Banana Republic, you obviously don't understand what Keating was saying, given our current account deficit we made banana republic years ago.

Look at our disasterous export performance over the last decade, maybe we are a dessicated coconut republic.

No Wayne Swan, the Government haven't stopped listening. And I think your mob could do a lot better at listening to the public mood. Most Australians don't mind the workplace reforms - there have not been mass sackings as you and your union mates thought inevitible.

Indeed - and it may not have occurred to you - sackings occurred before Work Choices and even AWAs! Indeed, more people were out of work when your old mate Keating was in the Lodge. I'm not sure how you come to the conclusion that Howard and Costello have done a bad job when it comes to employment/IR.

Runawake has a selective memory.Labor left us with a debt of $80 billion or $10,000.00 for every working person.In todays money it would be $20,000.00 for every working person.Now this debt has been paid off and The Coalition now have $80 billion in a future fund.

The real "Banana Republic " scenarios were happening right in Labor's back yard!

Arjay (21 May 2007 6:52:10 PM),

Unsubstantiated claims are not convincing. Please supply detailed figures to back your assertion that “We only have to look at our various State Govt's(sic) lack of discipline with no money for infrastructure/services in times of plenty.”

The Victorian Labor Government has invested substantially in infrastructure. Below is the capital spending each year on schools from the all-party Parliamentary Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Report on the 2006-07 Budget Estimates:
97-98 $58 million
98-99 $90 million
99-00 $112 million
00-01 $216 million (Labor’s first budget)
01-02 $265 million
02-03 $200 million
03-04 $125 million
04-05 $307 million
05-06 $287 million ($1.4 billion already invested by Labor in school building)
06-07 $379 million

The government has also improved services; e.g., it has employed an additional 5,193 teachers to make up for most of the cuts the previous Liberal Government made and to allow prep to grade 2 classes to be capped at 21 pupils each. It has made similar improvements to police and nurse numbers.

Wayne Swan,

I am concerned that, according to news reports, you have stated that you will not be taking a tax policy to the election. The Labor Party took my idea for two tax-free thresholds to the last election, but it did not adopt my related proposal that at least the tax-free threshold be indexed in movements to the minimum wage so that low wage-earners get the full value of minimum wage increases. This issue needs to be dealt with.