You hit the nail on the head at the end of your article. Everyone knows that it is the resources boom that is making Australia rich so it really doesn't matter who runs the country. I am a parent and IT'S THE CLIMATE STUPID!

...or perhaps the people have realised that Howard will do or say anything to get re-elected and after eleven years they've had enough?

"The economy IS the environment, stupid".

Voters understand now that the two cannot be separated. And they can see how the Howard government is grossly neglecting the challenges for our children of dangerous global warming and peak oil. The Howard policy of minimum disturbance to established industries and offering purely cosmetic illusions of change (e.g. in the Shergold Report) means that this government is taking no meaningful action to prepare Australia for these coming great dangers. The coalition leadership just don't get it, because they don't want to get it. They fiddle while Rome burns.

Meanwhile Labor is building a far more credible policy stance in these areas, though it still has a way to go. That's why voters are turning a deaf ear to all of Costello's boasts of how successfully the government is managing the Australian economy. Voters know this is a false prosperity, generated by a government of future-eaters (cf. Flannery). We the voters are not stupid. We just know when we are being stupidly led.

What many voters already know is that the current strong economy owes a large debt to Labor! Reform of the financial system was not a Howard initiative but one that Keating and Hawke implemented. The coalition likes to tell us that they are responsible for Australia's economic well being and, at the same time, it demonises Labor as being incompetent economic managers. But this is something voters have come to expect from the Howard government - blame Labor although it has been out of power for a decade.

The new found 'green' credentials of the Howard government is yet another example of the sleazy way that they approach policy. It is only because public opinion about climate change is so strong and so far out in front of government thinking that they have changed their tune. If they could get away with it they would have continued along the lines of "business as usual" with catastrophic outcomes for future generations of Australians. A "War Crimes Tribunal" for environmental crimes sounds like a good idea - I hope my children are still around to implement it.

Workplace relations is also a huge concern for Australians. Howard has set back industrial relations years because of an ideological belief that the only important future for this country is an economic one. Wrong! Not everyone wants to live in a McMansion and drive a BMW.

We used to be considered, by the international commmunity, as a fair and reasonable player on the world stage and our ideas and support were sought after because of this reputation. Gone...with the Howard government.

Howard just doesn't get it - he might be approaching the dubious statistic of the longest serving Prime Minister of this country but it can be argued that he will go down in history books as being the worst and most divise Prime Minister that this country has endured.

My take on this is that the electorate has a more sophisticated view on economic 'management' than the politicians give them credit for. There is bipartisan agreement that the Hawke/Keating reforms of the 80s (most notably floating the $A) set up the macro-economic framework under which Australia has enjoyed 16 years of prosperity.

Sound macro-economic policy in the modern global marketplace boils down to the maintenance of an independent inflation-fighting central bank, responsible fiscal management and a philosophical committment to free trade and investment.

Australia has led the world on these fronts and there is absolutely no difference between the major party groupings on the issues.

Secondly, I think there is an innate appreciation now among voters that the boom of more recent years has been overwhelmingly driven by external factors - namely the China-driven boom in commodity prices and a synchronised global growth cycle.

Thirdly, with the macro-economic debate now non-politicised (despite the desparate attempts by the Coalition camp to pretend there is disagreement), voters are focusing on the quality of growth, as opposed to the quantity.

Rights at work, work-life balance, the availability of high-quality free public education, a properly functioning health system and environmental concerns are all economic issues.

More importantly, prosperity should not be an end in itself, but a means to an end. Our prosperity gives us choices about the society and the world we want our children to live in.

This is why arguments over macro-economic management are falling on barren electoral soil. After a decade of visionless, small picture politics, people are aching for a government that will broaden the debate beyond quarterly GDP data to the real economy - the one we live in.

“It’s the economy, stupid”. Yes but what economy? The one spruiked by Costello, the experts and big business? Or the one felt in people’s pockets – their household debt, their rising mortgages, their fear of imminent sacking? ‘Full employment’ might be a joy to the Government and the complacent commentariat. But if you have a tenuous hourly contract, or get called in casually only when it suits the boss, ‘full employment’ is a sham.

Newspoll figures show: 68% say Coalition’s IR changes would make no difference to their vote and 52% say Labor’s policy made no difference to their vote. But flip the coin. An awful lot of people will vote on respective IR policies. And what % of votes need to swing for a change of government?

Tim Grau is right, however, to argue that IR is not the sole reason for the troubles facing Howard’s government. The ‘It’s time’ factor, climate change and the environment, the negativity of the Government will all play a part. But wait – there’s more! Much more!

There’s the growing understanding that Howard et al have consistently lied and mislead the voters – children overboard, Tampa, Iraq, interest rates, wheat, university fees, David Hicks, never-ever GST, non-core promises, etc.

The sell-out on Qantas and Telstra (and the Snowy – if he could).

Me-too policy-on-the-run syndrome: national water scheme, broadband.

Policies we fear: uranium, further secret IR ‘reforms’, school funding, invasion of privacy and loss of civil liberties in the name of 'security'.

The should-have-been policies that haven’t: Indigenous health, reconciliation, renewable energy.

The rorting and arrogance: party political advertising at taxpayer’s expense, Lib fund-raising at Kiribilli House, Howard’s private dining-room.

The ‘culture wars’: the wedge politics on multiculturalism and race, stacking the ABC Board and intimidating ABC news and current affairs, politicising the public service.

Sucking up to Bush and Howard’s inability to work with the next US President.

And dare I say it, there’s Howard’s age. People ask: who will really be PM if we vote Howard back in again?

It’s not just the economy or WorkChoices, stupid!