FrankGol

Your extremely selective cut and pasting which paints Hawke/Keating as the causes of economic propserity today is deceiving at best. Of course over 13 years of Government Labour made some good decisions and some bad ones. You criticize the Howard Government for selling Qantas and conveniently forget who sold the Commonwealth Bank. You also ignore that the States have become rich via the GST and IR reforms that have employment rates at record levels and the unemployment rate at record lows. I am not sure if runawake feels it is a good or bad thing to insist people work rather than sitting at home watching TV whilst collecting the dole. I am not sure what State Frank lives in but when we talk about rorting the system the State Labour parties have been found to be openely corrupt. Just look at the goings on in WA and Queensland. It is a bit rich to compalin about the Federeal Government advertising when the only way State Labour Premiers get rid of their ministers is when publicly humiliated by the press. I am not a great fan of Mr Howard as you indicate although I see him head and shoulders above Labour.

It is ill planned IR reform and people in private enterprise both small business and it's workers feeling the pressure of Globalisation.

I'm having serious doubts about John Howard pulling a rabbit out of his hat at the next election and Labor with it's present bunch of not talent wonders will do for Australia what Carr/Iemma has done for NSW.Wall to wall Labor both State and Federally will destroy our economy.

Runawake - good point(s)! The much vaunted employment figures is yet another abuse of statistics by the coalition. Of course more people are employed if you shift the goalposts. Many so called 'full time' jobs are short term at best and are largely held by desperate people who are working under a constant threat of dismissal - see the ABC 'Four Corners' program re Telstra. Another term has entered the common lexicon, that term being 'permanent part-time'- an oxy-moron if ever there was one. The notion of a job with 'security and a future' has disappeared to be replaced by a job with no security and short term at best - all this to compete with overseas workers on next to nothing wages and to satisfy the doctrinal blood-lust of a two bob back street Sydney solicitor- a 'quid pro quo' for any number of insults and rejections. The Howard government has directed and presided over the greatest employment debacle in Australian industrial history, all allegedly in the name of efficiency and competitive edge in a deliberatly created so-called global economy, and in doing so has thrown out any number of babies with the bathwater. Throw the little mongrel out! Onya Maxine!

"Voters can see that climate change is real. In the last week, the last month and last year, voters have experienced or seen drought, cyclones, water restrictions, melting ice caps and record summer temperatures."
Rudd's concern about 'climate change' is full of holes and will last as long as the election campaign.
For instance why would you appoint a national Petrol Commissioner because petrol so expensive if you believe CO2 is the driver (no pun) of 'climate change'?
He certainly hasn't shown much concern about CO2 in his personal choices.
Rudd's commitment to 'do something' about climate change is as unrealizable as Bob Hawke's "No child shall live in poverty by 1990", made during 1987 election campaign.
The difference is that Bob was probably genuine.
Rudd is a different political animal altogether. His big advantage is that he is plausible (in the pejorative sense of the word).
Beware the 'Michael Rimmer' of Australian politics.

Howard has been out-witted and out-feared this time round. An exaggerated fear campaign on WorkChoices and the mother of all fear campaigns, climate change will do him in.

I suspect that the perception of arrogance on the part of Howard and his ministers is a significant factor.

They have begun to look like they think they own the place, taxpayers money is seen as theirs to do with as they wish, private religious views are imposed on others where possible and the spin has got so old that many are ready for a different set of spin doctors who maybe will pretend to serve us for a while before they start being to obvious in their feelings of superiority.

The worry is that like state oppositions the federal coalition won't learn from their mistakes. In opposition, they will be busy shuffling the chairs in the expectation of the time that the stench from Labor gets so bad that they get another crack at ministerial leather.

R0bert