If Labour does win I think the first thing Rudd should do is clean Howards lackys out of the Public Service,and by that I mean SACK them there will be short term pain for long term gain, try to replace them with long term public servants obliged to neither side.
He should then, though it will bring on more pain set up either an enquiry or royal commission into Howards scandals,IRAQ,the wheat deal,children overboard, SEIV 11,the Haneff stuff up,and nail Howard and his crooked liars hides to the door.

as the writer said: if you put a pollie in front of a fork in the road, they choose 'power' over 'purity'. why should they not? they, like all of us, are seeking to maximize some combination of wealth, power, status, and security. to get power, you must leave behind purity. but you must not admit it. people will go on putting their heads in nooses, year after year, but only if you assure them it's a fashionable tie. this lie allows the mugs to pretend they are not mugs, or pretend at least they are not craven mugs.

unfortunately, telling a few necessary lies requires telling more, to protect the initial batch. before long, the pollie has lost any respect for the credulous fools he imagines believe him. the fools become resentful, of the ever growing list of lies they must swallow, and the ever thinner possibility that they can believe the lies that provide their pretense of self respect.

the present result seems to be that the howard mob have worn out the psychological component of legitimacy, allowing them to be thrown out of office while still appearing competent to govern.

getting rid of them won't do any good. the functional imperatives of parliamentary government will rot the next one, just like all the others. this would be a description of a psychotic society if it were not typical of humanity.

Rudd has the opportunity to stand out in style and substance from the divisive, dictatorial style has been the signature of Howard's leadership.

In all incoming US Administrations, the first 100 days sees severance of all partisan public servants. This practice must be taken up by Rudd to remove all the neo-conservatives responsible for collaborating in the worst standard of national governance experienced in Australia's history. We do not want more of the same from their ilk.

Federal Police should lay charges under the Crimes Act where corruption has occurred and immunity may be allowed where necessary to secure prosection evidence against the highest perpetrators up to the Prime Minister's office.

Rudd's new team of advisors should be drawn from an international pool of experts, Law Reform Commissioners and particularly from emminent scientists with proven achievements and ethical behaviour.

In Rudd's first term, the stage should be set for a constitutional convention, where our broken 3 tier system of government is replaced with an efficient 2 tier system where local government delivers national programs according to regional/local priorities.

Until such time as a new constitution is in place, Rudd's government could enact federal legislation that takes over state responsibilities for water, energy, health, education, police, ports, roads, rail and local government.

Rudd has an ideal opportunity of engaging his sharp intellect and reform stamina to introduce a major re-structure to government decision making in Australia that will enable both social justice and economic reform to be achieved and delivered.

Massive productivity gains of up to $30 Billion annually are achievable by vigorously removing the dry rot that has penetrated the whole ediface of state and federal governments in Australia over the past decade.

So cogently and succinctly put Natasha - well done!
"But when and if Labor falls over the magic line … what then?"
What then indeed!
As you so compellingly conclude, "Decency and accountability don't rate a mention" among the "historically high-profile advocates of due process and civil liberties" within his Party OR the (squads of) "powerful mandarin(s) ... federal bureaucrats and connected acolytes, whose careers have advanced by virtue of their effective advancement of the Howard Government's agenda through episodes of national shame ..."
Given the history of his Party's performance over recently past decades - beginning with the Whitlam regime - and his recently being given the nod by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, it is highly unlikely that any significant change to the neo-liberal economic agenda would be allowed under such a 'pragmatic' apparatus.
As with the Hawke-Keating regime before him and the oft-compared 'Democrats' in the U$A, the significant 'players' both within and outside of Mr Rudd's Party are members of the millionaire class, and as such have little or no interest whatsoever in the worsening daily plight of the several million Australian families being forced to subsist on the margins of our mainstream society ... er, sorry, Economy!
j5o6hn is of course quite correct to call for the sacking of the coterie of treacherous 'executive' Public Managers who have served the interests of the hoWARd regime and their wealthy national and foreign 'stakeholders' so well, and the setting up of either an enquiry or royal commission into Howards (numerous) scandals. Most worriesome however is his mis-spelling and mis-understanding of the true role of the L-A-B-O-R Party: they took U out of labour a long time ago brother!

Who is Kevin Rudd? Lately I see two leaders of political parties both saying the same thing all the time. Howard says Boo and Rudd say Boo Too.

He should be ashamed of himself in letting Beattie take all the running in exposing the Haneef case for what is is. His actions in this affair smack incredibly of Beasley's total lack of spine on the refugeee/Tampa issue.

I am desperate for Howard to go and for the Coalition to go too. But Rudd I suspect will be as bad as Howard, or even worse. He wasn't called Dr Death in the QLD Public Service for nothing.

As to others comments on sacking public servants who were/are Howard lackeys. This is tough as in a senior job under any government of longevity you must either take a stand and face the inevitable end of your career or take the Nuremberg line. Just following orders.

Yes there are lackeys and so on, of course there are. Howard has appointed many. I include people like Cosgrove in this group, promoted before he should have been etc.

Don't forget too that every government we have had does exactly the same. Mates jobs, jobs for the boys. If you don't think so of Labor just look at your State government or Admin.

But how do you tell the difference? Are all public servants who serve under Howard to be sacked "just in case"? Tell me please, how do we know the difference? You see people must take the line of least resistance when their family's future is at risk. Obey and do what you are told or face the sack. Plus the inevitable labelling etc.

So what is the solution? Get rid of party politics. Full stop. Change the loyalty from party to electorate and the problems vanish. How to get there is the tough bit as most seem to think we have democracy. Crazy people!

I think voters are ready for a change. The average person is working harder than they have ever worked before and carrying a debt higher than they have ever had before. Voters are paying a fortune for basic services that we have never been required to pay such a high price for.
Yes the government coffers are full but government has been very busy selling off Australian public assets and State governments are bribed via the National Competition Policy system where payments are withheld unless state government ventures are making money rather than costing money.
Mr Howard is running the country as a business rather than a government and while the poor and the rich are being looked after, Mr Average is peddling too hard to prop up the system.
Another term with Howard? What will we get to pay for that we have never paid for before?

Lack of interest and the resultant lack of accountability will see the same things happening.

Over the last decade I have witnessed abuses and excesses by federal politicians and others in positions of trust that should have resulted in an immediate cry for resignations from the electorate.

It is not solely the fault of the public that politician, senior bureaucrat and CEO alike have not been held to account, there are others such as the Fourth Estate, who have let us down by not explaining and not having the 'guts' to lead the charge for transparency and accountability.

I mentioned CEOs - ever wondered why so many people invest in houses and not in shares or other investment products? If so, just watch the sorry behaviour of business leaders and entreprebeurs that is excused by finance editors and by major accountancy firms (who seem to know just who writes the cheque).

If the public wants accountability and a better deal from elected representatives, then the public has to get angry enough to participate in democracy and not just on polling day as is conveniently recommended by politicians. The public has to do better than whinge.

Where are the letters to the editor to demand investigative journalism? Where is the threatened mass boycott of a TV channel because it fills its news and current affairs segments with pap? As a matter of fact, where is the excellence in commercial TV so promised by Mr Howard and his merry men (and women) when they were knee-capping the ABC for the umpteenth time?

cornflower, the beauty of the parliamentary oligarchy is that the common people have no, that's zip, control over policy. consequently, they don't waste time worrying about it. it's like the weather: if you're not a meteorologist, there's no use wasting time on it.

if we lived in a democracy, citizen groups could start recall referendums to punish crooked or ineffectual pollies, they could demand or forbid action through citizen initiative. but oz is 'content' to be mis-ruled by pollies as that is the society they find themselves in, and change is inconceivable to them.

don't complain about pollie mis-rule, if you continually vote for pollies. whatever they do, you've got it coming to you.

For the first 10 years of Howard's 11 year rule Jenny's little man had the ALP firmly in his corner.
Australia did not love Howard but the ALP seemed to be blinded by his light.
Now it is OK again to remember we basically do not like John Howard, is it old age or just normal that he shows himself as he truly is in live news interviews?
Rudd will not answer every ones wants and needs, no leader could, but he will be very popular in just months after he takes over.
Any thought of an impending bust under Labor, more interest rises than we would have under this mob, are not based in reality.
Rudd wants to unite a country John Howard set out to divide.
My greatest pleasure post election will be watching the conservatives tear him apart and the debate on work choices will be better than footy grand finals and the Melbourne cup together.

The difficulty I have with the approaching election is the apparant similarity in policy and attitude of the main contenders.

On the one hand is the 'Liberal' Party. And I think that the amalgamation of the Liberal Party and the National Party would be a good thing. They could then call themselves the 'Conservative party'. As that is what decribes their policies and attitude.

On the other hand is the 'Labor' party. Any resemblance to the original 'workers' party that created the ALP has long disappeared.

Both major parties blindly follow 'economic rationalism'. Both parties suported the invasion of Iraq. Both parties agreed on the Tampa incident. The list is endless.

Where is the 'Opposition'?

We hear and read about so-called left-right politics. Yet in both major parties there are left leaners and there are right leaners. There are centre left and centre right. Factions within each party fight for power. Branches get stacked, (until they break).

The purpose of an election is to vote for a person who you (I) consider to be the best person to represent my community and electorate.

Is it any wonder that more and more 'Independants' are getting the nod.

To vote for either of the major parties is, as Bob Brown said, a vote for either fawn or beige. And both of them wear 'camoflage'.

Get a life Warrigal! To suggest that the 'Liberals' and National Party 'people's representatives' are conservative reveals your naivete. Like his role models in the seriously fractured U$A and the so-called 'united' kingdom, hoWARd is a bloody REVOLUTIONARY ... he (and those around him and hiding behind him) have completely revolutionised our 'egalitarian' 'Christian' 'democracy'!

With considerable ongoing assistance from the privately owned and controlled corporate media (euphemistically once referred to as 'The Free Press'), corporate public relations industries and a highly-politicised senior executive service within the Common-wealth public service, hoWARd simply stepped up the pace of the neo-liberal economic 're-form' agenda began under the Hawke-Keating regime. the result is HIDDEN social inequality approaching proportions not observed since the Great Depression(s) of the 1890s and 1930s.

Even the burgeoning 'charities' owned and operated by the numerous 'Christian' sects are well aware of the full extent of the social disaster that has been forced upon several million innocent victims of the pernicious system which he and his supporters profit by ... yet they dare not speak out lest the annual public funding or largess handed out to them is cut off.

Reverend Kev and his fractured Party will do little if anything to reverse this great betrayal of 'ordinary' (ie, Working Class) Australians.

sowat, are you angry at someone?

i bet you vote for politicians! step over to a mirror and see the cause of your problems.

John Howard has led this country in a very positive direction. He has proven that if you look after the economy, the constituents will reward you. Thank you for your service to this point John, and I hope it continues after the next election.

Only naive fools vote for politicians Demos!
This is just one of the frustrations - the generalised ignorance of the Sheeple and the greedy self-interest of the effluent 'upper middle class'... including 'executive' public servants who have been well rewarded for their role in selling our common-wealth - at ALL three levels of public administration.
Under our 'democracy' the sheeple are given the opportunity once every 3 or 4 years to change the 'people's representatives', but there is no machinery for removing from office those who plan and 'manage' (control) the system on a day-to-day basis or their colleagues in the corporate world.

For all those here
and you wonder why I created The Australian Peoples Party.
www.tapp.org.au
And since the interest was lacking is why I will be running as an independent.

As we can see in Queensland Labor is starting their run on federalisation, It is that Kevin Rudd is standing back so he is not the one to get muddied.
This is an example of what happens when nobody does anything, or stands up forthemselves.

We are just waiting in NSW for the rail network to be privatised as it is common knowledge within the railway that this will happen, as the premeir,costa and several others at the top have it listed.

So you get what you get.
At election time This is all I can say
When voting, do so as if you are standing there for your family ,neighbours, and electorate.

The question
1 Will you stand and do as you are told or be expelled
or
2 Will you stand and represent the people within your electorate and be independent from them to be able to voice the problems.

I am no upper class pollie just someone who wants to make a difference, but then if the people do not want change then they get what they get and nothing more.

When more people start to stand up and voice and challange these people at election time then we will get real change for the people.

Stuart Ulrich
Independent Candidate for Charlton

Some of you who are also fed up might like to take a look at a US organisation's website

http://www.voidnow.org/

The democracy problem is even worse in the US than here in most ways, because there is no preferential voting and no proportional representation in the Senate. There as here, the two major parties tend to be bipartisan on the issues that really matter and to generally govern in the (short-term) interests of the rich and powerful.

What Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy (VOID) suggests could be translated to the Australian situation by putting all incumbent politicians last on the ballot paper for the House and the incumbent party last on the ballot paper for the Senate. Put the other major party second last. Let the politicians know that you want Proportional Representation as in Europe, Citizen Initiated Referenda, Voter Veto, and Voter Recall, so that politicians who lie to us to get elected can find their stay in Canberra very short. If you really want to twist the knife, give your first preference to whichever buffoon will embarrass them the most. Nothing will concentrate the mind of a politician like seeing his colleagues booted off the gravy train.

Good idea but the problem still is that the people will vote for their parties instead off.

Voting as it is them standing in parliament and representing the people.

Like myself i am trying and some would say very trying but the point is i am having a go.

But what we get is what these parties say, yes its not about us but about them as we keep seeing here.
What should be said is what you really think but the pollies dont care unless they can use it to help their own agenda.

My agenda well its about my family, my neighbours, the people in my street, my neighbourhood, my suburb, my electorate and when it comes down to it, it is what you have to say and if you do not say it, stand up and make these people accountable then its really their way or the highway.

People hasseled me about The Australian Peoples Party but when it came to it the representatives are part of a collective with individual choices, even though being members of a party.

This does not really matter now as not registered but will be running as an independent, same thing but not a member of TAPP.

Why dont we see the others here, saying where they are standing or even if they are game to answer the questions,
Why because they cannot and will not put it straight to the people, they hide like sheep behide their party structure and let others do the dirty work so they dont get their hands dirty.

Like me last week, someone reversed into my car picked up their broken bits and drove off, why is this suss, well i do have two a3 sized posters on my rear windows saying where i am standing, the seat of charlton, then my letter box was ripped out so will keep fighting and even if i do not win my seat at least i was standing for the right thing, the people.

Stuart Ulrich
Independent Candidate for Charlton

Kevin Rudd a lier and hypocrite.

Buying kevin07 T shirts from overseas.
Must have been cheaper labour well more thanlikly slave labour.

No respect for the manufacting sector ,workers ,families or the people that hold Australia together.

Kevin07 what a joke.

The unions dont care as long as they get in, what is a few jobs and a manufacting sector nothing.

Stuart Ulrich
Independent Candidate for Charlton