Eventually I think it comes down to whether you are happy with the way the country IS, not how it's being run.

The pendulum seems to have swung too far to the right (not that Rudd is particularly left-wing) but also as a nation it seems that we have sold out our morality and sense of independence for a few quick bucks.

The illusion of growing personal wealth is based on the increased value of Real Estate and the stockmarket but in reality there is a personal debt crisis looming for many of us plus a coming generation that will not have the same opportunities that the previous one enjoyed.

Add it all up and some may feel somewhat disappointed by it all and feel like a change.

We have the ever intrusive bureaucratic government we have today thanks to the left wing socialist who said government knows best. Now government is heavily laden with unionist job protectors clinging to the indexed pensions and cost of livings at the expense of the public purse and giving little in return but further government expansion bloating the many government offices administrating to societies every need. A very nasty cycle of civil dependency and ever expanding administrative staff perpetuated by the left for the left paid for by the ingenuity and labour of the 'free' man.
You have the government you have because you wanted someone other than yourself to hold the responsibility. No matter how much the centralist and right of centrals work to lessen that grip of social dependency, it will take a very brave and heroic figure to ever return our freedom to us. Kick the Howard government all you want. They're impuissant when it comes to removing the leftist thumb from the scales.
Suffer for your complacency and own up to the fact that you did this to yourself. "OOOH, the government should take care of that. The government should be responsible. The government should be doing this. The government should be doing that." Well, you got it now shut the f' up and eat whats put in front of you. Maybe in your next life you will be able to stand on your own two feet and look after yourself with out being spoon fed.

The Coalition has lost touch with the electorate; people become quite resentful when they are told they have never had it so good, when this is definitely not the case. It has been a struggle for most of us to buy our houses, pay our rent or buy our vehicles, and now the price of food is extremely expensive. In the main these have always been difficult to pay for, requiring sacrifice; the comments are very hollow indeed about how well we are doing.

The Public Service has been politicised by the Coalition Government by the use of Heads of Department in advertising campaigns eg Ms Bennett. TV ads can only give small snippets of information, and consequently, can be seen as high on spin and low on fact. It's quite facile to believe tv ads actually provide any useful information. Yet millions of dollars are spent on these fragments of propaganda on behave of Governments, Federal and State. However, the worst offender would appear to be the Federal government. The rub is that we the tax payer pay for the messages we don't want. It's a good task for private enterprise; that is, journalists are capable of providing us with information about various matters free.

The point at which I finally concluded the Libs will lose, came just a couple of weeks ago, when Costello was interviewed on the 7.30 report about grocery prices. When asked to explain why people were hurting economically, his answer was basically to tell them they were wrong, that things had never been so good.

Unfortunately if someone is hurting, the most stupid thing you can possibly do is tell them that they're not. It was just a dumb move.

The constant refrain of "Look at wot Labor dun" doesn't wash any more. The price of incumbency is that those who, this year, will be voting in their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th election have never voted in an election where Labor won. Virtually nobody under 30 has ever voted in a Labor-winning federal election. And they're just the voters who swing elections. To them, Hawke may as well be Billy Hughes - just another PM in the history books.

Does anyone else wonder whether the government's control of the Senate might not have become a posioned chalice? In previous terms, the nasty obstructionist Senate actually took the edge off many government policies, and reminded them that they weren't infallible and omniscient. This term, they haven't had that brake applied to their own excesses. Worth considering.

Anth

Well Chris C.
Labor are not in because of their base treachery. Labor did more to hand the reins to the Liberals than anything the Liberals ever did. And that process has repeated itself since the 1930's. Wern't the Liberals born out of the the treachery of the great Labor rats Scullen and Lyons in the Great Depression and the filthy role the Labor Party played in dumping the depression on the backs of workers? Did they not go over and form a new party which eventually became the Liberals? How are they any different, if their loyalty lies with serving Murdoch, Packer, Fairfax, the bankers, oil companies, and big business? How are they any different if big money picks all the leaders and promotes them? Tell us that doesn't happen? Don't they have an extreme right wing nationalist agenda - economic nationalism? Immediately after the election we will get "you voted for us and now we are going to make you pay"; has that not dominated since the formation of the Labor Party in the late 1880's? Where is there a whit of difference? Only in the names!

Anthony I think you are on to something there. What comes through in the research is that the government is perceived not to be listening. That is frequently all voters want you to do - listen. If you give them a fair hearing they frequently won't hold it against you if you do something else.

I happen to think that objectively speaking Costello is correct, but then so was Keating when he said at the time that we had never had it so good. And that was hung like an albatross around his neck.

Stepping away from the research, I think the government is in so much trouble because it is not communicating effectively. Not only are front-benchers like Costello way "off message", but the Prime Minister can't make up his mind whether he's losing the next election or whether he is going to pull it off. All signs that they're not hungry enough any more. But Rudd probably is, and will win, as long as he can step around the problem that he probably needs more than 50%of the vote to win, given how the margins in the seats currently fall.