What will really change for the battler if Kevin does assume the mantle of power?The union backed Labor Party only represents 16% of workers in private enterprise.Why do our public servants need unions when they cannot be sacked unless criminal charges can be laid?In NSW we have the most numerous,overpaid bureaucrats in the entire country producing a basket case of an economy.

Kevin Rudd has a stated today that he will give the states $500 million for housing with no strings attached.How will these greedy ill disciplined Govts spend all this money? First of all they will give themselves a pay rise.We have 57 ministries in NSW of which many earn $300,000.00 pa,which is more than the PM earns.

The writing is on the wall.Kevin Rudd with his "Me too" no policy zone,wants to drift into office with a party that has nebulus notions of social equity and not the discipline,party talent or economic nous to back it up.

We have not seen a recession for 16 yrs and Labor's next one will be catastrophic.

johncee1945 (Tuesday, 31 July 2007 8:35:06 AM),

I understand your hostility to Joseph Lyons, but not to Jim Scullin.

Arjay (Tuesday, 31 July 2007 8:20:42 PM),

The Labor Party represents the people who vote for it – about four times more than the number of unionists in the country. The public does not care that unions are affiliated with the Labor Party.

Public employees belong to unions for all sorts of reasons; e.g., teachers do so because they are highly exploited and abused.

People who make comparative claims, such as “In NSW we have the most numerous,(sic)overpaid bureaucrats in the entire country producing a basket case of an economy”, should be able to produce detailed figures from all states and territories to support their claims.

Kevin Rudd has released dozens of pages of policy – modern broadband through effective investment from the Future Fund, continued aid to all private schools, a national curriculum developed in co-operation with the states, the end of WorknotcalledChoicesanymore and many more, all of which can be found on the ALP website.

The release of the proposals on federalism today makes me think that Kevin Rudd will be a lasting reformer in the mould of Steve Bracks, whose legacy of an auditor-general as an officer of the parliament and a democratically representative Legislative Council, entrenched in the constitution of the state, will ensure all future governments are kept accountable.

ChrisC."Why do PS belong to unions?Teachers do so because they are exploited and abused" You've got to be kidding! I was a teacher in the 70's and 80's and we had a ball.If I was not on the golf course,playing cricket or touch footy by 3.30pm twice a week,people assumed that I was either seriously ill or dead.Add to this the 10 wks holidays and public holidays,teachers did have a charmed existence.

Teachers have defecated in their own abodes by destroying discipline in our school system with the aid of human rights lawyers.Our Public Service dares not make a decision without confronting litigation consequences and thus our Public Service is now totally impotent.

The tide is indeed ebbing,however it is not just for "Lapsed Liberals".It is ebbing for all of us who do not have the sense of purpose,clarity of mind,or courage that died and survived WW2.

Arjay,

I don’t think I was unusually conscientious, but I regularly worked 50 hours plus a week as a teacher in the 1970s and 1980s when you were playing golf.

The average working week for a teacher is around 50 hours, which totally cancels out the extra time in holidays, part of which teachers use for preparation, correction and PD.

Teachers are not the ones who undermined discipline in schools. Almost all the teachers I worked with wished for a higher standard of discipline but were not supported by the “system” in achieving it.

I have already posted some of my own experiences of exploitation and abuse as a teacher. (Details are on the Farewell thread of the discussion forum of www.platowa.com. Anyone looking will probably have to scroll to the second page of the discussion forum to find them.) The deterioration in pay and working conditions is further general evidence, and most teachers will confirm it. The empowerment of principals with poor skills in leadership and the ever-growing demands of government have added to the exploitation since your day.

One of the tactics of the Right has been to cast slurs on teachers as a way of reducing their credibility and thus their effectiveness in resisting the regular attacks on education that come from the Liberal Party and its allies in this era.

The Coalition has stooped to a new low in their quest to retain a marginal seat in NW Tasmania by taking over the control of a local Hospital. When in government the State Liberals privatised the Hospital and it didn't work out. A later ALP Government bought the hospital back, and have been trying to maintain it. One of the major issues is the lack of professional staff to man the hospital. Its a problem Australia wide. The training of health professionals is something the Coalition Government should have taken care of years ago; it's been a structural problem allowed to lapse under the current Coalition Government.
By their intervention they are likely to fracture an already difficult situation due to greater complexities created for an already stretched number of health professionals. It's an ad hoc decision which could bounce back against the Coalition.
If this is to be the new style of government by the Coalition, then Gough Whitlam's government looks conservative in retrospect.

What experience has the Coalition had in the actual administration of hospitals?

Ant the Coalition are not administering the hospitals,they give our taxes to incompetent State Govts,only on this occasion are givng the money directly to a Tasmanian Hospital.They may as well take the reponsibility of Health,Education and Infrastructure from the States since they,the States, have all just grown their bureaucracies and lined their own pockets.

We in NSW spend $7 billion on bureaucrats,which is well over $2000.00 per working person for no result.

It is time to shed a layer of Govt and fix our failing infrastructure and health system.