Mickjio your comments are spot on except for one thing: you say 'So for once and for all, Australians will find out how shallow, how inefficient, how bloody hopeless the ALP really is'.

You surely mean 'Rudd' and not the 'ALP' as the ALP has a track record of abysmal economic management.

If the media were honest, and pigs flew, the meeja would have by now reminded the electorate just what a bunch of econo-misfits the ALP was under the pig farmer and earlier under the awful E. G. Whitlam.

The electorate will vote Rudd in with gusto. Maybe.

In 3 years time the people will remove Rudd like a cancerous polyp from its collective bowel. That's for sure.

But of course, by then the damage will have been done.

Hello Pacific Peso.

Jonathan Ariel,

Following the 1999 Victorian election, the press was full of letters from Liberal supporters telling us all that the sky would fall in. The sky did not fall in. Over the next seven years, taxes were cut by more than $2 billion as a percentage of state domestic product, budget surpluses were run every year, the Legislative Council was made more democratic, the auditor-general was enshrined as an officer of the Parliament, 5,193 extra teachers were employed, prep to grade 2 classes were capped at 21 pupils each, thousands of extra nurses and police were employed, academic subjects like history returned to our schools, rigorous reporting to parents was introduced, the ministerial ban on teachers debating educational issues was lifted, $1.4 billion was invested in capital spending on schools, etc. The people of Victoria were so pleased with their new government that they re-elected it in two landslides. The Liberals are so deflated that they couldn’t even be bothered contesting the Albert Park and Williamstown by-elections this weekend.

So there will be no Labor loss in 2010. I believe that Labor will win comfortably this year but not control the Senate, which will therefore reject Labor’s move to repeal WorknotcalledChoicesanymore, which will leave it with no choice but to go to a double dissolution election, which it will win comfortably. If the swing this year is modest (5-6 per cent), there will be another swing to Labor in the double dissolution election. If the swing this year is large, there probably will not be a further swing in the double dissolution election. Labor will then govern successfully for three more years and win the 2011 election as well.

Just as Victorians, having experienced the modern Labor Party, did not want to go back to the Liberals, neither will Australians.

Chris C

There you go - spoiling Ariel's ALP-hating with pertinent facts. Go easy on him, he's obviously not used to facts, and they can hurt.

Frank Gol,

Facts can be such a nuisance. I post them so often in so many places. They normally have no effect. They can’t be answered, but those who hate the Labor Party cannot desist and have to recycle their comments, so I recycle my facts. There is a mistake, however: I should have said “gross state product”, not “state domestic product”.

While I am using up my second contribution in 24 hours, I’ll add some facts from a more immediate angle. I live in the Shire of Nillumbik, part of Melbourne’s Green Wedge. This policy was introduced by the Hamer Liberal Government, but the pleasant nature of my town is now protected by Labor’s urban growth boundary.

When I take the young dog for a walk, I get to see Labor’s infrastructure spending: we can go past the brand new Labor Government-built CFA station, the brand new Labor Government-built primary school and the brand new Labor Government-built police station. If I get in the car, I can drive to the next town for a look at the brand new Labor Government-built ambulance/CFA/police station or I can cross the river to see another brand new Labor Government-built police station. If I went back to my last school, I would see the new Labor Government-built science labs.

Labor’s success is not just figures in a budget: it’s facts on the ground in the lives of many Victorians. There have been mistakes, of course, but we are so fortunate not to have the Liberals in any more. That is why I think Kevin Rudd will be re-elected at least twice: Australia will remain prosperous and free, but the prosperity will be more fairly distributed and there will be more focus on the long term future of the nation.

Any relation?

"Jonathan Ariel is a veteran journalist and former editor of the english edition of Maariv, a leading Israeli daily."
http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/9085.htm

John Winston Howards staunch support for all things Israeli-Likud, including invasion of Lebanon and targeting of civilians, has nothing of course to do with Mr Ariels long string of attacks on Mr Rudd. "Nothing to see here, move long folks, move along.."

Liam

In answer to your question, the answer is No Relation.

I am 41 and the fellow you mention, the 'veteran' foreign affairs reporter, I assume is older.

I am neither a reporter nor a veteran.