What a lot of cobblers.Under Labor i could still afford to eat,without adding up as i went ,have a night out ,have car repaired,have holiday,buy presents for people,have a damn sight better quality of life than i do now.That idiot and his party have almost made life unbearable for middle and lower income earners.Even if that smirking sycophant Costello were to take over the reins i don't believe the liberals would have a snowballs chance in hell of getting back in.Life for a lot of people is harder than it's ever been.Get a life and tell the real story.If this system continues we'll end up living in ghettos.Thank god i own my home,if i had to pay rent i'm sure i'd be on the street.I'm one of the people without a credit card or hire purchase and can no longer afford to even have a go on the lotto occassionally.Get out of your posh suburb and see how the real people live.

I’ m confused. Apparently our choice is between the Grand Old Party, which seems to be the Liberals (the merely 60-year-old post Protectionist/Free Trade, post-Fusionist, post-Nationalist, post-UAP fifth incarnation of the conservative forces in Australia) and the socialists, when I thought the 100-plus-year-old Labor Party was on the ballot.

Apparently the reporting of opinion polls is some sort of fabrication: “Fairfax Media is keen on it, running an A.C. Nielsen poll…foreshadowing the annihilation of the Liberal Party.” The press should be making up some polls with the Liberals in front.

Apparently, WorknotcalledChoicesanymore is not an attack on the essence of Australianism, the fair go translated to the industrial arena more than a century ago, but some ACTU-devised scare campaign.

Apparently the Maoist-finding, teacher-bashing Julie Bishop is “bright, high achieving and telegenic”.

Apparently a federal Labor Government would be “nothing but a quisling of socialist administrations in every single state and territory”. I just wish I knew which country had the state and territory socialist administrations, because it sure ain’t Australia. Victoria’s moderate Labor Government has made the Legislative Council more democratic (after the Liberals broke their 1973 promise to do so), enshrined the auditor-general in the constitution (after the Liberals basically privatized the office), employed 5,193 extra teachers (after the Liberals dumped 9,000), brought back the traditional academic disciplines of history and geography (after the Liberals brought in the trendy mess of SOSE), funded schools to cap prep to grade 2 classes at 21 pupils each (after the Liberals used retrospective legislation to remove the legally mandated limits on class sizes and teaching hours), invested $1.4 billion in capital spending on schools, cut taxes as a percentage of the state economy by more than $2 billion since 1999.

If a Kevin Rudd-led federal government is as good as the Victorian Labor one, we will enjoy years of progress.

The sad thing is that John Howard does have achievements (e.g., the GST), but his party will now turn on him as it has on Malcolm Fraser.

If Liberals can’t come up with a better line than Jonathan Ariel’s they are doomed.

You mean you folk dont believe in evil spirits? The born again christians do having participated in spiritual warfare against those who would kill them. The old dragon/satan/lucifer does well with the humanist/evolutionist by putting himself into their "mythology" as the man in the red suit with the pitchfork and the tail.

I am in the same position as Haygirl, fortunately I bought my own home and put money away for a rainy day because that's what I live on.

Under the previous Liberal government in Victoria a friend of mine was forced out of teaching at age 52. She had been a teacher since she was 18 but because she couldn't get to retirement age to get her pension she has to babysit, live under someone elses's roof etc.

This is quite a common story.

Meanwhile corporate profits are at an all time high proportion of GDP and viable Australian companies are being bought out by debt ridden private equity vehicles that want to sell off all the assets of the company before they have to pay back their debt in 5 years time.

Gibo,is that short for gibbon,because you certainly have the IQ of a monkey.I really believe that your posts are meant in jest.If not God,Allah,Yarweh and Santa Claus beware.Another person talking a load of cobblers.Where was the great man when my 16 year old son died in a traffic accident?Where was he when my grandson was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour?Has society gone mad or is it just the monetary pressure and lack of a decent lifestyle that is sending us around the twist.God save us from the Liberal party and religious zealots.

Chris C,
It's interesting that you mention Malcolm Fraser in comparison with Howard's situation.

As I recall, Hawke was offering the electorate hope while Fraser based his arguments on fear and hate. (Hide your money under the bed because the Banks will go broke...)

Similarly, Hawke's other big item was the notion of "National Reconciliation" because at the time, our society was internally at war with itself - dole blugers and boat people were the enemies of every decent Aussie but we were seemingly always on the verge of a huge resources boom. (The classic Tory strategy is to break society up into opposing internal groups that fight among themselves and leave the government alone. Wedge Politics is a science to them.)

Today we're in that boom but wasting the opportunities it offers yet always looking for somebody to blame for our own problems other than the government itself.

We were warned about the Union Bosses then too, and that Labour would end up selling our children as pig food or something equally ridiculous along those lines.

I was passionately against Fraser in those days but I now find myself in agreement with many of the social comments he makes.

How bad must Howard be in comparison?