Palimpsest,that is an excellent observation about our Mr Rudd.He is not a person who stands by principal or seems to have any conviction forged out of life's anvil.It is all made up according to the changing political whims and fancies.At least the Coalition stood by their IR reforms,parts of which I don't like.

This makes Kevin a very unknown quantity in terms of what he really believes and will he be able to stand up not only to the unions but Julia Gillard or Peter Garrett.We are about to leap into the abyss with Labor.I hope they can supply us with a parachute that is functional.

The only thing consistant with Kevin if he becomes PM will be his rollovers at the behest of the unionists. If he doesn't do their bidding he'll be replaced.

I think that is the great unreported threat to his leadership.

The likes of MacDonald, who have real and strong support in the Labor Party, and not just in WA, will look to get square. They'll also be looking to have their interests paramount. That includes the early change to IR laws.

Yep Kevvy will cave to retain his position.

keep up the scare campaign, guys. it's working wonders for you.

webby, since you're posting in response to mirko, maybe you can ask him whether nailing thieves to crosses is a legitimate use of torture. that should be an engagingly principled discussion.

“Either Rudd is telling the truth when he agrees with Howard, or he is lying in his teeth and will follow a completely different agenda. If he is telling the truth there seems little point in voting for him, as Howard has the advantage of experience. If he is lying you can have no idea what he stands for and should not be elected.” (Plerdsus 25 October)

No I don’t think it is as polarised as that. He’ll follow a somewhat different agenda. If he is lying and really does hold great concern for the future and wants to get us off the insane continuous growth spiral and direct us towards sustainability, then he should be elected. But of course we just don’t know.

What chance would he have had if he had stood up boldly for the things that really matter; first and foremost the most urgent effort put into mitigating the effects of peak oil, secondly, directing the nation strongly towards sustainability and thirdly and almost inadvertently, dealing with climate change while addressing those two much more urgent issues?

The fact is, given the current economic boom and the huge vested-interest business sector and indeed general community that are benefiting from it, along with huge pressures from overseas, it would have been suicide to have pushed for things that will obviously threaten it.

Within our system, an enormous schism exists between what we urgently need and what an aspiring leader can proffer.

So should we condemn Rudd for deeming the best strategy to be to basically imitate Howard and rely on a younger and more energetic image? No.

The real trouble lies with us not knowing just how Rudd will bend this imitation once he is in power.

Even if he turns out to be an arch advocate for addressing the really big abovementioned issues, he’ll still have to be very careful, for fear of alienating huge vested interests and being replaced at the next election by a rampant pro-development stuff-the-future PM.

Sh!t it is an awful situation when you stop and think about it!

Rudd agrees with Howard on many things. He is not lying and why should he be? The ALP and the Coalition have been similar for half a generation now. Neo-liberal economic policies on privatisation, criminalisation of trade union officials and members' activities started with enterprise bargaining in the 1980s and Work Choices is an extension of that evil. Peter Costello would give a new wave of industrial relations "reform".

Experience? Preferable to have the Libs you say? Come on now folks, let's be realistic. All politicians are experiences in policy, even those in Opposition for donkeys' years. They al work on Senate Committees with their opposite number from the Libs & Nationals ; also policies are drafted and ministers briefed by public servants; even Opposition members are parliament get briefs. It is everyday working knowledge of all of them.
This "experience" thing in the Liberal Party adverts is for the gullible public who fall for the campaign managers of both main parties who pay large sums of money to advertising agencies.

G'day my Fellow Australians,
Thought you might like to know about the Roll Poll we are running in conjunction with the marketing of our Limited Edition of The 2007 Federal Election Toilet Rolls. The site is self explanatory and can be viewed at http://www.allonaroll.com .
Have fun its the best way to relieve the stress of politics , and ensuring that our leaders are " Flushed With Success" on the campaign trail
Best Regards
Glyn Hannen All On A Roll 08 9351 9171