I'm with Pres. If labour manages to stay in for more than 2 terms, the libs will become (have already become) redundant.
The RSPCA has for many years been accused of being undermined by branchstacking for years; battery hen farmers and sheep farmers who practice mulesing joining up to practice their democratic rights, and change RSPCA policies.
It seems the same thing has happened in politics.
We have the libs, basically a bunch of lawyers who want to fight the workers, and keep them in their place, and we have the labs, basically another bunch of lawyers who want to control the workers, and keep them in their place.
Only Hawke and Keating could start the privatisation process -Commonwealth bank, Telstra, Qantas- without being automatically voted out. (The other party was even worse).
Hawke and Keating perfected the "economic ratiopnalism" spin, Howard just continued it.
We need another alternative.
grim@thecomensality.co

Pres, yes agree on the need for a third party that de-centres the centrist ideological vortex that now exists.

In this last election there was a quiet /unstructured coalition of protest voting against the Howard government on key issues.
The swing against Howard cannot be claimed by this coalition but it did discover a few levers that helped tilt the Rudder.

Whether members of this coalition will unite and build a new-party is for me unlikely.

What can happen is that those issues of social justice that united the grassroots action need to be placed back on the table again.

Some will be reluctant to do this as their allegiance to Labor is incestuous and this would appear to be an act of ungratefulness.

I can think of at least 10 issues that would unite and sustain people a level of accountability of the Rudd government for the next three year - remember Rudd / Labor is very focused on winning another term rather than reforming the mess that Howard left behind. They have declared that they are not ideologically bound to traditional Labor dogma but this does not mean they are not ideological.

For Labor progressive = fanatical centrism

Anything Left of this is considered radical Left and out of touch.

A new party of any kind will need to declare its opposition not to the Right but to this new 'Left'.

If we have to follow the popular vogue to label things, then this will go down as a the “me-too” election.

Krudd worked the rationalism of me-too whilst making sure the ribbon, fluff and packaging seemed different.

The short and medium term actions of the labor party will identify whether Krudd is just another “liberal” wearing a red tie or an unmitigated liar who declared one thing and then presented another.

As for all the leftie inspired declarations to a “lying rodent” etc… I would recall, by this time after the election in 1996, the clandestine copulations of the labor foreign minister (Evans) and the leader of the democrats (Curnow) was public knowledge and Keating’s wife had moved out. The fiscal corruption of Richardson with certain Swiss bank accounts is still to come.

So as far as “lying rodents”, the left need to ensure labor party fumigates and lays down some “rat-sacks” in the trade hall building to avoid the accusation of hypocrisy.

For my money, I have always voted for who I believe is the government most likely to leave me to make my own mistakes, since I am smarter and better motivated and thus likely to make fewer of them than some faceless bureaucrat acting “for the common good” (whatever that is).

Let us see how the coming year of two pan out.

I reckon Krudd will preside over a recession. He is caught between doing the right thing and what he needs to do.

This will become the opportunity for conservatives to rally when that small margin of floating voters realize the emotional drivel of the socialists does not preserve either their jobs nor superfunds and the grandiose extravagance of public works programmes, bereft of public benefit and demanding higher taxes cripples the future for their children.

And Krudd will also be identified with the coming “Carbon Tax”, which Howard so determinedly resisted.

For myself, I am planning for the worst.

But, at the moment too many people have forgotten how everything becomes so hopeless under socialists and need a colonic reminder.

The King is dead, long live the King.

It took a few flushes but the rodent and his lackeys finally went down that S-bend into political oblivion.

However, many are right about there being no choice to the left of centre - especially since that centre was dragged so far to the right.

Who was to the right of the Libs anyway?

It was to the stage that any criticism of Howard was the work of "leftists" or "elites".

Now that we can all direct our collective bile to the new management, what will the new catch-phrase be?

Let's give the new guy a chance at least.

Those crazy Libs - so magnanimous in victory, so gracious in defeat!

'conservative' doesn't equal traditional. it is merely a subset. True conservatism means to hold onto what is true and good in terms of true Catholic beleifs and practice both liturgically and in family, neighbourhood, job, social, politics and the world generally.
It is not a monopoly of Liberal Party voters.
So to be a true conservative ( which is to be a traditional Catholic) one must support :
re-regulation of the banking and fiannce sectors
re-regulation of the Australian currency
re-nationalisation of Telstra, CBA, Qantas
restoration of union members rights to strike without communist type penalties, restoration of 2 X RDOs per month, rejection of casualisation of workforces and so on.
The alleged Liberal Party 'conservatives' is un-patriotic, un-traditional religiously( Sunday is a day of rest according to Catholic teaching)..
Also Hillsong and Protestant 'evangelical' pro big business rorts are anti Catholic and hence anti-Christian.