I certainly like what you are saying but I am not as optimistic as you. Good things to aim for but I believe such changes will require a whole change to the culture of politics in Australia. Are our political leaders up for it? I haven't seen much evidence, though perhaps with Rudd will come some change, slowly. Being in opposition is tough? I would think being in leadership is tougher. But yes, mounting an argument for the sake of it shows the quality of what we have. Unless more decent people nominate to enter politics then I don't see much change. And with the current culture, why would one bother? Try to change that first.

“Bipartisanship on the right issues earns public respect.”

This not necessarily so, particularly in the sad and sorry business of saying ‘sorry’. Many of us would have respected Nelson if he had stuck to his original refusal not to be involved in saying sorry.

Bipartisanship has its place in matters of utmost importance to the nation. It is downright stupid for one party to go along with another when possibly half of the electorate disagrees with the Government of the day.

This “genuine agreement between parties…” is not on either. Oppositions need to find out what the electorate wants before it agrees with anything.

We can’t take much notice of Spender. As an ex-politician, he should know better than to be talking about why Labor won. Governments lose, oppositions don’t win. The Howard government was punished for reasons already gone over hundreds of times since the election. Rudd had nothing out of the ordinary to offer (electors don’t believe the ‘promises’ anyway). Sticking in the mud and worn out leadership caused the change of Government.

Mr. Spender, like his silly colleague Malcolm Fraser has been out of Government far too long to be giving advice to anyone.

The usual positive response from Leigh, eh?. He knows it all - doesn't need advice from anyone (proving Spender right of course: "A little honest reflection and a few mea culpas wouldn’t hurt").

I thought Spender was refreshingly frank and several of his ideas are well worth taking up.

1. Start the process of policy making afresh, and don’t blame everything that went wrong on John Howard. (Watch 4 Corners tonight where the blame game is full throttle.)

2. Listen to honourable dissenters within the ranks because ethics count and governments and oppositions need a moral compass. If only they'd listened to Petro and Malcolm.

3. Treat the public with respect - they are weary of being treated like fools (tell Abbot and Sophie Mirabella to button up for a start).

4. Refresh the political gene pool by, among other things, recruiting a few Asian faces and Chinese and Indonesian speakers - and while they're at it, a five-year moratorium on lawyers.

5. Stamp out factionalism because it is divisive and often leads to "the wrong candidates for the wrong reasons". Memo Michael Kroger and Jeff Kennett.

6. Keep religion out of politics - "He has more to do than worry about who runs Australia." Take away the Parliamentary lobbying cards of the Exclusive Brethren until they allow their members to vote.

7. Get out of politics if you are not 100 per cent committed, find yourself a less arduous occupation. A message for Costello, Downer, Andrews, Ruddock, et al?

Now Leigh, which one of those seven ideas can't you live with?

memo to: all cats
memo from: frank mouse
message: please be nice.

insanity: the repetition of actions known to produce undesired results.

stop voting for pollies, guys. that's what got us into this mess in the first place, and it's unlikely to get us out.

Everyone seems to forget that Mr Howard was elected 4 4 yes four times. I am sure that had Mr Howard listened to the dissenters he would not go down as one of the greatest and longest serving Prime Ministers in our history. People wanted change as they get weary with any Government in power for so long. To try and read into it more than that is pure conjecture. When he won he was accused of wedge politics, racism blah blah blah. When he loses he is accused of not listening to dissenters etc etc. Don't forget that Mr Rudd was happy to bring religion into politics even if was only to win a few votes

This might be subtitled, "Once upon a time in a land far away..."

Nice sentiments Mr Spender and many no doubt held by newcomers to parliament. The mechanics of politics seems to ensure little survives the rough and tumble of keeping ahead of the media and those people, those half-witted opportunitsts, those unprincipled gits who won their seats heaven-knows-how, sitting opposite. It makes for great television bites & I'm looking forward to seeing some new faces. But I don't expect them to display the sensible principles you've listed, at least not for long.

The last government sucked the country dry of empathy, and the PM sucked his party dry of, well, all relevance. Here's hoping Brisbane's Lord Mayor can carry the flag all the way through to the 2015 (?) election!