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!

John Spender is obviously an ALP commentator. He is right about some things, though. The entire Liberal Party was besotted with and beholden to John Howard, which I regard as a deeply flawed, primitive and juvenile form of leadership. The ALP would do to remember this too and make sure that Kevin Rudd does not make the same mistakes as President (sorry, Prime Minister) of this country. Ultimately, no leader can provide all the wisdom that is needed to navigate in these troubling times on this fragile planet. He got it all wrong in the end and brought down the whole rotten house of cards with him.

The Liberals had very few principles when in power and did their utmost to deny the Labor Party or any other opposition the right to dissent. Read what Clive Hamilton and others say on this. They broke every rule of Parliamentary conduct and the Westminster system of government. They told so many harmful and damaging lies they forgot which lie was the first. They broke international agreements and UN Conventions that Australia is a signatory to and thoroughly destroyed this country’s reputation as a global citizen.

Hopefully, encouraged by the enthusiasm for the long-delayed Sorry Day, Kevin Rudd will allow the whole AWB enquiry to move into the courtroom and see Alexander Downer and Mark Vaille very deservedly in the dock. I also hope that we will see a class action from thousands of new citizens charging John Howard and Phillip Ruddock, Amanda Vanstone and Kevin Andrews with causing intentional psychiatric harm to them while they were locked up indefinitely and without charge. I also hope that Kevin Rudd will recall Amanda Vanstone, Bill Farmer and Dennis Richardson from their ill-gotten diplomatic jobs.

Furthermore, I think it is unconscionable to consider the disgraced former Prime Minister for the knighthood with the Order of the Garter. This represents a gross interference with Australian politics by the British government and a profound offence to Australians. Kevin Rudd might as well not have bothered to do the Apology if he then dumps this on indigenous Australians.

'Sure, Labor didn’t run a kindergarten campaign but Rudd claimed the moral high ground and now commands it.'

Should Rudd command it, Mr Spender when today's West Australian headlines suggest that Mr Rudd misled voters, prior to the elections, over the Burke/Rudd dinner affair?

"Treat the public with respect. Evasions, half-truths, stonewalling questions from the media, and behaving in parliament like the Australian Eleven on a desperately bad day against India may get you points from your political acolytes, but earns you nothing but contempt from voters. They are weary of being treated like fools."

Words of wisdom Mr Spender, however, undemocratic, insidious and unethical practices by successive governments are hard to eradicate when governments have implemented legislation which enables them to cover up their own deceptions and half-truths to fool the people of Australia.

http://www.huliq.com/44227/government-found-interfere-public-health-research

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKSYD23097020071105?sp=true

http://smallbusiness.theage.com.au/starting/legal/accc-powers-to-be-bolstered-905254946.html

"Political parties need principled dissenters. They often have an acute sense of when things are about to go very wrong. Listen to them,"

Good advice Mr Spender but how will political parties "listen" to principled dissenters when both state and federal governments (with largely the same disgraceful players) continue to erect obstacles purely to gag the opposition but more importantly and more frequently, the citizens who reside in this "democratic" country?

I was interested to read Saintfletcher's comments on Werribee and the aboriginal shooting deaths there.
In the late 1960s I was at a Country Women's Association meeting and told that in past times the district elders held a meeting and decided to poison the flour in the silo that was usually accessed by the local aboriginals for their survival rations. My recollection is that this poisoning occurred around 1918, resulting in all of the last 90 aboriginals dying in the area of Chirnside Park near the bend in the river.
As this has not been recorded anywhere that I know of, I would like to know if Saintfletcher could confirm this or give me more accurate information! Petie

willy says "John Spender is obviously an ALP commentator". I'd suggest you refrain from comment if you know so little. Try a Google search on "John Spender" and "Liberal" before you get back to us.

I find it ironic, runner, that you're so down on our mate Kev, After all, he's a card-carrying Anglican, unlike Mr Howard, who (as best I can tell) was not much of a church-goer. Perhaps you're more interested in political allegiances than religious ones? It's OK for the Liberals to parade themselves at Hillsong, court the Assemblies of God etc, but if the ALP mentions religion, they're trying to win a "few votes"? Double standard anyone?

Having got that off my chest, I can't disagree with most of Spender's suggestions, though like others on this thread I can't see it happening. Spender knows what it's like to be kicked into opposition. A stint in opposition will do the Coalition the world of good, reminding them that they weren't born to rule. No more sinecures for retiring politicians (Spender himself scored a few of these) and all the other advantages of incumbency.

Australian politics is a pretty negative game, partly because oppositions have so little say in the executive. Oppositions spoil and bluster because that's all they can do. Once the coalition loses control of the senate they will get another sobering lesson. Hopefully they'll learn from it.

Stamp out factions, show strong leadership.

Listen to your dissenters.

Surely a contradiction?

Strong political leadership is to listen and learn from dissenting ideas and to use them for the good of the community.

Stamping out factions and dissent is the weakest form of leadership. Bully-boys in politics the world over, from Ghengis Khan to George Bush II have proved this. Anyone idiot can "kick ass". But it doesn't serve the community one little bit, and serving the community, not giving the community a serve, is what political leadership is all about.

I like the proposals put forward in the article - though how do you implement them in a system where all new members are instructed by the whips to park their morals and ideals at the door and toe the party line as soon as they arrive in parliament?

Those who remember the Keating government might recall that it was as arrogant and out of touch as the Howard government became, and one of the (broken) promises of John Howard was that he would restore the integrity to parliamentary business. Remember how he used to be called, in all seriousness, 'Honest John'? He tried for a few months, with his ministerial code of conduct, but the clowns in his first ministry couldn't comply with it and after a few lost ministers Howard just gave up. Then he started copying and 'improving' upon the excesses and abuses of power from the Hawke/Keating years - pouring taxpayers money into various schemes that enhanced the electoral prospects of Government members, increasing MP's junk mail allowances ten fold (it is now $150,000 per member per year, and they can roll it over to election years), the list goes on and on.

We desperately need more integrity in our parliamentary system, and the implementation of John Spender's suggestions would be a breath of fresh air. Whether Kevin Rudd is likely to do anything about it remains to be seen - but he has obviously told the speaker to be more impartial than any in living memory, which is an interesting development.