Congratulations Graham. OLO has made a difference and for the better.

Congratulations Graham. I'm a fairly new poster and also contribute to your surveys of electoral opinion. By the way, unlike Taswegian (first blog comment), I *am* interested in religion and the heat that Peter Sellick’s articles generate!

I was interested in your call for Kevin Rudd to pay more attention to "the countries that will make the most difference to us in the longer term – India, Russia and Brazil." Of these, Russia is, to me, the most intriguing, not least because I speak and teach its language, history, culture and literature.

After the fall of communism, the Huntington thesis posited - I think correctly - that future conflicts would be between "civilizations". You can't understand Russia's position on anything without recognizing that it is not part of western civilization, but Orthodox and a product of its Eurasian geography and history.

After the fall of communism, the Yeltsin decade was a shocking period of economic decline and loss of national standing and pride. Putin arrested that and by 2007 the country's GDP finally recovered to what it had been in 1989. An amazing statistic: 18 years of economic growth lost - although a large loss was unavoidable in ending the command economy. Now, the country is rattling the sabre of past empire again, and 'democracy' is much less attractive than social stability, economic growth and national pride.

Russia has vast natural resources and enormous territorial expanse. It needs to arrest its serious demographic decline (population falling by 750,000 a year) but in the long term it cannot be ignored. In the medium term, it will worry the West most over its foreign policy recalcitrance, based on its totally different perception of interest - Eurasian versus "Atlantic" - and its bearish behaviour toward near neighbours like Georgia (old empire) and Ukraine (historic heartland).

Russia still has a fairly primitive, resource-export-based economy, without the sophisticated services sector that Australia, an otherwise comparable country, has.

But when Russian capitalism starts to mature and become more diverse and sophisticated, there will be no limit to Russia's future economic importance.

Well written and well done OLO and GY thanks for a great forum and I hope to see some of that next ten years.
Worth noting in this thread and at least another questions are raised by a few about others ability to think.
That ideas they do not share are wrong, the great unwashed majority type of thing.
OLO proves all views and opinions have value, right or wrong may lay on either side.
Future? we tread on soft ground in trying to harness it but the Senate may not even exist in ten years, a full election held now may well see no independents hold a seat.
Bill Shorten will hold a much higher position in ten years.

Let me add to the list of OLO congratulations. Great forum - warts and all. I only wish I had the time to contribute more.

Thank you Graham for the freedom of speech that you encourage on OLO. The range of views covered demonstrate that you have a wide cross section of the community participating. Some (like myself)have strong direct opinions while others try hard to back every opinion up with what they call science (although it is usually a worldview). The forum has certainly helped me in expanding my mind. The forum allows for people like myself who aren't academics to have a say. Cheers.

Happy birthday OLO and congratulations to Graham and Susan for an exceptional achievement.

Your approach has encouraged a huge breadth of viewpoint and experience to be shared in public to the betterment of Australia and the world. As a contributor of articles I have seen my thoughts reach mass circulation as other media took notice. Participating in the forum has sometimes changed my attitudes, values and ideas.

Associating with you has been a great privilege and pleasure. Please continue your wonderful efforts!

Stephen Crabbe