Don't you think that a batsman should concentrate on the ball currently being bowled at him?

Previous deliveries are of interest to commentators and historians but are not relevant to what is happening as we speak. As conditions change, so should responses.

But I've got to tell you, the general Labor game plan inspires a lot more confidence than that of the Liberals at the moment.

At last an article where the author sees through the smoke and mirrors approach of this government. Even at State level I have seen Labor create the public perception of a problem, warn everyone how bad this could get then ride in on their white chargers and solve the problem though decisive action. In reality there was no problem and no need for government intervention.

Kevin07 is doing the same thing and centralised media control is his way of keeping the governments message disciplined as he first creates and then solves a problem. Anything that may be construed as negative simply doesn't get addressed and eventually people forget. Serious question, does anyone know what caused the fire onboard the illegal immigrant vessel some months ago?

As for the comment using a cricket analogy and suggesting that how you faced the last ball has no bearing on the current delivery. That is true if issues are mutually exclusive but when your stance is determined by where you ended up at the end of the last delivery you need to make sure you remain in front of the stumps. Kevin07 is edging slowly towards silly mid-off.

What a dick.
Its as if the financial crisis never happened for this guy. Just glosses over and ignores all the crashes, bankruptcy, job losses and bailouts in his bid to smear ruddy.

We all know who the neo libs are and you mate sound like one of them. A lieing, cheating, greedy bunch of power hungry psychopaths who have become the new aristocracy with their self serving think tanks, right wing shock jocks, bought politicians and shady business cliques. More dogma driven and evil than any of the robber barons of the 19th century but with wealth and power undreamed of by rockefeller and his ilk.

Johhny coward may have been more deceptive in his extremism but serf choices was straight from the deepest cess pit of the neo cons handbook on screwing the whole world. Even the author slyly admits this while trying to hide it. Cowards war on refugees and the poor was another of the right wing plays applauded by neo libs of all stripes.

Your final paragraph has got to be a joke hasnt it. Right wing rule as we have lived through for the past decade or so has been marked by the politics of fear. Remember the war on terror, iraq, afgahnistan, security laws, gauntanamo bay etc etc etc. You must be mad mate. We have seen who really practises your final 4 points and ruddy and his supposed bogeymen just doesnt come close to the right wing nutters and their pushing of the fear barrow

You may not know who the neo libs are, maybe you are delusional or in denial, more likely youre just dishonest, but the rest of us sure know who they are and what they do. We voted them out because we were sick of their lies and fearmongering, their wars and inhumanity and their plain greed and lack of compassion.

Normal people know what community means and value it unlike the "born to rule" neo scum who think anything not to do with profits and exploitation is socialism (a dirty word worse than the c one) and will do anything, including war and murder to make sure they keep control of the rest of us and keep their exalted status in society.

Now there's somebody still in deep mourning for the previous Government but they're as dead as Michael Jackson and no amount of whining will bring them back.

Everything in the article is just typical politics as practiced by every other government and will be again, no matter who is in power.

If you wrote the same thing about Howard a few years ago you would have been labelled "un-Australian" and somebody who embraces the "black-armband view of history".

That's the difference.

I have to agree with Wobbles, all Governments build straw men then pull them down, so pointing the fingure at this Government is hypocritical if your a Lib.

In saying that I agree that the Australian Liberal Party as a whole are far from Neo-Liberal. However the comment by Nigel that know intervention was in order, because all of this was an illusion built by Rudd - You do seem to be one of those Neo-Libs that were part of causing the melt down.

There is enough blame to go around, global neo-lib free market experiment, that Governments didn't effectivly regulate and consumer (us) greed for believing the low interest credit gravy train would go on for ever and geared our household exposure to high.

The boogey man was real, A CEO earning remunerations equal to the GDP of a small country for just using tricky financial instruments, with know fundumental real world value, whilst leaving the tax payer to pick up the bill, low to middle income earners to loose their jobs and self funded retirees to loose their retirment income is wrong.

Kevin Rudd didn't create the crash (Boogey Man)and he is just spinning the Australian Libs as Neo-Libs for the political wedge, Australia has been managed pretty well over the last 30 years by all sides if we are to be honest, we are just arguing on the fringes