Good piece Graham,I will add that I think Abbott is the left Libs (LL) cannon fodder. Those on the right of the Libs (RL)just can't face the fact that they lost the last election. The LL can't get the balance of power in the Libs in order to win the election until the RL relearn the lesson that elections are won and lost on centre issues. Abbott win lead the Libs into te desert at the next election, then the LL can move the party to the centre and take a run at the next one with the big fella in the hot seat, or maybe even Turnbull for a rerun.

BTW I think allot of people still remember Abbott trying to dodge questions about visiting the Abbot a couple of elections ago. Values voters are a dying breed in Australian and the quicker Pollies pick up on that one the more votes they will get. Not all non-christians are greenies.

Christopher Monckton has to decided to do a tour of Australia starting in 2 weeks.He has Kevin Rudd in his sights since Kevin at Copehagen spent 45 min in a tirade against the deniars.He mentioned Monckton's name is dispatches 6 times.see http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/

Perhaps Kevin will get his comeupance if he has the courage to face the truth.Expect Tony Abbott to weight into the debate also to score some political points.I think the real man will vanquish the metro man in a real debate on this topic.

Watch Kevin run.He is good at grandstanding in front of his adulating UN mates,but cannot handle the heat of real debate.

When did Monckton frighten anyone another blowhard climate change denier,he will be right at home peeing in the pockerts of Alan Jones,Bolt and Ackerman plus the usual suspects,hes like that other clod so beloved by people like Arjay, Plimer,he got taken to bits by a some one who knew what he was talking about on Lateline a few weeks ago.

It'll be an interesting election. Abbott's a goner. No doubt about it. The Murdoch press will talk him up desperately, as they did before Howard's last stand, but he's completely unelectable.

The Greens stand to clear up if they campaign well. Since the major parties are both standing religious zealots for PM, the real question is what will happen with Labor voters who've had enough of religion and censorship.

John Ryan, if you care to go to Monckton's site you will see voluminous evidence of climate change fraud. http://scienceandpublicpolicy.org/ Kevin Rudd at Copenhagen was willing to sign a treaty that would effectively ended our sovereignty.We would have been part of a world Govt with not rights of veto as individuals.

Liberty is our most precious asset.Thank God that Monckton,Abbott Albrectsen,Jones,Bolt,Ackerman etc have had the nous to smell a dirt big rat of facism.This is not an issue of left or right,it is about having the freedom to determine our own destinies.

The internet resistance is alive and well.We don't need guns,just a free internet with minds of integrity and the courage defeat facism in all it's forms,whether it be Green,Union,Corporate or Govt.

Yes, thank god for Monckton, Abbott, Albrectsen, Jones, Bolt, Ackerman. It's clearly not a Left/Right issue when those even-handed, apolitical and evidence-based commentators weigh in.

"While only one-third of respondents are uncomfortable with Rudd holding religious views, almost half are uncomfortable with Abbott holding them."

So 'only' one-third of us are mildly concerned about a leader who gets his most important decisions from a Sky Fairy rather than reason and logic? Sounds like a genuine atheist might be in a good position to become PM -- if only we could find one who was silly enough to want to be!

Arjay

Graham Young's article is a good one for discussion - on the substantive issues he raises.

You are ranting (again) about the Lord Chris Monckton - he wasn't even mentioned.

It seems you are trying to change not only the goal posts (again) but the whole playing field - typical.

In fact, I hope the author (and chief moderator) will try and keep the comments on track, but knowing his 'opinions' of his "hobby horse" (climate change) - this may be difficult.

________

Graham

In this article, I agree with much about which you have to say - the next 10 months will make it clearer, for everyone.

The next federal election will be fought on the Governments record and Abbott's promises. Specifically the commitments made by Rudd in the face of the collapse of global warming, Rudd's escalating massive debt, his economic mismanagement and his refuting of economic conservatism. More important will be the overriding collapse of the world ecomomy with the initiation being California's defaulting on it's debt from about March 2010...

Good analytical article Graham. I'm a values voter and a Christian, evangelical Protestant. I liked Rudd's essay on Faith in Politics, and have been pleased at his concerns about homelessness, problem gambling and binge drinking.

I like Abbott's social conservatism and defence of the Anglo-based political and cultural tradition. Unlike many of his opponents, I don't jump up and down against his views on abortion and stem cell research.

Both Rudd and Abbott genuinely dislike the pervasive antisocial behaviour we now see in our communities, but neither has had the courage to name its root cause: the catastrophic falling away of the last two generations of parents from belief in any set of absolute, faith-based, values, and their consequent abandonment of responsibility to transmit moral education to their children. Admittedly Rudd has supported the school chaplains program; and Abbott said recently he thinks all children should read the New Testament.

I strongly reject the view that Abbott is a 'genuine' religious-conviction politician while Rudd's religion is only for electoral convenience.

I cannot reconcile Abbott's overt Christianity with his stance on quite a few issues.

From the Pope's strong calls for us to be responsible environmental stewards, I suspect Benedict would share my view that Abbott's stance on climate change is irresponsibly opportunistic and lacks moral compass.

I'm not a scientist, but I worked for a year in the Australian Greenhouse Office, and before was deeply immersed in sustainability issues in another Commonwealth department. Surely it's selfish madness to ignore the precautionary principle.

Abbott's economic views are both shallow (eg over the ETS) and callous (eg his defence of Work "Choices"). Abbott and the right wing of the Libs demonize unions while not conceding that a decent society depends on both labour AND capital behaving decently.

The Liberals are currently on a hiding to nothing. They will become relevant – WHOEVER their leader is - only when

* the electorate becomes disenchanted with the Government 's performance, AND

* the Opposition presents coherent alternatives which a majority of voters see as credible.

Neither condition holds yet.

Abbott will perform better than most people will realise.He sticks by unpopular principles such as his anti-abortion stance is very disciplined and is smarter than most people give him credit for.

In a live audience he is far more articulate and self assured than on the media.He seems to choose his words very carefully on the media and comes across as a bit unsure.This may well change as he gathers confidence.

I agree with him on AGW and that CO2 is not the devil incarnate.He has saved us for now from signing up to this obscenity at Jokenhagen, that Monckton refers to.

Kevin Rudd is a very shallow man.He is totally obsessed by the power of the UN when he should be looking after the interests of ordinary Australians.He may win the next election but with a substancially reduced majority.He will definitely go for an early election if he senses unemployment rising.

That said unless the Libs start to distance themselves form the really powerful corporates then I won't support them.Sarah Murdoch helped launch his book.It will be interesting to see how the Australian backs or ignores him in the coming months.The same can be said for Labor.I want to hear noises for truely small Govt and freedom for people to determine their own destinies.

Those who are uneasy about the Christianity of Tony, should remember that the foundation stone of all our freedoms was thanks to the English Roman Catholics, who gave us the Magna Carta, as a law derived directly from the Holy Bible.

Magna Carta was a law that made the courts an apostolic catholic church, in which the prayers of a righteous man, could be heard and answered. Since 1297, this fundamental Christian Law, has remained on the Statute Book. For those of you who would emulate the English Roman Catholics, and do your own scholarship, go buy a Red Lettered Authorised King James Version from the Cambridge University Press.

Peter Spencer is up his pole, and could come down, if Tony takes his Christian butt up there, climbs the Tower of Hope, and shares his mission from Almighty God with Peter Spencer, and they read together, the words of Jesus Christ, from the book of Matthew Chapter 18 Verses 15-20. Peter Spencer is a righteous man, as is Mr Abbott, but his prayers for justice have fallen on deaf ears. The work of Tony Abbott of winning back the Christian centre, will be so much easier if he and Peter Spencer pray together. As Graham points out, Tony is a fit and healthy man, and shares Christianity as a conviction with Spencer. Its not far from Canberra to Shannon’s Flat and The Lodge. .

Now the whole Nation is concerned about Peter Spencer, and Graham has raised the ironic claim that Abbott is a Hansonite. We no longer have a United Nation, but a United States of Australia, with no universal apostolic catholic church, to unite us as , dare I say, One Nation, in which Spencer’s cries for justice can be heard.

Making like an ostrich, which every lawyer who advises Kevin Rudd is, and pretending the Australia Act 1986 is a legitimate Act, is the root cause of Peter Spencer’s protest. If Tony goes to the Mountain, and assures Spencer that the next election will be the referendum, we never had, on that Act, Peter must come down

Abbott is full of contrasts - he gives the strong impression of being interested in helping the ordinary person, yet on the other hand, he goes rogue on other issues.

There is the contrast between his stance against abortion and his comment that it's OK for a young child to be in the car when its parents are smoking. Surely, if one had the best interests of all people at heart, he would be against both of those activities, not just one of them. Gillard has called him eccentric and I can see why. This won't lose him the election though. I think he'll lose for the reasons Glorifindel proposes - the government has to first be on the nose with the electorate and the opposition has to cut through with its policies and narrative. Neither are ripe at this time. Hence the laws of modern politics say that the Coalition will lose the next election.

Anyhow, this could be a good thing as Abbott has the ability to give the Government a good intellectual scouring. This would be a positive and could soften up the Government for an assault by a reinvigorated LP under Turnbull in 2013, say.

It'll be interesting to see what happens...