If you could change a few things to make Australia a better place what would it be?

Briefly as possible, mine would be:

A. EDUCATION - bring back free education at the tertiary level. Reduce the size of universities and go back to a multi-level system of unis, TAFEs, Colleges and Institutes of Technology with a strong emphasis on acadmeic excellence, research and skills training (trades). In other words turn our educational institutions back into just that, rather than corporations dependent on international students.

B. ECONOMY - bring back tariffs to protect local industry, import only what we don't or cannot produce here. Give all government contracts only to Australian owned companies. No subsidies to foreign owned companies who generally tend to go offshore ie. Pacific Brands. Companies who receive taxpayer funds in corporate welfare to repay it should they relocate offshore. Companies who receive corporate welfare to have capped salaries for senior executives.

C. RETIREMENT - Get rid of compulsory Private Superannuation. Implement a government pension system whereby the employer contributes a designated % for each employee and the employee can top up if necessary. All retirees receive the basic pension (which is a living wage) or more if topped up. If someone wishes to add to this pension by contributing to a private fund or property that is their right also.

D. NATIONALISE - those essential services such as power, water and telecommunications (probably less important), institutions that care for the aged to ensure that these important services are not run down in the interests of profit but do really provide a PUBLIC service.

E. HEALTH - ensure adequate training places for doctors,nurses and other health professions. Mandated after training to work in regional areas for a set period (like the old teacher bonds). Increase staffing in Casualty, community nursing and palliative care.

F. ENVIRONMENT - Introduce an Australian owned alternative energy industry and non-polluting alternative fuels for cars. All new houses to be energy efficient including solar which feeds into the grid.

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FUNDING IT - get rid of bandaid inspired rebates like the baby bonus, maternity leave, first home owners grant and other rebates. Adopt a holistic approach to the economic/social system that allows people to live within the system without the need for rebates. In addition to employer contributions,introduce a levy (like the Medicare levy) to go into the Pension Fund.

These are a few ideas and there is so much more that could be improved.

What would you do if you were PM?

Hmmm. Well if I were PM I'd probably resign and let Pelican take over.

A. EDUCATION - Keep private education for those who care enough about their kids to pay $20k a year for a decent education. Let the states maintain a free child minding service for poor people who don't care about their kids, so they can still go off and do the cheap labour jobs we need. Wash my hands as much as possible from university education because it's too costly, and run by closet communists. Smart rich kids should be the only ones at UNI anyway. It should be run by the private sector, who can pimp the UNIS to Hong Kong, and keep scholarships for the few exceptional poor kids. Tafe is a waste of money, just encourage apprenticeships to exploit the cheap labour they provide.

B. ECONOMY - Open up the market totally and stop picking winners. The market is king. We are the world's mine and shouldn't aspire to anything else. The uneducated can stay in the service industry or in the mines and the educated can shuffle the money.

C. RETIREMENT - Get rid of the pension. Families are the best form of social security. Create better tax perks for the rich using superannuation.

D. PRIVATISE - those essential services such as power, water and telecommunications. Providing services for the public is costly. They should be on a user pays basis, as people don't notice that as their tax comes down, their living costs go up. Added benefit is nobody comes whinging to me if their phone doesn't work or their bill is always wrong. Good little earner for the government as natural monopolies are always in high demand from investors. Put in a faux regulator to keep the public happy, and create good post politics career options.

E. HEALTH - Restrict numbers of doctors as they're expensive to train, and we need to keep wages for them high. Import doctors at cheaper rates from developing countries to keep training/education costs down. Don't worry about regional areas, as who really wants to live there if you have enough money to enjoy a house in Rose Bay. Those country folk normally seem to pull together ok and work something out. They could always move too.

F. ENVIRONMENT - Talk lots and lots about the environment.

FUNDING IT - hand out all sorts of bandaid inspired rebates like the baby bonus, maternity leave, first home owners grant and other rebates. When an issue arrises on ACA, the public likes to feel you are doing something about it, and hey, every likes to be given free money. Fiddle with these around election time to target key demographics in swinging seats.

I'm with Foxy, if I was PM I'd immediately abdicate in favour of Pelican.

Houellebecq - you're a real card that's for sure.