Miranda Devine wrote a piece on Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott in which she alludes to the fact that Kevin Rudd sits on the balcony at Kiribili House, gazing across the harbor at Turnbull’s mansion. She postulates that despite the difference in the polls, about 66 to 16% Kevin Rudd may not feel as secure in the Prime Ministerial mansion, as he could feel.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/the-remaking-of-the-mad-monk-20090729-e1ip.html

While Kevin Rudd captured the Christian centre in the last election and won a swag of seats, 23 in fact, could it be that many of these could be oncers. Have the professional political advisers, underestimated the impact of Rudd’s Christian Campaign, that captured the centre, and moved the rusted on Christian vote to a minuscule shift to the left that could as easily swing back.

With sixty five percent of Australians calling themselves Christians, even though many don’t attend church anymore, how many watch the services on television, and still feel like Christians. If Malcolm Turnbull was born again, to the fundamentals of good government evident in the Australian Constitution, apologized belatedly not only to Aboriginal Australians but the white fellas as well, for the departure from Christian principles of government, brought about largely by Liberal Party arrogance, and misunderstanding of the electorate, could he make Kevin Rudd a oncer. After all Kevin only needed 12 months to unseat John Howard. Kevin has a lot of white ants in his party, and there are many who feel a bit uneasy about some Labor policies and lack of action on others

The oncers as ya call em must have been pretty disgruntled with some thing.
Abbott would not be a leader, i say he would do worse than Turnbull.
All they do is condemn everything.
If honest John stepped aside and let his apprentice ave a go, it's quite posable they would still be there today.

I saw a grab on the news last night of Julia Gillard's address to the ALP Convention where she said that the ALP had got to the top of the political mountain and "doesn't it feel good, delegates".

I'm wondering if this is the equivalent of Paul Keating's "true believers" comment after his 1993 election win. Is this a sign of the ALP's hubris that is a portent of their demise?

Nope!

I find it quite extraordinary that the line of thinking expressed in threads like this one, and there have quite a few along similar lines about how the opposition can topple the incumbents, is entirely based on strategies for winning power, and not at all on what is good for the country!

No one on this forum has refuted my tenet that sustainability is of paramount importance. No one thinks that we are currently living sustainably or are likely to in the foreseeable future without some major changes in governance and in the way we all do business. Only one or two respondents seem to not be concerned about continuous rapid expansionism.

And yet this doesn’t seem to even enter the thought processes of those who would like to see the opposition become an effective political force to the extent of rolling Rudd at the next election.

When is an opposition leader, at federal or state level, going to have a go at espousing limits to expansion and all the other stuff that goes towards developing a truly sustainable future?

Why is this so hard for any politician or party to grasp?

Could the libs have less chance of winning the next election if they embraced the sustainability paradigm? Isn’t it worth a try?

Come on Malcolm. Show some true leadership, of the sort that the country will thank you greatly for in a few years time.

I too Ludwig am surprised by threads like this, and the question it asks.
Fact is Turnbull has lost his chance to ever be prime minister.
It has been his own party as much as Labor who stopped his run.
He in any case would have had to wait until after the next election, at least.
Your concerns about sustainability are shared by many, but surely few can say by conservatives?
PTB you are blind to the fact both Howard and Rudd had the Christian votes, not any more if as many as the total of the Greens.
Abbott? come now never, he a hard man? well he thinks so but a marsh mellow in fact never ever to lead.
Hockey just maybe but not Turnbull or his party until they get substance and policy's not wasted fear tactics and lies