The Rudd Government may turn out to be a one-term government but if you could, who would you prefer as PM in either party.

Do you have any predictions?

What is your pick for best and worst choice for leader?

My choices for PM/leader are:

ALP - Best choices Julia Gillard or Lindsay Tanner. Worst choices Craig Emerson or Mark Arbib.

Coalition: Best choice Joe Hockey Worst choices: Christopher Pyne, Nick Minchin, Eric Abetz or George Brandis.

Predictions:

It will be a close tie but ALP will win the next election with a reduced majority. The election will be later rather than sooner given problems with the insulation/green loans programs and a better sell of the ETS and a drop in the polls.

Greg Combet will eventually become leader of the ALP and a future PM.

If the ALP win, Joe Hockey will become Leader of the Opposition, not sure if he will ever be a PM.

If the ALP loses, Kevin Rudd will be given an Ambassadorship to somewhere cushy like London, Washington or Europe within the next five years and if he wins, it will be within two years of losing a future election.

Anyone else willing to take a stab at the future? Don't have to be an expert, I am certainly not.

I'm having a little difficulty with politics in Australia at the moment. I'm finding myself fairly disillusioned and uninspired by Labor - perhaps the euphoria of Howard's demise is wearing off. Something about Gillard disturbs me - perhaps her style is a little too Orwellian for me. I do like Greg Combet and think he will climb the ladder relatively quickly.
On the other side, Abbott and his recycled Howard clones I find very disturbing. Hockey appears to be the only reasonable choice for me. Funnily enough, I sort of warmed to Malcolm Turnbull - even after the Ozcar debacle.

The Rudd government will win another term.
I have been through this field before, the deep mud , most being thrown by the opposition.
The spotlight on a mixture of idiotic mistakes from Labor, and just plan lies and fear.
I do not think Gillard could lead, once from the left, have no doubt she was, she is apparently unsure what group she belongs to.
Once, well a week ago, Bill Shorten in my view was bound for the top job, he looked very unsure of himself in a lonely late night speech to not much more than Parliament staff the other day.
But if he gets it back together, unties the ropes others put on men of promise he can get to the top.
Greg Combet is pure class,Mr fix it because he can, and in comparison to Garrett will be very good.
I am not retracting my view Garrett was a bad pick, but never should have taken all the blame.
He however will be sidelined again his is not parliamentary material.
Given time, not much of it, the real Tony Abbott will shine and be seen.
That will make Rudd's task a push over.

I'm not very impressed by Rudd, nor Gillard lately. Tanner's very bright, but too far to the right for me. I think that if the ALP scrape back in, they should ditch Rudd in favour of Combet.

As for the Opposition - Turnbull's obviously the best but he's apparently too intelligent for the current crop of Tories. Hockey's about the only other one of them who shows any real possibility of being a leader for all Australians, but he seems to be too good a bloke to be able to gain the support of the viper's nest that is the current Opposition.

The best result would be for the ALP to win the House of Reps with a reduced majority, the Greens to pick up some seats in the lower House and also to gain the balance of power in the Senate.

I doubt it will happen, though.

Dear Pelly,

My predictions are:

The ALP will win the next election.
They deserve a second term in office.
People realize that in dealing with the
global recession changes had to be made.
And the Government through its actions in
the economy, kept this economy out of recession.

Emissions trading and action on climate change
will not disappear. These will be huge issues
in the coming election. As I said in other posts -
how about we send those who don't believe in
climate change to live on one of the fast
disappearing Pacific Islands and see if tree planting
is going to help?

The current team in Opposition can't be taken
seriously. Fear and reaction is their agenda.
All they offer is condemnation and
attack - similar to our resident Mr Tapp.
The voters are too pragmatic to pay any attention
to this sort of flim flam.

The frontbench of the Opposition is made up of
"yesterday's" people. Not even Joe Hockey is
believable any more.

Malcolm Turnbull should either run as an Independent,
or start his own Party. He'd run rings around the
current mob in Opposition.

I think the predictions are pretty much correct.
Sadly, the ONLY factor that will weigh into the election would be how poorly Labor are governing the country VS how unpalatable the Liberal opposition leaders and frontbenchers are (esp without Hockey- who is popular for reasons I simply don't understand)- the least-horrible of the two choices will win.

Personally, I think this is a PERFECT opportunity to encourage more people to vote for other parties and independents- as the stakes surely can't get any LOWER as far as letting either Liberal or Labor claw themselves a victory on a two-party preferred basis, right?

I'll be doing just that- researching candidates and rating best to worst, purely on my democratic principles alone (it takes only five minutes). Liberal and Labor will be at the bottom.