Nairbe, you may want to believe little Julie wont be just as bad, but you know you can't.

It has been an other spendthrift labor government, & you know, just as well as I do, another attempt will be no better.

I hoped for years that they could become competent, but I have finally realised it is a structural problem. To get elected they have to promise [publicly, or privately], so much to so many special interest groups, that there is no way they can live within a budget.

This of course forces them to spin, & that becomes yet another bad habit. You know damn well, they can't tell the simple facts about anything, the spin has become automatic.

Why is it that so many otherwise intelligent people can't face facts? Put this lot back in, & in less than 9 months, when it is far too late, you will see that all those promises of getting back to balanced budget, are as hollow as a double brick wall.

Hasbeen,

I can not agree that the financial management has been poor. Economically the government did well over the GFC. Especially when you remember that they were always under attack for spending and would have to go against everything they said to get elected to do the right thing. The failure was to spend too much over to smaller spectrum of projects and then manage them poorly. In the end to much faith in the state labor governments that let them doen on regulation and efficient tendering.

My real problem with Tony is i don't trust him one little bit. This is not calling him a liar when after all they are all telling porky pies to get elected. This is a problem with the person. I honestly believe he do not intend to do half of what he says and will take us backwards on many levels. When Howard got in we needed the move to conservative politics to rite the ship, but we are starting from a far to conservative social position and it will all end in more interventions and wars for us as he tries to tell every one how to live. This is often the issue conservatives have about socialists but the conservatives are the leaders in this game. Just consider the direction of law in this country and the erosion of our freedoms over the last 12 years and look at what lead to each change. FEAR! More fear so soon can not be healthy for a nation already confused about the difference between patriotism and nationalism.

Nairbe,

For someone that claims to be a swing voter, you are parroting Labor's lines. You say their financial management was good, and then give the exact reasons why it was bad?

The coalition have never claimed that they would not have included some stimulus, only that it would have achieved the same result with substantially lower cost.

Starting from $20bn surplus we are now $90bn in debt. While this is better than most OECD countries, most OECD countries started with massive debt. We started in a stellar position and ended in a good position.

Shadow Minister links to The Australian newspaper. A Murdoch pap sheet that I wouldn't even bother read in the first place

Besides that the paltry $20bn surplus Howard had, was acquired through the selling of valuable national profit making assets, such as Telstra
and the mining boom, and failing to spend on infrastructure/skills, welfare health education and so on for 12 yrs etc.

The surplus had little to do with the economic performance of the Howard Gov't and was not even a good deal considering the sacrifices made by the many, to serve the needs of the few. Tax cuts favouring wealthier people and pork barreling also reduced it.

If anything they were as Keating described; indolent economically.

Although we can thank their doctrines for G.S.T, or the changes to the trade practices act,
that I was reminded of when I drove to and from work today and watched the petrol price
fluctuate by 16 cents in one day, and lets not forget Workchoices the final plank in their plans for a Serfdom.

No Shadow Minister the forgotten factor is, that our memories aren't that short. We do remember this out here.

I think SM , that despite what you or the Australian Newspaper would have us believe
about where we are now and where we've come from, the truth is a long way from those interpretations.

Tony Abbott is still Tony Abbott and look at his front Bench.
Deputy's Truss and Julie Bishop, Rudduck, Andrews, Bronwyn Bishop and Morrison
( a new generation tub thumper ),Whiney Piney and duck off ( to a safer electorate )
Dutton and lets not forget the loveable and lightweight Joe Hockey for Treasurer.

Wow, I'm looking forward to them running the country again. Not!.

Thinker2,

It never struck me that reading was your strong point.

Now that the mining boom is making far more profit and tax revenue than it ever did under the Howard government, how on earth does Julia Dullard justify increasing the mining tax to the highest in the world?

What's good for the gander is good for the goose.

Reading propaganda is not my strong point.

My literacy I'd think, is above average SM.

I hope my description of "the paper thin nature" of the Abbott front bench,
didn't offend you SM. But I am genuinely concerned about the re-ascension
of these ideologues and their new generation apprentices.

Frankly, we are talking about the future of our country here.