Reading this post, I get the impression that you feel that the ALP's failings were tactical, ie. poor timing etc.

While a DD election in the beginning of the year might have yielded a better electoral result in the short term, the failure of the implementation of its policies, the launching of policies without warning or consultation on the public and business, and the unremitting spin and "poly speak" were the roots of the collapse in voter support.

To win back voter support, the government has to do something worthwhile and do it well. This is the time to focus on what is right, not just what is popular, and get professionals to implement it, not bureaucrats.

There was a large number of people like me, who have traditionally voted Labor, but simply chose not to participate. The reason was simple: I don't trust the current crop of Labor politicians to act honestly and openly and in the best interests of the country. The ALP today is a poor shadow of the Party that arose from the courage of the men and women who took part in the great shearer's strike. It's owned by self-serving lawyers and political hacks, not by working people. The rhetoric is no more than spin and the policies are thinly disguised efforts to pay off sectional supporters, not genuine attempts to create a better society for all.

The ALP has become the party of professional feminists, not the party of workers. In the process it has abandoned the millions of ordinary men who once supported it and who still make up 90% of the blue-collar workers in this country. Many of those men will never see their kids thanks to ALP-initiated Family Law and will be forced onto the dole by the ALP-initiated CSA. It has taken the support of working men like me for granted, while desperately chasing the vote of middle-class women, who seem easily bought off with handouts.

Hi Belly,
There was great hope when Rudd was elected and initially they appeared to be headed in the right direction. When the problems started (those being the Batts and BER) it was not that costs were blown out or the routers had moved in that disturbed me as this happens to all government programs, it was the communication failures within the government. It became obvious that though Peter Garrett was clearly not a very good minister he was also not being listened to. In the end it became endemic for the party with Rudd bunkered down not listening not acting, simply paralyzed.
Gillards' move was needed for everyone and simply didn't happen early enough. We should have realised when Rudd shelved the ETS that he was pouting because he couldn't get his own way. That's politics and as i have previously said absolute power cost Howard government. Once the collapse began it was catastrophic, the party lay in ruins with no one it would see with the ability to take on Abbott. Abbott was being rude, abusive and in the end misleading to the electorate, but it worked a treat. Somehow labor failed to discredit him and sell their achievements.
Most of what labor did in their first term was good, they even showed a little vision despite the doom sayers like SM and Hasbeen that lack any sign of objectivity yelling like their beloved Abbott. The labor party failed to sell it'self and it's programs. They should have stood firm on the ETS even though it wasn't going to pass. The greatest pain was that as Rudd sank he made some stupid moves like the super profits tax. Even though the doom sayers are all downing it, it was the mining industry that wanted it, Rudd had only to consult and negotiate and it could have been another great winner with all, but instead Julia negotiated the outcome and appeared to be desperate to settle the dispute.

Continued

The new Parlement is good, lets embrace the opportunities that we have now. We all know after the next election one of the majors will have a majority again so use now for social change, reform and some rebalancing. It is the time for the Greens to prove themselves or be destroyed. Be positive all situations offer opportunities let's embrace them.
I tend to agree with the others about Turnball, he would probably be a good leader but not a liberal. Most likely would have made a great democrate back in the Don Chipp days. Any how what has passed has passed Belly, and now labor must show they can deliver what they say they will and not fail in administering their programs. They have that chance now so we will all see soon enough.

It is laughable that you think that *not* imposing a carbon tax was a mistake! What do you think would have been the result if Labor had increased the price of all goods and services, affecting the poorest worst, to enrich the big end of town, setting up a whole industry selling tax receipts, trying to control the balance of oxidation and reduction of all the carbon in the world, to solve a problem to which, if it exists at all, Australia's response has been made irrelevant by Copenhagen? Labor would have been returned in a landslide I suppose? That is real cloud-cuckoo land stuff.

Peter Hume and a few others should consider this.
Each of us has a right to their thoughts and ideas.
And EVERY ONE of us gets it wrong.
My view we needed an ETS that Labor promised it, won votes by that commitment is three questions.
While you and I Peter may swap views more people want an ETS than do not.
I stand firmly by my view Labor did not keep is promises.
Rudd fell from a high place, he was a man we liked ,but took his personal polling to heart.
Thought he could break his promises, that my party was his to do as he wished.
I do understand SOME school improvements cost too much, I know dead people got that nine hundred dollars, and people who had not lived here for decades.
But the public servants had much more to do with that than ministers.
Rudd, Gillard,,, do not fall for the pro union stance she claims did not listen to claims truth, that contractors doing the pink bats acted like criminals.
Do not for a second think I am walking away from Labor I am however reminding them we must not see these things happen again.
I could write posts about conservative failures but hope some extremely vocal poster from that side will start such a thread.
Any one who can not find fault in his/her side of politics is too easily pleased and kills constant improvement.
A postscript.
It is my view the actions of extremist trade unions harms ALL unions even within the ALP this is blindness great differences exist and that very strange group asked its members to vote green?