I am an immigrant to Australia and have read a bit of history so I can know more about the country I am living in. In effect many of the posters to this list are supporting something that no longer exists. Menzies was a generous man who could have personal friends in the opposition party. Fraser opposed the racism of his day. The Libs got the first person of Aboriginal descent into parliament. The Labor Party was founded by men who wanted to combat the disabilities of the workingman of their day. There was a nobility about Jack Lang. The fact is that all of the above would no longer fit in the parties they belonged to. Fraser who is still alive is no longer a Lib. I suspect that were the others mentioned above alive they would disown the present state of the parties they once served. The current major parties promise goodies to various voting blocs to get re-elected so they can suck at the government's teat and provide patronage to their supporters. They are rarely anything more than that.

I am a member of the Greens. The Greens have many flaws and sometimes support unrealistic positions. However, I see a hope for the future in the Greens which is difficult to see in the Libs or Labor. The Greens seem to have other concerns than merely getting into office.

Commentary on the the New Matilda by one of its major contributors, is called a plug, not an unbiased critique.

I would call it a safe refuge from rationality and the real world.

The qld election is starting to take place. CN is putting his mates in top public positions, and costello is on the payroll. All with his own approval.
He will get things organised pretty soon, and that will fix the state.

I don't believe that the carbon tax altered the predictable Queensland election outcome. Most people or those actually capable of doing their own thinking; actually understand that Julia's promise not to introduce a carbon tax, but a price setting carbon trading scheme, was patently predicated on a belief; and polling results, that Labour would win a significant majority and govern in its own right.
That was before the little leakers stuck and very nearly destroyed a once great party in the process.
[Hell hath no fury like that of a sacked Prime Minister or corporate psychopath?]
[One notes that Tanner, very staunch Rudd supporter, who reportedly hates Julias guts; is gone, retired.]
Nonetheless, despite the disastrous and damaging leaks; that have apparently continued and further harmed the party and its future prospects; Krudd continues to serve on/from the backbench; and arguably expects to be re-endorsed prior to the next election?
Perhaps he should stand and be judged and possibly found very wanting by the now thinking voters of Griffith?
Always providing they can tolerate the burning smell emanating from previously unused cerebral circuits? Ha ha. Rhrosty.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-28/kohler-emissions-targets-increase-ahead/3916840
This link is the beginning of a big land slide in my view.
For some time,always a believer in climate change and our roll, it has grown on me.
The current world wide wet and dry extremes are proof, we need to act.
I ask fellow believers to read and note.
In my mind a mountain of Liberal/National/Conservative mole hills made in to phantom mountains exists.
It has always been a culture for them, to fly the fear flag, on any issue.
A day will come, within the next ten years, that Conservatives currently in control of Liberal party, will eat humble pie on this issue.
Try desperately, to forget they ever said, climate change was a fraud.

Dear Belly,

You wrote, "I ask fellow believers to read and note."

That is an attitude that I find questionable. IMHO A political party is not something that one should believe in. It is an organisation which one may support because its policies one deems at a particular time are better for one's own and the country's interests than the alternatives presented. I remember Paul Keating characterising winning an election as 'a victory for true believers.' I had voted for the Labor cabdidate but very much resented that type of talk. I voted Labor because I thought at that election they were the best alternative presented. I remain sceptical toward both political parties and institutional religion. They are both assemblages of people who seek control and power. I prefer doubt and scepticism to belief.