Rehctub wrote, "Labor have had some good ideas, but unfortunately they lack the ability to successfully implement most of them".

I have 2 points to make regarding this:

(1) Labor has "very" successfully implemented multiple hundreds of pieces of important legislation. They have yet to fail at getting any legislation through .... that's a 100% success rate. Unfortunately, the general public is almost totally unaware of this legislation, because it gets very close to no media coverage. Totally, completely, absolutely unaware.

(2) The *ONLY* reason the scandals are making headlines, in the manner that they are, is because we have a minority government. Why? Because the government can fall if the media or opposition manage to successfully "get" a Labor politician. If Labor had a safe, easily workable majority, then scandals like the current union scandal would be on page 10, not page 1. There were plenty of Coalition scandals when they were in power, but because they could easily afford to lose a number of politicians and still easily maintain power, the scandals were not viewed as nearly important by the media, and these shameful scandals did not occupy page 1 for months and months on end.

In summary, Labor is not the problem, any one particular individual anywhere is not the problem. The problem is we have a minority government, and the exact same problem would be there if the Coalition would have been able to form their minority government.

The Coalition has received a 6 point reduction in the current polling. It's important to remember that the current polling on a two party preferred basis has the coalition at 55% and Labor at 45%. It requires only another 6 point reduction for the Coalition, for Labor to be in front in the polls. And then what? I can guarantee that the Coalition will then be, very quickly indeed, looking for another leader to lead them into the election. They would know, that under such polling conditions, that Attack Dog Tony would certainly lead them to yet another defeat.

I think being a bit hard on Belly there david f, I'm sure there are many who could understand the love of a political movement, particularly one that has had a tradition of values of the Australian Labor Movement.

And the only thing that Joe Hockey is nibbling at the edges of, is an iced doughnut Bazz.

Dear thinker 2,

Perhaps I am a little hard on Belly. People choose strange love objects. The history of the Labor Party has incorporated the racism of white Australia, militarism and economic rationalism. Keating chortled as he came back with a treaty made with the Indonesian butchers. Hawke sold Mirage jets to Pakistan for 26M putting at risk a $960M trade w India in addition to exacerbating tensions in that area. He also sold Steyr rifles to the Indonesian butchers and had the Australian army train their Kopassus Division which was responsible for many atrocities. Whitlam covered up the murder of the Australian journalists in East Timor and was the first to recognise the Indonesian butchers' takeover of East Timor. Hawke supported the PNG army in putting down the Bougainvillians who resented the destruction of their land and culture by the Panguna and backed the blockade of Bougainville by the patrol boats made in Bomber Beazley's area by Australian Shipbuilding Industries. There were several condemnations of the blockade by the UN. Keeping medical supplies and food from Bougainville caused many deaths. Hawke and Keating started the economic tationalist program which screwed the workers transforming regular jobs into insecure contract employment. Rudd and Gillard with the chaplaincy program have supported the introduction of chaplains coming from the fundamentalists of Scripture Union amd Access Ministries into the public schools. Children should not be subjected to wolves. There are those who love alcoholics or gambing addicts thinking they can reform them. I guess that's how one can love the ALP. The noble men who founded the ALP have long departed the scene. Actually I give Labor preference over the Libs when I vote because I think the Libs are even worse, but I can't see loving either party.

I can understand the strength of feeling that
Belly has for his political party. He's been
actively involved with them now for decades.
And he worries about the message dressed up to attract
us with the simple slogan of "The unions have too
much power" is a smokescreen behind which lurks a
philosophy that is both difficult to swallow and
certain to cause this country a good deal of harm,
should it be taken seriously.

Belly knows only too well that the concept of the Libs
is the politics of money and power. It's the ideology
of greed, filled by an unbridled commitment to
individualism. It leaves no room for social equity,
compassion or the idea of an egalitarian society.

I can fully understand where Belly is coming from.
And why. I won't bother listing all the cons of the
Liberal Party - it would take more
than the 350 word limit that we're given on our posts.
Suffice to say - I prefer a government that at least
tries to get on with the job of governing - and achieving
something positive for the country - to a party whose
only language is condemnation and obstruction.

Perhaps that's why Labor is up in the polls. People
are finally beginning to wake up.

A single swallow does not a summer make. Neither does a statistical blip. At 30% primary vote, Labor's goose is well and truly cooked.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/polling

Abbott is still more than a statistical blip ahead as preferred PM and Juliar is still plumbing new lows in popularity, and Labor's incompetence and corruption still remain the topic de jour.

The only way Juliar could start changing Labor's fortunes and regaining the public's trust would be by dropping the deceitful carbon tax, the thieving Thomson and Slipper.

one newspoll and Labor is back in the saddle, puleeze!