Lexi,

While the numbers arriving by plane might have followed the global trend, the numbers arriving by boat very clearly did not. As the pacific solution was about the boats, the massive drop in boats far outside the global trends shows incontrovertibly that the pacific solution stopped the boats.

That the arrivals dwarfed the boat arrivals from 2002 to 2008 is mostly because there was no comparable pacific solution for those coming by air, though Juliar's proposed change would have allowed those coming by air to be shipped to Nauru. It is notable that now those coming by boat exceed those coming by air.

For holes in costings, look no further than Swan's budget predictions. The 2011/12 budget was supposed to have a deficit of $13bn, with a deficit of about $43bn, Swan's budget is as reliable as Juliar's promise that there would be no carbon tax.

SM as this is a thread about polls. You seem to put a lot of stock in a poll appearing in one of Rupert's chip wrappers. I have a novel idea. I'll call it the "NEW DEMOCRACY". As the Mad Monk and his wombat party are big on so called cost savings. Elections cost a lot of money to stage, millions in fact, lets do away with them, at the same time as we replace that hated senate with the gulag another cost saving. With support for the Anointed One running at 55% in the latest NOnewspoll, I think its only fair that the Mad Monk should form a new government. In a new 100 seat parliament the conservatives will hold 99 seats and a blind dumb, mute, preferably a chimpanzee, will form the opposition, as you know you can't have good government without good opposition, that is clearly demonstrated by the goings on in Canberra at the moment.
The first act of our new leader will be to visit Uncle Sam for some serious anal exploration. Actually that would be his second job on the 'to do' list. Firstly he would have to prostrate himself in front of the 'Holy Trinity' God the Palmer, God the Gina and God the Holy Forrest and give thanks for his elevation to sit amongst the divinity such as Daddy Rupert. Then on a monthly bases if the 0.001% of Australians are not happy with what they are getting from the Mad Monk in the form of tax cuts and goodies from the fire sale, he can easily be replaced with say that crazy ex-senator from SA Arnie Schwarzenegger (remember we replaced the Senate with the Gulag and its full with Greens and Laborites). Just a thought.

Someone's been hitting the wacky weed again?

Dear Shadow Minister,

We don't need your confession on this forum.
If you want to smoke - go right ahead.
We fully understand why you need to do it.

Lexi it is unlikely SM smokes dope.
Conservatives can acquire its effects without the need to smoke it draw back or not.
For some time I have pondered why we use the term dope.
Is it a reference to the behavior of users or the product?
Red wine and Whiskey, usually paid for by taxpayers is Conservatives other method.

Electing Abbott would result in some plan to entrench himself on the Gov't benches. Democracy has always been a stumbling block for the conservatives of this country that is why they always attempt to frustrate it when they inhabit the oppositions benches.

In 1975 they managed to unseat a twice duly elected govt by and through the circumvention of democracy, made possible by the death of the Labor sitting member. They installed a ring in Senator (changing the balance of power) with help of their compatriot scoundrel Bjelke Petersen. This ring in managed to get between the Govt and its own finances, voting against the Govt on every single bill, until the Govt ran out of money allowing another scoundrel in Sir John Kerr as GG to step in and dismiss the Govt.

The darkest time in Australian political history, and exactly the sort of tool Abbott would use to usurp power if possible now. Just for powers sake having no basis or values other than a pious religious upbringing and a personal belief about being born to rule.

Obviously historical context is absent in your thinking Banjo, nailing you as younger than us I suspect, and possibly contributing to the reason why Belly considers your view naive. Abbott's first policy in control of both houses would probably be electoral redistribution in his favour.

Believe it or not Banjo things could actually worse than they are,(and they are really not that bad anyway), with the mistake of electing Abbott PM being irredeemable, irreversible. The extreme right ideological basis for todays LNP is like Howard on steroids with a ruthless gutter touch. And thats just in opposition. Imagine when they could cook the Treasury books, (as they themselves claim the Govt can).

In reality Banjo the Govt and the Treasury, are in fact separate entities as the politics of the 70's proves, a time when the LNP managed to deny the Govt access to its own Treasury through the abuse of parliamentary process thereby rendering the Whitlam Govt unable to govern.