Paul,

1- Self avowed means that Bandt and Rhianon have declared that they support communism themselves. This is not a liberal label, but one they have made themselves.

2- With 55% of the 2pp vote, the coalition is far from fringe politics. the greens inability to gain a single seat in the lower house makes them the perfect protest vote refuge. PS they got 1,458,982 votes in the lower house not 1,8m. This came almost exclusively from the Labor party.

3- The greens have never bothered to try and cost their policies, so saying that their policies are detailed with out this is a joke.

SM,

I stand corrected 1.8 million votes is a yawning chasm, 1.4 million votes is a niche.
"With 55% of the 2pp vote," at what election did your party achieve this 55%, or have you dispensed with elections and some poll conducted by one of Rupert's chip wrappers is all that's need to determine who governs the country. Sorry, Rupert's been sent to the naughty corner has he not. After all that's been going on at Rupert's chip wrappers I would not rely on anything they say.
The conservatives are past masters at making promises without telling the voters where the moneys coming from. Then again the coalition under Howard had the famous core and non core promises "so saying that their policies are detailed with out this (core and non core rubbish) is a joke."
When will you point me to Liberal Party policies? They are the joke. they want power without saying what they will do when given that power.

Paul,

You have not been corrected sufficiently. Newspoll is not owned or managed by Newscorp. Newscorp have purchased the publishing rights for its political polling, as has Fairfax for the Galaxy results. On top of this Newspoll has consistently been shown to represent current opinion more closely than anyone else, predicting voting patterns within 1% in all recent elections. If you want to bury your head in the sand and believe that nothing has changed since August 2010, then I feel sorry for you. That all the polls that have nothing whatsoever with Newscorp give similar results should rub more salt into your delusion.

The Liberals stands on policy issues are clear on their website. For example, they intend to revoke the carbon tax, the costing for this will depend on how long it takes for Australia to be rid of Labor, and begin to undo the damage.

P.S. Was Labor's promise of No Carbon Tax a core or non core Lie?

SM,

I visited the Liberal Party web site and checked on 'policy'. The so called policy is mostly nothing more than a philosophical diatribe followed by attacks on the Labor Party.
After getting rid of the conservative virus on my 'puter I had another go, The Liberals claim to be economic gurus, I visited their 'web site' again this is their economic plan.

1. Get Labor’s debt under control as quickly as possible. ( How long will this take 1 year 25 years does not say)

2. Sell Medibank Private. (How predictable look after our mates by selling another juicy plumb at a fire sale price)

3. Ending Labor’s waste. (General attack on the Labor Party)

4. Stop Labor’s higher taxes, (On who, big miners, big polluters and big Business. (In that way, our mates will be well cashed up to buy them juicy plumbs at the fire sale.)

Then the 'policy' goes on and on attacking the Labor Party. (Ho hum)

SM, if looking after 0.001% of the population with fire sales and big tax cuts along with attacking the Labor Party is the recipe for economic success the the Liberal Party are indeed true economic gurus,

And I'm not even an ALP supporter! I need a lough. Think I'll wander down to McDonalds and pick up a free copy of Rupert's chip wrapper 'The Daily Telecrap' and read the joke of the day The Piers Akerman column, another diatribe of attacking the Labor Party no doubt. Rupert and his rags are so predictable. Should rename his company to 'NOnewscorp'.

Paul1405 & others who ask to see Liberal policiea and suggest they have none - check out their website. Admittedly, they are dated as of the last general election but that's rather the point.

To address the original post, phooey - I'm reminded of a little-know British film from 1970 with Peter Cook in the eponymous role - "The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer". I recognised it as brilliant and frigtening satire even as a youngster at the time. Spoiler follows:

Basically, the fellow gets elected as PM with the promise that the people will have a say in every decision made and installs flashing lights & sirens on all TV's to announce a decision and vote requirement. Everyone gets sick of this quickly and the last referendum is to have no more say! The PM essentially becomes ultimate ruler with full "executive" powers.

Be very careful what you wish for.

Paul,

Next time spend more than 5 minutes skimming one article.

My contention is that the senate contributes pretty close to nothing to Australian society, and can dispensed of without any impact on our democracy. Your contention is that it is needed to keep the greens employed?