Tony Abbott seems to be unable to accept that the Liberal Party has lost the last election. Nor seems he able to accept that Miss Gilliard does not represent the Labor Party but a Parliament chosen by the people of Australia.   It's the people of Australia who chose parliament and that passed a law to have "carbon tax". 
. 
Tony Abbot, who replaced Malcolm Turnbull as the leader of the Liberal Party, never recognized the legitimacy of the Australian Parliament as chosen by the people. 
He believes that the sole function of the Opposition is to "oppose"  His constant obstructionism and negativity to any proposed legislation for the good of the nation - which by the way requires little intellectual ability - testifies to his simplistic strategy of obstructing at whatever cost.   His single objective is to aim for a new election to give the Liberal Party politic power. He is very good at knocking the people's parliament of Australia by attacking personally -ad hominrm arguments - the people's chosen Prime Minister. In that sense he undermines his own democratic credentials. 
In this he is assisted by an other ideological parry - the greens - who believe that that "on shore" processing of illegal refugees will stop the boats from arriving on our shores. People smugglers - can now sell their products, that all you need to do is to take a boat and land in Australia.  There is a probability of over 90% that ultimately you will be able to make Australia your future home regardless of whether you will be "processed" at Christmas Island or Nauru. 
If you want to stop about 30 million illegal migrants arriving by boat illegally to Australia. You need a stronger disincentive than either Christmas Island or Nauru or any other "on shore" processing centre, or even any centre underwritten by the United Nations. 
You need the courage of Prime Minister John Howard to establish a processing centre outside Australia AND not sanctioned by the United Nations.
But of course this would not fit in with Tony Abbott's strategy.

jurplesman,

What utter tripe. This is a Labor government with no ministers from any other party. Juliar's promise was that "There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead."

The Australian electorate voted against an unpopular and ineffective tax, and Juliar entered an unholy alliance with the greens and sacrificed the trust of Australia to gain power.

The polls reflect that Australia overwhelmingly rejects this grubby deal, and no amount of white washing by the likes of you will remove the stain of a PM who lied.

Welcome, do not let Shadow Minister concern you, he may be be Tony Abbott.
It however comes to mind he may be another I dare not name.
You will, in time, see I am ALP strongly.
But you must try not to avoid this truth, the ruthless and wrong unseating of Rudd, by *power brokers* who should be expelled from the Party.
And the continuing refusal to undo that BETRAYAL is The hurdle that must be jumped.
Or nothing Abbott gets wrong will save us.
I strongly, truly, believe if Gillard takes us much further e, the rank nd file, will be HUNG by the rank and vile, power brokers.

Abbott has Labor on the ropes in both CO2 taxes and boat people.Why would he give labor a free punch? Just knock them out of the ring.

Labor have been the masters of their own demise.

Jokes about 'hung parliament' from a pole and a 'hung parliament' in regards to all being extra large appendages, aside .... we need to fire them all and start again.

What I would like is a government that can lead a country forward like, well, what Rudd was trying to do. Whether we agree with their policies or not ... and chances are about half won't just because it's in our nature to disagree ... it would be good to see someone making moves forward with the betterment of the country in mind.

I'm not sure why this 'boat' issue is SUCH an issue because that is just par for the course for living in a country with such freedoms and being so close to country's that don't. They always have come, they always will. So lets build a massive processing centre up the top end and move on. If they can't prove they are from a country that fits a refugee status criteria, fly them back. Make that a prerequisite to entry as a refugee. Let a translator/linguist decide their fate. Stuffing around the problem isn't making it go away. It's a basic border issue. Just do it.

jurplesman>> It's the people of Australia who chose parliament and that passed a law to have "carbon tax".<<


Bereft of reason, simplistic of mind, and a wholesale liar. This is your epitaph, and I may say it is one that you share with Gillard and all the lying Labor supporters. That you draw breath to utter lies without reason to placate being on a “side” that has dismally failed this nation and it’s miserable people is the qualification for my comments.