Keep going 579, you are doing a good job there !

rechtub please strop telling poster supporting this government deifies logic!
You must be aware I once considered you a mate.
And that I am avoiding you.
WHY
Well bloke you constantly put your views, but lay silly charges against any one who differs.
You did that here, in this thread.
As a trained trainer I want you to consider my advice, that is all it is, no matter what label you give it.
Leave room for your verbal opponent to save face IF WRONG.
Always consider is it you who is wrong?
Now test me, with todays seeming back down/outbreak of common sense, [You would be fully informed about it].
Abbott or more likely his replacement, will keep it.
Mining tax? you being much better informed than the rest of us will know.
Is seen as bad only by the rich over seas investors who pay it, and invest in record figures in even more mining.
You too know Abbott is the servant of power money influence not the Aussie battler.
I have no option, but to avoid you, I am not copping the constant abuse for daring to think different than you, enjoy your thread.

LIBERAL MP Steven Ciobo has called for a return to individual contracts and changes to unfair dismissal laws after former prime minister John Howard suggested the Coalition should restore key elements of its controversial Work Choices laws.

Treasurer Wayne Swan today said Mr Howard’s comments had let the cat out of the bag for the Coalition as he also called for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to apologise for running a negative campaign on the economy while Mr Howard praised the state of the Australia's financial position.

In a recent speech to a business forum, leaked to media today, Mr Howard reportedly argued that it was a mistake to remove the no disadvantage test protecting workers and said a return of individual employment contracts was required.

He also argued for changes to unfair dismissal laws, claiming small businesses were struggling to dismiss workers without making huge payouts to workers.

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"I actually think that Work Choices, although it played a part in our defeat, wasn't the main reason,'' Mr Howard reportedly said.

"The received view is that it was and therefore that's had an impact on the commentariat and an impact on the Coalition.

"I think we have to address this issue again. There is no reason why this country should not go back to the workplace system we had between 1996 and 2005 where you had individual contracts.

"But one addition to that is that you have got to do something about unfair dismissals.''

Mr Abbott this morning attempted to hose down the issue.

“Work Choices is dead, buried and cremated,” he said in a statement.

The Coalition has insisted it will not reveal its policy until closer to the election but has promised to return laws closer to the centre, flagging changes to increase flexibility and cracking down on union militancy.

EVERY time Opposition Leader Tony Abbott opens his mouth, I feel like I need a shower.

He's such a grubby piece of work - so naked in his ambition, so willing to stretch any truth to score a quick political point and so unimaginative.

When he started picking over the carcass of Olympic Dam this week, he might at least have had the decency to wipe the smug look from his face.

He might have taken five minutes to get his facts straight on the reasons for BHP shelving the $30 billion project. And it wouldn't have hurt to workshop a few credible arguments on how Gillard policies have had an impact on BHP's cost pressures, instead of lazily (and incorrectly) parroting his "great big taxes" line.

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Actually, if he had been really strategic he would have been a statesman - saying very little about the demise but announcing a Coalition plan to work with key states and mining companies such as BHP on new strategies to keep investment flowing in a volatile resources market.

Alas, that's not Mr Abbott's style. He's a kick-heads-now-ask-questions-later kind of guy.

That's OK when you're bull ... . ing over a few beers around a barbecue, where you can mouth off without fear or favour and your words aren't thrown back at you on national TV.

It's not so cool when you're keen to run a country of 23 million reasonably well-educated people, many of whom would quite like the political discourse to rise above three-syllable slogans.

With Labor's polls beginning to rise (albeit from a pathetically low base) and Mr Abbott continuing to languish near Ms Gillard in personal approval ratings, you would think party strategists would be single-minded in branding the Opposition boss as The Next Leader of Australia.

But Mr Abbott seems incapable of transforming himself from masterful antagonist to credible alternative.

Which begs the question. Is this man a one-trick Tony?

One trick pony 579 that is only the publicity.

Clearly Abbott is a complex and dangerous ideologue. He has continued the Howard brand of confrontation politics and is the better exponent of the art, this of course has nothing at all to do with what's best for Australia it's inhabitants or the future.

We now hear all people even moderates in the LNP always talking up the the down side, always dissing our country, our economy and our Govt. To what avail, so a bunch of inward and backward looking ideologues can get back to their program of increasing the gap between the rich and the poor ?.

Expect further tightening of the screws on peoples rights in the workplace, further tax assistance for big business, more incentive to pollute, more deregulation in the prices sector so business will be able to charge the working person anything they like for essential services that the business sector will all but control as these sick ideologues will continue to privatise and sell off assets (including the magnificent and visionary NBN project) too their mates for a song.

Abbott in opposition is one thing 579 , Abbott in Govt another.

Finally the only thing the LNP actually talks up, is it's prospects at the next election, an election some 17 months away, and as we know 1 day is a long time in politics ladies and gentlemen, and I would contend that Abbott is un-electable as a candidate for PM.

And that is something my friends that the LNP will have to deal with way down the track when that election actually happens.

On the other hand Julia Gillard seems to be doing a serviceable job of building her own slow burn credibility. This is currently gaining traction with at least some of the electors swinging back a little in recent polling.

In addition she is leading an economy that is currently the envy of the world, not the investment basket case that the opposition claims, but instead the envy of the world.

With low unemployment and inflation, a bright investment future including sectors beyond a continuing resources boom. And should a publicly owned NBN infrastructure resource become fully operational, a massive incentive will exist for a smarter future in Australia. A future where the tyranny of distant stands a chance of being eliminated at last at once and for all. Cars will be less necessary etc and so on.

Gillard in opposition remains marked over as singular mistake, a statement in the heat of the moment over carbon tax, but Gillard as PM has shown remarkable resilience and a record of achievement, as a PM leading a hung Parliament.

Her success is obviously due to her own negotiating capacity alone, negotiating shark infested waters, remaining cool under pressure, and getting a consensus Govt's agenda up confirmed by legislation, despite an opposition spitting snake venom , blocking, delaying and frustrating at every opportunity. This I think, (if it continues despite the attempts of The Australian newspaper to besmirch her character) will provide her some opportunity to run on her record at the next election that I predict will occur when the Gov't runs it's full term.