Noisy Bird mentioned jokes about Julia Gillard.
I have not heard any yet.

I thought that was because no one was laughing.
I have seen nothing funny at all.

Hello Noisy Scrub Bird. Good to see you back after five months away from OLO.

I pretty much agree with your comments on both Gillard and Abbott.

I said earlier on this thread that I think Gillard did not lie nor break a promise, but nonetheless did gravely breach our trust in the highest office in the land, by making an assertion and then going against it, which is just plain unforgivable.

Well….. almost unforgivable.

Ok, so she was new at the PM game, and didn’t realise the enormous backlash that would result from doing a complete reversal to a major policy position.

Hmmm…. she’d been in politics a long time close to the top level. So that one’s a bit hard to believe.

But she does seem to be much more settled in now and hopefully will never make an enormous faux pas like that ever again.

Now if she’d just assert her stated opposition to Rudd’s ridiculous ‘Big Australia’, we’d be starting to possibly maybe hopefully get somewhere!

In fact, the biggest criticism of Dear Ms Gillard should be that she clearly opposed the notion of a big Australia, but has completely failed to act on it!

<< By the way, I didn't vote for either of the Major parties. >>

Me neither. Not for many year now!

What ever way you look at it, the decision was good for AU.
Two coal powered power plants scaled back in a week, QLD and vic.
The cost was to much to bye, and now they have scaled it back.
The more solar and wind power available and more will be scaled back again.
So the system is working, and a good decision all round.

579, the shutdown of those power stations will probably be permanent
but it is sensible to keep them mothballed, just in case.

Politicians and economists believe there will be recovery and growth
in the future, which will probably means they would be fired up again.

However, it is most likely that together with our reduced oil
consumption, our reduction in electricity use will be permanent.
The economy is slowing and our GDP will eventually be the same as other
developed countries.

The Liberals think they can get growth going again but they are also
unable to grasp the reality of world energy supplies.
The current oil price of $113 a barrel is the main reason our economy
is in the doldrums, except mining of course.

Bazz why do you say our economy is in the doldrums. Mining accounts for 20% of GDP. Our GDP has dropped .2 of a trillion with the downturn in minerals price.
Australia has more people in work, now than any time in our history.

Well 579, the GDP that is most important to the majority of Australians
is the non mining proportion. The GDP that is due to mining mostly
goes overseas as mining company profits and charges.

Our energy availability/cost is a balancing act between the two but
the upshot is a reduction in energy use that will continue to reduce
our economic activity.

Politicians and economists, except for a few, still think money
manipulation is the way to get growth in the economy.
However we live on a finite planet and growth, especially population
growth, is simply not sustainable.

>Australia has more people in work, now than any time in our history.
True, but so is our population. We cannot grow while energy declines.