""" Whine Swan """

Heheheh! I just blew red whine all over my keyboard when I read that one. What a beauty :)

579, history is a very hard thing to disregard.

The libs have history on their side, something that no one can deny.

I don't know, in my adult life, of any government that has wasted so much, in such a short time, as labor has.

Now of cause, as expected, they are looking for others to fill the void left by their reckless spending, a result of failure upon failure.

How on earth anyone can wish for more of the same defies logic in my opinion.

rehctub.

Some people see those years through rose-coloured glasses.
Sure, some people were better off but many others weren't, as could be seen in the election result.

As well as (some parts of) the economy the other things that really "boomed" were bankruptcies, suicides and rates of homelessness.

One difference between then and now is that Howard had a compliant and biassed media behind him and more control over public opinion and the stifling of public debate. As well as that, from the 2004 election he allowed the Liberal Party policies to be effectively hijacked by the religious right and market-obsessed ideology.

Another difference is that despite all the massive cuts to essential services and the sale of almost every public asset, all we had to show for it was an entrenched culture of middle-class vote buying welfare, the only infrastructure was a dud railway between SA and Darwin and some flagpoles in schools, growing racial dissent and a couple of neverending wars (in exchange for selling out our international competitiveness with a dodgey US free-trade agreement).

I use him as an example because from what I can see Abbott will dismantle everything the ALP did and try to pick up where Howard left off, except he will go much much further - particularly if he has a complete majority in both houses.

It's about society as well, not just day-to-day economic debates.

Wobbles,

"As well as (some parts of) the economy the other things that really "boomed" were bankruptcies, suicides and rates of homelessness."

As far as I recall, under labor bankruptcies, unemployment, and homelessness are higher than in 2007 under Howard.

With the vaunted mining tax, predicted to raise $11bn over 3 years, Labor went and blew the lot, now with it likely not not to raise one red cent, Labor once again left looking like economic imbeciles.

Looks like Mr Abbott will be explaining his punch up with a female over the next six months.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/footage-captures-geoff-shaw-making-obscene-hand-gesture-claims-opposition-deputy-leader-james-merlino/story-e6frg6n6-1226502172132
Doubt we will see much Liberal indignation about this.
Note however, with video unchallengeable.
They are still denying it!
And they say Gillard lies!