Hi All,
I am new to the site and have been reading the last 16 pages of threads with keen interest. There is certainly valuable input from both political persuasions; except those extreme aggressive & defensive positions of both sides.
Just a few opinions to add:
Royal Commission - of course Gillard expects to gain from this, although I notice she made it 'wide ranging' so as not to make it seem like a witch hunt and upsetting the church too badly.
Julia's misogynist rant - any self-respecting modern woman must surely agree that actions like this actually set women's lib back years, not forward.
Abbott is a smart man, I will give him that, but he has way over-played his hand. Labour is now tearing him apart, piece by piece, hoping no one will notice that they too are the manufacturers of sick political spin.

ManofThe Land welcome
I think we need to have a look at this Royal commission, Banjo too kicks me in the ribs over this.
How can Gillard win out of it?
Now be fair dinkum, do we just let the next ten generations of our kids suffer?
Do SOME OF US let our selves of the hook for telling our kids to stop lying?
No country bloke I ever knew would want his kids to go though this.
Abbott is not smart he has been very wise in his way of hurling the cow dung, Aussies like that.
But he is gone!
And that is a promise not a threat, Turnbull would trample the ALP in to dust.
No Labor politician wants to hear but Gillard, way ahead of Abbott, only because they dislike him more than her.
She will never be elected again.

Spot on Belly, I'm with you on that one.

Thanks Banjo I appreciate and acknowledge your instance of the LNP's contribution but neither example meets the criteria of "initiated" and built.
And aren't the states responsible for roads ?.

Completion and continuance are not terms that describe the LNP initiating and building infrastructure only the populism that they have achieved by laying claim to it.

I did mention Menzie's opposition to the Snowy Mountains Scheme and his later claim to be responsible for it. Once it was a he could not stop it .The pattern emerges and continues.

In support of my position regarding the regression of the LNP, they now oppose by threatening to reverse progress or planning to sell off infrastructure such as the NBN even before the taxpayer has received the benefit from it.

Under Abbott they realise that once people start experiencing the benefits of carbon pricing on the environment for example, or the wonder that publicly owned super fast broadband will bring to lives of (particularly rural) citizens, their ideological arguments simply wont wash. Their power base purchased by supporting their cronies in big business will be eroded. The NBN will release the squirrel grip that Telstra and their cartel have upon Australian communications that is the legacy of Howard and Costello.

Had we elected Keating in 96 we would have already had the NBN, and the corporates would have had no choice by now but to hire superior communication systems from the taxpayer at our profit instead of the unmitigated overcharging that should have been obvious to any legislator when creating corporate essential services monopolies.

And the sector with the least power since Howard and Costello is the small business sector, all being whacked with increasing fixed running costs, such electricity and internet charges. In fact the cost of running a small business today has been made impossible by corporates factoring increasing profit margins for themselves without restraint. The only going backwards in real terms is people wages and working conditions. The LNP's solution to this is workchoices 2 the extreme version. Something they will have no hesitation re-inventing once back in Gov't.

Thank you Belly, I look forward to some hearty argument. I thought the Royal Commission would be a no brainer for Gillard because it has become inherently popular to bash the church lately. And for those who don’t like to boot them in the ribs, no one can argue with the point you have just made (i.e. who could let kids suffer) Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no church goer myself by any stretch of the imagination. But I respect the aspirations of religion generally. I guess only time will tell (perhaps as much as 10 years and God (sorry for the pun) knows how many tax payer dollars). I boldly predict that this problem in the church is nowhere near the giant proportions that many believe it is.

Thinker – I generally agree with your sentiments. Keating WAS the best PM Australia has ever seen. And Howard possibly one of the worst. May-be worst is going too far (we have that now). The main problem with Howard was that he did essentially nothing to propel the country forward in a time of economic bliss. Funny how he and Costello are always praised for their good economic management, while the failings of the current govt are often explained away by “difficult global circumstances”.
You are right to question the “big business cronies” of the libs, but the ideology of the union power base AND for that matter the extremist lefties of the ALP are no better. There is not much between them as far as I can tell; except for may be their respective answers to this question:
As a society should we be striving for EQUALITY or EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY?
I suspect labour generally aims for the former while conservatives strive for the latter.
I support the latter by the way

ManOfTheLand, I don't know how you can think Howard was our, let's say, former worst PM.

You have to remember where they ( the libs) came from, whereby they inherited what was then the highest ever debt, a debt that they finally repaid and, ended with money in the bank, albeit, at the expense of Tesltra.

They came to power in the mid 90's and within just one term, they had turned the economy around, by instilling confidence.

They also inherited a gun shy business community, thanks to the (at the time) ridiculous unfair dismissal laws, laws that once watered down, led to the boom times.

It is Business that builds nations, not governments, however business needs confidence and this has been slashed by this government.

Of cause work choices cost them dearly, however it would be fair to suggest that WC effected less than 5% of the workforce, and that would have in the majority of cases been the bottom 5%.

Of cause, they also stopped the boats.

As for Paul Keating being our best ever, I would suggest Bob Hawk was a much better PM and he also connected well with the people.

Except of cause those who hatted him for cheating on his wife.

But as if that is cause to not vote for him.

Now as for present labor, they came to power in 07 in the best shape of any incoming government EVER, then they commenced thier quest of missmanagement and wasteful disregard for the future of our nation.

They presided over failed project, after failed project, ignoring expert advice, even costing lives, and of cause, they opened the flood gates that led to the current illegals debacle.

This mess will go down in history as the worst ever policy descision.

So that is why I say, ask not whether Tony Abbott is worthy, ask whether labor deserve another shot.

Anyone who wanted a job, had one and, the word 'underemployment' was unheard of.

Of cause work