Lexi

'What does Mr Abbott have to offer? '

Give it 6 months or less (if the independants have an ounce of credibility which I doubt) and you will find out.

It takes creative spin to convert:

- a record of poor decisions;

- one third of your colleagues against you; and,

- the remaining two thirds only in favour because there is no other replacement,

into "superb leadership qualities".

It had nothing to do with the Opposition. It was the PM and senior ministers who acted out this bizarre comedy.

Julia Gillard and her ministers would not last an embarrassing five minutes in any reputable private company. It was a woeful performance. If Julia and her ministers were the head mistress and senior teachers of a school, how long would it take for there to be protests from students and parents? They are incompetent, hysterical and dreadful role models.

Abbott has to offer a great contrast, ie competent rational government, delivering what it promised, and delivering well considered and functional policies. In a word, everything that Labor has failed at.

"Thursday's sound and fury in Canberra changed only one thing. A government that was on the ropes now has the smell of death to it.
The chaos of this week, including the humiliating extinction of the media "reforms", reminds me of Labor's dark days of 1975. Not the famous dismissal itself, but the relentless collapse of good governance that went before. It recalls the farce of Gough Whitlam's energy minister Rex Connor sleeping by his office telex machine each night in the vain hope that a shadowy Pakistani spiv would come up with a loan of 4 billion dodgy petrodollars. That was a government on the edge of the abyss and so, now, is this one. The odour rises"

Dear onthebeach,

It's interesting that you claim that the Gillard
Government wouldn't last five minutes in a
private company - which infers that the Coalition
would. Let us look at the Coalition's past record.

At the so called -
"Golden Years" of Howard's government - when
the Coalition had the fortune to hold office in
good economic times - especially from 1996 to 2007
when the Howard government enjoyed the dividends
of the Hawke-Keating economic reforms and when the
world economy was enjoying a long speculative-driven
boom. Good luck perhaps, but not good management.

The Howard government neglected our surface transport -
our interstate roads, railroads and urban public
transport. It starved our tertiary education sector of
funds. It neglected investments which could help us
cope with the challenges of water shortages, climate change
and fossil fuel depletion. In short, it let fiscal
impression management displace sound economic management
and directed political attention to only one side of the
public balance sheet, the debt side, while ignoring the
asset side.

If the Howard cabinet had been the board of a publicly
listed company, the shareholders would have thrown them
out for weakening the company's asset base.

Mr Abbott has done nothing to establish his or his party's
economic credentials. He seems content to coast on the
public perception that the Coalition is more competent at
economic management than Labor. That simply is not good
enough. Especially in an election year.

All we hear from the Opposition is that they'll release their
policies "in due course," along with a growing list of
excuses to avoid scrutiny. The only thing stopping Mr Abbott
from releasing costed policies is Mr Abbott. This is probably
due to the fact that Mr Abbott's policies don't add up.
He promises more spending and lower taxes but doesn't
disclose what savings he'll make to pay for his promises.
And we all know that the only way out of this magic pudding
is to make massive cuts.

cont'd ...

cont'd ...

Not only is Mr Abbott refusing to disclose these,
he's also opposing other savings measures such as the
government reforms to the private health insurance
rebate and the Baby Bonus to make them sustainable
in the future.

Australians deserve a little more respect from the man
who wants to lead the nation. The upcoming election will
be held against a back-drop of a fast changing world.
The central challenge for political leaders is to ensure
Australia's economic resilience in this time of change.
Unfortunately the Coalition's economic credentials
simply don't measure up. Scare tactics,
and reducing complex issues to
inane slogans and negative rhetoric no longer works -
it lowers the nationald debate and shows that the
leader of the opposition does not have the character,
maturity nor integrity to maintain his current position
let alone ascend further.

Abbotphobia is one thing but defending the most incompetent and probably Australias most dishonest Government shows exactly why Labour is where it is. No doubt in NSW the Lexis and National Broadcasters were defending the Obeids and Carrs and Kennealy's to the end. Dream on.