Dear Misanthrope,

Thank You for your good wishes.

The year ahead will be an interesting one and
we shall see what the voters decide. Ultimately
it's up to the voters as to who they think will
provide them with a better future. I'm not
holding my breath though because as we know
the media has a tremenduous influence and opinion
polls in the contemporary mediascape trump policies
every time.

Actually all of Abbott's statements are true.

The reason revenues as a % of GDP are down, is not because Juliar has lowered tax rates, it is because profits are lower. The 25 000 or so additional pieces of legislation, red and green tape, and IR requirements that Labor has so happily applied to businesses have pushed up costs and driven down profits.

This was of course balanced out by levels of expenditure as a % of GDP that exceeded the previous government. The gap between revenue and expenditure has left a debt, the interest payments alone (about $8bn p.a.) which would have paid for the NDIS.

Let's get some perspective on the spill. Crean was not to know that Rudd would not turn up for his own leadership battle once he knew the numbers did not look to be in his favour, thus facing another humiliating fail. How could Simon Crean possibly predict that outcome?

The leadership spill may have turned out to be a comedy of errors but perhaps a necessary one. Crean may have acted to eradicate the question of a leadership problem, given Rudd's numbers men forever in the background stirring the pot and reports of white-anting and leaking. It had to come to a head once and for all.

Maybe it was needed as some commentator put it to "lance the boil". The real issue now is for Labor to get their collective acts together and get on with governing for the people and put self-interest, party bickering and career ambitions aside. The media doesn't help in the rush to sell papers by constantly feeding the scandal and gossip mentality. Let's just get on with establishing what each party stands for, their policies and the calibre of people on their respective front benches.

Dear Pelly,

Commentators tell us that:

"Historically Julia Gillard's Prime Ministership
will be seen as an unusually active and reforming
period in Australian public policy. However her
legislative achievements have not translated,
into public understanding let alone
support. This could be due to the declining levels
of trust in most aspects of our entire political
system - includingd the media and its role in
reporting on it."

As another commentator stated - "Labor desperately
needs to become more open, transparent, and
democratic. Labor knows this, a Committee of Wise
Men, one of which was Bob Carr told it so
back in 2010..."

Hopefully internal reform will no longer be stalled.
Voters need to be able to make informed choices
prior to the next election.

Lexi,

You know that feeling you get when you know the PM is going to get turfed at the next election?

I had it with Frazer and I had it with Howard in 2007 - I've got it with Gillard (although I can't believe it's someone like Abbott waiting in the wings)

Gillard said the other day of the "appalling" mess of the so-called challenge, that it now provided Labor with "clarity".

Perhaps it's the sort of clarity one would achieve when they've stepped off the edge of a cliff.

I wonder if Labour have given up trying to pretend to be 'fiscal conservatives ' which Rudd promised when he was swept to power. Will the real Labour party standup? Debt or fiscal conservatives, union corruption or workers rights? want to discourage or pamper to people drowning themselves coming here? In bed with the Greens or hate the Greens?, for foreign workers (as in Gillards office) or against them? against woman haters but happy to be friends with Sandilands? I am sure even most Labour voters are confused. Oakshott and Windsor have shown that their hatred of Abbott has wed them to the most incompetent and probably most unprincipled Aussie Government of all time. The clock is ticking.