What was that a Tea Party? There was the Mad Monk along with the old conservative mate, Weasel Howard, minus his aussie trackie dacks, fronting the Liberal bunch of knuckleheads, along with a motley collection of mostly geriatric party members. All gathered for a mighty Liberal Party election launch. What did we get, the Abbott "vision" for Australia, sure did, what is it? "ROLL UP THE RUDD CARPET" talk about shock and awe, more like mock and bore,
SM and other 'usual suspects' a couple of fair questions from Rudd, about the center piece of Liberal Party policy. "turn back the boats"

Q1 What happens if you turn back a boat and it sinks, and a couple of hundred people drown, how do you explain that to the rest of the world?

Q2 What do you do if Indonesia also turns the boat around, or is boat turning an exclusive right of Australia?

I'm very interested in your answers.

Belly Pjack gives the appearance of being another utterly partisan poster incapable of expressing a point of view, rather more party line spin.

The ongoing nonsence about fully costed liberal policies while ignoring the history of both sides in that front and the realities of the way "costings" are managed for oppositions under the current system tells the story well.

You and I differ in our political preferences but at least neither has a love for pretending that its all so different when "our" side does it. We have little chance of reforming much while the true believers on either side keep their passion for double standards.

R0bert

Paul1405, "There was the Mad Monk...."

You are obviously unaware that Kevin Rudd converted from Roman Catholicism to Anglicism and very often insisted on being interviewed outside a church when he was electioneering or making statements, including as PM. Here you go,

<Shriven, blameless, fresh from Communion, the Prime Minister [Kevin Rudd] stands at the lychgate of St John's Canberra and takes questions from the media. Although he rarely does the rounds of the Sunday current affairs shows, Kevin Rudd stands at the weathered gate of the old church on Constitution Avenue, available for the cameras, whenever Sunday finds him in Canberra.

The message is clear: Rudd is a Christian. To find a Labor leader as openly of the faith takes something like archaeology. Keating was tribal Catholic but not devout. Hawke was agnostic. Whitlam wasn't a believer. The last man to fill the bill for Labor was Andrew Fisher in the First World War.

But Rudd is the full box and dice: born a Catholic and now an Anglican, he signalled his candidacy for the top job in the nation with a thoughtful essay on Christianity in The Monthly. "It's another day," he told a press conference at the gates of St John's in the Brisbane suburb of Bulimba on the morning after his election. The other day he slipped into Mass at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in North Sydney as the story of her impending sainthood began to break.

"He can't resist the opportunity to hold media conferences outside churches," says the former candidate for the priesthood Tony Abbott. But are Australians impressed or perturbed by a commitment to faith that puts even John Howard's attachment to Christianity in the shade?>

http://www.smh.com.au/national/politics-and-religion-crossed-paths-20091225-lezy.html#ixzz2XeHO05mY

What do you think of that?

If we are to be tolerant as required by Australian legislation and the UN Charter of civil rights, we cannot discriminate or sledge on the basis of religion as you make a habit of doing.

Lexi>> Dear SOG,
And why did Labor spend?
Do your research on that one old chap.
Here's a couple of links that may be of interest:<<

Lexi my belle, here are some facts that may be of interest.

The Rudd government inherited a $90 billion comfort zone via a $20 billion Federal budget surplus and the $60 billion Future Fund. In a single parliamentary term the Labour Party has managed to turn a surplus into a $60 billion deficit. Net Federal liability has gone from zero to a projected $300 billion debt in 6 years.
The mining boom realized the largest tax receipts in Australian history….but Labor wasted every single cent of that and borrowed more.

Why?

A government costing review of the BER projects found that a building that should cost $1200 per meter cost over $3000, a building that should cost $3000 per meter cost $13000.

The insulation scheme was suspended because of serious concerns about fraud and safety that followed the deaths of four young installers, 120 house fires and claims that up to 10,000 roofs may have been electrified.

The Solar scheme was scrapped because it was not viable.
Grocery Watch,
Fuel Watch,
Housing Affordability,
Defense Funding,
Border Protection,
Computers in Schools,
Childcare Centers,
GP Super-Clinics,
Indigenous Housing,

None completed, nothing achieved and all tainted with excess waste, death, and theft.

You keep on playing personality politics Lexi, but those who possess any rationality know this Labor team are clowns, second rate self serving clowns…but like all clowns they have found an audience that are easily entertained with tricks and cunning stunts.

Poirot>> Have you noticed in the last few days how each time before Mr Abbott unloads a blast of negativity, he prefixes it by saying "This is not being negative, but...."<<

Quite right P, Tony should be positive.

I am positive we have no border control and thousands have drowned because of it.
I am positive we now have the largest debt in our history.
I am positive our kids came last of the English speaking nations in a global literacy survey.
I am positive our defense force is at its lowest operating capacity in70 years.
I am positive that Australia’s power charges are the highest in the developed nations.
I am positives that business closures have rocketed in the past six years.
I am positive that the size of the public service has rocketed in the past six years.

P, I am positive that you have an axe grinders license.

Excellent post sonofgloin. Sock it to her!