Otokonoko,

Apologies, my most reasonable friend. (One gets a little used to serving it up around here)

...............

SM,

Well there you go.

Your last post was a splendid example of Lib-speak. Nothing but simplistic and vacuous one-liners.

I'm asking Mr Abbott and his team to deliver something a little deeper and more comprehensive.

So far, utterances like those contained in your last post are all we' get.

More and better details, please.

Dear Poirot,

To me he stands for fear, hate, and nastiness.
He's brought out the worst element in our society.
For almost 3 year Mr Abbott has used a wrecking ball
strategy designed to bring down the government as
quickly as possible. And as poolitical commentators have
pointed out - he has not played a clean game as
Opposition leader. Had he been an Opposition leader who
challenged a government's policies and pointed out
their flaws, an Opposition leader who provided alternative
policies that won broad support - he would be someone
we would respect. Instead he has had a campaign of
destruction, involving lies, fear mongering,
unproven allegations and smear tactics.

It is no wonder that he is one of the least popular Opposition
leaders this country has ever had and those that claim he
has been successful, all that means is that his Opposition to
almost everything, and his unproven smear campaign has held
the government back in opinion polls.

We're now told that nasty, negative, nay saying, Mr Abbott has
become "nice" Mr Abbott in the dark blue suit, white shirt,
blue tie. As one author stated, this should be a WTF moment.

It will now be interesting to see if the Coalition can get rid
of their unpopular leader by having the guts to following
Labor's lead in this direction. Somehow I doubt whether
Mr Abbott would have the grace to resign as Julia Gillard
did for the "good of the Party." He ain't going to go quietly!

BTW - have you seen the Coalition's, "Our Plan - ReaL Solutions
for all Australians?" It is a litany full of contraditions
and all they offer is statements - nothing more. So if you're
asking, "What does Mr Abbott stand for?" Voters should also
be asking, "What exactly does the Coalition stand for?"
Giving people a list of statements and nothing else - are they
seriously expecting to get voters to elect them to government?
I guess those who find it easier to condemn than
think will follow suit. Fingers-crossed most Australians are
better than that.

Abbott needs to produce 2 things to gain credibility:

(1) Specific, detailed policies

that are

(2) Fully and professionally costed.

I predict these policeis, in their fully costed form, will (like the last election), be revealed about a week or so before the election. Why? In order to reduce scrutiny and analysis as much as possible. We ALL know their costings at the last election were fraudulent and deceptive. It was one of the main reasons they lost the election. They couldn't totally cover it up. They never learn.

Lexi,

You may find this article illuminating. It was written by someone who knows Abbott the man.

http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/10/the-honourable-tony-abbott

As for what Abbott stands for, his Battlelines has been examined for some years and to his credit, Abbott has changed his emphasis in some respects.

Has Christine Milne or Kevin Rudd produced anthing similar? The answer is 'No!'.

There ae bits. Kevin Rudd has his 'Big Australia', a policy that really isn't acceptable to many Australians, especially in the capitals where over-population has led to very high energy and water charges to take two common examples. Vehicle registration, land development and other government taxes are crippling. Rudd does not seem to have departed from his 'Big Australia' ideal.

Rudd also worships the UN, as does Milne and the Greens. That is another area where the electorate is not happy at all and for a heap of reasons, one being that such thinking led to the destruction of Howard's policy on boat people, which was working well.

'It would be nice if Mr Abbott clarified those points, instead of sitting with his lips sealed, expecting to sail into the top job.'

With the loony tunes Labor lot that is all that is required.

I have no idea why people are so scared of a religious person being leader. Why should Abbott's personal religious beliefs disqualify him from leading.

It's rank prejudice.

I cant fathom why it's supposedly so wrong to prejudge Gillard on being in a de-facto relationship with no kids, but somehow ok for the lefties to constantly bang on About Abbott's religion.

As for what he stands for, I don't think it's too hard to decipher. What does any conservative leader stand for? The status Quo, protecting business and promoting nuclear families.

I really think people give governments too much credit for making any difference. There could be no government for a year and nobody would even notice.