Paul,

If you are going to compare BOF accepting a bottle of wine to a long litany of Labor MPs convicted of fraud, and the corrupt acceptance of $1.7m by the greens, you have a weird sense of proportion.

What about Vic Labor and the tapes, the millions bilked by Labor MPs, not to mention the pedophilia etc.

The coalition is not popular for introducing tough reforms, but come an election Labor has a shocking financial, moral and competence record.

SM,

Come now....this Coalition govt is chocka with rorters who have paid back under the Minchin Protocol...not the least being Abbott himself - and that's beside all the largesse he milked for his pollie pedal self-promotional escapades.

Abbott is the only federal pollie who grabs the bickies from tax payers for travel to pollie pedal.

Others have a tad more decency.

Remember Joyce and his 1 day study tour of Malaysia, taken ostensibly so he could charge the tax payer his return airfare from the Indian wedding. Keeping in mind that all he produced was a generic report which could have been gleaned from Wikipedia.

"The coalition is not popular for introducing tough reforms, but come an election Labor has a shocking financial, moral and competence record."

Oh, you mean the "incompetence" which has made our economy the envy of the rest of the industrialised world - that incompetence?

It's an agenda..an IPA agenda...and come an election this rancid excuse for a govt will be sluiced down the gurgler for their mendacious con of the electorate.

Dear O Sung Wu,

Thank You for asking about my second Catheter Ablation
for Atrial Fibrillation on Monday 21st July. This time
it was a far more intense procedure - and hopefully
it will be a success. My specialist told me - it's
still too early to tell. I've got to go back to him
in September - so fingers-crossed. It's not something
I ever want to go through again. My bruising is
spectacular - and I'm still in pain - especially in the
groin area where incisions wee made and catheters were
passed through sheaths up through the veins into the
heart.

Anyway, enough said. I don't want to de-rail SM's discussion.
Again - Thankis for asking.

I've been reading about the politics of Sir Robert Menzies
(for a discussion on another thread), and couldn't help
thinking - where are the politicians today - of his calibre?

As I wrote on the other thread - this was a time in
Australian politics when passions and prejudices ran
strong but wit, reason, purpose and clarity of expression were
at least acknowledged for their value in tempering the
language and posturing of political contest. Unlike the
divisive hardening of political rhetoric the retreat of
civility and the ideological polarities of our time,
Australian post war politics at its best was memorably
human.

Menzies' off-quoted quips for instance, to the
woman who at Willliamstown in 1954 heckled him with:

"I wouldn't vote for you if you were the Archangel Gabriel!"

Menzies supposed reposte was:

"Madam, if I were the Archangel Gabriel I'm afraid you
wouldn't be in my constituency!"

SM,

".... Labor has a shocking financial, moral and competence record."

Why, in that case, would Hockey say this to New Zealanders?...

"The Australian economy is not in trouble. We've had 23 years of consecutive economic growth. There's no crisis at all in the Australian economy."

Although there will be if these nutters carry on regardless.

http://www.afr.com/p/national/professional_services/more_businesses_need_to_fail_for_SdOQMXa4JCzB5imqQoRCLI

Titled: "More businesses need to fail for economy to succeed."

"More business collapses is the price the Australian economy will pay for being robust and more entrepreneurial, a new report on the insolvency sector says." (paywalled)

SM, myself being the true neural poster on this thread I can only say;

"A pox on both their houses." Labor and Liberal that is!

Do not try and drag the Honest and Virtues GREEN's down to the cesspool of sewerage that is both the Liberal and Labor parties. How much of your donation was spent on the "Plonk For Barry!" campaign. I sus all of it.
To cleanse your soul, its not to late for you to offer yourself up at the "Alter of Bob" (Bob Brown that is) and beg for forgiveness, for ye know not what ye do.
Alternatively salvation is at hand, my son, simply VOTE GREEN and all shall be forgiven. Visit the handmaidens of the anointed of Bob, we're got a few for you to choose from Sister Lee awaits you.

Paul,

You are indeed the true neurotic. Don't worry, I will only hold the greens down in their own cesspit of sewage and corruption. They will be remembered as the party that voted against an ETS in 2009.

Poirot,

There is a budget emergency not an economic crisis. Already Standards and Poors have indicated that unless the budget begins to reduce the deficit that labor left, there is a risk that Australia will lose the AAA credit rating that Howard achieved after so much hard work.

Labor left the government spending about 15% more than it was getting in revenue, and that is not including Gonski, NDIS or the NBN fiasco.

Competence is not what Labor will be remembered for.