Foxy,
Yeah Chris Bowen seems like a competent administrator but he's not had the public exposure of Bill Shorten or Tanya Plibersek, Shorten was excellent in the Beaconsfield mining disaster and that's what people will remember, not so much his role in ousting Gillard which I think most people have forgiven.
Who else is there on the ALP side whom people would even recognise? Penny Wong? Doug Cameron? Kim Carr?...yech.
The trouble is that the ALP doesn't have any charismatic people to compete with Turnbull or Hockey nor the Machiavellian brains trust of the IPA, the people further down the line in the shadow cabinet are either objectionable individuals on their own merit or faceless men and women.

How did we become so small and mean? It could have something to do wit the fact that in ten years we've had two million non-assimilable migrants arrive, the cost of living and housing has shot up while wages are going down in relative terms and we've seen the successive governments both state and federal racing to sell the country off to the Chinese.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/lowend-buyers-shut-out-of-fishermans-bend-20141101-11fh5p.html

the crowd at Gough seemed to cheer the losers and boo the winners. Howard paid off Labours massive debt, was elected four times and stopped the boats. If I was Abbott and that mob of cattle cheered for me , I would of been most concerned. While the ' regressives' hate Abbott so much I would say he is doing a good job. Of course tens of thousands of people sucking the public purse hate him. Those wanting ' free' education, free health free public transport, free love are dumb enough to think no one is actually paying. Ask them if they will teach for free, work as doctors or nurses for free and they will look at you stupidly.

The booing reflects the manners of the left.
It also reflects our education systems political leaning.
To the younger range today manners are just right wing suppression.

I was disappointed that the opposition leader did not castigate
the booers for their poor manners publically there and then.

So when a liberal leader dies will the opposition be game to turn up ?
It was another reason not to vote labour.

The demanding left are in for one hell of a shock when the government
finally realises what they face from 2017 onwards.
The government cut backs will look like government has withdrawn from
government of the country altogether.
Note the unreality of the gravel voice minister on 7-30 the other night.
When asked about the government intention if oil supplies interrupted.
"the government has the necessary powers to control our fuel supplies
in an emergency". Bloody hell, he doesn't even realise it will be a case of "What oil ?".

Dear Conservative Hippie,

The government talks about being inclusive and
'Team Australia,' yet at the same time as I
stated earlier - they seem to be encouraging
people to turn against their neighbours with
increasing hysterical rhetoric. Muslim people
are being abused in the street by sickening
unprovoked attacks.

Melissa Cunningham, who works
for The Courier in Ballarat, reported how a woman
crossing the street was yelled at be a ute driver
spewing profanities and racist slurs and demanding
she "go home." The woman was mystified until she
realised she'd been mistaken for a Muslim because she'd
wrapped a scarf over her head during a sudden downpour.

Dear Jay,

Both political parties suffer from the lack of
"charismatic" people qualified to lead. And as for
not replacing Tony Abbott - we'll we will have to wait
and see whether the Liberal Party will be prepared to
go to the next election and take their chances on a
very unpopular leader. Especially if his popularity
continues to take a dive and Malcolm Turnbull's continues
to rise. Labor definitely has a serious problem with
Bill Shorten as Leader.

As for the asylum seeker question. Of course we can all
understand the popularity of the "Stop the boats"
catchcry.

I am currently reading the wonderful book written Dr
Munjed Al Muderis, "Walking Free." It's the extrordinary
true story of a young man who fled war-torn Iraq, who came
to Australia as a refugee by boat, spent over ten months in a
detention centre (Curtin in WA), there he was known only
by a number, locked in solitary confinement and repeatedly
told to go back to Iraq. Now fourteen years later, he is
one of the world's leading osseointegration surgeons,
transforming the lives of amputees with a pioneering
technique that allows them to walk again.

He stresses that politicians should take a much more
compassionate approach to asylum seekers rather than
attempt to portray them as evil enemies of the state.

Mostly, they are not. He states that there were 13
qualified doctors in detention at Curtin while he was
there.

cont'd ...

I must admit to being rather surprised at the reception the PM received from some of the crowd outside Sydney Town Hall for the memorial service for Mr Gough WHITLAM. After all, it was a memorial service, and as such should've been free of any political expression no matter how passionate the demonstrators may've been about their causes.

I must admit I get very annoyed when the same ol' group wish to be heard above everyone else. This particular view appeared to have been shared by none other than Mr Bob HAWKE, who (overtly) personally welcomed the PM to the Service. That gesture was 'all class' in my opinion.

cont'd ...

Many of these were specialists. Plenty of others
were engineer, trained craftspeople and skilled
tradespeople.

Long periods of incarceration are simply inhuman.
Dr Muderis says that certainly refugees should
be detained at least until they have
passed all the necessary medical checks to ensure
they're not carrying communicable diseases. But he
makes a very valid point that even during that
detention, they should be known by a name rather
than a number and should be afforded the standard levels
of respect we apply to other human beings in our day-to-
day lives.

He has some excellent suggestions (taken from what he
experienced). He says that after that, they should be
educated and rehabilitated, including attending
classes about Australian history, culture and lifestyle
and how to assimilate into their new country's society.

Certainly according to him they should be housed in
detention centres at night, but during the day, they
could be electronically tagged and allowed to work in
jobs others don't want, like fruit picking or
agriculture-related work in regional centres, where they
could mix with the locals and learn to speak English.

Children should be allowed to attend the local schools to
gain an education, establish friendships and learn
Australian values while they're young and their brains
are like sponges.

All of this would create an opportunity for individuals
and families, by the time their visas are granted, to
feel comfortable in their surroundings and want to stay
and become part of the community, rather than be drawn to
ethnic ghettoes in the major cities.

The current system alienates asylum-seekers. And if they're
alienated at the start, they'll remain alienated. When
they're eleased from detention they're scarred and
diaffected, they've lost their skills and don't speak
English. So, all too often they fall into the arms of
the waiting fundamentalists and are merely more fuel
to the fire.

Surely our decision-makers of all political persuasions
could come up with smarter solutions. Of course its
far easier and gets more mass appeal by offering
simple answers to complex problems. But that's such a
superficial approach. We deserve better.