There is no doubt the country has some serious problems and issues that need resolving. The current situation in the Senate is unacceptable and the inability of the major political party's to ever work together for the betterment of the Nation is appalling.

Tony Abbott's alienation of just about everyone in the country is only matched by the hated Rudd/Gillard time in office. Labor was the first party to dump its sitting Prime Minister/s and was heavily criticised for such action, yet realistically it had to be done (both times).

The Labor Opposition is calling for Abbott's head. The Coalition's only hope of staying in power, come the next election, is to dump Abbott as soon as possible and then move on. If they dump Abbott now they still have time to revisit their priorities and build trust with the people. If they wait until an election is eminent, they will suffer the same fate as Labor.

Personally I believe we don't need another Labor government in power for many years to come. A Coalition Government is our only hope of repairing the economy and maintaining control of the borders.

Abbott has to go; no if's, and's or but's about it!

My question to Labor is - "If the Coalition were to dump Abbott, will Labor start behaving less partisan or will it only use the sacking as fodder to keep undermining the Government's ability to perform?" Sadly I suspect the latter, going on the current track record.

Why do you say the senate is unacceptable, the senate says Abbott’s proposals are unacceptable. We know Abbott’s track record is not ‘just’.
He has proven he cannot run a viable govt; so what are you proposing.
The LNP have policy problems, or is that Abbott and Credlin have policy problems. You decide. Nobody wants or needs radical policy, that would shift the structure of life as we know it.

The recent debacle over medical and funding for university was no more than a con. The savings were to be channeled into a future fund for his medical science. We were told that we can’t afford medicare or the amount of uni; funding.

This govt; has been deceitful right from the election results, as planned by Abbott.

So I don’t know how you blame the senate, maybe you would be happier with a stacked senate. Abbott promised a DD election, So what happened.

Conservativehippie,

"The Labor Opposition is calling for Abbott's head...."

Now that's where you're wrong.

Why would Labor want to see the back of Abbott. The PM is making such a hash of Coalition governance that he's a gift.

It's the govt ministers and backbenchers who are more likely to be calling for Abbott's head - being that every other day Abbott drops a debacle in their laps.

And lets, face it, the Senate is not there to rubber stamp anything that Abbott decides to spring on the populace - much of his legislation wasn't even hinted at prior to the election.

And talking of partisanship, have you checked out Bronnie Bishop in the Speaker's Chair...now there's a 24 carat partisan operative!

Bit of history revision going on here.

I seem to remember a time when John Gorton was dumped as Prime Minister in favour of Billy McMahon in 1971.

Agronomist,

Yes, but under the present circs and with the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd merry-go-round a recent memory - and much lampooned by the then LNP Opposition, one can understand why they would not wish to imitate Labor's effort.

Problem is Abbott appears to be a dud in govt - going out of his way to make a hash of things - repeatedly?

What can you do with someone like that? When Coalition members can see there is now a real possibility that this govt may be a one termer. That would have been impossible to think when they won govt.

Go on. Do it. Sack him. Knife him in the back.

Then the lieberals will be in exactly the same position Labor were in after they sacked rudd.
They will deserve, and get, the exact same treatment they dished out to Labor.

They chose rabbott for their leader. They knew what he was like. They wholeheartedly supported his destruction of any possibility of bipartisanship. They adored his spiteful attacks on Julia Gillard. They applauded, and assisted, in his lies about the carbon tax, the mining tax, the deficit "emergency", the "invasion" of refugees.
They deserve nothing less than what they themselves found so pleasurable not so very long ago.

Maybe after the lieberals have been flayed in the polls, the media and the ballot box, the way Labor were, will they learn the idiocy of electing leader a brain-dead fool like tony abbott. Maybe then they will learn the value of cooperation occasionally. The meaning of bipartisanship and doing the best for the country, not your rich mates all the time. Maybe once they get rid of rabbott and his team of tea partiers they can go back to being the party of Menzies and Fraser. Hardly my cup of tea but infinitely better than the current bunch of lieberal party thieves and liars.

Until then Labor and the Greens should give them no quarter and use every vile and sneaky method of the lieberals against them.
And laugh as we watch them scream their hypocritical outrage.

Dear ConservativeHippie,

Saving the Country by Saving the Coalition?

I don't think so - although I can't offer you
a better solution. To me the whole political
process seems to be in a sad state of affairs.
We used to debate policies but debates today
seem to be all about personal attributes,
personalities and as Steve Bracks stated a
few years ago - "...these days politics is
more about gaining and holding office than
wishing to improve things for the better."

We need new blood. But I suspect the "old guard,"
of all persuasions won't give up their control.
So its going to continue in much the same way -
sadly. Got any young eager beavers who'd be
good?

Dear Hippie,

<<There is no doubt the country has some serious problems>>

A country has no problems - it doesn't care what's done to it, only people do, in this case because some of them want to have a nation and it's not working as they were hoping.

The best way to save the coalition is to give them some time in opposition. And coincidentally, that would go a fair way to saving the country too.

Only one problem there Aidan, that would mean either a Labor government, or even worse, another Labor Green concoction.

In either case the cure would actually finish the job Ruddy & the red head started. I doubt we would survive such a catastrophe.

If that occurs we might as well give the place to the Muslims. At least they would stick a bag over the heads of all these lefty women.

What poetic justice that would be.

Dear Hasbeen,

It's not "these lefty women," you have to
worry about. It's the strong-willed, determined,
ambitious, educated, "right-leaning" women -
that Mr Abbott and Co have kept - biding their time
on backbenches.
And there's quite a few of them.

cont'd ...

And believe me - it will be poetic justice!

Watch this space!

Hasbeen,
"In either case the cure would actually finish the job Ruddy & the red head started. I doubt we would survive such a catastrophe."
What catastrophe? Seriously, what did they do that Abbott's mob haven't done worse?

Hasbeen is worried what may become of his cherished leader, it must be a deep concern to put Abbott in front of everything or anything else, as dysfunctional as it is.

Conservative Abbott is way out of tune with the AU way of life he would be better suited in dear old England where his heart is. This latest debacle is disgusting, a total embarrassment for this nation.

Our leadership is at breaking point, The nation is running in auto, maybe that is better than Abbott calling the shots

Julie Bishop for Prime Minster
would be a popular choice!

Aidan,

The catastrophe?...that would be the AAA rating from three agencies and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of economies in the OECD.

That's where we finished with the last Labor govt - and that's the "catastrophe" that the righties bang on about ad nauseam.

Aidan,
Poirot is wrong, I think the catastrophe Hasbeen refers to is the enormous government debt that labor ran up.

Only recently I saw an article, perhaps this morning, that the debt was $238 billion and we are paying $30 million a day in interest. Now, if correct, that is a catastrophe. I now cannot find the article and am going on memory.

Considering that the previous Howard government paid off an $80 billion debt from the Keating government and left Rudd with a $20 billion surplus, it is disasterous. I might add that I do not recall any significant infrastructure built by Labor. It was all wasted.

It seems to me that a hostile senate is preventing the present government from acting to reduce the debt.

The $96 billion “Labor debt” inherited by the Howard Government in 1996 comprised $39.9 billion of Fraser Government debt that carried through the Hawke/Keating period meaning that the true level of Labor debt in 1996 was $56 billion.
To pay that $56 billion off, the Howard Government sold almost $72 billion of Government assets meaning the move to negative net debt was not really due to any miraculous and bold fiscal settings, but owed everything to a series of asset sales.

Banjo,

"Aidan,
Poirot is wrong, I think the catastrophe Hasbeen refers to is the enormous government debt that labor ran up."

That would be the debt from the stimulus that gave us the AAA rating from three agencies and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of economies in the OECD.

Not to mention that most the countries (especially European) that opted for austerity in the wake of the GFC ended up in recession....that would be the recession that Australia didn't have.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg

Yep catastrophe spelt debt.

Beattie/Bly up here left us 10 times more debt than we had ever had.

They were fool enough to actually believe the global warming scam, & the prediction it would never rain again. They spent 2 Billion on a desalination plant, & 6 Billion on a piping system to pump water to Brisbane, but only to Brisbane, from anywhere that had any. Of course it can not deliver water anywhere else, just Brisbane

Neither has ever been used, but there were some great high paying jobs for union labour while it lasted.

Then there was the health care payroll fiasco. They bought a payroll system with no guarantee it would work. Great management skills there.

When it didn't work in 2 years, & $200 million expenditure, they still hadn't fixed it. It took Newman & co to sort it.

Fair dinkum, if they took over a school tuckshop, the school would not survive a month.

Dear ConservativeHippie,

's as an ending on a word indicates the possessive case. It is incorrect to use it for plurals in general.

"..the inability of the major political party's..." should be: "..the inability of the major political parties..."

"Abbott has to go; no if's, and's or but's about it!" should be "Abbott has to go; no ifs, ands or buts about it!"

Be conservative about grammar.

Hasbeen, I read on another site that Queensland's debt to GSP ratio had actually risen under Campbell Newman. So is he really fixing anything?

The reason, "I think", the government is going on about the debt is
because they do understand what is about to happen to not just our
economy but that of the developed world as a whole.
The politicians, perhaps even Labour, understand it but do not want to
say it out loud in case they scare the horses.

Australia is at very great risk of a disaster. It only requires two
factors to come into play at the same time;

First, an international financial crash of some sort.
Second, some event, in the middle east, a very significant accident at
the Saudi or Singapore refineries, a clash at sea between belligerent
powers placing oil tankers at risk, and Australia's inability to
raise enough money to buy petrol & diesel in competition with other countries.

Read the NRMA's report, the super markets will be empty in three days
and we will be starving in three weeks

I know that the government has been warned of this scenario but will
not acknowledge it.
I raised this matter to the NSW Emergency Management, to which I have
an official connection, but from on high, it is not a risk for consideration.
Quote; "We have good commercial arrangements."

Famous last words !

Bazz,

Crisis or no crisis, we're a rich country. When there's a tanker at sea we can pay its owners to divert it here. Our debt does not alter this fact.

Oh, yes, get into one of those famous bidding wars at sea !
I would and many others also would be wishing it was that simple.
Oh yes it has to be a tanker with petrol and/or diesel, no refineries here.

If this situation arises there will be a lot of countries in the same
boat, OH dear, I did not mean that !

But seriously, an ISIS or Israeli attack on Iran or Saudi, or Iraq
etc etc could close the straight of Hormuz and bang goes 25%.
Really read the NRMA report.

http://tinyurl.com/mnotj8p

It says Part 2 but I think it is actually part 1 & 2.
There is also an earlier government report by ABIRE which was suppressed
by the government but escaped thanks to a LaMonde reporter in Paris.

Bazz -
In the shipping industry, tankers changing destination because they've been outbid are a common occurrence.
BTW we do still have a few refineries still working in Australia. AIUI the biggest is at Geelong, but they're also in WA and Queensland.

Nothing short of America or Britain going to war against Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz. And a 25% supply shock would not paralyse us.

Yes I am aware that on board buying is common except in the situation
I suggested countries would buy FOB so the cargo could not be sold
over their head. The only reason they don't now is to save the interest
on purchase price.

Iran has often threatened to close the strait if the current restriction
on their trade are upgraded. Israel attacking is I think
a real possibility if they start enriching beyond the present limit.

I was under the impression Geelong was closed, but it is up for sale
either as a refinery or a terminal. So far no buyers.
Kiwana is slated for closure this year or next year.
Brisbane's refinery is closing this year.
In a very few years there will be none.
I suspect your view is held by the government.

Famous last words.

Swiss energy group Vitol is adamant that oil refining in Australia can be a profitable business, so much so that it is tipping $150 million into its Geelong plant.

Vitol, which bought Shell's downstream business for $2.9 billion three months ago, is progressing with a $1 billion five-year investment plan, which includes upgrading the Geelong refinery. But the plan to salvage the marginal refining business has come at a cost.

Sources say the company has axed about 10 per cent of its workforce with white collar jobs accounting for most of the cuts. The company has retained all 450 staff at the Geelong refinery, saying their expertise was a key part in making the business profitable.

Australian Workers Union Victorian branch secretary Ben Davis said he understood there had been some job cuts but they were non-union members.

The coalition is on very shaky ground today. NSW elections coming up nothing can be guaranteed. Not while Abbott is still wreaking the nation . It has not taken long at all to cause such a mess, so much for a one man parliament.

579, thanks for the update on the Geelong refinery.
I had not heard that Shell had sold it. Shell also sold out their
share of Woodside in a bid to raise money. Most of the major oil
companies have been selling assets to maintain their dividends.

Dumping Abbott won't save the country. Only breaking the stranglehold of the IPA and its component megathieves will allow the country to even begin to make them pay their way and allow Australia to start work towards independence. It is fortunate that we had a government from 2007 that did govern for Australia when the international megathieves pulled the disastrous Global Financial Heist. Now we have the LNP impoverishing the already impoverished (laughingly calling it "austerity") to retropay the cost of averting the Heist and to transfer wealth to those who acquire it without personally creating a cent of it.

Abbott’s dispatching will be a gigantic sigh of relief from AU public, including big business which needs a stable and predictable atmosphere to operate. Business relies on people with money to spend, and not dumbed down with uncertainty.

Turnbull is a very likely character for the job, and could very well turn the tide in AU politics. Being a middle of the road operator, certainly makes more sense than that of Abbott’s radicalism.

Abbott is not going to go quietly, and likely to cause more discontent to feed his own ego. Power drunkenness is a powerful factor which overwhelms all other priorities.

Whatever the outcome we will be assured it will not include Abbott, or his advisor

579,

"Whatever the outcome we will be assured it will not include Abbott, or his advisor"

Yep, IMO there's "no way" the LNP will go to the 2016 election led by Abbott.

He'll dig in, and yesterday's NPC address was him throwing down the gauntlet to disaffected backbenchers.

I'm also of the opinion that as far as his leadership of the Libs is concerned, both in Opposition and in Govt, he and Credlin are a double act. The ongoing debacle, is down to the both of them and the machinations within the PMO.

If he goes - she goes too.

The need to clear out the PMO and really "reset" the agenda.

(From their point of view)

Dear Poirot,

Mr Abbott at his National Press Club talked
about "re-setting the Coalition's agenda"
to focus on jobs and families. That's what
the Coalition should have focused its image on
a year ago, when it prepared the 2014 budget.
Instead the savings measures in its budget were
unfair and hurt the most disadvantaged -
the unemployed and low-income families.
It's a case now of too little too late. They've
appeared deaf or indifferent to the concerns of
voters.

Newspaper commentators have pointed out -
"Decisions made in the kind of authoritarian and
arrogant manner demonstrated by both Mr Abbott in
recent months and Campbell Newman over the past 3 years
serve to erode the fragile trust between the government
and the people."

We know what happened to Mr Newman.

So a question for Abbott's supporters: how long does he have left?

A few years ago I read an article somewhere confidently predicting Kevin Rudd would challenge JG between Boxing Day and New Years Day, but it actually took a lot longer. Could the same happen this time?