onthebeach, the media of the time were very biased against the Gillard government, and with the benefit of hindsight it's likely some would have revised their opinions upwards. And not being the best doesn't necessarily make it the worst — although if the same survey were done today, I reckon most people would rate Tony Abbott as the worst PM, and only about 1% would consider him to be the best.

Having said that, "the worst PM bar none" is not a call I'd make on Abbott. I hear some of the pre-Whitlam ones were pretty bad...

I am amazed at the response to my post,which I thought was about the impending mandating all petroleum fuels to contain 10% Ethanol!

So far Hasbeen is the only respondent to make comment about this issue, the rest of you have had a great big moan about the general state of politics.

If you want to question why politics seem to be relatively unchanging, the answer is simple,.....it has always been this way!

You can all whinge and moan about our political system, which remains a two Party affair, but unfortunately things will remain the same as long as we have compulsory voting, preferential voting and are tied to the Westminster system of Governance.

We have to attack the issues that are affecting us directly, which is why I posted the compulsory Ethanol issue. Again I say that this is purely a move to curry favour from the Canefarmers for the Mad Hatter, at the expense of many drivers across the country, who are sick of being ripped-off one way or another at the bowser.

The only thing wrong with the ethanol is it should be the same as overseas and be 20%.

Ethanol is 10% here but you don’t have to buy it, everything else is still there plus an extra pump, at 4 cents cheaper. I don’t know what guarantees you get of not getting ethanol through the other pumps

Thank you 579 for demonstrating the stupidity of the Greenie.

The production & use of ethanol in auto fuel;

1/ Produces more CO2 emissions per mile than "proper" petrol.

2/ Costs considerably more than petrol, & is only cheaper when subsidised by the taxpayer.

3/ Is damaging to many cars, & equipment such as mowers.

4/ Is using a food product to power cars, for no good reason.

I suppose our greenies could be more stupid, & they are trying, but it will take years of indoctrination to achieve that higher level of stupidity.

Aiden, "the media of the time were very biased against the Gillard government"

Maybe you were elsewhere at the time, but the media certainly gave the first women PM plenty of encouragement. -Particularly through the many leftist and avowed feminist journalists and columnists who made every possible excuse for her. What about the ABC? Any criticism no matter how deserved was construed as a 'backlash'.

No, Gillard had more rope than any politician before, although she was continually whiteanted by the her sidekicks the feckless Greens. She paid out on the Greens later as 'just a protest party'. So she was finally right in something.