runner,

"Oh is Abbott still PM. The mouth frothers had me believe he was gone last November then January then February."

Hey, hey....stunning isn't it!

With a bit of luck, they'll shamble their way to the next election with Tones still at the helm.

We can only hope.....

Billions of $ for renewables ready, but not while Abbott is there, the environment is not worthy of investment while we have an unknown quantity in office.

We are in a mess, without proper government, we need to clean this dysfunctional regime up before Indonesia deserts us altogether.

The general consensus from political commentators on
The Drum, The Insiders, and generally in the newspapers,
seems to be that voters crave more than anything else
stability and certainty - not just after the Rudd/Gillard
years but at a time of deep economic uncertainty and even
amid the shock they've had in the past 12 months
when the return of "adult government" only gave them
more uncertainty in the form of the 2014 budget and
February's almost leadership coup.

We're told that the Prime Minister is desperate to shut
down any possible area of Labor attack - yet all he is
currently achieving is open warfare within his own
ranks on a range of contentious issues with policy chaos,
gay marriage, national security, and pronouncements to his
Ministers. He is actually fomenting division between
his cabinet and the party room.

Whether that leads to further leadership challenges -
time will tell. However, it's not looking good as the polls
and the party leaks currently indicate.
But as I stated earlier - I would not bet either way as yet.

cont'd ...

I forgot to add that replacing Mr Abbott with
Mr Turnbull may seem like a great idea to some.
However, the economic problems as well as the
contentious issues will still exist. Miracles
don't happen over night. There are also many in
the conservative ranks that will not accept Mr
Turnbull's stand on climate change or gay marriage -
and this could cause further and continued divisions
within the ranks. I'm not sure what the answer
is - hopefully it will become clearer closer to the
next election.

G'day there POIROT...

You may be right, it was a very stupid oversight by someone or other, in the Liberal Party to invite the current Royal Commissioner into Unions, as a keynote speaker, at a fundraiser of all things !

That said, I reckon there's a lot of 'product' yet to be adduced into evidence ? The stupid part of it, as you've quite rightly opined, the entire Commission is now been rendered effectively unconscionable, notwithstanding how much illegality is yet to be uncovered ?

Bloody hell they're stupid, some of those in the LNP ? Surely they could have seen a 'conflict of interest' emerging from such an injudicious invitation. On a personal note, I (personally) don't believe the Royal Commissioner, HEYDEN J would have a bias. He is a very august jurist held in the highest regard by all those in the legal profession.

But we all know that old chestnut 'justice must be seen to be done', and any suggestion of a politically biased 'judgement' one way or the other, well nothing's 'seen' is it...?

"There are also many in the conservative ranks that will not accept Mr
Turnbull's stand on climate change or gay marriage"

Interesting too that global warming and gay marriage are the keystone issues that Shorten's Labor will be campaigning on in the forthcoming federal election.