Butch if there were any commitments as you say, Abbott would have been a party to it by passing legislation . That is where it stops. Abbott had two years of defending all those lies he told, the only changes abbott made were giving our worst polluters 6 billion $ and backed out a tax that never made any money as they say.

The liberal party done the right thing getting rid of the dead wood, and reformulating, as we can now move forward and not stagnate into a third world, with a .2% growth, That sort of leadership is beyond belief. We came close to a depression, of mega proportions, we now need to climb out of the pit of despair, and get the economy fired up.

Weather the dumbing down of society and business, along with doom and gloom being thrown at us was an agenda for other things remains a question that needs analyzing. There was certainly some strange moves being trialed by our previous PM

O sung wu, you mentioned the disloyalty against Tony Abbott a couple of times in a recent post. A theme that's pretty common but which I think does not pay enough attention to how Abbott got the leadership of the parliamentary arm of the Liberal Party in the first place. There are a number of sources around but I think the Wikipedia summary is not to bad (others may be able to add other perspectives to it). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Party_of_Australia_leadership_spill,_2009

From my perspective there is a element of reaping what you sow in Abbott's removal. He was not a clean skin who came to the position as a result of his own loyalty to the party leader. He made much of the Liberal Party not being like the Labor party but his own actions seemed to make it like them, a "leader" desperate to cling to the top job regardless of the very likely massive electoral wipe out that appeared to be leading to. He left me with the impression of putting his own position above the electoral well being of his own side of politics.

The loyalty card can cut both ways and I'm not convinced Abbott is someone who gives as much of it as he demanded.

R0bert

G'day o sung wu,

As someone who has been involved in politics for over 40 years, I must say the majority of politicians, and aspiring politicians, I have met in that time, from all political parties, Labor, Liberal, The Greens, independents etc have in the main been decent committed people. That's not to say I haven't met those who are not somewhat egotistical, but generally even these people have demonstrated a degree of commitment which has been rather admirable.
Politics is the art of the possible, and is not the place for the total idealists or the faint heated, pragmatism is a great asset, and those that are prepared to compromise tend to achieve more, and finish on top more often than not.
In politics the media can be your best friend, or your worst enemy, and a good politician at all levels needs to know the media and how it operates. At the highest levels of government the media can make or break a politician, the pressure they exert on people like Turnbull, Abbott and Shorten is immense. Yes it does pay to look good, and come across well in front of the camera during that 30 second grab in the 6 o'clock news. That is today's political reality.Woe betide the politician who thinks the people will support me even if the media don't! Disastrous! Maybe that was Abbott's problem.

Dear rehctub and otb,

This discussion is about the Liberal Party changing leaders.

Virginia Trioli in her recent column points out the obvious:

None of us really know if Mr Turnbull can fulfil the promise
he has always shown in terms of vision, discussion, and
leadership. But by any objective measure, within the context
of contemporary Australian politicians, he is one of a very,
very few who appear to see a way through blinkered, craven
self-interest and to a greater Australia somewhere beyond.

These are going to be interesting times.

The old line - what do you call a leader with no followers?
Just someone out having a walk.

Let us see who might feel inspired enough to follow this
leader.

According to recent newspolls - Malcolm Turnbull's followers
are increasing.

Hi there ROBERT & PAUL1405...

Thank you for your respective opinions and you're both probably right. I guess I'm somewhat of an idealist and place too much value on the integrity of our politicians when after all, they're only human ?

It's just the prolific lying that really gets to me, unabated from them all. They must believe the entire electorate are uneducated fools, who'll swallow anything that comes from their mouth, and we can all see, that's certainly not the case. One only needs to look at this Forum alone, to gauge the number of really 'switched on' individuals who regularly contribute herein, to support that view !

While it's quite true I'm a political dunce, I am however, reasonably skilled at teasing out these 'bull-artists' who regularly permeate our TV's, for their '30 second' grab during the nightly news or current affairs programmes. So I don't have much faith in anything they say, I'm afraid. I guess I'm a totally mistrustful soul when it comes to politicians and their utterances.

Dear O Sung Wu,

You're not alone in your feelings about politicians.

The general consensus in communities around the country,
and as the newspolls indicate - the astonishing outpouring
of frustration about the utterly uninspiring nature of
Australian political life is palable.

We've been told that the 24-hour news cucle, poll-driven
politics, a narrow political class of candidates are all to
blame. But none of these answers ever seem satisfactory.

Virginia Trioli explains that political leaders on both
sides since John Howard seem to have come from the robot
school of leadership training; choking on their talking
points, speaking to the country as if we are kindergarten
children. She tells us that it's an absolute mystery
to her how they kid themselves that they are getting
away with it.

As far as our new Prime Minister is concerned?

I agree with Trioli when she tells us that -
like any other possible prime minister, he will have to
work within narrow (and narrowing) party-maching politics,
and this just might be the thing that knocks that
vision of his out of his system.

I hope not. because I feel that as she points out - by
any objective measure, within the context of contemporary
Australian politicians Malcolm Turnbull is one of the very,
very few who appear to see a way through blinkered, craven
self-interest and to a greater Australia somewhere beyond.

And as Trioli tells us - judging from her own mailbags
and the mailbags of media organisations around the country,
including comments on social media, twitter, facebook,
the voting public is simply desperate for someone
to make an argument for reform that comes to grips with
the economic, technological and social changes that
threaten to change this country forever.

These are going to be interesting times.