SteeleRedux,

Well explained - thanks for that.

I didn't catch Shorten last night but caught may tweets on twitter who were praising his performance. That might seem normal because I follow a lot of lefties, however, in my experience, the left have been very critical of Shorten on twitter - and last night it was sounding far more positive.

I believe Abbott was the perfect attack dog for the Coalition when it was in Opposition. He and Credlin demolished their disunited opponents. My criticism of him and them is about their mendacity in misleading the electorate on the policies they would introduce upon taking govt. It's one thing to roll the govt and entirely another to "comprehensively" lie your way into power.

Running such a tight ship in Opposition didn't translate to good govt for Credlin. She alienated most of the back bench and a fair chunk of cabinet....leaving nothing but Abbott's "captain's calls and his wooden debacle strewn agenda.

Rehctub,

"I'm always happy to admit when I'm wrong, the guy was a dud, he spent too much of his time worrying about minority groups with hidden agendas like the gay marriage brigade and spent too little time working on the big picture."

Yes, he was dud, but it wasn't because he spent time on minority groups - except to attempt to sideline their issues. It wasn't because he spent too little time working on the bigger picture - it's because he was a wrecker - and if a wrecker lies his way into office and is stymied in his agenda, then there's nothing to do but stagger around blindly repeating stale mantra's and waving flags.

Bitter grapes are hanging low on the vine. Rectub has jumped ship but he made sure the water was shallow. Do your best to get over it. A new era has arrived, lets get some wind and solar going, and not worry about stinking coal, climate change is amongst us.

It took Hasbeen a while to surface, the shock must have been dramatic. One thing about these blokes they will never admit Abbott put on 110 billion in 2 years.

There are no worse factions than what reside in the ranks of liberalism. Abbott’s cabinet line up photograph will forever come to the surface of scrutiny. Our brush with Stalinism.

Co2 must demise and clean up the atmosphere. It is our long term benefit to back out some of mans destruction of the worlds environment. That is where we need leadership, and foresight, do we have the right man in power.

Indonesia is not comfortable at the moment, they may be infiltrated with enemies from Malaysia. We could see a war in our region.

Multi Billions of dollars ready and waiting to be spent, it only takes the right environment, and right words, to kick-start a mass of investment that has been delayed by Abbott’s idiotic backward ideas.

With Turnbull the days of guessing what the PM said is over, agree or disagree it will be clear. The only ones that are not happy with this change are the hard head Conservatives amongst the Liberals.

Dear Rehtub,

I am not a "Labor Lover," as you proclaim.
I come from a Liberal voting background
and I have voted for the Liberal party
in the past and recently in state elections.
What I do love and vote for - are policies
of substance. I like to see policy details.
I want leadership that can convince me
they have a plan as well as the capacity to
implement it. Three word slogans, broken promises,
are inflexibility - are a death knell.
Most voters want to see leaders
who inspire them - that the future will be better.

"Trust me" - is simple dogma and simply insisting
your policies are correct - is no longer enough
as the recent monotonous ghastly polls have showed.

Dear SteeleRedux,

I watched "Q&A," last night.

Bill Shorten was a pleasant surprise.
Although I still have some reservations.

The same applies with Mr Turnbull.

I think the next election will prove interesting.

"Trust me", said Tone, "Things could get worse!"

So I trusted Tone, and sure enough, THINGS GOT WORSE!

Can the Abbott lovers, and you know who you are, say Australia is a better plqace because of Abbott, two year and nothing. The bloke was not worth a cracker, and that goes for his mate 'Cocky' Joe Hockey as well.

Butch, don't feel too bad about getting it wrong, conservatives have a long history of getting it wrong.

Well you can say that I'm a Tony ABBOTT supporter ! Though I'm quite disappointed to see he was prepared to shiv Mr HOCKEY in the back to underpin his hold on leadership.

However, everybody who's ever met Mr Abbott has said how sincere and honourable he is (personally) ? By that comment, I realise I'm sticking my neck out for a decent flogging ? Be that as it may, I'm also a pragmatists, as such I understand that 'nice and fundamentally sincere' blokes, don't necessarily make a great politician, let alone a Prime Minister ? No doubt we'll see Mr TURNBELL spend a week every year with a remote Aboriginal community eh ?

For it's often said to be a good leader, one must have a bit of mongrel dog in them, and buckets of ego, clearly Mr ABBOTT didn't have either ? Whether Malcolm TURNBELL Esq. has, is yet to be seen ? Still he's well on the way to achieving those doubtful attributes, as evidenced by the merciless process in which he orchestrated, in less than thirty six hours, the political execution of his former leader !

To say I have a distinct aversion and suspicion of Mr TURNBELL, would be an understatement, whether he proves to be a great 'small L' Liberal PM, or a surreptitious Labour man, disguised as a conservative, we'll see ?