Hi Suse, it was a loaded question, the "Opposition Leader" I was referring to was not Willie Shorten more like a Mad Monk than a little Willie.
Talking to a couple of generally moderate Liberal swinging voters yesterday. they are incensed with Turnball's State Income Tax proposal. Nothing like hitting the voters in their hip-pocket nerve in an election year, and then asking them to vote for you. Labor should be playing that one for all it's worth, and its worth plenty.

The hard right wingers like Runner, Hasbeen, Beach etc although they will bitch long and hard about Turnball, seeing him as a quasi red, come election day their vote will blow back into the Liberal camp. They could never bring themselves to vote Labor, that would be voting for the class enemy, Joe Stalin himself, shock horror. To make themselves feel good they might vote for some religious loony or independent but they will always preference the Liberal over the Labor bloke, even if its three and four or five and six. No matter what, the Liberal ends up with their vote.

Suse,

"So, what does that say about Willie Shorten and his crowd then?
Not much.."

Mal is still riding on his personal popularity. That's the idea people had of him "before" we experienced him as PM.

He's has to be the most vacuous person to have ever held the top job. There is no indication that his thought bubbles are even properly thought out before he delivers them.

And tell us what precisely are Shorten's problems? All I ever read here are platitudes of the ilk of "At least it's not Shorten."

What does that mean?

It means nothing.

I tend to perceive the machinations of govt in a classic sense...you know, the nuts and bolts of day to day operation.

You and Foxy seem to look upon it in a romantic sense which is the overview, the general wafty feeling it gives you.

Tell me what's wrong with Shorten...other than he doesn't come up with a ridiculous policy every second day, only to squash it a short time later after it's been laughed off the table - a la Turnbull.

Dear Poirot,

It appears that I've offended you.
That was not my intention.

I was trying a bit of humour rather than sarcasm
in my previous post.

I was impressed by Wyatt Roy on "Q and A," on Monday
evening. What he stated made a lot of sense and I
thought he should be encouraged as a young passionate
Minister full of enthusiasm and ideas to be given a
chance.

As for Malcolm Turnbull - he also should be given a
chance to show us what sort of policies he has on
offer. With him we need to wait and see. It's
too early to make judgements on him - in my opinion.

To me - Mr Shorten does not come across as a strong leader,
risk taker, with a vision for this country. But again, I could be wrong.

Foxy,

I wasn't so much offended as bemused.

"As for Malcolm Turnbull - he also should be given a
chance to show us what sort of policies he has on
offer...."

We had this discussion in mid-February....you were saying exactly the same thing then.

Here's a few of your comments from that thread:

"It's still early days for Malcolm Turnbull.
He can't rock the boat to much if he wants
the appease the Party - not yet.
But I'm sure that
in due course he will put in his plans prior
to the election - and will not give in,
perhaps just a bit"

"However, He can't make many sudden changes too soon
because he can't afford to alienate his own party. However,
once he wins the next election - it will be a
different story. We should wait until after the
next election to judge him."

"It is early days though - and I am sure that
Turnbull will paint a clearer picture prior
to the next election. If he doesn't he may
as well leave now."

"As far as I'm concerned - it's too earlier
yet to judge Malcolm Turnbull. He does have
to contend with the right-wing of the Party
while himself being accused a Leftie by the
Party."

"I recall how happy I was when
the Liberal Party came to its senses and elected
Mr Turnbull as its Leader. Hopefully the man will
not disappoint.
But we'll have to wait and see."

"I came across the following comment from a
reader on the web that I think summed things
up rather well:

"I think it's unrealistic for Mr Turnbull to
make any big announcements on policy shifts.
The dead wood has to be removed first.
We should have a clearer idea of his "leadership
style" further this year."

It's still early days - and he did say in his speeches
that he would be a consultative PM."

We've since had weeks of Turnbull rushing out with inane policy suggestions, scare mongering, back-flipping - and still you say "Let's give the guy a chance".

I'll just add that Turnbull the "consultative" PM doesn't even appear to "consult" his Treasurer prior to his thought-bubble economic announcements.

What a joke!

Poirot, there is nothing 'wafty' about what Foxy or myself have said, it is just our opinions...on an opinion forum. We are not honor bound to explain our views to your satisfaction or anyone else's.

You and Beach are very similar like that.
Your new aggressive style does you no favours.

As for Shorten, I dislike his 'union leader' style and background. He sounds like he should be on a platform addressing a building site.
We don't need a militant PM, we need someone who is a strong, well spoken leader who can represent Australia on the world stage in an intelligent manner. Shorten will never be that person.

I am not saying Turnbull is that sort of leader yet, but he runs rings around Willie already. I don't really care whether you like that opinion or not, but there it is.