Yabby,

That would be true if Malcolm wasn't holding the far-right line - which he is. Apart from the flags and the chest-beating, nothing has changed re policy direction.

Btw, latest Morgan poll has ALP 52.5 LNP 47.5 two-party preferred.....that's blown out to five percentage points under Marvellous Mal.

Poirot, the change in Superannuation laws is hardly a hard right position. I think that the changes are quite reasonable, but they have upset many on the right. What Malcolm is certainly doing is focussing on innovation, with a number of changes which will benefit the country. We need innovation to dig our way out of the problems we have and his entrepreneurial skills will benefit all of us, if he lands up as PM.

If people think that a trade union leader can solve issues which I personally think that he may not even understand, well good luck to them, as it won't be my kids affected. Yeltsin, corrupt leaders in South Africa, Zimbabwe and now the Philippines were all democratically elected, those voters landed up paying a huge price. Perhaps the same might yet happen with Trump! Democracy is just the least worst option, it does not guarantee intelligent outcomes.

Yabby,

Don't bother trying to spin the "innovation" line with me.

There is no "innovation" in Mal's repertoire aside from employing "innovation" as some sort of vacuous slogan.

This the guy who is hell bent on cutting funding to education...who's presiding over the mass sackings of scientists and the denuding of the CSIRO.

"Innovation" Turnbull-style is nothing but hollow waffle...no meaning...no substance.

Just like his #ideasboom....

http://www.afr.com/technology/new-startmesh-fund-raising-20m-to-back-startups-20160511-got3qk

Poirot, clearly you don't read the AFR, or you would be better informed. Quite amazing what a small change in the tax laws is doing in bringing out VC investments. Turnbull sat down with people like Atlassian, for very good reasons.

I remind you how Californian VC has changed your life, from Google to Paypal and all the rest. We need it here too.

Money spent on CSIRO and education is very much a question of how it is spent, not how much is thrown at them. Much is wasted, that needs to be addressed and money spent more wisely.

"Poirot, clearly you don't read the AFR, or you would be better informed...."

Lol!...get off your high horse, Yabs...I read articles from AFR all the time....they are constantly feeding on twitter (not to mention that's where the brilliant cartoonist David Rowe does his stuff)

Here's one:

http://www.afr.com/news/special-reports/afr-national-policy-series/saul-eslake-says-tax-system-riddled-with-loopholes-for-the-rich-20150921-gjrupb#ixzz481ILjZZ9

"Leading economist Saul Eslake said there is no public policy justification for the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount, negative gearing or the use of trusts to minimise tax.

He told the AFR's Tax Reform Summit on Tuesday that the change of prime minister provided an opportunity to re-engage in a genuine debate about reform, but lifting the GST without closing loopholes that disproportionately benefit the wealthy would not wash with the community.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull effectively put superannuation tax concessions, capital gains breaks for investors and negative gearing back into the tax reform mix on Monday after they were all ruled out by his predecessor, Tony Abbott."

"It's simply not right for people who want to broaden the base of indirect tax to resist broadening the base of personal income tax," Mr Eslake told the summit, hosted by The Australian Financial Review and KPMG, on Tuesday.

Mr Eslake likened the tax system to a "giant Swiss cheese" riddled with holes that allow the wealthy to pay less tax, and says taxpayers in the top tax bracket are on average 2½ times more likely to make use of tax minimisation strategies."

Etc...

(I trust you're now "better informed")

Fair enough Poirot. As long as its on twitter or in a cartoon, you will know about it :)

You conveniently moved the goalposts, we had been discussing innovation, which you now ignored, but I did notice.

The capital gains tax "discount", is not really a discount, more a compensation for when inflation indexing was removed, as Keating had originally applied it. A dollar which has suffered from years of inflation, is worth far less than when it was invested. Some people seemed to have trouble using a calculator, so Costello simplified it. If the Govt was actually fair, they would remove taxation from the first few % of bank deposit interest, again to compensate for inflation loss. If what is fair is how you decide things, then you would have to agree