Hi FOXY...

A good and timely topic thank FOXY. Personally I don't think the LNP have much chance at all, with Mr Malcolm TURNBULL at the helm. I don't believe he can be trusted. His ego has a lot to do with why he cannot connect with people, together with the way he seized power.

We keep hearing he's the preferred PM over Mr SHORTIN, well maybe he is, but no one in our small circle of LNP Voters will vote for him. In fact we'd all rather have a term or two of Labour then see Mr TURNBULL elected again. Some claim he's more Labour than some Labour MP's are?

I'm not saying Malcolm TURNBULL is all bad, far from it. His altruism isn't all that well known, I believe. He doesn't draw his PM's salary, it's all donated to charity. Major refurbishments were made at the Lodge, as is his entitlement, yet most of the expenses were met out of his own pocket. His donation's to charity are also little known, other than he does give quite large sums to charitable causes.

As bad as Mr TURNBULL is, to change leaders again would prove nothing. The traditional core values that were central to LNP doctrine, seem to have evaporated under the current PM's watch. Increasing Immigration numbers, without ensuring all the necessary infrastructure is in place, is absurd.

The only front bench member that's doing a reasonably good job is Mr Peter DUTTON, with the Immigration/Home Affairs portfolio. But if he goes ahead and signs the Paris accord on Immigration, well our borders will come under the aegis of the United Nations, who'll then in turn will tell us who can come and go, without Australia having very much input into it. That would be very unfortunate indeed in my view, surrendering control over our already porous borders to the United Nations.

Dear O Sung Wu,

What do we really know about our politicians?

Elections have become increasingly personalised.
Most voters don't comb through policy documents
rather, they use the party leader as a means of
making judgements about the things that matter to
them.

Therefore we're influenced by what we hear about the
leaders. Take Malcolm Turnbull. He's presented as -
"Mr Harbourside Mansion," amd "The slick merchant
banker." And the sad thing is that it's a measure
of the unhappiness in the Coalition that not all
of these labels were invented by Labor.

Bill Shorten, on the other hand has been described as
a "sycophant," a "groveller," a "man who abandoned
workers," while he tucked his knees under "the table
of billionaires like the late businessman Richard Pratt.

Ihese labels are meant to work. To influence voters.
The Labor Party hopes that if it can make mud stick to
Turnbull by presenting him as unqualified to make decisions
about the welfare of ordinary people - by being so rich
that he's out of touch with their concerns.

While the Coalition hopes if it can make its mud stick
Shorten will be seen as a self-serving opportunist who
built a union and political career by taking advantage of
the workers he was supposed to represent.

These tactics are nothing new. They existed for decades.
Paul Keating's reference to John Hewson as "The feral
abacus," and to Andrew Peacock as a "souffle," springs
to mind. Then there's "Silver Bodgie" Bob Hawke, and
even "Pig-Iron Bob," (Menzies), and "Honest John" (Howard),
and so it goes. I'm sure you can think of a few.

The federal parliament is often a very difficult and
challenging place to work in. You need to have tough skin
to survive.

There is another John Howard in the Liberals future, if he/she is in this cabinet they are in hiding, both sides have the Howard like ability to bring the center and even some from across the road to them, that road has many pot holes and Turnbull is one of them those wanting a Trump like right are in effect calling for a war the west may not win sanity will win out long before then

The PM in exile, Tony Abbott gave Turnbull a serve today in a radio interview.
"Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government needs to change policies, following its disastrous showing at the weekend by-elections."
"Mr Abbott tells Ray Hadley (2GB) the government’s policies are just as big an issue as the leader."

“One of the things you learn as leader over the years is don’t set yourself up to fail, don’t set tests for yourself that are going to be very hard to pass."

There was talk that a good Coalition result would see a snap election in September, looks like that gone out the window.

“I guess 30 Newspolls is another one.”

I'm pleased that Malcolm Turnbull is playing down
Super Saturday and I do wish that Tony Abbott would
stop braying at the PM's heels. The man deserves a
black eye. He's not helping his party one iota -
he's simply just out for himself.

Turnbull needs to take command - and marshall the troops
into line - and get them to stand united behind him.
Also he should tell Abbott to simply shut up. That he's
hurting the party other that or get out. He's not helping
anyone except himself.

Hi Belly,

You fellas are in a very good position politically. The government is a disorganized rabble, all and sundry are jockeying for a "life preserver" in the sinking boat. If Turnbull has to be thrown overboard, well politics is a dirty business.
The Murdoch press and the rest of the right wing media will attempt to continue to wedge Shorten and Albanese at every opportunity, they simply can't target policy. It failed Saturday, and is not likely to succeed while ever Labor is flying high. Of course a week is a long time in politics so keep the fingers crossed.
Even Abbott recognized the Coalitions Big End of Town tax handouts (policy) is a stinker, and as popular with voters as a dose of caster oil.