I applaud the ALP for selecting Albo as their next leader, as hard left whinge class warrior I'm sure that he will continue the politics of envy that guaranteed a Liberal government.

"Albanese has always embraced the politics of envy and class-war rhetoric — these are the watchwords of Labor’s hard left faction which he leads.

The notion that Albanese would lead Labor to the centre ground of politics with a cooperative relationship with business is hard to fathom. It is just not who he is.

Just ask the inner-city hard left faction party members he represents who proudly wear their “I Fight Tories” T-shirts. This is Albanese’s personal motto. It has been embraced by the hard left faction.

“Tory” is a class-loaded term to describe the British Conservative Party that has no relevance when describing the Liberal or National parties. This is class warfare reduced to T-shirt slogans.

Labor has to be about more than just fighting their opponents. The party has to actually believe in things. At the election, Labor suffered huge swings against it in seats where there are large cohorts of blue-collar voters and aspirational middle-class voters. These are Labor’s forgotten people and Labor must work out how to get them back.

It is not surprising that Albanese has reached for Bob Hawke’s mantle. He says he wants to lead the party in the Hawke tradition with pro-growth policies based on consensus between business and unions while bringing the country together. Well, who doesn’t?

The problem is that at Labor Party conferences through the 1980s and ‘90s, Albanese and his left faction opposed many of the Hawke government’s economic reforms. As Young Labor president, Albanese often criticised Hawke and Paul Keating. When Labor went into opposition in 1996, many in the hard left faction called for their legacy to be junked.

It is no wonder that Hawke and Keating — and also Gough Whitlam — voted for Bill Shorten rather than Albanese to lead Labor in 2013. Albanese is just not in their mould."

Scott Morrison was an ordinary suburban bloke
who has done an extra-ordinary thing. Winning
the unwinnable election. Scott Morrison has
gone from accidental Prime Minister to homespun
hero of outstanding proportions. He now has
a Liberal Party that owes him everything -
literally.

Albo's no Bob Hawke?
ScoMo was no John Howard either, and look at
what he's achieved almost single-handedly.

Give him time.
He's a good bloke.

Foxy.

The unwinnable election?

I tipped a Coalition win and what's more put money on it.

Just bought myself a Toyota Hilux 2 wheel drive dual cab ute with some of the proceeds.

It's second hand, very low mileage does NOT have power mirrors, power locking doors nor power windows, everything is manual as is the gearbox.

Is Mise,

You lucked out.

Congratulations.

Everybody else thought differently.

How anyone who saw Albanese sitting stunned & bewildered in the Chanel 9 tally room on election night would want him as a party leader, let alone the countries leader in any emergency I find amazing.

The man in that tally room was most definitely not someone you wanted driving the country.

Issy, I hope you didn't back the Shooter and Hooters Party 0.19% of the vote. Obviously the cash from the NRA didn't arrive on time. Terrible result for the far right! Where is the parties news bestest mate Dicko Dickson these days.

//Just bought myself a Toyota Hilux 2 wheel drive dual cab ute with some of the proceeds.// Depending on how much the "some" is, and how new the 'Hilux' is, you would have to put a rather large amount on the Coalition.

p/s Are you tested yearly for a drivers licence? Mate, 2 wheel drive, no self respecting shooter and hooter would be caught dead in a 2 wheel drive, how are you going to do doughnuts in the national park in that thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAv7T1eXtXU

Not even sure, no honestly,this site is a place for views other than Shadow Minister and his supporters
Seen some troubling ,well seemingly censorship
Labor will not be hungry for a long time, it has humble pie to eat, three years worth
IT defeated itself, forget the Palmer brought it stuff, he in the end, proved voters get it right
By failing to win anything
Labor has lost its way, Bill fell, as we all did, for the polling [what a mess]
Coal, we tried to be shifty, we pandered to our left the greens, to voters we already had, and drove voters we needed away,
We are not dead, just confused, lost, Albo may very well be a Bob Hawke

Paul,

SF&F Party was just testing the water.

The driving test is two yearly for those 85 and over and I passed mine with flying colours; hope you do the same when you reach a venerable age!

Two wheel drive is more economical than lugging around an extra load of weight that one might use once in a while.

I gave up doughnuts, too fattening.

Albo is the only person prepared to lead the Labor party. Does this not say something sad about him; sad about the Labor party, and sad about all the big mouths in the party not prepared to take responsibility? It seems that Labor politicians feel the same way about their failed party as all the people who voted against them do. Labor supporters must surely be wondering whether they should bother with them again. The guts seems to have dropped right out of people who were so sure of themselves before the un-loosable election.

Foxy,

"You lucked out.

Congratulations.

Everybody else thought differently."

A majority of the Australian voters thought the same as I did.

With the remainder of the windfall, I'm putting towards one of these:
http://www.davide-pedersoli.com/scheda-prodotto.asp/l_en/idpr_429/rifles-muzzle-loading-side-by-side-shotguns-side-by-side-flintlock.html

A real skill tester.

Is Mise,

> A majority of the Australian voters thought the same as I did.

You think the majority believes the party they will vote for is going to win?

Dear Foxy,

Fewer than 49 % of voters thought the same way you did. That's democracy: the majority wins and we suck it up.

Love,

Joe

If the ALP works on getting back to being Labor then & only then will they get a chance at the next round.

Gentlemen,

The facts are that the opinion polls consistently
predicted Bill Shorten would win. It was
supposed to be the Labor Party's "unlosable"
election. Political analysts were sure of it.

The polls are facing increasing scrutiny having
shown the Coalition trailing Labor in every
poll for the past 3 years.

Just to lighten things up a bit - you may enjoy
the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAMnSxCmgYY

Foxy,

You have some extent missed the point of the thread, Hawke was for the Labor party a centrist reformer who saw what was happening under Thatcher and realised that by liberalising the economy he could create more returns for the workers by growing the economic pie than by having rigid union control of the production and set the country up for future prosperity.

Albo, by contrast fiercely opposed the liberalisation of the economy and strongly advocated for the strong union control and government intervention in the economy as existed in the UK in the 60s and 70s. In 2007 to 2010 he was one of the architects of letting in the boats and establishing the FWC which rolled back labour reforms some even before Howard. It is also believed that many of the big tax and spend policies that Shorten took to the election originated from Ablo's left faction.

Albo might have some of the everyman appeal that Hawke projected, but ideologically Scott Morrison is far closer to Hawke than Albo.

As for the comparison between SM and Howard, that he managed to win an election from behind by motivating the aspirational "battlers" that were typically rusted on Labor supporters shows that there is something in common.

To conclude, Labor lost an unloseable election in my opinion because Labor swung too far to the left redefining themselves as class warriors and alienating all aspirational voters. Labor needs to return to the center that Scott Morrison captured, and Albo is not the man to do this.

Foxy my side lost, but be happy in the end the true right did too
OH yes the usual suspects can gloat, but they are mostly from the true right
We are entering hard times, lard headed voters will blame them, for things like Rudd, they have no control over
Never had a day in my life I did not think my partys needed reforms, to grow, to get better, this will bring that about
Much fun ahead

Foxy,

Opinion polls are just that, opinions; and I think that many of those asked don't tell what they really feel.

Shadow Minister,

There's an old saying :

"If you judge a book by its cover
you may miss out on an amazing story."

So it is with judging Anthony Albanese or
for that matter - Scott Morrison.

As this past election results have shown -
people can surprise us. And have.

It is too early to make judgements.
People do change.
Who we are, the way we
govern, how we do things - these are not set
in concrete.

Of course there are people who fear change.
Who don't like it. Who prefer conformity
and sticking to rigid stereotyping. It simplifies
the complexity of the world for them. They don't like
having something they hold to be true replaced with
something they don't like.

So how reforms are implemented is important.
For reforms to be successful - you need to take
the people with you and also to ensure that change is
truly embedded in structures and systems - otherwise
good ideas and changes will be lost through poor
implementation.

We need to give our two new leaders a chance and not
judge them ahead of time. They are both experienced
men. One more than the other. And we should wait
and judge them by their actions.
Not their words.

Hi Issy,

//SF&F Party was just testing the water.// Looks like they drowned while testing that water! Come come, new utes and guns what else is the NRA good for?

I'm not quite at that vegetable age yet. Glad you still have your health, and most of your facilities about you, your good for another century or two. It was that last minute plea by you that swang things our way, remember posting "PUT THE GREENS FIRST!". We're back, bigger and brighter than ever. Don't know about Albow or Elbow or what ever they call him. All I can say is; "that them the breaks!"

I wonder if that nice bloke I met of Saturday handing out for Big Clive has got his 150 bucks yet. Somehow I don't think so.

Paul,

It's not a new ute, it's over 15 years old, but I've had my eye on it for a long while and the previous owner finally weakened and sold it to me.
Great thing about it, apart from its condition, is the complete lack of modern gadgets.

Hi Issy,

Original owner? how many kms?, good condition, been serviced reg? Dual cab good/bad, more room for passengers, less carrying capacity.

Why I ask is Elephant Bob, you know Elephant Bob, mate of ours, he's planning another safari, this time to Bondi Beach next Summer, needs a vehicle, thinks he should be able to bag a couple of "White Pointers" that time of the year, in season then. You can come along with that fancy shoot'n iron of yours, you never know you might get lucky as well, bag a few varmints yourself. Besides we need a beater to flush out the "White Pointers" that's your job...and also we'll need that muscle of yours should we get bogged! Someones got to dig us out, me and Bob will be too busy looking out for those "White Pointers". Nothing like having a pair of "White Pointers" stuffed and mounted, staring down at you from over the mantelpiece, while watching re-runs of Tarzan! Its a laugh a minute.

Albo is no Bob Hawke well maybe not but scomo is no John Howard
Unless his wife is as good at bossing him about as Johns was
Monday rebirth of the ALP day

Hi Belly, the problem is the ALP knocked me back for membership up here in Queensland. Still with the Greens, was a bit concerned about my friend in NSW, but she looks likely to retain her Senate seat. Gotta keep 10 seats, otherwise ScumO' might get vindictive and deny the Greens party status in Canberra.

Foxy,

If you actually red my post you would have seen that I was actually characterizing Albo on his past record. If you are naive enough to believe that someone that has been an old style socialist class warrior for decades has suddenly changed his spots overnight, good luck with that.

When you hear the left whinge of the labor party claiming that they lost the election simply because they didn't explain their policies well enough, you know that they are pushing for more of the same but with "better explanation" and that they haven't learnt their lesson.

Paul insane! would have loved to have you in my branch, we need new blood ,as the battle restarts it will be tough
But we have a friend scomo
And his team of deaf dumb and blind anti climate changers
In for a dreadful winter down here bushfires that is
So dry bark is falling from the trees and dead forest trash two feet deep
Few frosts and up she goes

Shadow Minister,

Scott Morrison has been described as -
relentless, ambitious, and hard-line.
He entered parliament in 2007 and has both
witnessed close-up the leadership instability
in the country and been an active participant
in it.

His conservative politics are informed by his
faith. He's been a long standing member of
the Pentecostal church.

He was one of the ten Liberal MPs to abstain
from the same-sex marriage vote (alongside
Tony Abbott).

So why typecast Albo? Why not Scott Morrison?

Can't we just wait and see how both men perform?

Perhaps both of them will be more flexible that
you ever thought possible.

We shall simply have to wait and see.

Foxy said-

Of course there are people who fear change.
Who don't like it. Who prefer conformity
and sticking to rigid stereotyping. It simplifies
the complexity of the world for them. They don't like
having something they hold to be true replaced with
something they don't like.

Answer- There are also those that use change to run away from reality.

Foxy said-

Scott Morrison has been described as -
relentless, ambitious, and hard-line.
He entered parliament in 2007 and has both
witnessed close-up the leadership instability
in the country and been an active participant
in it.

His conservative politics are informed by his
faith. He's been a long standing member of
the Pentecostal church.

Answer- the "Pentecostal church" is perhaps one of the more Liberal rather than traditional churches. So perhaps ScoMo is partial to Liberalism- this could be an issue for Conservatives especially Paleo Cons.

CM,

There are many people who fear change.
It's the fear of the unknown because they
can't anticipate the outcomes.
Many associate lifespan with high quality.
The research shows that the longer
something is thought to exist, the better
it is perceived.

European chocolate for example - take the case
of one brand that you're told has existed for 73
years and another for just 3 years. You can guess
which one is going to get a five star rating.

As for Scott Morrison?
He's been described as being economically liberal
and socially conservative. Can he really be typecast?
He's certainly appears more flexible than Peter
Dutton. He's also stated -

"The Bible is not a policy handbook and I get very
worried when people treat it like one."

This could indeed be a problem for some.

Love, it bitter stuff thrown at Labor by assorted posters who too lost
The right of reality mob are full on
But look at the results, no Palmer one one nation, that tin hat wearer from? Queensland,who else?
Wednesday with much work to do, ALBO takes on the job he should have had the day after Rudd