Bye Kevin, you wont be missed...

[Fuzz AI]

I don't know about that Mike....

Downer looked like a cross dresser!

[Ben]

Yeah I knew Rudd was a maggot a loooong time before he had a position of any importance.

Gillard is a slight improvement I suppose. Slight

[El Presidente]

Years ago I had a set of politicians and Apparatchiks arrive on Czar deck. They stated (under a few drinks..and they were flush already) of the intent to roll the current federal opposition leader November. They were a week out while all the time swearing allegiance to the current opposition leader at that time.

I swore off voting ever again (compulsory here). I would rather pay the $50 fine.

With the leader to be in a cab home the apparatchiks (Spin doctors) went on to discuss how ***** **** failed the BBQ test. magnificent in front of a camera but lost in the real world.

He went on to win the Federal Election. Got rolled recently.

Politics is the sewer of human endeavor. I have met many who have gone in with high intent but none who have exited with the same level of integrity.

[bolivr]

I don't know about that Mike....

Downer looked like a cross dresser!

true, and he will never live it down. We won't let him.

[Ken Gargett]

Screw that! Ken for PM!!

not in a million years. i cannot think of a politician worth wasting spit on. here or offshore. greatest pack of self important, egotistical, vomit-inducing grubs on the planet. i'd trust what bin laden had to say before i'd trust anyone i could think of in aussie politics.

rudd was one of the absolute worst. sadly, madam ranga (as a mate in the alp tells me she is now known) and that godbothering abbott are just, well almost, as bad.

best thing about madam R calling the election soon is that for at least a week of it, i'll be on fraser island and get to miss the crap.

[Kangaroo495]

not in a million years. i cannot think of a politician worth wasting spit on. here or offshore. greatest pack of self important, egotistical, vomit-inducing grubs on the planet. i'd trust what bin laden had to say before i'd trust anyone i could think of in aussie politics.

rudd was one of the absolute worst. sadly, madam ranga (as a mate in the alp tells me she is now known) and that godbothering abbott are just, well almost, as bad.

best thing about madam R calling the election soon is that for at least a week of it, i'll be on fraser island and get to miss the crap.

And we all know what happened when Ken became the President of Cuba... Better he stays out of politics..

[frenchkiwi]

not in a million years. i cannot think of a politician worth wasting spit on. here or offshore. greatest pack of self important, egotistical, vomit-inducing grubs on the planet. i'd trust what bin laden had to say before i'd trust anyone i could think of in aussie politics.

rudd was one of the absolute worst. sadly, madam ranga (as a mate in the alp tells me she is now known) and that godbothering abbott are just, well almost, as bad.

best thing about madam R calling the election soon is that for at least a week of it, i'll be on fraser island and get to miss the crap.

KG and Rob - agree with you about most (if not all) politicians. The funny thing here though is guys like Downer and others saying Rudd was dumped because of what an egotistical megalomaniac he is etc. That is certainly true as it is almost a minimum requirement for running for PM - so conversely it's absolute BS when it comes to explaining his downfall. Govt MPs are very careful when it comes to dropping their Election-Winning leader, their no.1 preoccupation is not being sent back to no man's land aka The Opposition. All this stuff about Rudd being low in the polls (like all PMs after 150 days in office ha ha), "everybody hated him" etc is at best only a small part of the reason for his demise... as someone who has worked in these circles I would really like to know what the real story is. Powerful lobbying happening under the table somewhere, but by who and for what?

And Prez - if you don't vote you can't be complaining about ever increasing tobacco duty then

[spoke to a policy wonk from NZ Min. of Health alcohol unit here and he said they recently thought about a separate, lower, regime of duty for cigars but gave up and put it in the too hard basket. Truth is, with a little political will - e.g. if you got made Minister - that would be a little noticed cigar exemption amendment long ago put into law. You should think about running at next election ;-) ]

[Ken Gargett]

KG and Rob - agree with you about most (if not all) politicians. The funny thing here though is guys like Downer and others saying Rudd was dumped because of what an egotistical megalomaniac he is etc. That is certainly true as it is almost a minimum requirement for running for PM - so conversely it's absolute BS when it comes to explaining his downfall. Govt MPs are very careful when it comes to dropping their Election-Winning leader, their no.1 preoccupation is not being sent back to no man's land aka The Opposition. All this stuff about Rudd being low in the polls (like all PMs after 150 days in office ha ha), "everybody hated him" etc is at best only a small part of the reason for his demise... as someone who has worked in these circles I would really like to know what the real story is. Powerful lobbying happening under the table somewhere, but by who and for what?

a lot of that seems to be true with rudd. he shoehorned himself into the leadership role at a time when the alp genuinely believed that they had no chance of winning the next election - the assumption was that they'd be rid of him at the next election. he pulled it off but he had no support at all from any of the factions and does not seem to have a supporter anywhere in the party. it was always known that when the public started to see through him, as the party and others always did. and as soon as his support in the polls started to drop, the knives were out.

[PigFish]

Interesting reading about another country's political follies. I have a question for my Oz-borne friends. Would you say your country is governed largely from the political right, left or center? I am just curious as I have no idea what is going on over there but I am interested.

RA... you mean to tell me they FINE you for not voting??? Holy ****.... now that's freedom!!! -LOL Thanks Mates. -

[Ken Gargett]

Interesting reading about another country's political follies. I have a question for my Oz-borne friends. Would you say your country is governed largely from the political right, left or center? I am just curious as I have no idea what is going on over there but I am interested.

RA... you mean to tell me they FINE you for not voting??? Holy ****.... now that's freedom!!! -LOL Thanks Mates. -

piggy, could not agree more. i think it is us, nz and israel but others might know of other countries. pisses me off hugely but i suspect i am not in the majority, not for the first time.

currently, a little left of centre and the new PM is likely to take it a little further left, though not till after the election. usually, a smidge to the right of centre, but it does swing around a bit. like most places. be interested if other locals saw it like that.

[Ben]

Oh the Ginger Minger is a huge bleeding heart lunatic lefty. I think her advisers have her chained to the fence at the moment so she doesn't get to out of line and scare the **** out of everyone before the election. I can only imagine the forehead slaps around ALP HQ when she admitted she was an Atheist.

[bolivr]

piggy, could not agree more. i think it is us, nz and israel but others might know of other countries. pisses me off hugely but i suspect i am not in the majority, not for the first time.

currently, a little left of centre and the new PM is likely to take it a little further left, though not till after the election. usually, a smidge to the right of centre, but it does swing around a bit. like most places. be interested if other locals saw it like that.

Pretty much it. In general terms I guess it could be described as liberal democratic. There is universal gov health care, pensions for disability and old age, unemployment benefits, family benefits, etc but also business is looked after if for instance a major employer looks to be closing down there is a rush from pollies of all persuasions to throw money at them to stay open. Government will assist with business investment in a lot of cases.

There is the interesting sight of Madam Ranga (love that name) getting all tough on illegal immigrants like previous conservative governments. Does she think of this when she sings the Internationale every monring with hand on heart?

Really no mainstream politician is going to go too far either left or right as they are so **** scared of the public opinion polls. Any attempts at Whitlam type rapid reform will be very short lived IMO.