Abbott will be able to pass what he likes through the senate until the new senate (with the Greens keeping them in check) starts in July next year. I shudder at the thought of what a freak like him could do to this country in about 9 months.

Subsidies for chastity belts? :(

Im not sure why there's been so much focus on the 'stab in the back'. Have people forgotten what Abbott did to Turnbull and he did to Nelson? God help this country if Abbott is PM.

In other words, Moses Guthrie is mistaken.

Another 3 years of Labor and we're all F'd.
Name one thing the current Government has got right.
Couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

Anon 286750,

The stimulus packages. In fact most global economists consider it the best economic stimulus package in the world and it's a large part of the reason why we now have the best performing economy in the developed world.

If you don't know what you're talking about that's fine but go and speak to the World Bank, the OECD or any economist worth their salt before swallowing the Tony Abbott/Hockeynomics spin.

Judging by the election result a lot of our soft headed cousins up there in Queensland bought it but what would you expect from a state that teaches Creationism in primary schools?

Ignorance was the winner in this election.

Insulation scheme was a complete disaster.
BER was a mess.
Computers in schools program delived bugger all computers.
$900 stimulus cheques the most absurd idea ever - Surely putting that money into infrastructure projects rather than having it spent at Harvey Norman on products made overseas would have been a better approach.

Only thing Labor can do with any sucess is waste money.
Labor likes to beat their chest about avoiding the GFC with their stimulus, but where would they have got the money had we not had 11 years of responsible government before they got in ?
Labor hasn't had a suplus budget since the early 80's.

The insulation scheme was not a complete disaster unless you consider keeping people in jobs a disaster. It was the rogue contractors (i.e. private companies) that f'ed it up not the damn government. I still can't believe the shitty media in this country let Abbott get away with saying stuff like Peter Garrett should be up on murder charges, what a sick little man. Sadly people die at work all the time and no one tries to blame the government for that. One of those shonky Queensland businesses that used untrained kids has now rightly been charged with murder.

BER was a roaring success. Keep so many construction workers in work and has a 97% success rate, not even private enterprise can give you that. Computers for kids in schools (especially kids who's parents can't afford computers) is great.

Go and speak to a company in retail and ask them if they think those $900 cheques were a bad idea. Another brilliant scheme that propped up the retail sector (as all the figures show). Retail and construction are the two biggest industries in the country and they were both kept afloat during the GFC when every other country went backwards.

Can you clowns start to see why economists rate our stimulus measures so highly?

The problem with economic vandals like the Liberals is they like to tax the hell out of people (Howard govt. highest taxing govt ever), cut services, cut spending on education (gotta love what they did to our Uni's), cut spending on infrastructure and create a surplus that sits in a glass box to be looked at until election time when they would start throwing cheques at old people etc.

The Howard govt ran up big surpluses during the height of the mining boom and did SFA with it. And no, Labor had to borrow a lot more money than just the surplus they were left with to fund the stimulus programs which again every economist says were magnificent.

Labor gave Australia it's biggest ever budget surplus in the budget prior to the GFC hitting. If you want to listen to the rubbish that comes out of Joe Hockey's mouth expect to be taken apart on an internet forum.

Please educate yourself instead of regurgitating the lies and misinformation coming from the morally & ethically bankrupt Liberal Party. Soon some of you will be trying to tell us how great WorkChoices was.

"Labor voter are we, Anon?"

Actually no. I voted Greens and preferenced the Libs above Labor due to the little difference between the two of them on social issues.

It's pained me seeing the ALP become a right-wing party.

Junga, My guess an Economics Lecturer who has never worked in the real world and is a Labor voter

Retail and construction our two biggest industries? What about mining, which Labor wants to destroy with an aggressive tax? And the Libs are somehow the big tax bandits.

I have no problem with a stimulus but to claim that Labor single- handedly kept our heads above water is just bullshit. The big four banks were in a healthy position, interest rates and inflation dropped, which led to a higher consumer confidence, none of which was in any way thanks to Rudds cash handouts.

It wasn't just the rogues who ruined the insulation and BER schemes. It was the inability of the government to properly manage. They allowed installers to claim for work done without having to have that work verified. And computers for kids in schools seems like a great idea but when they forgot to factor in the costs of cabling, installation and maintenance, then it just goes to show how this government bungled everything they touched.

Labor gave us the biggest surplus ever? I thought they inherited it?

Retail and construction our two biggest industries? What about mining, which Labor wants to destroy with an aggressive tax? And the Libs are somehow the big tax bandits.

Retail and construction employ far more people than the mining sector and again go and have a look at how many economists supported the mining tax (the larger one, not the pissweak one Gillard settled on!). Once our resources are gone that's it, finished. Of course we should try and get the most we possibly can for OUR resources. We're talking about some of the richest companies in the world here or would you prefer we end up like Nauru, bugger all money to show for their resources with 80% of their land left uninhabital by the mining companies?

I have no problem with a stimulus but to claim that Labor single- handedly kept our heads above water is just bullshit. The big four banks were in a healthy position, interest rates and inflation dropped, which led to a higher consumer confidence, none of which was in any way thanks to Rudds cash handouts.

I never said Labor should single handedly get all the credit but the vast majority of it yes. You and I both know despite the squealing from the Libs (to appeal to the braindead people in society) they would've done exactly the same in government. Again go and ask anyone in the Retail sector how much those $900 payments helped propr them up, it's all in the figures.

It wasn't just the rogues who ruined the insulation and BER schemes. It was the inability of the government to properly manage. They allowed installers to claim for work done without having to have that work verified. And computers for kids in schools seems like a great idea but when they forgot to factor in the costs of cabling, installation and maintenance, then it just goes to show how this government bungled everything they touched.

Sure not every single part of the BER was perfect but on the whole it was a smashing success. It had to be rushed in immediately they couldn't sit around and talk about it too much with the states because 12 months later they'd still be talking. The sector needed an immediate injection of work to keep people's jobs. How many hundered of thousands of jobs and families did that save from the scrapheap?

Labor gave us the biggest surplus ever? I thought they inherited it?

What in the same way the Howard government inherited their budget surpluses from the Keating government? Can't have it both ways mate.

Both ways? I'm not blindly promoting the Libs here - I am saying that some of your claims about how super fantastic Rudd and co were are plain wrong. I wouldn't be calling anyone brain dead when you're just repeating spin that we've heard ad nauseum over the past few years.

What budget surplus did the Howard Government inherit ?
Were you even old enough to vote back in the Keating/Hawke days moron ?
Keating left a huge debt. (not to mention was responsible for "the recession we had to have".)
Why do you think the Libs always have to cut services, spending e.t.c. when they form Government ??
It's to pay off Labor debt.
Happens every time Labor form Government.
Labor spends and spends till the country is screwed, then the Libs have to pick up the pieces.

I work in the construction industry and I can tell you that nobody worth employing would have lost any jobs without the BER.
Quality tradies have been in short supply for many years.
You are right in that BER was fantastic for many trades like mine already stretched to breaking point, because it alowed us to charge at least 3-4 times our normal rate because we really didn't want or need the extra work. I doubt any of us will put our prices down now that BER has finished either because we still have too much work.

The Rudd/Gillard Governments economic band-aid approach to "just spend more money" is about as stupid as Pauline Hanson wanting to "print more money" a few years ago.

And what exactly was wrong with Work Choices ?
If you are an employer you'd realise that good staff are the best asset a business can have, and to keep good staff you have to treat them well (throwing bags of money at them seems to work best) else they will walk. In a country with more vacancies than staff to fill them it doesn't take a genious to realise that no business shafting it's employees is going to last too long.
The Labor factions just did a much better job smearing Work Choices than the Libs did in promoting it.

Work Choices was a disaster. You only had to sneeze the wrong way and you could be fired. There was NO job security at all. It was so bad even the Liberals acknowledge they got it wrong (bad luck for all those who refused to sign individual contracts or who lost all their penalty rates, and their houses, families and mental health in the process).

The BER has been an overwhelming success, bar a few dodgy scamming construction types who saw loopholes and jumped through them until they could be closed.

Schools in computers has been happening very well, my wifes school (800 students) has been receiving regular shipments for at least 4 months as the suppliers get them in.

Liberal want to scrap the Super GP clinics, sending everyone back to waiting an hour to see a doctor, then having to go to 3 different places for specialists. Not to mention ripping up the NBN that has been started build.

Climate change is crap, no means no, and BARNABY FREAKING JOYCE. Why did they keep him locked away in a cupboard during the campaign? Barnaby alone should be the reason why NO ONE votes for the Coalition (by the way Liberals only gained 21 seats, it is by hanging on to all the different versions of the National Party that they even have a sniff at winning).

"WorkChoices actor accused of ripping off son"

FRESH allegations have emerged that Workplace Authority actor Damien Richardson ripped off other workers, including his son, whom he failed to pay for almost three months' work in 1999.

The new evidence from Mr Richardson's son, Aaron Moore, delivered another blow to the credibility of the Government's workplace advertisements as Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey and Prime Minister John Howard defended the remaining advertisements in Parliament.

Aaron Moore says his estranged father, Damien Richardson, paid him just $100 for 11 weeks' work.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/workchoices-actor-ripped-off-son-too/2007/08/07/1186252707775.html

so what's your point #286945?
Did he sign a work choices contract saying he was only going to be paid $100 ?

If so how is his employer or the Libs at fault ???