I didn't ask about economic reforms. Economic reforms are important to me.
I was asking what specific reforms the Labor party will bring in that the LNP will not. The CGT concessions are the only thing that I can think of.
I don't think Labor are going to make any significant announcements until after the next election, whether they win or lose. And if the leadership speculation fails to carry through to the election announcement, I will be putting money on the Coalition to win.
A month, even a week, is a very long time in politics.
BTW, I would fully support the elimination of CGT concessions and negative gearing allowances on residential property and the introduction of deductible interest payments for owner occupied homes.

Yep ok. Always appreciate your perspective. I don't think the Coalition could possibly win from this position but I'm old enough to remember quite a few "unlose-able" elections being lost so I am definitely not counting on it.

I just think there is stagnation there and a failure to push any decent policy agenda in the current parliament. An election would press the reset button on things (a change in government even more so).

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/breaking-news/bill-shorten-begins-studying-videos-of-steven-bradburys-2002-olympic-gold-medal-win/

Funny premise :laugh: had a chuckle but the premise that Labor could only win the next election because the Liberals are imploding isn't really accurate.

This would be funny if this wasn't so serious. Since Howard we never had a pm sit a full term. Too many egos and factions trying to rule 

Howard's reign as PM ended at the same time the iPhone was launched and Fb/ Twitter exploded in popularity.

Coincidence? 

The two major parties have become so concerned with trying to appeal to as many people as possible that they appeal to as fewer people as possible. I find it genuinely quaint to see people in this day and age who still swear by the LNP/ ALP like the old days. They've both become beige, watered-down and don't appear to really stand for anything of note to inspire the traditional left/ right.

I'm old enough to remember John Howard being hated by the Left to the same degree Tony Abbott was- we just forget it because for the majority of his time in charge we didn't have social media and the 24/7 news cycle at our fingertips with the hysteria that is the comments section of mainstream news sites. I swear if Bob Hawke were challenging for the ALP top job today, the right would hate him for being a Union lackey hell-bent on dragging this country back to the industrial dark ages, and the modern left would hate him for being a boozer and a womaniser and the epitome of "toxic masculinity".

So what we get in this "play it safe" age of politics are people like Kevin Rudd and Turnbull who excite the imagination of the average voter about as much as a white Toyota Camry excites your standard car nut or the Mourinho way excites football purists...

Turnbull prolly gone by the weekend.

People are talking up Dutton but I reckon ScoMo might come from the blindside and do a Tony Abbott like back in the Hockey days.

-PB

I think it's a factor but yeah not the primary one. Looking at what's happened in the past 10 years:
1. GFC caused financial turmoil. While we were cushioned from most of it, we have had a slowing of growth (which has mostly been propped up by immigration rather than true improvements for the average citizen).
2. Rise of ISIS and political instability in a number of regions (e.g. Myanmar, Sri Lanka) causing an increase in refugees as well as some domestic terrorism. 
3. Selfish power plays by Labor heavyweights when they were in government causing them to be turfed far earlier than they should have been. The Liberal party were in complete disarray after the 2007 election and rather than being in the wilderness to build themselves into a truly electable proposition,(as what happened during the late 90s early 2000s with Labor). instead, we got Abbott and his RWNJ's falling into power with virtually no policies except to "beat Labor". 

These IMO have had far greater impact as to why we've had instability. Looking across the western world we're hardly Robinson Crusoe.

Mutton talking up royal commissions into the Fuel and Electricity providers to get to the bottom of fluctuations.

How bout you give ACCC the powers they asked for originally and not cut their funding.

Just like whinging about average Joe tax dodger but won't go after multinationals, all in the same breath cutting ATO staff.

FMD.

-PB

Come on Mal, lob the grenade, call a snap election, sink them all!

-PB

This would be brilliant. Screw the party room. Australians are sick of the constant changing of leaders. It was embarrassing the first time and now it has become a joke.

Liberal as a party.

* Voted against banking royal commissions.
* Cut penalty rates.
* Wanted to give massive corporates making huge profits tax cuts.

All a bunch of scumbags.   Whether you have the potato or the investment banker it's the same shade of shit. 

Labor really missing the boat on the whole Liberal leadership challenge too ... they should be releasing their strong stance on policies (show that they have a clear and unified vision for Australia that they'll believe is best for Australia), instead they'll challenge the character of Dutton and Turnbull, and take cheap shots at the Liberal party (already trying to undermine Dutton with the High Court vote).

Doesn't really matter which way you look at it the Liberal party is a fractured party and I don't see them be able to put forward any clear policy anytime soon (at least one that doesn't conflict with a large section of their whole party). The whole situation smacks of self-interests rather than what's best for Australia (which smells very much like Abbot's leadership, yet the sheep voted him into power).

Edit: Trump rode the wave of self-interests to the White House too ... so maybe people are more worried about self-interests than the country nowadays??? (Or are too ignorant to realise that these pollies only care about themselves but appeal to the voters selfishness which they misplace as "whats best for the nation"??)

The Liberals:
* Established the Banking Royal Commission
* Implemented the Labor created Fair Work Ombudsman's decision to cut penalty rates.
* Tried to bring the corporate tax rate closer in line with the rest of the world.
The horror!

I think the biggest problem with the Liberal party in their current form is that they've sat on their hands for most things. They are too scared to actually make decisions on anything that may affect their re-election (this started straight after their election win). They are not acting in the best interests of the country (definitely not long-term) and only acting on the best interests for the party's re-election (sad thing is that many people vote with a similar vein of thought too). Saying that Labor haven't offered anything really strong in opposition (again at the moment their party seems more worried about winning the next election rather than ensuring parliament is being run in the best interests of the country).

So really I don't think there is any signficant difference between the Labor and Liberal party. Other than that Labor usually are willing to make decisions in government ... whether they you agree with them is a another matter entirely, but I think the last Labor government, at least at the start, was making decisions that weren't that popular but which they genuinely believed were in the best interest of the nation. To me that was refreshing ... didn't always get it right IMO, but it was the right direction for politics to go (now we've gone backwards).

They've been putting forward policies since before the last election, most recently in their budget reply speech. There's no point doing any more now because clearly some people have forgotten about them. Best to keep the powder dry for the actual election campaign.

You only make policy announcements when you want people to take notice. If Labor were to announce anything now, at best, it would be ignored and, at worst, it would distract people from the chaotic mess in the Liberal party.

Sometimes it's best let the place burn.

LNP heading for annihilation.

Tony Abbott will set this party back 10+ year easy.

Menzies would be losing his shit.

-PB

High Noon showdown set for tomorrow.

Mal lobbing S44 grenades in Dutton's direction.

Hilarity.

-PB

 Your first sentence is correct but ignores the 'why' it has transpired as it has.

Turnbull only became PM over Abbott by a scabby 10 votes last term.  (54-44).  Without a clear (ie substantial majority in the party room) Turnbull was/is at the behest of only 5 members changing their mind's and dumping him.

Ergo, without a clear mandate from his own party Turnbull was hamstrung the whole of the rest of Abbott's term trying to placate everybody and please all and sundry.  Of course when you try and please everyone you please no one.

Then the election was held and, almost like Gillard, he nearly found himself with a hung parliament.  (A one seat majority in the reps and a hostile senate.)  Making bold policy pronouncements and sweeping reforms in that environment is next to impossible.  Then you have Abbot "I'm not going to snipe and be a wrecker” fucking everything up in the background and it's no wonder we are where we are.  (Not forgetting, Barnaby, Bernadi, the citizenship fiasco etc..)

Somewhere way back in this thread I predicted Turnbull would be done over in a leadership spill exactly like what is happening now.  Given that I said that he would have been better to go down swinging doing the things he believed in like fibre to the node premises (edit), the Republic and putting a bill through Parliament for same sex marriage.

Instead he’ll be remembered as the PM that squibbed it.  Such a shame.

Had high hopes for Mal.    

Yep glad you wrote it all out (though you wrote FTTN when you meant FTTP) :) The right wing of the party's views don't sit well with the general public which is why they're in the mess they're in. As I wrote earlier, they needed to stay in opposition for longer than they ended up doing, eventually they would have been forced to change to be able to be re-elected. Oh well, it's done now. Call the election and let the people decide.

Through gritted teeth and only because the Nats threatened to cross the floor.

Claiming credit for this is a joke and you seem smarter than that to try and make this claim.  

It’s great entertainment but this is beyond a joke, you wouldve thought the politicans wouldve learnt about switching leaders during their terms by now. Idek why Dutton is running, I think he’ll get destroyed worse than Turnbull will at the next election. Unfortunately Turnbull has been unable to stand up to the far right wing in his party, wish they’d fuck off and join corey bernardi. Bishop should become leader after turnbull but not until after the election as the libs are probably gonna get smashed.

As some commentators have said, they are clambering over the spoils of defeat.

They won't be choosing a new leader/PM tomorrow, they will be choosing the new leader of the opposition, and they will be there for a very long time by the looks.

I do find it fascinating that this is one great Machiavellian revenge plot between Abbott and Turnbull that has been in the making for more than a decade now, and after all the tiny cuts and stabs in the back from Tony, Malcolm isn't going down without some tactful suicidal grenades of his own.

His press conference was insightful as it was tactful, the announcement that it was Dutton that wanted to adjourn parliament, basically making sure that the Australian public know exactly who is driving all this disruption that they're angry about. The Section 44 and other Solicitor General issues, the letter for the 43 names; making sure once again, the public know exactly who is doing this. The barbs about the internal and external forces that are pushing this (Abbott and co internally, the media externally, Sky News, Peta Credlin, 2GB radio).

The 43 names aren't exactly people saying they support Dutton per se, but more so that they don't support Turnbull. I think once you take those 43, and try and have a 3 horse race with ScoMo and Bishop involved, I can't see how Dutton would win out of that battle, especially with how poorly he would poll in southern states and SA/WA.

Bernadi looks like he had the crystal ball all along lol.

Now if only the residents of Warringah would wake the fuck up and boot Tony once and for all.

-PB

I actually hope Dutton wins, there is no way he and his brand of social conservatism will be palatable to the Australian public. Sure it might help in QLD, but here in Melb (and Sydney too) I suspect he will get annihilated. It would be a repudiation of that toxic corner of the Liberal party that have done nothing but snipe and attack Turnbull every step of the way. Good on him for going scorched Earth. 

D-Day. 

Hopefully not Dutton Day.

-PB

Dutton appears to be cleared and the 43 signatures are around.

High noon is a go.

-PB

I think 433 is right, Dutton wins hopefully an election is called, he gets smashed at the election someone more centre - centre right is brought in who isn’t a social dinosaur