Shocker. I'd check it myself, but my ADSL running on copper installed in the 1950's won't hack it. :lol:

I've made an argument to a lot of friends that own houses that their vote is best used against whatever party is in power, and to encourage that with neighbors until the area becomes marginal. Then they might get a real say in what happens.

Will be forever jealous

Turnbull miles in front this morning. Call an early election, grab a mandate and go hard on proper reform starting with the tax system.

Lets just wait and see if he does.

The Newspoll from only a few days ago had them at 50-50
No such thing as a mandate
Serious action on global warming, which is ten times as important as tax 'reform', is the far greater requirement.

funny things is those areas were selected by the previous government (well if you can call them that )

Keep grasping at straws.

yes please and fuck the tards off from the PUP,greens and minority independents, who control too much power

Most of them are in the senate. I don't think there's a senate election due is there?

don't care...then just line them up against the wall and shoot them....simples.....

If you are referring to the solitary Fairfax poll of this morning, of 53-47 I think that is a similar to a solitary poll that Rudd had immediately after Gillard. Both of course during the 'honeymoon' periods.
As for 'mandate', I wonder if the Liberal Party can be considered to have had a 'mandate' after the 1998 election with only 49% two party preferred vote.
As for global warming being a mile more important than tax reform, well considering bucketloads of research shows that right wingers make up the bulk of its denial, well, one has to actually accept the truth of an issue before they can start to understand the gravity of it.......

There's a thread for your climate change stuff champ. Take it there.

And yes, one swallow doesn't make a summer, but I'll bet you a schooner that it's only going to get worse for Labour from now to the next election.

(And that's coming from a Labour and Greens voter.)

Turnbull is the type of leader Australia have craved since Rudd got in.

Confidence is up, the economy is on the rise, commodities have bottomed out. Unfortunately for Labour the Libs are in now (and likely next time) and a lot of politics is luck.

Peoples lives are going to get better, people will be happier and the Libs are going to reap the rewards of the upswing.

I would've loved to have seen ricecrackers have a go at Murdoch rags and trident.

Would be popcorn fodder.

The writing's on the wall for Labour and rags doesn't like it.

Even Parliament is much more civilized with much of the shouting and screaming gone.

Insiders had a good piece on that on Sunday.

The cutaway to the independents was a laugh when they said they had Turnbull's mobile number and he was speaking to them. One of them said something like "how radical is that?!".

Shorten is a grub, corrupt ex unionist scumbag..............manipulating industries and organising back handers and jobs for the scumbag boys

The sad thing is though, the swing voters that have now swung back to LNP in these opinion polls would have voted Labour solely to NOT vote for Abbott, rather than the policies of the parties themselves.

Sad really.

-PB

Do you know what a 'honeymoon' period in politics means?
On a related note, most polls have been underwhelming for MT after he took over.

As for global warming if it's related to politics, this is the political thread. Expect more in the coming weeks leading up to Paris

So I take it my schooner bet is a goer then.

Cheers.

I look forward to my tooheys New.

So MT would be going against all polling history where there is a leadership change.
History is there to be re-written, I guess.

Cough cough Bob Hawke.

Cough cough Paul Keating.

Are you referring to Keating's election win?
If so, I think it's widely agreed that John Hewson's GST was what Paul Keating had most to thank.

Turnbull is certainly more charismatic and appealing to the average person than Shorten.

HOWEVER - the issue will be whether Turnbull will be able to bring in the policies people associate him with, but that his party opposes. The obvious example is marriage equality.

I think this is still an open question. There are similarities between the situation Turnbull finds himself in, and the situation Rudd v1 was in. They are both popular with the public but disliked by their party.

I personally think Turnbull is capable of balancing the public perception with keeping rowdy social conservatives on his backbench in line, but it is no done deal.
I am just happy that there seems now to be actual policy debates occurring, rather than 3 word slogans.

Couple of things.

Yes it is a welcome change. (Maybe the adults are in charge now?) Turnbull's refusal to engage in the stupid shouting matches that have characterised question time for years in Parliament is excellent.

The other day he said something to the Labour lady that hopped up along the lines of "well that may very well be true and we'll take that on board but if you don't like our policy we're interested in your alternative policy if you'd like to put forward something".

Paraphrasing of course but he pretty much shut the them down straight away.

Like I tell my kids. If you want to stop an argument, agree with your opponent.

He did that and then asked for an actual solution and the Labour sheila that was haranguing him just sat down because she had nothing.

Had to laugh the other day when he said "If the honourable member wants to go round wearing a sandwich board saying, 'Malcolm Turnbull's got a lot of money', feel free."

His line about other people working hard (or just as hard) for not much money would have resonated with a lot of people too I think.


Edited by munrubenmuz: 22/10/2015 12:26:06 PM

This. Turnbull is what the party needs and can hopefully bring it back to its original intentions of actually being "Liberal" and not dominated by anti progress conservatives

It makes logical sense for the ALP to try and character-assassinate Turnbull at this stage, as this is the period when people will form their impressions about a new leader. Once that impression sets, it is a lot harder to change it.

I don't think they will be successful though, as Turnbull is too smart to make any "Hockey-esque" statements about poor people not needing cars etc.

ALP has actually been drip-feeding policy positions, as they prepare for the possibility of an early election.

The real test will be the Liberal party policy positions ahead of the election. If Turnbull throws the social conservatives too much raw meat I think it is possible for the electorate to turn on him, much like they turned on Rudd after he gave up on the ETS. Likewise, if Turnbull pushes policies that anger the social conservatives, it will be interesting to see if they leak and white-ant him, or hold the line.

All in all, interesting times ahead!

Edited by AzzaMarch: 22/10/2015 02:14:41 PM

Personally, for the sake of the country, I hope he gets re-elected. 5 PM's in 5 years is a joke and a farce.

Constant governing by opinion polls leaves politicians in charge that are too scared to make any significant decisions and that's not a recipe for a successful country no matter what your politics.

Hockey has officially left the building too.

Good fucking riddance.

Off to his cushy job in the US.

-PB

I think the biggest issue is that we have had a run of incompetent PMs more than anything else. The opinion polls only mattered because they were so unpopular!

How many times do we see policies announced out of thin air, only to be withdrawn months later? That is not how you govern.

You need to prepare the public, and argue your case.

I disliked a lot about John Howard - but I always respected the fact that he took an unpopular issue in the GST, announced the policy BEFORE the election, and took time to argue the merits of it.

Then after the election, negotiated with the minor parties, and got the legislation passed. That is how things are supposed to happen. Not announcing the day before the election that "nothing would change" then pulling out a huge range of spending cuts in the first budget with no lead-up.