julia bishop as deputy.. seems libs hav a case of me too, but oh well, im all for girl power :)

Check for a speech from Nelson. Live on air. No script, no PR people writing it for him. He's going to give Rudd a run for his money on the communication factor. This is on why he switched from Labor to Liberal in 1991.

BRENDAN NELSON: Well, Kerry, nothing I think educates you more about liberalism and what life is about than when you've got a second mortgage on your house, you've got an overdraft, you're paying 17.5 per cent on your home mortgage, 22 per cent on your business overdraft. You've got 12 people working for you, four women with children and car loans and mortgages to feed. You realise that in the end life and philosophy has to be about doing everything we can to give people incentives to get out of bed, to take a risk, to create wealth for their families, to support small business, to support families and to make sure we've got a strong economy so we that we can actually look after those people who through no fault of their own, can't look after themselves.

I came to liberalism through life, absorbed it through familiarity with hard work and self-sacrifice in every day communities, practising medicine, trying to run effectively two small businesses. And the key for us, in fact, it says so much about the Liberal Party. People with an open mind who are prepared to listen to new ideas; that's what we're about. It says so much about the Liberal Party that what we're trying to do, of course, as always is to say to people, "If you are Labor, if you vote Labor, there is a real place for you in the Liberal Party and we are reaching out to you." And over the next few months, the next few years, Kerry, you're going to see me all over Australia doing all kinds of things relating to all kind of Australians, particularly those who feel they have neither power nor influence, because I will be their voice. And Mr Rudd is going to hear it very loudly.

Love it, if he can keep this up Kevin Rudd might end up a one term wonder.

There are a number of people who voted in Rudd in the hope that he'll just be in for one term, shake things up, put pressure on the Liberal Party and then they should get in 2011. Despite the well informed and intelligent posts in this particular forum, I'm still glad that John Howard was voted out. A country is more than it's economic policy and I personally didn't feel JH spoke for us all. I'm not necessarily saying that K Rudd does, but I do feel like it's getting closer. I don't Labor will necessarily stuff up the economy, especially if they intend to take a conservative approach, but I don't think it's worth moving from Australia just yet. Interest rates can't be determined by government policy alone and while Kyoto isn't the answer, Australia was voting for the environment to be a bigger part of government policy. Nuclear power is certainly not the answer - not until an effective means of disposing the waste is developed. Tell you what, if Labor does go ahead with that Pulp Mill I will definitely vote them out.

So the politicians believe they're listening to the their citizens? Since when? How many people spoke out about our involvement in the invasion of Iraq? How many people spoke out about the IR issues, environmental issues, etc? Did they listen? I don't think so.

Sorry but over the years, the Howard Government became arrogant and refused to listen to its own people (ie. us - not America) but instead chose to pursue its own personal agenda believing that it was for the good of the country.

Hopefully this will shake up both sides and wake them up. This is a democracratic society and not one where the Government should, at any stage, believe they are above and beyond the citizens.

Two points raised;

Iraq - I don't believe it was a factor of this election. The 2004 election was closer to the start of that war, and returned Howard with a mandate to complete it. While Rudd made some wish-wash promise prior to the 2007 election, it didn't feature in any of the polls.

Environment - what alternatives are there to nuclear? Certainly there's a disposal issue there, but none of the alternative energy sources have provided any means of really powering this country's future.

From an uninformed viewpoint, I'd say that I agree with you about nuclear at this point, however, I've unofficially heard of one engine design developed by an Australian that runs on an easily obtained alternative fuel source. The proof on concept shows that it could substantially decrease our reliance on fossil fuels in the next however many years. Unfortunately, the engineer who developed this product was not able to receive funding in Australia and so Hong Kong and Sweden have picked up the bill instead, meaning that profits will also go to these two countries instead of Australia. My fairly long-winded point is that while there are no obvious power solutions right now, with proper research and development grants Australia could be on the forefront on future solutions that would replace nuclear. We have the education and the infrastructure, but we do need a government that is interested in pursuing this cause. Again, Labor might not actually be that government, but JH definitely wasn't.

I'm not so sure. I think there was a push towards nuclear from John Howard that presented our current best option. The only other working alternative on the cards right now seems to be 'clean coal', which is more or less an oxymoron. I think the most we can expect from clean coal is what we were doing in London years ago, and reusing the output of an electricity plant (Battersea) to warm homes.

You are exceptionally well read Daniel.

This forum really does give a good idea about how hardcore it must be to actually be a politician. To make decisions for the good of a country with all it's various interest groups, and then to be liked on top of all that, and usually not make as much money personally as you might in the private sector, it's a wonder anyone even bothers.

Tah :)

I have to agree with you on the life of a politician. Both Howard and Costello will bow out and make far more money in the private sector. Couple that with the fact that most of them (bar for those two top jobs) could have just as much influence in the (non-elected) roles of advisers and Crown servants, and its hardly a job you'd wish on anybody.