Fashion Forum

rudd talks about new leadership, younge leadership, tries to come across as a younger howard , fresh and new everything but really they are just renewing old liberal policies aren't they?

as for is australia ready for female prime minister, id say no

yep kaz its all the same policies...

I'll be interested to see if this misstep costs Rudd any votes. At the last general election Mark Latham lost a lot of votes over a very stupid handshake. Simple images can be so important.

ALL was bliss at the 43rd birthday party of the Devonport Senior Citizensâ Club in the marginal north-west Tasmanian electorate of Braddonâ¦

The clubâs choir â its men sporting natty blue bow-ties and crisp white shirts, its women radiant in light blue scarves, apart from the one dressed, unaccountably, in a catsuit â sat prepared for song on stageâ¦

The locally noted accordion player, John Young, a large man with a broad Scots accent, had just finished a rendition of Chariots of Fire with his vocalist partner Grace Krause and they were poised to swing into the remainder of their musical delectation. Then all hell broke loose. Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, local Labor candidate Sid Sidebottom and a field assault of media burst into the clubâs hall.

Mr Young, quivering with indignation, unslung his squeezebox and, Ms Krause in tow, stormed offstage and out of the hall. He paced angrily around the car park, roaring about the outrage of it all. How dare this fellow Rudd interrupt his performance; how dare he impose himself on a senior citizensâ birthday party; how dare he politicise such an event, the accordion player bellowed.

âHe just walked in and took over! The height of bad manners! John Howard wouldnât have done it!â

Back inside, things were going from bad to worse for the Opposition Leader. Another member of the choir, David Vowles, couldnât contain himself. He walked up to Mr Rudd and Mr Sidebottom and said what was on his mind.

âYou spoiled the party, you ignorant bastards,â he spat.

What the hell? This is the alternative treasurer. Here are his economic tips for 2008.



Either he thinks we're stupid, or he is.

Here's a big issue for Rudd.

Hereâs the new Liberal Party ad on CFMEU union heavy Joe McDonald, last seen shouting âweâre coming back, weâre coming back!â

As the Daily Telegraph noted yesterday:

RENEGADE union boss Joe McDonald remains a paid-up member of the ALP - four months after Labor leader Kevin Rudd promised to expel himâ¦

Mr McDonald, deputy secretary of the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Unionâs West Australian branch, was caught on film making expletive-laden threats against construction bosses in June.

The footage forced Mr Rudd to call for Mr McDonaldâs âurgentâ expulsion from the ALP, as he sought to deflect the Coalitionâs attacks on the level of union influence.

Yesterday, McDonald was again gloating:

McDonald..., asked if he had a message for the prime minister, said: âJohnâs gone, you know that, Iâll be backâ.



It highlights one major issue for Rudd. If he can't control this sort of behaviour with an election at stake, what would actually happen if he won?

Here's my tip for the election:
"Stop thinking nationally, start thinking locally"
I'll explain my theory...Think of the electorate you live in, i personlly live in a liberal dominated (approx 80%) electorate, so i could vote for the fishing party for all my votes going to count. But, if i can convice enough people to vote labour to bring down the dominate percentage. I could try and make our electrorate a marginal seat. Therefore who ever is going to try and buy our vote (labour or liberal) might fix Manly hospital, the spit bridge etc, in order to persuade us to vote for them. Cos if things stay the way they are the liberals aren't going to help us cos they know they can win the seat and labour won't help cos they know they can't win the seat. That's how i see it....

hahaa go shopping tips!
what confidence the labour treasurer bestows in us

Here's the issue for Gillard and her days at the communist-formed Socialist Forum. I don't think anyone would have cared that she was once a member. But she's gone on record and lied about it. The whole part time typist story doesn't stand up. Take for instance this document she wrote (not typed, but actuallly wrote) discussing a need for socialists / unions to effectively become trojan horses in the Labor party;

For the Left to make any real advance all these perspectives on the relationship to Labor in government need to be rejected in favour of a concept of strategic support for Labor governments. We need to recognise the only possibility for major social change is under a long period of Labor administration. Within that administration the Left needs to be willing to participate to shape political outcomes, recognising the need to except (sic) often unpalatable compromises in the short term to bolster the prospect of future advance. The task of pushing back the current political constraints by changing public opinion would need to be tackled by the Left through government, social movements and trade unions.

Just watched the Treasurers' debate (not sure why it's called that, Wayne Swan isn't a Treasurer). T'was an interesting debate, but I did get the impression that Swan understood little about the way things really worked, and concentrated more on spin. For instance, on a question about the future of the automotive industry in Australia he responded by saying Labor would fix the broadband problem in Australia. Forgive me for not seeing the broadband issue, but how is it failing the car industry exactly?