Broad Shoulders

Well whatever has happened and as crap a govt as Labor has been for the last 3 years, the last few weeks have confirmed exactly what I always thought; that a coalition govt would have been much worse. How the Coalition supporters on this site can still be spurting out the same liberal propaganda is beyond me.

Sure, you can accuse Labor of not being completely up front with the people regarding their pre-election agreement with the Greens, but that is nothing compared to how the LNP has completely conned the Australian people during their campaign. Regardless of how much out their election promises were in the costings, the fact remains that they deliberately set out to conceal these figures from Treasury so that the people wouldn't see their incompetence before polling day. You would think they would stop there, but then Wilkie comes out saying that Hobart Hospital was offered $1 billion for upgrades no questions asked. Yet the Liberals were the ones trying to pin "irresponsible spending" on Labor during the election.

Liberal voters, you have been punked!

IvanM

Haven't we all.

ex_exile

Its worse than that, Abbott was willing to give $1,000,000,000 to Wilkie for a $300m project, [great example of fiscal responsibility Mr Abbott, I can see that you will spend my tax dollars responsibly] that 1,000,000,000 which apparently is still a commitment was not / is not in the coalition costings so we need to take an extra 1bn dollars off of the dodgy numbers.

Plus if Labor used the same accounting trick with regards to the contingency fund reduction as the coalition then even on Abbotts figures the Labor surplus is greater than the coalitions, The accounting trick adds $2.5bn dollars of imaginary savings.

If Abbott does form government it will be a day that the coalition will live to regret, he will trash any reputation they had for economic management.

Wol

The whole fiasco is..... embarrassing. Just embarrassing.

MartinLuther

It's interesting that dyed in blue like to call the independents, "nutters"; but the hospital funding thing has completely turned that around.

Wilkie's move is also good in that it reduces the influence of the other 3 independents. Only 2 are required by Labour so their "power" to demand is now limited somewhat. On the other hand there's no limit to what Tony will offer them.

I'm with BS. Regardless of what's gone before, I reckon Tony will screw things up worse than Julia.

MartinLuther

I'm curious as to why people feel embarrassed?

Broad Shoulders

He probably thought that figure was only $1m

I think, either way the Libs are now screwed. If they form government then I don't think it will last long before going back to the polls. If they form opposition, then they will likely oppose everything out of pure principle and we will be back at the polls again in the same timeframe. Either way, this opposition wouldn't get another chance by the Australian Public as Labor now have their next election campaign all written up thanks to the last two weeks. The Libs wouldn't have any new dirt to throw at Labor, while Labor have a heap of real nasty factual dirt to throw at the Libs.

Thanks for the entertainment you have provided us Mr Abbott, your deception very nearly paid off. I still reckon more people would have voted for a Lib govt with Turnbull at the healm.

Broad Shoulders

I can see Katter staying with the Libs (not Nats), but Oakeshott and Windsor will back Labor

Wol

In my own case, because I took out citizenship to a country with such a dysfunctional electoral system.

Broad Shoulders

I could well be wrong there with Katter

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nati...-1225913623637

MartinLuther

What's dysfunctional about it? It seems to be coping quite well with what is the Perfect Storm of elections. Anyone would think that it's gone tits up or that it would be handled better in another liberal democracy.

ex_exile

Yes you could, Katter and Rudd are friends, while PM Rudd provided the money to rebuild Katters local hospital and visited the constiuency twice, which people thought was odd at the time as labor had little to gain from this.

Source

Broad Shoulders

There's Rudd's diplomacy skills paying off for Labor

MartinLuther

Although he probably wants to give Julia a kicking he's obviously woken up to the reality of Tony taking power.

Broad Shoulders

He'll get his Foreign Minister role that he wants. If for some freak reason he doesn't he will be some sort of foreign envoy. Either way, he'll be in his element.