His party hates him. If he runs then I reckon G Lard will resign and Shorten step in.

Never underestimate the stupidity of wingnut. The probability of him saying something stupid/truthful before September is non-zero - particularly if Labor lays an ambush.

At a rough guess a subject involving women or gays could secure the necessary kamikaze manoeuvre. That's always been wingnut's problem - he's not actually sane.

Yep.

We're moving to the right.

I think you should look at the current polls.

Under Gillard, Labor will be gone in the same way they did in the Qld election (and having Abbott with that much power in the House is a scary, scary thing - amazulu would probably like it though, as it will be like David Cameron on steroids).

If Rudd were leader, they will win against Abbott. If only both sides see sense and have Rudd and Turnbull as leaders. I don't think it's Shorten's time yet for Labor, although it could become time if they keep Gillard and lose - just depends on who is left in parliament from Labor.

David Cameron on steroids would be Tony Blair.

TA with a crushing majority would be awesome though - it's working well in Qld.

Both take up the arse from Rupert. They are similar except on Europe. Cameron and Hague are terrible at diplomatic relations.

I did look at the current polls and also listened to the political columnists. Whilst having Rudd might increase the vote slightly labor will still lose. Anyway, with Rudd in you never know how long he will last, he is so hated by the power brokers that he will likely be stabbed in the back again and we will get some other idiot like Combet.

People dont need brainwashing to see clearly that Gillard has been an appalling leader, both of the party and the country.

There are good reasons Mark McGowan told her not to come to WA for the election here (but even that wsn't enought to save him). Or did the media report that incorrectly too?

Australia, almost unique amongst the OECD countries, has come through the GFC pretty much unscathed. Wayne Swan has been recognised as one of the best treasurers in the world.

On the other side Wingnut (abbott) has no clue of what the issues really are, or any plan to deal with them. He's also a religious zealot, with an ideology based in the past and a worldview that treats 'others' as enemies. Hockey is widely regarded as a financial fool, also has no costed policies, and appears to want to play "attack the worker/reward Gina" ideology, if elected.

Campbell Newman should be the canary for what a coalition mismanagement would look like.

The problem is the brainwashing of people to not spot the black hole of coalition policy vacuum and instead focus on media created stories of leadership challenges and failed policies - dreamed up by Murdoch and the miners. People don't take politics seriously enough to ask the hard questions and cut through the crap to take a dispassionate view of policies rather than persona.

Now who is believing the press. The labor party likes to make the claim about Swan being one of the best treasurers in the world. Its nonsense. I remember the same thing used to be said about Gordon Brown in the UK by the same institutions. Now looking back he is widely recognised as one of, if not the worst Chancellor in British history. History will judge Swan but he is making the same short sighted decisions.

This labor treasurer has followed the typical left wing dogma of tax and spend and therefore has failed to make the most of the boom, failed to save for hard times and for the future. Australia will be left with an over-taxed, inefficient, massively expensive workforce and God help it if China's bubble bursts. If it was not for China, Australia's economy would rank alongside countries like Spain.

Australia is in a unique potion in having an economy almost entirely driven by digging stuff up and selling it to China. So if China is growing, so should Australia. Even Swan couldn't screw that up.

So other countries may envy Australia's current financial position, but they don't envy the treasurer or the structure of the Australian economy.

See, I might have more sympathy for your position if wingnut and co had shown any symptom of understanding for problem. As it is, try doing a search for 'abbott' and 'dutch disease' (the name for having a booming resource sector unbalance an economy and kill manufacturing). You'll find NO news stories on it, at all. Instead you have the coalition talking of getting rid of the mining tax, not doing anything about the exchange rate, and attacking the workers on the basis they are overpaid - pure ideology that has nothing to do with fixing the real problems.

You would have thought that the PIIGS would have demonstrated the folly of pursuing 'austerity' as a way out of trouble - it makes things worse, empirically demonstrated.

I'm not saying Gillard / Swan are perfect - far from it. I am however saying that when you put them up against the alternative the positively shine through as the better choice.

Australian economy is growing.