[naturalman1975]

I think this is a very cogent analysis of a lot of what is going on in Australian politics at the moment. I don't think Tony Abbott is doing a bad job as Prime Minister in terms of what he is accomplishing and trying to accomplish - but he's not doing a good job of selling it to the Australian people. And the Labor opposition under Bill Shorten are getting away with doing nothing except soundbite politics without any real policies except to oppose almost everything the government is trying to do, and pretending that there's nothing wrong with spending money we don't have.

Couple with a relentless campaign from other sections of the left who have no hesitation in misrepresenting and at times blatantly lying about Tony Abbott and his government (one of the latest - they are screaming about Tony Abbott 'cutting university funding', but when his government announcing hundreds of millions of dollars in new targeted funding to private universities and colleges, they have started screaming that "Abbott wants to fund the training of priests" because about a dozen of the nearly two hundred institutions involved have some courses relating to religion - ignoring the fact that the majority of the institutions are secular and the vast majority of the courses are - it's frankly disgusting, immoral, and dishonest 'reporting' but so far, the government doesn't seem to have worked out how to counter it. They should be anticipating the lies and be ready to instantly counter with the truth and it just doesn't happen.

It's nearly two years until the next election. It can be turned around. But it really needs to start happening very soon. One of the big dangers is that the leader of the party (and therefore the Prime Minister) can be changed at any time by the members of the party in Parliament - if Abbott's poll numbers get bad enough, he could be replaced. He's a genuine conservative - not all those with the highest likelihood of replacing him are. Malcolm Turnbull, in particular, is much more popular with a lot of the electorate - but he's from the moderate, centrist wing of the Liberal Party, rather than a real conservative. He'd be much better than Labor - but we'd lose the chance for real conservative policies.

The problem is, if Abbott can't get his policies converted into laws by getting them through the Senate, it doesn't really matter than much what the policies are.

[SkyDancer]

Aussie version of 0bama?

[Blood of Tyrants]

My vote goes to the country that is allowing the most Muslims to invade their country.

[PROCON]

Oh, come on, some of us here in America think, as a collective, we deserve that honor.

I bet Australia doesn't have the racial tensions we do after electing (twice) the 1st black President.

We're still waiting for that hopey, changey thingy....Oh wait...

[ReaganGeneration2]

2008 and 2012 winner: USA

But we are Exceptional?

[WayneS]

The U.S. can trump your stupidity with three words: Barack Obama, twice.

[GeronL]

There are about 100 countries that would be above Australia on that list right now

[Iron Munro]

I say the USA is far ahead of Australia in this contest.

At least they haven’t elected a black racist, illegal alien, closet muslim, who is determined to destroy their country as their Prime Minister.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

The plan is for governments to make everyone so miserable they will jump at a chance to go into the Matrix.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

This story must be confusing for residents of the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory.

[fluorescence]

Abbott did not propose to cut spending at all. There is not a single year in the budget estimates when total expenditure decreases, and as a percentage of the economy it will not decrease even to the level of 2012-13. Every last cent of his so-called savings will be spent, plus a few extra billion each year.

His path to budget surplus is built around raising taxes to 25% of GDP and hoping the economy grows so much that he can continue giving away $billions of taxpayer money to his pet projects and still have a shrinking deficit. Unfortunately, economic growth is now collapsing so that isn't working out.

I don't understand why anyone would be enamoured by this man.

[BlackVeil]

There is a lot of news about these polls, but surely they are of little significance. If the election was two months away - indeed, it would be important. But two years is a long time, people have short memories, and elections are very much driven by sentiment. I think Abbott’s biggest current problem is the dive in confidence in the business sector. International factors are contributing to this, but it tends to rebound onto him.