bill shorten will never beat Abbott in a federal election
"a drover's dog could lead the Labor Party to victory, the way the country is". Bill Hayden March 1983
Actually watched the first part of that political series last night about Australia's economic change from the late 60s/early 70s to now (the first part stopped at the late 80s). A lesson that to be a 'successful' government you not only need luck as far as the state of the global economy but you also need to be pragmatic, move with the times, and seek and achieve consensus before trying to pass and implement major reform. Abbott, of course, is the antithesis of all this. He combines the worst traits of all previous PMs/governments that went before him in modern times into one. As staunchly ideologically driven no matter what as Whitlam, as stubborn as Fraser at opposing and refusing to accept the changing social/economic/technological times, as economically inept as both Whitlam & Fraser, as lacking in tact and bully-ish as Keating, as much as loving to play on fears for political gain as Howard, as internally control-freaking as Rudd and as fragmented and divided internally as the Gillard era.
