Double Dissolution

[Rorschach]

Should Tony Abbott bite the bullet and call a Double Dissolution now?
It's obvious that Palmer/PUP, Lambie, Muir, Labor and The Greens are not going to allow his government govern. Will not allow them to implement their policies.

Should the government go back to the people and try to remove this deadlock?

Will Abbott be rewarded for being courageous enough to stand by his convictions?

Will the ensuing election campaign clear the air and allow all matters to be properly debated in the public arena?

[skippy]

No government have won an election on the back of fourteen poll loses in a row, and that's just the News polls which are considered Conservative party friendly. Even Bolt wrote today the Abbott government are in major trouble. It would be suicide for Abbott to go to a DD.
Abbott has been behind since last December just three months after a landslide win. The polls are not budging and Abbott is in the same position as Gillard was, the people have stopped listening.
I don't think it matters if he goes to a DD now or goes full term he is beyond the point of no return and has as much chance of winning the next election as Billy McMahon has.

[mantra]

Should Tony Abbott bite the bullet and call a Double Dissolution now?
It's obvious that Palmer/PUP, Lambie, Muir, Labor and The Greens are not going to allow his government govern. Will not allow them to implement their policies.

Should the government go back to the people and try to remove this deadlock?

Abbott needs to back down. He's become almost manic. The more he tries to look calm and confident, the more insecure he comes across. Abbott was the wrong choice for leader. If the Coalition don't acknowledge that soon - they will lose the next election.

Will Abbott be rewarded for being courageous enough to stand by his convictions?

It's hard to say. What convictions has he stood by? Certainly not all of his pre-election promises. Repealing the carbon tax ultimately won't secure him too many votes - maybe stopping the boats could, although Rudd had already implemented an effective program and the boats had slowed right down by the time Abbott was elected.

Will the ensuing election campaign clear the air and allow all matters to be properly debated in the public arena?

I think Abbott should stick it out, but admit to Australia that he's making some mistakes and needs to be more open and inclusive. This FTA with China might be Abbott's downfall. There aren't too many people happy about it.

[Rorschach]

No government have won an election on the back of fourteen poll loses in a row, and that's just the News polls which are considered Conservative party friendly.

Not my questions Skip, but i believe Howard was losing his re-election right up to the polling day and won. As for the number of polls... well there are many more done these days so i think your argument re that is flawed.

Even Bolt wrote today the Abbott government are in major trouble. It would be suicide for Abbott to go to a DD.

That is your assessment not necessarily a fact.

Abbott has been behind since last December just three months after a landslide win. The polls are not budging and Abbott is in the same position as Gillard was, the people have stopped listening.

Can you back that up? I don't think you can.

I don't think it matters if he goes to a DD now or goes full term he is beyond the point of no return and has as much chance of winning the next election as Billy McMahon has.

Well I don't vote for leaders, I vote for policy so so I wouldn't couch it in the way you did. Personally I think we unfortunately have to wait 2 years before this deadlock is broken. More unfortunate for Australia as that is. But I don't think if there was a DD now that Labor would be a shoe-in, not by a long chalk.

[Rorschach]

Should Tony Abbott bite the bullet and call a Double Dissolution now?
It's obvious that Palmer/PUP, Lambie, Muir, Labor and The Greens are not going to allow his government govern. Will not allow them to implement their policies.

Should the government go back to the people and try to remove this deadlock?

Abbott needs to back down. He's become almost manic. The more he tries to look calm and confident, the more insecure he comes across. Abbott was the wrong choice for leader. If the Coalition don't acknowledge that soon - they will lose the next election.

Well that's plainly not true mantra. I do wish you'd stick to facts and stop colouring people with your personal biases. But haters gotta hate... who would be the right leader in your opinion and were they available when Abbott was chosen?

Will Abbott be rewarded for being courageous enough to stand by his convictions?

It's hard to say. What convictions has he stood by?

More bias...
Please don't waste my time; stop the boats, repeal the carbon tax, simplify legislation, fix the budget. These and more mantra.

Certainly not all of his pre-election promises. Repealing the carbon tax ultimately won't secure him too many votes - maybe stopping the boats could, although Rudd had already implemented an effective program and the boats had slowed right down by the time Abbott was elected.

See what I mean by wasting my time... you already knew you lied previously.
BTW that last point you made is also a lie.

Will the ensuing election campaign clear the air and allow all matters to be properly debated in the public arena?

I think Abbott should stick it out, but admit to Australia that he's making some mistakes and needs to be more open and inclusive. This FTA with China might be Abbott's downfall. There aren't too many people happy about it.

[/quote]

Puhlease not the latest LW prog propaganda piece re China...
I do think he should "reboot" though.
Explain the policies more clearly.
Explain any changes and the need for the government to have the numbers to govern.
Do you honestly thing the ALP or Greens can win government?

[Rorschach]

More reasons for a DD..
The senate is a mess.

Palmer disunited? Send in the COCs
Date November 19, 2014 - 5:22PM
Mark Kenny
Chief political correspondent

Who's running this ramshackle show we call the Australian Senate?

Is it the PUPs as we had thought or is it the COCS, who have just insinuated themselves into its arcane workings?

This is now a very live question, even if the answer will take some time to emerge.

The PUPs of course are the three Palmer Uniter Party senators and their fellow traveller, Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party senator for Victoria, Ricky Muir.

It was already confusing enough. The PUPs, all three of them rookies of unknown lawmaking mettle, are led by their eponymous benefactor, the mercurial millionaire Clive Palmer. Palmer languishes in relative impotence as the sole PUP number in the House of Representatives. So as leader, he's not even in the place where his party's leverage is plied.

There in the Senate, the three rookies and their equally inexperienced add-on, nevertheless had constituted a crucial and frequently pivotal four-vote bloc.

As there are eight crossbenchers of whom the government needs six to pass any bills opposed by Labor and the Greens, the PUP-bloc always had to figure.

Yet now it seems just months into its inaugural term, PUP's leverage has eroded, frayed at the edges, disintegrated even.

And so is born the COCs - not an acronym they thought about for long one suspects - the coalition of common sense.

Coalescing around hostility to the government's financial planning laws - themselves a watering down of consumer protections already legislated - the new alliance contains two sympathetic PUP-bloc numbers in the form of Muir and the apparently rapidly departing PUP dissident, Jacqui Lambie.

Lambie's tenure as a PUP member looks to be over already.

To defeat the government's Future of Financial Advice changes, they have joined with senators Nick Xenophon, and John Madigan (who recently defected himself from the DLP, on whose ticket he was elected out of Victoria).

And they in turn, sit with Labor and the Greens on this.

Confused?

Now, the question arises: is this a wider, even permanent re-alignment of balance-of-power numbers on the red carpet or is it purely situational, a one-off relevant only to the FoFA issue?

Either-way, PUP's clout has taken a hit. It may regroup but it is already damaged and unlikely to regain its intimidatory strength. In all likelihood, it will now represent just three votes at best: Glenn Lazarus and Zhenya "Dio" Wang, as formal PUP members and Muir, if he decides to stay close. But even then, his departure on FoFA has made a repeat more likely on other issues. For him, that's where the power lies.

Ms Lambie is more of a loose cannon. Her vote is now anyone's guess.

For the government this might mean some bills are easier to get through, but it will probably find itself ceding ground on multiple fronts simultaneously as it horse-trades on a bill-by-bill basis.

While its GP co-payment and higher education changes were already blocked, the partial re-atomisation of Senate crossbench numbers presents an opportunity, if a diabolical one.

And so far, it has shown little aptitude for negotiation.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... z3JUs6xJsO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[boxy]

He hasn't got the balls, with the polls as they are currently.

[Rorschach]

He hasn't got the balls, with the polls as they are currently.

Polls don't win elections, during campaigns things change and as howard showed can change completely even in the last week.

I don't think the current polls are indicative of the voting intentions of the greater Australian populace.

[skippy]

Abbott is no Howard. Howard was a confident persuasive PM while Abbott is PM because the punters wanted to punt Labor. Abbott was a great opposition leader but he's a lousy PM because he still thinks he's got to tell us how bad Labor is rather than show us how good he is.

[Rorschach]

We just had IMO and that of many others from all political persuasions 2 of the worst PMs and governments in memory... do you really think labor has what it takes to win the next election?
Because no other current party has a chance of winning other than one of the 2 major parties.
As for Abbott he's been winning accolades from most non biased media commentators as has Bishop...