olde.sault wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 8:36am:


What a pathetic point to make.....Why not correct Longy for his constant errors in spelling you flake....You are so devoid of debating skill you reduce yourself to the level of spell checker....It is all you have as you lack any other substance other than what some shock jock tells you TO BELIEVE....How pathetic???

philperth2010 wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 2:44pm:


"Your" written in the wrong sense happens too often these days so I think it is out of ignorance.

In any case, I don't blame the posters but education because it stopped teaching good English.

It is such a beautiful language why murder it?

Please correct my posts and you'll earn my thanks.

What went wrong ? Did Miss Gillard organize it which would explain why it stuffed up (remember the Canberra riot).

Why didn't the Unions + ALP lean on the pollsters to produce a biased result like they did for the last Neilsen poll which was obviously biased ?


PM losing battle over economy, according to Newspoll
by: Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
From:The Australian February 13, 2012 12:00AM 88

Poll blow to PM's economic management

The latest Newspoll shows voters think Tony Abbott would be better at guiding the economy than Julia Gillard

JULIA Gillard's economic credibility with voters has crashed since she announced the carbon tax, with the Prime Minister comprehensively losing the lead she had over Tony Abbott at the election in 2010.

Wayne Swan's dominance over the Coalition's economic team has also been lost, with the Treasurer now neck and neck with Joe Hockey as the person seen as the most capable federal treasurer.

The findings of the latest Newspoll survey are a blow for the government as it seeks to present Labor as the safer bet on the economy by exploiting confusing messages from the Coalition about the opposition's budget plans. Labor last night launched an internet advertisement that it hopes will reinforce the "shambles" inside the Coalition on economic strategy.

But the Newspoll survey conducted last weekend exclusively for The Australian, reveals the Opposition Leader now has a nine-point lead over the Prime Minister on the question of who is more capable of handling the economy - a complete reversal of Ms Gillard's lead over Mr Abbott in August 2010.

On economic management, Mr Abbott is now preferred by 43 per cent of voters, compared with Ms Gillard's 34 per cent. In August 2010, just before the election and Ms Gillard's vow not to introduce a carbon tax, she led Mr Abbott 48 per cent to 40 per cent.

As Ms Gillard, the Treasurer and other senior ministers try to turn the political debate to the economy and ridicule Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey, the Prime Minister's economic rating has fallen by 14 percentage points.

Shortly after Ms Gillard became Prime Minister, when she removed Kevin Rudd in late June 2010, Mr Abbott led on economic management by 47 per cent to 40 per cent.

At the election, Ms Gillard reversed the position but her rating has fallen dramatically since she announced the carbon tax and after a series of announcements of job losses and interest rate rises beyond the official Reserve Bank interest rate.

The Prime Minister has suffered a 14-point fall in support among Labor voters, from 89 per cent in 2010 to 75 per cent, and Mr Abbott's support among ALP supporters has doubled from 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

Labor's reputation as economic managers - enhanced during the Rudd government's handling of the global financial crisis, when Labor overtook the Coalition for the first time in decades as the preferred economic managers - took a further hit, with Mr Swan's loss of a lead over his Coalition counterpart.

In 2008, as the GFC hit, Mr Swan was preferred as federal treasurer by a margin of more than two to one over the then Coalition economic spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, 45 per cent to 21 per cent.

Previously, the Treasurer had trailed Ms Bishop's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, by 29 per cent to Mr Turnbull's 35 per cent.

Last weekend, the first Newspoll comparison of Mr Swan and Mr Hockey showed the two economic spokesmen virtually equal on 38 per cent for the Treasurer to 37 per cent for the opposition spokesman.

Mr Swan had a clear lead over Mr Hockey among younger voters, 39 per cent to 32 per cent. Mr Swan's appeal to Coalition supporters as Treasurer has dropped by half since 2008, from 30 per cent to 15 per cent last weekend, but support among Labor voters has risen from 64 per cent to 71 per cent.

In the past two weeks Ms Gillard, facing leadership pressure from Mr Rudd, and with Mr Swan facing internal criticism for his failure to communicate the strength of the economy, has tried to switch the political debate to the economy and take the main role as the economic salesperson.

Labor yesterday intensified its assault on the Coalition's economic credentials by releasing an internet advertisement highlighting the Opposition's mixed messages on the issue of when it would deliver a budget surplus.

The advertisement showed various Coalition frontbenchers giving differing answers to the surplus question, ranging from "as quickly as possible" to "it just depends" and "when we can see what the books are".

The advertisement contrasts the Coalition's lack of clarity with Labor's pledge to deliver a surplus in 2012-13.

But Mr Abbott has rejected the criticism of his economic team as "Labor spin" and swept aside suggestions he should promote Mr Turnbull to an economic portfolio to sharpen its message.

Mr Abbott yesterday declared he was "very happy" with his existing frontbench team and said an Abbott government would deliver a surplus "in year one".

For weeks Labor has been pressing the Coalition to make clear when and how it would deliver a budget surplus, with Mr Abbott, Mr Hockey and opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb giving a range of different answers.

Labor national secretary George Wright told The Australian the government had " a good story to tell" about the economy and that the Coalition was "a shambles". "What we are doing here is highlighting that Labor does have a plan on the economy to support jobs, to support growth and return the budget to surplus," Mr Wright said.

Earlier yesterday, Mr Abbott urged voters to ignore "Labor spin" about the economy. "Our commitment is to have a budget surplus in year one, and subsequently," Mr Abbott told Network Ten's Meet the Press program.

"And we can do that based on current Treasury figures."

Asked about his frontbench, Mr Abbott backed Mr Hockey and his economic team. "I think I have got the best people in the right places," the Opposition Leader said. He added Mr Turnbull was performing well in the communications portfolio.

He said NSW Senator Arthur Sinodinos, a former chief-of-staff to former prime minister John Howard who is often mentioned as fit for shadow cabinet, was chairing a Coalition deregulation taskforce.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/pm-losing-battle-over-economy-a...

Comments on this story

Grant Posted at 3:26 PM Today
$357 billion spent on top heavy government compared to $257 billion spent on government when the liberals were in power. There's your $70 saving just there. Typical Labor more bureaucracy TAX AND SPEND!! TAX AND SPEND!!

Joan of Adelaide of Adelaide Posted at 3:18 PM Today
The way Labor is ruining this Country is amazing - if they were running a business they would have had to declare bankruptcy by now. They are defrauding the Australian public and should have to pay for it - if necessary, through the Courts. They ae the most inept mafiocracy I have know in all of my 70 years.

As you know Longy the boom times had nothing to do with Howard unless you are claiming he was responsible for the massive debt and over spending in the USA and Europe which drove Chinas economic boom which in turn drove up demand and prices for our resources.
In what way was Howard responsible for the global growth and debt that was the engine room for the boom years?

adelcrow wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 5:16pm:


The Howard Govt came to power during the Asian recession it was hardly boom time.

Swagman wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 5:31pm:


The Asian recession was not a boom time for Australia either. We certainly paid no debt off during that period and in fact we were one quarter off being in recession ourselves.

adelcrow wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 5:35pm:


otherwise known as NOT IN RECESSION.

adelcrow wrote on Feb 13^th, 2012 at 5:54pm:


Then you should be able to show us what the debt Hawke/Keating inherited when they came into government

What debt did Rudd inherit?