I liked Rudd. It's a shame he got kicked out.

Gilliard seems a bit ruthless and Abbott just seems like a wanker.

I saw Conroy debating Tony Smith (relevant shadow minister) on ABC last night. The Liberal Party's plans to slash the National Broadband plan to a $6b patch job would limit business growth in regional centres, with some places capped to a theoretical maximum 12Mbit/s over wireless.

Smith refused to divulge the percentage of households that would be limited to the base level, stating that their minimal fibre backbone would "promote competition in regional areas". What this means is that the Liberal Party wants the network to be built by competing businesses. That sounds well and good, but what the hell has Telstra done for the last 12 years of this? Businesses would only build it if they saw potential to profit from it, and the regional population is too scattered to have any chance of that.

My idea is, the NBN is too important to throw away for a patch job, even if Labor has plans to censor it. As long as the physical structure is up, a logical firewall can be torn down anytime, with enough backlash from the population.

All Tony Abbot stands for is being 'anti Labor'.  His policies aren't anything new or interesting.

- Scrapping the NBN is a terrible idea.  Australia CAN afford it and it needs it to stimulate growth in regional areas.  The capitals can't cope anymore and the divide between regional and capitals will only get bigger if left to private investment.  How about growing the entire country for a change.

- There is no boat people problem.  Illegal immigration is tiny in Australia.

- Australia needs to make sure it gets a cut of the mineral wealth, it won't be around forever.  Mining companies won't leave because of an additional tax, they are raking in the profits.  Infrastructure projects are a good investment.  See what norway did with it's oil wealth and compare with, say, the UK.

That said Labor have issues too.

- Internet filter.  Idiots.

- Firing your leader was a stupid thing to do.  People elected their PM, the party shouldn't intervene.  If you are doing a bad job then live with it.

I'm conflicted. I can see the benefits of the NBN but wonder just how many billions will be skimmed off the top by shysters in the implementation this time. Already a Labor mate Mike Kaiser has been handed a massive 450k salary on this project with virtually no qualifications in the field. The position wasn't advertised... The government doesn't have a great track record spending our money and 43 billion is a lot of money. 

After using this as a campaign promise 3 years ago, the only thing to show for it so far is implementation in a section of Tasmania...how much longer will the ALP use this as a dangling carrot to sway voters - the damn thing will be done in 2020 when something cheaper and faster is available. 

Though the good thing about Fiber optic is that, unlike copper, you do not need to re-lay new cable when newer technology is out. It's usually a simple matter of upgrading the hardware on either side of the Fibre.

This project will most definitely pay for itself in the long run, unlike the cheap ways out that Telstra attempted when "upgrading" the copper network (pair gain left many households unable to get ADSL)

Recent Polls indicate: Tony Abbott will win the election. Coalition will win 73 to 80 seats. Small majority between 1 and 3 seat. Coalition wins 73 to 75 seats, 3 Independents will decide the election. 3 Independents former Coalition  MPs will put the Coalition in government. 76 seats out of 150 seats are needed to win government. 

The Coalitions odds have plunged significantly in the last 48 hours. Labor government remains favourites, however their time is up. Hopefully Mr Abbott is a man of action and he delivers on his promises. 

History will be made one way or another. Coalition win and Mr Abbott's government makes history by ousting a first term Labor government for the first time in 80 years. Labor wins and Ms Gillard becomes the first elected female  PM of Australia.

Ms Gillard: Can we risk Tony Abbott? Tony will bring back Work Choices. Tony will cut education. Tony will cut health. Tony does not believe in families. Tony does not believe in a fair go. 

Mr Abbott: The worst government ever does not deserve a second chance. Move forward with Labor will be moving deeper into debt. I will stop the  boats. I will stop the big new tax. I will stop the waste. I will pay back Labor's debt. Australia can not risk Labor. 

My Verdict: Informal vote(blank) in the House of Reps. Vote 1 for Green in the Senate. 

BULLSHIT - Wtf are you talking about?

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/

Betting odds are tightening because thats what they do in the last 24 hours.

150 seats in the Federal election:

Coalition won 73 seats.

Labor won 72 seats.

Greens won 1 seat

Independents won 4 seats.

Labor lost 16 seats in net total. Coalition gained 15 seats and the Greens gained 1 seat.

Labor had 88 seats, reduced down to 72 seats and their majority disappeared.

Labor lost big time and I am a big Labor fan and Labor has lost the right to govern and lost its majority from last election.

The Australian people have decided that Mr Abbott will become our next PM. Labor paid the price for its bad government, its mismanagement and it sacked its own elected PM. Labor did not respect democracy by axing Rudd. Australian people were denied that chance to vote his government out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pNDLzx9vyU

Hitler's reaction over the hung parliament decision. 

POSTAL VOTES

And, considering that most ex-national independants LEFT The Nationals because they hated them, Labor has a much better shot at forming government.

Also -

- ETS is supported by farmers

- NBN is supported by a few independants

- Labor AND Green votes together beat Liberal/National votes