Well for a start, I would prefer to have a fully qualified Captain up the front with years of experience, when the ship hit turbulance, not the earnest but still wet behind the ears Second Officer. Regardless of what you think of the Liberal Party and Costello, not to many starved under their watch, and while I have to agree with you, it might not make much difference to my super (that is right now being dictated to by world events) I would still prefer the experienced Capt up the front as long as the flight continues. As for your remarks about Paul Keating, you were obviously still at playschool, whilst that egomaniac dragged this country thru the "recession we had to have" and when the Aust public finally had had enough he left a debt you could not leap over. As for Whitlam the less said the better, just that my dog could organise his kennel better. Hawke whilst the best of a bad bunch, at least did not run the country into near bankruptcy, but as a 89er, once more the less said the better. Please tell me what Rudd has done so far, sure he said "sorry" and joined Kyoto which is not worth the paper its written on, but all the bloke does (when in Australia) is talk about "transparency" and other political claptrap, in fact the bloke can talk for twenty minutes without saying anything. The poor old pensioners are, according to my quack, starting to show signs of malnutrician, (yes I know the libs could have done more) but these are desperate times, and something needs to be done now, not after yet another review in Feb. Bob Carr, now there is a pollie for you, run NSW into near bankruptcy, whilst the NT had to get rid of Claire Martin whilst it was still solvent, Peter Beatty, well what can you say? Paid off by Rudd as he was getting on the nose, and given a "job for boys" OS, and then there was Mark Latham.....you can have em mate. Oh and don't forget Ms Neal from the NSW Central Coast "Don't you know who I am" and the phedophile from NTL. Yep, this country has a lot to look forward too, no doubt about it.