Here he explains his change on parental leave: “I am pleased that on this issue I have been able to grow ... I have listened to my wife, I have listened to my daughters, I have listened to my colleagues, I have listened to my friends and I have tried as best I can to enter into their experience, to understand their hopes and their dreams.”

And on Channel 9: “I don’t apologise for growing out of old-fashioned positions ... “

As you wisen with your wrinkles, you are more likely to realise plans are best judged by consequences, not intentions. And that it’s usually better to give people room to live their own dreams rather than laws to make them live yours.



Of course, some people move against this drift to conservatism. Malcolm Fraser, once a flinty Liberal prime minister, now revels in being a hero of the Left.



But the point is all of us feel free to change our political opinions with time and experience, and actually consider that healthy.



Yet there’s one group of people we think should never do the same - the very people who should most have that freedom, since few take their politics more seriously.



It’s our politicians, who, once they choose their party, are damned to life imprisonment in it.

[url=http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/column_real_leaders_change_too_and_one_even_lies/]Read the rest here.[/url]

I also wrote to both parties re pensioners, I never even got a reply from Abbott or anyone on his team--I did get one back from Gillard or her team--mind you it was just telling what they had already done and nothing more promised.



I don't like either party at this time and don't trust either of them.

Jessej,

I am not a labour plant as you called me, I have been a swinging voter all my life, and vote for the party that I think will be the better government at the time of the election.

I do not understand why anyone would vote for a party just because they are liberals, or labour.

This labour government did the right thing by keeping people employed during the GFC, if the liberals had had their way hundreds of thousands of people would have lost their jobs and would be on the dole now.

Gillard's problem is she opened with a 'doctored' personality, thanks to her advisers, and if there's one thing Aussies can see through quickly its a phony. Then she changed to giggling and laughing at all the tough questions, trying to charm her way into the lodge with the boyfriend. When that didn't work she used the scare-mongering campaign of Work Choice revival while the Electrical Trades Union have donated $300,000+ of their members money to the Greens to have Fair Work changed.



Then comes the NBN where those already connected in Tas. are only using it at 25mbps, which is far from the promised 100mbps.



Abbott is a poor communicator, but what you see is what you get.

Well I have tried to read about the different policies and what each lot are advocating, but how can you possibly make an educated decision on who to vote for when you know damn well what they are promising now will mean damn all when they get in. They should be made to put the policies in writing and sign on the dotted line then present it to us. When we decide which is the better one to go with for the future of this country and the people in it then they should be made to stand by what they promised.

Is this ever likely to happen? No. So we muddle through, stick a pin in the ballot paper & hope to hell we get it right in the end.

I for one have never liked the preferential system. I would rather have the vote for the party, get the party. Then we all know where we stand.

I am still not sure who I am going to vote for. Not one of them have offered us pensioners a glimmer of a hope, so what are we to do?

I at least am getting somewhere with my food giveaway. It has now been moved to the PCYC in Tweed Heads and the Global Care group are going to take over the running some time in the next 4 to 6 weeks. They will bring a truck down with food and start the storehouse in a small way until they find a warehouse to house it. At last we are getting somewhere with cheaper groceries for pensioners. It has taken 2 years but now I see a light in the tunnel. Then I can toddle off to hospital & let them carve my spine up to hopefully get it back into some sort of straight line. Just hope I come out in one piece.

It is just a big shame on this government/s that we have had to resort to taking action ourselves to give the pensioners a cheaper way of buying groceries. Had they given us a decent income all the way through we would not have had to go through 2 years of hard work.

I feel the same Terib--have read up on all of them and like some from some but hate a lot from a lot--they are all out to win and will tell us anything.

Abbott is a poor communicator, but what you see is what you get.

--



Yes thats what I am afraid of

if the liberals had had their way hundreds of thousands of people would have lost their jobs and would be on the dole now.

This is one of the distortions put out there by Labor . It implies the Lib/Coalition opposed all stimulus measures. Wrong. The Lib/Coalition approved of the first stimulus package but said the second was unnecessary and over heated. They have been proved correct.





Malcolm Turnbull was willing to work with the Govt on a bi-partisan basis to assist getting through the crisis...but was knocked back.





I don't care who anyone votes for, contrary to what some people on here think. What I do care about is that so many people who don't seem to follow what is going on until an election is announced, pop up out of nowhere, parroting the Labor ads, which are a mixture of out of context quotes and downright untruths.

Both Labor and Liberal are trying to sell themseves and so they lie and cheat--one no better than the other