Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey says the government's budget should aim to secure a better quality of life for all Australians.

Mr Hockey gave the Coalition's reply at the National Press Club - focussing on the budget's impact on everyday Australians..

He said the budget does little to curb net debt, and rising interest rates.

Mr Hockey also criticised the government for not being tough enough on public spending -

He vowed the Coalition would cut back on Canberra bureaucracy and also promised a reduction in regulatory costs on businesses, by at least one billion dollars a year.

Mr Hockey says he stands by the coalition's election costings, which the federal Treasury said last year were out by $10.6 billion.

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/05/18/Hockey_stands_by_election_costings_614407.html

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Still stands in the mud, poor Joe...

The Government today seized on the Opposition frontbencher's appearance on ABC1's Lateline where he described the Coalition's direct action climate policy as inefficient and expensive.

He says he is surprised by the way his latest comments have been reported and the reaction to them.

Mr Turnbull lost his party's leadership to Mr Abbott because of his support for emissions trading and has previously criticised the Coalition's direct action policy, saying it risks wasting billions of dollars.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/19/3221634.htm?section=justin

Gus: I would not be far off to say that the Liberal (conservative) Party is hoping Tony would grab the PMship from Labor at the next election — with his reckless aggressive bully behaviour — to be dumped immediately thereafter and replaced with Malcolm the Debonair and purveyor of more sensible outcomes... The conservative god moves in mysterious ways... Meanwhile Julia is very patient and, despite the media not understanding much, she's getting her way quietly... I hope Joe would wake up from the sordid stenchy swamp Tony has taken the libs into...

If it had been up to people like Joe Hockey we might not have an electricity supply, a telephone network, a rail system, roads in country regions, radio and television (''We may not be able to scrap the network: Hockey'', May 19). His government had one infrastructure project in 11 years, neglecting to do anything for water, the environment, or public health. In fact, these things went backward during that time.

The national broadband network will be a boon for public health, as it will help many country people to avoid travelling hundreds of kilometres for treatment or diagnosis.

It will enable some decentralisation, allowing some small businesses to compete better with those in the city.

When the copper network was installed, the uses it is put to now were never envisaged. It was seen as a public benefit, not a commercial enterprise. The same goes for rail, roads and hospitals.

The wireless network the Coalition keeps peddling would be an expensive waste, entirely incapable of delivering what is needed with any consistent quality of service. Hockey has never allowed facts to get in the way of any of his decisions.

David Ashton Orange

Stephen Hunt Drummoyne

This second letter says nothing but is only there because of its gnarly bite at Labor, passing as a "bon mot". In fact Labor has done far more for Australia in its four years of government than the Howard's government did in eleven. Come July, the Labor government will be able to bypass the destructive negativity of Mr No, Tony-Abbott-I-oppose-every-thing, in the senate and things will chug along further. The way Labor dealt with the WFC (world financial crisis) has placed Australia in a better position that many other countries. And please do not harp on the Howard government having created a surplus worth about three candle sticks while doing nothing to the infrastructure of this country and while workers carried the load.

Actually as Tony's negativity becomes irrelevant, he might get a knife in the back from his own party... Let's call it a tap on the shoulder... Turnbull knows? Joe knows?... I think they starting to have Tony's number...

SIMMERING tensions between Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott boiled over in a telephone clash when the shadow treasurer accused the Opposition Leader of embarrassing him and leaving him ''swinging in the wind''.

Several sources from both camps have confirmed to The Sun-Herald a fiery conversation in which both called in to question the other's loyalties and political ideology. One senior Liberal called it a "brutal, free and frank character assessment of each other's beliefs and performance".

The stoush between the former leadership rivals - in the lead-up to the May 10 budget - erupted after Mr Hockey was forced to back away from his suggestion in a keynote speech that family trusts should be taxed in the same way as companies.

Mr Hockey was immediately slapped down by Nationals leader Warren Truss and members of the conservative Right, who have long opposed any change to family trust tax arrangements due to their popularity with rural heartland voters.

Mr Hockey was forced to make an embarrassing public retreat, but he soon called Mr Abbott, furious at his lack of support. It is understood he was angry that he had been "left swinging in the wind" and he repeatedly made it plain he believed the Coalition needed to have firm policy outlines instead of Mr Abbott's current "small target strategy".

According to the sources, it then descended into a slanging match before ending abruptly without resolution. A shadow cabinet supporter of Mr Hockey's said he was determined to stand by his belief that the Liberal Party "needs to stand for something going into the next election and if that means taking an unpopular stance or having to thrash it out with the Nationals, then so be it".

Mr Abbott's office had no comment while a spokesman from Mr Hockey did not respond. But a Coalition source said the matter had been overblown and claimed a conversation matching "those descriptive terms did not take place".

Former leader Malcolm Turnbull's controversial appearance on the ABC's Lateline last week, just hours after Mr Hockey's largely panned budget reply at the National Press Club, has forced Mr Abbott to hand down an official edict on discipline.

HOW can you tell if the Coalition is thriving in the polls?

When senior members of the party begin a tired dance, jostling for position and prominence, played out under he trained spotlights of the nation's media.

Call it the Cocky Horror Liberal Show. It is a source of bafflement and frustration for members of the Coalition that each time it finds itself in a commanding position in the polls and in Parliament, leaks and internal party speculation about the leadership emerge.

A new poll out today shows Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull are the preferred leaders of the two major parties.

An Essential Media survey of 1,893 people shows 32 per cent support for Mr Rudd - nine points higher than for Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

But Ms Gillard, who took over the Labor leadership a year ago this month, is preferred by 51 per cent of ALP voters compared to 31 per cent for her predecessor.

Mr Turnbull has a three-point lead over Tony Abbott, with 25 per cent saying he would make the better Liberal leader.

But among Liberal and Nationals voters, 40 per cent prefer Mr Abbott, compared with 22 per cent for treasury spokesman Joe Hockey and 19 per cent for Mr Turnbull.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/30/3231032.htm

Yeah... these poll figures are as confusing as possum crap in the dark... There is often a tinge of desire to please a "mediatic" illusion ahead of really knowing what is happening. One has to make sense of actions and progress made by politicians. By now, we've got the best from the average bunch...

Rudd and Turnbull are sloppy in their own ways... Their ideas are sometimes interestingly there, but the follow through and the capitalisation of their own people's strength is left to be desired, in different ways. Rudd is bombastic, chummy to a fault. Turnbull is usually unaware of plots and machinations against him and can be naive in this area. Abbott is a little shit... He'll do anything to damage Labor and AUSTRALIA, at the same time. Hockey is a nice bloke who has a lot of decency but is quite average in the understanding of the greater pictures. Julia has the grit and the tenacity of a dog. She knows how to swim in dirty water... The water is dirty because all the others, from the independents to the the Greens and the Abbotts, plus the Labor envious, are throwing rubbish into the river... But can she swim!... so on a scale of one to ten:

Rudd is a five.

Malcolm is a four.

Hockey is a three and a half.

Abbott is in negative territory with a minus one.

Julia is a seven on the way to a nine. But the Murdoch media is going to place more rubbish in the river.

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See toon at top...