Favourite Prime Minister (2 Viewers)

[Jonathan A]

LOL...well said. I'm actually a liberal supporter if you read my other posts. LOL

Well mate, you can't be. The party and its member had 100% pretty much in backing John Howard on his stance on Iraq. On many cases the paryt has continually backed John Howard. Now that people are probably saying that we are brainwashed, this is not true. You would be very surprised at the opinion of many members and if you were a liberal supporter I'd imagine you form part of our left faction.

 

[waterfowl]

My favourite would have to be the one who had the same name, and birthdate as me.

 

[Trippendicular]

Well mate, you can't be. The party and its member had 100% pretty much in backing John Howard on his stance on Iraq. On many cases the paryt has continually backed John Howard. Now that people are probably saying that we are brainwashed, this is not true. You would be very surprised at the opinion of many members and if you were a liberal supporter I'd imagine you form part of our left faction.

I like how its not alright for you to use generalisations such as "the party and its member had 100% pretty much backing in John Howard", I'm sure you personally asked all Liberal members for their perspectives. Whereas before you were criticising others for pre-supposing "people have the same point of view as you"

 

[leetom]

It's good sitting on the fence, but your bottom gets sore after a while.

He's not fence sitting. Scroll to top of page.

For me, a Grand National Council of the States should take over the PM's role. Beattie, Carr and Bracks all working together on a national level- progress.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Best PM would be: Menzies, Hawke or Howard. They are also amongst the more hated - for many reasons that are valid and probably more which are not.

The title of Australia's worst PM sits firmly with Whitlam. Dispite his many reforms, he forgot that they came with a cost, sure no university fee's is a good thing, but when you weigh it up against everything else it was an idealistic and non-pratical idea, as many of his were.

 

[Trippendicular]

But of course to many, Whitlam would be one the best Prime Ministers, its all a matter of opinion as to whether his policies were idealistic of successful, I believe the stability of modern Australian society was partially the result of his reforms

 

[Phanatical]

...when we have a substantial amount of both Taiwanese and Chinese people in Australia.

That's like saying we have a substantial amount of both Victorians and Australians in Australia. Taiwanese ARE Chinese.

 

[Riewe]

In my lifetime, i would say John Howard, cause it's him against Hawke and Keating, and i quite like him as the leader of my country as a matter of fact. Compared to the direction that the Labor PMs were going, i'm quite happy with what's happening now.

However, when i look back, i would say John Curtin is the best PM Australia ever had. Leading the country during the time of its greatest threat needed some great character and it seemed Curtin had it. His policies and leadership during WWII could have led to the defeat of the Japanese, but it depends on which way you look at it.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

The truth is tho... australia doesn't have any "Great" PM's in the way that America has "Great" presidents.

 

[jm1234567890]

kim beazley cause he could be santa claus

 

[ohne]

I think Hawke is the best. The ALP has only spent 16 years in power since 1950 and he presided over most of that time. An excellent achievement given the ALP has spent so little time in power.

His best achievment is opening up the Australian economy to the world and challenging the protectionist thought that prevailed previously. I disagree with a great deal of what he did but you have to admire him for that stand. He also significantly scaled back government intervention in the economy which I admire, something which Malcolm Fraser couldn't do.

Paul Keating was treasurer at this time and should be admired for this but I can't stand the Brit and Royal bashing.

I think Howard is the best non Labor PM. He has continued the economic reform of his predecessor while still delivering stability through our institutions like the Monarchy. He is not a real visionary like Hawke although he is a master at selling a popular message to the electorate and moulding Australian culture.

 

[thaoroxy2001]

Whitlam :uhhuh:

 

[ohne]

I think Whitlam had the potential to be the best PM. In the end he became one of the worst if not the worst. The main problem is the ALP was out of power for so long that when they came back they wanted to do a lot of things too quickly. His views on economics where deeply flawed and his cabinet was largely a bunch of clowns which did not help.

If he had of staggered his policies over time he would have been far more successful.

I think Margaret Thatcher is the best PM of all time if we look at countries other than Australia.

 

[soha]

omg..this is incredibly sad
i remember we used to live in punchbowl..like 13 years ago..and we used to say punch bowl..punch bobhawk hahahah hahahah
like they were so similar..it was soo funny
i was 5..leave me alone

 

[Iron]

I think Margaret Thatcher is the best PM of all time if we look at countries other than Australia.

Not to get dogmatic about this, but Thatcher was a fucking loon. She brought her little island to near ruin for the sake of an uncreative idea and ego.

I wouldn't say Menzies isnt hated. He chose to rule rather than govern early in the process and remained in power becasue of luck and stupidity of labour.

The mere suggestion of Howard being up there is mad. It's a pity when actual acts of a government are overlooked becasue 'they were around for a while'.

 

[line_backer]

stupidity of labour.

irony.....[labor]

 

[Iron]

Im not going to edit that becasue you make a good point and I want to slip in my affections for The True Believers, The Light on the Hill etc. *conceeds*

 

[Vahl]

ur obviously another up-tight conservative middle-class liberal stooge... wat has howard done? answer: screw up unions, divided rich and poor (uni fees, health care etc etc), good economic management my ass; look at the current account deficit, rising inflation and interest rates, de-regulation of tertiary education to make it harder for the poor to access uni's, killing social security, de-regulation of labour market pushing wages down (enterprise bargaining), not funding public school enough, reducing taxes for the rich (may 2004 budget, everyone over $50,000 gets tax breaks - no one under $50,000), straining economic ties between china and australia by not commiting to a position over taiwan, lying about children over-board, iraq, lying about keeping interest rates low (spending big before election and increasing aggregate demand =>inflation=> .25% rise in rates), doing nothing about james hardie, not protecting tasmanian forests, not protecting domestic employment (e.g. qantas) etc etc....

Not only this. Howard is likely to use the current account deficit that HE allowed to occur as a justification to improve the efficiency of Australian business through further labour market reforms.

A better way to improve the efficiency of Australian business would be to get the most capable people working in the right positions in the first place by removing artificial modifiers on student's results and therefore access to uni/Tafe study and jobs etc. ie eliminate private schools and full fee paying places at uni etc.

 

[Comrade nathan]

Easy Bob Hawker, Reason simple Beer

 

[Sheehan :)]

hmmmm.....Keating would be my best bet.....great speaker........also Whitlam......his the man who started all the changes......so yeah those 2 are gr8.............edda