Is the change of this nation's jockey, just to get a dud neo-con horse across the line, ahead of the dud-Labor nag? Possibly. 

But at least the new jockey is not riding backwards while clowning about...

The headline of the Saturday Paper: "The End of an Error".

Sure but will this change make us complacent in accepting the unacceptable? 

Winning the next election is not the end of the race. Well, it could be for politicians but for us, it's only a peg in the dirt of house improvement:

What Turnbull has to do urgently:

Restore the confidence of the Aboriginal people by stopping the destruction of their settlements and working on recognition in the constitution.

Investigate the problem of global warming in earnest and propose a solution that supports renewables and eliminate subsidies to the fossil fuel industries in order to make a dint in the problem. Then eliminate fossil fuels.

Stop the Australian war planes in Syria — and for once stop listening to the double-dealing Yankees (and Saudis) on this subject.

Reinstate the Gonski reforms and boost the general confidence in PUBLIC education.

Remove the chaplaincy program.

Restore the funding to Universities to make them more democratically accessible

Improve health services and manage the influence of pharmaceuticals on the services

Restore funding to public scientific organisations.

Restore MANUFACTURING in this country — dice the FTA with China and control those made earlier with other country. 

Reduce the exposure of this country to currency speculations by whatever means

Stop "stopping the boats" in a manner that stops being a shameful embarrassment to this country.

Improve working conditions (Sweden has introduced the more productive and effective 6 hour day).

Restore the NBN plan of fibre to homes.

Get the marriage equality laws passed through parliament.

Move towards an Australian Republic.

Charm the Murdoch media to approve of all good things to come...

Tell his doubtful rich mates that these first steps in a simple program is for them to benefit (profit) from a better and more confident country prepared to face the future rather than flying back to the 1950s.

And of course fund the NDIS...

It's going to be a long hall...

During one of many spirited defences of the ousted prime minister, Jones read out a message he had received from a caller.

"As a caller just wrote to me, and forgive the language, but I mean we all talk the language of the playground, and he said: 'People don't want to vote for Turnbull, and they don't want to vote for [Labor leader Bill] Shorten. We've got a shit sandwich.' And I think that's most probably it."

One talkback caller, Geoff, asked Jones: "Are we going to get all these Green lefty bloody policies rammed down our throat? That's what bothers me, you know."

Jones said Australia had a "lot of thinking to do" following the events of Monday night.

"Tony Abbott was doing a magnificent job in very, very difficult circumstances and getting results, but unlike the others, he doesn't pump up his own tyres."

Jones also spoke to conservative commentator Andrew Bolt, who said "many, many, many" Liberal voters were "absolutely appalled at what's going on".

"They've panicked at the polling," Bolt said. "They rewarded people who leaked and betrayed Tony Abbott, and they've elected a guy who, when he was last leader of the opposition, had none of the communication skills he's now promising he has and can use to save the Liberals. It's a huge call."

Bolt said many people in the Liberal Party regarded Mr Turnbull as "Malcolm Turnbull first, party second".

Bolt: "Malcolm Turnbull I think still has trouble accepting advice from people he thinks aren't quite as smart as he is, and that is going to be a huge challenge for him, when it comes to healing the Liberal Party. Huge."

Abbott had retained a brace of time-serving Howard government ministers, some of whom had been there since the 1990s. It was an abrogation of leadership, and it showed in the failure of imagination the government had displayed at almost every turn. Even reform areas that had been flagged were being progressed only in lip-service - think tax, industrial relations, marriage equality.

The new Prime Minister's team is a different story. People have been chosen, not with an eye to the past, but with a mind to the future. Youth, ideas, energy, and articulation, have been rewarded over past contribution, and the right to rule.

Turnbull has sent a message to the party he now confidently leads, that promotion to cabinet is not a reward in itself, but an invitation to step forward and make a bigger contribution.

But politics remains the art of the possible. There both are speed limits to change, and debts to be paid.

There is concern among some National MPs their party has been overlooked in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Cabinet was sworn in this morning and included two new positions, both of which were given to Liberals.

The Nationals currently hold seven frontbench positions, including three in Cabinet.

Federal Member for Lyne David Gillespie told ABC Rural his party should technically have gained an extra seat in the Cabinet.

He said the Nationals were entitled to 3.59 seats in the Cabinet and the Liberal Party was entitled to 17.4, rather than the 18 it has now.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-21/nationals-feel-hard-done-by-in-cabinet-reshuffle/6791386

Now Turnbull says that appointments were made on merit... not on quotas...

There is a website that claims that :

The Liberal Party is supposed to be the custodian of Classical Liberalism and Conservatism. Malcolm Turnbull is neither. He is a leftist-progressive and secular humanist, who wants to take Australia in the same general philosophical direction as the Labor Party and the Greens.

Of course it is stupid rubbish. But should it be correct crap, then it seems that having a few progressive policies that will place this country back on track with a positive mood — after having been COMPLETELY derailed by Abbott — may not be such a bad idea... Then there is the case of Turnbull now trying to really improve the NBN rather than sabotage it as demanded by Abbott... 

So should Turnbull be a "Labor stooge" for improvements and a better Australia for all, then all the cartoonists and left wing commentators should bag him, as if he was a nasty Liberal (CONservative) to make sure they believe he is one of their own, while he is "one of ours"...

No offence Malcolm... Say no more.... 

But here on YD as I peruse through the toons and the comments of yesteryear, as the past is coming back to haunt the digisphere, it's starting to smell a bit like a dirt file cabinet... It's becoming too easy to add two and two like in the column :

the main art of politics is hiding the length of your nose...

Thucydides (/θjuːˈsɪdɨdiːz/; Greek: Θουκυδίδης, Thoukudídēs, Ancient Greek: [tʰuːkydídɛːs]; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian, political philosopher and general. His History of the Peloponnesian Warrecounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.[1][2]

He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcome of relations between states as ultimately mediated by and constructed upon the emotions of fear and self-interest.[3] His text is still studied at both universities and advanced military colleges worldwide.[4] The Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory while Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history, and classical studies.

More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians, and civil war.

read more and give a few bucks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thucydides

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/sep/23/at-last-we-can-relax-and-stop-paying-such-strained-teeth-gritting-attention-to-politics

Australia has the policies and the laws to tackle an epidemic of domestic violence but is failing to implement them, Quentin Bryce has said.

The former governor-general, who oversaw a landmark domestic violence report for the Queensland government this year, said she feared the focus on violence against women would fade before substantial change could be achieved.

Former sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who joined Bryce to discuss domestic violence at a feminism conference in Sydney, agreed. She said the issue was now “front and centre” of the national debate but could easily slip away.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/23/we-need-to-keep-up-pressure-on-tackling-domestic-violence-quentin-bryce-says

See dog on the moon cartoon straight above...

If you thought we'd see real change from the corrosive policies of Tony Abbott under this charming new prime minister then you are now sitting on a stationary train, just like the republic, writes IA's managing editor, David Donovan.

SO, AUSTRALIA DAY has come and gone for another year. I'm not sure about you, but I deplore the date this day is celebrated on. Surely we could find a better day — one inclusive of all Australians, not just post-colonial arrivals.

Of course, A. Day this year was distinguished by an open letter from all Australian state and territory leaders supporting Australia becoming a Republic. One might have thought that this would be manna from heaven for former Australian Republican Movement chair – now Australian prime minister – Malcolm Turnbull ... but no.

Charming Malcolm immediately kicked the (republi)can down the road, saying he didn't want to be part of another "heroic defeat". (Narcissism, much?) He then said that we should wait until the Queen's reign ends. When she dies, in other words — which could be 20 years from now, based on her mother's elongated lifespan. He said that momentum for a republic needs to come from the grassroots, not from politicians.

But wait a minute. Doesn't an Australian Republic need both? I mean, the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) may have quadrupled its membership since Peter FitzSimons took over as chair last year, but even if it had ten times more members, it wouldn't matter a bit if it can't find legislative support for its agenda.

read more: https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/charming-malcolms-stationary-train,8623

No, we did not. See toon at top...

See also: https://independentaustralia.net/australia/australia-display/charming-malcolms-stationary-train,8623

From Victoria Rollison

...

But this isn’t where the story ends. No, Turnbull really should have been careful what he wished for, and what deals he made with the devil to get what he wanted. All those relieved Abbott-mistake-makers who wanted Turnbull to undo their guilt are now slowly, yet surely, coming to the even more disappointing realisation that Turnbull hasn’t actually undone anything. Because nothing has substantially changed since Abbott was deposed. The car is still a lemon. The husband is still a dickhead. The budget is still a disaster. The NBN has been ruined. The ABC gagged. There is no legitimate climate policy. Social security is still on the chopping block. Gonski is a goner. There’s a risk of a GST rise. Super contributions might be frozen where they are. Australian born babies are being sent to a concentration camp on Nauru. Penalty rates could be a thing of the past. Unions are being bashed. Turnbull is willing to fight an election on zombie-like WorkChoices industrial relations policies. States are being bullied to raise taxes. There will be no Australian Republic under a PM who led the Republic movement. Marriage equality won’t happen. Therefore the decision Abbott voters made at the 2014 election is still haunting them.

http://victoriarollison.com/2016/02/06/careful-what-you-wish-for/

False advertising comes to mind... see toon at top. see also: 

house improvements...

If the Turnbull Government's present agonies become death throes and the election is lost, coping with opposition will test to its very core a Liberal Party that in power has been fractured and self-indulgent.

For a start, would the conservatives, who at the moment have an ideological mortgage over the party despite moderates holding some key Cabinet posts, be able to foreclose and, if so, with what consequences?

It's almost two years since a widely hailed moderate prime minister overthrew a conservative one.

Yet in many areas Malcolm Turnbull has not been able to assert his authority over the party. Instead, he has been forced to, or chosen to, accommodate the right's demands and embrace senior conservatives as his closest ministerial confidants.

The conservatives' very effective strategy — from their own point of view if not electorally — is to reap what victories they can while Mr Turnbull leads.

But their real moment could be in prospect if he loses (assuming he takes the party into the election).

It would depend on who emerged as leader — which in turn would be affected by the size of the defeat and the composition of the post-election party.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/liberal-succession-what-happens-if...

See comments (especially house improvements...) and toon at top... and see: blah blah blah blah...