Gary
the only one refusing to walk away from Howard's house is Tony Abbott. He's into issuing threats of a latter challenge to the new leader.

The Liberals are divided over whether to abandon the policies that caused their defeat and are uneasy about the legacy of the past 11½ years.The leaders may be warm and cuddly but the Liberal party is going to move to the right.

Nan,
I see that John Quiggin is saying:

But it’s impossible to avert our eyes from the trainwreck on the other side of politics.....At this point, Turnbull seems like the only hope the Liberals have for change from within. If he succeeds, the party will be changed beyond recognition from that of Howard and Costello. If he fails, it’s hard to see the Liberal party surviving in its current form.

Aptly said. It's Malcolm to rescue the shell-shocked Liberal Party from self-destruction. Will 2007 mark the end of the Liberal Party itself--- a slow painful death?

It will be Brendan Nelson who will be the new leader--all those years of assidiously supporting the backbench. It is unclear what Turnbull and Nelson stand for by way of future policies. Andrew Robb will be deputy leader.

Honestly, who cares what the Liberals think? They are now irrelevant. That will be hard to deal with.

Nan,
The key problem with the big claims about the Liberal 's supremacy in economic management was that though the resources boom generated income, they did not invest it on hospitals, health care, broadband schools and training centres, low cost public transport, better cities and good public housing. They tossed it all away on tax giveaways which were then spent on consumer goods to put in energy inefficient homes that are very expensive to cool or heat.

Yes you are right about lots will not change. Lots of those that critised Howards way will just continue on to Rudd. The downside of metooism.
Glad to see that you too have noticed that he has been in power for 5 days and done nothing. The Bastard!

Gary,

They jettisoned warm and cuddly when they chose Nelson. And after watching Abbott on Lateline last night I agree with Nan. The Liberals are moving to the right. For the nonce anyway, but they've got plenty of nonce to play with.

Peter,
The fallout will continue long after the electoral defeat. The Liberals have few friends in high places, the ideas bank is close to empty,there is little money in the coffers and the factions are in tension mode around the country.

Nelson represents the conservative side of the Liberal partry, ie., those who want to retain most of Howard's agenda. I guess they will try and salvage what they can.

Lyn,
I see that the new Liberal leadership is unable to make a formal apology to the stolen generation of indigenous people Nelson said on The 7.30 Report:

We are very proud of what our forebears did at Gallipoli and other campaigns.That doesn't mean that we own them. Similarly, we feel a sense of shame in some ways of what was done in the past where … Aboriginal people were removed from what were often appalling conditions. We, in my view, we have no responsibility to apologise or take ownership for what was done by earlier generations.

And Julie Bishop said:

"It's now up to the new government to take a position on this and then we will respond accordingly … I think we need to consult within the party to ensure that everybody understands where we are going with this issue.

The conservatives in the Liberal Party will use the apology as a point of difference between themselves and Rudd's Labor. If Work Choices drove Howard's battlers back to Labor, then the conservatives in the working class will see an apology as a derogation from the national pride that Howard had so assiduously proclaimed during his ascendancy.

Nan,

Yes I thought that too. A replay of Howard's nonsense. It's pointless though.

If it's aimed at the battlers then they should also dump workchoices, which seems to be a much dirtier word than sorry.

I don't think the Liberals have comprehended the corner that's been turned in politics that will, in turn, have an impact on policy and governance. They have no clue of how important the symbolic part of it is. Nor do they seem to understand the role their own intervention plays in this. Poor sods.