I didn't expect anything but 'Howard lite' from Rudd and the ALP, and I'm surprised that anyone would expect anything else of them. You surely didn't believe that electoral talk about an 'Education Revolution'?

This is the ALP we are talking about, not a progressive party at all. But also, bear in mind the electorate. I don't think Rudd would have had a chance if Howard had not over-reached with his 'Workchoices' package. There's no demand in the wider community for real reform. People just want their mortgage rates low, 'someone else' to pay for and fix climate change, and job security.

Brent
Conroy's ever broadening clean feed proposal has rocked me. I didn't expect a return to Howard's 1950s white picket fence suburbia. --

Re the education revolution: I have to admit that I did expect more solid policy stuff on upskilling urban work class kids so they can participate in a knowledge digital economy, even though I feared that little would be done to support universities and the formation of a knowledge economy.

'Is there a growing understanding that we should be thankful that what we have gained with the ascension of Kev + Julia is that the worst excesses of the Howard regime have gone?'

"Yes", I think is the answer, although even before the election I wrote that this was all I expected. And to keep things in proportion, it is no slight thing. At least we are free of a government led by a bloke who saw the world mainly as a bunch of 'political opponents' and spent his waking hours trying to gain political advantage from pitting Australians against each other, or against Muslims and other foreigners.

However I see little stomach for reform of anything anywhere in Australia ... just reactive incremental change. A genuine economic depression might have changed the mood but as it is I think most people will shrug their shoulders and think that if that's the worst they will cop from rampant selfishness and individualism as the dominant social values, why change them?

I think a lot of people were also too ready to believe federal Labor could operate at a different level to its state counterparts. They are all parts of the same institution and the rank sour incompetence we see in NSW can't somehow be transformed into forward-looking statesmanship in Canberra.

I expected an end to the divisive rubbish like dog whistling and Howard's wars against everything from terrorism to history. Not disappointed on that score.

I expected some meaningful policy on climate change. Disappointed doesn't quite describe my response to what we've ended up with.

I didn't expect an education revolution, but did expect something on public education. All we have is the laptop per child with such restricted internet access they might as well have given out typewriters.

The Taskforce has been making lovely noises but not actually doing anything.

Like Gary, the filtering thing comes as a shock from a Labor govt. And I bet Howard wishes he'd come up with the parallel importing thing. He would have loved to have shut down those literary types, even if it meant no new books about Don Bradman or Anzacs.

I was glad to se Howard and Co go. I'd had enough. They had long outworn their welcome.

I didn't the expect the attacks on artists such as Bill Henson by Rudd Labor in the name of wholesome family values. The cultural conservatism and defence of the turn to censorship by the police shocked me. Garrett just rolled over on this. Conroy deepens this attack that smacks of Catholic authoritarianism. Garrett is a show pony.

Kenneth Davidson says it well in The Age re climate change:

he CPRS is structured so that most of the revenue it raises will be recycled back to Australia's largest polluters rather than used to finance the massive increase in investment in renewable energy needed if Australia is to cut its emissions and maintain its living standards. Worse, even as the cap on emissions is lowered, the big polluters will be able to meet their lower targets by buying dodgy emission permits offsets from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia so that, according to Treasury forecasts, actual emissions by Australia's biggest polluters will be above 1990 levels until after 2035.

In other words, the CPRS, like similar schemes in Europe, is designed to slow down the structural change necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The real story, concludes Davidson, is how Australia's two major political parties have become as one in the service of Australia's major polluters.

Nan,
What's happened to Garrett reminds me of what happened to Ruddock. He was a member of Amnesty so Howard put him in charge of immigration detention and drained what little humanity he might have had.

Lyn,
re your comment: "The Taskforce has been making lovely noises but not actually doing anything."

Kate Lundy has said in an interview that agencies and departments were hesitant to implement social networking tools:

I actually think that because it is so new government agencies and departments don’t quite know how to frame a policy around what that interaction ought to look like. They may be worried that it looks and feels like a political relationship or it has a political overtone – it’s not the case. It’s a means by which they can better enhance their service delivery.”

Apparently local government is far more innovative in the use of social networking technology.

Gary,
I've been meaning to do a post on it. Bit busy at the moment.