Australia's top 10 political figures

[Goldenblue]

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work...e/news-story/5152c5c6dc20c0382d5246b97514cb17

Just wondering your thoughts on this list. While reading this in my bed i thought we could all have a go at our own top 10 lists and why we rate them. I will have a thought on my top 10 and come back to the thread.

With this list though, I really don't understand why John Hewson is in the list. In my opinion he was weak and he lost the unlosable election in 93. My man Keating is in it though so it made me happy.

Over to you.

 

[Gough]

Howard being there backs up my theory on him being the best politician I've ever seen. He had longevity, and little else to show for his time in charge. Actual achievements of the Howard government are pretty thin on the ground, and there's a line of thinking that suggests his time in power was damaging for the country in the long term. But still he's there, he's convinced people that he's something that he's not, the finest trick for a politician.

 

[Fire]

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work...e/news-story/5152c5c6dc20c0382d5246b97514cb17

Just wondering your thoughts on this list. While reading this in my bed i thought we could all have a go at our own top 10 lists and why we rate them. I will have a thought on my top 10 and come back to the thread.

With this list though, I really don't understand why John Hewson is in the list. In my opinion he was weak and he lost the unlosable election in 93. My man Keating is in it though so it made me happy.

Over to you.

Hewson is rediculous. I think he had a lot of integrity and was far more genuine than we are used to seeing in politicians; but he was not influential in the slightest, which makes a mockery of the list.


Howard is likewise looking a bit weak on the list and only gets in because hes contemporary. But he WAS influential in our generations; for betteror worse.

In the future he'll be nothing but a footnote. If hes remembered, it will be for being on the wrong side of gay marrage, and the source of a future apology for how we treated assylum seekers.

His refusal to apologise to Aboriginals wont be remembered though, lucily for him, as it is burried in a long list of injustices there with plenty more to come.

Still a much greater claim to the list than Hewson though.

 

[Benny78]

1. Peter Costello - Handed out a lot of jewish candy between 04-07
2. Greg Evans
3. Midnight oil guy
4. Howard the millennial savior
5. Krudd the socialist
6. Abbott - A ****** that all other ******s could relate to
7. Joe Hockey - The first packet of jewish candy for 13yrs. A viagra pill for olde conservatives.
8. Wayne Swan - Worse treasuer of all time
9, Gillard - Female politican
10. Derryn Hinch - Fringe ******* that is surprisingly supported by non-******* voters

Paul Keating gets no mention because he was not the GOAT Costello was.

 

[tandino]

I'd have thought that Macquarie and Parkes would have gotten a look in, and Phillip and Bennelong as well.

 

[Gough]

Moss Cass, for facial hair alone.

 

[DaRick]

Hewson over Menzies is amazing.

Hewson turned the LNP towards a neoliberal course*, but his reign was comparatively short and he was out-maneuvered completely in an election he should have won easily.

*Something he seems to regret nowadays.

 

[Brunswick Trap King]

1. Gough.

Don't really care for the others.

 

[Pessimistic]

Where's Murdoch?

Howard is zero

Current policy offerings from both sides are every bit as detailed as hewsons so I don't really get it

Small target after fightback! (Don't forget the ! Sheesh amateurish) didn't last long at all

 

[Ok Boomer]

Apparently introducing Work Choices took "courage".

 

[Father Jack]

Howard lost the popular vote in '98, was rescued by the Tampa in '01 from a near impossible position and was handed the '04 election on a platter by Labor having an unelectable leader, and then once he was handed a senate majority went on to prove just how out of touch he was by steering the LNP to a crushing defeat, all the while frittering away a once-in-a-generation resources-based opportunity to do some proper nation building .

Combined with his refusal to hand over leadership to his deputy as per a prior agreement (which would clearly have been the best thing for the party, despite his oft-repeated claims of serving just for as long as the party wanted him, a party that turned out to be nothing more than a collection of hidebound cowards), he cemented his legacy as a brazen opportunist only interested in his own power, with setting the country back decades being his only real legacy.

 

[Pessimistic]

Where's Murdoch?

Howard is zero

Current policy offerings from both sides are every bit as detailed as hewsons so I don't really get it

Small target after fightback! (Don't forget the ! Sheesh amateurish) didn't last long at all

Murdoch is surely the biggest political figure to come out of this country

 

[Fire]

Apparently introducing Work Choices took "courage".

Even if it was he lost the eection and it was rolled back so thats hardly influential.

 

[roscreasl98]

Even if it was he lost the eection and it was rolled back so thats hardly influential.

Derryn Hinch is number 1. Has always stood up for what he believes in, including stints in jail. His actions speak louder than many others words. His stance against paedophiles is both courageous and amazing.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Wheres Jim Cairnes?

 

[Pie eyed]

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work...e/news-story/5152c5c6dc20c0382d5246b97514cb17

Just wondering your thoughts on this list. While reading this in my bed i thought we could all have a go at our own top 10 lists and why we rate them. I will have a thought on my top 10 and come back to the thread.

With this list though, I really don't understand why John Hewson is in the list. In my opinion he was weak and he lost the unlosable election in 93. My man Keating is in it though so it made me happy.

Over to you.

Dump Howard for Hawke and he is not far off.
Howard is a detestable coward who sent us to war illegally and destroyed our history of nonaggression.
Then wasted a decades worth of wealth on idiotic ideological compost. Should have been hung.

 

[Breustiful]

Keating and Hawke by a long shot.

 

[Reynolds Number]

Keating, Hawke, Howard, Whitlam and Menzies easily the most influential PMs.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Keating, Hawke, Howard, Whitlam and Menzies easily the most influential PMs.

After Curtin.

 

[spinynorman]

Apparently introducing Work Choices took "courage".

Apparently Lyons is the most courageous ever for deciding to exacerbate the effects of the Depression on the poor.

This guy apparently thinks siding with the powerful against the powerless is courageous.

 

[Todman]

After Curtin.

Curtin was a dud, we are fortunate that he was often too sick to run the country. most of the good work was done by his deputy (Ben Chifley), but both men danced to the tune that General Douglas MacArthur played.

Curtin resisted Churchill and kept our troops out of Europe, won big in the 1943 election 49 of the 74 lower house seats and all senate seats that were up for grabs to have control of both houses. It was the death knoll of the UAP.

Bouyed by the success of the 1943 election Curtin attempted to take complete control of the Australian Economy by way of the 1944 Referendum.

As Arthur Fadden said.
It's proposal means that in peacetime, you will work under government compulsion, you will eat and wear what the bureaucrats ration out to you: you will live in mass-produced government dwellings: and your children will work wherever the bureaucrats tell them to work! If granted nothing can be made, produced, built or grown without permission. Everything that is grown or made, carried or carted, sold or exchanged will be under government control. A yes vote would enable the Government to implement Labour's policy of socialization. Nationalization of Industry would follow.

We are so lucky Curtin died when he did.

As for Chifley , his greatest achievement was to have 3 mistresses on the go at the same time. A myriad of strikes by the communist lead trade unions, aborted attempt to nationalise the banks, sending in the army to break the coals miners strike, and keeping the populace on rations card lead to his defeat in 1949.

 

[Dawn to Dark]

Phuong ngo

 

[Pessimistic]

Curtin was a dud, we are fortunate that he was often too sick to run the country. most of the good work was done by his deputy (Ben Chifley), but both men danced to the tune that General Douglas MacArthur played.

Curtin resisted Churchill and kept our troops out of Europe, won big in the 1943 election 49 of the 74 lower house seats and all senate seats that were up for grabs to have control of both houses. It was the death knoll of the UAP.

Bouyed by the success of the 1943 election Curtin attempted to take complete control of the Australian Economy by way of the 1944 Referendum.

As Arthur Fadden said.
It's proposal means that in peacetime, you will work under government compulsion, you will eat and wear what the bureaucrats ration out to you: you will live in mass-produced government dwellings: and your children will work wherever the bureaucrats tell them to work! If granted nothing can be made, produced, built or grown without permission. Everything that is grown or made, carried or carted, sold or exchanged will be under government control. A yes vote would enable the Government to implement Labour's policy of socialization. Nationalization of Industry would follow.

We are so lucky Curtin died when he did.

As for Chifley , his greatest achievement was to have 3 mistresses on the go at the same time. A myriad of strikes by the communist lead trade unions, aborted attempt to nationalise the banks, sending in the army to break the coals miners strike, and keeping the populace on rations card lead to his defeat in 1949.

Australia seems to have taken a moderated view to whatever economic fad was in vogue. The brits just can’t help themselves leaping from extreme to extreme

Eg nationalisation v Thatcherism etc.

Your examlple from Curtin and the voters tellin Hewson to stick fight back! In a very warm wet smelly place

Even today we have the brexit farce, which people are trying to use to get their policies up by stealth

 

[Ratts of Tobruk]

Howard being there backs up my theory on him being the best politician I've ever seen. He had longevity, and little else to show for his time in charge. Actual achievements of the Howard government are pretty thin on the ground, and there's a line of thinking that suggests his time in power was damaging for the country in the long term. But still he's there, he's convinced people that he's something that he's not, the finest trick for a politician.

Hewson is rediculous. I think he had a lot of integrity and was far more genuine than we are used to seeing in politicians; but he was not influential in the slightest, which makes a mockery of the list.


Howard is likewise looking a bit weak on the list and only gets in because hes contemporary. But he WAS influential in our generations; for betteror worse.

In the future he'll be nothing but a footnote. If hes remembered, it will be for being on the wrong side of gay marrage, and the source of a future apology for how we treated assylum seekers.

His refusal to apologise to Aboriginals wont be remembered though, lucily for him, as it is burried in a long list of injustices there with plenty more to come.

Still a much greater claim to the list than Hewson though.

I think I recall Ceasar or someone claiming that a lot of 'Fightback!' was put in place under Howard/Costello. The GST was obviously a part of both, but Hewson wanted 15%. I don't know enough of the specifics, but proposals in 'Fightback!' (like getting rid of bulk billing) seem odd. Hewson also changed it himself, so it probably wasn't much of a policy behemoth. It certainly seems like pretty standard Australian right-wing policy.

Hawke, Keating and Gough would be top 5, if not top 3, I would've thought. I don't know enough about historical politics (Deakin? Nicholls? Bonner?), but from our early history I think Phillip was perhaps 'nobler', but Macquarie far more influential. Mabo is probably one of the better representatives of the egalitarian spirit? Peter Lalor of the Eureka Stockade didn't reflect that seemingly Democratic push in the other aspects of his life.

 

[Pessimistic]

Murdoch for global influence, similar Assange. More unknown for influence would be William Heseltine who worked close with queen Elizabeth many years. Mel Gibson who’s Braveheart movie moved scots to vote for autonomy more than any politician. How many movies have done that

Actual office bearers. Curtin, Chifley, Hawke, Keating from one side. Menzies an Howard the other

Writer must be chum of Henson’s. hewson pretends to be mr moderate these days he would have been as cold a leader as they come. Might as well have Latham in there didn’t he limit the size of the trough the snouts are in.

That’s only two coalition. Let’s add in Joh and Jeff for good measure