Clearly our present Howard government is arrogant beyond belief.

The opinions of Australian voters count for nothing, zero, nada, zip. You only have to think back to the pre-war-in-Iraq days. Australians made it clear, with polls showing 96% of Aussies against our involvement. "Not in our name" was the catch cry. Yet Howard dismissed our opinions and was quoted as saying, "The mob haven't made up their mind."

Now take a close look at that word "Mob". That is exactly what Howard thinks of the Australian voters. To John Howard we are nothing but a "mob" who, in his opinion, know nothing of the real issues. John Howard thinks, like all governments do that the people know nothing and government "knows best".

This is precisely what's wrong with Australian governments whatever their party. They have overstepped their actual charter. They're there to do as we tell them. Nothing more.

Yes I could not agree more! this is a prime example of the people being right and the government getting it Oh So Wrong..

The information given as to the reasons for the war were either exaggerated, fabricated or just plain lies. The people in their wisdom however knew that war is not an answer to any problem.

The real reason in my opinion was Saddam Hussein was selling his oil in EURO dollars and many others were getting on the band wagon (hence the axis of evil), the US dollar was falling through the floor and the biggest debtor nations could not stand by and watch the mighty US go into depression, however this has not stopped the depression that will come, the US dollar is falling again! Any nation that thinks it can lead the financial world when all it exports is paper dollars is in for a rude shock.

All the war in Iraq did was postpone the inevitable and kill many thousands of innocent victims putting the rest of the world offside, so that when the inevitable does happen they won't have many friends left.

The really big question here is - What on earth was the Howard government thinking when they decided to get us involved?
And how on earth did it happen when the opposition opposed it, the independents opposed, it and the people opposed it? Can just ONE man send a democratic nation to war? If so that is not a democracy but a dictatorship, the arrogance of the man is unbelievable. Now we the people have to live with the consequences.

The Howard government stinks! But so does labour. The real problem with Australian politics is our ridiculous 2 party system with an equally ridiculous preferential system.

Our political system is fatally flawed.

Governments in Australia always talk of this reform or that reform but never do they talk of political reform and a better way to represent the Australian people.

There's something really wrong with our democratic system when Howard can come into power with just 30% of Aussies wanting him governing and 70% NOT wanting howard. This is the reality of our flawed political system.

We need a better way, a better system because our two-party system ensures we'll never get change for the better.

Politicians are NOT interested in fixing the system because they're the ones who are profiting by it. It IS that simple.