Mr Howard was very clever (in a diabolical way) to lay on what 'great shape the country is in' that he bequeaths to the new government. Bit of legacy-building, no? Bit of 'Labor always equals recessions', no?
That one needs nipping in the bud quick fast, as I would have thought that half the point of this whole year was that, while there may be plenty of 'prosperity' sloshing around, the country really is not in such great shape.
Agreed on the Greens, at least I would like to see them develop as a really proper significant third party so that nobody can say it's only a two-party state anymore. The day may come where Labor can only govern in a Green coalition, not unlike, well... the Coalition has historically done with the Nationals.
But I think that day is decades off. Just as the corpse of the Nationals seems to keep on twitching, the rise of the Greens is a very long term project. For right now, I value them mainly as a brake on major party Senate control.