Now let me be clear. The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle to grave assurance that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise the most goodies and the most benefits I'm not your president. You have that president today.

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

It is our job as members of parliament to legislate with an eye to the long term future to look over the horizon beyond the next election and ensure that as far as we can what we do today will make Australia a better place a safer place for future generations to live in.

A lost election can have the jolt of a drop through the gallows door leading to a dark night of the soul in which the future presses down like a cloud that will never lift.

I mean it's funny playing music how of course you want it to do well you want them to like it but it's not competitive like an election it's the Olympics it's not a Formula 1 race. The Billboard charts are just to show you what people like.

So why am I facing a recall election? Simple: the big government union bosses from Washington want their money. They don't like the fact that I did something fundamentally pro-worker something that's truly about freedom.

A nice easy place for freedom of speech to be eroded is comics because comics are a natural target whenever an election comes up.

To be fair lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.

Look Congress has allocated more money to finance the upcoming Iraqi elections than it has for the American elections. There's something wrong with that.

There's enormous progressive activism and more often than not success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.