We live in a grittier part of the city

I cannot believe Tony Abbott will be Prime Minister 
(AP Photo/dpa, Susanne Petersohn)

I started my training in my Community Orientation for Expatriates course. My fellow students are – as expected - almost all young women with small children.

There is one Chinese guy who doesn’t speak much English so we had some trouble communicating.

Of course they all live in Carmel – where 99% of expatriates end up – and which was voted by Money magazine in 2012 as the ‘best place to live in America’.

We live in a grittier part of the city which suits us just fine. 

I have refrained from commenting on the Australian Federal election - which happens on Saturday - because I find the concept of Tony Abbott being Prime Minister so execrable that it makes my teeth curl.

He is – I regret to say – the leader of a party which reflects some of the worst attributes of the Republican party in the USA.

He is famous for saying ‘Climate change is crap’ – and will scrap the current government’s carbon tax as soon as he gets into office  - and replace it with not much of anything useful for the planet. 

He is also famous for using his position corruptly – when Health Minister in a previous government – to prevent the introduction into Australia of RU486. He did this for religious reasons – the worst possible reasons for doing anything.

He said – when talking about immigration  ‘Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.’

Anyone who says they know what Jesus knew  - or indeed has him talk to them as happens often with American politicians - is either a charlatan or barking mad. 

There is an intelligent alternative in the Liberal Party and that is Malcolm Turnbull. He actually believes in climate change – and would do something about it – which is why he is not leader of his party. I would be quite happy for Malcolm to be Prime Minister – I could even vote for him.

Well……..maybe.....