Another enquiry !

Before the Federal election last December Kevin Rudd presented himself as " action man ". Kevin 07 promised to get the price of petrol down, bring grocery prices into line - and make home mortgages affordable.

Nearly twelve months on our prime minister can be described as " enquiry man ".

He hasn't actually done anything to honour these promises, but we have a swathe of enquiries costing millions of dollars.

Pensioners have been fobbed off with an enquiry that will not be finished until next year - and then there will no doubt be a lengthy appraisal of it's findings. In the interim, inflation and rising food prices are forcing single pensioners into a life of poverty.

The prime minister's action programmes are laughable. We have the toothless tiger called " Fuel Watch " - which is supposed to name and shame the oil majors into setting reasonable prices.

It doesn't - and despite crude now selling at less than $ 100 a barrel, the declining Australian dollar has been the excuse for petrol prices remaining virtually unchanged.

Then there is the " Grocery Watch " programme. This compares the prices of a bundle of groceries by geographical areas. Interesting - but useless to shoppers because it fails to nominate which brand stores are cheapest - and it's weeks out of date when released.

Now we are about to have " Bank Watch ". This will compare the interest rate, terms and conditions - and " exit fees " pertaining to the offerings of all financial institutions to allow customers to make a fair comparison.

The only problem is that with the present meltdown the chance of finding a lender has retreated sharply and that finding will only be of academic interest.

Kevin Rudd and Labor came to power with great promise in the Federal arena. At the same time the fortunes of state Labor were decidedly on the nose - and we now have a Liberal premier in Western Australia - and the party in decline in all the other states.

Australia is well known for having " two bob each way " when it comes to politics. It is usual for the party in power in Canberra to be balanced by it's opposition holding office in most of the states - and that seems to be where we are heading at present.

Rudd will be judged by what he actually does - rather than what these enquiries are supposed to reveal. With the world economy in chaos the voters will be anxious to see the prime minister bringing home the bacon on the promises that won him office !