IN six days' time, Tony Abbott should become our 28th Prime Minister.

It is a job Mr Abbott has wanted for much of his life. He has dedicated himself to the fight, shaping a philosophy of government that is both economically conservative and socially responsible. Mr Abbott has also demonstrated himself to be a decisive and compassionate leader. Despite the relentless and often deeply unfair goading of his detractors, Mr Abbott has avoided the street-fight and embraced a calm appeal to Australians' better judgment. He has committed himself to finding solutions for some of our most seemingly intractable problems, from indigenous disadvantage to business stagnation and labour productivity.

He has identified his own weaknesses and sought to eliminate them; he has reached out to working women, for example, like no political leader in recent history. The Sunday Telegraph believes Mr Abbott is ready to lead Australia.

It seems an understatement to observe that the Labor-led government of the past six years has been a grave disappointment. Labor's fragile grip on parliamentary majority has created a shambolic, often comically inept administration that routinely undermines its own achievements and credibility.

Much has been written lately about media coverage of the Rudd government - but let's cut through the spin.

This isn't about party politics.

It is about bad government.

And this is a bad government.

For much of the past six years, Labor has been its own opposition. It has been a crying shame to witness the waste of ideas, the triumph of shallow self-interest over sense, and the contemptuous disregard for the great privilege of being granted power by the Australian public.

It started with squandering the surplus on ineptly administered "stimulus'' measures during the GFC. It got worse with the bizarre, back-of-the-envelope mining "super-profits'' tax that Labor expected resource companies to simply accept.

In 2010 the panicked execution of Kevin Rudd brought to a national stage the worst of NSW Labor's obscene obsession with power and delivered us a leader in Julia Gillard who was beholden to cheap factional alliances instead of the national good. The revelations that were to follow during ICAC hearings about the corrupt practices of NSW Labor further eroded the confidence of voters in this state.

After the 2010 election, the introduction of a carbon tax with no mandate, the cheap deals with crossbenchers, the ham-fisted attempts at media regulation and the botched reintroduction of offshore processing compounded the Government's sins.

Add to that the abandonment of supposed "core principles'': whatever happened to Mr Rudd's once-vaunted federal hospital takeover? Where did all the 20/20 summit ideas go? Why have military veterans and their widows had to sweat blood to be granted the dignity of equal pension indexation? Why didn't the Government announce a single real measure to improve childhood vaccination rates until it had effectively left office? Where is the legacy of our supposedly epoch-changing mining boom? There were achievements, but most owe more to ministers, including Ms Gillard, than to Mr Rudd. The National Disability Insurance Scheme; the MySchool reforms that curtailed the education unions and allowed parents to judge schools on performance; the introduction of national quality standards for childcare centres; the apology to the stolen generations; and high-speed broadband - these were all founded, at least, on sound ideas, even if their implementation was inept. In 2007, The Sunday Telegraph recommended a vote for Labor as Australia's best option. We had formed the view John Howard's Coalition government had, after 11 proud years, run out of ideas and missed its chance to prepare for the future.

Another three years of Labor would be an unmitigated disaster. But declaring "this is a bad government" is not enough. Poor performance by one side is not enough for us to endorse the entrusting of Australia's future to a new force, unless the opposition and its leader have demonstrated themselves capable, competent and ready to lead.

Tony Abbott and the Coalition have done that. Mr Abbott's destiny awaits. And, as always, The Sunday Telegraph will be here as a critical voice for our readers. We are not, and have never been, cheerleaders for any one side of politics. We have consistently railed against incompetence.

We will continue to advocate for the public interest, to hold governments to their promises and to do everything we can to protect and promote an Australia blessed with free thinking, free markets and free people.