Personally the obvious favourite is Whitlam who got us half way to Norway's sovereign fund and gave me mostly free university (yes kids it was for a brief span), until the CIA said no (if you believe). Hawke was a personable, likeable weasel, or maybe that was the rise of neoliberalism. As to worst I'm going with Morrison a toxic moron, with Johnny Howard as close runner up who did far more damage but had a less punchable face and did gun control. Honourable mention to onion eater Tony Abbot as the most tolerable liberal PM, mostly because he actually holds a hose, even after politics (as I understand it).

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[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Abbott is most tolerable as a human being, if you put aside politics. But his politics was by far the most toxic in my lifetime. Turnbull probably had the best personal politics but was a complete pushover and allowed the right of his party to rule. Morrison had no personal politics, except that he saw personal success as literally godly. So he's the worst as a person.

They're all awful in their own way, but I gotta give it to Abbott as most-hated, because he's the guy who cemented the toxic obstructionist approach to Opposition. He tripled down on the racist politics started by Howard. He set us back a decade in climate, by turning it into such a highly polarised issue. His was a politics of hate, and we're still feeling the consequences. His genuine support for rural fireys and his involvement in triathlon just don't change his terrible behaviour in and around Parliament.

For best, Whitlam is pretty obvious, but within my lifetime, Gillard for sure. She was the only PM who actually believed that a politician's job is to do the right thing by the Australian people, by respecting their wishes and working with the Parliament that they elected. Where Labor has a long history, both before (with Rudd) and after (with Albanese), of being obstinate and playing a "my way or the highway" game, Gillard was an excellent negotiator who worked meaningfully with the cross-bench to get through numerous policies, including climate policy that was far better than anything Albanese has shown signs of doing even with his massive comfortable majority.