Ms Sloan (Drum) said that there us a Jackson camp and anti Jackson camp.
Mr, Shorten is in the anti camp.
We all know who is in the anti camp. The ACTU, most HSU officials and the NSW Labor Council.
Maybe Ms. Sloan could enlighten us who is in the Jackson group, beside Mr. Abetz and Liberal supporters.
What surprises me, I have not seen any members screaming their support for Ms. Jackson. For that matter I have also not heard from the same source, condemnation of Mr. Thompson.
The minister will ask the court to approve a scheme for the appointment of an administrator ‘until democratic control of the branch can be restored’.
Under Mr Shorten’s plan, the East branch would be broken up into the three separate branches that existed prior to an amalgamation in August 2010.
All the elected positions would become vacant and the administrator would run the branch until fresh elections could be held.
and
The minister will ask the court to approve a scheme for the appointment of an administrator ‘until democratic control of the branch can be restored’.
Under Mr Shorten’s plan, the East branch would be broken up into the three separate branches that existed prior to an amalgamation in August 2010.
All the elected positions would become vacant and the administrator would run the branch until fresh elections could be held.
HSU East Branch acting general secretary Peter Mylan said the minister’s intervention will hasten the de-merger process.
‘(It’s) a decision, I am sure will be welcomed by most members,’ Mr Mylan said in a statement.
He said he is hopeful that election dates for officers in NSW and Victoria could occur as a matter of urgency.
The HSU’s national president, Chris Brown, said the East branch had been ‘haemorrhaging’ members since the infighting between suspended HSU boss and East branch secretary Michael Williamson and national secretary Kathy Jackson became public.
He warned that the stability of the entire union was at stake.
‘Obviously if things are to continue the way they are at the moment, with Michael Williamson and Kathy Jackson basically tearing the union apart, that branch is not going to survive,’ Mr Brown told AAP outside an HSU meeting in Sydney.
“What are we fighting for, well I don’t give a damn…”
a good article on the ABC Drum pointing out that it should be the Australian Parliament who decides when Australian military is sent into combat, not a handful of leaders.
Sue 11.27 pm a story that reveals cabbies as lying bastards is hardly news.
lunalava
true nor is the revelation that the papers ran the story without checking the facts. but with all the muck being thrown about slipper no-one except for the blog site northcoast voices did a check.
Sue, what that reveals is the awful consequences of slanderous gossip out of the mouths of fools.
It’s no different to the way the LNP have spread their poison in the corridors of the Parliament, not for any high moral purpose, but for cynical political gain.
Sue and lunalava, it would be more of a revelation if we learned that the papers had checked their facts the old fashioned way, with three different sources.
That northcoast voices article shows just how pathetic our media has become, simply regurgitating accusations that suit their agenda, whilst a blogger runs of an does the actual journalism, you know, verifying facts, and then reporting them.
Sue, I AM surprised at this latest bit of Liars Party propaganda to further blacken Mr Slipper’s name.
I wonder if it would be worth his while to advise the paper that he intends to take legal action against the cabbie and any other parties spreading the lie.
In fact, if I were him, I’d have my solicitor dash off a few lines to that effect to all the parties concerned.
In the case of the scandal sheet, a front page retraction and a craven apology in the biggest font that will fit, run for a week would be satisfactory in lieu of a defamation/libel action which could cost them a great deal of cash.
Ditto the cabbie, with a proviso that he publicly comes clean about who put him up to it.
With luck it might dissuade other chancers from opening wide and spilling Liars Party falsehoods.
Steve Lewis is this Grech all over again
“Speaker Peter Slipper’s release of personal records to prove his innocence disputed by leading forensic handwriting specialist Paul Westwood whose preliminary assessment suggests the signatures ‘could be indicative of two or more writers’
Julia Gillard has vowed Labor will quickly restore Mr Slipper to the Speaker’s chair if he is cleared of criminal allegations over the Cabcharge entitlements, challenging the Coalition to use parliamentary process to remove him while separate civil claims of sexual harassment are heard.
disputed by leading forensic handwriting specialist Paul Westwood whose preliminary assessment suggests the signatures ‘could be indicative of two or more writers’
From the same article Sue
A spokesman for Mr Ashby said: “We believe the AFP should be allowed to continue their criminal investigation unimpeded by speculation.”
😯
“Speaker Peter Slipper’s release of personal records to prove his innocence disputed by leading forensic handwriting specialist Paul Westwood whose preliminary assessment suggests the signatures ‘could be indicative of two or more writers’
by: Steve Lewis, Patrick Lion
Paul Westwood “leading forensic handwriting specialist” has made an assessment judged on copies of documents, which the spin cycle journalists have already stated are very poor copies.
Is this how Westwood makes his living?, or does he have a special arrangement with Lewis or ltd news?
Can someone explain to me how Peter Slipper gets anything out of stray cab vouchers? After all, when used they have to be processed and paid by the bureaucracy. So they are easy to track back to their supposed illicit source. Aren’t they?
Tom, it was that phrase unimpeded by speculation which caused the same reaction in yours truly… 😯
Patricia, it’s losing me on this issue as well. For example, WHY should Mr Ashby who claims sexual harassment have any interest whatsoever in cab vouchers.
Min
Morning, earlier i wrote about grattan and the speaker. when i tried to post it said error valid email needed, but all had disappeared. could you check for me, please. email ok
thanks sue
Min, I’m sure almost every reader of that article would have noticed that, and wondered at the hypocrisy.
One wonders if the author noted it though?
jane
i first read the cabbie story in the sunshine coast, in fact a sunshine coast cabbie. now who is looking for a sunshine coast seat and also threatening to sue? i will leave that for others to guess, but a hint m b
I have to paste this comment in, not just because it links to Black Sabbath 😉
As I think I posted earlier “You Bastards!!!”
And I dont mean as in the South Park humour version, I mean it as Ozzy Osbourne howls it a few minutes in on “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”
“Nobody will ever let you know, when you ask the reasons why; They just tell you that you’re on your own; Fill your head all full of lies … You bastards!!!”
A few other apposite lines from that one :
“You see life through distorted eyes, you know you have to learn”
“The truth is out, the lies are old, but you don’t want to know”
Sue, I had a check around the back and there is nothing in pending. It seems that it would have been (another) hiccup from WordPress.
patricia as far as I can see it means diddly. Ashby was, in my opinion anyway, trying to give the appearance of Slipper paying for ‘favours’ with blank Cabcharge dockets
The difficulty for Ashby would be the absence of evidence in the dockets actually handed in for payment, but, the difficulty for Peter Slipper is the absence of reporting on that fact!
Tom those lines of Ozzie’s are perfect
“You see life through distorted eyes, you know you have to learn”
“The truth is out, the lies are old, but you don’t want to know”
The lies are old, and very worn, but still useful to Steve Lewis’ the LNP stooge.
Min
thank you
but, the difficulty for Peter Slipper is the absence of reporting on that fact!
lol
(sob)
Sue @ 10.10am, the Sunshine Coast Daily has been busily trashing Peter Slipper for a long time, and yes it has everything to do with “m b”..
A google search reveals the proof of the campaign by this paper.
Mal Brough [the architect of the NT Intervention], lost his seat at the 2007 election, and had tried moving to Victoria but is now back in Qld. and gunning for Slipper’s seat.
As evidenced by the Steve Lewis tactic, it’s all hands on deck to throw Slipper overboard.
Tom @ 10.23am, it’s hard to see the funny side of it…
Speaking of stool-pigeons, there is probably a Walkley in it for Steve Lewis to publish what was fed to him. Lewis should not only remember the allegations surrounding former High Court Justice Kirby allegedly using official vehicles to cruise for gay prostitutes, but give some consideration as to whether or not something similar is going on here. Lewis has no excuse for not joining the dots between Ashby, Godwin Grech and the Kirby allegations, and wondering if a Coalition government might not bring more sleaze than less.
this is my fave bit from andrew elder, it encompasses 2 prats
“Note that Abbott chose Chris Uhlmann as his interlocutor. Abbott is the only politician Uhlmann interviews whom he does not talk over or interrupt. Every one of his other interview subjects cop this treatment, along with begged questions and beef-witted assumptions that have to be batted away before the question can be answered; Uhlmann’s assumptions are clearly Abbott’s assumptions, which is why he was content to hear Abbott in respectful silence. Uhlmann’s treatment of Abbott compared with that of others is observable, objective fact, and it belies his ambitions (and those of his employer) to be regarded as an effective senior journalist.”
Sue, it would not be a surprise to see Uhllman take up an ‘adviser to MP…’ position should the Coaltion win the next election.
He’s of a piece with Chris Kenny
He’s made no secret of his political leanings and that’s fine. What isn’t fine is his treatment of those on the other side.
The ABC has been trashed by the Howard intervention.
For example, yesterday there was Judy Sloane on The Drum, then Nick Minchin on later in a program that was the perfect vehicle for a climate change denier.
Pip
in the comments . Uhlmann is writing a novel with Lewis. No wonder Uhlmann was quick to tweet support for Lewis, what was it? Lewis is doing his job!!!
just as well as Uhlmann apparently.
Uhlmann should be barred from the Slipper stories he has a conflict of interest.
Tony is delivering to the miners. Speech after 11 am on increasing the skill migration scheme. ABC 24 Making announcment about immigration policy.
As for allowing the investigation to go ahead without speculation is a little amazing, as the attack was two prong, the courts and the media.
Maybe it is not going the way as planned.
The PM is a nark, she does not react as they predict. She does not play the game.
For last lot of plotting to achieve, it had to be over in a short time. The longer it goes on, the more likely it is to fail for the Opposition.
As usual, they have gone to far. It should have been one or the other. Not both.
As someone said, why would one so upset about sexual harassment, worry about taxi vouchers.
I believe they are trying to give the impression that Mr. Slipper spends hours trolling for sexual partners. If so, he must need to take company with him when he does so.
The friends of Ms. Jackson, all appear to be in the Opposition.
Sue, I missed that one… Uhllman definitely should be barred from anything to do wth Slipper news/gossip on the ABC. If he had any integrity, he would remove himself !
Magnum opus: Details about the Marmalade Files, the most widely anticipated political thriller since Jessica Rudd’s Campaign Ruby are beginning to emerge. Penned by News Limited journo Steve Lewis and ABC journo Chris Uhlmann, the novel is described as “a contemporary tale of political bastardry and scheming on a vast scale, committed by a group of politicians whose sole aim is to hold onto power”. Lewis tells Capital Circle the pair wrote the novel in their spare time, with writing sessions spread over weekends, though the pair were often in different capital cities. And the origin of the title? Lewis says: “It’s believed the marmalade files contain a lengthy list of sordid diplomatic tales which, over the decades, have gained legendary status within sections of the Department.
We need to remember that in the Grech matter, the email was fake.
If the Opposition was not involved in the fake, they were willing to take advantage of unfounded rumours and allegations.
It is a wonder they are so willing to do so again.
Tangled wooly thoughts, or groupthink; same thing??
Or is it straight forward political propaganda in the form of a novel?
ONE journalist to defend Lewis (not that he needed defending) was 7.30 political editor Chris Uhlmann, who tweeted: “Steve Lewis has court documents alleging an MP has abused entitlements and is accused of sexual harassment. Steve is doing his job … well.” Uhlmann and Lewis both know a great deal about political intrigue. In fact, the pair have written a spicy political thriller together due out this year. More soon.
“Paul Westwood “leading forensic handwriting specialist” has made an assessment”
We are to believe this man. At the same time we are to ignore the expert that Mr. Thompson hired to examined the cards.
They result was that the signature was not Thompson but of three other people.
What a tangled web we weave….
Mr. Abbott is addressing the IPA. Well he is among friends.
Welcoming all the journalist that support the Coalition.
Has promised to change the act that Andrew Bolt was prosecuted.
I wonder what he was drinking this morning. Is standing up for free speech.
Plan for stronger borders and stronger society.
Yes, indeed he is among friends.
Using ANZAC is his prop.
This was the first book announcement last year, to be published by one of Rupert’s companies.
There’s political intrigue as two senior press gallery correspondents write a novel.
Novel idea: Two of the press gallery’s most senior journalists, News Ltd’s Steve Lewis and the ABC’s Chris Uhlmann, have signed a book deal with HarperCollins to write a political thriller. They’ll draw on years of political observation and inside knowledge, but it will essentially be a work of fiction. The book is due out in the second half of next year. We’re sure it will be a compelling read. It’s unclear whether it will be a Lewis-Uhlmann or Uhlmann-Lewis production. “We are equal partners in the exciting literary adventure,” Lewis said.
A speech that is once again full of slogans. Nothing less, nothing more.
It is well aimed at his audience but surely he realise that it is being televised
The hatred in his voice for the PM is apparent every time he mentions her name.
If the PM is such a failure, why does he hate her so.
He is still starting off sentences saying one thing, ends the sentence talking about something else.
Cu, it is a little surprising that the Coalition would use the same tactics after the Grech flop, however, they might be banking on the fact journalists won’t remind the public, instead they’re bombarding us with the most recent campaign.
“Stench” is the buzzword this week; everyone’s saying it…. including Richo
Trouble is the source is much closer to Abbott than he would have us believe.
I forgot to mention, “the PM’s judgement is on the line” – it must be –
the journalists say so – therefore it must be…
Pip, it’s a fairly reasonable estimate that the media will not call the opposition out for anything whatsoever.
I did note a line or 2 where Abbott was doing a little backpedalling on this issue. If Tony isn’t in the thick of it, I would be exceptionally surprised.
I’m not watching it Cu, but I get the picture, he’s listing the wants of his IPA backers!
But Mr Navas says that is not true.
“What I say is that Kathy Jackson is trying to re-read history,” he said.
Mr Hill says the WA branch is even considering breaking away from its eastern states counterparts.
“We have been plagued for a number of years now because of the fact that we have a national secretary that wears two hats,” he said.
“Kathy Jackson’s time has been virtually 100 per cent focused on the affairs of HSU East, not the affairs of the national union, and the national union is more than the HSU East branch.
“We want to see that change and if it isn’t, then we will consider in WA whether or not we continue to be part of a national health services union or whether we look at other alternatives.”
Min, it’s a very frightening observation that our democracy can, and has been overtaken with such speed, by the actions of a nasty little man with bushy untended eyebrows, and an enormous ego, while the population slept and sucked up the tax breaks!
Cu, Kathy Jackson doesn’t seem to notice that she’s not very popular with other union leaders!
Pip, beside what he is going to tell Nauru and the Indonesia what to do, he is alleging that this government are letting the people out before knowing their backgrounds.
We are now getting on to what the speech was announced for. Skilled migration.
The hatred of the PM is clear, every time he mentions her name.
Why would he hate her so, if she is so weak.
It is now too difficult to bring in temporary workers. Business should be able to bring in the workers they need. Mr. Hockey has delived. I assume that was what he was talking about, at that secret meeting.
Was does an industry, where wages are a small percentage of the cost, need to under cut Australian wages.
Thanking the IPA for the support and encouragement, they give him. At least he was truthful at the end.
We are a good team. I am certain we will be a good government. Scott is a compassionate…
I get a slight impression that he is trying to convince himself.
This is sickening.
Cu and Has promised to change the act that Andrew Bolt was prosecuted.
I’ll be interested to learn about that one because as legislation stands at the moment, all state and federal legislation pertaining to racial vilification/sexual harassment is all in accord – that is, all States’ legislation mirrors that of the Federal legislation.
IF Tony decided to try to change the Act it will mean a High Court challenge…remembering that Bolt was found guilt of racial vilification, as in an incitement to vilify a person due to their race. Therefore in which way would Tony Abbott seek to change this.
STUNNED. Tony Abbott would seek to change racial vilification legislation because of ONE PERSON – Andrew Bolt.
Mr Abbott has maintained that a Coalition government will reinstate the Pacific solution abandoned by Labor, opening a detention centre on Nauru and introducing temporary protection visas.
And what would be the point given that the High Court has stated that ALL asylum seekers whether arriving by boat or plane now have access to the Australian judicial system.
The High Court has also stated that unaccompanied minors are by definition under the guardianship of The Minister, and that as guardian The Minister cannot do anything to the detriment of these minors…and this includes sending them to Nauru!!!!!
Min, that was a promise made before the speech. He appeared to let his guard down. Maybe it was because he felt so loved by the gathering.
There was a list of journalist he thanked for supporting him, including Henderson. I could rewind to get the names, but I do not believe I can stomach it a second time.
Maybe that part was not supposed to be televised. Who knows.
Min, that was the speech but he also had much more to say.
Looks as if the only ones backing Kathy Jackson are Abbott, the Liberals and the lawyers associated with the HR Nicolls Society.
How surprising. Looks as though Ms Jackson has cooked her own goose as far as support from her fellow unionists go. I wonder if they’ve got a few tales to tell.
And @10.10am, well well. What a tangled web, eh? All the more reason for Slipper to go for the throat, imo.
Pip @10.34am, I think Tom might be referring to the irony. But on the bright side, the court won’t give a hoot about what the Liars and their msm stooges say or leave out. they’ll decide the matter on the evidence and it seems as far as the cabcharge stuff goes, Slpper hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Which makes Mr Ashby look pretty suspect to me. I still think he’s been a willing dupe and if he’s found to be a malicious lying dupe into the bargain, there’s a high rise building of cards ready to topple onto the Liars Party and their mouthpiece Lewis.
I have a feeling that the government will come out smelling of violets and roses and the liars like the contents of a septic tank.
Sue & Pip, I think that Uhlmann, Alberici and co have to be brought up short by anone on whom they use the talking over tactics.
Perhaps the person being interviewed could just utter an authoitative “Be quiet! You asked me here to listen to what I have to say. Kindly have the good manners to do so!”
Alternatively, they could say wtte that if Mr Uhlmann or Ms Alberici is completely uninterested in hearing anything but their own opinion, they should continue interviewing themselves and the guest could pack up and leave.
It should always be made plain that Uhlmann/Alberici is extremely rude and incompetent.
Pip, integrity and Uhlmann should not appear ifn the same sentence.
But CU @11.04am, doesn’t everyone trawl for sexual partners with their secretary? I know I do. 😯
And @11.14am, to the court it will be one expert’s word against another. I believe they will take the word of the most reputable, so if Westwood is a bit dodgy his evidence probably won’t carry as much weight.
WRT the book, Lewis and Uhlmann would know all about political intrigue. They are creatures of the Liars Party, after all.
“everyone trawl for sexual partners with their secretary? I know I do. ”
Spin doctor, I believe.
“I wonder if they’ve got a few tales to tell.”
Wonder no more. They have and were telling the tales many moons ago.
It amazes me that this lady has survived so long. I do not know why.
I was hearing them before I retired, and that was a long time ago.
Any HSU members peruse this site. I would love to hear what they have to say, either way.
“The Health Services Union (HSU) has appointed an ombudsman to deal with internal charges against two of its senior officials.
As part of the ongoing problems with the HSU’s East branch, there are charges and disputes under its rules against the union’s suspended boss, Michael Williamson, and national secretary Kathy Jackson.
The HSU national council announced on Friday it had appointed former industrial relations commissioner Errol Hodder to the position of union ombudsman.”
and
‘We’ve moved to fill it given there are pending charges against both Michael Williamson and Kathy Jackson,’ he said.
As ombudsman, Mr Hodder will investigate complaints and charges brought against members and officers of the union.
He will provide a report to the national executive and can recommend that action be taken against any person he has investigated.
Two of it’s senior officials. One cannot be Mr. Thompson for he has NOT been an official for over five years. That is two elections ago.
What the media and Mr. Abbott is avoiding, it is not about Mr. Thompson anymore. It is about Jackson and Williamson.
Ms. Jackson has carried on similar campaign against many officials over the years.
Mr. Thompson is just one in a line of many.
CU
Shock horror Jackson in the frame. She may now learn how many friends she has in the Liberal Party
Asked fo comments from Brandis, Abetz, Abbott……..Kathy Jackson, who?
Foreign Minister Bob Carr could replace Julia Gillard as prime minister before the end of the year, says former Liberal opposition leader John Hewson
Dr Hewson said he didn’t know what more Ms Gillard could do to improve her standing with voters and even the upcoming federal budget would likely be politically unpopular.
“The national council voted 46-7 for Mr Hodder’s appointment.”
jackson and williamson must have a total of 5 friends, or deputies
CU
we are thinking the same!
I believe there might be more support for Williamson than Jackson.
Mr Smith is giving interview.
What Ms. Jackson is saying is that the whole HSU is corrupt and have been so for over a decade.
Still does not explain how the Victorian Branch was so broke before merger. There were no problems with the NSW branch, where Mr. Thompson came from.
Coalition/ News Lts must be PO over Jackson / Thompson non story, the Lewis rubbish on cabcarges, so have returned to the standby big story
“THE ODDS of Julia Gillard still being Labor Leader before next year’s election have lengthened with punters plunging on Kevin Rudd taking back his old job.
Sue,
I try not to feed the beast…I prefer to expose the beast for what it is.
See The Murdoch thread on this site.
N’
Nasking
Just when I thought it may be safe to check a headline!!!!!
How come only big pond news has the HSU story. I thought any mention of Kathy Jackson, was important, but i may be wrong. the BPS implies she could be a crook.
Well it appears that the cab voucher scandal might just not be. Mr. Nutt has rubbished the first respondent part of the court applications.
All is left is the allegations of sexual harassment that appears to have mostly took place in Mr. Slippers own unit and bedroom.
Two out of three, that are proving highly suspicious at this stage is not bad.
Is Mr. Wilkie becoming a camera hog. He does have high opinion of his worth. He needs to be careful he does not find himself out in front alone.
Mr. Windsor is not saying that Mr. Slipper has not got the right to return himself to the chair. Mr, Windsor has been clear to say he has no opinion or right to an opinion in this matter.
Mr. Windsor is warning Mr. Slipper there is a danger that he will be removed from the chair. Mr. Windsor said he does not want to see that happening.
Interesting. Maybe the PM could now go in harder with the miners.
Mr. Palmer was so arrogant last night on the ABC,
The Greens are maintaining pressure on the govt to scrap the diesel fuel rebate for miners in the budget.
The Australian Greens are maintaining pressure on the federal government to scrap the diesel fuel rebate for miners in the upcoming budget.
The fuel rebate is currently worth 38 cents per litre but will be reduced by six cents after the carbon tax starts on July 1.
About 40 per cent, or $2 billion, of the $5 billion spent each year on subsidising diesel fuel goes to mining companies.
‘Certainly we’ve made it very clear to the government that we would like to see this diesel fuel rebate of $2 billion put back into the community for some of the things that the community wants,’ Greens leader Christine Milne told ABC Radio on Friday.
Polling commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation suggests 77 per cent of Australians think the diesel fuel rebate for miners should be scrapped.
‘If the government is looking for savings in the budget the first things that should go are senseless tax breaks that promote pollution,’ foundation chief executive Don Henry said in a statement.
Of the 1008 people surveyed online some 91 per cent thought the $2 billion would be better spent on health and education.
Yes, nasking, the BPS seems to have stories Ltd does not.
Sue wrote:I thought any mention of Kathy Jackson, was important, but i may be wrong. the BPS implies she could be a crook.
Sue,
I don’t know much about Kathy Jackson…but I do get suspicious of people who doth protest too much when they have in fact been in the thick of it. And fingerpoint compulsively.
I’ve seen many an American cult figure or evangelical leader do same. And media mogul. And politician.
Certainly there are deep problems with a part of that union…but I’m not convinced Kathy Jackson is whistleblowing for altruistic reasons.
Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong.
N’
Catching up,
I wasn’t too happy about Slipper being brought in…but putting that aside for now, this whole Slipper affair is starting to get the distinct smell of a
MEDIA BEAT-UP…
aided & abetted by the Abbott-led Coalition…
not unlike the Gretched affair…and the claims thrown at former high court judge Kirby.
What form does News Ltd’s Steve Lewis have on this kind of investigative reporting?
N’
Alan Kohler reckons Target is in trouble. Shame. It’s one of the few shops I can buy my BIG MEN clothes.
I’ve always appreciated them for that.
N’
Budgie Smuggles has re-launched his election campaign at the Institute of Public Affairs
Abbott compares Indonesian people-smugglers to Australians who smuggle drugs into Bali
by: James Massola
From: The Australian April 27, 2012 2:31PM
TONY Abbott would visit Indonesia in his first week as prime minister to renew diplomatic ties and stop the flow of boats, and would hold a double dissolution election if necessary to recreate the Howard government’s temporary visa regime.
The Opposition Leader today set out his planned timeline to crack down on asylum-seekers, revealing he would warn the Indonesian government that Australia takes a “dim view” of people-smugglers “disgorging illegal arrivals” on our shores.
He would compare such people-smuggling missions to Australians importing drugs into Bali.
The Australian revealed in January that Indonesia would be the first nation Mr Abbott would visit if elected prime minister, and that he planned to turn back every asylum boat that tried to reach Australian shores.
Mr Abbott said a Coalition government would be pro-immigration and pledged to boost skilled migration.
He also promised to end the Gillard government's “foreign policy failures” on border protection, and to restore public faith in the immigration system.
“Within a week of taking office, I would go to Indonesia to renew our cooperation against people-smuggling,” he told the conservative Institute of Public Affairs thinktank in Melbourne.
He said will do all this “politely”…..
Nas’ @ 2.50pm..you mean BIG BEAR clothes.. 🙂
I am thinking of the people who have had the most mud thrown their way – Kirby, Oakeshott and now Slipper. Have I missed anyone?
The theme behind 2 of it is homosexual.
Min…LOL
Why I don’t wear Cougars anymore:
Min, Thomson ??
One person who has faced the ugly, aggressive side of Tony Abbott since August 2010, and on a daily basis, is the Prime Minister.
In his mind he’s already in The Lodge and “she” is an “illegitimate” interloper.
He’s used a number of dog-whistles, including “make an honest woman of her”, and parading his “happy family” around the nation..
The more obvious attacks on Peter Slipper are not from his mouth, but certainly from his mouth-oiece surrogates.
Also, as Emma Alberici said the other night on Lateline, “all of the commentariat are echoing the Opposition.”
Shame old Murdoch controls Fox…one of my fave shows is Fringe…
great song in this sequence by Band of Horses:
“He said will do all this “politely”…..”
He reminded me of my dead mother’s description of her elderly father-in-law.
The country gentleman. Believe me, it did not mean what it sounds. It was spot on and derogatory.
Of course the Indonesia will tell him what they think, that is after they pick themselves up off the floor from busting their sides laughing.
There is indeed a lot of bullying and threatening going on in the media at this time.
Like Mr. Wilkie and co, don’t you dare.
Mr. Abbott does not take sexual harassment seriously. Of he did, he would not be using it as a political tool.
Could it not be a test of the character of Mr. Wilkie and Mr. Abbott.
What about the presumption of innocence. What about spreading unfounded allegation, hearsay and urban myths.
Why not wait for the judicial system take it’s course. History shows that these types of campaigns are generally found to be unfounded and based on lies.
By then the innocence party has generally lost every thing, including their reputations. Mud does stick.
OS.
I would hate to think what her description would be of this man. One thing I know, I would not be able to repeat it here.
My mother had an habit of calling a spade, a spade.
What is a shame, we are going to lose a very effective Speaker. Probably one of the best we have had for years.
The deputy leaves me a little worried. The Opposition continually took advantage of her.
Every time she took the chair, the Opposition attacked her. It was nearly a daily occurrence that Mr. Slipper would soon reappear to restore order.
As per my post @ 3.33pm, Abbott addressing his IPA backers of the anti mining tax, anti carbon tax, anti NBN, anti plain packaging etc., etc.,
TONY Abbott would visit Indonesia in his first week as prime minister to renew diplomatic ties and stop the flow of boats, and would hold a double dissolution election if necessary to recreate the Howard government’s temporary visa regime.
The Opposition Leader today set out his planned timeline to crack down on asylum-seekers, revealing he would warn the Indonesian government that Australia takes a “dim view” of people-smugglers “disgorging illegal arrivals” on our shores.
“A spokesman for Mr Ashby last night said the Australian Federal Police “should be allowed to continue their criminal investigation unimpeded by speculation”.
I suppose it is the normal thing to do, that is lodge the papers with the media, at the same time one does with the court.
Oh, I forgot, then take yourself off into hiding.
Catching up,
Abbott is as pure as the driven snow. 🙂
How many will eventually write their names in that snow?
I’m off til Sunday. Cheers!
Things – Frightened Rabbit
In his mind he’s already in The Lodge and “she” is an “illegitimate” interloper.
He cannot bring himself to mention her name, or use the words PM.
It is all, she, she , she . In my mind I translate what he says is bitch, bitch, bitch.
Mr.Albanese has just again pointed out, no one has the power to remove Mr. Slipper. He was appointed by the house and can only be removed by the house.
Full interview with Mr. Albanese on Capital Hill later.
A great article on the relative merits of the government vs opposition broadband plan:
Lunalava, the Opposition don’t have any plans. They have alternatives.
Bad ones. 🙂
‘Fibre To The Node rather than Fibre To The Premises’ will be just as efficient and cost less.
Rural people demand a fast system, so no matter who holds the reigns we will get it. It would be political suicide for any government to do otherwise.
Well, el gordo, that stuffs up the opposition.
National Union of Workers state secretary Tim Kennedy — who joined with Jackson and fellow former-“Rebel Right” unionists Michael Donovan and Bill Oliver last year to contest Frank McGuire’s preselection in Broadmeadows — told Crikey this morning that the “significant reputational damage done to the labour movement” by Jackson’s hijinks meant he had no choice but to distance himself. http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/04/27/hsu-nuw-withdraws-jackson-support-as-shorten-moves-in/
“‘Fibre To The Node rather than Fibre To The Premises’ will be just as efficient and cost less.”
On this you are wrong. It will depend how far you are from that node. The fibre will only perform to the level of the copper wire. It will and cannot reach the levels that fibre is capable of.
How can one justify joining the latest technology with an worn out inferior one,
The copper wire will have to be replaced. It is now in a bad state of disrepair,
Maintenance of copper wire is expensive and as time goes on, will become more expensive.
In the long term, it is cheaper to do this this is now.
The channels that the copper wire run in, will help to make the laying of fibre cheaper.
Sorry, el gordo, on this you are very wrong.
Reading this article. It could be cheaper for the government, not for the consumer.
Even then, ut will cost ten billion.
Last week, Malcolm Turnbull released a statement in which he pointed out that the Coalition’s NBN plan was cheaper and easier to deploy than Labor’s NBN and that Stephen Conroy agreed. Initially I was all set to agree too. I was simply going to analyse whether cheap equated to value. However, more digging is suggesting that there’s nothing cheap about the Coalition’s plans. In fact they could well be monstrously more expensive.
Re Slipper, Shakespeare comes to mind: Much ado about nothing.
But that could be the theme for today’s media, I would be content with a little to do about something, rather than much ado about nothing.
Min, you’ve got mail. 🙂
El gordo is always wrong. 🙂
Tough words indeed from the Leader of the Opposition; easy to say in Australia but perhaps not so easy to say in Jakarta. For any self respecting Indonesian Government would surely think that they have a say in which foreign political leaders visit them when. Faced with receiving this kind of arrogant message an Indonesian President could be forgiven for suggesting that in a year’s time would be an appropriate date for a meeting than in a week.
My thoughts, it is only going to take him a week to make us a laughing stock in the region.
By the way, Jackson has been asked to resign.
Cu, from your link
Within a week of taking office, I would give new orders to the navy that, where it is safe to do so, under the usual chain-of-command procedures, based on the advice of commanders-on-the-spot, Indonesian flagged, Indonesian crewed and Indonesian home-ported vessels without lawful reason to be headed to Australia would be turned around and escorted back to Indonesian waters.
Is Abbott just blowing off grandiose steam here or is he completely lacking any comprehension of what our own Navy told him?
TONY Abbott’s plan to send back all asylum-seeker boats has drawn fire from Indonesia’s police as well as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as dangerous and in breach of international law.
The expressions of alarm came a day after The Age reported former Australian Defence Force chief retired admiral Chris Barrie saying it would be close to impossible as well as expensive to send all the boats back.
You know what, I could not care less what Mr. Slippers sexual habits are. I could not care less how he uses his cab vouchers. That is unless he has ripped us off.
What I do care about that we are going to lose a man that has shown he is capable and able to pull the lower house into line especially QT.
I cannot remember anyone doing that. I do not believe he has finished in this regard. He appeared to be tightening the noose a little each day.
“grandiose steam”
Pip you have nailed it, Right from the time he opened his mouth, he seemed puffed up. What was said before he got to the speech, that is thanking all around him and making promises to Bolt have not been repeated in the media.
I really believe he did not realise the cameras had been turned on.
Wonder how much will be on the Liberal site.
A meeting of the top brass of the Health Services Union (HSU) has called for national secretary Kathy Jackson to resign.
Outside the meeting in Sydney, acting president Chris Brown told reporters Ms Jackson needed to resign for the good of the union.
‘We need to have confidence that a national secretary is in a position to be leading the union in a way we require the national secretary to do so,’ he said.
But Mr Brown said the HSU could not forcibly remove her without evidence of gross misconduct.
‘At this point in time we do not have evidence of gross misconduct, but there are accusations against Kathy Jackson, but they haven’t been proven,’ he said.
Almost as soon as the story came online, it was on the air waves of talk back radio. Soon other things began to suddenly look fishy. Why are some of these dockets in sequential order people say. Umm because he had the same driver?
But lets stay with this forensic evidence. As you can see Lewis was able to craft a 800 word plus story about this report from a forensic scientist. A report not published. And what is the damning evidence from this report? Well Lewis only uses four words. Its the only four he quotes in relation to that report. And there is a distinct gap between those quotes.
However Australia’s leading forensic handwriting specialist, Paul Westwood, said a “preliminary assessment” of the reproduced documents suggested the signatures were “highly variable”.
“f the reproduced documents suggested the signatures were “highly variable”
You should see my signature.
This is what one would expect in cases like this. Signatures made in various positions. On the back of the seat etc.
I would be more worrief if they were exactly the same.
I do a fair amount of longhand writing at work, I can look back years & tell you what mood I was in when I wrote it. It ranges from quite pretty if I say so myself to a semi legible scrawl. They were cab vouchers or whatever, not entries in a calligraphy competion.
But it doesn’t matter what Slipper says. The point is to keep the bullshit coming. That’s all they need to do.
Okay CU I accept that on technical stuff I may be wrong, personally I think hard wiring to every premises is a great investment for the people in the bush.
The agrarian socialists salute you.
‘El gordo is always wrong.’
It’s not easy being ‘only human’, but on climate change I’m more confident.
You may not have heard that the extent of ice in the Arctic is back to normal and in Antarctica the warm southern ocean, which Min posted on some time back, has come up trumps. Warm water is causing the melting.
This is from our friend Tony,
A coalition government would be prepared to call a double dissolution election if parliament rejected its bid to reintroduce temporary protection visas for asylum seekers, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.
Anthony, let him have his protection visas. They are unlikely to work. It just makes life harder for people for a year or two.
I see it as the government fulfilling it’s role providing infrastructure for the good of all.
If the PM is such a failure,…..
How come Liealot STILL isn’t in the Lodge?
Migs @5.22pm, I wouldn’t even call them alternatives.
CU ‘@5.52pm, i hope el gordo has a plentiful supply of her own cigars, she sure isn’t getting too many freebies. 😆
@6.02pm,and the copper wire would have to be replaced within a very short time as it’s reaching the end of its useful life.
Doing things piecemeal is always far more expensive than doing everything at once. Apparently Mr Turnbull and the rest of the Liars Party don’t have the wit to understand that.
My thoughts, it is only going to take him a week to make us a laughing stock in the region.
I think he’s already done that, CU. Next cab off the rank-the world. And it won’t take a week to convince them he is a carrot cruncher.
Is Abbott just blowing off grandiose steam here or is he completely lacking any comprehension of what our own Navy told him?
I believe he had his fingers in his ears at the time and was singing a little song he’d just composed, Pip. The lyrics go lalalalala!
El gordo, and what pray tell do you mean by agrarian socialists. It’s a term you use frequently but minus any definition.
Jane, Abbott is looking even more cocky than usual after making his headland speech at the Institute of Public Affairs today,
Willkie has been charmed by Abbott’s chief head kicker Peta Credlin, and is now declaring that he will either instigate, or support, a vote of no confidence in the Speaker. He’s also looking very cocky and more than a little bit vindictive!
There’s Abbott accusing the Prime Minister of not taking the sexual harassment allegation seriously, when it was he who had to line up a QC in his youth, to brush off a sexual assault charge of his own, and it was Labor who instigated laws to deal with anti discrimination laws!
His arrogance no knows bounds.
Rio Tinto yesterday called for skilled labor from overseaa, and today Abbott echoes their request as part of his grand plan.
Whatever he has in store for the ordinary Australians will be for the benefit of hi corporate backers, not for us, and to pull it off he’s already given more than one reaso for calling a double dissolution.
WorkChoices lives!
Min, I’m back on air for the moment… you’ve got mail. 🙂
Mr. Abbott seems intent on getting rid of everything that Rudd and this PM has done.
That will be quite a job, as they have achieve much.
He may achieve that, as his main skill and interest is tearing things down, including our economy.
To make matter worse is that he is intent on recreating the Howard era, one which the voters thought so much of, that they threw him out along with his government.
The man does not have an individual idea of his own. Even his nanny scheme come from Bronwyn Bishop, which Howard rejected in his time.
Mr Abbott says the 457 class of visas for skilled immigrants was one of the Howard government’s most significant innovations.
He says the current Government has made it more difficult for businesses to bring in skilled workers under the program.
and
Mr Abbott also focused heavily on stopping asylum seeker boats.
He reiterated the Coalition’s plans to reopen an offshore processing system on Nauru and to turn asylum seeker boats around if possible.
An “agrarian socialists”:- (read) Country Party……… (i.e. something that dosn’t exist)
Min, I have no idea what el gordo means.,
There is an old saying that the Country Party believed in Capitalizing the profits and socializing the losses. or words to that effect.
They were happy to keep profits and share losses.
Cu, Abbott is saying he’ll do what he believes the public wants, and talking very rudely to indonesia, which isn’t a smart move at all, because they can send more asylum seekers than even he would know what to do with.
He seems very certain about calling a double dissolution and the Libs are pushing for more wins in the Senate.
Sarah Hanson Young, and I think Nick Xenophon, will have to stand again next year so expect to see a push for their seats.
If he wins and calls for a DD he might find himself on the same path as Howard…
“Willkie has been charmed by Abbott’s chief head kicker Peta Credlin, and is now declaring that he will either instigate, or support, a vote of no confidence in the Speaker. He’s also looking very cocky and more than a little bit vindictive!”
Mr. Abbott has not done so up to now and will not,. Just like Abbott to talk someone else into doing his dirty work. That is another thing he is good at.
I wonder at Mr. Wilkie’s naivety. He is allowing himself to be used, without thinking it through.
To get a censure motion up, one has to have an absolute majority, Mr. Abbott is still unlikely to get the numbers.
Jane, Abbott is looking even more cocky than usual after making his headland speech at the Institute of Public Affairs today,
I think he has convinced himself once again he had the numbers.
For the sake of Australia, I hope he has not.
It will not be good to see the government changed because of dirty politics.
If he wins down the track, at the normal time, that is another issue.
Antony @ 8.20pm, Abbott has never recognised this government and has done everything he can to deprive it of “clear air” as the journos constantly talked about while they too sucked the life out of any major policy announcements.
The Coalition tactics have come directly from their American counterparts and wrecked our democracy while they accuse the government of doing anything to hold on to power, but the fact is that Abbott and his corporate backers will stop at nothing to regain power.
Pip at 11.45
It takes a seriously sinister creature to stand there with Abbott’s deadpan face & talk about the evils of sexual harassment. They should start asking him for his recollections about his own charges. Just one example among many as to how the word’s gone out that he not be harmed.
I’ve said before (here I think) that if she wants to all Indonesia has to do is play the role of roadside garage attendant. Sell ’em a tank of gas & some vittles & wave ’em out the driveway. In their tens of thousands.
Abbott’s whole stance on this issue is based around something that probably won’t happen. That is being presented with a seaworthy craft whose occupants will sit tight as they’re towed all the way back to Indonesian waters. It’s for local consumption & he doesn’t give a rat’s about relations with Indonesia.
“If he wins and calls for a DD he might find himself on the same path as Howard…”
Yes Pip it could or it can go the other way with many more Greens. One needs smaller quotas in a DD.
There can be no DD now. I also believe there can only be a lower house election at this time.
Time is not an Mr. Abbott’s side,
Next year when an election is due, yes if the same political situation remains he could pull off both houses. It would be an unlikely event.
If Labor gets through the next few weeks, I believe that things will change.
There is a limit to how many stunts one can pull.
With all the noise we are hearing with this one, I believe if you asked people in the street what they think, they would ask, what do you mean.
There does not seem to be an uproar going on.
Twelve months is still a long time in politics.
Labor just has to hold their nerve. They have nothing to lose by doing so.
Cu, it looks as if Abbott’s people are working hard on those numbers.
Maybe Pip, but the people do not remain stupid for ever.
When the penny drops, and it will, there are going to be a lot of angry people around.
People do not act that kindly when they wake up to being taken for a ride.
Pip, do you really believe this Coalition has any thing to offer. If it the did, we might have something to be worried about.
Yes, they can win, that is democracy. When they win, they will have to govern. That is when the fun will start.
Cu, you’re right of course; even a week is a long time in politics and a lot of bottles have to line up in the right order and in a certain time fram i think, before a DD can be called, but that won’t stop smudgy buggles from talking about it.
The fuss over the Speakership has been perfectly timed to wreck Budget
week for the Treasurer and after all the other stunts we can expect nothing better from the Opposition.
I’d better warn you now that I might disappear, just in case my wireless plays up again as it’s been very cloudy all night.
t’s not hard to think of the Health Services Union debacle as a family affair. The problem is deciding if the family is the Union itself, the Labor Party or another ménage entirely .
Cu, you’re right about that too, the Coalition isn’t saying what’s on offer…
all we heard today was a more belligerent version of the same old same old…
“stop the boats”
What the majority of busy Australians probably haven’t noticed is the constant
efforts of people like Peter Reith and his former partner in crime at the waterfont in 1998.
We have Liverpool Council supporting Corrigan. Makes one wonder. That transport hub is going to be very important. Personally it gives too much power to one man, if Corrigan is allow to go his merry way.
Harold Macmillan, the former British prime minister, was once asked what had troubled him most in office.
”Events, old boy, events,” he replied. Macmillan’s big event was the Profumo scandal of 1963, in which his secretary for war lied about bonking the luscious Christine Keeler, mistress of a Soviet naval attache.
The Gillard government is similarly plagued. We have had the Kevin Rudd Event, the Craig Thomson Event and now the Peter Slipper Event, to name the top three. All of them pretty much of Labor’s own making.
But here’s a novel idea. Beneath these alarums and excursions there is a competent government struggling to get out.
Cu, I can’t remember all of Albanese’s answers on the day he announced the Moorecombe transport hub, but I think he said that there are Defence facilities on the Corrigan site as well as one on the government’s chosen site.
The one on the government site will be moved easily whereas the Corrigan site is more problematic and in any case the government site is better situated.
I’d like to think that Corrigan is missing out on this one because he anticipated that the Coalition would be in power by now to help him and he’s dipped out!
The curious timing of the staffer against the Speaker
Benjamin Thomas Jones writes about the allegations against Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper: “With Julia Gillard’s minority government already beleaguered by scandals, leadership uncertainty and consistently poor polling, the timing of this latest allegation could not be more suspicious.”
The ABC’s approach to reporting on climate change is motivated more by politics than science, says environment editor Sandi Keane — who compares its coverage to that of the BBC.
‘You see it as welfare I assume from your comment.’
No, just normal infrastructure building.
Relations of mine, living in a village nearby, are not being wired to the door but will get faster speed from a new tower on a nearby hill.
I will keep you informed of developments.
From Pip’s link…
‘The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) are in accord that ‘AGW is real’. New editorial guidelines for both emphasize two imperatives: the need to ‘distinguish fact from opinion’ and to give ‘weight’ to the ‘body of evidence’.
The trouble is….AGW is not real and there is no imminent catastrophe.
The body of evidence suggests the desal plants built around Australia because of AGW have proved to be very costly white elephants.
In Britain the freezing winters and wet summers of the past decade makes a mockery of global warming.
The ABC and BBC should question the veracity of AGW.
el gordo, you have really lost me now. That would have to be an new definition for Agrarian socialism.
Where is the socialism in normal infrastructure building.
Just for the record, that tower will be based on fibre.
Agrarian socialism is a socioeconomic political system which combines an agrarian way of life with socialist economic policies. When compared to standard socialist systems
and
Classical Marxism and the Agrarian Question Introduction … political question: would the peasants act as allies in the struggle to achieve socialism …
Horror, one of the cab drivers has been convicted of theft.
Mr. Slipper should know better than not checking the drivers criminal record before using his cab.
Of course it would not be a matter of blackening the drivers name, in case he supported Mr. Slipper story.
This is journalism???
Pip, the government will be relying on private firms building the Moorebank Centre. The government will be the landlords.
I believe this will give the government some say in how it is setup and run. This is not the case wit Mr. Corrigan’s proposals.
he government’s proposals have been around for a long time.
“The ABC and BBC should question the veracity of AGW.”
el gordo, are you implying they do not?
Yes. Mr. Slipper has been a good Speaker. It is not good for any government to be open to blackmail from the cross bench, minority parties or independents.
There is nothing wrong with minority where their survival depends on negotiation and consensus.
Mr. Abbott has much to gain from the present going on. At the most, being PM. At the least, getting rid of an effective Speaker that has clipped his wings.
The defection of Slipper from the Liberal backbench to the Speaker’s chair has been good for the Australian parliament. He is the first truly independent and impartial speaker in a long time. It was a blow, however, to the Independents, who help sustain the minority Labor Government. The extra vote provided by the return of Harry Jenkins made Gillard just that little bit less reliant on the Independents. Andrew Wilkie, who with some justification felt the Government had betrayed him, by watering down his pokie reforms, has stated: “if they come back to me needing my support again, as far as poker machine reform goes, the price will be mightily higher”. Like Oakeshott, Wilkie seems determined to exploit this situation to increase his power and force the government’s hand. He has already held a meeting with Tony Abbott’s chief of staff, Peta Credlin, and will feel empowered to demand a $1 bet limit for poker machines in return for supporting the current government.
One of the few level heads in this debacle has been the Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon. She reminded us that all people, even politicians, are entitled to the presumption of innocence and warned against a ‘trial by media’. South Australian Liberal senator, Sean Edwards, is currently facing charges of misleading and deceptive conduct. Fellow Liberal senator from SA, Mary Jo Fisher, has only recently been cleared of theft charges. Labor MP, Craig Thomson, is being investigated for using Union funds to, among other things, pay for prostitutes. All three have been able to continue in their roles. The documents outlining Mr Ashby’s allegations have been released to the public and they are far from convincing. Regardless of their truth, now is a perfect time for an ambitious Liberal staffer to harangue an already mortally wounded government; for an Opposition comfortably ahead in the polls to cement their position; and for normally powerless Independents to push through their pet reforms. When it comes to politics, it truly is all about timing
Barnaby Joyce is on record as saying he’s an Agrarian Socialist, so we’ll have redefine the term in a modern context.
With improved infrastructure in the bush, such as the NBN and very fast trains, it will take away the tyranny of distance.
The Greens and Nats are quite close on some issues and after the next election the watermelons may only survive on the good graces of Barney.
In NSW the Coalition tensions are obvious….
‘THE state branch of the National Party has rebuked the Coalition government’s draft plan to balance mining and farming interests, calling for much stronger protection of agricultural land.
‘In the latest sign of Coalition tension over the issue, the Nationals accused the government of not living up to expectations it created before the election.’
In the battle against big miners the agrarian socialists and watermelons are pretty much united.
No, el gordo, Mr. Barnaby is wrong. He has created his own meaning, like he does for many things. He lives in a world of his own..
Infrastructure has little to do with socialism.
Government does and should provide infrastructure under all political systems
That is unless they are so far to the right ans support extreme Capitalism.
That government’s only role is to provide an armed forces to defend the country.
I believe some even believe police should be private.
That is the problem with this Coalition, they redefine all rules and conventions to support their own agenda.
Nothing is sacred to them, whether it be the rule of law, the right to the presumption of innocence and judicial processes. It these get in their way, they go,
To them, the end justified the means. It does not matter if the country is trashed or people live and reputations ruined, It is of no concern to them.
It is about winning and winner takes all.
Mr. Emerson. If one says airport to city is a fraud against the Commonwealth, every MP will be in trouble. ABC24 Mr. Emerson wants Mr. Abbott to be questioned re what he knows about the Slipper affair.
My emphasis
As far as the civil proceedings are concerned, it may well be that the last thing the LNP wants is to see them fought out in court. Awkward questions will no doubt be asked of James Ashby, such as who briefed him on Slipper’s alleged peccadilloes in 2003 and why? Who is financing the court action? How much simpler if the government falls, the Dark One leads his people into the Lodge, and the civil case is quietly withdrawn, never to be heard of again?
el gordo, I agree, there is much dissension within the Coalition and not just between the Liberals and Nationals.
Is it telling that the media don’t seem to have noticed that the criminal allegations against Slipper appear to be WRONG
Instead, they are forensically going over them in the hope of finding just a little more mud for their party paper
Mr. Wilkie is going to demand with what he sees as his new power, the Federal Government take over Tasmania’s ailing hospitals. (new power-my words)
Now where would he get that one from.
Mr. Wilkie is obviously now in Mr.Abbott’s camp. He should have the guts to come out and say so,
Wilkie has a very short memory.
I recall him clamouring about the injustice of all the mud being thrown at him over his time at Duntroon.
Now, he happily tags along slinging it at Slipper and the Governmnet, all because Gillard didn’t push through his pet bill (which was destined to lose anyway)
Just reflecting that in one week the press has probably devoted more time & space to going after a few cab dockets & nebulous sexual harassment charges than they gave to their entire investigation of Pink Batt rorters.
Wilkie’s the bloke they were thinking of when they coined the term “loose cannon”. His problem is that the original loose cannons went down with the wooden ships they destroyed.
than they gave to their entire investigation of Pink Batt rorters.
T’wouldn’t be hard BSA, as there was no ‘investigation’ into the rorters, just a few bylines of the actua court proceedings (without a lot of context).
Plenty of space devoted to ‘allegations’ about the Governmnets handling of though (all fairly fact free 😉 )
Bob Brown coined it perfectly, the Hate Media.
They live up to their name.
The most ridiculous aspect of this is, it is all going on in the shadow of the Levenston Enquiry in London as we speak.
As someone on Twitter opined the other day, the race is on to see if ltdnews can bring down another Government before the law can bring them down.
If Liealot calls for a vote of no confidence in either the government or the Speaker, is slipper denied a vote?
I can’t see Windsor or Oakeshott delivering a vote for chucking out the government and I doubt that Slipper would give them the pleasure, so even if Wilkie is silly enough to vote with the mobe which shat on him from a great height, the Liars probably won’t succeed ingetting their greatest prize-an early election.
And woe betide the buggers if Slipper’s case is decided quickly in his favour. I reckon there will be some spectacular fireworks and I would love to see the government hint that there could be criminal charges arising if Ashby’s claims are considered to be false.
All eyes should be focussed on who had the most to gain if Ashby succeeded.And we all know who that would be. Liealot would be like a deer in the spotlight since he and Liars barrackers have been spruiking that Slipper is guilty.
FWIW, I think the Liars will be thwarted again. Slipper will be able to resume the Speaker’s chair and the government will power ahead. The latest failure to bring the government down with the dark arts will bring Liealot’s leadership further into question.
After all, what has he really achieved? Sound of crickets and tumbleweed rolling across the street.
Has anyone given thought the PM might have been tempted to dump Mr. Slipper quickly at the beginning of this saga,
it must have entered her mind.
The PM would not have had much to lose doing that. All that would have occurred is that the numbers would go back to pre Slipper days.
As she said, there has been a great amount of government business done this year. The PM has already achieved much of what she set out to do.
The PM is not asserting that Mr. Slipper is innocence. The PM is asserting to his tight to the presumption of innocence and his right to remain silent.
It appears that she has decided to stick to process and convention, respecting Mr. Slippers rights under our judicial system.
Does one realise that the police do not have the right to go on fishing expeditions, they have to have reasonable suspicion that a crime exists.
What has occurred to Mr. Slipper, thanks to Mr. Ashby’s allegation, is a fishing expedition.
I do not believe we will ever see that court case go any further than lodging an application.
Why not are we hearing from the media, interviews of Mr.Ashby. Is he still going to work, or is he on leave. Does he have a boyfriend. Why was he convicted years ago. Mr. Ashby said it was an media stunt. If so, why was he sacked, So many things we do not know about this man. I do not see any media effort in seeking any information about him.
I would love to know why he stayed at the unit. How often did he go there.
If the media and the Opposition are setting them up as judge and jury, the least they can do, is give us both sides of the story.
This morning on ABC 24, they have not let up on the story. We are having the history of any trip he has made in what sounds like his life time.
Every detail is being repeated every few minutes.
Opposition believe that Mr. Slipper will never resume the chair. Abetz on Sky.
So much stirring around the speaker etc. Where is the stirring coming from.
So much is conjecture.
Mr. Wilkie making threats. He will not give a 14 month deadline. It will be 14 days, take it or leave it.
I have news for Mr.Wilkie, it will be leave it.
He has no more power now, than he had before.
The PM can and will make her own decisions.
If he wants the bill, lodge it himself. Maybe he can talk Mr. Abbott into doing it for him.
I am sure that Mr., Abbott is already drawing up for the takeover of Tasmania Hospitals for Mr. Wilkie to lodge.
“If Liealot calls for a vote of no confidence in either the government or the Speaker, is slipper denied a vote?”
While he remains Speaker, he is denied a vote as as I know. I thought he could remove himself from the chair and vote. The experts appear to be saying no.
It does not matter, as there is little likelihood of Mr. Abbott getting a no confidence motion through as he does not have the numbers. It has to be an absolute majority. That is half the seats plus one in the house. At least that is what I think they are saying.
The media is really putting the heat on today. Maybe we should give out local members some support and beg them to hold steady, and this will past.
it does not matter who sits in the PM seat, the same thing would be occurring and will go on occurring.
It does not matter what the PM says or does, it will continue.
The problem is not the PM. It is the toxic political environment that exists today.
Bob, Wilkie is very much reminding me of Steve Fielding – he who cut off his nose to spite his face on the alcopops issue. I had thought that Wilkie had seen enough of politics to realize that the aim is to achieve the possible rather than abuse the tripe out of others for not being able to deliver the improbable. That opinion of him has vanished.
Just for a change of subject..this is one of my pet topics, that people who suffer from chronic pain are denied access to one of the best drugs with the least side effects.
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
Hope I’ve got this right.
Wilkie’s out with some demand for Tassie hospitals? Now? And we’re told Gillard’s opportunistic?
P.S. Min
Ta for the marijuana stuff. I’ve never seen why they can’t synthesise the active ingredients & distribute them on prescription.
Bob, if I was to be a cynic I would think that there is far too much money to be made by keeping dope illegal. Several states of the US allow marijuana growing for personal use with a doctor’s permission. Mind you, many many doctors do this in Australia..that is, recommend it..but of course, it remains illegal here even at a doctor’s recommendation. Apart from chronic pain, it is one of the best drugs with the least side effects for those suffering from depression.
According to tabot, refugees are the new marijuana
I had thought this earlier in the week, and someone actually mentione it on pollbludger recently.
I think it is becoming increasingly apparent that this is a last ditch effort to unseat the Government before the budget.
Why, if the libs are so convinced they are a shoe in, do they fear so much one more year of Labor?
It is about the only thing giving me hope that they can turn it around.
CU @10.11am, my thoughts, too. If Wilkie is so desperate to see his pokies legislation have its day in the sun, why doesn’t he put up a private mambers bill or, as you suggest, get Liealot to either put it up or back him.
I wonder if anyone has suggested it to Wilkie? Perhaps we could all email him with the suggestion!
That would set the cat amongst the pigeons, because Liealot has thrown in his lot with Clubs Australia and big gambling. Wilkie should be reminded of this as well.
As for the government taking over Tassie’s hospitals, perhaps he could get Liealot’s word in writing witenessed by Jesus himself and see if the bugger would honour the promise. Fat chance!
Seeing Mr slipper has stood aside while the dog and pony show is happening, he should be entitled to vote in a no confidence motion, thus cancelling Wilkie’s probable vote in favour. Liealot still wouldn’t have the numbers.
Min @10.48am, I agree. Wilkie is getting flakier by the minute. Why he couldn’t have had further talks with the PM to nut out alternative legislation is beond me.
My favoured scenario is still to get Wilkie to put up a private members bill and see who’s to be trusted.
Bob, as Min says @11.28am, there are too many cynical reasons not to do the sensible thing you suggest. We can’t have these lung cancer patients having access to one drug which will halve tumour growth, stop the cancer spreading and provide relief for chronic pain, when Big Pharma has so many drugs out there which don’t actually work.
If that treatment had been available to my cousin, she might still be alive.
Tom R @11.41am, absolute proof we don’t need an election. The Emperor says we do. And absolute proof that the Empire and the Liars Party are in cahoots in this latest attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.
And your comment @11.53am, I think it indicates that the Empire is on the verge of collapsing. They’re throwing everything they can at the government to try and stop the budget being passed.
That says to me that they know it will be a brilliant budget which will deliver on most levels.
I hope the unemployed get a better deal in this budget. The Greens senator actually living on the dole hopefully will underline that being unemplyed is burden enough, without being forced to live out of dustbuns.
How they can be expected to present for a job scruffily dressed, hair that obviously hasn’t seen a hairdresser for ages, poor dental hygeine and no doubt suffering depression, is beyond me.
They are a suffering underclass which needs to be looked after, not punished with draconian hoops to jump through. Get rid of middle class welfare and direct that money towards people wo are really doing it tough!
Tom and..
Why, if the libs are so convinced they are a shoe in, do they fear so much one more year of Labor?
Abbott has been panic-stricken since the last election to have an early election – perhaps after perusing the goat’s entrails, he was told that it was foreseen that unless he went early that he would lose..one way or the other.
On the other hand, perhaps Abbott knows what Julia’s strategy is..straight out of the Howard Handbook..get the nasties over and done with early and head into the election with a handful of handouts.
Jane… “I wonder if anyone has suggested it to Wilkie? Perhaps we could all email him with the suggestion! ”
If you write it up and post it here, with Wilkies email address, I’ll send it. Good idea that, Jane.
Here’s a little morsel which could ‘spalin why Liealot is desperate for an immediate election. If looks like his mate Twiggy could possibly need an injection of taxpayer’s money if prominent hedge fund manager Jim Chanos is on the money.
We have Abbott complaining about the PM trying to build up her support.
What is so wrong about that. It would be stupid of her if she did not take every step to protect her government.
After all it is politics we are talking about.
What Mr. Abbott is really saying, is it is not fair, she outsmarts me every time.
What the PM has done to protect her government is not illegal. The PM has not broken any rules or conventions.
Mr. Slipper has every tight to accept the nomination.
Mr. Slipper has not been charged or convicted of any crime or wrong doing over years.
There have been innuendo, hearsay and rumours that have not been taken up with him.
Mr. Slipper was an excellent deputy speaker. He was well qualified for the job, which he has carried out well. Too well, I suspect Mr. Abbott believes.
Of course the PM wants to stay in power. The PM will do what is necessary to do so.
I do not believe that the PM will not go to the lenghts that Mr. Abbott will.
Mr. Abbott wants to be sure that it is not the one he supports that ends up in the soup.
Maybe FWA has taken so long, is because the matter is extremely complicated and not just about Mr. Thompson. I suspect that a Pandora;s Box has been opened by Ms. Jackson.
Maybe somewhere in the report will be the complaint that political interference has added to the time lone, complication matters.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has vowed to toughen the rules for union officials if he wins power.
In a speech to the Victorian Liberal Conference Mr Abbott attacked the Prime Minister for standing by embattled MP Craig Thomson.
Under a Coalition government he said unions would face the same level of scrutiny and standards as business.
Mr Abbott promised to set up a new body to enforce those rules.
Recipe:
Take this crustacean and 1kg of her friends straight off the trawler (from Mooloolaba Spit).
Peel, add I fresh baked bread roll, a little tartare sauce, a glass or 3 of a nice Reisling – who cares about the weather, we’ve got a really nice lunch 🙂
Look forward to a nice Meatball Tajine or perhaps a Seafood Paella accompanied by a Penfolds Bin 128 across the road tonight…. http://www.coraltajine.com/#!
What are the peasants doing? 😆
OMG, Bacchus sweet heart..you’re back with us..in solid form..so to speak. 🙂
Just to make everyone jealous (including myself), son caught a 70cm barra..fish on the barbie this weekend for the crew up in Cairns.
PS, Mr. Abbott is promising big fines and five years in jail for union officials.
.
Talk about being opportunistic.
I suspect for some crimes, they already face big fiend and jail.
However, as if to confirm that they’re completely uninterested in the truth as opposed to breathlessly retailing scandal, not one of the linked articles makes any attempt to assess the legal substance or otherwise of the allegations against Slipper. One might reasonably argue in relation to the taxi vouchers aspect that evidence has only become available in the last 24 hours suggesting that alleged harassment victim and erstwhile Liberal Party member James Ashby’s claims may well be false.
However the substance of Ashby’s sexual harassment allegations has been known for at least a week or more, and yet journalists have not bothered to analyse the allegations against relevant legal standards. Perhaps they might claim if challenged that the sub judice convention inhibits any such analysis, yet that isn’t the case even on Parliamentary sub judice conventions let alone the more free-wheeling ones media outlets apply to themselves when it suits them. Legendary UK judge Lord Denning explained the principles in Attorney-General v Times Newspapers Ltd [1973] Q.B. 710:
It is undoubted law that, when litigation is pending and actively in suit before the court, no one shall comment on it in such a way that there is a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the trial of the action, as for instance by influencing the judge,the jurors, or the witnesses or even by prejudicing mankind in general against a party to the cause…. Even if the person making the comment honestly believes it to be true, still it is a contempt of court if he prejudges the truth before it is ascertained in the proceedings.
We must not allow trial by newspaper or trial by television or trial that any medium other than the courts of law.
But in so stating the law, … it applies only when litigation is pending and is actively in suit before the court…. There must appear to be a real and substantial danger of prejudice to the trial of the case or to the settlement of it. And when considering the question, it must always be remembered that besides the interest of the parties and a fair trial or a fair settlement of the case there is another important interest to be considered. It is the interest of the public in matters of national concern, and the freedom of the press to make their comment on such matters. The one interest must be balanced against the other….
Our law of contempt does not prevent comment before the litigation is started nor after it has ended. Nor does it prevented when the litigation is dormant and is not being actively pursued…. No person can stop comment by serving a writ and let it lie idle…. it is active litigation which is protected by the law of content, not the absence of it.
As far as I can see from the known facts (or rather allegations), Ashby’s harassment case faces a major hurdle in establishing that Slipper knew or ought to have known that his alleged sexual advances were “unwelcome”. Although the legal requirement to prove this has been subjected to significant criticism, it remains an essential element of sexual harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act (Cth). Section 28A reads:
Meaning of sexual harassment
(1) For the purposes of this Division, a person sexually harasses another person (the person harassed ) if:
(a) the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the person harassed; or
(b) engages in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the person harassed;
in circumstances in which a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would have anticipated the possibility that the person harassed would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.
(1A) For the purposes of subsection (1), the circumstances to be taken into account include, but are not limited to, the following:
(a) the sex, age, marital status, sexual preference, religious belief, race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, of the person harassed;
(b) the relationship between the person harassed and the person who made the advance or request or who engaged in the conduct;
(c) any disability of the person harassed;
(d) any other relevant circumstance.
(2) In this section:
“conduct of a sexual nature” includes making a statement of a sexual nature to a person, or in the presence of a person, whether the statement is made orally or in writing.
Cu, therefore if Ashby had made it known, and he did, that he is gay, and did not specify that he was not interested then he could just as easily be accused of entrapment!
I’m still having trouble with wireless, which seems to be only wanting to supply SMS, so I’ll probably not be here for long!!
Yes Min, I’m still here. Wireless is a bit slow but usable. Mrs Bacchus is having a pretty good time in spite of the sour weather – I think the Reisling is helping there 😉 This is the view from our balcony looking south towards Mooloolaba:
That barra on the barbie sounds delicious Min. We really are spoilt for seafood in Qld (anything North of Byron qualifies as Qld when it comes to seafood).
Min, Migs, Jane, Nas and others – thanks for all the wishes on JooR’s Anzac Day thread – I think both of the “patients” are in a good place mentally at the moment, coping with what might have been, and what is yet to come – weekends like this help Mrs Bacchus & s-i-l leaves for her holiday adventures on Monday…
Cu @ 3.14pm,
Catching up
PS, Mr. Abbott is promising big fines and five years in jail for union officials.
.
Talk about being opportunistic.
I suspect for some crimes, they already face big fines and jail.
What did Abbott say about WorkChoices “dead, buried and cremated”
He’s an arrogant, lying prick!
Bacchus, one thing that we can say about the weather at the moment is that it’s very cr*ppy. I’ve had to pump the pool out twice today to stop it from overflowing. OMG..the strain. 😉
That is the best thing of all, a positive outlook and with you to look after Mrs Bacchus and s-i-l, I am certain that they will do splendidly.
Pip, the document shows that Mr. Slipper changed his behavior after this.
I would be surprise if Mr. Slipper has a case to answer. No one within the Department was sought by Mr. Ashby to make a complaint. Mr. Ashby went straight to the Federal Court.
I also believe that no one has any intention of going ahead with the matter.
The are using sexual harassment for political reasons and . to harass Mr. Slipper.
‘Rejected advances led to sudden deterioration at work’
However when Mr Ashby – who told Mr Slipper he was homosexual before commencing employment – said he only wanted a professional relationship, the Speaker’s tone allegedly changed.
He told Mr Ashby he should “in future” arrange all communications through another staffer, Tim Knapp, as Mr Slipper said he “cannot guarantee availability”.
In other words, it would appear that Slipper desisted as soon as Ashby made it clear that his advances were unwelcome. Of course, one should not discount the power differential between the Speaker and a junior employee, but the tenor of Lewis’s story hardly suggests that Ashby was in any sense overawed or intimidated. Indeed Slipper comes across more as pathetic than predatory.
Pip and Cu, just a “small” disincentive for anyone to dare become a union rep.
And
He’s an arrogant, lying prick!
Ans: YES
IT’S Father’s Day in September last year, and Kathy Jackson wakes up alone in a room she has never seen before. She sits up in bed, alarmed, and searches the walls for answers. Nothing is familiar. Nothing makes sense. Then she notices she is wearing a hospital gown. Something is very wrong.
Jackson stumbles out of bed and wanders into the corridor asking other patients where she is, hardly believing their answers: “It’s a psychiatric ward.” Kathy Jackson, the high-profile national secretary of the troubled Health Services Union, has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
I generally do not spread this type of information but feel in this matter, it could be relevant.
Cu, I don’t know that the story proves anything one way or the other. I will await the factual evidence.
Here goes, LOVO. It goes wihtout saying that any alterations to improve it would be welcome.
Dear Mr Wilkie
I know that problem gambling is an issue about which you feel very strongly and feel let down that the government has put it on hold.
Perhaps you could introduce a private members bill for the reforms needed to combat this pernicious form of addiction.
If you feel unable to approach the Prime Minister to assist you in this regard, perhaps the Leader of the Opposition would be prepared to support a private members bill.
However you look at it, if you were to put a private members bill to the House, you would know what level of support there is for the reforms you want.
If there were insufficient support for your package of reforms you want, perhaps you could negotiate with all parties to draft a bill that would pass the Lower House to the Senate.
Yours sincerely etc
Wilkie’s email address is: andrew.wilkie.mp@aph,gov.au
Well said Jane. This is where Wilkie is getting me somewhat confused..surely a start on poker machine reform is better than nothing..something always being preferable.
What the hell is the point in siding with the opposition who are guaranteed to do nothing whatsoever.
The PM did follow precedent when she supported the nomination of Mr. Slipper. But then we all know it is different if it was a Liberal; PM. They are allow to do as they wish. It is only a Labor PM that has to obey the rules set by the Opposition leader.
I wrote at the time: “The ghost of Mal Colston is wandering the corridors of Federal Parliament, and some Labor people with long memories fear the worst.
“When Mr Colston ratted on the Labor Party in return for the post of deputy Senate president 15 years ago, giving John Howard a Senate majority on crucial issues, it ended in tears.”
The same thing could happen, I suggested, as a result of the Slipper deal, given the way his behaviour had made headlines in the past.
Mr Slipper himself made public reference to his reputation in a speech to Parliament when he assumed the Speaker’s chair for the first time.
“Frankly, I have got to admit that I am not perfect and I have made some mistakes, as some of the colourful stories about me reveal,” he said.
Mr Howard was eventually compelled to disown Mr Colston.
Ms Gillard needs to distance herself from Mr Slipper, and quickly.
Eating proper food for lunch, Bacchus. Although the wine sounds OK. And the dinner menu sounds yummy.
The view isn’t too shabby, either. Glad you’re enjoying yourselves. Regards to Mrs B & s-i-l.
Husbandy substance has to cook a 3kg crustacean for someone with more money than taste tomorrow. If I knew how to post a photo, I’d put one up.
We had fresh leather jackets Thursday night.
Min at 4.06
Possibly angling for a preference deal to shore up his position? With an Abbott government with a big majority, he could be a Tassie variant of our Xenophon, forever putting out nice, unfundable & impractical & doomed but popular “look at me!!!” ideas?
C.U. at 4.07
Read that & thought Laurie’s a bit quick to point the finger when it comes to hypocrisy. He’s moved way beyond any examination of the timing & presentation of the allegations against Slipper, which is after all a week ago now & therefore of no importance. Except that he of course is allowed to go back & mention Colston. But I don’t remember the Murdoch press helping out the ALP with a revelation & distortion a day, do you?
Min @4.06pm, you’d think so wouldn’t you? Why he couldn’t have gone to the PM to get to the guts of it before running off to the first headline is beyond me.
And now cosying up to the Liars Party who have consistently shit on him from a great height, is bizarre indeed.
‘the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the person harassed;
Ashby should not have accepted Slipper’s invitation to share his flat, it gave Slippery the wrong impression.
In households all around Australia there is sexual harassment taking place as we speak and I have a solution.
Another time perhaps…
Or another Harradine, Bob? Agree on Wankerphon, though. Bloody showpony.
Poor old Laurie. Suffering from Relevance Deprivation Syndrome, perhaps. 😆
Well look here..
THE limousine driver at the centre of claims Peter Slipper misused his travel entitlements was convicted of forging Cabcharge dockets in 2002.
Antwan Kaikaty, who has been driving the Speaker for 19 years, was convicted of stealing a mobile phone and money from a female passenger, who was also indecently assaulted, according to the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal.
El gordo, we shall have to look into that one. The accusation is a tenuous one, not of assault but of harassment. The definition contained in The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) must be within the following:
The Sex Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a person to sexually harass another person in a number of areas including employment, education, the provision of goods and services and accommodation.
Therefore Ashby must prove that this harassment was:
1. in the workplace
2. that the action was unwanted and that the person made it plain and clear that such action was unwanted. And that the person persisted so as to make the workplace an uncomfortable place to be.
This is a fairly difficult thing to prove or else every girl or boy who goes to the pub on a Saturday could make a claim of sexual harassment. It must be in the workplace. Therefore presumably Ashby will need to prove that he was in Slipper’s home as part of his employment.
Serious journalism at the OO…. not on the Strewth page, which is topped with this pic,
and further down is a second hand yarn told by the amazing Dennis Shananagan about the Prime Minister’s “handbag”.
All very reasonable, grown up conversation enjoyed very much by a very reasonable and grown-up readership.
‘Ashby will need to prove that he was in Slipper’s home as part of his employment.’
Yeah, that seems straight forward, but in my mind it’s a huge grey area.
former Liberal Party member Ashby should have to declare whether he was aware of the Liberals titlillating and often nasty gossip about Peter Slipper, or whether he suffered from selective deafness prior to beginning his employment with Mr. Slipper.
I think that Ashby is going to have problems proving that he was in the shower at Slipper’s house as part of his employment.
Min, whatever the outcome of Ashby’s claims, the smear campaign by the Liberals and their media friends has been so over the top that even if Ashby is sent off with a flea in his ear by the Court, nothing will stop the media from repeating the allegations !
What did Mr. Denmore say ?
Something like, if it’s about pants off, it’s a bonus.
I see references to something Shorten said making us a world laughing stock. Any idea what it’s meant to be?
Bob, this is the news for Bill Shorten..no doubt those earning over $300,000pa are weeping into their Kentucky Derby Mint Juleps as we speak…
The Federal Government is defending a move which will see high-income earners pay double the current tax rate on their superannuation contributions.
The Government is expected to announce the move, which will affect Australians earning more than $300,000 a year, when it hands down its budget on May 8.
Currently, all concessional contributions are taxed at a flat rate of 15 per cent, which means very high income earners receive a much larger tax concession on their contributions.
Bob, Shorten was asked to comment on what the PM had said about the Slipper saga, and he answered – paraphrasing –
“I didn’t hear what she said but I agree with her”.
The meeja are hugely amused, but why wouldn’t he say that if he already knew that he agreed with the PM on the subject.
Min
Thanks. Laughable indeed to the rest of the world, that a government should be criticised for doing that.
In an interview, the questioner came in with a gotcha question about something the PM said while overseas. Mr Shorten replied that he had not heard what she said. It was the time he was intervened in Jackson’s court case. He was then asked the question again, and replied with that he agreed with the PM. It was pointed out that he did not know what she said. Which was not quite true as I believe the questioner has repeated what she said.
He once again said he agreed with the PM. Then after another question, he said I always agree with the PM. I believe he was trying a little irony.
He must have rushed to this interview, as his hair was a little ruffled at the front.
This led Mr. Bolt to say that Mr. Shorten looked harassed and ruffled, along with other derogatory remarks.
So Mr. Shorten got himself into trouble saying he had not heard what the PM said, then saying he agreed with her.
It was about Mr.Slipper returning to the chair after the Cabcharge were sorted out.
Mr. Shorten I believe was very busy at the time.
My reading of the matter was that he was attempting to send the interviewer up and it backfired on him. It appears he is not that good at making jokes.
I do not know how this could make him a world laughing stock.
It is not in the same class as saying carbon dioxide or as Mr.Abbott says “doxide” weighs nothing.
The press need to lighten up. One does not have to take everything they say seriously. Most are not as important as they seem to think they are.
This is of course what the opposition want to stop at all costs…taxing the wealthy. Because the wealthy create jobs..or do they?
Pip
I saw that. I don’t see the problem. The meeja don’t know what criticism Gillard’s going to cop tomorrow, but they agree with it. Or at least they’d deny they knew. But they certainly agree with it.
Pip, but Shorten’s words have been reported in Fairfax as per below..it depends upon which newspaper one reads..
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten refused to comment on whether Mr Slipper would resume his role as Speaker when parliament resumed next month.
The claims against him were yet to be proven, he said.
Boy, that’s true Min, it depends which newspaper one reads … it can change from hour to hour…
it can also be repeated endlessly to the point where it must be true!
C.U.
Thanks. No, it’s not in the same class as Abbott’s statement about Carbon Dioxide. There are Labor errors & there are Liberal errors. The class distinction starts at birth, Labor errors are cultivated & inflated, Liberal errors are euthanased as soon as possible.
I believe that this Labor government is behaving true to it’s roots and a lot of upper income welfare is going to disappear.
At least I hope I am correct. The PM and Mr.Swan have nothing to lose by carrying it out.
At least it will be budget cuts that will not send the economy into downfall.
A balance budget, which the Opposition puts great score in. Unnecessary welfare pruned back, which dye in the wool Labor voters want. May even please the Greens..
After Mr. Hockey’s outburst, they would be mad if the did not take the opportunity to do so. After all they would only be doing what Mr. Hockey said needed doing. Strict means tests on welfare.
Now if Mr. Abbott keeps up this latest stunt, Mr. Swan might even get the budget through without anyone noticing.
Mr. Abbott will have a choice, focus on Mr. Slipper or focus on the budget.
There is always a silver lining in every grey cloud.
Mr. Abbott has up to now prevented the good the government has done from being noticed. I am sure the same tricks work for the bad.
Bob, I do not think Mr. Shorten made an error. He was trying to avoid having what he said as being seen as differing from what the PM said.
The media was trying hard to find people who disagreed with the PM.
He just made a mess of it, mainly because he was involved in other urgent matters at the time.
I did watch the interview.
‘I see references to something Shorten said making us a world laughing stock. ‘Any idea what it’s meant to be?’
The story has been around for a couple of days and the Brits call it brown nosing.
C.U.
The only part I saw was the quoted bit, he did look like he was in a bit of a hurry, possibly something to do with being a senior government minister.
It’s something that can be portrayed as a bad look for Labor & that’s all that matters to the meeja.
el gordo
Thanks for the link. I was going to click but saw it was the Sun so didn’t bother. Do the Brits call the ABC obligingly relaying Murdoch’s demand for an election brown nosing as well?
In fairness I looked at the Sun site. It was what I thought it would be. I’d seen the important bit before. Not a good look in parts, beaten up by the UK Myrmidons with nary a mention of Carbon Dioxide.
Well Queensland wanted him..so now they’ve got him..
The Queensland Premier’s removal of the title of Minister for Women and his insulting comments in attempting to defend his decision has thrown the cause of women back thirty years, the Federal Minister for the Status of Women, Julie Collins, said today.
“Campbell Newman is displaying the type of attitude that is preventing women from achieving equality at work and in the community,” Ms Collins said.
“It’s bad enough that he’s abolishing a position that has been part of the Australian political landscape for 30 years, his derisory comments in Townsville yesterday went beyond what is expected of a State leader.”
Campbell Newman as quoted in the Townsville Bulletin today:
“The Labor Party is into labels and tokenism, we’re into reality and outcomes.
What are we going to call it? The minister for communities, disabilities, blah blah blah, and women? And what else are we going to tack on?”
“Women are half the population – not a tack on,” Ms Collins said.
“relaying Murdoch’s demand for an election brown nosing as well?
”
At least one can tweet back and tell him what you think. Tweet does go both ways.
Jane @3.57pm……Been there done that 😀
Now if I were Bacchus and I had a duplicate key where would I hide It 😕 ……..(looking)……………….(still looking) …………… ah ha, under the mat in front of the cellar door, how original 🙄 ….. clack, clunk……*clink*
😉 Like I always say LOVO – KISS**. Enjoy 🙂
** Keep It Simple Stupid 😆
Hi
This evening i saw the PM on the news. she had been to a footy game in Canberra, her team the bulldogs v giants. The bulldogs won
PM looked as though she was having fun. And she must have really enjoyed herself, I know that because there are no photos or stories in the online news. the only article is the afl site, without a photo of the PM.
Can you imagine any sport where the PM attends and has a trophy and the msm DO NOT cover it!!
So all the BS from abbott and his mates the msm that there is panic with the PM over Slipper is just that BULLSHIT
So take that Abbott, the PM, Julia Gillard, is just getting on being the PM
Oh I should just add,the msm cry, the govt just cannot get its message across.
Sue, are you telling us that the main stream media have an anti bias against our Prime Minister?
I hadn’t noticed.. 😯
That must mean that they’ll ignore the NDIS rallies on Monday then…
if so that would be because she gave smudgy bugglers the brush off
when he tried his old wedge trick. 😆
Pip
I know, I know it is hard to believe.
Pip in that speech at API he was still whinging that SHE would not let him help her.
if you wanted something to fail, I would say you would take the demolisher on board.
Sue, Emma Alberici explained that perfectly although she meant it in a different way when she was arguing, yes, arguing with the A-G Nicola Roxon, and I’m sure it won’t ever be used in an ABC promo!
She said, “all of the commentariat are echoing the Opposition”….
Hi Cu, he was just making a big feller of himself again for his chosen audience.
Isn’t it funny .. he won’t allow himself to be interviewed by just any old journalist, and he makes his important speeches to the far right think thankers, or selected Libs.members and supporters.
He’s not just nuts, he has no guts… as PJK once said of an opponent –
all tip and no iceberg….
Pip
I hope that interview gets shown at her next staff appraisal scheme. Or even better show it at journalism school on “how to lose your cred”
I have now seen three interviews where alberici, has lost it, all 3 were with ministers, who know their portfolios. but after Roxon i thought why bother even watching her interview, it is easier to scan the show transcripts, in case there is someone interesting with something to say.
Sue, I’ve been doing that lately, well, not just lately, Jones gives me the galloping —- as well.
I think it was lunalava who said that Alberici’s re-education at the ABC is complete! She was much more benign when she reported from London, but her uppity airs can’t help her reputation now.
After watching 7.30 and Lateline for many years, the only conclusion that can be dawn is that the host, while echoing the Opposition, must put the kybosh on every point that any government Minister tries to make.
Bonsai has a lot to answer for, placing an ultra conservative stockbroker type in as Chairman and others on the Board, such as Judith Sloane and Janet Albrechtson, or is she Kroger now?
Michael Kroger was also on the ABC Board at one stage.
I’d need to check but i think Sloane was the Deputy Chairman for a term.
Noticing the taxpayer funded Murdoch auxiliary ABC’s coverage of Abbott tonight, he’s once again being let off the hook & Peter Slipper’s history in the Liberal party is no longer being mentioned at all?
Pip
It was good to see the PM so happy today. It reconfirms that the msm, including the last of them the ABC have collectivly written themselves out of true political debate.
A little song , that was part of an ad campaign last year, has been running through my mind all day. It kinda sums up the silliness of the press
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run
Good night
I’ve given myself an early minute from the ABC tonight Bob, but the bullsh is inescapable.
Now the meeja have gone to Slipper’s neighbour for a quote about how bad he is!
Pip
I’ve seen that article. It mentions “two pivotal questions”. I’d say there’s a third-“why now, why didn’t you get this interested in him before?”.
Just returning and picking up the past couple of hours of this thread I share the general view about the appallingly rightist bias of the Murdoch media and now even our ABC. Like others of you I watched the re-education of Emma Alberici with huge disappointment and some surprise. Her talking over the Attorney General was the last straw for me. It really isn’t worth watching news or news commentary any more, and like you Sue I think I’ll find transcripts a quicker way to go.
I am hoping that better brains than mine are working out how to beat Murdoch and the right in this media war.
Hi patricia,
I don’t think it’s a matter of brains, any fool can write crap, and they do, for Rupert, and Gina and Lachlan and James and even for Mark at Murdoch Lite.
They’ve cornered the market!
Bob, from my link
It took one act too far of Slipper treachery to lift the lid on nearly three decades of smut, suspicion, innuendo and raised eyebrows.
For all the finger-pointing, for the avalanche of evidence and allegation stretching back years and pointing to Slipper’s unfitness, two pivotal questions went unanswered.
How was he tolerated for so long by conservative parties – given local disquiet, agitation for his replacement and hand-wringing at the highest level – and what was the Gillard government thinking last December when it recruited to the speakership a man whose reputation was so sullied across politics?
Ridiculed and written off as a rat, a rorter, a boozer and a bore, whose moral compass cracked under the strain of public expectation, thwarted ambition and human foible, Slipper nonetheless enjoyed preselection support of the Nationals (albeit in quieter days) and later the Liberals at nine federal elections.
Writng about “smut, suspicion, innuendo and raised eyebrows” now as proof
is downright malicious and proof of diddly squat.
If the innuendo was about the possibilty of Mr. Slipper being bi-sexual, and we don’t know that, and I hope that reasonable people don’t care, but clearly there are some in the Coaition who are either homophobic, or, they’re banking on the hope that enough of their constituents are to swing votes their way!
Oh i dont even have to read further than a few sentences to give you an answer to the slipper drama, the libs have a few gay men who have married and had kids for a smoke screen, its an open secret in canberra who these men are and its really pathetic that both sides tolerate the status quo…i suppose chris pyne on the lib side and julia gillard on the labour side spring to mind…both hypocrites, both gay, both pretending to be hetero…and in an age when no one really cares except for bob kater…even 1950’s abbott doesnt care, tony knows who all the gays are in his party, but tony thinks they adore him, so long as tony’s ego is stroked he doesnt seem to mind who is on the end of the hand…
The PM is ever so gay…not that there is anything wrong with that.
Yes, Pip, and isn’t it sad all this smut, suspicion, innuendo and raised eyebrows has only now been brought to light to discredit Peter Slipper when he has at last found his true metier and is doing an extraordinarily good job in our Parliament? How come no one developed his real talents before this? Had they done so he would have been a solid team member bring credit to his party whom no one would have tried to push aside to find a spot for the ambitious Mal Brough.
I plead guilty to committing another limerick. This time about Peta and Tony and Brian!
Yes, all that smut, suspicion, etc. Why didn’t we get round to this before? Perhaps because he was useful to us then?
Angry at the “look at this dork, dressed up like a ponce with some git with a mace in front of him” theme. OK perhaps for Oliver Cromwell (whose birthday we celebrated on April 25th) & his sympathisers but surely not for Australia’s Conservatives. Still, any collateral damage is alright in the cause of getting Abbott into the big chair. Certainly the Westminster system can go.
The smut throwing: is the best of the worst case scenario against Peter Slipper for the Liberal party the distruction of a “liberal rat”.
This morning on Insiders, they came around to discussing Slipper and the break away Anglican church of which Slipper is a priest. D Marr said this branch broke away from the main Anglicans because they didn’t stand for the ordaination of women or “pooftas”.
So with memories of Brogden, has the Liberal party launched this personal attack on Slipper and his wife, with at least the humiliation and possible rejection of his fellow members of his chosen church.
Peter van Onselen in the Daily Terror… just fishin’.
‘Now we are told (by a dwindling number of Gillard backers mind you) that the recovery will commence once the budget is handed down and the carbon tax compensation package starts flowing. It’s their final argument. Time is fast running out and the sharks are beginning to circle.’
mary jones, just as a matter of interest, on what do you base your rather absurd claims that the PM and Prissy are gay?
I know Prissy is a mincy little git, but that only proves that he’s a mincy little git. And he’s certainly a hypocrite, but I doubt that his hypocrisy is because he’s a closet gay.
Mind you, it would be fun if he were to be outed and the allegation found to be true. However, even if he is gay and chooses not to come out, that’s his business.
And why do you say the PM is gay? Wishful thinking, perhaps? I think if she was gay, she’d be out, unless you’re suggesting Tim is a very butch woman. And as with Prissy, even if the PM is gay and chooses not to come out, it’s her business.
eg, the PM was ever so gay because the Bulldogs won. Laughing and shouting “Carn the ‘Dogs!” would be evidence that you were happy, I assume. Obviously you’re not. Did the ‘dogs beat your mob?
Pip @12.44am, what a load of old cobblers they go on with. i suppose you have to give them credit for stretching a neighbourhood dispute about overhanging boughs into a tome rivalling Gone With The Wind!
As for the “hours” spent in the car, it was probably 2 or 3 minutes while he filled out cabcharges, or hiding from this character who probably harassed Slipper for favours constantly.
And no matter what his private peccadilloes, they have absolutely NO bearing on his ability to do his job.
We read that his performance as Speaker is regarded as second to none by both sides of the House; certainly puts poor Harry Jenkins in the shade.
Slipper obviously has the job by the scruff of the neck and has restored order in the House, which had become a laughing stock afaic, owing to opposition antics.
To date,we do not know if he has committed any crime, but has been subjected to the most disgraceful, malicious gossip fuelled campaign by the msm and the Liars Party, since Lionel Murphy.
I sincerely hope Mr Slipper is cleared of all charges, goes for the msm’s throat and is awarded gigantic sums of money. Hopefully, that will hasten the demise of the Emperor and his genuinely evil Empire and its minions.
It would be doubly satisfying to see Alberici, Uhlmann and the rest of the Murdoch scum sitting on street corners begging for alms. I, for one, would take great delight in kicking their bowls over and forcing them to eat shit sandwiches.
As for the psuedo interviewers and journalists, Albeici and Uhlmann, their interviewing techniques should most certainly be incorporated into journalism courses as prime examples of everything you should NEVER do when interviewing a guest. and shown at ASIO training courses on how to interrogate suspects.
Completely off topic, is anyone else having to fill in their details every couple of days?
I’m hearing reports that Craig Thomson is resigning from the ALP to sit on the cross benches. If so, his vote is potentially useful to Abbott & he may find himself occasionally elevated to the position of “nice guy”.
Bob @10.38am, rather surprising considering the PM has backed him all the way.
Either way,I wouldn’t think Liealot would get his vote unless it was for a motion to hang, draw and quarter the bugger!
Probably the msm or Liars trying to stir the possum.
At the moment the poll in the SMH has 84% of voters saying the stench won’t go away when Craig moves to the cross bench.
Jane, that rumour about the PM has been circling Canberra for some time.
Re smut and suspicion..with the basis of this being homophobia. So what if Julia is or isn’t.
And re the mincing, again that’s to do with stereotypes. The gay men who I have known are often very masculine in their demeanour.
Mr. Thompson moving to the cross bench changes nothing.
His vote I assume would stay with the government. I cannot ever see him voting with Mr. Abbott. That is not what it is about.
It may take some heat off the PM, as Abbott has been demanding this all along. It changes nothing about the PM’s assertion that one has the right to be considered innocence until the courts prove one guilty. Courts, not the Opposition or media.
No where have I read that Labor demand he resign, therefore I am assuming it is the decision of Mr. Thompson. He may see it as one less bat to bash him with.
I imagine it will be beat up into a big story, proving his guilt.
The PM being gay because she choose not to have children. How does this fit in with all the lesbians that go out of their way to have a child, including Senator Wong and her parliament. We can ignore the fact that she is a very feminine woman, plus having many boyfriend over her life time.
As for Pyne, I cannot imagine him having any sexuality, in spite of having four children. I thought that his interest laid in whining and his hatred for anything not on the far right. The man that is proud to have no friends on the left. Pity this, if he did, he might just develop the understanding that he is not always in right. He might not be so bitter.
It is shocking that they are now attacking the man’s religion, which he does appear to take seriously, on a daily basis his Bishop said. His Bishop also said that in the past he has investigated many of the allegations and was relaxed. A man’s religion is his own business.
As for the neighbors, has anyone seen pictures of the street he lives in. They would have to go out of their way to observe the time cars stayed outside his door.
Mr Slipper earned my respect in the way he handled the tree branch problem. Cut the trees down, When they complained that it would cost them. He replied yes and walked away.
Unless the branches are dangerous or causing damage,one does not have to have too.
I have just cut a couple down in the same position, mainly because I live very closed to m\y neighbors and want to maintain the peace. Also my sewer and guttering was being blocked. One was self grown in the wrong place.
Mt neighbors problem is that he seems to hate vegetation and trees draw his pet hate.
But I cut them down because it suited me.
On that big block I might have not bothered, especially if the neighbors have been there for five years and I did not know them.
As someone earlier said, the damage to our Westminster system is sopmething we are all going to live with.
Things will never be the same, thanks to Mr. Abbott. It will takes years to recover, id that is possible.
I do not agree with our mining whiner, that taking away some petrol subsidiaries will destroy the Budget for decades. I believe the opposite is true, getting rif of some of the structural imbalance within the budget.
Mr. Abbott needs to to remind himself, that the only reason he was getting Mr, Slipper was to get a seat for Mr. Brough. It is amazing that in the whole of Queensland and NSW one cannot be found for the man. That is areal story.
The PM is not saying that Mr. Slipper is innocence. She is saying he has the right to the presumption of innocence,
Mr. Albanese is saying the evidence appears to support Mr. Slipper.
What is true, in this country one should have the right to be judged only by the courts, not the media or Opposition.
The faceless men again. Remember that this man would have no love from Mr. Howard. Mr. Howard lost his first attempt because of the push for Joh for PM. Slipper was on the side of Joh.
Remember Coulson, who resigned from parliament on budget day.
Remember the PM cannot remove Mr. Slipper from the chair. If Mr. Abbott wants to do so call for a vote.
it is the house that appoints the speaker. It is only the house that can remove him.
Mary, if there are indeed other gay and lesbian member of parliament who have chosen not to come out..whose business is it anyway..
The sad thing would be is that if there are on the LNP side of politics that they have remained silent on the issue of marriage equality..so scared to cross “the boss”, Tony Abbott. The LNP could certainly do with a few more people with gumption such as Petro, who are prepared to take a stand on issues.
I think that the point that I’m trying to make is that sexual orientation can still be used as An Accusation. This clearly is based on an ingrained attitude of homophobia.
Would we see it as an accusation, for example OMG she has green eyes. Is she suitable to be PM because of this fact. Yet sexual orientation is still perceived as a factor.
PM on ABC 24. Thompson suppose to on at mid day.
The PM told Mr. Thompson to resign from the Labor Party.
PM gave both men the same advice. Things have gone to far and too long.
Migs @11.23am, all based on pig ignorance and a nasty dose of homophobia and spite, no doubt.
I couldn’t give a toss, she’s a bloody good PM.
As for Prissy, as I said above, it’s his business entirely whether he’s in the closet or, as I suspect, it’s a nasty cowardly beat up.
There’s plenty of fact based nasty things about Prissy, we don’t need manufactured stuff to point to.
Min, you’ve got to admit that Prissy is a mincer, though. 😆
eg, if Thomson is found to have been the victim of some nasty goings on, which I suspect could be true as we get more information about Jackson, it will be pretty hard even for the msm and the Liars to keep up the pretence that he is the source of the stench.
If that is the case, I reckon Thomson should have a crack at the gossip mongers, or at least let them think it’s a possibility.
The PM is well and truly serving back the insults she is receiving. The PM mentioned group think and bunch of fiction writers..
Jane, yes Prissy minces… 😉
Cassidy now returning her serve.
The statement that some MP’s are Teflon, nothing sticks. The PM is Velco, everything sticks is true.
The media appears to have made their minds up that everything the PM is going to be twisted to have different meanings.
Mr. Cassidy sounds very passionate and angry. Why?
Angry is not an understatement.
Unfortunately,
I don’t think PM Gillard can survive this…her decision to bring in Slipper…and support Thomson…has led to a further weakening of the ALP’s reputation.
Stabbing Wilkie in the back in order to attempt to save Labor MPs from the wrath of the pokie clubs and their supporters had a bad and gutless look about it.
Add the other issues, including the weak Malaysian solution policy that backfired…the carbon price issue…etc etc…sadly it has all added up to a perception by the public that the government is not being run well…and trust has been lost.
The media haven’t helped.
But, we can’t keep blaming them for everything. There are REAL problems here.
It’s sad tho because Gillard initially did well negotiating Labor into government…they’ve managed to pass many useful bills…and some good policies are about to be passed or implemented.
Furthermore,
I respect Gillard for not caving into Murdoch’s bullying pressure the way many other leaders and pollies have.
But I just don’t see how she can survive this latest judgement debacle.
I reckon it would be best if she resigned…and her place was taken by Combet…or Shorten. I prefer Combet.
We are running out of time.
This zealot Abbott would be a disaster for Australia.
N’
Cassidy on Insiders – banging on about the PM’s performance, and all of the msm echoing Abbott’s mantra about “judgement” and “leadership’
Well, Barrie when you speak about all the major policies which are now in place I’ll take your overblown opinions seriously. unitl then you’re in the news.con/Uhllman/Alberici column, “echoing the opposition”.
The “crossing the line” factor…. could it be that it is the msm that have “crossed the line” regarding the reporting of facts, as opposed to reporting the conclusions of their group think,
It’s the msm that’s jumped the shark…
TIMING Simple, this is the time to do it.
Two principals in conflict. Is this not true.
Has the media and Opposition assault left her any choice.
Who is damaging our legal and political system.
Nas’, I will have to disagree with you about the Wilkie reforms – because BOTH Windsor and Oakeshott stated categorically that they would not support the legislation in the form that Wilkie wanted it.
Therefore Julia was obliged to negotiate to get it through, in a form which Windsor and Oakeshott would agree with.
The Clubs like to call it as “a win”, it’s not. The Clubs of course would prefer that nothing was done..at all…
CU @11.44am, we’re on the same page. Clearly the msm has really had to push for extra smearing against Slipper.
And if all they can come up with is whinge about branch lopping. Which would be at the neighbour’s expense.
Apparently, he’s supposed to chuck the branches over the fence and if he wasn’t the snotty prig he sounds, he and Slipper could have come to an amicable arrangement about it.
I was completely unaware that not wanting to have children is proof that one is gay.
What about all the gay couples who have children? Does that mean they really straight but can’t admit…………. What? I’ve never heard such a lot of absolute rubbish!
Lots of people don’t want to have children for any number of reasons. All it means is they don’t want to have children. Just as well; there’s already about 5 billion too many people on the planet!
About Prissy, I also find it hard to believe that he is anything but asexual. AI, definitely.
I am surprised the PM told Thomson to resign, but no doubt she has her reasons which will be revealed in the fullness of time.
But the damage that Liealot and the Liars party has done to this country politically and economically, if we’re unlucky enough to be inflicted with him as PM will take decades to repair.
Min @11.48am, it’s a great pity that sexual orientation is still a pejorative, and genuinely bad flaws like dishonesty, malice and lack of integrity to name a few are regarded as positive traits, particularly by the right wing.
Gee, Julie Bishop says we need a new election…. very original …
I’m off to the football so her words and those of the compliant media can float upwards on a stream of hot air…..
The PM stated the obvious point that both Thomson and Slipper are entitled to the presumption of innocence and just as Mary Jo Fisher, a Senator, faced no such spirited attacks during her recent tangle with the Courts, neither should
Abbott behave like the leader of a lynch mob now; [the lynch mob being the
media crones].
Note to Pip: you need to log in again..I believe that your left hand little fingernail might have hit a wrong letter.
😆 😆
Ms Julie Bishop, new election.
Sorry they are not going to get it.
Nas,’ I’m with Min on the pokies reform.
Oakeshott and Windsor would not agree to Wilkie’s scheme, nor would the
Coalition, therefore amendments had to be looked at, yet Wilkie, with the advice of Xenophon and Credlin, blames only the PM.
Danged females, they’re just impossible to deal with!
Cu, Abbott has sent out the likes Of Abetz and Bishop for some reason, rather than hogging all the limelight on this one.
Cu, well actually they are going to get a new election..but because the PM calls it.
The coalition remind me of kids before Easter, wanting all their chokkies, because they want them NOW. It’s character building to make them wait.
Hope you have a bad day at the footy, Pip. I believe your mob are playing my team.
I’m sure Jane shares my sentiments.
Uh oh..there could be blood on the floor at the Café…
Abbott on after two.
Pip and Min,
I’m sure Wilkie would’ve compromised…he was shoved out for Slipper before he could…not good.
Wilkie was a hero to the Left when he was a whistleblower related to that dreadful Iraq debacle. When persecuted by the Howeirdians many Lefties backed him.
Now he’s trying to do the right thing by problem gamblers…and gambling will help to destroy this country if permitted to continue its corrupt and rampant and unethical ways…he’s crapped on by the Left.
It looks pathetic.
I back Wilkie on his courageous efforts…same for Xenephon.
N’
Nas’ I agree with Min on the pokies reform. Wilkie’s bill as he wanted it was never going to get through, because it didn’t have enough support.
However, the PM has copped the blame for Wilkie’s refusal to see the writing on the wall.
He may love beating his head against a brick wall, but I suspect the PM doesn’t.
He could have sat down with her and explored the best options to steer through a bill which, while it wasn’t exactly what he wanted, would have laid the groundwork for future amendments to achieve what he wanted.
He chose to do neither; instead choosing to bitch and moan about the PM reneging on their agreement.
What is more telling, though is that he never uttered a word of reproach wrt Liealot’s refusal to support the bill’s passage through the House or that Liealot and the Liars Party are obviously in the pockets of big gambling.
After all, if Liealot had supported the bill, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I think that says a lot about Mr Wilkie and his inflexibility and his hypocrisy.
Pokies reform was also part of the government’s platform at the last election, something which seems to be conveniently overlooked as usual, by the msm.
Nas’, we can only hope that the fall of the Murdochracy is swift, leaving the Liars bereft of their security blanket of unaccountability and lack of scrutiny.
I forgot to add nil desperandum and keep the bear’s head high, my friend.
And I’ll chuck in “The darkest hour is before dawn”, free of charge. lol
Nas’, Wilkie has shown absolutely no willingness whatsoever to compromise..all or nothing.
I think that it’s better to make a start, even though it’s not the full 100% rather than be left with nothing whatsoever.
Wilkie was being unrealistic – as the legislation could not have got through the House of Reps because BOTH Windsor and Oakeshott would not support it, then WHY bring down a government when seeking the impossible.
Mr. Thompson now on.
Nas, politics is a funny game. I’m not sure I understand all the rules.
Jane @1.05pm..that reminded me of..
Miglo, today the rules are simple. It is what one can get away with. Nothing more, nothing less.
Mr. Thompson, seven investigations. Has been cleared in three of them.
There’s a lot of static @ 12.50pm ……
GO CROWS ..
The meeja are asking silly questions … still ..
Tip:- ask different questions if they want different answers!.
Certainly do, Migs @12.50pm.
Migs, the rules for politcs since Liealot and Rupert became LOTO, is the only rules are lie, cheat, defame, slander without consequence or remorse..
Jane..and no responsibility taken whatsoever…
CU @1.13pm, four down, three to go.
What reason did the PM give for asking Thomsonto resign and what reason has he given.
I can think of a couple like the unbearable pressure he’s been under.
Does this mean the Liars have changed targets again and the Slipper thing is now going to die?
It all must be quickly resolved. I’ll stick my neck out and say neither Thomson nor slipper will have a case to answer.
If that is the case, the Liars and the msm should have their noses rubbed in it at every opportunity.
Jane, Pip, Migs and others,
the whole business depresses me.
I see a Liberal party now dominated by religious zealots and One Nation/Tea Party-like bullies…
Gun crime increasing…bikies thinking they can war over turf at the expense of the general public…
obsession of media and public with criminal underworld thugs…
Gambling and corporate advertising left, right and centre…
Religious characters and institutions being protected regardless of the way they have preyed on kids.
Corporate media relying on sexual titilation, celebrity obsession, sex and porn scandals, character assasination, corporatised sport and backdoor advertising/product placement/infotainment in tabloid fashion to survive.
Fast food companies and big pharma and mining companies/CEOs having huge influence.
Belittling of the “safety net” and affordable as essential services by referring to them as “entitlements”.
Good union work being undermined by corruption of some.
Might as well be in bloody America.
N’
Min, the other pokies point is that Windsor and Oakeshott live in pokie land, where Clubs Australia conducted their own election campaign by placing anti Labor posters in 9.000 venues…. then proudly announced that they would be removing the posters when Wilkie’s plan was amended, even declaring a win for themselves!
The main stream media have behaved like chooks with their heads chopped
off over the anti mining tax, anti carbon ‘tax’, anti NBN, and anti pokies reform campaigns directed at this government by obscenely wealthy vested interests, as well as the smear campaigns against Thomson and Slipper, and all backed by Tony Abbott, yet our Prime Minister can stil maintain a civil demeanour.
How would Abbott manage under such pressure?
That’s a silly question because the msm would not dream of placing that kind of presure on him!
Nor would they promote a view that he lied about the carbon tax, even if he had announced it before the election as PM Gillard did.
‘…sexual orientation can still be used as An Accusation.’
Not necessarily, the average punter couldn’t give a rat’s arse…they took Penny Wong’s marriage in their stride.
As I mentioned before, Ashby has only himself to blame for giving Slippery the wrong impression.
Tony Windsor is always the voice of reason in these circumstances. I’ll take my lead from him.
Independent MP Tony Windsor said Mr Thomson’s move was not entirely unexpected.
”I’m not surprised actually, given the circumstances within the Labor Party,” he told ABC Television.
But Mr Windsor dismissed fresh talk of a motion of no confidence against the government.”We’ve been hearing about them for 18 months. There hasn’t been one,” he said.
”The government hasn’t breached its agreement with me, so there’s no grounds for me to initiate a no-confidence motion.”
Nas’ I agree with all of your points and on that note I’m really going to the showdown between Port Adelaide and the Crows.
Waves Crows scarf at Migs and Jane.
Mr. Howard said he would not accept the vote of Mr. Coulson.
Ms Bishop is demanding that the PM does not accept the vote of the two men.
Please tell me how can the vote of any MP be denied under our constitution.
They have a legitimate right to vote, on behalf of their constituents, who they are there to represent.
Why is Mr. Abbott taking so long to reply.
They are not elected to represent any party.
I was impressed with Craig Thomson, nothing like the sleaze bag the Opposition, ably helped by MSM, has been painting. What a disgraceful reference to Chifley’s light on the hill by Abbott yesterday. I’d say that if I had to choose from body language and style between Thomson and Abbott I’d opt for Thomson. Add to that context and content and he’s streets ahead of Mr. Negativity. He handled himself well and not at all like a man who has a guilty conscience, or no conscience at all.
Let’s see more of him.
El gordo, I disagree. There is always the element of titillation when a person is accused of/or suspected of being gay. Otherwise WHY do the newspapers go on..and on..and on..and on about it.
Min, I’m sure I heard Tony Windsor say that Tony Abbott needed Laxettes –
Nobody else does when listening to the Abbott rants!
Cu, Why is Mr. Abbott taking so long to reply.
Maybe he needs to sober up!
Jennifer Marohasy is on a crusade to return the Murray Mouth to pristine conditions.
‘At the moment A$10 billion is being spent on water reform ostensibly to keep the Murray’s Mouth open and the Lakes in freshwater.
‘So, in short the government could save A$10 billion… if it simply removed at least the Mundoo barrage and let the Southern Ocean do the job of both filling the lake and scouring the Murray’s Mouth.
‘This is a job the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Greens, Labor and Liberal parties want done by freshwater because this provides a reason for taking freshwater from upstream food producers… something currently very fashionable to advocated. Ask Malcolm Turnbull.
‘It has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with misguided green politics…’
Pip, you are right. Tony appears to be in either a complete state of constipation or is in the middle of a good dose of the trots.
Sobering up might be useful too…
Pip wrote: I agree with all of your points and on that note I’m really going to the showdown between Port Adelaide and the Crows.
Pip,
Enjoy yerself.
Try to ignore the corporate advertising that has invaded sports like malignant tumours.
N’
Patricia, that is the man I knew and worked closely with when the Richmond Scheme was moving the Intellectually Handicapped from institutions.
Now he could be a clever man that I believed or I could just be a poor judge of character..
I have asked if there are readers to this site, that have more recent experiences with the union to voice their opinions.
There has not been any that have come forwarded, either here or any where else. That is except for one that Ms. Jackson engineered.
Ms. Bishop is wrong. The PM has not changed her stance regarding either man.
The PM has accepted the reality that sticking by the principal of ones rights to presumption of innocence, is now in conflict with the principal that the good name of parliament needs to be upheld.
The PM has never claimed and has taken time to point out, the innocence or guilt of either man. That is how it should be.
I am not too sure why Mr. Thompson came to the same conclusion as the PM but said they had different reasons. Maybe that is how it should be. They play different roles within the parliament.
Mr. Thompson said that the matters are going on too long, and the pressure on him and his family is too much.
Mr. Windsor appears to have similar beliefs to mine in how the constitution says and what is the mandate.
Parties play no role. He did not pick a party or PM. He picked a government, whose individual members responsibility is to the people who voted for them.
Jettison from the Labor Party or suspended.
Mr. Slipper announcement does not appear to say he is standing aside. He said that he would call the deputy to the chair. He would then not take the chair again until matters are sorted out.
He put emphasis that he is entitled to remain in the chair, but to do so, is not6 in the best interest of the House.
Min, on Thursday and Friday he appeared to be on uppers.
Insiders said he appeared to be enjoying himself. He always looks happy when he is destroying something, whether a person, economy or the good of the country.
He is happiest when spreading gloom and doom.
Nas, I think it depresses a lot of us. Abbott and the Murdoch media have been very successful in introducing American style politics into Oz.
Sadly, I can’t see it changing. Ever.
Mr. Abbott. Do not know why he waited so long, Still only slogans he has been using for weeks. Once again not addressing today’s actions.
Is repeating all the alleged allegations, as if they were truth.
Talking once again as one to a three year old.
Nothing new. Waste of time.
Words repeated over and over and over.
Telling us over and over and over, what we think.
Only provision is for her own survival. Oh, we are feeling a shame.
there is a better way, he stand by to give us what we deserve. Shocking speech.
The whine is well and truly in the voice.,
Attacking the judgment of Windsor and Oakeshott as well.
Whine whine whine
He now wants both men to stand aside from the parliament. How does that work. It is a new one on me.
Has the PM disown Mr. Thompson. I believe not. Mr. Abbott has asked what has changed. I suggest to Mr. Abbott that he look at the media and his own party’s campaign over the last week.
The PM HAS NOT DISOWNED Mr. Thompson. The PM is still saying that both men are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
The PM said that she or no one else has all the evidence and as such, no one is in the position to declare the men guilty.
That does not look like dumping Mr. Thompson. The PM’s position in this regard is still the same.
Mr. Abbott needs to deal with the facts that are in public domain, not the ones that are in his head., or he is trying to create.
It is only audio press conference. I wonder why?
Maybe the hangover is in play.
Maybe he did not want us to see him on his knees begging us to give him what he so desires.
Migs, unfortunately..very unfortunately the dirty tactics have proven themselves to be the winners. Getting the job done it seems, is no longer newsworthy.
I should add, if/when Tony Abbott is elected Prime Minister and does absolutely zilch..I dare say that there will be a lot of hand-wringing from the media. But what do they expect? They’ve put him there.
Rob Oakshott had a slight rebuff of Wilkie on Insiders today. He said he has been waiting for someone to introduce legislation on gambling reform in line with the recommendations of the Productivity commission but nothing has happened. Rather than all this he said she said it would be better if action were taken.
So I do not think Oakshott has too much time for the grandstanding Wilkie.
Min, Mr. Abbott will be very happy. He will be in his glory with all the demolishing and pulling down he intends to do.
At least we then will know about the achievements of this government that the media has been very clever in hiding.
Some might even believe they are worth keeping.
The public appears to have done a 180 degree on their support for the mining industry. 82% now-believe they do not pay enough tax.
Most will not object in not having to pay to have in connected.
I cannot see them taking the insulation out of their ceilings or selling their school halls and computer upgrades, along with libraries, science and language labs off.
Some might like keeping more of their child care fees, that are now paid as you pay.
I am sure the pensioners will want to keep their ill gotten gains under this toxic government.
Some elderly people might even appreciate the new age care in the pipeline.
Yes, there is much to demolish, but I am sure the man is up to it. this in spite of not being a boxer, but a slugger.
What has Mr. Abbott contributed to the community or community debate in the last couple of years.
What has he contributed to business and consumer confidence in this country,
He has done plenty to talk the economy down.
He is only happy when bad news is afoot. Good results appear to bring on anger and despondence in the man.
This man seem to believe he can only win by destroying his opponents.
I would not get too close to him in any race he participates in. It would just be too dangerous.
He clearly does not believe he can win, by proving he is better man.
THIS IS NO LONGER THE LAND OF THE FAIR GO.
Even so, Labor appears to be sticking to the rules and has not lowered themselves to play in the mire the Opposition seem to love.
Nas’, don’t let the bastards get you down. Let out the best bear roar you can and sharpen your claws. We’re in a fight to the death and it’s going to be Liealot’s if i can help it.
patricia, I didn’t hear what Thomson said, so I’m grateful for your comment. He definitely seems to be head and shoulders above Liealot, although even a snake wouldn’t find that too hard.
Pip @1.39pm, roflmao!!!
.
…..I could just be a poor judge of character..
No, CU, you’re a very good judge of character, imo. I’d trust your judgement any day of the week.
Slipper has made his decision for all the right and principled reasons. He has the best interests of government at heart, unlike the power crazy Liars Party, or should I say the obsessive pursuit of power by one MP.
An MP who has absolutely no regard whatever for Parliament, government, truth, integrity, honesty, the law, or the country. He cares only for his own agrandisement.
Between now and May 8, Abbott and the Coalition can only ponder what will be said
“when the House resumes its sitting on 8 May,I will make a short statement to the house and then invite the Deputy Speaker to take the chair as Deputy Speaker,” he said.
Interesting is that Xenophon has remained aloof from it – interesting because it’s he who has done the hard yards before Wilkie came into the room.
On a different issue..this is where Xenophon is, in Malaysia. I was pleased to note the following..
Last year the High Court scuttled plans by the federal government to swap 800 asylum seekers with 4000 processed refugees from Malaysia and cast doubt on the legality of offshore processing.
It’s only a footnote, but at least it’s acknowledgment that is wasn’t as the opposition prefer to put it..the government’s “failed plan”, but that it was the High Court who scuttled it.
Migs wrote: Nas, I think it depresses a lot of us. Abbott and the Murdoch media have been very successful in introducing American style politics into Oz.
I would agree with that Migs.
But I also blame the likes of the Liberal supporting think tanks and their over-the-top libertarian views not unlike Ayn Rand…
the Packers…Kerry Packer pushed for more corporate sports, gambling and brought the American motivational speaker stuff here fullbore…
…the shock jocks…acting like Rush Limbaugh…
…and some of the companies who kowtowed to or sold out to American predators…that includes Telstra.
Our finely balanced social cum liberal democracy is being undermined by this American style rampant capitalism, corporate profiteering, political celebrities putting opportunism over principles, all the way with money money money …topped with libertarian aspiring nonsense.
If Abbott has his way, no politician in this country will have any power to represent the people…any who try will be set-up, framed by people working for special interests…and forced to step aside from desicion-making processes.
It’s enuff that some already fear the power of the media…or owe favours to big companies etc.
Look at how paralysed and ineffective the American government has become…almost paralysed…infiltrated by special interests and corporate aristocracy at all levels.
Abbott, Murdoch, Jones, Howard, the think tanks, evangelicals…certain influential corporate characters…and a number of other scumbags have managed to put this country on the road to nowhere.
The same road America is taking.
We need drivers who can take us elsewhere…
I know Gillard and Obama are trying…but I reckon Gillard is too damaged now. Sadly. And Obama is too oft caged by the scumbags who sabotage and take his own party down the wrong road.
N’
Sadly Archiearchive hasn’t got much to add to the rumor mill he referred to above, which I thought was a pity cos I’d love to be able to start a limericks thread here at the Cafe on that and related topics. As well, his limerick is great and crying out for more to follow.
Mind you, Limericks are rhymes, i.e. poetry, so poetic license is possible. And we needn’t wait for any facts before launching into print.
Very simple rules, people. Five lines, AABBA rhymes. Lines 1,2, 5, have 7-10 syllables, Lines 3,4 have 5-7 syllables. Easy peasy, eh? Here’s one –
A pollie minder, Ms Credlin,
Was warned by his wife to stop meddlin
In their family life
Or she’d soon be in strife
And him on his bike, told to keep peddlin.
Sorry we are now seeing the video of Mr. Abbott. That is good, as the audio made him sound dreadful. Video is little better.
Repeating the allegations at this time is not good form. Especially when he is putting the emphasis on prostitution etc.
I see it as being about Mr. Abbott’s judgement and character. One who has no respect for the parliament and legal system in this country.
No vision for Australia. What is Mr. Abbott vision.
No Mr. Abbot I yearn and believe deserve our politics to be taken back to a better time.
I do not like the mire that you have created in the political arena.
It is still better to let the judicial processes to take their course.
The only thing Mr. Abbott, doing is in destroying this government and you are willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how many lies need to be told, no matter who it destroys.
Mr. Abbott, all you have to do is wait,
The decision made today was between two conflicting principals, that had to be resolved. The PM is still strong in her belief that one is entitled to the Presumption of innocence.
The PM is also beholden to the upholding of the good name of the parliament.
Today’s decision has been made in that light.
Who has crossed the line that The PM mentioned. It does not take much imagination to name the media and the Opposition.
The Murdoch media in particular, with the ABC, which today does not seem to have a mind of their own, close behind.
Anyway,
I’m quite willing to support the government even if Gillard stays.
At least she hasn’t sucked up Murdoch’s butt…like others have.
And it’s obvious Abbott is Murdoch’s boy.
N’
particiawa
my attempt
Me mate is called Peter Slipper
His deeds are quite a ripper
But mateship be damned
My ascension has been planned
Theres no room for ya mate in this Abbott led snicker
Patricia, I have a suspicion the wife does not care much.
“At least she hasn’t sucked up Murdoch’s butt…like others have.”
Maybe that is the root of all the bad media the PM is getting.
The PM should be allowed to survive, if for no other reason.
David Marr.
Insiders.
Mr Abetz was told that there were serious concerns re Mr. Slipper in 2003.
Reaction was to prepare a serious issue paper.
They then renominate him a further seven times. Faceless men would not allow him to be removed. Come on now, over nine years.
On the nose for nearly thirty years.
Has there been one proven allegation. I believe not.
What is Mr. Abbott vision.
Him seated on a throne, wearing a crown and a blue train trimmed with ermine.
I won’t go into the tyoe of throne best suited to him. Suffice it to say, ther’s no door and it faces a paddock with plenty of reading material.
Nas’ Gillard hasn’t betrayed the country or us. Her political judgement is sound. Try to think of the msm reaction if Liealot had the ‘nads to do what she has done.
That’s what keeps me going: She’s beng crucified because she’s a woman who has dared to aspire to the highest office in the land and an ALP woman at that!
So, come what may, we KNOW that what she’s doing is right and what’s best for the country, otherwise the msm wouldn’t be sinking the slippper. (No pun intended)
And if we lose, we know she gave it a red hot go AND succeeded, despite the naysayers, muck rakers and the barrackers.
Sharpen your claws and lift up that fine bear’s head. NOTHING can beat a bear when his blood is up!
Maybe we should be listening to Mr. Oakeshott.
He is questioning the evidence given by Mr. Ashby. Maybe I should say lack of it.
He mentioned, which I have said in the past, there does not seem to have been any reconciliation occur.
.
Cu and “That is good, as the audio made him sound dreadful.”
Much is made of Julia’s good old Aussie drawl, but who can listen to Tony..the shrillness makes me want to reach for the mute button.
Don’t be too shocked CU but the Insiders returns to the big issue;
What the PM wore to Gallipolli
Yes ho hum, someone likened her to Paddington Bear, don’t worry they have pictures side by side.
Yes all those people who actually respond to Anzaac Day will be impressed that the press cannot show any respect for the PM of Australia at Gallipolli for Anzaac Day Services.
Jane wrote: Gillard hasn’t betrayed the country or us.
Jane,
I do think she loves this country for its uniqueness and will do anything to preserve that.
Like me, Gillard has originated elsewhere…but come to respect this good country for its ability to produce past leaders who have provided opportunities for ALL rather than just THE FEW.
That includes affordable education, healthcare and childcare…and communication and energy networks that reach out to even the remotest places.
I also luv the laidback approach…not so intense as America…well, at least until the likes of Packer, Murdoch, Howard, Abbott, Jones and many other anally retentive, overly ambitious, AmeriKorp and Republican butt sucking workaholics got their paws on this country and gradually moulded it into a partial clone of corporate America.
N’
And now he’s on the crossbenches Craig Thomson will have to watch out. If he’s seen so much as making a right turn in traffic Abbott will be all over him, telling him he’s not such a bad fella at all, really, & perhaps Craig might like to vote for him?
nasking, how can you say that about the PM. The common belief, according to the media, is that she has no vision for the country.
And the inference is, if she has, she cannot communicate the fact.
Now I listened very careful to the PM this morning. What I heard does not seem to be what the media is talking about.
Abbott and his light on the hill joke appears to say a lot about his character and lack of ethics.
What vision has Mr. Abbott have for this country.
Bob, having been done over I doubt that Craig Thomson would spare the time to spit on Abbott’s boots.
The worse voice in parliament has to be Mr. Pyne. For someone educated in some of our considered best schools, it is shocking.
David Marr, Insiders.
“When in the history of this country has so much of political importance depended on so much squalor.
When has we been actually swilling around in the sewer to this extent in Australia politics.”
@ CU – Tony Abbott does so have a vision. It involves the door of the lodge closing with him on the inside. Although his ability to run the country lacks credlinability. There is a distinct divide between what Abbott says he wants for Australia (or doesn’t want) and what will be revealeed as his policies after the next election.
‘Code for throwing the environment to the wolves!’
Oddly I see it differently, its what they call ‘rationalisation’. The idea is to cut the green tape and make environmental protection more efficient by sacking a swag of public servants.
Once the states take the CC/renewable energy guff out of the mix… it frees up a lot of money for the environment.
I mentioned earlier the Murray Mouth and how the government could save $10 billion.
El gordo and “The idea is to cut the green tape and make environmental protection more efficient by sacking a swag of public servants.”
And which ones do you envisage sacking? Perhaps the home help for disabled people..go on, tell us which ones you would like sacked.
The environment is helped by sacking “a swag of” public servants..I don’t quite get the logic there..
Oddly I see it differently
Nothing odd about that, el gordo.
Catching up wrote: Abbott and his light on the hill joke appears to say a lot about his character and lack of ethics.
Cu,
That was low even for Abbott.
I don’t remember any LIGHT when he was healthcare minister…just penny-pinching.
As for Marr,
didn’t he write a book about how terrible the Howard years were?
His Master’s Voice: The Corruption of Public Debate under Howard in the Quarterly Essay, Issue 26
N’
Sue @4.14pm, what an utter disgrace and complete disrespect for Anzac Day, which the barrackes are constantly telling us they respect more than anybody in the whole world and the universe and everythink.
What a smack in the face to every serviceman who has been sent to a conflict.
Have these people no sense of decency? They certainly have absolutely no shame or ethics.
Nas, Dark Victory made compelling reading. Anybody who read that book would find it difficult to vote for the Coalition, ever.
Jane
And the ABC, giggle, giggle, thought it appropriate to show on national tv. I hadn’t heard of it till then, but then again the PM’s wardrobe isn’t as important to me as Age care Reform, NDIS, ehealth, NBN,education, housing, you know those issues that people without vision seem to do something about.
Did you know Jane that Peter Hartcher claims Gillard is not a proper PM ’cause she has no vision.
And you may have read that Barrel O ‘Lies has stopped a federal program aimed at low cost housing. It was a small article in saturday’s SMH, but who really cares about affordable housing, especially if the Federal govt could get some kudos.
What O’Farrell has done is to change assistance for bonds to low income earners from a subsidiary to a loan.
A loan that most that qualify will have big problems repaying ,interest free or not.
Would love to know the cost of administering the new scheme.
For starters… the bureaucrats associated with the MDB and Klimatariat.
El gordo, so you want to sack scientists…but wait, you didn’t say that, you want to sack “the bureaucrats” the office staff, or do you mean the people on the ground gathering data. You’re going to have to be far more specific.
Most of the scientists on the ground and the department of climate change can all be sacked, returning the CSIRO to its original status.
All the bureaucrats and scientists involved with the MDB can also be done away with.
Sue,I did not see that one. The rental one is truly shocking. Even with assistance with bonds,most of these low income earners have difficulty paying the rent.
They just have no idea.
Sue, they do not keep the promises they sign up to. They are quite happy to take advantage of another successful Stimulus programme.
The O’Farrell government signed contracts last June with the housing organisations to hand over titles to almost 6000 homes built under the federal government’s Nation Building Economic Stimulus Plan. The plan was part of Labor’s response to the global financial crisis, and the $5.6 billion for social housing nationwide was the first injection of funds into public housing in about 30 years.
A condition of funding was that most of the titles to the new properties be passed from the state government to not-for-profit housing associations after a tender process.
The associations were required to raise loans, using the titles as security, to build further low-cost housing. The state government will not use public housing stock as security for loans, and the scheme was seen as an innovative way to secure a modest future supply of affordable housing.
But soon after the contracts were signed responsibility for the scheme moved from Housing NSW to Mr Pearce, who ordered the review. With half the titles already transferred, the government stopped the delivery of the remaining 3000, throwing negotiations into disarray, and reducing by about half the number of homes that could be built.
”Organisations have been faced with something like a breach of contract,” said Adam Farrar, executive director of the NSW Federation of Housing Associations. ”The whole sector has been waiting a long time for a decision and we’re hoping for a positive outcome.”
MA Housing, which won 1055 titles in the tender and planned to deliver 200 new homes on the back of them, has received fewer than half the promised titles. Its chief executive, Andrew McAnulty, said promising negotiations with banks and developers had to be put on hold.
”Having worked in housing associations in the UK for 16 years I know this is a great model and we were keen to move forward,” he said. ”Sydney is crying out for new homes and this is a real opportunity to get new housing investment.”
Compass Housing signed contracts for 1038 titles with a requirement to build 350 houses. It took out a $50 million debt facility with Westpac Bank. But it has not received about 400 titles, and has had to renegotiate with the bank.
”The money didn’t come from the state but the federal government and it was earmarked for community housing,” said the chief executive, Greg Budworth. ”It’s not cricket.”
El gordo and “Most of the scientists on the ground and the department of climate change can all be sacked, returning the CSIRO to its original status.”
But isn’t that what the CSIRO is all about, it’s about scientific research, therefore how would sacking all scientists achieve your goal.
el gordo, you need that data to be continued to be collected, to prove you are correct.
Climate Change or not renewal energy is industry of the future, We need to be a apart of that industry,
There are many other good arguments to go down this track, whether CC is true or not.
Yes, renewable is more expensive to set up. Once set up, it is much cheaper to maintain.
It is to the benefit of any nation not to rely on fossil fuel.
Anyway, if the whole lot were closed down, including the CSIRO, there would not be much of a saving. They cost a minute part of the budget. The savings would hardly register.
CU
that is what is so annoying about the msm, they run,run,run after smut and snickering. forget how destrucitive the liberals are once in power.
I’m just trying to visualise the CSIRO without scientists..are you wanting just tea ladies and someone to sweep the empty offices.
I suppose the next attack on gillard will be that she worked on a sunday. how dare she make decisions on a sunday that will affect the stories we, the msm, had lined up for monday. and poor tony he had to be found to make a statement, you know he has been working non stop, at least he should have a day off.
still we, the msm can go with a few ol faithfuls. Govt in Crisis, Last chance for Gillard, How the numbers stack up, An illegitmate govt
Min
tea ladies?
The Chameleons – View from a Hill
I was just SBS news, which is probably one of the better news.
It amazes me that no matter what the PM does, everybody knows why she does it. They all know what she is thinking.
The one thing is that the PM is never given credit for what she says she is doing and thinking. That is automatically ignored.
Maybe the PM today is doing and does think what she clearly said she did.
Maybe the PM does mean it when she said and still says, that one is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Maybe the PM does still support both men’s right to remain in Parliament unless convicted by the courts, not the media or Opposition.
Owing to the media and Opposition campaign that she has no other option but to ask the men to stand aside.
Maybe the driver for today’s action may not be the polls. Maybe the PM does not waste much time on what she cannot change, that is the polls.
Maybe the PM is focused on doing the best she can, and hope that the polls change.
Maybe what drives the PM is doing the nest she can, and what is right.
Now that is indeed a funny notion I know.
CU
I thought the PM just tipped a whole bucket of cold water over the feverish, fitting abbott and msm talking heads.
I read something this morning, but got waylaid with today’s breaking news.
It was a comment that the incomes of the wealthy in the UK are growing.
Of course the incomes of the rest are still disappearing.
No matter what, the wealthy, like the poor are always with us.
Cannot remember were I read it.
Australia Story tomorrow. Something about Clive. We cannot say that the ABC is not doing it’s part.
Gina, now Clive.
Chris Uhlmann. All about survival. Could not be about doing the right thing.
Sue, watching the ABC news. The bucket of cold water has not worked.
Mr. Abbott is right, there is a crisis. Problem for Mr. Abbott. it is of his making.
Mr. Ulhmann is gloating. We are getting a rerun of all the PM’s crisis for the year.
@Patriciawa – your rules about limericks were excellent although they missed one important point – the rhythm – it is anapestic – as is shown in this “perfect limerick” written by moi but based on an old prose joke. It shows where the accents need to be for it to “sing”.
That SHIRT looks beCOMing on YOU
BeCOMing inDEED is the VIEW
But, IF, like your VEST
‘Twas I on your CHEST,
I’d CERtainly BE coming TOO!
As far as extra syllables, it is possible to have one or two unaccented syllables at the beginning and/or end of a line – but it should be a repeating pattern through out the limerick. Something like I did in the first two lines of my “Peter Slipper” limerick – although I stuffed up the last line.
And there should always be something at least a little naughty in a limerick 🙂
Oops – now I’ve gone all schoolteacherish. Sorry about that 😉
Noticed they could not get anyone on the Central Coast to call for an new election. The spoke in a general ,,manner when they said we are not getting honesty from MPs.
‘But isn’t that what the CSIRO is all about, it’s about scientific research, therefore how would sacking all scientists achieve your goal.’
The CSIRO should be separated from the Department of Climate Change because this lot will have to go.
I just had the biggest laugh all day. There was Can Do Campbell on the tele in response to the shooting in a shopping mall..
It went somthing like this………
The labor govt that was soft on crime ……….
Grow up Can do that was really P!!s Weak
‘Climate Change or not renewal energy is industry of the future, We need to be a apart of that industry…’
No, it can’t carry base load and now that they have discovered coal seam gas the renewable industry will collapse once subsidies are withdrawn.
This is the future.
el gordo get up to date. That is just not true.
Not even for solar.
There are many renewals. Combinations can be used.
There are cheap ways of storing electricity.
Base loads can be met,
“it’s about scientific research,”
and what they are doing is not scientific.
el gordo, you and I live in a different reality.
Hi Sue, Just in. Loved your limerick! Pretty good off the cuff. We don’t seem to have any more takers though. Shame. Maybe another time.
insiders were appalling today, I thought, particularly those comments on the PM’s Paddington Bear look from Cassidy. I agree with you and Pip about the disrespect for the occasion, the ANZACS and our Turkish hosts. And how dare David Marr suggest that the stench and squalor he complained of was somehow the the government’s responsponsibility. There are just two confected scandals and both are being continuously whipped up by Abbott and the media.
Patricia, I shake my head in disbelief at all the pathetic excuses the media come up with to hang something on Julia Gillard.
I got to thinking about what a brilliant team Rudd & Gillard were during the 07 election…how well they seemed to get along…a breath of fresh air compared to the stale and ongoing cock fights between Howard & Costello…
a couple of Laborites demonstrating passion and offering up a return to the “fair-go-for-all” and “accountable” approach to governing that had been lost under a divisive, sneaky, uninspiring, too oft bullying, union-hating, boss loving, nonprogressive administration…
where “core” and “non-core promises” left the bad taste of BS…and trust came down to people trusting that Howard would find some issue to fear-monger over in the runup to an election…whilst house prices and interest rates soared…workers grew increasingly enslaved to the banks and their multiple jobs…shareholders and owners of businesses profited handsomely from middle class welfare and “choice” policies…money flooded upwards…and environmental protection too oft played second fiddle to business interests.
How I wish we could go back in a time machine…the present Rudd & Gillard be provided with an opportunity to inform their former selves of what was to come…
perhaps Rudd would’ve got more sleep…been more open to cabinet ideas and discussions…less anally retentive and more cautious in his approach to the insulation rollout…less dismissive of The Greens when it came to the ETS…more interested in media inquiries…taken a bolder and more Humanitarian approach to asylum seekers…prepared the path more carefully to a mining tax…
perhaps Julia Gillard wouldn’t have felt compelled to convince Ruddy to drop the ETS…nor eventually make an agreement with big miners to axe Ruddy…but rather help him to create the foundations from which a mining tax proposal could be launched.
Who knows?
But it really depresses me to think back on the 2010 election…the accusations, the stumbles…
and the recent battle between the Rudd and Gillard camps…so much pain and anguish…good people divided up into opposing camps…virtually tearing each other’s throats out…
whilst the sh*t stirring Murdoch empire minions and their copycats worked their wooden spoons…larfed inwardly so hard…KERCHING KERCHING
Frankly, I don’t know who to support anymore…Gillard? Rudd? Combet? Shorten?
All good people wanting the best for the Australian people…finding different ways to ensure that Tony Abbott and his bunch of BA Santamaria cum One Nation actalike clowns don’t get their nonprogressive, ever-pontificating, mining tax hating, BULLY BOSS apologist, antiquated hands on government…
in the process these good Laborites have confused the hell outa the public…including yers truly.
So I guess I’ll go for now with the present leader, Julia Gillard, because she doesn’t seem to kowtow to Murdoch…takes guts to standup to that old bully and his minions…
Furthermore,
Gillard has the support of the Independents…well, most of them…most of the time…and the bulk of her caucus.
And the lady has been able with the help of a few useful tacticians been able to get plenty of useful bills thru parliament.
If only the public…and the media could see this.
Gillard didn’t take us into that grotesque debacle the Iraq War. She didn’t do a Tampa. She didn’t hit us with a GST. Nor selloff Telstra yet leave the copper wires in its hands. Nor did she use troops to invade Aboriginal areas. Or make promises about interest rates.
Yes, she’s bringing in a carbon price. And has done what seems like a few grubby deals to hold onto power…but isn’t that what strong, determined politicians do ensure their party survives…delivers the goods?
Howard was certainly no “As pure as the driven snow” politician…nor his mate Abbott.
Yet Howard’s lot won time and time again without howls of protest from the bulk of the media and public.
Double standards for a female PM perhaps?
Perhaps Australia really hasn’t grown up yet…perhaps it does deserve leaders with antiquated, backward-looking views…to be controlled by media moguls…and religious zealots…
who do the thinking for the people.
N’
When governments let the Murdoch empire do the thinking for them:
Hunt should face ‘immediate’ inquiry, says former Whitehall standards adviser
Jeremy Hunt should face an “immediate” inquiry into whether he broke ministerial rules in his dealings with the Murdoch empire, a former Whitehall standards adviser has said.
Café Whispers 
Our shiny brand new Open Thread is up.
Ms Sloan (Drum) said that there us a Jackson camp and anti Jackson camp.
Mr, Shorten is in the anti camp.
We all know who is in the anti camp. The ACTU, most HSU officials and the NSW Labor Council.
Maybe Ms. Sloan could enlighten us who is in the Jackson group, beside Mr. Abetz and Liberal supporters.
What surprises me, I have not seen any members screaming their support for Ms. Jackson. For that matter I have also not heard from the same source, condemnation of Mr. Thompson.
.
CU Pip Min
northcoast voices has found a lie of a story, about Slipper and Cab charges, posted in some papers. i had read the cabbie story, had you?
http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/peter-slipper-cabcharge-dockets-is.html
“What are we fighting for, well I don’t give a damn…”
a good article on the ABC Drum pointing out that it should be the Australian Parliament who decides when Australian military is sent into combat, not a handful of leaders.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3974488.html
Sue 11.27 pm a story that reveals cabbies as lying bastards is hardly news.
lunalava
true nor is the revelation that the papers ran the story without checking the facts. but with all the muck being thrown about slipper no-one except for the blog site northcoast voices did a check.
Sue, what that reveals is the awful consequences of slanderous gossip out of the mouths of fools.
It’s no different to the way the LNP have spread their poison in the corridors of the Parliament, not for any high moral purpose, but for cynical political gain.
Sue and lunalava, it would be more of a revelation if we learned that the papers had checked their facts the old fashioned way, with three different sources.
That northcoast voices article shows just how pathetic our media has become, simply regurgitating accusations that suit their agenda, whilst a blogger runs of an does the actual journalism, you know, verifying facts, and then reporting them.
Sue, I AM surprised at this latest bit of Liars Party propaganda to further blacken Mr Slipper’s name.
I wonder if it would be worth his while to advise the paper that he intends to take legal action against the cabbie and any other parties spreading the lie.
In fact, if I were him, I’d have my solicitor dash off a few lines to that effect to all the parties concerned.
In the case of the scandal sheet, a front page retraction and a craven apology in the biggest font that will fit, run for a week would be satisfactory in lieu of a defamation/libel action which could cost them a great deal of cash.
Ditto the cabbie, with a proviso that he publicly comes clean about who put him up to it.
With luck it might dissuade other chancers from opening wide and spilling Liars Party falsehoods.
Steve Lewis is this Grech all over again
“Speaker Peter Slipper’s release of personal records to prove his innocence disputed by leading forensic handwriting specialist Paul Westwood whose preliminary assessment suggests the signatures ‘could be indicative of two or more writers’
by: Steve Lewis, Patrick Lion
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/speaker-peter-slippers-release-of-personal-records-to-prove-his-innocence-disputed-by-leading-forensic-handwriting-specialist-paul-westwood-whose-preliminary-assessment-suggests-the-signatures-could-be-indicative-of-two-or-more-writers/story-e6freoof-1226339244409
There you go Tony, go for it…
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/gillard-vows-to-stand-by-slipper-20120426-1xo1y.html#ixzz1tC10YaOT
Of course Lewis would say that!
And from the same link to the SMH..
Which is of course why Mr Ashby has been *cough, cough* so silent…
lunalava, @ 7.55am, let’s hope that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has nothing to do with any urge to attack Iran!
All other branches of HSU back the government on action to put in administrator.
“What I say is that Kathy Jackson is trying to re-read history,”
Looks as if the only ones backing Kathy Jackson are Abbott, the Liberals and the lawyers associated with the HR Nicolls Society.
Should make an interesting meeting today for the HSU National Executive
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-27/branches-back-shortens-hsu-action/3975480
disputed by leading forensic handwriting specialist Paul Westwood whose preliminary assessment suggests the signatures ‘could be indicative of two or more writers’
From the same article Sue
A spokesman for Mr Ashby said: “We believe the AFP should be allowed to continue their criminal investigation unimpeded by speculation.”
😯
Paul Westwood “leading forensic handwriting specialist” has made an assessment judged on copies of documents, which the spin cycle journalists have already stated are very poor copies.
Is this how Westwood makes his living?, or does he have a special arrangement with Lewis or ltd news?
Can someone explain to me how Peter Slipper gets anything out of stray cab vouchers? After all, when used they have to be processed and paid by the bureaucracy. So they are easy to track back to their supposed illicit source. Aren’t they?
Tom, it was that phrase unimpeded by speculation which caused the same reaction in yours truly… 😯
Patricia, it’s losing me on this issue as well. For example, WHY should Mr Ashby who claims sexual harassment have any interest whatsoever in cab vouchers.
Min
Morning, earlier i wrote about grattan and the speaker. when i tried to post it said error valid email needed, but all had disappeared. could you check for me, please. email ok
thanks sue
Min, I’m sure almost every reader of that article would have noticed that, and wondered at the hypocrisy.
One wonders if the author noted it though?
jane
i first read the cabbie story in the sunshine coast, in fact a sunshine coast cabbie. now who is looking for a sunshine coast seat and also threatening to sue? i will leave that for others to guess, but a hint m b
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2012/04/24/girl-paid-fare-with-slippers-docket-cab-docket-cam/
I have to paste this comment in, not just because it links to Black Sabbath 😉
As I think I posted earlier “You Bastards!!!”
And I dont mean as in the South Park humour version, I mean it as Ozzy Osbourne howls it a few minutes in on “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”
“Nobody will ever let you know, when you ask the reasons why; They just tell you that you’re on your own; Fill your head all full of lies … You bastards!!!”
A few other apposite lines from that one :
“You see life through distorted eyes, you know you have to learn”
“The truth is out, the lies are old, but you don’t want to know”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReuBms-qZQk
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/04/23/essential-research-56-44-to-coalition-6/comment-page-103/#comment-1231372
Sue, I had a check around the back and there is nothing in pending. It seems that it would have been (another) hiccup from WordPress.
patricia as far as I can see it means diddly. Ashby was, in my opinion anyway, trying to give the appearance of Slipper paying for ‘favours’ with blank Cabcharge dockets
The difficulty for Ashby would be the absence of evidence in the dockets actually handed in for payment, but, the difficulty for Peter Slipper is the absence of reporting on that fact!
Tom those lines of Ozzie’s are perfect
“You see life through distorted eyes, you know you have to learn”
“The truth is out, the lies are old, but you don’t want to know”
The lies are old, and very worn, but still useful to Steve Lewis’ the LNP stooge.
Min
thank you
but, the difficulty for Peter Slipper is the absence of reporting on that fact!
lol
(sob)
Sue @ 10.10am, the Sunshine Coast Daily has been busily trashing Peter Slipper for a long time, and yes it has everything to do with “m b”..
A google search reveals the proof of the campaign by this paper.
Mal Brough [the architect of the NT Intervention], lost his seat at the 2007 election, and had tried moving to Victoria but is now back in Qld. and gunning for Slipper’s seat.
As evidenced by the Steve Lewis tactic, it’s all hands on deck to throw Slipper overboard.
Tom @ 10.23am, it’s hard to see the funny side of it…
http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/abbott-and-slipper.html
Pip
this is my fave bit from andrew elder, it encompasses 2 prats
“Note that Abbott chose Chris Uhlmann as his interlocutor. Abbott is the only politician Uhlmann interviews whom he does not talk over or interrupt. Every one of his other interview subjects cop this treatment, along with begged questions and beef-witted assumptions that have to be batted away before the question can be answered; Uhlmann’s assumptions are clearly Abbott’s assumptions, which is why he was content to hear Abbott in respectful silence. Uhlmann’s treatment of Abbott compared with that of others is observable, objective fact, and it belies his ambitions (and those of his employer) to be regarded as an effective senior journalist.”
Sue, it would not be a surprise to see Uhllman take up an ‘adviser to MP…’ position should the Coaltion win the next election.
He’s of a piece with Chris Kenny
He’s made no secret of his political leanings and that’s fine. What isn’t fine is his treatment of those on the other side.
The ABC has been trashed by the Howard intervention.
For example, yesterday there was Judy Sloane on The Drum, then Nick Minchin on later in a program that was the perfect vehicle for a climate change denier.
Pip
in the comments . Uhlmann is writing a novel with Lewis. No wonder Uhlmann was quick to tweet support for Lewis, what was it? Lewis is doing his job!!!
just as well as Uhlmann apparently.
Uhlmann should be barred from the Slipper stories he has a conflict of interest.
Tony is delivering to the miners. Speech after 11 am on increasing the skill migration scheme. ABC 24 Making announcment about immigration policy.
As for allowing the investigation to go ahead without speculation is a little amazing, as the attack was two prong, the courts and the media.
Maybe it is not going the way as planned.
The PM is a nark, she does not react as they predict. She does not play the game.
For last lot of plotting to achieve, it had to be over in a short time. The longer it goes on, the more likely it is to fail for the Opposition.
As usual, they have gone to far. It should have been one or the other. Not both.
As someone said, why would one so upset about sexual harassment, worry about taxi vouchers.
I believe they are trying to give the impression that Mr. Slipper spends hours trolling for sexual partners. If so, he must need to take company with him when he does so.
The friends of Ms. Jackson, all appear to be in the Opposition.
Sue, I missed that one… Uhllman definitely should be barred from anything to do wth Slipper news/gossip on the ABC. If he had any integrity, he would remove himself !
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/speakers-grip-on-the-chair-slips/story-fn59nqgy-1226338496482
We need to remember that in the Grech matter, the email was fake.
If the Opposition was not involved in the fake, they were willing to take advantage of unfounded rumours and allegations.
It is a wonder they are so willing to do so again.
Tangled wooly thoughts, or groupthink; same thing??
Or is it straight forward political propaganda in the form of a novel?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/tangled-tale-of-woolly-thought/story-fnab9kqj-1226335704726
Novel defence
ONE journalist to defend Lewis (not that he needed defending) was 7.30 political editor Chris Uhlmann, who tweeted: “Steve Lewis has court documents alleging an MP has abused entitlements and is accused of sexual harassment. Steve is doing his job … well.” Uhlmann and Lewis both know a great deal about political intrigue. In fact, the pair have written a spicy political thriller together due out this year. More soon.
“Paul Westwood “leading forensic handwriting specialist” has made an assessment”
We are to believe this man. At the same time we are to ignore the expert that Mr. Thompson hired to examined the cards.
They result was that the signature was not Thompson but of three other people.
What a tangled web we weave….
Mr. Abbott is addressing the IPA. Well he is among friends.
Welcoming all the journalist that support the Coalition.
Has promised to change the act that Andrew Bolt was prosecuted.
I wonder what he was drinking this morning. Is standing up for free speech.
Plan for stronger borders and stronger society.
Yes, indeed he is among friends.
Using ANZAC is his prop.
This was the first book announcement last year, to be published by one of Rupert’s companies.
Political journos to write fiction
by: Ben Packham From: The Australian July 27, 2011
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/capital-circle/political-journos-to-write-fiction/story-fn59nqgy-1226102491524
There’s political intrigue as two senior press gallery correspondents write a novel.
A speech that is once again full of slogans. Nothing less, nothing more.
It is well aimed at his audience but surely he realise that it is being televised
The hatred in his voice for the PM is apparent every time he mentions her name.
If the PM is such a failure, why does he hate her so.
He is still starting off sentences saying one thing, ends the sentence talking about something else.
Cu, it is a little surprising that the Coalition would use the same tactics after the Grech flop, however, they might be banking on the fact journalists won’t remind the public, instead they’re bombarding us with the most recent campaign.
“Stench” is the buzzword this week; everyone’s saying it…. including Richo
Trouble is the source is much closer to Abbott than he would have us believe.
I forgot to mention, “the PM’s judgement is on the line” – it must be –
the journalists say so – therefore it must be…
Pip, it’s a fairly reasonable estimate that the media will not call the opposition out for anything whatsoever.
I did note a line or 2 where Abbott was doing a little backpedalling on this issue. If Tony isn’t in the thick of it, I would be exceptionally surprised.
I’m not watching it Cu, but I get the picture, he’s listing the wants of his IPA backers!
Min, it’s a very frightening observation that our democracy can, and has been overtaken with such speed, by the actions of a nasty little man with bushy untended eyebrows, and an enormous ego, while the population slept and sucked up the tax breaks!
Cu, Kathy Jackson doesn’t seem to notice that she’s not very popular with other union leaders!
Pip, beside what he is going to tell Nauru and the Indonesia what to do, he is alleging that this government are letting the people out before knowing their backgrounds.
We are now getting on to what the speech was announced for. Skilled migration.
The hatred of the PM is clear, every time he mentions her name.
Why would he hate her so, if she is so weak.
It is now too difficult to bring in temporary workers. Business should be able to bring in the workers they need. Mr. Hockey has delived. I assume that was what he was talking about, at that secret meeting.
Was does an industry, where wages are a small percentage of the cost, need to under cut Australian wages.
Thanking the IPA for the support and encouragement, they give him. At least he was truthful at the end.
We are a good team. I am certain we will be a good government. Scott is a compassionate…
I get a slight impression that he is trying to convince himself.
This is sickening.
Cu and Has promised to change the act that Andrew Bolt was prosecuted.
I’ll be interested to learn about that one because as legislation stands at the moment, all state and federal legislation pertaining to racial vilification/sexual harassment is all in accord – that is, all States’ legislation mirrors that of the Federal legislation.
IF Tony decided to try to change the Act it will mean a High Court challenge…remembering that Bolt was found guilt of racial vilification, as in an incitement to vilify a person due to their race. Therefore in which way would Tony Abbott seek to change this.
STUNNED. Tony Abbott would seek to change racial vilification legislation because of ONE PERSON – Andrew Bolt.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-push-for-more-overseas-workers-20120426-1xo00.html#ixzz1tCXmbECh
And what would be the point given that the High Court has stated that ALL asylum seekers whether arriving by boat or plane now have access to the Australian judicial system.
The High Court has also stated that unaccompanied minors are by definition under the guardianship of The Minister, and that as guardian The Minister cannot do anything to the detriment of these minors…and this includes sending them to Nauru!!!!!
Min, that was a promise made before the speech. He appeared to let his guard down. Maybe it was because he felt so loved by the gathering.
There was a list of journalist he thanked for supporting him, including Henderson. I could rewind to get the names, but I do not believe I can stomach it a second time.
Maybe that part was not supposed to be televised. Who knows.
Min, that was the speech but he also had much more to say.
How surprising. Looks as though Ms Jackson has cooked her own goose as far as support from her fellow unionists go. I wonder if they’ve got a few tales to tell.
And @10.10am, well well. What a tangled web, eh? All the more reason for Slipper to go for the throat, imo.
Pip @10.34am, I think Tom might be referring to the irony. But on the bright side, the court won’t give a hoot about what the Liars and their msm stooges say or leave out. they’ll decide the matter on the evidence and it seems as far as the cabcharge stuff goes, Slpper hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Which makes Mr Ashby look pretty suspect to me. I still think he’s been a willing dupe and if he’s found to be a malicious lying dupe into the bargain, there’s a high rise building of cards ready to topple onto the Liars Party and their mouthpiece Lewis.
I have a feeling that the government will come out smelling of violets and roses and the liars like the contents of a septic tank.
Sue & Pip, I think that Uhlmann, Alberici and co have to be brought up short by anone on whom they use the talking over tactics.
Perhaps the person being interviewed could just utter an authoitative “Be quiet! You asked me here to listen to what I have to say. Kindly have the good manners to do so!”
Alternatively, they could say wtte that if Mr Uhlmann or Ms Alberici is completely uninterested in hearing anything but their own opinion, they should continue interviewing themselves and the guest could pack up and leave.
It should always be made plain that Uhlmann/Alberici is extremely rude and incompetent.
Pip, integrity and Uhlmann should not appear ifn the same sentence.
But CU @11.04am, doesn’t everyone trawl for sexual partners with their secretary? I know I do. 😯
And @11.14am, to the court it will be one expert’s word against another. I believe they will take the word of the most reputable, so if Westwood is a bit dodgy his evidence probably won’t carry as much weight.
WRT the book, Lewis and Uhlmann would know all about political intrigue. They are creatures of the Liars Party, after all.
“everyone trawl for sexual partners with their secretary? I know I do. ”
Spin doctor, I believe.
“I wonder if they’ve got a few tales to tell.”
Wonder no more. They have and were telling the tales many moons ago.
It amazes me that this lady has survived so long. I do not know why.
I was hearing them before I retired, and that was a long time ago.
Any HSU members peruse this site. I would love to hear what they have to say, either way.
Two of it’s senior officials. One cannot be Mr. Thompson for he has NOT been an official for over five years. That is two elections ago.
What the media and Mr. Abbott is avoiding, it is not about Mr. Thompson anymore. It is about Jackson and Williamson.
Ms. Jackson has carried on similar campaign against many officials over the years.
Mr. Thompson is just one in a line of many.
CU
Shock horror Jackson in the frame. She may now learn how many friends she has in the Liberal Party
Asked fo comments from Brandis, Abetz, Abbott……..Kathy Jackson, who?
Is it because they have feverish imagination, or is it because they have too much time on their hands.
Do they really believe governments can be removed because of unfounded allegations and dirt campaigns.
One does hope that this is not true.
I do not believe that Carr would be accepted. I am surprise that he he has as FM.
From above site. I wonder who the seven were.
CU
from your post, which in itself telling
“The national council voted 46-7 for Mr Hodder’s appointment.”
jackson and williamson must have a total of 5 friends, or deputies
CU
we are thinking the same!
I believe there might be more support for Williamson than Jackson.
Mr Smith is giving interview.
What Ms. Jackson is saying is that the whole HSU is corrupt and have been so for over a decade.
Still does not explain how the Victorian Branch was so broke before merger. There were no problems with the NSW branch, where Mr. Thompson came from.
Coalition/ News Lts must be PO over Jackson / Thompson non story, the Lewis rubbish on cabcarges, so have returned to the standby big story
“THE ODDS of Julia Gillard still being Labor Leader before next year’s election have lengthened with punters plunging on Kevin Rudd taking back his old job.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/peter-slipper-faces-no-confidence-motion-should-he-get-back-into-the-speakers-chair/story-e6frfkw9-1226340638573#ixzz1tCsKXqwJ
Sue,
I try not to feed the beast…I prefer to expose the beast for what it is.
See The Murdoch thread on this site.
N’
Nasking
Just when I thought it may be safe to check a headline!!!!!
How come only big pond news has the HSU story. I thought any mention of Kathy Jackson, was important, but i may be wrong. the BPS implies she could be a crook.
Well it appears that the cab voucher scandal might just not be. Mr. Nutt has rubbished the first respondent part of the court applications.
All is left is the allegations of sexual harassment that appears to have mostly took place in Mr. Slippers own unit and bedroom.
Two out of three, that are proving highly suspicious at this stage is not bad.
Is Mr. Wilkie becoming a camera hog. He does have high opinion of his worth. He needs to be careful he does not find himself out in front alone.
Mr. Windsor is not saying that Mr. Slipper has not got the right to return himself to the chair. Mr, Windsor has been clear to say he has no opinion or right to an opinion in this matter.
Mr. Windsor is warning Mr. Slipper there is a danger that he will be removed from the chair. Mr. Windsor said he does not want to see that happening.
Interesting. Maybe the PM could now go in harder with the miners.
Mr. Palmer was so arrogant last night on the ABC,
Yes, nasking, the BPS seems to have stories Ltd does not.
Sue wrote:I thought any mention of Kathy Jackson, was important, but i may be wrong. the BPS implies she could be a crook.
Sue,
I don’t know much about Kathy Jackson…but I do get suspicious of people who doth protest too much when they have in fact been in the thick of it. And fingerpoint compulsively.
I’ve seen many an American cult figure or evangelical leader do same. And media mogul. And politician.
Certainly there are deep problems with a part of that union…but I’m not convinced Kathy Jackson is whistleblowing for altruistic reasons.
Perhaps I’ll be proven wrong.
N’
Catching up,
I wasn’t too happy about Slipper being brought in…but putting that aside for now, this whole Slipper affair is starting to get the distinct smell of a
MEDIA BEAT-UP…
aided & abetted by the Abbott-led Coalition…
not unlike the Gretched affair…and the claims thrown at former high court judge Kirby.
What form does News Ltd’s Steve Lewis have on this kind of investigative reporting?
N’
Alan Kohler reckons Target is in trouble. Shame. It’s one of the few shops I can buy my BIG MEN clothes.
I’ve always appreciated them for that.
N’
Budgie Smuggles has re-launched his election campaign at the Institute of Public Affairs
Abbott compares Indonesian people-smugglers to Australians who smuggle drugs into Bali
by: James Massola
From: The Australian April 27, 2012 2:31PM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/abbott-compares-indonesian-people-smugglers-to-australians-who-smuggle-drugs-into-bali/story-fn9hm1gu-1226340792265
Nas’ @ 2.50pm..you mean BIG BEAR clothes.. 🙂
I am thinking of the people who have had the most mud thrown their way – Kirby, Oakeshott and now Slipper. Have I missed anyone?
The theme behind 2 of it is homosexual.
Min…LOL
Why I don’t wear Cougars anymore:
Min, Thomson ??
One person who has faced the ugly, aggressive side of Tony Abbott since August 2010, and on a daily basis, is the Prime Minister.
In his mind he’s already in The Lodge and “she” is an “illegitimate” interloper.
He’s used a number of dog-whistles, including “make an honest woman of her”, and parading his “happy family” around the nation..
The more obvious attacks on Peter Slipper are not from his mouth, but certainly from his mouth-oiece surrogates.
Also, as Emma Alberici said the other night on Lateline, “all of the commentariat are echoing the Opposition.”
Shame old Murdoch controls Fox…one of my fave shows is Fringe…
great song in this sequence by Band of Horses:
“He said will do all this “politely”…..”
He reminded me of my dead mother’s description of her elderly father-in-law.
The country gentleman. Believe me, it did not mean what it sounds. It was spot on and derogatory.
Of course the Indonesia will tell him what they think, that is after they pick themselves up off the floor from busting their sides laughing.
There is indeed a lot of bullying and threatening going on in the media at this time.
Like Mr. Wilkie and co, don’t you dare.
Mr. Abbott does not take sexual harassment seriously. Of he did, he would not be using it as a political tool.
Could it not be a test of the character of Mr. Wilkie and Mr. Abbott.
What about the presumption of innocence. What about spreading unfounded allegation, hearsay and urban myths.
Why not wait for the judicial system take it’s course. History shows that these types of campaigns are generally found to be unfounded and based on lies.
By then the innocence party has generally lost every thing, including their reputations. Mud does stick.
OS.
I would hate to think what her description would be of this man. One thing I know, I would not be able to repeat it here.
My mother had an habit of calling a spade, a spade.
What is a shame, we are going to lose a very effective Speaker. Probably one of the best we have had for years.
The deputy leaves me a little worried. The Opposition continually took advantage of her.
Every time she took the chair, the Opposition attacked her. It was nearly a daily occurrence that Mr. Slipper would soon reappear to restore order.
As per my post @ 3.33pm, Abbott addressing his IPA backers of the anti mining tax, anti carbon tax, anti NBN, anti plain packaging etc., etc.,
I suppose it is the normal thing to do, that is lodge the papers with the media, at the same time one does with the court.
Oh, I forgot, then take yourself off into hiding.
Catching up,
Abbott is as pure as the driven snow. 🙂
How many will eventually write their names in that snow?
I’m off til Sunday. Cheers!
Things – Frightened Rabbit
In his mind he’s already in The Lodge and “she” is an “illegitimate” interloper.
He cannot bring himself to mention her name, or use the words PM.
It is all, she, she , she . In my mind I translate what he says is bitch, bitch, bitch.
Mr.Albanese has just again pointed out, no one has the power to remove Mr. Slipper. He was appointed by the house and can only be removed by the house.
Full interview with Mr. Albanese on Capital Hill later.
A great article on the relative merits of the government vs opposition broadband plan:
http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2012/04/27/3490479.htm
The governments plan is light years ahead.
Lunalava, the Opposition don’t have any plans. They have alternatives.
Bad ones. 🙂
‘Fibre To The Node rather than Fibre To The Premises’ will be just as efficient and cost less.
Rural people demand a fast system, so no matter who holds the reigns we will get it. It would be political suicide for any government to do otherwise.
Well, el gordo, that stuffs up the opposition.
“‘Fibre To The Node rather than Fibre To The Premises’ will be just as efficient and cost less.”
On this you are wrong. It will depend how far you are from that node. The fibre will only perform to the level of the copper wire. It will and cannot reach the levels that fibre is capable of.
How can one justify joining the latest technology with an worn out inferior one,
The copper wire will have to be replaced. It is now in a bad state of disrepair,
Maintenance of copper wire is expensive and as time goes on, will become more expensive.
In the long term, it is cheaper to do this this is now.
The channels that the copper wire run in, will help to make the laying of fibre cheaper.
Sorry, el gordo, on this you are very wrong.
Reading this article. It could be cheaper for the government, not for the consumer.
Even then, ut will cost ten billion.
Re Slipper, Shakespeare comes to mind: Much ado about nothing.
But that could be the theme for today’s media, I would be content with a little to do about something, rather than much ado about nothing.
Min, you’ve got mail. 🙂
El gordo is always wrong. 🙂
My thoughts, it is only going to take him a week to make us a laughing stock in the region.
By the way, Jackson has been asked to resign.
Cu, from your link
Is Abbott just blowing off grandiose steam here or is he completely lacking any comprehension of what our own Navy told him?
http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbotts-send-boats-back-policy-under-attack-at-home-and-abroad-20120123-1qe3l.html
You know what, I could not care less what Mr. Slippers sexual habits are. I could not care less how he uses his cab vouchers. That is unless he has ripped us off.
What I do care about that we are going to lose a man that has shown he is capable and able to pull the lower house into line especially QT.
I cannot remember anyone doing that. I do not believe he has finished in this regard. He appeared to be tightening the noose a little each day.
“grandiose steam”
Pip you have nailed it, Right from the time he opened his mouth, he seemed puffed up. What was said before he got to the speech, that is thanking all around him and making promises to Bolt have not been repeated in the media.
I really believe he did not realise the cameras had been turned on.
Wonder how much will be on the Liberal site.
Cu, Wonder how much will be on the Liberal site.
My first thought was that it would be more carefully worded, but no, it might well be even more bumptious for the benefit of his supporters!
Ashghebranious nailed the ‘handwriting expert’ report by Steve Lewis
Four words
http://ashghebranious.wordpress.com/
You should see my signature.
This is what one would expect in cases like this. Signatures made in various positions. On the back of the seat etc.
I would be more worrief if they were exactly the same.
I do a fair amount of longhand writing at work, I can look back years & tell you what mood I was in when I wrote it. It ranges from quite pretty if I say so myself to a semi legible scrawl. They were cab vouchers or whatever, not entries in a calligraphy competion.
But it doesn’t matter what Slipper says. The point is to keep the bullshit coming. That’s all they need to do.
Okay CU I accept that on technical stuff I may be wrong, personally I think hard wiring to every premises is a great investment for the people in the bush.
The agrarian socialists salute you.
‘El gordo is always wrong.’
It’s not easy being ‘only human’, but on climate change I’m more confident.
You may not have heard that the extent of ice in the Arctic is back to normal and in Antarctica the warm southern ocean, which Min posted on some time back, has come up trumps. Warm water is causing the melting.
This is from our friend Tony,
A coalition government would be prepared to call a double dissolution election if parliament rejected its bid to reintroduce temporary protection visas for asylum seekers, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says.
Anthony, let him have his protection visas. They are unlikely to work. It just makes life harder for people for a year or two.
El Gordo, the ice is what ???? http://neven1.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/asi-2012-update-1-a-new-beginning.html#more
“The agrarian socialists salute you.”
el gordo it is funny how different we see things.
You see it as welfare I assume from your comment.
I see it as the government fulfilling it’s role providing infrastructure for the good of all.
El gordo, and what pray tell do you mean by agrarian socialists. It’s a term you use frequently but minus any definition.
Jane, Abbott is looking even more cocky than usual after making his headland speech at the Institute of Public Affairs today,
Willkie has been charmed by Abbott’s chief head kicker Peta Credlin, and is now declaring that he will either instigate, or support, a vote of no confidence in the Speaker. He’s also looking very cocky and more than a little bit vindictive!
There’s Abbott accusing the Prime Minister of not taking the sexual harassment allegation seriously, when it was he who had to line up a QC in his youth, to brush off a sexual assault charge of his own, and it was Labor who instigated laws to deal with anti discrimination laws!
His arrogance no knows bounds.
Rio Tinto yesterday called for skilled labor from overseaa, and today Abbott echoes their request as part of his grand plan.
Whatever he has in store for the ordinary Australians will be for the benefit of hi corporate backers, not for us, and to pull it off he’s already given more than one reaso for calling a double dissolution.
WorkChoices lives!
Min, I’m back on air for the moment… you’ve got mail. 🙂
Mr. Abbott seems intent on getting rid of everything that Rudd and this PM has done.
That will be quite a job, as they have achieve much.
He may achieve that, as his main skill and interest is tearing things down, including our economy.
To make matter worse is that he is intent on recreating the Howard era, one which the voters thought so much of, that they threw him out along with his government.
The man does not have an individual idea of his own. Even his nanny scheme come from Bronwyn Bishop, which Howard rejected in his time.
An “agrarian socialists”:- (read) Country Party……… (i.e. something that dosn’t exist)
Min, I have no idea what el gordo means.,
There is an old saying that the Country Party believed in Capitalizing the profits and socializing the losses. or words to that effect.
They were happy to keep profits and share losses.
Cu, Abbott is saying he’ll do what he believes the public wants, and talking very rudely to indonesia, which isn’t a smart move at all, because they can send more asylum seekers than even he would know what to do with.
He seems very certain about calling a double dissolution and the Libs are pushing for more wins in the Senate.
Sarah Hanson Young, and I think Nick Xenophon, will have to stand again next year so expect to see a push for their seats.
If he wins and calls for a DD he might find himself on the same path as Howard…
“Willkie has been charmed by Abbott’s chief head kicker Peta Credlin, and is now declaring that he will either instigate, or support, a vote of no confidence in the Speaker. He’s also looking very cocky and more than a little bit vindictive!”
Mr. Abbott has not done so up to now and will not,. Just like Abbott to talk someone else into doing his dirty work. That is another thing he is good at.
I wonder at Mr. Wilkie’s naivety. He is allowing himself to be used, without thinking it through.
To get a censure motion up, one has to have an absolute majority, Mr. Abbott is still unlikely to get the numbers.
Jane, Abbott is looking even more cocky than usual after making his headland speech at the Institute of Public Affairs today,
I think he has convinced himself once again he had the numbers.
For the sake of Australia, I hope he has not.
It will not be good to see the government changed because of dirty politics.
If he wins down the track, at the normal time, that is another issue.
Antony @ 8.20pm, Abbott has never recognised this government and has done everything he can to deprive it of “clear air” as the journos constantly talked about while they too sucked the life out of any major policy announcements.
The Coalition tactics have come directly from their American counterparts and wrecked our democracy while they accuse the government of doing anything to hold on to power, but the fact is that Abbott and his corporate backers will stop at nothing to regain power.
Pip at 11.45
It takes a seriously sinister creature to stand there with Abbott’s deadpan face & talk about the evils of sexual harassment. They should start asking him for his recollections about his own charges. Just one example among many as to how the word’s gone out that he not be harmed.
I’ve said before (here I think) that if she wants to all Indonesia has to do is play the role of roadside garage attendant. Sell ’em a tank of gas & some vittles & wave ’em out the driveway. In their tens of thousands.
Abbott’s whole stance on this issue is based around something that probably won’t happen. That is being presented with a seaworthy craft whose occupants will sit tight as they’re towed all the way back to Indonesian waters. It’s for local consumption & he doesn’t give a rat’s about relations with Indonesia.
“If he wins and calls for a DD he might find himself on the same path as Howard…”
Yes Pip it could or it can go the other way with many more Greens. One needs smaller quotas in a DD.
There can be no DD now. I also believe there can only be a lower house election at this time.
Time is not an Mr. Abbott’s side,
Next year when an election is due, yes if the same political situation remains he could pull off both houses. It would be an unlikely event.
If Labor gets through the next few weeks, I believe that things will change.
There is a limit to how many stunts one can pull.
With all the noise we are hearing with this one, I believe if you asked people in the street what they think, they would ask, what do you mean.
There does not seem to be an uproar going on.
Twelve months is still a long time in politics.
Labor just has to hold their nerve. They have nothing to lose by doing so.
Cu, it looks as if Abbott’s people are working hard on those numbers.
Maybe Pip, but the people do not remain stupid for ever.
When the penny drops, and it will, there are going to be a lot of angry people around.
People do not act that kindly when they wake up to being taken for a ride.
Pip, do you really believe this Coalition has any thing to offer. If it the did, we might have something to be worried about.
Yes, they can win, that is democracy. When they win, they will have to govern. That is when the fun will start.
Cu, you’re right of course; even a week is a long time in politics and a lot of bottles have to line up in the right order and in a certain time fram i think, before a DD can be called, but that won’t stop smudgy buggles from talking about it.
The fuss over the Speakership has been perfectly timed to wreck Budget
week for the Treasurer and after all the other stunts we can expect nothing better from the Opposition.
I’d better warn you now that I might disappear, just in case my wireless plays up again as it’s been very cloudy all night.
Detailed outline.
Cu, you’re right about that too, the Coalition isn’t saying what’s on offer…
all we heard today was a more belligerent version of the same old same old…
“stop the boats”
What the majority of busy Australians probably haven’t noticed is the constant
efforts of people like Peter Reith and his former partner in crime at the waterfont in 1998.
We have Liverpool Council supporting Corrigan. Makes one wonder. That transport hub is going to be very important. Personally it gives too much power to one man, if Corrigan is allow to go his merry way.
The freight hub links into Botany Bay Port.
I like Albanese proposals better.
Mike Carlton’s usually good for a laugh …
Booming economy is the main event
April 28, 2012
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/booming-economy-is-the-main-event-20120427-1xq2a.html
Opinion
.
Cu, I can’t remember all of Albanese’s answers on the day he announced the Moorecombe transport hub, but I think he said that there are Defence facilities on the Corrigan site as well as one on the government’s chosen site.
The one on the government site will be moved easily whereas the Corrigan site is more problematic and in any case the government site is better situated.
I’d like to think that Corrigan is missing out on this one because he anticipated that the Coalition would be in power by now to help him and he’s dipped out!
The curious timing of the staffer against the Speaker
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/the-curious-timing-of-the-staffer-against-the-speaker/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+The+staffer+against+the+…&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=peter-slipper-and-james-ashby….
Climate change denial is as easy as ABC
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/climate-change-denial-is-as-easy-as-abc/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+The+staffer+against+the+…&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=Read+the+story+on+IA
The ABC’s approach to reporting on climate change is motivated more by politics than science, says environment editor Sandi Keane — who compares its coverage to that of the BBC.
‘You see it as welfare I assume from your comment.’
No, just normal infrastructure building.
Relations of mine, living in a village nearby, are not being wired to the door but will get faster speed from a new tower on a nearby hill.
I will keep you informed of developments.
From Pip’s link…
‘The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) are in accord that ‘AGW is real’. New editorial guidelines for both emphasize two imperatives: the need to ‘distinguish fact from opinion’ and to give ‘weight’ to the ‘body of evidence’.
The trouble is….AGW is not real and there is no imminent catastrophe.
The body of evidence suggests the desal plants built around Australia because of AGW have proved to be very costly white elephants.
In Britain the freezing winters and wet summers of the past decade makes a mockery of global warming.
The ABC and BBC should question the veracity of AGW.
el gordo, you have really lost me now. That would have to be an new definition for Agrarian socialism.
Where is the socialism in normal infrastructure building.
Just for the record, that tower will be based on fibre.
Horror, one of the cab drivers has been convicted of theft.
Mr. Slipper should know better than not checking the drivers criminal record before using his cab.
Of course it would not be a matter of blackening the drivers name, in case he supported Mr. Slipper story.
This is journalism???
Pip, the government will be relying on private firms building the Moorebank Centre. The government will be the landlords.
I believe this will give the government some say in how it is setup and run. This is not the case wit Mr. Corrigan’s proposals.
he government’s proposals have been around for a long time.
“The ABC and BBC should question the veracity of AGW.”
el gordo, are you implying they do not?
Yes. Mr. Slipper has been a good Speaker. It is not good for any government to be open to blackmail from the cross bench, minority parties or independents.
There is nothing wrong with minority where their survival depends on negotiation and consensus.
Mr. Abbott has much to gain from the present going on. At the most, being PM. At the least, getting rid of an effective Speaker that has clipped his wings.
Barnaby Joyce is on record as saying he’s an Agrarian Socialist, so we’ll have redefine the term in a modern context.
With improved infrastructure in the bush, such as the NBN and very fast trains, it will take away the tyranny of distance.
The Greens and Nats are quite close on some issues and after the next election the watermelons may only survive on the good graces of Barney.
In NSW the Coalition tensions are obvious….
‘THE state branch of the National Party has rebuked the Coalition government’s draft plan to balance mining and farming interests, calling for much stronger protection of agricultural land.
‘In the latest sign of Coalition tension over the issue, the Nationals accused the government of not living up to expectations it created before the election.’
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/coalition-rift-as-nationals-blast-land-balance-plan-20120427-1xqab.html#ixzz1tHk4XIcM
In the battle against big miners the agrarian socialists and watermelons are pretty much united.
No, el gordo, Mr. Barnaby is wrong. He has created his own meaning, like he does for many things. He lives in a world of his own..
Infrastructure has little to do with socialism.
Government does and should provide infrastructure under all political systems
That is unless they are so far to the right ans support extreme Capitalism.
That government’s only role is to provide an armed forces to defend the country.
I believe some even believe police should be private.
That is the problem with this Coalition, they redefine all rules and conventions to support their own agenda.
Nothing is sacred to them, whether it be the rule of law, the right to the presumption of innocence and judicial processes. It these get in their way, they go,
To them, the end justified the means. It does not matter if the country is trashed or people live and reputations ruined, It is of no concern to them.
It is about winning and winner takes all.
Mr. Emerson. If one says airport to city is a fraud against the Commonwealth, every MP will be in trouble. ABC24 Mr. Emerson wants Mr. Abbott to be questioned re what he knows about the Slipper affair.
My emphasis
el gordo, I agree, there is much dissension within the Coalition and not just between the Liberals and Nationals.
Is it telling that the media don’t seem to have noticed that the criminal allegations against Slipper appear to be WRONG
Instead, they are forensically going over them in the hope of finding just a little more mud for their party paper
Mr. Wilkie is going to demand with what he sees as his new power, the Federal Government take over Tasmania’s ailing hospitals. (new power-my words)
Now where would he get that one from.
Mr. Wilkie is obviously now in Mr.Abbott’s camp. He should have the guts to come out and say so,
Wilkie has a very short memory.
I recall him clamouring about the injustice of all the mud being thrown at him over his time at Duntroon.
Now, he happily tags along slinging it at Slipper and the Governmnet, all because Gillard didn’t push through his pet bill (which was destined to lose anyway)
Very petty indeed.
lol
http://tools.themercury.com.au/photo-gallery/photo_gallery_popup.php?category_id=555
Just reflecting that in one week the press has probably devoted more time & space to going after a few cab dockets & nebulous sexual harassment charges than they gave to their entire investigation of Pink Batt rorters.
Wilkie’s the bloke they were thinking of when they coined the term “loose cannon”. His problem is that the original loose cannons went down with the wooden ships they destroyed.
than they gave to their entire investigation of Pink Batt rorters.
T’wouldn’t be hard BSA, as there was no ‘investigation’ into the rorters, just a few bylines of the actua court proceedings (without a lot of context).
Plenty of space devoted to ‘allegations’ about the Governmnets handling of though (all fairly fact free 😉 )
Bob Brown coined it perfectly, the Hate Media.
They live up to their name.
The most ridiculous aspect of this is, it is all going on in the shadow of the Levenston Enquiry in London as we speak.
As someone on Twitter opined the other day, the race is on to see if ltdnews can bring down another Government before the law can bring them down.
If Liealot calls for a vote of no confidence in either the government or the Speaker, is slipper denied a vote?
I can’t see Windsor or Oakeshott delivering a vote for chucking out the government and I doubt that Slipper would give them the pleasure, so even if Wilkie is silly enough to vote with the mobe which shat on him from a great height, the Liars probably won’t succeed ingetting their greatest prize-an early election.
And woe betide the buggers if Slipper’s case is decided quickly in his favour. I reckon there will be some spectacular fireworks and I would love to see the government hint that there could be criminal charges arising if Ashby’s claims are considered to be false.
All eyes should be focussed on who had the most to gain if Ashby succeeded.And we all know who that would be. Liealot would be like a deer in the spotlight since he and Liars barrackers have been spruiking that Slipper is guilty.
FWIW, I think the Liars will be thwarted again. Slipper will be able to resume the Speaker’s chair and the government will power ahead. The latest failure to bring the government down with the dark arts will bring Liealot’s leadership further into question.
After all, what has he really achieved? Sound of crickets and tumbleweed rolling across the street.
Has anyone given thought the PM might have been tempted to dump Mr. Slipper quickly at the beginning of this saga,
it must have entered her mind.
The PM would not have had much to lose doing that. All that would have occurred is that the numbers would go back to pre Slipper days.
As she said, there has been a great amount of government business done this year. The PM has already achieved much of what she set out to do.
The PM is not asserting that Mr. Slipper is innocence. The PM is asserting to his tight to the presumption of innocence and his right to remain silent.
It appears that she has decided to stick to process and convention, respecting Mr. Slippers rights under our judicial system.
Does one realise that the police do not have the right to go on fishing expeditions, they have to have reasonable suspicion that a crime exists.
What has occurred to Mr. Slipper, thanks to Mr. Ashby’s allegation, is a fishing expedition.
I do not believe we will ever see that court case go any further than lodging an application.
Why not are we hearing from the media, interviews of Mr.Ashby. Is he still going to work, or is he on leave. Does he have a boyfriend. Why was he convicted years ago. Mr. Ashby said it was an media stunt. If so, why was he sacked, So many things we do not know about this man. I do not see any media effort in seeking any information about him.
I would love to know why he stayed at the unit. How often did he go there.
If the media and the Opposition are setting them up as judge and jury, the least they can do, is give us both sides of the story.
This morning on ABC 24, they have not let up on the story. We are having the history of any trip he has made in what sounds like his life time.
Every detail is being repeated every few minutes.
Opposition believe that Mr. Slipper will never resume the chair. Abetz on Sky.
So much stirring around the speaker etc. Where is the stirring coming from.
So much is conjecture.
Mr. Wilkie making threats. He will not give a 14 month deadline. It will be 14 days, take it or leave it.
I have news for Mr.Wilkie, it will be leave it.
He has no more power now, than he had before.
The PM can and will make her own decisions.
If he wants the bill, lodge it himself. Maybe he can talk Mr. Abbott into doing it for him.
I am sure that Mr., Abbott is already drawing up for the takeover of Tasmania Hospitals for Mr. Wilkie to lodge.
“If Liealot calls for a vote of no confidence in either the government or the Speaker, is slipper denied a vote?”
While he remains Speaker, he is denied a vote as as I know. I thought he could remove himself from the chair and vote. The experts appear to be saying no.
It does not matter, as there is little likelihood of Mr. Abbott getting a no confidence motion through as he does not have the numbers. It has to be an absolute majority. That is half the seats plus one in the house. At least that is what I think they are saying.
The media is really putting the heat on today. Maybe we should give out local members some support and beg them to hold steady, and this will past.
it does not matter who sits in the PM seat, the same thing would be occurring and will go on occurring.
It does not matter what the PM says or does, it will continue.
The problem is not the PM. It is the toxic political environment that exists today.
Bob, Wilkie is very much reminding me of Steve Fielding – he who cut off his nose to spite his face on the alcopops issue. I had thought that Wilkie had seen enough of politics to realize that the aim is to achieve the possible rather than abuse the tripe out of others for not being able to deliver the improbable. That opinion of him has vanished.
Just for a change of subject..this is one of my pet topics, that people who suffer from chronic pain are denied access to one of the best drugs with the least side effects.
http://current.com/community/89799784_marijuana-cuts-lung-cancer-tumor-growth-in-half-harvard-study-shows.htm
Hope I’ve got this right.
Wilkie’s out with some demand for Tassie hospitals? Now? And we’re told Gillard’s opportunistic?
P.S. Min
Ta for the marijuana stuff. I’ve never seen why they can’t synthesise the active ingredients & distribute them on prescription.
Bob, if I was to be a cynic I would think that there is far too much money to be made by keeping dope illegal. Several states of the US allow marijuana growing for personal use with a doctor’s permission. Mind you, many many doctors do this in Australia..that is, recommend it..but of course, it remains illegal here even at a doctor’s recommendation. Apart from chronic pain, it is one of the best drugs with the least side effects for those suffering from depression.
According to tabot, refugees are the new marijuana
I had thought this earlier in the week, and someone actually mentione it on pollbludger recently.
The Human Centipede. tabot and murdoch
https://twitter.com/#!/rupertmurdoch/status/196021477542338563
I think it is becoming increasingly apparent that this is a last ditch effort to unseat the Government before the budget.
Why, if the libs are so convinced they are a shoe in, do they fear so much one more year of Labor?
It is about the only thing giving me hope that they can turn it around.
CU @10.11am, my thoughts, too. If Wilkie is so desperate to see his pokies legislation have its day in the sun, why doesn’t he put up a private mambers bill or, as you suggest, get Liealot to either put it up or back him.
I wonder if anyone has suggested it to Wilkie? Perhaps we could all email him with the suggestion!
That would set the cat amongst the pigeons, because Liealot has thrown in his lot with Clubs Australia and big gambling. Wilkie should be reminded of this as well.
As for the government taking over Tassie’s hospitals, perhaps he could get Liealot’s word in writing witenessed by Jesus himself and see if the bugger would honour the promise. Fat chance!
Seeing Mr slipper has stood aside while the dog and pony show is happening, he should be entitled to vote in a no confidence motion, thus cancelling Wilkie’s probable vote in favour. Liealot still wouldn’t have the numbers.
Min @10.48am, I agree. Wilkie is getting flakier by the minute. Why he couldn’t have had further talks with the PM to nut out alternative legislation is beond me.
My favoured scenario is still to get Wilkie to put up a private members bill and see who’s to be trusted.
Bob, as Min says @11.28am, there are too many cynical reasons not to do the sensible thing you suggest. We can’t have these lung cancer patients having access to one drug which will halve tumour growth, stop the cancer spreading and provide relief for chronic pain, when Big Pharma has so many drugs out there which don’t actually work.
If that treatment had been available to my cousin, she might still be alive.
Tom R @11.41am, absolute proof we don’t need an election. The Emperor says we do. And absolute proof that the Empire and the Liars Party are in cahoots in this latest attempt to overthrow a democratically elected government.
And your comment @11.53am, I think it indicates that the Empire is on the verge of collapsing. They’re throwing everything they can at the government to try and stop the budget being passed.
That says to me that they know it will be a brilliant budget which will deliver on most levels.
I hope the unemployed get a better deal in this budget. The Greens senator actually living on the dole hopefully will underline that being unemplyed is burden enough, without being forced to live out of dustbuns.
How they can be expected to present for a job scruffily dressed, hair that obviously hasn’t seen a hairdresser for ages, poor dental hygeine and no doubt suffering depression, is beyond me.
They are a suffering underclass which needs to be looked after, not punished with draconian hoops to jump through. Get rid of middle class welfare and direct that money towards people wo are really doing it tough!
Tom and..
Abbott has been panic-stricken since the last election to have an early election – perhaps after perusing the goat’s entrails, he was told that it was foreseen that unless he went early that he would lose..one way or the other.
On the other hand, perhaps Abbott knows what Julia’s strategy is..straight out of the Howard Handbook..get the nasties over and done with early and head into the election with a handful of handouts.
Jane… “I wonder if anyone has suggested it to Wilkie? Perhaps we could all email him with the suggestion! ”
If you write it up and post it here, with Wilkies email address, I’ll send it. Good idea that, Jane.
Here’s a little morsel which could ‘spalin why Liealot is desperate for an immediate election. If looks like his mate Twiggy could possibly need an injection of taxpayer’s money if prominent hedge fund manager Jim Chanos is on the money.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/hedge-fund-slams-fortescue-20120426-1xnxd.html
Thanks for the offer, LOVO. I’ll do that.
And a petition from Avaaz to Bayer to stop producing and selling neonicotinoid pesticides which are having a devastating effect on bee populations.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/bayer_save_the_bees_db/?cl=1763037892&v=13898
“And we’re told Gillard’s opportunistic?”
We have Abbott complaining about the PM trying to build up her support.
What is so wrong about that. It would be stupid of her if she did not take every step to protect her government.
After all it is politics we are talking about.
What Mr. Abbott is really saying, is it is not fair, she outsmarts me every time.
What the PM has done to protect her government is not illegal. The PM has not broken any rules or conventions.
Mr. Slipper has every tight to accept the nomination.
Mr. Slipper has not been charged or convicted of any crime or wrong doing over years.
There have been innuendo, hearsay and rumours that have not been taken up with him.
Mr. Slipper was an excellent deputy speaker. He was well qualified for the job, which he has carried out well. Too well, I suspect Mr. Abbott believes.
Of course the PM wants to stay in power. The PM will do what is necessary to do so.
I do not believe that the PM will not go to the lenghts that Mr. Abbott will.
Mr. Abbott wants to be sure that it is not the one he supports that ends up in the soup.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott has vowed to toughen the rules for union officials if he wins power.
In a speech to the Victorian Liberal Conference Mr Abbott attacked the Prime Minister for standing by embattled MP Craig Thomson.
Under a Coalition government he said unions would face the same level of scrutiny and standards as business.
Mr Abbott promised to set up a new body to enforce those rules.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2012/04/28/Abbott_vows_to_toughen_union_rules_744515.html
Recipe:
Take this crustacean and 1kg of her friends straight off the trawler (from Mooloolaba Spit).
Peel, add I fresh baked bread roll, a little tartare sauce, a glass or 3 of a nice Reisling – who cares about the weather, we’ve got a really nice lunch 🙂
Look forward to a nice Meatball Tajine or perhaps a Seafood Paella accompanied by a Penfolds Bin 128 across the road tonight….
http://www.coraltajine.com/#!
What are the peasants doing? 😆
OMG, Bacchus sweet heart..you’re back with us..in solid form..so to speak. 🙂
Just to make everyone jealous (including myself), son caught a 70cm barra..fish on the barbie this weekend for the crew up in Cairns.
PS, Mr. Abbott is promising big fines and five years in jail for union officials.
.
Talk about being opportunistic.
I suspect for some crimes, they already face big fiend and jail.
Cu, therefore if Ashby had made it known, and he did, that he is gay, and did not specify that he was not interested then he could just as easily be accused of entrapment!
I’m still having trouble with wireless, which seems to be only wanting to supply SMS, so I’ll probably not be here for long!!
Yes Min, I’m still here. Wireless is a bit slow but usable. Mrs Bacchus is having a pretty good time in spite of the sour weather – I think the Reisling is helping there 😉 This is the view from our balcony looking south towards Mooloolaba:
That barra on the barbie sounds delicious Min. We really are spoilt for seafood in Qld (anything North of Byron qualifies as Qld when it comes to seafood).
Min, Migs, Jane, Nas and others – thanks for all the wishes on JooR’s Anzac Day thread – I think both of the “patients” are in a good place mentally at the moment, coping with what might have been, and what is yet to come – weekends like this help Mrs Bacchus & s-i-l leaves for her holiday adventures on Monday…
Cu @ 3.14pm,
Catching up
PS, Mr. Abbott is promising big fines and five years in jail for union officials.
.
Talk about being opportunistic.
I suspect for some crimes, they already face big fines and jail.
What did Abbott say about WorkChoices “dead, buried and cremated”
He’s an arrogant, lying prick!
Bacchus, one thing that we can say about the weather at the moment is that it’s very cr*ppy. I’ve had to pump the pool out twice today to stop it from overflowing. OMG..the strain. 😉
That is the best thing of all, a positive outlook and with you to look after Mrs Bacchus and s-i-l, I am certain that they will do splendidly.
Pip, the document shows that Mr. Slipper changed his behavior after this.
I would be surprise if Mr. Slipper has a case to answer. No one within the Department was sought by Mr. Ashby to make a complaint. Mr. Ashby went straight to the Federal Court.
I also believe that no one has any intention of going ahead with the matter.
The are using sexual harassment for political reasons and . to harass Mr. Slipper.
Pip and Cu, just a “small” disincentive for anyone to dare become a union rep.
And
Ans: YES
I generally do not spread this type of information but feel in this matter, it could be relevant.
Cu, I don’t know that the story proves anything one way or the other. I will await the factual evidence.
Here goes, LOVO. It goes wihtout saying that any alterations to improve it would be welcome.
Dear Mr Wilkie
I know that problem gambling is an issue about which you feel very strongly and feel let down that the government has put it on hold.
Perhaps you could introduce a private members bill for the reforms needed to combat this pernicious form of addiction.
If you feel unable to approach the Prime Minister to assist you in this regard, perhaps the Leader of the Opposition would be prepared to support a private members bill.
However you look at it, if you were to put a private members bill to the House, you would know what level of support there is for the reforms you want.
If there were insufficient support for your package of reforms you want, perhaps you could negotiate with all parties to draft a bill that would pass the Lower House to the Senate.
Yours sincerely etc
Wilkie’s email address is: andrew.wilkie.mp@aph,gov.au
Bugger! Wilkie’s email address should read: andrew.wilkie.mp@aph.gov.au
Well said Jane. This is where Wilkie is getting me somewhat confused..surely a start on poker machine reform is better than nothing..something always being preferable.
What the hell is the point in siding with the opposition who are guaranteed to do nothing whatsoever.
The PM did follow precedent when she supported the nomination of Mr. Slipper. But then we all know it is different if it was a Liberal; PM. They are allow to do as they wish. It is only a Labor PM that has to obey the rules set by the Opposition leader.
I thought that this was beautiful..Australia’s oldest tree..
http://video.theaustralian.com.au/2121905024/The-oldest-tree#.T5uCoxHCVYA.facebook
Eating proper food for lunch, Bacchus. Although the wine sounds OK. And the dinner menu sounds yummy.
The view isn’t too shabby, either. Glad you’re enjoying yourselves. Regards to Mrs B & s-i-l.
Husbandy substance has to cook a 3kg crustacean for someone with more money than taste tomorrow. If I knew how to post a photo, I’d put one up.
We had fresh leather jackets Thursday night.
Min at 4.06
Possibly angling for a preference deal to shore up his position? With an Abbott government with a big majority, he could be a Tassie variant of our Xenophon, forever putting out nice, unfundable & impractical & doomed but popular “look at me!!!” ideas?
C.U. at 4.07
Read that & thought Laurie’s a bit quick to point the finger when it comes to hypocrisy. He’s moved way beyond any examination of the timing & presentation of the allegations against Slipper, which is after all a week ago now & therefore of no importance. Except that he of course is allowed to go back & mention Colston. But I don’t remember the Murdoch press helping out the ALP with a revelation & distortion a day, do you?
Min @4.06pm, you’d think so wouldn’t you? Why he couldn’t have gone to the PM to get to the guts of it before running off to the first headline is beyond me.
And now cosying up to the Liars Party who have consistently shit on him from a great height, is bizarre indeed.
‘the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the person harassed;
Ashby should not have accepted Slipper’s invitation to share his flat, it gave Slippery the wrong impression.
In households all around Australia there is sexual harassment taking place as we speak and I have a solution.
Another time perhaps…
Or another Harradine, Bob? Agree on Wankerphon, though. Bloody showpony.
Poor old Laurie. Suffering from Relevance Deprivation Syndrome, perhaps. 😆
Well look here..
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/new-details-emerge-of-dubious-cabcharge-connection/story-e6freuy9-1226341260183
El gordo, we shall have to look into that one. The accusation is a tenuous one, not of assault but of harassment. The definition contained in The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) must be within the following:
The Sex Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a person to sexually harass another person in a number of areas including employment, education, the provision of goods and services and accommodation.
Therefore Ashby must prove that this harassment was:
1. in the workplace
2. that the action was unwanted and that the person made it plain and clear that such action was unwanted. And that the person persisted so as to make the workplace an uncomfortable place to be.
This is a fairly difficult thing to prove or else every girl or boy who goes to the pub on a Saturday could make a claim of sexual harassment. It must be in the workplace. Therefore presumably Ashby will need to prove that he was in Slipper’s home as part of his employment.
Serious journalism at the OO…. not on the Strewth page, which is topped with this pic,
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=bean+%2B+slipper&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=546&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=qystDnAZKmLdXM:&imgrefurl=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/hats-off/story-e6frgdk6-1226336559321&docid=04WvfkWo0ZrpyM&imgurl=http://resources3.news.com.au/images/2012/04/23/1226336/581187-120424-f-slipper.jpg&w=650&h=366&ei=zpybT9PoIaa1iQe7mYzZDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=291&sig=114583116187156736191&page=2&tbnh=117&tbnw=208&start=8&ndsp=14&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:8,i:116&tx=84&ty=62
and further down is a second hand yarn told by the amazing Dennis Shananagan about the Prime Minister’s “handbag”.
All very reasonable, grown up conversation enjoyed very much by a very reasonable and grown-up readership.
‘Ashby will need to prove that he was in Slipper’s home as part of his employment.’
Yeah, that seems straight forward, but in my mind it’s a huge grey area.
former Liberal Party member Ashby should have to declare whether he was aware of the Liberals titlillating and often nasty gossip about Peter Slipper, or whether he suffered from selective deafness prior to beginning his employment with Mr. Slipper.
I think that Ashby is going to have problems proving that he was in the shower at Slipper’s house as part of his employment.
Min, whatever the outcome of Ashby’s claims, the smear campaign by the Liberals and their media friends has been so over the top that even if Ashby is sent off with a flea in his ear by the Court, nothing will stop the media from repeating the allegations !
What did Mr. Denmore say ?
Something like, if it’s about pants off, it’s a bonus.
I see references to something Shorten said making us a world laughing stock. Any idea what it’s meant to be?
Bob, this is the news for Bill Shorten..no doubt those earning over $300,000pa are weeping into their Kentucky Derby Mint Juleps as we speak…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-28/shorten-defends-superannuation-tax-hike/3978002/?site=sydney
Bob, Shorten was asked to comment on what the PM had said about the Slipper saga, and he answered – paraphrasing –
“I didn’t hear what she said but I agree with her”.
The meeja are hugely amused, but why wouldn’t he say that if he already knew that he agreed with the PM on the subject.
Min
Thanks. Laughable indeed to the rest of the world, that a government should be criticised for doing that.
In an interview, the questioner came in with a gotcha question about something the PM said while overseas. Mr Shorten replied that he had not heard what she said. It was the time he was intervened in Jackson’s court case. He was then asked the question again, and replied with that he agreed with the PM. It was pointed out that he did not know what she said. Which was not quite true as I believe the questioner has repeated what she said.
He once again said he agreed with the PM. Then after another question, he said I always agree with the PM. I believe he was trying a little irony.
He must have rushed to this interview, as his hair was a little ruffled at the front.
This led Mr. Bolt to say that Mr. Shorten looked harassed and ruffled, along with other derogatory remarks.
So Mr. Shorten got himself into trouble saying he had not heard what the PM said, then saying he agreed with her.
It was about Mr.Slipper returning to the chair after the Cabcharge were sorted out.
Mr. Shorten I believe was very busy at the time.
My reading of the matter was that he was attempting to send the interviewer up and it backfired on him. It appears he is not that good at making jokes.
I do not know how this could make him a world laughing stock.
It is not in the same class as saying carbon dioxide or as Mr.Abbott says “doxide” weighs nothing.
The press need to lighten up. One does not have to take everything they say seriously. Most are not as important as they seem to think they are.
This is of course what the opposition want to stop at all costs…taxing the wealthy. Because the wealthy create jobs..or do they?
Pip
I saw that. I don’t see the problem. The meeja don’t know what criticism Gillard’s going to cop tomorrow, but they agree with it. Or at least they’d deny they knew. But they certainly agree with it.
Pip, but Shorten’s words have been reported in Fairfax as per below..it depends upon which newspaper one reads..
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/abbott-uses-weasel-speak-emerson-says-20120428-1xrbs.html#ixzz1tK3yupgj
Boy, that’s true Min, it depends which newspaper one reads … it can change from hour to hour…
it can also be repeated endlessly to the point where it must be true!
C.U.
Thanks. No, it’s not in the same class as Abbott’s statement about Carbon Dioxide. There are Labor errors & there are Liberal errors. The class distinction starts at birth, Labor errors are cultivated & inflated, Liberal errors are euthanased as soon as possible.
I believe that this Labor government is behaving true to it’s roots and a lot of upper income welfare is going to disappear.
At least I hope I am correct. The PM and Mr.Swan have nothing to lose by carrying it out.
At least it will be budget cuts that will not send the economy into downfall.
A balance budget, which the Opposition puts great score in. Unnecessary welfare pruned back, which dye in the wool Labor voters want. May even please the Greens..
After Mr. Hockey’s outburst, they would be mad if the did not take the opportunity to do so. After all they would only be doing what Mr. Hockey said needed doing. Strict means tests on welfare.
Now if Mr. Abbott keeps up this latest stunt, Mr. Swan might even get the budget through without anyone noticing.
Mr. Abbott will have a choice, focus on Mr. Slipper or focus on the budget.
There is always a silver lining in every grey cloud.
Mr. Abbott has up to now prevented the good the government has done from being noticed. I am sure the same tricks work for the bad.
Bob, I do not think Mr. Shorten made an error. He was trying to avoid having what he said as being seen as differing from what the PM said.
The media was trying hard to find people who disagreed with the PM.
He just made a mess of it, mainly because he was involved in other urgent matters at the time.
I did watch the interview.
‘I see references to something Shorten said making us a world laughing stock. ‘Any idea what it’s meant to be?’
The story has been around for a couple of days and the Brits call it brown nosing.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4283955/Aussie-minister-takes-brown-nosing-to-a-new-level.html
C.U.
The only part I saw was the quoted bit, he did look like he was in a bit of a hurry, possibly something to do with being a senior government minister.
It’s something that can be portrayed as a bad look for Labor & that’s all that matters to the meeja.
el gordo
Thanks for the link. I was going to click but saw it was the Sun so didn’t bother. Do the Brits call the ABC obligingly relaying Murdoch’s demand for an election brown nosing as well?
In fairness I looked at the Sun site. It was what I thought it would be. I’d seen the important bit before. Not a good look in parts, beaten up by the UK Myrmidons with nary a mention of Carbon Dioxide.
Well Queensland wanted him..so now they’ve got him..
http://www.juliecollins.fahcsia.gov.au/mediareleases/2012/Pages/campbell_newman_200412.aspx
“relaying Murdoch’s demand for an election brown nosing as well?
”
At least one can tweet back and tell him what you think. Tweet does go both ways.
Jane @3.57pm……Been there done that 😀
Now if I were Bacchus and I had a duplicate key where would I hide It 😕 ……..(looking)……………….(still looking) …………… ah ha, under the mat in front of the cellar door, how original 🙄
….. clack, clunk……*clink*
😉 Like I always say LOVO – KISS**. Enjoy 🙂
** Keep It Simple Stupid 😆
Hi
This evening i saw the PM on the news. she had been to a footy game in Canberra, her team the bulldogs v giants. The bulldogs won
PM looked as though she was having fun. And she must have really enjoyed herself, I know that because there are no photos or stories in the online news. the only article is the afl site, without a photo of the PM.
Can you imagine any sport where the PM attends and has a trophy and the msm DO NOT cover it!!
So all the BS from abbott and his mates the msm that there is panic with the PM over Slipper is just that BULLSHIT
http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/134327/default.aspx
So take that Abbott, the PM, Julia Gillard, is just getting on being the PM
Oh I should just add,the msm cry, the govt just cannot get its message across.
Sue, are you telling us that the main stream media have an anti bias against our Prime Minister?
I hadn’t noticed.. 😯
That must mean that they’ll ignore the NDIS rallies on Monday then…
if so that would be because she gave smudgy bugglers the brush off
when he tried his old wedge trick. 😆
Pip
I know, I know it is hard to believe.
Pip in that speech at API he was still whinging that SHE would not let him help her.
if you wanted something to fail, I would say you would take the demolisher on board.
Sue, Emma Alberici explained that perfectly although she meant it in a different way when she was arguing, yes, arguing with the A-G Nicola Roxon, and I’m sure it won’t ever be used in an ABC promo!
She said, “all of the commentariat are echoing the Opposition”….
Hi Cu, he was just making a big feller of himself again for his chosen audience.
Isn’t it funny .. he won’t allow himself to be interviewed by just any old journalist, and he makes his important speeches to the far right think thankers, or selected Libs.members and supporters.
He’s not just nuts, he has no guts… as PJK once said of an opponent –
all tip and no iceberg….
Pip
I hope that interview gets shown at her next staff appraisal scheme. Or even better show it at journalism school on “how to lose your cred”
I have now seen three interviews where alberici, has lost it, all 3 were with ministers, who know their portfolios. but after Roxon i thought why bother even watching her interview, it is easier to scan the show transcripts, in case there is someone interesting with something to say.
Sue, I’ve been doing that lately, well, not just lately, Jones gives me the galloping —- as well.
I think it was lunalava who said that Alberici’s re-education at the ABC is complete! She was much more benign when she reported from London, but her uppity airs can’t help her reputation now.
After watching 7.30 and Lateline for many years, the only conclusion that can be dawn is that the host, while echoing the Opposition, must put the kybosh on every point that any government Minister tries to make.
Bonsai has a lot to answer for, placing an ultra conservative stockbroker type in as Chairman and others on the Board, such as Judith Sloane and Janet Albrechtson, or is she Kroger now?
Michael Kroger was also on the ABC Board at one stage.
I’d need to check but i think Sloane was the Deputy Chairman for a term.
Noticing the taxpayer funded Murdoch auxiliary ABC’s coverage of Abbott tonight, he’s once again being let off the hook & Peter Slipper’s history in the Liberal party is no longer being mentioned at all?
Pip
It was good to see the PM so happy today. It reconfirms that the msm, including the last of them the ABC have collectivly written themselves out of true political debate.
A little song , that was part of an ad campaign last year, has been running through my mind all day. It kinda sums up the silliness of the press
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run
Good night
I’ve given myself an early minute from the ABC tonight Bob, but the bullsh is inescapable.
Now the meeja have gone to Slipper’s neighbour for a quote about how bad he is!
Under the radar
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/under-the-radar-20120427-1xqaz.html
Pip
I’ve seen that article. It mentions “two pivotal questions”. I’d say there’s a third-“why now, why didn’t you get this interested in him before?”.
Just returning and picking up the past couple of hours of this thread I share the general view about the appallingly rightist bias of the Murdoch media and now even our ABC. Like others of you I watched the re-education of Emma Alberici with huge disappointment and some surprise. Her talking over the Attorney General was the last straw for me. It really isn’t worth watching news or news commentary any more, and like you Sue I think I’ll find transcripts a quicker way to go.
I am hoping that better brains than mine are working out how to beat Murdoch and the right in this media war.
Hi patricia,
I don’t think it’s a matter of brains, any fool can write crap, and they do, for Rupert, and Gina and Lachlan and James and even for Mark at Murdoch Lite.
They’ve cornered the market!
Bob, from my link
Writng about “smut, suspicion, innuendo and raised eyebrows” now as proof
is downright malicious and proof of diddly squat.
If the innuendo was about the possibilty of Mr. Slipper being bi-sexual, and we don’t know that, and I hope that reasonable people don’t care, but clearly there are some in the Coaition who are either homophobic, or, they’re banking on the hope that enough of their constituents are to swing votes their way!
Oh i dont even have to read further than a few sentences to give you an answer to the slipper drama, the libs have a few gay men who have married and had kids for a smoke screen, its an open secret in canberra who these men are and its really pathetic that both sides tolerate the status quo…i suppose chris pyne on the lib side and julia gillard on the labour side spring to mind…both hypocrites, both gay, both pretending to be hetero…and in an age when no one really cares except for bob kater…even 1950’s abbott doesnt care, tony knows who all the gays are in his party, but tony thinks they adore him, so long as tony’s ego is stroked he doesnt seem to mind who is on the end of the hand…
The PM is ever so gay…not that there is anything wrong with that.
Yes, Pip, and isn’t it sad all this smut, suspicion, innuendo and raised eyebrows has only now been brought to light to discredit Peter Slipper when he has at last found his true metier and is doing an extraordinarily good job in our Parliament? How come no one developed his real talents before this? Had they done so he would have been a solid team member bring credit to his party whom no one would have tried to push aside to find a spot for the ambitious Mal Brough.
I plead guilty to committing another limerick. This time about Peta and Tony and Brian!
Yes, all that smut, suspicion, etc. Why didn’t we get round to this before? Perhaps because he was useful to us then?
Angry at the “look at this dork, dressed up like a ponce with some git with a mace in front of him” theme. OK perhaps for Oliver Cromwell (whose birthday we celebrated on April 25th) & his sympathisers but surely not for Australia’s Conservatives. Still, any collateral damage is alright in the cause of getting Abbott into the big chair. Certainly the Westminster system can go.
The smut throwing: is the best of the worst case scenario against Peter Slipper for the Liberal party the distruction of a “liberal rat”.
This morning on Insiders, they came around to discussing Slipper and the break away Anglican church of which Slipper is a priest. D Marr said this branch broke away from the main Anglicans because they didn’t stand for the ordaination of women or “pooftas”.
So with memories of Brogden, has the Liberal party launched this personal attack on Slipper and his wife, with at least the humiliation and possible rejection of his fellow members of his chosen church.
Peter van Onselen in the Daily Terror… just fishin’.
‘Now we are told (by a dwindling number of Gillard backers mind you) that the recovery will commence once the budget is handed down and the carbon tax compensation package starts flowing. It’s their final argument. Time is fast running out and the sharks are beginning to circle.’
mary jones, just as a matter of interest, on what do you base your rather absurd claims that the PM and Prissy are gay?
I know Prissy is a mincy little git, but that only proves that he’s a mincy little git. And he’s certainly a hypocrite, but I doubt that his hypocrisy is because he’s a closet gay.
Mind you, it would be fun if he were to be outed and the allegation found to be true. However, even if he is gay and chooses not to come out, that’s his business.
And why do you say the PM is gay? Wishful thinking, perhaps? I think if she was gay, she’d be out, unless you’re suggesting Tim is a very butch woman. And as with Prissy, even if the PM is gay and chooses not to come out, it’s her business.
eg, the PM was ever so gay because the Bulldogs won. Laughing and shouting “Carn the ‘Dogs!” would be evidence that you were happy, I assume. Obviously you’re not. Did the ‘dogs beat your mob?
Pip @12.44am, what a load of old cobblers they go on with. i suppose you have to give them credit for stretching a neighbourhood dispute about overhanging boughs into a tome rivalling Gone With The Wind!
As for the “hours” spent in the car, it was probably 2 or 3 minutes while he filled out cabcharges, or hiding from this character who probably harassed Slipper for favours constantly.
And no matter what his private peccadilloes, they have absolutely NO bearing on his ability to do his job.
We read that his performance as Speaker is regarded as second to none by both sides of the House; certainly puts poor Harry Jenkins in the shade.
Slipper obviously has the job by the scruff of the neck and has restored order in the House, which had become a laughing stock afaic, owing to opposition antics.
To date,we do not know if he has committed any crime, but has been subjected to the most disgraceful, malicious gossip fuelled campaign by the msm and the Liars Party, since Lionel Murphy.
I sincerely hope Mr Slipper is cleared of all charges, goes for the msm’s throat and is awarded gigantic sums of money. Hopefully, that will hasten the demise of the Emperor and his genuinely evil Empire and its minions.
It would be doubly satisfying to see Alberici, Uhlmann and the rest of the Murdoch scum sitting on street corners begging for alms. I, for one, would take great delight in kicking their bowls over and forcing them to eat shit sandwiches.
As for the psuedo interviewers and journalists, Albeici and Uhlmann, their interviewing techniques should most certainly be incorporated into journalism courses as prime examples of everything you should NEVER do when interviewing a guest. and shown at ASIO training courses on how to interrogate suspects.
Completely off topic, is anyone else having to fill in their details every couple of days?
I’m hearing reports that Craig Thomson is resigning from the ALP to sit on the cross benches. If so, his vote is potentially useful to Abbott & he may find himself occasionally elevated to the position of “nice guy”.
Bob @10.38am, rather surprising considering the PM has backed him all the way.
Either way,I wouldn’t think Liealot would get his vote unless it was for a motion to hang, draw and quarter the bugger!
Probably the msm or Liars trying to stir the possum.
At the moment the poll in the SMH has 84% of voters saying the stench won’t go away when Craig moves to the cross bench.
Jane, that rumour about the PM has been circling Canberra for some time.
Re smut and suspicion..with the basis of this being homophobia. So what if Julia is or isn’t.
And re the mincing, again that’s to do with stereotypes. The gay men who I have known are often very masculine in their demeanour.
Mr. Thompson moving to the cross bench changes nothing.
His vote I assume would stay with the government. I cannot ever see him voting with Mr. Abbott. That is not what it is about.
It may take some heat off the PM, as Abbott has been demanding this all along. It changes nothing about the PM’s assertion that one has the right to be considered innocence until the courts prove one guilty. Courts, not the Opposition or media.
No where have I read that Labor demand he resign, therefore I am assuming it is the decision of Mr. Thompson. He may see it as one less bat to bash him with.
I imagine it will be beat up into a big story, proving his guilt.
The PM being gay because she choose not to have children. How does this fit in with all the lesbians that go out of their way to have a child, including Senator Wong and her parliament. We can ignore the fact that she is a very feminine woman, plus having many boyfriend over her life time.
As for Pyne, I cannot imagine him having any sexuality, in spite of having four children. I thought that his interest laid in whining and his hatred for anything not on the far right. The man that is proud to have no friends on the left. Pity this, if he did, he might just develop the understanding that he is not always in right. He might not be so bitter.
It is shocking that they are now attacking the man’s religion, which he does appear to take seriously, on a daily basis his Bishop said. His Bishop also said that in the past he has investigated many of the allegations and was relaxed. A man’s religion is his own business.
As for the neighbors, has anyone seen pictures of the street he lives in. They would have to go out of their way to observe the time cars stayed outside his door.
Mr Slipper earned my respect in the way he handled the tree branch problem. Cut the trees down, When they complained that it would cost them. He replied yes and walked away.
Unless the branches are dangerous or causing damage,one does not have to have too.
I have just cut a couple down in the same position, mainly because I live very closed to m\y neighbors and want to maintain the peace. Also my sewer and guttering was being blocked. One was self grown in the wrong place.
Mt neighbors problem is that he seems to hate vegetation and trees draw his pet hate.
But I cut them down because it suited me.
On that big block I might have not bothered, especially if the neighbors have been there for five years and I did not know them.
As someone earlier said, the damage to our Westminster system is sopmething we are all going to live with.
Things will never be the same, thanks to Mr. Abbott. It will takes years to recover, id that is possible.
I do not agree with our mining whiner, that taking away some petrol subsidiaries will destroy the Budget for decades. I believe the opposite is true, getting rif of some of the structural imbalance within the budget.
Mr. Abbott needs to to remind himself, that the only reason he was getting Mr, Slipper was to get a seat for Mr. Brough. It is amazing that in the whole of Queensland and NSW one cannot be found for the man. That is areal story.
The PM is not saying that Mr. Slipper is innocence. She is saying he has the right to the presumption of innocence,
Mr. Albanese is saying the evidence appears to support Mr. Slipper.
What is true, in this country one should have the right to be judged only by the courts, not the media or Opposition.
The faceless men again. Remember that this man would have no love from Mr. Howard. Mr. Howard lost his first attempt because of the push for Joh for PM. Slipper was on the side of Joh.
Remember Coulson, who resigned from parliament on budget day.
Remember the PM cannot remove Mr. Slipper from the chair. If Mr. Abbott wants to do so call for a vote.
it is the house that appoints the speaker. It is only the house that can remove him.
Mary, if there are indeed other gay and lesbian member of parliament who have chosen not to come out..whose business is it anyway..
The sad thing would be is that if there are on the LNP side of politics that they have remained silent on the issue of marriage equality..so scared to cross “the boss”, Tony Abbott. The LNP could certainly do with a few more people with gumption such as Petro, who are prepared to take a stand on issues.
I think that the point that I’m trying to make is that sexual orientation can still be used as An Accusation. This clearly is based on an ingrained attitude of homophobia.
Would we see it as an accusation, for example OMG she has green eyes. Is she suitable to be PM because of this fact. Yet sexual orientation is still perceived as a factor.
PM on ABC 24. Thompson suppose to on at mid day.
The PM told Mr. Thompson to resign from the Labor Party.
PM gave both men the same advice. Things have gone to far and too long.
Migs @11.23am, all based on pig ignorance and a nasty dose of homophobia and spite, no doubt.
I couldn’t give a toss, she’s a bloody good PM.
As for Prissy, as I said above, it’s his business entirely whether he’s in the closet or, as I suspect, it’s a nasty cowardly beat up.
There’s plenty of fact based nasty things about Prissy, we don’t need manufactured stuff to point to.
Min, you’ve got to admit that Prissy is a mincer, though. 😆
eg, if Thomson is found to have been the victim of some nasty goings on, which I suspect could be true as we get more information about Jackson, it will be pretty hard even for the msm and the Liars to keep up the pretence that he is the source of the stench.
If that is the case, I reckon Thomson should have a crack at the gossip mongers, or at least let them think it’s a possibility.
The PM is well and truly serving back the insults she is receiving. The PM mentioned group think and bunch of fiction writers..
Jane, yes Prissy minces… 😉
Cassidy now returning her serve.
The statement that some MP’s are Teflon, nothing sticks. The PM is Velco, everything sticks is true.
The media appears to have made their minds up that everything the PM is going to be twisted to have different meanings.
Mr. Cassidy sounds very passionate and angry. Why?
Angry is not an understatement.
Unfortunately,
I don’t think PM Gillard can survive this…her decision to bring in Slipper…and support Thomson…has led to a further weakening of the ALP’s reputation.
Stabbing Wilkie in the back in order to attempt to save Labor MPs from the wrath of the pokie clubs and their supporters had a bad and gutless look about it.
Add the other issues, including the weak Malaysian solution policy that backfired…the carbon price issue…etc etc…sadly it has all added up to a perception by the public that the government is not being run well…and trust has been lost.
The media haven’t helped.
But, we can’t keep blaming them for everything. There are REAL problems here.
It’s sad tho because Gillard initially did well negotiating Labor into government…they’ve managed to pass many useful bills…and some good policies are about to be passed or implemented.
Furthermore,
I respect Gillard for not caving into Murdoch’s bullying pressure the way many other leaders and pollies have.
But I just don’t see how she can survive this latest judgement debacle.
I reckon it would be best if she resigned…and her place was taken by Combet…or Shorten. I prefer Combet.
We are running out of time.
This zealot Abbott would be a disaster for Australia.
N’
Cassidy on Insiders – banging on about the PM’s performance, and all of the msm echoing Abbott’s mantra about “judgement” and “leadership’
Well, Barrie when you speak about all the major policies which are now in place I’ll take your overblown opinions seriously. unitl then you’re in the news.con/Uhllman/Alberici column, “echoing the opposition”.
The “crossing the line” factor…. could it be that it is the msm that have “crossed the line” regarding the reporting of facts, as opposed to reporting the conclusions of their group think,
It’s the msm that’s jumped the shark…
TIMING Simple, this is the time to do it.
Two principals in conflict. Is this not true.
Has the media and Opposition assault left her any choice.
Who is damaging our legal and political system.
Nas’, I will have to disagree with you about the Wilkie reforms – because BOTH Windsor and Oakeshott stated categorically that they would not support the legislation in the form that Wilkie wanted it.
Therefore Julia was obliged to negotiate to get it through, in a form which Windsor and Oakeshott would agree with.
The Clubs like to call it as “a win”, it’s not. The Clubs of course would prefer that nothing was done..at all…
CU @11.44am, we’re on the same page. Clearly the msm has really had to push for extra smearing against Slipper.
And if all they can come up with is whinge about branch lopping. Which would be at the neighbour’s expense.
Apparently, he’s supposed to chuck the branches over the fence and if he wasn’t the snotty prig he sounds, he and Slipper could have come to an amicable arrangement about it.
I was completely unaware that not wanting to have children is proof that one is gay.
What about all the gay couples who have children? Does that mean they really straight but can’t admit…………. What? I’ve never heard such a lot of absolute rubbish!
Lots of people don’t want to have children for any number of reasons. All it means is they don’t want to have children. Just as well; there’s already about 5 billion too many people on the planet!
About Prissy, I also find it hard to believe that he is anything but asexual. AI, definitely.
I am surprised the PM told Thomson to resign, but no doubt she has her reasons which will be revealed in the fullness of time.
But the damage that Liealot and the Liars party has done to this country politically and economically, if we’re unlucky enough to be inflicted with him as PM will take decades to repair.
Min @11.48am, it’s a great pity that sexual orientation is still a pejorative, and genuinely bad flaws like dishonesty, malice and lack of integrity to name a few are regarded as positive traits, particularly by the right wing.
Gee, Julie Bishop says we need a new election…. very original …
I’m off to the football so her words and those of the compliant media can float upwards on a stream of hot air…..
The PM stated the obvious point that both Thomson and Slipper are entitled to the presumption of innocence and just as Mary Jo Fisher, a Senator, faced no such spirited attacks during her recent tangle with the Courts, neither should
Abbott behave like the leader of a lynch mob now; [the lynch mob being the
media crones].
Note to Pip: you need to log in again..I believe that your left hand little fingernail might have hit a wrong letter.
😆 😆
Ms Julie Bishop, new election.
Sorry they are not going to get it.
Nas,’ I’m with Min on the pokies reform.
Oakeshott and Windsor would not agree to Wilkie’s scheme, nor would the
Coalition, therefore amendments had to be looked at, yet Wilkie, with the advice of Xenophon and Credlin, blames only the PM.
Danged females, they’re just impossible to deal with!
Cu, Abbott has sent out the likes Of Abetz and Bishop for some reason, rather than hogging all the limelight on this one.
Cu, well actually they are going to get a new election..but because the PM calls it.
The coalition remind me of kids before Easter, wanting all their chokkies, because they want them NOW. It’s character building to make them wait.
Hope you have a bad day at the footy, Pip. I believe your mob are playing my team.
I’m sure Jane shares my sentiments.
Uh oh..there could be blood on the floor at the Café…
Abbott on after two.
Pip and Min,
I’m sure Wilkie would’ve compromised…he was shoved out for Slipper before he could…not good.
Wilkie was a hero to the Left when he was a whistleblower related to that dreadful Iraq debacle. When persecuted by the Howeirdians many Lefties backed him.
Now he’s trying to do the right thing by problem gamblers…and gambling will help to destroy this country if permitted to continue its corrupt and rampant and unethical ways…he’s crapped on by the Left.
It looks pathetic.
I back Wilkie on his courageous efforts…same for Xenephon.
N’
Nas’ I agree with Min on the pokies reform. Wilkie’s bill as he wanted it was never going to get through, because it didn’t have enough support.
However, the PM has copped the blame for Wilkie’s refusal to see the writing on the wall.
He may love beating his head against a brick wall, but I suspect the PM doesn’t.
He could have sat down with her and explored the best options to steer through a bill which, while it wasn’t exactly what he wanted, would have laid the groundwork for future amendments to achieve what he wanted.
He chose to do neither; instead choosing to bitch and moan about the PM reneging on their agreement.
What is more telling, though is that he never uttered a word of reproach wrt Liealot’s refusal to support the bill’s passage through the House or that Liealot and the Liars Party are obviously in the pockets of big gambling.
After all, if Liealot had supported the bill, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
I think that says a lot about Mr Wilkie and his inflexibility and his hypocrisy.
Pokies reform was also part of the government’s platform at the last election, something which seems to be conveniently overlooked as usual, by the msm.
Nas’, we can only hope that the fall of the Murdochracy is swift, leaving the Liars bereft of their security blanket of unaccountability and lack of scrutiny.
I forgot to add nil desperandum and keep the bear’s head high, my friend.
And I’ll chuck in “The darkest hour is before dawn”, free of charge. lol
Nas’, Wilkie has shown absolutely no willingness whatsoever to compromise..all or nothing.
I think that it’s better to make a start, even though it’s not the full 100% rather than be left with nothing whatsoever.
Wilkie was being unrealistic – as the legislation could not have got through the House of Reps because BOTH Windsor and Oakeshott would not support it, then WHY bring down a government when seeking the impossible.
Mr. Thompson now on.
Nas, politics is a funny game. I’m not sure I understand all the rules.
Jane @1.05pm..that reminded me of..
Miglo, today the rules are simple. It is what one can get away with. Nothing more, nothing less.
Mr. Thompson, seven investigations. Has been cleared in three of them.
There’s a lot of static @ 12.50pm ……
GO CROWS ..
The meeja are asking silly questions … still ..
Tip:- ask different questions if they want different answers!.
Certainly do, Migs @12.50pm.
Migs, the rules for politcs since Liealot and Rupert became LOTO, is the only rules are lie, cheat, defame, slander without consequence or remorse..
Jane..and no responsibility taken whatsoever…
CU @1.13pm, four down, three to go.
What reason did the PM give for asking Thomsonto resign and what reason has he given.
I can think of a couple like the unbearable pressure he’s been under.
Does this mean the Liars have changed targets again and the Slipper thing is now going to die?
It all must be quickly resolved. I’ll stick my neck out and say neither Thomson nor slipper will have a case to answer.
If that is the case, the Liars and the msm should have their noses rubbed in it at every opportunity.
Jane, Pip, Migs and others,
the whole business depresses me.
I see a Liberal party now dominated by religious zealots and One Nation/Tea Party-like bullies…
Gun crime increasing…bikies thinking they can war over turf at the expense of the general public…
obsession of media and public with criminal underworld thugs…
Gambling and corporate advertising left, right and centre…
Religious characters and institutions being protected regardless of the way they have preyed on kids.
Corporate media relying on sexual titilation, celebrity obsession, sex and porn scandals, character assasination, corporatised sport and backdoor advertising/product placement/infotainment in tabloid fashion to survive.
Fast food companies and big pharma and mining companies/CEOs having huge influence.
Belittling of the “safety net” and affordable as essential services by referring to them as “entitlements”.
Good union work being undermined by corruption of some.
Might as well be in bloody America.
N’
Min, the other pokies point is that Windsor and Oakeshott live in pokie land, where Clubs Australia conducted their own election campaign by placing anti Labor posters in 9.000 venues…. then proudly announced that they would be removing the posters when Wilkie’s plan was amended, even declaring a win for themselves!
The main stream media have behaved like chooks with their heads chopped
off over the anti mining tax, anti carbon ‘tax’, anti NBN, and anti pokies reform campaigns directed at this government by obscenely wealthy vested interests, as well as the smear campaigns against Thomson and Slipper, and all backed by Tony Abbott, yet our Prime Minister can stil maintain a civil demeanour.
How would Abbott manage under such pressure?
That’s a silly question because the msm would not dream of placing that kind of presure on him!
Nor would they promote a view that he lied about the carbon tax, even if he had announced it before the election as PM Gillard did.
‘…sexual orientation can still be used as An Accusation.’
Not necessarily, the average punter couldn’t give a rat’s arse…they took Penny Wong’s marriage in their stride.
As I mentioned before, Ashby has only himself to blame for giving Slippery the wrong impression.
Tony Windsor is always the voice of reason in these circumstances. I’ll take my lead from him.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/a-line-has-been-crossed-gillard-acts-on-thomson-and-slipper-20120429-1xsiz.html#ixzz1tOfKKf1y
Nas’ I agree with all of your points and on that note I’m really going to the showdown between Port Adelaide and the Crows.
Waves Crows scarf at Migs and Jane.
Mr. Howard said he would not accept the vote of Mr. Coulson.
Ms Bishop is demanding that the PM does not accept the vote of the two men.
Please tell me how can the vote of any MP be denied under our constitution.
They have a legitimate right to vote, on behalf of their constituents, who they are there to represent.
Why is Mr. Abbott taking so long to reply.
They are not elected to represent any party.
I was impressed with Craig Thomson, nothing like the sleaze bag the Opposition, ably helped by MSM, has been painting. What a disgraceful reference to Chifley’s light on the hill by Abbott yesterday. I’d say that if I had to choose from body language and style between Thomson and Abbott I’d opt for Thomson. Add to that context and content and he’s streets ahead of Mr. Negativity. He handled himself well and not at all like a man who has a guilty conscience, or no conscience at all.
Let’s see more of him.
El gordo, I disagree. There is always the element of titillation when a person is accused of/or suspected of being gay. Otherwise WHY do the newspapers go on..and on..and on..and on about it.
Min, I’m sure I heard Tony Windsor say that Tony Abbott needed Laxettes –
Nobody else does when listening to the Abbott rants!
Cu, Why is Mr. Abbott taking so long to reply.
Maybe he needs to sober up!
Jennifer Marohasy is on a crusade to return the Murray Mouth to pristine conditions.
‘At the moment A$10 billion is being spent on water reform ostensibly to keep the Murray’s Mouth open and the Lakes in freshwater.
‘So, in short the government could save A$10 billion… if it simply removed at least the Mundoo barrage and let the Southern Ocean do the job of both filling the lake and scouring the Murray’s Mouth.
‘This is a job the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Greens, Labor and Liberal parties want done by freshwater because this provides a reason for taking freshwater from upstream food producers… something currently very fashionable to advocated. Ask Malcolm Turnbull.
‘It has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with misguided green politics…’
Pip, you are right. Tony appears to be in either a complete state of constipation or is in the middle of a good dose of the trots.
Sobering up might be useful too…
Pip wrote: I agree with all of your points and on that note I’m really going to the showdown between Port Adelaide and the Crows.
Pip,
Enjoy yerself.
Try to ignore the corporate advertising that has invaded sports like malignant tumours.
N’
Patricia, that is the man I knew and worked closely with when the Richmond Scheme was moving the Intellectually Handicapped from institutions.
Now he could be a clever man that I believed or I could just be a poor judge of character..
I have asked if there are readers to this site, that have more recent experiences with the union to voice their opinions.
There has not been any that have come forwarded, either here or any where else. That is except for one that Ms. Jackson engineered.
Ms. Bishop is wrong. The PM has not changed her stance regarding either man.
The PM has accepted the reality that sticking by the principal of ones rights to presumption of innocence, is now in conflict with the principal that the good name of parliament needs to be upheld.
The PM has never claimed and has taken time to point out, the innocence or guilt of either man. That is how it should be.
I am not too sure why Mr. Thompson came to the same conclusion as the PM but said they had different reasons. Maybe that is how it should be. They play different roles within the parliament.
Mr. Thompson said that the matters are going on too long, and the pressure on him and his family is too much.
Mr. Windsor appears to have similar beliefs to mine in how the constitution says and what is the mandate.
Parties play no role. He did not pick a party or PM. He picked a government, whose individual members responsibility is to the people who voted for them.
Jettison from the Labor Party or suspended.
Mr. Slipper announcement does not appear to say he is standing aside. He said that he would call the deputy to the chair. He would then not take the chair again until matters are sorted out.
He put emphasis that he is entitled to remain in the chair, but to do so, is not6 in the best interest of the House.
Min, on Thursday and Friday he appeared to be on uppers.
Insiders said he appeared to be enjoying himself. He always looks happy when he is destroying something, whether a person, economy or the good of the country.
He is happiest when spreading gloom and doom.
Nas, I think it depresses a lot of us. Abbott and the Murdoch media have been very successful in introducing American style politics into Oz.
Sadly, I can’t see it changing. Ever.
Mr. Abbott. Do not know why he waited so long, Still only slogans he has been using for weeks. Once again not addressing today’s actions.
Is repeating all the alleged allegations, as if they were truth.
Talking once again as one to a three year old.
Nothing new. Waste of time.
Words repeated over and over and over.
Telling us over and over and over, what we think.
Only provision is for her own survival. Oh, we are feeling a shame.
there is a better way, he stand by to give us what we deserve. Shocking speech.
The whine is well and truly in the voice.,
Attacking the judgment of Windsor and Oakeshott as well.
Whine whine whine
He now wants both men to stand aside from the parliament. How does that work. It is a new one on me.
Has the PM disown Mr. Thompson. I believe not. Mr. Abbott has asked what has changed. I suggest to Mr. Abbott that he look at the media and his own party’s campaign over the last week.
The PM HAS NOT DISOWNED Mr. Thompson. The PM is still saying that both men are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
The PM said that she or no one else has all the evidence and as such, no one is in the position to declare the men guilty.
That does not look like dumping Mr. Thompson. The PM’s position in this regard is still the same.
Mr. Abbott needs to deal with the facts that are in public domain, not the ones that are in his head., or he is trying to create.
It is only audio press conference. I wonder why?
Maybe the hangover is in play.
Maybe he did not want us to see him on his knees begging us to give him what he so desires.
Migs, unfortunately..very unfortunately the dirty tactics have proven themselves to be the winners. Getting the job done it seems, is no longer newsworthy.
I should add, if/when Tony Abbott is elected Prime Minister and does absolutely zilch..I dare say that there will be a lot of hand-wringing from the media. But what do they expect? They’ve put him there.
Rob Oakshott had a slight rebuff of Wilkie on Insiders today. He said he has been waiting for someone to introduce legislation on gambling reform in line with the recommendations of the Productivity commission but nothing has happened. Rather than all this he said she said it would be better if action were taken.
So I do not think Oakshott has too much time for the grandstanding Wilkie.
Min, Mr. Abbott will be very happy. He will be in his glory with all the demolishing and pulling down he intends to do.
At least we then will know about the achievements of this government that the media has been very clever in hiding.
Some might even believe they are worth keeping.
The public appears to have done a 180 degree on their support for the mining industry. 82% now-believe they do not pay enough tax.
Most will not object in not having to pay to have in connected.
I cannot see them taking the insulation out of their ceilings or selling their school halls and computer upgrades, along with libraries, science and language labs off.
Some might like keeping more of their child care fees, that are now paid as you pay.
I am sure the pensioners will want to keep their ill gotten gains under this toxic government.
Some elderly people might even appreciate the new age care in the pipeline.
Yes, there is much to demolish, but I am sure the man is up to it. this in spite of not being a boxer, but a slugger.
What has Mr. Abbott contributed to the community or community debate in the last couple of years.
What has he contributed to business and consumer confidence in this country,
He has done plenty to talk the economy down.
He is only happy when bad news is afoot. Good results appear to bring on anger and despondence in the man.
This man seem to believe he can only win by destroying his opponents.
I would not get too close to him in any race he participates in. It would just be too dangerous.
He clearly does not believe he can win, by proving he is better man.
THIS IS NO LONGER THE LAND OF THE FAIR GO.
Even so, Labor appears to be sticking to the rules and has not lowered themselves to play in the mire the Opposition seem to love.
Nas’, don’t let the bastards get you down. Let out the best bear roar you can and sharpen your claws. We’re in a fight to the death and it’s going to be Liealot’s if i can help it.
patricia, I didn’t hear what Thomson said, so I’m grateful for your comment. He definitely seems to be head and shoulders above Liealot, although even a snake wouldn’t find that too hard.
Pip @1.39pm, roflmao!!!
.
No, CU, you’re a very good judge of character, imo. I’d trust your judgement any day of the week.
Slipper has made his decision for all the right and principled reasons. He has the best interests of government at heart, unlike the power crazy Liars Party, or should I say the obsessive pursuit of power by one MP.
An MP who has absolutely no regard whatever for Parliament, government, truth, integrity, honesty, the law, or the country. He cares only for his own agrandisement.
Between now and May 8, Abbott and the Coalition can only ponder what will be said
“when the House resumes its sitting on 8 May,I will make a short statement to the house and then invite the Deputy Speaker to take the chair as Deputy Speaker,” he said.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/ /political-news/a-line-has-been-crossed-gillard-acts-on-thomson-and-slipper-20120429-1xsiz.html#ixzz1tP2xAofg
Interesting is that Xenophon has remained aloof from it – interesting because it’s he who has done the hard yards before Wilkie came into the room.
On a different issue..this is where Xenophon is, in Malaysia. I was pleased to note the following..
http://www.smh.com.au/national/xenophon-caught-in-malaysia-protests-20120429-1xsjb.html#ixzz1tP4CO5A9
It’s only a footnote, but at least it’s acknowledgment that is wasn’t as the opposition prefer to put it..the government’s “failed plan”, but that it was the High Court who scuttled it.
Migs wrote: Nas, I think it depresses a lot of us. Abbott and the Murdoch media have been very successful in introducing American style politics into Oz.
I would agree with that Migs.
But I also blame the likes of the Liberal supporting think tanks and their over-the-top libertarian views not unlike Ayn Rand…
the Packers…Kerry Packer pushed for more corporate sports, gambling and brought the American motivational speaker stuff here fullbore…
…the shock jocks…acting like Rush Limbaugh…
…and some of the companies who kowtowed to or sold out to American predators…that includes Telstra.
Our finely balanced social cum liberal democracy is being undermined by this American style rampant capitalism, corporate profiteering, political celebrities putting opportunism over principles, all the way with money money money …topped with libertarian aspiring nonsense.
If Abbott has his way, no politician in this country will have any power to represent the people…any who try will be set-up, framed by people working for special interests…and forced to step aside from desicion-making processes.
It’s enuff that some already fear the power of the media…or owe favours to big companies etc.
Look at how paralysed and ineffective the American government has become…almost paralysed…infiltrated by special interests and corporate aristocracy at all levels.
Abbott, Murdoch, Jones, Howard, the think tanks, evangelicals…certain influential corporate characters…and a number of other scumbags have managed to put this country on the road to nowhere.
The same road America is taking.
We need drivers who can take us elsewhere…
I know Gillard and Obama are trying…but I reckon Gillard is too damaged now. Sadly. And Obama is too oft caged by the scumbags who sabotage and take his own party down the wrong road.
N’
Sadly Archiearchive hasn’t got much to add to the rumor mill he referred to above, which I thought was a pity cos I’d love to be able to start a limericks thread here at the Cafe on that and related topics. As well, his limerick is great and crying out for more to follow.
Mind you, Limericks are rhymes, i.e. poetry, so poetic license is possible. And we needn’t wait for any facts before launching into print.
Very simple rules, people. Five lines, AABBA rhymes. Lines 1,2, 5, have 7-10 syllables, Lines 3,4 have 5-7 syllables. Easy peasy, eh? Here’s one –
A pollie minder, Ms Credlin,
Was warned by his wife to stop meddlin
In their family life
Or she’d soon be in strife
And him on his bike, told to keep peddlin.
Sorry we are now seeing the video of Mr. Abbott. That is good, as the audio made him sound dreadful. Video is little better.
Repeating the allegations at this time is not good form. Especially when he is putting the emphasis on prostitution etc.
I see it as being about Mr. Abbott’s judgement and character. One who has no respect for the parliament and legal system in this country.
No vision for Australia. What is Mr. Abbott vision.
No Mr. Abbot I yearn and believe deserve our politics to be taken back to a better time.
I do not like the mire that you have created in the political arena.
It is still better to let the judicial processes to take their course.
The only thing Mr. Abbott, doing is in destroying this government and you are willing to do whatever it takes, no matter how many lies need to be told, no matter who it destroys.
Mr. Abbott, all you have to do is wait,
The decision made today was between two conflicting principals, that had to be resolved. The PM is still strong in her belief that one is entitled to the Presumption of innocence.
The PM is also beholden to the upholding of the good name of the parliament.
Today’s decision has been made in that light.
Who has crossed the line that The PM mentioned. It does not take much imagination to name the media and the Opposition.
The Murdoch media in particular, with the ABC, which today does not seem to have a mind of their own, close behind.
Anyway,
I’m quite willing to support the government even if Gillard stays.
At least she hasn’t sucked up Murdoch’s butt…like others have.
And it’s obvious Abbott is Murdoch’s boy.
N’
particiawa
my attempt
Me mate is called Peter Slipper
His deeds are quite a ripper
But mateship be damned
My ascension has been planned
Theres no room for ya mate in this Abbott led snicker
Patricia, I have a suspicion the wife does not care much.
“At least she hasn’t sucked up Murdoch’s butt…like others have.”
Maybe that is the root of all the bad media the PM is getting.
The PM should be allowed to survive, if for no other reason.
David Marr.
Insiders.
Mr Abetz was told that there were serious concerns re Mr. Slipper in 2003.
Reaction was to prepare a serious issue paper.
They then renominate him a further seven times. Faceless men would not allow him to be removed. Come on now, over nine years.
On the nose for nearly thirty years.
Has there been one proven allegation. I believe not.
Him seated on a throne, wearing a crown and a blue train trimmed with ermine.
I won’t go into the tyoe of throne best suited to him. Suffice it to say, ther’s no door and it faces a paddock with plenty of reading material.
Nas’ Gillard hasn’t betrayed the country or us. Her political judgement is sound. Try to think of the msm reaction if Liealot had the ‘nads to do what she has done.
That’s what keeps me going: She’s beng crucified because she’s a woman who has dared to aspire to the highest office in the land and an ALP woman at that!
So, come what may, we KNOW that what she’s doing is right and what’s best for the country, otherwise the msm wouldn’t be sinking the slippper. (No pun intended)
And if we lose, we know she gave it a red hot go AND succeeded, despite the naysayers, muck rakers and the barrackers.
Sharpen your claws and lift up that fine bear’s head. NOTHING can beat a bear when his blood is up!
Maybe we should be listening to Mr. Oakeshott.
He is questioning the evidence given by Mr. Ashby. Maybe I should say lack of it.
He mentioned, which I have said in the past, there does not seem to have been any reconciliation occur.
.
Cu and “That is good, as the audio made him sound dreadful.”
Much is made of Julia’s good old Aussie drawl, but who can listen to Tony..the shrillness makes me want to reach for the mute button.
Don’t be too shocked CU but the Insiders returns to the big issue;
What the PM wore to Gallipolli
Yes ho hum, someone likened her to Paddington Bear, don’t worry they have pictures side by side.
Yes all those people who actually respond to Anzaac Day will be impressed that the press cannot show any respect for the PM of Australia at Gallipolli for Anzaac Day Services.
Jane wrote: Gillard hasn’t betrayed the country or us.
Jane,
I do think she loves this country for its uniqueness and will do anything to preserve that.
Like me, Gillard has originated elsewhere…but come to respect this good country for its ability to produce past leaders who have provided opportunities for ALL rather than just THE FEW.
That includes affordable education, healthcare and childcare…and communication and energy networks that reach out to even the remotest places.
I also luv the laidback approach…not so intense as America…well, at least until the likes of Packer, Murdoch, Howard, Abbott, Jones and many other anally retentive, overly ambitious, AmeriKorp and Republican butt sucking workaholics got their paws on this country and gradually moulded it into a partial clone of corporate America.
N’
And now he’s on the crossbenches Craig Thomson will have to watch out. If he’s seen so much as making a right turn in traffic Abbott will be all over him, telling him he’s not such a bad fella at all, really, & perhaps Craig might like to vote for him?
nasking, how can you say that about the PM. The common belief, according to the media, is that she has no vision for the country.
And the inference is, if she has, she cannot communicate the fact.
Now I listened very careful to the PM this morning. What I heard does not seem to be what the media is talking about.
Abbott and his light on the hill joke appears to say a lot about his character and lack of ethics.
What vision has Mr. Abbott have for this country.
Bob, having been done over I doubt that Craig Thomson would spare the time to spit on Abbott’s boots.
The worse voice in parliament has to be Mr. Pyne. For someone educated in some of our considered best schools, it is shocking.
David Marr, Insiders.
“When in the history of this country has so much of political importance depended on so much squalor.
When has we been actually swilling around in the sewer to this extent in Australia politics.”
@ CU – Tony Abbott does so have a vision. It involves the door of the lodge closing with him on the inside. Although his ability to run the country lacks credlinability. There is a distinct divide between what Abbott says he wants for Australia (or doesn’t want) and what will be revealeed as his policies after the next election.
‘Code for throwing the environment to the wolves!’
Oddly I see it differently, its what they call ‘rationalisation’. The idea is to cut the green tape and make environmental protection more efficient by sacking a swag of public servants.
Once the states take the CC/renewable energy guff out of the mix… it frees up a lot of money for the environment.
I mentioned earlier the Murray Mouth and how the government could save $10 billion.
El gordo and “The idea is to cut the green tape and make environmental protection more efficient by sacking a swag of public servants.”
And which ones do you envisage sacking? Perhaps the home help for disabled people..go on, tell us which ones you would like sacked.
The environment is helped by sacking “a swag of” public servants..I don’t quite get the logic there..
Nothing odd about that, el gordo.
Catching up wrote: Abbott and his light on the hill joke appears to say a lot about his character and lack of ethics.
Cu,
That was low even for Abbott.
I don’t remember any LIGHT when he was healthcare minister…just penny-pinching.
As for Marr,
didn’t he write a book about how terrible the Howard years were?
Ahhh yes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Victory_(book)
and this essay:
His Master’s Voice: The Corruption of Public Debate under Howard in the Quarterly Essay, Issue 26
N’
Sue @4.14pm, what an utter disgrace and complete disrespect for Anzac Day, which the barrackes are constantly telling us they respect more than anybody in the whole world and the universe and everythink.
What a smack in the face to every serviceman who has been sent to a conflict.
Have these people no sense of decency? They certainly have absolutely no shame or ethics.
Nas, Dark Victory made compelling reading. Anybody who read that book would find it difficult to vote for the Coalition, ever.
Jane
And the ABC, giggle, giggle, thought it appropriate to show on national tv. I hadn’t heard of it till then, but then again the PM’s wardrobe isn’t as important to me as Age care Reform, NDIS, ehealth, NBN,education, housing, you know those issues that people without vision seem to do something about.
Did you know Jane that Peter Hartcher claims Gillard is not a proper PM ’cause she has no vision.
And you may have read that Barrel O ‘Lies has stopped a federal program aimed at low cost housing. It was a small article in saturday’s SMH, but who really cares about affordable housing, especially if the Federal govt could get some kudos.
What O’Farrell has done is to change assistance for bonds to low income earners from a subsidiary to a loan.
A loan that most that qualify will have big problems repaying ,interest free or not.
Would love to know the cost of administering the new scheme.
CU
I was referring to this story
http://smh.domain.com.au/real-estate-news/state-review-stalls-federal-affordable-homes-scheme-20120427-1xq4k.html
‘And which ones do you envisage sacking?’
For starters… the bureaucrats associated with the MDB and Klimatariat.
El gordo, so you want to sack scientists…but wait, you didn’t say that, you want to sack “the bureaucrats” the office staff, or do you mean the people on the ground gathering data. You’re going to have to be far more specific.
Most of the scientists on the ground and the department of climate change can all be sacked, returning the CSIRO to its original status.
All the bureaucrats and scientists involved with the MDB can also be done away with.
Sue,I did not see that one. The rental one is truly shocking. Even with assistance with bonds,most of these low income earners have difficulty paying the rent.
They just have no idea.
Sue, they do not keep the promises they sign up to. They are quite happy to take advantage of another successful Stimulus programme.
El gordo and “Most of the scientists on the ground and the department of climate change can all be sacked, returning the CSIRO to its original status.”
But isn’t that what the CSIRO is all about, it’s about scientific research, therefore how would sacking all scientists achieve your goal.
el gordo, you need that data to be continued to be collected, to prove you are correct.
Climate Change or not renewal energy is industry of the future, We need to be a apart of that industry,
There are many other good arguments to go down this track, whether CC is true or not.
Yes, renewable is more expensive to set up. Once set up, it is much cheaper to maintain.
It is to the benefit of any nation not to rely on fossil fuel.
Anyway, if the whole lot were closed down, including the CSIRO, there would not be much of a saving. They cost a minute part of the budget. The savings would hardly register.
CU
that is what is so annoying about the msm, they run,run,run after smut and snickering. forget how destrucitive the liberals are once in power.
I’m just trying to visualise the CSIRO without scientists..are you wanting just tea ladies and someone to sweep the empty offices.
I suppose the next attack on gillard will be that she worked on a sunday. how dare she make decisions on a sunday that will affect the stories we, the msm, had lined up for monday. and poor tony he had to be found to make a statement, you know he has been working non stop, at least he should have a day off.
still we, the msm can go with a few ol faithfuls. Govt in Crisis, Last chance for Gillard, How the numbers stack up, An illegitmate govt
Min
tea ladies?
The Chameleons – View from a Hill
I was just SBS news, which is probably one of the better news.
It amazes me that no matter what the PM does, everybody knows why she does it. They all know what she is thinking.
The one thing is that the PM is never given credit for what she says she is doing and thinking. That is automatically ignored.
Maybe the PM today is doing and does think what she clearly said she did.
Maybe the PM does mean it when she said and still says, that one is entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Maybe the PM does still support both men’s right to remain in Parliament unless convicted by the courts, not the media or Opposition.
Owing to the media and Opposition campaign that she has no other option but to ask the men to stand aside.
Maybe the driver for today’s action may not be the polls. Maybe the PM does not waste much time on what she cannot change, that is the polls.
Maybe the PM is focused on doing the best she can, and hope that the polls change.
Maybe what drives the PM is doing the nest she can, and what is right.
Now that is indeed a funny notion I know.
CU
I thought the PM just tipped a whole bucket of cold water over the feverish, fitting abbott and msm talking heads.
I read something this morning, but got waylaid with today’s breaking news.
It was a comment that the incomes of the wealthy in the UK are growing.
Of course the incomes of the rest are still disappearing.
No matter what, the wealthy, like the poor are always with us.
Cannot remember were I read it.
Australia Story tomorrow. Something about Clive. We cannot say that the ABC is not doing it’s part.
Gina, now Clive.
Chris Uhlmann. All about survival. Could not be about doing the right thing.
Sue, watching the ABC news. The bucket of cold water has not worked.
Mr. Abbott is right, there is a crisis. Problem for Mr. Abbott. it is of his making.
Mr. Ulhmann is gloating. We are getting a rerun of all the PM’s crisis for the year.
@Patriciawa – your rules about limericks were excellent although they missed one important point – the rhythm – it is anapestic – as is shown in this “perfect limerick” written by moi but based on an old prose joke. It shows where the accents need to be for it to “sing”.
That SHIRT looks beCOMing on YOU
BeCOMing inDEED is the VIEW
But, IF, like your VEST
‘Twas I on your CHEST,
I’d CERtainly BE coming TOO!
As far as extra syllables, it is possible to have one or two unaccented syllables at the beginning and/or end of a line – but it should be a repeating pattern through out the limerick. Something like I did in the first two lines of my “Peter Slipper” limerick – although I stuffed up the last line.
And there should always be something at least a little naughty in a limerick 🙂
Oops – now I’ve gone all schoolteacherish. Sorry about that 😉
Noticed they could not get anyone on the Central Coast to call for an new election. The spoke in a general ,,manner when they said we are not getting honesty from MPs.
‘But isn’t that what the CSIRO is all about, it’s about scientific research, therefore how would sacking all scientists achieve your goal.’
The CSIRO should be separated from the Department of Climate Change because this lot will have to go.
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/
I just had the biggest laugh all day. There was Can Do Campbell on the tele in response to the shooting in a shopping mall..
It went somthing like this………
The labor govt that was soft on crime ……….
Grow up Can do that was really P!!s Weak
‘Climate Change or not renewal energy is industry of the future, We need to be a apart of that industry…’
No, it can’t carry base load and now that they have discovered coal seam gas the renewable industry will collapse once subsidies are withdrawn.
This is the future.
el gordo get up to date. That is just not true.
Not even for solar.
There are many renewals. Combinations can be used.
There are cheap ways of storing electricity.
Base loads can be met,
“it’s about scientific research,”
and what they are doing is not scientific.
el gordo, you and I live in a different reality.
Hi Sue, Just in. Loved your limerick! Pretty good off the cuff. We don’t seem to have any more takers though. Shame. Maybe another time.
insiders were appalling today, I thought, particularly those comments on the PM’s Paddington Bear look from Cassidy. I agree with you and Pip about the disrespect for the occasion, the ANZACS and our Turkish hosts. And how dare David Marr suggest that the stench and squalor he complained of was somehow the the government’s responsponsibility. There are just two confected scandals and both are being continuously whipped up by Abbott and the media.
Patricia, I shake my head in disbelief at all the pathetic excuses the media come up with to hang something on Julia Gillard.
No, it can’t carry base load
How often can one person be wrong?
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1593
Looks like ltdnews got the message from rupe OK
“‘KICK THEM OUT’: Voters sick of Labor’s desperate power games”
front page on news.com right now
Tom, inflamatory language to encourage the ousting of a duly elected government..is Rupert recommending a coup d’état.
There are days I feel incredibly sad when I think back on some past events…I was just reading thru The Monthly and came upon these past articles:
A Coup By Any Other Name: Kevin Rudd
Rhys Muldoon
http://www.themonthly.com.au/kevin-rudd-coup-any-other-name-rhys-muldoon-4668
And:
The Long Goodbye: Explaining Gillard’s Collapse
Robert Manne
http://www.themonthly.com.au/blog-long-goodbye-explaining-gillard-s-collapse-robert-manne-4815
I got to thinking about what a brilliant team Rudd & Gillard were during the 07 election…how well they seemed to get along…a breath of fresh air compared to the stale and ongoing cock fights between Howard & Costello…
a couple of Laborites demonstrating passion and offering up a return to the “fair-go-for-all” and “accountable” approach to governing that had been lost under a divisive, sneaky, uninspiring, too oft bullying, union-hating, boss loving, nonprogressive administration…
where “core” and “non-core promises” left the bad taste of BS…and trust came down to people trusting that Howard would find some issue to fear-monger over in the runup to an election…whilst house prices and interest rates soared…workers grew increasingly enslaved to the banks and their multiple jobs…shareholders and owners of businesses profited handsomely from middle class welfare and “choice” policies…money flooded upwards…and environmental protection too oft played second fiddle to business interests.
How I wish we could go back in a time machine…the present Rudd & Gillard be provided with an opportunity to inform their former selves of what was to come…
perhaps Rudd would’ve got more sleep…been more open to cabinet ideas and discussions…less anally retentive and more cautious in his approach to the insulation rollout…less dismissive of The Greens when it came to the ETS…more interested in media inquiries…taken a bolder and more Humanitarian approach to asylum seekers…prepared the path more carefully to a mining tax…
perhaps Julia Gillard wouldn’t have felt compelled to convince Ruddy to drop the ETS…nor eventually make an agreement with big miners to axe Ruddy…but rather help him to create the foundations from which a mining tax proposal could be launched.
Who knows?
But it really depresses me to think back on the 2010 election…the accusations, the stumbles…
and the recent battle between the Rudd and Gillard camps…so much pain and anguish…good people divided up into opposing camps…virtually tearing each other’s throats out…
whilst the sh*t stirring Murdoch empire minions and their copycats worked their wooden spoons…larfed inwardly so hard…KERCHING KERCHING
Frankly, I don’t know who to support anymore…Gillard? Rudd? Combet? Shorten?
All good people wanting the best for the Australian people…finding different ways to ensure that Tony Abbott and his bunch of BA Santamaria cum One Nation actalike clowns don’t get their nonprogressive, ever-pontificating, mining tax hating, BULLY BOSS apologist, antiquated hands on government…
in the process these good Laborites have confused the hell outa the public…including yers truly.
So I guess I’ll go for now with the present leader, Julia Gillard, because she doesn’t seem to kowtow to Murdoch…takes guts to standup to that old bully and his minions…
Furthermore,
Gillard has the support of the Independents…well, most of them…most of the time…and the bulk of her caucus.
And the lady has been able with the help of a few useful tacticians been able to get plenty of useful bills thru parliament.
If only the public…and the media could see this.
Gillard didn’t take us into that grotesque debacle the Iraq War. She didn’t do a Tampa. She didn’t hit us with a GST. Nor selloff Telstra yet leave the copper wires in its hands. Nor did she use troops to invade Aboriginal areas. Or make promises about interest rates.
Yes, she’s bringing in a carbon price. And has done what seems like a few grubby deals to hold onto power…but isn’t that what strong, determined politicians do ensure their party survives…delivers the goods?
Howard was certainly no “As pure as the driven snow” politician…nor his mate Abbott.
Yet Howard’s lot won time and time again without howls of protest from the bulk of the media and public.
Double standards for a female PM perhaps?
Perhaps Australia really hasn’t grown up yet…perhaps it does deserve leaders with antiquated, backward-looking views…to be controlled by media moguls…and religious zealots…
who do the thinking for the people.
N’
When governments let the Murdoch empire do the thinking for them:
Hunt should face ‘immediate’ inquiry, says former Whitehall standards adviser
Jeremy Hunt should face an “immediate” inquiry into whether he broke ministerial rules in his dealings with the Murdoch empire, a former Whitehall standards adviser has said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9235362/Hunt-should-face-immediate-inquiry-says-former-Whitehall-standards-adviser.html
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