Media Watch XXI

We all know just how manipulative, dishonest, sensationalist, gutless, unfair and unbalanced is the media in this country. If, like me, you believe they need to be held accountable for the gross display of injustice they push down the throats of the Australian public then this is the thread in which to voice your opinion.

I intend to keep the Media Watch threads open indefinitely. If anyone sees an example of their lies in action then we’d like to learn about it. We will document everything we can and spread the message as far as we can.

The Media Watch pages are archived after 400 comments (or thereabouts), as beyond that they can be slow to open if accessed by some mobile phones.

 

247 comments on “Media Watch XXI”

  2. Of course this is acceptable in a civil society. Who is the one that has mental problems. Suggest not Mr.Rudd.

  3. Just a heads up. Read a piece that said the Liberals have paid hundreds of young astroturfers as right wing zombie trolls to flood the social media with pro-Liberal and anti-Labor rants.

    If the regular right wing zombie trolls here are doing it for nothing then you are being ripped off, but that’s not surprising, ripping off people, especially their supporters, is the Libs forte.

  5. ltdnews is fighting valiantly to kill of the anti NBN theme finally being recognised

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/nbn-is-good-for-business-foxtel-unpicks-pms-conspiracy-theory/story-fn9qr68y-1226693893994

    Yesterday, both Telstra chief executive David Thodey and Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein declared the high-speed broadband network good for business, saying it would help, not harm company prospects.

    “The critical thing for Foxtel is to get access to more homes to be able to sell the Foxtel service,” Mr Thodey said. “Anything that helps us do that is good news and so the NBN, in that sense, is helpful.”

    But read between the lines. Which NBN? Of course they would like to get Foxtel everywhere. But, under the coalitions plan, the infrastructure being leveraged for the vast majority will be Foxtels/murdochs. He will own that. Making it much easier to monopolies his Foxtel business over any new players. Labors means his infrastructure (which is vastly inferior to fibre) is bypassed, and a completely open, and far fairer, competitive field arises. No wonder Murdoch hates it.

    The article also mentions Foxtels own IPTV services, as if them branching into what other players are already doing as ’embracing’, rather than just competing.

    I’m sure Foxtel will appreciate anything that can help them get content to viewers faster. But, I’m also sure, balanced against losing their monopoly against a truly open competitive field, they will choose monopoly any day.

    Their years of totally unbalanced and parochial articles that misrepresent and outright lie about Labors proposal are a testament to how much they really don’t want Labors solution. The libs policy does suit them much better, not just because, as I mentioned, they will own a large proportion of the infrastructure, but also because, any new infrastructure will suit their current delivery model rather than any of their competitors.

    Mr Freudenstein said “a world with NBN makes it easier for us”

    That one is difficult not to call an out and out lie. I don’t see how anyone in a business environment can argue that bypassing an infrastructure that it has invested heavily into, and guarantees them a monopoly control, can make it ‘easier’ for them.

    Labor should ramp this up, because if this is the best defense ltdnews can come up with, they have lost already.

  6. hundreds of young astroturfers as right wing zombie trolls to flood the social media?

    Oh Really ME? Name one!

  11. Just like the Liberal Postal Vote forms that appear to be from the electoral office and ask you to fill in lots of personal details including giving your signature and post them back in a supplied reply paid envelope that has Postal Vote Centre but is actually a State Liberal Party office.

    Or who can forget the scam racist leaflets being distributed under the official Labor logo that were produced by a Liberal candidate’s husband.

    Or Clarke’s blank ballot paper scams to stack the Liberal party with the extreme religious right in NSW.

    And it goes on.

  14. Yes Bacchus, gotta love the Liberal supporters who have been brainwashed into believing the party they mindlessly support is holier than though when in fact it is as bad or worse than the other parties they can.

    At least most of the Labor supporters I know criticise it when it’s deserved, and that indeed has been a criticism levelled against the left that they are so willing to jump on their own side whereas the right have to be almost tortured to level even minor faults at the Liberals, and even then they underplay it.

  15. Exactly Mö – that first link was especially worthy of a 😯

    Catholic politician defends political party branch-stacking

    NSW Liberal MLC David Clarke, an Opus Dei Catholic, has said it is the responsibility of Christians to involve themselves in politics, and it’s natural that political party branch officials will seek new members among their friends.

    Mr Clark, who spoke with the ABC’s Religion Report yesterday, was described as the “convenor of a rapidly-expanding new Christian conservative wing of the New South Wales Liberal party”.

    The ABC linked Mr Clark’s involvement with an Opus Dei “stacking” of the Randwick-Coogee branch of the Young Liberals, which has 21 of its 88 members giving their address as Opus Dei’s Warrane College.

  16. lol, just saw the oo’s spin on the poster swap story I linked to above

    Fairfax journo replaced our man’s poster with Pyne’s: ALP

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/fairfax-journo-replaced-our-mans-poster-with-pynes-alp/story-fn9qr68y-1226693867897

    Well, actually, I don’t know if the ALP accused a fairfax journo, all we have in the story is

    LABOR has lodged a police complaint in South Australia after a woman alleged to be a Fairfax Media journalist was seen cutting down posters of its candidate for Sturt and replacing them with Liberal signs.

    So, although it appears in the heading that the ALP are claiming that they are charging a fairfax journo, they are in fact just charging a person who’s employment isn’t confirmed by anyone. Yet the headline ….

    They can’t do just facts, can they (unless it is just an APP copy paste)

  17. I’m yet to see ALP logo on one campaign poster anywhere, except on inyafacerudd.. R the ALP candidates ashamed to be associated with the ALP brand or are they trying to dupe voters by not declaring which party they represent. Some have even adopted the LNP blue background to deceive voters. Shame on the ALP candidates. No wonder they’ll be smashed on Sept 7th. Huge party in my street on Sept 7th…oh and 8th, 9th, 10th 11th >>>>>>>>>>>in fact for 6 to 9 years…hehehehehehe! labor @$4.50 LNP @ $1.20.

  22. Does he seem a little hysterical?

    little ❓

    I am seeing libs everywhere losing the plot. And yet, they are still favoured to win. Imagine if they actually lost. Worth it just for that

  23. Have a great weekend. Its 24 degree here and the beach beckons, followed by a cold beer. Sunday forecast 27 deg. I love fairfax.

  25. All Newspapers had a shocking quarter with not a single one picking up paid sales. They declined over 11% year on year in the quarter after it looked like they might buck the US trend of significant decline.


    Things look grim for Murdoch print wise so no wonder he sent Col Pot and wants Abbott in so desperately. A gormless puppet like Abbott as PM under his control is a licence for Murdoch to print money at the cost of ordinary Australians.

  26. As an example of just how manipulative, dishonest, sensationalist, gutless, unfair and unbalanced is the media in this country, Cookinggate takes some beating. Yesterday the press running some subtle interference for an Abbott more concerned with getting in another photo op than a briefing on Syria. Not quite getting around to mentioning he’d not been too interested until someone with a brain told him to be.
    And today twisting it all to accuse Rudd of pretty much exactly what they know Abbott to be guilty of. I hate their self satisfied smugness.

  28. But it fools those on the right Bob, who take their every word as utter gospel only because it confirms their bias, a bias they can’t elucidate or give sound reasoning for off their own backs.

  30. One thing that I would like to know is how is it that the makeup lady, who according to Media Watch enabled no less than 6 negative articles to be written about Kevin Rudd just so happened to be a Facebook friend of someone from the Murdoch press. After all, if you are not a FB buddy how do you know what a person has written?

  31. The power of social media Min

    I actually saw Latika tweet a snapshot of the page hours before ltdnews took off with it, posing a ‘question’ about “would this get tabots loss out of the news”

    It looked to me like she was pushing it that way, but I’m biased 😉

  32. “Insiders” today started discussing the extent of Krudd’s destabilizing and damaging leaks over the last three years.
    He’s not the messiah, he’s not even a “clever” politician.
    The ALP have just pissed away government for at least two terms, the consolation prize is that the MSM will continue its decline and social media will continue to ascend.

  33. Insiders today, Joel Fitzgibbon announced (between the lines) that Krudd wants to have another go at being PM.
    When is the Labor party going to jettison these pricks?

  36. Rupert Murdoch ‏@rupertmurdoch 7 Sep

    Aust election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy.Others nations to follow in time
    Expand

  37. Unbelievable.

    The Australian has describes its lies about the IPCC report, you know the one a right wing climate change denier here mentioned as evidence for no AGW, as an error in its production process.

    No Ltd News, as usual you out and out lied but were caught out, only this time you had to publish a correction and clarification otherwise you would have had your arse sued off. It was not a error in the production process you corrupt bunch of Murdoch toadies.

    yajustgottalaughattheclowns

  38. as an error in its production process.

    At least they admit that their churnalism is a production process, and not an intellectual pursuit 😉

  42. If you want any proof of Abbott’s dictatorial type rule and control of the media, thus quashing the free speech he went on so much about in opposition, then this is it.

    Abbott has hired Ch7 Cameraman Josh Wilson, at tax payers expense mind you, so only footage of Abbott that he allows can be distributed to media vetted by an expanding PM Office.

    First and most important the undermining of democracy by Abbott continues apace, but for some unfathomable reason the right wingers who cried so much about Labor apparently stifling free speech have no problems with Abbott doing much worse. Why?

    Secondly just as Abbott was the most expensive LOTO in our history, costing more than the PM at the time in many areas, he is by far already turning out to be the most expensive PM ever, and most of that expense so far is in his personal PR management and spin.

    Where is the right winger outrage over this. If it had been a Labor PM they would have been up in arms demanding their resignation?

    Of course this is no surprise to us here, so far it’s almost to a tee what we predicted for Abbott as a PM and how terrible he would be, but what is a surprise is how silent the right wingers have gone on Abbott, shifting nearly their entire attack onto Labor past and present and acting as though Abbott and this woeful government doesn’t exist.

  43. From News.com.

    PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has ignored reporters seeking information on up to 90 deaths after an asylum boat sank off the coast of Indonesia last night.

    That Abbott is engaging in secrecy and denying the public information he screamed out when in opposition is well known to us but I want to highlight the other change in Ltd News since Abbott got into power.

    Every one of their articles on Abbott I have read so far fully spells out Abbott’s title and name.

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott

    The hypocrisy couldn’t be starker in comparison to how they paid no respect to either the office or person holding it under Labor, especially for Gillard.

  44. Shorten on ABC Insiders today making excuses for Abbott, Bandis and the very poor performance of the Liberal Government.
    Bill you don’t need to throw the Abbott government a lifeline, that’s the ABC’s job.

  45. Indonesian media have reported that Abbott turned up ten minutes late to an official dinner. Well at least he is consistent with the message that HIS time is more important than anyone else’s.

    What an embarrassment this guy is to Australia.

  46. Meanwhile dead media walking over at Fairfax with another 25 redundancies at the AFR business media unit.
    Oh dear, never mind, what a shame.
    Guess this means they will have to source more stories from Women’s Mags

  47. Abbott turned up late for another international meeting this time APEC hosted by SBY.
    SBY started without him. Another cringeworthy effort by the man who would be PM.
    As Nicola Roxon would say ‘You could have been on time if you wanted too’

  48. What is with tongue flicking Abbott that he has trouble turning up on time for important events, whether it’s here in Australia and now on the international stage?

    He has no trouble turning up on time for personal events he has wrongly claimed expenses for though.

  50. learning his lines

    Surely “Stop the Boats, Stop the Carbon Tax” isn’t too hard to wrap ya head around, is it?

    Of course, there is a new one he has learnt to say that his election promises were ‘misunderstandings’ 😯

    He’s basically opened up ‘core’ and ‘non-core’ to voters ‘misunderstanding’ what he says ❓

  51. Abbott at APEC talking to the Chinese president read from notes, having to look down several times, often flicking his tongue out. Xi Jinping spoke off the bat.

    If anyone can get or see the footage there’s a classic of Abbott sitting there looking dumbfounded trying to figure out the electronic translator. Everyone else has theirs on.

  53. Yes, we must be ever vigilant and we must be involved. We have no choice.

    ……………I encourage people who complain to me about the state of the political news
    media to complain to the newspapers, radio and tv stations or the Australian

    Press Council, the Australian Communications and Media Authority or the
    Free TV organisation. I have provided a web site (Truth in News Media) that
    is a resource centre for people who want to see improvements in our news
    media.

    If you think political news media stinks and politics sucks, you won’t
    improve the situation by going out of your way to avoid it. You will only
    bring about change by getting involved.

    You can listen to a recent (29 September, 2013) ABC Radio National
    Background Briefing report by Di Martin on The Narrowing of Politics, read
    the transcript or download the MP3 audio file. The program deals with some
    aspects of our present malaise and includes the opinions of politicians from
    the Left, the Right and the Independent centre………….

    http://thesnipertakesaim.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/cleaning-up-political-corruption/

  54. If one wants a reasonable report on what is occurring each day. Newsline, about midday, on ABC 24 is one of the better programmes.

  55. Is it paranoia, that all of these multitudes of rorting examples have come to light AFTER the election, yet the story about Gillard voluntarily repaying her partners claims were released just BEFORE the election.

    Coincidence has much to answer for it would seem.

  57. Anthony Hopkins got the role of Hannibal Lector on the basis of his parody of PM Rupert Murdoch in a play he wrote.

    Though going on Abbott’s creepy tongue thing he could equally have got the Hannibal Lector role on parodying Abbott. I can imagine Abbott thinking, “fava beans and a nice chianti” when he was doing the tongue thing and creepy look behind Abe.

  58. That tongue is sure a worry. One must wonder where it has been.
    So are the blank and confused looks that are becoming more prevalent.

  59. It’s the Murdoch media who are suppressing freedom of speech yet accuse other media outlets of doing it. This is as true for Australia as it is for the UK.

    But in this case the world’s media has turned on Murdoch. I can only hope they do so in Australia. Abbott would be fucked if this happened here.

    Editors on the NSA files: ‘What the Guardian is doing is important for democracy’
    On Thursday the Daily Mail described the Guardian as ‘The paper that helps Britain’s enemies’. We showed that article to many of the world’s leading editors. This is what they said

  60. An illustration of the media’s duplicity in assisting Abbott.

    When Abbott was in opposition knocking back everything left right and centre, even Liberal policies accepted by the Labor government, the media would say Abbott was putting pressure on Gillard or Rudd.

    Now Abbott is in power and he’s told Labor they are to support his carbon tax repeal legislation the media are saying Abbott is putting pressure on Shorten, even though it has been Shorten who was the one who laid down the law to Abbott.

    Then there is Abbott’s hypocrisy in his action to repeal the carbon tax.

    When in opposition he said he would only support a carbon price and ETS if the rest of the world went that way, even through he lied and said Australia was the only one and lied again when he said the rest of the world was moving to DAP schemes.

    So his intimation was that he would only follow if the rest of the world went first, and now the rest of the world is moving towards carbon pricing and trading schemes.

    Yet Abbott is the first and only world leader going the opposite way and dismantling an emissions price or cap and trade on carbon. So in opposition he would on follow if other countries led, no in government he is leading whilst other countries go the other way leaving him behind.

  61. Great insights as always Mobius. A pleasure to read what you have to say. Have you considered writing some feature pieces for the Cafe or AIMN?

  62. Axing carbon tax won’t cut power bills for two years, industry says
    Electricity retailers cast doubt on Coalition claim that families would be $550 a year better off………..

    Axing carbon tax won’t cut power bills for two years, industry says
    Electricity retailers cast doubt on Coalition claim that families would be $550 a year better off

    Do not believe this is all over saving $10 per week, per family.

    Some toxic tax, is it not.

  63. “………………….Governments come and go, but the press gallery has sunk its credibility into the success of the Abbott government. If that government is manifestly unsuccessful, where does it leave them? Do they report that the emperor has no clothes, or witter about ‘context’? What if they complain to the Speaker about a breach of privilege and she tells them where to go? The next government could well come to office over the dead body of the press gallery, bobbing lifelessly in the Arafura Sea after having searched for evidence that Tony Abbott’s policies are tracking just fine and that our nation enjoys warm relations across the world as a result of his – and their – fine work.

    Abbott wasn’t too much of a lightweight to become Prime Minister, but he is too much of a lightweight to stay in the job and do it well. No amount of soft-focus journalism will make up for that, and nor will any but the best sort of journalism recover the reputations of media organisations represented in the press gallery……………”

    http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/nothing-if-not-pragmatic.html

  65. An interesting thing – an hour or two ago, I was reading an ABC story (and the approx. 300 comments) and was going to link to it to make a point about the “honesty” we so often see from the lnp. in the “honest language” thread.

    The story concerned hunt’s (environment minister) condemnation of Adam Bandt’s linkage of the current fires to AGW.

    What surprised me, was that the majority of comments (and commenters) supported Bandt’s statements. Many were critical of the hypocrisy at the basis of hunt’s attack, while deniers and lnp apologists received little support.
    .
    However, upon returning to the ABC site, no trace of the story (or comments) was to be found.

    More evidence of their ABC at work?

  66. Social media is running on this;

    We need to talk about bushfires and climate change – if not now, when?
    Adam Bandt was rebuked for mentioning the elephant in the room but policymakers can no longer credibly look away

    And asking if now is not the time when is?

    An analogy is like being told not to talk about cigarettes when smokers are dying of lung cancer and it’s the head of the tobacco industry telling you not to talk about them.

    So the question is when can we talk about global warming if not in light of increasing extreme weather events and disasters, and on the back of a warming globe.

    Their answer of course is never. In the hiatus between extreme weather events they refuse to discuss it or ridicule it with nonsense, and during them they say now is not the time.

  67. From your link, Mobius

    environment minister Greg Hunt declined to be drawn – in part because he didn’t want to “politicise” the fires while they were still being fought.

    The now missing story quoted hunt as attacking Bandt directly in words such as (I paraphrase) how dare he (Bandt) politicise the tragedy by making the link between their ferocity and (unseasonable) existence with AGW.?
    History being rewritten as we watch?

  68. I read a comment at PB today which quite cleverly asked wtte “Did Howard politicise the Port Arthur massacre?”

    Words to reflect on imo.

  69. I believe that Howard if he did not politicize disasters, he milk them all for all they were worth.

    Seemed to be in his glory, at funerals.

    As for the gun laws, I also believe that Howard had no choice to bring the legislation in, he did. He could have went much further, and had public support.

    Disasters and tragedies seem to cement PMs in, in our society.

  70. …and so the Labor rat-fucking continues with Bruce Hawker ‘dobbing in’ Bill Shorten and Bob Carr for their early defection from Gillard to Krudd.

    Bruce Hawker has been involved in two disastrous Labor campaigns and should go back to the ABC Drum where he can continue to destabilise the party as a ‘Labor spokesman’

  71. We have been listening to statements that Shorten caves in to the left. We hear Labor caves into the Greens, and such every day.
    Why do we not hear, Abbott caves into big businesses. …into Gina. Which is the norm from our new government.

    I see that Hockey is racing off to cabinet with changes to taxation and other laws

    ………LAURA TINGLE Political editor
    Treasurer Joe Hockey will take to ­cabinet as early as this week a plan to ­proceed with or dump nearly 100 tax proposals dating back 12 years which have not been legislated, ranging from Labor’s fringe benefits tax on cars to changes to capital gains and trusts.

    The government sees clearing the decks on this legislation as another measure that will boost certainty for both business and individuals whose affairs may have been under a cloud pending legislation announced but not yet passed by federal Parliament.

    It plans a major announcement detailing its tax legislation, and the fate of the 97 proposals not enacted dating back to the Howard era, to be introduced into the new Parliament, which meets for the first time next week. The 97 proposals have been reviewed in recent weeks by Mr Hockey and Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos.

    Federal cabinet is set to consider the two ministers’ recommendations on the outstanding legislation as early as Monday.

    On the basis of their review, Mr Hockey and Senator Sinodinos have grouped the legislation into three classes for consideration by cabinet: those they are recommending should not proceed; others to proceed with amendments or further consultation; or measures to proceed as proposed.

    It is believed the recommendation to cabinet includes a surprise decision to dump a major piece of tax change.

    The bigge.”

    http://www.afr.com/p/national/politics/hockey_to_tackle_tax_law_backlog_N7iNTiU6fnNesqB49G0qQK

    So they are going to claw back any changes Labor has made, back to the days of Howard.

    Fact check just shown, Hockey’s reasons for raising the debt ceiling to such a high level is bull shit.

  73. Well what a delight. Morrison throws Abbott a ‘hospital pass’ and a totally pissed off media pack turned on Abbott. Abbott wanted to talk about “carbon tax” and the media ripped into him (about time).
    Abbott in desperation, donned the specs (guaranteed to lift his perceived IQ by 10 points according to his media managers). It was not enough.
    Mark today as the day Abbott lost it with the media.

  74. So now it has been suggested that dickhead donned the specs because he had to actually read briefing material (OMG). Someone (soon to be unemployed) forgot the muppet ear piece so he could be told what to say from Murdoch central.

  75. The Leader of the Opposition (whatever his name is) says that the Government is avoiding questions on boat arrivals. Wow!
    Now that’s what I call hard hitting opposition, how does that man come up with those insightful comments?
    Still it’s good that he is showing that he is not avoiding being an opposition leader.

  76. I noticed ‘what’s his name’ the leader of the opposition wearing a blue tie to the opening of parliament.
    I guess the strategic thinking is that he should project an ‘Abbott lite’ image.

  77. We have a new media player. Funded by Super funds. NO paywall.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au

    “Super site: Guthrie’s secret publication revealed
    e publication of former Age editor Bruce Guthrie has broken cover, with backing from superannuation firms. Crikey can reveal the details.

    Former Age and Herald Sun editor Bruce Guthrie is preparing to launch a new Melbourne-based news website named The New Daily, Crikey can reveal.

    The site is expected to have a mass-market, general-interest flavour with an emphasis on news rather than opinion..”

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/11/09/super-site-guthries-secret-publication-revealed/

  78. This government is indeed rolling back all changes made to house procedures by the previous parliament.

    “……….Abolishing the carbon tax will be atop Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s agenda when the 44th federal parliament sits for the first time next week.

    The parliament will be formally opened by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on Tuesday before the political battle kicks off in earnest on Wednesday morning.

    Mr Abbott will be flanked by 89 coalition colleagues, having reduced Labor to 55 members at the September 7 election.

    Newly elected MPs, billionaire Clive Palmer (Fairfax) and Victorian farmer Cathy McGowan (Indi), will be joined on the crossbench by Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt (Melbourne), Bob Katter (Kennedy) and Andrew Wilkie (Denison).

    But the crossbenchers will have less time to conduct private member’s business in the new parliament with the coalition planning to turn back the clock on changes to standing orders made by the previous Labor government.

    The government will propose veteran NSW…….

    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2013/11/07/carbon-tax-tops-agenda-new-parliament

    My emphasizes.

    Abbott on ABC 24 9 am.

  79. Burke got in first, moving a motion. Abbott will not like that.

    Attacking Minister for Immigration.

    YES, A MOTION BEING MOVED.

    Demanding Morrison face the house immediately and explain what he is doing.

    Leave not granted. MSO by Burke.

  80. “You’re trying to turn this into a testosterone contest” says bullyboy male Abbott to pregnant TV interviewer (ABC 7.30 tonight).

    I guess he knows as much about hormones as he does carbon dioxide.

  81. So Krudd is going.

    How about you go on a lecture tour. See how many halls you can fill with your sycophants, see how many give you a standing ovation.

    Your cardinals can eat shit sandwiches for the next three years on the opposition front bench, they should also fall on their swords for the sake of the party.

    Krudd, you are responsible for the Labor downfall and the Abbott disaster, don’t go away mad, just go away.

  82. Being reported as a really woeful performance by Abbott on 7:30 Report, one of the worst ever by a PM. I wish I was home to catch it, but will catch it on iView.

    Also someone stated another boat arrived.

  84. Mobius he was a good as I have come to expect (ie truly awful).

    I am happy that those Labor dickheads that pissed away government will have to grin and bear it. Maybe then they will start to think about what a privilege it is to represent Labor values and not their own shallow career path.

  87. Rudd even fucked up his quitting. Abbott has a real shocker on 7:30 Report, accusing Sales of… wait for it… journalism and asking detailed questions. It apparently went down from there.

    Abbott’s woeful performance as PM and some of the terrible and contradictory answers he gave would have made some news tomorrow but Rudd has ensured he will get off scott free.

  88. Now Labor can move on. Yes, Rudd did achieve much, that cannot be taken away from him. He also lost it, seemed unable too continuer. Gillard, to her credit, completed all that Rudd began. Rudd spoilt it all by not accepting the reality, that it was time to go.

    I have this horrible suspicion, that Rudd was not too disappointed losing the last election, that it was what he wanted.

    It angers one, at what many are saying tonight, but in the scheme of things, it has highlighted all that was achieved by Labor in the last six years.

    Most of the achievement belongs to Gillard, but many of the ideas came from Rudd.

    Time to draw a line under both Rudd and Gillard, time to move on.
    Gillard has, She knows more that most, that what she did will stand the test of time.

    As for Abbott, I believe his best days are also in the past.

    At least, it has not been a day of glory for Abbott. Not what he believed it should have been like.

    We see pictures of the Opposition leader and his deputy, with the Indonesians,. All seem to be enjoying the event. All seemed to be art ease, and enjoying the company of each.

    Did not see any of Abbott, with the same people.

  89. “Gillard, to her credit, completed all that Rudd began.”

    Yes i guess you are factually correct. Rudd racked up who knows maybe $100B of debt for nothing to show for it except fuelwatch, grocerywatch and not much else. And then Rudd opened the flood gates by abolishing the Pacific Solution.

    Gillard continued by adding another $200B of debt with nothing to show except another couple of thousand asylum seekers drowning trying to get here.

    Good riddance to the worst two PM’s in our history voted for by the worst people in our history.

  91. Yeah I am Fed Up with Labor who rewarded those who ratted on their own leadership. They will do it again and again even now many of them describe themselves as generic ‘home brand’ rather than “Labor”
    Well if Bowen and Fitzgibbon want to stand as independents they should be encouraged to do so.

  92. As glad as I am that Rudd is gone, for the good of the party, ME is correct above, he stole the limelight from tabot admitting that we spy on Indonesia (but cannot comment on boats in open water?)

    Not that I was sure the meeja would bother with tabots failure anyway, but, rudd gave them a good out.

    Not really rudds fault though, I would assume he didn’t know just how poorly tabot would perform, assuming another 730 tummy tickle for him.

    Apparently, it was not.

  93. The Honourable PM is announcing inquiry into Pink Batts today. Talk about wasting money.

    Hockey is threatening more immediate cuts if government does not raise debt ceiling. Bowen said they voted to increase the debt level. Only improve increase of one billion dollars.

    Pyne guillotined MRRT bill and passed it last night.

    Appears debate is not on for this government. Not for them.

    Indonesia is chasing their safety zones around the country. Seems they are dinki di about not taking asylum seekers back. Looks like they do not respond well to bullying.

    At least we are hearing from Labor all the wonderful things they did during the last six years. Does it matter well they give the credit to Gillard or Rudd. History will sort that one out.

  94. Cassidy says PUP could win Griffiths.

    Just hope Labor finds a worthwhile candidate.

    Abbott not getting good media this morning.

  95. Senate Wong in full flight in Senate.

    Looks like Greens are getting their way. Decision now, instead of full scrutiny by a senate committee. Yes, we do need to know the cost of dismantling of the CEF suite of legislation. Yes, there will be a cost, and lost of jobs.

    We need to know what the replacement will cost. Wong is demanding the senate have until March 2014 for it’s report. Greens want the vote now.

    The real action is now in the senate, not the lower house.

    Greens want to challenge Abbott to a DD.

  96. Murdoch media actively canning legitimate and factual stories that reflect badly on Abbott and his government.

  97. Australia’s inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is beginning to make some news outlets globally, and not in any positive way.

    In the meantime Morrison after having proved himself to be an arsehole of the highest order in his inhumane treatment of asylum seekers is now refusing to comply with our democracy by answering to the duly elected Senate.

  98. ME. that was to be expected. What will still occur, is the questioning of department heads.

    Abbott is not in the position to close these outlets until next July at least.

    Not sure he would succeed after that.

  100. ME, I believe it is normal for minister from the lower house to refuse. Not sure what regulations can be dug up. Still a worthwhile exercise. It highlights what he will not talk about.

  101. Ross Garnaut says Australia faced a “dreadful” long-term budget situation which would only be solved when groups such as unions and business acted in the national interest.

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/15/ross-garnaut-calls-for-shared-sacrifice

    Firstly, wouldn’t it be better if the government started working in the interests of the nation rather than business?

    Second, to conflate the budget outcome with the “national interest” makes as much sense as linking peak hour traffic flow on the M4 with Sydney’s weather.

    The budget outcome will be the result of all sorts of interventions and upsets that are totally out of the control of government, business, or unions. It will be whatever it will be.

    We should have learned by now that if you’ve got an infantile fear of deficits then cutting back on spending will just guarantee that your deficit will get bigger along with an increase in unemployment.

    Garnaut’s description of the budget outcome as “dreadful” is ignorant fear-mongering and puts him in the same ideological camp as Hockey, Barnaby or Robb, all rolled-gold morons when it comes to the national finances.

    And Garnaut is a professor of economics!

  102. Have listen to the CC debate. All I have heard from the government is how bad the previous government, and how business will be affected. Nothing about the environment.

    First question from Shorten, on car industry.

  105. Mealy mouthed opposition leader (looking like a poorly dressed Gerard Henderson) is making a fool of himself with the “Team Australia” support for Abbott’s mishandling of the SBY crisis.
    Even the greens appear to be handling the issue better.
    Looks like we will have to wait until after the next election when Tanya Plibersek or Tony Burke takes over as opposition leader.

  106. Luna, maybe Shorten is getting it right. Abbott will quickly blame Labor for any bad outcome. Softly softly catchy the monkey.

    It appears he even went to a gym. They want to know if department paid his gym costs. Did he ever attend other classes while overseas.

    Who paid for that new gym equipment in Abbott’s office. Especially so, when there is a full equipped gym down the hall.

    The questioning is becoming ridiculous.

    Now in trouble for being on leave during the election, while he was in Russia. Made his own means to come back to Australia. Not finding much dirt. Now giving the impression that the PS is lying, as they are not getting the answers he is after.

  107. According to Liberal party pre-election propaganda all Abbott has to do is ‘pick up the phone’ to Indonesia. Unfortunately things have gotten so bad that like when Howard called Megawati, SBY might not be available (operational reasons?).

    Looking forward to all those posts saying “I used to vote Liberal but….”

  108. “Fundamental deceptions damage the public’s ability to maintain a rational view of the world. Once a basic untruth is rooted, it blurs a society’s perception of reality and, consequently, the intelligence with which society reacts to events.”- Ben H. Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly

    “The worst forms of tyranny, or certainly the most successful ones, are not those we rail against but those that so insinuate themselves into the imagery of our consciousness, and the fabric of our lives, as not to be perceived as tyranny” Michael Parenti

    “When faced with a choice between confronting an unpleasant reality and defending a set of comforting and socially accepted beliefs, most people choose the later course.” W. Lance Bennett.

    “… man’s capacity to forget is unlimited.”- Jacques Ellul, Propaganda

  110. Must admit, I am having some personal difficulty with ‘Schadenfreude’. The “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.”

    I know,
    I love the “I told you so…”
    So
    “I told you so.”

    OK I got it out of my system.

    Seriously though,
    Look at WA,
    credit rating on the Fritz,
    no NBN until (ever)
    Mining Boom on the downturn;
    don’t mention Gronski.
    three hours and ten years behind the rest of Australia (their choice)

    Once upon a time, Liberals stood for advance of the economy, welcome to the new right wing paradigm.

    Murdoch has purchased the country (cheep).

  111. “The “pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others”

    Luna, you can relaxed. When it comes to Abbott, it is not misfortune.

    His problems are the result of his own behaviour that he has bought on himself.

    It is not pleasure one gets. It is the knowledge that we are being proven right.

    Would rather have been wrong in this case.

  113. Just watching the Senate Estimates hearings concerning NBN
    (online of course, I have the fab fiber to the home).
    Senator Conroy is sticking it up the bunny sent along to front the committee.

    This Abbott government is combining arrogance, contempt and stupidity – very economical of them.

    Perhaps someone should point out to them that the country is governed by the “Australian Parliament” and that the Liberal Party is only one small component.

  114. luna, not learning much. All answers seem to be taken on notice.

    It appears there are many gauges of copper being used in the system. Yes, and recently s finer. NO, they are not doing research into this.

    Unable to give any answer re the state of the copper. Asked about testing the lines. Do not know.

    They want to link fibre up to copper wire, that they know nothing about.

    I missed the earlier parts. Do they record these hearings.

  116. No wonder Turnbull is up in ams, at the behavior of the senate, demanding these men appear.

    They have not turned up voluntarily. Had to be served.

  118. There are three questions that need to be asked when it comes to NBN lite/fraud.
    ! What is the state of the copper wire now?

    2 How much will it cost to remediate, to bring it up to some useful standard.

    3 How much will it cost to maintain.

    Everything else is irrelevant.

  119. Watching Abbott’s press conference this morning, the government strategy was revealed as follows:

    1. Tell them what you are going to tell them;
    2. Tell them what you told them;
    3. Tell them that what they heard was not what you told them.

    Flimflam at its finest.

  120. Just watching Senate Estimates ‘NBN Fraud Band’ the sequel, on my fibre to the home.

    The Abbott government has succeeded in wrecking Labor’s NBN and has done the right thing by Murdoch and Foxtel. What an achievement, hamstringing Australia’s future.

    What is evident throughout is just how much the Australia electorate has been dudded and how the Liberals no longer have the fall back leader of Turnbull.

  122. NBN/ Liberals try to shut down Senate hearing by claiming they don’t have a quorum after Liberal member called away to an urgent meeting.

    Here is a hint guys – first find out how many are needed for a quorum before trying this stunt.

  123. lunalava, it would be nice if they actually took the time to read about the system, they are reviewing.

    Well we do have to believe we have adults now in charge.

    Yes, maybe adults but past their prime, well into senility.

    Adults that have reached a time in life, where they are unable to make changes in their beliefs and habits. Just a thought.

  124. christopher pyne in parliament today, photographed doing a fake boo hoo hoo towards Plibersek over close of GMH.

    Let’s see, 6000 votes in marginal seats, good one pyne. Lets hope the photo gets a good distribution when you are due for re-election.

  126. Press Council adjudication

    The Telegraph
    December 24, 2013 12:33PM

    Telegraph publishing a retraction to a misleading article, but not on its front page or the same prominence as the original article.

    C’mon right wingers where’s your outrage at this misinformation being peddled by a Murdoch paper? After all if the ABC had been caught out in a misleading article about Abbott you would be up in arms calling for it to be shut down.

    Your silence again will prove hypocrisy.

  127. $6500 instant asset write-off for small business has been abandoned by the Abbott Liberal government (as promised).

    Just think of all the photo ops small business gave Abbott.

    Don’t cry for me Mark and Tina, the truth is, you were suckered

  128. “The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved.” – Henry B. Adams

    “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” – A. J. Liebling

    “The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty.” — Justice Charles Evans Hughes (1862-1948) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Source: Lovell v. City of Griffin

  129. Yes, Abbott out on the attack. ABC and unions in his gun sights.

    ……..Tony Abbott has launched a scathing attack on the ABC, questioning whether it’s working in Australia’s interests and saying it should stick to straight news gathering.

    “It dismays Australians when the national broadcaster appears to take everyone’s side but our own and I think it is a problem,” the prime minister told Macquarie Radio on Wednesday.

    “You would like the national broadcaster to have a rigorous commitment to truth and at least some basic affection for the home team, so to speak..

    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/01/29/abbott-accuses-abc-working-aust/

    To question Tony it seems, is to criticize Australia. Abetz happy with ABC and Fairfax getting together, to back his attack on the workers, and employers that dare to m, ake agreements with hem..

    Where is there any evidence of any wage breakout, over the last few years. In fact the figures must be wrong, as they say wage growth is below the inflation rate for the first time in history. Still if one points out the misfacts, one is running down this country,

  131. Of course, this is what the ABC and the media should not be printed,. No, one cannot have truth. Makes Abbott and Abetz look bad.

    …….Wage explosion claims ‘a bit of a stretch’

    But economists say that although some sectors of the economy may have high wages relative to productivity, Australia is not facing a wages breakout.

    Steven Walters, a chief economist with JP Morgan, says claims of a wage explosion are “a bit of a stretch”.

    He says wages growth is the lowest it has ever been.

    “We’ve only got comparable series back to about the late 1990s and in fact wages growth [over the past year] is the lowest we’ve ever seen in that period,” he said.

    “So the increase in nominal wages over the last 12 months is only 2.7 per cent, whereas comparing that just to say five years ago heading into the global financial crisis, wages growth was well above 4 per cent……….

    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/01/29/eric-abetz-warns-wages-explosion-urges-union-caution/

  132. So Mr. Abbott does not like the Fact meter. Is not that reporting straight facts?

    ……….Mr Abbott also questioned the ABC’s newly established Fact Check unit, saying he wanted the corporation to focus on straight news gathering and reporting.

    “A.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-29/tony-abbott-steps-up-criticism-of-abc/5224676

    Obama;s speech is also relevant to this country. Yes, we should be looking to future technology, not that of the past. ABC 24 Talking about creating jobs, not destroying them as this government seems intent on,. Climate change high on his list. He is cutting red tape, to get clean energy production.

  134. Is Abbott really saying the ABC should just report what he says, without question. Cannot read any other words into his statement.

    If we want that, all we have to do, is go to the Liberals site. No need for any news agencies at all.

  136. Reading an article in Wheels magazine during my lunch break on the arrival of the Ford Mustang in early 2015 into Australia.

    Ian McFarlane, Industry Minister, apparently stated that the Ford Mustang is symbol of Australian ingenuity and our car industry still having input into major manufacturers as components of the Mustang like the independent rear suspension were designed in Australia by Ford Australia.

    The Chief Engineer of Ford has hit back stating bluntly that every inch of the Ford Mustang was solely American designed and made as that is their selling point for it, that it’s 100% American.

    He went on to say that no part was designed outside of the factory in the US and won’t be in the future.

    What is it with Liberal politicians more than any other that they have to blatantly lie about basic things. Are they that insecure in their of intelligence they believe that the only way they can curry favour is to bullshit to everyone.

    More shame on the Liberal supporters who swallow their lies and deceits without question, and worse stick up for them.

  137. Mr. Abbott, do you realize even if the ABC did not report or comment on what you do on the world stage, especially those leaders will make up their own minds.
    Mr. Abbott, what trashes Australia, is what comes out of your mouth, not how it is reported.

  140. Yes, we are in the era of perceptions based on gut feelings. Yes, the facts are now no longer of any consequences. Yes, we have a PM abusing our democracy with the the treason card.

    …….It is the era of feelings. Feelpinions require no facts, no research, they aren’t required to make sense, or be logical, and they thunder around the internet and cable television around the clock.

    So why should we be surprised that the prime minister has a feeling in his waters about the ABC?…….

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/29/in-the-case-of-the-coalition-v-the-abc-feelpinions-have-become-evidence

  141. Could Abbott be losing it. Yesterday, and on another occasion, his body language is coming across as hesitant. Not the bravo from earlier days.

    He seems to be calling the treason card, or maybe, I am a victim, they are picking on me.

    Whatever, there appears to be a change, big change in how he presents himself. Also seems to be running in solo mode. The family seems non existent. Other MP’s kept at arm’s length

    ………….Tony Abbott’s tirade against the ABC betrays a deeply flawed view of the role of the Australian media in general and the national broadcaster in particular. Worse still, it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
    That it comes from a man who has always expressed pride in his past life as a professional journalist makes the outburst all the more puzzling – and invites the conclusion that another agenda is at play here.
    Prime Minister Tony Abbott has attacked the ABC over its reports on asylum seekers claiming to have been burnt by the Navy.
    Hit out at the ABC: Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Photo: Andrew Meares
    The Prime Minister’s main concern is that the ABC ”appears to take everybody’s side but our own”, and lacks ”at least some basic affection for the home team”.
    Advertisement
    This astonishing proposition – that coverage should be somehow skewed by nationalism, or patriotism – sits uncomfortably with the ideals of a robust democracy with a free, fair and fearless media.
    As the……

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/tony-abbotts-abc-outburst-sits-uneasily-with-ideals-of-a-robust-democracy-20140129-31mdl.html#ixzz2rm4HXuFQ

  143. I sense, yes I also have gut feelings.

    ………..Governments are in the propaganda business. News organisations are in the cut-through-the-propaganda business.

    This is the public interest transaction in a democracy. Tony Abbott, not being a fool, and not being born yesterday, knows that’s the transaction. He knows full well what he’s saying is a distortion and a deliberate one.

    So why is he ventilating these feelings?

    Well, I have a feeling about the prime minister’s feelings.

    I have a feeling the prime minister is warning the ABC to get back in its box. He’s giving the national broadcaster a chance to bland out, take no editorial risks whatsoever, and walk off the field with its tail between its legs. Like good boys and girls.

    I have a feeling the prime minister didn’t really want a fight with the ABC, but he’s under increasing pressure from inside his partyroom and from News Corp (which wants the ABC out of digital publishing and out of international broadcasting) and from the rightwing culture warriors to Do Something because they miss the cold war.

    At the moment Abbott is substituting feelpinion for action.

    But the current jawboning and bullying is serious, and if things escalate, readers and viewers will be the losers………….

    I sense that this PM is becoming desperate. His body language tells us so. Is he trying to convince us, or what he believes, with his statements. Yes, yes, he trying to convince himself, he does indeed know what he is doing.

    Splits seem to be growing, in that cabinet. Not the furniture one either.

    Love the description. “feelpinion”. One thing for sure, there is very little truth or facts coming out of their mouths at this time. In fact, none.

  144. Those who work at the ABC are mistaken, if they believe they have to keep Abbott on side to exist.

    No, it is the public, they have to accommodate. They, and only they can stand up and take action against Abbott.

    The only thing that will save our ABC, is the public going out into the streets protesting.

    With the present state and the actions of the ABC, that is unlikely to occur.

    I cannot see many being bothered, me included. There does not appear to be much left to save.

    They will have to grow some spine, before many will even be bothered taking action to save the ABC.

    The outcome, if this occurs, will not be a return to the MSM. It will accelerate the movement’s top the fifth estate.

  145. Mr. Andrews, I agree that the ABC should be open to constructive criticism. Mr, Andrews, I also believe so should your government.

    We, the public decides the questions we want asked, and answered, not you.

  146. A guided democracy. This, I believe that Abbott might be genuine about.

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has told Nauru’s President Marcus Stephen that Australia could use a more “guided democracy”.

    Mr Abbott was overheard making the comment when a pack of media photographers disrupted their meeting in Brisbane on Saturday afternoon.

    “Sometimes I think we need a guided democracy,” Mr Abbott joked as they wrapped up discussions, noting that the media in some other countries were “much less disruptive than they are here”.

    Mr Abbott used the meeting to discuss the coalition’s plan to reopen an asylum-seeker processing centre in Nauru, which was set up by the Howard government as part of its Pacific Solution….

    After the meeting Mr Abbott told reporters Nauru was “ready, willing and able” to reopen the centre that was shut down shortly after Labor took power in 2007…

    http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/abbott-leans-to-guided-democracy-20100807-11oyh.html

    Could this be what is happening in Nauru at this time. A democracy where the PM does as he likes. Ignores the rule of law. Does Abbott yearn for this, for himself. Does he believe that is the way it should be. Yes, what comes to mind, is the born to rule syndrome.

  147. More on the 2GB interview with Abb He does this on a regular basis.

    ,blockquote>………Reality beyond the rorts of the disability support pension

    That the ABC, along with Fairfax Media, this week broke a story of alleged union corruption – the same story Hadley used to open his interview – was neither here nor there.
    Rein this mob in, Hadley urged the PM.
    But the ABC’s reporting of the torture claims of asylum seekers was not the only example of un-Australian activities Hadley canvassed.
    There was more, and it was worse.
    Hadley told Tony Abbott he had been ”inundated” with calls in support of the review of the welfare system – excluding the age pension – announced last week by Social Services Minister Kevin Andrews.
    Here, Hadley had hard evidence of rorting: he brought up the case of Brothers 4 Life gang member Mohammed Hamzy, who is charged with murder and other offences.
    Hamzy, according to reports, claims the disability support pension, despite appearing very much like an able-bodied 28-year-old man. He is also reported to keep a Mustang and a Range Rover in his driveway.
    Something about this just wasn’t right.
    ”A bloke turning up in a high-powered, very expensive motor vehicle valued somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000, being revealed as being on the disability support pension, and it is costing us $15 billion a year!” Hadley told the Prime Minister.
    ”I know we’ve got to be careful, we can’t be, you know, taking away from people who need our support,” he cautioned. ”But, by gee, Prime Minister, it does look for all intents and purposes both [the disability support pension] and Newstart are being rorted up hill and down dale.”
    Such masterful extrapolation was convincing enough, but then the Prime Minister weighed in with his own example of DSP malingering.
    ”I read something in one of the papers today,” Mr Abbott said. ”Someone who was before the courts for something which would suggest a level of physical capacity, was supposedly on the disability pension, and you really wonder about some of these things.”
    Is this the reason for the welfare review? A bad-apple bikie and some bloke the Prime Minister read about recently who looked as if he might be ripping off the taxpayer?
    Recently, we have been so repeatedly told the disability support pension is rorted, and it has blown out as a budget line item, that these things have become incontrovertible fact. These factish facts are then bolstered by Hadley-esque anecdotes of rorters and rippers-off. Everyone knows someone who knows one, or has at least seen one on a tabloid TV program: these people who live off us hard-working taxpayers, even though there is nothing wrong with them, or at least nothing a good run around the oval wouldn’t fix.
    But is it true? The numbers of people claiming the disability support pension have indeed blown out – between 1994 and 2012 the proportion of people of working age on the disability support pension grew from 4.3 per cent to 5.5 per cent. About 825,000 people now claim it.
    But they’re not all bikies with John Laws’ taste in cars. There is a very strong correlation between disability and age, and about half the increase in disability support pension claimants is the result of the population ageing.
    As usual, it’s the baby boomers’ fault. About 57 per cent of disability support pension recipients are aged over 50. As Ben Phillips, the principal research fellow at the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, puts it, we are in the middle of the ”sweet spot” where baby boomers are hitting the 50-ish to 64 age group, and their age makes them increasingly prone to disability.
    There are other factors. According to a paper by Professor Peter Whiteford of the Australian National University, reforms to the welfare system during the past two decades, including the increase in women’s pension age to 65 and the phasing out of ”dependency payments” for wives, mean more older women have been pushed over to the disability support pension, even though fewer older women overall are on welfare.
    Nonetheless, the number of people from all age groups claiming the disability support pension has increased, and individual behaviour – from unscrupulous bikies downwards – probably does play a part, because the pension is more lucrative than Newstart and indexed at a better rate. It is more financially attractive to go on the disability support pension rather than the dole, so human nature (not to mention financial distress) will lead more people to apply for it over Newstart.
    This widening gap in the payments should be addressed; it’s unfair and creates a bad incentive. But it does not mean the entire system is broken or unsustainable. In contrast with other countries, our system is reasonably efficient and well targeted.
    Even if you do accept the premise that the welfare system needs an overhaul – actually, especially if you accept that premise – there is no sound reason to exclude the age pension from the welfare review.
    The age pension has increased in the past decade, and its cost to the budget is expected to increase from about $36 billion to about $48 billion by 2016-17. This dwarfs the burgeoning cost of the disability support pension, which $15 billion now and will be $18.5 billion in 2016-17.
    But until age pensioners start joining Brothers 4 Life and driving ostentatious wheels, we probably won’t hear much about that..

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/reality-beyond-the-rorts-of-the-disability-support-pension-20140131-31rrg.html#ixzz2s0qLVre4

  148. Is this what Abbortt wants. Only good new stories to come out of the ABC, especially Asia/Pacific. Yes, one must not offend Jalan, therefore no whale stories. Which by the way when one thinks of it, we are not getting. None since the story of the government plane flying over the whalers once, weeks ago.

    ….It was September 2009 when Maurice Newman, then the ABC chairman, paid a courtesy visit to the national broadcaster’s Tokyo bureau. Mark Willacy, the bureau’s award-winning correspondent, and his three Japanese staff put on the kettle and sat down for a cuppa with Newman and Bruce Dover, chief executive of the Australia Network, the ABC’s Asia-Pacific service.
    Willacy refuses to comment on this episode in his distinguished career, but what happened next became hot news in the ABC. This version comes from several sources.
    They say Newman proceeded to lecture the bureau about the number of negative stories it was running. He mentioned the focus on Japanese whaling stories. They weren’t helping the Australia-Japan relationship. There were more positive stories to be told. There were good-news business stories.
    The meeting left the staff gobsmacked. But they had already accepted the invitation to join Newman for dinner that night. When the bill came, however, Newman and Dover were in the bathroom, so the ABC’s Tokyo office picked up the tab.
    Advertisement
    Many in the ABC were alarmed by Newman’s intervention and saw it as an attack on the ABC’s editorial independence……..

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/its-our-abc-so-hands-off-tony-abbott-and-malcolm-turnbull-20140131-31sa6.html#ixzz2s0vdqgm0

  149. Abbott sure hates the “Facts Unit”.

    ………..Hadley put the revival of Australia’s culture wars in a nutshell, and Abbott replied: ”Look, I can understand your frustrations, Ray, because at times there does appear to be a double standard in large swathes of our national life.”
    Abbott derided the millions spent on the ABC’s new fact-checking unit. ”Surely that should just come naturally.” Some wonder why the unit wasn’t asked to fact-check the ABC’s original burnt-hands report and its assertion that new footage ”appears to back asylum seekers’ claims of mistreatment”….

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/its-our-abc-so-hands-off-tony-abbott-and-malcolm-turnbull-20140131-31sa6.html#ixzz2s0xQp36m

  153. “If this is true, these three died as a direct result of actions and policies from our Government? And nothing has been said about it? Why?”

    And you wonder why i am so anti-ALP.

    Since 2007, 1,000-2,000 people have drowned trying to get here by boat. Lured by Rudd and anybody who voted for him in 2007.

    Abbott is now trying to clean up the mess.

    The worst thing is that our 13,750 humanitarian places are now sold instead of going to people in UNHCR camps as they did under Howard/Costello

  154. ” And you wonder why i am so anti-ALP.”

    You don’t know any better that’s why.

    Abbott is trying to fuck the country that’s all he is doing. Abbott couldn’t clean up a puddle of cats piss.

    Your figures are a little fudged, they haven,’t got a clue how many asylum seekers have died your 1000-2000 figure is pure unadulterated horse shit.

    You keep raving on deliriously about the boats, more people get into this country via our international airports. The amount of people who come here on boats is a non event, a nothing, nada, zilch. Your conservative mates as per usual are playing the racist card and playing up to their constituents who are in the main ,as thick as two short planks.. It is the conservative way.

    If these people were landing here from the U.K. USA or other western European country Abbott would have medical teams checking them over, and issuing them with blankets, hot chocolate, and vouchers to stay in motels.

    You conservative dilldo’s are full of it.

  155. NoS, ” The worst thing is that our 13,750 humanitarian places are now sold instead of going to people in UNHCR camps as they did under Howard/Costello”
    ….. with comments like that you only prove that you have not read anything the good people here have provided you. ….. round and round you go 🙄
    Instead of talking out of your arse, NoS, do some proper research and expand your view. Howard was/is the gormless cvnt that ‘created’ the mess and the f/wit that’s now pm is/will/has only made things worse. If only you and your silly odd RWingers would take your collective heads out of each others arses and take a look around at the real world.
    Howard should be tarred and feathered for his shameless politising and demonising of asylum seekers.

  156. “The amount of people who come here on boats is a non event, a nothing, nada, zilch.”

    Not for people in a UNHCR camp. These were the people we used to take until you voted for Rudd in 2007

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/boatpeople-keep-other-asylum-seekers-at-bay/story-e6frg6z6-1225961715172

    “SALVATION Army senior soldier Simon Hartley struggles with the consequences of asylum policy every day in Altona, in Melbourne’s southwest, in the heart of Prime Minister Julie Gillard’s electorate.

    He does not deal with asylum-seekers who arrive on boats. He helps the families of refugees suffering overseas who have been crowded out, denied a place in Australia because it has been taken by someone who originally came illegally.“

  157. Ha ha, was a great joy watching Joyce getting a right royal grilling from his country constituents, you know the ones who always vote LNP but just as certainly also get screwed by them.

    Seems that’s happening now as Joyce said weather comes and goes and there’s nothing anyone can do about it at a meeting of hostile farmers and country people, who then put him down.

    A radio interview with Hockey to stick up for him as Hockey sticks it up rural people. But do you think they will stop voting for the two Parties that always screw them over? Of course not.

    And by the way a Liberal Victorian government is tabling laws that would not be astray in an autocracy as yet another conservative government takes big chunks out of personal freedoms and democracy.

    Yet you still have idiots who support these quasi fascists.

  158. 1,000-2,000 people have drowned trying to get here by boat

    And our papers were full of these stories. Now, people have died directly due to actions of our Government, and there is barely a whimper from our pathetic media.

    tabots blatant threat to the ABC looks to have worked perhaps?

  159. “1,000-2,000 people have drowned trying to get here by boat”

    Oh no not that one.

    It was well known that the Abbott opposition encouraged the boats and smugglers so were to blame for those drownings.

  160. It was well known that the Abbott opposition encouraged the boats and smugglers so were to blame for those drownings.

    Well, if you believe what they say NOW, then yes, that is definitely the case, as they were the loudest spruikers for people smugglers, telling them repeatedly as often and as loudly as possible how easy it was to get here, and how the red carpet was out for them

    I heard that another asylum seeker was taken to CI last night. I was under the impression that the boats had stopped?

    Is it too far to consider that there is a boat floating around out there full of these non existent asylum seekers? Not that we will ever find out, the media will not bother looking

  161. “It was well known that the Abbott opposition encouraged the boats and smugglers so were to blame for those drownings.”

    It was Rudd and the people who voted for him in 2007 that caused all the trouble. A low act to blame the people not in govt.

    ALP supporters are too proud to admit they got it wrong.

  162. A low act to blame the people not in govt.

    tabot now claims “not to run a daily commentary on boats arriving here, because you don’t want to encourage people smugglers”

    Images like the above look like encouragement to me, as is claiming we are “running out a red carpet” for asylum seekers. It looks like ME has a point if you believe what tabot says.

  163. Tom R it was noted by several commentators at the time, and one or two Ltd News ones amongst them, that the opposition were shouting loud and long about open border, red carpets, easy for smugglers, welcoming mats etc. and this was a deliberate political tactic to encourage them.

    Several cartoons also conveyed this fact and a couple of commentators went as far to state that the more boat that go into trouble and asylum seekers that drowned the better for Abbott’s election chances.

    Remember that Abbott and Morrison insisted that the Labor government openly publish and make public as a matter of national interest all boat arrivals and incidents to do with boats. My how they have change their tune now, the hypocrites.

    Yet their gormless supporters have no problems with these double standards nor the fact that Abbott encouraged people smugglers when in opposition but now keeps it all secret. These supporters are also hypocrites.

  165. Yes i get it. It was all the Oppositions fault. Nothing to do with Rudd abolishing the Pacific Solution and broadcasting to the whole world that the allegedly cruel and inhumane polices of Howard were gone.

    People smugglers know about Australian govt policy. They had 13,750 places to sell under Labor. Hopefully this has now ended.

    Talk about being deluded.

  168. OK. lefties tell me how many we should take?? Put a number on it. 10,000, 40,000, 250,000 or all 40 million??

    Furthermore i no longer believe boat people are refugees. They are desperate people seeking a better life for their wife and kids.

    The US has 15 million Mexicans living in the US. All of them illegal. Mexicans are faced with getting breakfast from bins in a Mexican slum or illegally crossing the border and cleaning toilets in California. I understand their desperation but they are not refugees.

    Under Howard we took refugees from UNHCR camps. Under Labor we take economic immigrants who take the place of refugees we used to take under Howard.

  169. “OK. lefties tell me how many we should take?? Put a number on it. 10,000, 40,000, 250,000 or all 40 million??”

    Let me see, a rough figure say of oh I don’t know say about 6 million Liberal party supporters, we could deport them, and replace them with refugees.

    I think I would send Neil to Afghanistan, he would then know why they want out.

    I would parachute Neil into a Taliban held province. He can explain to them that the people the Taliban are killing want to come to Australia for fish and chips, and of course a better life.

  170. Furthermore i no longer believe boat people are refugees.

    Those processing their claims largely disagree with you.

  171. “Those processing their claims largely disagree with you.”

    Maybe so. But they are taught what to say.

    They are just the same as the 15 million Mexicans living illegally in the US. But i do understand. If i was living in a Mexican slum i would try and get out.

    Phil

    How childish. Just asking for a number.

    Just before Labor lost office, based on the last monthly figure we were getting 40,000 boat people/year and rapidly increasing. If you people believe we should have open borders and take everybody, fine. Just give me a number you would be happy with.

  173. You laugh do you?? Well it is certainly true for the asylum seekers who fly in by plane who are taught what to say. And why do boat people throw away their passports?? You cannot get into Indonesia without one.

    And even if you are correct they have safe haven in Indonesia which is what they were seeking and if they have $10,000 to pay a smuggler they have money to survive.

    Howard got it right. We take our asylum seekers from UNHCR camps.

  175. Howard did this, NoS :-
    “Link between the onshore and offshore programs
    Since 1996, the onshore and offshore components of Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program have been numerically linked. This means that every time an onshore applicant is granted a Protection Visa, a place is deducted from the offshore program.
    > Australia is the only country in the world which links its onshore and offshore programs in this way. < 🙄 thanx to little Johnny, NoS.

    The linking policy blurs the distinction between Australia’s obligations under international law and our commitment to sharing international responsibility for refugees for whom no other durable solution is available. The onshore component of the program is designed to meet Australia’s obligations under the UN Refugee Convention to recognise and provide protection to people fleeing persecution. The offshore resettlement program is a voluntary commitment designed to provide durable solutions for the many refugees who can neither remain where they are nor return home. By making Australia’s resettlement quota to resettlement contingent on the number of onshore visas granted, the policy reduces the already limited opportunities for resettlement and undermines Australia’s commitment to the international sharing of responsibility for refugee protection.

    The linking policy also fuels the myth that onshore asylum seekers are trying to evade the “proper channels” for seeking protection or are attempting to rort the system. It creates the perception that there is a resettlement “queue” which onshore applicants are trying to "jump", at the expense of “genuine” refugees waiting for resettlement in overseas camps. In fact, this resettlement “queue” is created by a policy which could easily be changed.

    Additionally, the linking policy risks creating antagonism between different refugee communities. Onshore Protection Visas are deducted from the allocation for the Special Humanitarian Program. This visa subclass is the main way that refugee families separated by flight and resettlement can reunite in Australia. As such, the policy pits onshore and offshore applicants against each other by creating a system in which onshore applicants are seen as “taking” places which could be used to resettle family members.

    Ending the linking policy would demonstrate Australia’s firm commitment to providing durable solutions to refugees, help to dispel myths about onshore asylum seekers and reduce the potential for antagonism between refugee communities. It would also provide greater clarity for the Australian Government and settlement service providers in planning the Refugee and Humanitarian Program by ensuring a predictable number of resettlement places each year. "

  176. Lovo

    OK Put a number on it.

    You want open borders. How many refugees do you think we should take??

    TomR

    I don’t think you are correct but if true they have safe haven. And they have money. Is it not what a refugee wants??

  179. SPC view on wages.

    ………..Local Liberal MP Dr Sharman Stone has attacked the Coalition government over its justification for not giving SPC Ardmona financial assistance. Photo: Ray Sizer
    But SPC Ardmona on Tuesday released financial details and information on its agreement with the AMWU that refuted nearly all of Mr Abbott’s claims. It said the wet allowance, worth just 58¢ an hour, was not paid at all last year. It also said total allowances paid to workers were just $116,427 in 2013; or less than 0.1 per cent of its cost of goods for the year.
    It said there was little overtime at SPC Ardmona, and the company had in 2012 reduced redundancy provisions and stopped sick leave from being cashed out.
    A separate analysis by Fairfax Media highlighted that a typical full time worker at SPC Ardmona is paid about $50,000 a year – significantly less than the average ordinary hours wage in manufacturing of nearly $67,000. The average worker in Australia earns just shy of $74,000.
    SPC Ardmona managing director Peter Kelly said it had made “significant improvements” in productivity and had cut jobs by a third.
    He said its problems were not from labour costs or productivity, but rather a high dollar which hurt exports and allowed a “flood” of cheap imports since 2009. “In that period market share of private label canned fruit grew to 58 per cent today, while SPC Ardmona canned fruit share declined to 33 per cent. Our export market volumes declined by 90 per cent in the past five years.’’
    Local Liberal

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/spc-rejects-government-claims-issues-the-facts-on-workers-allowances-20140204-31ynj.html#ixzz2sKjmwgDx…….

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/spc-rejects-government-claims-issues-the-facts-on-workers-allowances-20140204-31ynj.html

  180. Maybe we should attempt to equal what Italy is taking for starters. Maybe we should make a deal, with Indonesia and Malaysia, to take half that are struck in their country.

  182. I have no problem with refugees at all. It is the skilled immigrants i am more worried about.

    I am still to get a number of refugees we should be taking. One million, two million, twenty million??

    I notice lefties get all emotional but when it gets down to the nitty gritty i rarely get told an exact number of refugees we should be taking.

    And i do believe that boat people are not refugees but mainly economic immigrants like the Mexicans who illegally cross the border into the USA

  183. I am still to get a number of refugees we should be taking. One million, two million, twenty million??

    1 million refugees and Agupy. How’s that.

    OBTW Neil your invited down to Beverly in W.A. for your first practise parachute jump.

    I have finally worked out what your about, you are trying to keep the refugee debate alive and kicking because your hero and mentor, is about as useful as tits on a bull pig. Anything to keep the debate about the village idiot off the front page.

  184. I have no problem with refugees at all

    ROFL

    but if true they have safe haven

    limbo is a better term, and not really all that safe

    Our most significant finding, however, was that material living conditions were not the greatest concern of the individuals we interviewed. Rather most of their very real suffering and despair was caused by:

    being deprived of the sense of purpose and dignity which work provides,
    seeing their children miss out on education and hence the opportunities which education provides, and
    the sense of being trapped in a homeless limbo: unable to return to their country of origin, having no prospect of settling lawfully in Indonesia (an option which many would have chosen if it had been available), and having little prospect of being resettled in a third country.

    I’ll Put a number on it.

    666 🙂

  185. Abbott moving to break another major promise and introduce WorkChoices one bit at a time. Move by the government yesterday to remove penalty and other rates from workers wages. Yes, yet another farcical stacked inquiry/commission being set up.

    Then there was the news Hockey is planning to release the results of the Audit Commission early, absolutely proving it’s a farce. There was no way a proper independent Audit Commission could be run in the original timetable without the government already having preordained the results. This early mark now proves it is.

    Then another slap in the face from this utterly dishonest government, they appointed the laziest Treasurer in the world to head the Future Fund, Peter Costello. What a joke that is.

    Can any right winger answer me honestly that if this government is supposed to be so good and better than the previous Labor one why do they need to do things in secret or implement them by devious methods whilst lying to the public about their reasons and implementation? Their latest SPC debacle is a good example of this where they openly lied about the wages and conditions of the workers to make a case for cutting every workers wages and conditions.

  186. “Then another slap in the face from this utterly dishonest government, they appointed the laziest Treasurer in the world to head the Future Fund, Peter Costello. What a joke that is.”

    The only joke is you. And it is comments like you just made why i am so anti-Labor. Since he created the FF what is wrong with the appointment??

    Furthermore you are too stupid to realise what a great Treasurer was Costello.

  187. Me, was worse, Abetz and the government is refusing to be interviewed or answer questions about they are doing. One can only assume they believe we have no right to know.

    It’s obvious they are dismantling all workers’ conditions.

    They are treating the public with contempt.

    Neil you have the right to any belief you like. You do not have the right to condemn others that disagree with you.

    Especially when most present facts and data, to defend their position. What is worse, you ignore any information that indicates you are wrong. Then the name calling begins.

  189. NoS, ” Furthermore you are too stupid to realise what a great Treasurer was Costello.” WTF 😯 😆 😯 😆 oh guffaw, such utter nonsence NoS. Costalotto is considered by many in the know as one of our worst with Horward considered the most terrible in Aussie history.
    As for his leagcy – Costello is the Sneddon of his generation. 😀
    😆 😆 😛

  190. The economic numbers under Howard/Costello were the best for a generation.

    You just confirm my belief that ALP supporters are liars.

  192. Yep Neil – the best (highest) spending, best (highest) taxing government in a generation. You got something right for a change 😉 😆

  193. Mate you lot are incredible.

    “best (highest) taxing government in a generation”

    Can you lot PLEASE make up your mind. One day you tell me the Costello tax cuts means we are in structural deficit. The next day you tell me he taxed tooo much.

    Perhaps your hate is so great you cannot tell the truth??

  195. I see the gg (formerly the oo) is in full bullshit mode again

    SPC Ardmona redundancy double what company says
    ………
    In an SPC media release sent to all Coalition colleagues by Ms Stone yesterday, the company said the excessive redundancy payments had been trimmed back to 52 weeks in 2012. However, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has confirmed that almost all of the plant’s more than 400 or so employees were employed under a previous enterprise agreement that provided for redundancy of four weeks’ pay for every year of service, up to a maximum of 104 weeks.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/spc-ardmona-redundancy-double-what-company-says/story-fn59niix-1226819084181#

    So, what is wrong with what SPC said? it is accurate, and true. Yet the gg is making it appear as if they have lied. From SPC’s media release

    Claim: Redundancy is in excess of the award.

    Fact: This old condition was reduced in 2012 to a 52 week cap.

    http://medianet.com.au/releases/release-details?id=794483

    So, the claim was that “Redundancy is in excess of the award.”. SPC showed that, while it WAS, it no longer IS.

    The gg seem to overlook this when twisting their argument to defend tabots lies. Easiest thing would be for tabot not to lie.

  196. “”Out of the Ashes of Despair, a Pheonix Will Rise”

    Abbott and his mob are willing to blaze to the bare earth, the industrial landscape as we know it.

    Abbott really believes from the ashes, a new regime will grow. A wonder age, that is not hog tied by the demands of labour, in any way. I mean labour, as in worker.

    A society where all are expected to stand on their own feet.

    One where unions no longer exist.

    Abbott sees this, as delivering heaven on earth.

    One where the worker and small business serve the needs of big business.

    Abbott intends to rebuild Australia, in his own image.

    There is no place for workers, unions, workers, weaked knee bosses, poor and disabled in his brave new world.

  197. What is Howes saying, there us a two tier wage, along with the two tier economy.

    The super profits that mining has for years, has had a detrimental effect on the economy in every way.

    The high profits, that led to the high dollar, has bought the rest of the economy to its knees.

    We are now seeing the inevitable happening. Yes, industry and jobs disappearing.

    When used someone going to ask, Howes, who has received the have received unsubstainable wage increases.

    It is not the majority of workers.

    Much of what is happening could have been headed off, if either Rudd or Gillard were allowed to bring in an appropriate MRRT early in the piece.

    Profits would have been lower, heading off unsustainable wage rises.

    Assistance could have been given to industry, to guide them through the high dollar, even allowing some to transform to new industries,

    ………………………It would not replicate the Hawke government’s “accord” with the union movement but it would evoke the same spirit, injecting some “social capital” back into the system.

    Gestures of compromise from both sides could help get things moving.

    “The union side could begin by conceding that there has been a pattern of unsustainable growth in wages in some isolated parts of the economy,” he said.

    “On the flip side, business could concede that on the whole, economy-wide wages growth is at the lowest level that it has ever been, and industrial disputation at record lows.

    “Perhaps they might agree – penalty rates and the minimum wage are fundamental planks of our social contract and should remain.”

    In conciliatory remarks about Tony Abbott, Howes said: “I don’t believe for a second that the Abbott government is unturnable on industrial relations. Despite the more cartoonist portrayals, the Prime Minister is far more a politician than he is an ideologue.”

    The ALP needed to embrace the grand compact “with both hands”.

    “Despite the overblown rhetoric of various megaphones in our public debate, Labor is actually in a stronger position to strengthen the role of the market in our society than the conservatives are.

    “Labor has always been the party of the free market – because we ensure that the market works for all. We civilise capitalism.”

    Howes said he had recently canvassed his idea with some business figures. He anticipated it would get a mixed reception among his union colleagues.

    Howes had a strong message to the union movement on corruption.

    “Any union official proven to be engaged in corrupt or criminal behaviour is a traitor,” he said.

    “The challenge for the leadership of the modern trade union movement is this. We must not allow this treachery to define us. We must not allow the traitorous minority to usurp the meritorious majority.

    “If we turn a blind eye, if we ignore any pocket of dishonesty, it will grow like a cancer. It is my job, and the job of every union leader, to cut that cancer out.

    “We must be the first to identify the indiscretions. We must be the first to crack down hard before they get out of control.” A culture of “corruption resistance” had to be developed at every level.

    But he opposes a royal commission into the issue….

    http://theconversation.com/paul-howes-calls-for-grand-compact-to-put-more-harmony-into-industrial-relations-22816?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+6+February+2014&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+6+February+2014+CID_3d2482bb92322e4318fc8cd10db17224&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Paul%20Howes%20calls%20for%20grand%20compact%20to%20put%20more%20harmony%20into%20industrial%20relations

  198. This would put Morrison in Panic Mode, if it was in Aussie waters.

    Italy’s navy says it has rescued more than 1100 immigrants on eight dinghies in 24 hours and warns that calmer seas could see the numbers rise further.

  199. I see the media, including the ABC, are attempting to paint the LNP’s loss in Griffith as a win because there was a swing to them and away from Labor.

    What they don’t say is the enormous amount of resources the LNP put into trying to elect Glasson, including their usual gummite of lies and including sending Abbott there to repeat those lies. On top of that was a concerted local and State media run campaign for Glasson, yet they still didn’t win.

    The swing was because the propaganda campaign got through to some. I saw a handful being interviewed on Friday saying they would vote LNP this time stating the lies told to them as the reason.

    The LNP is a party that can never win on merit, openness and integrity, they must always lie and deceive, only being able to achieve that with the considerable aid of other vested interests like big business and the media.

  200. @Mo

    The LNP is a party that can never win on merit, openness and integrity, they must always lie and deceive, only being able to achieve that with the considerable aid of other vested interests like big business and the media.

    EXACTLY !!!!

    Why do this mob of liars and fools HATE AUSTRALIA ?!!

    Their actions in lying their way to power and since gaining it on 7/9/13 show nothing but hatred and contempt for ALL Australians our unique heritage and landscapes.

  201. When it comes to the seat of Griffiths, it is hard to work out what the figures tell us. It is not a by election, under conditions.. It is the seat that was held by Rudd. If one followed the general elections, voters gave many answers to what they felt about Rudd. Yes, some hated him, saying this was why they voted a

    It is hard to tell how much of a personal vote Rudd had, if any.

    The personal vote of the predecessor is always taken into account, when evaluating any swing.

    I would have loved to see a swing to Labor, but I believe the turnout was small. Also one needs to give dome consideration to the position on the ballot paper, which one could say, was not good for either major party. Also the number that stood.

    In truth, the results tell us little.

    Parliament back Tuesday. Abbott intends to divert focus from him and his government, by announcing details of his RC into the builders laborers. Why not a RC into the building industry. Alleged bribes are being paid by the builders, not the union. Why?

    Glasson still says race too close to call. Wonder how many postal and pre poll votes there are. Have to be big, for Glasson to have any hope.

  202. “The LNP is a party that can never win on merit, openness and integrity, they must always lie and deceive, only being able to achieve that with the considerable aid of other vested interests like big business and the media.”

    What a load of crap. Actually the ALP and its supporters gives me the creeps.

  204. It seems that tomorrow, Abbott will release the details of his RC into the HSU, Builders Laborers and AWU.

    He has picked a judge that is known for dissenting from most decisions.

    Yes, and the books of all the unions will be thrown open.

    Why not the books of the employers as well. If bribes are being paid, surely one is interested in who is paying them?

    Surely the employer should also be compelled to give evidence, as they are demanding of union members.\

    Abbott has put the cart before the horse, by not initiating the police body to investigate the allegations immediately.

  205. “What a load of crap. Actually the ALP and its supporters gives me the creeps.”

    As per usual you are confused. It is the Liberal party that are the creeps.

    Your party not only contains creeps, it has the biggest assortment of social misfits to come down the pike. The P.M. is a bully and a thug, we have Pyne who is the closest thing I’ve seen to a drag queen in a suit, and a National party member who should be in an asylum. Our environment minister is as an effeminate male, one could find, and the deputy P.M. looks like he is dead. In fact I would like to see a medical certificate before I would pay the buffoon. The foreign minister would be battling to find Indonesia on a map, much less negotiate any diplomatic problems we may have.

    The mob you support lied and schemed its way into government aided and abetted by a corrupt rotten media, so please spare any of us on here your analysis of anything political, you parrot the same line every righteous right winger parrot,s and it is getting fucking boring. Enjoy your time in the sun it will not last.

  207. This is of more importance that concentrating on debt, that means nil.

    ………….Federal Attorney-General George Brandis is planning to legislate reforms for the Human Rights Commission, amid concerns it focuses too heavily on anti-discrimination issues.

    Senator Brandis has previously criticised the commission for being too narrow and selective in its view of human rights.

    H………..

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-09/government-plans-legislation-to-change-human-rights-commission/5248006

    Glasson now speaks ABC 24. Still not conceding.

  208. ..Mark Scott, the managing director of the ABC, has hired one of the public broadcaster’s most vocal critics in the Murdoch press to be his media manager.

    The ABC has confirmed that Nick Leys, media editor of the Australian, has been hired to craft its corporate messages and answer media inquiries.

    The Australian last week called on Scott to resign his post of managing director and the newspaper has campaigned vociferously against the ABC’s management, its editorial direction, its scope and its funding.

    Leys, as a journalist specialising in the media at the Australian, has been a vocal critic of the ABC. “I can’t see the staff welcoming him with open arms,” one ABC source said.

    The media manager also works closely with senior ABC executives, including the managing director and the board, in preparing speeches, announcements, corporate presentations and interviews, according to the job advertisement.

    Sources say the Australian’s editor in chief, Chris Mitchell, is furious Leys resigned a week after starting a new job as media editor.

    The previous media manager at the ABC was Sally Cray, who now works as a senior adviser to the communications minister, Malcolm Turn…….

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/04/abc-hires-vocal-critic-from-murdoch-press-to-be-media-manager

  209. Neil, do you dream of debt each night. Do you count debt, to get yourself to sleep.

    Just wondering how deep your obsession goes?

  210. Kitty789
    05 February 2014 1:28am

    There is a political bias in the ABC board. This is the list of board members appointed since 1996 based on a admittedly outdated crikey article:
    Howard government appointments:
    Donald McDonald – Liberal Party member and long-time friend of the Howard Family.
    Michael Kroger – Liberal party powerbroker and former president of the Victorian Liberal party. Member of the right-wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs
    Judith Sloan – Right-wing labour market economist, News Ltd Columnist and outspoken critic of the ABC. Associated with right-wing think tanks the Centre for Independent Studies, the HR Nichols Society and the IPA
    Ross McLean – Former Liberal party MP for Perth.
    Leith Boully – Member of the Murray-Darling CAC with close ties to the Liberal party. Former member of the NT Young Country Liberal Party.
    Maurice Newman – Close friend and confidant of John Howard and founder of the Centre for Independent Studies, a right-wing think tank identical to the IPA. Now an advisor to PM Tony Abbott.
    Janet Albrechtson – Right-wing columnist for News Ltd. Associated with the CIS and IPA.
    Ron Brunton – Former right-wing columnist for News Ltd. Climate change skeptic, critic of the stolen generations report and Director of Indigenous Affairs at the IPA
    Steven Skala – Former director of the CIS
    Keith Windschuttle – Right-wing “historian”. Outspoken critic of the ABC and regular keynote speaker for the CIS and IPA
    Peter Hurley: President of the SA Hotels Association and major donor to the Liberal party and right-wing think tanks.
    Jonathan Shier: Guess who called for this guy’s appointment.
    Mark Scott: Former staffer to NSW Liberal minister Terry Metherell.
    Rudd/Gillard appointments
    James Spigelman – Had a casual affiliation with the Labor Party. Once was canvassed as a possible candidate but nothing came of it.
    Julianne Schultz – No known political affiliation.
    Cheryl Bart – No known political affiliation.
    Fiona Stanley – No known political affiliation.
    Jane Bennett – No known political affiliation.
    Five ABC board appointments fall vacant in the current government’s term.

    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/04/abc-hires-vocal-critic-from-murdoch-press-to-be-media-manager

  211. I am sure those million and quarter homeowners are pleased they have that obnoxiousPink batts in their roofs.

    The money they save on power is great. Helps to cut carbon emissions as well,

    Yes, the results do point to the scheme being very successful.

  212. I am also sure, most parents attending school events, like the comfort of those school halls. Must better than standing in the rain and sun, as one did previously.

    Yes, air condition halls are wonderful.

  213. I believe that this government is over reaching, as one expected they would do.

    Abbott’s inquiry into unions is taking on a life of its own, one the government will not be able to control.

    Labor’s proposed police task force investigation of construction industry corruption claims is a ‘lame’ move, Attorney-General George Brandis says.

    The senior Liberal has stopped short of announcing a royal commission.

    Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has called on the coalition to launch an immediate joint police taskforce into allegations that construction union officials have been involved in improper deals, including bribery and kickbacks.

    State and territory police would be part of the investigation, led by the Australian Federal Police.

    ‘Unlike police, royal commissions do not have the power to arrest, charge or prosecute,’ Mr Shorten said.

    ‘Some of these allegations are sickening and if they’re true, the perpetrators should be locked up – no question.’

    Senator Brandis said a royal commission can refer people for prosecution.

    ‘Mr Shorten’s response … is a very lame response,’ he told Sky News on Sunday.

    There is growing public concern about corruption in the trade union movement and the government will address the matter, Senator Brandis said.

    ‘You have judicial inquiries or royal commissions where there is a systematic and ingrained cultural pattern within an institution that needs to be exposed,’ he said.

    ‘I won’t be making any announcements today. But watch this space.’

    News Corporation on Sunday reported that Prime Minister Tony Abbott will this week announce a royal commission into unions, with the terms of reference to investigate bribes, secret commissions, corruption and slush funds.

    Former High Court justice John Dyson Heydon will head the commission, which will have the power to compel union leaders to give evidence.

    Talk of a royal commission into unions – rather than the promised judicial inquiry into the Australian Workers’ Union slush fund scandal – gained momentum with recent allegations of corruption within the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). Labor’s workplace relations spokesperson Brendan O’Connor hit out at the royal commission, saying “This smells like a witch hunt”.

    “This is about a prime minister who has clearly turned his back on Australian workers and jobs, wants to find sideshow and therefore he’s embarking on, it would appear, a political exercise,” he told ABC Television.

    “This seems to be a highly politicised, very expensive exercise.”

    He pointed out that when Mr Abbott was workplace relations minister in the Howard government, he set up the Cole Royal Commission into corruption in the building industry in 2001.

    “It cost $66 million of taxpayers money. It did not lead to one serious criminal conviction,” he said.

    “That’s the reason why we believe now the time is right for a joint task force to combat these allegations.”

    http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=948717

    Is Brandis having a special police panel, to investigate the allegations or not?

  214. It seemds that we the social media, has not missed this love for inquiries.

    “This expenditure is another example of the Abbott government’s distorted priorities”: Penny Wong. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

    .The Abbott government is using a research company to trawl through millions of Australian social media posts to advise it on its immigration policies.
    The scrutiny of Twitter, Facebook and blogs is part of $4.3 million worth of research contracts commissioned by the federal government in its first five months of office.
    Cubit Media Research has two contracts with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection to deliver ”media positioning analysis”.
    Founder and chief executive Warren Weeks said it could track 24 million social media ”pieces” an hour, to gauge Australians’ perceptions of different policy areas. ”People hire Cubit and people like us because we have the capacity to monitor millions of pieces a day,” he said. ”What’s the mood? What’s the tone?”
    Advertisement
    Other market research firms commissioned by the government would not speak about their work, citing confidentiality.
    Among contracts the government has commissioned from dozens of market research agencies are $38,500 to research a possible West Australian Senate election, $20,400 to monitor social media for the Department of Communications and $67,300 to track and monitor the government’s ”no boat no visa” campaign.
    Governments of both persuasions s…..

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-spends-43-million-to-gauge-mood-on-social-media-20140215-32snf.html#ixzz2tQzCOrAU

  215. The media today. Who pays for Mr. Abbott personal photographer?

    …Investigative journalism need not require any relationship with the person or thing being investigated. When journalists talk about the glories of their profession, they talk about Four Corners, or foreign correspondents dispatching from war zones. Investigative journalism relies on documents and structures and narratives to be drawn from them. The nearest the press gallery comes to investigative journalism is the budget lockup; rather than read all those documents, and track them through the Parliament and onto to execution, they mostly just eat biscuits and interview one another.

    It is access journalism that is coming under the greatest pressure today, partly but not entirely due to technology. In an era where the Prime Minister’s office has its own camera operator to take flattering action shots of the PM, who even needs a press gallery? When the PM’s office will supply that footage at no charge to all networks, those beleaguered outfits must wonder why they are spending millions maintaining a presence there. When the most visible event of federal politics is the monkey-house antics of Question Time, who wants to hear or read some commentator drone on about it? I keep saying: the press gallery has no future.

    Investigative journalism has a future: it rings true and the journalists who practice it seem more highly respected. Press releases and video clips are available online. In some cases you can do an investigation and the target won’t know about it until Kerry O’Brien mentions them it in his intro on Monday night.

    Press gallery journalism is catch-up journalism. It reports what was decided and does not question what was decided, let alone hold out for more and better. Press gallery journalists think they’re being investigative when they’re piling on a beleaguered minister. Listen to the tone they used in addressing Julia Gillard, then listen to the wording of their questions and how inane they were, how easily Gillard brushed them off: that’s why they hated her, she treated them like they were stupid while Abbott said “I’m stupid too, gutting fish and eating pies, so let’s all be stupid together”. And they were, Abbott and his pet journalists, confusing their output with the will and wants of the people.

    Mark Kenny ‘investigated’ Gillard’s AWU connections from a file that Abbott’s office dropped in his lap, day after day for months; had he been an investigative journalist he would have realised the documents did not support a story. A good investigative journalist knows when they’re being had; Kenny doesn’t and neither does his boss. Kevin Rudd strung Peter Hartcher along for a decade. Hartcher thinks he’s building credibility with the new government with soft bullshit like this; it’s too late. Hartcher is finished. And if Hartcher is finished, what chance do any of them have (even those who are better journalists than he is)? Why hasn’t Emma Macdonald replaced either/both of them?

    Fairfax have compounded their lack of talent by hiring Matthew Knott. The media reporter at Crikey could have been in a privileged position to report on an evolving industry, but he showed no depth, no nuance, and reported media comings and goings in such a vapid way he made Richard Wilkins’ disquisitions on Hollywood look like Chekhov. Fairfax has decided that such a person without context or knowledge or perspective is what they need in reporting on politics, and be it on their own heads.

    http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/catch-up-journalism.html

    My emphasis

  217. Why such stories at this time?

    ………….THE Abbott government is structurally unstable: so much deadwood clogging up the frontbench, so much talent wasted on the backbench.

    Fortunately much of the talent left languishing on the backbench are relatively young, so their time will surely come.

    The risk, however, is that by the time they do rise to the top, the Coalition is on the wrong side of the treasury benches. Although Tony Abbott enjoys a strong majority, and Bill Shorten isn’t exactly excelling.

    Too often commentators praise talent in need of promotion without identifying those who need to make way for them. It is always easier to name names when you are praising people than it is when you are calling for their political scalps. But politics is a zero sum game: someone has to be demoted for another to rise through the ranks.

    So here is a list of frontbenchers whose careers should be dealt a blow (I wouldn’t want it said that I wasn’t prepared to name names):

    1/ Industry minister Ian Macfarlane has failed to successfully argue his case for industry subsidies. I don’t agree with him, but if he is that ineffectual what’s the point of retaining him in cabinet? He is severely compromised.

    2/ Social services minister Kevin Andrews. Apart from his poor track record when he was a minister under John Howard, anyone who suggests mailing out cheques for marriage counselling, to the tune of $20m, at a time when the Coalition is arguing for fiscal restraint, is a liability.

    3/ Human services minister Marise Payne (I’m not sure too many voters could pick her out of a line up, frankly).

    4/ Macfarlane’s parliamentary secretary, Bob Baldwin. A good bloke by all accounts, but it is a case of the blind leading the blind in the portfolio area he shares with Macfarlane.

    5/ Andrews’s parl sec, Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (there is a pattern developing here).

    6/ Richard Colbeck is Barnaby Joyce’s assistant in agriculture, but he adds little and isn’t getting any younger.

    7/ Finally, I’d add the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, to this list. A long time under performer, he’s been on the wrong side of most debates within the Liberal Party before good decisions have made.

    Lets call them the unlucky seven. I won’t rattle off names who should replace them, but I will say this: I’ve previously had a crack at Andrew Robb, but in his new portfolio he is excelling.

    —-

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/abbott-government-is-structurally-unstable/story-fni0cwl5-1226827125557?sv=474ec62d1c211b8f984cac4056a54aa4#.Uv_XAbuz-pE.twitter

  218. I am just watching a press conference on the ABC with Shorten and Daniel Andrews (Vic opposition leader). I wish Shorten would shut up and let Andrews do the talking.
    Andrews has got the goods in terms of both media delivery and content.
    Please, please give Shorten some more support for his media presentation.

  219. Da ego of Da leader (and a few sycophantic followers) is more important than achieving progressive reform or even government for that matter.
    Don’t believe it? well just look at the Rudd / Gillard catastrophe. Yes Labor deserved an Abbott Government, so do those that voted for them.
    The question I have is why does Labor elect a dud leader, one who looks a lot more like Beasley than (thank god) Latham.
    The Labor members of parliament overruled the rank and file and put this turkey into leadership, they will be held accountable.
    Three additional years of Abbott is the price. Can Australia afford it?

  220. Suggest if one does not want Abbott for ever, we do not rubbish Shorten. He is the elected leader. Labor deserves he be given a chance.,

    One cannot rubbish a Labor leader, without giving Abbott a free pass. This is the choice most have,

    One is free to make whatever choice they like. Just pointing out the pitfalls.

  221. What hope has Labor got of getting rid of Abbott in one term when pricks like Joel Fitzgibbon and his Cardinal mates divide the party and support Abbott and his political coverup.

  222. Footage from Senate Estimates with Sen Stephen Conroy:

    Angry Angus : ‘YOU WANT ANSWERS’
    Conroy: ‘I WANT THE TRUTH’
    Angry Angus: ‘YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH’

    Well the truth is that Angus Campbell is closely associated with the Liberal Party as far back as the Howard government days. Angus Campbell has some experience with political coverups, in particular the Dr Haneef debacle.

    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/haneef-lawyers-granted-250-documents/2008/06/17/1213468386298.html

    Did the Abbott government bypass the ADF when appointing Campbell to Operation Sovereign Ballsup, this would make him a political player not one of our ‘noble’ military.

  223. Thanks to John Birmingham of the Brisbane Times for saying so well what I have been thinking:

    General Angus Campbell is a soldier. He follows orders. He cannot seriously question those orders without resigning his commission. He cannot even reflect on government policy without resigning his commission. General Angus Campbell, like the men and women under him effectively has no opinion on the government’s use of the military to intercept and turn back asylum seekers.

    And be not mistaken, this is a good thing.

    You do not want to live in a country where the military makes policy.

    But living in a country where the worst sort of people, the liars and scum and vicious misanthropes make policy, and where they use the armed forces of the nation not just to enforce that policy, but to surround it with the reflected aura of Anzac, that is not such a good thing.

    Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/blogs/blunt-instrument/conroy-right-to-highlight-lack-of-transparency-20140227-33j6r.html#ixzz2uViBiWIZ

  224. Yes, but is the general in an army job, or is he a PS.

    I would say, PS.

    I wonder if he had to take leave from the army. Anyone else would have had to.

  226. Yes, what has we learnt this week. Well, that Abbott is a gutless wonder, who did not consider he had anything worthwhile to tell the media after the Qantas announcements.

    All Abbott seems to have to contribute, is that it is not Joycer fault, and passing the carbon tax demolition bill will solve all. Yes, and that there are suppirt inb place for unemployed, that somehow they will be better off.

    .5:14pm: As we ride off to prop up a bar in Manuka with a soda water with lime, what did we learn today?
    Calling someone a “Conroy” is an insult. A big one;
    If the Climate Change Authority is anything to go by, we *really* need to talk about emissions;
    The government feels super bad for Qantas. As for what that means …?;
    There’s nothing wrong with the Cadbury announcement because it was taken to the election; and
    Estimates hearings get results: Granada voted for Australia when it came to the UN Security Council bid. .

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/the-pulse-live/politics-live-february-27-2014-20140227-33j5t.html#ixzz2uW4exTkm

    Was there any legislation before the house today?

  227. Under Tony Abbott, political principles reach an all-time low…

    ………………..We are witnessing history being made. Unfortunately, it’s a history-making decline in standards of political behaviour. At least it proves we’re not merely imagining that things were better in the old days.
    Tempting though it is, one of the things incoming governments don’t do is delve into the affairs of their predecessor. The papers of the old government aren’t made available to the new masters. But all that is out the window with the Abbott government’s decision to establish a royal commission into the Rudd government’s handling of the home insulation program and provide it with Labor’s cabinet documents

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/under-tony-abbott-political-principles-reach-an-alltime-low-20140225-33ffk.html#ixzz2uWV

  228. It seems the general could be a public servant.

    …………In other words: no, we can’t handle the truth.

    Public information, Campbell freely admits, is being managed – in other words, withheld. And it is being withheld by a military officer who is acting in a civilian capacity, as Campbell also admitted.

    One of the useful aspects of Conroy’s interrogation is that we discovered that Campbell is not acting under military orders, in a chain of command from the Chief of the Defence Force. Rather, he is in effect moonlighting. Campbell is really a sort of roving public servant, coordinating Operation Sovereign Borders as a civilian policy…./blockquote>

    https://newmatilda.com/2014/02/27/operational-security-charade

  229. ……………….All of which gives the lie to the Coalition’s confected outrage at the insult to a serving officer. As a matter of legal and administrative fact, neither Australia nor Angus Campbell are at war, despite the highly militaristic trappings imposed on immigration policy by a government only too eager to wrap itself in the flag. Campbell is acting as a public servant, and as such, he is bound, like any other public servant, to answer the questions of Australia’s elected representatives in Parliamentary hearings.

    So when a public servant refuses to answer a question in Senate Estimates, on the entirely spurious grounds of “the management of public information relating to on-water activities”, is that a “political cover-up”, as Conroy alleges?

    Yes, it is. What else could it be? Campbell is withholding information on a critical aspect of public policy, using rules made up on a whim by a secrecy-obsessed government.

    By placing a General in charge of a civil operation, the Coalition almost guaranteed that Campbell would become a controversial figure. By militarising immigration policy, the government has also politicised the military. If that leads to officers being handled roughly at Senate Estimates, no-one should be surprised. Public accountability doesn’t stop when men in uniforms get involved. Given the scandal-prone recent history of the Australian Defence Force, that’s just as well……………..

    https://newmatilda.com/2014/02/27/operational-security-charade

  230. Letter from Burke, ALP

    The response to the email last fortnight was very positive, and you told me loud and clear you wanted be kept up to date, so here’s the top five best and worst moments of Parliament this week.

    Best:

    On Tuesday Bill Shorten and the Prime Minister attended the launch of the Beyondblue national bus tour – a very important and worthwhile cause that received bipartisan support from the Government and Opposition.
    The Government belatedly announced a package of support for our farmers. Labor has been calling for this for some time, so we’re very happy the Government finally came through in the end.
    Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek gave a passionate speech on the Government’s repeated failure to deliver on its election promises, including its failure to deliver honest and accountable government.
    New Member for Griffith Terri Butler delivered her first speech to the House. Tony Abbott was sure he would win Griffith, so it’s great to see this speech being given by a Labor MP. You can watch it here.
    Finally, for the second time in as many weeks the Government ran out of legislation to debate in the House. I’m putting this in the Best column because I figure Tony Abbott with no ideas is better than Tony Abbott legislating his ideas!
    Worst:

    Last fortnight the announcement that 4000 Toyota jobs were set to go topped the worst list. This week QANTAS announced it would be sacking 5000 employees. It’s devastating news for these workers, and still the Government has made no effort to fight for their jobs.
    Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash repeatedly failed to explain her role in the conflict of interest involving her chief of staff, a former junk food lobbyist. The Prime Minister’s answers were even worse, directly contradicting the Senator. One of them isn’t telling the truth, and the Australian people deserve to know who it is.
    At 8:44pm on Saturday, well after the newspaper deadline, Scott Morrison reversed what he had said days earlier about the events that lead to the tragic death of Reza Berati at the Manus Island Detention Centre. During question time Mr Morrison would not confirm what time he received the update. This is a tragic event and Scott Morrison needs to come clean about what he knew and when he knew it.
    Labor senators were in estimates this week where it was revealed $15,000 of tax-payers’ money was spent on a new bookcase in Attorney General George Brandis’ office. The reason for the new bookcase? The $7000 one installed in his former office is too big to move. The new bookcase comes complete with a ladder. You can’t make this stuff up.
    Ten Members of the Opposition were kicked out of the House this week by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, including for the first time in my parliamentary career, me. I guess there’s a first time for everything. No members of the Government were kicked out.
    Finally, and I wasn’t sure where to put this one on the list, the Speaker said to me during question time on Wednesday: “You were not standing properly on your feet – You should have been sitting down”. If anyone can tell me what this means I’ll happily add it to the list.

    Until next week.

    Tony Burke MP
    Manager of Opposition Business

    I have been out today. Has Abbott risen from the dungeon today, to say something he considers worthwhile to us.
    it is obvious he had nothing worthwhile to tell us yesterday,

  231. Tony still seems to believe, if one is poor, it is because of the choices they make. Yes, the homeless are not victims, but took the option to be poor.

  232. Washington Post, Carol Morello, June 15, 2013.. God help Australia if these people ever win office. Australian Prime Minster Julia Gillard fried chicken. Small breasts, thighs and big red box/Vagina on an opposing political party’s fund raising dinner menu… Telegraph co UK. June 12, 2013. Kathy Brand. The ugly Australians. A snapshot of the sort of people these Liberals are. > Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard’s vagina on the menu. PS;Female Genitals; Australian slang words IE; mossy cleft.,.,fanny,..hairy box,,,love tunnel,.. cunt, etc. . http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/10115391/Julia-Gillard-sexist-menu-Did-the-women-present-all-laugh-along-before-tucking-into-the-Aussie-PM.html

  233. I recall Arthur Sidonis got up on his high horse and called for Peter Slipper to be stood aside for alleged misuse of $900. Well there are now 10 million reasons why Arthur should do the same.
    When is wot’s his name, the Leader of the Opposition going to stop playing the ‘nice card’ and do what Abbott did non-stop while in opposition.

  234. Don’t I just love it when Liberal dickheads setup rules and inquiries that turn around and bite them on the arse.
    So Barry, those limits on entitlements for ex premiers you introduced to cut off benefits to former Labor Premiers will now apply to you – tough luck you liar.

  235. luna, expecting many more scalps down the tracks. That is going on the history of these types of inquiries.

    Would not put it for Abbott to be behind what has happened today. Not much love between Abbott and the premier.

    The fun raiser, only produced that note this morning. One could believe the premier was set up.

  236. (Hush, lunalava. No reminding the dishonourable media about Abbott’s sign-and-wine gift to a defecting Slipper staffer, as couriered by a forgetful Pyne. Or the impertinent fourth estate might start asking probing questions again about where that bottle came from, went to, and why, too.)

  237. Our media are shameless

    This is a prime minister who demolished Julia Gillard on the basis of her broken “no carbon tax under a government I lead” promise, by effectively blurring the difference between a carbon tax (which Gillard promised not to have) and a floating price emissions trading scheme (which in an admittedly confused policy, she said she would impose, some time after 2012, after convening the ill-advised “citizens assembly” to talk about it).

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/28/tony-abbotts-duplicity-in-proposing-a-temporary-debt-levy-is-astounding

    Actually Lenore, it was you and your ilk who effectively “blurred the difference” between a carbon tax and a floating price emissions trading scheme. tabot simply followed along from all of your hard work destroying an argument, and played merry hell with it, supported all along by you lot (the media)

    I have noticed the current penchant for journos to refer to it as the Carbon Price now, something that was taboo when Gillard was the PM.

  239. Tom R. Remember the outcry over that temporary levy for the after math of the floods,
    Abbott is busy out today trying to create diversions from the strife his party is in, both at stater and federal level.

    We are to get a Kennedy type speech tonight.

    The lies are coming home to roost.

  240. Yes FU, apparently, tabot has just announced that he knows nothing (about where the plane is)

    I wonder if he has updated the Chinese Premiere with the information that he is clueless?

  243. I believe that Abbott might be facing reality for the first time. Yes, he might just be finding Yes, not the fault of those at the bottom of the ladder. What more,
    punishing them will fix nothing.

  245. Reporter asks Shorten “Did Tony Abbott over react on the MH370?”

    Instead of whacking this one over the fence, by talking about the $60 million Abbott is giving away to a private company or the cringe worthy suck up to the Chinese, none of that. Shorten covers Abbott’s arse with reference to “tragedy” etc etc.

    Looks like Abbott will get a second term.

  246. The question is not whether he over reacted or not. The qt is why did he use the tragedy for what hew seen as political gain.

    We have seen officials he appointed, embarrassingly doiny their best to cover for him.

    Abbot does not care one iota for these people. He has moved on. Cannot even do the decent thing in addressing parliament himself. Left it up to Truss.

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