Say no, no, no to Tony Abbott

Rupert Murdoch wants him. Gina Rinehart wants him. The miners want him. Big business wants him. Most of the media want him. But does the public want him? By September 8 we will know if the voters really did want him, whether they have been persuaded by the continual media promotion of Tony Abbott and his Coalition, and the incessant denigration of Kevin Rudd and Labor.

Abbott supporters insist that he is the one this country needs as its leader for the next three years.

But how many will reflect on what it will mean to this nation to have Tony Abbott, whom we now know so well, as its Prime Minister?

It takes little serious reflection to conclude that this nation does not deserve to have Abbott inflicted on it. Let me elaborate on why we ought to say no, no, no to Tony Abbott.

Contemplate an Abbott prime ministership, an Abbott government.

In my opinion, we can confidently expect Abbott to exhibit seemingly conflicting attributes: vengefulness and weakness.


The vengeful Abbott

Although this 55-year-old has been telling us recently that he 'has grown, developed and matured' since those long past days when he embraced quite different policies and exhibited very different attitudes and behaviour, how convinced are you? The old saying about the leopard’s spots applies.

Is this man, who in student days resented losing, any different now? Is this the man who kicked in a glass door when he narrowly lost in a University Senate election? Is this the man who punched the wall close to Barbara Ramjan when he lost an SRC election to her? It was an event he couldn’t at first ‘remember’, and then said ‘it never happened’, despite witnesses to the contrary. But we all know Abbott is a self-confessed liar. Is this the man who subsequently called Ramjan ‘chair-thing’ during her subsequent term rather than her preferred title ‘chair person’?  Is this the man who abused Nicola Roxon and insulted the dying Bernie Banton?

Is this the man who as recently as last week in the leaders’ debate asked about Rudd: “Does this guy ever shut up?” It was a small infraction, of course grasped eagerly by the media, but it portrayed brittleness, it signalled thinly disguised aggression lurking just under the surface, aggression that could erupt with little provocation, as it did during university days. Hardly a desirable attribute in a national leader who would need to liaise with world leaders! Greg Jericho says this: “This could be Abbott’s version of the Latham handshake, because it feeds into the perception that already exists that Abbott is a bit of a brute – someone who is liable to snap if pushed a bit too hard." Happy Antipodean was blunter: “But every now and then - like last night - Abbott slips up and lowers the tone of social discourse to a level with which he – a father of three daughters! – is happiest with the after-game fly-off-the-rails barbarism of the teenage schoolboy. He's a disgrace to Australia.” Abbott’s recent sexist remarks about some of his candidates for election fit with this image. Read YaThink’s satirical take on his remarks.

Is this the man who from the moment Julia Gillard won the support of a majority of Independents and formed Government in 2010, labeled her as an illegitimate prime minister and her Government illegitimate? Is this the man who used over sixty motions to suspend standing orders to delegitimize her, the man who demonized her daily with vile appellations: ‘liar’, ‘incompetent’, ‘worst prime minister leading the worst government in Australian political history’, who sneered at her at every opportunity despite her record legislative achievements?

Abbott’s approach to opposition has been consistently denigratory and viciously revengeful. Abbott cannot tolerate being a loser. Losing brings out the vengeful side of his nature, the nastiest aspects of his behaviour.

Look at his opposition to Labor bills. He has opposed measures that he has supported in the past (an ETS is one example), simply to enjoy the satisfaction opposition afforded. He is a disciple of Randolph Churchill, and slavishly follows his dictum: “Oppositions should oppose everything, suggest nothing, and turf the government out”.

We would expect him to enjoy wreaking vengeance by repealing the carbon tax, the mining tax, and other Labor bills. Smashing what Labor has done is his pugilistic intent; demolition gives him satisfaction.

If he were to win, the bigger the majority the more intense and personal his vengeance would be. Voters need to know that vengeance is in his DNA. It would override any tendency to munificence that might emerge after a substantial victory. Remember his instruction to Malcolm Turnbull: “demolish the NBN”, an instruction Turnbull found a way to partly ignore. Demolition is Abbott’s preference.

Let’s look at some pretty obvious changes we could expect if Abbott prevails. Preston Towers has a nice account at AUSVOTES2013.

Tax changes
If he were to get a majority in both houses, we should expect not only the two major taxes to go, but also the carbon tax to be replaced by the underfunded, derisory Direct Action Plan, a plan way outside the carbon market system. There would also be a reversal of means testing of the private health insurance rebate, despite the Coalition agreeing to it earlier this year. Abandoned would be the recently mooted changes in the Fringe Benefits Tax in salary packages that enable the claiming of car expenses even when not used for business. Abbott would continue the rorting by the recipients, at taxpayers’ expense.

Industrial Relations
We would expect a revisiting of industrial relations despite Abbott’s ‘dead, buried and cremated’ reassurance, repeated again in the latest debate between the leaders. The pressure that commerce and industry is placing on Abbott would prove irresistible. Independent Australia sets out Abbott’s IR agenda in detail. Already he is talking about ‘flexible workplace reform’, and ‘moving the pendulum closer to the sensible middle’, which is code for the reintroduction of elements of WorkChoices by whatever more benign name Abbott invents. He would reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission with all its anti-union provisions. He would introduce union-bashing legislation to penalize dishonest union officials. In the event of his not having control of the Senate, some pay-offs might have to be made to the lesser parties and independents to implement his IR changes, which might include, for example, compromises to pro-lifer DLP John Madigan over the abortion issue.

Attacks on school funding
Although Abbott encouraged the Premiers to reject the Gonski reforms of school funding, when it became apparent that the people really did want the School Improvement Program implemented, and as more and more Premiers came on board, Abbott realized that to oppose it was such a vote loser that he endorsed it, claiming that he and Kevin Rudd were then on ‘a unity ticket’. Of course he has endorsed funding for only the first four years, whereas it is years five and six that are the most expensive. After all the talk of the program being a ‘Conski’, after Christopher Pyne’s insistence that the school funding system was not broken, after Abbott himself saying that if there was any funding inequity, it was the private schools that were missing out, we would expect Gonski to be revisited, subjected to yet another inquiry, and then watered down to reduce federal government support for public schools, thereby perpetuating the existing inequity. Abbott is even talking about encouraging public schools to become independent. Of course this would partly let him off the funding hook and satisfy his free market, user-pays ideology.

At the level of the family he has already announced the repeal of the ‘school kids bonus’, a move that would have its greatest effect on the poor in our community. He says he would use the money to fund in part his lavish PPL, one that so disproportionately favours the well off.

Attacks on the health system
We would expect an attack on elements of the health care system with GP super clinics and Medicare Locals his targets. We would wait with trepidation to see how he manages the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, and in particular drugs that are used to assist abortion. And his push against the NBN would be reflected in the health sector too, as some of the planned innovations, such as home monitoring, would be curtailed or rendered impossible.

On nurses and aged care workers, Abbott wants to support them by ‘reducing red tape’, and ‘paperwork’. Sounds great, doesn’t it. But where does the reducing begin? As Clarencegirl asks: “Would it be daily observation charts, case notes, individual treatment plans, outcomes of multidisciplinary case management conferences, filling in accident/incident registers, or more simple tasks like placing patients/residents on lists for podiatry treatment and filling in weekly menus for those who can no longer do such tasks for themselves? Or would it be paperwork proving staffing levels, that all staff were suitably qualified for the positions they hold and that emergency medical equipment is tested/serviced regularly?”

All of these moves would be characterized as necessary cost-saving exercises to repair ‘the desperately bad financial situation Labor bequeathed the Coalition’.

Global warming
Lurking beneath an exterior that now acknowledges the reality of global warming, and the possibility that human activity contributes to it, is a denier. Why else would Abbott propose a scheme such as his Direct Action Plan? Malcolm Turnbull sees it as a bogus scheme that could easily be ditched when it all becomes too difficult, too costly, too logistically impossible, and ineffectual in lowering pollution to boot, as most economists and environmentalists predict. Abbott would cite the budget situation as his excuse for not proceeding, but the real reason would be that he doesn’t believe global warming is worth bothering about. After all, ‘it was hotter in Jesus’ time’. He keeps insisting, as does the sycophantic Greg Hunt, that there is no move to carbon trading elsewhere, which there is, and that the US is adopting ‘direct action’, which it isn’t. Being into short-termism, Abbott would let the planet look after itself, while he goes about doing the easier things, and Hunt would go on spinning a story that does not coincide with his own beliefs. As Tristan Edis writes: “Last week the Climate Institute called Hunt’s bluff, releasing a study examining the economics of Hunt’s Direct Action fund. In spite of its generous assumptions in Hunt’s favour, the study concluded Direct Action was underfunded by at least $4 billion to achieve the minimum Coalition emission reduction target.”

NBN-Lite
One area in which Malcolm Turnbull excels is obfuscation. He is not only incapable of making complex telecommunications issues simple enough for the public to comprehend, he is even less capable when he is trying to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. When his heart is not in it, he stammers and stumbles and becomes incomprehensible. Again and again he has tried to represent his NBN-Lite as superior on the grounds that it would cost less and would roll out faster. But that advantage comes at the expense of quality. The Coalition scheme would give Australia a second rate NBN, which would leave business and agriculture less competitive internationally, and would make home health care, aged care and remote consultations much more difficult, if not impossible. But both Turnbull and Abbott insist that it would be ‘good enough’ for most users, and that the aging copper he would use for the last kilometre is capable of the speeds he is promising, which it isn’t. If it’s OK for Abbott’s daughters to download movies, and for him to send emails, I suppose that would have to do!

Talking about a Google+hangout in which Turnbull participated last week, Sortius is a Geek reports that Turnbull’s “…answers were dripped in the same arrogant dismissive tone that we’ve become accustomed to when Turnbull is interviewed or debated.” And “This was a deliberate attempt to derail any concerns over his plan being short sighted, and essentially a waste of money.”

The Coalition’s NBN-Lite costings are shrouded in mystery. Renai LeMay reported this week: “Delimiter requested a formal position from Turnbull’s spokesperson last week about whether the Shadow Communications Minister would submit the Coalition’s NBN policy to the Treasury, but has not yet received a direct answer on the issue.”

For an excellent appraisal of Labor’s NBN read Michael Taylor’s post on The Australian Independent Media Network, which concludes: “The future is an exciting place and the technological possibilities seem endless. But life and society will increasingly revolve around fast, ubiquitous, and always-on network connectivity. Labor’s NBN sets Australia up to be a part of this, and potentially to be a leading developer of the technologies that will shape the lives of the next generations.” Abbott cannot stomach Labor’s plan being the best.

After his initial instruction to Turnbull to ‘demolish the NBN’, Abbott would want to get as close as he could to that destructive approach with his NBN-Lite. And he certainly wouldn’t want to upset his idol, Rupert Murdoch. Be certain that he would move his NBN-Lite as close as he could to Murdoch’s requirements.

Asylum seeker policy
Little needs to said about this, except that Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison would drag the Coalition even deeper into the morass in which this issue wallows. They would seek to look more aggressive than the Government, would add more and more disincentives to their already punitive policy, as we have seen this week, and the dog whistling would heighten.

Just when it seemed they couldn’t possibly become more hairy-chested, they are now planning to spend millions ‘buying back the fishing boats’, presumably outbidding the people smugglers. As there are estimated to be three quarters of a million fishing boats in Indonesia, Morrison would be pretty busy, and would needs lots of money. If he were to buy them all, who would do the fishing? Crazy. Greg Jericho describes just how crazy.

Fiscal responsibility
Notwithstanding all the Coalition hype about Government debt and deficit, and how fiscal management would be so much better under the Coalition, the approach of Tony Abbott, Joe Hockey, Andrew Robb and Mathias Cormann to fiscal responsibility gives voters no confidence that the Coalition could and would do what it says it will. They often misrepresent the facts, distort the evidence, and cherry pick the data to push their point of view, and so far we have seen little of their policy costings, which they will hide until the last week of the election, when thorough critique will be impossible. They plan simply to bluff their way through. At his campaign launch today, Abbott set out an extended timeframe for a $4 billion surplus: the end of his first term! And a budget surplus of one per cent of GDP a decade hence! He’s retreating fast.

Ross Gittins insists that the Coalition has an obligation to show how it will pay for its election promises. He goes on to outline “the unworthy reasons for avoiding any firm commitment on when an Abbott government would get the budget back to surplus. I can think of three. Because it's a safe bet the Coalition parties intend to put their debt-and-deficit rhetoric on the back burner as soon as they're back in power and the fear campaign has served its purpose. Because, even in government, Tony Abbott is likely to prove an incorrigible populist with little interest in or sympathy for the precepts of rational economics. As is clear from the way he keeps departing from the agreed line in this campaign, Hockey, Arthur Sinodinos and Malcolm Turnbull would have an unending struggle trying to keep the boss up to the mark." Gittins concludes: “…because an Abbott government would have handicapped itself so badly on the tax side of the budget that fiscal responsibility would require a degree of continuing restraint on the spending side of which no flesh-and-blood government is capable.”

If an example of this is needed, just think about the fiscal contortions that have beset the funding of Abbott’s ‘signature policy’, his Paid Parental Leave scheme, which economists and many in his party, now including Nick Minchin, believe is not capable of being responsibly implemented.

We could expect no fiscal magic from Abbott, Hockey, and Co, and certainly no move that would up the ante on the wealthy. In contrast, we can see already their preparedness to move against the underprivileged, the workers, and the indigent. They have said they would kill the School Kids Bonus and the low income tax offset, reduce the tax free ceiling thereby disadvantaging the poorest, reverse the changes to the means tested private health insurance rebate, which would advantage the wealthy, and defer for two years the moving of superannuation from nine to twelve percent. And so the attack on the less-well-off would continue. Expect more, as Abbott believes these are Labor voters anyway.

I could go on and on describing what to expect should Abbott become PM, what vengeance to anticipate, but what I have described will have to suffice.

What is more disconcerting though than Abbott’s vengefulness is his weakness, weakness that would render him unable to resist the requests, the demands of his wealthy and influential sponsors.

Abbott the weak man

The ones who would call the shots, who would shout the orders to which Abbott would jump, are Rupert Murdoch and Gina Rinehart. Look at how obsequious Abbott is in the presence of these wealthy moguls.


Murdoch would want the threat to his Foxtel empire from the NBN neutralized. He would want no restrictions to his precious ‘freedom of the press’, which is code for him being able to say and print whatever he likes to support his commercial interests and his ideological preferences. Abbott would meekly comply; Murdoch would never see Abbott’s hairy chest. He would never see Abbott the boxer ready to flatten his adversary, or Abbott the student threatening his opponents.

Rinehart would want every concession she could wrench from Abbott, and would get it. He would make it easier for her to develop her mines, easier for her to avoid taxes that rightfully should support the common good. He would repeal the mining tax. He would support workers on 457 visas to build her mines. He would kiss her hand and give her what she demands, such as her plan for development of the North. The bravado Abbott shows against helpless asylum seekers would never be directed towards her; she is too prepossessing, too powerful, too determined to get her own way, too used to winning.

Of course, lesser lights such as Andrew Forrest would soon have his arm around Abbott seducing him to support Twiggy’s enterprises. Mitch Hooke of the Minerals Council of Australia would know that Abbott would jump if he clicks his fingers – he wouldn’t have to spend another $22 million on ads to get his way.

Peter Anderson of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry would have Abbott’s ear, urging him to reduce taxes, make the workplace more flexible, lessen red and green tape, minimize regulation, reduce company tax, and give business lots of incentives. Abbott would present an open door to the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group.

Abbott is a weak man who would not be able to resist the demands of powerful business and industry leaders. He would go wobbly at the knees and comply. He hasn’t got the ticker to stand firm.

Abbott has never acknowledged the reality of the global financial crisis and its ongoing sequelae; he has never acknowledged the ever-changing global economic circumstances and how Australia must adapt to them, even in his campaign launch today. It’s as if these situations never existed. Instead of giving voters a concrete ‘narrative’, the Holy Grail political journalists demanded of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, all he gave us today were his aspirations, some now stretched out over a decade. There were few concrete plans to achieve them, and no vision of what he wanted for this nation ten years from now. It’s so easy to mouth motherhood statements such his desire for ‘a stronger economy’, ‘more jobs’, ‘lower taxes’, ‘budget surpluses’, ‘better hospitals and schools’, and so on, but without concrete plans, they are just fine-sounding words, empty of substance. Why the paltry narrative? Is it because he awaits directives from the wealthy and the powerful? He creative slate looks blank, waiting as it seems to be for his mentors to write their narrative.

Perhaps even more sinisterly, Abbott would be subject to the pressure of his mentor, Cardinal George Pell. With his Catholic upbringing, with his Jesuit education so deeply entrenched in his psyche, he would weakly submit to the power of his Church, to the influence of his mentor. He would avoid policies that run counter to his Church’s dogma, as we are seeing manifest in his continuing unwillingness to allow a conscience vote in the Coalition on the matter of gay marriage. He would not be able to resist lobbying against abortion by his Church and the pro-lifers.

Should he become PM, this weakness of character would be even more detrimental to good governance, more dangerous to equity and fairness than the vengefulness that he would parade against the weak, against those who have no defence. The wealthy and powerful would prevail. Abbott, the weak man, would not resist.

Be afraid of an Abbott prime ministership, very afraid.

Say no, no, no to Tony Abbott.


Should you wish to ‘disseminate this post’, it will be sent to the following: Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz, Anthony Albanese, Julie Bishop, Chris Bowen, George Brandis, Mathias Cormann, Josh Frydenberg, Joe Hockey, Christine Milne, Scott Morrison, Christopher Pyne, Andrew Robb, Kevin Rudd, Bill Shorten, Arthur Sinodinos, Warren Truss, Malcolm Turnbull, Penny Wong and Nick Xenophon.

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Ad astra

25/08/2013Folks After witnessing the Coalition’s nauseating but impeccably stage-managed campaign launch today, after hearing the vicious, disingenuous, and at times unbecoming attacks on Labor and Kevin Rudd, after hearing an Abbott recital of aspirations without substance, some extending beyond the end the decade, it is time to hit back, time to paint the ugly picture of an Abbott government that today was painted as a White Knight in Shining Armour about to snatch the Distressed Maiden, the Australian people, from the mouth of the Fire-Breathing Labor Dragon. The title of this post arose out of a conversation I had with Talk Turkey this past week. He was keen to urge Labor supporters to rally with the catch-cry [b]“Say no, no, no to Tony Abbott”[/b]. This struck me as a worthy endeavour, and a suitable title for this week’s post. The piece details many, but not all the dire consequences of electing an Abbott government. It would take as much space again to detail them all. In just two weeks we will know who will govern this country for the next three years. Reflect on what we should expect if an Abbott government is inflicted upon us. [b]Please confine your comments to the theme of this post. I know there are many serious issues across the globe, but for the next two weeks let’s put them aside to concentrate on the most important contemporary issue for Australia – the next Federal Government. By all means comment on election matters as they arise during the week, but let’s focus our comments on the pivotal issue of selecting our next government.[/b] I will be interested to read your comments. [b]Please direct them to the issues rather than to others who post here. N’ellie May implored us with her wise words: [i]We must unite now, not tear apart.[/i] Let’s support each other; let’s respond gently to the comments of others.[/b]

Gravel

25/08/2013Ad Astra One of the main issues I found that you left out, what will he do about the Royal Commission into Child Abuse that is currently underway. I feel it would be dismantled for their 'saving' column.

Ad astra

25/08/2013Gravel I believe that if he tried to water down the Commission on Child Abuse, even if pressured to do so, all hell would break loose. That would be a big negative against him from most of the community, who are incensed at what has happened over the decades to children at the hands of their so-called protectors. I doubt if he would interfere despite his strong church allegiances.

Gravel

25/08/2013Ad Astra You certainly have more faith that he won't than I do. Let us hope we never find out what he 'would' have done.

Bacchus

25/08/2013Another excellent article Ad Astra :) You say, [quote]"Again and again he has tried to represent his NBN-Lite as superior on the grounds that it would cost less and would roll out faster. But that advantage comes at the expense of quality."[/quote] but there are those who suggest "NBN-Lite will actually cost much, much more than the real deal. Steve Jenkin, an IT Systems and Design Specialist - might know a thing or two about this stuff - makes the point that "[i]Fibre can pay for itself and make a profit, while upgrading somebody else's copper can only bring tears.[/i]" http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/nbn-what-can-fibre-do-that-copper-cant.html Further information, including the savings through "Telehealth" here: http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/nbn-slam-dunk-economic-reasons-for-fibre.html

Algernon

25/08/2013One could also add this is the man who got his goon squad to purger themselves in his sexual assault trial. This no no no is so unfit to be PM and on so many levels. Then again Rudd on insiders this morning stated that going to carbon price was wrong and corrected it by going to an ETS, huh this is the same bloke that thought that global warming was the greatest moral challenge of our time yet refused to go to a double dissolution when it was rejected twice in the senate. Talk about undermining the achievements of the Julia Gillard. Whilst Abbott might be under a lot of pressure from his sponsors to wind up the Royal commission into child abuse, I suspect he won't. His government if elected would collapse overnight.

Ad astra

25/08/2013Bacchus Thank you for your kind comment, and for the links to the two quality article on fibre versus copper on the NBN. I have bookmarked them both. Algernon I agree that Abbott would be in deep trouble if he interfered with the Child Abuse Commission. It was disappointing to hear Rudd's [i]mea culpa[/i] this morning. I doubt if that will win him any votes.

42 long

25/08/2013I missed it . Let's see what happens tomorrow night with Watson. he would have to be the most significant person who could be there at the moment.

Dan Rowden

25/08/2013In the interests of balance, with respect, specifically, to the issue of politicians contradicting themselves over time, I offer something that I found today that really disturbed me. It's Kevin Rudd's version of turning back the boats: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/rudd-to-turn-back-boatpeople/story-e6frg8yx-1111114943944

Marg

25/08/2013To quote Paul Keating, 'God help us' if this man ever becomes PM

cornlegend

25/08/2013Dan Rowden To be fair, people do move on, and policies change. That was a newspaper report from 2007 I think all sides have changed stance over what they believed 6 years ago Since then, he has implemented the PNG /Nauru/ Indonesia agreements

Richo

25/08/2013Dan Rowden important to not not only is that article from 2007 it is also from The Australian. Let us not forget the relentless anti labor campaign it has waged.

Dan Rowden

25/08/2013Corn, You know what, if you're prepared to cut Abbott the same "people do move on" slack, I'll concede your point. Richo, The story I cited contains direct quotes from Rudd. The News Limited campaign against him - current or historic - is irrelevant. How about we accept the simple reality that politicians from both sides are full of it?

Ad astra

25/08/2013Dan Rowden Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family, and thank you for your comment. Do come again. That turn back the boats policy of Rudd seemed to disappear pretty quickly. I can’t remember the history of it. But it does exemplify the way in which politicians do turn turtle when their policy positions are governed more by the imperative to gain a political advantage, rather than being based on thoughtful analysis and logic. It is that opportunistic streak which most politicians seem to have that makes voters so cynical of their motives and so skeptical about their character. Of course, it ought to be permissible for a politician or a party to have a change of mind or heart as circumstances change, but because they tend to adopt such extreme positions, often diametrically the opposite of their opponents, a change of heart or mind is not just difficult it’s embarrassing to boot. If only there was more honesty and strength of purpose among our leaders.

Ad astra

25/08/2013Marg, Richo I’m not sure if you have been here before (I haven’t got Lyn’s list with me), but if not, welcome to you both to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family, and thank you for your comments. Do come again. Marg, this whole piece is in line with Paul Keating’s: [i]'God help us' if this man ever becomes PM.[/i]

Ad astra

25/08/201342 long I'm sure we are all waiting to hear what Watson has to say!

Ad astra

25/08/2013Folks I'm calling it a day.

cornlegend

25/08/2013Dan, I'm quite happy to keep the stuff relevant to now. Abbott makes enough stuff ups daily to keep us amused. Just a reminder of how much things change. The same year as article you quoted. Murdoch supported Rudd. {2007} My how things have changed.

Leon

25/08/2013You don't need god, just the right tool for the job. In all honesty I want to see if it's possible to sic the AFP on him.

Dan Rowden

25/08/2013Ad astra, Thank you for the welcome. You said: "But it does exemplify the way in which politicians do turn turtle when their policy positions are governed more by the imperative to gain a political advantage, rather than being based on thoughtful analysis and logic." I couldn't agree more. But what is "political advantage"? I think, sadly, it has a strong connection to the electorate's irrational demands and expectations. It's hard to say whether politicians fail because of the nature of politics, or because we set them up to fail. I wonder, sometimes, if it isn't our fault that politicians lie to us. Corn, I agree that Abbott errs daily, but the fact is most of his detractors use old material to make him look bad. Mind you, the Liberal party can't really complain about that too much given that their "Plan" pamphlet is littered with Abbott quotes from 1994. E.g. "We stand for Government which backs Australia's families with real policies not just platitudes. Tony Abbott May 1994" I chose that one because it's really, really funny.

cornlegend

25/08/2013Dan, I reckon reading "Real Solutions" or listening to them on about "Project Sovereign Borders" or whatever its called is enough of a giggle to keep me current.Captain Tony, standing on the bow, binoculars in hand seeking out pesky refugee boats to turn back. Or super salesman Tony at Darwin harbour flogging used smuggler boats. Would you buy a boat from that man ? HOWEVER I guess I would be willing to play fair, about the same time Bolt, Jones,Akerman,Hadley Smith etc Murdoch and MSM do I reckon hell would freeze over by then .

Dan Rowden

25/08/2013Corn, Yeah, Captain Tony to the rescue, solving problems that don't actually exist. I guess he's the new Anti-Super Hero. As far as "playing fair" goes, I confess to feeling very awkward about the view that if "they" don't, we don't have to. One absolutely has to operate from a higher standard to legitimately condemn others. If not, the condemnation means nothing. It has no moral force. I think if we simply let the facts speak for themselves we're on solid ground. Yes, it's true the average voter may be more impressed by exploitation laced with logical fallacies than genuine facts, but if we're not above that, then we're simply - not above that.

Bilko

25/08/2013AA this excellent post needs twittering, that Australia could possibly elect a moron to be our next prime minister fills me with horror. The green posters around Canberra say keep the Senate Abbott proof, I say keep Australia abbott proof. Now it is not stop the boats but buy the boats how stupid is that where the hell is our media when you need it

Matilda

26/08/2013Thanks, Ad astra for this post. I confess to only reading parts of it for now, as to read it all in one sitting makes me quite fearful, angry and sad for my country. Matilda

lyn

26/08/2013Today’s Links Jealous Julie by @denniallen Oh Ms Bishop – how very wrong you are – and how dare you try to turn yours and Tony Abbott’s constant vile, vicious verbal and visual attacks on Ms Gillard as her fault. You, Ms Bishop are no shining light yourself. Let me remind people of the sort of woman you are. http://denniallen.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/jealous-julie/ Tony Abbott: the man who’s somewhere else by @independentaus His attitude arises from a profound lack of interest in the multi-faceted society he wants to lead; it’s an attitude that has led to our current parlous lack of depth (or truth) in public discussion about public policy. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbott-the-man-whos-somewhere-else/ An Open Letter to Journalists at News Ltd by @Vic_Rollison Not one of you has stood up for journalistic integrity and said ‘enough’. Not one of you has said your pay cheque isn’t more important to you than your ethics. And what about all the jobs your readers will lose because of your campaign? You know Tony Abbott has proudly announced that he’ll sack 12,000 public servants. http://theaimn.com/2013/08/25/an-open-letter-to-journalists-at-news-ltd/ Tony Abbott’s manipulation of public perception by @350ppmJames Abbott’s hypocrisy is staggering. In reality, it is he and his Liberal Party who have for three years led a relentlessly negative campaign against Labor, its successive leaders Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, and the Greens whose vote Labor relied upon. Instead of presenting an alternative policy vision, the Liberals have spent most of their time inventing baseless reasons why the incumbent government and its policies are illegitimate. http://precariousclimate.com/2013/08/24/tony-abbott-harnessing-public-perception/ Tony Abbott campaign launch: trust me to govern, says Coalition leader by Lenore Taylor It was Abbott’s deputy, foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, who delivered the most negative attack lines, saying Rudd reminded her of “the Incredible Hulk … suppressing a monster inside that can be unleashed on an unsuspecting public servant, or a flight steward, or even a makeup artist” – this last a reference to a minor flurry http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/25/tony-abbott-campaign-launch-trust-me-to-govern-says- A disaster worse than Abbott as PM by @LarvatusProdeo If Abbott becomes PM on 7 September, chances are that the sun will rise again on the 8th, as it has since earth took its place in the solar system. That same sun, however, can do serious damage to our civilisation with effectively no warning. http://larvatusprodeo.net/archives/2013/08/a-disaster-worse-than-abbott-as-pm/ Tony Abbott. One. Last. Punch by @TheHoopla As a former boxer I suppose Tony Abbott can’t resist throwing one last punchdrunk, swinging haymaker even as his former opponent is sitting in the dressing room having her wounds attended to. http://thehoopla.com.au/abbott-punch/ What to expect from a Liberal Government BY @MyCommentBlog in his words, “women of calibre”. It is deeply offending that anyone would single out “women of calibre” – whoever they may be – as deserving special mention when it came to having children. His views on women’s role in society, contraception, motherhood and role in the family, and gay marriage are out of touch with mainstream Australia. http://mycomment.com.au/2013/08/what-to-expect-from-a-liberal-government-2/ Coalition launch: another Abbott unity ticket — on fiscal policy by Benard Keane . After claiming the Coalition would get rid of Labor’s waste — “big”, “small” and “ridiculous”, Abbott announced by the end of his first term his government would be “on track to a believable surplus”. At best, this would be a surplus in 2016-17, the same year as Labor, or later. http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/08/25/coalition-launch-another-abbott-unity-ticket-on-fiscal-policy/ Campaign promises: spends & savings so far... by Crikey Cash Tracker http://election.crikey.com.au/cash-tracker/ Let’s be frank. by @AshGhebranious Yeah thats right. The carbon TAX was fully franked. Business can apply for a tax credit where they can show they are due one. The PPL levy is NOT frankable. That means business will not be able to frank 1 billion dollars a year and no doubt this will flow on to the community. http://ashghebranious.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/lets-be-frank/ LAST HOPE by @nicstuart Labor’s concern is to mobilise the masses. As long as they’re concerned enough to cast a formal vote the rest will look after itself. Expect the hype to increase even further. As long as people think there’s a real choice – and a real danger to their hip pocket – Labor’s still in with a chance. Despite the polling nightmare. http://nicstuart.blogspot.com.au/ Tony Abbott has gone completely MAD!!! by @Billablog It doesn't matter if you're an honest fisherman or a callous people smuggler. If you've got something that will float, Tony Abbott offering you cold, hard, Aussie cash!** http://the-billablog.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/tony-abbott-has-gone-mad.html Is Tony Australia’s Mitt Romney by @archiearchive Rupert is continuing with the over-kill in support of Tony Abbott. Rupert has so convinced his minions of an inevitable victory that more and more we are hearing Tony Abbott being referred to as “The Prime Minister. The polls often do not make a lot of sense either. http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/is-tony-australias-mitt-romney/ Election 2013- Day 19 (or, the litmus test) by @GrogsGamut Tony Abbott now a couple week’s away form being PM wants everyone to pretend the past 3 years have not been the grubbiest sh*tfest from Abbott and his cohorts. What a pathetic “exclusive” from Mark Baker http://grogsgamut.blogspot.com.au/ Not Every Untruth Is A Lie by Dan Rowden an Abbott-esque slogan. I think it’s far wiser to concentrate on his ineptitude and inability to intellectually cope with the demands of high office and the task of properly weaving his mind around the complex fabric of policy detail. It’s better to present Tony Abbott as unequipped and unskilled rather than untruthful, http://theaimn.com/2013/08/25/not-every-untruth-is-a-lie/ Public comments on media bias by @btckr The Daily Telegraph front page cartoons have been causing a stir. Only one has resulted in a ruling, ordering an apology, by the Australian Press Council. That does not mean that only one has been the subject of a complaint. http://truthinmediaresourcecentre.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/public-comments-on-media-bias/ How to solve the long Senate ballots problem by @jeremysear Remember – if you stuff up numbering the 110 boxes in the NSW Senate paper, your entire vote is discarded. So if you’re not going to put 1 above the line and leave your preferences in the hand of a “faceless man” (who might transfer your vote to a fringe religious nutcase like Fielding, for example) http://anonymouslefty.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/how-to-solve-the-long-senate-ballots-problem/ Tour the political twittersphere by @electionwatch_ As the campaign progresses and we here at Election Watch collect richer data on just how - and how frequently - MPs are using use social media, this section will be updated with insights and analysis. http://2013electionwatch.com.au/analysis/tour-political-twittersphere#twittersphere NBN: What an Abbott government will cost you by @SteveJ_CBR Turnbull isn't offering "NBN-Lite" but "NBN Not!" . He's created a deception of truly astounding proportions. Since April, he's not just duped ordinary voters, but the entire media, especially the normally rational and cautious elite of our business reporters. He's confused people like Alan Kohler, which I've never seen before. http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/ Mythconceptional Mal by @sortius The question is: are we prepared to throw out 6 years of work to satisfy a rhetorical slogan that, when examined, is deliberately misleading.Turnbull is not trying to do what’s best for Australia, he’s doing what’s best for his job, nothing more. Ethics, morality, & honesty have no place in a party so hell bent on getting into power. http://sortius-is-a-geek.com/?p=3333 Internet Policies Compared by @itsTorin So, here’s the verdict. If you want a network that lasts, and will secure Australia’s future, despite being completed a few years later then the Labor NBN plan is clearly the winner. Otherwise, if a dated copper network affected by weather, with speeds slower than the rest of the world suits your taste, then pick Fraudband. http://torinpeel.com/author/torin/ Tony Abbott, Netball Dad: the Coalition Campaign launch | Sunday 25 August 2013 by @therevmountain http://thisisaustraliatoday.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/tony-abbott-netball-dad-the-coalition-campaign-launch- Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 26 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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26/08/2013Matilda Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family and for your comment. Do come agin. We ought to be very fearful at the prospect of an Abbott prime ministership. Bilko Thank you for your complimentary remarks. Indeed, we do need an Abbott-proof fence around this country.

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26/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

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26/08/2013Dan Rowden I enjoyed reading your well written and insightful piece [i]Not Every Untruth Is A Lie[/i] in the [i]AIMN[/i] that was in Lyn’s Links this morning. Accusations of lying are thrown about willy nilly by politicians and commentators; anyone so inclined should read your piece: http://theaimn.com/2013/08/25/not-every-untruth-is-a-lie/

Dan Rowden

26/08/2013Ad astra, Thanks for the compliment. I do think everyone involved in politics, including ourselves, has gone a little bit nutty with respect to accusations of lying. I know I wouldn't be impressed if I was called a liar simply because I expressed a view that someone thought was wrong. Plus there's a little bit of the boy who cried wolf about it all. When the real lies come, will we give them the critical weight they deserve or will it just be seen as business as usual?

lyn

26/08/2013Hi Dan, Welcome to the Political Sword & thankyou for your opinion. I have to tell you though Lie, Liar, Lies was invented by Tony Abbott, the last three years of QT I wonder how many times he called Julia Gillard a Liar. Thousands and so bad the word was banned by Anna Speaker.

Gordonwa

26/08/2013Hi Ad, Another fine piece of writing that goes to the heart of the main issues in this election. I haven't posted many comments here lately but I do visit every day to read other swordster comments and, of course, for Lyn's encyclopedic links. One reason for my lack of comment is that I have recently taken to twitter and it has eaten up my life and destroyed my thought process. If I can't fit it into 140 characters then it doesn't exist. The great thing about twitter is that you can choose who to follow and you can respond immediately to anything that is happening in the political sphere. I tweet your articles to my followers to spread your words and so I feel I'm doing my bit. Keep up the great work!

Sir Ian Crisp

26/08/2013[quote] The quickening disintegration of Tony Abbott By Ad Astra Abbott has an established reputation as a vicious attack-dog, a vacuous bully-boy, and a bad-tempered head kicker who hates losing. His arms outstretched, he sees the keys to The Lodge receding. He sees a dead cert turning into a tight contest. He sees his tactical weapons deactivated one after the other. He sees his options diminishing. He sees the popularity of his new adversary rising, the polls reversing, his chances evaporating. He is angry, dismayed, uncertain, unable to struggle out of the slogan-driven rut that has been his home for three years, unable to reinvent himself. He looks tense and desperate. Rudd is playing with his mind, until today leaving him uncertain about the election date, uncertain about what Rudd will do next, uncertain about what he should do next. Uncertainty breeds anxiety and self-doubt. Both corrode. Disintegration follows: steady, then quickening, finally inexorable. It is now clear for all to see. What do you think? [/quote] Juxtapose the above with the latest opinion piece from Ad Astra and one gets the opinion that panic has replaced hubris. Are we headed for an Abbott government? The polls at this stage would suggest we are. If we do get an Abbott government Ad Astra will go down as the 2013 version of Marshall Applewhite. He will owe all those poor deluded souls at TPS a heartfelt apology for leading them astray. Should Abbott win the election Ad Astra must ban himself from blogging or he must tether his opinion pieces to reality and say goodbye to dereism forever. [quote]Should he become PM, this weakness of character would be even more detrimental to good governance, more dangerous to equity and fairness than the vengefulness that he would parade against the weak, against those who have no defence. The wealthy and powerful would prevail. Abbott, the weak man, would not resist. Be afraid of an Abbott prime ministership, very afraid. Say no, no, no to Tony Abbott. By Ad Astra [/quote]

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26/08/2013Faine with Watson 774 NOW.

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26/08/2013Gordonwa Many thanks for your compliment. I understand that Twitter is addictive. I haven’t yet succumbed. My only tweets are when I post Lyn’s Links and a new piece. Thank you for re-tweeting posts on [i]TPS[/i]. 42 long Thankyou. Watson is also on Q&A tonight. He will add some spice.

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26/08/2013Hi Lyn Once more your links were magnificent. Isn’t it amazing how many are warning of what would happen if an Abbott Government were to be elected on September 7? The more warning, the less likelihood of an Abbott disaster. Let’s hope people are listening. The pieces on the NBN too were noteworthy. [i]Sortius is a geek[/i] puts paid to Turnbull’s NBN-Lite, concluding “[i]Turnbull is not trying to do what’s best for Australia, he’s doing what’s best for his job, nothing more. Ethics, morality, & honesty have no place in a party so hell bent on getting into power.”[/i] That sums it up pretty well.

lyn

26/08/2013Hi Ad, Thankyou for another fantastic article, you sure can tap them out to our delight. Glad you enjoyed this morning links. Although I enjoy all the linked articles one this morning captured me. [quote]"Last Hope" posted by Nic Stuart from The Canberra Times [/quote]That’s why Rudd keeps banging on about what Abbott might do if he slipped into power. It’s a very specifically targeted message and it’s aimed at a constituency Labor desperately needs. http://nicstuart.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/last-hope.html#more You know the weirdest statement by Abbott as per your article Ad, and I have heard him say this over and over again [quote]“telling us recently that he 'has grown, developed and matured' since those long past days [/quote]. To me that means Abbott and anyone else can say whatever they like yesterday because the next day they have “Grown” somebody should tell Abbott Julia and Kevin have grown too in fact the whole Government has Grown. This shows on his face , your words [quote]Ad“consistently denigratory and viciously revengeful. Abbott cannot tolerate being a loser”[/quote]showed when he said the Shutup it was all because he couldn’t stand not knowing how to answer or having an answer . Speaking of Tom Watson, have you seen this article : [quote]Murdoch's election coverage 'insult to Australians' [/quote]by Michael Lallo While Mr Watson's Australian media tour - including ABC1's Q&A on Monday night - is sponsored entirely by activist group Avaaz, he is open in his support of Kevin Rudd. Yet he believes Mr Murdoch's desire to unseat the Prime Minister could succeed. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/murdochs-election-coverage-insult-to-australians-20130825-2sjz8.html#ixzz2d2v8cX00 Essential Poll is out but not available anywhere except Twitter: TheFinnigans #Essential 2PP: ALP 50 LNP 50 #ausvotes - Even in Zimbabwe they wouldnt call this election to Mugabe as yet but here the media/ABC have GhostWhoVotes ‏ #Essential Poll 2 Party Preferred: ALP 50 (0) L/NP 50 (0) GhostWhoVotes #Essential Poll Primary Votes: ALP 38 (-2) L/NP 43 (-1) GRN 11 (+3) GhostWhoVotes ‏ #Essential Poll Rudd: Approve 41 (-4) Disapprove 45 (+2) GhostWhoVotes ‏ #Essential Poll Abbott: Approve 37 (0) Disapprove 52 (+1) Tony The Geek Rulz ‏ Too close to call. Won't be reported :) RT @GhostWhoVotes: #Essential Poll 2 Party Preferred: ALP 50 (0) L/NP 50 (0)

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26/08/2013Hi Lyn Thank you for your kind comments and the extra links; they are most interesting reading. Nick Stuart write a fascinating article, which coupled with today’s [i]Essential Poll[/i] suggests that it may be premature to write off Labor. We are all waiting for what Tom Watson has to say on Q&A tonight.

Mick P

26/08/2013Thanks Ad for another very insightful view of the prospect of an Abbott government I agree with your summery in it's entirety. The press would have us believe the good old Tones has morphed from Howard's Attack Dog to Mr Congeniality and yet when one looks at this blokes record both in opposition and as minister in the Howard Government the facts do not support the Mr Congeniality persona. This bloke wants to be the leader of this nation and only recently refers to one of the female candidate as a person who it would be appealing to have sex with called Sex Appeal. Fiona Scott laughs of Tones comment as endearing gesture between friends and regards the reference by Abbott that it's okay for him to tell the press and a bunch of strangers she has sex appeal (it is appealing to have sex with her) Ad, I believed that I can without prejudice speak on behalf of most of the men and even women who contribute to you blog that I have never introduced any of my family including three daughters to anyone using term sex appeal. His daughter just laugh if off as dad having one of his daddy moments. Amanda Vanstone on late line also laughs of his comment stating the we girls often refer to men was being well stacked. I will be waiting with baited breath hear Vanstone introduce he husband to stranger as a man of character and by the way as you can observe he is well stacked. Unfortunately for the rest of us old Tones is protected by the Murdoch teflon coated umbrella of silence on these gaffes and any criticism blown away never to be exposed for what Abbott's is a Sexist boofhead. The Murdoch empire is like a giant carbuncle on the arse of society. Spreading out over the surface of the news limiturd, creating multiple pustular lesions and infecting all the editors with his own unique toxicity.

Michael

26/08/2013Teeter teeter tilt... Splat! The Coalition's lead into Election Day.

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26/08/2013Folks In view of Lyn's comments, you may be interested in today's [i]Essential Report[/i]: http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport

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26/08/2013Mick P Thank you for your kind comment, and your remarks about Abbott's 'sexism'. You final comment is apt: "[i]The Murdoch empire is like a giant carbuncle on the arse of society. Spreading out over the surface of the news limiturd, creating multiple pustular lesions and infecting all the editors with his own unique toxicity.[/i]"

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26/08/2013I got news polled the other day. Watson is an interesting fellow. The way he was treated should let all people who care know what can happen. Being on the wrong side of popular "shaped" opinion should not be a health risk. Keep remembering Germany. Tony wants your vote now . That is why he is being careful. Don't forget how his henchmen behave, how he fully supports Can Do with sackings. How he tried to dissuade Liberal state governments signing up for Gonsky which became CON ski. This guy will promise ANYTHING to ANYONE to get what HE wants. Govern for ALL of Australia!!!. Believe THAT when I see it . No sign of it up till now. How can you go along with what the IPA say and say that you will help ALL Australians. I think you LIE Tony.

Michael

26/08/2013Abbott told Tony Windsor he'd sell anything to be PM, except his arse. Is that 'cause it's already gone to an earlier buyer? For definite!

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26/08/2013Murdoch supported "...." The question is therefore what did said person have to do to get that endorsement. I regard it as a "kiss of death" in the integrity stakes. I don't see murdoch as a philanthropist I have listened to all of his speeches that came before me ever.. He has been consistent. If he recommended something it was GOOD. (For him)' His "WAY" You can do it my way or the hard way. Let's be clear about this. I want (abc) You want to be in government? Doesn't seem like a problem if we have the right arrangements in place. I know what is good. FREE speech and small government. I'll handle both.

KHTAGH

26/08/2013Another great read AA, Waves hello to all Swordians. [quote] Abbott cannot tolerate being a loser. Losing brings out the vengeful side of his nature, the nastiest aspects of his behaviour.[/quote] This is the biggest reason I want to see him lose the election, he wont go quietly I'm sure he will let rip with a mouthful, people will see the bullet we all dodged, well I hope we do. I'm finally back after being offline for a while due to someone down the road rearranging the Telstra cable with a backhoe a few weeks ago. Now to try to catch up with so many of Lyn's links, big hugs & kisses to our tweetie bird. X♥♥♥X

VoterBentleigh

26/08/2013The Opposition Leader has made the election all about character, so he cannot complain if the electorate examine his character. He has been two-faced on the environment and on the GST to name only two policy areas. Today he claimed that the Coalition would maintain the “highest possible” environmental standards, but on the basis of the “right” science. There is no right or wrong science, since science is based upon the systematic testing and analysis of information and theory. So while science accepts it is not infallible, as new information may be added, one can hardly speak of the “right” science. It is either science or it is not. What is astounding is that Abbott dismisses the marine park policy based upon absolutely no science at all! Significantly, apart from the Opposition's pillars of negativity, repealing the carbon and mining tax and expunging the federal public service, the Opposition Leader never commits to anything. He always avoids commitment. Everything he says is qualified, so that he can never be held to account. At least Labor and even the Greens make promises and can be held to account. Even his commitment to a surplus is beginning to wane - “it'll be better than Labor” seems to be his latest qualification. Without a commitment, the electorate basically have nothing. As far as I am concerned, no commitment, no vote. Finally, why are Labor or the left talking as though the Opposition has won the election? The right seem to ignore the polls and maintain their lines of attack,no matter what, but the left go all weak at the knees, alter policy and backtrack. Take heart. The Opposition are worried. Remember that they are not the government. Why is Murdoch tweeting so incessantly if Abbott is so far ahead in the polls? Why is the Murdoch press using all their fading ink to bring down the Government? Because they are worried. The electorate is smarter than the MSM and the Opposition give them credit for being. Take heart in your fellow human beings and don't call the electorate idiots or fools - keep arguing the positives of Labor's policies compared with the complete lack of commitment on the Opposition side. Ad Astra, a good analysis of the weaknesses in the Coalition's policies on health, education, environment and the economy.

lyn

26/08/2013Hi KHTAGH Thankyou for the delightful kisses you have made my day ♥♥xx Gee it is good to see you back here, pleased you have those cables sorted out. You guessed exactly what I think [quote]"he wont go quietly "[/quote] probably call for a re-count, accuse Labor of cheating, anything call in the Army declare war, call the Navy he will go screaming crazy. :):):):)

TalkTurkey

26/08/2013Good Morning All, 7.40 AM Ad I bet I can already guess Next week you'll urge a Labor YES! I'm here at the early polling centre where I 'll be all day for the next two weeks, except today I'll miss the next few hours for a medical checkup. I've set up for my partner J**** to do the job while I'm gone. Long hours for us Old Farts in the very cold wet windy weather but we'll weather the weather whatever the weather with my igloomobile RV being never-so-useful as a base, voters must walk right past it on their way in, and we are very friendly, all us Old Farts know just what to do. There are some piggish people though, just a smallish proportion but I think they're all Caucasian the nasty ones. Makes ya proud. I get here at least an hour early so the Piggish Party People can't get my treasured parking space. I'm set up before Bovver Boy even gets here to set up their fancy stupid gazebo which would be great for summer but has no sides and the wind and rain gives the nasties a hard time and wets their printed blurb while I chortle inwardly. Bovver Boy and Flathead are two workers in their late 20s/ early 30's. Flathead has a hairdo where his hair has been pushed UP under the influence of eggwhite I assume, plastered up against a frying-pan so it is absolutely flat on top over an area wider then his head itself, oh he does look precious. He is a mincing gay with that awful affected effeminate voice and he is REALLY nasty. He wantonly abused one of Us on Wednesday when she - a woman in her 60s - politely offered him a HTV card, not knowing he was one of Them. He snarled at her, spat out [i]Vote for your mob? You've ruined the whole country![/i] Folks I'm only a little old feller and he's a much bigger young bloke but I arced up, I sure put the fear of Dog into this prick, I fronted him after he came out from the polling booth (he was just casting his own vote as it happened,)[i][b]NOW LISTEN YOU![/b][/i] I barked at him as he came to a gate he had to pass through, and taught him a thing or two about proper behaviour between opposing camps for 3 weeks in a row. He slunk away, har har. Next day Waste-of-Space Andrew Southcott MHR Himself came to visit his boys and I fronted him too about Flathead, he said in a voice you could hardly hear I'll have a word with him. Flathead was there on Friday but not today, I reckon I got him bluffed. Anyway I started this early this morning, I'm knocked off and home now and it's nearly dark. Weary one me. But I'd have to be a lot wearier before I wouldn't join in a chorus of [i][b]No Abborrrtt NO Abborrrtt NO NO NO![/b][/i] Good one Ad. [b]VENCEREMOS![/b]

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26/08/2013KHTAGH Thank you for your kind words. It’s good to have you back after the interruption to your Internet. I agree with your sentiments: “[i]This is the biggest reason I want to see him lose the election, he wont go quietly I'm sure he will let rip with a mouthful, people will see the bullet we all dodged, well I hope we do.”[/i] VoterBentleigh Thank you for your complimentary remarks. You ask good questions and give good answers: “[i]Why is Murdoch tweeting so incessantly if Abbott is so far ahead in the polls? Why is the Murdoch press using all their fading ink to bring down the Government? Because they are worried. The electorate is smarter than the MSM and the Opposition give them credit for being. Take heart in your fellow human beings and don't call the electorate idiots or fools - keep arguing the positives of Labor's policies compared with the complete lack of commitment on the Opposition side.”[/i] Talk Turkey Thank you for your compliment, and for describing how you are spending your days. You are putting your efforts where your heart is. That is real devotion to Labor. Re the subject of the next piece, if you plant seeds something grows! [b]VENCEREMOS![/b]

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26/08/2013Folks I'm off to watch ABC TV. Q&A should be fascinating.

cornlegend

26/08/2013https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/election-2013/abbotts-quotes/tony-abbotts-quotes-2013?t=dXNlcmlkPTgwMjI3OSxlbWFpbGlkPTI0NTc=

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26/08/2013Folks I was encouraged by the content of questions on Q&A tonight, and the audience reaction. Tom Watson's contribution following the Media Watch assessment of the Murdoch influence on the political campaign highlighted how pernicious this man Murdoch is. The audience appeared to be warmly supportive of the anti-Murdoch rhetoric. It was a good Q&A for Labor tonight. Next week Kevin Rudd will be on Q&A, with or without Tony Abbott, who Tony Jones says is still making up his mind about whether he will front.

TalkTurkey

26/08/2013Ad You bring tears to my heart. We're gonna win this bloody fight in the last ten days. Gordon said the media would turn as from the penultimate Wednesday. Admittedly the media was never like this but it's NOW or it's NEVER that journalism clutches at itself or condemns itself forever. Watched the #QandA show. Tom Watson got a tiny proportion of the commentary but what he did get to say met REAL applause. Troutmouth O'Dwyer & Stinky Tim Wilson got CREAMED by - most especially - the blonde woman Sally, but also by Shorten and Tom Watson. And I think this is the crack in the iceberg. This is true: the thunderous noise that is heard when a glacier calves an iceberg is just a bigger version of the cracking of icecubes in a glass of water. It is caused by the fact that the crack itself runs through the ice at [i]faster than the speed of sound![/i]It is a sonic boom! So look out you bastard Abborrttians. We're gonna do you. I feel a lot better after this QandA. We won it hands down. Take heart Comrades. Go and help [i]wherever you can[/i]. At your grandkids' schools. At your bowls clubs. In the local shops. DON'T BE 'SHAME TO TOUT LABOR! Best of All, JOIN THE LABOR PARTY NOW! J**** joined up a new Member today while she took my post while I went for a medical - first time she's ever been on a Labor team effort! WE MUST NOT LET ABBORRTT WIN! Comrades, [i]find some way [/i]of using your talent to help us win! DO IT NOW! [i][b]VENCEREMOS![/b][/i]

Patriciawa

27/08/2013Agree with you, Ad Astra, about the audience tonight. Although, it being so largely drawn from the Writers' Festival attendees, wasn't it likely to be more progressive and anti Newscorp than the norm? I was puzzled by that closing comment from Tony Jones re Abbbott's being [i]'offered the same as PM Rudd.'[/i] Did he mean being the sole interviewee at another time? Watching Foreign Minister Bob Carr on Lateline this evening should have been required viewing for all Oz voters in this coming election. Perhaps then they could ask themselves if they really want a Julie Bishop Foreign Minister to replace him as our representative on the world stage making life and death decisions for us all?

lyn

27/08/2013Today’s Links Wage rise blowout a figment of Coalition’s imagination by @GrogsGamut In his campaign launch speech on Sunday, Tony Abbott talked of returning IR to the “sensible centre”. It’s a claim based on the view that unions now have too much power. If that is true, there is scant evidence they have used it to gain excess wage rises which have decoupled earnings from productivity. http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2013/aug/26/wages-blowout-in-coalition-imagination Dr Abbott heals the space/time rift by @macro_business Only a Time Lord, or human hybrid, could make such a speech without triggering a singularity event. After six years of surplus worship, deficit bashing and hysteria in opposition, on the verge of government Mr Abbott has thrown it all aside and campaigned on a ten year agenda for which he clearly knows the outcome because he’s already visited Australia in 2023. From the AFR: http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/08/dr-abbott-heals-the-spacetime-rift/ Federal politics – voting intention by Essential Two Party Preferred: 26 Aug 2013, Labor 50% Coalition 5% 35% support the Government’s paid parental leave scheme and 24% support the Coalition’s scheme more. 28% support neither scheme http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport Tony piggybacks on Labor’s piggy bank by @TheKouk Having agreed to Labor’s policy proposals on DisabilityCare, the increase in the Medicare levy and education funding, Opposition leader Tony Abbott has moved the Coalition’s fiscal policy plans for the return to surplus and government debt to equal that outlined by the government No longer is Abbott promising a bigger or earlier budget surplus. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/26/election/tony-piggybacks-labors-piggy-bank Labor support lifts: Newspoll by Business Spectator The poll, conducted for The Australian on the weekend, revealed Labor's primary vote rose three percentage points to 37 per cent, the highest in three weeks, while the coalition's was unchanged on 47 per cent. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2013/8/26/election/labor-support-lifts-newspoll Fiscal multipliers and employment (wonkish) by @JohnQuiggin2 My main concern is that Abbott has locked himself so thoroughly into the rhetoric of surplus that, in the event of a downturn or recession, he will feel compelled to adopt the kinds of austerity measures that have had a disastrous impact in Europe and prevented any real recovery in the US http://johnquiggin.com/2013/08/26/fiscal-multipliers-and-employment-wonkish/ Should a balanced budget be the ultimate outcome of election promises? by @ConversationEDU Tony Abbott appeared to renege on his previous announcement to bring the budget back to surplus in the first term of the Coalition government. Instead, he said that voters will be told before the 2016 election when the budget will return to balance. At the same time, he outlined a ten year timetable for reforms that should help generate budgetary savings http://theconversation.com/should-a-balanced-budget-be-the-ultimate-outcome-of-election-promises-17145 FactCheck: does Labor massively outspend the Coalition during election campaigns? by @ConversationEDU Verdict: While there is no comprehensive data available, we can say that Tony Abbott’s bald claim that in every recent election, Labor has outspent the Coalition is false. Abbott’s underlying gripe presumably is that union campaigns invariably boost Labor. But this has been offset in recent years by business campaigns against Labor. http://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-labor-massively-outspend-the-coalition-during-election-campaigns-17363 Abbott shifts timeline on Coalition's budget surplus pledge by ABC If the current projections turn out to be correct, we will do better than Labor, that means we will have a surplus by 2016-17," he told Radio National Breakfast. The latest economic forecasts, released by the Government in early August, showed Labor delivering a surplus of $4 billion - also in 2016-17. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-26/confusion-over-coalitions-surplus-pledge/4912356 Tony Abbott: Choose Real Change by @newsfliporg So not only do you have a ‘real’ ‘choice’, but now it is “the only way”. I thought the point of a choice was to have alternatives, but Abbott and the LNP will find it less and less difficult to hide their authoritarian, know-all, born-to-rule mentality, should they win the next election. http://www.newsflip.org/2013/08/tony-abbott-choose-real-change.html Does cutting company tax increase wages? > Check the facts by Factsfightback Who: “By cutting corporate taxes we…boost real wage growth,” The Coalition’s ‘Our Plan. the studies cited to support the claim do not apply in a tax system that includes dividend imputation. This means company tax is treated as a pre-payment on behalf of individual taxpayers who receive dividends and then receive a credit for the company tax already paid. The ultimate owners of the business do not benefit from company tax cuts. http://www.factsfightback.org.au/does-cutting-company-tax-increase-wages-check-the-facts/ Where's Tony Abbott's third daughter- by @no_filter_Yamba Rumour has it that she is busy this year progressing the policies/aims of the current Australian Labor Government and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sen. Bob Carr, as an Executive Assistant with the Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva. http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/australian-federal-election-2013-wheres.html Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promising to pay back a mate on the 2013 federal election by @no_filter_Yamba Brisbane Broncos Limited has net assets valued at $26.6 million, total liabilities of $7.8 million, holds cash/cash equivalents of $15.1 million, has consolidated revenue of $19.2 million (including interest revenue of $386,578) and a profit before income tax so far this year of $2.7 million.So how can a reasonable person not see Abbott's $5 million pledge as a pot sweetener for his most powerful backer http://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com.au/ News That’s Fit To Punt – 26/Aug/2013, Mr. Rabbit On The Loose by artneuro Of all the things people could do, the worst thing would be to vote for Tony Abbott’s coalition. His government is not going to do anything but widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor and make us an even more hateful, self-possessed, mean-spirited country. He will be a Prime Minster you’d be ashamed to show anybody. http://artneuro.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/news-thats-fit-to-punt-26aug2013/ And Heeeeeeres Tony by @TheHoopla There was no sign of the old “Dr. No” Tony Abbott, with fighting gloves and a poisonous tongue – the man who ten years ago (maybe even five) no-one thought was electable. This was Tony Abbott mark 2, a calmer man, a daggy dad who barracks from the sidelines at the netball, who says he can be trusted. http://thehoopla.com.au/heeeeeeres-tony/ It Was Col Allan Wot Won It! Is Tony Abbott ready for his new BFF? by @NeilChenoweth At some point the operational centre running the Liberal Party’s federal election campaign has to consider the mess that Tony Abbott has got himself into with Rupert Murdoch. Under Col Allan, News Corp Australia has unleashed an extraordinary campaign to denigrate the Labor Prime Minister at every opportunity, while endlessly praising Tony Abbott. http://neilchenoweth.com/2013/08/26/it-was-col-wot-won-it-is-tony-abbott-ready-for-his-new-bff/ Labor and Coalition should join forces against Murdoch - Tom Watson by Oliver Milman He's got his own ideology but for him it's about business," Watson told the ABC's Jon Faine on Monday morning. "That's the dangerous thing – what lies behind those interests. Why is he backing a particular candidate?" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/26/australian-politics-tom-watson Attempting regime change by chris murphy Attempting regime change News Corp #auspol admits it lied to Australia about Kevin Rudd's Syria meeting in its campaign to unseat LAB Govt. Rudd defends schedule for Syria briefings Mr Rudd also defended his schedule of Saturday afternoon, arguing he never left the impression he was suspending his campaign to deal with the Syrian crisis. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1rm3b5v An insult to Australians by @MigloMT I think there’s enough evidence on the front pages of the Murdoch rags to dispel the suggestion that it has just been nothing but a conspiracy theory. Only those who are hard-core right wingers would fail to see the vicious bile that is pushed down our throats. And only the ignorant would fail to accept that serious questions about Murdoch’s credibility http://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/an-insult-to-australians/ The Coalition’s Twitter madness by @independentaus A scan of Abbott’s 203,000 followers revealed that 95% of his followers were fake, 4% active and just 1% genuine. This is clearly much worse than the following of the Liberal Party’s account. These results are clearly much worse than anyone could have expected. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/the-coalitions-twitter-madness/ Abbott gets it wrong: Apprentices should not be forced into debt to solve our skills shortages by AMWU The Coalition’s plan to offer loans to apprentices is nonsense, the AMWU said today.AMWU National President Andrew Dettmer said: “This proposal will not to help with the costs of doing an apprenticeship. It lets employers off the hook and instead of paying apprentices properly, this will burden young workers with unfair debts, just when they are starting to earn decent money.” http://www.amwu.asn.au/read-article/news-detail/1236/Abbott-gets-it-wrong-Apprentices-should-not-be-forced-into-debt- Mums the word. This is not an equity argument by Rex Ringschott @donattroppo Maybe Mr. Abbott’s justification is that the career woman has been contributing more in tax than the scullery maid – and therefore she deserves a bigger kickback? Maybe we’ll see this theory extended to other forms of government service in the future http://clubtroppo.com.au/2013/08/26/mums-the-word-this-is-not-an-equity-argument/ Soil carbon and direct (in)action by @LarvatusProdeo Leigh Sales tried a hard-edged questioning style, but unfortunately did not come close to being familiar with the topic. So large parts of the LNP agenda were unaddressed, such as their dismantling of the institutional framework of the the Climate Commission, the Climate Change Authority, the incorporation of the Climate Department into the broader http://larvatusprodeo.net/archives/2013/08/soil-carbon-and-direct-inaction/ Palmer vs Katter at the National Press Club by Marian Dalton @crazyjane13 It wasn't just the fact that these are minor parties contesting their first federal election that made this unusual - it was the tone. Far from the slogan-driven, nit-picking non-information that sends most of us to sleep, Palmer vs Katter gave us something new - a real opportunity to hear policy and principles. http://storify.com/crazyjane13/bob-katt-and-clive-palmer-national-press-club-deba I am the audience of The New Front Page by @YaThinkN Tim Dunlop has done a serious amount of research and I for one thoroughly appreciated it. Many authors writing on contemporary topics tend to forget that the reader may not be au fait with the history surrounding that topic and gloss over even limited explanations http://yathink.com.au/article-display/i-am-the-audience-of-the-new-front-page,89 Labor and Liberal go negative for week four of the campaign by @nicchristensen The latest Liberal Party attack ads label Kevin Rudd ‘Captain Chaos’ and accuses him of making multiple ‘tax grabs’ and of spending blowouts in the 31 days since resuming office. The attack ad accuses him of multiple failures in his 31 days since returning to the Prime Ministership before declaring “It’s a Ruddy Mess http://mumbrella.com.au/labor-and-liberal-go-negative-for-week-4-of-the-campaign-174331#more-174331 The biggest LNP black hole is really the vacant space between Tony’s ears! by Truth Seeker The amazing thing is that the party that has spent most of the last three years telling us how we have to live within our means, and taking every opportunity to say that debt is bad, and that the government cannot manage the economy because they will always build debt and deficit instead of surpluses , has decided that it’s absolutely fine and dandy for apprentices http://truthseekersmusings.wordpress.com/ Abbott’s Indonesian fishing boat plan is “insulting” :Expert by Jakarta Post “I think the government should voice protests to the coalition’s very insensitive plan which clearly shows their poor knowledge about the situation in Indonesia,” he said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post over the weekend. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/08/25/abbott-s-indonesian-fishing-boat-plan-insulting-expert.html NBN: How Alan Jones was "played" by Turnbull by @SteveJ_CBR The headline is that the Turnbull Copper/Node Plan is not just going to lose money, $10 billion at least, but because it's designed to fail, the whole of the $30 billion investment will be written off, with the current loans all suddenly becoming part of the Budget and being picked up by the taxpayer. http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/nbn-how-alan-jones-was-played-by.html#more Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 27 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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27/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

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27/08/2013Patriciawa I agree with your assessment of [i]Q&A[/i] and Bob Carr's performance on [i]Lateline[/i]. I can't see Julie Bishop having the gravitas that Carr exhibited last night.

Bilko

27/08/2013To date Kevin has led a lack luster campaign, he still cannot bring himself to support any of Julia's triumphs. When asked on insiders about the carbon price well Grogs election day 26 post covers that nicely. I have just finished watching "The Newsroom season 1" I am unable to provide a link but the final episode contents of the tea party Repugs is so close to the Abbott campaign as to be a worry. Murdoch appears to have won the war with his manipulated polls and ltd news coverage that does not praise anyone but abbott. The labor nervous nellies forced out the only person who could have moped the floor with abbott and maybe she would have gone down fighting but Kevin seems to have thrown in the towel. I do so want to be proved wrong, otherwise OZ is in deep sh*t.

fb2

27/08/2013G'day Bilko. I found the link to Season 1 of The Newsroom for you and others at this site who might be interested. http://www.sidereel.com/the_newsroom/season-1# Kind regards FB2

Bloss

27/08/2013Keep your spirits up! Check out www.abbottsinternet.com.au For all Facebookers: worth posting it on your Facebook sites Vinceremos!

Michael

27/08/2013It's almost certain that we are preaching to the converted on this blog, but Lyn's Links have confirmed again today, as they have done throughout their existence... That it is impossible to conceive how anyone with a considering brain and a considered vote could possibly say anything but "no-no-no" to Tony Abbott. And yet re-CAPTCHA mocks me with "SOUTH lyswing"

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27/08/2013Hi Lyn Thank you for your great collection of links, so varied, so relevant. You have the happy knack of summarizing the essence of each piece. Greg Jericho once again blows out of the water all the Coalition talk of a wage blowout because of union pressure, and The Kouk debunks the surplus fetish. I wonder why all we hear about is newspaper polls, but don’t hear a word about [i]Essential’s[/i] 50:50 TPP? I think we know! Truth Seeker has a great piece about the Abbott ‘mandate’. For Abbott, ‘mandate’ means being able to do what he pleases, when he pleases. Artneuro gives a salutary warning that Abbott policies will widen the gap between the rich and the poor, the opposite that Labor’s policies seek to achieve. Miglo says what we believe about Murdoch. Murdoch’s media is indeed an insult to the intelligence of voters. [i]LP[/i] nicely debunks Hunt’s soil carbon charade. The piece from the [i]Jakarta Post[/i] reveals the disdain Indonesian commentators have for the Coalition’s ‘boat buy-back’ proposal – a crazy, ill-thought-through scheme, just to look hairy-chested. Stevej exposes the disingenuousness of Malcolm Turnbull as he pulls the wool over Alan Jones’ head. Again, thank you.

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27/08/2013Bilko Your sentiments are shared by many. Bloss That is a great video, showing as it does the disdain overseas Internet users have for the Coalition’s NBN-Lite. Michael “[i]…it is impossible to conceive how anyone with a considering brain and a considered vote could possibly say anything but "no-no-no" to Tony Abbott.
”[/i] How true, but there seems to be lots of the brain-dead out there!

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27/08/2013Folks I'll be out for a few hours.

Michael

27/08/2013Almost unbelievably... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/it-business/coalitions-nbn-on-demand-offer-could-see-users-hit-for-4000/story-e6frganx-1226704552716 The Australian newspaper story exposes how much of a lying line both Turnbull and Abbott have been spreading about the 'equal efficiency' and better costs of Fraudband. Keeping the fibre to the premises Labor policy NBN should be reason enough on its own NOT to put the Coalition into power. This story in The Australian explains just why. Now, if wonders ever cease...

Michael

27/08/2013http://www.afr.com/p/technology/both_sides_miss_the_point_focus_0WjUAa65E8iJYMbNXdkfoL I'm pasting all of this story from the Financial Review here because doing so serves two purposes. The first is that it enunciates, which its headline suggests it doesn't do, just why Labor's approach to a National Broadband Network is vastly more relevant, important, and flat-out necessary to this nation, than what Fraudband's fakery offers. The second reason I have posted it here is because Michael Stutchbury's editorial staff at The Financial Review have headlined the story in such a way as to suggest Labor has its head in the broadband sand every bit as much as the Coalition. Reading the actual story indicates this is an untruthful precis of the text, a misleading, perhaps even designed to lead to readers skipping over the story, headline. The writer, Tamara Plakalo, enunciates how and why a really national, truthfully broadband, complete network of a National Broadband Network is actually about Australia itself, about everyone who lives and works in this country in this Digital Age we live in right now, and will continue to be challenged by and extended as workers, players, and generally participants in human experiences from this minute onwards. The Financial Review has tried to politically undercut the social and technological message of the piece, to by offering a diversional apprehension of the headline signal that Labor's policy sits at the same blinkered level as the Coalition's. Ms Plakalo has every right to feel she has been verballed by the very outlet that features her commentary. Make up your mind from the headline on: BOTH SIDES MISS THE POINT AS NBN DEBATE LACKS FUTURE FOCUS "Guest opinion by Tamara Plakalo" There is a bug-eyed look on the face of the nation as it assesses the potential resurrection of fibre-to-the-node national broadband network under a Coalition government. And it says a lot about Australia’s rare bipartisan exasperation at a lack of quality debate on technology and its role in building the nation. Last week, the Coalition threw down the election gauntlet at the troubled fibre-to-the-premises NBN rollout. It claimed the imminent cost blowouts from the inaccurate revenue projections and per-premises construction cost assumptions by NBN Co could cost Australians as much as $94 billion. Shadow communications and broadband minister Malcolm Turnbull told the nation NBN could be constructed more quickly, more cheaply and more efficiently under his “last mile” user-pays hybrid network model. For the cool and fiscally responsible $29.5 billion. In justifying why it makes sense to roll out fibre to the street rather than the house, he reminded voters that “speed is only of value to you in so far as you have applications that need it”. In all the years of vicious political debate that has made the broadband, communications and the digital economy portfolio look like the papal seat of Borgias, nobody has – albeit inadvertently – better summed up the key problem of the message Canberra has been selling to the nation. Having been force-fed the technical details of NBN’s two proposed incarnations, Telstra separations, government costing, borrowing and return on investment and other assorted policy complexities; the average voter is still none the wiser about the sources of economic opportunity NBN will bring to them through either model. And no side of politics is making an attempt to change that. Voters, of course, understand there is nothing inherently productive about fibre to the premises when you have “no application” for it. But they also know the original promise of NBN was to bring them the digital economy. To the premises, rather than a node. Voters also know Australia is a country with a relatively low level of public debt by OECD standards. As such, it has the capacity to offset the short-term investment in a vital public asset with a long-term vision of what makes that asset most productive in social and economic terms. Somewhere along the way, they may have read from McKinseys that fully inclusive digital economies generate 3.4 per cent of GDP growth from internet activities, only half of which comes from digital services consumption. The key contribution comes from enabling small and medium business to accelerate growth through better market access. The rest comes from the skills and applications that fast-track the emergence of new business models, new ways of working and entirely new services. Social and economic costs of exclusion This makes Turnbull’s focus on efficiency right in one crucial way: the speed of the economic and technological disruption we are facing as a nation makes the speed of the NBN rollout vital. However, the fiscal cost of NBN needs to be assessed against the social and economic cost of digital exclusion at the outset of NBN’s introduction. Further cost will come from failing to invest in structural gaps between the infrastructure investment and the digital economy capacity build-out, of which there seems to be no mention in this election. It pays to remember that while the nation ponders the future of resources, manufacturing, and NBN with great sloganeering gusto, our pattern of trade resembles that of a developing, rather than a developed nation. Decades of technology-led productivity improvements have driven employment down even in those sectors that keep growing. This structural challenge facing the economy has one immediate answer – building out intelligence, enabling IP and the innovative capacity of the society to take advantage of the digital economy. The real potential of NBN doesn’t lie in digital consumption. It lies in the ability of every premises connected to the NBN to become an active player in the digital economy. We, the shareholders of the Australian digital economy under rollout, require to know what structural adjustments we will need to make to take advantage of our 21st century railway. What skills we will need to have, how we’re going to build them, what exactly do we mean by the “innovation” that is needed to get us there? How are we going to produce it? It is this type of policy that will send a demand signal to industries to start filling the structural gaps through innovative new products and services. The biggest cost blowout we are facing is the lack of vision to connect fibre to the future. We need leadership in creating the policies and skills that take full advantage of the infrastructure we are building, and we can’t wait for that until 2016 or 2021. And the cost to us will be far higher than $29.5 billion and $94 billion put together. Tamara Plakalo is a social trends analyst and a former chief executive of Sydney policy think-tank Open Forum The Australian Financial Review

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27/08/2013Michael Thank you for the [i]AFR[/i] link. With Michael Stutchbury as editor, any positive for the Government will be countered with a negative. He picked up the second half of a paragraph: “[i]…the average voter is still none the wiser about the sources of economic opportunity NBN will bring to them through either model. And no side of politics is making an attempt to change that”[/i], but it loses its meaning without the first part of the paragraph to give the context: “[i]Having been force-fed the technical details of NBN’s two proposed incarnations, Telstra separations, government costing, borrowing and return on investment and other assorted policy complexities;…”[/i] Read that first, then the second part of the paragraph, and the meaning becomes clear, and it is not the one reflected in the headline.

Bilko

27/08/2013fp3 thank you for the newsroom link I advise all swordsters to view this segment of the show which I have linked below, for me it became addictive. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGAvwSp86hY Now kevin wants to move a navy establishment from NSW to QLD and I thought only abbott had brain farts lord help us please.

TalkTurkey

27/08/2013Ugh, Comrades Another full day at the prepolling booth, gee I'm all in I swear. Dogs are barking but at last I'm home. Haven't really got any energy left to write or even read the posts right now. See how I feel after a snooze. Cheers.

42 long

27/08/2013It MIGHT be that the Cruise boats not being able to get under the harbour bridge matters. IF you want the facts don't trust the Murdoch press. I have e heard one of the advisors make sense of the move. It's not happening tomorrow. You would not want to do it for a few votes though. Fact will come out. Generally the actions of the LOTO fear exposure to fact far more than Rudd. A bbott is all spin.

Catching up

27/08/2013Yes, I believe there is a problem getting those ships under the bridge. The announcement said some or all. Hard to imagine, such valuable estate, in this position, would not generate as many new jobs. We, are after all talking about a decade or more ahead.

Curi-Oz

27/08/2013Dang nab it! I wish we had been bribed to get wed (lo, those many centuries ago) http://tinyurl.com/kawr9qc This reduces the state of matrimony back to the status of property ownership, only this time the dowry is paid by the state to the contracting male to take the female. I suppose it doesn't surprise me, if the source is correct on where this brain-fart came from! I confess to being somewhat offended.

42 long

27/08/2013Why would a city like Sydney want a Naval BASE in the middle of it? What a target in wartime to have there. Still I suppose if Naval gazing is your forte or you want the workers living around the shores ( How would they afford that?) Cruise boats are the new growth Industry and lots more money for Sydneys hotels and caterers and workers generally than those grey boats that just sit there with hardly anyone on them. I reckon Sydney won.

TalkTurkey

27/08/2013VENCEREMOS! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzHNZAEtgtg The word that inspired the East Timorese

jane

28/08/2013What people in other countries think of Fraudband. http://abbottsinternet.com.au/

lyn

28/08/2013Today’s links Tony Abbott king hit comments 'offensive and irresponsible' by Oliver Laughland The opposition leader’s full comments were: “If you are walking down the street at 2am in Kings Cross in Sydney and you get king hit, maybe you shouldn't be there. Maybe it was an unwise place to be, an unwise thing to do. But if you do get king hit and you are badly damaged, you are helped by the New South Wales victims of crime legislation http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/27/tony-abbott-king-hit-comments-offensive-and-irresponsible Tony Abbott: Plagiarist, pretender and follower by @independentaus TONY ABBOTT IS A SERIAL OFFENDER when it comes to borrowing ideas and lines from more inspiring leaders.He’s even taken a leaf out of the bride’s playbook with the regulation blue ties: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbott-plagiarist-pretender-and-phony/ Chris Bowen correct on investor impact of parental leave scheme by ABC Fact Check The claim: Chris Bowen says the Coalition's proposed paid parental leave scheme will cost Australian investors $1.6 billion. The verdict: Mr Bowen is correct. But the $1.6 billion in forgone franking credits will only hit investors in 2016-17. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-27/chris-bowen-correct-parental-leave-scheme/4915222 Abbott’s surplus commitment under fire by @macro_business In fact, the Coalition’s stance on a range of Budget issues – such as the mining tax, the Fringe Benefits Tax, superannuation concessions to the well-off, and abolishing means testing of the private health insurance rebate – virtually guarantees that the Budget will remain in deficit unless the Australian economy experiences another miraculous boom http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/08/abbotts-surplus-commitment-under-fire/ Direct Action will fine Origin, AGL, Alcoa, Santos, BHP … by Tristan Edis If it turned out that firms were given emission baselines that they never exceeded, then taxpayers would be shelling out money to polluters for doing nothing to reduce their emissions. That’s because polluters are able to sell any excess baseline entitlement to the government as abatement (even if it would have happened without a taxpayer inducement). http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/27/carbon-markets/direct-action-will-fine-origin-agl-alcoa-santos-bhp-%E2%80%A6 Did Labor really save us from the GFC? We ask an expert by Politifact So, was the Rudd Government brilliant, lucky, or reckless? My reading is: brilliant. For sure, they had a lot of other factors supporting the economy that many other countries did not have: a central bank with the decisiveness, and room, to slash interest rates; a major trading partner (i.e. China) enacting a massive stimulus of their own; and a very flexible exchange rate. http://www.politifact.com.au/truth-o-meter/article/2013/aug/27/did-labor-really-save-us-gfc/ Would you … ? Buy a Used Car from this man by @fionajreynolds a Coalition will purge that naughty entitlement mentality from the nation – except, of course, that won’t apply to the big end of town, women of calibre, etc – because we all know the plebs just blue the moolah on beer, ciggies, and the pokies while the big end of town and women of calibre are entitled er um because they deserve to be entitled … http://pbxmastragics.com/2013/08/27/would-you/ Abbotts Internet Worst Deal, Ever? by @TheHoopla “Abbott’s Internet” – a spoof advertisement for a broadband plan that sends up likely connection costs and speeds under the Coalition’s national broadband policy – has gone viral this morning. http://thehoopla.com.au/abbotts-internet-worst-deal/ The world reacts to Abbott's Internet by Australian Labor We thought we’d give Abbott’s Internet a real chance by making it look as professional as possible. We then hit the streets to ask the world if they’d be interested in it. Here's how it went down when we launched this campaign today Selling Abbott’s Internet to the World http://abbottsinternet.com.au/ http://goo.gl/hddCXp FactCheck: Labor’s “If Abbott wins, you lose” attack ad by @ConversationEDU It is true that under a Coalition government, families will lose the SchoolKids Bonus . Under a Coalition government, 12,000 jobs are set to go from the public service http://theconversation.com/factcheck-labors-if-abbott-wins-you-lose-attack-ad-17262 John Lords Election Diary Update No 12 by @saint13333 I can remember no other politician in my lifetime who has done more to damage the institution of the parliament than he. In his speech he promises to keep his promises and I wonder why it is necessary to mention the fact if one was honest in the first place. No greater liar has ever walked the corridors of Parliament House. http://theaimn.com/2013/08/27/john-lords-election-diary-update-no-12/ Since when did we become a greedy nation? by @MigloMT QandA last night I was struck dumb when a young female member of the audience pounced on Bill Shorten for the government not matching the handout she could expect under Tony Abbott’s PPL scheme. It wasn’t so much the question she threw at Shorton that stunned me, but her attitude. http://theaimn.com/2013/08/27/since-when-did-we-become-a-greedy-nation/ Invisible – The great disappearing act of Liberal candidate Jaymes Diaz by @madwixxy Jaymes Diaz in his bid to remain faceless is also ensuring that the Liberal Party supporters also remain voiceless locally. Nobody is speaking for them, only handing out and letterboxing head office blessed Party propaganda to the electorates voters. http://wixxyleaks.com/2013/08/27/invisible-the-great-disappearing-act-of-liberal-candidate-jaymes-diaz/ Exaggerations, Falsehoods, Prayers, Rats, Slogans And Class! by @knarfnamduh The ultimate for the week was BUY THE BOATS! This one has to be the most inanely stupid utterance for an idea that has about as much merit as swimming in a crocodile infested river wearing a life-jacket so you don’t drown. http://deknarf.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/graphical-manipulations-49-exaggerations-falsehoods-prayers-rats-slogans-and-class/ Refugee Boats; The Timeline – Updated to August 27th by @archiearchive This list is based on what is being reported in the MSM and what I can find from a couple of specialist sites. This is to give a layman’s impression of what is going on and may say more about the MSM than the facts. One day soon, I shall ask the relevant Government Departments for authoritative information. http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/refugee-boats-the-timeline-updated-to-august-27th/ Most candidates in NBN-connected Wills reckon Labor got it right: by @takvera @NoFibs I think you just need to follow the trail of money and if you look at the way that Rupert Murdoch is treating the Labor Party and you look at the way that the Liberal Party treats Rupert Murdoch, it is pretty obvious why Tony Abbott wants to put in place a 56k modem solution instead of high speed http://nofibs.com.au/2013/08/27/labor-gets-right-nbn-say-wills-candidates-reports-takvera/ NBN: Turnbull spin "on-demand fibre" by @SteveJ_CBR Why is Turnbull so sensitive about people trying to cost his proposals?Because for the last 5 months he's been very carefully hiding every financial detail.He's never published any relevant detail, only blistering attacks when people try to decipher his waffle or second-guess his intents. Turnbull deliberately created this whole situation http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/nbn-turnbull-spin-on-demand-fibre.html It's quick and easy! by @myNBNinfo Find out when the National Broadband Network is coming to your place! Enter Full Address http://www.mynbn.info/home Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 28 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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28/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

Michael

28/08/2013The Australian newspaper trumpets how the Parliamentary Budget Office figures show that Abbott's paid parental leave will add $1.1 billion to a Coalition government budget's bottom line, supposedly showing up Labor's economic argument against the policy. What this figure 'shows up' is that not only will investors done out of their franking credits help pay for the scheme, their 'contribution' will be the difference between paid parental leave costing an Abbott government money and making it some. Investors will be bankrolling Coalition policy in practice. Which still boils down to one part of the economy's marketplace, shareholding investors, paying for another part of the economy's marketplace, working women, deciding to reproduce. Both are aspects of the economy's marketplace where Conservatives usually maintain government has no place, certainly no place to budgetary advantage. Finance a bribe with a rip-off. What a government this would be!

Truth Seeker

28/08/2013Ad, thanks for another fine read, and I agree… The thought of Abbott running this country (into the ground) is something that has the [potential to take decades to fix. It was interesting to see that Palmer admitted to making large donations to pollsters in the past to rig the polls (Lateline last night) BTW Ad, thanks for your kind assessment of my latest post [b]"What mandate Mr Abbott?"[/b] :-) http://truthseekersmusings.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/what-mandate-mr-abbott/ Cheers :-)

Sir Ian Crisp

28/08/2013I see Rudd has come out with his own version of a three word slogan: move the boats.

Ken

28/08/2013Ad Read your post on Sunday night but have delayed responding until now, just waiting to see how things were going. While we here on TPS know about Abbott it is disheartening that there has not been any comment along these lines from the MSM. As others have commented, that does not bode well for the future of Australian democracy. I can only hope, as I have suggested previously, that Labor is winning the battle on social media. I have been following the analysis of the ABC's Vote Compass and today they put out a breakdown by seat. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/vote-compass-map-battlelines-seats-at-odds/4909772 It was probably predictable that Queensland seats dominate the "conservative" response to the questions and Sydney and Melbourne ALP seats dominate the "progressive" responses. But I also thought it confirmed a couple of other interesting insights. In the "progressive" answers the seats of Wentworth and Kooyong sometimes come up - the inner urban latte drinking trendies!! But also recollections of the old conservative Catholic working class vote shows up in ALP seats having very conservative views on the "moral" issues of abortion and euthenasia (not not so much on gay marriage which, in itself, is interesting).

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28/08/2013Hi Lyn As we are going back to the south coast today, I’ve read your links already and, as usual, I’ve enjoyed them and learned a lot. Some feed into my next piece. There were several on ‘fact checking’, which were both interesting and useful. It seems as if the Coalition will try to bluff its way through with their costings, and very few voters will have the inclination or the knowledge to check the veracity of their figures. A media that wants to paint a bright picture for the Coalition will ignore even the economics writers’ assessments. It’s hard enough winning elections, but doubly hard when the media is stacked against you. Truth Seeker Thank you for your kind remarks. The Palmer statements about polls were interesting. If indeed he is right and the polls are being ‘rigged’, that would be criminal. I doubt if professional pollsters would so risk their reputations. One area in which they are vulnerable is in selecting a truly representative sample of voters, and one that is large enough to yield a relatively low margin of error. Journalists, many of which seem unable to grasp the concept of statistical significance, make most of the misrepresentations of polling data. When they give credence to a change of one percentage point when the margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points, they show their gross ignorance, or perhaps more correctly, their partisan bias. Michael Good comment. I like your conclusion: [i]“Finance a bribe with a rip-off. What a government this would be!”[/i] Ken You put your finger on a major problem – the media generally is not critiquing Coalition policies or costings, yet is hammering Labor relentlessly. The Vote Compass results are fascinating and surprising. Folks We are shortly getting on the road to the south coast.

lyn

28/08/2013Hi Ad Thankyou for your post to me yesterday and again this morning. I am trying to stop being busy, everyday this week I have had to go out & of course there are always the ordinary household duties waiting. Ad you said [quote]Coalition will try to bluff its way through with their costings. [/quote] I just watched Joe Hockey & Chris Bowen debating at the Press Club. Your opinion was correct , Joe Hockey behaved like a spoilt brat, pulling faces, sooky looks, dropping bottom lip, whining , whinging voice all this and no numbers & no answers. A couple of links for you:- Bowen and Hockey debate the Economy http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Politics/2013/08/28/Bowen_and_Hockey_debate_the_economy_900845.html LIVE: Head-to-head costings debate http://media.theage.com.au/national/selections/live-headtohead-costings-debate-4698830.html James Jeffrey ‏@James_ *COUGH* RT @patricklion Joe Hockey declares wife's company directorship 14 years after the appointment | Herald Sun http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-features/joe-hockey-declares-wife8217s-company-directorship-14-years-after-the-appointment/story-fnho52jj-1226705278752?sv=383b9e67f01e2f3cf0ecb5151cd20f9d#.Uh1i7BboaAo.twitter … [quote]Joe Hockey declares wife's company directorship 14 years after the appointment [/quote]Documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show Mrs Babbage was appointed as a director of Steel Harbour Pty Ltd on April 2, 1998. Mr Hockey said: "The Labor Party has previously engaged in this type of muckraking and then been forced to correct such unsubstantiated assertions. It is a desperate action from a desperate government." http://www.news.com.au/national-news/federal-election/joe-hockey-declares-wife8217s-company-directorship-14-years-after-the-appointment/story-fnho52ip-1226705278752#ixzz2dEgzg3Hs [quote]Is Tony Abbott's 'cop on the beat' worth $6 billion? by Peter Martin [/quote]Tony Abbott's claims that the Australian Building and Construction Commission has saved $6 billion were found to be mostly false http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/fact-checker/is-tony-abbotts-cop-on-the-beat-worth-6-billion-20130828-2spkd.html#ixzz2dEktXDvU [i]Why we should not trust Tony Abbott by Tim Colebatch [/i]The real disappointment of Abbott's campaign is that he doesn't trust us. Economists estimate the funding gap in the Coalition's promises at $30 billion to $35 billion over the next four years. But Abbott won't tell us how he will close that gap until the final days, fearing we would be less likely to vote for him if we knew what he plans to do. How can we trust anyone who won't tell us how he will make us pay for his promises? Let buyers beware. http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/why-we-should-not-trust-tony-abbott-20130826-2sm4q.html#ixzz2dEps2haD

Michael

28/08/2013I've worked the Coalition out. Non-gender specific or limiting, they are the Stepford Siblings. (An insight a long time coming, but confirmed by watching Joe Hockey and Jamie Briggs within three hours of each other today.)

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28/08/2013Hi Lyn We are back at the south coast. Thank you for your comments and the extra links. Tim Colebatch spells out well the situation with the Coalition's costings. Clearly, he has as little trust in Abbott and Hockey as we do. I wonder how the Rudd/Abbott debate will go tonight?

Frank

28/08/2013Talk about this man's inconsistencies: he claimed in the Brisbane leaders’ debate that he opposed Work Choices when it was discussed by John Howard’s cabinet. But in 2009 he stated that “workplace reform was one of the greatest achievements of the Howard Government.” He once supported an Emissions Trading Scheme and went further stating, “If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax?” His opportunistic mind-change on this issue catapulted him into the position of leader of the opposition. When it came to paid parental leave his assertion was that it would only happen over the Howard government’s dead body. But fearing that he was losing ground with female voters he had what he termed a “conversion”. His instruction to Malcolm Turnbull was to “demolish” the NBN but he later decided that he believed in it. He said there would be no need for compensation once the carbon price was scrapped but then kept the compensation anyway. He claimed that the education system needed no fixing but then decided that he would adopt Labor’s Better Schools Plan. How many more “conversions” will Abbott experience should he gain control of this country?

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28/08/2013Folks I thought this evening's debate between Abbott an Rudd was reasonable. The questions from audience members were sound. Rudd's answers were for the most part authentic, well articulated, and plausible. Abbott was slogan-driven as usual, non-committal, and of a 'you can trust me' style. He was not as fluent as Rudd. He really does not have the gravitas required of a PM. Again, the debate was of much better calibre than the first where journalists asked the questions. I felt Rudd had the better of the debate. No doubt Coalition supporters would give it to Abbott. In announcing Lateline, Tony Jones indicated the debate had been 'awarded' to Rudd. Let's see what the Murdoch media says. I think we can imagine.[quote][/quote]

TalkTurkey

29/08/2013Comrades All, So sorry not to be posting much, I'm up so early, and so dam weary when I get home I just crash for hours. Then I wake up around 11PM and I have trouble getting back to sleep. I'm at the pre-polling booth for Boothby, open 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM, but I'm there each morning an hour earlier than that so the Abborrttians can't pinch my precious parking spot for my HiAce camper van, which has served brilliantly as an igloo during some of Adelaide's nastiest cold wet windy weeks. Today was an exception, fine & warm, but I have woken as usual around midnight only to find the wind howling and the rain weeping, looks like batten down the hatches again tomorrow, but that's OK with me, I get the exquisite pleasure of watching the wind blow the rain under Southcott's stupid gazebo-thing they have to put up and pull down each day. It's only a 12-hour day but it's intermittently busy and one has to deal with some very unpleasant people, but I'm used to it anyway. I watched Rudd v Abborrrtt tonight through a blur of sleep, Jeez I wish Rudd was Ad astra or PJK or Jason Obelix, or even me sometimes, to say things with some Tabasco rather than Rudd's bland white sauce. Best of all would have been *J*U*L*I*A* who would have been firing her afterburners for weeks now. Ah well. Just about midnight now and I have 6 hours before I drag my achey old frame out of bed again (and achey it is.) Most of the time I have one or two Labor comrades with me but they're only there for a couple of hours and I'm alone for a fair amount of time. I dare not miss anyone, I saw my old teaching colleague Liz Harvey get rolled by ONE vote by Christine Gallus, (who because her name started G to Liz's H, got the donkey vote worth a thousand votes.) One vote. Anyway my aches are catching up with me, just a quick look at Twitter and I'm back to bed. Hang in Comrades. If you can, offer to help at pre-polling booths (we need help urgently), at door-knocking and on Polling Day itself. You might be the single horseshoe nail that keeps the shoe on the horse that is decisive in winning the battle, and you will be SO proud! [b]VENCEREMOS![/b] (WE WILL WIN!) [i]NO PASARAN![/i] (THEY SHALL NOT PASS!)

lyn

29/08/2013Today’s Links Joe Hockey Manages to Smear Himself by Dan Rowden one can go over a decade without knowing about one’s spouses’ Directorships, the rules pertaining to the register of pecuniary interests are such that you have an obligation to ask your wife about them. But what’s most extraordinary about Mr Hockey’s response was his utter petulance, nay arrogance in declaring the revelation to be a Labor “smear campaign”. http://theaimn.com/2013/08/28/joe-hockey-manages-to-smear-himself/ Coalition unveils $31.6bn in savings by Lenore Taylor Most of the savings listed over the four years of budget estimates come from policies which were to be funded by the carbon and mining taxes, which the Coalition has pledged to abolish, including many measures that were welcomed by business at the time http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/28/coalition-unveils-31-6bn-in-savings Hockey’s murky savings by @macro_business There do appear to be some new savings but it’s nothing like what will be required to fill the $30-35 billion black hole. Until we get the cash accounting figures, as well as what’s offsetting what, it’s impossible to reach a bottom line. For a Party campaigning on the strength of its grasp of budgeting this is a weak document. http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/08/hockeys-murky-savings/ Coalition to scrap instant asset tax write-off and loss carry-back byMyriam Robin The Coalition will scrap the instant asset tax write-off as well as cancelling the loss carry-back provisions if elected to government. The rise in the instant asset write-off, from $5000 to $6500 allows small businesses to instantly write off assets worth less than $6500 against their profits, reducing their tax bill immediately instead of over three years, http://www.startupsmart.com.au/government-and-regulation/tony-abbott-and-the-coalition-scrapping-instant-asset-tax-write-off-and- Parties' sameness hides a big difference by @1RossGittins And get this: to help pay for its promise to abolish the mining tax - paid on their super-profits by three of the biggest mining companies in the world - an Abbott government would abolish the low-income super contribution rebate. http://www.rossgittins.com/2013/08/parties-sameness-hides-big-difference.html Rudd And Abbott Meet In Second Leaders’ Forum At Rooty Hill RSL by @mfarnsworth Overall, Rudd seemed more willing to engage with the detail of the questions put to him, whereas Abbott stuck to his standard lines. At one level it could be said that Rudd won the debate but Abbott’s dead bat means that the debate’s impact will quickly fade http://australianpolitics.com/2013/08/28/rudd-abbott-second-leaders-forum.html Election 2013- Day 24 (or, Debate Double Header) by @GrogsGamut Tony Abbott contradicted both Peter Dutton in yesterday’s Health debate and himself a week ago, when during the debate tonight he said that no Medicare Local would be closed. http://grogsgamut.blogspot.com.au/ Budget strategies conundrum by @LarvatusProdeo Abbott, I think, imagines that once the adults are back in charge confidence will return and the creative juices of capitalism will flow. He will help by drastically cutting regulation, streamlining environmental approvals and returning the industrial relations pendulum back to what he calls the centre. http://larvatusprodeo.net/archives/2013/08/budget-strategies-conundrum/ Bowen vs Hockey at the National Press Club by @crazyjane13 Hockey's opening statement: 'I'm very positive about Australia's future, I always have been. I mean, really. There's not a single politician in this campaign who can say they've been positive - but Hockey virtually invited every viewer to ignore every thundering, doomsaying speech in Parliament or on the campaign trail. Even his opening speech rang warning bells about our imminent peril. http://storify.com/crazyjane13/bowen-vs-hockey-at-the-national-press-club Election special No 7 – $200 each! Coalition to fund straight couples by @theantibogan This policy, as well as being highly discriminatory towards not only same sex couples but also to hundreds of thousands of men and women in de facto relationships, many of which are of long standing and are legally recognised to all intents and purposes as equivalent to marriage, assumes that these “marriage preparation” courses actually deliver the goods http://theantibogan.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/election-special-no-8-200-each-coalition-to-fund-straight-couples/ The Last Chance For A Conscience Vote by @newmatilda all those ambitious Liberal backbenchers will be very aware that Abbott, who if he wins the election will be all-powerful, does not want the issue to move forward. People who care about this issue have a last opportunity now to insist that the Opposition leader commit to a conscience vote – after the election it will be too late https://newmatilda.com/2013/08/28/last-chance-conscience-vote In Conversation with Tom Watson MP: “If I was Lord Leveson I’d be asking which Rupert Murdoch was telling me the truth” by @ConversationEDU Jill Singer: What possible commercial interest do you think Rupert Murdoch could have in having an Abbott government elected? Tom Watson: They would be one of the only companies that would benefit from there not being superfast broadband, an NBN, that goes straight into people’s homes. http://theconversation.com/in-conversation-with-tom-watson-mp-if-i-was-lord-leveson-id-be-asking-which-rupert-murdoch-was-telling-me-the-truth-17519 Can Australia afford the Coalition’s NBN? by @ConversationEDU Labor’s FTTP network will provide the necessary infrastructure for this expected expansion of the wireless network, but the Coalition’s lower-cost FTTN network will not. At a whopping two-thirds of the cost of the vastly-superior FTTP NBN, the Coalition’s NBN stacks up as waste of money. http://theconversation.com/can-australia-afford-the-coalitions-nbn-17494 Tony Abbott's claim households will be $550 a year better off without the carbon tax is outdated by ABC Fackcheck Mr Abbott's figure is outdated. Household bills will be lower if the fixed carbon priced is scrapped by Coalition. But they will also go down under Labor's new ETS policy. Either way, [b]Mr Abbott's $550 figure no longer applies[/b] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/abbott-using-outdated-figure-on-carbon-tax-cost/4912726 Plibersek vs Dutton: the post-debate analysis by Jennifer Doggett Dutton was again asked about Medicare Locals and his pledge to review them. Was he prepared to cull a couple of them completely if necessary? Yes, seemed the answer. “There are some Medicare Locals doing some amazing work around the country. But there are others who have been failing their local communities. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2013/08/27/plibersek-vs-dutton-the-post-debate-analysis/ We really must talk about Murdoch’s tame economists by @independentaus absolutely never any research into how Australia’s global ranking lifted during the Whitlam administration, fell under Fraser, rose through the Hawke/Keating period, slipped back badly during the dismal Howard years, but rocketed to the top with Rudd and Gillard. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/we-really-must-talk-about-murdochs-tame-economists/ Former PM Bob Hawke slams 'terrible bias' of News Corp election coverage by ABC Former prime minister Bob Hawke has slammed the "absolutely terrible bias of the Murdoch press" during the election campaign, saying it is "unique" in his long experience in politics. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-28/hawke-joins-chorus-against-news-corp27-election-coverage/4917014 Pressure builds against news media bias by @btckr The Labor government’s attempt to introduce changes to the structure of the APC were amateurish and inadequate and would have done nothing to improve the situation, beyond limiting the amalgamation of news media ownership. Ultimately, the journalists themselves have the power to continue or to end the present unsatisfactory and unfair situation, http://truthinmediaresourcecentre.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/pressure-builds-against-news-media-bias/ Get Up! launches ad attack on News Corp with paper used to dispose of dog excrement By@mumbrella This latest advertisement, “Thanks Rupert, but Australians can choose their own government”, features a man using a copy of News Corp’s Queensland masthead The Courier Mail to clear up dog excrement. GetUp says it is currently fundraising to screen the ad on the commercial television networks in the lead-up to the September 7 election http://mumbrella.com.au/get-up-launches-video-labelling-news-corp-coverage-misleading-crap-175186 KRudd! I've a better line for you: Folks are dumb where I come from by @YaThinkN am ashamed to say that Queensland is the Texas of Australia and after reading ABC's Vote Compass "Battlelines: Top 20 seats where voters are most at odds on key election issues" there is no other conclusion you can come to http://yathink.com.au/article-display/krudd-ive-a-better-line-for-you-folks-are-dumb-where-i-come-from,90 Debate Results:- Nine News Australia ‏@9NewsAUS WORM RESULTS: Kevin Rudd wins 57% over Tony Abbott 43% #YouDecide9 Sky News Australia ‏@ BREAKING NEWS: The final #pplsforum results: @KRuddMP received 45 votes, @TonyAbbottMHR received 38, with 19 remaining undecided Roy Morgan Reactor gives Kevin Rudd a decisive victory in tonight’s 3rd Leaders’ Debate The results were a strong victory for Kevin Rudd 56% with Tony Abbott 23%. 12% thought it was a draw and 9% were undecided http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/5142-third-leaders-debate-reactor-201308281249 Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 29 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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29/08/2013Channel 7 is claiming the Debate last night for Abbott. Personally I didn't watch it so I have no idea.

TalkTurkey

29/08/2013Good Morning Tweety Gee you're a gem. I'm up in SA's nearly-dark and you've already posted this wonderful array of Links. Cold and rainy again today. Thank DOG for my igloomobile. Actually, though it's long hours and lots up jumping up to greet voters and repeat mantra [i]Goodday Sir/Madam Are you voting in BOOTHBY today? [/i](because at Pre-poll anybody from any electorate can vote, and we get lots of Amanda Rishworth for Kingston and Steve Georganas for Hindmarsh) it's quite enjoyable with other Comrades to talk to and many of the voters themselves are interesting. 7 days done, 9 to go counting The Big One. I'll survive I think. Cheers all. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho.

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29/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

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29/08/20132353 The audience gave the debate to Rudd. He got 45 audiences votes, Abbott got 38, and 19 were undecided. Chris Pyne responded: "Well obviously Tony Abbott won the debate...."!!!!! It didn’t attract much of a TV audience: 457,000 viewers on free-to-air TV, plus another 88,000 on Sky News. How much impact it will have will depend on the reportage today.

Michael

29/08/2013Judging from last night's leader's forum his handlers have Abbott on Prozac. Very accurately tagged by Kevin Rudd as "waffle cubed" every time he opened his 'aahh, ummm' mouth.

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29/08/20132353 There is a very detailed account of viewer reaction to the Rooty Hill debate in Lyn's Links using the Roy Morgan Reactor method. That clearly gave Rudd the debate.

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29/08/20132353 You may be interested in this article from Lyn's Links: http://australianpolitics.com/2013/08/28/rudd-abbott-second-leaders-forum.html

janice

29/08/2013The Rooty Hill debate: The first couple of questions were a set-up designed to unsettle Rudd and pave the way for an abbott win. It failed because to Rudd it was water off a duck’s back and left the abbott still on the starting line instead of ten metres ahead. Having said that though, Rudd has hobbled himself by not having thought up a plausible answer to why he replaced Gillard which, to me, is the reason he is not streaks ahead of the abbott. IMHO, he could whitewash his own treachery so far as voters are concerned by simply saying something like: Julia Gillard was Australia’s first female PM and under her leadership the government achieved remarkable reforms for this nation, despite the trials and tribulations of holding together a minority government. However, as it turned out, Australia apparently was not yet ready for a female to hold the reins and the groundswell of negative opinion overwhelmed the great achievements of her government. The media were more interested in her ear lobes, her hair, and her backside than in the great policies being churned out week by week and therefore the people were not informed about all the good things Julia’s team were doing and achieving. Had Rudd come up with this sort of reason, something the public would swallow, then he would be able to laud Labor in government instead of trying to wipe out the memory of Julia Gillard by pointing only to his own dysfunctional period as PM. That way, he might have got away with the idea that he’s a changed character. I gave the debate to Rudd even though Speers did his best to protect his man - did you notice the abbott continually looking to Speers to save him? I don't think the PPL policy has gone down well in Rooty Hill and I got the vibe that small business people are questioning how they will fare under an abbott govt.

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29/08/2013Hi Lyn I’ve now finished your links, so varied, so informative, so useful for the next piece: [i]Say yes, yes, yes to Labor[/i]. You are very intuitive about what is important and of contemporary relevance. As I have said before, we are a great team. The fact checking factories are proving to be useful. So often quotes by politicians are based on cherry-picked data, or on assumptions that don’t tally with reality. They mislead and misinform yet they are perpetuated day after day as if repetition somehow makes the assertion true. The average punter has no way of knowing if he is being fed the truth, half-truths or downright lies. I wonder though how many voters read the fact checkers? I’ll be working on the next piece toady and tomorrow.

2353

29/08/2013Here is a thought provoking article from John Birmingham (Brisbane Times). http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/blogs/blunt-instrument/why-do-you-vote-against-your-interests-20130828-2sqyz.html [quote]As a well-off but grumpy middle aged white man it is in my interests to vote Liberal. I rarely have, though. (There was that one time with Campbell Newman when he was Lord Mayor of Brisbane. He looked so dashing in his ermine trimmed fox fur robes. Sigh. Talk about biting your arm off the morning after.) If I were a resident of western Sydney, educated in the state school system, poorly skilled and facing a life time of McJobs for minimum wage, perhaps my interests wouldn’t lie with the political party which represents the best choice for wealthy, middle class white males. But many voters in those suburbs, just like me, will probably vote against their interests in a couple of weeks.[/quote] Thanks for the information about the Debate. Seven decided the winner by the reaction on it's "App" so it is reasonably easy to "influence" the result to suit a particular agenda. I agree with Janice's comment above in that Rudd needs to "explain" why he is PM again - it will allow him to use the history of the years the ALP under Gillard to further the discussion why the ALP is a better bet on September 7 than the LNP.

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29/08/2013janice Thank you for your comment. I too wish Kevin Rudd would speak like you suggest. He blots his copybook when he fails to give full credit to Julia Gillard for her magnificent achievements. He could blunt Coalition attacks so much easier were he to acknowledge her and her accomplishments. Resentment is a debilitating poison. 2353 Thank you for the link to John Birmingham’s article, which was insightful and so relevant to today’s politics.

Jason

29/08/2013Ad, Don't know if it's a beat up by News ltd or what but it sums up mine and others in my electorates opinion of the campaign so far! MINISTERS and Labor factional powerbrokers are openly questioning whether Julia Gillard would have done a better job than Kevin Rudd as panic rises within the Government over its faltering campaign. Despite Mr Rudd yesterday insisting he could still pull off a surprise win, his own ministers are quietly airing complaints about the Prime Minister and his closest adviser Bruce Hawker's strategic decision-making. COMMENTS: WHAT OUR READERS ARE SAYING One minister warned Labor's campaign lacked depth and was simply based on a failed "mythology" that Mr Rudd's celebrity would see voters flock back to Labor. "The mythology of Kevin that is contradicted by fact is that his popularity will lift all votes," a minister said. "The notion that it could just be about Kevin was complete and utter nonsense." Just two months since the Labor Party dramatically switched its leader, some senior members of the Government are now complaining that Ms Gillard would have performed better than Mr Rudd. The minister said Ms Gillard would have slowly improved Labor's vote, while under Mr Rudd it soared and then plummeted. "One of the questions that will be asked is would Gillard have met Rudd on the way down? In the end, we'll never know," the source said. "She made mistakes, no doubt, and she made mistakes under pressure. But she was much cooler under pressure and she coped with a greater intensity." A second minister said some Labor MPs who advocated Mr Rudd's return should be wondering whether they made the right call. Asked if marginal seat MPs would have had a better chance under Gillard, the minister said "they're too frightened to ask that question". Another senior Labor source said Mr Rudd's election campaign was "off message", was "not sticking with the theme each week" and "the PM seems rattled, disorganised". As disenchantment about Labor's election campaign increases, blame is being sheeted home to Mr Rudd and Mr Hawker. "Kevin wakes up with a bright idea. Bruce agrees with him and it happens," one senior party source said. "The rest of the party is left in the wake of a decision made by Kevin. That is not the way you should run an election campaign." Common complaints about Mr Rudd include that he has announced policies without consulting key campaign operatives and he has not stuck with key themes. Some say he started negative attacks on Mr Abbott too soon and wasted too much time attacking the media in a way that looked "petulant". One Labor powerbroker said the party would be better off without their reborn leader: "The dream outcome would be for us to marginally win and for Kevin to lose." Even one of the MPs who were instrumental in Mr Rudd's rise to power now admit his performance had been "patchy". But the senior Rudd supporter defended the leadership change, saying the new Prime Minister's lowest two-party-preferred vote in the polls of about 47 per cent was close to Ms Gillard's best result.

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29/08/2013Jason If it's in News Limited media, by definition it's a beat up!

lyn

29/08/2013Hi Ad, Thankyou for your post to me @ 10:53AM I love our team. Talk Turkey thankyou to you too for your bright and cheery post 07:43 AM. You are doing a fabulous job you sound very happy. I heard Tony Abbott’s in reply to a Journalist’s question say” he knows what he thinks” funny that, we all know what we think, I think we are in trouble if we don’t, he said everytime Kevin Rudd’s Mouth Moves he is telling a lie. All this Gunna, wanna, kinda, fair dinkham, Margie’s always chewing my ear, trying to be a blokety bloke and just acts like a thug. Here is photo of Tony Abbott and his COS Peta Credlin in the Australian today: https://twitter.com/bkjabour/status/372870961332097024/photo/1 Another foot in the mouth statement from Abbott: Tony Abbott jokes about 'body contact' with teen netballers AUSTRALIA's daggiest netball dad showed again today he just can't help himself, joking with young players that a "bit of body contact never hurt anyone" as they posed for photos. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/special-features/tony-abbott-jokes-about-8216body-contact8217-with-teen-netballers/story-fnho52jj-1226706352231

42 long

29/08/2013If you read the truth in "limited news" you should buy a lottery ticket. Years ago when I had a story for them they said "it has to come out anti.....". Everything they write has a purpose and it is NOT to inform people. That would be the furtherest from their mind

janice

29/08/2013Jason, When the media quote comments from Labor MPs you can safely bet your house on it that it is all bullshite. From now on, every time the abbott shoots himself in the foot, this sort of stuff will appear in the media. After all, the termites got what they wanted and there is no way the rest of the Gillard govt MPs would scuttle the campaign. The media, like the abbott, will sell their souls to get their man into the Lodge despite being well aware that this country will suffer disastrous consequences. At this stage in the campaign I think Labor may just fall over the line with a one or two seat majority, and the abbott will be consigned to the nearest garbage bin. I'm feeling optimistic today. :(

42 long

29/08/2013Abbott looks quite strange, as if he is not well. I would imagine he is under a lot of pressure. When you have to appear consistent and the message you have to get a cross is manufactured ie concocted, you can't speak with any naturalness. IF he misses out just imagine how he would react. A whole term trying to cut short a legal government that he regarded as non legitimate. One that HE deserved to have and the world's longest dummy spit. Many concocted situations, attempts at character assassinating any one they could make a story about. "Tainted" votes, standing orders suspended. "Cosy" with the news editors. All the right "friends" in influential places. Godly advice and forgiveness. All the ingredients for success, but HE FAILED. The government ran FULL TERM. May he continue to FAIL as he rightly deserves to. He is a FAKE.

Jason

29/08/2013Thanks Janice :)

Bilko

29/08/2013The libs are so sure of victory that they hide their policies, their costings, members appearing anywhere for interviews abbort facing the media Q&A etc etc. The piccie of abbort being lectured is a classic the caption could say "yes you can have a bar of cadbury chocolate if you continue to be a good little boy" Janice @10-37 I agree Kevin should be adding Julia's triumphs to his agenda but that goes against the grain and could well be why he will fail to get over the line. I am having difficulty persuading my OH to vote labor because of Kevin, I keep reminding her he is still better than abbort's mob at worst she will be informal. Labor better lift their game or it is curtains for us mere people

Martin Spalding

29/08/2013Thanks for a great post Ad. Just on the GetUp ad (see Mumbrella link), I saw it yesterday and it's a beauty. I'm getting onto the GetUp site to make a donation. Are you guys thinking of the same? The political debate has been crying out for this for years! The messenger, his acolytes and their agenda need to be publicised more broadly - only then will more people start to question the rubbish they are fed in the press.

Ken

29/08/2013I find it almost incomprehensible that people who have seen Abbott being vicious to PM Gillard for three years can now believe he is "caring" and Prime Ministerial. 42 long - agree that Abbott is looking quite strange. It is not natural for him to appear "caring". He is robotic. Staying on message. Not game to say anything other than what he has been told. There have been some slip-ups but, for a large part of the electorate, not major ones. They reveal the real Abbott but, of course, the MSM ignores them. On the other hand, I am totally disappointed in the Labor campaign. As others have said, they are hamstrung by Rudd refusing to acknowledge the achievements of Gillard. And Rudd has become too negative which is a turn off to the electorate (as evidenced by the worm during the dabate. He talks about wanting Australia to "build" things but hasn't really backed that up. He needs to say that we can't compete with the low-cost economies but we can produce high-end products based on high technology and that is where we should be aiming. I think it was a major mistake to denigrate Gillard by saying the "carbon tax" was introduced without a mandate. He also appears to be playing the political game which is another turn-off to the electorate. Abbott obviously is as well (at least obvious to some), which is why this election has not reached any heights. Talking about the economy, even talking down the LNPs costings and economic management, has the inverse effect of reinforcing the majority view that the LNP are better ecoonomic managers (from an old Possum post). They would be better off talking about Labor's strengths, education, health and social equity, and only responding when the LNP raises the economy. They have strengths - e.g. getting through the GFC. They need to focus more on the NBN, the Disability scheme, Gonski, etc, for what has been achieved and emphasise how much of that will be lost under Abbott (I know they are doing that to some extent but they keep waffling on about other things and not hammering this enough). All in all, a very poor campaign. From both sides. It is boring, which actually plays into the LNP hands. Labor needed something stronger and brighter, a real vision (but ever since Keating lost, they have been scared to have a vision). It is being guided too much by polls (and focus groups) and no one dares say anything that doesn't fit, even though people are yearning to be told where we are going and how we are going to get there. Sorry, just fed up with the whole election!!!

42 long

29/08/2013I agree with you Ken. the MSM and the rotten LOTO had destroyed Julia. "They had stopped listening to her" The propaganda worked. I don't blame Gillard at all but she was successfully eliminated. She doesn't really have a lot to answer for and has my admiration on a personal level. Rudd has changed the momentum. The media can't just ignore him. They have gone flat out to blacken his reputation and subject him to ridicule. Murdoch must have lost his marbles as this will wound him one day ( and may it be soon) Rudd is within an inch of getting there. LieNP are worried. Rudds idea of making labor more inclusive is a winner. The LIBS are for the top end of town and elitist, and can only do well with backing of media which is losing it's power because of sites like TPS and IA NO FIBS etc. They ( the LieNP) don't appeal to the young either and they themselves are not a party but a COALITION. The COAL part doesn't mix with the "Country" farmer part.

Ken

29/08/201342 long Yes, the Murdoch press is continuing with Rudd where it left off with Gillard. As I said, I'm disappointed with the Labor campaign but you are right about the younger vote. In a previous thread I posted my own number crunching after one of the polls also gave a break down by age groups. I applied that to population figures from the ABS and came up with a 2PP of 50.5% to the ALP. Interesting that it gave Labor about 55% of the under 50s, but 46% of the over 50s. So one of the keys is getting the 18-30 in particular to vote (as I understand it that age group has the highest proportion of people not enrolled and/or not voting). As I said in an earlier comment, I can only hope Labor is winning the battle on social media and getting more of the younger age groups out to vote.

TalkTurkey

29/08/2013Hi folks, Home again after a Dog-awful day of rain and cold wet wind gusts blowing our A-frame corflute sign over over over and over again, well actually mostly their signs which are narrower and less stable. I've taught their two young helpers Flathead and Bovver Boy respect, well if they don't actually respect me they don't dare [i]dis[/i]respect me because I just pulled rank with the weakie Andrew "Dr [i]Who?"[/i]Southcott MHR who comes to visit them, and told him in definite terms to get Flathead to behave himself, and now they hold me in awe, hahar. Turns out Bovver Boy is Southcott's Chief of Staff, well I got his number too (in the vernacular sense.) He ain't so tough cos I know where to kick. Ad what a remarkable team you and Lyn have made all these years. You would know better than I, but I don't think there could have been anything to match @lynlinking in the world, through it historians of the future will be able to trace as never before contemporary history. Even not counting its future utility to academicians, her archives are a work of art like a 3-D Bayeux Tapestry (I've used the metaphor before) of infinite extent ... We have been incredibly blessed to have her over this turbulent parliamentary term. If Lyn had not been, the Fighting 5th Estate would have needed her, and she would not have been found in anyone else. Tweety is a one-person phenomenon and I have never ceased to be in awe of her Great Work.

cornlegend

29/08/2013LNP candidate for Gilmore, Ann Sudmalis suggests “Any workplace relations legislation is on the table AFTER the election not BEFORE” Liberal candidate for Gilmore 28/8/2013 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=479546438810651&set=a.332664936832136.72410.316480331783930&type=1&theater

Curi-Oz

30/08/2013TalkTalkey, Thanks to you, I'm doing back-room support for my local ALP chap. Not quite as exciting as facing down smart-alecky youngsters everyday, but sufficiently entertaining for a suitably warped mindset *wry grin* However, I have volunteered for a couple of shifts on polling day, so I will be getting some exposure there too. The Liberals in our area have so many posters up, it seems like for every poster the ALP can get up, the Libs have at least three if not more overwhelming them. To me it looks a little desperate, so I'm hoping that they need to be. Mind you, I also suspect them of indulging in a little ... sabotage, shall we call it? And what is it with Sportsbet apparently already paying out on a Coalition win? I think they are also indulging in goalpost shifting sabotage too! However, LynLinking your morning generosity is making me feel incredibly well resourced, because (thanks to you) I can find resources and comments to back up statements that do not come 'just from ALP adverts' *delight* It is so true that real treasure is other people. Thank you all.

lyn

30/08/2013Today’s links Liberals' cost of living calculator: accurate but extremely disingenuous by @GrogsGamut Dodgy cost calculators make for a great toy when you are trying to win an election, but as long as political parties treat voters like idiots and refuse to give them the full picture on such issues, we will forever be denied the chance of a proper debate. http://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2013/aug/29/liberal-cost-living-calculator-uses-tricks The newspaper industry joke by @independentaus Prime Minister Rudd has complained that the Daily Telegraph published 40 articles critical of the Labor government in the first week of the campaign. Tony Abbott has never complained about the Murdoch press. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/media-2/the-newspaper-industry-joke/ News Corp CEO: claims of anti-Labor bias are ‘baseless’ by @nicchristensen @mumbrella Speaking to Mumbrella after a panel discussion of newspaper CEOs at the industry’s Future Forum event in Sydney, Clarke would not discuss the controversy over News Corp’s election coverage in detail, but described accusations by Labor PM Kevin Rudd as “baseless”. http://mumbrella.com.au/news-corp-ceo-says-claims-anti-labor-bias-baseless-175303#more-175303 The Big Picture by Mike Bowers Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, education spokesman Christopher Pyne, and New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell launched the Liberal-National schools policy this morning at Penrith Christian School. Abbott said he “disagreed” with the school’s policy that homosexuality was “an abomination unto God, a perversion of the natural order and not to be entered into by His people”. http://powerhouse.theglobalmail.org/ Tony’s black hole gambit costs Libs by @macro_business If I add up all the Coalition savings and spending I still come with around a $17 billion black hole but I have no faith in this at all given it’s using a mix of accrual and cash accounting and I have no idea where my starting points are. This is a poor look for a political party campaigning on trust and budget professionalism and feeds the fear that Labor is stoking. http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/08/tonys-black-hole-gambit-cost-libs/ Business groups react to Coalition’s decision to cut $5 billion in tax breaks by Patrick Stafford Peter Strong, executive director of the Council of Small Business of Australia, told SmartCompany this morning the decision to scrap the benefits will leave a lot of business owners confused. http://www.smartcompany.com.au/tax/057242-business-groups-react-to-coalition-s-decision-to-cut-5-billion Liberal candidate says workplace policy comes after election, not before by ABC It is exactly as it is right now right through to the election and it will be reviewed after the election and that has been made perfectly clear to everybody." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-29/workchoices-sudmalis/4920352 FactCheck Q&A: are wages steady, disputes down and productivity up? by @ConversationEDU Verdict The three claims of Bill Shorten regarding wages, industrial conflict and labour productivity are broadly correct. Any errors were minor and were in his favour at least as often as against it. http://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-are-wages-steady-disputes-down-and-productivity-up-17516 Do Hockey's clean energy cuts add-up? by Tristan Edis the Coalition has declined to provide a breakdown on where and when these cuts are coming from, instead stating further detail will come next week. The Coalition has also stated very clearly that ARENA will continue even though its budget will be reduced, or maybe just deferred. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/29/renewable-energy/do-hockeys-clean-energy-cuts-add The dangerous thinking behind Coalition renewable energy policy by Giles Parkinson Part of the problem may be in the quality of the advice it is receiving. Many in the Coalition defer to the Institute of Public Affairs when asked about climate change and renewables policies. The IPA, of course, is a right-wing think tank that doesn’t accept the science of climate change, and argues against climate and clean energy policies. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/the-dangerous-thinking-behind-coalition-renewable-energy-policy-84 Has the unemployment rate been manipulated- by @MattCowgill There seems to be a rich vein of scepticism out there about the official figures, which I think ranges from the misguided and misinformed to the cynical and conspiratorial. As far as I can tell, there are three key reasons why people mistrust these numbers, which I’ll address in turn. http://mattcowgill.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/has-the-unemployment-rate-been-manipulated/ There is a class warfare and the workers are not winning by @billy_blog The Politics of Envy – that old chestnut from the neo-liberals – is bandied around every time there is any insinuation that the capitalist system produces distributional outcomes that are not remotely proportional to the effort put into production http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=25187#more-25187 Awkward day for Tony Abbott by Tvnz News Earlier on Thursday another innocent photo opportunity turned awkward for Mr Abbott at Sydney Olympic Park.After pledging $6 million from a coalition government for netball facilities and support for the popular sport, Mr Abbott was heard telling young players there is no harm in "a little body contact". http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/awkward-day-tony-abbott-5548738 Abbott makes campaign pitch at school that calls homosexuality 'abomination' by Helen Davidson What’s more shocking than the school’s statements around homosexuality is that Australian law still allows religious schools to expel students and fire teachers on the basis of their sexuality,” said Greens spokeswoman for schools, Senator Penny Wright. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/29/tony-abbott-school-calls-homosexuality-abomination Pissed off with LibLab? Don’t make them happy by voting informal by @margokingston1 I’ve had several Twitter discussions with people who don’t think either big party deserves their vote and reckon voting informal is the way to stick it up both of them. It’s not. http://nofibs.com.au/2013/08/29/pissed-liblab-dont-make-happy-voting-informal/ Rudd vs Abbott – People’s Forum no. 3 by @crazyjane13 With nine days to go, it’s wall-to-wall election ads on TV and flyers in every mailbox. But there was time for one more debate between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Coalition Leader Tony Abbott. Conducted in a ‘town hall’ style at Rooty Hill in Western Sydney, nobody expected anything new. In fact, though, we heard new promises and perhaps new policies. http://consciencevote.com.au/ Careless Whispers Nothing to Dance About by Dan Rowden In my years of being old enough to know what an election campaign is, I cannot recall one so inundated with media tales of what unnamed persons have to say. The number of stories quoting unnamed Party sources, primarily on Labor’s side of the political coin has been nothing short of staggering – nameless “ministers”, “senior party officials”, http://theaimn.com/2013/08/29/careless-whispers-nothing-to-dance-about/ Behind The Polling Headlines by @archiearchive With eight days to go until the Election, with near-total saturation media-approval for Tony Abbott and near total media-approbium for Kevin Rudd, one in four Australian voters are still undecided.So next time you see a poll talking about a two, four or six percent gap between the parties, remember that TWENTY FOUR PERCENT are undecided. http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/behind-the-polling-headlines/ Men in Blue Ties, We deserve better by Tracey SpicerThe worm dug deep. “I was doing absolutely the right thing by the people and the party,” her predecessor, and successor, said solemnly.To which Tony Abbott responded, “The best way to reform the Labor Party is to put them into Opposition”. http://thehoopla.com.au/men-blue-ties-deserve-better/ Gusface_Redux Vs Shanahan – Newspoll by @frankscan65, @Gusface_Redux On Tony Delroy’s Nightlife on the subject of Newspoll and Shanahan’s Reaction to Gus’ suggestion on having an Independent Body to Audit Opinion Polls http://afrankview.net/2013/08/gusface_redux-vs-shanahan-newspoll/ Looking for an electoral messiah by Brian Costar Between 1949 and 1972 the big parties (Liberal, Labor and the Nationals’ forerunner, the Country Party) had eleven federal leaders among them, of whom only one, John Gorton, was removed by his own party. But between 1972 and 2013 the same parties had twenty-nine leaders, fifteen of whom (or a shade over half) were ousted by party-room coups – two of them in the last three years. http://inside.org.au/looking-for-an-electoral-messiah/ Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 30 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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30/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated:http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

Truth Seeker

30/08/2013Morning Swordsters, as Abbott is claiming that he wants to be known as the infrastructure PM, I though I would give my take on it; [b]"Tony the infrastructure PM…WTF?"[/b] http://truthseekersmusings.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/tony-the-infrastructure-pm-wtf/ Cheers :-)

Michael

30/08/2013http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/no-opposition-policies-sent-for-costing-20130830-2sua4.html?skin=text-only The most important thing flushed out about the 'did they or didn't they?' brouhaha over Treasury and Finance Departments identifying holes in the Coalition's costings yesterday is the clarification that the Coalition have submitted no costings at all to the Parliamentary Budget Office. Nor to Treasury. Not to Finance. None. Zero. Zilch. Which means any argy-bargy about high or low numbers is only sideshow stuff. The Coalition has lied about submitting policies and costings to the objective calculation and assessment of the PBO, the office set up precisely to ratify costings at election time. With no ratified budget numbers, no certified costings, the Coalition has, in effect, no policies. Policies without costings are just wishlists and airy promises. They have no displayed fiscal likelihood of reality. Consequently, since the Coalition has no policies it can demonstrate how in government it will pay for, it has no legitimate possible role to play AS a government. Governments pay for things, things they promise to deliver. No proven capacity to pay, no possibility of delivery, any promise to do so - bogus. The Coalition is not presenting itself as an alternative government in any realisable sense - it is a blancmange, fluffy, ephemeral, so... Each and every representative of it is lying.

janice

30/08/2013Good morning all. I too am disappointed with Labor's campaign. In fact it is very hard to stay positive when Rudd keeps on photoshopping out the remarkable achievements of the Gillard years. Bilko, I think there are few Laborites out in the electorates who are not still angry with their party. When push comes to shove though, we have nowhere to go but to vote for what we've got because the alternative is just beyond the pale. Talk Turkey. I just want you know that I do so admire you getting out there and working your butt off. If Labor does manage a win, all thanks and kudos is due, not to the so-called great campaigner, but to you and those like you.

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30/08/2013Hi Lyn I’ve enjoyed your links again today, and some will feed into the piece I’m writing for Sunday: [i]Say yes, yes, yes to Labor[/i]. I’ll be concentrating on that today, so I won’t be commenting much. Greg Jericho’s post on the Liberal’s cost of living calculator was revealing. It is completely consistent with their disingenuous statements on this subject. Truth Seeker has a nice take on the ‘Infrastructure Prime Minister’. Michael You are right, there are no Coalition costings yet and according to Tony Abbott this morning on ABC radio, they will not be available until late next week. Once more, we are being conned, and treated like mugs. janice Your disappointment is shared. Like you, we applaud our Turkey for his devotion to the Labor cause. This Sunday’s piece is devoted to him, as was last Sunday’s

John Pollard

30/08/2013Nice work! One thing I cannot understand is why Labor doesn't use the Republic versus the Monarchy as a clear point of difference between them and the Coalition. Surely the tactic would be effective as a wedge, and as a real issue on which the electorate is of a majority opinion contrary to Abbott.

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30/08/2013John Pollard Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family and thank you for your comment. You make an interesting point. The monarchy versus a republic has not been mentioned in the campaign. Do come again.

John Pollard

30/08/2013Another question I have is why doesn't anyone corner Abbott on one obvious method that he will employ to replenish the bottom line.....by selling public assets? Just as Howard and Costello did, he will be after anything he can sell that isn't nailed down. For example, Australia Post, SBS, maybe even the ABC. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of these assets, but the approach is still, as they say, in his DNA!

KHTAGH

30/08/2013Michael You took the words out of my mouth, I was going to make the same point, where is that point in the MSM, nowhere. As you say it is even more telling than anything else. Every day we hear Abbott & Eleventy claiming every thing has been costed by the PBO, when it obviously has not been. Australia is being conned!!

Jason

30/08/2013Ad an interesting comment from Bushfire Bill bushfirebill on August 30, 2013 at 8:59 am said: Truthseeker sees the connection too: There is no doubt that many of the access roads into our cities from the outer suburbs and regions need major upgrades, but the reality is that if the job is done correctly with the NBN, as in FTTP, then not only does decentralisation become a much more attractive alternative for many technology and information based businesses, but also many of the workers in these industries can do much of their work from home. http://truthseekersmusings.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/tony-the-infrastructure-pm-wtf/ Many large companies occupy expensive and hard-to-access CBDs because the data pipelines are routed to them. Decentralize the data and you no longer need freeways costing billions, less time is spent getting to and from work (making life more pleasant and efficient for workers), and true, data-intensive work from home becomes a real option. Even if 10% of workers spend 1 or two days working from home, then we have a major demographic shift. Other flow-on effects are manifold: dad or mum working from home on those days can drop the kids off at school and pick them up, saving not only money but re-forging family bonds. Shopping can be done on weekdays, smoothing peak weekend traffic and parking congestion. As someone who works from home I can highly recommend it. You don’t need to dress yourself up in work clothes every day, you can save the life of a sick dog by caring for him on a 24/7 basis, when the grandkids come down for school holidays you can look after them, and yes, as the House Husband around here I can get the routine chores done, like shopping, mowing the lawns etc. It all sounds faintly trivial, but it’s important to us. When I was a security project manager for Woolies, I always got more work done at home without the distractions of the phone and the loud voice (and personality) of the dickhead who worked in the office next to mine. Anecdotal, sure, but if millions do it, even a few days of the week, it’s a major workplace change for the better. To deal with my international customers I have email, or if a meeting is required, Skype, with video if necessary, so I can show them the physical shape of new developments, or how to adjust a calibration screw, or polish solvent smears off some glass after cleaning it. Little things, but they add up. I rarely go into “The City”, perhaps once or twice a year, and when I do I feel like a yokel, staring at how big the buildings have become, checking out the bottoms of the office girls as they hurry up the street, marvelling at the beauty of the Harbour and pitying the poor bastards who queue up every day to catch commuter trains at 7am and 7pm. And I’m just in the suburbs of Sydney… expensive Sydney. what if I could have all the data access I needed in Orange, or Bathurst, or the Blue Mountains? Or even further afield in one of my favourite towns, like Broken Hill? Way out there there is ample sunshine.Solar farms could power the entire place, and pwoer its growth back into an important city. Centers of excellence in education and research could move to places where the climate is cleaner, the landscape more beautiful, the housing cheaper, and where the local unemployed or under-employed could get jobs in the new and burgeoning markets that came along with the communications revolution. We wouldn’t need to worry about line loss in sending our electricity to the Big Cities. We would be the Big City, without all the tragic loss of efficiency and assaults to the human spirit that big cities bring with them. Bu sadly, the NBN has been reduced to a shit fight over pennies, with the pounds ignored. Abbott happily talks about his infrastructure ambitions, where he will spend many billions – almost as much as the NBN would cost – on funneling more and more commuters into a rat race they can never win. Motorway tunnels kilometres long, underground railways built at huge expense ferrying more and more work droids into the city centers, when the city centers are NOT where the people live (unless they are rich and love the smell of petrol fumes). We’ve just had some new people move in across the street. They came from the Inner West of Sydney, Leichhardt. It’s a nice enough place, but their next door neighbours were never more than 8 metres away from them on either side. They had to keep their dog locked in the house so its barking wouldn’t disturb the people adjacent to them. They apologized to me for the barking of their dog, who woofted at everyone who walked down the street: me, the old Sri Lankan grandmother in traditional dress taking her daughter’s kids to and from school, the architect who also works from home, and the psychologist who sees his clients, also at home three out of five days a week. They told me they’d keep the dog inside so as not to disturb me. I pointed to the trees, and the birds – brush turkies, cockatoos, galahs, lorikeets, king parrots, magpies, butcher birds, currawongs, the occasional corella – and told them they weren’t in Leichhardt anymore. Leichhardt rules need no longer apply. Dogs are allowed to bark around here. They shook their heads and said they were still embarrassed and didn’t like their dog barking. I hope they get over it, or they’re going to be one hell of an unhappy couple, cramped inside their house trying not to disturb the neighbours who don’t care anyway about being disturbed. Perhaps in time they’ll get the idea. We have a chance to end the rat race. The NBN offers that possibility, being a sword to the guts of the CBD As King, of even the cities as the only place where data intensive business can be done. It’s an amazing vision that Conroy had, and that Rudd approved, and that Gillard started to build. But it’s about to be sacrificed so one old man can cling onto the last remaining profitable business unit in his crumbling empire: Foxtel. It’s being sacrificed to venality and vanity, the vanity of a pugilistic fanatic who’s about to become Prime Minister, a man who has made such a virtue of disagreeing about anything the government does or ever did, that he will not see sense and change his mind. It’s ironic that he changes his mind on just about everything else – on a daily basis lately – but on certain core initiatives, the NBN and Climate Change in particular, he’s whipped up so much hatred and passion that there’s no backing down. So, as always, it looks like Australia will settle for second-best, again. Even third best or fourth best. It’s the cultural cringe writ large. We had a chance to be great. But a myth spun about debt, deficits and surpluses, spiced with envy and tunnel vision, garnished with greed and naked lust for power at any price has once more led us to baulk at the starting gate and turn our backs on the future. That myth was countered weakly. Not with grand vision, but with equally venal point-scoring and profession to the ways of penny-pinching. Global Warming is no longer a matter of survival – moral and physical – it’s down to nuts and bolts, dollars and cents, pensioners and the opinions of pompous, pontificating shock jocks, spreading fear about an economic catastrophe that was never realized, and will never be. The Climate Debate is so far from its real core now that Abbott can couch his pitch, not in terms of the Earth warming and slowly cooking like the frog in the saucepan of slowly boiling water, but in terms no more profound than cleaning up waterways and picking up rubbish. Abbott has, it seems, succeeded in equating action against Global Warming with a sort of macro-sized Clean Up Australia. The media, ever on the lookout for gotchas, and with a stake in this race to September 7th, nods and characterizes the entire campaign as one long series of gotchas, no more important than the petty triumphs of Reality TV, or a front bar argument where whoever gets the biggest laugh wins the day. That has been Rudd’s fundamental mistake. With a pissant like Bruce Hawker running his campaign, I’m not surprised. If ever there was a low political thinker it’s Bruce Hawker. But Rudd is the front man, and, in my eyes, he’s continuing that maddening habit of his of getting to the killer point… and then either not seeing it, or refusing to make it. Instead of describing Rupert Murdoch as a foreigner, who gave up his right to vote here in Australia for money, he lets him off the hook by telling us all that Murdoch has a “perfect right” to say what he wants to say. No he doesn’t! He relinquished that right when he made the decision as a mature man to sever his ties with Australia as his homeland. With Climate change, Rudd first acquiesced to the Coalition’s position that the “Carbon Tax” was a cost to the nation. Of course it’s a cost! It’s designed to change spending and consumption habits! And then he went one step further, telling a national TV audience that the government had no mandate to enact the ETS legislation, starting back in 2010. And now with the NBN – a gift policy, a winner, something Labor did that was actually popular, and which arguably won the last election and later specifically swayed both Windsor and Oakeshotte to support a Labor government – all we get are platitudes about “Kids’ Education”. The NBN is vastly more important than that, but Rudd always stops short of clinching the deal. He’s been led into the “Costings” trap. It was obvious that the Opposition would let Rudd go out on a limb, basing his entire campaign pitch on costings, and then they would release a flimsy document at the last moment, wave it in the air and claim the entire debate was unsoundly based, that their costings were rock solid… without giving anyone but the economics wonks a chance to prove otherwise. Rudd and the dopey Hawker fell for it. They have been outclassed and outsmarted by the Opposition. Real changes – the NBN and Climate – have been set in place by Labor, but Labor had neither the balls nor the wit to follow through. Instead they have played to the Coalition’s game plan, following them down the back lanes of triviality and meaningless, petty detail, and, when set up perfectly, they have been mugged. Everybody knows that when it comes to “nasty”, “lying” and “vicious” the Coalition does those particular things better than anyone else. This campaign is proving that truth yet again. The Coalition read Rudd perfectly: he wants to be everybody’s friend. It seems the only enemies he ever took up real arms against were those in his own party. The Coalition sussed this out long ago and have played a winning game based on it. http://pbxmastragics.com/2013/08/27/would-you/comment-page-9/#comments

KHTAGH

30/08/2013Sorry for a second post but I forgot to add this, why on earth don't Labor counter Abbott's getting rid of the mining tax with a simple add of Rudd standing on a mountain of iron ore holding a piece saying "see this, you the people of Australia OWN this resource", Mr Abbott thinks you don't deserve your fair share he wants to give $400million back to the mining companies. Also does anyone else realise that Mr Abbott is going to give $6million to Cadburys who is actually owned by Craft, the owners of some of the largest tobacco manufactures in the world, just ask Dick Smith!. Repaying them for the election funding they have given the Lieberals in the past?

Catching up

30/08/2013 Labor presented Abbott's stated policies, that were in the public arena for costing. They were found wanting. Fact. Mr. Abbot, it is time now, for you to give us some proof that Labor has it wrong. Yes, the costings from the office your government set up, will do. Today, not next Friday. Otherwise, one can only come the the conclusion we are being coneed, as we where in 2010.

John Pollard

30/08/2013Thanks Ad. I wish Abbott would be taken to task by the likes of Grattan, Uhlmann and Tony Jones for his own "lies"! When he has spent three years applying the blowtorch to Gillard for her so called dishonesty, why can't the media call him out on his own behaviour? Consider the constant attack on Gillard over the carbon tax "lie" in contrast to his own baseless claims on it's dreadful consequences. He went virtually unscathed despite his unmitigated campaign of exaggerations and outright lies. Similarly, he backflips, or "lies", in his own parlance, on Gonski, and is beaten with a feather for it. The list of double standards goes on and he is not held to account in my opinion. All I can think is that, like Treasury and the Budget Office, journalists and media hacks have generally decided who the winner will be and which side their bread will be buttered on thereafter. How I wish for a bit of backbone from them and an outcome that excludes Abbott from Australia's future! How sweet that would be, no minister for Idiocy and Juvenile Behaviour Pyne.. No minister for Cruelty Morrison. No minister for Vicious Misrepresentation Mirabella. No minister for Earnest Duplicity Hunt. No minister for the Evil Eye Bishop. No minister for Confected Outrage And Small Business Origins Hockey. No minister for Certifiable Blather Joyce. No minister for Vacuous Blank Facedness Robb. No minister for Pompous Gesturing Turnbull. No minister for Being a Tedious Git Brandis. And of course, no Prime minister and minister for Veiled Arrogance and Unbridled Ambition, including minister for Token Concern for Women and Aboriginals, and Small Targets, Tony Abbott. Noooooo!...Spare us all!! ( Who have I missed? That's right! The minister for Sniping Abetz and the minister for Hiding in the Shadows and Apparent Innocence Whilst Actually Running the Show Sinodinos! And much much more, coming your way soon.....)

KHTAGH

30/08/2013If this is the average Lieberal voter, dog help us all, prepare for the cringe of your life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag-mFowwGho

Ad astra

30/08/2013John Pollard I agree with you. But most of the MSM has long given up on putting Abbott under scrutiny, no doubt hoping to be on his drip feed should he win, which they are sure he will. I like your turn of phrase, and you ministerial titles. Very clever.

Dan Rowden

30/08/2013KHTAGH, That was the funniest thing I've seen in a very long time. Is it possible it's high class satire? Dan Rowden

Patriciawa

30/08/2013Dan, I asked myself that, too! If it's satire then it is brilliantly performed! Thanks KHTAGH.

Michael

30/08/2013Andrew Elder tries to explain the attraction of Tony Abbott, and comes up http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/

Michael

30/08/2013No validated costings, no actual policies. Simple enough, the Coalition are bringing nothing to voters. An Emperor's wardrobe bursting at the seams with his very best 'clothes'.

Ken

30/08/2013KHTAGH, Dan, Patriciawa Yes, loved the clip. Are we sure it's not a Labor plant on social media?? Yes, it's either very good satire or the best argument yet for having intelligence tests before being allowed to enroll to vote!!!!

KHTAGH

30/08/2013Ken Dan & Patriciawa It is a natural question to ask, but I'm sure if you showed this to the reliant Dr say a psychologist or psychiatrist, he/she would definitely raise an eyebrow or two. He is not camera savvy enough to be professional, if it was a satirical take off he would be a master actor, trouble is you could see as the rant goes on he gets a real adrenaline rush, almost manic. Says maybe real, he'll probable cast a donkey vote anyway a 1 in every box.

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30/08/2013Folks I've been busy today finishing: Say yes, yes, yes to Labor, so I've just now finished reading your comments, which I've enjoyed. The YouTube video must have been satire; nobody could be that stupid! I enjoyed reading Bushfire Bill; he is always spot on. The capacity of the NBN to substantially reduce commuting, and with it pollution, has been apparent from the outset. Why has this not been emphasized? Andrew Elder's piece was up to his usual standard. I'm calling it a day.

Casablanca

31/08/2013[b]Positive Economic Reports that you won't read about in Limited News [/b] NATSEM HOUSEHOLD BUDGET REPORT: COST OF LIVING AND STANDARD OF LIVING INDEXES FOR AUSTRALIA June 2013 [quote]Over the 2013 June quarter the cost of living for all households increased by just 0.1 per cent. Over the previous 12 months this increase was a benign 1.7 per cent compared to the long run average of 2.9 per cent. ...the cost of living changes remain below average over the past three years. Figure 5 (page 15 of Report) shows that the three most recent governments Howard, Rudd and Gillard, all presided over exactly the same changes in standard of living – about 2.6 per cent per annum increases. The Hawke/Keating governments presided over a deep and long recession that reduced the growth in the standard of living during their period of government. [b]Disposable income increases were strongest under the Rudd Government while cost of living increases were lowest under the Gillard government.[/b][/quote] http://www.natsem.canberra.edu.au/storage/NATSEM-Household-Budget-Report.pdf [u]Main Points for June 2013 report: [/u] • Since 1988, Household incomes grew 65 per cent more than the cost of living with an average real increase of $305 per week, or $15,861 per year. • Australian households defied the Global Financial Crisis with average household incomes growing 15 per cent since 2008, or $5,324 per annum after cost of living increases. • Cost of living changes were flat in 2012-13 with +0.1 per cent through the June quarter and +1.7 per cent through the year. • Household incomes +1.0 per cent through quarter and + 2.8 per cent through year. • Financial standard of living +0.9 per cent through quarter and +1.1 per cent through the year. • Cost of living increases strongest over June 2013 quarter in ACT (+0.5%) and lowest in Victoria (-0.3%). • Cost of living increases for June 2013 quarter marginally higher for low income households (+0.2% quarter/+2.2% annual) than for high income households (0% quarter/+1.2% annual). • Strongest cost of living increases for renters (+0.5% quarter/2.6% annual) and government beneficiaries (+0.3% quarter/+2.5% annual). • Strongest contributors to cost of living gains through the year were utilities (+14%), Health (6.2%) and Education (+5.5%) and easing cost of living pressures, mortgage interest (-14.5%) and audio-visual(-5.1). • Sydney has the highest cost of living of capital cities with a $4,823 annual premium over the cheapest capital city, Adelaide. The combined ACT/NT has the highest financial standard of living with Perth the second highest.

TalkTurkey

31/08/2013 UP THERE KEVIN! You toiled for this captaincy, now FFS if you can't say something clever and funny then FFS say something cutting and resonant. You got 1 weekend. The ditty below is meant as an electric cattle prod up your rectal area. Tony Abborrrtt's iron-fisted. All I see of you's limp-wristed. FFS Kev, do something clever Or be DAMNED forever and ever! Gordon once said SA Labor couldn't run a Chook Raffle And now it seems to me the Feds are spineless as a Waffle .. I don't think Rudd could fight his own way out of a Falafel! If he loses on September 7 I'll want Kevin's Offal! I hope Kevin takes this to heart because I will despise him far beyond my feelings for Abborrtt if we lose. [i]Because he alone with his ego will have been responsible.[/i] I will grudgingly defer to him if he wins though. (Well of course we'll win! We bloody [i]better![/i]) VENCEREMOS! :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bit sad personally though tonight. :( Will explain maybe when I can get myself back together.

lyn

31/08/2013Today’s links The power of the Murdoch media to manipulate by Alan Austin, @OnLineOpinion How do they manipulate their readers? With six strategies, 1st. They repeat impressive-sounding propositions which they do not bolster with evidence, 2nd. They ignore global context. 3rd. They deny the global financial crisis impacted Australia. 4th. The sneaky rhetorical question which also avoids actual fibs. 5th. They make things up. 6th. If you can't say something destructive about Labor, don't say anything. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=15412 A vote against the media by @awelder People are voting against the media because they are not providing the information that people need to make a decision. In a democracy it is people who make the decision, not pollsters or journalists or other dingbats like them. The metrics that slow media uses to measure consumption - clickthroughs and guesstimate multiples of how many see a bought newspaper or http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/ Election IOU: how will Rupert call in Abbott’s debt to him? by Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer The key to control of Foxtel is getting Telstra out. Telstra doesn’t need the cash — it has billions coming in from the NBN (although Telstra might baulk at further deals with “copper magic”). But if an Abbott government were to do a deal on the NBN with Telstra in exchange for getting it out of Foxtel, all in the name of freeing up competition, then News would be very happy http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/08/30/election-iou-how-will-rupert-call-in-abbotts-debt-to-him/ Lucky no more by The Economist The choice between a man with a defective manifesto and one with a defective personality is not appealing—but Mr Rudd gets our vote, largely because of Labor’s decent record. With deficits approaching, his numbers look more likely to add up than Mr Abbott’s. Despite his high-handed style, Mr Rudd is a Blairite centrist. A strategic thinker http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21584343-kevin-rudd-just-about-deserves-second-turn-lucky-no-more? Election guide: what you need to know about the parties' education policies by @ConversationEDU The Coalition has also put itself in a curious position – it says it will make schools better but in the same breath it says the federal government should have little or nothing to do with providing education. Constitutionally this is correct – states do bare most of the direct responsibility for the provision of education – but this also conveniently ignores http://theconversation.com/election-guide-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-parties-education-policies-17360 Have low income earners been ‘punished’ by changes to the private health insurance rebate? > Check the facts by Factsfightback they’ve been punished by a lot of changes that Labor has made.” Shadow Treasurer, Joe Hockey. The finding: Low income earners are unaffected by the changes to the PHI rebate and the Medicare Levy Surcharge http://www.factsfightback.org.au/have-low-income-earners-been-punished-by-labor-health-changes/ Bob Ellis: Inside Newspoll by @independentaus Newspoll has been underestimating the Labor vote, and the Labor preferred vote, for years now, from when mobiles started taking over the market. And Newspoll could have been underestimating it, if required by its owner Murdoch, even more; as it did last year when it had Romney always ahead, or competitive. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/bob-ellis-inside-newspoll/ Fraud versus fraud in fiscal fog by @macro_business The election has now descended fully into a fiscal fog. There is no way to gauge whether Coalition costings represent an increase or decrease in fiscal drag given their accrual basis, double-counting and refusal to just give us plain and simple cash numbers from a publicly recognised source. And this morning Labor’s attempt to punch a hole in the fog is itself exposed as fraudulent http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/08/fraud-versus-fraud-in-fiscal-fog/ Direct Action - could it be a $35b budget blowout? by Tristan Edis Analysis by Monash University and engineering and energy consulting firm Sinclair Knight Merz conservatively estimated that the Coalition would blow out its budget by $4 billion to meet its commitment to reduce emissions by 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.Reputex’s analysis finds the budget blowout would be more like $35 billion. http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/8/30/policy-politics/direct-action-could-it-be-35b-budget-blowout “If Tony Abbott wins, it will kill me” by Turnleft2013 Tony Abbott is playing with the life and death of real people, these are not just a means to balance the budget, it’s not just about numbers in an economic report, these are real people. http://turnleft2013.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/if-tony-abbott-wins-it-will-kill-me/ Literally doesn’t mean literally anymore, and the Conservatives have been Radicals since the 80s. by rossleighbrisbane They levy Big Business (“It’s a levy, we don’t tax”) and unlike the Carbon Tax, there’s no mention of this being passed on to consumers, and give people a benefit based on what they were earning. We’re told that this is only fair. After all, sick leave and holiday pay are based on the person’s income http://theaimn.com/2013/08/30/literally-doesnt-mean-literally-anymore-and-the-conservatives-have-been-radicals-since-the-80s/ To Gonski or not to Gonski. That is the Question by @MyCommentBlog Why did Tony Abbott not say to the Liberal Premiers“Support Gonski education reforms because it is the right thing to do.”The only conclusion you can draw is that he would modify the Gonski education reforms if elected through subtle cutbacks. He is already hedging his bets by saying he would only guarantee four years, not six. http://mycomment.com.au/2013/08/to-gonski-or-not-to-gonski-that-is-the-question-2/ Spin the Voter Propaganda Wheel: Power & Persuasion by @Kevin_Rennie Spin the wheel and select your preferred technique.Pick your favourite real life example from Australian (or other countries’) politics and/or election campaigning to match it. http://nofibs.com.au/2013/08/30/spin-voter-propaganda-wheel-power-persuasion/ LEMONs Liberals Endless Mantra Of NO by @otiose94 Abbott’s Climate Policy would cost VASTLY more than budgeted, Abbott to axe jobs within weeks, Abbott abandons promise on surplus, Abbott’s Candidates hide from questioning, Abbott double backflips on Medicare Locals (again, Abbott WILL ‘bring back WorkChoices‘ http://otiose94.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/lemon/ NBN: Despite News Ltd, Turnbull WILL kill NBN, if he wants. by @SteveJ_CBR Turnbull is not on record anywhere as giving a firm commitment to completing an NBN. You might think he's said that, but he and the Coalition have crafted their words very carefully. In the letter to the MHR, Turnbull fails to make this simple statement, one which would've taken no effort and an issue he would've been acutely aware of when crafting his long-delayed response. http://stevej-on-nbn.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/nbn-despite-news-ltd-turnbull-will-kill.html#more How Fact Check Websites Got It Wrong On NBN Connection Fees by @sortius It’s quite clear there that the connection to the network is free. So why are all the fact checkers getting it so wrong? Quite simple really: they don’t understand the difference between subscriber fees, connection charges, & activation charges http://www.sortius-is-a-geek.com/fact-check-nbn-connection-fees/#.UiBCLEpArX4 Today’s Front Pages Australian Newspaper Front Pages for 31 August 2013 http://www.thepaperboy.com/australia/front-pages.cfm News headlines http://www.hotheadlines.com.au/

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31/08/2013LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

2353

31/08/2013The "sorties" article linked by Lyn (thanks again for you hard work Lyn) brings up a broader issue. Sortius (above) is right - the claim made is that connection to the NBN costs thousands. While you have to enter into a commercial arrangement with a third party ISP to access the NBN, the physical connection cost is nothing. It does cost more to connect to the current copper network. The price you pay to use the NBN is a combination of the ISP's cost of doing business and what additional services they provide (if you are smart the next time you need a modem - you'll get a NBN compatible one anyway). It seems that a lot of the fact checkers are not defining the problem correctly. In this particular case, the connection cost is nothing - there are some costs to use the system (and that depends on the level of service you want/need). Take this example - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-29/rudd-high-speed-rail-parental-leave-cost-comparison/4914434 - Rudd's claim that High speed rail is cheaper than Abbott's Paid Parental Leave. Apart from questioning the basis of the comparison as almost meaningless - there has been no detailed design done for the High Speed Rail so the best cost of providing the system is that used by people who have investigated the construction of similar ventures overseas. The article claims that significant tunnelling will be needed which will put up the cost - the less than ideal country may be bridged rather than tunnelled - no one knows. So the best assumption on cost now is the latest report estimate (from April). Paid parental leave would replace another scheme and the claim by the LNP is that various savings plus a permanent levy would pay for it. The article then discusses various methods of calculating the cost of the scheme and takes one apparently at random. Effectively the "fact check" is a rubbery in the use of facts as the proponents of a rail line that has yet to be designed past a line on a map suggesting that these would be good places to get some people onto the trains or a generous scheme that pays women their accustomed wage when they have children. There are no facts at the moment - as all the expenditure is in the future. Certainly "fact check" the proportion of Government Debt now versus 10 and 20 years ago or if the ALP or LNP have taxed at a hight rate over the past 30 years - there are absolutes that can be compared. But attempting to compare two programs in 20 years time using facts is a pointless exercise and any reporter should be able to realise this. Essentially there are no facts to compare.

Curi-Oz

31/08/2013Just had a thought and checked back over various images of the two major contenders. Have you noticed that when ever Mr Rudd appears with his family, he stands next to and/or holds Dr Reins' hand. Mr Abbott more frequently appears with two of his daughters, holding their hands even in preference to his wife who nearly always stands on the outer edge of the group. I'm not sure that it is significant, but it is make me feel really uncomfortable about the sorts of attitudes that may be acceptable if this is the 'leadership' of the LNP's leading light.

42 long

31/08/2013No ONE image tells ALL but a pattern is a good indication the Mind/image managers are flat out working with/for the abort, and they inhabit a "DARK" region.

Casablanca

31/08/2013Eureka Street readers shift towards Greens Ray Cassin | 29 August 2013 http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=37121#.UiFGvVK19ZY

Bilko

31/08/20132353@0805 Re Sortius comment, Don't forget that the line rental $30+ a month disappears and inter state calls will cost the same as local ones more savings only if telstra copper is bypassed. Why businesses cannot see the benefits is beyond me. Maybe they think abbort will not stop the NBN but somewhen Murdoch will want his pound of flesh, as "JBP use to say, you marks my words etc"

Curi-Oz

31/08/2013Much to the family's amusement, we have just been robo-polled on our landline by the ALP. Interesting how there was a short gap between the end of the poll and the authorisation. However, it wasn't as bad as the gap at the end of the robo-call we got from the Libs the other night. There was no authorisation tag!

42 long

31/08/2013Until some view of business exceeds 50% you will not hear about it. Plenty of businesses don't want rid of the carbon tax/ price but who hears them? The abort scheme is pure BS at between 4 billion and 30 billion cost, and won't work. THAT won't come out before the election. Neither will any costings in time. They are getting away with a FRAUD. IF their solution is as good as they say bring it out. Liars all!. He has lied continuously about the carbon tax effect but claims a mandate to change it. Mandate based on lies is NO MANDATE.

Michael

31/08/2013If elected, I have two words of warning for Scott Morrison: "Jillian Skinner". May your experience of governing be as transformative as hers, Bwana. Though I remain in the sincere expectation that you will be spared it.

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31/08/2013Hi Lyn Once again your links have proved to be invaluable in the preparation of the next piece. Although I had virtually finished it, I found three more references to add from this morning's links. In fact, most of the references in the piece: [i]Say yes, yes, yes to Labor[/i] are from your links. I will post it tomorrow morning before going for a Father's Day picnic.

lyn

31/08/2013Hi Ad, Thankyou for your post to me @ 10:48 AM, I am looking forward to your new article [quote]“Say yes, yes, yes to Labor”. [/quote]And another post for me I see above, that’s great about more research for your work Ad. Hope you have a lovely Fathers Day tomorrow. If the Murdoch Coalition are so sure of an Abbott win why are they sounding so desperate. Twitter needs Crowd control because of the trolls out today. You know, I wonder have any of these Murdoch Journalists ever thought maybe the public are sick to death of reading about Julia’s glasses, her heel sticking in the ground, her voice, her ears, she didn’t courtesy to the queen, Kevin Rudd didn’t speak to the makup lady, Kevin Rudd talks too much, he upset the air hostess, on on and on they go. Talk Turkey thankyou for your lovely post to me @ 4.32pm , you do say such nice things. Curi-Oz thankyou for your words @ 02:05 AM quote: [quote]making me feel incredibly well resourced” [/quote]that is how the bloggers make me feel, Ad Astra leading the way. 2353 thankyou to you, glad you enjoy Sortius, he is a dedicated geek I love his work, also Stevej & Michael Wyers I can’t get the whole story for you because I don’t subscribe, but here is link to Crikey’s Andrew Crook:- [quote]“Business chiefs don’t like Labor’s NBN, The Daily Telegraph tells us; and there’s a poll to prove it. But just a minute — who paid for that poll?” [/quote] http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/08/28/who-pays-the-pollster-calls-the-tune-daily-tele-caught-out/ Galaxy poll reveals business executives have little belief in NBN http://www.news.com.au/national-news/federal-election/galaxy-poll-reveals-business-executives-have-little-belief-in-nbn/story-fnho52qo-1226705286706#ixzz2dWG3weU5 Reality Check ‏ Labor's NBN is like flying Melb to Syd, while the Libs plan is like driving with an overnight stop in Albury #auspol pic.twitter.com/qb9NqSvrGR A couple more stories you may like : [quote]Gillard 'to receive honorary professorship' [/quote]Former prime minister Julia Gillard is set to receive an honorary professorship by the University of Adelaide after the election, the ABC reports. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/08/30/gillard-receive-honorary-professorship [quote]Life is much better under Labor after all, says study by Tom Allard, SMH [/quote]The Gillard government oversaw the smallest increase in cost of living of any Australian government for at least 25 years despite the introduction of the carbon tax, a new study has found. Moreover, Australian households have seen real incomes - disposable income minus cost of living increases - rise 15 per cent since just after Labor took office, giving the average household a $5324 a year boost, or $102 a week. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/life-is-much-better-under-labor-after-all-says-study-20130830-2sw8l.html#ixzz2dWGBTkIB

lyn

31/08/2013Hi Ad My link to Reality check's picture didn't work, here it is again:- https://twitter.com/RealityCheckAus/status/373610546861322241/photo/1

Ad astra

31/08/2013Hi Lyn That is a nice 'Reality Check' Tweet. There are many references to the NBN in tomorrow's piece. The Tom Allard piece is good reading.

ian

31/08/2013Was posted over at the "Pub " As I saw it just about every one of the Gillard Govts policies, legislated and proposed, were about setting things up for 20 yrs down the track. The future. I think that the Gillard/Wright strategy would have been about forcing the opposition and the media to challenge them on the future….ie..the future is dependent on the quality, depth and strength of the foundation we are building today…or wtte. Faffing on about black budgetary holes and such is not going to cut through. The ins and outs of fiscal and monetary accounting standards and procedures will neither be understood or acknowledged by the sweat soaked tradie as he walks into the public bar on a Friday arvo. His only concerns are …did the cheque clear? Did the pays get transferred? For the last 3 or so years the political punditry in this country bemoaned the fact that there has been no vision. That they have worn the blinding goggles of ignorance, hubris and the truly shallow has been canvassed enough already. Suffice it to say that when Mr Rudd delivers his most important, and powerful, message this weekend the ALP’s vision for the future generations has to be compelling, exciting and heart wrenching. This speech must come from Kevin Rudds’ guts and the Labor partys’ soul. There is no other way. I hope he is up to it.

Catching up

31/08/2013Vote against Murdoch, vote Abbott. Why is it assumed, if refugee have access to legal advice, it clogs the system up. Why would it not lead, to people accepting the decisions made more quickly. Why would solicitors want to take matter to court, or even query them, if the believe they were correct in law. Does not make sense. Seeking legal advice, is just that. If the matter goes further, it would only because one had a case. Windsor and Australian Story being repeated, ABC 24.

Catching up

31/08/2013"“Business chiefs don’t like Labor’s NBN, The Daily Telegraph tells us; and there’s a poll to prove it. But just a minute — who paid for that poll?” www.crikey.com.au/.../ " No wonder many of then are going backwards, if they do not understand the essential technology of this century

Casablanca

31/08/2013Mike Carlton wrote today [quote]'But away with this negativity. Thinking positive, I've scripted a TV commercial for the Liberals. [/quote] The scene is a sunny patio overlooking Sydney Harbour, where a blonde and attractive, 30-something mum relaxes by a sparkling pool: Mum: Thank you, Tony Abbott. Your paid parental leave scheme will give us $75,000 to have our next baby. It'll make a world of difference for our family. First, it means I can take time off from the law firm while Nigel keeps working at Macquarie Bank. But best of all it helps out with the little things. We can still afford to send Fiona on the school ski excursion with her class at Ascham. Nigel can update to the new Range Rover Vogue as we'd planned. It means those Italian marble bench tops and German appliances for the dream kitchen we're about to build. And we can keep employing Fatima, our wonderful Lebanese cleaning lady. So thanks again, Mr Abbott. When I deliver, we know you'll deliver. $75,000. It's why we're voting Liberal next Saturday. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-hour-of-slash-and-burn-is-upon-us-20130830-2svwr.html#ixzz2dWw2zjYa

TalkTurkey

31/08/2013Talk Turkey thankyou for your lovely post to me @ 4.32pm , you do say such nice things. Lynnie You made THREE mistakes in that sentence! :) 1. Not 4.32 but 4.23 2. Not PM but AM 3. The post where I said nice things about you wasn't that one, it was August 29. 2013 08:22 PM ! I think you must be due for a big rest after the election! But I can never say enough for what you have done. You have actually changed the whole political blogosphere for the more effective, and the people who know your work best are your greatest admirers.

lyn

31/08/2013Talk Turkey Oh! well, too bad, you know what you said, I said Thankyou

Ken

31/08/2013Curi-oz @12.06pm Consider that Abbot is Jesuit educated. For the Catholic church, the child is paramount. It was one reason I avoided a Catholic hospital in our suburb - not sure if it still opereates but in those days (late 60s early 70s) if a Cathloic hospital had to make a choice between saving a mother and saving a new born, they went for the new born. Perhaps that is inculcated into Abbott's psyche.

Ken

31/08/2013ian @ 3.45pm Agree. Rudd needs to start talking vision but as I said in an earlier comment he has hamstrung himself by not acknowledging Gillard's achievements. Rudd started the NBN, but it was Gillard for the NDIS and Gonski. He doesn't have to mention her by name (I know he won't) but he does need to claim these as Labor achievements. He is making the mistake of thinking these aren't issues because Abbott has supposedly "agreed" to them. Compare that to what Abbott is offering for the future, other than local pork-barrelling.

John Pollard

31/08/2013Warren Truss left off the Noalition's latest pamphlet75rinersd promo pic. Doesn't look good for the Deputy Dawg and Minister for Nothing Much!

John Pollard

31/08/2013"pamphlet 75rinersd"!? (Oops! I didn't press the right button, but you no doubt get my drift.) Just a newbie. Anyway, Truss will soon be redundant either way, win or lose!

Truth Seeker

31/08/2013For all those who feel the need for a little light relief; [b]"Said the Abbott to the Bishop. Take 3."[/b] :-) http://truthseekersmusings.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/said-the-abbott-to-the-bishop-take-3/ Cheers :-)

TalkTurkey

31/08/2013Lynnie you said [i]Oh! well, too bad, you know what you said, I said Thankyou[/i] I do know of course Tweety. :)

TalkTurkey

1/09/2013TS That's great verse Comrade. Everyone should take a hint and read it.

Ad astra

1/09/2013HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL [i]TPS[/i] DADS.

Michael

1/09/2013The Sunday Telegraph today editorialises about Tony Abbott's destiny to be PM. Don't know about you, but when "destiny" is introduced into stories about lives I get edgy. When it's supposedly part of national leader's life I wonder whether they'll be casting heroic statues of the bloke soon for every school hall and public square? FFS, people, if Tony Abbot does become PM it will be the result of low bastardry, not a jot of it to do with vaunted destiny. The same paper's front page, with a picture of Abbott before an Australian flag (or its design elements, anyway), trumpets "Australia needs Tony". "needs"? "needs"??!! Infantile, patronising, who dreams up this crap? Who expects a nation to swallow it? (I know, circular argument.)

Catching up

1/09/2013Australia needs Tony. The only reason I think this is true, is to wake them up to how lucky they have been to have Labor for the last six years. I am one, that rather not have thqt lesson.

Ken

1/09/2013I heard a report that Abbott said he will keep rleasing new policies until Wednesday and then release his costings on Thursday. He argues that that makes sense - only release costings after all polocies announced. But the truth is that he will release all his policies before the media black-out and his costings afterwards!!

Laurie Keet

1/09/2013I saw that headline "Australia needs Tony". It should actually have read " Australia needs Tony Like a hole in the Head".

Michael

1/09/2013Abbott will cost Australia. But only an Australia that sells itself out to elect a Coalition government on Saturday. Will your fellow citizens do themselves in the eye? Commonsense would say "No", common decency would say "No", but this is an electorate that has been lied to so comprehensively we will not be experiencing an election, we will be observing the result of a social experiment by one side of politics in bed with a complicit media alliance (the mob who were enjoined to "not write crap" but never stopped). Let's hope those experimented upon will reject having been treated as fools and dupes. Bugger hope! Get out there and stop the bastards!! Tell the truth, share the facts, expose the Abbott cabal as the hollow shysters they are.

42 long

1/09/2013That's an outrageous front page. but the Terrorgraph is an outrageous paper. I'm told it is the best selling paper in western Sydney. (That may explain a lot of things) Australia needs not abort but DECENT news people. Murdoch needs TONY to make more money for HIM is the fact of the matter. Phoney is a product of MAKE-UP artists. This nice bloke (seems OK) sort of is not the frustrated nasty sloganeer who specialises in ruining peoples reputations with "contrived" stories . suspension of standing orders stunts that I have watched make our parliament the laughing stock of the world . If the abbott is made Prime minister of this country it certainly will not be because HE is worthy of the title and I will never respect him EVER. He has done too much damage to principle and proper process to forgive.

Dan Rowden

1/09/2013We can bemoan the activities of the Murdoch press all we want, but it doesn't take away from a fact more disturbing still: it works. What is actually depressing in the number of voters in this country who don't care much for being informed. Western Sydney will very likely lose Labor the election all by itself and the Murdoch press will have been instrumental in that tragedy. What this will mean, post-election, for the quality of political coverage in Australia is anyone's guess, but I would be greatly surprised if it doesn't get worse. Murdoch will be expecting pay back for his support of Abbott. That will very likely mean News Limited journalists will be placed at the head of the queue for press releases, leaks and so forth. This will in turn mean that everything printed by them will be skewed in favour of the Coalition driven by the need for News Limited to maintain that position. So, the pre-poll status quo will remain post-poll. If Abbott wins we'll be in for at least 3 more years of tabloid bullshit. The question there is - how will Fairfax respond to all this? In my view it has noticeably softened its attitude towards Labor since Gillard was shunted. Things are going to get interesting in the MSM over the next little bit.

Ad astra

1/09/2013Folks I have just posted: [i]Say yes, yes, yes to Labor[/i]. http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2013/09/01/Say-yes-yes-yes-to-Labor.aspx
How many umbrellas are there if I have two in my hand but the wind then blows them away?