Tony Abbott beware! Incitement is a very dangerous game

Again this week we heard Liberal apologist Grahame Morris, former adviser to John Howard, loose lipped, sarcastic and very nasty, commenting on ABC Radio 702 Sydney about Tony Abbott's awful performance during a Leigh Sales’ interview on 7.30 last week. "Well Leigh can be a real cow sometimes when she's doing her interviews." was his verdict. Read about it here on Adelaide Now. Host Linda Motram observed that Morris’ remark was ‘over the top’. Twitter went wild with criticism. Leigh twittered back: “I’d rather be a cow than a dinosaur”, and thousands complained there and on talkback. How did Morris respond?

Three hours later he rang Motram ostensibly to apologize to Sales, and added: "…there's no doubt at times Leigh can be tough” and: "that would have been a much better expression than being a cow at times." It certainly would have been. Like you Tony Abbott, Morris did not know where to stop. He even criticized those castigating him over his remark for being ”poor little sensitive souls”. That riposte is a pretty accurate reflection of this man’s pejorative approach and his caustic tongue when he pours scorn upon PM Gillard, Labor and its supporters, as he often does. Tony Abbott, you dismissed Morris’ remarks as a "rush of blood to the head", and added “that to Mr Morris' credit, he had since apologised". Apologize and all is forgiven, your formula for grievous errors!

Morris has form. In early May on News Limited’s Sky News as recorded by David Donovan in Independent Australia, in a rant about Julia Gillard’s decision to distance Labor from Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, Morris exploded: “What are these bleeding heart Labor lawyers from here on in, screaming bloody hypocrites they are. They should be out there kicking her to death”. Don’t try to understand his contorted English, just re-read the last sentence. Compère David Spears, embarrassed by his angry outburst, tweeted: “I am not a spokesperson for Grahame. Just passing this on!” And later: “I’ve just spoken to Grahame Morris and he says his ‘kicking to death” comment was inappropriate and he was sorry.”

So twice in three months this nasty little man has uttered unseemly words and then had to apologize because of the public reaction. But the damage had been done. He had demeaned our PM and in doing so ran the risk of inciting, unwittingly or otherwise, the extreme right wing haters to hate her even more vehemently perhaps even to the level of violence. Don’t laugh.

An ‘Opinion’ piece in The Age on 28 August: Misogynists and nut jobs need to turn down the volume, by Andrew Stafford began: “Last Friday, I saw something that disturbed me greatly: a young man wearing what appeared to be a home-made T-shirt featuring a caricature of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. She had a bullet in her head.”

Folks, this is serious. Stafford continues: “That sort of thing, unfortunately, will be of little surprise to Gillard, who the day before had called out the ''misogynists and nut jobs'' on the Internet, where calls for her assassination, both veiled and overt, proliferate. They proliferate on talkback radio too. And it's not just the callers. Alan Jones infamously suggested - on five occasions last year - that Gillard ought to be ''put in a chaff bag'' and dumped at sea.”

Remember the shooting in the head of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat member of the US House of Representatives, near Tuscon, Arizona over a year ago. She almost died, but recovered eventually with such neurological deficits that she could no longer represent her state of Arizona. Read about it here. Of course we all know that in the US, where one in three adults own a gun, shootings are all too common, but political shootings are relatively rare. This one demonstrated though to what lengths political hatred could drive unbalanced people.

Don’t imagine that this could not happen here given the language of intense hatred that now pervades our political discourse.

Who will ever forget that infamous interview in February last year on Sydney’s radio 2GB that Alan Jones conducted with Julia Gillard, where he, a mere noisy shock jock, chastised our PM for being ten minutes late for her interview with him as if she were an errant schoolgirl, pointing out that other people (meaning himself) were busy and couldn’t afford to be waiting around for a full ten minutes for the leader of the nation to present herself. His anger with her was palpable. Suitably enraged, he proceeded to then apply the tag ‘Ju-liar’, one that has stuck ever since. If you have not heard him verbally assaulting our PM with this pejorative label, play the video on the Brisbane Times account of this encounter.

Can you imagine something as unseemly as a bullyboy shock jock castigating the Prime Minister of Australia for being ten minutes late, and then calling her a liar? Would he have ever done anything as gross as that to John Howard; would he ever do it to Tony Abbott? What has become of the media in this country when a self-important shock jock could do that and remain in his job?

But it’s more than just being insulting and rude – Jones’ behaviour exhibited a gross level of vitriol, anger and loathing, even hatred. These emotions are infectious. If Jones can loath and hate so vehemently, if Jones can express such feelings on air to thousands, and the many thousands who heard him later, does this not give permission to his sycophantic listeners to feel and act similarly? By being rude and disrespectful, by exhibiting his hatred and loathing so overtly and publically, he incites his acolytes to exhibit the same.

As if that episode was not enough. Jones organized and spoke at anti-carbon tax rallies in Canberra where ‘Ju-liar’ placards were prominent, along with those emblazoned with ‘Ditch the Witch’ and ‘Bob Brown’s Bitch’, in front of which Jones, and Tony Abbott, Sophie Mirabella and Bronwyn Bishop proudly stood to give them their endorsement. Their pathetic denials that they were unaware of the presence of the placards are implausible.

How could they possibly believe that such placards would not promote disdain, loathing and hatred of our PM? If they were insensitive to their effect on others, they had only to look around and listen to the language of those attending the rally.

Not satisfied that these events would have the desired humiliating effect, Jones repeatedly stated on air that Julia Gillard, with or without Bob Brown, should be put in a hessian bag and dropped out to sea. What sort of language is that from a widely listened-to broadcaster – vitriolic language that incites anger, loathing and hatred, language that evokes behaviour that could turn dangerous?

Apart from all this, almost every day Jones has derogatory things to say about PM Gillard and her Government. His disdain and detestation is unremitting.

Even this week Jones has been at it again as reported in News.com.au: “Broadcaster Alan Jones today accused women of "destroying the joint" as he widened his attack on Julia Gillard to take in other female public figures. Mr Jones seemed to suggest that women should not be in politics…” 
He was furious over the $230 million aid the Prime Minister had announced for South Pacific nations to promote Pacific Island women in business and politics.
 Take a look at the photo of this misogynist man, ugly with rage.

If you doubt if Jones’ language could evoke similar feelings in his listeners, look here at the responses to a recent question on Jones’ website: “Is the Gillard government deserving of a full term in office?” You will be astonished at the ferocity of the verbal abuse, the contempt, and the hatred. Here’s just one example: “…how can we have a woman like gillard running this country when she has the brain the size of a pimple in a wrinkle on a money spiders ball, you stupid woman.” There is page after page of such comments.

He has plenty of support from his 2GB mate, Ray Hadley, who lays into PM Gillard at every opportunity. Others are not spared; recently he called Wayne Swan ”a boofhead and a liar”.

3AW’s Neil Mitchell too puts the boots into PM Gillard, but at least he does similarly to Tony Abbott, something Jones and Hadley never do.

Do these men realize what they are fostering – a level of aversion to, and hatred of our PM that is at pathological levels. We saw how Goebbels fostered such hatred of the Jews in Nazi Germany that the populace ignored the Holocaust as it unfolded. Do these vicious men realize they are on the same dangerous track?

And it’s not just shock jocks that are playing this game. Earlier this month, David Farley, CEO of Australian Agriculture Company, called the Prime Minister “an unproductive old cow” in the context of discussing new techniques for animal slaughter.

Ages ago, George Brandis said that “she has chosen not to be a parent…she is very much a one-dimensional person”, and the loose-lipped Bill Heffernan called her “deliberately barren”. Sophie Mirabella and Janet Albrechtsen too seem pre-occupied with her decision not to have children. Others delight in criticizing her earlobes, her ear-rings and her dress, while Germaine Greer, feminist and great defender of women, has now twice talked disparagingly on Q&A about her dress, adding: “You’ve got a big arse, Julia, just get on with it”, and most recently: “She looks like an organ-grinder’s monkey”. Even Tony Jones was embarrassed!

News Limited’s Patrick Carlyon, who has great writings to his credit, notably on Gallipoli, heaped scorn on the PM about her gender when he likened her behaviour during Barack Obama’s visit to Australia to “a high school girl who has, finally, after much bedroom plotting, captured the gaze of the football captain”.

And more recently there were the vicious misogynist cartoons and comments flowing from the venomous pen of Larry Pickering about the Slater & Gordon matter, which have continued unremittingly, accompanied by hundreds of spiteful, malevolent comments by Pickering sycophants only too ready to jump on his ‘demean and destroy’ bandwagon.

Tony Abbott, I can hear you saying: “What’s this got to do with me?” My answer is: ‘everything’.

You stood with Alan Jones in front of those placards at the carbon rally; you never pulled him up when he coined the ‘Ju-liar’ tag and insulted the nation’s most senior politician on his 2GB program; you agreed with Germaine Greer’s comments about Julia Gillard’s dress with your own public comment: “I know, I know, I know, . . . Germaine Greer was right on that subject”.

You are only too ready to let these adverse and very personal remarks about your opponent go unopposed. You would never dream of leaping to the defence of a female opponent, not matter how gross the adverse comments were. To you they are simply grist to your adversarial mill.

As Leader of the Opposition, you ought to be man enough to stand up in vigorous opposition to the misogynist denigration of the nation’s most senior politician, no matter that she is your political adversary. But you are not man enough; you haven’t got the decency, or the guts, to make that stand. It serves your political purpose to not only decline to stand up to oppose such denigratory remarks; you actively foster them in a shameful way, a measure of your small mindedness and lack of common decency. Instead you cuddle up to Alan Jones when you want a soft interview full of Dorothy Dixers. You would never tell him his vile misogynist remarks are unacceptable, because you believe they are acceptable!

Read Anne Summers’ article in the SMH this weekend: Conspiracy of silence lets persecution of PM fester that concludes: “I think it is time to name and shame, to expose all examples of this hateful misogyny and call on decent Australians to not share it, forward it, re-tweet it or otherwise give it exposure. The Prime Minister, like the rest of us, is entitled to be able to do her job without harassment, bullying or sex discrimination.” Reflect on that.

By taking the acquiescent approach to misogyny you do, you foster the malevolent words and actions of these anti-Gillard forces, you support them and you actively join with the perpetrators to accentuate the denigration of the nation’s Prime Minister. In doing so, you are a party to a process of disparagement that could end in tragedy if some of what Julia Gillard rightly describes as ‘misogynist nutters’ take matters into their own hands, as did Gabrielle Gifford’s would-be assassin. You are in there with the misogynists, the nutters, the Alan Jones’ and the Ray Hadley’s inciting detestation, revulsion, and hatred to an extent that could result in the sort of tragedy here that we saw in the US.

You have longstanding form yourself. You call Julia Gillard a liar almost every day, based on her ‘broken promise’ over the carbon tax. You insisted she ”make an honest woman of herself” by taking the carbon tax to an election, a misogynist variant of ‘liar‘ if ever there was one. Even when you don’t use the tag ‘Ju-liar’, you repeat ad nauseam that ‘she’ is not trustworthy, which is another way of calling her a liar. In your interview last week on Channel Nine’s Today Show with Lisa Wilkinson, when she asked you about Julia Gillard and the Slater and Gordon matter, your reply was: “Whether or not she was an untrustworthy lawyer is not the issue, I think this Prime Minister is an untrustworthy head of government.” Even in parliament you call her a liar, a banned word, and when last week you were asked by the Speaker to withdraw that word without qualification, you defied her, qualified your withdrawal, and were kicked out. As Anna Burke said: “You just can’t help yourself”.

You continually tell the electorate that Julia Gillard is leading ‘a bad government getting worse’, and no matter how good the economic news, you insist how much better it would be if there was a ‘good government’ in power.

Don’t you realize that every time you refer to the PM as ‘her’, or use the word ‘she’, or talk about ‘this Prime Minister’, you are demeaning her? Every time you call her ‘untrustworthy’ you are reinforcing Alan Jones’ malicious tag: ‘Ju-liar’. Every time you call her a liar outside or inside the House, you are perpetuating that image of her. That is your intent. And the irony is that while you lampoon her for that one carbon tax ‘lie’, you yourself lie so often that we have lost count. You even admit on national TV that you lie, but that doesn’t stop you doing it day after day.

Don’t you have enough insight to know that as you poison the minds of the electorate day after day you are building up antipathy, aversion, resentment, detestation, bitterness, anger, loathing and hatred among our citizens towards our Prime Minister that could incite unbalanced people to dangerous action? If you don’t realize that is what you are doing, that is reprehensible; if you do, that is immoral.

As a welcome sign this week that you are beginning to realize the danger of verbal abuse, you said you wanted ”tougher legal powers to order "scurrilous" internet bullying attacks to be taken down”, and that ”online bullying was a more disturbing phenomenon than verbal attacks.” Maybe Tony Abbott, but do understand that the verbal attacks you, Alan Jones and other shock jocks make on our PM day after day are also disturbing, alarming and dangerous.

This has got to stop. As Opposition Leader, you are in a powerful position to put a halt to this unremitting, perilous demonization of the nation’s leader. Will you?

Tony Abbott beware: incitement is a very dangerous game.

Please act before something terrible happens.


What do you readers think?

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KHTAGH

2/09/2012You must have a very proud wife Ad. Like the rest of us here I'm so glad you can put into words how we feel so well, & the shear frustration of how his repugnant actions are not being screamed about from the rest of the political heritage that is still alive in this country & not just the past PM's. Writing as you do shows the true integrity that should be in our political discourse, what is right & proper in the ethical debate. Unfortunately I think you are also right, he [Tabbort] knows what he is doing & allows it because it suits his aim. I'm sure he would be happy if a anyone was hurt, he is just that type of person. Well if all our nightmares come true & he is able to lie his way into the lodge he surely can't expect any difference, if not worse in reply, he has set the bar so low even decency is a lost concept.

Marilyn

2/09/2012Oh my god, how precious. Did you attend any anti-Iraqi war rallies against Howard and see the abuse thrown at him? A tiny number of ranters like Jones are not the point, the point is that Gillard is an extremely cruel person and would be cruel no matter which dangly bits she did not did not have. She is racist to the boot straps, she has refugees shot at for god's sake - not even Howard did that. She is waging the most vicious racist war on aborigines, refugees, bigotry against gays and lesbians, abuse of the unemployed and so on. Those things have nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman.

DoodlePoodle

2/09/2012Entirely agree AA. It is quite frightening really. There are two couples we know who have been Labor voters for the near 50 years we have known them. Now in both cases the male has become so disillusioned, (started to believe the press and the "lies" which they read) that we cannot any longer talk politics without the couples becoming quite hostile towards each other. For the past two years I have not been able to talk politics with any of my Qld friends who I grew up with. Perhaps now that CanDo has taken over Qld hopefully things might change in that regard.

Truth Seeker

2/09/2012Ad, another great article. Well said! What a shame there is not a big stick in legislation, to wave at the likes of 2GB management, something akin to truth in media whereby they could lose their licence for dishonesty or inciting violence or sedition. I would also like to see huge fines for the perpetrators, then the likes of Jones, Hadley and Bolt would have no choice but to join the dole queues. We live in hope! Cheers

Catching up

2/09/2012I do not like the world that Abbott is creating. If one has to destroy their opponents to win, they have little going for themselves and us.

Gravel

2/09/2012Ad Astra What you have written is very scary, but it is also the awful thoughts that have crept into my mind when I have let my guard down. I cannot believe the MSM have allowed this to happen let alone continue. Is it the thought of all that power that comes with being in government so strong that the media, in all its forms, happy to allow this to go on? I see that twitter is trying to fight this sort of language and behaviour, but the small amount of people that twitter reach, compared to radio and television is not enough. As everyone asks, what can be done to stop this? And as everyone says, we don't know what the answer is.

TalkTurkey

2/09/2012I haven't read your post yet Ad, but I saw you've already been mentioned on Twitter. By j4gypsy, whose gravatar is a VARDO! And I KNEW it was a vardo! :) And I bet nobody else does too! j4gypsy‏@j4gypsy posted: auspol# The Political Sword @Adastra5 Posted: [i]'Tony Abbott beware! Incitement is a very dangerous game'[/i] by Ad astra http://www.thepoliticalsword.com I replied 2m TalkTurkey‏@TalkyTurkey @j4gypsy @Adastra5 [i]Incitement to public disorder directed at State authority = sedition. Wasn't it reintroduced as a major crime by Rodent? [/i] 5:18 PM - 2 Sep 12 Can anyone answer that question for sure please? Now I'll read your thread Ad!

DoodlePoodle

2/09/2012Marilyn you are totally off subject. We are not talking about policies here. We are talking about incitement - as a woman you should be ashamed of your comments. It is not OK to incite hatred towards another person and particularly because of their gender. There was good reason for people to protest over the Iraqi war as in hindsight we know that the stated reason for going there was a LIE. In that case I suggest that the protest was because of the policy not toward the man.

jaycee

2/09/2012Very well written, AA. My sentiments exactly. Tony Abbott is a "mob" man..ie. he loves to incite the mob..he is delusional though in believing that once incited (remember the Cronulla riots) the mob can be controlled. He should exhibit some caution lest he be "hoist by his own Petard". What I think is more reprehensible is Liberal Party members of the house who stand by and watch, like a blood-lust crowd at a public execution!

Marilyn

2/09/2012Gillard is inciting hatred towards all sorts of people for the sake of votes. I don't approve of any of the incitement against her or any other person but let's call a spade a spade. She was wrong to kick Thomson and Slipper to the curb without cause, accusations made by the deranged should not be fed as fact by the PM. We all now know that Ashby is a ghastly accused pedophile and nasty little conspirator while Thomson is not guilty of anything but the woman who was the so-called whistle blower has literally stolen millions from the union. Gillard is jailing babies and inciting hatred against them as a security risk to the nation, she is inciting hatred by pretending we have to flog asylum seekers to mendicant islands. And not a thing of that has anything to do with her lack of dangly bits.

Patriciawa

2/09/2012The ugliness of Alan Jones, Grahame Morris and their ilk is their immediate reward for their efforts. Imagine how loved they feel! What loathesome people.

jaycee

2/09/2012Marilyn..I notice that with your posts here and elsewhere, while one agrees to SOME of your sentiments-in principle-I can see no sympathy toward intuitive understanding for sublety of diplomatic assuaging by our leadership in this nation. Not for you; reasoned by-ways and back-ways to a desired destination...rather; boot through the front door all-guns-ablazing! Surely one reaches such an age where one realises that not all nations or cultures or policy embrace the warm-cuddly sentiments of those with purity of mind. I believe even Mother Therese indulged in a bit of "give and take"..; which abandoned babies one saved and which ones' were "let go"..The "simple solution" principle, while courageous in theory, sometimes creates a backlash that can undo all or any good intentions desired.

KHTAGH

2/09/2012Jaycee At least this post is more palatable, I think you said it, it is control regardless of who it is, he just has to control. I'm sure there is a personality type that could be assigned to his traits? any arm chair guesses? I'm sure that Marilyn just hates Julia, I have watched her comments on a lot of sites & there is one overriding theme, get stuck into her regardless of the subject. I was surprised when she actually made some comments without the anti Julia tripe on IA only within the last few days, unfortunately she seems to have gone back to the default setting of hate Julia, it is a real pity because she actually seems to be an intelligent person, bitter, although intelligent. I'm not inciting a feud either Marilyn, I just can't understand the deep hatred that you post within comments all the time on all sites about the PM.?

KHTAGH

2/09/2012Jaycee "snap"

Patriciawa

2/09/2012This is off topic arising from an exchange at Poll Bludger with Zoomster re my admiration for people like her who cope with chronic pain. I'm being a bit whimpish right now about pain. Does anyone know about recovery rates from knee surgery? I've just cried off ALP letter box dropping because of this damned knee which seemed to be healing so brilliantly. All at once when I seemed to be moving independently of crutches and hoping to drive I find I can’t move without ankle and foot pain. Why that should be is a mystery to me; extensive internet reading hasn’t helped, but I’m assured by the specialist’s nurse it’s not at all unusual. Apparently one can expect all sorts of variations in the healing rate after knee surgery. All information gratefully received.

Ad astra

2/09/2012KHTAGH Thank you for your kind comments. I do not think for one moment that Abbott is a disinterested bystander while misogynist commentators do their worst. It is all grist for his adversarial anti-Gillard mill. DoodlePoodle Do keep talking to your friends, pointing out how Queenslanders have so quickly turned against Campbell Newman and his government, which is a precursor of a Tony Abbott government. People ought to be alarmed at the prospect of Abbott in The Lodge. Truth Seeker In Canada there is legislation against lying in the media. We need it here – now. Catching up You put your finger on the problem – Abbott’s approach will destroy everything in its path, and leave little for the people. Gravel It is scary. Hopefully we can avert the consequences of the vile language and behaviour of Alan Jones and his acolytes. But it won’t be easy! jaycee Thank you for your comment. Abbott incites by acquiescence. The Liberal Party will lap up Abbott’s poll ‘success’ until it fades; then they will ditch him. Patriciawa Alan Jones [i]et al[/i] are loathsome, but sooner even their supporters will find them repugnant. Re your injury, believe what your orthopaedic surgeon and his staff say. They have seen your injury. They are best placed to advise.

bilko

2/09/2012AA Another fine effort. You should also have included the matter of the canberra restaurant incident where Julia showed enough concern for Abbort, making sure he was safe. I am sure if it had been the other way round we would have seen an Abbort display similar to the Puff adder on Q&A. Abbort would be the first to protest if such a violent act ever took place. He reminds me rather like one of the mob in the Life of Brian stoning scene who actually threw the first stone. Graham Morris remember was a head honcho in the rodents office who fell on his "political sword" so to speak to save the rodents skin way back.

Ad astra

2/09/2012Bilko Thank you for your kind comment. I remember the Canberra café incident where Julia Gillard showed concern for Tony Abbott. We cannot expect that such behaviour would be reciprocated!

Ad astra

2/09/2012Folks I'm calling it a day.

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012[i]” he is delusional”[/i] Posted by a proven expert on being delusional. [i]” The "simple solution" principle, while courageous in theory, sometimes creates a backlash that can undo all or any good intentions desired.[/i] In other words, it’s ok with people like Jaycee to support what you once opposed, to even support a policy on asylum seekers that allows punitive measures against innocent people, far more draconian than anything ever proposed by the despised Howard policy. Jaycee is delusional or a liar, he maliciously and inaccurately gossips on other blogs about people that don’t participate on them.

2353

2/09/2012AA - well researched and well written. One slight correction for you - the "Today Show" is on Channel 9 - not Channel 7. I wonder if it is worthwhile sending this article to the LNP and Abbott seeking a response - as they have a lot to answer for. I also wonder where the negativity and hate will end - and who will have the courage to say - thats enough.

Ad astra

2/09/20122353 Thank you for your kind comment. Correction made. You could forward the piece to Tony Abbott seeking a response. But don’t hold your breath!

jaycee

2/09/2012"Jaycee...maliciously gossips on sites about people that don't participate on them". ToM..If you are talking about other prople..: How do you know they don't "participate"....If you are hinting about yourself...; how do you know I "gossip" if YOU don't "participate"?

DoodlePoodle

2/09/2012I cannot imagine why this topic should receive the responses by both Tom & Marilyn. We are talking about inciting violence. Any supporter of any party should not want to see anyone inciting violence in what I think is the best country in the world. Why do you think people are still trying to come here?? For anyone who travels particularly to countries that don't have a democracy such as ours, we are just pleased to be Australian. Our Julia gets a warm welcome whenever she travels abroad. I think it's time you started counting your blessings instead of knocking everything. You seem to be like a broken record dredging up the same tired old arguments regardless of whatever the topic may be.

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012...on topic because lying is also incitement - to acrimony and we have an example here. So let me be quite clear to you Jaycee, if you are denying that you gossiped maliciously and inaccurately about me, on a blog where I’m banned from commenting, I’m saying you are lying. Your comment on that blog was either delusional speculation, or a lie. Which was it?

2353

2/09/2012TfM is into self description on this thread I see - "delusional" is accurate. Go back to the Gutter and learn how to vote. You might get some credibility if your do.

jaycee

2/09/2012ToM..given your attitude to me and us collectively...."It was sweet as a nut!"

Sir Ian Crisp

2/09/2012Your obsession with Abbott is clear. It is an inexhaustible cathexis. [quote][i] Tony Abbott beware! Incitement is a very dangerous game Sunday, 2 September 2012 17:04 by Ad astra The disintegration of the Abbott machine Sunday, 26 August 2012 20:41 by Ad astra Journalists awake! You know Tony Abbott is conning you Monday, 13 August 2012 16:58 by Ad astra Abbott and the Goebbels Factor Thursday, 26 July 2012 18:36 by Ad astra Lost: Tony’s Toxic Tax – Finder: Please Return to Owner Thursday, 19 July 2012 16:46 by Ad astra Tony Abbott – the man who walks away Thursday, 28 June 2012 15:10 by Ad astra Has Tony Abbott got a Plan B? Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:51 by Ad astra Gillard won't lie down and die - Abbott's dilemma Thursday, 31 May 2012 21:05 by Ad astra Julia Gillard can defeat Tony Abbott in 2013. But how does she neutralize Rupert Murdoch? Saturday, 5 May 2012 09:10 by Ad astra No Tony, it’s the Abbott brand that’s toxic Friday, 30 March 2012 12:32 by Ad astra Abbott’s atrophy Monday, 26 March 2012 18:57 by Ad astra Tony Abbott, we are sick of your lies Sunday, 19 February 2012 18:03 by Ad astra Abbott’s amazing amnesia on insulation inquiry Thursday, 16 February 2012 16:50 by JohnL Absurdities abound as Abbott wages a crass war Monday, 13 February 2012 18:34 by JohnL [/i][/quote] This Abbott fellow sounds like an absolute bounder. He looks like leading the other mob to victory and handing the ALP a flogging. I suggest we start a campaign to bring back capital punishment and threaten Abbott with a trip to the gallows if he doesn’t mend his ways.

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012I wouldn’t bother with any lecturing 2353, I think you were part of the exchange. Apparently it is poor form to talk about people on blogs where they can’t reply. At least I say my comments directly to people, unlike you and Jaycee, who skulk around gossiping about people.

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012Jaycee, you’re proven to be either delusional or a liar. Good for you.

jaycee

2/09/2012Sir Ian Crisp says :"Your obsession with Abbott is clear..." Yet..strange and obsessive as it seems, it is Sir Ian who collects and collates SO MANY articles!..there's nothing like the hunger of a deprived man! ToM..since you like to "instruct" us in so many ways..pray tell ; What was it got you banned from that site you mention?

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012Jaaycee, how about you choose to own up that you’re a malicious gossip, a liar or delusional. The proof But the reason I was banned at Cafe Whispers most recently was that several there objected to being reminded that they now support a policy on asylum seekers that is more punitive and abhorrent than the one they vehemently objected to under Howard. ...and as a matter of interest, the reason that I was banned by Wicks is that he hated being reminded that he has no evidence regarding Lawler’s behaviour, and that I picked him up on his lie when he said (FWA Investigator) Terry Nassios and VP Lawler “shared an office” and “exchanged favours”. Some so called political sites hate it when their inaccuracies are identified. They should stick to a facebook club.

jaycee

2/09/2012ToM...My!..you're a popular poster and no mistake! You know...I've even told Bass Cass to "get f**ked" and I didn't get banned....and all you've done is been a damm good samaritan!....I'll be blowed!...I'd protest if I were you. Why don't you go to those sites and point out to them their mistakes?

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012I tend to think Jaycee that you’re a sooky and malicious gossip, who shies away from being direct with people. That much is proven. It’s easier for you to skulk away and talk behind the backs of people.

Truth Seeker

2/09/2012Ad, for the last few days, I have been working on another of my musings, which in some ways is a part of this discussion. It relates to one of the reasons that many of the rabid right make ill-conceived and misleading, public comments, and may also go some way to explaining the vitriol that some resort to. Frustration born of irrelevance. I will apologise in advance for the length of the poem, but in my defence, I only included a few examples. Relevance Deprivation Syndrome For the mega rich.. or.. power hungry Or those… that aspire to be There’s a syndrome called relevance deprivation that’s a painful and sad malady It consumes.. their thinking and perverts their souls And drives them all to distraction As they spruik their opinions and ideologies But unfortunately fail to gain traction There’s the likes of the old Graham Richardson Who deserted the ALP fold To join the murky ranks.. of the media and to them.. his soul.. was sold He’s called… a Labor insider On an ex-power broker ticket But the truth is his opinions are irrelevant As most people…. tell him to stick it The LNP… in its entirety Pushing its… lies and spin and slogans Join.. the ranks…. Of.. irrelevancy Being populated.. by wealthy bogans They jostle around for the headlines Claiming victory with each little gem While the government gets on with the job to be done Proving government works better …without them Chrissy Pyne.. the Libs mincing poodle Acts as though… he’s Abbotts pet He’s always been bloody irrelevant He just hasn’t realised it.. yet And then there is Sophie Mirabella A person that just isn’t nice A particularly irrelevant member With a heart pumping nought but dry ice And… the oppositions.. main aim is Wasting time… each.. sitting.. day As the.. suspension… of standing orders Is the only.. game.. that they play And they don’t seem to know what portfolios They are.. actually… to represent As they never ask questions related Proving they are… totally.. irrelevant Then there’s the.. right ..wing shock jocks Jones.. and Hadley.. and bolt One is an idiot.. one is a moron And one is a rambling dolt They each have a liberal audience But for relevance… none of them get passes For they all deny truth fact and reason Instead.. speaking.. straight from their.. arses The MSM.. and the ABC All pushing.. their own.. agendas Prove to the public.. their irrelevancy As they’re seen.. to be.. right wing.. truth benders With liberals and moguls.. asleep at the helm And steering them straight for the rocks And the people who desire the truth from their news Think that most of their journalists are cocks With their headlines of smear and innuendo Tainting banners all over the land As the editors and the producers Make a blatantly.. right wing stand While their business model… is failing As that dreaded NBN…. looms large And the world passes by in its speedboat While.. they watch.. from their.. sinking barge Clive Palmer is a classic example Calling pressers with nothing to say Declaring he’ll stand for a Liberal seat Then changing his mind the next day Then….. to announce a new project He’s building… another Titanic Rich he may be… but irrelevancy Is the name of the game for this manic And a T Rex his latest acquisition To complement an old car collection He’s got planned for his resort on the sunny coast With Jurassic Park… his planning direction And his money.. he’s happy to squander In his efforts to get himself heard But the sad thing for sure…. he’s the real Dinosaur Looking more like a T.. Rex’s.. turd Obscenely rich… the unseemly bitch Our Gina’s the top of the heap Buying shares in the press, just created a mess As the mountain ahead proved too steep For the biggest of all… with the furthest to fall She’s now stuck.. with the shares she can’t sell Proving wealth’s not enough to disguise all the slough Or to cover the intrinsic bad smell And according to Gina.. socialising and drinking Are for those… from the wealthiest patch Living life and having fun,, by the poor shouldn’t be done And an itch.. only the wealthy can scratch But to be rich.. don’t be jealous….work harder While cutting.. the minimum.. wage Which might work…. if we could eat.. from her larder And live…to Methuselah’s age With the platinum spoon hanging out of her mouth And irrelevancy… her biggest call And her children unhappy with her attitude.. crappy and her eyes….. fixed on the wrong ball She craves to be relevant.. ignoring the elephant In the room… that’s just dumped a big turd For the elephant you see and her irrelevancy Are the same…. Her desire to be heard So take note all you pollies and moguls You shock jocks and Journos alike As the public don’t like to be lied to And they’ll tell you to get on your bike Credibility and respect are both earned As with class.. you cannot take classes So be honest and decent and the people might listen But you need to stop… talking through your arses cheers

Patriciawa

2/09/2012You've answered the question I was about to ask, Truth Seeker. Why do people like ToM and SIC, even Marilyn, keep returning here with their hateful comments? Surely they have something better to do with their time? But of course they don't and like all those equally unpleasant people you've satirised in your verses above they need us or Julia Gillard to be angry with so that they can have some sense of significance. They suffer from relevance deprivation syndrome.

jaycee

2/09/2012ToM..Terribly, terribly sorry if you feel that I have been "talking behind your back"...But..you see...it's so very difficult to tell from whence, front or back, your words eminate from!

Truth Seeker

2/09/2012Patricia, Yes it is a syndrome that afflicts many of the "right" persuasion, and that is exactly why I refuse to engage them, as even replying to them using their names validates them in their own small minds, so I either ignore them altogether, or make a generalised reply without naming them. But mostly I just ignore them. BTW, you are welcome to add "Arsegates for beginners" to your blog, if you can use it. Cheers

Tom of Melbourne

2/09/2012Patricia, what is actually “hateful” is an expectation that minority groups (such as homosexuals) should wait until it is politically convenient for the Prime Minister to obtain a sense of participation in the institutions of society. I also think it is “hateful” to advocate the punishment of the innocent (eg asylum seekers) as some form of deterrent to other asylum seekers. Because of your advocacy of both of these entirely unethical policies, I’ve had cause to clash with you. Don’t blame me, the cause of these exchanges are your own ethically unsupportable partisan opinions. -------------------------- Acknowledging that you’re a delusional malicious gossip is good progress Jaycee.

jaycee

2/09/2012ToM..I have a cat that has a tendency to "play" with any mouse it catches. It flips it here and there...seeming to toy with it before despaching it. I don't like witnessing such instincts in innocent animals, even less with humanity. I, like most people, have a degree of cruel streak within which is best to let lie and not provoke....Tom..you have only one thing going for you in intellectual posting and that is your dogged persistence (and it is petty at that!) to stay "in the game". Your attempts at insult are ..well, at best ; insulting!...I will resist the temptation to lure you even deeper into a tormentors world and let you "assuage" yourself with the delight of having the last word on our little soiree'. Goodnight.

whatismore

3/09/2012It would be powerful if more men were to speak out against the disgraceful sexist attacks on the PM. Most of the cowardly journos , male and female, either contribute or let them go to the keeper.

TalkTurkey

3/09/2012From [i]The complete review's Review:[/i] [ Kurt Vonnegut liked to use an anecdote about Heliogabalus -- as the Roman emperor Elagabalus was also known as -- to show the depravity of humankind. As he explained in the acceptance speech he gave when he was named American Humanist of the Year: Heliogabalus had a hollow iron bull in his banquet hall that had a door in its side. Its mouth was a hole, so sound could get out. He would have a human being put inside the bull and then a fire built on a hearth under its belly, so that the guests at his banquets would be entertained by the noises the bull made. Vonnegut had used the same anecdote some two decades earlier, in his 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions -- with Kilgore Trout adding as an aside to his parakeet: "We're all Heliogabalus, Bill". ] So, Comrades! Heliogabalus had a big iron bull, It was hollow, you could put someone inside, Close the door, build a fire underneath it, It would bellow as they screamed as they died. And I must say [i]I'm[/i] with old Hele As our trolls in their agony squeal As those tortured souls are baking In our bull of cunning making [i]I can hardly say how good it makes me feel! [/i] Have FUN with trolls! Never take seriously those whose intent is plainly malicious. They are never very clever, almost too easy to play with, I feel like a cat with little slow dumb tortoises rather than quickwitted mice, but ho hum, hafta make do with what we got. Still we got 'em squealing pretty good at the moment, whaddya reckon? I do not directly address them. That tends to deprive them of their dangly bits. Bit unsporting I know. Tee Hee.

TalkTurkey

3/09/2012whatismore I agree wholeheartedly but unfortunately I can't add to the total of those men who speak out, because I already have. All socialist/humanist men should do so, yes.

Casablanca

3/09/2012Everything Wrong With The Tea Party In 6 Minutes http://www.upworthy.com/everything-wrong-with-the-tea-party-in-less-than-two-minutes?g=2&c=upw1

Truth Seeker

3/09/2012Casablanca, great link. Cheers

Lyn

3/09/2012TODAY’S LINKS Left vs Right – where we come from, Victoria Rollison The inept mainstream media have lapped up this campaign, trailing after Abbott to cover hundreds of stunts, from hard hats at factory door stops, to anti carbon tax ‘ditch the witch’ rallies. As was so eloquently pointed out by Ad Astra on the Political Sword recently, Abbott is the man who walks away from media scrutiny, preferring just to use repetitive slogans with no follow up questions. Yet this doesn’t seem to damage him http://victoriarollison.com/ Destroy The Joint, Dr. Jill Tomlinson A list of 2GB advertisers has been circulated and some are calling for Alan Jones to be sacked. Thanks to #destroythejoint I feel satisfied that there are many individuals who have a great sense of humour and share my views that Alan's words were misogynistic and have no place in intelligent debate. That's enough "action" for me, http://jilltomlinson.com/index.php/202-destroy-the-joint Contempt for Women in the Public Sphere: A New Low or an Old Trick? , Kate Galloway, Curl Alan Jones did not try to mask his comment in its application to women generically. In contrast, Grahame Morris a week earlier, tried to indicate that 'cow' as an insult was not gender specific. He did concede that there were probably more suitable terms to use, such as 'a tough interviewer' http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/feelings-are-still-running-high-about.html Women are the solution, not the problem, Global Poverty Project Radio shock jock Alan Jones has been vocal criticising the announcement, suggesting women’s involvement in business and politics should not be supported and that women are in fact ‘destroying the joint’.[2]He couldn’t be more wrong. Women around the world are helping address some of the world’s biggest http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/pages/womenarenotdestroyingthejoint Progress and Feminism: destroying the joint and getting things done, Emily Mayo, Say it on Sunday just to top off the week we had Alan Jones who decided it was a good idea to say that women in power where ’destroying the joint’. Thankfully, Jane Caro (and others) grabbed Jones by the scruff of his neck and swung him around a bit, Twitter style – you can see what fun and frivolity prevailed by checking out #destroyingthejoint and reading Caro’s piece here. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/still-it-wasnt-such-a-great-week-for-women- http://sayitonsunday.com/2012/09/02/progress-and-feminism-destroying-the-joint-and-getting-things-done/ Dear Alan Jones , Margot Blogspot. Com Who do you think you are? You are a radio presenter. If the Prime Minister has important business that holds her/him up from doing an interview, so be it. This latest outrage of yours, however, is different. Spurred into action by Jane Caro and Dr Jill Tomlinson, many, many people have been communicating on social media over the weekend about your outburst. http://margot-9october2012.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/dear-alan-jones.html Destroying the Jones, Nancy Cato, Independent Australia Mr Jones, I know that fingers don’t normally laugh or write blog posts independent of the mind they’re attached to — but mine DO. They’re utterly ill-disciplined, wilful, spoilt-brat-disgraceful digits trying to make me write all sorts of truthful but unwise-to-say things about you.There! Fingers and urges under control now. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/destroying-the-jones/ An insider's judgement of Gillard Labor , Gary Sauer-Thompson Don't journalists continually remind us that journalists in contrast to bloggers are the champions of facts, accuracy and truth? Yet the pack response by the journalists was to do nothing. They just talked in terms of the cleverness of Abbott's tactic of opposition based on political lies-- ie., the campaign had Gillard on the ropes. They then speculated about which Labor operatives---those national union bosses---would knife Gillard. Political journalism in Australia goes round and round in ever diminishing circles http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/09/an-insiders-jud.php#more Milling chaff, Andrew Elder, Poltically Homeless As host of Media Watch, Holmes has clearly decided that bloggers are part of his bailiwick now and is at least starting to take them/us seriously. He started on familiar ground of "the yellow press", which should have been like shooting fish in a barrel - but even so, he missed. Get a copy of Jericho's book, realise that your conceptions about "The Blogosphere" http://andrewelder.blogspot.com.au/ I Want To Break Free, Peter Wicks, Wixxy Leaks Also breaking free is Jackson’s fiancé from FWA, Michael Lawler. The audition for Dancing With The Stars never came off, and lately he has not been the most popular around the office. Lawler has been under a shadow since diving head first into the HSU saga, giving FWA a bad reputation, http://wixxy.wordpress.com/ Truths about Trolls , Alex Schlotzer Trolls are trolls. They are not interested in a meaningful debate and an exchange of ideas. They are not interested in understanding your point of view or the reasons why you hold a particular point of view or opinion.They are only interested in one thing; saying and behaving in ways that maliciously distract, disrupt and distort. http://alexschlotzer.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/truths-about-trolls/ Joe Hockey; Very Little Big Man, Archie, Archie Archives The Gillard Government is too busy doing stuff, creating our future, to claim what can only be decided by the generations to come.On behalf of the Gillard Government, which I helped put into power with a GREEN vote, I thank you, Joe Hockey, for telling Australia that the Government is not only doing its job but doing it very well. http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/joe-hockey-very-little-big-man/ Abbott's 7:30 interview and fantasy politics, Dominic Kelly, On Line Opinion Sure, it wasn't Abbott's greatest performance. It was full of meaningless slogans, deliberate distortion of facts and wilful evasion of difficult questions. But should we have been shocked? This is Tony Abbott we're talking about, a man who in a May 2010 interview with Kerry O'Brien on the same program essentially admitted that he lies as a rhetorical tactic. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14057 Feels like an election year? Here’s why , Rob Manwaring, The Conversation In 2010, we know that most voters claim that they had made up their mind a long time before the election (at least 40%); yet we also know that the major parties have far fewer “rusted on” supporters than they used to. Interestingly, about a quarter of the voters polled claim they only decided their vote either a few days or even on election day itself. http://theconversation.edu.au/feels-like-an-election-year-heres-why-9084 Afghan Questions Answered In Blood, Aaron Fernandes, New Matilda This new focus of operations includes having Afghan soldiers perform their training under constant watch by "guardian angels", Australian soldiers positioned to shoot first should an ANA soldier attempt to attack. These circumstances, while necessary, can only complicate efforts towards building the necessary trust and cooperation between the two sides. http://newmatilda.com/2012/08/31/afghan-questions-answered-blood IPA damns “extraordinary” data retention policy, Renai Lemay, Delimeter The Institute of Public Affairs is an independent, non-profit organisation which describes itself as supporting the traditional ideals of liberalism, being the free flow of ideas, free markets and capital flows, small government, representative democracy and so on. It is usually referred to by commentators as being associated with the conservative side of politics in Australia, http://delimiter.com.au/2012/08/31/ipa-damns-extraordinary-data-retention-policy/?utm_source=dlvr.i Today’s Front Pages Australia Newspaper Front Pages for 3 September 2012 http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/index.cfm?PaperCountry=Australia

2353

3/09/2012TfM - despite your delusional posts above, I'm told the reason for your banning from a number of websites has more to do with compulsive behaviours. Chalk up another lie. Crisp the Clown - thank you for pointing out that this blog is ahead of the curve. The 4th estate is just picking up the Abbott has a record of being inconsistent and a compulsive liar. Casablanca - that link comes from a US TV Show called "The Newsroom" by Aaron Sorkin who was the brains behind "The West Wing". "The Newsroom" is on Foxtel here - but they aren't up to that episode yet. It's well worth a watch and the "conservative" US websites are up in arms over it.

Ad astra

3/09/2012LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

lawriejay

3/09/2012Some criticism should be directed at advertising agencies and the companies that they represent for their part in endorsing and promotinng the likes of Jones and his imitators. Rush Limburg in the USA had his advertising withdrawn by reputable companies showing their displeasure at his unconscionable comments and antics, perhaps advertisers in this country lack responsibility and integrity or is it fear of the power of the man Alan Jones. How did this man become so powerful? An impeccable past of unblemished integrity perhaps??

Tom of Melbourne

3/09/20122353, really? Do you have a link for that or are you just making up malicious gossip? The fact is, when people defend policies in this government that they previously condemned in the Howard government, I remind them. Such hypocrites hate being reminded of their hypocrisy.

2353

3/09/2012TfM - yes I have a private email so you'll never see it. The compulsive liar tag fits well with lack of credibility and lack of legitimacy don't you think? (H)

Tom of Melbourne

3/09/2012That’s nice, exchanging malicious gossip in private emails about someone. Very transparent and intelligent types here. I’d imagine you believe the Nigerian ones requesting your bank account details too. Quite pathetic.

KHTAGH

3/09/2012Ad I think you are really cutting into the quick so to say with this article, I can tell this by the amount of troll activity that has be created, they hate the truth especially when it shows up their total lack of moral fiber. Replies to the troll is like oxygen to them, without it they wither & pass on [we can hope]. I would not like to see it put to the vote as to weather we should have them excluded from TPS as this would be a forgone conclusion, which would place Ad in the position that would not sit well with him. Unfortunately this would only have them turn up incognito in another guise lathering at the mouth with even more despicable personal abuse, so I find the easiest way is to just have our own 3 word slogan. "Scroll the Troll"

Miglo

3/09/2012Congratulations on a brilliant post, Ad astra.

Ad astra

3/09/2012Folks I note that overnight there have been terse exchanges between three occasional visitors here and several regulars. Has anything been achieved? In Lyn’s links there is an article by Alex Schlotzer: [i]Truths about Trolls[/i], that is worth a read. http://alexschlotzer.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/truths-about-trolls/ He concludes: [i]”Trolls are trolls. They are not interested in a meaningful debate and an exchange of ideas. They are not interested in understanding your point of view or the reasons why you hold a particular point of view or opinion. "They are only interested in one thing; saying and behaving in ways that maliciously distract, disrupt and distort. "It would be great if commentators gained a bit of perspective about trolls instead of mindlessly declaring that anonymity on the Internet is evil. It’s time to mount the mantra – Don’t Feed The Trolls.”[/i]

Ad astra

3/09/2012lawriejay Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family. Do come again. Your suggestion that advertisers be criticized for supporting revolting misogynist programs, such as Alan Jones on 3GB, is sound. In Lyn’s Links this morning there is a piece on the Jill Tomlinson blog that takes up this issue. http://jilltomlinson.com/index.php/202-destroy-the-joint On it (towards the bottom) there is a link to a page where you can search for 3GB advertisers: http://www.2gb.com/index.php?option=com_adcentre&Itemid=187 So it is possible, presumably enhanced by listening to 3GB (if you have a strong enough stomach) to search for the details of those who advertise on air. Perhaps we can evoke a Rush Limburg effect here!

Lyn

3/09/2012Good Morning Ad Thankyou for another mind boggling article, you work so hard on your research Ad Astra we do appreciate you very, very much. Thankyou Ad for saying my work has been useful to you,& giving me a special thanks, you make me so happy. Did you see lovely Victoria Rollinson gave you a special mention in her article. Here is Twitterverse:_ Bushfire Bill Posted Monday, September 3, 2012 at 9:03 am Murphy’s relief at making it to the lifeboat is palpable. She’s all fired up with enthusiasm and idealism for righting wrongs and embracing the future etc. History has shown just how “important” the Thomson story was. His statement to Parliament silenced his critics, the Privileges Committee found he had not misled his colleagues, the FWA report on him was found to be based on poor investigative process, he scared Abbott and Pyne out of parliament,making fools of them. Now his chief accuser has been stripped of her salary and perks, is about to be sacked by the union, and she is under investigation herself for possible rorts much larger than those Thomson is alleged to have conducted. All that fluff for nothing. The readers were right, and Murphy was wrong http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/09/01/seat-of-the-week-deakin/all-comments/#comment-1397624 Andrew Elder‏ @BushfireBill Never mind Murphy, here's a Fairfax journalist who has dropped his 'profession' right in it http://www.smh.com.au/world/silence-over-generals-appointment-leaves-public-in-the-dark-20120831-255s1.html Bushfire Bill Posted Monday, September 3, 2012 at 9:56 am Journalists have this romantic view of themselves as king-makers and king-breakers. They actually see their duty as being cynical (an amazing statement from Coorey on Lateine the other day). They are told from their days as cadets that they are in charge of the agenda. Call it the “Journalist-Savant” concept. http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/09/01/seat-of-the-week-deakin/all-comments/#comment-1397657 Audacious spending plans aimed at drawing out opposition, Phillip Coorey The full funding for what Gillard announces today will not be implemented until 2020, the political never-never.Last week Abbott said the recent spate of announcements was about clearing the decks for an early election. This was met with guffaws inside Labor, which is sitting on a primary vote of somewhere between 32 per cent and 35 per cent http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/politics/audacious-spending-plans-aimed-at-drawing-out-opposition-20120902-2588x.html Read all about it: journalism has a future!, Katharine Murphy These days I hoover up blogs in London, New York and Washington, scour the American political website Politico (one of the great success stories of this period), admire the methodical journalism of ProPublica, watch live politics coverage on The Guardian and The New York Times, and use Twitter as a brilliant aggregator as well as a breaking news channel in its own right. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/read-all-about-it-journalism-has-a-future-20120902-2588i.html#ixzz25M1l5sSP Moose‏ http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/rural-volunteers-set-to-lose-leaders-under-cost-cutting/comments-e6freoof-1226463474274 How's this for a public relations disaster? Have the LNP lost their mind? Education's top-five goal , Simon Benson AMBITIOUS goals to lift Australian students into the top five countries in the world for education will be legislated as part of the Gillard government's new national schools reforms. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/educations-top-five-goal/story-e6freuy9-1226463486943 Tony Martin‏ Alan Jones continues his crusade against women. But, can 40 people really be called a 'rally'? http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/supporters-of-sydney-lord-mayor-and-alan-jones-clash-at-town-hall-rally/story-e6freuy9-1226461778660 Mark Hyde The gender agenda: Gillard and the politics of sexism http://fb.me/1T846y7xf Financial Review ‏@FinancialReview Govt plan to lift schools into world’s top 5 by 2025 a 'great con': opposition's Pyne says. [free] #auspol #education http://bit.ly/OJKGj8

Ad astra

3/09/2012KHTAGH I agree with your comments. I like your slogan: “Scroll the Troll”. Tony Abbott would be jealous of not having thought up that original three-worder! Miglo Many thanks for your kind comment. You are always so supportive.

LadyInRed

3/09/2012Ad astra How very true this article is. Its always been mysogyny from the very beginning. The bar is set very differently for women. It is sad but we had to have a female PM to see how thinly veiled it really is, and the PM has had to bear the full brunt of it. Thank goodness she is as strong as she is. And how truly sad it is for this nation, I feel very sorry for us that we could not rise to the occassion, rather we are a pathetic bunch on the whole. Marylyn - you are the same as Jones, the same as TAbbott, you just keep pushing the same slogan no matter if it fits or not. You couldn't even pull your head in for something as sombre and telling as this article. Crisp - mysoginst, as if we needed any more proof of the vitriol out there. TAbbott - well there is nothing to say you have him pegged Ad astra too well in your article. When I see it all out there so succintly in articles that go straight to the heart of the problem (even though it is not knew to me) - well it does not make me proud to be Australian.

Ad astra

3/09/2012Hi Lyn I’ve once again enjoyed your links this morning. What great variety they provide. You have given us a great collection of links to the subject of misogyny that Alan Jones has stirred up again. I thought Gary Sauer-Thompson’s appraisal of journalist standards on [i]Public Opinion[/i], using Shaun Carney’s departing article, was right on the money. The cartoon is delightful. http://www.sauer-thompson.com/archives/opinion/2012/09/an-insiders-jud.php#more

LadyInRed

3/09/2012sorry Ad I just read your last post and you are right we should just ignore them. But it is sad that on an occassion where we should be able to discuss something as awful and deceitful and ultimately bad for us as a nation that we cannot have a discussion without having to come accross more nastiness. Because this is bad for all Australians, abuse of women in this society is bad enough without people who are supposed to be of high standing go around and perpetuate hatred of women.

Ad astra

3/09/2012Hi Lyn Thank you for your kind remarks about this piece, one you helped me put together. Yes I did see Victoria Rollison’s complimentary acknowledgement. Your Twitterverse is really entertaining. BB, as usual, is at his acerbic best. Anne Summers has a good piece: [i]The gender agenda: Gillard and the politics of sexism[/i] I thought her concluding paragraphs were important in that they alert us to the dangers of the growing misogyny in politics: [i]”Some are worried that these attacks on Gillard will jeopardise future opportunities for women in politics. ''If Julia Gillard, as an eminently capable person and leader, is not able to continue serving as the first woman prime minister, it will set us back decades,'' says Mary Crooks, executive director of the Victorian Women's Trust. ''Every time someone makes an attack on her authority to lead (as distinct from her policies), they are sending a subliminal message to every woman and girl that they are not welcome to sit at the table of real political power.'' “The Trust is currently working on an initiative that will encourage people to challenge the ''debasing and relentless attacks on our country's first female prime minister''. This will be a non-partisan effort, says Crooks, ''because of the importance to our nation's maturity and future development that capable women are deemed able to hold senior and powerful office''.”[/i] Read more http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/the-gender-agenda-gillard-and-the-politics-of-sexism-20120225-1tv7n.html#ixzz25Mi2gpwP Casablanca Thank you for your kind comments. We are fortunate to have such a strong and resolute PM, who does not have a defeatist bone in her body.

Mac

3/09/2012There are dud cheerleaders from both sides of the political divide. Unless a biography has been written about them it is hard to sort the truth from the dross because all we have to go on are their public utterances. As far as Alan Jones is concerned, anyone who has read "Jonestown" by Chris Masters will have formed a view of the man. I'd be surprised if anyone who has read the book takes any of his views seriously anymore.

jaycee

3/09/2012Well.....I do confess to "troll-baiting". As I said, there is a cruel streak in me AND it was a quiet Sunday afternoon...Tony musta been in church getting his unique form of "absolution" from GP. , all is quiet and peaceful and then : Up pops the posey!...too tempting by half! Ah well!...I do see myself as a sort of "educator" and I thought I'd do a bit of educating!...building-site style. I think I suceeded in my own small way! Anyway, I hope they take the experience away and give themselves a darn good shaking!

jaycee

3/09/2012Further on the "bronze bull" of Elagabalus...I believe, as the story goes, that the first victim of the Bull was the chap who invented it!...a warning to A. Jones and Tabbott....He who lives by the sword, will be "put to the verbal sword"!

Sir Ian Crisp

3/09/2012[quote][i]Crisp - mysoginst, as if we needed any more proof of the vitriol out there. When I see it all out there so succintly in articles that go straight to the heart of the problem (even though it is not knew to me) - well it does not make me proud to be Australian. LadyInRed [/i][/quote] Oh LadyInBed I’m with you. Shall we invite the bird of paradox to have a more benign view of married women? [quote][b]Julia Gillard's first foray into politics was in the early 1980s, when, as a university law student, she became active in the now-defunct Australian Union of Students (AUS). In 1983 Gillard was elected AUS president. It [AUS] also adopted a policy on prostitution which said, in part: "Prostitution takes many forms and is not only the exchange of money for sex. … Prostitution in marriage is the transaction of sex in return for love, security and house-keeping." [/b][/quote] I wonder if — when we see a happy smiling bird of paradox in one of her school visits — she tells the little kiddies that their mothers are prostitutes? Yes LadyInBed a lot of vitriol is directed at women and some of that vitriol emanates from the bird of paradox.

Ad astra

3/09/2012Mac Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family. Do come again. I haven’t read [i]Jonestown[/i]. I wonder is it available online to download?

Lyn

3/09/2012Hi Ad Ad here is a link for the Kindle version of Jonestown for you:- Jonestown [Kindle Edition] Chris Masters Digital List Price: $19.60 Kindle Price: $9.99 (Save 49% or $9.61) includes free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet http://www.amazon.com/Jonestown-ebook/dp/B003KK5RSM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1346639155&sr=1-1&keywords=jonestown Jones...the account of how Jones wields and abuses his power as a broadcaster makes for profoundly disturbing reading.' Matthew Ricketson, The Age Compelling and probing, Jonestown takes us to the hazardous intersection of populism and politics. It reaches deep into a powerful industry and exposes the myth and the magic of a very powerful man. a very powerful man. Govt can't meet schools promise: Abbott, SBS This is a government that is all promise and no delivery." Asked whether he would give bipartisan support to the government's aim of reaching the global top five nations for school education, Mr Abbott said: "Our goal should be to be number one". He said overhauling schools was not simply a matter of dollars but having better teachers and improving values and standards. http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1688615/Govt-cant-meet-schools-promise-Abbott archiearchive‏ leighsales: My guest tonight is the Prime Minister Julia Gillard abc730

Pappinbarra Fox

3/09/2012Crispie me ole chum you speaks right thru yer bum Quotin outa context OMG wots next? Are you a mate of Allans? Or perhaps an acolyte of Palins? Oh what words you try to weave But you fail to deceive because we can all see right thru ya And so we all say "screw ya" Sorry for not scrolling the troll but I was feelin' poetic all ove a sudden and just couldn't resist. But from now on I promise to desist. Truly.

TalkTurkey

3/09/2012Miglo on Twitter wrote Café Whispers‏@MigloCW Don't feed the trolls. http://fb.me/2dggL3PCd I replied @MigloCW When you talk of trolls only ~ Use the 3rd person ~ It leaves 'em belonely ~ A-Swearin' & cursin'! And Comrade Swordsfolks I keep telling you-all, that [i]is[/i] the way to do it! When they are only there to incite, with malice aforethought-and-obvious, why bother to do them the undeserved honour of engagement? Talk instead directly to Ad astra (and the rest of us) [i]about[/i] them if you wish but not [i]to[/i] them and [i]that's[/i] what they can't stand! I have made a practice latterly of replying just once to obviously-malicious snipers to let them know I see them clear, and beyond that they don't impinge on me really. Apart from being objects of fun, obliquely. There seems to be a bit of it about but they can waste all the breath they want to. It's just their squealing as they roast in old Heliogabalus' bull. You know what Comrades, I reckon if Abbortt did stupidly manage to unseat the Government before Crispmess, I think that, given a decent campaign, [i]the Government would win already.[/i] Not that I want that to happen, no I don't, but just let the Abborttians put that in their pipe and smoke it. And it will get better all the time. So no wonder the trolls are squealing. The fire underneath them is building up . . . Yum Yum Trolls' Bum!

TalkTurkey

3/09/2012jaycee said Further on the "bronze bull" of Elagabalus...I believe, as the story goes, that the first victim of the Bull was the chap who invented it!...a warning to A. Jones and Tabbott....He who lives by the sword, will be "put to the verbal sword"! erm jc Wouldn't that be who lives by the bull dies by the bull?

LadyInRed

3/09/2012Actually this one line says it all.......thanks Ad [i]Every time someone makes an attack on her authority to lead (as distinct from her policies), they are sending a subliminal message to every woman and girl that they are not welcome to sit at the table of real political power.[/i]

LadyInRed

3/09/2012Thanks for the kindle link Lyn. I might download a sample and see if I can tollerate reading about someone I absolutely despise. Its good to see so many positive people out and about!

NormanK

3/09/2012 [b]Shadow Minister slams leader's claims in massive split[/b] by NormanK Canberra Daily Bilge Shadow Minster for Education Christopher Pyne has slammed his leader's claims that Australia should aspire to being the number one educator in the world. Asked whether he would give bipartisan support to the Gillard government's aim of reaching the global top five nations for school education, Mr Abbott aimed his sights much higher, saying: "Our goal should be to be number one". In what appears to be the opening salvo in an escalating leadership confrontation, opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says the federal government isn't responsible for school outcomes, as he attacked Abbott's vow to lift the nation's schools to number one standard. Mr Pyne said today that any federal government should not assert it was responsible for education standards, because it was not directly involved in the running of schools. Mr Pyne told ABC radio: “I know this is being lost in this debate but in fact the federal government doesn't run any schools in Australia. Every school is run by the Catholic system, the independent system or the public system run by the states.” Senior Coalition sources who prefer to remain anonymous have told [i]The Bilge[/i] that tensions have been simmering in Liberal ranks for some months now and that the Australian public will see more and more contradictions emerging as shadow ministers rail against the populist, but negative, statements from their leader. It remains unclear as to who might put their hand up as a challenger to Mr Abbott but our sources say that Mr Pyne is too vertically challenged to ever be leadership material.

Ad astra

3/09/2012Folks I’ve just heard our PM give a inspirational address to the NPC on the Government’s response to the Gonski report, and give brilliant answers to questions, some stupidly off topic such as Phil Coorey’s question on Afghanistan and another journalist’s on boat people. Why do these supposedly great journalists ask such irrelevant questions when everyone is looking for questions about education? A clip of Abbott’s response to Gonski filmed Geelong before her address did not even mention education or Gonski, but instead harped about not being able to trust the Gillard Government to do anything at all – you know the old slogan – big on promises poor on delivery. I’m proud to call Julia Gillard my PM. I’m appalled that the only alternative offered by the Coalition is Tony Abbott.

2353

3/09/2012NormanK - delightfully ironic really if the LNP wants to change leader but coan't find anyone - maybe Newman is available :). It is a testament to Howard, Minchen, Abbott and co's "talent identification process" where anyone with talent was identified and quietly strangled behind the proverbal bike shed after school. Meanwhile Abbott will continue to shoot his mouth off and along with Newman, he will help ensure Gillard is still around to ensure her education funding system is so close to fully implemented, the egg can't be unscrambled (along with the Carbon Pricing Scheme, NBN and the other 300+ other pieces of legislation passed in the current Parliament).

Ad astra

3/09/2012Hi Lyn Thanks for the ‘Jonestown’ link. I might take a look at it with big doses of anti-emetic. I see in the link to [i]World News[/i] that Abbott man did say a little about Gonski apart from demeaning the Government; [i]”Asked whether he would give bipartisan support to the government's aim of reaching the global top five nations for school education, Mr Abbott said: "Our goal should be to be number one".[/i] This is code for NO. [i]“He said overhauling schools was not simply a matter of dollars but having better teachers and improving values and standards.”[/i] This just what Julia Gillard said, but Abbott man paints it as if JG is interested only in dollars. It’s a classic example of Abbott’s propensity to twist anything positive into a negative. Truth Seeker That was a marathon effort – very clever verse.

NormanK

3/09/2012Ad astra I was impressed by Ms Gillard's address today. Surprisingly, given that she was talking about education reform, she didn't use her schoolmarm voice. :) It was a wide-ranging speech that drew in other aspects of Labor's reform process and might even have contained a bit of that 'vision thing' which so many commentators remark on as being lacking in Gillard's 'narrative'. The animosity between the PM and Michelle Gratten was palpable. Note to low-flying birds and bats: do not venture between these two ladies during a press conference unless you want your wings singed. Gratten's question and inference were a good example of one of the arrogances that the media have bestowed upon themselves. She wanted to know why the PM wouldn't spell out, right now, what the funding split would be between the state/territory governments and the commonwealth. The inference from Gratten was that these negotiations should start now and be played out, reality TV-style, on the pages of newspapers rather than behind closed doors. The PM politely declined her offer to act as go-between. I don't know who the last questioner was or which media organisation he represents but he was firmly put in his place for attempting to connect $16 billion of BER stimulus spending with no perceivable lift in performance rates of the schools that received new infrastructure. For those who missed it, Ms Gillard invited him to join her for every weekend between now and Christmas on a tour of schools so that he could experience first-hand the impact of the new buildings and equipment. The trade-off was that he write a positive article every day between now and Christmas, syndicated across various mastheads. It was done with humour and at least he had the good grace to offer a wry smile in recognition of the fact that he had drawn a very long bow and Gillard was having none of it.

42 long

3/09/2012I watched the presentation to the Press Club too. Julia hardly blinked and didn't wave her arms around, relaxed and competent. She HAS grown in the job. She also looks a lot better than the younger Gillard. She should be on a strong platform with education, but I'm prejudiced because I believe in it. What is the LNP stand? If they gave an amount of money for each child ( and that is what they may use as a perinciple) it's not much different to reducing the taxes by an equivalent amount and letting the individual find/choose their (private) school They don't really believe that Federal ( or any other government ) should really be involved with Education. Tony saying we should be #1 may be the mouth moving before the brain is in gear. ( He just has to Trump Gillard ). They work themselves further and further to the RIGHT. That name is a misnomer because that far RIGHT might be WRONG for the country. It's certainly not GOOD for many below the top 3% income earners. Gillard stands for a fair go with education available for all. This has got to be a good thing for Australia and a reasonable objective to aim for. It is too wasteful to ignore all but the kids of wealthy people. IF you have the talent and put in the work it should be achievable for all.( Not just the privileged).

Ad astra

3/09/2012NormanK, 42 long I agree with your comments, but astonishingly Christopher Pyne doesn’t. In his presser he characterized it as a nothing speech, big on rhetoric, light on detail. The detail he supplied on Coalition policy was: 6% indexation on the current model, and better teachers, but not smaller class sizes. It was basically if the school system is not ‘broke’ don’t fix it. It’s very simple really. I'm off to do some mowing now.

Michael

3/09/2012On Gillard and Gonski. Where's the money coming from? Who can wait until 2025 to join the 'Top Five'? Where's the money coming from? Who can trust this bad government to deliver anything? Where's the money coming from? Why are you talking about yourself all the time, PM? OK, I think that covers most of the carping likely to come from the Shouldabeen Coalition and their mainstream press Grattanite lickspittles. As to the latter, did you notice amongst the top table questioners so many fresh young faces with such skinny little questions? The Fairfax 'experienced and you're out' putsch will deliver us up many more ingenues as the weeks and months unfold. With equally vapid or merely reframed 'question just asked by the older guy' queries. Neither fresh-faced nor skinny, the fool who tried to revisit the 'failure' of the BER and 'school halls' (he lost his nerve and dropped "Julia Gillard Memorial... from his smirking query) trying to gotcha the PM. She put him so far back in his orgone box that the invitation to visit the schools of Australia until Christmas Eve was the kindest cutting off at the knees I've seen a journalist (too generous, Michael, too generous!) given for years. As to where's the money coming from? From wherever it takes to undumb the nation, a fate brought to us by Howard's attrition of public education. Starve the public schools, what else was ever going to happen to our kids and the statistical standing of our education system racked up against other countrie's? After all, the Haw Haw Henrys and Henriettas at private schools arrive at full height and echoingly hollow craniums with all the prejudices and falsehoods of their parents ingrained. They learn nothing but disdain, dismissal, and self-satisfaction.

LadyInRed

3/09/2012Who would take Tabbott's place? Perhaps they can parachute someone in like they did in Queensland? Up here even a bit of council experience will get you the job! An ability to tick and flick, and handout jobs for the boys, is all the experience you need.

Rock

3/09/2012Minor point on the great article above. Yes, nasty little journo Patrick Carylon has written a book about Gallipoli, but this work is not to be confused with Les Carlyon's iconic book on Gallipoli. Not the same person.

NormanK

3/09/2012Sometimes I'm extremely slow on the uptake. I got so excited about Pyne appearing to contradict Abbott (i.e. Abbott is going for gold and Pyne reckons the commonwealth is not even part of the coaching staff much less a participant) that I missed Pyne's dismissal of his own potential future job. If we take him at his word, Pyne believes the federal government has no role to play in lifting teaching standards/outcomes so the question needs to be asked: If he becomes Education Minister, what would he see his job description as being? The hander-out of cheques? He has basically declared that his portfolio is obsolete since the quality of teacher training; the provision of infrastructure; the supervision of curricula all contribute to academic outcomes and he's having none of it. Looks like Chrissy is talking himself out of a job.

Gravel

3/09/2012Truth Seeker I think you just about covered everyone, well done. NormanK You are giving us much more info than the media, keep it up, and thanks. I too saw Julia at the Press Conference, she was just brilliant. Outlined what had already been done, tied everything together, explained what hopefully will happen from here on in, and it all sounded really good. I understand what she was talking about teaching in open areas. My grandkids school does this. Although it is a very small school, everyone gets involved and the kids are great. I am so pleased that the Naplan is helping to find problems and are being used to target the areas that need helping. Lyn Your links are excellent as usual.....now to read them. :-)

Pappinbarra Fox

3/09/2012Look, there is only one thing that education needs to do and that is to make children better thinkers. There are two strands to this - analytical thinking and creative thinking. English, maths science etc are just the tools that are used to get to better thinking. Content is OK but ultimately it is the PROCESS that really counts and will make us a better nation. AND i think the private schools shoul dbe 100% funded by the government. Then would become public schools and anyone ( no matter how poverty ridden) could attend them. just saying.

LadyInRed

3/09/2012As expected Queensland is crying poor, we can't possibly pay for the PM's 'grand ideas', and it is all the previous governments fault. Short sightedness from the LNP again.

Marilyn

3/09/2012I do not hate people, sometimes I do despise them though and I have personal reasons to despise Gillard and her cruel racist attacks on innocent human beings. She incites racist attacks on others, she is worse than John Howard and I suspect all those that think she is awesome are not in any of the minority groups she brutalises. Like aborigines and the vile 10 year land grab in the NT that lost the ALP that election, or the refugees jailed for life because she thinks they are a threat to us, or the refugees she continually threatens to deport to their deaths, or gays she refuses the right to marry without one coherent argument, or single parents about to be punished very harshly if they don't choose to make their kids be alone after school at the age of 8. She is a captive of the far right, it is up to a PM to lead, not take us down into the gutter. If that is hatred of her I am guilty, but so frigging what. Is there some rule that I must worship at the feet of mad men and moron women?

Patriciawa

3/09/2012Watching journalists at the National Press Club today pitting their collective wits against our Prime Minister explained everything about them and their inability to appreciate her quality. Or should I say their stubborn refusal to acknowledge her quality? The closed faces of Lyndal Curtis and Michelle Grattan come immediately to mind as among many so called journalists there unwilling to see the big picture so ably painted for them by Julia Gillard. Is Australia one of the wealthiest countries in the western world? If so, why is cost the immediate and most pressing question which comes to mind when evaluating a program designed to maintain our competitive edge in a rapidly developing region?

42 long

3/09/2012Patriciawa, you are right about Grattan and Curtis. Strange really. Grattan is not pretty nor pretty to watch. She seems to have backed off her agenda slightly but reluctantly. There is no respect there at all. Grattan is too big for her boots. I could put it more crudely but I won't . Whatever she thinks she is, she is just another journo and certainly not the authority figure she imagines she is. Every comment/question is so laboured. I can only think she has outlasted them ( shown them up).Their facial expressions are worth noting.

2353

3/09/2012LiR - Newman won't be there when the rubber hits the road on education reform. However if you look at the history of the LNP/Nationals/Country Party in Queensland, you'll see that educating the masses is not high on their agenda. Hopefully the Feds will promote teh crap out of it and ensures the State Govt foots part of the bill. The other option is tie the funding to something that the LNP wants (upgrading the Bruce Highway/Warrego Highway possibly) and force the LNP to accept.

Truth Seeker

3/09/2012Ad, sorry about the marathon, I do try to be concise, but there was so much ground to cover. Gravel, thank you for your feed back, it is greatly appreciated. LadyinRed, I do not support violence, but as a QLDer I would make a small concession for Newman, maybe a punch on the nose would scratch the itch? Cheers

Ad astra

3/09/2012Rock Welcome to [i]The Political Sword[/i] family. Do come again. Thank you for your kind comment, and for the Carlyon clarification. Of course you are right. It was Les Carlyon who wrote the definitive book on Gallipoli.

Ad astra

3/09/2012LadyinRed Thank you for your comments on this piece and other matters. You are right – who is there to replace Abbott man? I think they are stuck with him. If they ever pluck up the courage to ditch him, there would be a bloody fight over his successor. NormanK It will be interesting to watch the power struggle in the Coalition as Abbott’s grip on leadership wanes. Christopher Pyne would be even more revolting than Abbott man. You are right, by indicating that since the education system is not ‘broke’, he thinks all it needs is 6% indexation of existing funding, and better teachers. As you say, as Education Minister, he would simply write cheques. PF I agree that learning how to think creatively, reason, research sources of information and analyse data, the so-called ‘process’ skills, are central to a sound education. Information by itself is less important. With process skills almost any task can be undertaken, because the principles are the same across content areas. Patriciawa, 42 long You are right. The poor calibre of some of the journalists’ questions bespoke their narrow vision, or perhaps the narrow outlook of their news outlets. Michelle Grattan is steadily losing her grip, and Lyndal Curtis’ acerbic tongue is a disgrace. Her interview of Peter Garratt on ABC News 24 was the nastiest I have seen for a long while.

LadyInRed

3/09/2012Truth seeker I understand your dislike for Newman and unfortunately most Qlders who voted him in are feeling well and truly duped. He is in all his glory telling the PService they have nothing to fear. And this was him talking directly to people of The Together Union. Health warning...people with high blood pressure maybe give this a miss. http://www.howcanwetrustyou.org.au/

LadyInRed

3/09/2012MSM talking down the PM's vision for our nation - gee did we see that coming? Now instead of the PM not having a 'vision', or lacking a vision, she is now being hammered for having a vision. It's too far out (2020), and how will we pay for it. Gee a long term vision - apprently this is ridiculous. How dare the PM have a vision, AND how dare she have a vision that can't be delivered in 3 months, and how dare she have a vision that means others have to get on board. How dare she have a vision that Michelle Grattan can't see!

jane

3/09/2012Marilyn, wrt single parents being forced into employment by the time their children are 8, you're a couple of PMs too late. That was a Howard policy. And afaik, the PM will allow a conscience vote on the subject of gay marriage. Liealot will not and has told his MPs they will be voting against any such legislation. Unless there's bipartisan support, it won't happen.

TalkTurkey

3/09/2012Michael I don't know if I've ever directed any comment directly to you but all I mean to say is your posts are always interesting fresh inciteful (no I mean [i]insightful[/i], that was a genuine Screudian Flip!) and level-headed. Everybody will agree. ABC lead news line: "Julia Gillard's education plan gets an A for Ambition" . . . Using the word as Sir Humphrey Applebee uses the term [i]courageous[/i]. All the ABC can talk about is Where's the money coming from?

Michael

3/09/2012Want to know even more how much of a skunk Christopher Pyne is? He says Australia should emulate Canada when it comes to financing schools. An education expert interviewed on the ABC after the PM's speech informed us that in Canada private school students are government supported $1 for every $1 their parents pay the school. Pyne actually supports this country and all the people who pay taxes in it contributing dollar for dollar for the education of kids whose parents pay 20-35 thousand dollars a year to send their kids to private schools. Pay $25,000, school gets another $25,000. Schools like Cranbrook in Sydney roll-call at least a 1,000 students a year. 25 million in fees, 25 million in government dollars. $50,000,000 per annum (that's Latin for all those who never got teached enuff to no it). And that, my friends, is the Coalition spokesman on education's preferred model for the financing of schools in this country. That stink in your nostrils? That's Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne's idea of fair and just, get rid of the current "injustice"!, equal opportunity education for all.

DMW

3/09/2012Michael @ 9:28 PM, maybe I am confused but from what I heard tonight on RN's Drive the Canadian system of funding is public or private they all get the same amount per student and where a school raises funds from parents they lose $1 for every $1 raised. I think it was in this segment: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/australian-education-system-to-make-world-top-five-by-2025/4240818

NormanK

4/09/2012Michael & DMW There was nothing in that particular radio segment that dealt with Canada but I've done some digging and the results are curious to say the least. I can't find a source for the contention from Mr Pyne that Australia should follow Canada's lead in terms of education funding. A few points of interest: [quote]Only 5% of Canadian students are in private education systems. ******** Public funding for education comes either directly from the provincial or territorial government or through a mix of provincial transfers and local taxes collected either by the local government or by the boards with taxing powers. Provincial and territorial regulations, revised yearly, provide the grant structure that sets the level of funding for each school board based on factors such as the number of students, special needs, and location.[/quote] http://www.cmec.ca/299/Education-in-Canada-An-Overview/index.html There are a wide variety of funding models in operation throughout Canada depending on which province or territory you care to examine. In the majority of them, their primary source of funds comes from a property tax imposed and administered by the province or territory. I have so far found no source for what federal funding is given to primary and secondary schools. Loosely, public schools are funded by their provincial or territorial government on a per student basis with extra loading for exceptional circumstances and is handed to a board to be administered. Private school funding is all over the shop. For example: [quote]Alberta: Up to 75% subsidy to accredited private schools British Columbia: Various levels of assistance pegged to inverse levels of regulation. Some 35% govt subsidy; some 50% Manitoba: Subsidies averaging 60% of public per-pupil funding plus extra for special student needs, materials, transport Ontario: Families identify where local property taxes are directed. Catholic system publicly funded Quebec: High subsidies to protected schools; other privates eligible for up to 50% subsidy[/quote] http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/conferences/Papers_presentations/Dawkins_Peter.pdf Until such time as I find a reliable source that spells out a federal funding model for Canada, I'm going to have to regard any comparison with Canada as a complete nonsense.

Casablanca

4/09/2012NormanK That jerk who asked the question which talked down the BER was Chris Johnson, Political Correspondent with The Canberra Times. Despite his gotcha attempt at the NPC function he has written in today's CT that 'Yesterday's National Press Club address was the latest in a string of strong prime ministerial speeches, media conferences and Question Time appearances to have raised the government's hopes'. Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/recent-form-a-winner-for-pm-20120903-25azo.html#ixzz25QWdKGRE Truth Seeker & 2353 Glad that you liked the link to "The Newsroom" by Aaron Sorkin. Also, thanks 2353 for the additional background info.

Lyn

4/09/2012 TODAY’S LINKS Anyone But Abbott’ a chance for Liberal moderates to rise, Dr Benjamin Thomas Jones, Independent Australia The campaign will obviously rise or fall based on the quality of the candidate put forward. ABA need an articulate person with a deep knowledge of Australian politics, a thick-skin and an indefatigable spirit. The campaign will need to run continuously from now until the next election, tenaciously knocking on every door and speaking to every Liberal voter possible. It is a long shot, but it is far from a token gesture. With hard work a strong message and a little bit of luck, this long shot may just pay off http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/anyone-but-abbott-a-chance-for-libe Government is NOT like running a business!!!, Ash, Ash’s Machiavellian Bloggery If all governing was was running a business, it would all be about the profit and loss sheet at the end of the financial year. But governing is so much more than that.Governing is not like managing a business. It’s like managing a Modern Family. http://ashghebranious.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/government-is-not-like-running-a-business/ Inflation ticks up after a few ticks down… yawn, Stephen Koukoulas, Market Economics The TD-MI monthly inflation gauge rose a strong 0.6% in August following a 0.2% rise in July and a 0.2% fall in June, bringing the annual inflation rate, on this measure, to 2.2%.The rise was dominated by a rise in prices for fruit and vegetables, petrol and tobacco and alcohol, none of which are driven by domestic demand. http://www.marketeconomics.com.au/2219-inflation-ticks-up-after-a-few-ticks-down-yawn 'Ol 55- You're more likely to keep your job, Peter Martin Australians who have turned 55 can rest more easily. New Treasury calculations to be released today show they are more likely than ever to hang on to their jobs.Treasurer Wayne Swan will tell a Sydney conference employment rates among mature age workers have grown solidly for the pa http://www.petermartin.com.au/ Tony Abbott and the challenge of a Green Controlled Senate, Norman Abjorensen , Inside Story Without a majority and without sufficient support on the cross benches, governmental paralysis will be very much the order of the day in cases where Labor and the Greens vote together against Coalition legislation. And the constitutional remedy of an appeal to the electorate through a double dissolution may offer not a solution but rather an exacerbation of the situation. Why will the Coalition be in this unusual position? http://inside.org.au/tony-abbott-and-the-challenge-of-a-green-controlled-senate/ Oh Joe Hockey – Your arrogance makes me laugh and the media fawning over you is appalling, Turn Left 2013 why aren’t the media talking about the Liberal Party policies – their planned raising of the GSTax to 15%, adding GSTax to items that never attracted tax previously, such as food, medicines; why aren’t we talking about Tony’s planned to slug the lowest paid workers in this country a levy to fund the nannies of CEOs, those who can least afford it will be subsidising lifestyle choices of the ultra-rich. http://turnleft2013.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/oh-joe-hockey-your-arrogance-makes-me-laugh-and-the-media-fawning-over-you-is-appalling/ We Are All Socialists, Archie, Archie Archives So we are all Socialists. And we all have a Conservative agenda. We want what we have, and we want more!It is just that the Right Wing of Australian Politics is in denial.Or their Government-funded Private Schools have altered the dictionary definition of Government Welfare.Or they are liars! http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/we-are-all-socialists/ Abbott’s taxing times, Miglo, Café Whispers It’s hard to see a distinction there on the carbon price which is aimed at the largest 500 polluters in the country, which Tony Abbott calls a carbon tax, although it obviously isn’t. But the media has let him get away with his absurd rants and to most of the populace it is now a dastardly tax.Meanwhile, his PPL scheme is a levy. We should be returning fire and calling it a tax http://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/abbotts-taxing-times/ The Dismissal: an uncorrected throwback to tyranny, Mungo MacCallum, The Drum It was effectively a reassertion of the divine right of kings, a throwback to a tyranny which ended with the execution of King Charles I. But in the upheavals of the times, it went unremarked and uncorrected.There is much about the Dismissal that remains unfinished business, which is why it is still memorable and still relevant. Because it could happen again. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4239864.html Why education matters (politically): it’s Gillard’s last hope, Bernard Keane, Crikey Howard, like all leaders, broke plenty of commitments in his time as treasurer and as PM. Some, like “a fistful of dollars”, he carried with him, but none of them stuck to him like the “no carbon tax” commitment has stuck to Gillard. Go back to January last year, before the Prime Minister committed to a carbon price: Labor trailed the Coalition http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/09/03/why-education-matters-politically-its-gillards-last-hope/ Heffron Win No ALP Resurrection, John Kaye, New Matilda However the Greens also have much to learn from these results. Once again in the party’s now two decade history of contesting elections, the message is clear. Growth is slow and hard won. Gaining the confidence of progressive voters requires a lot of patience. The effort put into Heffron by Faruqi and her campaign team, knowing that victory was well nigh impossible, http://newmatilda.com/2012/09/03/heffron-win-no-resurrection-alp Gillard looks to states to help drive education ‘crusade’, Charis Palmer, The Conversation Ms Gillard said the government will now negotiate the details of school funding and the details of school improvement with the states and territories. She wants to finalise this process in time for the first meeting of the Coalition of Australian Governments next year.“Funding should recognise that children are individuals not standardised widgets,” Ms Gillard said. http://theconversation.edu.au/gillard-looks-to-states-to-help-drive-education-crusade-9262 Today’s Front Pages Australia Newspaper Front Pages for 4 September 2012 http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/index.cfm?PaperCountry=Australia

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4/09/2012LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

Michael

4/09/2012Gynospite. Since 'misogyny' is precisely defined as 'the hatred of women by men', I've had to come up with a new word to describe the condition that leads to the expression noted, for example, on the faces of Michelle Grattan and Lyndal Curtis when asking questions of PM Julia Gillard at the National Press Club address on Monday. Those looks summed it all up for me. The PM's trumped them. No matter how far they go, no matter how much a "doyenne" Grattan or her ilk may be anointed, she/they will never exceed the contemporary place and historical record of Julia Gillard. Most definitely ditto Curtis. Ditto for that matter Julie Bishop, Sophie Mirabella, or any other of the hooting harridans of the Coalition. Envy, that's a deadly sin, and it's written all over their faces. "Why her? What's so special about her?". And then, of course, as is the nature of the envious, "Nothing! Nothing's special about her. I'll show her, I'll show you. I'll trip her up". Which, equally of course, is also about, "And when you see her for how small she really is, then you'll recognise how much better I am". Julia Gillard seems to have a lot of 'ugly sisters' for a woman who only occasionally loses a shoe. Problem is, Julia Gillard is the head of government of Australia, a national leader welcomed and accorded equal status in a world of national leaders, a fair proportion of whom are also women. Women, who, it must be noted, also cop gynospite. Boils down to insecurity, which is genderless. Or should I say, gender-shared? But Julia Gillard has also 'robbed' the women of the mainstream Press (but not the Coalition conies who fawn on their Tony) with another string to their bow, a string that is so obvious it's not even seen as such. When the powerful figure is a man, the woman seeking his time and attention is a woman flattering the man by seeking his time and attention. On some level, there's a flicker of gender difference in play. A woman has no recourse to this subconscious extra element of interaction when seeking the time and attention of a powerful woman. They're blocked from consciously or otherwise deploying the hinted exchanges between different genders. Take away the possibility of the flirt, the pheromone fandango no matter how faint, and you're left with having to work a gender-neutral level playing field that just, frustratingly, isn't level, because the powerful woman whose time and attention you are seeking... has trumped you! None of this would matter if journalists really doing their job were really doing their job, "just the facts, please, sir/madam", but in Australia there are so many other agendas in play right now (including many a print journo wondering whether they'll even have a job tomorrow, and didn't Julia Gillard lay that one out before them???) that the job is not just reporting, it's threaded through, some may even see it as driven by, entrapment. Envy, insecurity, uncertainty. Gynospite.

Michael

4/09/2012Re Christopher Pyne and education funding in Canada. I heard the man talk of Canada's situation on 'Afternoon Live' yesterday, referring to the dollar for dollar private school funding breakdown. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to secure a transcript of that show. I stand by what I heard. I also note that he went very quiet about Canada after that show went to air, and switched his 'apples to apples' comparison line to Finland. He seems snowscape fixated.

TalkTurkey

4/09/2012Good morning all, No time to post today, getting ready for a Murray~Darling cruise for a few days on the old Ruby on which J****'s father first worked when he came to Australia from Norway! Out of commission many many years, now refurbished by volunteers and we are the first mob I think to take a trip of more than one daytime. Fun and new experience. But I've pinched a bit by Bushfire Bill from Poll Bludger because I think he's probably about right. BB like just a few of us has always believed and projected that Labor will win the next election, (provided that we go the full term, which now seems almost certain.) Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2012 at 8:48 am | Permalink Today’s poll is simply a pause on the way as the punters realise that they told Newspoll last time they thought Gillard might have more of the goods than they thought she did. The last poll was a reaction to the Slatergate tour de force, a momentary upsurge in empathy, on top of a general trendline inching upwards. Today’s, in my opinion, was a “catching of the breath”, a moment’s hesitation. It was the public getting used to the idea that maybe they were wrong about the government being all bad, all the time. It’s like reconciling with someone you have to work with. You don’t like them, and they don’t like you. It escalates into an overt spat over something trivial, a personality clash. Maybe they used your coffee cup, or you used theirs. The boss, exasperated, tells you to sort it out amongst yourselves. You go off and have a beer with them, wary and still distrustful, but eventually you reach an accommodation that allows you to at least go through the motions of courtesy and co-operation, at least at work. This was the last Newspoll, two weeks ago. On the way home you start to mull on it. You remember why you didn’t like the person. By the time you get home and your wife asks you how it went, you’ve put yourself in the box seat. Some of the old angst has reasserted itself. You decide that next time you won’t be so nice, but neither will you let your temper get the better of you. You have to work together, or one of you has to go. Without the beers and the boss standing over you you still feel a bit tense, and you may regret giving in too much, being too friendly. But outright war is not an option. So you keep your second thoughts to yourself, but you stay cautious. This is today’s Newspoll: a touch of buyer’s remorse on the way to at least a working relationship. You’re still wary, but not as wary as before. Each succesive month’s worth of polls will allow you to save more face and accept the realities. Baby steps. Overcoming doubts. Fighting an irrational fear or distrust. Figuring out things aren’t so bad after all. Wounds – real or imagined – take a while to heal. Eventually, one of you has to make a concession. It’s part of life. You can’t keep up a tantrum forever. Expect a gradual poll improvement in the months to come. There is too much good stuff coming from the government, too much competence and too much rational thought in what they do. Compare this to the Rolling Thunder, the creative chaos that Abbott is promising – continual elections, upheavals, repeals, uncertainty, an anachronistic return to the politics of ten years before. No polity can sustain that reckless negativity, that obsession with pure politics as an end in itself as a preferred option for too long. Abbott’s technique is to take the nastiness of student politics and apply it to the grand canvas. But that kind of nastiness doesn’t scale up well at all. The nastiness and petty gazumps of SRC stoushes, on a national scale become viciousness and unsustainable chaos. Economy wreckers. National soul destroyers. The public needs an excuse to change its attitude towards the government. It may come from an Abbott unhingement, or from a Gillard triumph – maybe several of each in combination – but it will happen. No-one can sustain this madness where up is down and black is white forever. If for no other reason than people get sick of being sick and miserable they’ll eventually start to pick themselves up, reconcile their differences, and get on with it. Sure, there may be some residual need to feel they’ve won. Perhaps an apology or at least a frank explanation for the Carbon Tax backflip might do the trick, but only when the measure is bedded in. People know why Gillard reversed her position on a Carbon Tax – it was a cost of government. Her choice was either to lose government through obstinate intransigence, be in government but do nothing, or make a big concession to the Greens so that the machinery started rolling again. Anyone who wasn’t there, present at the negotiations, in real time, can’t tell what was going through her head. But, whatever it was, it gained another term of government for Labor to get things done. And that is what they are doing. The public will eventually, and perhaps grudgingly give her credit for that. But she will get the credit. There is no alternative. The media will turn, because they have to. They can’t keep on fouling their own nest forever. Something – be it a 40c share price, or another round of mass sackings – will cause someone in authority at a media company to decide that going with the government is the better option to the Abbott catastrophe-in-waiting. [Thanks Bill TT]

TalkTurkey

4/09/2012Ooh, Michael! Good stuff. Blokes just hate one another. Women do gynospite! Yes weren't the two you named horrible! And did you hear Sabra Lane this morning, every word a downer/gotcha attempt! I can't wait for *J*U*L*I*A* one day to pay out someone properly, (Lane richly deserved a bent nose today) but in the meantime she just quietly, determinedly, refutes the nonsense and sets the questioner back at Square One. Can't help lovin' dat gal.

NormanK

4/09/2012Michael Just to be clear - I wasn't questioning what you (and DMW) heard but rather the worthiness of any comparison between Australia's funding model and Canada's. It is highly likely that Pyne was just throwing a false comparison out there, believing that no-one would question it. If you do come across a document detailing exactly what he said, I would appreciate a link. 'Gynospite' is a very clever solution to the need for a new expression to describe the particular characteristics of a woman's reactions to another woman in power. Well done.

NormanK

4/09/2012Casablanca Thanks for the link to Chris Johnson. I was very keen to see what he would write.

KHTAGH

4/09/2012Michael Gynospite. I love your new term & think it is great addition to the Aussie dictionary, well thought out & I agree totally with you. Have a lovely trip TT & enjoy yourself, but please do come back.

nasking

4/09/2012Popping in to say TOP POST. [b]You stood with Alan Jones in front of those placards at the carbon rally; you never pulled him up when he coined the ‘Ju-liar’ tag and insulted the nation’s most senior politician on his 2GB program; you agreed with Germaine Greer’s comments about Julia Gillard’s dress with your own public comment: “I know, I know, I know, . . . Germaine Greer was right on that subject”.[/b] Mr. Nudge Nudge Wink Wink Abbott. He's a sly devious mean-spirited opportunistic weathervane. And don't the people know it. It's not surprising he's so beloved by News Ltd's boss...and the gatekeepers and tabloid style character assassins. That includes writers for The Australian who have lowered their paper to PAP LEVEL. Abbott and News Ltd deserve each other...likes attract. N'

nasking

4/09/2012 As for Alan Jones. Dya think his brain snap froze in the 1950s and it never thawed 100%. Not surprising Abbott and him are chums. Again, likes attract. Sure, Allan will play the "critic of Abbott occasionally to look balanced or setup for a Liberal campaign" but it's obvious Abbott and Jones are like professional wrestlers oft a tag team...PERFORMING, DUPING, PERFORMING. Putting on A SHOW. And an ugly one it is...dripping with fake sincerity and oozing power lust. The voters are gradually waking up to this grotesque show. N' N'

Patriciawa

4/09/2012Thanks Michael, you've described so well what 42 long and I could see in the faces of Grattan and Lane as they were filmed watching the PM respond to their questions yesterday. I wonder if they replay that sort of footage. The camera has a thing or two to tell them, doesn't it? TT, that passage from Bushfire Bill says exactly what I think is happening with some in the media already. The public will follow. We are getting daily more frequent positive glimpses of the PM as she goes about the business of running the country. She is very photogenic and every shot of her with kids or mothers with babies does more to change peoples' perceptions than all of Abbott's sneering slurs about her untrustworthiness. People warm to her face to face and that doesn't happen with phoney 'kissing babies' type politicians. There is something about her touch which embraces without cloying.

Michael

4/09/2012NormanK, hi. Believe me, I wasn't doubting anything you wrote or the research you undertook into the breadth of Canadian education funding practices. Research Pyne clearly didn't do. I was merely noting again how Coalition politicians throw out factoids, rely on a compliant media not 'hearing' them in any critical manner, and then, if someone in their office taps said spokesman on the shoulder with, "Ah, sir...", they just drop whatever they said. The big claim becomes the big "What? I never said that". It's an Abbott technique he learned at the calloused feet of Guru John, and has shared with his fellow ashramees in the 'broad church of obfuscation' that is Coalition commentary. I will keep trying to track down the Afternoon Live transcript, just to be sure I am recalling the comment accurately. I can't, however, if I reverse the idea - "In Canada, the government takes out a dollar of pupil support for every dollar parents spend on fees at private schools" - make that sound like anything Pyne would want to share with us as a 'worthwhile' (to him, sounds extra fine to me!) idea for balanced education funding. The transcript for last night's "Lateline" is available here: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3582150.htm where Pyne shifts, shuffles, slides and sidles, with an unrelenting Emma Alberici on his twitching tail. Pyne sulphurates nonsense simply by opening... his mouth.

nasking

4/09/2012 [b]Anyone But Abbott’ a chance for Liberal moderates to rise, Dr Benjamin Thomas Jones, Independent Australia [/b] So, not all Liberals kneel at the altar of messiah Tony. I thought Abbott's crew had all the Liberal Moderates chained up in a dungeon...only allowed up to give the odd eloquent speech closely watched over by Abbott's goons...prodded in the side if they got too rebellious...embarrased the Dear Leader. Shoved back into the dungeon before they can voice an opinion that shows up Abbott for the extremist, puppet and negabore he is. There's a part of me that wants Abbott to remain leader...he's the gift that keeps on giving...and will I believe lose the next election. But there's another part of me that worries about the deletarious effect Abbott's had on the Australian socio-political scene...the poisonous environment he in league with shock jocks, the Murdoch tabloid journos, Bolt and others have created in this country...and the ongoing injection of venom by Abbott and co into the brain and heart of The Liberal party. I had intended to leave blogging f/t after the Gillard win...but seeing this Liberal leader was still going to hang around like a bad smell who caters to extremists, misogynists, One Nation and Tea Party style fanatics by way of sly and devious measures and tactics...using any method to grab attention and grab power, demean our first female PM...I decided to delay that retirement, regardless of health problems. Abbott is a divider not uniter. It's in his DNA. He brings out the worst in many...it doesn't surprise me this country has been torn asunder politically...and trolls and hate-filled shock jocks and desperate & abusive political analysts and the worst of tabloid journalism have risen their ugly heads...seeking attention...seeking to manipulate public perception like the worst of the NAZI goons. It only takes one crazy leader to spark a fire that becomes an INFERNO. LEST WE FORGET. N'

KHTAGH

4/09/2012I'm sorry for dropping the tone slightly here, but I think Mr Jones is having us on a bit. He is a very smart talker, so by definition isn't he a :- Smart talker = cunninglinguist ? He is not gay after all.

Lyn

4/09/2012Good Morning Ad & Everybody Twitterverse for you:- Coalition rift over Cubbie Station purchase, ABC But Mr Hockey says Senator Joyce does not speak on behalf of the Coalition on issues relating to foreign investment. "People are entitled to a view - I respect their view, but I don't agree with it and I speak for the Coalition on foreign investment," Mr Hockey told Sky News. "Some people are freelancing. "They do not speak for the Coalition, they don't even speak for the National Party or the Liberal Party." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-04/hockey-rebuffs-colleagues-in-cubbie-station-row/4241802 OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott has anointed Liberal candidate for Corangamite Sarah Henderson as a government minister before she has even been elected. I intend to be a very regular visitor to Geelong in the build-up to the next election," Mr Abbott said."This is a seat that we must win if we want to form a government." http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2012/09/04/348791_news.html Kevin Cooper‏@Vooper33Kevin Boys 'cubby house' RT @australian Joe Hockey slaps down Coalition critics of the Cubbie Station sale | The Australian http://bit.ly/NMz0LU John Birmingham‏ The new New Journalism. @GrogsGamut kickin the old skool to da kerb! http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/the-fifth-estate-comes-forth-20120903-25ac3.html via @brisbanetimes The Australian‏ Labor dips but PM's rating rises: Newspoll: LABOR's momentum has suffered a minor setback, although voter satisf... http://bit.ly/PUPl1r Liam O'Neill‏The Australian isnt a newspaper. Its a Lib Party newsletter. All 5 front pages bagging the Govt. Funny, just as it gets a lift in the polls Paul Syvret‏ RT @couriermail Where's the humanity in asylum debate, asks Paul Syvret | The Courier-Mail http://bit.ly/NLDdPH Geoff Pearson‏ , Hockey publicly confirmed the Coalition had a funding task of up to $70bn arising from its pledges to repeal carbon http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/coalition-plans-to-hide-its-70bn-budget-black-hole/story-fn9n8gph-1226462521425 Marquis‏ "Brooks at court hearing" ...and we all eagerly wait to see her behind bars. http://m.smh.com.au/world/brooks-at-court-hearing-20120903-25afr.html It's not destroying the joint, but this double standard is a cow, Gerard Henderson Who would have thought that a throwaway piece of old fashioned Australian slang could, within a few days, become a matter of international interest? But that's the modern world of instant communications , home to the ''IIA'' syndrome. Meaning ''insult, indignation, apology'' in that order http://m.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/its-not-destroying-the-joint-but-this-double-standard-is-a-cow-20120903-25ada.html

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4/09/2012Hi Lyn Thanks again for your interesting links and Twitterverse, which I’ve now read. It was amusing to read Gerard Henderson writing as an apologist for Grahame Morris. Birds of a feather… The ‘Anyone but Abbott’ campaign probably won't succeed, but it will be fun watching it in action. I see some rifts in the Coalition over Cubbie Station; I sense that this is ‘the tip of an iceberg’ of dissent. John Birmingham’s article was interesting. I must get round to reading Grog’s book, which Birmingham gave a good mini-review.

DMW

4/09/2012NK & Michael, thanks for the research and further info. Murphy's Law of not remembering where I was when heard a comment :) I should have linked to the earlier segment on the topic: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/pm-reponds-to-gonski-education-funding-report/4240748 Waleed speaks with David Zyngier Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University from about 9 minutes in [b]Warning[/b] fast forward or you will have to suffer some whining from a voice that really irks me. At about 10 minutes 30 seconds in Zyngier says [i] "... Canada funds all their schools in exactly the same way, ah, per head and private schools then lose a dollar for every dollar they charge parents as fees ..."[/i] They then go on discuss further and Zyngier raises the advantage private schools have in getting tax deductible donations and more. I would have hoped that Zyngier knew what he was talking about when he mentioned the dollar for dollar thing. The comment about Pyne changing which country to compare with is par for the course. Make Labor policy look bad, compare to woldd,s best; make Liberal policy look good compare with world's worst. Pity the cherries they pick are less than edible.

Michael

4/09/2012DMW, hi. I think you've hit the right 'dollar for dollar' reference on the head. 'One government dollar out for every private dollar spent on fees at non-government schools in Canada...' Which would also explain, as that fact was made clear AFTER Pyne had been extolling the virtues on an 'apples for apples' comparison between Canada and Australia, he suddenly raced further north to Finland. But he didn't Finnish there (sorry, who could resist?). He went on to impugn the intellectual capacity and professional capability of Australian teachers on Lateline: "You cannot compare Finland to Australia. Almost every teacher in Finland has either got a doctorate or a masters degree. That's not the case in Australia." The nation's next Minister of Education??? I seriously hope not. Or as the Finnish say, "Ei ei ei!"

NormanK

4/09/2012DMW & Michael We've closed the loop! The only reference that I can find online is contained in the comments' section of an article by (you guessed it) David Zyngier over at [i]The Conversation[/i]. The comment is by Mr Zyngier and debunks the usefulness of Pyne calling for a comparison between Australia and Canada. [quote]I would usually refrain from agreeing with Mr Pyne's education pronouncements but he has got it right when he says that Canada is more closely aligned to Australian education than the Asian countries so often lauded. But what Pyne doesn't want to tell us is that in Canada all schools receive equal amount,of basic funding whether private or public BUT for every dollar charged to parents by private schools they lose a dollar of government funding. Now that is equitable.[/quote] https://theconversation.edu.au/gillards-truths-obscure-the-facts-on-schools-funding-9226#comments I have requested of him a primary source for his comment about Canadian funding. Regardless of his response, I think it is fair to say that Mr Pyne was being liberal with the truth. I wish we could indoctrinate our journalists to have one single question revolving around in their brain all day every day: "Is that true?" It needs to be applied to every politician, every journalist and every commentator. As soon as someone makes a statement on something about which the interviewer is not familiar they should make a note and ask themselves "Is that true?" and go away to look it up. I see from some of the commentary on the U.S. election campaign that they are referring to this as 'fact checking'. What a novel idea.

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4/09/2012Michael, NormanK, DMW Thank you for sorting out the ‘Canadian’ analogy that Christopher Pyne spoke of yesterday. It is archetypical that he misrepresented the situation. Half-truths are as dangerous as downright lies. I like ‘gynospite’. What a great descriptor for the behaviour of the likes of Michelle Grattan and Lyndal Curtis. BTW, do you have a link to that part of the NPC address/questions? It would help with a piece I’m writing. It’s clear that a major problem is that journalists are insufficiently familiar with the content of such speeches. That is why we hear uninformed questioning from them. The question by Chris Johnson of [i]The Canberra Times[/i] is a classic example of uninformed and smart-aleck questioning. JG is now adept at putting such silly questioners in their place, as she did with Johnson, and with Sabra Lane this morning on [i]AM[/i]. Their ignorance results in them not challenging the veracity of what politicians say, as was the case yesterday with Chrisopher Pyne’s assertions about the Canadian education system. I like the 'Is that true' approach.

42 long

4/09/2012Lying shouldn't be regarded as some benign toy to get some messsage across. Disregard for the truth should be exposed for the evil it is. Peddlers of deception cause a lot of damage and in the end nobody knows who to trust. Getting the truth is becoming as difficult as getting unadulterated food. The thing I find most insulting is the assumption that the lie will be believed, ( because we are all stupid) and there is no price to pay by the liars, ( because we will forget). Money can't buy trust and respectability.

jaycee

4/09/2012I don't know why we are "shocked" at the machinations of the LNP. Their policies are as stated by their alter ego lobby group the IPA. The LNP. and their leader are avowed followers of a type of Social Darwinism...They really believe that if the economy is screwed down to "drip-feed" speed, the strongest will survive and the weaker will become "bonded labour" to the "more deserving"....George Pell and the religeos will offer succour for the souls of the damned! There is a pen and ink drawing in the National Gallery, Canberra by (I think)Otto (something?)which gives a hint to the LNP. social motto...: "Let those who are able; swim...those who are not; sink!" THAT is the policy of the opposition in a nutshell...slash and burn and purge all saftey-net systems and let those who are vicious enough take the hindermost!...."We; the deserving rich, will rule". Nothing more...nothing less.

Michael

4/09/2012Ad Astra, hi. National Press Club transcript here, including journo questions. http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/national-press-club-qa

xiaoecho

4/09/2012Thanx Casablanca for the Upworthy link. What a great site

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4/09/2012Michael Many thanks. Do they provide a video of NPC addresses?

2353

4/09/2012It is a curious argument that Australia can't aim to be near the top of the education tree because most teachers in another country apparently have Masters/Doctorates. I'm not aware of any correlation between teaching ability and formal education (although some is obviously desirable if you intend to make it a career). I would have thought that the majority of teachers in Australia actually love their profession - because of the bureaucratic crap that teachers I know have to go through - you wouldn't do it for the money!

LadyInRed

4/09/2012Oh the temptation to tell Gina to do less eating! [i] "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," Mrs Rinehart wrote. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working.[/i] http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rineharts-welfare-comments-an-insult-to-millions-treasurer-20120830-251u5.html

Mac

4/09/2012I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't think Abbott is necessarily a "bad" person. I do think he is an opportunist, loose with the truth, cunning, obtuse, intelligent and a poor public speaker and motivator. But that description fits plenty on both sides of the House. The reason he will never see my vote is that he cannot for the life of him understand the separation between Church and State. The RU486 debacle highlighted his attitude. If there is the slightest chance that George Pell can become Abbott's Janette, he cannot be allowed to become PM.

Casablanca

4/09/2012Tony Abbott and the challenge of a Green-controlled Senate [i] It looks likely that the Greens will still hold the balance of power in the Senate after the next election. Norman Abjorensen looks at the numbers and asks: how would Tony Abbott deal with them?[/i] http://inside.org.au/tony-abbott-and-the-challenge-of-a-green-controlled-senate/

Sir Ian Crisp

4/09/2012I should imagine that there is quite a bit of soiled underwear here at TPS after the latest Newspoll. The Newspoll two-party preferred figure of 55% Lib-NP support as opposed to 45% for the ALP confirms the recent Essential poll which reports the two-party preferred figures of 55% support for the Lib-NP and 45% support for the ALP. The recent vote in the Northern Territory shows how accurate the polls are. The NT results recorded the two-party preferred figures of 55.8% support for the CLP and 44.2% support for the ALP. There is a thick circumambient malaise within ALP ranks and many federal ALP MPs have been put on suicide watch. Reading through the contributions at TPS over the last couple of weeks led me to believe that most people were willing to understand and forgive the bird of paradox’s messianic complex. Indeed the nimbus of purity around the bird of paradox was installed by the vibrant and irresistible muliebral branch of the ALP and her spiritual connection was confirmed with her speech on education resembled a clairaudient hallucination. However 55% of the population know that the young and naive bird of paradox is a former roundheel who has morphed into a Xanthippe. I think the bird of paradox’s Egyptian days are nearing. May we ask why AA isn’t branded as a troll? AA is a dissentient voice who disagrees with the majority and according to the TPS’s incondite rules should be branded a troll. And just why aren’t people listening to AA? Is it because he is trying to sell us shop soiled goods. Abbott's education policy is so much better than Gillard's education policy. Why can't AA see that?

Casablanca

4/09/2012Michael, Thanks for the link to the transcript of the NPC address on the PM's website. The transcript shows how well the PM is across the detail: it also serves as a bit of a name and shame page for the journalists who ask silly questions. The final question/answer of the day is worth posting here. As I have mentioned somewhere above Chris Johnson wrote a largely positive article in today's Canberra Times. A couple of weeks ago, and I regret not posting it on TPS or responding directly to Chris Johnson, he conflated the carbon price with the carbon tax and declared that Julia Gillard said before the election that there would be 'no carbon price under a government I lead'. Whereas she in fact said 'let there be no mistake, I will implement a carbon trading scheme' or wtte. Of course, Abbort's whole strategy has been to conflate carbon tax with carbon trading but one would hope that a political correspondent would know the difference.

Casablanca

4/09/2012There were reports on late afternoon ABC radio news of an address today by the head of ASIO. He warns of ever present dangers from terrorists. It struck me that its OK still to threaten our PM if your name is Tony, Alan or Larry. If your name is Ahmed, Mohammed or Faisal and you make similiar threats you are a terrorist. Life can be so unambiguous if you are a state anti-terrorist organisation.

Casablanca

4/09/2012Mac Nice descriptor: Pell as Abbort's Janette. [i] If there is the slightest chance that George Pell can become Abbott's Janette, he cannot be allowed to become PM.[/i]

Jason

4/09/2012Sir Ian Brevick, Still upset I see!

2353

4/09/2012Casablanca said [quote]It struck me that its OK still to threaten our PM if your name is Tony, Alan or Larry. If your name is Ahmed, Mohammed or Faisal and you make similiar threats you are a terrorist.[/quote]. It's a strange world in which we live, isn't it? The world really hasn't moved on very far from this 60's protest song. [b]What the World Needs Now (Abraham, Martin and John) - Tom Clay [/b] What is segregation I don´t know what seggeration is What is bigotry I don´t know what biggery is What does... hatred mean I don´t know what that is.. What is prejudice Hmm, I think it´s when someone´s sick (Whistle) Rise and shine, boys One, two, three, four One, two, three, four (Machine gun fire) Anybody here, seen my old friend John Can you tell me where he´s gone We´re at the Trademark the motorcade is coming by here I can see many, many motorcycles coming by now Police motorcycles Just heard a call on the radio For all units along Industrial To pick up the motorcade Something´s happened here we understand there has been a shooting The presidential car coming up now We know it´s the presidential car We can see mrs Kennedy´s pink suit There´s a Secret Service man spread eagle over the top of the car. We understand governor and Mrs Connolly are in the car With president and mrs Kennedy We can´t see who has been hit If anybody´s been hit But apparently something is wrong here Something is terribly wrong I am behind the motorcade now (And as you probably notice) They´re going to Parkland Hospital We interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin: Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official President John F Kennedy died At 1 p.m., central standard time Anybody here, seen my old friend Martin Can you tell me where he´s gone He has freed a lot of people But it seems the good they die young We´ve got some difficult days ahead But it doesn´t really matter with me now Because I´ve been to the mountain top And I don´t mind. Like anybody I would like to live... No-one can be certain who next will suffer From some senseless act of bloodshed Anybody here, seen my old friend Bobby Can you tell me where he´s gone To send you a message I´ve been here too long already So my thanks to all of you And now let´s go on to Chicago And let´s win there... [cheers] Senator Kennedy has been.. Senator Kennedy has been shot, is that possible Oh my God, senator Kennedy has been shot. .... Hold of a man, who apparently.. just fires a shot. Get that gun, get that gun, get that gun Stay away from the gun His hand is frozen, get a hold of his palm And break it if you have to Get it... Get the gun... hold him, hold him, We don´t want another Oswald... Like it or not, we live in times of danger and uncertainty That is the way he lived That is what he leaves us. My brother need not be idealized Or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life Be remembered simply as a good and decent man Who saw wrong and tried to right it Saw suffering and tried to heal it Saw war and tried to stop it Those of us who loved him And who take him to his rest today Pray that what he was, to us What he wished for others Will some day come to pass for all the world As he said many times, in many parts of this nation those he touched, and who sought to touch him ´Some men see things as they are, and say Why I dream things that never were, and say Why Not´... What the world needs now Is love sweet love No not just for some But for eve-ry..one... What is segregation I don´t know what seggeration is What is bigotry I don´t know what biggery is What does hatred mean I don´t know what that is.. What is prejudice Hmm, I think it´s when someone´s sick http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uqNLnEzDLA *Tom Clay was a DJ at a Los Angeles radio station when he created this song. Considered a spoken word´ recording although it incorporates the songs ´What the World Needs Now Is Love´and ´Abraham, Martin and John´ What is xenophobia?

jaycee

4/09/2012It's amazing when you read trolls who make commentry as if THEY were the government! How sad and infuriating it must be to see the party you despise making laws and policy and future planning the nation as if you didn't even exist! One can almost envisage them rushing out into the street, falling to their knees and crying to the sky..: "It shoulda been meeeeeee!" Truth is :.............................you're stiff, aren't you?

KHTAGH

4/09/2012I love my little scroll wheel so good at passing the Trolls by. A troll is the internet equivalent of a floater, you know the turd that you flush & flush & they just sit there floating & looking at you. So you walk away & when you come back they are still looking at you bobbing along in their personal swimming pool wondering why they are alone, so you ignore them & eventually they sink out of view. So in short they are just internet turds of non-consequence kept afloat by their own importance & nothing more substantial than internal pent up gas.

Ad astra

4/09/2012Folks Thank you for your comments today, and the links, some of which will be helpful for the next piece that I'm currently preparing. I see you are resisting the urge to respond to our titled troll. I'm calling it a day.

Michael

4/09/2012Ad Astra, hi. The NPC actually charge for their transcripts, so I'd imagine they definitely would do so for video copies of the broadcasts. Of course, forewarned is forearmed, most of us these days have machines that could record a live TV show. The transcript link I posted here came from the PM's Press Office, which obviously has the clout to get past the NPC's 'ownership' of transcripts. The ALP site? Try http://www.alp.org.au/labortv/ The NCP speech and questions doesn't leap out at me from the clips listed there, but it may be going up on the web address soon.

Ad astra reply

4/09/2012Michael Thanks - Yesteday's NPC address is not there yet, but may be later.

DMW

4/09/2012NK, via Grog's Gamut an interesting article on fact checking [b]We Should Focus on Deception, Not Lying[/b] Kevin Drum @MotherJones [i]... There are two big problems with getting obsessed about "lies." The first is that it's usually too hard to prove. You have to show not only that something is unquestionably factually wrong, but that the speaker knew it was wrong. That's seldom possible. The second problem is that it's too narrow. Politicians try to mislead voters all the time, ...[/i] http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/09/we-should-focus-deception-not-lying

Ad astra reply

4/09/2012Nasking Thank you for your kind remarks. It's good to see you back and to read your comments, always interesting. TT Enjoy your river trip. You've earned it.

Bacchus

4/09/2012I got a laugh out of your post KHTAGH. I hope you don't mind - I have reposted it to Café Whispers: https://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/some-truths-about-trolls/#comment-104177

Miglo

4/09/2012KHTAGH, I'm glad Bacchus shared your little gem over at the Cafe. It was a brilliant and fitting description.

Tom of Melbourne

4/09/2012Apparently a “troll” is someone who- • Supports a non punitive policy on asylum seekers • Supports marriage equality • Thinks the Prime Minister should keep to her written commitments, particularly the one that delivered the job to her • Calls a tax a “tax” • Opposes illegal action by unions • Agrees with the statements of John Button and Barry Jones about union affiliation with the ALP • Thinks Craig Thomson owes the public a more detailed explanation to the 180 findings of FWA than he has so far proved There are indeed some mindless, senseless and self-important types around, as so clearly indicated in the preceding couple of comments. People that use the term “troll” are simply too unintelligent to provide a reply a reasonably structured, opposing argument on the above issues. Forming a mutual admiration society provides much more comfort.

NormanK

4/09/2012DMW Thanks for that link. Renai LeMay at [i]Delimiter[/i] subscribes to that philosophy which annoys me at times when I feel that Abbott and Turnbull (among others) are deliberately lying and he maintains a diplomatic stance by only asserting that they are 'mistaken'. I've kept the link and will put the process to the test. Pity about the comments section though. Isn't it remarkable how so many blogs eventually degenerate until their comments sections conform to a set pattern? A couple of comments on-topic and then along comes one of the 'enemy' - usually well-known to regulars - who attempt to throw a grenade into the tent and then the slanging match ensues. It doesn't matter if it is a conservative-leaning blog or a progressive one; they both do the same thing. The level of vitriol tends to vary but they all become a contest for who can come up with the cleverest putdown or 'wittiest' bit of name-calling. There'll be an academic somewhere doing a study of this and no doubt they would be able to tell us just how long a blog (or news column for that matter) has to be in existence before it devolves to conform with the pattern.

NormanK

4/09/2012DMW Love your new Gravatar - very crisp. ToM Thank-you. Right on schedule.

DMW

4/09/2012Hi NK, somewhere in the slightly dim past I read some stuff on how the first three or four comments on a blog 'set the tone' and are a quick guide to how long it will take for it to degenerate into a partisan slanging match. There are also some other characteristics among commenters that stand out like [i]the class know-it-all, the appeaser and of course the devil's advocate [/i] that can cause rapid degeneration.

Casablanca

4/09/2012Silly moi! At 6.17pm I said that the final question asked of the PM at the NPC yesterday was worth posting here and then I failed to do so. Here it is: [i]JOURNALIST: Chris Johnson, Canberra Times, Prime Minister. You’ve spent $16 billion on the Building the Education Revolution, which while it provided some nice new school halls it hasn’t had a huge impact on student results or raised Australia’s international standing. Now the pressure’s on for this $6 billion plus for Gonski which you want the states and territories to contribute to. Do you feel that the priorities were right, or has there been wastage here? PM: I think that’s a substantial rewriting of history and I’m not going to let it go uncorrected. Number one, we did Building the Education revolution to support Australian jobs during the global financial crisis and downturn, which has swept millions of people around the world into the ranks of the unemployed. And if you want to go an live through that experience take yourself to Detroit, take yourself off to Spain, take yourself off to Greece, walk the streets of London and talk to them about what ait is like to have sizeable numbers of people unemployed with no hope and no prospects of getting a job in the short term. We didn’t want our nation to go through that kind of crisis and we avoided it through economic stimulus, one of the – indeed it’s been reviewed as the best-targeted and best-designed stimulus package in the world. Now when you’re stimulating the economy to support jobs, there’s various ways of doing it. You could get people to paint rocks. We took a different view, because of the value we put on Australian schools and Australian education. We said if we’ve got to get a lot of money out there quickly, in a way that’s dispersed around the nation so it supports jobs in communities around the nation, who are we going to benefit, how are we going to do it, and schools came up top of our list. And that was the right priority. That’s exactly the same kind of passion and enthusiasm for school and school education I’m asking the nation to show today. And then in terms of the difference the capital’s made, well I’m not a woman with a great deal of time but if I had a great deal of time I could ensure that apart from weekends you did not go home between now and Christmas as you went around the country, school after school after school, where you could see how that capital is making a difference to the way they teach kids. Multi-purpose areas, teachers don’t want to teach anymore in 1950s-style classrooms – door closed, kids in rows, one teacher. The capital forces a lot of that teaching style, where what people want now is flexible spaces, get kids over here doing the work that matters for their personalised learning, team teach – have a coach over there sitting with the young boy who’s falling behind, running his fingers over the words, spelling out the letters. The flexible capital makes that possible. Flexible capital has made possible a new approach to libraries, a new approach to digital technology. We need to improve in science – one of the areas we need to improve – and the science labs will make a difference to that. Kids don’t want to sit there with a coloured book which has got a photo of someone else doing the experiment. They want to be hands-on in a modern lab doing the experiment themselves, learning from doing it, doing all the little things we want scientists to do. Generate the hypothesis, test the hypothesis. So if you want to pack your bags I’ll make sure you get home Christmas Eve, and I’ll be very, very grateful if you write a story across your newspaper group every day in between. Thank you.[/i] http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/national-press-club-qa

paul walter

5/09/2012The thread starter concerned "incitement" and it seems as the coalition tracks even harder to the right, the tactics and invective of the Tea Party that they have obviously borrowed from become more overt. The AlP, for its part, keeps moving to the right in sync, to deal with the implications of the Tory dot-points. The coalition does the Chicken Little bit; "the sky is falling in", on everything from unemployment and asylum seekers, to the nebulous "family values" and Laura Norder issues to create a sense of crisis. Labor tries to cover these by showing they're not soft on Law and Order ( as with asylum seekers), won't let those Greenies interfere with development and commerce (regardless of science or common sense)and is in a pissing contest to prove that THEY are the norms and that the Abbott and co have "lost it" as to rationality. I think the scrabble for mortgage belt seats probably has a bad effect on rational politics. Policy seems more and more to do with the often ignorant, self serving and out of touch media-cultivated fantasies of the beltway and less and less to do policy conceived, explained and implemented on the basic a relationship to reality. I think the ALP is slightly in front at the moment, due to the absolute vulgarity of the attacks on asylum-seekers by people like Morrison and Abbott himself and attacks on Greenies which sets a tone that limits government responses by setting terms of reference for the public, amplified by the media. In fact Gillard (regardless of whether she deserves it or not), fits into the general scenario of almost MacCarthyite emotionalism that the opposition is forced to employ for want of policies that the public would find acceptable (eg "austerity"- more conservative even than Gillard!!) But it is coming at the cost of more sensible policy. Marilyn knows it, but won't acknowledge and can't accept the politics of it; the others mentioned earlier are just coalition trolls.

paul walter

5/09/2012Just checking the (Fairfax) papers, two immediate incidences of issues ignored through too much focus on more emotional stuff: CSIRO in a fight with gas frackers who falsely advertised that CSIRO endorsed the safety of water tables through the gas fracking process. Secondly, the lack of an opposition grounded in reality means that Nicola Roxon is going to shove through more internet censorship. Fascist? Yes. But isn't the Abbott opposition going to support it and would have it attacked Labor on the basis of homeland security if it hadn't? Face it kids, Australia is just a dependancy more and more obsessed with not offending great and powerful friends across the sea, even to the detriment of Australia itself. The Mega-trawler and Cubby Creek should have belled the cat on this, also.

Lyn

5/09/2012Today’s Links Old Angry Men , Mr Denmore, The Failed Estate With a nod to our new ideological overlords of the IPA, it seems the market has spoken. What Australia wants from its media is not The Truth, but something that the archetypal 50-somethingDad - full of three James Boags and two Pinot Noirs at the family barbecue - declares to be the reality. http://thefailedestate.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/old-angry-men.html Gender games: personal attacks in politics, Peter Lewis, ABC Peter Lewis and Jackie Woods ponder the role gender has played in the journey of our first female Prime Minister.But beyond the missteps there seems to be an underlying hostility towards the PM that is not simply explained by her performance, her accent or her policy. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4241934.html Cry Havoc And Let Loose The Bitches Of War, Jane Caro, New Matilda I thought the whole thing might be petering out a bit this morning and then dear Gerard wrote his column in the SMH and it’s fired up again. But I am under no illusions, social media is like a grass fire, it burns hot, bright and hard and then it dies down http://newmatilda.com/2012/09/04/cry-havoc-and-let-loose-bitches-war SEX AND THE BALLOT , Tracy Spice, The Hoopla You only have to listen to the language of talkback radio to understand the influence of gender. Julia Gillard is a “bitch” who should be “thrown out to sea in a chaff bag” because she’s “destroying the joint”. Every time I’m on air at Radio 2UE, I’m shocked by the number of men who ring up and start a sentence with “That bl*#dy woman…”. http://thehoopla.com.au/woman-vote/ Nancy and the Cow – Gerard Henderson the Cherry Picker, Preston Towers, The Preston Institute it is always amusing to see Henderson defending the likes of Jones for his desire to shock people with offensive phrases and commentary. It’s amusing because as we shall see later, Henderson has a different view towards people who shock with offensive phrases when the subject is someone “of the right”. Hypocrisy is rich in HendoLand. http://prestoninstitute.com/2012/09/04/nancyandthecow/ Truth versus lies — the new political divide?,Alan Austin, Independent Australia Tony Abbott tells lies.”Will this pattern harm the electoral appeal of the Opposition Leader? Will it impact his appeal as party leader to his parliamentary party colleagues? Will the perception that the Prime Minister has lied to the electorate cost her and her party the next election?With the 2012 election in the US now highlighting truth vs falsehood, perhaps this may be a focus in Australia in 2013. We shall soon see. http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/truth-versus-lies-the-new-political-divide/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium The do nothing RBA, Stephen Koukoulas, Market Economics The default forecast should always be that, for the next meeting, the RBA will be on hold. You will be right 74% of the time. And that will give you bragging rights like the clowns today who are crowing at the all too obvious conclusion that the RBA will be on hold. http://www.marketeconomics.com.au/category/uncategorized Stimulus sugar-hit over, we're feeling weak, Peter Martin The $2.85 billion in early carbon tax compensation and schoolkids bonus payments boosted retail spending 0.6 and 1.2 per cent in May and June, but when the sugar hit stopped in July - the month the government turned off its spending tap in order to return to surplus - spending slumped 0.8 per cent. http://www.petermartin.com.au/ Mr. Abbott's misreading of the evidence, Stephen Keim & Benedict Coyne, On Line Opinion The Opposition Leader, Mr. Abbott, misinterpreted the application of free speech principles to laws designed to assist in promoting racial tolerance. This appears from Mr. Abbott's address to the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) on 6 August 2012. It seems, however, that Mr. Abbott's error is attributable to a more fundamental error in failing to look at the evidence http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14068 The real agenda behind Gillard’s Gonski response , Richard Teese, The Conversation And if the states do not take an interest in the growth and quality of public schools as systems — working well everywhere, open to all, under the same rules — why have a national funding body which represents the interests that they have abandoned? A pricing authority is all that is needed http://theconversation.edu.au/the-real-agenda-behind-gillards-gonski-response-9305 Kloppers' visit confirms Olympic Dam a pipe dream, Kevin Naughton, The Power Index It is their intention to advance the project, it remains a valuable ore body and it is their intention to proceed with the expansion," he said. "But they are not able to advance a time when the technology will be proven, nor are they able to give us certainty about whether the technology will be capable of being proven, http://www.thepowerindex.com.au/power-play/kloppers-visit-confirms-olympic-dam-a- Cotton On- Politicians crawl through the Cubbie Hole, Derek Barry, Woolly Days The war of words over the future of Cubbie Station has started. The Foreign Investment Review Board has recommended to Treasurer Wayne Swan the sale of Australia’s largest cotton grower and holder of water licences to a consortium dominated by Chinese textile producer Shandong RuYi. The sale, currently in the hands of administrators, required FIRB approval as it was in excess of the $244 million takeover trigger for investigation. http://nebuchadnezzarwoollyd.blogspot.com.au/ Softly, softly comes Tony, Miglo, Café Whispers the media treated Abbott as though he was sacrosanct, the poor diddums was asked some hard, critical questions. He showed some massive cracks in response Let’s look at the preceding 24 months. His backflips, brain farts and childish Parliamentary behaviou http://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/softly-softly-comes-tony/ Today, the NBN gears up for Australian businesses, NBN Co.Com The payoff of high-speed broadband over the NBN is expected to be significant for the Australian economy. KPMG estimates that cloud computing over the NBN could increase the size of the Australian economy by $3.32 billion per annum within a decade, while Deloitte Access Economics estimates that the direct contribution of the internet to the Australian economy will be over $70 billion a year by 2016. http://nbnco.com.au/blog/how-nbn-is-gearing-up-for-australian-business.html Today’s Front Pages Australia Newspaper Front Pages for 5 September 2012 http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/index.cfm?PaperCountry=Australia

Ad astra

5/09/2012LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

2353

5/09/2012Abbott's being taken apart in the media, there are signs of tension in the LNP camp over Cubbie Station, who else do they have?

2353

5/09/2012An interesting article in the Brisbane Times this moring on Newman's Government and strategy failures. It's rather cutting when read closely. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/postbudget-positivity-a-pipedream-20120904-25cc9.html

DMW

5/09/2012That David Pope is a naughty boy and his cartoons are naughty too David Pope ‏@davpope 9:31 AM - 5 Sep 12 You have a new follower! http://goo.gl/n0A8J <my cartoon in today's Canberra Times> #ccRoxon ... and it is worth a scroll through the recent past for more than a giggle or three.

DMW

5/09/2012... and now for a bit of history MuseumofAusDemocracy ‏@MoAD_Canberra 9:51 AM - 5 Sep 12 #OnThisDay in 1914, Andrew Fisher's ALP defeated Joseph Cook's Liberal Party in a general election for both houses of Parliament. The third, and last time Fisher became Prime Minister.

Lyn

5/09/2012Good Morning Ad & Everybody, Twitterverse:- Popi‏ Truss blasts Gillard over Gonski | http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2012/09/05/truss-blasts-gillard-over-gonski/This coming from a local member who has done NOTHING for Wide Bay,a CLAYTONS Member Coalition Cubbie split continues to widen, Phillip Coorey With the issue a looming headache for the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, Mr Hockey, said he, as shadow treasurer, spoke for the Coalition on the policy, not the Nationals. ''Some people are freelancing. They do not speak for the Coalition. They don't even speak for the National Party or the Liberal Party,'' he said. http://sl.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/political/coalition-cubbie-split-continues-to-widen/2622270.aspx?src=rss&utr Richard Willingham‏ Coalition trade words over Cubbie http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/coalition-trades-blows-over-cubbie-station-20120904-25cnj.html Both sides of politics lose the fiscal plot, Alan Kohler Much of the criticism of the prime minister is shallow, hysterical and/or sexist, but she deserves everything she cops over this week’s education policy announcement. It was little more than a political stunt – a desperate attempt to use rhetoric to try to regain some political initiative. After nine months of considering the Gonski review of school funding, nothing has been achieved beyond copying some of the report’s words into a press release http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Labor-Gillard-Gonski-education-budget-tax-Abbott-pd20120905-XTSDQ?opendocument&src= Mark ‏ Julia Gillard today: "business investment has gone up 20% since carbon price announcement" http://bit.ly/702onair #auspol Chris Ogilvie ‏ Campbell Newman is a coward, cutting vital health care: MPs deflect blame for health cuts | Townsville Bulletin News http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2012/09/05/358121_news.html Leroy‏ Gibbons Media: Libs sink to new low on #carbonprice dishonesty. http://tinyurl.com/9k479bt via @SteveGibbonsMP #auspol #Bendigo Australian News‏ Union blockade 'grossly unacceptable': PM: Prime Minister Julia Gillard has urged the CFMEU and... http://bit.ly/R5eHPM #ausnews david ewart‏ The right-wing lie machine is out of control Mark Colvin‏s Having always resisted installing an air conditioner, I now find I'm being punished for what I thought was frugality: http://www.nationaltimes.com.au/opinion/an-air-con-when-the-poor-pay-to-cool-the-rich-20120904-25cjh.html Vic Farmers Fed‏ Milk price war hits home. $1 milk is not sustainable for dairy farmers! http://bit.ly/Q3U0Ov #agchatoz #colesworths #supermarkets Myles Peterson‏ Australia's richest person says citizens lazy, Africans will work for less than $2 a day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CcxRbFiLg [Full speech

LadyInRed

5/09/20122353 That was a scary read. What he left out was that Newman himself has no experience in opposition leave alone in government. The camera ban (how very convenient) was supposed to end late August - I haven't seen any parliamentry footage yet but I guess it gave Newman a nice bit of breathing space to learn how to 'be' in parliament. However, he has been a goose whenever on camera so it will be interesting to finally get to see him working. I tell you Qld is in dire straights with this man and his trainees running the place. Truth versus Lies is a great article Lyn. Though I dont like the conclusion, it would appear people do just hear what they want to hear. Is that the reason those horrible attack adds do so well? Sad. I do hope that education becomes the ideal that wins the electorates hearts. One of the best ways for average families to cut costs is to stop paying for expensive education that by rights should be as close to free as possible. Every child deserves the best education and that education deserves to be free. Unfortunately how to say this without offending the Independent schools and causing a furore. But that is what needs to be said.

LadyInRed

5/09/2012oooh Lyn I couldn't open that link to Truss blasts Gillard. You are absolutely right Truss does NOTHING for this electorate absolutely nothing! But the people here just keep voting him in WHY????

jaycee

5/09/2012Of course, the standard question to put to anyone who says' that they got rich by sheer hard work is : "Whose?" I think it is about time we started a "citizens ajudication watch" and we ajudicate on the worth of a persons' right to remain a citizen of Australia! First judgement....Gina Rhine(stone)heart......FAILED!..Citizenship revoked! Put her on a slow boat to Singapore!

LadyInRed

5/09/2012Oh I suffered through Gina's utube video. She says we need bold and imagineable plans. So here is one - pay the west african people a proper wage one they can actually live on, one that means they can feed and educate their children, one that will allow them to improve the overall wealth of their nations. Stand up for their rights Gina! Go over there and invest and say I will NOT pay these people peanuts, and I will invest in safety, I will not watch their health deterioate in unhealthy work practices. Then we can all hold our heads up high and we wont be uncompetitive because everyone will have lifted their standards. IN FACT JUST GO AWAY GINA. Where's Wayne, where is Bruce I need a shower after watching that rubbish.

LadyInRed

5/09/2012Jaycee Agree - but Singapore is too good for her. Put her in a family that has to live on less than $2 a day. I bet what she spends on food in a day would feed a whole village for a year. Her soft and gentle voice belies the hard hearted person beneath.

Lyn

5/09/2012Hi Lady in Red How could we be so unlucky as to have Warren Truss as our member. Yes the article in Independent Australia "Truth versus Lies is a worthwhile read, like you there are a few aspects I don't agree with. Here is the Truss article link again: Truss blasts Gillard over Gonski Mitch Crawley | 5th September 2012 7:00 AM With an election due in 2013, or sooner, Julia Gillard is playing Australians for mugs. And she was quick, in making (this week's) grand statement, to put the funding onus on the states." http://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/story/2012/09/05/truss-blasts-gillard-over-gonski/

42 long

5/09/2012Henry Ford many years ago raised his workers wages so that they could afford to buy the very competitively priced cars that his new production methods allowed. ALL his competitors decried his actions, but his cars became cheaper than motorcycles. These unimaginative right wing Lieberals will drive the states they govern into a recession. You only have to scare people about money and you "Create" , the lack of confidence that promotes los of sales, loss of jobs and a vicious circle of responses that takes you further down the race to economic inactivity ( people holding onto their money) and what do you have A recession with more people on the DOLE. The ONLY growth industry in these situations is in the area of building PRISONS and the increasing private staff that run them. More prisons = Lieberal governments. On the current matter of the NON SALE of the big polluting Latrobe Valley power stations, information was available some months ago that because of Tony's promise to ABOLISH the carbon tax the owners ( despite bing paid millions for the loss of asset value of their "Dynasaurs" would hold out for more from the government. SO who is to blame for THIS situation. PHONEY TONY. How much damage does this man really cause to this country.

jaycee

5/09/2012Personally, I'd say; cut the sewerage pipe from Gina's house for a week and let her wallow in some of her own ****. See how long before she'd be willing to pay more than $2 a day to be rid of her own smell!

jaycee

5/09/2012I think what we are seing now is a campaign of sabotage by the right-wing premiers and industrialists to once again try to destabilise the govt' Watch for the media howling (incl' OUR ABC.)about "failed" or "unsustainable" policies. There will be a crunch-time when the govt' will have no choice but to confront the national broadcaster and "vested interests" lined up to dump on the govt'. As we have recently seen in the new reports on the dismissal of Gough Whitlam..the entire conservative establishment colluded to move against the elected govt' of the day, they and their attitude has not changed....nor, I believe, has the monarch!

LadyInRed

5/09/2012Thanks Lyn. Why didn't they ask Truss what the Libs plan for education is? More of the same that's why. They want everyone in private schools and those that can't afford it well.. clearly its their own fault so they can just have the scraps. They will be bleating on and on about the money. Can we win this argument? I hope so. 42 long - good point about Henry Ford. Wouldn't it be great if the pathetic mining companies really went into these west african countries and instead of exploiting them actually lifted them out of poverty and made a difference rather than raping them of all their wealth, and stripping the dignity from their people. Honestly I hope Swann tears strips off Gina, she has certainly given him enough fodder.

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5/09/2012Hi Lyn I’ve had a busy morning. First reading your links – what an uncanny knack you have for sorting the wheat from the chaff and feeding us the wheat. Then downloading Kindle onto the iPad, followed by Greg Jericho’s book [i]The Rise of the Fifth Estate[/i] onto it, an adventure that took longer than anticipated due to the recurrence of cryptic error messages that took well over an hour to resolve. But I’m in business now! Then I watched an electrifying inspirational speech by Michelle Obama at the Democrat Convention. What a woman, what a speech. If you haven’t seen it do try to catch it, and if it’s on YouTube perhaps you could post the link so everyone can catch the inspiration. Barack will be hard pushed to match her. Her voice is different from Julia’s, but note that several phrases sounded the same. I’ve now finished reading your Twitterverse. All your links were great, but [i]Truth versus lies — the new political divide? [/i]on [i]Independent Australia[/i] was particularly interesting with all its YouTube videos. The piece by the NBN Co too was fascinating particularly the paragraphs: [i]”KPMG estimates that cloud computing over the NBN could increase the size of the Australian economy by $3.32 billion per annum within a decade, while Deloitte Access Economics estimates that the direct contribution of the internet to the Australian economy will be over $70 billion a year by 2016. “In fact, Access Economics says if just 10 percent of Australian employees were to telework every second day, total annual productivity gains would be in the order of $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion per year by reducing commute times, office space and staff turnover.”[/i] http://nbnco.com.au/blog/how-nbn-is-gearing-up-for-australian-business.html Compare this with what was said in a piece written two years ago on [i]TPS[/i] titled: [i]Would Tony Abbott really be stupid enough to trash the NBN?[/i] under the subheading [i]What about local business?[/i]: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2010/08/04/Would-Tony-Abbott-really-be-stupid-enough-to-trash-the-NBN.aspx [i]“Here the NBN may be even more valuable. Leaving aside the advantages of 100 Mbps speeds mentioned above that apply to local as well as international business, think of what it could do for workplace management. Without minimizing the value of personal contact with workmates, there are situations where such contact may not be necessary every day. Take an office environment where most employees are sitting at their computers working on files or through the Internet. They may see each other at the water cooler or at lunch, but otherwise they sit alone gazing at computer screens. If they need to talk to a colleague they walk to his or her workstation. But even that perambulation is no longer necessary; they send each other emails or Twitters, or phone, and some now use VoIP. They use cloud computing to share and update files that live somewhere in the ether, each update automatically updating all versions of the file on multiple computers. Why could they not do that from home? Why could not employees be rostered to spend one day a week working from home, then two, then maybe three? Some human interaction would be desirable, but it does not need to be every day; after all we still take off weekends, just to get away from it all. With the super fast NBN, rather than walking down the corridor to a colleague, they would communicate by VoIP and if more than one person is involved, by teleconferencing. This would be convenient, instantaneous, and highly effective. The non-verbal signals colleagues might exhibit would be obvious on high definition video. “The need for interstate and overseas travel would diminish, as high-resolution instantaneous teleconferencing would create a virtual conference environment where everyone could see and talk with anyone, where audio or visual presentations could be heard and seen clearly on large high-definition monitors, and where decisions could be taken as efficiently as in an actual meeting. Think of the time saved for example in making a trip for a meeting in another capital city: the time saved in travel to the airport and waiting for embarkation, the hour or two of air travel, the taxi travel at the destination, and all that over again on the way home. An hour-long meeting might take a whole day. “Obviously not all businesses could work in this way. Retail outlets would need staff on location, as would construction projects, but if half the office workforce was enabled to work from home half the time, just imagine how this would contribute to lessening the time spent in travel to and from work, and in easing the road congestion that we hear on the radio every morning and evening, or suffer in our motorcars. Think about how it would take pressure off public transport systems. The burden and expense of building more roads and rail services to overcome our infrastructure deficiencies would be lessened. The NBN might turn out to be one of the most effective means of reducing traffic congestion and lessening travel time. “Now not everyone is suitable for working alone from home, but many already do and many more might be interested and willing, especially as the hours taken for travel mount. Who would not want to avoid being stuck in traffic for a couple of hours a day? Many might be willing to give some of the time saved back to the employer. A plan to enable work-from-home could be introduced slowly, home offices established by the employer, and any expenses incurred would be tax-deductable or reimbursed by the employer. “The reduction in carbon pollution would become increasingly significant as the number taking up this option rose. Firms would need less office space and would pay less rent. The NBN could revolutionize many businesses and work patterns, save money, improve productivity, increase profits and enhance participation and worker satisfaction. The potential economic benefits are enormous.[/i]” How come it has taken so long for even NBN Co. to publicize this advantage, when it has been obvious to amateur observers for years? I’m now about to complete a new piece for later this week.

42 long

5/09/2012Mining is an "extractive" industry. They don't make it. The TAKE it amd you can only do it once. Their greed knows no limits. Don't under estimate what the difficulty is here. THESE people ( The MSM controllers and all Tony"s BACKERS are USED to having power and getting their way. They are not motivated about anything but self interest and the maintenance of their of their "privileged " position. They would "ruin the world to make a buck", if left to their own devices and tha absolute proof of this is out there for anyone who genuinely wants to know. How much did the alcohol industry/lobby back the "new" Northern Territory government? More availabiliy of alcohol now and prison farms for the ones who have a problem. Don't let a social problem of enormous dimension get in the way of making more dough, by freeing up the supply of the substance that causes the problem. Same with the tobacco Industry that KILLS half of the customers who use the product. They make so much money that they can give 93% of their allocated fund support the the Australian LNP. They should be ASHAMED to take the money, but they have NO shame, that MOB.

Lyn

5/09/2012Hi Ad Very interesting how did you download kindle to ipad? I have a few books on my Ipad but I asked Amazon to download to Ipad after installing Kindle app from Amazon. The Kindle app is optimized for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, giving users the ability to read Kindle books, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id302584613 What has happened I have the same books on my Ipad as my Kindle so can read on either. Is that what you did or is there another way you could tell me. Michelle Obama was absolutely magnificent, I think she just won the election for Obama. As you said Ad " electrifying inspirational " I had already collected the links so here they are now: Full remarks- Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC (CNN) - The Democratic National Convention released the remarks prepared for Michelle Obama to deliver at the DNC convention in Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday evening. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/04/full-remarks-michelle-obamas-speech-at-the-dnc/ Video: http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/michelle-barack-turned-down-high-paying-jobs.html Twitter for twitter News The end of MichelleObama's speech drove 28,003 Tweets-per-minute at its peak. MittRomney peaked at 14,289 TPM

Truth Seeker

5/09/2012Ad and Lyn, there is a free program called "Calibre"that will convert any format Ebook into any other popular format to be compatible with Kindle, Ipad etc. it is a great program that I have on PC and Mac to put Ebooks on Kindle, samsung phone etc. Cheers

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5/09/2012Hi Lyn I don’t have a Kindle device, so I downloaded ‘Kindle’ from the Apple Apps Store onto the iPad. Then I went to Amazon and downloaded Greg’s book in ‘Kindle’ format onto Kindle on the iPad. It downloaded easily, but then an error message popped up asking me to delete the book from the ‘Device’ compartment of Kindle and download it on the ‘Cloud’ compartment, but every time I did this I got the same error message on trying to open it. With the help of my wife, after a long search on Google I finally found the solution, namely deregister the Kindle App and re-register it, which I did with trepidation as deletion of the library was threatened. But it worked and the library was intact. Whew! I’m now aching to read Greg’s book. Thank you for getting the link to Michelle Obama’s speech. I know you will include it in tomorrow’s links so it can be stored for posterity. Truth Seeker Thanks for that tip – I have noted ‘Calibre’ for future reference.

Marilyn

5/09/2012Can we have Michelle Obama here? There is no-one in our polity today who inspires. And Tom, as the FWA report was found to be pretty much a bogus waste of time why do you still insist that Thomson has to answer questions to you or anyone else. The so-called breaches were not real, they amounted to "there were not specific rules, he broke them". Do try and keep up with facts.

Lyn

5/09/2012Hi Ad Thankyou so much for explaining what you did with the kindle version of Greg's book. Easy to imagine how you felt being in danger of losing your library. I can see clearly now. Yes you guessed I did include Michelle's speech in "Today's Links" Truth Seeker, that's kind of you thankyou so much "Calibre" I will check it out as soon as I have a minute. My Kindle is my best friend, because I love reading so much it's just like a lump of gold to me. Couldn't help but include this link in reference to Abbott's constant missrembering, commonly known as lies. Clean energy policies change as memories shift, Lenore Taylor @ 3.13pm Tony Abbott now insists his Direct Action policy never envisaged the closure of brown coal power stations, but only their "cleaning up". But that isn't what the Coalition used to say Until July last year Mr Abbott's shadow ministers were certainly talking about paying to close brown coal fired plants and build gas fired plants in their place. And he claimed today closing plants down had never been Coalition policy. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/clean-energy-policies-change-as-memories-shift-20120905-25e2b.html#ixzz25Ze823dL

2353

5/09/2012Oh dear Lyn, you caught Abbott out on another lie. I wonder if it will get a run on commercial news tonight?

Michael

5/09/2012Love it when the 'just keep quiet until Labor falls over and we can do whatever we want in government' Coalition starts gnashing at its own entrails... As in (with Cubbie Station) the Nationals and the Liberals letting slip just how expedient a 'coalition' it actually is, and how they'll really be at each others' throats if they ever have their hands in the public purse again. Barnaby and Joe, just a hint. If it does come to fisticuffs, please stay fully-clothed. Even with the voluminous outfits boxers wear these days, it is definitely not in the nation's interest to see either of you guys stripped down... no matter how much your unesteemed leader seems to believe 'seeing all' manifests true leadership.

42 long

5/09/2012The cartoonists are not too kind to Tony, but they really are caricaturists, generally. They love to accuentuate excesses or unfortunate characteristics appearance-wise. They also laugh a lot as they do it. I suspect they used to pull wings off flies and pull girl's plats. Is it MEAN to demean and ridicule? I suspect it is, but these people prove that you can make a RESPECTABLE living from it. Remember though "respectable " living has two meanings. It can allude to doing it respectably or it can mean a respectable amount, which probably relates to "size".

42 long

5/09/2012Abbott deception and lying was covered up for a while but nobody could claim it's news any more. We all remember the calamitous "tainted" Thom(p)son vote that made the "fast boys" run. Well funnily enough 'taint news any more. Thomson was found to have NOT mislead the parliament, so I guess his vehement accusers have made things right by issuing an appology. No Of course they haven't That would be behaving decently and decency is not what we get from them Hey! Hang on. Wasn't this the stuff that was going to bring down a constitutional government? Now it's all gone quiet so we pretend nothing happened. Abetts calling for the parl't to take the matter into it's hands threatening the separation between parliament and the court system. Verballing the witnesses. They get away with Murder. Murdering common decency and proper process. and it's just like it NEVER happened.

KHTAGH

5/09/2012Evening swords folk. I just read this in the comments on Crikey & thought you too might find it a good case of poetic justice. Topic is abuse to women. Allimac Warmboy Posted Wednesday, 5 September 2012 at 5:16 pm | Permalink [i]We need to maintain the rage - and don;t underestimate the example we set for our kids. It is topical in my household . At a servo recently, my 21 year old daughter was accosted by two middle aged men who essentially said the equivalent of what First Dog has recounted. She ignored them, and once safely back in her vehicle, punched the number from their landscape business (which was on the back of their truck) into her phone, and dialed it. Turned out that the receptionist was the wife of the man, who with his brother were so disgusting towards my daughter. She told the poor woman everything they’d said…[/i] I would just love to have been a fly on that wall..... DUCK

KHTAGH

5/09/201242 Long That's a bloody good point

DMW

5/09/2012That's torn it ... HD Rebner ‏@hdrebner I think I'm done with you now, Ms Gillard. http://wp.me/p1gf2y-1Qd via @NoPlaceforSheep Having read the very short post @ No Place for Sheep I can completely understand that Jen is 'done' with the PM and I am inclined to agree. A bridge too far for me.

DMW

5/09/2012Mike Stuchbery ‏@mikestuchbery Still gonna speak at the @ACLobby conference, @JuliaGillard? Really? Really? C'mon, quit pulling our legs. Really? You're joking, right? jaundiced view ‏@JaundicedV “@MartinPribble: @mikestuchbery oh tell me she's not?! Please? The @aclobby are just pulling out legs now! @juliagillard” Is this true?? jaundiced view ‏@JaundicedV Is Gillard going to accept an invitation to speak to the ACL? Or is that a joke? I checked it isn't April 1st, but surely, the PM as keynote speaker at the Aus Christian Lobby conference is some sort of sick joke. Please tell me it is a sick joke

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5/09/2012DMW Why don't you wait to see what JG says? I'm calling it a day. Tomorrow I'll post 'Where does probing end and arrogance start?'

TalkTurkey

5/09/2012Good evening All, I'm sitting in the top bunk of Cabin 4 on the old PS Ruby at Wentworth on the Murray~Darling, (J**** on the lower one) and we're pretty weary but very happy, still moored but the boiler is fired up ready for departure in the morning. On Sunday is the big regatta of paddlesteamers at Mildura. DMW Do you think it might be a good idea to hear what *J*U*L*I*A* has to tell the ACL before you burn your "bridge too far?" But did you ever go very far anyway? You jump from wanting one leader to another to another, the Hop-About-Man incarnate. Only saying it because it's true.

DMW

5/09/2012It appears that it is not some sick joke ... http://www.acl.org.au/2012/08/acl-national-conference-2012/ Only three comments so far on the site ... umm; no comment from me. Ad, TT, I hear you and I did have a momentary thought about waiting to hear what the PM might say, I have even attempted to write some of what she might say in my head. Up until now I have remained silent on the bulldust on having Holy Rollers in schools and other panderings to the 'christian lobby groups' but I reckon it stinks. As far as it goes, a professed atheist as keynote speaker at a Christian [b]Lobby [/b] group conference would be similar to the PM giving a keynote address to a climate sceptics conference. Good luck to the ACL and the PM, I hope they have a 'lovey dovey' conference and solve all the world's ethical dilemmas and also prove the existence of God Almighty.

DMW

5/09/2012TT, [i]... You jump from wanting one leader to another to another, the Hop-About-Man incarnate.[/i] Where is your evidence for that statement. Name time and date where I have written anything that suggests that I have jumped from one leader to another. The statement you have written is not factual.

NormanK

5/09/2012DMW In the interests of keeping your blood pressure under control, how about entertaining the thought that she is going to face them down rather than suck up to them. Let's wait and see what she has to say and then spit the dummy if it is warranted. You and I spend a lot of time on this site arguing against jumping to conclusions and handing down prejudgement so it would be disappointing if you maintain your rage for any length of time. At least wait until Ms Gillard is given a chance to speak. I concur that the worst case scenario would be a huge blow but we have little reason to make assumptions at this point.

DMW

5/09/2012NK, agreed, instant reactions can be dangerous, and I thought for some (short) amount of time before posting the link/tweet and my thoughts. It may turn out to be an inspired choice walking into the lion's den. In the meantime the cheap shots and accusations of hypocrisy will do more damage than I believe is needed at this time.

Sir Ian Crisp

5/09/2012I see the bird of paradox has used the 3 metre diving board to perform another backflip with triple twist. Didn't someone here at TPS tell us that the bird of paradox was the best negotiator in Australia? Ooops!

TalkTurkey

5/09/2012DMW Time and date have I none nor do I intend going looking. If indeed I have my memories wrong (as may be since a couple of general anaesthetics recently have done my memory no good) I do humbly apologise. However I thought I remembered you first cleaving from Gillard to Rudd, then to Smith I believe, back to Gillard I thought, or something akin to that sequence, all in the space of a fortnight or so. Somebody did. Perhaps it was someone else.

DMW

5/09/2012TT, I accept that it can be easy to confuse who wrote what and when. To be clear I have held the opinion and I believe I have stated it here that I always thought that it was a big mistake electing KRudd as leader and that it would end in tears. When my wife told me in late 2005 after watching a Sunrise episode that she thought KRudd would make a great Labor leader I objected and suggested that I thought there were many better and that I thought that Ms Gillard would make a better leader. I have also stated that I thought Labor would have won the '07 just about anyone as leader and without the workchoices campaign. Yes I have expressed doubts about how Ms. Gillard has handled the job but I haven't, that I can recall, proposed anyone else as leader.

Lyn

6/09/2012Today’s Links A balanced and objective ABC? Your call,Vince O’Grady, Independent Australia Contrast the two interviews. Uhlmann “going after” Dr Emerson in a forthright and, in my opinion, rude manner and questioning anything he said “… that does not allow the interviewee to use the occasion as a political platform”; and then Tony Jones, asking questions and not interrupting Greg Hunt during his interview http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/a-balanced-and-objective-abc-your-call/ Australia’s June Quarter GDP growth is 0.6%, Greg Jerico, Grog’s Gamut Today the ABS released the quarterly national accounts.The headline figure is GDP growth marginally below expectations of 0.6% in seasonally adjusted terms. In trend terms it came in at 0.8%. Tomorrow we get the Labour Force figures, so the joy of economics data never ends. http://grogsgamut.blogspot.com.au/ Tony Abbott opposed to using facts in economic debates, Reversepr. Com “As an economist I’m astounded by the level of economic ignorance displayed by Tony Abbott and the opposition. Deliberately misleading the Australian public and our international trading partners by refusing to use facts in a debate is reckless and dangerous.” http://www.reversepr.com.au/2012/09/04/2337/tony-abbott-opposed-to-using-facts-in-economic-debates/ Abbott 'Solidarity' rule doesn't apply to Joyce: angry Coalition MPs , Darin Sullivan, The Left hack One senior Liberal said there was a lot of frustration about the special rules for Mr Joyce."Everyone is talking about it ... no one can understand how he gets away with it. But he always does.""Tony seems to treat Barnaby with kid gloves," another said.One senior Liberal insisted Mr Abbott had "repeatedly" spoken to Mr Joyce, "but he just ignores http://darinsullivan.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/abbott-rule-doesn-apply-to-joyce-angry.html Bishop’s Sri Lankan Asylum Seeker Deal Is Illegal, Kevin Ponniah, New Matilda This proposal would violate both customary international law and the legal principle of non-refoulement enshrined in the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, to which Australia is a signatory. http://newmatilda.com/2012/09/05/bishops-sri-lankan-asylum-seeker-deal-illegal Stop “hiding” your NBN policy, Conroy tells Turnbull, Renai LeMay, Delimeter . I and many others are tired of the incessant shadow boxing and hinting which has been going on in this portfolio. If we’re going to have a debate, let’s have it about the Coalition’s actual policy. Having said that, I don’t expect Conroy’s comments to spur Turnbull into action http://delimiter.com.au/2012/09/05/stop-hiding-your-nbn-policy-conroy-tells-turnbull/ PM says miners should join education revolution, David Twomey, Eco News Speaking at the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) conference in Perth, Ms Gillard also said reports of the mining boom’s death had been greatly exaggerated. http://econews.com.au/news-to-sustain-our-world/pm-says-miners-should-join-education-revolution/ You can't give a Gonski if you don't get Gonski, Chris Bonnor, OnLine Opinion Gillard can and will wedge the Opposition and be able to pitch its antagonism to Gonski as akin to disbelief in parenthood. The longer term problem for the Opposition is that, to change the (far distant) Gonski future, it will have to repeal legislation which will include many of its own preferred goodies. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14072 The Revolution that became a Crusade, Dean Ashenden, Inside Story The best available calculation is by ANU economists Andrew Leigh (now a Labor federal member) and Chris Ryan. They found that between 1964 and 2003 spending on schooling increased by 258 per cent in real terms, while outcomes, as indicated by available evidence about literacy and numeracy, failed to increase at all, resulting in a http://inside.org.au/the-revolution-that-became-a-crusade/ Work Harder, Socialise and Drink Less. On $2 A Day, Archie, Archie Archives A Suggestion To Gina Since you are unable to successfully compete in a market-place where others do, perhaps you should think about selling out to BHP or Rio Tinto. Who will probably mothball Roy Hill as it is not an attractive proposition in today’s business climate.That will free up your time to do what is truly important to your soul. http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/work-harder-socialise-and-drink-less-on-2-a-day/ Can trigen get us to 100 per cent renewable? Yes it can, Jonathan Prendergast, The Fifth Estate how do we move to 100 per cent renewable energy, if solar and wind can’t meet all our instantaneous energy demands? How can we store renewable energy, and dispatch it on demand?If gas is such a great store of energy, then the next move must be to green our gas grid.Renewable gas includes biogas and syngas and can be produced by http://www.thefifthestate.com.au/archives/38144 Government scraps plans to shut dirty power stations, Simon Cullen, ABC "I think what we have seen today from the Government is a desperate attempt to patch up the budget," Tony Abbott told reporters in the regional Victorian city of Bendigo."It's a desperate attempt to preserve the microscopic budget surplus by failing to spend the money that it had previously promised on carbon tax closures." http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-05/government-scraps-plans-to-shut-down-dirty-power-stations/4243888 What have unions done for us?, Donna Brazile, CNN. Com. Unions played a major role in ending the sweatshops and child labor so common at the beginning of the 20th century. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, or ILGWU, was one of the first unions to have a primarily female membership. And in the aftermath of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, in which more than 100 mostly young immigrant women were killed, http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/04/opinion/brazile-unions/index.html Michelle Obama Addresses Democratic Party Convention, Australian Politics United States First Lady Michelle Obama has given a rousing address to the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte, North Carolina http://australianpolitics.com/2012/09/04/michelle-obama-addresses-democratic-convention.html Video http://www.politico.com/multimedia/video/2012/09/michelle-barack-turned-down-high-paying-jobs.html Fact checking our way to a clearer debate, Greg Jericho, The Drum In Australia, fact checking has yet to take hold in any real sense among the traditional media. Crikey has recently begun "Get Fact", but no other media has a specific page devoted to checking facts. Given the criticism fact checking has received and by whom, hopefully other news organisations here will follow. http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4242556.html A Watershed Moment for Real-Time Fact-Checking , American Journalism Review parade of distortions and untruths in the GOP vice presidential nominee's address.The evolution of the fact-checking movement in journalism has been gradual, but this latest incarnation is essential for two reasons: today's frantic media pace and the willingness, even eagerness of politicians to pay so little regard to the truth. http://ajr.org/Article.asp?id=5387 The Rise of the Fifth Estate , Sky News Video' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn7Qh5D1xrY Today’s Front Pages Australia Newspaper Front Pages for 6 September 2012 http://www.frontpagestoday.co.uk/index.cfm?PaperCountry=Australia

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6/09/2012LYN'S DAILY LINKS updated: http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/page/LYNS-DAILY-LINKS.aspx

2353

6/09/2012Thanks for the links to the "fact checking" articles Lyn. Apart from being a sad reflection on reporting in the US (and here), it is interesting that there is the green shoots of a systemic approach to "calling out" lies and distortions made by others and reported without question by the media. When you think about it, it's sort of like what Snopes.com does for those "this is unbelievable" stories you get emailed from friends - and thats a good thing in my view. DMW - I'm with you in wondering why Gillard would even bother with the ACL address. Even if she does go there with the idea of disabusing their actions and beliefs as AA and NormanK point out - in reality how many of the participants have an open enough mind to actually listen and comprehend the PM's speech? Out of those, how many will actually do something about to change? Hope I'm wrong and Gillard nails (sorry!) it - but I have doubts that those that need to hear the message will do so.

Michael

6/09/2012"Fact checking"? In Australia?? By Australian media??? What are you smokin', mate? Bugger the facts! I'm chasing "gotcha", I'm targeting the slur, shaping the innuendo, building my little pile of nudge nudge hints and winks, establishing my signature swag of repeated pejorative phrases, in front of my mirror practising the raised eyebrow and the curled lip, repeating myself so often it sounds like news to me, putting quotation marks around anonymous 'inside source' attributions I've cobbled together from the back of my bootstrapping brain and never have to validate, hitting the 24/7 deadlines with my byline that's still here, baby, when all those others took redundancy, which must mean I'm the 'King of The World', oh yeah, so you just listen like araldite to what I have to say, me me me. The only fact you need to check is that I said what I said because what I said just made it a fact whatever it was I said. You can quote me. That's the only news that counts. You can quote me. (I'm on Insiders this week, watch my lips, hear what I say, it must be true.) Would I lie to you?

2353

6/09/2012Michael, read Greg's article. Crikey has started a website - there is hope (aided and abetted by it being talked about in the US)

DMW

6/09/2012Jon Kudelka offers a couple of 'facts' to ponder today [b]How to become a billionaire[/b] http://www.kudelka.com.au/2012/09/how-to-become-a-billionaire/ A laugh is a good way to start the day and that is a fact as far as I am concerned.

LadyInRed

6/09/2012More cracks appearing in the Coalition ranks. First Joyce from the right and now Turnbull from the left. Oh dear. Christians vote Labor too. Only a foolish PM would ignore them. She either governs for all or she governs for none. And as for addressing a bunch of climate sceptics I would be all for that too.

GrannyAnny

6/09/2012Further to the subject of mining billionaires; There is an article behind this link that suggests that volunteers contribute more to the Australian economy than mining; http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2012/08/volunteers-worth-more-australia-mining# Gina was "rattling her pearls" the other day with I presume a threat the she and Twiggy and Clive, etc, will take their money to Africa if we don't all work more for less. To me a call like that is a signal to start agitating for a big pay rise. I volunteer with an emergency service organisation that is struggling to get enough members. I have been researching this and found that it is a common problem across Australia and also in the UK and US, and no doubt across the first world; * Units are struggling to get enough volunteers to turn out during business hours. * Total numbers are in decline and the age profile of those who do volunteer is increasing. * Birth rates have been declining for about 40 years. There are fewer younger adults and economic and social pressures prevent many from volunteering. They have been conditioned to think that they don't have to. * There may be many potential volunteers among the large numbers of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants so we need to find a way of including these people. When asked, most Australians will say they want to live in a community, not an economy. Take note Gina. In a democracy the majority is supposed to rule.

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6/09/2012Here's Fairfax's take on Turnbull's speech. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/honesty-is-the-best-policy-turnbull-swipes-at-state-of-politics-and-deficit-of-trust-20120905-25ezm.html Interesting times - is Turnbull the LNP's version of Rudd?

LadyInRed

6/09/2012Fact checking. Why let a little problem like facts stand in the way of a story that will make daddy Murdoch happy and let me keep my job. And isn't it comforting to know that TAbbott when asked to pass a memebers bill that calls for fact rather than fear mongering when talking about the Australian economy he chose 'fear mongering'. At least we can now say TAbbott is not interested in the truth - and that's a fact.

Lyn

6/09/2012Good Morning Ad & Everybody You will see Mr Turnbull is trying to get out of what he said last night. He didn’t mean Tony Abbott at all, heehe heehe. Funny how the tide turns his beloved media haven't reported the facts so sad, too bad. Lady in Red you have taken the happy tapping right off my keyboard, the words right out of my mouth: “Christians vote Labor too. Only a foolish PM would ignore them. She either governs for all or she governs for none” There are some comments below about Barnaby’s “None of your Business” on the 7.30pm report last night. Also some comments on Julia Gillard addressing the ACL. Twitterverse:- Honesty is the best policy: Turnbull swipes at Abbott and 'deficit of trust' Phillip Coorey MALCOLM TURNBULL has decried the state of political discourse in Australia, saying it had deteriorated to such an extent that the nation suffered "a deficit of trust" and there was an urgent need for honesty in politics. http://m.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/honesty-is-the-best-policy-turnbull-swipes-at-abbott-and-deficit-of-trust-20120905-25ezm.html Turnbull fires up republic debate , Phillip Hudson MALCOLM Turnbull has reignited the republican debate, conceding a direct election model for a president might be the only way to change the head of state. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/turnbull-fires-up-republic-debate/story-fndo2j43-1226465921830? Carbon tax leaves big polluters better off, Lenore Taylor AUSTRALIA'S highest-emitting brown coal electricity generators are between $400 million and $1 billion better off than they would have been if there were no carbon tax, new modelling shows http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/carbon-tax-leaves-big-polluters-better-off-20120905-25exz.html#ixzz25dN4k141 Together union sends postage-paid cards on public service cuts to voters in Queensland marginal seats, Courier Mail Together state secretary Alex Scott said 350,000 cards had been mailed out to residents of 20 marginal seats in the first stage of the campaign.“The Premier’s said nobody has complained to him about the job losses,” said Mr Scott. The tear-off card carries the message "I wish to register my concern at the way Campbell Newman and politicians in general are blatantly misleading the public in order to gain power". http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/together-union-sends-postage-paid-cards-on-public-service-cuts-to-voters-in-queensland-marginal-seats/story-e6freoof-1226465908420 Worry about the water at Cubbie, not the ownership, EDITORIAL As noted yesterday by the economist Peter Drysdale, one of the authors of the forthcoming Australia in the Asian Century report, we stand to miss out on vital economic opportunities from an oversimplified stance on Chinese investment being fed in part by ''populist politics''. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/worry-about-the-water-at-cubbie-not-the-ownership-20120905-25eju.html#ixzz25dNQSHMh Australian Christian Lobby:- AustraliaChristian lobbyist has gays fuming: BIG Tobacco has found an unlikely ally as the Australian Christian Lobby sug... http://kazi.info/RlgPxi A study in journalism – Christian Kerr today in The Australian, Published on: September 06, 2012 However, a straight report of a speech does not sell newspapers. So it is no surprise that Christian Kerr’s article in The Australian today is headlined: “Turnbull slams fellow Libs for ‘narrow focus’ ” In other words – a thoroughly unbalanced account of the speech, calculated to support the proposition that it was an attack on Tony Abbott, which it demonstrably was not http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/blogs/malcolms-blog/a-study-in-journalism-christian-kerr-today-in-the-australian/ News boss hits back at media reforms News Ltd chief Kim Williams has accused the federal government of setting up a review of media practices because it did not like the reporting of some of the company's newspapers. http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-business/news-boss-hits-back-at-media-reforms-20120906-25fla.html Nick Osbaldiston‏ I think everyone is getting a bit overboard in their criticism of JuliaGillard key noting at the #ACL - it doesn't mean she endorses them Denise‏ JuliaGillard ...agree...lets hear what she has to say first...too many critisising without even knowing Jennifer Wilson‏ JuliaGillard Who in their right mind would be keynote speaker at a conference run by these lunatics? Prof Kerryn Phelps‏ marriageequality advocates call on JuliaGillard to reconsider delivering keynote address at ACL conference in Octoberhttp://www.ymlp.com/zgBdNs GreensMPs‏ Transcript of senatormilne doorstop after the debate with Jim Wallace at Lawfest is available here http://greensmps.org.au/content/media-releases/transcript-christine-milne-lawfest-doorstop-marriage-equality 7.30pm REPORT Gareth ‏ Another great interview from leighsales with Barnaby Joyce although he pretty much shot himself in the foot. http://tiny.cc/81w5jw Karen Barlow‏ Barnaby Joyce says Coalition discussions on water and #Cubbystation are "none of your business." #abc730 Daniel Hurst‏ Sales to Barnaby: "Have you spoken to Mr Abbott in the last 24 hours?" "Yes." "And what was said?" "That's none of your business" #abc730 Alex‏_ Aspiring Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce says Coalition discussions on water and Cubby Station are "none of your business." Nice. #abc730 Julie Posetti‏ There goes leighsales destroyingthejoint: "I think you're participating in a different interview" she challenges the evasive barnabyjoyce David Marler‏ Newmania,Qld Hervey Bay 'Tinman' Ted Sorensen's office "Teachers vent their anger" http://ow.ly/dtuwi

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6/09/2012Hi Lyn I enjoyed your links and Twitterverse. The two articles on fact checking were so apt, and the one on Tony Abbott’s use of facts grist to that mill. The one on the ABC is germane to what I will post after lunch: [i]Where does probing stop and arrogance start?[/i] I will add the Leigh Sales/Barnaby Joyce interview. There was another challenging piece on the NBN, challenging for Malcolm Turnbull that is. The Abbott/Joyce conflict is causing dissent, and with Malcolm Turnbull making his statement about the poor state of political discourse and the Coalition’s almost exclusive preoccupation with asylum seekers and the carbon tax in QT, Tony Abbott is coming under the pump. Barrie Cassidy’s comment this morning on Jon Faine’s show highlighted Abbott’s dilemma. The one-trick pony is faltering. I’ll now finish off the piece for this afternoon.

NormanK

6/09/2012My comment on Mr Turnbull's blog: [quote]Ah yes, Malcolm, let's have more honesty from our politicians. I saw you out and about after Mr Abbott's Budget-in-Reply speech where you stated plainly in interview after interview that Abbott's claim that funding for the NBN could be better spent on other things in the full knowledge that this is not the case without placing a major strain on the budget. Or was I dreaming? Time after time you remind the Australian public that the NBN scheme will provide an ROI of around 6% over the life of the project and that at the end of it Australian citizens will own (debt-free) a piece of infrastructure that is the envy of the world and worth in excess of $20 billion should the government of the day decide to sell it. You have provided countless press releases that debunk Abbott's and Hockey's assertions that access to roughly equivalent packages on the NBN will be hugely expensive when compared with current packages. Back on topic, I see you've collated the number of questions on asylum seekers and the carbon pricing scheme and detailed just which side of the House they have emanated from. No doubt you have expressed your disdain for the ongoing tactic of Coalition members conflating all rises in electricity prices with the Carbon Price. Mr Abbott did it again yesterday in Bendigo. I look forward to your press release correcting him. Despite your attempts to occupy the moral high ground, you have done nothing to elevate the tone of political conversation in this country, in fact you contribute to it. Either have the courage to take a swipe at Abbott and not prevaricate the next day or surrender to the realisation that you are tarred with the same brush as him.[/quote] He is just as bad as any of them if only because of his inaction.

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6/09/2012Watching Turnbull's expression during question time would indicate that the karma of the place doesn't meet his approval. He would have to want to be someplace where there is at least a modicom of integrity and intelligence being applied. There were times when his political awareness hadn't fully developed but the guy can put a few words together and communicate(Unlike his political master who did him by one vote and knifed him while he was negotiating in good faith with Penny Wong). What an unhealthy place for him to be. Anyhow the Gnomes that run the party won't be any more endeared to him than they were but the people of australia WILL. A bit of straight honest talk. Can't have that sort of thing... Can we? Barnaby.... what can we say. Not long ago I thought he was going to be included in the dictionary. As in.. HELL I've really done a "barnaby"... Meaning a big stuff-up. But he's been quiet for a while. He had been talking to Hockey and Abbott who had obviously told him to SHUT UP and"dump" it all on SWANN. Sales with the "OTHER" conversation call was excellent. " NONE of YOUR BUSINESS" is less than diplomatic or productive. This production, "Pathetic Pantomime" is not looking like a cohesive, professional show and should get the ratings it deserves soon. Christine MILNE attacks Labor when she should be far more analytical and objestive. She concentrates on winning votes from labor as a priority. Even if this means T Abbott being prime minister. That is a bad call. She should care more for australia than that. The LNP HATE Greens. Why aid them getting in power. I don't think the greens will ever see the wood for the TREES. They are losing votes already. Brown was a significant loss to that party.

LadyInRed

6/09/201242 long Brown got out when they reached the highest peak, it was always going to be downhill from there, why take the rap for that let Milne take it. You can have very high ideals when you are not really responsible for selling them to the majority and paying for them with tax payer money. They were 'always' going to have to bite the hand that feeds them (Labor).

Michael

6/09/2012"PM cancels speech to Christian lobby after 'offensive' gay health comment" THE AUSTRALIAN JULIA Gillard has cancelled a planned address to the Australian Christian Lobby after "heartless" comments by ACL director Jim Wallace, suggesting smoking was healthier than homosexuality. The Prime Minister said in light of the comments, she had decided it would be inappropriate for her to speak to at the ACL's national conference next month. “There are a range of deeply-held views in the community on the issue of same-sex marriage but it is the responsibility of all parties in this debate to be respectful and responsible in any public comments they make,” she said in a statement. “I believe yesterday's comments by Jim Wallace were offensive. To compare the health effects of smoking cigarettes with the many struggles gay and lesbian Australians endure in contemporary society is heartless and wrong. “Although everyone is entitled to their own view, these statements reiterated again today on behalf of ACL are totally unacceptable. “In light of this, I believe my attendance at the conference would be inappropriate.” Mr Wallace made the startling claim in a debate on marriage equality with Greens leader Christine Milne at the University of Tasmania. In answer to a question from the floor, Mr Wallace said smokers were owed “a big apology” as the lifespan of a gay male was reduced by up to 20 years, half that of a smoker. “The life of smokers is reduced by something like seven to 10 years and yet we tell all our kids at school they shouldn't smoke,” he said. “We need to be aware that the homosexual lifestyle carries these problems.” Ms Gillard, like Mr Wallace, is an opponent of gay marriage. But she has allowed Labor MPs a conscience vote when a number of private members' bills on the issue come before parliament.

DMW

6/09/2012Bridge UnBurnt

NormanK

6/09/2012Well done, Prime Minister.

Michael

6/09/2012NormanK, hi. Nice nailing of Talcum Malcom, a man who skates with a free pass every bit as much as Tony Abbott ever has, except it comes from folks unduly bedazzled by his supposed cosmopolitanism and intellect. The former is assumed, the latter mere vocabulary. Just as Shouldabeen assumes he will landslide into government and need do nothing but lambast Labor and monosyllabically reject government policy, Turnbull assumes the Coalition party room will come to its senses and re-anoint it's only true Renaissance man. Since the depth of his idea of said status is to have had a painting done of he and wife Lucy that is a mirror in style and execution of one of the Duke of Urbino and his wife, painted sometime between 1465 and 1472, we can only assume that Turnbull as PM would deliver us not from the evil Abbott PM would personify, but direct to the rococo, skip the Renaissance, bypass Baroque... the kitsch of the rococo his natural roost. Godwin Grech has no idea "what a (beneficial) loss to the nation" he gave us when he contributed to the fall of the Point Piper Pretender.

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6/09/2012With examination of many of the comments made by religeous representatives these days I am glad that I don't have to apologise for being one. Most of the intolerance,hate,fear,greed bigotry,weird attitudes to sex opposition to scientific fact etc eminate from those sources.. If some are offended by this have an objective look about the world today. What other conclusion could you arrive at?

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6/09/2012Michael, he doesn't fool me either. He must have some reason to stay there and it must be similar to the "I'm your saviour" mantra, the the revolting Rudd believes. These guys should realise that the Cemeteries are full of "indispensible " people. I just don't know who he would talk to, when around Canberra. It's not worth a great deal of consideration but The LNP would get more votes with him leading than the present" Incumbent". If we want labor in then tony ( and Can-do and BoF and uncle Ted Bailleau), are assets. the longer they perform though Newman is the "STAR" by a large margin. What possesses some people to imagine that they can be a GOOD prime minister? It would not be an easy job by any stretch of the imagination. Lady IR. what you say re the greens is correct. Lately their performance has been the most self-serving of all the parties. I realise what I am saying there but it is a trophy they have earned, unfortunately.

adelaidegirl

6/09/2012I'm personally disgusted with Christine Milne's language. Sure, she can disagree with Labor policy and say so. But to engage in the bootstrap of "this government can't be trusted" on the environment makes her sound just like TAbbott. Is that what she wants? Is a TAbbott government what she wants? Is she so short-sighted? I think yes. The tone of the Greens has changed since Bob left. DMS - phew! Just in the nick of time, PMJG makes a sound decision re ACL :) what a tosser JWallace is.

BSA Bob

6/09/2012Unwell lately so not approaching developments with my usual razor sharp intellect. But wasn't paying brown coal burning plants a hell of a lot to lessen output (in essence bribing them?) part of Abbott's "plan"? Not that you'd know it now. Remember the supposed deal between S-H-Y & Abbott over asylum seekers? Perhaps we might see something between Milne (whose attitude to money seems to be that others will provide lots of it) & Abbott to stump up loads of cash here?

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6/09/2012Folks I’ve just now posted [i]Where does probing stop and arrogance start?[/i]. http://www.thepoliticalsword.com/post/2012/09/06/Where-does-probing-stop-and-arrogance-start.aspx

2353

6/09/2012If you think about it it is obvious that the Greens will take votes from the ALP rather than the LNP. The Greens are to the left of the ALP, so those who think the ALP have gone too far to the right will (you would think) look for a political party to the left of where they perceive the ALP to be - the largest one being the Greens. The Liberals for years have had the Nationals, DLP and other conservatives to their right and the Democrats to their left, so finding the appropriate balance can be done - the ALP just needs to find out how to do it. I'd suspect returning fire on Milne's latest outburst isn't the way to do it as it will just polarise the debate. Its simple marketing in the end - in the ALP's case, going to the right will get votes from the "small L" Liberals but will lose votes from those who are of the "progressive end" of the ALP's support base. Their only real option is the Greens. Where do you sit so you get the maximum benefit?

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6/09/2012I am really of the opinion that eventually some of Abbotts votes will come back to a "reasonable" Labor party. Many, many are persuaded by the MSM. Fewer buy the things ( papers) these days and respect for the MSM falls all the time. The advantage of that situation is that the increase results in a corresponding decrease so labor only needs a 5 point increase to be there. The state governments that are LNP are giving a well timed, first hand taste of the LNP rightist slash and burn technique that unless they are more careful will aid Labor. You can expect an anti-union play ( may be happening in Vic. already) and the usual laura Norder thing. Their dirty tricks may rebound on them any time. Leadership instability is becoming the feature of the LNP not Labor, so that may be an interesting change. One act Tony is looking a little BARREN. Pyne may think he is up to it. It could go like a pack of cards. They would think they are SO close, so the dummy spit make turn into some kind of panic attack.

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6/09/2012Folks On the subject of the Australian Christian Lobby statement by Jim Wallace, [i]Crikey[/i] has subjected it to its [i]Get Fact[/i] process. http://www.crikey.com.au/topic/get-fact/ On the subject: “[i]Do gays die earlier than smokers?[/i] it draws the following conclusion: [i]”In fact, it is likely that dubious media interventions like Wallace's may in fact perpetuate many of the health problems he is himself referring to. A recent study from the University of Queensland, The Psychology of Same-S-x Marriage Opposition, showed that individuals exposed to media articles bagging same-s-x marriage were more likely to report feeling negative and depressed and more likely to feel distressed, upset, guilty, scared, afraid, ashamed and nervous. They wer more likely to report loneliness, more likely to report they felt weak and powerless -- and less likely to report feeling happy or positive. “A recent Psychologists for Marriage Equality submission to the Senate inquiry into the gay marriage bill cited a 2007 study showing the phenomenon of "minority stress" means "social prejudice, discrimination, and violence against lesbians, gay men, and bis-xuals play a significant role in the mental health outcomes" of these groups. “So, while the gay population does appear to experience a disproportionate prevalence of negative health effects brought on by others, the evidence that gays die earlier than straights is dubious at best. [b]Accordingly, we rate Wallace's claims as mostly rubbish.”[/b][/i] My bolding. Wallace gave Julia Gillard the perfect opening to withdraw from speaking at the ACL meeting.

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6/09/2012BSA Bob I hope you are soon feeling well again. You are right. The Coalition plan is to ‘pay big polluters not to pollute’, the so-called ‘inducement’ or ‘carrot’ approach. But where have we seen a critical comparative analysis of the Coalition versus the Government approach? An article in the [i]SMH[/i] today by Lenore Taylor, who is well versed on this subject, makes no mention of the Coalition plan. http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/carbon-tax-leaves-big-polluters-better-off-20120905-25exz.html#ixzz25dN4k141

Casablanca

6/09/2012No one could repair all the damage: Clinton defends Obama Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/no-one-could-repair-all-the-damage-clinton-defends-obama-20120906-25gcy.html#ixzz25fHArfMo There is a video with this article and some great tweets like these ones: [b]After his speech Clinton tried to drop the mic but a flock of golden doves swooped in and carried it off to a rainbow waterfall. I want a Bill Clinton backpack, a Bill Clinton lunchbox, Bill Clinton toothpaste, Bill Clinton curtains, and a Bill Clinton beach towel.lol I feel like I could do anything right now, so I'm going to try and lift this couch. #thanksbill [/b]
How many umbrellas are there if I have two in my hand but the wind then blows them away?