Entries tagged as ‘Tony Abbott’
Possibly the strongest, most detailed speech Tony Abbott has ever made came in the form of a ’12-point plan’ delivered yesterday at the Liberal party’s federal council meeting. Obviously prompted by the Shakespearean-like shenanigans that have overwhelmed the Labor Party this week and given Australia its first female prime minister, he has rallied to the call and told us what he will do if elected Prime Minister.
While continuing to lambast Labor, and Gillard, for the failures of the past two years, he has nonetheless put some teeth into the Liberals’ strategy.
His programme is a pragmatic, archly conservative short list; strong on substance and devoid of spin. Given Tony’s well publicised beliefs, and the direction the Liberal Party has taken recently, this initial outline of policy is unlikely to meet with overwhelming support from the general public.
Polls on Friday showed that the electorate is in a honeymoon period, a euphoric afterglow following the decapitation by Labor of their esteemed leader in favour of his deputy.
Tony Abbott has an uphill climb ahead of him this week and throughout July. With the election fated for late August*, he has a slight window of opportunity to level the playing field.
Is that time for the euphoria to wear off? Is that time for Labor to once again fail to deliver on both services and outcomes? Only time will tell, and as Booker T once said, ‘Time Is Tight’.
Instead of budgie smugglers and running shoes, perhaps the Bovver Boy needs to put his skates on.
Categories: politics
Tagged: Labor Party, Liberals, Sockpuppet, Tony Abbott
There has been, as of 8pm tonight, a move on the leadership of the Federal Labor Party. While Julia Gillard hasn’t formally challenged Rudd, the right wing faction are supporting her. As I write this, there is turmoil, not only within the Labor camp, but also the Liberal Party. This challenge will, in an instant, change the landscape of the upcoming election.
In one fell swoop, by installing Gillard as PM, Labor can erase its past mistakes, blaming them, perhaps unfairly, on Kevin Rudd. Equally, in one fell swoop, Tony Abbott has lost most of the ground he has recently gained. Labor will have cleaned the slate, and gained another chance. Gillard is undoubtedly a more convincing leader than Rudd ever was. Rudd’s job was to oust Howard. He did that with alacrity and aplomb. However his subsequent performance has been lacklustre to say the least.
On the other hand, by installing Tony Abbott as leader, the Libs have put all their money on returning a government along the lines of the Howard government. This has been a mistake of massive proportions. There will never be another long-serving conservative government along the lines of the Howard regime. He was a fitting end to an era.
Like Obama, Rudd was a herald of the new century, yet, unlike Obama, perhaps Rudd is merely a seat-warmer. The hours will decide.
The leadership challenge has been posted. Rudd has given a press conference.
Soon after 9am, we’ll all know who is going head to head with Tony Abbott.
Categories: bastards & champions
Tagged: #spill, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, Labor, Liberals, Tony Abbott
Unlike Keating’s ‘recession we had to have’, this election is becoming the election we wish was done and dusted, home and hosed, so we can get on to voting for the real politicians. Whether Abbott or Rudd wins the top seat this November, it will seem like an also ran affair that most of us wish we didn’t have to attend.
Bright and shiney Kev has tarnished his ‘milky bar kid’ persona by failing to oversee almost all of Labor’s initiatives; a disappointment to many who voted for him. Unfortunately attending a conference in Copenhagen and saying ‘sorry’ to the indigenous are not initiative enough to inspire confidence. The rest of Labor’s attempted initiatives appear to have fallen flat, if not self-destructed.
Bovver boy Tony Abbott, on the other hand, has come out punching without any real agenda, any cohesive policy, and displaying a reckless disregard for the trust of the Australian public. Whether he’s appearing in budgie smugglers or shooting his mouth off, the electorate is right to feel a certain apprehension about his aspirations to become prime minister.
Is there any relief in sight? Quite a lot actually. Both parties have potential superstars hidden in the wings. The effable Julia Gillard, whom I’ll describe as definitive, decisive and determined, and the magnanimous Malcolm Turnbull, a man prepared to cross the floor on the issue of global warming.
Could Julia restore core values to the Labor Party, and can Malcolm drag the Libs kicking and screaming into the 21st Century? On both counts I would hope so, and also hope that this sham of an election is done and dusted as soon as possible.
Categories: bastards & champions
Tagged: Labor, Liberal, Rudd, Tony Abbott
Malcolm Turnbull was never made to be number two. Whereas Howard was happy to be, as he put it, ‘Lazarus with a triple bypass’, Turnball is an all or nothing man. In business there is no room for biding one’s time; strike while the iron is hot. Unfortunately for Malcolm, politics doesn’t work that way. Unlike his business forays, he hadn’t paid his dues in the political arena. Playing the underdog, being tossed aside for no reason, (he lost the leadership vote by three votes), are all part and parcel of the not always profitable game of politics.
Abbott is a seasoned prize fighter in the Liberal arena, Rudd has emerged through the ranks of diplomacy and senior bureaucracy to become PM. Neither of these men have the acumen that Turnbull has, yet unfortunately for the nation, they exhibit the tenacity and perseverance required in the cut and thrust of partisan politics.
Howard’s way was to be equally persistent; it took him three goes to get it right, but when he got it right, he was in the big house for eleven years, longer than anyone other than Menzies. In 2010, perhaps millionaire businessman Turnbull isn’t prepared to endure his time in the political wilderness. Tony Abbott will no doubt lead the Libs to the next election. It is doubtful that he’ll win. Turnbull recognises this. Six years in the wilderness is too long for a man of his decisive nature. If we are to see Malcolm in politics, he’ll either be asked to come back, or dragged back screaming.
Either way the Libs and Australia will benefit. In the meantime we are once again subjected to the miasma of a partisan scuffle between two career politicians, neither of whom have the experience to run a chook raffle.
Categories: bastards & champions
Tagged: Australian politics, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Liberals, Malcolm Turnbull, Labor
Tony Abbott must have been turning cartwheels this morning when he heard the news that Malcolm Turnbull was quitting politics. He should have been crying in his weet-bix. By denying Turnbull a place on the front bench, requested by the former leader, he has effectively forced the brightest star in the Liberal firmament to pack his bags and head back to corporate country.
As political pundit Paul Kelly states in this video, the Libs have lost too many frontline soldiers in recent days. While some, such as Downer and Costello, were approaching the end of their tenure, they nevertheless added experience and gravitas to a party that is increasingly seen as becoming lightweight and redneck at every step. It’s not good enough for Abbott to be the sharpest pencil in the box at this point. Rather than wage the one-man bully boy fight against Labor, Abbott needs to garner capable troops behind his thrust at the Prime Ministership.
Off-siding Turnbull, rather than being a self-protecting tactic, may ensure that the bully boy will be down for the count at the next election.
Categories: NSW politics · bastards & champions · politics
Tagged: Tony Abbott, Liberals, Malcolm Turnbull, bully boy, Libs
In my quest for artistic expression and freeware image software in that previous post, I seem to have forgotten to give my opinion on the Not So Great Debate. Given that I am a stalwart Liberal voter, of course I’m not overjoyed to see the Mad Monk so absolutely rejected by the Worm. However what dismays me more is the manner in which almost all published print journalists have had a field day shredding big Tony’s efforts while praising lil’ Kev.
That these supposedly astute professional political commentators so readily abandon their reasoning and listening skills and instead rely on a computer software widget to do their analysis is bewildering. The Worm provides no more than an easy way for viewers to see what a random group of people in a TV studio think. Rather than listen to both sides of the conversation, viewers merely have to follow the bouncing ball.
Abbott challenged Rudd to this premature debate; that it was more a name-calling exchange is not surprising. What is surprising is why did Tony do it? He has no policies stamped and printed, he has been on the ground less than four months. His taunts and jibes all carry weight, but Rudd’s overruling charge of negativity is relevant. It is the job of the Opposition Leader to attack, but to undertake a debate, Rudd is correct in saying that Abbott is all negativity.
On the other hand, the Grand Waffler, our multilingual leader, and I say that because as well as English and Mandarin he seems to have mastered Lorem Ipsum, that filler language used when any text is needed regardless of meaning. Unfortunately our man Rudd has misinterpreted this and decided to use it as his lingua franca.
Playing the man and not the politics, I’ll suggest that Rudd’s frozen smile and suppressed anger were no match for Abbott’s bovver boy smile, his misplaced jokes, and his everyman’s way of looking someone in the eye when talking to them.
I was horrified to see Rudd in action. A bureaucratic robot, nothing more. While Tony Abbott may not be our best bet, and whether Malcolm Turmbull is our next bet, the Milky Bar Kid is in his third year of Labor’s term, and has achieved no more than a third year student at Nambour High. We expect more than that. Platitudes, failed promises, inept internet solutions, GroceryWatch, FuelWatch, botched insulation installations, schools that aren’t receiving computers but are suddenly finding they have a new outdoor shelter. Ooh, just what they needed. This is ridiculous.
Rudd and Gillard need to get their heads together, learn what really matters to students, and people in general. Stop using ridiculous terms like ‘working families’, and ‘mums and dads’. Society is made up of more than that demographic. Rudd’s preponderance with pandering to his imagined constituency shows a distinct lack of political maturity.
Categories: bastards & champions
Tagged: debate, health care, Rudd, the Worm, Tony Abbott
The man formerly known as the Mad Monk took one step closer to the Lodge yesterday with his announcement of six months’ paid parental leave. No doubt there will be naysayers who will pooh-pooh his premature announcement, citing that he was only hanging off the skirts of International Women’s Day. However, for those of us able to stand aside from partisan squabbles, he has shown himself to be a leader.
By sidestepping the usual quagmire a leader has to wade through, he has presented Australia with an idea whose time has come. Days will tell if he has the nation on side or the party. I’m sure most Australians would rather he had the nation on side.
Meanwhile, Muggins, on the other side, is waffling on about insulation standards, and as far as I can see, a rock’n'roller’s responsibility. I could be wrong there. The waffle is now so thick that I no longer understand a word he says.
Categories: champions
Tagged: Rudd, Tony Abbott, parental leave, milky bar kid
When it comes to political comment, Mike Carlton’s theistic thuggery shows all the finesse of a washed-up footballer. Why theistic? Because Carlton is a believer in one true God, and that is the Labor Party. Any other political belief is anathema to him. No matter the sins this economically inept organisation may have committed, no matter even the sins of the fathers of the current administration, like a Cyclops poked in the eye with a blunt stick, Carlton is myopically blind to any weakness in his chosen deity.
As a result, he has been remarkably quiet of late. Rudd’s emissions trading shambles and much vaunted mass apologies seem to have left Mike on the back foot as a commentator. However with the elevation of Tony Abbott to the captaincy of the Liberals, this one-eyed, wrong-footed, former football thug seems to have found his game.
And for once I agree with him. His target, the Liberals of course, and in particular Abbott’s pecular and worrying choice of ministers for his front bench. What was Abbott thinking, was a question you probably asked when he flaunted himself in Speedos on the front page of the newspapers. What is he thinking, is a question we all should ask.
He has resurrected a team that puts him very left of centre. Is there method to his madness? Carlton doesn’t think so. He is gleefully rubbing his hands in anticipation of the next blunder by the mad medieval monk.
Categories: bastards & champions
Tagged: Australian politics, mad monk, Mike Carlton, Tony Abbott
I first met Tony Abbott back in 1994. He was being introduced to the Liberal Party as the new boy on the block. Alexander Downer, sans stockings, was there to welcome him to the fold. It wasn’t a big event, more of a surreptitious meeting of the Liberal hierarchy. This was back in the early 90s, when the Dark Prince ruled Oz.
After years of the flamboyant Hawke leading the country, celebrating the Australia’s Cup win, gloating over everything except the fact that he had to give up the drink to get it, we suddenly were stultified by the Spectre from Bankstown. This usurper presided over interest rate rises unheard of before or since. We were subject to his claims that ‘this was the recession we had to have’ and that Australia was headed towards being a ‘banana republic’ unless we signed over our sovereignty to Asia.
It was indeed a dark time, and the Liberals felt it keenly. Such that this gathering was almost a clandestine affair. Held in a small North Shore venue that doubled as a restaurant on weekends, the Libs decided against splashing out on anything but Crown Lager and taxis. They barely had enough left over for the music, so myself and the piano player were grateful for the gig.
Keeping with the spirit, we played such tunes as ‘High Hopes’, ‘The Grass is Greener on the Other Side’, and ‘If I Ruled The World’. Thanks to such repertoire, our musical talents were requested often during those dark days.
I don’t remember seeing John Howard at any of these functions. He had recently been passed over for the leadership in favour of Downer. Yet a year later he held the baton again, and a year after that was PM.
As he said prior to winning, ‘it would be like Lazarus with a triple by-pass’.
Whether Tony can effect such a miracle is doubtfull, whereas the new boy on the block, Turnbull, has plenty of time to prove his mettle. Mark my words.
Categories: politics
Tagged: Tony Abbott, Liberal Party, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, Malcolm Turnbull
Interesting to see ‘girl talk’ back in the news. On Tuesday, Tony Abbott gave his deputy leader, Julie Bishop, a back handed compliment, saying, ‘she’s a loyal girl’. As he’s her third leader in less years I think it fair to say that her loyalty won’t necessarily be to him.
Kristina Keneally, latest Labor pollie on the NSW premier’s merry-go-round has said she isn’t ‘anybody’s girl’. Perhaps not, but I’d imagine she’ll stay loyal to the men who put her in the job, powerbrokers and enemies of the state, Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid.
While she may not be their girlfriend, with her experience consisting of two mishandled minor portfolios she certainly looks to be their puppet on a string.
Soundtrack suggestions:
‘We Won’t Get Fooled Again’ The Who
‘Puppet on a String’ Sandy Shaw
‘I’m Just A Girl’ No Doubt/Gwen Stefani
Categories: NSW politics · politics
Tagged: Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi, Kristina Keneally, NSW politics, Tony Abbott
