Yes, Tony is to be congratulated for his past 10 years as a volunteer firey, but his job is now supposed to be as a full time PM.

He needs to get on with throwing himself into the PM job, rather than pushing himself into the fire front and in danger of getting in the way.

He needs to stop the boats (already stopping naturally with the coming cyclone season) , get rid of the carbon tax, and give all those women top maternity leave payments...like he promised he would.

I am sure that such a tough action man can handle all the negative comments about him anyway, as it is absolutely mild in comparison to the vitriol levelled at Gillard for merely being female, let alone any private pursuits she may have had.

Well I guess GYM-FISH would prefer Tony went to dinner with friends, than got out to have a look. As an experienced volunteer I'd reckon the blokes would welcome him warmly, I know the blokes on our brigade would.

Just in passing, every one I can think of in our volunteer brigade would qualify as red necks in Poirot's world. I wonder what that says?

Hasbeen,

All our worlds are different to others.
The trick is placing yourself in the world of another and seeing it through their eyes.
When it comes to those far younger than your good self appreciate there will be a time when even they will realise youth is not an incurable disease and find it has been replaced by the cure, usually known as wisdom.
For most this takes some time.

SD

Hasbeen - with due respect to your actions as a volunteer, I would rather see the firies fight the fires as they are trained to do, and the Prime Minister govern the country via the constituted parliamentary process as he has pledged to do. We all have to have dinner sometimes.

The usual suspects for drive-bys have provided examples by their own behaviour. That is lack of insight for you.

Some people are just plain downright mean and nasty.

Their problem.

Their self-imposed limitations in getting along with others and enjoying life.

'Nuff said.

This article has caused me to remember some important things. I'm not an Abbott lover either but I agree we need to separate out Abbott the PM and Abbott the human being. I remember the pain of people's default position of distrust in all you do and all you say. Some will be quick to respond that we have plenty of evidence for that position in relation to politicians but I know from an inside perspective that it is often not the case. And so I congratulate Abbott the human being for his service as a volunteer fire fighter.
It's also a good reminder that human beings are complex and no-one is all spin or all publicity stunt. I wonder how it would change our culture if we had default positions of trust rather than mistrust? We might get taken in more often but maybe that's not as bad as a paranoid suspicion that causes us to see the world in such negative terms.
David Wilson.