I agree with David G as well, we are told there have been no boats for five weeks, but how do we the citizens know the truth, perhaps some writers to OLO have inside information, please let me know how you are so positive there have been no boats, I am interested, never believe a politician, they lie, lie and lie.

Good morning all.

Intriguing discussion, as always. Thank you.

@imajulianutter, yes and no. Good to see you again, too.

Yes, happy to write about all those things. We don’t know if the boats have stopped or not, do we?

But we will certainly not see any reduction in the debt for many years. Mr Hockey has seen the error of his ways before the election and is now bringing the level of borrowings up nearer to where it should be at this stage in the cycle.

Have already written about relations with Indonesia:

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-inadvertent-abbott-governments-indonesian-crisis,6075

No, there is no chance whatsoever Mr Abbott will touch the ABC.

@Jardine KJ, no, no, no, yes and no.

The Rothbard quote is spot on. Your other observations all incorrect, however. Happy to discuss.

@ Daffy, Sells and Ojnabm, thank you.

Regarding the one term government, it is too soon to tell. But on current polling looks highly likely. At the five month point, the popularity of new governments is usually near its peak and tends to decline from there.

We shall see.

Cheers,

Alan A

Another Alan Austin Polemic.

He starts off with "This was immediately arresting because of the PM’s legendary economic illiteracy." completely forgetting that Abbott has more economic qualifications than any Labor PM in living memory with a degree in economics and a Masters from Oxford with a strong economics base.

He then picks through a few opinion pieces criticizing them for not containing the far left imaginary details he would like.

Sorry Alan, anything in the Australian carries far more credibility than the twaddle you spout and post in the Independent Australian.

Hello Shadow Minister,

And a happy new year to you too!

No, you are quite mistaken about Mr Abbott’s qualifications. He has no qualifications in economics that anyone can verify.

At Oxford he did not study economics at all.

Where did you get that from, SM? A Murdoch publication? Or the Liberal Party? Remember, SM, they nearly always lie. But the problem is, on the rare occasions they are not lying, they do not alert you to the fact. Frustrating, I know.

You will find Mr Abbott’s Oxford record here:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-oxford-transcript-released-20131125-2y6a1.html

No economics.

At Sydney University, there is no record of him passing any subjects. His Wikipedia entry says “Prior to entering Parliament, he studied for a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Sydney.”

But note how it doesn’t say for how many days “he studied for”. And note how it doesn’t say “he gained a degree in …”

The references to his economic illiteracy come from Peter Costello who is quoted as telling Michael Kroger that Tony Abbott is “a DLP stooge and an economic illiterate”.

Corroboration comes from John Hewson who said, “He has no interest in economics and has no feeling for it – he is innumerate”.

Or do you think Costello and Hewson are lying?

Regarding the piece in The Australian by Dennis Shanahan, SM, does it strike you as a little odd that Shanahan spent a week in Davos, filing reports daily saying how amazingly popular, influential and successful Mr Abbott was, but could not provide one name or one quote to substantiate that?

Does it strike you as odd that of the 10,000 or more reports from Davos worldwide, only about ten mention Tony Abbott at all – and Mr Shanahan wrote seven of those?

Cheers,
AA

AA,

And you call yourself a journalist? You are supposed to research the facts and draw your conclusions from them. You appear to have a preconceived opinion and invent the facts to fit it.

It is really sad when left whingers start believing their own propaganda.

There is something new call "GOOGLE" where you can check most facts. Try it for a change.

(Tony Abbott) "He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB)[8] from the University of Sydney where he resided at St John's College, and was president of the Student Representative Council.[17] He travelled via India to the UK to study at The Queen's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)."

Using off hand snippy comments quoted out context years ago as proof of credentials is about as sleazy as the left whingers get.

I take it that the rest of the drivel you posted has the same level of research. I find it difficult to believe that you read all the 10000 reports from Davos. I just did a quick cursory scan of the net for reports from Davos that mentioned Abbott and found several dozen, only one of which was from Dennis

According to the Minister at yesterdays senate enquiry the boats have been stopped and some turnned around. He admitted one illegal immigrant has landed in Aust tbis last month. Reports by the labor greens media alliance re boat arrivals are nil. One could reasonably assume if any had they would report that. In fact they would be claiming it would be evidence The Liberals policy wasn't working. But not boo from them.