…Worry not about the “twitteratzi” ; Twitter media is increasingly driven by teenagers fleeing in droves from Face Book, a site that leaves an oft’ embarrassing finger print of opinions!

EG:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2540205/Have-11m-teens-left-Facebook-2011-New-report-claims-mass-exodus-continues-site-messaging-apps-over.html

I don't know what is happening on Twitter other than the more outrageous statements that occasionally get reported in a different part of our media world.
What I do know is that on this site, the ad hominum arguments and personal insults tend to come more often from the more conservative among us.

Graham's prejudices are showing.

After the Juliar, Ditch the Witch, and dump her at sea in a hessian bag attitudes during the generally competent three years of Gillard's prime ministership, is it any surprise that the centre-left is getting its own back.

The biggest mistake of the Gillard era was its failure to aim for full employment and too hell with deficit concerns. At close to full employment the reduced transfer payments and the increased tax collections will tend towards balancing the budget.

Anyone who think that money is a problem for a currency issuing government should read J D Alt's article on the development of the USA economy between 1939 and 1945. From starting in the depression the USA progressed to being the most productive, innovative and well directed economy ever known and that was all achieved by government planning with no concern as to where the money was coming from. Alt is an architect but a very competent economist.

>>...the generally competent three years of Gillard's prime ministership...<<

Oh, puhleeeese.

Burgeoning deficits, a train wreck of her personal industrial relations "reforms" which has resulted in small businesses being unable to afford to open on long weekends and public holidays, sharp rises in electricity and gas costs because of unsustainable renewable energy targets, the carbon tax fraud, the AWU scandal which is coming to bite her, the HSU scandal which is coming to bite Shorten, dirty deals with the Greens and a couple of incompetent independents who were subsequently too gutless to stand for re-election, thousands upon thousands of illegal migrants landing on our beaches and becoming a drag on honest taxpayers, cuts to defence spending, money squandered on school buildings, Gonski "reforms" which amount to nothing more than filling the coffers of teachers unions...and all of the funding booby traps, such as the national disability insurance scheme, which Labor left behind.

That's not what I would define as generally competent.

<<After the Juliar, Ditch the Witch...is it any surprise that the centre-left is getting its own back>>

Awwww okay, none of this would have happened if only they had been nice to Julia--what rot!

For those with short or selective memories--John Howard was variously labelled by those left of centre:
-- a “lying rodent”
--A “cold-hearted prick’’
-- “(He has) “bloodless lips of string’’, "(an) arselicker…”
-- the “dog of white supremacy” wanting “to return to its vomit"…

Why do the politically correct, thought police always accuse you of being phobic, (irrational fear or hatred of, whatever) before yelling colourful abuse at you, especially when you dare to question the theological dogma of their prophet Karl Marx or his Holy book "the Communist Manifesto?

Why do all their socialist policies always produce anti-social results?

Why do all their communist policies always produce anti-community results?

Why do they always steal from the poor & give to the rich?

Why do all their revolutionary ideals always weaken democracy & empower tyrants?

If their policy committees always contain high IQ, multiple degree, senior, university academics, why do they always get everything wrong 24/7/365?

Could it be that we are a conservative, christian nation while they are Trotskyite Termites & Bolshevik Borers, white anting our nation so that Communist China or the international socialist UN can achieve one world dictatorship?

Julia's at it again, according to the Brisbane Times - trashing Australia's reputation. Except this time she's trying to make out that her prime ministership was marred by sexism. http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/julia-gillard-tells-us-radio-i-tried-to-shine-a-light-on-sexism-20140620-zsfoc.html

I never saw Abbott be anything but polite to her, but she brazenly tried to frame him as being misogynistic. Apparently misogynism means you are unsuited for any job whatsoever, no matter what skills you might have, so it is the trump disqualifier in Julia's world.

SPQR, it was Brandis who first called Howard a "lying rodent."

Many people believe that Abbott continually lies; there are websites which have listed the actual lies. In relation to SPC, Abbott was called a liar by his Liberal colleague, Sharman Stone.
The so called 'unity ticket" has been seen to be a lie.
Abbott's attitude to climate change can at best be seen to be manipulation; he has called it crap. All actions he has taken show this to be his true conviction, while pretending otherwise.

The Abbott government has lost trust, and are seen to be quite callous through their budget; there should be no surprise that they get a bad press on social media.

I agree that ad hominem attacks and disproportionate and irrational loathing of politicians has become an increasing feature of the political landscape, but I don’t think it’s restricted to the left. Our most recent prime ministers – Abbott, Rudd, Gillard and Howard – all attracted personal attacks and dislike out of all proportion, though granted none was/is exactly exemplary in character or achievement.

Nor is this just an Australian phenomenon – look at the visceral loathing of Obama, Bush and Clinton; or Cameron and Blair.

The left are at least sometimes more inclusive haters – Labo(u)r supporters’ loathing of Blair and Rudd at times exceeded that of their political opponents.

I agree that twitter encourages a particularly mindless and shallow form of groupthink, however. It’s one of many reasons why Q&A has become some tedious.

Ant,

Whether Brandis was the first to call Howard a “lying rodent”...or Sharman Stone called Abbott a liar is really beside the point (and let's not forget that Labour has had similar intra-party sniping).

The central point is that it is simply NOT TRUE that we are seeing such nastiness now because the libs were not nice to Julia.

And those who propose such --just as those who just twelve months ago were pushing the line that Julia was the only politician who ever suffered abuse-- out themselves as naughty little boys and girls who tell fibs!

Then again, I should have picked you as such after seeing your full-on proselytizing for AGW & the IPCC on other threads.

"Whatever our prejudices, status or abilities, when we mix with others with a similar prejudice, we become even more prejudiced."

Of course, in the past this phenomenon applied mainly to the paid parrots of reactionary media oligarchs and their audiences, now progressives have a chance.

It's just not fair, the working class are banding together, that's always a problem.

SPQR, Abbott continually pushed the view that Labor lied while he was in Opposition. I think that created expectations that he could not keep. It was very clear not long after the September 2013 election that the Abbott government was backtracking in relation to promises made; and so, they gained no honeymoon period. Now politicians generally are not trusted.
Paul Keating has been the master of putting out abuse in my opinion which goes against your thesis.
I think you'd find it difficult to find many comments I've made in relation to the IPCC, SPQR. I do however believe that climate scientists are telling us how things stand climate wise. Climate change deniers have few scientists who they can quote. I try to provide facts it is up to readers to make up their minds.

Don't be silly Mac.

This noisy rabble are the academics, unionists & dole bludgers, nothing to do with workers. They are too busy earning a living & supporting your rabble.

Q, If Abbott or any other conservative makes the occasional, public speech, slip up? & A, then that suggests to me that he has spent less time in front of the mirror practicing lies than the average closet communist politician.

"Critical Theory" one is tempted to ask. Q, What is the theory? A, the theory is to criticise, through unrelenting, destructive criticism the closet communist hopes to bring conservatives down.

Other than Graeme Campbell & Bob Kernohan, have their been any honest people in left wing religion, in the land of OZ, over the last half century?

Rhian, well said.

I don't have enough exposure to twitter to have much opinion about it. I'm pretty strongly of the view that no side if politics has any kind of monopoly on abusive behaviour, lying, focus on the personalities etc. Both sides seem to claim it's the other and when the abuses of their own side are pointed out will claim they can't see it. A very common trait on OLO?

Sometimes it should be about character, those who seek to "lead" should have character we can respect, something I don't think we have had for a long time at state or federal level.

My biggest frustration with this whole debate is the massive double standards that so often rule. Coalition supporters focus on Gillards deception about the carbon tax followed by a an acceptance of Abbotts breaking of pre-election committments (even if they pretend he has not done so). The focus on Abbotts budgie smugglers by those who were so offended when Gillards appearance was commented unfavorably by opponents as a couple of examples.

R0bert

Abbott said that climate change was “absolute crap”, so ant’s quote was almost right. Abbott, of course, is completely right. Ant is a supporter of the AGW fraud, and is routinely asked for any science which shows any measurable effect of human emissions on climate.
There is no such science, but rather than admit that AGW is a fraud, she evades replying by asking irrelevant questions about ice melting in the Antarctic, the same ice in which a ship carrying a group of fraud-backing scientists was firmly stuck, despite their assertion that the ice was melted.

Abbott understands that the electorate has been fooled by the AGW fraud-backers, and will carry out the wishes of the electorate. It is to be hoped that he will find a way to reverse the duping of the electorate by the Climate Change fraud.

I request that ant supply a reference to any science which shows any measurable effect of human emissions on climate. Without such science, the assertion of AGW is baseless

Leo, the science is well established; you don't accept thats the case.
You haven't answered the question I have asked elsewhere a couple of times:
"You didn't answer my question Leo about thermokarst lakes, shrubs, and thermokarst failure. If you cannot give any reasonable answer then it just shows that you write rubbish, Leo."
Just commenting that something is fraudulent is meaningless; you need proof.
The examples of thermokarst lakes and thermokarst failure are examples of climate change happening. But, prove otherwise, Leo.

Leo,

The verbatim quote was "The climate change argument is absolute crap" which is very different to saying climate change is crap which is the lie the left perpetuate.

‘morning Graham,

IMHO, twitter and its twitteratzi media followers are just finding their natural intellectual level, teenagers. And yes they are destroying progressives.

The sad thing about this phenomenon is that it seeks to bring the majority down to its own juvenile level. It cannot recognize or accept failed Green/ALP polices, instead it defends itself by presenting views that all opposing politics are just as malignant in order to satisfy their creed, “well we were bad but hey, all major party’s are just as bad”.

As for the twits themselves, they couldn’t put two original thoughts together to save their lives. That’s why they feed of the opinions of others who can throw some rhetoric out for them.

I wonder how many of them will eventually get employment?

I wonder how many of them will eventually get employment?
spindoc,
I wonder how much of my tax goes to these pointless morons ? Thank you Labor !

The quaint reply by ant is another evasion by ant of the fact that thare is no science to show any measurable effect of human emissions on climate. I have previously drawn her attention to the following, but she is science-phobic,
“Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity”

Professor Robert Carter said, “Our paper confirms what many scientists already know: which is that no scientific justification exists for emissions regulation, ..”
http://climatedepot.com/a/2117/PeerReviewed-Study-Rocks-Climate-Debate-Nature-not-man-responsible-for-recent-global-warminglittle-or-none-of-late-20th-century-warming-and-cooling-can-be-attributed-to-humans

Still waiting for an answer to any of the questions i asked earlier.

it would be really nice to get an admission from anyone on the left that ad hominem attacks were started by the left with critical theory.

maybe then they could grow up, get over themselves & we could get on with life.

left wing religion is a truly soul destroying malady, maybe one day they will wake up & move on.

have their been any honest people in left wing religion, in the land of OZ, over the last half century?
imacentristmoderate,
Not in my experience ! I have worked with many & they all had one thing in common. The hypocrisy of accusing conservatives of doing what tey were doing themselves to an even worse degree. Over almost 50 years as a blue collar mutt I can honestly say I have never encountered an ALP supporter with integrity but I have met a few Labor supporters who were fine but they're old now.

same here individual,

been travelling in a wide variety of social circles all my life, met many decent people on the left, down at the level of grass roots supporters or rank & file members, but none above that level, at all. there was one other guy, but he has been dead for years.

it is a sad day when you have people so bent they will cover up peadophile rings, theft of money from widows, orphans & think there is nothing wrong with that.

time for dinner, TTFN

This is doing the rounds on social media:

http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2014/06/21/the-abbott-governments-use-strategic-racism/1403272800

As a top Liberal Party campaign strategist has said:

“It’s simple, a message of fear beats a message of hope every time.”

Going by the comments here, it obviously works.

DavidK,
that Author Norman Abjorgensen should change his name to Abnormal.

'individual'?

You mean this guy?

https://crawford.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/norman-abjorensen

Please expand on your less than erudite comment - where/what/why/how/etc he has he got it so wrong?

Or (most likely) he has hit the nail on the head as you have so timely and aptly demonstrated.

Graham Young says:

"Whatever our prejudices, status or abilities, when we mix with others with a similar prejudice, we become even more prejudiced."

I have to agree with OLO's editor ... so demonstrably seen here.

Or (most likely) he has hit the nail on the head as you have so timely and aptly demonstrated.
DavidK,
I was referring to his writings in the link you provided in the post before my reply. He sounds to me like the archetypal Academic i.e. an expert in attacking integrity with they aim of furthering their own interests at the cost of everyday people i.e. Taxpayers. Unless I'm totally misreading his archtypal hangers-on rabble.
Why is that these "experts' only criticise & never produce any useful & workable solutions ?
Even the local labourer contributes more to society than these academics.

Thanks for replying 'individual'.

Sure, Abjorensen is an academic (what is wrong with that?) but the way Abbott's government is applying their 're-education' policies, they remind too many who can remember, of fascist Nazi Germany.

History tells us that ordinary German citizens didn't really understand what was happening, yet they 'followed'.

History repeating itself here?

How did a Government that has only been in power
for such a short time now find itself "in the
wilderness?". We've seen the Marches in March
(and May) that were largely organised through the
social media where thousands upon thousands turned
up in capital cities across Australia to protest
against the Abbott Government's policies. And the
mix of people varied from parents, students,
environmentalists, refugee supporters, cab drivers,
teachers, children, families - all gathering to tell
the government they were not happy.

John Howard pointed out recently at a speech he gave at
the National Press Club - that governments need to pay
attention to the public, when the public thinks something
is unfair. They simply will not buy it. And this appears
to be the message that social media and the public is
sending to the current Government.

Australians have every right to hold their elected
representatives to account - to remind them that they are
after all - public servants.

Anti-social media?
No. Simply people trying to get their message across
and Social media is one way of doing it.
Social media is simply reporting things as they exist.

cont'd ...

These are issues that should not be brushed aside
into the old - Left/Right argument. There are people
from all sides of politics who feel very strongly
about the issues involved and making it into a
"Leftist" argument is not being very constructive,
or honest and creates even more divisions - which
the country doesn't need right now.

The ones that make the complaints are the ones that say Abbott has done no wrong. An election that was built on fraud, and a budget aimed at the lifestyles of the lower half of Australians.

I say that is any amount of fire to call in a fire brigade over.

@Foxy,

<< thousands turned up in capital cities across Australia to protest against the Abbott Government's policies. And the mix of people varied from parents, students, environmentalists, [illegal immigration] supporters, cab drivers, teachers, children, families - all gathering to tell>>

You are soooo one-eyed!

I note that many more protested throughout the rule of the Gillard administration – but the only thing that you saw fit to notice at the time was that some of their placards referred to Ms Gillard as a witch.

The ditch the witch signs were personal and sexist. Why do we have to delve into ancient history to defend, a PM that has led us up a garden path, he obviously had a hidden agenda.

There is no defense for for what we have been fed, an election that was out of order and a budget that is out of this world.

The people need the chance to say if they will accept Abbott's agenda or not.

Try as you will, but i can not find any excuse to bypass the lies and fraud we have been dished up.

@579,

<<The ditch the witch signs were personal and sexist. ..>> And the attacks on Abbott and Peta Credlinc et la are not?
http://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2014/06/were-standing-by-for-professional-feminists-to-stand-up-for-peta-credlin.html

You can agree or disagree with Abbott's policies I disagree with many myself –but don’t come at it from the faux high moral ground position – you're pushing a politioal barrow just as much as Foxy...in fact, you probably bought your barrows from the same shop.

The test dear 579 is in what people choose to see.

SPQR,

I read heaps of leftie tweeters criticising Palmer's comments re Credlin. There were plenty on my twitter timeline condemning his remarks...but somehow the righties decided it was a good angle to accuse them of silence.

Personally, I regarded it as a dumb ill-thought comment from Palmer, who often shoots off at the mouth in that manner. The laugh is that he's an ex-Liberal, although no-one seems to bother with that angle.

What are your thoughts on Ms Credlin using her private fertility challenges to promote her boss for election?

Such as here:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/with-tony-on-my-side/story-e6frf7jo-1226548140341

""I think it is important that people, especially women, hear the truth about Tony Abbott, and not just the myths," she says.

As the next federal election looms, Team Abbott has wheeled out a succession of women to endorse his female-friendly credentials to assure the voting public he's not the anti-woman ogre they were led to believe."

SPQR, in March there were 120,000 people who demonstrated around Australia, there have been a number of demonstrations since. There were never as many people demonstrating in the last 20 years ( in a ten month period) as has happened since LNP was elected 10 months ago.

Leo, says: "...The quaint reply by ant is another evasion by ant of the fact that thare is no science...."
Scientists look for empirical evidence Leo, thermokarst lakes and thermokarst failure provides objective data. You might be interested also in seeing what's happening with the Andean glaciers, particularly the ones in tropical areas.

The decline of glaciers being further empirical evidence to show climate change is happening.

http://www.the-cryosphere.net/7/81/2013/tc-7-81-2013.pdf

Monty Python shows a skit which can be taken as a metaphor for how despite not having much data climate change deniers argue against what is actually happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjEcj8KpuJw&feature=kp

http://www.fess-global.org/publications/issuebriefs/the_coming_crisis_water_insecurity_in_peru.pdf

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is ''a sexist'' and the Coalition has been ''dog whistling'' with its asylum seeker policies, says retiring Liberal senator Sue Boyce in an extraordinary exit interview.

Reflecting on her career in Parliament - she retires at the end of June - Senator Boyce said she thought Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech was ''powerful'' and, for Ms Gillard's purposes, ''a brilliant speech''. But she thought the former prime minister had used the wrong word to describe Mr Abbott.

''I think it would have been more accurate if she had called him a sexist,'' she said.
Illustration: Matt Golding.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

''But singling [Mr Abbott] out as a sexist was not reasonable either,'' she added, saying the Prime Minister was one of many ''subtle'' sexists in federal Parliament.
Advertisement

Senator Boyce did not offer examples for Mr Abbott's alleged sexism and conceded she had found the Prime Minister more willing to listen to the views of women than many of her other male colleagues.

ant,

"SPQR, in March there were 120,000 people who demonstrated around Australia, there have been a number of demonstrations since. There were never as many people demonstrating in the last 20 years ( in a ten month period) as has happened since LNP was elected 10 months ago."

Good point.....in the first round of March in March protests there was a similar number - a number which was all but ignored by MSM, but was widely seen on twitter. The last round of protests garnered more coverage by far on MSM.

Graham says in the article:

"The best advice to Australian politicians and journalists could be to spend less time behind the computer and more time out in the yard – that's where reality happens"

Which may be all well and good if MSM decides to collectively cover it - but what if they don't?

Hours ago there was a huge austerity protest taking place in London - 50,000 strong. UK tweeters were reporting that the BBC coverage of it was nowhere to be seen...but it was on every foreign channel.

Ant,

You say : “ in March there were 120,000 people who demonstrated around Australia, there have been a number of demonstrations since. There were never as many people demonstrating in the last *20 YEARS* (in a ten month period) ”

Yet the GreenLeft (one of Poirot’s and Foxy’s main references…so it must be halah!) says: “A million people marched around Australia [in Feb 2003] — 500,000 of them in a huge protest in Sydney”
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53277

And even your figure of 120,000 is questionable since your fellow AGW brethren here: http://precariousclimate.com/2014/03/25/march-in-march-100000-protest-few-report-it/
Give the number as 100,000.

I'm beginning to see why Leo has issues with your AGW stats!

Dear SPQR,

You accuse me of being one-eyed?

All I'm doing is quoting statistics from
the media and trying to point out that it
isn't a question of turning the issues into
a "Left/Right" debate. What's currently happening
around the country is not about Left/Right but
about what people see is wrong and unfair.
And those concerns come from people on all sides
of politics. And why bring Labor or our former
PM - Julia Gillard into this. It seems as if you're
running out of arguments and resorting to the old tactics
of continually blaming the "other side" instead of coming
up with solutions to the problems. Nobody is buying that
tactic any more. You'll have to do better.

SPQR,

I'm getting mightily sick of people mendaciously uttering untruths during debate on this forum...or judging by the Abbott Govt's scruples on that matter, perhaps it's just par for the course these days.

"Yet the GreenLeft (one of Poirot’s and Foxy’s main references….."

Evidence please?

Produce the posts where I have cited the GreenLeft as a "main reference" for my arguments?

Foxy,
<< all I'm doing is quoting statistics from the media>>

All? You are using select stats to flavour your favourite pitch.

<<people see is wrong and unfair>>
The catch cry of the herd you run with is that anything they disagree with is “wrong" [or] "unfair" [or that other favourite] "inhumane"—nothing new in that

<<And why bring Labor or our former PM - Julia Gillard >>
Because it illustrates your selectivity.

Look, in all the kerfuffle your monocle fell out … put it back in so you can at least see out of one eye.

Must go. It's raining where I live...reside,love the feel of the rain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzFnYcIqj6I
Have a great Sunday.

No more living in the past. It is the future that is the issue at hand.
Fact: Abbott told a gross amount of lies and went to the election knowing that his promises would not be fulfilled.

Common knowledge is Abbott has broken almost every promise he made to the AU people.

It would be grossly unfair that this PM be allowed to continue without criticism, and be known for what his downfalls are.

A budget that could have been put together by a mob of drunks under a bridge. Without calculation or any form of thought.

Dear SPQR,

Again - what's with the insults?

And what crowd do you imagine that I run with?

Goodness me.

You're the one doing the insulting here.
You're the one who's being "one-eyed" and you're
the one making all the accusations.

If you can't see that
there is a serious problem at the moment
and that people are
voicing their dissatisfaction with the Abbott Government
- then you must not
read newspapers, watch the news on television,
or listen to any reports in the media.

As far as I'm aware - we're still free to voice an
opinion in this country - and hold our elected
representatives to account.

SPQR, the March in March was held over three days; and yes, on the first day there were about 100,000 who demonstrated in Capital cities. The other 20,000 demonstrated in Regional cities on Sunday and Monday. There have been several smaller demonstrations since the March in March.
People of all ages, professions and political persuasion demonstrated.

SPQR, please refer me to the stats that I have used. Leo, says I'm a fraud backer; yet makes no attempt to debunk the empirical evidence I have written about. Anybody can find the material I have found; if they look in relation to climate change.
There are photos of thermokarst lakes on the net SPQR, they demonstrate warming of permafrost caused by warmth. Please provide evidence which is contrary.You also might like to see what happened to the Richardson Highway in Alaska; there are also many photos of house foundations being undermined through thermokarst failure. Thermokarst failure being a result of permafrost melting. Warmth is necessary for permafrost to melt.

It is interesting that in the main ad hominem attacks are made against those who do not support a conservative view of the world on this site. But, that's ok, anybody that needs to personally attack, discredits their own point of view.

I think we have to move beyond this left/right paradigm of pigeon holing people. Left = weak and socialist, right = survival and realist.

The truth is that we are all a mixture of both and labelling people is a convenient way of ignoring or denigrating what they say without real debate.

Dear Arjay,

Thank You.
And Bless You.

Now if we could only influence our politicians
to do the same.

Thanks Foxy. We live in very unusual times in which deception and lies have become the norm. Even our own PM thinks its OK.

Our Western Civilisation is reaching the bottom of the birdcage with theft and corruption by our financial elites is ignored,even glorified. We are about to experience the biggest financial collapse probably bigger than The Great Depression without the protection of The Glass Steagall Act,or leaders who have not an iota of integrity or nous.

These financial criminals have fed off the honesty and hard work of honest citizens all around the planet and now is the time of dire reckoning.

One more thing....and it's a good example of twitter displaying a more accurate portrayal of events than MSM.

During the last round of peaceful protest marches, tweeters sent hundreds of pictures out to twitter. The overwhelming majority showed a peaceful protest. Many protesters attended as families, many were middle-aged and middle-class, taking the opportunity to civilly vent their displeasure at the Abbott Govt's misrepresented agenda.

There was apparently one violent confrontation somewhere during the marches.

Guess which pic made it to MSM?

And guess which stable splashed it across the front page?

The Murdoch press was only too happy to choose to report on an isolated incident and paste the picture across its front page.

So who gave an accurate representation of the marches - Twitter or MSM?

Yes, hashtags do take off, mainly because they're fun. People like to have a bit of joke on twitter. Just like recently when Tim Blair blogging under the Telegraph banner had a poll naming around ten "left-wing" female media personalities - titled "Who is Australia’s craziest left-wing frightbat?"

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/crown_our_crazy_queen/

#frightbats took off and tweeters had a bit of fun, left-wingers particularly taking it on board, with the named "frightbats" vying with each other to be crowned Queen.

You know.....they took Tim's insult and turned it into something positive.

And Timmy got a bit of publicity into the bargain.

Arjay he gigantic financial collapse was supposed to be last year according to uTube.

Consumer confidence has taken a dive since the release of Treasurer Joe Hockey's budget.

So, for the sake of the nation, here are a few steps that could restore a little confidence by removing some of the budget's more contentious aspects and improving the communication.

A few of the fixes are relatively easy, but the bigger issues will require an injection of political courage to deal honestly with the electorate

When the Telegraph prints rubbish as indicated in the article attached, is it any wonder that communication between those of differing views is becoming more difficult:

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/crown_our_crazy_queen/

So, it is not only social media that is fueling the antagonism; there had been some quite outrageous headlines in the Telegraph prior to the election as well.

Former Opposition Leader Hewson has had some very sharp comments about the how the budget attacks particular groups. A good proportion of Coalition voters also see the budget as attacking particular groups and see it as being unfair suggested by polls.
In Abbott terms, that means Budget/Coalition Bad; Australian Community generally Good. It is divisiveness that Abbott is pushing.

Here is a video that shows how democracy is being killed in US and is becoming a plutocracy. The same disease is beginning in Australia as shown in NSW; it cuts across the major political parties.
Corruption has been a feature of politics in the past, now it has become an artform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k9vKrWSfEM8

I like the bit where the Koch brothers are asked about having a debate about climate change; they declined on the basis of not having expertise; yet, they spend millions on anti climate change propaganda.

It is divisiveness that Abbott is pushing.
ant,
No, he isn't. You lot are, by constantly wanting more for less & Abbott & his supporters are saying enough is enough & you lot don't like it.
It's all about you whereas Abbott is about the Nation but that is something that the integrity devoid aren't interested in.

individual,

"It's all about you whereas Abbott is about the Nation but that is something that the integrity devoid aren't interested in."

Integrity?

Are you seriously suggesting that a govt which sets about to get itself elected by deceiving the electorate wholesale exudes integrity?

Our democracy depends on a certain modicum of honesty. This has been trashed by the Abbott govt.

People are marching because they realised fairly early on that they were duped big time by this mob. And not only deceived prior to the election, but by having salt rubbed into the wound every time Abbott or his cohorts rise in Parliament to say (somehow with a straight face) that they are "doing what they were elected to do".

You might relish a govt being elected on a platform of lies - most people resent it.

Now I wonder why people might choose twitter to vent their spleens?

Perhaps if this govt had chosen to stick to their pre-election spiel instead of doing the opposite, criticism on social media might have been less vehement.

Ant,

Obviously you don't know the difference between the newspaper The Telegraph, and a blog run by the telegraph on which anyone can post.

a govt which sets about to get itself elected by deceiving the electorate wholesale exudes integrity?
Poirot,
Change the record , go digital. What a tiring, baseless waffle. Things change, requirements change why even morons change, no need for lies because they aren't lies. They're change of circumstances, get over it. You got over the crap that the ALP dished up so get over what this Government is forced to do because of ALP stuff-ups.

Dear GrahamY,

You wrote;

“Julia's at it again, according to the Brisbane Times - trashing Australia's reputation. Except this time she's trying to make out that her prime ministership was marred by sexism.”

Oh come off it mate. That is a really difficult line to sustain when your own senator, retiring so free of the party machine, gets to tell it like it is.

“Reflecting on her career in Parliament - she retires at the end of June - Senator Boyce said she thought Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech was ''powerful'' and, for Ms Gillard's purposes, ''a brilliant speech''. But she thought the former prime minister had used the wrong word to describe Mr Abbott. ''I think it would have been more accurate if she had called him a sexist,'' she said.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/liberal-senator-sue-boyce-slams-abbott-sexism-20140621-3al85.html#ixzz35Q0pCrf7

I have remarked before I think Julia's sexism/misogyny speech probably saved Abbott from a far worse assessment. His use of 'dying of shame' just before it show what a nasty, hate filled, calculating, toad of a man he really is. That for me the defining moment and there is nothing that man could do to ever redeem himself in my eyes.

But hell that is just my opinion and I do know how all forgiving/blind people become when they are close to a political party as you are. The need to believe is very strong. That is why Senator Boyce's remarks are quite extraordinary.

redeem himself in my eyes.
SteeleRedux,
That's the first time I heard of Abbott having sad that about the died of shame remark.
Anyhow, if you feel so strongly of Abbott as a questionable character, why not let loose on Rudd & Gillard because they've been many times worse than what you accuse Abbott of.
Have a look at this it might open your eyes a fraction.
Let me know if can find that anywhere in the Leftie ranks. I'll give you 2 weeks to come up with it, good luck !

integrity |&#618;n&#712;t&#603;gr&#618;ti|
noun [ mass noun ]
1 the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles: a gentleman of complete integrity.
2 the state of being whole and undivided: upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
• the condition of being unified or sound in construction: the structural integrity of the novel.
• internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data: [ as modifier ] : integrity checking.
ORIGIN late Middle English (in sense 2): from French intégrité or Latin integritas, from integer ‘intact’ (see integer). Compare with entirety,integral, and integrate.

SR,

Now that is pure bollocks!

The senator's quote also said "''But singling [Mr Abbott] out as a sexist was not reasonable either,'' she added, saying the Prime Minister was one of many ''subtle'' sexists in federal Parliament. Which as a feminist that includes just about every male in existence.

Juliar's speech was one devoid of facts but strong in rhetoric, and hypocrisy, and used to try and shield her speaker from the most outrageous sexist comments.

DavidK, When has anybody in the left wing religion, not told deliberate, premeditated lies in order to steal both money & power from the poor to give to the rich?

the worst offenders are left wing academics. nobody has hurt the blue collar working classes, white collar middle classes, proles & plebs more than left wing academics.

individual,

"Change the record , go digital. What a tiring, baseless waffle. Things change, requirements change why even morons change, no need for lies because they aren't lies. They're change of circumstances, get over it. You got over the crap that the ALP dished up so get over what this Government is forced to do because of ALP stuff-ups."

Firstly, allow me to congratulate you for keeping up the average by including the word "moron" in your post.

As we OLOer's are aware, no post from individual would be complete without that superlative descriptor of anyone who doesn't follow his line of politics.

Secondly, what is the "change of circumstances" to which you allude?
Costello implemented PEFO which is released by Treasury before each election. Hockey's MYEFO, on the other hand, was govt production which most economists have concluded is a "crock".

No change of circumstances from before the election to shortly after will stack up as an excuse for the Abbott govt's lies and deception in the lead up to the 2013 election...(no matter how many times you use "moron" to argue in the govt's favour)

Steele is back, reminding us how he earned the name “Witless” on these pages. Alan Jones said that Gillard’s lies caused her father to die of shame, not Tony Abbott. Abbott condemned the remark. Steele is either mistaken or lying. He might let us know which. Let us hope that Steele did not misinform us because he is “a nasty, hate filled, calculating, toad of a man”. . Perhaps Gillard made her disgraceful misogyny speech because she is “a nasty, hate filled, calculating, toad of a ( wo)man”
Either way, let us hope Tony never redeems himself in Steele’ eyes. He is fine just as he is, and it would be unfortunate if he acted in a way which conformed to the requirements of someone with the deficiencies displayed by Steele.

And while mentioning it, quit the cigars. Most Australians are intelligent enough to realise smoking is a dumb look. Again, you no longer have to follow the Murdoch/IPA line,and it's bad for you.

But improving education is hard. It's the most important investment you make in Australia's future. In the long run, it may be the only thing you can really do to maintain Australia's living standards.

All this is only possible if you start by levelling with the Australian people, dropping the Opposition act of blaming everything on Labor and pretending everything will be hunky-dory if we just scrap the carbon price and mineral resources rent tax.

Leo lane,

Steele was "obviously" referring to Abbott employing the term "died of shame" so very soon after the furor concerning Alan Jones' disgusting comments regarding Julia Gillard's father.

Abbott would have been fully aware that reprising that term so soon after the Jones' controversy would have been seen as having another dig in the same vein...unless he's thick....and he's disreputable, but not thick.

"Either way, let us hope Tony never redeems himself in Steele’ eyes. He is fine just as he is..."

Abbott, by reason of his lies and deception, is beyond political redemption.

Abbott’s fine as he is. No one really believes that. You can’t just dismiss the lies we were told before the election. That just can-not be forgiven.
Abbott was prepared to do and say anything to get elected, and all the time hatching an agenda.

He apparently did not think he was able to win an election without lies. We went to the election being promised a fraudulent stack of lies.

We have a divisive budget that sees the lower half of Australians carrying the weight of this ridiculous budget, thrown together by a mob of incompetent would be politicians.

Our fearless leader is even backing away from his promise of a DD election, how low can one get.

This govt; is an embarrassment to AU, by their very actions. The Abbott followers have really hit the skids supporting such a outfit that sees lying and deceit as an ok form of govt;.

How hypocritical of you Poirot, to complain about what you unjustifiably perceive as lies, when you do not hesitate to lie, yourself. Abbott never used the term “died of shame”, and, in fact, condemned its use by Jones. Abbott is accused of breaking promises. There is no basis for accusing him of lying.
Despite being one who practices lying, you have failed to grasp the concept.

579 is no better, seeing value in making baseless allegations against Abbott, of lying, while he lies himself about a non-existent promise of a double dissolution

Well it is clear that Abbott was right, the labor government did eventually die of shame.

Really Leo? Abbott never used the term "died of shame"?

What's this all about then?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpv_AA4T16U

If you have dementia, that would be forgivable (and explain a lot). If it's some form of Liberal amnesia, then I don't think there's much hope.

You obviously have attention deficit, Bugsy, otherwise you would know that the discussion refers to the death of Gillard’s father. Abbott condemned the application of the phrase to the death of Gillard’s father and did not use it in that context himself, which is the scurrilous assertion in Steele’s post. Poirot is referring to Abbott’s application of the phrase to the Labor government, which they disingenuously attempted to link to the death of Gillard’s father, and as Poirot has attempted to do in her post

Both before and after Jones' comment, Abbott asserted that the Labor Party should have died of shame, as. of course, it should.

Here is an extract from Hansard of Abbott's address to Julia Gillard made just before her famous misogyny speech, the one which he denies was referencing obliquely or otherwise the death of her father.

It reeks of thoroughly evil intent and clinical execution. First he primes it with references to the Prime Minister and her 'loss'.

“I know that the Prime Minister is in a
difficult position today. She has already lost
her caucus chairman, she is fighting to avoid
losing her Speaker and what she is frightened
of ultimately losing is also the support of her
caucus. Just as she has lost the caucus
chairman, she will lose her Speaker—and I
suspect she will shortly lose the caucus,”

Note; difficult position, lost her, losing her, ultimately losing, she has lost, she will lose, she will shortly lose.

Now he strikes;

“because what this Prime Minister has done is
shame this parliament. Should she now rise
in this place to try to defend the Speaker, to
say that she retains confidence in the
Speaker, she will shame this parliament
again. And every day the Prime Minister
stands in this parliament to defend this
Speaker will be another day of shame for this
parliament and another day of shame for a
government which should have already died
of shame.

Note; shame, she will shame, day of shame, another day of shame, already died of shame.

He continued;

“… the bonds between them will be closer. This
Prime Minister should be ashamed of herself,
she should be ashamed of her choice, she
should be ashamed of her judgement and she
should be ashamed of the fact that she is now
having to defend the indefensible. This
Speaker should be gone, and he should be
gone today.”

Note; ashamed of herself, she should be ashamed, she should be ashamed, she should be ashamed.

But the one he probably thought was the most clever was; “the bonds between them will be closer”.

Cont..

Cont..

None but the most jaundiced supporter would deny he knew exactly what her was doing. What a calculated, evil piece of political savagery this was. Nine times in this short reply was the word shame or ashamed used. This was a bastard act by a person so desperate for power he would stoop to any depths to get it.

In my time on this planet I have made some enemies, there have been some I could even say I hated, but there is no way in the world I could contemplate doing what he did to that woman. It was just so many levels below what a normal human being would countenance.

And I am sure in his mind it was just the normal sledging done in the rough and tumble of politics, but that only makes it worse as it speaks to both his judgement and his empathy.

People try to say Tony Abbott is not a misogynist, perhaps rather a little sexist and old fashion. This is demonstrably untrue. He absolutely loathes women in power, particularly having power over him. If it wasn't putting his fist through the wall near a woman's head it was conniving to put them in prison, or to keep them out of his cabinet.

This is why this man will never be redeemed in my eyes and why I consider him unfit to be the leader of my country. But I understand how politics can blind supporters who will defend this man to the hilt, who will deny he uttered certain words, who will make excuses for him, laud his every move.

I however am coming to the belief that he is showing signs of borderline psychopathy.

Please note what he does with his eyes in the included clip when he tells us he had forgotten Alan Jones' remarks; http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/died-of-shame-focus-on-abbotts-use-of-controversial-phrase-20121010-27cgd.html

What a shameful man he is.

What a shameful man he is.
Steele Redux,
You are way more shameful & embarrassing to this country. People from overseas reading your posts must think Australia is really upside down.

Dear Leo Lane,

How is it going young lad. You are one bloke who always brings a smile to my face on this forum.

And I will admit there is something a little gutsy about popping over here from your usual AGW threads where having your pants around your ankles is your raison d'etre. Your eagerness not to disappoint with a claim in your second post here that “Abbott never used the term “died of shame”” is applauded.

Beautiful work my friend, simply beautiful.

It is hard to shake an image of you on your shiny trike beetling over from the other sandpit with your little bell tink tinking crying 'Look at me, look at me!'.

Anyway welcome.

Steele, you're talking through your hat. Abbott punching a wall near a woman appears to be a fabrication. The left called for Pauline Hanson to be punished for her views, does that make them misogynist? Abbott didn't connive to keep women out of his cabinet - he just didn't have many to choose from. He had no problems making his friend Bronwyn Bishop speaker.

I've met a number of the women that Abbott has worked with, like Kerry Jones, and there is no way he is a misogynist. They still have close confidential relationships with him.

If you're going to try to hang Abbott because of his comment about women ironing, then why not criticise Paul Keating for similar comments he made, if that is your test of a misogynist?

The whole misogynistic slur is a left set-up and typical of what I'm pointing at. You won't find anything to approach it from the right.

DavidK, if you look at this thread it's got plenty of participants from all sides. In fact, I think the left have been piling on towards the end. Even Poirot has returned to the fray.

I set OLO up as it is because I thought politics was dangerously divisive 15 years ago. It's got worse, as evidenced by false claims like the one you've made. I hoped OLO might bring people closer together, but you all come here with preconceived positions to brawl.

Graham,

".... I hoped OLO might bring people closer together, but you all come here with preconceived positions to brawl."

It's odd then that you would begin your article thus:

"If you want to know how the left in Australia thinks, then check out Twitter. It will also explain the slow degradation of Australian political reporting into gotcha exposes and personal slurs"

Straight away you're impugning the "left" by linking their behaviour to " the slow degradation of Australian political reporting", etc.

Strange way to bring the sides closer together.

You say...

"We're asked to believe that Abbott is too stupid and inept to be our Prime Minister, despite successfully bringing down two PMs."

Abbott is the leader. He's a prime focus, and I don't believe "progressives" think he's stupid and inept. I believe they consider him awkward, deceitful and lacking in real vision - apart from a puppet-like persona beholden to and guided by his masters.

It's (apparently) easy to lie your way to power, especially with the assistance of Murdoch. But it's not so easy to maintain the charade once the lies are exposed and your actual agenda turns out to be the polar opposite of your pre-election spiel.

That's the kind of operation Abbott and his cohorts represent - not merely a backsliding on commitments here and there, but a "government" agenda that bears almost no resemblance to the spiel delivered ad nauseam when in Opposition.

Is it any wonder that people would choose twitter to share information and opinion after the electorate was shafted in such a manner?

......

Leo Lane,

"579 is no better, seeing value in making baseless allegations against Abbott, of lying, while he lies himself about a non-existent promise of a double dissolution"

Non-existent, eh?

What's this then?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-abbott-says-hell-call-double-dissolution-if-carbon-tax-isnt-repealed/story-fn59niix-1226309463036

And...

"... Abbott is accused of breaking promises. There is no basis for accusing him of lying."

There is every basis to accuse Abbott of lying - and not just lying, but wholesale deception of the electorate prior to the election.

<<the left in Australia …[and] the slow degradation of Australian political reporting into gotcha exposes and personal slurs>>

Spot-on, Graham.

It cuts against the egalitarian nature of most Ozzies which makes us want to say that no side as worse than the other – but few could survey politics in Oz (or academia for that matter) and not reach the conclusion that those on the left side of politics are the worst offenders

And we need look no further than olo where some were ranting and raving even before Abbott was sworn in.

The hypocrisy of the leftists just defies belief. Just to remind you, you guys are the ones who believe
a) there's nothing wrong with politicians lying to get into government "There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead". Remember? According to you guys, that's perfectly justified? Hypocrites!
b) people have no right to be free of unlimited government power. That's what you keep arguing against me for, remember? According to you, you have no right to criticise Abbott; because government automatically represents "society", and if you criticise it, you're an "anarchist". Take a dose of your own medicine!

We need to understand that intellectual dishonesty is in the very DNA of leftist thought, which is why their arguments are always, without exception, nothing but double standards, logical fallacies, ad hom and hypocrisy. Ever since Karl Marx was completely unable to refute the classical economists to the effect that the division of labour makes society wealthier, he made his whole argument depend on ad hominem, as the left still and always do. There is no need to deal with the actual rational arguments, to disprove them by reason. It is sufficient to unmask one's opponent as a class enemy.

That is what the left does, and that is all the left does, except that they instead of just saying "bourgeois" they have added to their armoury of abuse such anti-rational insults as "sexist" (always used in an irrational way to assume the equality of the sexes, advantage women and abuse men), and "denialist" (assumes what they can't prove except by appeal to absent authority).

Asked to actually provide reason, all we get is endless evasion and repetition of logical fallacies. Ho hum, same old, same old.

Their very participation in discussion is a self-contradiction since, according to them, the argument is to be settled by force of their god the State, your right to freedom is laughable, so why even bother with rational argumentation or ethics?

Total agreeance with Poirot.
Abbott and his clan can not come to terms that we were fed an enormous amount of lies before the election, after the election and everyday sinse.

If that was recognised and not pushed around trying to explain or make excuses for Abbott's behaviour and recognise we have an imposter for a PM. If that happened there would be lot different type of conservation going on here.

The man told deliberate lies and went to the election on a fraud. Correct.

GrahamY, every non communist hears where you are coming from, but left wing theology is not now & never has been politics or ideology. it is a radical, extreme religious cult.

put on your criminal profilers hat & have another long hard look, in the cold grey light of dawn, with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight at their criminal minds. the way they deify their leaders, revere their holy scriptures. demonize all opposition.

they will never, ever give up on Critical Theory or relentless, destructive criticism of conservatives.

You are not a centrist moderate, you are hard right.
You talk of conservative as a collective; We are talking about the Abbott govt; and why they can not see that they have misled the voters of AU

All they do is make excuses and some are just stupid, and make the political atmosphere worse.

While there is no recognition of improper process, there is no way forward.

they have misled the voters of AU
579,
You are misleading yourselves with your intense vidictiveness due to your fear of the bandwagon slowing down.
As any decent Australian voter & they will tell you they do not feel misled by the Abbott Government. You hangers-on are simply getting dirty because the gravy is getting sour.

imacentristmoderate,

"GrahamY, every non communist hears where you are coming from, but left wing theology is not now & never has been politics or ideology. it is a radical, extreme religious cult."

Now I wonder why, judging from the comment above, that lefties might choose to talk to each other on twitter?

I rarely come upon such rhetoric on twitter because it's easy to avoid. If I want a bit of biff, I could go to the hashtag #auspol. Often on that tag there are "right-wing" bots which just roll out anti-left-wing material ad nauseam. There are also some disgusting right-wing tweeters who I avoid like the plague. There are also lefties who are over the top - and I avoid them as well.I usually avoid #auspol for those reasons.

So my timeline on twitter is fairly courteous, usually sharing links and sometimes having a joke...also an opportunity to have a brief opinion or to retweet something I like.

Reality is that I go to twitter for a totally different experience than I find here. Here, I'm far more likely to get into a nasty argument with posters who hold a contrary view to my own. I rarely argue on twitter, which I find is an antidote to the bad energy involved in snarking in places like OLO.

JKJ,

Love the way you roll out Gillard's carbon tax/price as your sole defence. Did she deceive the electorate wholesale? Did she produce an agenda the polar opposite of the platform she was elected on?

In just about every area that the Abbott govt assured us "there would be no changes"...we are presented with an agenda that turns our social fabric inside out. All these "surprises" added to all the lies are what lefties are complaining about. We don't expect pollies to stand strictly by every word they utter pre-election...what we do expect, however, is they don't dupe us wholesale and then continue to spit lies in our face by saying they're keeping the commitments they made to the Australian people - when they're clearly "not".

SR,

Nothing in what Abbott said that day was incorrect. Juliar had been behaving disgracefully, so desperate to cling on to power that there were no levels of indecency to which she was not prepared to stoop. After the shameful shielding of Thomson who was so obviously crooked, she tried the same pathetic game again for Slipper.

As Juliar had no rational defence against Abbott's criticism, Juliar herself made the tenuous link between what Abbott said and Alan Jones's comment in order to deflect the criticism.

As predicted by Abbott, she lost her speaker, and her caucus and was tossed out of parliament in disgrace.

579, get it right, for once. hard right politics is total freedom or anarchy. everything between the enlightened, reforming, conservative, sensible centre & the hard right is varying shades of Libertarianism. if you wish to continue losing friends & un-influencing the average Aussie voter, then keep lying to & stealing from them.

the Abbott government's most important promise was to balance the budget ASAP, so they have not broken 1 single promise or told any lies at all.

and here is a tip, i am not even an LNP supporter at all, but a conservative swinging voter who is honest enough to give credit where credit is due. i will however be preferencing labour ahead of the LNP at the next QLD state elections if they continue on with selling assets.

Poirot, so you are going to continue the left wing habit of picking up your bat & ball & going home every time you cannot honestly win the debate or answer a simple question. how sad & pathetic?

Both of you, try googling or reading a book on the philosophy of "common sense realism" or to give it its full contextual title "enlightened, reforming, centrist, conservatism", you know, the people who invented modern western democracy that tolerates your desire to attack it.

579 & Poirot, BTW as you both well know the LNP is so similar to Labour because it is in fact a left of centre party with many closet Fabian socialists like Malcolm Turnbull in it.

Dear GrahamY,

We obviously have different views of Tony Abbott. Both are garnered through personal observations and assessment of his behaviour.

I would contend the validity of mine probably suffer less from not being as closely aligned to him politically as you are, but possibly suffer more from the obvious degrees of separation.

My own take on Abbott before that speech was one of being prepared to wait and see. For instance I had written on this forum my hopes for how the time he had been spending in aboriginal communities might have translated for a more insightful response to issues facing some of those communities once he got into power.

But what he did on that day tarred him forever in my eyes. The enormity and horror of it was overshadowed by the reaction to Gillard's response but not to me and the more I looked at it the more my eyes were opened to the type of man he is and what he was capable of. I notice you didn't reference the speech nor Senator Boyce's take on it.

I remember an occasion, when I was still with the Democrats, when I met a judge I knew in the local supermarket. He was a member of the Labour Party and I was the campaign manager covering two electorates and two candidates one of whom was the victim of some pretty unsavory tactics by the Greens. I was spitting chips about what she had gone through and related my disgust. His reply was there was hope for me yet because to succeed in politics you really need to be a 'hater' and he should know because it was those hated the hardest were the ones who got to the top in his own party.

Cont..

@Poirot

I note that Poirot is trying to re-imagine herself as a voice of reason and moderation:
<<There are also some disgusting right-wing tweeters who I avoid like the plague.There are also lefties who are over the top - and I avoid them as well.>>

Then there was her comment a week or some ago which allowed that New Matilda did not always reference their material properly (mind you it was issued and part of an attack on "sceptics").

It’s a pity we know her too well to swallow the remake

ROFLMAO

Yes, thank you, ROFLMAO or SPQR or whatever you call yourself (you appear to use both of them liberally, so I'm not sure which to address you by:)

Regarding:

"Then there was her comment a week or some ago which allowed that New Matilda did not always reference their material properly (mind you it was issued and part of an attack on "sceptics")."

Could you refresh my memory by posting the comment referenced..I can't remember it - and judging by your usual standard, you've probably got it wrong - again.

Thank you (in anticipation)

.....

imacentristwhatever,

"Poirot, so you are going to continue the left wing habit of picking up your bat & ball & going home every time you cannot honestly win the debate or answer a simple question. how sad & pathetic?"

What are you talking about?

I'm still here....

Mr Hockey said the Senate was in danger of becoming “irrelevant” and Australian voters could face a change of government, after The Australian revealed the Prime Minister was being pressured from Nationals and Liberal senators to compromise on its paid parental leave policy.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen jumped on the remarks, saying Labor would “fight to win” if a double dissolution was called.

“If the Treasurer and the PM want an election, bring it on,” Mr Bowen said. “The PM and the Treasurer would do better to re-evaluate their policies, to think about why the Australian people and many people in the Parliament have rejected them so comprehensively.

Who knows how Tony Abbott and Clive Palmer will work it out because both of them are capable of saying one thing one day and something else the next.”

Independent crossbencher Nick Xenophon said he was willing to negotiate with the government but said broken promises had undermined their budget measures.

“The government needs to know that their moral authority in relation to many parts of the budget has been diminished because they are doing things contrary to what they promised just before the federal election in terms of health and education cuts,” Senator Xenophon said.

i never realised abbott had more power than the devil himself. Saint Poirot and Saint Steele often banging on about not judging others just can't help themselves. That hatred does blind you to reality. Abbott abbott abbott. And to think at least 2 more years of it. Careful guys your blood might boil over. Its bad for your health.

I've been re-reading David Marr's article,
"Political Animal: The making of Tony Abbott,"
with great interest.

Marr tells us that, "Australia doesn't want Tony
Abbott. We never have. When pollsters rang to ask
who we wanted to take over from John Howard or
Brendan Nelson or Malcolm Turnbull we put Abbott
way down the list, usually at the bottom. As the
years went by and the number of Liberal
contenders dwindled, we always wanted someone else;
Peter Costello even after he gave up the leadership
without a fight; Malcolm Turnbull even after the
climate sceptics brough him undone; or Joe Hockey the
untried hulk...We never wanted the man the Liberals
gave us in December 2009. "

"Abbott was their pick, not ours. And the party was almost
as stunned as the nation. "God Almighty," one of the
Liberals cried in the party room that day,
"What have we done?"

Well, now the nation knows what the party did.
And they are not happy.
Anything can happen in politics in the next couple of years.
One can only hope!

One can only hope!
Foxy,
yes, that Labor doesn't get back in again for the next 20 or so years.
You're placing your immaturity on full display for all by referring to David Marr, one of the most ignorant academics of our time. An idiot would have more integrity than this useless crap stirrer. He is one of Australia's Media most pointless. If you take him serious then don't expect OLO'ers to take you serious. That mutt is an embarrassment to Australia & a liability to the ABC.

Graham Y

Don't be discouraged that the commentary on OLO often gets nasty. It's still one of the best around, one that I keep coming back to.

What I find strange, though, is why you seem surprised that the left is outraged – or in my case, mad as hell – and are venting their lefty spleens on social media. (Although I note that, on OLO, spleen-venting is more the sport of the right.)

Abbott’s government commits the nation to a $20 billion weapons buying spree for this year alone, while telling us we can’t afford to pay aged pensions or unemployment benefits to people under 30. While gnashing teeth over our blowout deficit – one of the lowest in the world – his government still expects us to pay out to keep pampered rich women on maternity leave living the standard to which they are accustomed.

This is only a light surface scratching of the many blatant feed-the-rich, screw-the-poor policies his government is enacting. And you wonder why the left, whose politics is about equal and fair distribution of wealth and resources, is getting a little … well … UPSET!!

This is despite the fact that every country that has introduced the very same austerity ‘we can’t afford it’ measures that the Abbot government is lumping us with is sinking deeper and deeper into recession and social despair. While the few countries that refused to play that game and continued with spending as usual are going from strength to strength.

And you wonder why the left is UPSET? I think you should be more amazed that, under the circumstances, the left is showing considerable restraint.

Killarney,
Why wasn't the Left upset when it ran the country into the ground ? You carry on like a pork chop about $20 mills which is a lot but, pales into insignificance when you look at the billions they wasted, yes wasted in the public service just to ensure there are enough ALP supporters. Well, luckily it back-fired on them. Before you vent your fake indignation at this Government think about the tens of thousands of ALP voting public servants engaged in sabotaging Australia & totally carelessly jeopardise our future, yours & ours. You worry about rich women being pampered ? Where ? Why aren't you worried about quite well off, in fact very well off ALP cronie bureaucrats still playing the rorting game ? Get your anger right on the left.

You want to introduce a co-payment for those currently bulk-billing? Here's a reasonable olive branch: exempt all pensioners and children under 18. That wipes out the main complaint about the announced policy – the idea that a financially-stretched parent would hesitate about taking a sick child to the doctor.

The ruse of claiming this pricing initiative is for a medical research fund - "the budget that cures cancer!" – hasn't scored thanks to the government's broader credibility problem. Better at least reinstate the funding for the commercialisation of our existing quite strong medical research. That might at least improve credibility in the research community.

But it's also the easiest problem to fix: just drop it. It won't get through the Senate anyway so better to confess it was a terrible mistake and ditch it without trying to defend it. Blame an unhealthy IPA element in the party and purge them. Besides, you don't really need the IPA and Murdoch extremists now – remember that you are now in government.

Given the demographic tsunami building up a little over the horizon, limiting age pension indexation to the CPI is a sound policy. Current living standards will be maintained and improvements above that become something that the government of the day will have to deal with as finances and politics permit.

The sales pitch here is complicated because the immediate hook relies on the coalition's fundamentally flawed carbon policy. With Palmer's puppies giving you what you want on that front, do the maths on what Labor's carbon tax pension compensation gift was worth, add the amount that allegedly will be saved by scrapping the carbon price and demonstrate that it actually adds up to years of above-CPI indexation. Promise to revisit indexation when the double-carbon-effect nominally runs out.

You're being given low marks for your dedication to improving education, probably because you're not dedicated. The flip-flopping on Gonski was shameful and Christopher Pyne's hair splitting has been as bad a look as two big finance types sucking fat cigars.
Having cried "wolf" for four years over the non-existent immediate budget "crisis.

How about a little cross-pollination.

I was just on twitter and noticed this, titled "Why I stand by my article on Sue Boyce":

Jonathan Swan defending his journalistic integrity.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/why-i-stand-by-my-article-on-sue-boyce-20140624-3aqir.html#ixzz35X3LMwjx

"Retiring Liberal senator Sue Boyce has repeatedly, over the past 24 hours, claimed I misquoted her and has denied saying the Prime Minister was “a sexist”."

"In it, she accuses me of “grossly” misrepresenting her views. She also writes: “Mr Abbott is certainly not a sexist.”

On Tuesday, she told the Coalition party room that I had misrepresented her."

(Full Sue Boyce interview included in link)

Maybe it's relevant, maybe it's not...but that's the sort of thing that can be quickly clarified on twitter. There are so many people distorting the truth in politics these days that it's handy to have twitter access to what really went down.

Cont..

(post limits again)

Realising the truth of those words made the actions of the Greens in our area seem far more fathomable. I started to be able to pick the true haters in both of the major parties and the Greens, even a few within the Dems. It really took the shine off the political game for me.

To me Tony Abbott is a hater on steroids, so was Keating and Latham and Minchin, but in Abbott his hatred of women in power adds a dimension that is deeply unsettling.

If I was to point to one figure who really drove this climate of divisiveness and hatred it would have to be Keating. As entertaining as he was I still think we might have been better served without his impact in parliament. Abbott is a product of that era. The case might also be made that the demise of the Democrats accelerated the change.

Hopefully for the sake of us all we might be afforded the opportunity to move past it but likely only post Abbott and probably Shorten.

When I joined the Democrats I did so because I supported a number of their social issues but was economically conservative thus to me they were middle of the road which was where I considered my own politics to be. I certainly didn't consider myself of the Left. Within a few short years it seemed Labour and the Libs made gigantic leaps to the right and left me sitting like a shag on a rock now being considered a leftist. My views are still much the same as they were when I joined but everyone else seemed to have gone off for a madcap jaunt trying to outdo each other on how extreme they could be. Australian politics does seem far less sane now than it did back then.

I'd like to blame Keating, and he does bear a lot of the blame. Bob Hawke was "the great conciliator". But he only needed to be because Malcolm Fraser raised the heat as much as he did, and Whitlam responded in kind. Remember phrases like "Kerr's cur" and "Well may you say 'God save the Queen' because nothing will save the Governor General". So it predates Keating, although both Whitlam and Fraser were much more civilised than Keating, but not as civilised as Hawke.

However, I'm still waiting for any evidence that Tony Abbott is a hater in that sort of vein, or any sort of vein.

Dear GrahamY,

It is highly unlikely that we are going to agree on this whatever is presented but I am happy to go through the exercise regardless.

Perhaps we should at least see if we can agree on what constitutes hateful behaviour.

Let's for a moment leave aside judgement of whether or not Tony Abbott purposefully intended to use the 'dying of shame' comment to unsettle Julia Gillard, who was clearly deeply impacted by the death of her father, or whether it was completely innocent on his behalf.

I offer the following hypothetical;

You, Graham Young, are out at a Liberal Party victory celebration after the next election and Tony Abbott, in an understandably gregarious, champagne assisted mood of camaraderie throws an arm around your shoulder and says “Youngy you good thing mate, I have a confession to make...”. He then tells you how he got away with the biggest sledge in Australia's political history when he went after Gillard that day and hardly anyone was the wiser.

Armed with this knowledge would you think all's fair in politics and pour him another drink or would you wonder, as I would, how on earth could one human being use the death of another's father in an attempt to knock them off their game? If the first then we probably should finish here, if the second then would you agree, in this hypothetical at least, that it would constitute an eminently hateful act?

SteeleRedux,
What was said about Gillard's father was said around an air of real possibilty but we can't prove that. What we can prove though is that she was the worst public figure, with the worst management, with the worst personality, with the worst ego & with the worst outcome for Australia.
Her father may or may not have stressed beyond his limit about the antics of his daughter but she certainly caused us irreparable harm, all just for her own ego. She had no intention of doing anything for Australia, she merely wanted to be the first female Prime Minister which she achieved but we're still waiting for the first woman PM. That she could never be.

We're referencing one of the lowest comments ever made by a public figure in this country - and what does individual say?

"What was said about Gillard's father was said around an air of real possibilty but we can't prove that...."

Jones didn't say it because it he thought it had any bearing on reality.....he spruiked it as a savage, vengeful and personal attack on someone who's politics he didn't like.

Of course, it backfired big time - and Jones was the one left dripping with dishonour.

@Steeleredux

The part about you being <<a shag on a rock>> I agree with –but the rest of your post is just baloney. No one who has followed your posts would pick you as an economic conservative or any other kind of conservative.

And here’s an interesting observation about you standards of proof. I seem to recall your vigorously defending a certain individual who was charged with traffic offenses (and, not for the first time). In seeking to get off the charges this individual had made some demonstrably false (and malicious) charges against a police officer. Yet you stood by her because there was in your mind still some shadow of doubt.

Funny that you do not give Tony Abbot the same benefit of the doubt, eh!

Shadow of a doubt about what. The enormous amount of lies the Australian public were fed without a cringe, and then go to an election on that mantle of lies. The election was fraudulent and will never be forgotten.

By covering Abbott's tracks you are saying it's ok all is forgiven. That is not in the best interests of Australia.

@ Comrade 579

Cease & desist OLO posting.
Policy change:
AGW crap
Gonski bad
Budget good
Collect next 3 weeks of party corrected posts from Shorty @ Sussex Street.

From:ALP party HQ

Poirot sneaks in another scurrilous untruth. Her assertion that the comment is “lowest”, can only be on the basis that it links to the comment by Jones. Abbott applied the term to the ALP both before and after the Jones’ comment, and the assertion that it links to the Jones comment through any intention of Abbott is mischievous and untrue. Abbott condemned the remark by Jones. There were many who said that if Gillard’s father did not die of shame, he ought to have, but Abbott was not one of them

As to the non-existent promise to call a double dissolution, Poirot refers to an article where Abbott promises to get rid of the carbon tax. There is no promise of a double dissolution. She should be familiar with the format of a promise. Something along the lines of “There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead.”..Abbott will call a double dissolution if it will achieve his promise to repeal the tax, and not otherwise. He has to wait for the dunces to put themselves in the situation which will make a double dissolution effective.

We're referencing one of the lowest comments ever made by a public figure in this country
Poirot,
As per its norm, conveniently neglets to add that the comments were also for the lowest integrity public figure.
When that female apologises to Australians for what she did to Australia then I shall cease to decribe her by then character.

Leo Abbott said that repeated times in parliament [ question time ]
He said died of shame: Not refereng to Gillards father. But where ever it fitted, and everybody knew what he was refering to.

It is not a matter of he may call a DD if the repeal doesn't get through . It is what he promised the AU people.

The ball is in Abbott's court, will he finally keep a promise or will he reneg again. Abbott has been subject to lying since before the last election. That is well documented. Even Hockey said you should not have to tell lies to win an election.

There was no Carbon Tax, as you like to put it. If it was a tax everybody would be paying it.

The excise on petrol is a tax, abbott even told deliberate lies as to where that extra tax was going to be spent on.

Can not help himself, and the way things are going we are going to end up in depression. Consumer confidence is at it's lowest sinse 1990, and that is dangerous.

Leo Lane,

Since you're being pedantic, Leo, I said "one of the lowest" not "the lowest".

I couldn't give a hoot who said it. It's an odious thing to say about anybody just to slug 'em one politically while their grief is still fresh - or at any time.

Regarding Abbott and his empty threat to call a double dissolution if the carbon tax repeal wasn't allowed through.

If that threat wasn't a promise, but this is: "There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead....”

Is this a promise too...it's the rest of the sentence that you righties always omit from Gillard:

"...but let me be clear: I will be putting a price on carbon and I will move to an emissions trading scheme.”

So you got a carbon price.

Abbott won't call a double dissolution because his party would get done like a dog's dinner, having apprised the nation that they lied and deceived wholesale to win power.

Er...now we know their word means nothing.

At one stage recently the Morgan poll had Labor at 60.5% - and the LNP at 39.5% two party preferred (during the Turnbull stoush). The LNP have since clawed back to around 45%...so don't go holding your breath that Abbott is going to a double dissolution anytime soon.

Poirot, Gillard never said that. You are quoting from Walsh’s biography of Gillard which falsely represents that she said the words “let me be clear etc.”. What a surprise! Another lie from Gillard, this time via a careless or dishonest biographer.
As I said, Abbott will act on a double dissolution only if the dunces put him in a position to do so

We will hold you to that Leo. You are clutching at straws saying that did not come from Gillard.

A price is a price and tax is for everybody, so how much carbon tax have you payed. You are a misinformist just like the mongrel you are pretending to side with.

Abbott will go down in history for many things, continually breaking records, and telling lies to cover lies.

Just remember Abbott says we will save 550$ when and if the Carbon price comes off.

Clive has got some hired help to back him up. Interesting., One of the men Abbott dodged when he was in the USA.

What do you prefer a Carbon tax or give the polluters 2.5 billion of taxpayers money as a default subsidy.

Abbott's retry of the 'Carbon price ' not only consists of the repeal of the carbon price, there is a host of other amendments that go with it. Guess why the opposition to the bill comes from.

Poirot,
yes, you did say one of the lowest but what you should have said & is one of the more apt.
Anyhow, Heffernan's barren was the most apt of all. Not barren as in childless but barren as in soul, character & competence.
Sadly, the ALP hasn't been able to attract any better as yet but they're a magnet for the vindictive hangers-on.
Shorten is just a silly git to fill a void.

Leo Lane,

That's interesting.

I found Larvatus Prodeo trying to get to the bottom of it.

http://larvatusprodeo.net/archives/2013/09/gillards-carbon-tax-promise/

Who knows?

......

individual,

Why would I be interested in your repeating Heffernan's stupid comment?

Poirot,
They weren't silly comments, you're too insipid to understand. Huge difference, shame there's no way to make you see.

Oh, individual, go and talk to someone else.

I'm up to here with your vapid comments.

579. It did come from Gillard, as a lie slipped into her biography. If she had said what is alleged, why was it never mentioned when the video of her false promise was played daily. Not a peep out of her, and now this materialises in her biography, if that is what the book is. Even the title of the book is a lie. No evidence of her saying “Let me be clear etc” can be found. Do you have a transcript. 579, or are you just flapping your jaws as usual, spouting nonsense.

We have uncovered this, Poirot. There is nothing for you or the lefties at Lavartus to get to the bottom of .Everyone knows that Gillard is a liar, and she simply packaged up another lie, for consumption by people like you. No one else wants it.

Actually Leo is exactly right, Juliar's infamous carbon tax promise never included putting a price on carbon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EyW7oFk6n8

In fact a later quote included “I rule out a carbon tax.”

http://fairmediaalliance.com/2013/04/26/there-will-be-no-carbon-tax-under-a-government-i-lead-but-lets-be-absolutely-clear-i-am-determined-to-price-carbon/

SR,

The only reason that left whingers like you hate Abbott so much is because he so effectively demolished and exposed Labor's phoney promises and incompetent policies.

Getup and other paid left whinge activists spent their time stalking Abbott trying to show that he was stupid, sexist and racist. As a Rhodes scholar with 3 well adjusted daughters and a long relationship with native Australians he is clearly smart, clearly not sexist or racist. The worst that could be said of him is that he is slightly old fashioned.

His treatment of Juliar was exactly the same as if she was a man. The left is actually being more sexist as they think that women are delicate flowers that cannot take genuine criticism.

your vapid comments.
Poirot,
that's one of the symptoms of leftist minds, they can't digest reality. They revel in their own little dream worlds supported by those whom they disagree with, the taxpayers, the ones who create the wealth that the do-gooders maggot off.

individual,

Go and talk to someone else who can put up with your puerile darts of poison...I'm not interested in continuing to insult my intelligence by giving you any feedback.

(off you go)

......

Leo Lane,

Thanks for that.

I was actually trying to be genuinely constructive by posting that link...only to be assaulted by another volley of rabid invective from you.

While you're beating the drum waffling about Gillard's carbon price, Australia is dealing with govt which duped and conned it wholesale - no contest as far as deception goes.

And on topic - there's a reason why I don't get into these sorts of snarky exchanges on twitter....because whenever I come across belligerent and vacuous posters like yourself and individual, it doesn't take me long to "BLOCK" them from my timeline.

Voila! - their tweets are no longer visible to me.

Poirot, thanks for the clarification. It would never have occurred to me that you saw your action as constructive. You were seeking a way to avoid facing the fact that Gillard is an incorrigible liar, so only you, and your leftie mates,could see that as constructive. Anyway, you have slammed your mind shut, now, and must feel secure from any intrusive truth. I was under the apprehension that your mind was slammed shut a long time ago, so thanks for your perspective on it.

I spoke of haters earlier and this comment from individual is a case in point;

“What was said about Gillard's father was said around an air of real possibilty(sic) but we can't prove that.”

I know the default is to treat his comments like those of runner, usually short, factless pieces of bile, but they do give one pause to imagine just what drives people to this level of hatred.

For Abbott the lust for power is on record. The bargaining with the independents for the right to rule showed just what lengths he was prepared to go to.

“Tony, I would do anything for this job. The only thing I wouldn’t do is sell my arse, but I’d have to give serious thought to it.”

Perhaps as with Abbott, individual and runner's sense of powerlessness are the drivers of their nasty, hateful comments.

SR,

Are your nasty hateful comments driven by your sense of powerlessness?

They are certainly not driven by reason.

Dear SM,

A kind word doesn't cost much and yet it can do wonders
for people. (I know).

We're all guilty of making inappropriate
remarks when the right buttons are pushed or when we're
dealing with emotive issues. Also sometimes people
forget that they're dealing with human beings on the other
side of their computers. A discussion forum is not
supposed to be a blood sport. Sometimes a bit more thought
prior to posting would not go astray (for all of us - myself
included).

Dear Shadow Minister,

You wrote;

“Are your nasty hateful comments driven by your sense of powerlessness? They are certainly not driven by reason.”

Perhaps you see some of my comments as hateful, if so I am happy for you to point them out. I do have a propensity for forcefully reacting to bullying behaviour and perhaps you think that goes beyond acceptable bounds. I am always looking for avenues of self improvement.

I think we first need to get a sense of what you regard as hateful behaviour. Do you think Alan Jones referencing Julia Gillard's recently deceased father as 'dying of shame' in an effort to score a political point was hateful? If you don't could you point to something I have posted here that you regard by definition as being worthy of being described as hateful thus markedly worse than Jones'/individual's comment?

it doesn't take me long to "BLOCK" them from my timeline.
Ostrich, err Poirot,
well done. No see, no hear, no knowing about reality.

On the contrary, Leo Lane and individual. The reason for my bowing out of this conversation rests on the fact that neither of you possess the imagination or the capacity to debate an issue without resorting to abusing your opponent.

It's a common trait of the right on OLO to do just that while pretending to uphold some kind of fictional "decency"...just like Pyne resorting to calling Shorten the C-word over the dispatch box, while consistently berating Labor Members to be gentlemen.

(And yes he "did" say it)

Larf!

Steele, you say:“For Abbott the lust for power is on record. The bargaining with the independents for the right to rule showed just what lengths he was prepared to go to.”
You really are delusional. The independents betrayed their electorates to vote with Gillard. Gillard is a master of corruption to achieve that. Abbott had every basis to expect their support, if they were genuine. How do you dream this nonsense up? It is not a good look for you, it just reminds us of how you earned the tag “Witless”. Your desperation to smear Abbott is unhealthy, and produces despicable statements from you.

Dear Leo,

Tink, tink, tink.

Dear Poirot,

Didn't quite believe you about Pyne and the 'C' word but indeed he did use it and the speaker did nothing? Amazing. The other action of Pyne motioning for the speaker to stand and cut short the applause for Shorten's budget reply had also passed me by. Totally unacceptable on both accounts and speaks to the bias of Bishop. It is obvious why Abbott made her speaker, to have that much control over her must be so very reassuring for someone so threatened by powerful women.
http://youtu.be/B7n-8IUOTkE

SteeleRedux,
You really have no concept of integrity do you ? We are stating facts & you twist it all around & call it hate. Since when is stating facts hatred ? You are the liar & hateful one here.

So much for abbott pledging not to do deals with independants or minor parties. Just more tripe from our fearless leader.

The Federal Government says it "is happy" to lock in a legal requirement that power companies pass on savings arising from the abolition of the carbon tax.

The move, which would satisfy the only condition laid down by the Palmer United Party for its crucial support to the repeal bill, follows talks between PUP leader Clive Palmer and Prime Minister Tony Abbott this morning.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has told Parliament it will add to the Government's efforts to monitor power pricing through the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Electricity is currently selling at 4.3 cents / kWh.

Lol!...individual,

You're not allowed to call people liars on this forum.

I think you should withdraw that remark - or Graham will chuck you out under 94A.

(BTW, Biased Bronnie went great guns this week with her toss out total...I think it was around 25 Laborites to one ranting LNP backbencher. She's going to reach her second ton quicker than she reached her first - and that was a record)

@poirot,

Isn't it too early for the westies to be up?

<<You're not allowed to call people liars on this forum>>

really?

So you and your confederates have could NOT have been calling Tony Abbott a liar (& worse) for the last twelve months or more--I must have misread your posts,right?

What I find amusing is the left whingers predilection for self congratulation. After delivering a budget reply with no commentary other than he didn't like it, taking a bow, shaking a few hands and sitting down to continue parliamentary business is what is expected.

A lap around the building shaking everyone's hands and chatting is a waste of time, and Pyne as leader of house is responsible for parliamentary business, and while labor would like to endlessly continue celebrating yet another vacuous and pretentious monologue, Pyne has every right to call the parliament back to business. BB can override him, or not as she choses.

The delusional Steele sees his betters as holding begging cups in case anyone is wondering how he comes up with such a stupid post.
When it is pointed out to him that he has made a fool of himself, his answer is tink, or sometimes a sandwich board. No wonder he is referred to as Witless. He objects to Tony Abbott talking to the minor parties. Abbott said he would not do a deal for minority government, and Witless takes that as a prohibition on carrying on the business of parliament if it involves talking to minor parties. He must be as dense as the jaw-flapping 579, to believe that.

The Australian today revealed the incoming Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party senator plans to vote against the repeal bills unless the Abbott government supports the Automotive Transformation Scheme, which is slated for abolition in January 2018.

Mr Muir may be supported in his stance by independent senator Nick Xenophon and Democratic Labour Party senator John Madigan — with the bloc potentially deciding the outcome of the vote.

The Prime Minister, asked about The Australian’s report, repeated his party’s position that the scheme would remain in place for “the next five years”.

“The Automotive Transformation Scheme is in place; it was confirmed in the budget,” Mr Abbott said in Sydney.

“There’s $1 billion available to manufacturers and to the auto parts industry over the next five years, so the Automotive Transformation Scheme remains in place.”

The May budget stripped $618.5 million from the Automotive Transformation Scheme over eight years, following announcements by major carmakers to cease manufacturing in Australia by the end of 2017.

SPQROLFMAO,

I wondered who'd pick that up.

"So you and your confederates have could NOT have been calling Tony Abbott a liar (& worse) for the last twelve months or more--I must have misread your posts,right?"

To clarify my meaning.

Posters are prohibited from referring to fellow posters on OLO as liars.

Graham's aiming for Parliamentary conduct on this forum.

So, yes, Tony Abbott (who does not post on this forum) is a liar.

SM,

"... Pyne has every right to call the parliament back to business. BB can override him, or not as she choses."

Lol!...they're a great team. Bronnie is wonderful at lacking any pretence of bipartisanship - and if she's ever tardy, Pyne is always at the ready with a whine, a signal or a rhetorical shove to bring her up to speed.

Bronwyn Bishop is an excellent Speaker who knows her job, and carries it out in a meticulous manner.

The members of the Labor rabble aggressively and knowingly treat the rules and their obligations to the Chair with contempt and an impartial and bipartisan Chair is obliged to do her job, and bring them to account. The rabble require a firm, no-nonsense approach to their disgraceful conduct, and we are fortunate to have a woman of Bronwyn.s character performing this challenging task, eh, Poirot?

Dear Ms. B. Bishop,
I have been watching the new parliament. I feel the need to point out that the persons to your left were elected by Australian voters to speak for their respective constituents. Your obvious bias towards the persons to your right is a shameful affront to the dignity of the Australian parliamentary process.

Sitting there in smirking compliance to the LNP, is conduct utterly inappropriate for a speaker, you seem to not understand that you are no longer a toadying backbencher. When you assumed the privileged seat of speaker it became your duty to fairly and impartially represent all Australians.
When you dismiss and silence the voices to your left, you are dismissing and silencing the millions of Australians they have been elected to represent.

For the sake of Australian democracy I ask that you resign immediately as speaker. Your conduct is an utter disgrace to Australia and the parliament. Every moment you sit in that chair, you preside over the destruction of the once proud democratic process of my country.
Sincerely,
An Australian Voter.

"....The rabble require a firm, no-nonsense approach to their disgraceful conduct, and we are fortunate to have a woman of Bronwyn.s character performing this challenging task, eh, Poirot?"

Why yes, certainly, Leo Lane.

Who but a rabid leftie would see anything amiss with Bronnie tossing out around just under 150 Labor Members to 2 LNP Members.

It makes you wonder why an Opposition is allowed to sit in Parliament at all?

There are a few countries past and present around the world who maintain Oppositions are a pain in the arse - and they dispense with them altogether.

You in favour of that sort of thing then?

Bit of a shame Australia still calls itself a democracy,eh?.... but then Bronnie is doing her best to stymie the fundamentals.

Dear Poirot,

The clip I posted earlier didn't show the reaction of the speaker to Pyne's C-bomb. I had assumed Bishop had not heard it but in fact she most certainly had. Her response? “The minister will refer to people by their correct names”.

There is absolutely no way this was an appropiriate rebuke. Either 94A him, or cite him for unparliamentary language, or at the bare minimum ask him to withdraw the remark.

Oh boy she is a real shocker!

http://youtu.be/5TsNL3uBw1g

Dear 579,

Hear, hear. While I'm not sure the ratios of government to opposition 94A's were that much different in the last parliament this level of criticism about the speaker's impartiality has gone way beyond anything in my memory. I think we would forgive an initial bout of latent partisanship impacting her rulings but Bishop certainly seems to be getting markedly worse rather than better.

Dear Leo,

I had forgotten about the cup. That was a very funny exchange. But you shouldn't take these things to heart mate, all done in jest and good humour.

On this occasion the 'tink' I was referencing was the sound of your little tricycle’s bell, one that you should take care you don't wear out.

SR,

You left whingers are such frauds. When you can't hear what is said, you insert whatever you like. I heard --ub so what was the c word "club"?

Really! You guys are disgusting, like little school children.

SteeleRedux,

Have you listened to or watched Question Time lately?

Speaker Bishop spends 99% of the time warning Labor. She even tosses in a General Warning occasionally so she can chuck 'em out without further ado.

While frivolous points of order do happen, she often dismisses them even before anything is uttered by the Member making the Point of Order.

She regularly threatens Members making Points of Order before they have spoken a word. Last week she threatened to remove a Labor Member under 94A before he had spoken on his Point of Order if his question was deemed an abuse of Standing Orders by herself.

The other 1% of her time is spent ballsing up the titles of Members and their electorates or calling the wrong Members to stand.

SM,

"Really! You guys are disgusting, like little school children."

Well, LOL!...yer don't like it when others are capable of articulating the odium of this govt.

So be it.

If Bronwyn Bishop's record as Speaker were a cricket innings, you might say the batting team was having a pretty good day.

Madam Speaker made headlines this week when she ejected her first Coalition MP - but not before bringing up her ton of sin-binned Labor MPs.

Play resumes on Monday with the score at 2-107.

Federal Parliament is not cricket - but the score is being kept.
Advertisement

On Tuesday the 71-year-old member for Mackellar - ''God's own country'', according to her website - sent the Member for Herbert, Ewen Jones, to the naughty corner under standing order 94(a) for yelling at Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. And she sin-binned Jones again on Thursday.

That makes two for the Coalition. She reached the century on ejecting Labor MPs in mid-May.

''If you had 100 members you'd be in government and sitting on this side. You simply have some recurrent offenders,'' Bishop replied when the manager of opposition business in the house, Tony Burke, rose to acknowledge the century.

Poirot, the rabble have only 55 members, so Bronwyn is doing a good job on the multiple offenders. It is an indication of the lowering of standards perpetrated by Labor misbehaviour, that even two government members misbehaved sufficiently to warrant the attention of the Speaker. Nothing will deter the Labor louts, it is in their DNA, but Bronwyn Bishop does not allow herself to be overwhelmed, and does a sterling job, despite the relentless misbehaviour of the Shorten terrorists.
They thought that they could break her down because she is a woman, but their bullying has not worked.. She is certainly affected by it, but she has not lost her composure. Labor should die of shame. It has morphed from a political party to a disgusting disease of our democratic system.

Dear Poirot,

I think you may find this interesting. It is a grab from Pamela Meyer's TED talk on 'How to spot a liar'.

In this part she is talking about the difference between our rehearsed words and our gestures. The example of 'we say yes we shake our heads no' is ex-presidential candidate John Edwards lying to a reporter about fathering a child out of wedlock.

http://youtu.be/P_6vDLq64gE?t=11m42s

What is instructive is watching Tony Abbott's response to a question on gay marriage from a Q&A audience member. It is so classic one suspects it may well be used in future videos on deception.

http://youtu.be/HSWlyhfvWUQ

He certainly has had some coaching recently, evidenced by his slowing, more deliberate speech patterns.

“Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks 100 words a minute slower in media interviews now than in opposition and is also speaking in a more monotone voice, according to a study of his speech patterns.”
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-becomes-a-slowtalking-pm-20140118-311s7.html#ixzz35ugQtCCG

Thus the 'tells' are not quite as flagrant. However I am not sure it matters as his default setting seems to be lying to us great unwashed with gay abandon.

It is nice that Abbott is improving his verbal presentation. Ehe article to ehich Steele referred us says:”he's far more fluent, he doesn't have what we call disfluencies and fillers, that is the um, ahs and long pauses. In that sense his speech is far less interrupted, “ As against that, his presentation has become more like Gillard:” I think he's now on a par with her wooden presentation style,” At least Abbott's pleasant speaking voice does not sound like Gillard's.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-becomes-a-slowtalking-pm-20140118-311s7.html#ixzz35vDy1AJ4

The TED talk, of course, is just nonsense which would only be acceptable in a delusional world like the one inhabited by Steele.

Thanks for that, SteeleRedux,

I don't think we need to bother too much about the likes of Leo lane.

If he was presented with abominations of the calibre of Abbott and Bronnie on the the Labor side, he'd be squealing to the heavens.

P,

Compared to Juliar and her speaker Slipper, Abbott and Bishop are the models of propriety. And the left whingers can only resort to making things up.

Watching Juliar declaring full confidence in the innocence of Thomson and Slipper whilst bailing them out and corruptly shielding them was a complete joke.

All this ancient history is all the libber camp can come up with.

A boat carrying 153 Tamil asylum seekers including apparently sick children is likely to have run out of oil about 170 nautical miles off Christmas Island in high seas, refugee advocates say.
But Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is refusing to confirm the existence of a boat and says there are no significant incidents at sea to report.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said he had heard the second boat, carrying 50 asylum seekers, had departed from Java

Since then, however, tension between the two tiers of government has bubbled over across the political divide after plans were revealed in the May budget for the states to receive $80 billion less in funding to spend on hospitals and schools.

Speaking at today’s meeting, Queensland Liberal Premier Campbell Newman said he was open to reforming traditional federation arrangements but argued for a greater federal revenue commitment.

However, South Australia’s Labor Premier Jay Weatherill was scathing of the proposal, telling ABC TV it would lead to the “Americanisation” of the health system.

Federal Labor’s shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said he feared the white paper would be a blueprint for further budget cuts on top of the government’s $80 billion “curtain raiser”