The Democratic Labor Party senator John Madigan is a former blacksmith who would like shops to close at midday on Saturday so families can spend more time together.

He is a personable chap, but as of Tuesday Madigan probably won't be invited for scones with any of his upper house colleagues. Not this Saturday arvo, nor next.

''This place is rotten to the core … I'd like to see it implode,'' he told a Victorian newspaper on the subject of the 43rd parliament.
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''They wonder why people hate their bloody guts and we have a high informal vote.''

And then: ''I've run over better rabbits than these people.''

Madigan, a Ballarat resident who is sometimes referred to by the affectionate epithet of ''Mad Dog'', has no doubt flattened some pretty nasty vermin in his time.

Madigan's comments were in reference to a cheeky bipartisan move by politicians to hive off millions of extra taxpayer money for the ''adminstration'' of their own parties, despite the budget looking less than optimal when it comes to the ''administration'' of the deficit.

Despite the disquiet of the Nationals, the Opposition Leader has directed his party room to ''reluctantly'' support this measure. This makes things rather awkward - after all, Abbott had promised to move a motion of no confidence in the government, but when Treasurer Wayne Swan brought down his rather demure budget, there just weren't enough measures in it in which to have no confidence.

Thankfully there are some issues over which we can always rely on politicians to brawl.

Tuesday's question time was dominated by asylum seekers and whether the government's idiosyncratic approach to the processing of boat people has compromised national security. This was linked to cuts to the budget of security agencies.

''What guarantee can the Prime Minister give that [Australia] is as safe today as it was under the former government?'' Abbott asked.

Julia Gillard responded that the Opposition Leader was engaged in the ''politics of fear mongering'' but ''no amount of playing this kind of despicable politics will change the facts''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/ive-run-over-better-rabbits-than-these-people-senator-20130528-2n9mg.html#ixzz2Ul7iahXF

Mr Madigan is most likely pissed off because he can't get his hands on any of the cash. Considering he got elected with only 2.3% of the primary vote (surprise did that many Victorians vote for him?) needed 4% to cash in, bad luck.
"Mad Dog's" (Madigan) the tag seems apt, big claim to fame is his suggestion for the economic good of Australia that shops close at midday on Saturday, along with the usual "I'm against policies" as one can expect from a reactionary like Mr Mad Dog.

I liked the Chuchillian speech by Mr Mad Dog, which I post in full here;
"I've run over better rabbits than these people."

I also note Mr Mad Dog is a Catholic (that surely gets my vote). John Madigan must be the greatest senator this country has seen since Peanut Joh gave Albert Field the nod in 75.

I am aware frankness often see other think of me as rude.
So be it, this thread its authors style or lack of it, his heated but unfocused words.
Leave me questioning why I continue to come here.
DLP once home for Tony Abbott as a youth,and other now Liberals, and the Catholic Churches once anti communist party.
Has every bit as much as my Union CONTROLLED ALP, failed to move in to the present.
Living on its past, an inglorious one, Bob Santamariea, yesterdays left of center Bolt or any shock jock, they are a living fossil.
Imagine our Saturdays, in the name of a God named avagoodweekend , with no place to go boring as A 1950,s Sunday.
DLP do we understand how they got that seat? how not their vote but preferences of others put them there.
Australia awake, we know Liberals and their pet are about to win .
Do we understand? that the senate may cripple them/the will of voters? that like Labor, spoilers may stop an elected government doing anything?
I can not bring myself to post in such a ranting screamers thread again, but this subject if it respected truth, could be a good one.

Paul1405

I don't have any problem at all with shops closing at midday Saturday, but then I've never been one for 'shopping experiences' or 'retail therapy'. Consider however the poor mugs chained to cash-registers (apart of course from the blue-uniformed ones for whom I have no sympathy), surely they have a right to weekends off ?? Mind you Madigans greatest claim to date is undoubtedly his Citizen Initiated Referenda bill, that alone warrants a knighthood. I wouldn't award him any points for being a catholic (if indeed he is such), note that the RAbbott is / was a catholic priest & morality isn't exactly HIS strongest point. Same goes for ex-Brisbane mayor Surley Jim who was reportedly defrocked by the then Pope for openly consorting with a married anglican woman. Another failed priest albeit only part catholic, Slippery Pete is a perfect case for banning ALL priests from politics in perpetuity. All that aside, I LOVED the spray Madigan gave his fellow politicians, he definitely wins a bunch of brownie-points for that.

Wasn't Pat Field that mousey looking character who once got indundated with thousands of litres of water & ended up looking even more like a drowned rat than he usually did ?? If its the individual I'm thinking about, I would have sworn he was mayor of Brisbane for a very short period.

Belly

I don't know that 'living in the past' is necessarily a bad thing, certainly our elected officials in times past had a somewhat closer acquaintance with morality than the vast majority of the present crop. Both your ALP & the Liberals / Nationals had some halfway honorable folk once, but that breed is frightfully thin on the ground these days. Do you deny shop assistants the right to weekends with their family ?? Thats hardly the mark of a do-gooder is it ?? As for your comment ' we know Liberals and their pet are about to win', I suggest that after the RAbbotts little election funding fiasco with the red-headed witch, his chances have been somewhat diminished. For what its worth even though I've traditionally leaned ever so minutely toward conservative politics, I'm seriously thinking of giving the ALP a slightly higher number (albeit still right at the bottom) on the ballot paper than the LNP. The RAbbott was already in my bad books as a result of his despicable involvement in the One Nation business, this latest rort is just about the last straw. When I phoned Madigans Canberra office to express my heartfelt appreciation for his comments (well after the media interview that initiated this thread), the staffer told he he was still spitting chips about the crookedness of the RAbbott & the red-headed witch. Whether or not one 'likes' Madigan personally, it can hardly be disputed that his criticism of his compatriots is exceptionally apt.

Bely,
Surely you remember those wonderful 1950s Sundays when the whole family headed off to the appointed cricket paddock where the RSL had set up a keg and the women created really healthy salads and the kids did what kids do and came back to have their wounds patched before returning to their adventures.
Surely you remember those life-time factory workers and loyal govt employees recently returned from the battle fronts of Europe and Borneo or the prisons of Germany and Changi draped in their ill fitting cricket whites with a beer in one hand and a bat in the other.
Surely you remember your Holden Special and your Admiral TV and the washing machine and Victa mower that got their turn on Saturday afternoon.
Surely you must remember.