On the ABC news tonight the presenter said that the ABC asked the US
person Snowden in Moscow what info he had on Australia's intelligence
operation against Indonesia.
The ABC obtained this information and publicised it in the news.

For doing this the ABC should have its transmitter licences cancelled.
To release that information was a really stupid thing to do.
I would suspect that it was a political act for no other reason than
to make things difficult for the government, and before the bleeding
hearts get up in arms, remember this is Australia that has been betrayed.
Also it is Tony Abbott that is being blamed but it was going on for
years while Rudd & Gillard were running the government so why doesn't
the media blame them ? Could it be their politics ?

Oh well, Bazz, you win some you loose some.

The Abbott govt has been keen to take credit for Labor's Manus solution of "slowing the boats" (although we don't know how many have actually come)....

So, with that in mind, I see no reason why they wouldn't be happy to take responsibility for this latest debacle with Indonesia.

It's all part of the job of govt - especially when Tones has reassured everyone that Australia only uses it's intelligence for "good".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-18/indonesia-angered-by-revelations-australia-spied-on-sby/5100264

""All governments gather information and all governments know that every other government gathers information," he told Parliament."

""I should also say that the Australian Government uses all the resources at its disposal, including information to help our friends and our allies, not to harm them."

Anyhooo....It's going to take some diplomatic skill to dig out of this one.

.............

Hasbeen,

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm on the right track.

Anything you might condemn is obviously the right stuff!

P&P,

The phone tapping and spying about which you are crowing occurred under Labor.

Once again the coalition is left to clean up Labor's mess.

Our relations with China under KRudd and Juliar suffered more than in any other period other than war time.

Dudd's PNG solution was a good idea, however, in the two months before the election Labor actually sent almost no one off shore. The 25% drop in illegal entries was unsustainable.

Since the coalition has taken a firm approach in sending everyone immediately off shore, returning "rescued" illegals to Indonesia, and with Indonesia's and Sri Lanka's help, stopping them at the source, the numbers have dropped by nearly 90%. Labor's pathetic attempt to claim that this was entirely due to the PNG solution is completely unsubstantiated.

SM, is this the way your man Tone deals with our friends, do you think he's got a tap on North Korea's Kim Jong. I think he would be up to no good.
One things for sure, the one phony who hasn't been tapped is Tony! No use, he talks some kind of indecipherable code only understood by fellow clunkers in the Liberal Party.
It must be serious, Bozo wants the ABC antenna ripped down.

Abbott and his mouth are causing international turmoil.

Here we go.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-18/hetherington-the-coalitions-big-lie/5098544

Nicely unwraps the Coalition's deception on the state of the economy.

"The Coalition's characterisation of Labor's economic management as "reckless" and "wasteful" is a big lie that is going to be hard to revise, writes David Hetherington.

One day, they'll write textbook case studies about it. Political genius, they'll say - a master class in strategy, messaging and discipline. It worked a treat and delivered government to the Coalition.

I write, of course, of the Big Lie - the myth created and propagated by the Coalition that the Australian economy is in the mire as a result of what Joe Hockey calls "Labor's economic and fiscal mismanagement"

The Big Lie was a cornerstone of the Coalition's political strategy over the last three years.

At every turn, Coalition MPs railed against Labor's "reckless", "scandalous" and "wasteful" handling of the economy

The choristers within News Corp Australia played their part to perfection, with a daily drumbeat of opinion pieces echoing profound concern.

That the Big Lie ran counter to all economic fact mattered not a bit. Its communication was so successful that many in the electorate came to believe it.

However, the sting may be in the tail. For the government, the challenge of the Big Lie is dealing with its legacy.

Having won government, the Coalition finds the economy is - surprise - in the same good shape it was before. Low unemployment, low inflation, steady growth, a triple-A rating.

As this reality sits uncomfortably with the Big Lie, the Coalition must navigate a delicate political shift and manage the inflated expectations of its supporters."

The problem is that now we're stuck with an incompetent team of fairy story tellers and we know we can hardly believe a word that passes their lips..and that's when they deign to tell us something.

This lot of shonky operators actually makes me yearn for the days of Howard....not nearly as fascist!