While the left wing of politics is trying exceedingly hard to conflate trivial missteps by the PM and ignore what he has achieved, his diplomatic prowess has not gone unnoticed by our strongest allies.

In the words of Kim Beasley Ambassador to the US and former Labor Leader:

In an exclusive interview at his official residence in Washington, Mr Beazley told The Daily Telegraph yesterday that US officials had marvelled at Mr Abbott’s diplomatic coups on his recent north Asian visit. “He has them somewhat intrigued,” Mr Beazley said in a rare interview on his assessment of the US/Australia relationship.

“And they are very interested in the Prime Minister’s visits to Asia…and what he has arranged in the region. “They are intrigued by his relationship with the Japanese Prime Minister and the fact Australia is looking to do more and more with Japan and how he managed to balance that out with quite a reasonable dialogue with China.

“They think that was a little risk taking by the Australian Prime Minister….and he seemed to pull it off, so in their minds that is a plus. “And then of course as the Americans have more interest with south-east Asia…the most interested of the American politicians in this area is Obama himself.”

Come on Shadow, give us a link. Are you sure it was not the thoughts of Uncle Rups the Daily Telecrap was reporting. I believe Tony Boloney has already been down to see his lord and master for a quick bit of brown nose'n with the 'Septic Tank' himself. Gee for someone who claims to only quote the Daily Telecrap now and then, you seem to rely on that Murdoch fish wrapper quite often. Nothing in the SMH or ABC.
Unless the regular Abbott sycophants jump in and start singing the Mad Monks praises. I don't think you are going to get a lot of agreement here,

Yep Shadow, every time he goes off shore he hits sixes everywhere he goes, without making a fool of himself & us that that idiot Rudd did.

They have had to play up a minor slip of the tongue, as that is all they have been able to fault.

God it must be painful when someone you've been trying to portray as a dunce, has you by the short & curlys, & gives them a little tug from time to time.

Abbott has called the science behind climate change "absolute crap" and moved to undo environmental policies of his predecessor Kevin Rudd, who was one of Obama's closest international allies.

Obama raised climate change in the meeting and wants the issue to be on the agenda in Brisbane, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

Speaking Tuesday to reporters in New York, Abbott said that climate change "is a very significant global issue."
Is Abbott sending remarks to suite the occasion or more lies.

AUSTRALIA has struck a defence agreement with the United States that prepares the ground for more American troops, aircraft and ships to operate from Australian bases to ward off threats in South East Asia.

TONY Abbott has refused to rule out Australian involvement in any military action in Iraq after US President Barack Obama said all options were on the table in terms of dealing with jihadist militants surging towards Baghdad

“Aussies know how to fight and I like having them in a foxhole if we’re in trouble,” Mr Obama declared at the end of a meeting with Mr Abbott.
I say we all know who was in that fox hole. Abbott was in no position to bargain with Obama.
All the time saying China is no threat.

Obama has heard about Abbott's green paper with constitutional issues, between Northern Australia and a chinese zone to bring in their own labour.
All very diplomatic, triumphs are all Obama's. If you are going to give half of Australia away, America may as well have some to.

During wide-ranging talks at the White House, the pair also discussed their different approaches to climate change, with BOTH agreeing they would like energy efficiency on the G20 agenda.

Video: 'I like having (Aussies) in a foxhole': Obama (ABC News)
"Mr Abbott assured Mr Obama that 'Australia will be an utterly dependable ally of the United States'".

Great. When it comes to the survival of civilisation Tony Abbott is willing to team up with Stephen Harper from "Canadia" and undermine Obama's moves to reduce greenhouse gases.

But when it comes to Washington DC's slowness in realising that the Yanks have to give more power to China, Tony Abbott is "All the way with the USA".

A delegation of 18 ambassadors and senior diplomats has lodged a protest with Australia's Foreign Affairs Department for changing the terminology used for occupied East Jerusalem. The Prime Minister has defended the use of the term 'disputed' but Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says Australia's out of step with even its closest allies.

Paul,

Did you read my post, or are you trying to paint Kim Beasley as a Rupert Murdoch lackey?

In his short time as PM, Abbott has overseen the repair of relations with Indonesia, mostly restoring the cattle export, and gaining acceptance of the boat policy all damaged largely by labor, a FTA with Korea, soon one with Japan, and accelerated FTA discussions with China, India and Indonesia, and increased military co operation with the US. To top it all, Abbott has taken with him a large delegation of business leaders to further boost economic ties.

In short Abbott has achieved in his short time more than KRudd and Juliar achieved in 6 years.

Lol!..." Abbott's diplomatic triumphs."

A bit like that book produced, titled "The Wit and Wisdom of Margaret Thatcher" - which was full of bank pages.

Did anyone happen to catch the body language of Obama during his meeting with Abbott?

Spoke volumes....

Abbott's great friends the Chinese are not going to be best pleased with Abbott. Obama rules the top half of AU, and at the same time telling the Chinese they can develop the northern areas of AU.

Obama has Tony in a fox hole and unable to say anything against the US.
There was no mention of these arrangements, nothing like a surprise.

Obama came up with that one when he saw Abbott's agenda with the Chinese.

P,

That you weren't capable of contradicting any of Abbott's diplomatic achievements or submit any Labor achievements means that you are down to reading tea leaves or interpreting body language.

From what I saw of Obama and Abbott, there was no indication of dislike whatsoever no hard you try and look

A fool is not taken seriously, hence he does not gather enemies on his journeys !

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described himself as a ''conservationist'' who has no disagreement with US President Barack Obama on the subject of climate change.

Speaking after his meeting with Mr Obama in Washington, Mr Abbott played down any differences between the two leaders, saying that both he and the US President took climate change ''very seriously

''We all want to do the right thing by our planet,'' he told ABC Radio on Friday. ''I regard myself as a conservationist.
CRAP.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-am-a-conservationist-tony-abbott-says-no-friction-with-barack-obama-on-climate-change-action-20140613-3a192.html#ixzz34UXpJhsV

579,

"Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described himself as a ''conservationist'' who has no disagreement with US President Barack Obama on the subject of climate change."

What he meant was a ..."Conservative"....

Or, more likely, a..."Con-artist".

Is it possible to share the same concern as someone else and have a different opinion as to how to resolve the issue. Of course it is, unless you are a one eyed climate alarmist hell bent on discrediting Tony Abbott for whatever he does.

If Abbott commented what a beautiful blue sky was overhead, 579 and Poirot would disagree, twist his words and find a way of calling him a liar.

If Abbott commented what a beautiful blue sky was overhead”

First I would require it in writing, then I would seek a second opinion and then I would go out and check. Come to think of it I wouldn't bother I would just grab a rain coat.

If our former Prime Minister Julia Gillard would have
been able to walk on water - headlines in the
NewsCorp newspapers would have read -
"See, the PM can't swim!" and the usual chattering masses
would not let anyone forget it!

Isn't politics fun?

Here is another one of 'Abbott's diplomatic triumphs.' He has turned his fuel excise into a Carbon Tax to ingratiate himself with President Obama, how pathetic he is ! I cannot believe the lies he keeps spitting forth ! Now people you are going to be sold a whole new story about the increase in fuel excise, one quite different from the one you were told at the Budget ! Even if you are a diehard Liberal supporter surely you must be cringing by now !

@Foxy, Friday, 13 June 2014 4:18:33 PM

LOL, Leave Julia Whatshername alone, you say?

Here you go, for your edification,

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/face-it-julia-gillard-you-were-no-good-as-our-prime-minister/story-fni0ffxg-1226951020984

trapdiocan,

"He has turned his fuel excise into a Carbon Tax"

What drivel, firstly it is not his tax and he said "In Australia, taxes on petrol are about $1.50 a gallon. In the United States, taxes on petrol are 40 cents a gallon."

We now have a carbon tax on petrol with no end date.

We now have a carbon tax on petrol with no end date.
579,
We have worse than that, we have morons to no end with no chance of genetic improvement. Thank you Labor !

shadow minister- If your going to stick up for Abbott then you must keep up to-date with his latest contradictions ! admittedly, I realize that's a hard ask, but you have to try :)

Sucking up to Americans real hard Just do what they say buy all their goods Yea real easy. How about learning to say no to the americans

Dear Shadow Minister,

Well I'm happy to have a conversation on the issue.

May I ask your assessment of the following story today from the ABC;

Quote:

“The Coalition recently decided to switch its description of the territories from "occupied" to "disputed".

It is a move that has angered many Arabic and Islamic countries.

Almost 20 ambassadors and senior diplomats representing nations including Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan protested against the decision yesterday in a meeting with the Foreign Affairs Department in Canberra.

The head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, said some countries might decide to impose trade sanctions over the issue.

"There are a lot of exports of meat to the Arab world and now also we're talking about the wheat," he said.

End quote.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-13/joyce-leaving-foreign-policy-issues-to-people-smarter-than-him/5520248

Is this a diplomatic move by Abbott that you support even though it may well harm our exports? Is this smart diplomacy? Is this in Australia's best interest? Is it a triumph?

SR,

Good to chat again.

WRT Israel, the 1948/9 boundaries were established its Arab neighbours attacked Israel, and tried to wipe out Israel. Notably, only Iran recognised Israel, but the rest refused to recognise Israel's existence let alone its borders. The six day war began in 1967 after extensive violations of the armistice and preparations for war by Israel's neighbours. Notably the same Arab nations refused to recognise Israel / its borders and only recently have 4 Arab countries done so.

In my view:
-Neither the 1948 nor 1967 borders were established by negotiation, but by war.
-The "recognition" of the 1948 borders by the Arab countries only came into existence long after 1967 and is in my view a negotiating tactic.
-Given the Palestinian's predilection for lobbing rockets from their territories into Israel, I see zero chance of Israel ever conceding to return to the extremely hard to defend 1948 borders.
-Most of the west has recognised that the 1948 borders were untenable and that the 1967 borders should be the starting point of negotiations.

Given the above, the change in language from Occupied territories to disputed territories does not grant recognition to the 1967 borders that Israel holds nor to the equally unrealistic 1948 borders and is Realpolitik.

Secondly with respect to threats against imports from Australia:
1-They are a tiny portion of the exports from Australia, generally the most problematic with regards animal cruelty,
2-Relations with the middle east is replete with empty threats, and restricting imports from Aus would hurt them far more than us.
3-Kowtowing to tin pot dictators is never the basis for diplomatic relations.

trapdiocan,

Perhaps you would care to read what Abbott actually said and not simply take Labor's spin to be the gospel truth.

Abbott has never tried to form an anti carbon tax alliance with Canada,
Abbott did not call the fuel tax a carbon tax, Labor did.
The 40c/l tax has been in place for more than a decade,
Obama has not tried to put in place a carbon tax, a price on carbon, nor an ETS

SM,

"Abbott did not call the fuel tax a carbon tax, Labor did."

Here's what Abbott said:

"....Mr Abbott said the fuel excise is already acting as a carbon price signal to improve energy efficiency."

Of course he would say something of that ilk wile crawling around the US Pres pretending he gives two hoots about emissions..

And...

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-seeks-alliance-to-thwart-president-obama-on-climate-change-policy-20140609-39t93.html

"Visiting Ottawa for a full day of talks with the conservative Canadian Prime Minister and close friend Stephen Harper, Mr Abbott flagged intentions to build a new centre-right alliance led by Canada, Britain and Australia along with India and New Zealand."

He's got buckley's of Britain joining his his little club of dolts.

........

On another subject....here's the AMA on the govt's GP Tax.

https://ama.com.au/ausmed/one-term-tony

Scathing.

"The first is to apply a GP tax, imposed on those who actually use health care most frequently: the aged; those stricken with cancer; children; chronic disease sufferers; residential aged care facility residents; the Indigenous; plus those who want to embrace preventative care."

"What is the philosophy underlying these changes? Is it stupidity? Or worse, does it reflect a desire to see persecution of the unwell who seek taxpayer-funded care?

It certainly embraces use of barriers to the access of care, which in turn creates cost shifting to the states via public hospitals."

"As a wealthy society with no real budgetary crisis, we do not want or need the divide between rich and poor to be accentuated.

We do not want the young unemployed persecuted and denied support.

We must realise that if we do cut this support, we will force some into crime and extremism, and many others will suffer worse mental health outcomes.

These are not attractive outcomes for society. Why cannot our elected representatives realise this?"

Nice try P,

The fuel levy has been in place in various forms for decades. The increased costs of the electricity distribution network also acts as a carbon price signal. => A carbon tax is a price signal, not all price signals are carbon taxes.

Last time I checked the SMH left wing commentator Mark Kenny was not a spokesman for the government. The alliance is a figment of his imagination.

There is no GP tax, as a tax is paid to the government. This is paid to the GP for services rendered.

The coalition left government with no net debt, a string of surpluses and a balanced budget. Labor left government with record debt, and a budget wildly out of control.

Labor's budget reply was unable to make any recommendations or counter budget without looking like economic morons.

SM,

"The fuel levy has been in place in various forms for decades. The increased costs of the electricity distribution network also acts as a carbon price signal. => A carbon tax is a price signal, not all price signals are carbon taxes."

And can you explain to us why Mr Fibber Abbott didn't let on prior to election in his regular "slash the tax" bulletins, that he intended to up the fuel levy?

...or why, if it's a "carbon price signal" will the money will be going to roads to encourage people to drive cars more?

Call it what you like - the $2 is going to GP's for administrative costs which will be eaten up quickly...the other $5 is going to their hastily confected Medical Research Thingy - which is merely a cover for this sham of a policy designed to undermine Medicare.

It's an impost...and again, one that was withheld from the electorate prior to the election.

What a bunch of right-wing shysters it is that has been elected.

And you're going to have your work cut out on this forum for some time to come attempting to defend their lies, shiftiness and deception.

Lol!.."economic morons"....get a load of Hockey the numbskull now getting desperate to sell his odium.

SM,

I'll just add that it's curious that you go to such lengths to defend this dreadful govt.

Tony Abbott lies to such an extent that it's getting to the stage of suggesting that this man may have some type of mental disorder.

Of course, the really odd thing is how the federal LNP/IPA managed to coalesce into a cabal where a considerable number all operate under similar ethics.

That's why this govt will not achieve a second term.

Enjoy the pantomime while you can.

SM>>The coalition left government with no net debt, a string of surpluses and a balanced budget. Labor left government with record debt, and a budget wildly out of control.<<

SM your demonising of the Hawke/Keating economic credentials is justified....but to hold Howard up as an example of how a competent government returns the budget to surplus is utter rubbish.

Howard cleared the majority of the debt by selling off our gold reserves.....and at the bottom of the market cycle as well. No brilliant management skills employed there, and afterwards Costello kept a tight purse string.....nothing brilliant about it.

In saying that, Labor have proven to be hopeless economic managers....worse than the Coalition.

sonofgloin,

I couldn't agree more (sarc)...fancy the ALP leaving us with a AAA credit rating (from 3 agencies) and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in the OECD.

What were they thinking!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/linkableblob/3727694/data/possum-graph-8-government-debt-as-gdp-data.jpg

Abbott's diplomatic triumphs are doing a great deal of trouble in the pipeline. It would be best if he just said nothing. Or better still get rid of the lying international disaster.

He says things to suite the occasion, Him and Castro should get along nicely. Now he is a conservationist, that is a 100* turnaround.

It would take a brave person to stick up for Abbott, the man is a dork and is not in AU's best interests.

Hockey has not yet kicked a goal with his social dividing budget, and needs to be scrapped.

Turnbull is on the sidelines, abiding his time, just like Rudd.
This term of govt; will go down in history as an all time disgrace.

The whole noalition team have to be on the edge, not knowing what is going to be said next.

Poirot>> I couldn't agree more (sarc)...fancy the ALP leaving us with a AAA credit rating (from 3 agencies) and one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios in the OECD.
What were they thinking<<

P I can’t disagree with the lowest debt to GDP ratio....and regardless of what Hockey tells us our spending on social services is lower than the majority of OECD nations, even America.....but Labor are hopeless economic managers.

The GFC did not impact on us, our GDP grew...but we got into a debt that warrants a major sell off from the nation’s assets. Given Labor sold off our banks and Liberals sold off our gold, Hockey and Abbott respond with taking money from our most vulnerable....the old and the poor.

After 8 months of governance I have judged Abbott to be a liar, just the same as Pinocchiette Gillard.

Just to remind ourselves, the nothing backbencher is on $200K a year...not to mention the rest of the perks and payments, and Abbott announces with the passion of a matyre, that he and his ilk will feel the new tax sting.....a totally canonizing self serving statement.

I will also remind you that Global Miners get more return on investment from their Australian operations than anywhere else on the globe...we are being screwed...just by taxing them at global parity we would pay off our debt....but just as the Global Miners put Gillard in her place....Abbott has not got the guts to do what is best for Australia and Australians.

sonofgloin,

"The GFC did not impact on us, our GDP grew...but we got into a debt that warrants a major sell off from the nation’s assets."

Erm....one asks "Why didn't the GFC impact us?" (Nothing to do with the "early" implementation of a stimulus?)

It does not "warrant a major sell off from the nation's assets".

So instead of going into a GFC driven recession, we run up some debt - which is still incredibly low compared to other countries - countries which decided to go with austerity during the GFC.

Australia under Labor keeps itself ticking over nicely...with low debt to GDP...and you say "but Labor are hopeless economic managers."

Gawd help me...the world's going mad!

P,

While making excuses for labor's debt is all good and well, no left whinger has indicated anything that makes his overseas diplomatic trip and efforts anything but a success.

It is a great success - especially amongst
American comedians. They refer to Mr Abbott
as Australia's 'George W.'

Dear Shadow Minister,

Thank you for your lengthy reply but could I politely point out the fact that of the questions I directly put to you namely; “Is this a diplomatic move by Abbott that you support even though it may well harm our exports? Is this smart diplomacy? Is this in Australia's best interest? Is it a triumph?” none were really addressed at all.

May I invite you to consider them again.

SR,

The question you asked was not a simple yes/no question, similar to "are you a better person having stopped molesting children?"

Answering the question and the subtexts:

1 My support

Do I think the word disputed is more technically correct? - Yes
Do I think the Palestinian position that the negotiations cannot start without the acceptance of the 1948 borders as the only legitimate ones will kill the peace process? - Yes.
Do I personally care whether the area is called the occupied territories, disputed territories or the Pork exclusion zone? - No, but without some Realpolitik filtering into the negotiations, the negotiations will not start for at least another 50 years, so I give the name change my tenuous support.

2 Consequences

Do I think that sanctions are any more than a vapid threat? No
Do I think that Australian diplomacy on any issue should be governed by threats by one side? - No.

In context, do you remember the catastrophic collapse in Indonesian relations Labor and the Greens predicted if Abbott dared to pursue his boat turn back policy? Do you remember the care and consideration taken by Juliar wrt consequences when she banned live cattle exports to Indonesia?

Perhaps you could answer your own question with more than a yes/no answer?

P,

Are you seriously proposing that every single policy nuance that Abbott introduces should be a pre election promise?

How about Juliar's 500 odd pieces of legislation. Almost none of them were in the pre election promises e.g. means testing the health insurance funds. Previously Labor promised not to do that.

With regards Labor's debt, it would be nice if for example we could pay for the NDIS instead of paying $1bn a month in interest payments.

As with personal debt, all goes swimmingly until it doesn't.

This says it all,

pbs.twimg.com/media/BqEtSfKCcAANe4B.jpg

SM,

"Are you seriously proposing that every single policy nuance that Abbott introduces should be a pre election promise?"

I am seriously proposing that when a leader says this repeatedly before the election (this one the day before):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivl9JdfM1Kc

....and then promptly, once they're elected, do the exact opposite - that the electorate has been conned big time.

I'm seriously proposing that a government who wastes no time in enacting policy which is the antithesis of their pre-election spiel is a government who has duped its way to power.

I'm also seriously proposing that a government who spits on the electorate to such an extent - and so soon after winning power - has buckley's chance of being believed again.

I am seriously proposing that when a leader says this before the election (this one the day before):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gillard+carbon+tax

....and then promptly, once they're elected, do the exact opposite - that the electorate has been conned big time.

I'm seriously proposing that a government who wastes no time in enacting policy which is the antithesis of their pre-election spiel is a government who has duped its way to power. (re Rudd's fiscal discipline)

I'm also seriously proposing that a government who spits on the electorate to such an extent - and so soon after winning power - has buckley's chance of being believed again.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Ms Bishop would meet with ambassadors in Canberra to explain the government's position and tell them there had been no change in policy.

"There's been a terminological clarification," Mr Abbott told reporters in Houston on Saturday.

"We absolutely refuse to refer to 'occupied' East Jerusalem.

"(But) there has been no change whatsoever to our strong support for a two-state solution, to our position on resolutions 242 and 338, or our commitment to a significant aid program to Palestine."

Mr Abbott said people were reading too much into what began merely as an argument between Attorney-General George Brandis and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon

The bludgers have not only pressed the Panic button, they're actually holding it down !

Co-payments were not the only change to health in the budget. There are hikes in the cost of medicine, changes to safety nets, and the $30 billion cut from state hospital funding. But it is co-payments which have all the ingredients of a flashpoint issue which will haunt the government if not properly managed. It’ll hurt the budgets of some doctors’ patients and remind most of them the government has found a new way to put a hand in their pockets. It’s surprising the government has not got its message quite right.

The Treasurer swings between playing down the impact of the $7 fee, and saying a co-payment is necessary to make people think twice about unnecessary trips to the doctor. Both cannot be true.

It will try to push the changes through Parliament by linking them to a $20 billion medical research fund, which Dutton argues cannot happen without higher user charges for health services. But clearly this is not enough of a lever to sway Labor, the Greens, and many of the new Senate crossbenchers who will appear from July 1.

In a meeting Dr Bittar held with local GPs last week, many believed they would have to charge more than the $7 for those who could afford it, or go out of business.

“Realistically, we all discussed this, to be viable we have to be charging more. The problem is once you charge more you lose the incentive payment,” Dr Bittar said.

“It’s a catch-22.”

Health Minister Peter Dutton said doctors will be more than $400 million a year better off if they comply and charge the $7 co-payment, as they will receive $2 from every consultation.

A report by respected UBS healthcare analyst Andrew Goodsall released last week backs up Mr Dutton, calculating GPs will on average see a 4.4 per cent boost in income.

But it also argues the government has “wedged” general practice, making it economically untenable not to charge the co-payment.

And there is nothing to stop GPs as well as pathology and imaging providers from charging non-concessional patients higher rates to make up for it.

What a joke, people argue about a $7.- payment whilst the health Department charters two helicopters for $17,000.- when they could have done the same travel quicker for $6000,.- in a fixed wing charter.
Stop waffling about expenses when crap like that goes on daily. Start looking at how your local Departments operate before you carry on like morons about what Abbott said or what George Brandis said. Start enquiring about your local bureaucrats if you want to do some stirring. You want the truth then start looking for it.

Woo hoo!...I've been waiting patiently for individual to come up with his fave "moron" descriptor.

Knew he couldn't hold out much longer!

Poirot,
Well, seeing that these charters were organised by Labor bureaucrats the term moron is insufficient, perhaps criminal morons is more apt. I'm sure you'll find my name calling or rather character description of your Labor friends more challenging than their criminal ineptitude. What have you got to say about such waste of public funding ?
I suppose you could blame Abbott for wearing a blue tie or similar for this waste.

Dear Shadow Minister,

To use your format.

Did I ask you if you thought the word disputed is more technically correct? - No.

Did I ask you if you thought the Palestinian position that the negotiations cannot start without the acceptance of the 1948 borders as the only legitimate ones will kill the peace process? - No.

Did I ask you if you personally care whether the area is called the occupied territories, disputed territories or the Pork exclusion zone? - No.

Did I ask you if you thought that sanctions are any more than a vapid threat? No.

Did I ask you if you thought that Australian diplomacy on any issue should be governed by threats by one side? - No.

Rather I asked this;

Is this a diplomatic move by Abbott that you support even though it may well harm our exports? Is this smart diplomacy? Is this in Australia's best interest? Is it a triumph?

Breaking it down.

Australia has become only the second nation after Israel to refer to these areas as 'disputed' rather than 'occupied'. If it was indeed a diplomatic move then to what purpose? Further was it initiated by Abbott or the cabinet or someone else and if someone else then whom?

If it was a diplomatic move then was it smart? If you feel it was the product of an intelligent mind to go out on a limb like this then you must have some sense of the diplomatic goals made possible because of it.

Are those diplomatic goals in Australia's best interest? They certainly serve Israel's but what of this country? You must have a clear notion of both what those interests are and how they are being enhanced by this action. They will of course need to far outweigh the risk to trade and relations with 20 odd nations that this course of action has precipitated.

If you are able to convincingly answer the all above then I shall have no hesitation in agreeing with the proposition that Mr Abbott is indeed a triumph on the diplomatic stage.

SR,

Given that I am not an expert on the middle east what I do note is:
Australia has not changed its position on the recognition of the borders of the 1949 armistice,
Most of the Islamic countries have yet to recognise the existence of Israel, and hence the borders, and would like to include Israel in its entirety as disputed territory.

Secondly wrt threat of sanctions: The Ambassadors from the Islamic countries expressed their disapproval, the only person to mention trade retaliation was the Palestinian representative. This is one "crisis" of many confected by opponents of the government as a scare campaign similar to the "risk of war with Indonesia if Abbott turned the boats around" So the real risk of economic sanctions over the use of the term "disputed" = zero.

Finally to answer your question which in my opinion is so trivial and hypothetical that using it to make a judgement on the government's diplomatic success is like using the ash tray design as the sole criteria for buying a car is:

I don't really care, but if its sole reason is to wind up Lee Rhiannon, then I say go for it.

Shadow Minister says:

"I don't really care, but if its sole reason is to wind up Lee Rhiannon, then I say go for it."

That's the kind of base immaturity we've come to expect around here from "righties".

(Almost makes individual's ever-present "moron" lament seem classy)

Poirot,
it's not a lament, it's an undeniable fact that there are too many morons. What else could you possibly call a Leftie ? I mean in a moral & technical sense. When there is no sense the word moron springs to mind. It's as simple as that. Don't like the term, don't behave like a moron.
Only morons can't understand that.

individual,

Your commentary on this forum is a joke.

Your only recourse is to call people who disagree with your philosophy - "morons"...that's it...it's all you've got.

Interacting with you on here is not something I take seriously at all...it now boils down to counting how many times you employ the word "moron" in each post.

Which, at least, is kind of entertaining.

Poirot,
it's not rewarding for me at all to see that you simply don't get it. At least you find it amusing.

Tanya Plibersek reference to Abbott as a “Nigel No-friends” may well be an apt description. At home Abbott has done a good job to alienate the majority of Australians with an unjust budget. His only friends here are his cronies in the Liberal Party and a couple of arch conservative shock jocks and commentators like Allen Jones, plus the racially out of touch Andrew Bolt. Outside Australia who are Abbott's political friends? The man is off side with the broad thinking of the rest of the world on most issues, be it climate change, or the Middle East. As a "No Friends Nigel" his only mate on the world stage is The PM of as he called it "Canaray" that Womble Stephen Harper. Anyway, I would fully expect Harper to dump on Australia if push come to shove over trade. Abbott is proving himself to be a “Nigel No-friends".

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is trying to calm anger from Australia's Arab trading partners over a change in language towards Israel by saying there has been no ­policy shift, just a ­"terminological ­clarification".

Mr Abbott revealed Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is scheduled to meet early this week with a delegation of Arab League and other ambassadors whose nations are threatening trade sanctions against Australia, which has serious implications for the multibillion dollar live and frozen meat export trade and other agricultural exports.

The crisis was sparked by Attorney-General George Brandis during a Senate estimates hearing last week when he said the Australian government believed it "unhelpful" to use the term "occupied" when referring to east Jerusalem or other disputed areas of Israel.

"The description of east Jerusalem as 'occupied' east Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications, which is neither appropriate nor useful," Senator Brandis said.

It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgemental language."

The statement prompted about 20 ambassadors from Arab nations and Indonesia to lodge a protest with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and threaten sanctions on the $3.5 billion in annual Australian agricultural exports to the Arab League's 22 member states. Also, Australia exported $4.7 billion in agricultural products to Indonesia last year.

The term "occupied" is the official language used in United Nations resolutions and is consistent with a ruling by the International Court of Justice. Senator Brandis announced the change without cabinet consultation.

Two Government Senators have revealed they will not support a key budget measure to raise income taxes for the well-off to pay off debt.

Queensland Liberal National Senator Ian Macdonald and South Australian Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi have both told the Senate they cannot support the debt tax.

Senator Macdonald has also threatened not to support Prime Minister Tony Abbott's signature paid parental leave scheme.

Senators have begun debating the tax measure in the final fortnight before the current Senate expires.

Despite the unrest in Government ranks, the debt tax is expected to pass the Senate this week with the support of the major parties, the Greens, and independent Senator Nick Xenophon

Dear Shadow Minister,

You are perfectly within your rights to consider raising the diplomatic ire of 20 nations as trivial and less important than raising the ire of Lee Rhiannon.

I happen to take a different view.

I also truly believe that yours was probably the kind of thinking that drove Brandis' comment and the later 'doubling down' by Abbott.

This is of deep concern to me because in my view it reveals an attitude of hubris and of scant understanding of diplomatic nuance, one that may well put impact this country quite negatively.

While you may be excused to have our own prime minister not back away from the comments was idiotic and most certainly not in our interest. In fact it was so frighteningly amateurish as to beggar belief. Hardly a triumph in any but the most jaundiced mind I'm afraid.

SR,

For a few days I was naive enough to take you seriously. I take time to put down my thoughts and logic, and all you take away is one throw away comment. Really?

If this minuscule part of the Coalition's undeniably successful international efforts is the touch stone by which you judge its entirety, you have clearly prejudged the debate and are not allowing the merits to sway your opinion.

E.g.You keep on saying that the change in reference to "disputed" is not in our "interests" but completely fail to justify this as if it was self evident.

Considering that the real price of food traded in the world (upon which the Arab countries are heavily dependent) has real terms nearly doubled in the last decade. And given that the uprisings in the Arab spring was largely attributed to food price increases, the threat of a boycott of Australian agricultural products is so unlikely as to be laughable.

Secondly if by "diplomatic nuance" you mean the sycophantic dance that Rudd and Juliar made to Indonesia, Malaysia etc to achieve a "regional" solution and achieving nothing. Then yes I prefer a diplomacy that is more about honesty even if it offends a few despots.

SM,

"For a few days I was naive enough to take you seriously. I take time to put down my thoughts and logic, and all you take away is one throw away comment. Really?"

Lol!...any thoughts and logic were topped by this rather large cherry on the top:

"I don't really care, but if its sole reason is to wind up Lee Rhiannon, then I say go for it."

How's that for a throw away comment?

(Your lament above is a tad hypocritical methinks)

And...

"Then yes I prefer a diplomacy that is more about honesty..."

What a pearler. There goes Tony Abbott waffling to Obama about the fuel tax rise being a carbon price signal - and then has the temerity to tell the President he's a "conservationist".

How's that for honesty?

It's just as well there is diplomacy and courtesy in international relations, or Obama would have laughed in Abbott's face, taken him by the ear and thrown him out the door

SM,

I'll just add for your edification that you'll be thrilled to know that the LNP have vastly improved from the last Morgan poll (June 7-8) which had them 39.5% to Labor's 60.5% - two party preferred.

That was in the wake of the Turnbull leadership speculation.

They've now zoomed up to be 44.5% to Labor's 55.5% (June 14-15)

So Tony Abbott describes himself as a ''conservationist''. How bizarre, considering that only two weeks ago he told mining executives it's Australia's destiny to bring the affordable energy of coal to the world. And he has given the green light for the Abbot Point coal port on the Great Barrier Reef. He is slashing climate initiative after initiative: he plans to abolish the carbon tax, appointed a climate sceptic to review the renewable energy target, stopped promised subsidies for solar panels, and plans to close the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (closing a money-making initiative in what he claims is a budget emergency). Also, he doesn't talk of climate change as a threat. Indeed his ''plan for real action to reduce carbon emissions'' on the Liberal Party website doesn't even contain key words like ''climate'' and ''warming''. So, in describing himself as a conservationist, he is again calling black white, just as when he brazenly maintained his budget has not broken his election promises.
Surely he will never again be able to present himself as trustworthy.

Abbott’s only real concern is protecting Australia’s world-topping coal industry, whose expansion plans would make it utterly impossible to bring climate change under control.

You would think Abbott might have noticed this – his continent is located closer than almost anyone else’s to the Antarctic, where scientists last month offered definitive proof that melting glaciers have committed the planet to an extra three metres of sea level rise. But instead Abbott’s travelling the world to try to stop international efforts to combat global warming.

In Texas, he told his audience we must prevent the "ostracizing of any particular fuel", as if he were the global ambassador of coal, determined to prevent his favourite hydrocarbon from having to take a back seat to what his Treasurer recently referred to as "utterly offensive" wind turbines.

yea well I suppose the continued abbottphobia has taken the spotlight off the darling of the feminist who has shown to be tied up with grubby alp unionist. You would think that those who were shameful enough to vote for her would shut up but I suppose the abbottphobia has kept them blind and able to continue to demonstrate hatred to the one they were convinced of would never get elected.

Who are you talking about Runner.

Poirot's post is the epitome of left whinger posts everywhere. ie. completely irrelevant to the topic, vacuous, devoid of facts, and based purely on unsupported personal opinion.

Please note that a conservationist may mean to greenie froot loops someone that stops all development, but to rational people it means ensuring that development only occurs if damage to the environment has been minimised or eliminated, and that all aspects comply to EPA standards.

The coal terminal at Abbot's point that will save billions in transport costs, create jobs and boost the economy, was blocked by Juliar because the dredgings are to be dumped in an area that is part of the Great barrier reef protection area. That the area chosen for dumping of the dredgings contains no actual reef for miles and consists of sand bed with sea grass. The development like so many others had all the required departmental sign offs except the federal government. Labor's dependence on the greens had essentially frozen most major developments, and large parts of the economy.

International bank HSBC has said it would be "extraordinarily unlikely" to lend to the controversial Abbot Point coal port expansion on the Great Barrier Reef, Dredging Today reports.

According to the website, HSBC group chief executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank “would be extraordinarily unlikely to go anywhere near” the project, which is expected to involve the dredging of 3 million cubic metres of seabed in the reef’s world heritage waters.

The move follows peer Deutsche Bank's similar decision, with both citing UNESCO concerns over the plan, Dredging Today reports, with failure to fund the expansion meaning $26 billion worth of coal projects will be left hanging in the balance.

Australian environmental groups are now looking to pressure Australia's big four banks to follow the lead of the international banks, the website adds.

I've just read Poirot's posts, and then read Shadow Minister's reply near the top of this page.

Shadow Minister, you are so correct, in fact your words are worth repeating "Poirot's post is the epitome of left whinger posts everywhere. ie. completely irrelevant to the topic, vacuous, devoid of facts, and based purely on unsupported personal opinion".

Keep up your highly intelligent posts Shadow Minister, I enjoy them very much. All the left whingers can do is moan.

Tony, we need to talk about your gambling problem.

Now, yes Tony, we’ve been doing really well out of this bet on fossil fuels in the last few years. China’s sudden switch from net exporter to importer of coal was brilliant. And Japan’s Fukishima nuclear meltdown was a great shot in the arm, too.

What’s that? Yes, I know on a per capita basis we’ve got an awful lot more hydrocarbons under the ground than we could possibly use. And yes, behind iron ore (which by the way has been plummeting in price) it’s our next biggest export. Indeed over the last few years construction of new coal and gas production capacity has been a major contributor to Australia’s economic growth.

But with this construction phase now tapering off, and Australian coal miners now struggling to make a profit, it might be time to think about diversifying the investment portfolio. You know how when you gamble it can sometimes pay off handsomely but, as they say, you also need to know when to cash in your chips and not get too greedy?

You see, your attempt to team up with Canada’s PM, Stephen Harper, to build a coalition of the unwilling on reducing global warming gases doesn’t look like it’s going too well at present.

The PM is a diplomatic genius; he has handled all situations very well indeed, and he has the respect of the world. Even that mad leftie Obama could not find words to criticize our PM.

Look out! Lester1 has just had an 'ABBOTTGASM.'

hilarous how the abbottphobia filled abc made him punching the air headlines while totally ignoring Shortens threat to end a woman's career for telling the truth about union money being used for prostitutes. the sooner the funding is taken from this jokers the better.

Blow it out yer ear, Lester1.

Shadow Minister is the biggest rightie blowhard and propagandist on this forum - who squeals to high heaven if he's challenged in any way, shape or form.

"The PM is a diplomatic genius; he has handled all situations very well indeed, and he has the respect of the world."

Lol!...Lol!...Lol!...

The most hopeless PM ever...has managed to turn an election win into a huge pile of horse manure in record time.

Gee Willakers - I hope he keeps his promise and pulls the trigger for a Double Dissolution (As if!)

"Operation Sovereign Borders is working. The boats are stopping and this is saving lives, saving the Budget $2.5 billion over the next four years – around $50 million a month.

Under Labor’s watch, 190 boats arrived in the equivalent six month period last year."

Then there is the re establishment of the live cattle trade, and relations with Indonesia.

More achievements than Labor managed in 6 years.

Rudd and Juliar were the most incompetent PMs in Australian history.

SM,

"...That the area chosen for dumping of the dredgings contains no actual reef for miles and consists of sand bed with sea grass...."

Show me a rightie blowhard who has dollar signs painted on his rose coloured glasses - and I'll show you a fella who has little environmental expertise.

Dumping dredgings or building any edifice close to shore has implications for altering sea currents and silting up corridors.

But of course, we don't have to worry about that - apparently the actual reef is "miles away".

Nice to see you are such an expert Poirot.

Yes the reef is miles away, about 35 nautical miles away, [if you know the difference] actually.

I could introduce you to thousands of tourists I & my staff took out to the reef in the area, who are well aware of how far out it is, to their considerable discomfort. It is far enough for a very large number of them to have become very seasick while covering that distance.

As I mentioned somewhere else, the tidal currant runs parallel to the coast, not to & from the coast. The wind of the prevailing south east trade wind blows against the flood tide generating quite a sea, in quite mild conditions. The soil will fall out of the water in this area, as does the millions of cubic feet of soil in flood runoff.

I won’t wast my time further explaining why this soil will not get near the reef, as I know you are incapable of believing anything not told you by a lefty.

Hasbeen,

"As I mentioned somewhere else, the tidal currant runs parallel to the coast, not to & from the coast...."

Well, der.

"I'm a conservationist", says Abbott.

"US president George Bush senior flew to the Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 claiming to be the environmental president. One US cartoonist had him being greeted there by three other male heads-of-state with "I'm Little Red Riding Hood", "I'm Miss Muffet" and "and "I'm Goldilocks!"

Nuff said....

TONY Abbott has been handed his first double-dissolution trigger after a bill to scrap the Clean Energy Finance Corporation was rejected for a
second time in the Senate but the government is unlikely to use it.

A DD as promised is in order. We have a budget that is divisive and unworkable. The issue should be forced by blocking supply.

Not even Turnbull could save this lot, now Brandis has added his name to the list of incompetence.

It takes a team working together, to make a govt; what we have is a mob of uninformed people ruled by a radical.

And Abbott's school chaplaincy program has just got the big flick from the High Court.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-19/high-court-delivers-verdict-on-school-chaplaincy-program/5534546

'And Abbott's school chaplaincy program has just got the big flick from the High Court.

You mean the legislation Gillard and Labour put through in support of Chaplaincy Poirot. Your hatred really does distort the facts.

For God's sake! Oh I can't say that anymore I'll be labeled a blasphemer and burnt at the stake. Runner, please read Poirot post, and I promise you wont burn in Hell, for the first offense the church penalty is only crucifixion. LOL

The article clearly states;

"the program was allocated nearly $250 million in this year's federal budget" Who's fingers are in the pie for this year. none other than Tax Em' Tony and Joe Cockey. Yes, <<legislation Gillard and Labour put through>>. It would have been too much to expect this mob to ditch that ridiculous Labor legislation. Fortunately The High Court has done it for us. I would have been in favor of spending $250m of taxpayer's money on a new girdle for Gina Rhinoceros before spending one cent on that church brain washing program in schools.

Tony Abbott has been criticised as "embarrassing" for the performance on his most recent overseas trip, for dismissing the significance of climate policy ahead of his meeting with president Obama, cuddling up to Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper to spearhead a two-man offensive against carbon trading and tortured schoolyard Franglais.

This comes after previous touring highlights: getting offside with Indonesia over spying and asylum seekers and putting Chinese noses out of joint with his assertion Japan was Australia's best friend in Asia.
The upshot is that voters are left with a distinct lack of confidence in Abbott's ability to represent the country's interests overseas.

The conservationist is in limbo, the world is rejecting abbot point.
Two-thirds of voters, including more than half of Coalition voters, want climate policy on the table when we have our moment in the global spotlight.

Abbott may have found a sympathetic ear in the Canadian prime minister when he said there were more pressing economic issues than climate change, but he hasn't won the argument at home.

As he prepares to host G20, it is not just the invited guests wondering whether an IPA-style lecture on the benefits of growth and fiscal rectitude is really what the world needs now

Poirot,

The updated school chaplaincy legislation that was Challenged was Juliar's.

"In 2012, when Labor's new law was being debated, then-shadow attorney-general George Brandis described Labor's legislation as a "bandaid" solution that would not "meet the tests the High Court set out" after the 2012 decision."

As for Abbott's achievements, I gave a few examples none of which you have been able to refute.

579,

The only people that have been "embarrassed" are the greens and the labor party.

None of you radical lefties have been remotely capable of refuting any of the PM's achievements shown by Shadow Minister. Shadow minister provides the proof, and the politically correct lefties just ignore it.

Good point Shadow Minister about it being JULIAR who instigated the school chaplaincy programme. It was one of the very few decent things she did. Another one was her opposition to gay marriage.

Today it upheld the objections of Queensland father Ron Williams, who launched the case arguing there was no place in public schools for non-secular programs.

Former prime minister John Howard introduced the controversial program in the lead-up to the 2007 election. It allows Australian schools to apply for $20,000 grants towards the cost of employing a school chaplain.

Mr Williams, a Toowoomba father-of-six has self-funded two cases against the program with the help of donations from other parents.

“Public schools aren’t a place for religious missionaries, with or without government funding. The fact the federal government was funding them was adding insult to injury,’’ Mr Williams has previously told The Australian.

The rejection Wednesday for a second time of legislation to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, one of the key elements of Labor’s carbon pricing setup, will not start a stampede to the polls.

The Government was never serious about an early election and the speculation it roused was more a product of its frustration and anger than any carefully plotted strategy.

As Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has pointed out, business would not be grateful for a disruptive election so soon after the last one.

And nor would Coalition MPs be pleased as a double dissolution would put all Senate slots up for contest and possibly increase the already-large cross bench of eight.

But it’s not just the cross bench the Government has to placate. Its own MPs and Senators are questioning the $5.5 billion Paid Parental Leave scheme.

If the Treasurer threatens them with an early election, they will respond by crossing the floor or abstaining on the PPL vote.

No Government could hope to improve its election results with a background of disunity. That early election threat is now looking like the bluster it was.

Now the PM says his threat of a DD was no more than lies. How long are we going to be lies to. It seems whatever Abbott says is lies.

579,

The legislation will have the numbers in July to abolish the toxic carbon tax and Juliar's cheer squad departments.

SM What will your benefit from the abolition of the carbon tax be. What will this save the handful of the biggest polluters be.

Labor and the Greens have challenged the government to call a double dissolution election after the Senate defeated a bill to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for a second time.

The Senate voted down the bill on Wednesday 35 votes to 28, with the opposition, Greens and Independent senator Nick Xenophon all opposed to the scrapping of the profitable $10 billion corporation, which invests in renewable energy technology.

But Treasurer Joe Hockey has instead lashed out at Labor and the Greens for ''defying'' the judgment made by voters at the last election and said the government would introduce the repeal bill for a third time next week.

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam threw down the challenge in the Senate on Wednesday, calling on Prime Minister Tony Abbott to call an early election on climate change policy.

''Prime Minister Abbott if you really believe that this is absolute crap and that the Clean Energy Act is going to wipe Whyalla off the map, how’s that working out?'' he said.

''If you really believe that renewable energy can't deliver, then here is the double dissolution election trigger you’ve been waiting for.

The government will reintroduce a bill to abolish the CEFC next week.''
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Australians would prefer to see Mr Abbott keep the budget promises he made before the election and dared him to pull the trigger on a double dissolution election.

''Tony Abbott is all talk - if he wants an election, he should bring it on,'' Mr Shorten said.
''He won't even talk to people in the street about how much this budget is hurting them, let alone face their anger at the ballot box.''
Poll: Should Tony Abbott call a double dissolution election?
Yes
92%
No
8%

At least this time around we have been given an opportunity to see the Liberals for what they really are, instead of all the outrageous lies they told before the election.

Bring on the double dissolution and we'll find out if what they claim the Australian people want is really what the Australian people want. My guess is that it isn't, and Abbott would be out, with no real prospect of ever being returned. And Australia will be all the better for it.

Labor Senator Louise Pratt said: ''The abolition Bills in front of us today are nothing more than a misguided ideological position of a seriously misguided government.

''The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has been and should continue to be a clear success in driving investment, reducing carbon pollution and boosting the government bottom line.''

One of these days Poirot might actually say something, rather than just snipe with nastiness. Most would be amazed, but it might happen.

I wonder who feeds 579 the garbage they push. It is obviously not from them.

Come off it Paul, your lot were jerking Gillard's strings when that stuff was passed, you can't claim it was not yours. Actually you probably can, telling bland lies is standard for Greens, isn't it.

Gawd,, SM...love yer new fan, Lester1!

Lester1,

"Good point Shadow Minister about it being JULIAR who instigated the school chaplaincy programme..."

Oh really?

Johnny Howard "instigated" it in 2007...the Gillard govt passed fresh legislation to keep it going after the High Court challenge in 2012.

Of course, Abbott took it a step further and scrapped funding to non-religious councellors under the National School Chaplaincy Program.

Why exclude non-religious councellors from funding, many of whom are likely to have more expertise and qualifications to address student problems than a "chaplain"?

SM,

Abbott is an embarrassing lying prat...aided and abetted by a crooked Speaker and a whining mincing Leader of the House to shut down debate.

You must admire SM's addiction, albeit he lives in history. Australians are more concerned with now and the immediate future.

Yes it seems SM has a fan, Lester 1. We all need someone sooner or later. Now lets return to the issue at hand, and try and find some Abbott triumpets.

Clive Palmer has signed a commercial lease for office space at the National Press Club building in Canberra, suggesting the conservative populist plans on staying in federal politics for at least the six-year terms of his new senators.

The development came as Prime Minister Tony Abbott appeared to wind back his implied threat of a double-dissolution election if his budget measures are blocked, arguing he would negotiate a way forward on most matters.

That raises the possibility of compromises on unpopular budget measures and could lead to changes such as a lower GP co-payment or exempting children under 13 or concession card holders from the proposed $7 fee

Almost every Labor question on Tuesday was about the promises on education, health and pensions that were allegedly broken in the budget; and how, when rich city women were to be given $50,000 to have babies.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey are defending accusations of untrustworthiness, saying their first budget was “fundamentally honest” and drafted in good faith
“This government was elected on web deceit; they lied to get into office.

This makes cost of living so much worse for Australian families. It is an attack on pensioners, and worst of all, it is the trashing of Medicare.

“This is a massive $80 billion hit to schools and hospitals, these are not areas you are able to cut without taking a massive hit to frontline services.

Poirot,

Nothing of substance again! All the left can do is abuse Abbott. That really worked last time?

579,

Considering that every prediction you have made has been wrong, you are living in a delusion. I remember the prophetic claims that Abbott was unelectable.

From Graham Richardson:

"Newspoll captures the mood of the nation at a given point in time. Last weekend the government would have lost an election by a considerable margin, and that is all well and good up to a point — there was no election. Moreover, elections are held only after a minimum five-week campaign where Labor and the Greens will be massively outspent by the Liberal and Nationals parties, let alone the Clive Palmer spectre now lurking in the foreground of Australian politics.

Such a campaign would feature millions of dollars in advertising Labor’s failures in economic management. While those claims would no doubt be highly exaggerated, it would be impossible to camouflage the political ineptitude and downright stupidity of the Rudd and Gillard prime ministerships. The images of that incompetence are still vividly imprinted on the minds of voters and the 53 per cent-47 per cent two-party preferred result in Newspoll would be reversed in the first few weeks of any election campaign held any time soon.

Labor will not win an election held this year and would do well to chloroform those who push this envelope too far."

Poirots and others hatred growing by the minute

'Abbott is an embarrassing lying prat...aided and abetted by a crooked Speaker and a whining mincing Leader of the House to shut down debate. '

one word. hypocrite.

No matter how much money the noalition throws at advertising they can not explain the lies of Abbott.

Why talk about labor, the GREENS can stand in their own right and so can PUP, SM is automatically programmed, for verbal diahoria against labor.
Ancient history again.

I am not sure if this incompetent govt can outlast the year, supply should be blocked hence forth.

This is not what we voted for, doesn't that count, we were taken to the polls with a dray full of lies, so the election was a fraud.

The people need the chance to evaluate Abbott's fraudulent policies and decide a way forward, win lose or draw the electorate must have their chance to either accept Abbott's fraud budget policy's or chose another govt;.

I don't see why SM can't say that is fair enough, lets do it.
Remember we were promised a DD well lets get on with it. Or was that just another Abbott deliberate lie.

I pray, meditate, chant, and make supplications to Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, and each and every deity (in order to be politically and religiously correct) that: Fuhrer Abbott pulls the trigger not on a DD but on a .38 revolver and blows his troglodyte brains out.

Further, that the rest of the Reichs Chancellors pick it up off the floor and keep going in order...Pyne, Bishop, Hockey, Morrison, finally the token va#ina in the Speakers Chair. By then the chambers will be empty, after which a half intelligent Cabinet could be sworn in plus a new speaker. What a bunch of absolute neocon sycophants all.

It was bad enough under Dudd, & Gizzard, but oh dear this current crop really has lost the plot.

Shadow, & others. You're being fed manure from the electronic whorehouse or your sources are tainted cobbers. NOFARCE can't get enough footsloggers out on patrols to surveil the incoming SIEV's, fishing boats, smugglers, gun runners, wildlife smugglers and wannabe black marketeers. The Customs & RAN patrol boats spend more time on the slipway at Larrakeyah getting cracks in their hulls welded up than they do in the water. Howard, Rudd/Gillard and now Abbott are doing their best to reduce funding there for ongoing maintenance programmes. All Defence $ are going into the next big thing - JSF and a big US Base over the harbour at Mandorah.

Ask Herr Morrison or Jewellery Bigshot this question : "Why is the Australian Government building a 3,500 pax detention centre at Mokerang on Los Negros Island (MANUS Is) if there are no boats arriving?"

Dear Shadow Minister,

Not quite sure what your last post to me was about but I thought the conversation had been eminately civil.

You wrote;

“I prefer a diplomacy that is more about honesty even if it offends a few despots.”

I'm afraid that can not be left unaddressed. Abbott's diplomacy is purely about economics and what he sees as what is in Australia's best interest.

He did not raise human rights issues with China instead they levelled their own criticisms at our refugee policy.

His pre-election hardline stance against Chinese government owned businesses investing in Australia has just been tossed out the door;

“Having noted in the same 2012 speech that Chinese investment was dominated by state-owned enterprises, he remarked it would ''rarely be in Australia's interests to allow a foreign government'' to control an Australian business. But in the push to clinch a landmark free trade deal with China, it is understood the Abbott government will rework its foreign investment rules to allow Chinese firms controlled by the government”
SMH

Abbott is very much about appeasing rather than upsetting despots and very much about achieving free trade agreements than rocking any boat at all. Who on earth is going to argue with offers of enhanced trading conditions? Certainly not the Chinese. This is not that hard as far as diplomacy is concerned. Brandis' outburst is. Who would believe this from him?

“The comments that I made to the Senate Estimates committee the week before last were comments authorised by the Foreign Minister.”
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4029307.htm

SR,

As for the chaplaincy program, I am personally happy to see it go. I was pointing out to Poirot, that the court case was actually based on the legislation amendments that Gillard introduced.

What you forget is the outrage from China at Julie Bishop unequivocal rejection of China's extension of air space over the disputed islands.
I never said you were not civil, except your posts were starting to suffer from a deficiency of logic. The "disputed" issue is trivial and inconsequential, and whatever unlikely consequences might eventuate, they would be balanced by better relations with Israel, who actually have technological resources rather than just buying a few agricultural resources.

The art of diplomacy as with all negotiations is to play to the core needs of each nation rather than the rhetoric. The diplomatic prowess of the government needs to be judged on the overall results and so far the results are impressive. The prime example is the relations with Indonesia.

While the turning back of the boats was publicly unpopular, Labor's policy had led to tens of thousands of economic migrants causing crime and corruption, and costing the government millions to accommodate and feed them.

Turning back the boats using life boats took all the options off the table for the human traffickers, Marty Natalegawa was able to huff an puff for the domestic audience, and the operational silence allowed the Indonesian navy to offer full co operation without criticism from its internal press who had little or nothing to report.

The Labor generated spy scandal was a no win for both sides. Rather than cravenly grovelling as Labor wanted to do. Abbott stuck to his guns and rode out the storm, which as expected dissipated to virtually nothing.

The results: Boats - stopped. Cattle trade - restarted. Spy scandal - faded away.

Compare this to labor's obsequious relations with pretty much everyone, the knee jerk damage caused by the live cattle debacle and the Tasmanian trawler, and the almost complete lack of any tangible beneficial outcomes.

Before Abbott sailed them into the treacherous straits they currently find themselves, with a budget they can't possibly pass and a leader who is ruling out any significant changes to the legislation in order to do so - and a dissatisfaction rating of 60% in the electorate isn't something a major political party is going to feel bullish about taking to the polling booth.

Hell, the recently deposed Thai government had more public support: Tony would be hard pressed taking this sort of mandate to a coup, much less an election.

''The Greens aren't saying that all of these concessions and subsidies should be removed tomorrow, but just that there should be a factual and informed debate about who the 'end of the age of entitlement' is really hitting,'' he said.

The latest Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey has found working-age people have become far less reliant on welfare payments since 2001.

It shows that 23 per cent of those aged 18 to 64 received welfare payments every week in 2001, but by 2011 that number had fallen to 18.5 per cent.
Following Mr Hockey's speech last week, Matt Cowgill, an ACTU economist, published a graph showing where taxpayers' money was actually spent in the welfare system.

Four of our senior ministers in the Abbott government have been assigned secret-service style protection amid an angry backlash over the federal budget, while a fifth minister is also receiving personal protection over specific threats.
The unprecedented ramp-up in security measures has seen Treasurer Joe Hockey, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Education Minister Christopher Pyne and junior Defence minister Stuart Robert assigned Close Personal Protection officers from the Federal Police in the month since the budget.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has also been assigned CPP teams in recent months, with his controversial portfolio said to be the reason to ramp-up protection, not the budget.
Government sources have admitted the extent of the protection measures required are unusual.

This is the most successful government we've ever had. The amount of whinging opposition proves this to be the case.

This government, and our brilliant PM, have stopped the boats ..PERIOD. This government is saving Australia from terrorists, invaders and bludgers. Keep the brown skins out.

This government is saving Australia from years of economic disaster caused by the Labor incompetents who left us with huge debt.

All the left whingers will be silenced when the new Senate passes the necessary, nation saving budget legislation. The greenie Marxists and their Labor comrades won't control the senate then.

Tony Abbott is the strongest PM Australia has ever had.

Tony Abbott did his apprenticeship in national politics as a member of John Hewson’s staff. As the teacher surveys the work of his apprentice today, however, he’s distinctly unimpressed.

In fact, the economist and former Liberal leader is emerging as a consistent critic.

Some weeks ago Hewson criticised the Abbott government’s first budget as unfair. This week he criticised Abbott's policy on carbon emissions. And when I talked to him on Friday, it turns out that he is critical of pretty much the entire Abbott project so far.

Hewson prefaces his remarks by acknowledging that “it’s early days and it’s unfair to judge people so early on”. But he proceeds nevertheless to judge the government on its nine months in power.

His broadest critique is that Abbott, for four years his press secretary and political adviser, has failed to communicate a vision:

“They had a chance with the budget to pull all these bits and pieces together; the end of the age of entitlement, fine; not supporting industry, fine; now pull it all together,” says Hewson.

Lester1,

Yes, Tony and his Cheapskate Circus are positively scintillating, aren't they...

Consumer confidence has dropped by 17.7 points or 16% since the election. CommSec data on business sales for May is down 1.3%...which fits nicely with the slump in consumer confidence.

I'm sure Mr Snake Oil Abbott will reliesh a nice little recession not too far down the track.

And Eleventy Joe seemed to enjoy running up borrowings at twice Labor's rate to over $70 billion since the election.

Nice to know they've got people like you cheering them on for the time being.

"Tony Abbott is the strongest PM Australia has ever had."

Yes...but only in the malodorous whiff of his deception. (Perhaps don't stand downwind during one his awkward pressers)

You know this mob are toast, don't you?

Reinvention time coming for the IPA/LNP.

Certainly hard to fathom what is going on in the noalition, surely they have to be looking to see who could take control.

The whole front bench has been tainted to the extent of being untrustworthy. I doubt Turnbull would even put his hand up, as he would be on his own.

A budget that is not in the interests of anyone. A divisive budget.
Everything in the budget is designed to bring down the living standards of the ordinary Australian, this does not need to happen.

We were sold down the river at the election, with straight out lies.
The election was a fraud

Tony Abbott did his apprenticeship in national politics as a member of John Hewson’s staff. As the teacher surveys the work of his apprentice today, however, he’s distinctly unimpressed.

The Abbott government is offering asylum seekers up to $10,000 - a five-fold increase - to leave detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru and return to their countries of origin.

Asylum seekers who take the ''return packages'' and voluntarily leave Australia's offshore processing centres are taken to the Hideaway Hotel, Port Moresby, where their stay is paid for by the International Organisation of Migration, before flying to their home countries.

Lebanese asylum seekers are offered $10,000 to voluntarily return to Lebanon. Iranians are offered $7000, Afghans $4000 and Nepalese, Burmese and Sudanese asylum seekers are all offered $3300.

It is understood the payments, which are administered by the International Organisation for Migration but funded by the Australian Immigration Department, are made once the asylum seekers have returned.

The High Court has issued a stunning rebuke to the Abbott government's border protection policy, striking down its decision to refuse to give refugees who arrive by boat permanent protection visas.

In two unanimous decisions, with implications for thousands of boats arrivals, the full court ruled that Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's decision to impose a cap on the number of places in Australia's refugee intake for boat arrivals was invalid.

This is a matter of trying to overcome the government's weakness of being unable to effectively communicate with an electorate that has lost trust in politicians making promises that mean nothing – the price paid for chanting "no new taxes"
.
The compromise here would be to offer the reverse of the current age pension indexation – excise should rise by the lesser of the CPI or average weekly earnings.

This should make it easier to explain to people that indexation won't cost them more in real terms, that the fuel tax should merely remain constant as a proportion of household budgets.

Having created the monster of forever telling Australians that they're doing it tough, this would at least allow the line that indexing fuel excise will make it no tougher.

Denying the dole to those under 30 for six months arguably is the harshest single issue in the budget.

When you're promising a higher unemployment rate anyway and arming those over 50 with a $10,000 incentive to be employed, there's an ugly element of doctrinaire cruelty in punishing people for not getting jobs that aren't there.

Sure, Eric Abetz would like to reinstate an underclass of cheap itinerant rural labour, willing to work for little more than bed'n'board, but even dedicated Liberal supporters are uneasy about this one – perhaps with a view to higher crime rates.

Leaving it to the states hasn't worked and won't work. The "competitive federalism" ideology is a crock – it dooms the poorer and dumber states to becoming poorer and dumber.

Thus it's not possible to abandon Gonski unless you have something better to replace it. Your job of being a responsible treasurer includes changing your colleagues' language: it's not a matter of spending on education, but investing in it.

You have an increasingly unpopular leader, or a decreasingly popular one, if you prefer it that way. Having successfully helped the Labor Party to lose the election, he had the shortest political honeymoon in living memory and now enjoys all the credibility of Tony Abbott.

Yet he seems to be happily riding roughshod and unchallenged over the government, from an expensive mistake like the PPL to the rich symbolism of his knights and dames.

I come back, and the left whinge is all about slagging Abbott, with not one genuine criticism.

579,

The high court decision was not about permanent visas. The best they can expect to achieve is Labor's bridging visa until the senate changes and they get TPVs again.

Who is slagging Abbott, it is current news.

The government's determination to deny permanent protection visas will now rest with the Senate, where the Palmer United Party will control the balance of power from next month.

The party's leader, Clive Palmer, has spoken out strongly in support of refugees, but told Fairfax Media the party would study the High Court judgment and any decision on allowing temporary protection visas would be made by his party room.

"The law of Australia is that there is only one protection visa, and that's a permanent protection visa for refugees. What this means is that the government must get on with the grant of a visa which our client is entitled to as a refugee," he said.

He said the life of the boy had been in limbo since Mr Morrison imposed the freeze.

In their written judgment, justices Hayne and Kiefel said they had taken into account the consequences for the detention of those who came unlawfully and the time limits for determining protection visas.

SM comes back and says

"I come back, and the left whinge is all about slagging Abbott, with not one genuine criticism."

Au contraire....the reality is that we're spoiled for choice as to which diabolical theme of ineptitude we should choose at any given moment.

Again: - "....with not one genuine criticism"

Lol!

P,

Please tell me what the consumer confidence index has to do with Abbott's diplomatic efforts or your further comments had with either the index or the diplomacy.

No, it was just a pretext for another unrelated irrelevant whinge.

SM,

Sorry for deviating - but there's so much scope.

I can't find anything to laud about Abbott's diplomacy. He comes across to me as a laughable embarrassing goon on the international front...totally out of step with the rest of the industrially developed world. Germany, for instance,is 50% powered by renewable energy.

We're likely to get left behind thanks to "Abbott's diplomatic triumphs" (aka crawling around Harper trying to be a bestie)

I'll leave you to your topic and its fiction.

P,

"Germany, for instance,is 50% powered by renewable energy."

Really? I read that it is closer to 25%, and has electricity prices far higher than even Australia.

Germany set a new record on Sunday, May 11, by getting nearly three quarters of its electricity from renewable sources during a midday peak. Nonetheless, Craig Morris says the resulting negative prices are both good news and bad news.
On May 11th, power prices were negative for several hours in Germany.

On May 11th, power prices were negative for several hours in Germany.

Wind power peaked at around 21.3 GW at 1 PM on Sunday, with solar simultaneously coming in at 15.2 GW. Add in the roughly 3.1 GW of hydropower and 3.7 GW of electricity from biomass that Germany usually has, and the output of conventional power plants was pushed down to 26 GW at 1 PM on Sunday.

Power demand, however, was only at 59.2 GW, meaning that only 15.9 GW of conventional power was needed to serve domestic demand. The remaining more than 10 GW was for export – a clear indication of how foreign demand for German power is rescuing the conventional sector.

579,

http://www.nature.com/news/renewable-power-germany-s-energy-gamble-1.12755

"For German consumers, the costs of that shift are apparent in their monthly electricity bills. The statements include a litany of 'shared costs' that are split by all households to fund the Energiewende — and result in some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. "

"The rapid rise in wind and solar power has created a nightmare scenario for grid operators, who face power surges when the wind blows and the Sun shines, and shortages when they don't. In 2011, more than 200,000 blackouts exceeding three minutes were reported — and experts warn of a growing risk of major power failures."

So the result of a rapid push to renewable power generation is high cost power with frequent blackouts.

SM what a heap of Frog shyy.
You would be a climate denier also i suppose as in crap.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been accused of "pettiness" for refusing to let a handful of Labor MPs accompany him on his private jet to attend a bipartisan event in Sydney.

The event was held to celebrate success stories in Western Sydney at the Rooty Hill RSL on Tuesday, June 3 when Federal Parliament was sitting in Canberra.

Earlier this month, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked Mr Abbott if he, an adviser, and three of his MPs could catch a lift to save taxpayers' money and the MPs' time.

But Mr Abbott rejected the Opposition's request.

The Prime Minister and a large number of his MPs from western Sydney flew to the event and were back in Canberra in time for Mr Abbott’s 7:00am media conference the next day.

Mr Shorten caught a commercial flight and stayed in Sydney overnight at taxpayers' expense, while his backbenchers spent about six hours driving up and back in time to attend Parliament the next morning.

SM,

It appears you are right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

However, 25% is not bad for any country.

Being as Germans are a highly innovative people, one might imagine that they're at the vanguard of renewable technology.

Where does that leave ol' Smokin' Joe, Australia...especially in the hands of a retro-techy like Abbott?

Same old, same old...Donald Horne was right:

"The title of Horne's The Lucky Country comes from the opening words of the book's last chapter:

Australia is a lucky country, run by second-rate people who share its luck.

Horne's statement was an indictment of 1960s Australia. His intent was to comment that, while other industrialized nations created wealth using "clever" means such as technology and other innovations, Australia did not. Rather, Australia's economic prosperity was largely derived from its rich natural resources. Horne observed that Australia "showed less enterprise than almost any other prosperous industrial society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Country

Nothing changes.....

579,

Only a green could be so stupendously ignorant to make such a stupid comment. The website that I quoted and provided for your edification is a website that encourages renewable power. This information is also available from a variety of other sources.

See also

"Germany is importing massive amounts of nuclear-generated electricity from France following its decision to abandon atomic power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster.
But it is still bracing for blackouts of the kind not seen since the Second World War as eight of the 17 reactors were switched off overnight in a populist move that is now seen as a rash decision."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031786/Germany-importing-electricity-France-decision-shut-nuclear-reactors.html

Secondly I see calling some one a "denier" is a knee jerk reaction to having the carpet pulled out from under you. I have always stated that I believed that CO2 emissions ever since I wrote a school thesis on the subject in 1980. I believe action is needed, but not the thought bubble knee jerk ideas that labor and the greens concoct.

However, having worked as a power systems engineer for part of my life, I clearly have a more in depth understanding of generation, distribution and consumption than any greenie.

As the jet is also used for conducting confidential business the PM is not obliged to offer "rides" to opposition members. (note I cannot recall Juliar or Krudd ever doing so.)

P,

Thanks for the acknowledgement.

What do you think of the huge costs and unreliability of power in Germany as a result?

SM,

It's actually quite complex when you look into it...and may require some rumination.

Found this somewhat illuminating article:

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21594336-germanys-new-super-minister-energy-and-economy-has-his-work-cut-out-sunny-windy-costly

(Will do a bit of snooping on the subject when I have time)

It is rather the fact that energy suppliers are not passing on to consumers the large drop in wholesale prices that results from the rapidly expanding wind and solar generation capacity.

This is evident from an analysis of German prices. A similar situation exists in many other European countries. Unfortunately the latest Energiewende reforms initiated by the German government do not address this problem.

Over the last 3 years we have been hearing a never-ending flow of complaints from German electricity consumers about the high retail prices brought about by the increasing share of renewables in the electricity mix (25% today). It is not just households and small- and medium-sized businesses who complain, but also, perhaps more surprisingly, big industrial consumers, who are largely exempted from paying the renewables surcharge on electricity, the famous Umlage (although they are faced with relatively high gas prices compared to the US). The Umlage today amounts to 6.24 eurocents/kWh.[1]

In response to these complaints the Minister of Economy and Energy, Sigmar Gabriel, announced on 3 March a reform of the Renewable Energy Law (Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz, or EEG). The two most prominent measures are the gradual reduction of the financial support for renewable energy generators &#822; from 17 to 12 cent/kWh &#822; and the preservation, by and large, of the principle of surcharge-exemption for big industries, in the name of competitiveness.

The United Nations' World Heritage Committee, meeting in Doha, rejected the Government's application to reverse protection for 74,000 hectares.

The area was part of 170,000 hectares added to the WHA last year under Tasmania's forest peace deal enacted by the former state and federal Labor governments.

News of the decision was quickly welcomed by conservation groups, including former Greens leader Bob Brown who described the decision as a "global diplomatic humiliation" for the Abbott Government.
The Coalition had argued the 74,000 hectares were degraded by previous logging and should be unlocked for the timber industry.

But opponents to the move said only 8.6 per cent of the forests had been disturbed, with the rest being pristine old-growth rainforest.
Speaking from Doha, delegates from Portugal said "accepting this delisting would set an unacceptable precedent".

Wilderness Society campaign manager Vica Bayley said the decision showed the world was behind preserving the forest.

Being a PM does not exempt you from governing responsibly, as our fuThe United Nations' World Heritage Committee, meeting in Doha, rejected the Government's application to reverse protection for 74,000 hectares.

The area was part of 170,000 hectares added to the WHA last year under Tasmania's forest peace deal enacted by the former state and federal Labor governments.

News of the decision was quickly welcomed by conservation groups, including former Greens leader Bob Brown who described the decision as a "global diplomatic humiliation" for the Abbott Government.

The Coalition had argued the 74,000 hectares were degraded by previous logging and should be unlocked for the timber industry.

But opponents to the move said only 8.6 per cent of the forests had been disturbed, with the rest being pristine old-growth rainforest.
Speaking from Doha, delegates from Portugal said "accepting this delisting would set an unacceptable precedent".

Wilderness Society campaign manager Vica Bayley said the decision showed the world was behind preserving the forest.

Just because you are PM does not exempt you from governing responsibly, surely Mr Abbott must come to notice he can't go around shooting from the hip and expect to get his way.

TONY Abbott says he will call a double dissolution election if he is unable to repeal the carbon tax in government.

Speaking on Sky News's Australian Agenda program the Opposition Leader said the Australian public was "sick of governments which procrastinate on important policy commitments".

He said an incoming Coalition government would "move quickly" to repeal the carbon and mining taxes and restore effective border protection if they received a mandate at the next federal election to do so.
"I don't believe the Labor Party is going to commit suicide twice over the carbon tax. A Labor government which is decisively rejected by the public over the carbon tax is not going to persist with an electorally suicidal policy," Mr Abbott said.

"Having said that, if I'm wrong, if an incoming Coalition government can't get its carbon tax repeal legislation through the Senate, well, we will not hesitate to go to a double dissolution.

Here is an article from the Economist which gives a dispassionate assessment of the state of renewable generation in Germany. P.S. note that this is almost exclusively direct action.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21594336-germanys-new-super-minister-energy-and-economy-has-his-work-cut-out-sunny-windy-costly

"German consumers and voters like these targets. But they increasingly dislike their side-effects. First, there is the rising cost of electricity. This is a consequence of a renewable-energy law passed in 2000 which guarantees not only 20 years of fixed high prices for solar and wind producers but also preferred access to the electricity grid. As a result, Bavarian roofs now gleam with solar panels and windmills dominate entire landscapes. Last year, the share of renewables in electricity production hit a record 23.4%.

This subsidy is costly. The difference between the market price for electricity and the higher fixed price for renewables is passed on to consumers, whose bills have been rising for years. An average household now pays an extra €260 ($355) a year to subsidise renewables: the total cost of renewable subsidies in 2013 was €16 billion. Costs are also going up for companies, making them less competitive than rivals from America, where energy prices are falling thanks to the fracking boom."

There is no comparison of the US grid to the AU grid and is stupid to try and take US as an example of anything.

I admire your Credentials and expertise in the inner workings of power generation.

I will say one minor thing about fracking. It has no influence on the US grid what so ever.

I am not disclosing my credentials on this site.

Electricity prices generally reflect the costs to build, finance,
maintain, manage, and operate power plants and the electricity grid (the complex system of power transmission and distribution lines), and to operate and administer the utilities that supply electricity to consumers.
Some utilities are for-profit, and their prices include a return for the owners and shareholders.

Some key factors that affect the price of electricity include:

Fuels — Coal is relatively inexpensive while natural gas tends to be more costly.
Power plants — Construction and maintenance costs are greater for some kinds of power plants than others.
Transmission and distribution lines — Maintaining and using the transmission system to deliver electricity contributes to the cost of electricity.
Weather conditions — Rain and snow can provide water for hydropower generation. Extreme heat can increase the demand for electricity for cooling.
Regulations — In some states, prices are fully regulated by Public Service Commissions, while in others there is a combination of unregulated prices (for generators) and regulated prices (for transmission and distribution).

Electricity Prices Are Usually Highest in the Summer

The cost to generate electricity actually changes minute-by-minute. However, most consumers pay rates based on the seasonal cost of electricity. Changes in prices generally reflect variations in electricity demand, availability of different generation sources, fuel costs, and plant availability. Prices are usually highest in the summer because more expensive generation is added to meet the higher demand.

579

"I will say one minor thing about fracking. It has no influence on the US grid what so ever."

You would appear to be at odds with every economist in the world.

You said "Electricity prices generally reflect the costs to build, finance, maintain, manage, and OPERATE power plants and the electricity grid"

The key word being OPERATE.

While for solar, wind and nuclear generators the recovery of capital costs may dwarf fuel costs, for coal and gas fired plants, the opposite is true, and a drop in gas prices leads to a lower OPERATING cost that lowers the price the generators can sell power to the networks.

While for domestic consumers whose cost of electricity is 90%+ composed of network costs, the change is small, but for industry whose proportion of generation costs is from 25% to 60% the change is considerable.

The advent of plentiful and cheap energy from fracking is attributed substantially for the relatively rapid US economic recovery.

Gas fired generators are the last port of call. First priority is nuclear, second is Coal, third is wind and solar, forth is gas.; WHY
Because gas can be switched on and off at a minutes notice.
Gas normally used at times of peak consumption.
Neuclear and coal are a 24 hour a day generator.
Wind is a 24 hr generator
Solar is a daylight generator.
Gas is backup.
AU has some 60 gas fired generators. Mostly sit idle during autumn winter and spring. Otherwise used during maintainence shutdowns.

579,

Actually, that is necessarily the case. Most power sales are based on the time of use, and the cost of keeping generators spinning. Gas turbines start faster, but still need an hour or two to run up.

Big base load producers have generators of 100s of MW and take days to start, but can vary the load they take from hour to hour. The big generators have large capital costs, but low cost per kWhr of generation. Nuclear has the highest capital but the lowest variable cost of about 1c per kWhr. Coal comes in next at 2-3c, and gas comes in at about 6c.

Coal and nuclear take the vast majority of the load when the price is low, but when the demand spikes, typically in the early evening, the bidding price on the open market spikes up to 40c and the gas turbines spool up to clip the peaks and make their money.

Renewables, because of their cost they cannot compete with coal or nuclear, and so have to get preferential access to the market. This essentially means that the base load generators have to ramp up and down to cater for the variability of the wind and solar. In the case in Germany that the renewables reached 75% of generation for 1 hour, the big generators could not shut down fast enough and were essentially paying people to take their power, whilst 75% of the power was being paid for at the enhanced renewables price.

The result was that the renewable generators made a packet, but the traditional generators lost a fortune. While this might seem a vindication of renewables, the problem is that the traditional generators will either contract higher fixed costs to the network to cover these losses, or they will close plant. Already gas generators are closing down as a result.

The end result is that back up for renewables is lost, and when the grid hits peak load in the early evening when there is no wind, there will be black outs, as is also starting to occur.

If a state or federal government needs to raise money either to pay for specific projects or to cover any shortfall between the government's annual revenue and expenditure - known as the deficit - it will issue bonds or notes.

Where the government agrees to pay the person who buys the bond or note the full purchase price at the time the loan matures, usually two, five, 10 or 15 years from the date of issue. The government pays interest on the loan at fixed intervals, usually twice a year. The initial purchaser of the bond or note can sell it on the open market at the prevailing price, which is based on traders'views.

According to the 2014-15 budget, Australia's interest-bearing liabilities in the year to June 2014 are expected to reach $358 billion. About 97 per cent of these liabilities are Commonwealth Government Securities (CGS). These are Treasury bonds, Treasury indexed bonds and Treasury notes.

Treasury bonds, defined in the budget as having a fixed annual rate of interest payable every six months (face value $301 billion)
Treasury indexed bonds where the capital value is adjusted for movements in the consumer price index, with interest paid quarterly, at a fixed rate, on the adjusted capital value (face value $23 billion)

Treasury notes which are short term securities generally maturing within six months of issuance (face value $4 billion)
Figures as of June 10, 2014
At the moment, there are $329 billion worth of Commonwealth securities on issue.

What is the interest owing on outstanding debt?
The federal budgets include details of how much interest the Commonwealth pays on its debt each year.

The 2014-15 budget shows $13.2 billion will be paid to service CGS liabilities for the year to June 2014, and $13.5 billion next financial year, rising to a projected $16.4 billion by June 2018.

Paul Bloxham told Fact Check that a generally accepted way to find a "back of the envelope" calculation of interest payments on government debt is to use the interest rate that the market sets for the 10 year Treasury bond.

Germany is not an indication of what happens here. There are big gas turbines and small gas turbines ours are small capacity of 20 to 60 mWh
A bank of 60 small turbines that are constantly being regulated as and if need arises. We can not wait for 2 hours for generators to run up.

Electricity Generation has been falling for the past four years, as a result of solar and wind.

The electricity generated in SA VIC TAS NSW and QLD are all connected and power is sold from the pool by capacity bidding by retailers, then on sold to household and business. Bidding is from 10am to 2pm only.

Currently NSW 5.0, QLD 4.4, SA 3.2, TAS 3.4, VIC 4.1, cents / kW

Swiss-based Glencore - Australia’s largest coal miner - has paid almost no tax over the last three years on income of at least $15 billion, Fairfax media has reported.

Fairfax Media conducted an independent analysis of the company’s accounts and found that Glencore claimed tax breaks in Australia after borrowing money from associates overseas.

The report, published in the Sydney Morning Herald, says Glencore borrowed from “associates overseas” at inflated rates of 9 per cent on $3.4 billion in loans – a rate “double what the company would have had to pay had it simply borrowed the money from the bank.”

Glencore is headed by Swiss-based Ivan Glasenberg, who ranks No.5 on the 2014 BRW’s rich list released yesterday. His wealth lifted by $1.01 billion thanks in part due to Glencore’s rising share price.

579,

I'm not sure why you are spouting a random selection of facts.

Small gas turbines that are essential jet engines can spool up more quickly but are less efficient, not much more than coal.

The problems with renewables is that you still need fossil fuels or nuclear for 100% at the peak at 7pm when there is no wind.

Last year the Australian Energy Market Operator was commissioned by the federal government to examine the feasibility of operating the eastern states’ National Electricity Market using entirely renewable energy sources for the period of 2030 and 2050. On Friday a draft version of its modelling results was released.

It finds that it is indeed possible to operate the NEM with 100 per cent renewable energy while meeting the current NEM reliability requirement. This means that even with 100 per cent renewable energy it was possible to meet the energy needs of the NEM 99.998 per cent of the time.

The 2014 forecast compares to the average annual decline of 1.8% that occurred between 2009–10 and 2013–14, which was partially driven by sustained retail electricity price rises over the past five years, mainly due to network costs.

SA is currently selling for 2.9 cents / kWh

Shazza from Christmas Island with a report of 6 boat arrivals ...
www.michaelsmithnews.com/.../shazza-from-christmas-island-with-a-rep...
Mar 16, 2014 - This boat arrived at Christmas Island. The weather was perfect - just the sort of day you'd love to be at sea. And look what MV Ocean Protector ...

A NEW asylum boat arrived at Christmas Island on Thursday but the Abbott Government again refused to provide any information.

Photos showed several male asylum seekers being spoken to by Customs officers while being taken ashore for health and security checks.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office yesterday declined to comment on the arrival in line with the government's tactics since winning power not to be the "shipping news" service for people smugglers.

"Updates on Operation Sovereign Borders, including illegal boat arrivals, are provided at weekly briefings," a spokesman said.

But it is unclear whether the government will release details at its weekly Operation Sovereign Borders briefing, expected on Friday, after not doing so last week when a boat arrived the day before.

This would mean it was reported eight days after it arrived.

Last Friday, Defence Vice Chief Air Marshall Mark Binskin claimed "if I haven't reported it, it didn't happen" when asked about a boat arrival the day before.

The government said the boat had not been processed by 9am on the Friday morning and would report in the following week's briefing.

It was the only asylum seeker boat arrival during that week as a crackdown by Indonesian Police since the election thwarted 550 would be asylum seekers from getting on boats.

IMMIGRATION Minister Scott Morrison has refused to confirm claims by refugee activists that a boat carrying Tamil asylum seekers is in trouble.

Refugee activists said last night that the 21m boat carrying 153 asylum seekers, which left from India, had sprung an oil leak and was 300km west of Christmas Island.

Mr Morrison said there were no significant incidents at sea to report.

“I am advised that I have no such report to provide to you today,’’ he told reporters in Melbourne this morning.

He would not confirm if there was a boat, if it was in Australian waters or if the government was taking any action.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said there were concerns the boat would run out of oil before it reached Christmas Island, and the government would try to divert the asylum seekers or leave assistance until it was too late.

“The boat is making very slow headway, but they do have an oil leak and are concerned that they will run out of oil before they reach Christmas Island,” Mr Rintoul said.

Mr Rintoul said he had spoken to an asylum seeker on board, and said Australia was the only country in the region with the rescue capabilities to ensure their safety.

“We are extremely concerned that the government may attempt to divert the asylum seekers or leave assistance until it is too late,” Mr Rintoul said.

579,

Posting reports on illegal arrivals from Oct 2013 is silly.

Secondly, if there is an illegal boat 170 odd Nautical miles off Xmas island, then it is well within Indonesian waters, to be rescued by Indonesia. I wish them well for their application for asylum through the Australian UNHCR rep in Indonesia.

Finally, the AEMO report has a few problems.
1 It assumes that the $300bn odd comes with no interest or financing changes, which would blow it out to about $500bn.
2 The cost of power generated from renewables does not include the capital cost.
3 The $500bn does not give the country any additional capacity, only replaces fossil fuel for another source.
4. It has assumed capacity for hot rocks and wave power that have yet to prove viable.
5. The issue of the night time peak generation on a windless night following an overcast day has yet to be addressed.

In short it is a crock of dung.

Total wind energy supplied to the states of NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria reached a record 2598-megawatt at 10.30pm according to National Electricity Market data analysed by Pitt & Sherry.

That Strong winds of around 60 kph are set to continue until the weekend, when the next cold front sets in and the weather gets
Saturdays wind energy records have been blown away by the wintry storm that ripped through the country’s southsupply met 14.9 per cent of total demand.

Wind’s share was even higher at 4.30am, with 19.2 per cent of the market, said Hugh Saddler, Pitt & Sherry’s principal consultant.
“The four-state value was about 10 per cent above the previous highest value, which was in October 2013,” Dr Saddler said.

According to the Clean Energy Council’s latest annual report, wind power from Australia’s 68 wind farms supplied about 4 per cent of total demand last year.

South Australia is home to about 37 per cent of the country’s wind farms – hence the surge of supply on Monday evening as the storm system headed eastwards on its way to Melbourne and then Sydney.
Tuesday’s total wind supply for the four states fell only slightly shy of Monday’s total, Dr Saddler said

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said the 21m boat carrying 153 Tamil asylum seekers, which left from India, had sprung an oil leak and was about 175 nautical miles from Christmas Island at 9am this morning.

As a result of the leak, he said the vessel was only likely to have engine power for another few hours and would then be in ``immediate danger if the engine fails and the boat’s not manoeuvrable, vulnerable to capsize and vulnerable to the elements’’.

By 1.45pm, Mr Rintoul said satellite telephone calls to the boat were not connecting and he had no way of knowing if disaster had struck.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was alerted about the boat on Friday and is understood to have been monitoring it today.

AMSA would not comment and a spokesman said Customs and Border Protection was handling the case.

A Customs spokeswoman referred media inquiries to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who would not confirm if there was a boat, if it was in Australian waters or if the government was taking any action.

Staff on Christmas Island have been told to prepare for the possible arrival of asylum seekers, according to Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan.

An asylum seeker vessel made contact with marine rescue authorities on Thursday night claiming to be leaking oil 300 kilometres west of Christmas Island.

The ABC understands that vessel is from southern India and has more than 150 people on board, including 37 children.

Ms MacTiernan said people onboard two asylum seeker boats were picked up by border protection authorities on Saturday evening.

She said staff on Christmas Island were "on standby waiting for instructions", but do not know whether the asylum seekers will arrive on Christmas Island or "be taken elsewhere".

"They're saying that two boats have been intercepted and the ship on which they're being loaded is in Christmas Island waters," she told the ABC.

"And everyone is on standby waiting for instructions as to whether or not the boat is going to be unloaded here or whether or not it's going to be taken elsewhere.

"They're hearing the people are from south India but they're not clear whether or not they're originally Sri Lankan."

However, Christmas Island Shire Councillor Philip Woo says he has not seen any indication of boats arriving at the island.

"I have been to the wharf and back and there's no boats approaching Christmas Island, there's only a Navy boat out there," he told ABC News Online.

Mr Woo says there are Australian Federal Police officers patrolling the island and the detention centre.

"There are, I think, close to about 60 of them [AFP officers]. They are looking after the detainees on the island. I don't know the actual amount whether they are increasing or not," he said.

AL GORE has warned Tony Abbott to “change or get out of the way” of sensible environmental policy, labelling the Prime Minister a “straight-out climate denier”.

Speaking to Vice after forging an unlikely alliance with Clive Palmer, the former US vice-president said “silly” initiatives like the government’s direct action plan had “never worked anywhere.”

Mr Gore also praised the Palmer United Party leader, who has backed a carbon emissions trading scheme with a starting price of zero dollars, but only if Australia’s main trading partners adopt a similar mechanism, for putting forward a plan that was “so much better than would have been the case”.

“He does have an unusual style,” Mr Gore said of the Australian mining magnate. “But I think that whatever unusual features to his style there may be, deep down there’s absolutely no question in my mind that he has a sense of social justice, he has a keen sense of right and wrong. ... He wants to make the world a better place.”

The world's largest and most extreme Carbon tax soon to be gone.

Based on a lie and swindle where Juliar screwed the Australian voters in a desperate bid to grasp power.

Dear SM,

Yes. We know.

The PM has always had a knack of sidestepping blame for his
own hyperbole:

"It will make every job less secure...play havoc with
household budgets...hit every Australian family's
cost of living...Everyt ime you turn on a light, you pay.
Every time you open the fridge, you pay. Every time you
go to the airport or get on a bus or order a cup of
coffee you pay...the carbon tax is going to make
everything much, much worse..."

A month later - the nation came to the conclusion that
the tax wasn't going to make much difference to them at all.
The carbon-tax scare campaign like the rest of the PM's
tactics are running out of steam, including blame shifting,
and calling others liars.

That's why the essential media poll showed that the majority favoured getting rid of the tax.

I'm not surprised that the chief knuckle dragger in the Abbott Government, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is doing his utmost to protect the big banks from a Royal Commission, RC's are something this government is keen on when it suits their political agenda, but when the calls are for a Royal Commission into their mates, this mob want no part of it. Despite thousands of ordinary Australians being duped out of millions by Com Banks financial advisers and despite claims of fraud and criminality, Abbott and co are once again doing their best to protect their mate down at big end of town. Strange that!

http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/abbott-government-hoses-down-calls-for-royal-commission-into-commonwealth-bank-over-allegedly-dodgy-financial-advice-20140627-3ax93.html

Shadow, at the moment the majority are in favor of getting rid of your man Abbott! Seen the latest Newspoll?
More Liberal corruption in NSW, have you checked out the latest at the ICAC, Ryde Council and former Liberal MP Ivan Petch.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-30/icac-finds-former-ryde-mayor-ivan-petch-corrupt/5559474

Joke of the day, that corrupt Penfolds plonker, Fatty O'Barrell is thinking of entering federal politics, he'll fit right in with the rest of the corrupt Libs down Canberra way, will he not.

Paul,

Royal commissions are expensive usually formed for large scale endemic corruption such as has persisted in the unions, or where the information is not available without the coercive abilities of the RC.

Bad behaviour in one section of one bank, with information that is freely available with a simple subpoena requires no more than a simple judicial enquiry.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/politics-in-crisis-and-a-nation-in-denial/story-e6frg74x-1226974255262

"Any nation that has lost the art of collective self-improvement has stepped on to the escalator of decline. Australia is on that escalator. Its politics are so noisy, egotistical, destructive and consumed by self-interest that it has missed where the escalator is heading."

Paul remember Lee Rhiannon's corrupt back stabbing and releasing lies about other greens members?

Paul remember Lee Rhiannon's corrupt back stabbing and releasing lies about other greens members? No! I don't remember things that never happened. Shadow that's Greens with a capital 'G'.
I'm not just talking about Com Bank, but throw in Mac Bank, ANZ Bank, In fact throw in the wholes nest of vipers. These grubs have been trusted with billions of dollars of honest hardworking Australians savings, and there is strong evidence that the banks employed financial advisers that put theirs, and the banks interests, ahead of those poor unfortunate investors, with the consequence that millions of dollars of battlers savings, often retirement savings, have been "lost", through criminal action, yeah lost! More likely found its way into some of those fat cats pockets.
Now, like the honest people such as Lee Rhiannon and the Greens, plus Nick Xenophon, and even some Nationals are calling for a wide ranging Royal Commission into both the banks and ASIC.
Shadow who's side are you on? Like us honest Greens, the battlers, or like Abbott and co, the big end of town and their criminal bunch! Your call.

"TREASURY chief Martin Parkinson has warned that opposition to the savings measures in the budget risks inflicting long-term damage to Australia’s economic future. Dr Parkinson also declares that Australia’s budget position is not sustainable without major reform and the government’s budget strategy achieves this. Although the strategy would pave the way for much-needed reform of the tax system, however he says it is unrealistic to suggest the budget could be brought back to balance by raising taxes."

Paul,

What side am I on? Easy, the side of reason.

What I want is a full enquiry from which a set of recommendations can be produced and actions / prosecutions can occur. A RC in using coercive powers to force people to testify, often produces more information into what has occurred, but in doing so often sets up conditions that prevent the perpetrators being prosecuted.

Any evidence produced under duress in an RC violates a person's right to silence and makes the evidence produced or resultant evidence difficult to use in a prosecution. So in a nutshell, if you want to spend a lot of money, and let the guilty get off scott free then an RC is for you. If you want a less costly inquiry that produces recommendations that can be directly acted on, then a JC is a better investment.

So Paul what side are you on. The rational Libs, or the crooked incompetent, knee jerk greens.

Careful SM you may be bowing to the Greens, in your lifetime.
All i know it won't be Abbott, he has disgraced himself beyond redemption.

Shadow, I'll stick with the hard working Aussie battlers who have been taken for a ride by those rip off banks. You can stick with the big end of town and their lackeys in the Liberal Party if you wish. I'll agree with the fair minded politicians on all sides who are calling for a Royal Commission.
Shadow what I see is people like Cormann and Abbott are out to protect the banks at the expense of the hard done by, who have been taken for a ride, it is as simple as that. Take one look at the only dissenting voice on the committee of inquiry, the Liberal David Bushby. The bloke failed to attend on April 10 when Jeff Morris (the whistleblower), CBA executives, ASIC officials and Merilyn Swan (victim) all gave evidence. Then Bushby puts out a 6 page report of his own supporting the banks position, and that is up against the 547 page report put out by the rest of the all party committee. Now Cormann and Abbott are using Bushby's 6 pages to justify protecting the banks. I smell a rat here!

579,

You can continue bowing to Abbott, it will be a cold day in hell before the Aus voters are stupid enough to vote for a greens majority. It is a fringe protest party that has effectively killed any government it has been part of.

Paul,

If you are on the side of the battlers, why do you want an RC that could potentially protect those that harmed them, and tie up any potential compensation for years. A JC could investigate with subpoenas and deliver recommendations for compensation and prosecution within 6 months. Labor and the greens have only their own political interests at heart, and care little about the battlers. Calling for an RC is to try and divert the attention from their corrupt links with the unions that is being exposed.

P.S. Milne is starting to look a little shaky after failing to back the petrol excise indexing. Rhiannon is sharpening her back stabbing knives again.

Shadow, I support the findings of the inquire, and those findings recommend a Royal Commission. Please explain Bushby's actions in failing to even attend the hearing on April 10. It would appear that Bushby may well have formulated an opinion well in advance of (not) hearing the evidence. Bushby is a well known ally of Abbotts knuckle dragger Mathias Cormann. Please explain how it was that Cormann rushed through regulations last Monday which were designed to water down aspects of the Future of Financial Advice laws, thus providing protection to the big banks! Who's side are they really on? The Greens will combine with Labor and Pup in the Senate to defeat these unwanted amendments.

<< Milne is starting to look a little shaky after failing to back the petrol excise indexing. Rhiannon is sharpening her back stabbing knives again.>> Shadow in who's opinion...Yours! I'll agree where there is smoke there's fire, but in this case you are trying to set fire to ice blocks, you can't do it. Stop trying to divert the argument, which you are once again loosing, with that nonsence about unions. I will remind you once again that's GREENS with a capital 'G'.

Shadow, I do believe you could develop half decent political opinions, if only you could attend an year or three at the Lee Rhiannon School of Political Philosophy. With such 're-edumsacation' you may even rise to the lofty heights of Greens membership! Fringe protest party, indeed. We can only live in hope that one day you too may see the light.

Paul,

The Groans have frequently teamed up to try to form senate inquiries stacked with their own members to reach a predetermined result that pushes their agenda. The conclusions of these farcical inquires are not worth a pinch of cow dung.

I have yet to hear anyone from the Groans indicate what a RC will achieve that any other form of inquiry won't.

i.e. to see that the victims are compensated to the point that they would have been without the shoddy advice, and to ensure that CBA puts steps in place to ensure it does not happen again.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/financial-services/sorry-cba-to-hold-independent-review-into-scandal/story-fn91wd6x-1226976174278

You poor thing. So you went to a Groans "education camp". How much of your frontal lobe did they remove?

Shadow, you most likely wont find this in your daily read of the Murdoch gutter press, 'The Daily Telecrap', For a few cents more, like me, you too could obtain a copy of the quality publication 'The Sydney Morning Herald' where by you would be fully enlightened with the facts of this particular matter.
I'll make a deal with you. I'll give you the daily news on local and world events from my copy of a real quality newspaper the SMH, whilst you can report to me the top world shattering "news" for the day from the 'Murdoch Fish Wrapper', something in the order of "Will Blockhead be turning out for The Wombats this weekend?"

Today's report, "The Commonwealth Bank, The Fallout!" While battling investors could not now afford to take a 5 minute holiday in the local park, after being fleeced by Com Bank, the $7.8m pa head honcho down at the CBA, Ian Narev, has been living it up on hols in Indonesia, at the same time Chairman of the Board, Big Dave Turner has been living it up in Britain. All Com Bank can offer is an inadequate sop to the ripped off battlers.
This is what Abbott and co support!

Shadow can I have your comments on Bushby, and his lack of participation, April 10 and, knuckle dragger Cormann's rushing through of regulations last Monday which were designed to water down aspects of the Future of Financial Advice laws. Silence indicates your support, like Abbott and co, of the big banks at the expense of ordinary Australians, nothing new there. Is that what the Liberal Party stands for these days? I think so. Or have you been too busy reading in the 'Fish Wrapper', if Blockhead is playing for The Wombats this weekend.

Paul,

My daily consumption of news incls sources from all political persuasions such the Australian and the SMH, with less frequent reading of the economist, the age, the financial times, the guardian, and occasionally the ABC and the telegraph. I know the groans only consume information from the left whinge press as they prefer to be shielded from reality.

As for Bushby, that he missed a day of yet another inconsequential groans labor inquiry with a pre determined outcome is neither here nor there. What the simpering idiot bandt, dimwitted Milne, or psychopathic Rhiannon say is embarrassing for Australians.

Shadow, are you calling Senator John Williams from the National Party a Labor lackey?