Let's just move along a bit from the "all pollies tell lies" theme.

How about we acknowledge that the Abbott govt in particular got itself elected by almost totally misrepresenting its intentions.

This is where we stand:'

http://www.afr.com/p/national/pm_credibility_comes_under_assault_kPASbaXhEXzQSaBBC11c5O

Laura Tingle

"Something has snapped in federal politics this week as the distractions of foreign policy ventures fade and the final week of parliamentary sittings looms with no end to the budget impasse in sight.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott finds himself defending the indefensible, or the already mortally-wounded, on three different fronts.

First, the government’s budget strategy is dead, a seriously ex-parrot, and we are left just going through the excruciating process of seeing how it is brought to account in next month’s mid-year budget review.

Yet the government persists – for now – with the fiction that it will all come good in the end.

Second, the prime minister’s credibility has been shattered, not just by a series of broken promises that have emerged through the year but by what one of his own backbenchers described as Abbott’s “verbal gymnastics” in trying to suggest that he had not broken any promises. The cut to ABC funding has crystallised voter disgust at such gymnastics.

Finally, the only thing that stopped an increasingly confident attack by the Opposition on the collapsing edifice of the budget bottom line and the Prime Minister’s trust deficit with voters was the spontaneous combustion of Defence Minister David Johnston when he declared on Tuesday that he would not trust the Australian Submarine Corporation to “build a canoe” . This opened up a whole new front of Labor attack on ministerial competence."

"As Abbott’s credibility is under deadly assault, and the authority of his senior ministers is missing in action, the resolve of both Labor and cross benches to stand their ground only increases.

Voters, the business community and the financial markets now see the budget impasse as a disaster of the Coalition’s own making, rather than the product of a dysfunctional Senate."

'Well, actually, quite a few people don't accept it's okay to lie your way into office wholesale. When, practically your whole agenda was a misrepresentation, people get a little shirty. '

Oh Poirot after years of defending Gillards lies and promises of surplus and sleazy dishonest deals with the Greens you take the high moral ground. The fact that Labour left such massive debt and destruction obviously meant no one was going to get the country back on track spending more and more.

Abbotts lies just confirms the corrupt nature of man. He certainly has done no worse than Gillard, Rudd,Wong, Shorten and the perverted Greens on that score.

Obviously it would be much better if he told the truth however we are left with none who tell the truth at all times in politics. MOst can't even keep a marriage vow so how on earth are they going to keep their word to the public.

From runner, "Labor left such massive debt". From Pesky Boy, "which was quickly DOUBLED by Abbott".

Pesky Boy Tony Abbott said "next month I'll take you to Luna Park". So the people voted for him and sure enough he kept his word and we are all in Abbotts version of Luna Park. LOL
Glad to see some are waiting for the return of the female messiagh Pauline Hanson. Her and Lambie would make a great tag team combo.
My next prediction is Big Clive will do the bolt at the end of this parliament. Agree?

runner,

"Obviously it would be much better if he told the truth however we are left with none who tell the truth at all times in politics...."

Here's a run down of Abbott's behaviour in student politics:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/17/1089694611874.html

"At the more cosmopolitan Sydney University, Mr Abbott had burst like a snapping terrier into student politics.

He took on left-wing students in aggressive battles for positions on the student council and was a spear-carrier in a push to dissolve the powerful Australian Union of Students (AUS).

It was the late 1970s, and Mr Abbott and others who would later become prominent public figures were cutting their political teeth as the social tumult of the post-Vietnam era spilled onto the nation's campuses."

""He was a very offensive, a particularly obnoxious sort of guy," said Barbie Schaffer, a Sydney teacher who was at Sydney University with Mr Abbott.

"He was very aggressive, particularly towards women and homosexuals".

Published university reports show that after a narrow defeat in the university senate elections in 1976 - Mr Abbott's first year of an economics-law degree - he kicked in a glass panel door.

In the ensuing two years, he was repeatedly accused in the university paper of being a right-wing thug and bully who used sexist and racist tactics to intimidate his opponents.

Lawyer David Patch, who is a Labor candidate in the federal seat of Wentworth, recalls an AUS conference in the mid-1970s, which had initiated a special "women's room" for females to discuss political issues.

"Tony used to stand outside the women's room with his right-wing mates and loudly tell sexist and homophobic jokes," he said."

Read on - it's fascinating.

That's the kind of character behind our illustrious leader.

........

Paul,

Regarding Palmer, I agree.

He hardly ever turns up to vote in the HoR...being more interested in what riches his Senate strength can provide....in his own interest, it appears.

Poirot, spot on about Palmer. A few of the 'Usual Suspects' on OLO would have been attracted to the parish pump politics of Palmer and voted for him, These people never learn, they will now switch their vote to someone like Hanson.