G'day o sung wu

As one who is sometimes described as an unabashed lefty I'll give you my take on Australia's debt. Public debt we do have, is it at crises point, no, is it manageable, yes. Relative to other developed nations our debt is small. For political reasons, and you can't blame them, the conservatives (Abbott) played the debt card as a crises, and won votes with it. For philosophical reasons this government tried to introduce cost savings to bring down debt, but too many realised those measures unfairly targeted the economically disadvantaged in society, and would not support those measures. Abbott lost a lot of credibility with his high income earners paid maternity leave scheme, a political nightmare. With a downturn in the economy, the government has an income problem, they cannot afford to cut expenditure too much, otherwise it will drive the economy into recession, something no one wants. They need to continue to spend for both political and economic reasons, without having the income from taxation, that means borrowing, and this government is still borrowing, just as Labor did.
Australia has a long way to go before it would be in a true public debt crises. Private debt is too high, that would be of greater concern to the government than their own debt. This government is very contradictory, just look at the way Abbott threw that $25 billion bone to a couple of SA Liberals last Sunday to secure their "loyalty" and by yesterday could not explain how he was going to deliver.
Something this mob needs to stop talking about, and do something about, is corporate taxation, where the rip off is huge. I'm also in favor of targeting something Howard was big on is 'middle class welfare'.

Poirot,

You should take notice of the kind souls who are concerned about your Abbottophobia, but then you have some fellow sufferers who seem to spend inordinate amounts of time on Google to find something rude to report.

I wonder about that fellow you linked to who has harbored a poisonous grudge against Abbott for decades without his target even knowing. Only recently, around the time of the Qld election, he finally published his cringeworthy thoughts. Cringeworthy because it reeks of jealousy against the other man, examples being private education and assumed contacts.

More odd than cringeworthy though. If only he had gone to the other man at the time huh? Always try a smile, put out the hand and say 'Hello', eh? Acknowledging presence is a two way street. It wasn't the other fellow's (Abbott's) responsibility entirely.

You don't see that though?

Men like Tony Abbott who are awkward in some social situations are not uncommon. Then again, the media chooks and his opponents are desperate to take every opportunity to misinterpret and capitalise on opportunities to make personal attacks. Both because there is a low-brow audience for that stuff.

otb,

I have to say that I think Tony Abbott is way more intelligent than Georgie Dubya - having said that, Georgie was fashioned into a President and dragged around and propped up by Karl Rove - as Abbott has been by that "evil genius" Peta Credlin.

The shame is that his real skill was sledging and lying through his teeth in Opposition - and the reason why he's failing, apart form his psychologically questionable brain farts, is that he's still sledging and lying in govt.'

Lying doesn't work once the lies are exposed.

He's not a "politically clever" guy in govt....he's a laughable failure (and believe me, if you think I'm celebrating the ineptitude of a PM, I'm not. It's sad for Australia - but to me pretty much predicatable - in fact worse than I anticipated)

And it's not just me...apart from most of the country and his backbench, there's this:
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/us-think-tank-asks-is-tony-abbott-the-most-incompetent-leader-of-any-industrialised-democracy-20150211-13cda6.html

"US think tank asks 'Is Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?'

"A leading United States think tank has published a piece posing the question, "Is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott the most incompetent leader of any industrialised democracy?" and answering, quite comprehensively, in the affirmative."

Read on, it's fascinating.

(PS, I don't trawl google for bits on Abbott, two minutes on twitter and they're oozing out of the woodwork)

PPS - i include the "evil genius" bit to give you an opportunity to get all outraged on Peta's behalf....I know how you enjoy a bit of gratuitous outrage.

Abbott’s brand of politics are as cheap as they come, he can’t get any worse, or can he. Hockey’s tenure has got to be running out, he is still pushing the same policy that the backbench revolted against.

They have been warned, to change their ways, how long before the next vote. No one knows what is happening with submarines that were promised for SA. Now it doesn’t look so likely. Nothing has been set in concrete with Abbott, subject to change without notice. With a wasted 16 months of untruths and backflips, we are not in a stable situation.

Our situation has not gone unnoticed, with the Us weighing in on a level of incompetence not seen in any industrialized country.
Does Abbott ever given a clear answer. He tells SA one thing and says another in parliament, and can’t explain the difference of what SA heard and what Abbott is saying in parliament. A very confusing situation made worse with no answer. It all points to Abbott deliberately misleading a SA backbencher.

Political commentators are unanimous in their critiques
of the current Prime Minister.

Time and time again we're being told that -

"Voters are growing tired of the incessant spin.
They're turning away from slogans and they're no fans of
austerity. They don't like mean and tricky leaders and
they hate liars."

Governments led by zealots who divide
and are perceived as bullies have never been popular.
Campbell Newman found that out the hard way. He also learned
that money can't actually buy everything. And that is
something that the PM should heed in his attempts to
buy votes - both within his party (the SA submarines come
to mind) and prior to the next federal election (if he
lasts that long).

We're told that "In the lead-up to his political D-Day
Newman threw $18 million worth of promises at his Ashgrove
electorate. Pork-barrelling generally speaking being one
of the most tried and tested methods of political survival.
The punters like prizes. Always have."

"But for Newman it wasn't enough to save his political skin.
He was bundled out of office regardless due in no small
way to the fact that he was widely regarded as a bit of
a thug ..."

Mr Abbott has a similar problem.

Speaking of Tony Abbott, I think of my father. Not that my father was like Tony Abbott but many things that he said stick in my mind.

My father's comment on people with academic credentials who act stupidly - "He's educated beyond his intelligence."