Australian Politics thread [merged]

[Rampstar]

with all due respect can you sensibly tell us why rudd and gillard were good pms. Gillard only delivered the disability policy whilst Rudd delivered us pink batts. On the scale of PMs Gillard was just average and Rudd was less than Average.

[Chuck17]

Not pro Labor but Anti Abbott and Rudd and Gillard were both good Prime Ministers.

I can't believe you honestly think that

[tiger101]

65 you need to accept your you're a one eyed ALP supporter and majority of the country didn't agree that Gillard and Rudd was  were great prime ministers.

I'll just tidy up your grammar and...

Not pro Labor but Anti Abbott and Rudd and Gillard were both good Prime Ministers.

It was the combination of them both wanting the top job that killed Labor.

Disunity is death.

Will watch with great amusement when Tony has to navigate a Senate where the Loonies have control.

 

As you pointed out my grammar I thought I would return the courtesy.

[1965]

65 you need to accept your you're a one eyed ALP supporter and majority of the country didn't agree that Gillard and Rudd was  were great prime ministers.

I'll just tidy up your grammar and...

Not pro Labor but Anti Abbott and Rudd and Gillard were both good Prime Ministers.

It was the combination of them both wanting the top job that killed Labor.

Disunity is death.

Will watch with great amusement when Tony has to navigate a Senate where the Loonies have control.

 

As you pointed out my grammar I thought I would return the courtesy.

So at least you could do was correct my mistake.

 

[Judge Roughneck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?hp&_r=1&

 

[1965]

Will watch Abbott with interest.

Can he handle the international political scene?


Abbott policies anger Indonesia
 
DateSeptember 13, 2013

David Wroe
Defence correspondent

Tony Abbott faces new hurdles in his bid to recruit Indonesia to his plans on asylum seekers, with Jakarta delivering its sternest broadside yet at the Coalition's border protection policies.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa has delivered a full-throated attack on the Coalition's proposal to pay bounties for information on people-smuggling rackets, The Jakarta Post reported on Thursday.
 


''We will have a discussion with Abbott prior to the APEC summit in October. We will reject his policy on asylum seekers and any other policy that harms the spirit of partnership,'' the newspaper reported Dr Natalegawa as saying.

The sharpness of his remarks is striking as they come ahead of an Indonesian visit by Mr Abbott expected within days.

Dr Natalegawa was also reported as saying: ''Discussing Abbott's controversial plan on asylum seekers will be one of main agendas during the visit.''

His comments brought a firm response from foreign minister-designate Julie Bishop, who said the Coalition would talk through all the issues with Indonesia and would not conduct the discussions through the media but it was important to work with Indonesia to halt the people-smuggling trade through that country. ''These discussions will be undertaken face to face and not conducted through the media,'' she said.

The Jakarta Post report indicated that Dr Natalegawa's remarks were directed at the Coalition's proposal, unveiled during the election campaign, to pay millions of dollars to Indonesians who provided information that helped disrupt people-smuggling.

His comments were made at a meeting of the Indonesian parliament's foreign affairs commission, and follow remarks by the head of the commission, Mahfudz Siddiq, that another plank of the Coalition plan - to buy unseaworthy fishing boats that could be used to ferry asylum seekers - was ''a crazy idea … degrading and offensive to the dignity of Indonesians''.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/abbott-policies-anger-indonesia-20130912-2tnun.html#ixzz2eiPFgeU6

[tiga]

Finally a story from 65 that paints Tony Abbott in a positive light. 

[1965]

Finally a story from 65 that paints Tony Abbott in a positive light. 

 

[Judge Roughneck]

Hello my names tony.

I'm going to buy all fishing boats

[Penelope]

don't laugh.
once he has solved the world's refugee problem by buying all the Indonesian fishing boats he will create world peace by buying all the Korans, Bibles and Tanakhs

[1965]

My fear is that Abbott will become one of those do nothing PMs.

 

[Chuck17]

My fear is that Abbott will become one of those do nothing PMs.

As long as he doesn't f it up it will be an improvement on recent times

[tiga]

My fear is that Abbott will become one of those do nothing PMs.

As long as he doesn't f it up it will be an improvement on recent times

If he does no biggie as Turnbull will slot in to the PM role quite nicely 

[1965]

Only one woman in Tony's cabinet (I think Julie Bishop qualifies as female)

A few gaps in Abbott's team 
 
 Peter van Onselen, Contributing Editor |
  The Australian  |
 September 17, 2013 12:00AM
 
THE announcement of a new ministry can be sweet and sour: sweet for those promoted, sour for those who miss out. Tony Abbott largely left his shadow cabinet intact when naming his first ministry yesterday. But he did clean out the parliamentary secretary ranks, using the junior frontbench portfolios to promote a new generation of future ministers.

There were, however, some notable absentees from promotion. In a climate where there is only one woman serving in the cabinet (deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop), not promoting Kelly O'Dwyer, one of the more talented members of the next generation, while four men from that generation (Steve Ciobo, Paul Fletcher, Josh Frydenberg and Alan Tudge) were named as parliamentary secretaries was not a good look.

[1965]

No doubt that Tony has stuffed this up...

There's no skirting it: Abbott is helping deny women a voice
 
Date September 17, 2013

Clementine Ford
 
There are many jokes to be made about Tony Abbott's ''woman problem''. The incoming prime minister has been fielding them since long before he wrestled the Liberal leadership from Malcolm Turnbull in late 2009.

At the time, the collective analysis seemed to be that Abbott, a man with an outlook so conservative it could only have been spawned from the Catholicism he held so dear, would simply hasten the inevitable destruction of a party that had lost its way. The idea that a pugilistic chauvinist, well-known for his regressive views on women and a political voting history to show for it, could flourish in modern Australian politics was laughable.

While it still baffles me how a man with Abbott's views managed to lead the Coalition to a thumping election victory in a post-1950s era, the fact remains that he did. Despite committing a series of gender-based election gaffes, the electorate has evidently overlooked the clear discomfort he has with women. It comes as little surprise that he appears to have assumed a mandate (amid so many others) to continue in his disregard for them, announcing a cabinet on Monday that boasted only one woman.

When Kevin Rudd re-assumed the prime ministership in late June, his cabinet reshuffle resulted in the promotion of three more women to his ministry. His decision distinguished it as the most gender equitable cabinet in Australian political history so far, with a balance of 14 men to six women.

For a brief time, we had talented women such as Tanya Plibersek, who worked with bipartisan groups to quietly have RU486 (the abortion drug Abbott wielded veto power on as health minister to prevent its passage into Australia) listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme so that all women in Australia would have access to medical terminations; Penny Wong, an openly gay Asian-Australian whose sexual orientation and ethnicity were a welcome challenge to a political cast of characters unrepresentative of Australia's diversity; and Jenny Macklin, whose instrumental role in delivering a national disability insurance scheme will enable thousands of Australians living with disability to achieve a higher level of self-determination.


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/theres-no-skirting-it-abbott-is-helping-deny-women-a-voice-20130916-2tv3v.html#ixzz2f6rOdzqe