Time for Tony to be PM not a wanna-be Putin type. (a positive article)
Maybe it's time to hang up the fire gear, Mr Prime Minister October 22, 2013 - 9:48AM
Mark Kenny
Taken individually, and even together, Tony Abbott's extracurricula activities are laudable in just about every respect.
The out-doorsy Abbott's personal fitness regimen is legendary, made famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) by his red swimming trunks and hirsute athletic form, as he's taken part in surf-life saving activities and competitions.
His pre-dawn work-out schedule of running or riding or swimming, is a model for all Australians capable of taking charge of their physical selves.
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The unavoidable message to many who fool themselves otherwise, is that if he, the Prime Minister of the country, can find time to undertake such vigorous regular exercise, then those of us with less demanding jobs can at least manage something – a daily walk for example.
Exercise is crucial to cardio-vascular health and much besides, and the 56-year-old Abbott is to be commended for resisting the tendency to become less active with age or to allow other pressures to crowd out physical activity.
The same can be said for his annual volunteering in remote indigenous communities for up to a week or so, his volunteer firefighting, and of course, his spectacularly successful Pollie Pedal which has raised so much for charities and taken politicians and media through long-neglected regional Australia.
But after a weekend when the Prime Minister spent much of his time doing the hands-on work on the fire-ground, the questions arise: is he doing too much outside his demanding day job and is it the best use of his time?
When a national emergency is unfolding, and when all kinds of high-level decision making is required, wouldn't we rather have the Prime Minister on the end of the phone line than the end of a fire-hose? Indeed, he can be a firefighter from there, but can he be a prime minister?
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/maybe-its-time-to-hang-up-the-fire-gear-mr-prime-minister-20131022-2vxro.html#ixzz2iPcWvqd1