tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post1724094009801126905..comments2023-12-06T00:23:28.790+11:00Comments on Press gallery reform: Big and softAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-42227227059294398862011-09-21T22:17:56.873+10:002011-09-21T22:17:56.873+10:00Who would want a "hotch-potch of technologies...Who would want a "hotch-potch of technologies", really? Obviously we all want the same thing. Just one technology does every conceivable job. The only tool you are ever going to need, is a hammer. After that, keep your eye on the nail and jobs done.<br /><br />Come on guys, this isn't exactly difficult.Telhttp://lnx-bsp.net/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-37967397018003134192011-09-21T21:30:52.179+10:002011-09-21T21:30:52.179+10:00Do you not think that what you said about Hunt and...Do you not think that what you said about Hunt and environmental policy applies equally to Turnbull and communications policy?Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15069060425209939908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-15790938071971771602011-09-21T20:59:40.603+10:002011-09-21T20:59:40.603+10:00MO: you started with an insult in the hope that it...MO: you started with an insult in the hope that it might give your position more force than it has.<br /><br />Effective Opposition Leaders become PM. They have a quiet confidence in themselves and in their policies which is utterly lacking in Abbott. It's a bit like watching one of those rugby players who goes the biff and everyone says how tough he is, until it's cruelly exposed that biff is all he has and any minute he'll get sat on his backside. <br /><br />Defeated PMs flounder like Howard did throughout 2007, and like Keating did in 1995-6. Gillard may only be starting to get traction now but she is as determined as Abbott without being as up-himself and complacent.<br /><br />Abbott has gotten where he is by doing whatever David Clarke tells him to do on organisational matters, and that's what happened in NSW. If David Clarke told Abbott he had to appoint Kristina Keneally as State Liberal President, he'd do that.Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-44904837814352639952011-09-21T20:59:32.409+10:002011-09-21T20:59:32.409+10:00HS: first he disses the Indonesians, then makes ou...HS: first he disses the Indonesians, then makes out Malaysia is some sort of squalid dump - hell of a price to pay for a few votes. <br /><br />LR: yeah, Getting The Band Back Together has its limits as an objective. <br /><br />Anon: pot, kettle ...Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-18774696591636693662011-09-21T18:48:44.244+10:002011-09-21T18:48:44.244+10:00"..Gillard's wonderful snookering of Abbo..."..Gillard's wonderful snookering of Abbott..."<br /><br />I read this piece by Elder, with utter disbelief, but knew, when I saw the comment I've quoted above, from the 'Comments posted' that everyone posting here is smoking something.<br />Abbott has been the most effective Opposition leader seen for several decades, primarily because his political instincts are so well honed, and his ability to put an argument succintly and clearly, so good, that first Rudd, and now Gillard, are gone. <br />Gillard is just 'swinging in the breeze', to borrow a well worn political metaphor.<br />Abbott's position resonates so much with Australians that they are prepared to overllok his short comings.<br />And as for Sinodinos being put into the position of NSW President to constrain Abbott's policy weakness, well nice theory, pity about the facts.<br />Sinodinos was pushed by Abbott himself to get the woeful NSW Liberal executive into shape after Messrs Campbell, and his minions, cost the party the last Federal election, leaving the pre selection of candidates in several seats so late, many barely had time to introduce themselves to the community.Mitchell Observernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-21353201197220337232011-09-21T09:36:21.618+10:002011-09-21T09:36:21.618+10:00So why is it Liberal staffers and backroom boys - ...So why is it Liberal staffers and backroom boys - Sinodinos, Minchin - fast-tracked to Senate positions are not described as faceless men?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-7062446387295229352011-09-20T20:05:19.127+10:002011-09-20T20:05:19.127+10:00It's worth noting that Sinodinos came onto How...It's worth noting that Sinodinos came onto Howards staff to bolster the lacklustre work of Tony O'Drear...err...Leary who, quelle suprise, has popped up on Abbotts team.<br /><br />Quelle surprise (or horreur) because this fits neatly into your narrative Andrew that the whole syncopation of the conservatives is to hanker for a re-run of the Howard years. And what better way than to celbrate by pushing on with the ministerial; staffers that led to the 2007 debacle.<br /><br />Also, Gillards wonderful snookering of Abbott and flushing out his gamesmanship could have been written by you in some politicasl fan-fiction as it all unfolded today and Abbott is left looking like the bloke who ran over the kids dog on this issue, while the ALP luvvies will get onshore processing by default! And if the member for Lindsay gets bailed up on this he has the perfect out of pointing at Abbott.<br /><br />Also, the cement they've been drinking on pairs is looking decidedly silly once the disengaged people I deal with 'get it'. It's unAustralian to not let people have a sickie.<br /><br />In all of my trawls through the pitiful MSM I didn't see one commentator who has spotted this trend, but there are a few bloggers who have, and that's where I am going to for enlightemnt (and information on schools funding policy!) from here on in.Lachlan Ridgenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-27190223791733115872011-09-20T09:33:17.986+10:002011-09-20T09:33:17.986+10:00You just have to examine with a magnifying glass t...You just have to examine with a magnifying glass things like the Press Conference held yesterday by Abbott, Morrison and Brandis, wherein they were obviously trying on their new persona of 'We are the government,actually' to see how transparently paper-thin it was. All style, no substance.<br /> First you had Abbott assuming his best confected Prime Minster mien, Brandis trying his hardest to sound perceptive and learned about the government's Asylum Seeker Amendments and the Opposition's absolutely-unchanged position dressed up in new clothes, but ending up sounding and looking like a pompous git; finally, they let smug Scott Morrison off the leash to prove, once and for all, how politically inept the Opposition's top attack dog actually is. Seeing as how he continues to suspend the reality of the illegality of the Opposition's own incredibly inadequate policy on Asylum Seeker's Offshore processing, aka the Nauru+TPV+Sink,er Stop the Boats Solution.<br /> I was horrified to hear Abbott openly canvass the fact that he would authorise the Navy to clandestinely, under the cover of darkness, tow Asylum Seeker boats back out to sea in order to try and deposit them again in Indonesian waters. Which the Indonesian Navy will not allow, of course, and which country, Indonesia, is also not a signatory to the same convention that he is Rabbitting on about the government not respecting by signing an MOU with Malaysia.<br /> Which just goes to the heart of the 'Inconsistencies Ahoy!' approach of the Opposition, wherein they hope that their fancy footwork will not see them slip up on the banana peels of their own logical inconsistencies.<br /> Talk about not ready for government alright. They aren't even ready to hold a Press Conference together as a simulacrum of a viable alternative government. All they ever do is perform their set pieces to camera, then only ever take questions from the Gallery for 10 minutes at the most. Also, if the questions they do take are even the slightest bit inquisitorial and attempting to point up their inconsistencies and failure of any internal logic to their stated position, well then they just avoid answering it altogether and turn it simply into another opportunity to kick against the pricks as they see them in government.<br /> They are the men and women of pathetically small political stature in other words, having all read Sun Tzu and gone to their Conservative Brainwashing, er, Training Schools in the USA, but not understood that to actually be successful in politics and to win the only poll that counts, you have to be more than a mile wide and an inch deep.Hillbilly Skeletonnoreply@blogger.com