tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post9048567561316138373..comments2023-12-06T00:23:28.790+11:00Comments on Press gallery reform: JG and the Premiers: the more things changeAndrew Elderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-17247391454336731492012-08-09T22:38:13.020+10:002012-08-09T22:38:13.020+10:00Anonymous,
You have my absolute sympathy - I have...Anonymous,<br /><br />You have my absolute sympathy - I have a couple of friends who are, or have been, in your position.<br /><br />Roll on the NDIS.Fionanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-49930479867802033242012-08-09T22:34:53.122+10:002012-08-09T22:34:53.122+10:00RugbyFan,
Regarding misogyny, if you are referrin...RugbyFan,<br /><br />Regarding misogyny, if you are referring to the (somewhat) rough treatment of such people as Keneally, Bligh, Lawrence, and Kirner - this may have something to do with having been given the hospital pass at the end of long and possibly on the nose administrations.<br /><br />So far as the Right Hon. Julia Gillard PM is concerned, I think that the misogyny is self-evident: there's no way that some parts of the Australian polity are prepared to accept a sheila being in charge - especially when she's effin' good at the job. Shows up the blokes, y'know.<br /><br />I think that your suspicious about the ACL are spot on - and won't they get a shock if he reverts to his particular roots (so to say) if (and I say - with Mr Elder - IF) he ever ascends to the PMship. <br /><br />None of this proddy rot for Our Tones.Fionanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-68269670164259176932012-08-07T00:30:15.423+10:002012-08-07T00:30:15.423+10:00Very well put Fiona, and as a male I would very mu...Very well put Fiona, and as a male I would very much agree with the misogyny point! There is also evidence of this in state politics as well.<br /><br />If I may add, another dimension to his free ride is the support he receives from the very influential Australian Christian Lobby.RugbyFannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-18973301492702350692012-08-03T17:14:04.442+10:002012-08-03T17:14:04.442+10:00You may well scoff at Abbott, but with genius like...You may well scoff at Abbott, but with genius like this you can well understand why the media are in thrall to the great man: <br /><br />"Yes, we've got to get rid of the carbon tax, yes we've got to stop the boats, but by god let's see some cranes over Sydney again." Tony Abbott, 3 August 2012.<br /><br />Mark the day in your diary. Your grandkids will be asking you where you were when ten-term PM Sir Anthony Abbott delivered perhaps the greatest piece or oration in our history before single handedly using every crane in Sydney to stop the boats.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-61132381839638797642012-08-03T11:03:46.626+10:002012-08-03T11:03:46.626+10:00Andrew, love your work.
Pilots are undertaken to ...Andrew, love your work.<br /><br />Pilots are undertaken to test that the system works properly. Generally pilot in a discrete area close to head office so its easy to get there. Geelong and the Hunter are seperate geographic regions close to HQ with good health services. As the pilot proceeds, the people on the ground may have to modify their procedures or expectations or the back office system may need tweaking. <br />[Geelong piloted the MYKI system that all Melburnians distrust and loathe]<br /><br />Paying for NDIS. I can't see that it will be a major difficulty. Victoria runs a no-fault Transort Accident Commission scheme from compulsory car insurance that recently had its reserves transferred into general revenue by the Baillieu government. As I take my cheap holidays outside of school vacation periods I often run into TAC clients and their carers on their holidays. These usually brain damaged people live in modest comfort and can afford a fortnight holiday a year. I feel very sorry for the families of severely disabled children who live lives of quiet desperation unable to access TAC or similar schemesAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-63144415157897788182012-08-02T23:32:56.220+10:002012-08-02T23:32:56.220+10:00Rugby Fan,
There are many reasons for Abbott'...Rugby Fan,<br /><br />There are many reasons for Abbott's free ride from the media.<br /><br />Murdoch-induced bias, tick. Misogyny, tick (but I would say that, wouldn't I?). The demands of the mining (and other) oligarchs, tick.<br /><br />And there are others. However, one that doesn't get highlighted enough IMO is Abbott's former "career" as a journalist. Journalists don't tend to eat one of their own.Fionanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-62496733686151730792012-08-01T15:00:03.276+10:002012-08-01T15:00:03.276+10:00He is on the record as saying that a Carbon Tax is...He is on the record as saying that a Carbon Tax is the best method of tackling climate change, then he back-flips and says that such a tax would destroy our economy. He is on the record as saying on one day that "the science is not settled" and that carbon dioxide is not quite the "environmental villain" some people make it out to be. Literally a day later he said action needed to be taken on carbon emissions and that "the Coalition's position is that climate change is real. Humanity is making a contribution". Just in the past week he has rightly been accused of sending mixed messages to the Chinese on the issue of foreign investment in Australia. And who can forget his stare-down of Mark Riley... an event which could have spelled the end of other frontbench political careers. <br /><br />For these things, and more, he is never held to account. Is it because the media cannot hold his cowboy swagger to account, or because they will not hold him to account? Is the Australian business class so against us having a female PM that they are willing to afford Abbott a free ride? Is the born to rule superiority complex so strong that they will openly talk down the economy and business confidence, just to wrestle power from the illegitimates? In a market economy, that seems like a price which is too high to pay.<br /><br />Yes he is a veritable "Johnny On The Spot" as it seems the public doesn't care who gets into office at the next election - as long as it isn't the so-called "liar" Gillard. Yet the weight of public favour still falls squarely on his side of the party political ledger. As Anon said above me, I hope I'm wrong too!<br /><br />As Ian Robinson said on July 7, 2012: "No one is claiming Abbott is a Nazi but one has to ask why he, and the party he leads, are so doggedly using discredited Nazi propaganda techniques?"RugbyFannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-711577194008505762012-08-01T14:59:12.422+10:002012-08-01T14:59:12.422+10:00Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your reply. I take your poin...Hi Andrew,<br />Thanks for your reply. I take your points, but I think I might have been taken slightly out of context - perhaps I got carried away with my own hyperbole?<br /><br />I never claimed that Abbott was Howard II. The examples you provided feel more like references to successionism (Bush to Bush, Fraser to Howard) to me, and that's not what I was trying to infer at all. Abbott is on the public record as saying that Howard is his political mentor [''I hope to be John Howard's political heir, not his clone.']. Of course, how closely he mentors him will probably never truly be known. However, judging by Abbott's dog-whistle politics, it is easy to see which aspects of Howard's success he looks up to. <br /><br />Abbott's "We'll stop the boats", is, to this mind, a relative of Howard's infamous call to xenophobia "We will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come".<br /><br />I don't know very much about Soutphommasane, but I have been somewhat impressed with his rational and measured performances on News24's The Drum. The quote of his that I was alluding to came from an article published in the SMH, so that hardly qualifies him as a fawning fan of the News Ltd agenda - which is a good thing. The rest of his article wasn't quite as flattering of Abbott.<br /><br />I agree, wholeheartedly, that Abbott's house is built on air. This, however, still does not answer the question of why the coalition won't and can't win the next election. <br /><br />As the Anon user wrote above me, it would seem that Abbott has been devastatingly effective at making the Australian populace switch off to all of the good work that the Gillard government has done, to focus solely on what they have stuffed up. How many times has he accused the parliament of being dysfunctional, yet he has been the one who (as well as Christoper Pyne) has called for voluminous suspensions of standing orders, and even one day fled the lower chamber like a frightened animal. His hypocrisy is breathtaking, yet it is never called to account.<br /> <br />Yes, he has been given help from the media including his good friend Allan Jones.RugbyFannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-63401964954377760272012-08-01T09:38:45.279+10:002012-08-01T09:38:45.279+10:00"At what is Abbott "devastatingly effect..."At what is Abbott "devastatingly effective", other than at geting the attention of journalists?"<br /><br />The problem is that he is effective in not just getting their attention. He is also effective in getting journalists to repeat his lies without any challenge whatsoever. His house doesn't have solid foundations for one good reason - it doesn't need to.<br /><br />Abbott ends every press conference with some gibberish about 'bad government', 'toxic tax', 'failed economy' etc, his minder yells 'last question', and then he runs away. That gibberish then ends up on the news, night after night after night, and I'm left believing I've gone insane and am the only person in the country wondering why he's continually allowed to be so clearly inept in front of professional journalists. <br /><br />Unfortunately, the cumulative effect of this is that a large percentage of Australians believe we are in a worse economic position than Greece, that Mal Brough has been totally upfront about the Ashby affair and that the carbon price is going to steal their backyards (you know, the ones they lost after Mabo). You and I know about Abbott's vacuous political mind, his inability to think for himself, his hypocrisy and power lust that allows him to destroy any person or public institution he feels lies in his way. People with little interest in politics don't, they just hear his glib phrases every night on the news as he guts another fish or drives another big truck without the correct licence. <br /><br />A badly informed electorate will make bad decisions and at the moment we are undoubtedly very, very badly informed. Without that changing, without a journalist - is there one left in Australia? - deciding they've had enough of writing crap and publicly holding Abbott to account for his garbage, the Tea Party tactics the IPA is using with the Libs look like winning.<br /><br />Like RugbyFan, I sure hope I'm wrong.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-10687146748674721742012-07-31T17:18:04.070+10:002012-07-31T17:18:04.070+10:00George Bush II never claimed that he'd be guid...George Bush II never claimed that he'd be guided by his father as President though this fantasy was often projected onto him. There was no evidence of sober guidance of this knucklehead at all. However easy it might be for you to imagine, there is no basis for Abbott as Howard II, none at all. Howard wasn't Fraser II, it's just silly. <br /><br />If you do a bit of digging on this blog, you'll see that the whole idea of Abbott is the idea that not only is it possible to resurrect the world before the GFC, it's desirable and achievable. This is why Abbott can't win: his house is not built on the rock, nor the sand, but well and truly in the air. <br /><br />As for Soutphommasane, he writes occasional pieces for the newspaper. To do that you need to make them feel important. The media give Abbott a better run than any Opposition Leader since Whitlam and even so, he is the only politician in Australia less popular than Gillard. At what is Abbott "devastatingly effective", other than at geting the attention of journalists?Andrew Elderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04705844456819481896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-77855065184138700632012-07-31T13:42:58.638+10:002012-07-31T13:42:58.638+10:00Thanks for this. I came across your blog searchin...Thanks for this. I came across your blog searching for written confirmation that the NDIS is part of Liberal party policy - but I haven't unearthed anything.<br /><br />As the parent of a profoundly disabled teenager, I am tired of other people simply not getting it. I am intelligent, well-educated, and hardworking and I pay way more in taxes than the piddly $50 a week I receive as a carer. I work during the time my child is at school, but this will have to end in the next few years. Many people I come across in the community seem to think that I have assistance but I don't. I am not remotely rich but my work means I am not eligible for any assistance that others receive, and a veneer of independence on my part results in the assumption that I'm coping - but I am so brittle and ready to break. I want a politician to spend a day in my life.<br /><br />As an aside, I think I visited here before. I'll join your email list so I remember to visit more often.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-16991970334508446122012-07-31T12:35:11.820+10:002012-07-31T12:35:11.820+10:00"Both of these supposedly experienced journal..."Both of these supposedly experienced journalists relied heavily upon their shared fantasy that the Coalition will inevitably win the next election, which it won't and can't."<br />Hi Andrew, <br />Thank you for such an excellent and rational blog. I have only been following it for a month, so please forgive me if the following question has already been answered: do you really think the Coalition won't and can't win the next election?<br />Again, I mean no offense to either you or any of your regular readership, but is that comment one of either raucous optimism or wrought irony? <br />Very few people seriously predicted that JW Howard would become not only the PM of Australia, but one of the most successful politicians of his generation (if not the past 50yrs) - but he did. As Tim Soutphommasane said on July 30 "For the past 2½ years, Tony Abbott has made it look relatively easy. Few would deny that he has been devastatingly effective during that period." It is easy to imagine Howard, as Abbott's mentor, guiding him along, every step of the way, trying his best to keep his ignorance in check whilst at the same time goading his stubborn bigotry to the fore.<br />I am loathe to accept the very real possibility that Abbott will be the next (bumbling) PM of Australia, but sadly, at this point in time, I see no clear evidence to the contrary...RugbyFannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-81300117021430433442012-07-30T17:33:03.637+10:002012-07-30T17:33:03.637+10:00An even more cynical take is that the Coalition wa...An even more cynical take is that the Coalition wanted a feel good first-term reform, and Gillard pressing ahead with the NDIS looks like it might deny them this one.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-83054567761988510732012-07-30T16:17:57.142+10:002012-07-30T16:17:57.142+10:00I wonder why our media are so terrible?
But talk ...I wonder why our media are so terrible?<br /><br />But talk to anyone in Australia and they have a relative or friend with a serious disability and across the country they are outraged by the liberal states.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22534369.post-78943661106562637922012-07-30T00:00:06.227+10:002012-07-30T00:00:06.227+10:00From Grattan's effort today on NDIS, Gillard &...From Grattan's effort today on NDIS, Gillard "...already staggering towards oblivion under the weight of a couple of big new taxes." No quotation marks for the Tonyism, just total acceptance that they're big. The only wonder is that she didn't use "toxic new taxes".Ianhttps://twitter.com/ianwhitworthnoreply@blogger.com