John Howard was a painful PM to my mind. The lies, Work Choices, Children Overboard, abandoning David Hicks, denying Climate Change. There was plenty to be disappointed about. And it’s not just me. He lost his seat in his last election even though he was PM at the time. A very rare event.
But now we have Tony Abbott and all of a sudden using Howard as the low end bench mark seems a little optimistic. Love him or hate him, Howard was a bloke who stood by his beliefs even when they could have been thought through a bit more carefully. Climate Change was one of these areas and eventually that led to his downfall. He finally realised the Voters were interested in doing something about it and belatedly changed his position.
In the final wash up though, the Voters thought he was being shifty aided by Howard himself, who’s body language gave the game away. A supposed tight Election was all over by 6.30 – 7 o’clock. (I remember this because I was scrutinising for the Greens but that is another sorry tale).
Enter the student pollie Tony Abbott and John Howard he aint.
Gone is the “steady as she goes” predictability. Gone, too, is the Financial understanding. Also left in the starting gate is the trustworthiness.
Tony is a “one of”.
Have a concern about Oz? Go to an Abbott talk but make sure he thinks you are in the majority. He will tell you exactly what you want to hear. But don’t go to another speech where he thinks the crowd is leaning the other way. They will hear exactly what they want too even though it may be diametrically opposed to the first speech.
He is that kind of pollie. Tell em what they want to hear and then just please yourself in Government.
It’s a very odd approach. Tony cheerfully admits that you should get his stuff in writing because he gets excited. On the back flips? He simply says he has modified his position. Of course saying he has reversed his view is never going to pass his lips. He simply can’t be honest about it.
What this leaves us with is a real problem for the Liberal Party. Tony seems oblivious to how unsettling he is to the Voters. He can’t see things from the Voters viewpoint. He also can’t see that making false claims and running the “sky is falling” line damages his cred. Deny something like Climate Change? Sure. Back it up with Science? Hell no. Just fake it.
It’s well known that Government in this country is often decided on the “least worse” principal. Offering an alternative PM who looks at best unstable and at worse, crazy, is a very brave (or stupid) thing for his party to do.
Come the Election, a reliable party member has to beat both the opponent and the spectre of an unstable Abbott as Party Leader. I don’t think they can afford the luxury of a second tilt with Tony.
The stunning reaction to last week’s speech by Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, calling out Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for his serial offending as a sexist, must have the rest of the World wondering what makes Tony tick. As you can see by his body language in the YouTube clip, it was a fair cop as we say in Oz, and it has completely undermined the campaign to soften Tony’s image.
How did Tony get to this position?
It was a long and torturous route as you will see. Often plagued by ill-considered reactions when on the defensive.
Tony is a practicing Catholic, and in his early days at University, he fell under the influence of BA Santamaria, a rabid anti-Communist and Catholic who used to grace our TV screens every Sunday morning with 15 minutes of “Red under the Bed” material. It was high temperature material presented with an urgency that had me wondering if he might not collapse “on air” one day.
This was at a time when student politics was practiced in a manner that would shock our current day Uni students. Often punches were thrown and the odd photo would appear in the National newspapers of a participant sitting up in a hospital bed with a couple of impressive “shiners” and a “woe is me” story in which, of course, they were totally blameless. We would have seen more except images from the Vietnam War generally held sway.
Of course both sides of Politics had their problems which is generally put down to testosterone laden youthful exuberance and normally your track record is not relevant to modern politics, but oddly enough, this has come back to bite Tony in recent days.
A recent article about those days mentioned Tony losing an election to be Chairman of some student group.
To a woman.
Rather than congratulate her it is alleged he punched the wall both sides of her head, which he denies. On balance though, Tony’s defence looks weak, but what is not denied is that he used to refer to the winning candidate as “Chair thing” because she objected to being called Chairman.
This is a good example of getting the reaction wrong. Had Tony fessed up and blamed it on his youth, it would have blown over in a day or two and the “Chair thing” not even rated a mention. But the “female friendly Tony” spin doctors took over. By the time his apologists had finished “helping” more unfortunate material had appeared.
After completing Uni, Tony then studied to be a Priest and although he jumped ship before he finished his training, he still has strong ties to the Church. In the US it probably doesn’t count against you but in Australia it carries the shadow of being subjected to Catholic rules via government legislation. Here again Tony fell foul of his “honesty”. Before the last Election he was quizzed about having visited the “hard line” Cardinal Pell in the time leading up to the vote. In what was to become a famous interview, Tony thrice denied (Last Supper style) he had done so, but the interviewer had the inside running and persisted and eventually Tony replied with “Yes, but what of it?”
Because Tony likes to play “full body contact” politics he gets a bit carried away and seems to forget the cameras are rolling. When Labor had Mark Latham as Leader it was two dinosaurs wrestling in Parliament. Both sexist. Both highly aggressive. Unfortunately for Tony the days of putting up with their male centric view of the world has passed. In Latham’s case, he left disgruntled as he realised his time has gone but Tony is battling on bravely seemingly unaware that better behaviour is expected from our politicians.
When Julia Gillard successfully challenged for Party Leadership in the time honoured tradition of getting the numbers and calling out the Leader, Tony was most offended. Ever since he has kept up the attack presumably because doing it the blokes way is unacceptable. He also dislikes that the PM is “living in sin” but in this matter he is getting the same message from the party room. “Not fit to be PM because she is deliberately barren” is one such enlightened comment that floats from the Opposition benches. Apparently the 21st Century has still to arrive in their building.
This narrow view is why Tony does not enjoy the usual big lead in the polls as preferred PM. Something every other aspiring PM has enjoyed even when they lose the next Election.
As Health Minister in the previous Conservative government, he was outraged that his then PM, John Howard, would not let him ban the use of the abortion drug RU486 which Cardinal Pell was staunchly against. Even more annoying for him was Howard allowed a conscience vote so the drug was then allowed to be imported. It remains to be seen if Abbott will try to ban the drug should he be successful at the next Election.
Surprisingly he has given notice that his word is not that reliable. When
Tony having a problem with accepting he has back flipped
challenged about promising one thing then delivering another he said the promise was “a spur of the moment’ comment. Only things he commits in writing can be relied upon. In this same interview with Kerry O’Brien he is incapable of accepting his “Paid parental tax” is a complete reversal of earlier policy. He keeps insisting it’s a modification even when O’Brien starts laughing.
To say this comment was received with some surprise would be an understatement. Hecklers often interject with “Is that in writing, Tony” (or something rather less savoury).
I’m never going to defend Tony Abbott but I can see where things have gone pear shaped for him. Similarly to current US politics, the Conservative side have fallen under the spell of the shock jocks and the inevitable result is that you lose the more reasonable folk from your party as the arguments become less civilised. The end result is your “real world” becomes smaller and self reinforcing and well removed from the population in general.
This photo from a protest organised by a shock jock has earned Tony much aggravation. The plan was supposed to see a flood of protestors but sadly for Tony the crowd was a figment of the shock jock’s imagination. It was poorly attended and standing in front of these banners has done him a lot of damage. He recently tried to overcome how he is viewed by women by appearing publically with his wife by his side. Even more painfully, he has had to let her field the questions which is a strain for him even in male company. But then blew the whole thing out of the water by making the comment using the word Shame. For the voting public it was the straw that broke the camel’s back after it was used by the very same shock jock to say the recent death of the PM’s father was caused by his shame at her lying. The shock jock is currently working without sponsors due to FaceBook users having had enough.
Tony claims it was an accident.
The Public don’t believe him.
It has been very hard for Mr Abbott to supress his Catholicism. In an appearance on Q and A where pollies face questions from the public, he had trouble explaining his view on Women’s Rights. When pressed he made the startling comment that No means Negotiable. That is not surprising coming from a Vatican inspired education but try selling that line as female friendly.
Tony’s rise to power is one of the most surprising things to happen to his Liberal party. Generally regarded as a bit of a dill and carrying the nickname “the mad monk” he was never expected to have a look in at the top job, but the desertion of Peter Costello in a fit of pique meant the party no longer had a leader-in-waiting. The then incumbent, Malcolm Turnbull fell from favour because he accepts we have a Global Warming problem so that left the only other candidate.
Tony.
Sometimes in politics you don’t win. The other person loses.
I was hoping to find BA Santamaria on YouTube no luck there but here is an excellent send up by Max Gillies from the Gillies Report made back in the mid 80s.
Once upon a time the Liberal party used to pride itself on being strong economic managers, but that’s not something Tony or Joe seem to be much good at. Of course Joe did let slip that 10,000 public service jobs would be axed but that still didn’t help him with his Black Hole for funding the mounting promises.
You would think Tony would be able to work it out seeing as he was a Rhodes Scholar with a financial speciality but he must have put more effort into student politics because he hasn’t been able to help Joe out of the hole he finds himself in.
To commemorate the financial understanding these two chaps are exhibiting, I think it’s only fair to base it on Norman Lindsay’s children’s story, The Magic Pudding. (Every time to take a bite the pudding restores itself). I believe it was one of Tony’s text books back in his student days. (That, or he inadvertently pick up some other child’s school book.)
Imagine this scene. A beat up boat chugging into Australian waters. Mechanical condition? Well, lets just say it doesn’t have a 5 star rating and room service. Among the passengers are several children but their parents are not wealthy enough to come too so they are left to their own resources on the vessel. Effectively they are at the mercy of whomever they encounter, the health of their fellow passengers, the limit of the food supply and even the possibility of other vessels who prey on refugee boats.
Such is the lot of these children.
In the Christmas Island boat disaster on December 15, 2010 the risks were highlighted when the SIEV-221 was dashed upon the rocks at Flying Fish Cove costing the lives of at least 30 passengers despite the best efforts of the Aussie patrol boat and the local residents who battled the terrible weather.
Where had they come from? In this case it was mainly Iran and Iraq but some would have us believe that “boat people” are Indonesian. Indeed some of them will be due to the nature of their many races and internal politics but more likely the passengers are many trips down the long path from their country of origin and from much further afield.
The motivations? I’m sure they are many and varied and folk will argue endlessly about the fine detail, but what I am concerned with is the children.
The political arguments drag on but what about the children?
To my horror and disgust when the Aussie Government came up with the Malaysian Solution which is designed to deter unaccompanied minors by returning the passengers by air, the politics kicked in.
The kids became just some “collateral damage”.
I’m sure there are almost as many different ideas about the “best” result as their are contributors but quite simply I don’t care about the subtleties. Compared to the risk of a lonely death of a child, those details come a very distant second.
Most frustrating of all is political folk have been able to deflect the attention away from the kids as they push their own agenda. Sure politics can be a heated business, but do we seriously want to put a party line ahead of kids welfare?
Both The Greens and the Coalition had the numbers to pass the Malaysian Solution by voting with Labor to amend the legislation and cut the High Court out of the game. Both declined. To crudely summarise their positions, The Greens wanted a more generous outcome and the Coalition a solution with their name on it.
By all means I’m happy for them to play for their own aims, but for goodness sake don’t risk the kids in the meantime. Get the solution in place then you can go back to the talkfest.
Not so long ago Michael Kroger made a bit of a dick of himself while paying out Peter Costello on Jon Faine’s radio program. Actually he made a series of comments that undermined and probably destroyed his once powerful position as a power broker in the Liberal Party, but the one that caught my eye was that our friend Tony is a Rhodes Scholar so he can’t be easily dismissed as a bit of a dill. (Or words to that effect).
That got me thinking about what this type of claim actually means so it was off to Wiki for a drill down on Tony’s history. I thought he may have an Arts degree (either in basket weaving or bullshitting) or perhaps some religious thing masquerading as a degree.
I was partly right as far as the Arts component goes except the qualification is Master of Arts (MA) in Politics and Philosophy. Oxford Uni. His aussie quals are a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws from Sydney Uni.
Okay. At some stage this bloke has been able to apply himself to his studies but that leaves us with quite a puzzle as to what went wrong along the way.
On the Economics side he has shown no ability that his studies would suggest he should be capable of. He is unable to construct an alternate budget with the help of Sloppy Joe and even incapable of attacking a Labor budget. When his chances have arisen he immediately goes for personal attacks rather than hard data. Even worse, his financial plan going into the last Election fell in a big black hole and worse again, he tried to bluster his way out when that was exposed.
Tony might just be the first Liberal in a long time to believe in the Magic Pudding as an adult.
On Political nous it’s even more peculiar. On a regular basis he will reverse a position held the previous day because the audience has changed. He will come to Horsham and tell farmers he is their best friend then turn around at a different meeting and promise to trash the National Broadband Network.
All this in a political climate where folk claim they hate pollies who will say anything to get voted in.
This second point is worrying from the aspect that Tony may think the Voters are easily tricked and of course a handful are this gullible, but looking at his figures in the Polls, it doesn’t look like you can fool all the people all the time. When the Election comes around and the Polls tighten up as they always do, Tony has to present himself as the alternative PM and having a clue will be important.
It leaves me wondering about how smart Tony actually is. There are academics out there who are brilliant at exams but hardly capable of getting in out of the rain. That’s fine if you work in a sheltered environment but Government is the real world and Voters need to trust you to really commit their vote. It’s not looking good for Tony.
Being the Liberal equivalent of Mark Latham is no doubt fun but have you ever seen a poll suggesting Mark should replace the current PM? It’s so silly it isn’t even tested.
Tony may have the bits of paper but does he have the smarts? If he has he has done a brilliant job at playing dumb.
Every day we see Tony declaring (praying for) more bad news, but luckily his God is simply not that mean spirited. Tony’s confident prediction of the Gillard Government not being able to survive 6 months has well and truly passed it’s use by date and in all likelihood will go the full distance.
Can we really stand listening to him whining about wanting a new election for another 18 months? By the look of the Polls, the Voters aren’t too keen on him already and I can’t imagine him talking his way into a better position. Serial whining just isn’t a winning tactic.
The really bad news for Tony is the only green visible in the Liberal Premiers is the Voters who voted them in believing they would protect the environment. Ted is trashing environmental policies every week and he looks soft compared to Campbell in Queensland who seems to have taken the proverbial bulldozer to anything with even a slightly green tinge. If that doesn’t trouble the Voters it bloody well should do especially in Queensland where the Great Barrier Reef faces shipping even within protected areas.
No wonder Tony is in a hurry.
So to commemorate Tony’s plight I have whipped up this Tee shirt on Zazzle. If I can do anything to assist folk understanding his message then it has to be good for Oz.
what is not denied is that he used to refer to the winning candidate as “Chair thing” because she objected to being called Chairman.
condition? Well, lets just say it doesn’t have a 5 star rating and room service. Among the passengers are several children but their parents are not wealthy enough to come too so they are left to their own resources on the vessel. Effectively they are at the mercy of whomever they encounter, the health of their fellow passengers, the limit of the food supply and even the possibility of other vessels who prey on refugee boats.
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