 |
|
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
|
| Post subject: |  |
|
| What is so hard about it? |
|
|
|
 |
David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
|
| Post subject: | |
|
A pessimistic take on Abbott's prospects from Bernard Keane:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/03/06/how-fares-abbotts-recovery-strategy/
| Quote: | A week, proverbially, is a long time in politics, especially now that seven days constitutes around 20 separate media cycles in which issues can arise and disappear in less than a day. But things now look as bright for Tony Abbott as they looked bleak this time last Friday, when a move on his leadership was expected sometime this week.
In the interim, Fairfax had a poll showing a dramatic recovery in the Coalitions fortunes, although Abbotts own personal ratings were still dismal, and both Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull outpolling him as preferred leader. Oddly, The Australian, which normally likes to pretend no other polls exist than its own Newspoll, prominently carried the Fairfax poll and its good result for the Coalition.
The problem with the Fairfax poll is that it is simply too infrequent to be useful, and it cant really show whats happening trend-wise. Newspoll last week showed a Coalition recovery, but only from the nightmarish to merely rotten level of 53-47. Essential, which because of its rolling two-week average is the chilled-out, feet-up-on-the-couch poll, showed a recovery for the Coalition in the week after the failed leadership spill bid, but only to 53-47, and it didnt shift further this week.
So the most we can say currently is that the Liberals stopping ripping themselves apart enabled them to get back to the sort of poor levels of polling they were achieving prior to the spill.
Nonetheless, the talk this week was of an Abbott recovery. He certainly had a better week than last week, which was almost completely derailed by his personal vendetta against Gillian Triggs, and there was only one relatively minor cabinet leak that Abbott had by implication rebuked Peter Dutton for his mishandling of the GP co-payment, more a statement of the profoundly obvious than a stunning revelation.
If there has been a recovery and more polling next week will show which way the momentum is heading then Abbotts focus on national security will have played an important role. Unlike virtually every other issue, voters are happy with Abbotts handling of terrorism and appear unfazed at his remorseless erosion of their basic freedoms as part of it. Attacking Muslims and foreign investors wont have hurt him with the Liberal heartland, either. Abbott sought to continue that this week by wrapping himself, almost literally, in the flag and announcing a return to Iraq. This will place Australians at greater risk of domestic terrorist attack, but that probably doesnt worry Abbott too much, since such an attack, unless he comprehensively bungles the response, would only enable him to continue to play the national security card.
In the absence of that, however, national security is a polling sugar hit. We saw that last year when an aggressive Abbott, boasting of shirt-fronting Vladimir Putin, constantly saying death cult and warning of terrorist attacks, got a temporary lift in the polls until voters returned their attention to the issues of permanent concern the economy, health education, etc. And because of the disastrous budget, whenever voters did so, the governments stocks fell again.
This time Abbott is working to ensure voters have less reason to be unhappy when their thoughts return to domestic matters. Using the strategy John Howard deployed in 2001, hes throwing money at the governments political problems. The ADF pay cut problem has been address by turning what was a real pay cut into a tiny real pay rise, at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the budget. And the GP co-payment has been abandoned as well.
Kind of. Health Minister Sussan Ley had to walk a fine line this week in explaining that the co-payment was off the table but she was still talking to doctors about ways to reduce the level of bulk-billing. Ley did a reasonable job, particularly when she made her somewhat nervous debut as a cabinet minister in the Blue Room, of maintaining both positions and emphasising how important further consultations were. Abbott didnt walk any fine lines. In question time, Abbott declared any form of government-imposed co-payment dead, buried and cremated. That means the government can only achieve its goal of reducing bulk-billing rates by somehow encouraging GPs to do so, which was the strategy Abbott and Dutton announced in December basically curbing GP income to force them to charge patients. And that was what exploded in the governments face back in January and sent Ley around the country consulting with doctors, to the dismay of Abbotts friend and co-payment architect Terry Barnes.
Meantime theres the families assistance package that the government is working on, which it hopes will bribe voters out of their sullen mood and get them looking afresh at the Abbott government and, hopefully, opening their wallets. National security, demonising Muslims and attacking foreign investors is merely a stopgap for the real work of buying back voter support. It wont do the budget bottom line any good, but Abbott is looking at a much shorter time frame than forward estimates. And thats the key to whether he can survive. |
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
|
|
|
|
Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
|
| Post subject: | |
|
Exactly the same as his role model Adolf: vilify a minority group, start a fight, pretend to be a hero, stir up more hate, start another fight. Lather, rinse, and repeat. Adolf was the master, Vladimir is the current champion, but our Tony is determined to follow in their footsteps and hope one day to break into the big time.
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
|
|
|
|
Wokko 
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Adolf threw in nation building, growing the economy, massive infrastructure projects and tackling unemployment. If only Tony would try a bit of that to go along with his chest thumping. (Adolf could give a fair speech too, Tone always looks like he needs to take a dump when a microphone is put in front of him). |
|
|
|
|
pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
|
| Post subject: | |
|
What a pathetic, irresponsible human being that idiot is. Imagine having all of that access and influence as PM, and all of that corporate funding, and the best you can do is set back national openness for a decade, repeat the exact same errors of the last decade plus, and dissuade economic progress while national revenues decline.
A real horrific turn in Australian history, this one. Much worse than people know.
_________________
In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
|
|
|
|
Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Wokko wrote: | | Adolf threw in nation building, growing the economy, massive infrastructure projects and tackling unemployment. If only Tony would try a bit of that to go along with his chest thumping. (Adolf could give a fair speech too, Tone always looks like he needs to take a dump when a microphone is put in front of him). |
You mean a massive debt-funded government splurge on infrastructure which he planned to pay for by expropriating and murdering the Jews and The rest of continetal Europe? I'd say the economics of Adolf's tenure involved fiscal options that aren't actually available to Tone.
I think Abbott's very unqualified to be Pm of Australia and arguably one of the worst holders of the office, but the hyperbole in comparing him to Hitler doesn't take us too far.
_________________
Two more flags before I die! |
|
|
|
|
Tannin
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
|
| Post subject: | |
|
The thing is, Mugwump, Abbott uses the exact same methods. The hysteria, the constant repetition of simple lies, the ruthless purges, the villification of a minority group, the secrecy, the collection of information on every citizen ... the parallel is so close that it is fair-dinkum frightening.
_________________
�Let's eat Grandma.� Commas save lives! |
|
|
|
|
Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
|
| Post subject: | |
|
^ well, i'm not in Australia, and i don't see the "debate" every day. But i think it's always wise to maintain one's sense of discrimination in this stuff. All politicans tend to set dividing lines - whether the unions, the rich, the Jews, the terrorists, whatever. But Hitlerism was something of quite a different order to anything I detect in Abbott. I hold no candle for him, but he still seems to me in the democratic tradition, and I don't foresee a coup d'etat any time soon.
_________________
Two more flags before I die! |
|
|
|
|
Wokko
Come and take it.
Joined: 04 Oct 2005
|
| Post subject: | |
|
I was being flippant, but there are certainly plays being made out of the Hitler hand book. I'm not making a direct comparison to Hitler, I'll leave that to the University Leftists, but things like spying on your entire citizenry are troublesome.
What I don't understand is the huge shitstorm over Internet blacklists under Labor and total apathy over data retention laws. Mind boggling.
Looking into National Socialist economics I found a quote from Hitler that sounds like something Abbott or Hockey would say : "The basic feature of our economic theory is that we have no theory at all.".  |
|
|
|
|
pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
|
| Post subject: | |
|
^LOL. Abbott and Hockey have an economic theory alright, it just happens to be a really dumb, juvenile bit of wishful thinking from 1950.
_________________
In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
|
|
|
|
David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Wokko wrote: | | I was being flippant, but there are certainly plays being made out of the Hitler hand book. I'm not making a direct comparison to Hitler, I'll leave that to the University Leftists, but things like spying on your entire citizenry are troublesome. |
I have to admit that I'm amazed that this data retention bill is getting waved through so soon after the Snowden leaks in the US. American people of all political affiliations seem to have been genuinely shocked about what was being done by government agencies, and it was a major embarrassment for the Obama administration.
In the immediate aftermath of such a huge scandal, one would have thought that an ally would either be a) very unwilling to go down the same path; or b) crucified for their stupidity once they tried to go ahead with it. Perhaps America just has a much stronger libertarian tradition, or perhaps Abbott was banking on the apathy and gullibility of the Australian public and realised that he had little political capital to lose over this. If so, he made a smart call.
_________________
All watched over by machines of loving grace |
|
|
|
|
Culprit 
Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Location: Port Melbourne
|
| Post subject: | |
|
| Quote: | | It is a matter of profound regret to see where the country is being taken by a man whose defining characteristics are bullying and dishonesty. |
- Julian Burnside |
|
|
|
|
pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
|
|
|
|
|
pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
|
| Post subject: | |
|
I see now living in remote communities is a "lifestyle choice" for Aboriginal peoples.
Oh gawd, the idiot needs to be banned from speaking. We all know why remote communities exist despite the issues related to them. If he can't articulate basic, sane, constructive sentences on sensitive and complex public matters, without compulsively blurting out the stupid cliches which pop into his head, he is unfit to be a public figure. But we have always known this, yeah?
I see Moderate Malcolm is defending him, although he says nothing about other folk living in towns with high unemployment, or folk who live in fire prone areas, or people who think negative gearing is a business that needs ongoing government support now they've invested in four properties, or folk who send their kids to private schools and then demand government funding for them, or any number of "lifestyle choices" one could dream up.
Lifestyle choices are only things "the worthy" get to make, apparently.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/dont-give-tony-abbott-a-belting-malcolm-turnbull-defends-pm-over-lifestyle-choice-comments-20150311-140rq1.html
_________________
In the end the rain comes down, washes clean the streets of a blue sky town.
Help Nick's: http://www.magpies.net/nick/bb/fundraising.htm |
|
|
|
|
watt price tully 
Joined: 15 May 2007
|
| Post subject: | |
|
Wokko & Hitler again. 
Abbott is using basic "wedge" politics. It's what he's been using since the slight bounce back in the polls. He is more focus group driven than the ALP were & that is saying a lot.
The usual suspects: the slanty eyed neighbours, Aborigines, Muslims etc. Mind you, some of these groups give him a ready head to kick.
The Aborognies in remote WA wanted to have a sea change in the North Shore of Sydney but couldn't stand their neighbours. 
He is such a dick.
_________________
“I even went as far as becoming a Southern Baptist until I realised they didn’t keep ‘em under long enough” Kinky Friedman |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum
|
|
The Rules
FAQ
Usergroups
Calendar
Search
Log in
Register
