We knew who Abbott was back then

January 25, 2015
Written by: Dr Victoria Fielding
32 Replies

Image from businessinsider.com (Photo by REUTERS/David Gray)

I’m really sick of people saying that they didn’t expect Tony Abbott to be the type of Prime Minister he is. I’m really sick of people saying his policies caught them by surprise, that they didn’t expect him to slash and burn to the extent that he has tried, but thankfully, so far mostly failed to. I hear all types of people, even political journalists, saying that Abbott promised he wouldn’t be making cuts and they took him on his word and they didn’t expect him to lie. He had a pamphlet and apparently this was gospel truth about exactly what an Abbott government would look like. To this, I’ve always said, just look at him! Listen to him! Use your brain! Are you blind? Wilfully blind perhaps?

Independent bloggers like me, who predicted exactly how bad the Abbott government would be were told we were just partisan Labor hacks and that he really wouldn’t be nearly as bad as we said. But we, if anything, mostly under-predicted how bad he is going to be. However we were spot on with the ideology that oozes out of this government – the class and culture war that’s been inflicted is exactly as we thought it would be. How did we guess the type of policies Abbott would sneakily introduce once in power, but those who are paid to inform the community totally missed it? Seriously, how was this mistake to universally made? How could Australians be so let down that they have had the Abbott surprise inflicted on them? How could they be left so ill-prepared and uninformed?

This frustration was all running through my head when I came across this address by Abbott as Opposition Leader to the Millennium Forum on 14 May 2010, helpfully stored in Hansard. When Abbott was saying all of this, outlining his plans for Prime Minister Abbott, were political journalists and commentators listening? Or worse, were they listening but couldn’t comprehend what this obvious, blatant ideology would look like in power? Do they have a different definition of ‘small government’ than I do? Or did they know and chose not to say, knowing that Abbott would never win if people knew the truth about him. I fear it’s mostly a mixture of the latter, depending on the media organisation they work for.

You read Abbott’s words for yourself and be the judge. Would Australians have seen Abbott differently if they knew he was coming at politics from this world view? If this world view was explained sampling (for example: small government equals cuts to health, education, welfare and all public services).

Oh, and I can’t help but thank Abbott for his reminder that the last one term Australian government was in 1931. I look forward to Abbott’s government reclaiming that record in 2016.

LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION THE HON. TONY ABBOTT MHR
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR WARRINGAH
ADDRESS TO THE MILLENNIUM FORUM
14/05/10
Thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen. It’s great to see so many of you here. Julie, I really do want to thank you for that terrific introduction and yes, I think it is very important to be a politician and a leader of conviction but it’s important that leaders of conviction respect the convictions of those who think differently and if there’s one thing that I hope I have learnt over those 16 years it is that this is a great big wide world, not everyone shares my views. I do, I think, have a duty to do what I can to advance these ideas, these convictions that I have but it’s very important to respect the convictions and the ideas of those who think differently and in acknowledging all of my colleagues I should say a special thank you to the political exemplar of exemplars, namely our former Prime Minister, John Howard. A man of great conviction, but a man who realised that in the office of Prime Minister you had to be a Prime Minister for everyone, not just a Prime Minister for those who voted for you. John Howard, the greatest Prime Minister since Bob Menzies, the finest politician of his generation. I am a different politician to John Howard. There would be some in this room who would be disappointed that I am a different politician to John Howard but I say this: the politician that I am owes a very great deal to John Howard’s friendship and his mentoring and I thank you very, very much indeed, John.

Again, I welcome all of my distinguished senior colleagues. I should pay a particular tribute today to my Shadow Finance Minister, Andrew Robb. Budgets are difficult weeks for both sides of politics. They’re particularly difficult weeks for the finance men. I was the one who delivered the words last night but the ideas and the concepts were very much the property of Joe Hockey and Andrew Robb as well as the property of Tony Abbott and thank you, Andrew, for all your hard work over the last few weeks.
But ladies and gentlemen, we are getting to the business end of the electoral cycle and when we look back over the last two-and-a-half years and ask ourselves what has the Rudd Government actually done, I think they’ve done two things essentially. They have spent all of the carefully accumulated capital, they have blown all of the hard won surpluses of the previous government, that’s the first thing that they’ve done. The second thing they’ve done is that they have very seriously undone some of the important reforms of the former government and indeed of the government before that, they have let the union bullies back into so many of our most vital workplaces, that’s the second thing they’ve done. The third thing they are proposing to do is to plunge a dagger into the heart of Australia’s prosperity because that is what this great big new tax on mining will be. Now, all Budget week we’ve had minister after minister hitting the airwaves saying that this so-called super profits tax is about taking from the London shareholders and giving to the Australian battlers. Well, that is wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is a triple whammy tax. It is a tax on the 500,000 Australian workers whose jobs depend directly or indirectly on the mining industry. It’s a tax on the millions of Australian retirees whose incomes are drawn from those shares and those dividends that the mining companies pay. It’s a tax on consumers because you can’t raise the price of coal, you can’t raise the price of oil and gas, you can’t raise the price of building material, you can’t raise the price of fertiliser without that flowing through into the consumer price index. It is a triple whammy tax and my job, our job as Coalition Members of Parliament is to let the country know the threat that they face from the Rudd Government if it is re-elected.

And you’ve got to ask yourself where does this stop? I mean, if a six per cent return on capital is a super profit for the mining industry, what other industry is next for this kind of treatment? And if you listen to the Prime Minister and the Treasurer talking about how good this great big new tax is going to be for the mining industry, why wouldn’t they impose the same tax on everyone else? There is a fundamental lack of logic, though, about what they’re saying. Any of you who have followed the debate closely over the last few days would know that by the logic of this Budget a tax on cigarettes means less smoking but a tax on resources means more mining. It just doesn’t work. It just defies logic and yet it is the fundamental premise on which the Budget is based.

But haven’t times changed, ladies and gentlemen? Just a few months ago there was BHP, the big Australian, there was Rio, that great, iconic Australian company under threat from potential foreign takeover. These were heroes, they were the heroes that have saved us from the recession. Now, of course, they’re big, exploiting multinationals. Well, as far as I’m concerned they are just businesses but they are important businesses. They are vital businesses if our country is to prosper, if our people are to grow richer and happier, if our country is to be more cohesive in the years ahead, and they do not deserve to be targeted in the way they have by this government.

Sensible politicians know that what you should never do is sacrifice the long term welfare of the country for tomorrow’s headline and that is what this government has been prepared to do and the risk is that they will strangle the golden goose which has laid the eggs, the golden eggs which have driven our prosperity, and I say to all of you that the only thing standing between Australia and this threat is the Coalition. If you think this would be a disaster for our country and our economy there is only one course of action open to you and that is to vote out this Government.

But ladies and gentlemen, this is Budget week and there have been a lot of stories coming out of Budget week. Some of them I’m afraid are fairytales. The idea that the Rudd Government is ever going to deliver a surplus is as big a fairytale as the book that the Prime Minister spent his Christmas holidays writing. It just is not going to happen. They can postulate a surplus in three years time based on very optimistic assumptions about growth, but the only reality, the only hard fact in this year’s Budget is that this year the deficit is $57 billion.

Now, the great thing about coming to these lunches is that they bring you down to earth and I am indebted to one of you for this very important piece of political advice. He said, don’t talk about a billion. A billion dollars is meaningless to the average person in the street. A billion dollars is the cost of 20,000 Holden Commodores. That means that $50 billion is one million Holden Commodores. The deficit this year is the price of one million Holden Commodores. It is a staggering, staggering amount of money and that’s the money that’s going out the door thanks to the profligacy of this Government and, sure, they tell us that we will be in surplus in three years’ time. What they didn’t want to tell us is that every week until then we will still be borrowing $700 million and to use Nihal’s [Gupta] language, $700 million is two 747’s every week. So, that’s a hundred in two years, it’s 150, I mean these are the sorts of figures, these are the sorts of realities that we are dealing with thanks to the continued debt and deficit of this Government.

So, ladies and gentlemen, we do have a clear alternative. At least, I suppose, we can say that both sides of politics believe that we do need to tame the deficit dragon. We do need to kill the deficit dragon. But, the difference is the high road and low road. We will take the high road of reducing government expenditure and creating a more productive economy. They will take the low road of increasing taxes and fiddling with the assumptions.

What we will do is we will spend less, we will tax less and we will have a smaller government. Lower taxes, lesser spending, smaller government are at the heart of the Liberal Party’s principles, they’re at the heart of the Coalition’s philosophy and what I did last night was start to talk about how we would make that happen. Less tax – no great big tax on mining. Less spending – we won’t give money to the education bureaucrats to waste on over-priced pre-fabricated school halls. We will give it to the parents of Australia who know what is good for their kids and for their kids’ education. We won’t re-build Telecom fortyodd years afterwards. We won’t go ahead with the $43 billion white elephant with this big new nationalised telecommunications bureaucracy You know, I spent long enough as a Minister in the Government to have a good opinion of the Australian public service, but we don’t need more and more of them every year.

There are 20,000 more public servants today in Canberra then there were in 2007 when Lindsay Tanner said he was going to take a meat axe to the public service. Well, I’m not so brutal as Lindsay promised to be. I just think that by natural attrition we can have 12,000 less of them and that will save $4 billion over the period of the forward estimates.

So, ladies and gentlemen, lower taxes, smaller government, less spending. We have to get the debt and deficit under control and it’s pretty clear that the only way you can do that in reality as opposed to in a self-serving political fable is by changing the government by supporting the Coalition.

Now, it’s not going to be easy, as all of you know. It is very difficult to beat a first term government and as all of the commentators will tell you, over and over again, between now and polling day, the last first term government to lose was Jimmy Scullin back in 1931. But, ladies and gentlemen, a 79 year old record is just waiting to fall. It’s just waiting to fall. I don’t for a second underestimate the difficulty of the task. I don’t for a second underestimate the gifts of character that will be required from all of our team and all of our supporters over the next four or five months, but I have great confidence in the common sense of the Australian people and I have great confidence in the ability of my colleagues and I think we can win. I think we can win and we don’t want to do it for us. We want to do it for our country. That’s what it’s got to be for. It’s got to be for our country and I know that’s what all of you think. You aren’t here just for the Liberal Party. You certainly aren’t here just for me. You are here for Australia and I want to thank you for that very much indeed.

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32 comments

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townsvilleblogJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:02 pm

Perhaps its the viciousness of his policies that some didn’t expect, I certainly did expect them to act much earlier than they have on their fundamental hatred of the working class, but as we now know WorkChoices 2.0 is now on the way. They are determined to stick it up the working class, make wages less and tear away any/all of our hard won conditions. This coming legislation will hurt everyone who works for a living and those on pensions, everyone else is safe. They, like the Queensland LNP have upset just about everyone in their tenure, doctors, nurses, public servants you name it, they have attacked, now they plan to take us all on, forgetting that we mere mortals have the vote, which they may try to change? They are a disgraceful group of ultra right wing capitalists who people need to remember when next they vote, and the time after that, and the time after that.

halsaulJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:21 pm

Read AFR article “Blind Spot” – re Nobel Prize Winners & Scientist opinion of Abbott. Promised “long term, stable policies & vision that our Nations’ scientists & researchers NEED to excel in their work” LOL THEN CUTS of more than half a billion dollars to various institutions including C.S.I.R.O. Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn – Nobel Prize winner – quote “HOW COULD AUSTRALIA NOT THINK OF INVESTING HEAVILY IN SCIENCE – this is just insanity. YES it is. Abbotts deliberate, deceptive lies, before election – an election he would have lost had the people known the truth – cannot be tolerated any longer. Citizens already know it is a disaster and the full impact of changes have not even kicked in yet. Demise of Medicare/ Universal Health. Ability for intelligent children from all levels of society to be educated based on their ability, not on their parents wealth are basic in a “fair” society. Gonski was the answer 4 education. Sabotaging fibre NBN/FTTH from it’s full implementation ( affordable to all no matter where they live) was the ultimate betrayal. Clearly showed a totally amoral LNP Gov. only interested in donors increasing their wealth, not helping Australia to flourish & succeed internationally by having the very best technology. Doomed with redundant copper…the world laughs at Australia and Abbott is toxic.

June M Bullivant OAMJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:34 pm

All LNP’s think the same, always have always will, they are not concerned about us, they are just concerned how long they can stay in power and how much money they get out of it.

Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)January 25, 2015 at 4:40 pm

A significant reason underpinning Abbott’s success at the last election was the unrest and public in-fighting in the ALP. People were not voting FOR Abbott but AGAINST the ALP. If we want to get rid of Abbott, the whole of the ALP must take a cold hard look at its inter-factional quarrelling. Hopefully it has found a solution to its selection process for a leader and is prepared to follow a civilised approach to discussing leadership change if that ever becomes an issue. Now it has got to emphasize that small government means hardship for all but the select and wealthy few, that the key issues are trying to reach full employment, caring for those with a disability, improving access to health services, education and housing and rethinking a compassionate approach to refugees. It should not take years to ascertain that a person is a genuine refugee. No one should ever be sent back to a country where (s)he will be persecuted (the naivete of the government over Sri Lanka and the Tamils beggars belief) and NO CHILDREN SHOULD BE HELD IN DETENTION!

JuneJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:44 pm

My dislike for Abbott goes back more than a decade. His ousting of Howard left me with a dreadful sense of foreboding which is vindicated every time Abbott opens his mouth. I’m shocked people didn’t see it. Mind you, MSM sang his praises, and lauded him as the second coming. I don’t read/watch MSM as a matter of principle inevitably because the views expressed are diametrically opposed to my own. And just seeing a picture of Abbot makes me feel sick.

Sadly towsvileblog, there are still many, many LNP diehards who just don’t get it. Polls suggest LNP is still more favourable in NSW. ALP needs to get its act together, as a party. More than that, however, many voters may dislike LNP but they don’t trust ALP either. We are in a political vacuum with neither of the major parties necessarily up to the job of governing. If ALP manage to win the federal election there is a very real possibility they will be faced with a similarly hostile Senate that will stymy policy changes. In ALP’s favour – they are the lesser of two evils (by a country mile) for the average Australian. This bunch of Neo-liberal fascists are the worst blight on this country in my living memory. If work choices comes to the table will we see unionise mobilise? As much as strikes, rolling strikes with police, ambulances, public transport, hospital staff etc etc etc , may be justified, it will drive this country to economic chaos.. My single hope is that the senate remains adamant and strong enough to continue to block, block and block. My single worst fear is that Abbot & Co will manipulate a way to sneak further deleterious changes through the back door. Still plenty of time for them to wreak utter havoc before the next federal election …

lunalavaJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Yes I was amazed at how many “informed commentators” swallowed the propaganda instead of just observing his past behaviour and using this as a guide to future performance.

Reading Shorten’s dumb comments today on the republic, I was reminded of his melt down at the pie shop.

He needs a political minder and a new adviser on tactics asap

PhiJanuary 25, 2015 at 5:03 pm

He makes me vomit. The main stream media makes me vomit. The media is THE problem – it is NOT the solution, thus the next election will be no different.

Andreas BimbaJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:14 pm

Maybe sheep like tight belts?

Andreas BimbaJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:27 pm

Labor and the Greens need to clearly demonstrate to the swinging voter, who really decide elections, that they are financially responsible and truly believe in value for money for the services provided by government. I believe they are well ahead of the rubbish Coalition in this respect but the swinging voters still don’t believe this.

Graeme HenchelJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:32 pm

In Abbott’s world it’s quite routine
To say black is white and brown is green
In this world of deceit and distortion
Words get twisted in all contortion

Chorus
Tony Abbott the worlds best liar
Walks around with his pants on fire
Abbott lies wherever he goes
His nose is longer than pinocchios

The climate’s not changing
The earth is flat
Bronwyn’s not biased
Joe is not fat
Cuts are increases
Co-payments aren’t tax
Promises aren’t broken
Who cares about facts

Chorus
Concoct a crisis where none exists
Standard fare for mendacious sophists
With polls all showing a deep malaise
Give your ministers a bunch of A’s
Chorus
When the lying impact starts getting weaker
Someone can bash an asylum seeker
In Abbott’s world it’s quite routine
To lie to the point of being obscene

Peter AnsonJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:10 pm

The LNP idea of government has never been, nor will it ever be, any different to what is outlined in this speech. A complete contempt for anyone not born to wealth.Anyone who’s been watching and looking at the history of the UAP and its incarnations, its leaders and its affiliations,who still complains or affects surprise at the hatred emanting from the current government is a dill.

KerriJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:23 pm

After the election that led Howard back into power in spite of his promise of no GST, I was stunned at the attitude of people towards the GST! It seemed obvious to me that this tax was blatantly unfair. For a person on the minimum wage to pay the same percentage of tax for their weekly neccesities as someone in the BRW Rich 200 seemed absurd. When I asked people why they voted for Howard, their response, more often than not, was that the GST was inevitable?..? WTF??. How could people be so gullible?.??? If the Abbott Government leaves us with no other legacy than the political awakening of our population then they will have served some good. Like you, Victoria, I could see from a mile off what a lowlife, opinionated, priveleged liar Abbott was and is. If Australia falls for his lies after these last 18 months, let alone how many more promises he will break and how much more of taxpayers money will be given to his mates to run inquiries that report what he wants to hear so we can all go “doooh! Tony must be right” then we have no hope as a species, and I will move to somewhere more progressive and leave this beautiful country to it’s ultimate destruction by this regressive, backward thinking.

Fred KnuckleJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:42 pm

I can’t wait to read Abbott & Hockey’s epitaph after their one-term, or at very least a very very minority, government. Didn’t a recent report from a very respectable economic forum say that Howard & Costello didn’t make the most of the economic boom and saved money by not spending it on infra-structure maintenance? Same with Kennett and Newman currently.

I am a swinging voter but have not seen an LNP policy that I believe is good for the country yet.

lawrencewinderJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:26 am

Spot on.
I remember saying in a blog post three years ago that you will not be able to say you didn’t think they’d do X, Y or Z, for like Mein Kampf it was all written in the IPA’s wish list of 100 things to do. I can also remember writing that their treatment of Slippery Pete and Gillard, not to mention Abbott’s inglorious past, was a direct pointer to what they would be like in power.
Once a rabble, always a rabble! They are destroying this country bit by bit.

David GilesJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:40 am

What the speech really brought into focus is how incredibly simplistic the man’s thinking is. He is either an idiot or a highly trained expert in the art of saying nothing in order to lull the victim (in this case the electors of Australia) into a stupefied trance. His endless repetitions are a technique to create an appearance of truth (say it twice, it becomes truer, apparently) and authority. Was he given special training by the ‘research fellows’ at the ‘Institute’ of Public Affairs? – who are, in fact, nothing more than employees of a propaganda organisation who dress up assertions of their opinions as if they were based on any meaningful research, which they manifestly are not. Hitler and Goebbels knew the power of simple messages oft-repeated. Abbott is cut from the same authoritarian and utterly unethical cloth.

The most interesting admission in the speech was that he says he is not the same kind of politician as John Howard – too right. John Howard was not an extremist ideologue – Abbott is.

Danny TurnerJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:40 am

This must be a beat up surely….he said what?????

Now, all Budget week we’ve had minister after minister hitting the airwaves saying that this so-called super profits tax is about taking from the London shareholders and giving to the Australian battlers. Well, that is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Mad as hellJanuary 26, 2015 at 6:40 am

Arse hats the lot of them. The writing was on the wall but like good sheeple they still voted em in. Dumb dumb has their full attention now though it would appear.

Kaye LeeJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:13 am

We knew Abbott was a monarchist but making Prince Philip a knight????? Is this guy for real?????

KerriJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:40 am

I tried to check the protocols in the hope that it would be a slight to the Royal family, but as Liz approves all honours she must have let it through. Still could be good for Anastacia Palasczuk?
Can’t wait to see what the political cartoonists do with this?

Matters NotJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:42 am

Yep the Prince has now been knighted three (3) times. According to David Flint, he deserves it because he is still working at 93 and when he retires he won’t get a golden handshake. Shakes head.

And he won’t get the aged pension either. He’ll live out his days in penury.

Hilarious.

randalstellaJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:55 am

What a bunch of gutless wonders Australians are.
A knighthood to ‘Prince’ Philip.
Menzies’ imperial honours list has been taken to the surreal.
If you had any self-respect, and somehow were offered a gong by this mob, would you accept it?
Quentin Bryce, send back your knighthood/dameship – or whatever they call it. Send it back, and tell them why. Tell them you were ambushed; framed.

If you listen to radio sports shows you get 60 year-old men, who have never received more than a standard worker’s wage, ringing to offer their devotion to 19 year-old millionaire footballers and tennis stars.
Meanwhile asylum seekers are subject to concentration-camp indefinite imprisonment; and pilloried for their anguish and protests about that; while this elected Government does deals over them with murderous military regimes. This is moral depravity on the level of war crime; run by vote-gathering sadists and racists. The public who elect them are responsible.

It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious. ‘Brave’ by proxy is abject at heart.
Let us never forget. 100 years of Gallipoli is just over the horizon. They would do it all again. Still a convict colony.

Truly a most representative Government. Or the most revealing about ‘Australianness’.

John FraserJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:58 am

Its time :

Time to come clean, Tony

To repost this Article.

HarquebusJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:19 pm

The Labor Party needed to be punished. If they were not voted out, they would have continued with their hubris and messy policies. Tony Abbott’s government will likewise be punished.
It is ideology that is the problem and that ideology is growth. We have reached the limits to growth which, no one seems to be able to comprehend, especially politicians. We will continue to have lies and broken promises so long as this absurd ideology is pursued. Growth can not be sustained without abundant cheap sources of crude oil. Peak oil mates, peak oil.

John FraserJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:30 pm

Labor was voted out in Queensland 3 years ago because voters did not like them selling assets.

Now it looks like newmans LNP is going to be voted in on the promise of selling assets.

Go figure !

Don't bother starting on the lies that Labor told about not selling those assets because the lies the newman LNP is now telling put all others in the shade.

roaminruinJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:39 pm

Who needed to read Abbott’s material such as you’ve quoted? I didn’t read it then and I don’t intend to now.

Abbott’s nastiness, his class-driven fantasies, his vindictiveness and spite have been evident from even before he was Opposition leader.

I’ve been throwing my shoe at the TV ever since his gormless mug started appearing on it and his evil cackle emanating from it. (Dunlop Volleys – no real harm done to the tellie). It’s been apparent for quite some time that he’d be worse even than Howard. However, I feel your frustration. I get angry with acquaintances and friends who profess ignorance….I get positively apoplectic at those who still profess support for the coprolite.

corvus boreusJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:04 pm

roaminruin,
Not so much a coprolite, which neither smell nor smear.
More like a ‘fresh’ stool sprayed with lacquer

abbienoiraudeJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:47 pm

What @halsaul, @Rosemary, @June said; You all speak for me!

But this sentence is the best thus far, from Randalstella:

“It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious.”

I know of several people who believed Abbott before the election and now stand by him.
The reason they gave and still give?

Budget deficit, money, surplus.

No matter what else I tried to explain, about asylum seekers, the poor, Workchoices ( by another name), the need to keep Australian’s in ‘fear’ to keep Conservatives in power, the attack on the aged, disabled, homeless and unemployed, the lack of ‘governing for all’….nothing I could say could sway them.

It came back to “too much money on Foreign Aid, Labor spending like a drunken sailor, Surplus being important, budget mess, budget mess, budget mess {whoever formulated that term should be named and shamed out loud}, stopping the boats coz they are taking our jobs and living off MY taxes, budget deficit, Labor leaving Australia in a ‘mess’ etc”.

So it all came down to the three word slogan, the unthinking person’s comfort blanket in being told what to think and believe without any truth in MSM being reported. In other words; Money, fear, money, fear, xenophobia, money, patriotism, budget mess, boats.

No vision, no truth, no facts to back up any of Abbott’s campaign slogans but he hit the spot with the faux middle classes ( ie they who think they are but are in fact lower class…..so much for a ‘classless society’…it isn’t any longer; For HoWARd started the rebirth of Australia’s very own class system; “If you vote for us you are one of us. Bugga everyone else. They are all bludgers, not like us the ‘battlers’.”

Talk about ‘stupid, servile and vicious’.

roaminruinJanuary 26, 2015 at 3:47 pm

On a side note – Graeme H, I hope your keeping a collection of your poetic gems.

TrevorJanuary 26, 2015 at 4:26 pm

Thank you Victoria Rollinson for that gem of Abbott’s from Hansard. A leopard can never change its spots. What’s that, a leap year. Well lift up its tail. Lord Suppository of Deranged outdid us all with today’s cringeworthy decision on Phillup the goose. Sack this Abbott bastard.

Barry RileyJanuary 27, 2015 at 8:23 am

All it needs is for the 75 goals of the IPA to be nailed up outside every polling station and a reminder that these are the people behind the LNP and there’d be a landslide to Labor.

Andreas BimbaJanuary 29, 2015 at 4:01 pm

I agree with abbienoiraude that Randalstella’s comment is a gem.

“It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious.”

Please however note that these shortcomings are not exclusively Australian but fairly universal and are keenly exploited by the tyrants of this world, both unelected and elected. “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” (from a speech by Winston Churchill delivered in the House of Commons on November 11, 1947)

BlanikFebruary 22, 2015 at 9:26 pm

Kerri, Betty Windsor is a very old lady and her approval of Phil the Greek’s Knighthood simply shows that she is quite beyond it. But, more importantly, it shows quite clearly how being born into power is a very odd system and it’s time the people of Australia did something about it.
Australia is no longer a british (yes, I know, lower case) colony but what can we do about it. Turnbull is a liar and Shorten is probably hanging out for a Guernsey as well, to keep up with the mother.

What hope have we when the ALP is a sub branch of the LNP

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townsvilleblogJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:02 pm

Perhaps its the viciousness of his policies that some didn’t expect, I certainly did expect them to act much earlier than they have on their fundamental hatred of the working class, but as we now know WorkChoices 2.0 is now on the way. They are determined to stick it up the working class, make wages less and tear away any/all of our hard won conditions. This coming legislation will hurt everyone who works for a living and those on pensions, everyone else is safe. They, like the Queensland LNP have upset just about everyone in their tenure, doctors, nurses, public servants you name it, they have attacked, now they plan to take us all on, forgetting that we mere mortals have the vote, which they may try to change? They are a disgraceful group of ultra right wing capitalists who people need to remember when next they vote, and the time after that, and the time after that.
halsaulJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:21 pm

Read AFR article “Blind Spot” – re Nobel Prize Winners & Scientist opinion of Abbott. Promised “long term, stable policies & vision that our Nations’ scientists & researchers NEED to excel in their work” LOL THEN CUTS of more than half a billion dollars to various institutions including C.S.I.R.O. Prof. Elizabeth Blackburn – Nobel Prize winner – quote “HOW COULD AUSTRALIA NOT THINK OF INVESTING HEAVILY IN SCIENCE – this is just insanity. YES it is. Abbotts deliberate, deceptive lies, before election – an election he would have lost had the people known the truth – cannot be tolerated any longer. Citizens already know it is a disaster and the full impact of changes have not even kicked in yet. Demise of Medicare/ Universal Health. Ability for intelligent children from all levels of society to be educated based on their ability, not on their parents wealth are basic in a “fair” society. Gonski was the answer 4 education. Sabotaging fibre NBN/FTTH from it’s full implementation ( affordable to all no matter where they live) was the ultimate betrayal. Clearly showed a totally amoral LNP Gov. only interested in donors increasing their wealth, not helping Australia to flourish & succeed internationally by having the very best technology. Doomed with redundant copper…the world laughs at Australia and Abbott is toxic.
June M Bullivant OAMJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:34 pm

All LNP’s think the same, always have always will, they are not concerned about us, they are just concerned how long they can stay in power and how much money they get out of it.
Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)January 25, 2015 at 4:40 pm

A significant reason underpinning Abbott’s success at the last election was the unrest and public in-fighting in the ALP. People were not voting FOR Abbott but AGAINST the ALP. If we want to get rid of Abbott, the whole of the ALP must take a cold hard look at its inter-factional quarrelling. Hopefully it has found a solution to its selection process for a leader and is prepared to follow a civilised approach to discussing leadership change if that ever becomes an issue. Now it has got to emphasize that small government means hardship for all but the select and wealthy few, that the key issues are trying to reach full employment, caring for those with a disability, improving access to health services, education and housing and rethinking a compassionate approach to refugees. It should not take years to ascertain that a person is a genuine refugee. No one should ever be sent back to a country where (s)he will be persecuted (the naivete of the government over Sri Lanka and the Tamils beggars belief) and NO CHILDREN SHOULD BE HELD IN DETENTION!
JuneJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:44 pm

My dislike for Abbott goes back more than a decade. His ousting of Howard left me with a dreadful sense of foreboding which is vindicated every time Abbott opens his mouth. I’m shocked people didn’t see it. Mind you, MSM sang his praises, and lauded him as the second coming. I don’t read/watch MSM as a matter of principle inevitably because the views expressed are diametrically opposed to my own. And just seeing a picture of Abbot makes me feel sick.

Sadly towsvileblog, there are still many, many LNP diehards who just don’t get it. Polls suggest LNP is still more favourable in NSW. ALP needs to get its act together, as a party. More than that, however, many voters may dislike LNP but they don’t trust ALP either. We are in a political vacuum with neither of the major parties necessarily up to the job of governing. If ALP manage to win the federal election there is a very real possibility they will be faced with a similarly hostile Senate that will stymy policy changes. In ALP’s favour – they are the lesser of two evils (by a country mile) for the average Australian. This bunch of Neo-liberal fascists are the worst blight on this country in my living memory. If work choices comes to the table will we see unionise mobilise? As much as strikes, rolling strikes with police, ambulances, public transport, hospital staff etc etc etc , may be justified, it will drive this country to economic chaos.. My single hope is that the senate remains adamant and strong enough to continue to block, block and block. My single worst fear is that Abbot & Co will manipulate a way to sneak further deleterious changes through the back door. Still plenty of time for them to wreak utter havoc before the next federal election …
lunalavaJanuary 25, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Yes I was amazed at how many “informed commentators” swallowed the propaganda instead of just observing his past behaviour and using this as a guide to future performance.

Reading Shorten’s dumb comments today on the republic, I was reminded of his melt down at the pie shop.

He needs a political minder and a new adviser on tactics asap
PhiJanuary 25, 2015 at 5:03 pm

He makes me vomit. The main stream media makes me vomit. The media is THE problem – it is NOT the solution, thus the next election will be no different.
Andreas BimbaJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:14 pm

Maybe sheep like tight belts?
Andreas BimbaJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:27 pm

Labor and the Greens need to clearly demonstrate to the swinging voter, who really decide elections, that they are financially responsible and truly believe in value for money for the services provided by government. I believe they are well ahead of the rubbish Coalition in this respect but the swinging voters still don’t believe this.
Graeme HenchelJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:32 pm

In Abbott’s world it’s quite routine
To say black is white and brown is green
In this world of deceit and distortion
Words get twisted in all contortion

Chorus
Tony Abbott the worlds best liar
Walks around with his pants on fire
Abbott lies wherever he goes
His nose is longer than pinocchios

The climate’s not changing
The earth is flat
Bronwyn’s not biased
Joe is not fat
Cuts are increases
Co-payments aren’t tax
Promises aren’t broken
Who cares about facts

Chorus
Concoct a crisis where none exists
Standard fare for mendacious sophists
With polls all showing a deep malaise
Give your ministers a bunch of A’s
Chorus
When the lying impact starts getting weaker
Someone can bash an asylum seeker
In Abbott’s world it’s quite routine
To lie to the point of being obscene
Peter AnsonJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:10 pm

The LNP idea of government has never been, nor will it ever be, any different to what is outlined in this speech. A complete contempt for anyone not born to wealth.Anyone who’s been watching and looking at the history of the UAP and its incarnations, its leaders and its affiliations,who still complains or affects surprise at the hatred emanting from the current government is a dill.
KerriJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:23 pm

After the election that led Howard back into power in spite of his promise of no GST, I was stunned at the attitude of people towards the GST! It seemed obvious to me that this tax was blatantly unfair. For a person on the minimum wage to pay the same percentage of tax for their weekly neccesities as someone in the BRW Rich 200 seemed absurd. When I asked people why they voted for Howard, their response, more often than not, was that the GST was inevitable?..? WTF??. How could people be so gullible?.??? If the Abbott Government leaves us with no other legacy than the political awakening of our population then they will have served some good. Like you, Victoria, I could see from a mile off what a lowlife, opinionated, priveleged liar Abbott was and is. If Australia falls for his lies after these last 18 months, let alone how many more promises he will break and how much more of taxpayers money will be given to his mates to run inquiries that report what he wants to hear so we can all go “doooh! Tony must be right” then we have no hope as a species, and I will move to somewhere more progressive and leave this beautiful country to it’s ultimate destruction by this regressive, backward thinking.
Fred KnuckleJanuary 25, 2015 at 8:42 pm

I can’t wait to read Abbott & Hockey’s epitaph after their one-term, or at very least a very very minority, government. Didn’t a recent report from a very respectable economic forum say that Howard & Costello didn’t make the most of the economic boom and saved money by not spending it on infra-structure maintenance? Same with Kennett and Newman currently.

I am a swinging voter but have not seen an LNP policy that I believe is good for the country yet.
lawrencewinderJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:26 am

Spot on.
I remember saying in a blog post three years ago that you will not be able to say you didn’t think they’d do X, Y or Z, for like Mein Kampf it was all written in the IPA’s wish list of 100 things to do. I can also remember writing that their treatment of Slippery Pete and Gillard, not to mention Abbott’s inglorious past, was a direct pointer to what they would be like in power.
Once a rabble, always a rabble! They are destroying this country bit by bit.
David GilesJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:40 am

What the speech really brought into focus is how incredibly simplistic the man’s thinking is. He is either an idiot or a highly trained expert in the art of saying nothing in order to lull the victim (in this case the electors of Australia) into a stupefied trance. His endless repetitions are a technique to create an appearance of truth (say it twice, it becomes truer, apparently) and authority. Was he given special training by the ‘research fellows’ at the ‘Institute’ of Public Affairs? – who are, in fact, nothing more than employees of a propaganda organisation who dress up assertions of their opinions as if they were based on any meaningful research, which they manifestly are not. Hitler and Goebbels knew the power of simple messages oft-repeated. Abbott is cut from the same authoritarian and utterly unethical cloth.

The most interesting admission in the speech was that he says he is not the same kind of politician as John Howard – too right. John Howard was not an extremist ideologue – Abbott is.
Danny TurnerJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:40 am

This must be a beat up surely….he said what?????

Now, all Budget week we’ve had minister after minister hitting the airwaves saying that this so-called super profits tax is about taking from the London shareholders and giving to the Australian battlers. Well, that is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Mad as hellJanuary 26, 2015 at 6:40 am

Arse hats the lot of them. The writing was on the wall but like good sheeple they still voted em in. Dumb dumb has their full attention now though it would appear.
Kaye LeeJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:13 am

We knew Abbott was a monarchist but making Prince Philip a knight????? Is this guy for real?????
KerriJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:40 am

I tried to check the protocols in the hope that it would be a slight to the Royal family, but as Liz approves all honours she must have let it through. Still could be good for Anastacia Palasczuk?
Can’t wait to see what the political cartoonists do with this?
Matters NotJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:42 am

Yep the Prince has now been knighted three (3) times. According to David Flint, he deserves it because he is still working at 93 and when he retires he won’t get a golden handshake. Shakes head.

And he won’t get the aged pension either. He’ll live out his days in penury.

Hilarious.
randalstellaJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:55 am

What a bunch of gutless wonders Australians are.
A knighthood to ‘Prince’ Philip.
Menzies’ imperial honours list has been taken to the surreal.
If you had any self-respect, and somehow were offered a gong by this mob, would you accept it?
Quentin Bryce, send back your knighthood/dameship – or whatever they call it. Send it back, and tell them why. Tell them you were ambushed; framed.

If you listen to radio sports shows you get 60 year-old men, who have never received more than a standard worker’s wage, ringing to offer their devotion to 19 year-old millionaire footballers and tennis stars.
Meanwhile asylum seekers are subject to concentration-camp indefinite imprisonment; and pilloried for their anguish and protests about that; while this elected Government does deals over them with murderous military regimes. This is moral depravity on the level of war crime; run by vote-gathering sadists and racists. The public who elect them are responsible.

It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious. ‘Brave’ by proxy is abject at heart.
Let us never forget. 100 years of Gallipoli is just over the horizon. They would do it all again. Still a convict colony.

Truly a most representative Government. Or the most revealing about ‘Australianness’.
John FraserJanuary 26, 2015 at 9:58 am

<

Its time :

Time to come clean, Tony

To repost this Article.
HarquebusJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:19 pm

The Labor Party needed to be punished. If they were not voted out, they would have continued with their hubris and messy policies. Tony Abbott’s government will likewise be punished.
It is ideology that is the problem and that ideology is growth. We have reached the limits to growth which, no one seems to be able to comprehend, especially politicians. We will continue to have lies and broken promises so long as this absurd ideology is pursued. Growth can not be sustained without abundant cheap sources of crude oil. Peak oil mates, peak oil.
John FraserJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:30 pm

<

Labor was voted out in Queensland 3 years ago because voters did not like them selling assets.

Now it looks like newmans LNP is going to be voted in on the promise of selling assets.

Go figure !

Don't bother starting on the lies that Labor told about not selling those assets because the lies the newman LNP is now telling put all others in the shade.
roaminruinJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:39 pm

Who needed to read Abbott’s material such as you’ve quoted? I didn’t read it then and I don’t intend to now.

Abbott’s nastiness, his class-driven fantasies, his vindictiveness and spite have been evident from even before he was Opposition leader.

I’ve been throwing my shoe at the TV ever since his gormless mug started appearing on it and his evil cackle emanating from it. (Dunlop Volleys – no real harm done to the tellie). It’s been apparent for quite some time that he’d be worse even than Howard. However, I feel your frustration. I get angry with acquaintances and friends who profess ignorance….I get positively apoplectic at those who still profess support for the coprolite.
corvus boreusJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:04 pm

roaminruin,
Not so much a coprolite, which neither smell nor smear.
More like a ‘fresh’ stool sprayed with lacquer
abbienoiraudeJanuary 26, 2015 at 1:47 pm

What @halsaul, @Rosemary, @June said; You all speak for me!

But this sentence is the best thus far, from Randalstella:

“It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious.”

I know of several people who believed Abbott before the election and now stand by him.
The reason they gave and still give?

Budget deficit, money, surplus.

No matter what else I tried to explain, about asylum seekers, the poor, Workchoices ( by another name), the need to keep Australian’s in ‘fear’ to keep Conservatives in power, the attack on the aged, disabled, homeless and unemployed, the lack of ‘governing for all’….nothing I could say could sway them.

It came back to “too much money on Foreign Aid, Labor spending like a drunken sailor, Surplus being important, budget mess, budget mess, budget mess {whoever formulated that term should be named and shamed out loud}, stopping the boats coz they are taking our jobs and living off MY taxes, budget deficit, Labor leaving Australia in a ‘mess’ etc”.

So it all came down to the three word slogan, the unthinking person’s comfort blanket in being told what to think and believe without any truth in MSM being reported. In other words; Money, fear, money, fear, xenophobia, money, patriotism, budget mess, boats.

No vision, no truth, no facts to back up any of Abbott’s campaign slogans but he hit the spot with the faux middle classes ( ie they who think they are but are in fact lower class…..so much for a ‘classless society’…it isn’t any longer; For HoWARd started the rebirth of Australia’s very own class system; “If you vote for us you are one of us. Bugga everyone else. They are all bludgers, not like us the ‘battlers’.”

Talk about ‘stupid, servile and vicious’.
roaminruinJanuary 26, 2015 at 3:47 pm

On a side note – Graeme H, I hope your keeping a collection of your poetic gems.
TrevorJanuary 26, 2015 at 4:26 pm

Thank you Victoria Rollinson for that gem of Abbott’s from Hansard. A leopard can never change its spots. What’s that, a leap year. Well lift up its tail. Lord Suppository of Deranged outdid us all with today’s cringeworthy decision on Phillup the goose. Sack this Abbott bastard.
Barry RileyJanuary 27, 2015 at 8:23 am

All it needs is for the 75 goals of the IPA to be nailed up outside every polling station and a reminder that these are the people behind the LNP and there’d be a landslide to Labor.
Andreas BimbaJanuary 29, 2015 at 4:01 pm

I agree with abbienoiraude that Randalstella’s comment is a gem.

“It is their mental incapacity for principle that makes Australians so stupid, so servile, so vicious.”

Please however note that these shortcomings are not exclusively Australian but fairly universal and are keenly exploited by the tyrants of this world, both unelected and elected. “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” (from a speech by Winston Churchill delivered in the House of Commons on November 11, 1947)
BlanikFebruary 22, 2015 at 9:26 pm

Kerri, Betty Windsor is a very old lady and her approval of Phil the Greek’s Knighthood simply shows that she is quite beyond it. But, more importantly, it shows quite clearly how being born into power is a very odd system and it’s time the people of Australia did something about it.
Australia is no longer a british (yes, I know, lower case) colony but what can we do about it. Turnbull is a liar and Shorten is probably hanging out for a Guernsey as well, to keep up with the mother.

What hope have we when the ALP is a sub branch of the LNP

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