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Abbott Supporters Still Pyning Away!

Well, thank god those days of dysfunctional government are over and the adults are back in charge. No, really, they’ve told us many, many times that they’re the awesomest government and they’re really good and besides Bill smells and has no friends and nobody likes him and we’re going to call him names until he cries because that’s the way adults do things…

Anyway, I must say that the events of the past few days remind me yet again of why people are rather cynical of politicians. For those of you who haven’t followed the events surrounding Christopher “The Fixer” Pyne, it goes something like this.

  1. Pyne was speaking to a group of like-minded Liberals. An amazing thing in itself. He not only mentioned that he and George had always voted for Malcolm the Magnificent, but that changes to the marriage laws may not be all that far away.
  2. Even though this was not a public forum somebody leaked it to Andrew Bolt.
  3. Tony Abbott immediately suggested that Pyne’s “confession that he has made to his close colleagues in the Left faction” demonstrated that he’d been disloyal while a member of his leadership team because, well, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote for someone else when you’re a member of Cabinet apparently. (Let’s leave aside the rather strange idea that there is a “left faction” in the Liberals. Ok, there may be some that are less right, but it’s a bit like talking about the intelligent faction of One Nation.)
  4. There are lots of anonymous sources suggesting that Pyne must be replaced because his comments suggested that he wanted to change government policy and that he should support government policy at all times.
  5. Turnbull and Pyne both come out and say that there’ll be no change to government policy, which is nicely ambiguous because the suggestion from some was that a couple of Liberals were going to introduce a private member’s bill and attempt to get legislation through with a few committed souls crossing the floor. That, of course, wouldn’t require a change to government policy.
  6. There is still anger towards Christopher Pyne for suggesting that he supported something that isn’t government policy.
  7. Tony Abbott puts aside his anger to publicly release a manifesto of exactly what the government should do, which is somehow different from Pyne’s sin of saying it behind closed doors, because nobody has a problem with this at all, even though, at face value, suggesting that the government policy needs to change doesn’t seem to be supporting current government policy.

That about catches you up. So now we can carefully examine Tony’s manifesto without being all caught up on whether Malcolm will sack Christopher or whether a whole bunch of Liberals will join Cory Bernardi’s party and bring down the government.

I did notice that the headline on one of the articles about Tony’s plan implied that it was a plan to help the Liberals get re-elected. Now, if he simply wants to help the Liberals get re-elected, I have a very simple one for him. It’s what they told the sheep farmer: “Just shut the flock up!”

However, I’m sure that Mr Abbott would argue that his ideas are not simply about being returned at the next ballot (whether that’s the ballot for Liberal leader or the next federal one), but that they’re real solutions that will take Australia back to its glory days when men were men, the Queen was beloved by all and we all rode on the sheep’s back… in a purely economic sense, of course, because nobody – not even Cory Bernardi – would have even thought to suggest that we were on a slippery slope toward bestiality.

Mr Abbott, as he usually does, covered a range of ideas. Yep, that is a euphemism for saying that the poor man is unable to stay on any given topic for more than a couple of minutes without exhausting his knowledge. Young Tony asserted the need to cut immigration before following up with complaints about political parties surrendering to populism. Now, I guess some will think that this is a bit hypocritical, but let me remind you that it’s only when somebody else does something that a lot of people agree with that it’s populism, when one does it oneself, it’s bowing to the will of the people in line with democratic principles. Along with Mr Abbott’s misgivings about populism and the whole political spectrum moving to the left, he was also concerned about school funding and energy targets. School funding, he speculated, had moved in the wrong direction, although he wasn’t clear about what he meant by that, although he has made it clear in the past that he thinks that private schools should be getting a lot more than they are. And the Senate shouldn’t be have so much power to block the government and he proposed measures that would enable a joint sitting without the need for a double dissolution. Nobody asked him why he tried to block so much government legislation when he was in Opposition, if he felt that the Senate was an unnecessary obstacle. Similarly, nobody suggested that this might be a problem when those silly Labor people get back in. Perhaps, Tony has a plan to ensure that only conservatives can be elected in future; perhaps he’s quite happy to allow Labor to introduce all those things that the Senate has rejected in the past. Whatever, it surely couldn’t be because a man who was once our PM wouldn’t have thought his idea through.

And then, there were his ideas on energy. Listening to Finkel – whom the current government commissioned to work out the best solutions, or at least some solutions, because we’ve already rejected some even if they are the best – would be a terrible mistake. No, it’s better just to make up your own mind because that way you don’t get confused by a lot of nasty facts. No, we should freeze the renewable target at 15% and stop any new wind farms because we may have an energy shortfall and building more wind farms would help reduce this shortfall, but not by using coal and so, therefore, it doesn’t fit the criteria of good energy policy. Let’s be quite clear here, renewables are being subsidised and we don’t like that. We think that the market should decide and if the market doesn’t want to build any new coal-fired power stations then the government should go it alone and build one itself. There now, that’s perfectly consistent, isn’t it?

A spokesman for Mr Turnbull said that he had no plans to change government policy. When asked if he had any plans at all, the spokesman said that he’d check with the PM but he was almost certain that he had been talking about his intention to develop a plan at the first available opportunity.

27 comments

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  1. Wayne Turner

    NoBalls won’t change policy.That would involve having GUTS.Pointless Turnbull continues……

    While the escape mental patient Abbott continues his “no sniping” and “delusions”.Clearly we lack mental health funding with this lot.

  2. Ken

    What’s Abbott going to do after Murdoch is no longer around

  3. helvityni

    Ken, whilst waiting for his next protector, he will be doing some shadow boxing..

    With all these Liberal Fixers and Boxers, I’m losing track who is who..

  4. Jagger

    Turnball only ever had one plan, to replace Abbott as PM.

  5. MikeW

    Abbott, a thug, bully, misogynist, sniper, liar and a man so stupid he doesn’t know the difference between an apple and onion.

  6. flohri1754

    Spot on ….

  7. diannaart

    “(Let’s leave aside the rather strange idea that there is a “left faction” in the Liberals. Ok, there may be some that are less right, but it’s a bit like talking about the intelligent faction of One Nation.)”

    Rossleigh, thank you for your article I think I may now be able to move on from the above thought which has been circulating my mind in a rather obsessive fashion.

    All I need to do now is expunge “Pyne is a moderate member of the Libs” – Pyne is ‘moderate’? I thought any remaining moderates departed with Petro Georgio many, many years ago.

    Now I can concentrate on the here and now; Tony Abbott is attacking…. anything that breathes.

    Great.

  8. MikeW

    Malcolm Turnbull, a man of no principles, a man who would do anything for the ego trip of being P.M. even to the point of spending $1.7 million of his own money. No worries for Mal though, when he resigns after the coalition get slaughtered at the next election he will receive a whopping pension plus lurks and perks, and no doubt be gifted with a high paid job in the private sector for services rendered.

  9. havanaliedown

    MikeW, Mal will have to cover a much greater shortfall in small (and large) donations to cover than $1,700,000 for the next election – IF he decides to stay on to certain defeat (he’s too lazy to prosecute TWO winning themes – borders and power). He’s many things, but smart enough to know what ROI means. He won’t waste that sort of money twice.

  10. stephengb2014

    Folks – can we be absolutely clear, it is “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party” (PHON)

    “One Nation Party was disbanded it disapeared, reserected as PHON.

    This is an important distinction because, as far as I understand, it means that PH0N cannot exist without Pauline Hanson, in other words it is a dictatorship party wanting to take government. So what does that mean if, by some miracle, PHON actually got voted into power.

    I am sure someone can discuss this better than I can, please do

    I believe that refering to PHON as simply “One Nation” sends an implied message, that is simply untrue

    S G B

  11. rossleighbrisbane

    Good point, Stephen. Perhaps I should register Rossleigh’s One Nation and you could so the same with your name until there are so many One Nations that we can suggest that we all almagate and call ourselves the United Nations Party!

  12. passum2013

    Nair their is a massive party call Informal party a lot of people vote informal so vote Rusty2 informal its a dog of a party for all canines and handlers
    Its tor the lazy people that dont vote so if you want your name of the voting just vote fro informal

  13. Maureen

    Well…I don’t know why Tony is complaining after all, it was Christopher – saying himself on Q &A last night who helped Tony bring down the Gillard government, only conveniently didn’t mention the word Ashbygate the plot to destroy Australia’s Speaker.

  14. David Bruce

    Many thanks Rossleigh! We have a parliamentary delegation from Australia, visiting the island paradise this week! I have been invited for tea with them on Friday. I shall attempt to be “nice”, so it will be more of a challenge now that I am aware of the current state of the Canberra can of worms. I used to think we had the best politicians money could buy and now I realize Murderoch is conducting the band. Pity help Australia, if 2017 is the peak of the economic cycle, and the adults in clown suits are still using the song book handed down by the conductor!

  15. Vikingduk

    But tones has progressed so far, he now has a 4 word slogan, make straya work again, obviously showing he is definitely in touch. Also, he has a point re wind farms, those bloody towers, they play havoc with the wind, I’m sure they’re responsible for the relentless southerlies and as far as those solar panels, they steal valuable sunlight. It is a well known fact that any vegetation within a several metre diameter of panels grows very poorly when compared to the absence of panels.

    Jeez, Rossleigh, just constant bashing of the phony tony, the ineptitude, incompetence and lying by this farce of a government, relentless abuse by you and others on this site. I mean, fair crack of the raw prawn, tones is a legend in his own headspace as well as being a remarkably delusional sociopath and trumbles is such fine example of a sock puppet yet all you can do is criticise. Though that new 4 word slogan doesn’t quite have the same level of hatred as ditch the witch which shows you this cretin has grown as a human bean, sort of like a mung bean.

    Expecting more balanced coverage in future, yours in weirdness, the Vikingduk family.

  16. Harry

    Abbott is really Labor’s secret weapon.

  17. Graeme Henchel

    I don’t like Labor or the greens
    Or those strange windmill like machines
    But mmm, I love onions

    I don’t like Malcolm he’s a nob
    He’s the prick that stole my job
    But mmm, I love onions

    Onions, onions, la-la-la!
    Onions, onions, ha-ha-ha!
    Root doot doot-doot, doot doot doot!

    Onions, onions, la-la-la!
    Onions, onions, ha-ha-ha!
    Root doot doot-doot, doot doot doot!

    I don’t like losing I don’t like walls
    I don’t like Malcolm he’s got no balls
    But mmm, I love onions!

    I don’t like girls and I don’t like gays
    Or people who get into my way
    But mmm, I love onions!

    Onions, onions, la-la-la!
    Onions, onions, ha-ha-ha!
    Root doot doot-doot, doot doot doot!

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zmL3BcNc8pg

  18. wam

    Jagger trumball wanted PM he had it till the rabbott climate changed his way into leadership and the }{{###~}{ foolishly joined him to kill the climate with the lemon too gutless to DD and the rest is horrible history.

  19. john ocallaghan

    Poor old Tony wants to build coal fired power plants with tax payers money,ban all renewables and cancel the RET to boot,Oh and kick Turnbull off the throne and insert himself as Supreme Leader and rule over his Kingdom with an iron ore fist,and yes,of course he is nuts and should be admitted to the nearest mental facility.

  20. guest

    Shari Markson had it all worked out on The rum tonight.

    All the Labor pollies said what a failure Rudd was, but they allowed him back again. So Abbott has every chance because the conservatives think Turnbull is too far to the left. And Abbott talks with the shock jocks because their audience believes what he and they say.

    And if not Abbott, then Dutton?

    Be afraid. Be very afraid.

  21. stephentardrew

    Beaudy Rossleigh.

  22. havanaliedown

    Not Dutton, Bishop.

  23. Rossleigh

    havanliedown, which one?

    You mean, Julie or Bronwyn? I mean, I know that Bronwyn has left the Parliament and all that, but given how far behind you are in most matters, I wasn’t sure that you’d have caught up with that.

  24. Kaye Lee

    I very much doubt that Julie would want the job. After all, she is “living the dream” as she told Who magazine when she did that photo shoot not long after appearing in Harper’s Bazaar and a few years after bagging the crap out of Julia Gillard. Julie had said that posing for magazine covers was “not my style” and that “I don’t think you should be courting that celebrity status as if you’re a fashion model or a TV star, because you’re not,” ….until you are hey Julie?

    Harpy’s bizarre

  25. diannaart

    Right-wing pollie accuses left-wing pollie of doing exactly what she aspired (and achieved) to do. Projection much, Julie Bishop?

    These conservatives, as I have noted on another blog, they don’t ‘get’ hypocrisy, but they ‘do’ it so very well. Must be in the DNA or something…

  26. Terry2

    Now Abbott is saying that he wished he hadn’t taken the nuclear submarine option off the table.

    Quck, French shipbuilder DCNS is designing 12 conventionally-powered Shortfin Barracuda submarines for our navy.
    This is going to cost us way over $50 billion and when they say conventionally powered they mean diesel-electric which in this day and age is not conventional : if Abbott had his way he would probably have preferred coal powered.

    We need to cancel the contract and completely rethink whether we actually need submarines at all.

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