In December 2012, in an interview on Sunrise, Tony Abbott said “It is never a good thing for a government to break fundamental promises and this government has broken its two covenants with the Australian people: no carbon tax and a budget surplus. They’ve broken both of them. You just can’t trust this mob.”
Fair enough. They were silly promises in the first place and Labor did a pitiful job of explaining the need to maintain deficits in the short term, and that our carbon pricing mechanism was actually an ETS with a temporary fixed price period. They needed to talk about the necessity of creating jobs and the economic consequences of inaction on climate change.
Instead, this was the wedge that Abbott used so successfully to bring Gillard down.
In August 2013, Tony Abbott said “I want to be known as a prime minister who keeps commitments.”
In his victory speech, Abbott reassured us
“In a week or so the governor-general will swear in a new government. A government that says what it means, and means what it says. A government of no surprises and no excuses.”
So let’s have a look at a few examples of Tony et al saying what they mean.
At his campaign launch Tony said
“Within 100 days….The NBN will have a new business plan to ensure that every household gains five times current broadband speeds – within three years and without digging up almost every street in Australia – for $60 billion less than Labor.”
More than a year has passed and the Coalition’s NBN truly is in no-man’s land with Telstra holding Turnbull, the NBN effort and the entire Abbott Government over a barrel. Turnbull is still happy to keep fighting the election with endless reports supporting the Coalition’s increasingly untenable NBN policy.
NBN Co’s Strategic Review makes it very clear that the company could deliver an all-fibre FTTP network to Australians for just $15 billion more and only three years later than the Coalition’s Multi-Technology Mix project. This infrastructure would be vastly superior to the Coalition’s version and would not need to be upgraded. The review also showed, rather than costing the government anything, the investment will bring a return. Turnbull is being deliberately misleading in describing this as an expense when it is actually a capital investment. We are still waiting to hear the result of the Michael Vertigan-led cost-benefit analysis.
While this may be an example of a Minister determined to get his own way who is now on a learning curve on how difficult business negotiations can be in such a large scale project, that can’t be said of other commitments which have been abandoned, though Tony will tell you that you misheard him.
In December last year, Tony told Andrew Bolt
“We are going to keep the promise that we actually made, not the promise that some people thought that we made or the promise that some people might have liked us to make. We’re going to keep the promise that we actually made.”
He was referring to his backflip on school funding. So let’s look at the promises that were made.
“In order to ensure funding certainty, we will honour the deals that the government has so far made and we will match the offers that the government has so far made in terms of funding.” –Tony Abbott, interviewed by Sabra Lane, ABC Radio’s AM, 5 August 2013
“I can promise that no school would be worse off under the Coalition.” –Joint doorstop interview with Russell Matheson, Camden, NSW, 15 July 2013
“As far as school funding is concerned, Kevin Rudd and I are on a unity ticket. There is no difference between Kevin Rudd and myself when it comes to school funding.” –Joint press conference with Christopher Pyne and Alan Tudge, St Andrew’s Christian College, 2 August 2013
And it’s not just on school funding where Abbott is trying to tell us we misheard him.
In May last year in South Australia, the defence minister David Johnston gave this doorstop media conference on the future submarine project.
“DAVID JOHNSTON – The Coalition today is committed to building 12 new submarines here in Adelaide, we will get that task done, and it is a really important task, not just for the Navy but for the nation. And we are going to see the project through, and put it very close after force protection, as our number priority if we win the next Federal Election. Over to you Steve.
MARSHALL – Can I just say I am very grateful for Senator Johnston coming to South Australia and confirming the Coalition’s policy, to build 12 submarines here in South Australia. It’s fantastic news for South Australia, it’s fantastic news for the people who work in the defence sector in South Australia, there has been a big cloud having over their heads for an extended period of time, the Government announced this in 2009 and as Senator Johnston said has done very little since then, we still have no clarity about the time frame, the cost for the project from the Government whatsoever, but what we have got today is a real focus from the Opposition, this a major priority for us as the Federal level and we are just so delighted here in South Australia that Senator Johnston has been able to come along and confirm that for us today.”
Sophie Mirabella was appointed to run the show.
“Once she has straightened things up, implemented a few changes and bullied or cowed the workforce, her operation will be made to float (or sink, when necessary) on their own merits, without any assistance from taxpayers. And to make a profit doing so.”
Then on October 23, Peter Hendy, member for Eden-Monaro, rose to say in Parliament
“The coalition promised at the last election that the new submarine project will be centred on Adelaide. Any more specific commitment than that would have been grossly irresponsible in defence strategy terms. We need to ensure that the best capability is purchased, not simply have an industry policy propping up one region of Australia. I think that whatever decision is made there will be plenty of contracts and jobs for South Australia. This can be done without jeopardising the overriding priority of good defence policy.
I note that the Leader of the Opposition did the exact opposite in his recent speech on the topic. His speech, promising amongst other things that, under Labor, the submarines would be built in Adelaide without first doing the proper due diligence harked back to the protectionist, xenophobic unionism that we all thought had been relegated to the past—obviously, not.”
And then we have the Renewable Energy Target.
On 19 June 2013, Greg Hunt said on Sky News:
“We agree on the national targets to reduce our emissions by five per cent by 2020. We also agree on the renewable energy target. And one of the things we don’t want to do is to become a party where there is this wild sovereign risk where you are, where businesses take steps to their detriment on the basis of a pledge and a policy of Government. And we’re very clear that that’s not what we want to be.”
From a doorstop interview on 29 September 2011:
“QUESTION: Is the Coalition committed to a renewable energy target?
TONY ABBOTT: Look, we originated a renewable energy target. That was one of the policies of the Howard Government and yes we remain committed to a renewable energy target. I certainly accept that the renewable energy target is one of the factors of the current power system which is causing prices to go up but we have no plans to change the renewable energy target.”
Now we have Ian McFarlane attempting to convince us that the Coalition is keeping their promise to stick to the 20% RET but, due to falling demand, the actual amount will be reduced by 40%. This, he says, is not a reduction and he played the “baffle them with numbers game” on Insiders this morning.
Unfortunately for him, the government website explaining the RET legislation is very specific on this matter.
“The RET policy is often expressed in terms of a percentage target, specifically to ‘ensure that at least 20 per cent of electricity is generated from renewable sources by 2020’. However this is translated into a fixed GWh target in the legislation in order to provide a clear goal for industry and certainty for market participants. The target has been expressed in GWh since the original Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme commenced in 2001.
The Government agrees that the existing 41,000 GWh Large-scale Renewable Energy Target and annual targets should be retained. A change to the target (either an increase or a decrease) would create instability in the renewable energy industry, impact on the risk premiums required by lenders and investors, and decrease the likelihood of any target being met.
The Government also notes that modelling conducted for the Review found that reducing the target would not result in a material reduction to average household electricity bills and would not justify the damage to investor confidence that would be caused by such a change.”
And then we have the car industry.
On July 28 2013 Tony Abbott said
“What I want to do is make it easier for this industry to flourish. I want to make it easier for people to get on with their lives and to enjoy driving great motor cars, particularly great Australian made motor cars.”
On 21 August 2013, he assured us that “We have a good record when it comes to working with the car manufacturers to help them, not just to survive, but to flourish, and we will act in that same spirit in the future.”
In his campaign speech he said “the motor industry will be saved from Mr Rudd’s $1.8 billion tax on company cars.”
Instead, not only did he give up almost $2 billion in revenue from stopping tax rorting, he wasted no time in putting the nail in the coffin for car manufacturing in Australia.
And the lies didn’t stop after the election. During the by-election for Kevin Rudd’s old seat the Medicare co-payment was a hot topic.
REPORTER: “Can you guarantee there won’t be a Medicare co-payment?”
TONY ABBOTT: “Nothing is being considered, nothing has been proposed, nothing is planned.”
-Joint doorstop interview with Bill Glasson, Brisbane, 1 February 2014
REPORTER: “Would you consider a co-payment, a means testing to help relieve the pressure on the health budget?”
TONY ABBOTT: “Obviously the budget, generally, is under pressure and it’s very important that we do what we can to fix the budget, as quickly as we can, but we’ve got to do it in ways which are consistent with our pre-election commitments. Don’t forget, I said we were going to be a no surprises, no excuses government.”
-Doorstop interview, Sydney, 20 February 2014
REPORTER: “In light of the latest scare campaign however, can’t you just knock it on the head, pull the rug out from under Labor’s scare campaign and guarantee no co-payments?”
TONY ABBOTT: “Well I think I have knocked the scare campaign on the head and again this is all the Labor Party has got.”
-Doorstop interview, Sydney, 20 February 2014
We also had continual promises about no new taxes.
“The only party which is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party.” -Joint press conference with Greg Hunt and Bill Glasson, Brisbane, 9 August 2013
Instead we have the high income earners levy, the Paid Parental Leave levy, fuel excise indexation, and the medicare co-payment. We have also seen funding to the States slashed by $80 billion in an obvious attempt to starve them into being the ones to ask for a hike in GST.
And who could ever forget…
“No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS.” -on SBS TV on election eve, 6 September 2013
This list is by no means exhaustive but I am already well past the attention span of most readers. I will close with some wise words of advice from our current Prime Minister….
“Look, if I tell the kind of massive fibs that this government has told, I would deserve the most condign electoral punishment.”
-Tony Abbott, Interviewed by the Grill Team, Radio Triple M, Sydney, 25 February 2011
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Wake up Australia before we tip over the edge.
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Its 20% Abbott.
20% of the NBN dumped.
20% of Rets dumped.
20% of ATO employees dumped.
20% of the richest Australians will pay bugger all towards Hockey's "Budget Emergency".
20% of State school funding will be dropped.
100% lies from the Abbott gang though.
“AGL Energy – once the “greenest” retailer in the country and now the largest producer of coal-fired energy – has called for the renewable energy target to be scrapped altogether.
Chief executive Michael Fraser, who has overseen the change in AGL Energy’s business model from green to black, says the RET policy is broken. He endorses the controversial Warburton Review’s more extreme finding that the target should be dumped altogether.
AGL Energy has an interest in not having a carbon price, or a renewable energy target, particularly since its purchase of the 2.2GW Loy Yang A brown coal generator, and the 4.6GW Bayswater and Liddell coal-fired generators in NSW. That changed the colour of its revenues to $12 black for every $1 of green energy.
And it is clear that Fraser is talking his own book when he calls for payments to be made for closure for coal-fired generators. It is no doubt attractive for AGL Energy, which says it bought 2,000MW Liddell generator in NSW effectively for zero. It would like nothing better than to get a payment from the government – say from $100 to $300 million – to help with the “remediation costs” of full closure. Many owners of unused coal-fired generators are choosing to mothball them rather than close them, because doing the latter will require them to clean up their mess.
The big generators in Germany spent a decade arguing the same line. The German government refused to buckle, and – somewhat belatedly – those big utilities are now investing in future technologies as they should have done all along, having burned billions of shareholder funds in the meantime.”
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/agl-energy-calls-for-renewables-target-to-be-scrapped-completely-61976
“In a world of increasing egalitarianism the conservative position can make for a hard sell. Politicians with an agenda as conservative as the Abbott Government’s can’t to go to the polls wearing their manifesto on their sleeves. “We promise to preserve and intensify privilege, entrench disadvantage and wind back egalitarian change, putting a halt to its further spread.”
As a result, in order to gain power conservative political parties are compelled to sugar-coat their agenda to be palatable in a putatively egalitarian world. A conservative stock-in-trade to this end is what political scientists call ‘legitmising myths’, or ideologies that justify discrimination against disadvantaged groups.
Legitimising myths typically appeal to fear, which increases political conservatism; scarcity, which increases competition between social groups; and stereotypes, which smooth the way for discrimination against less privileged members of a society. For instance, “Burqa-wearing women are potential terrorists who threaten our safety and our way of life” is a myth that appeals to all three.
While the Abbott Government relied more heavily on lies than myth-making on its way to the election, since gaining office Abbott and his ministers have had a crack at a few legitimising myths of their own.”
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/26/what-makes-them-tick-inside-mind-abbott-government
In my opinion this government has let 99% of Australians down, people are fearful of the future, not just because of the terror but because of the unknown future of everything we hold dear. People are fighting for their rights on so many fronts, in Australia we should not have to fight for our future, this government could have been in a long time if they used a different strategy if they governed for all instead of the rich people of the nation, they are concerned for the 1% of Australia, probably because it will line their own pockets. Never in my life time have I seen people sitting discussing politics, it can be heard everywhere. There is trouble afoot because the community is afraid, and it is not restricted to the federal level, you can wrap all levels of government into the package, they all think alike with no checks and balances and with no common sense.
I have posted this article on Tony Abbott’s Facebook page. Not all comments on his page are supportive. I really hope that people start taking notice. One can only try!
Tony Abbott disgusts me.
He has no comprehension at all of the fact that he continually lies. He denies his lies even when presented with the fact that he has lied and continues to do so.
Who will have the courage to say that Gough Whitlam died of shame, because of what Abbott, his Government and the screaming “shock jocks” Alan Jones et al are doing to destroy his vision.
“My vision for Australia is not that big brother government knows best; it’s that our country will best flourish when all of our citizens, individually and collectively, have the best chance to be their best selves.
Government’s job is rarely to tell people what to do; mostly, it’s to make it easier for people to make their own choices.
Over the next three years, should we win the election, an incoming Coalition government will do exactly what we’ve said we’ll do.
We will be a no surprises, no excuses government, because you are sick of nasty surprises and lame excuses from people that you have trusted with your future…
It’s performance, not promises, that will earn your respect; it’s actions, not words, that you are looking for…”
So said the nasty, gormless, unenlightened, shameless knuckle-dragger on August 25th, 2013
An utterly loathsome man, government and philosophy. Vile, hateful, untrustworthy, dishonest, dishonourable, vicious, hypocritical.
“In August 2013, Tony Abbott said “I want to be known as a prime minister who keeps commitments.”
What drugs is he on? I want some.
Liar Liar Tone’s pants are on FIRE
These Libs LIED their way into office aided by the MSM,and continue to LIE while aided by the MSM.
“No excuses” NOW = All we get excuses where these Libs LIE and BLAME Labor.
“No cuts to health,education,SBS and the ABC” NOW = ALL TO BE CUT.
The LYING LIBERAL PARTY should be known as:-
Conservative
Racists
Against
Policies & poor people
Aka CRAP
http://sallymcmanus.net/abbotts-wreckage/
“I want to be known as a prime minister who keeps commitments.”
The Coalition kept it’s commitments to “solve” the vitally important issues that the voters worried about. The Abbott government stopped the boats AND scrapped the price on carbon!
How do I know which crucial issues the voters were worried about? Easy… the Coalition (with the help of the MSM) spent years, relentlessly screeching about it.
Last year Ted Mack gave an inspirational Henry Parkes Oration that I have referred to many times. (well worth reading the whole thing if you have the time).
http://parkesfoundation.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/hporation2013.pdf
This year Tony Abbott was the speaker. His speech was less than inspiring and an obvious warm up act to making the states responsible for increasing the GST.
Although he didn’t mention the GST by name, Mr Abbott said questions to consider included whether the states would accept responsibility for broadening its base.
“The Commonwealth would be ready to work with states on a range of tax reforms that could permanently improve the states’ tax base – including changes to the indirect tax base, with compensating reductions in income tax,” he said.
But, but, but he was a Catholic priest and Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Ray Hadley all vouch for him.
The vice-rector at the seminary where Tony was studying said
“Tony is inclined to score points, to skate over or hold back any reservations he might have about his case.”
Some fellow seminarians found him “just too formidable to talk to unless to agree; overbearing and opiniated”.
Nothing’s changed.
Wayne TurnerOctober 26, 2014 at 6:32 pm said:
“The LYING LIBERAL PARTY should be known as:-
Conservative Racists Against Policies & poor people – Aka CRAP”
——
Also: Confident Rationalisation And Projection – Aka CRAP
The thing that has puzzled me the most is this: how did Abbott, Hocky and Co. not see that their budget would so unpopular? There is some mind-boggling, profound stupidity, going down here.
Other similar examples also exist; such as appointing blatantly biassed people to inquiry panels etc (eg on the RET, etc.)
At least this gives us some hope that they’ll eventually self-destruct in due course. It could be worse: this mob could have been much more intelligent.
“One consistent finding in this literature is that conservatism involves a cognitive tendency known as the need for cognitive closure. This entails an impetus to arrive at fixed and firm answers to complex questions, motivated by the drive to resolve uncertainty and ambiguity. It manifests in seizing and freezing on opinions and ideas, or swiftly and resolutely reaching final conclusions on complicated topics, which then remain closed to further review.
Our government’s policy on climate change, for instance, comes to mind. As does its haste to pass legislation without debate.
The conservative need for cognitive closure is broadly rooted in a personality style that psychologists call “closed-minded” or often simply “closed”. It involves low levels the personality trait Openness to Experience, which is widely accepted as one of the five core dimensions of personality.
People low on Openness prefer certainty, order, structure, the familiar, predictability, simplicity, and sticking with the tried and true. They dislike change, complexity, uncertainty, ambiguity, novelty and flexibility. They are less intellectually curious than their more open counterparts, disinclined to examine their own ideas and views, and as a result are often suspicious of science and the arts. They also tend to dislike new experiences, frequently including but not limited to foreign people, culture and food.
Conservatism is inversely related to the pursuit of social and economic equality. Conservatism correlates strongly with a preference for fixed social hierarchies entailing inequality between social groups, along with punitive attitudes towards marginalised and/or non-conforming members of society, who are seen as destabilising elements that threaten social cohesion.
Social Dominance Orientation is more a ruthless and competitive form of anti-egalitarianism. It not only correlates with conservatism but also with the ‘dark triad’ of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy.
In newer research, conservatism has also been found to correlate inversely with compassion, humility, dispositional fairness, altruism and empathy.”
It could be worse,this mob could have been much more intelligent/ You know i never thought of that angle,you make a very good point,so in a weird way we should be grateful they are as thick as two short planks,yes i agree.
No Gilly …. he never made it to a full on Catholic Priest. !! ….. He left the seminary because ( get this ) …. ” the Church no longer lived up to his standards ” ……… ( that’s not verbatim ) ………. here are his actual words about that :
_____________________
……… ” “Looking back, it seems that I was seeking a spiritual and human excellence to which the Church is no longer sure she aspires. My feeble attempts to recall her to her duty — as I saw it — betrayed a fathomless disappointment at the collapse of a cherished ideal.” ….
_____________________
https://theaimn.com/seminary-similarity/ ( this I have read elsewhere and it was taken from an actual transcript of his interview ).
So – even then, the younger Tony Abbott wished to convert the Catholic Church to HIS way of thinking. He admonished the Church for it’s allegedly lenient, benevolent and ecumenical views.
He wanted to actually – “recall ( the Church ) to her duty :” ??? , ( what arrogance was THAT ? ) because the Church ‘ is no longer sure { to what } she aspires” ?
I am no longer a Catholic for many reasons, but it is a HUGE organisation, and requires ( rightly or wrongly ) the obedience of its’ priests to its orders. ……….. HE wasn’t going to bow to that – instead he apparently wanted to change it – back to non-leniency and non-acceptance of other ways of life ( put forward by the Church in the spirit of good will, at the time ) !!
Who did he think he was then, and who the hell does he think he is now ?
Never mind what Andrew Bolt ( ugh – pffft ) and his media cohorts say, do or underscore — as far as Abbott is concerned.
This bloke – at the head of things – is more than dangerous to us all.
Well there you have it Kaye.
Little more can be said than heavens help us. Look at Europe and the US and the great austerity rip-off and we are in deep do do.
The US midterms are getting to be more than a little bit of a worry. The world is full of these lying scumbags and they own the means of production, the wealth and most importantly the media.
Nevertheless there is hope for us yet we just have to keep calling the liars out and challenging the bullshit. I just have a feeling that this is going to go bottom up for conservatives world wide. Let’s hope that once again we are not the victims.
Labor has got their compass pointing in the wrong direction and may well pay substantially for it. If they keep stepping right of center the independents will hold the balance of power in both the reps and the senate.
Damn we live in interesting times.
Oh yeah and up your sniveling, lying, screwy, poxy hole Count Dracula.
Kaye Lee said:
Probably so. But I think you have identified a real problem here. Let me explain.
I was recently in Thailand (and elsewhere in Asia) where the BBC programme ‘Hard Talk’ features constantly on the TV. It’s a programme that actually ‘corners’ participants intellectually and leaves them nowhere to hide without making complete idiots of themselves. Hockey was exposed recently. His ignorance was so embarrassing.
You can check here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n13xtmdc
The point is that in Australia we don’t have any equivalent of Hard Talk. Generally speaking, in Australia the ‘journalists’ are relatively ignorant (in the sense they are not across the ‘issues’) and the timelines for presentation are so incredibly short.
Take the 7.30 Report as an example. No depth. No insights. Just puff pieces. Worse than useless in the sense that the ‘punters’ possibly/probably think that ‘issues’ have been dealt with, while in fact the surface hasn’t even been scratched.
Q&I is even worse.
While I don’t have FOXTEL, my offspring do, and what I see is just embarrassing in its shallowness.
Put simply, we needs a programme like Hard Talk and it’s only possible via SBS or the ABC. given that the ‘others’ are otherwise motivated.
After all, some of us have extended attention spans. Just sayin …
How can you trust a man that had his hair photoshopped ‘in’ and his ears photoshopped ‘out’ for the election campaign.
@ Matters Not. ……… I happened to wake up rather early yesterday morning, and the TV was still on Channel 7 …. so watched the Weekend Sunrise ( not something I would normally do ) ….. for almost 2 hours.
I am glad that I did.
Was always under the impression that they are pretty hard right bods. ….. But they gave the Abbott Government some of the biggest serves I have heard to date. I’m sorry I cannot recall much about it …. I was probably too gobstruck as it went on and on. The subjects were ( from a hazy memory ) …. the refugees plight, the Ebola crisis and what we are NOT doing about it, I think the interview with the AMA President who had plenty to say on another channel the previous night was also thrown in …. and a couple of doozy sling offs at Abbot himself. Andrew O’Keefe is not exactly the most tactful of anchors, and I had to laugh at his jibe about the way Abbott pronounces things.
Something was said about testosterone flowing around …. and O’Keefe corrected whoever it was and said ” you would mean testerone ” … it would be testerone,surely” …. which was a sling off at the way Abbott mispronounces much in his speeches.
I was amazed and delighted …. to hear programme anchors giving the Government the heave ho in such a way. There was quite a bit more to it than that.
Weekend Sunrise is not everybody’s cup of tea – nor mine, but ………. I do think the MSM might be just slightly waking up to what the people perhaps should hear.
Well – I can hope can’t I ???
This is a rather long article by Don Hazen executive editor of AlterNet.
It is a stark warning what is in store for progressives in this country if we do not organize for the next election. We do not have citizens united and the power of the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and the Super Packs however we have Fox and a deteriorating Labor Party, which is starting to look more like Obama’s Democrats, and most importantly a mirror of ALEC in the IPA.
http://www.alternet.org/activism/apocalypse-now-seriously-it-time-major-rethink-about-liberal-and-progressive-politics?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
NBN = No Bananas Network.
‘Yes, we have No Bananas, we have No Bananas today’.
If you think its bad ( and it is ) you ain”t seen nothing yet , wait until the secret TPP is signed, then todays woes will be insignificant.
One thing in Tony Abbotts favour is that he is improving the English language, I have never read so many varied adjectives describing what an objectionable, lying, grubby,slimy, knuckle dragging, etc etc moron he is. Personaly I prefer f*ckwit
Popsie, don’t forget all the completely new words we’re learning from the Pride of Oxford University. 😉
The thing that is truly gobsmacking is we all knew he was lying when he said these things. His approach is insultingly obvious and it makes me very angry when I am treated like a fool.
Here comes the GST hike we all knew he was planning. I have conflicting views about whether the GST should be raised but I deplore the blatant manipulation to deflect responsibility for the increase to the states. Just man up and make the case instead of weaselling out yet again.
http://www.afr.com/p/national/politics/abbott_puts_gst_hike_on_the_table_fkPnjYQ3abPRkA0ajjNwkO
“So not only is Mr Rudd leading the most incompetent government in our history, he’s now running the most dishonest election campaign in our history.” – Tony Abbott campaign launch.
The alternative reality government of the people by the oligarchs for the benefit of business. This deadbeat and his cronies believe human beings are nothing more than units of production. You perform or you’re out on your arse to scratch what ever kind of existence you can manage on your own. The deceit perpetrated by this liar is of a type and magnitude that one can only feel he does not in anyway connect with the real world. Power has gone to his tiny mind to such an extent that he believes in the rightness of his opinions to the utter exclusion of any other. He will drive this country’s social adhesion off a cliff in an effort to remain P.M. If the people of this nation do not rebel at the schemes of these bastards then we are headed for economic and social disaster. Just because we speak English does not mean we are not subject to the same forces that crippled places like Argentina, Chile, Mexico and a dozen other nations. Always the forces of the right with their secrecy and belief in a god given entitlement to rule. Australia is in peril and it’s not necessarily Tony Abbott himself who will bring about these disasters but he with his blind stupidity and ignorance may simply be the catalyst that allows powers beyond his imagining to be unleashed. Democracy is inconvenient to these people but they’ve already proven it’s not one they are incapable of surmounting at their leisure. They must be resisted by any means the citizens of this country can muster. I for one have no wish to live in the kind of dog eat dog society this pissant is trying to create.
Kaye – this is the article referring to cognitive closure.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/26/what-makes-them-tick-inside-mind-abbott-government
O Bleak
I totally agree, but also look at the TPP agreement.As I understand it, tha Australian govt is liable ie sovreign debt should any business here grow unauthorised GMO crops, allow internet piracy of films, allow boycots of international companies ( think BDS) The list is endless.
So much for being open for business. The TPP agreement would be a nightmare for Australian businesses and producers. Surely they would have to jump through a lot of extra hoops before they can export, so that the government is protected from legal action.
As posted elsewhere it is time to call these troglodytes out for what they really are.
Criminals.
They escaped responsibility for the GFC, brought the world to its knees, by causing untold chaos, pain and suffering and walked away with massive financial rewards at our expense.
AS Matt Taibbi so eloquently put it “Vampire Squids” each and every one of them.
We need a new attack.
The empirical evidence is undeniable. The LNP is a criminal corporate, financial, banking oligopoly with no regard for democracy, equal representation or social justice.
The cry for progressives should be:
“We are being ruled by Criminals”.
I wonder if Labor has the guts.
Ha! In your dreams sunshine.
Interesting link, Francesco. Am I being cynical if I say it contains no surprises? I loved this line: “Fortunately none of us, as individuals, is entirely average.” So the LNP are not just average halfwits.