MP Tudge Leaves In Order To Spend Less Time With His Staff…
Alan Tudge is leaving Parliament. As he put it, “It’s not been an easy decision for me but it is necessary for my health and for my family, amongst other reasons.”
Ok, health and family, notwithstanding, I can’t help but wonder why he felt it necessary to be a man of mystery with unspecific “other reasons”. I mean, is he referring to his reclusive desire not to appear in his electorate for fear that he’ll be recognised, or his fear that were he to appear in his electorate after such minimal campaigning that he wouldn’t be?
Or is there some other less obvious reason like the fact that – after his testimony at the Royal Commission last week – a large number of people think that he’s a nasty piece of work. Of course, not everyone shares this view. Some people think that he was just following orders and that he can’t be held responsible because “just following orders” is a fine defence and…
Oh wait, I knew I’d heard it somewhere before.
Anyway, after the Royal Commission testimony some people thought that he was a nasty, vicious operator, while others believed him and thought that he was just someone who was out of his depth and that his inability to check the legality of the scheme or remember what he’d done or even the question that the Counsel Assisting asked him indicated a man clearly suffering from Long Covid or Arthur Sinodinitis where one’s recall is affected to the point that one can’t remember any reason for one’s appointment to a role because one has done nothing nor remembered exactly what one was doing when certain practices occurred. Although he did suggest that the cashless debit card and his time as Education Minister were the highlights of his career so one truly hopes that there’s something else that he’d forgotten…
While some saw this as an opportunity for Josh Frydenberg to re-enter Federal Parliament and become Alternative Opposition Leader, which given the frequency with which Dutton is referred to as the “alternative Prime Minister” must surely be a thing now. Whatever, sometimes there are no alternatives. Anyway, Josh confirmed that he wasn’t interested in the seat because if all the private school educated voters of Kooyong rejected him what hope did he have in an electorate which he couldn’t even find on a map, assuming he’d ever had a need to travel that far from Kew… I understand he said some along the lines of how much distance it was from that suburb and someone distinctly heard him mumble something about “Far Kew”.
Whatever, the Aston by-election will be interesting because of the large number of unknowns. For a start, we don’t know whether the incumbent member factor was what got Tudge over the line in 2022, or whether it was his personal standing that accounted for the large swing against him.
Then, of course, there’s the traditional swing against governments in by-elections which has to be balanced by the Albanese Government’s high standing in the polls. At the moment the main thing that’s likely to cause a swing is the interest rate rises because of inflation.
When it comes to the economy, there are an infinite number of things that any government can do which won’t fix anything. When you compare this to the handful of things that will actually work it’s amazing that we’re not in a bigger mess. If you listen to economists, you’ll find that they exclude of a lot of things that will work simply because they’ll only work in a limited way… And by limited way, I mean that they’ll only work in a way that shows that everything the economist has been saying for the previous twenty years was completely wrong, so nobody should do anything else just in case it works.
Take Phil Lowe.
Go on, after September nobody else will.
Anyway, after making an unnecessary and inaccurate prediction on interest rates, he now admits that he was wrong but it’s ok because he knows that raising interest rates will suppress demand and once nobody can buy anything prices will come down. Unfortunately, the rise in interest rates is also putting up rents which feeds into inflation, as well stoking demands for higher wages which also feeds into inflation, as well as giving more money to people who have money in savings which also stokes demand and…
But if you keep rising interest rates nobody can accusing you of ignoring the problem. Ok, you didn’t fix it but you did do something. And you did tell everyone that interest rates will keep rising and we should all listen because you got the prediction about no rises before 2024 so right!!!
So will Aston be people upset with Alan Tudge for leaving them, upset with the rising cost of living, upset that Dan Andrews isn’t PM, or upset that Josh wouldn’t stand for them?
Who knows, but we live in interesting times!
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19 comments
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Douglas Pritchard -
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Rossleigh
Return to home pageFresh from his exposure to USA paranoia, and a ballon shooting circus, Richard Marles is advising us all to get rid of our cameras made in China.
They may be watching our strange behaviour?
They may have footage of our pollies at work (or at play), and laughing like a drain at how this country is run.
We could ask if they found Tudge to be a naughty boy at times.
Looks like he is collatoral damage.
They would know far more than we could ever find out.
Meanwhile, at Taxpayers expense, the Chinese cameras will go on the scrap heap, and be replaced by cameras recommended by Washington.
So that the CIA can keep abreast of what happens in Parliament, and sort out who should be our next leader.
Speaking as one of those who took great pleasure in booting Josh, I would say he is wise (there’s a first time for everything) in refusing to re-enter parliament. His biggest mistake in seeking, or maybe assuming, re-election was not recognising that bagging and punishing the people of Victoria and Kooyong, for following the wisdom of our Premier over COVID, instead of the wisdom of the CFMEU in demanding “freedum” was not a great vote winning strategy!
Joshie realised far too late that his arrogance and lack of broader consideration was in fact an impediment rather than a god given right to those who are destined to be PM!
Maybe he should have had a chat with Christian?
The people of Kooyong are not “brand constrained” dull, blind followers of one faith/politic or another.
Most are intelligent, educated thinkers who see beyond simple slogans.
It’s kind of why we have a very low rate of gambling? We just know it’s BS.
But Joshie has always operated on another wavelength.
Rather like Tudgey. Not exactly real but definitely rational in their own eyes. 🤷🏼♀️
Yeah,less time with his staff…and more time in front of the mirror…or with his current squeeze.Just another in a long line of pathetic,self serving,bullshit artists..soul mate to the Christian and other losers.
Pity the penny(with chuckles on it) hasn’t dropped for the gormless walloper.
The Spud reckons that Tugsalot was a man of great…cough…heehee…int…gasp…ell…bwahahaha…ect and loss to parliament.
He’s just another LNP coward who can’t run fast enough to get out of the public spotlight.
I’ll bet Tudge was told behind closed doors to get lost quickly. Once his odd ineptitude and covering up gave context to the sort of thing Kerrie is alluding to he was “gone” and Fried burger was back in town. But I remember the hit job done by Josh in 20i6 in response to massive power outages in SA with the state government deeply hindered in finding out why the privatised system continued to fail at critical times and find an efficient improvement,
I realised what was happening was actually a robodebt cold lie on behalf of power generators and climate denialists, as well as a smear on the SA government’s competence as to the rundown of infrastructure, this to prevent criticism of the privatised system and the need for change in relation to climate change.
Ahhh Rossleigh, another gem of genius ….. Sludge has been shoved while Scummo basks in the reflected glory of pending post-PM allowances for life. Somehow that does not seem to be in the best interests of Australian voters or an egalitarian Australia.
But the pendulum appears to swing with Friedeggburgher despatched by his electorate, alleged rapist unChristian Porter departed in disgrace and now Sludge resigning rather than admitting liability. Stewart ”the Spew” Robodebt may still be connected via high speed Internet at great cost, while we wait for the report to be handed down.
However, nine months of cogitation after the excellent Feral election result, I wonder how so many of these criminal types were re-elected by their constituents. Do Australian voters only elect in their own image? If so, New England voters accept & condone male misogyny with the accompanying adultery, alcoholism, bigotry, cronyism and fornication displayed by the representative of the Nazional$.
Really, the women of Tamworth NSW deserve better, yet their destiny is in their own hands.
Mr 17%, The Spud, is going to campaign in Tudge’s vacated seat. It should be interesting to see if they almost beg him not to do so.
I expect the voters won’t be pleased with the Libs is the fact that Tudge ran away like a coward.
@7.22 am https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-sydney-man-found-dead-after-turkey-earthquake-disaster-alan-tudge-quits-politics-20230209-p5cjce.html#p54kjj
Ah, at last the riddance of Tudge, yet another nasty deceiving slitherer from the LNP. Aside from his sub-reptilian manoeuvres in federal politics, his entry into politics was without any discernible merit, but apparently cunningly off the back of the very hard work and good name of his former wife Dr Teri Etchells. No wonder she left him.
It seems his lies, deceptions and self-interest-first attributes underlie one who may be called a political chameleon of convenience. Some years ago I read a scathing and detailed article about him in a local paper of the Rowville / Bayswater (Aston – Vic) areas. Regrettably, I cannot find it. The following article will have to suffice:
Thanks for that link, Clakka. Most interesting. Tudge appears to be the George Santos of Australian politics. It’s apparent from the datelines of the VEXNEWS archives, circa. July-August 2009 that concerns about this man were being aired prior to his election to the seat of Aston in 2010, yet he was re-elected four times despite being an utterly unremarkable politician, SNAFU’s and controversies notwithstanding.
It’s a never-ending mystery to me how people such as Tudge and his colleagues – people like Morrison, Robert, Porter, Cash, Joyce… the list is extensive – continued to retain the confidence, if that’s the correct word, of the electorate time and again when the opportunity is presented to punish them by voting them out of office. It’s not as if their behaviour is conducted behind closed doors, the weirdness of Morrison excepted.
Politics, which after all is nothing more than the collective behaviour of a privileged group of individuals, affects all of us very directly, but is not taken seriously by the majority of Australians. And hence it’s a phenomenon open to abuse because of that lack of attention, oversight and appraisal. Politicians such as the ones mentioned above should have been one-term wonders, chucked out of office as soon as the opportunity presented. We may have then avoided scandals such as Robodebt, or the disgraceful treatment of refugees, or the trashing of the economic relationship with China.
On a side note: Oh, for fornicates sake!
https://www.taste.com.au/food-news/raspberry-twisties-coming-australia/j2ymq7hp?nk=9fb621c542b4dc716d33fd50cb2e313d-1675997370
Continuing on a side note:
I bought a packet of ‘twisties’ in Italy some years ago, though over there they aren’t called Twisties … They are called Ringos.
I was wondering if they came in a set: Johns, Pauls, Georges and Ringos.
I love raspberries. And raspberry flavoured things. But Twisties? That’s … no, that’s obscene.
Ah, the good old brown lips kiss arse sycophantic Costello meedja at work:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/10/afr-takes-up-the-cause-of-unfairly-maligned-billionaire-gina-rinehart
where to start? Tudge , drudge, does leave with his reputation in taters. Good riddance i say. We dont need ideological yes men running the country. He was eager to get a morally bankrupt policy up and the fact its come back to bight him leaves me saying Karma is a bitch.
As for chinese cameras, what a load of crap. I used to be an installer of such technical master pieces. The signal goes from camera to recorder to internet. If we truly had a great spy agency in asio, it wouldnt take much rooting around to see if the signal goes to china. The pollies have been spooked into acting irrationally. In any case, what is so fucking top secret about watching people come and go through the front door? Its not as if the cameras are pointing at top secret files on a ministers desk.
But hey, just the mention of AI sends people into a spin, even though its not real AI, it does good as a sales mention. 1+1=2 is not AI, in its basic form most “AI ” is probably somebody’s software that runs formulas. And we run scared from this?
Should be in Prison for the pain and suffering this guy has caused,this is a prime example of why you should never trust what a politician says,low life’s all of them
What a pair of nasty overpivileged little pricks! “Our brother is the premier so we don’t have to do anything you peasants and oiks tell us to do.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/perrottet-s-brothers-ignore-summons-to-appear-at-nsw-inquiry-into-developers-20230211-p5cjrq.html
andy:
“Tudge , drudge, does leave with his reputation in taters”
Typo of the week.
What’s taters, precious?
I guess if his reputation is “in taters” that means it’s linked to Dutton’s…