Then

‘Thursday, 11 April 2013

Tony Abbott is abandoning his promise to ‘stop the boats’, refusing to say if a Coalition Government would be able to fulfil their commitment.

Mr Abbott has previously said he would stop the boats within months. Yesterday he ran away from that commitment, saying he would only be able to ‘make a difference’ in the first term, should the Coalition be elected to government.

He refused to say when, or if, he would stop the boats.

When asked by Howard Sattler on 6PR on Wednesday, Mr Abbott would not confirm the length of time a Coalition Government would take to ‘stop the boats’.

SATTLER: Is it going to take three years to stop the boats?

ABBOTT: Well, we will have a term of parliament in which to make a very substantial difference and then we will, as is right and proper in a democracy be judged on our performance.’

And Now

‘But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott attacked Mr Rudd’s plan as an ”election fix” that won’t work and vowed to never use another country to solve Australia’s domestic problems.

”The only solution to Australian problems is found here in Australia,” Mr Abbott said.

”I will never subcontract out to other countries the solution of problems in this country.”

The Opposition Leader said Mr Rudd’s PNG plan should be considered a failure unless every new asylum seeker arrival was sent to Manus Island and the rate of boat arrivals stopped ”from today”.’

Of course, someone has wondered what the Pacific Solution was, if not “subcontracting out to other countries”, but I guess we’ll be asked that and we’ll hear a perfectly reasonable argument as to why sending them to Manus wasn’t sending OUR problems elsewhere. Just as I’m sure Abbott will be able to explain why he said this

“Jesus didn’t say yes to everyone,” Mr Abbott said on ABC television’s Q&A program, according to the Herald Sun. “Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.”

Still, it was on Q&A, so it was obviously a long, long time ago!