Tony Abbott stuffs it up … again
Fairfax’s Friday offering is from Chief Political Correspondent, Mark Kenny and comes accompanied by this impressive headline:
Tony Abbott’s pre-budget fortnight of blunders and stuff-ups
My first impression was, what only a fortnight? Where has Mark Kenny been during the rest of Tony Abbott’s term in parliament? Quote:
Friday is a red-letter day for the Abbott government.
It marks 100 days since any successful people-smuggling venture has made it to Australia.
But wait a moment, isn’t the article meant to be about “blunders and stuff-ups”, but suddenly and in the leading sentence Kenny introduces his article with today being “a red letter day” for Tony Abbott.
Tony Abbott’s people-smuggling “venture” a success? Does Mark Kenny not count the previous stuff-ups? Is the last fortnight where there apparently have been no boat arrivals, this serves as the only marker on what counts as success or otherwise? A strange way in which to talk about international incidents, people’s lives put in danger; as “a venture”.
- The countries’ existing co-operation has been extended, with Australia giving Sri Lanka two patrol boats, so that asylum seekers might be intercepted before they leave Sri Lankan waters. (The inconvenient truth that navy sailors have been arrested and charged with running the biggest people-smuggling ring in the country is being, publicly at least, downplayed.)
- Tony Abbott and the Papua New Guinea government plan to shut down a human rights inquiry into human rights abuses in the Manus Island asylum seeker detention centre.
- Cost of Abbott government’s orange lifeboats to tow back asylum seeker trebles to $7.5 million.
- The Senate has voted to strike out the government’s latest attempt to place refugees on temporary visas.
The government has not been shy about its Operation Sovereign Borders milestone nor for that matter the 30 or 40 daily increments leading up to it.
Not shy? Perhaps a better description is still pumping 3-word slogans out to the public, while denying any accuracy of information, thereby making an informed decision almost impossible.
- The absence of public information on exactly what resources are being deployed makes estimating the exact financial cost difficult …
- Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has indicated he will no longer hold a weekly press conference to update journalists about the Government’s border protection operations.
- The (Senate) inquiry will look into Mr Morrison’s claim of “public interest immunity” from requests to tell the public what the navy is doing with asylum seeker boats on the high seas. Senators will also examine the Abbott government’s turn back policy, the recent violations of Indonesian sovereignty and the government’s perceived lack of transparency.
It comes ironically enough, at the fag-end of the most mistake-laden fortnight for the government since the travel entitlements debacle marred its first weeks in office.
Therefore according to Mark Kenny, the debacle of this government’s asylum seeker policy which is costing the Australian public unknown millions of dollars for an impossible-to-ascertain result, is somehow “a success”. No boat arrivals, but what’s the price Mr. Morrison and Mr. Abbott … care to enlighten us?
Back then Tony Abbott had been strangely absent, his minimalist approach erroneously designed to position him as the opposite of the news cycle-obsessed Rudd-Gillard outfits.
I find that extremely difficult to believe, and I would challenge Mark Kenny to compare how many times Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard fronted the cameras in lycra or budgie smugglers proudly holding aloft a dead fish. Poor old Con the Fruiterer could barely leave the front door of his shop without media tart Tony Abbott trying to grab one of his melons.
What it actually conveyed was a government without a message and a prime minister without a firm hand on the wheel.
Perhaps it’s because Abbott doesn’t have a firm hand on the wheel …
- Prime Minister Tony Abbott refers to her as ”the boss” and Peta Credlin is proving why, stamping her authority on the make up of the government. Fairfax Media has learned Ms Credlin, who steered Mr Abbott’s path to The Lodge as his chief-of-staff, is deciding every government appointment from top ministerial aides right down to the electorate staff of new MPs.
- Senator Ian Macdonald’s public accusation that Mr Abbott’s office, led by senior aide Peta Credlin, has instilled a culture of “obsessive centralised control” in the government has struck a chord among sections of the Coalition.
- OK, hands up all those that voted for Peta Credlin?
Opinion polls reflected this vacuum and by the close of 2013, press gallery journalists were being backgrounded to the effect that things would change in 2014.
Another opinion is that the actions of this government since the election has lead the public to realise that they were fooled, tricked, deceived, conned and duped by the mainstream media in the lead up to the election via their complete and utter failure to report on, much less analyse the implications of the ideas which Tony Abbott took to the election. If anyone in the msm cares to peruse the list by Sally McManus, her excellent research provides a summary (with links). Ms McManus is currently up to #123 of broken promises, lies and deceptions.
Abbott’s performance since has been more positive and the government had looked to be settling in.
See above for broken promises, lies and deceptions. Mark Kenny blames the Abbott government’s unpopularity on Tony Abbott’s “minimalistic approach” which is now “more positive” and “settling in”. Kenny might care to take a small glance at what precisely the Abbott government has been doing, and among the many are:
Cuts welfare payments to orphans of soldiers – Cuts hundreds of jobs at the CSIRO – Reopens 457 visa loophole to allow employers to hire an unlimited number of workers without scrutiny – Pays hundreds of indigenous workers in his Department up to $19 000 less than non-indigenous workers doing the same job and cuts the budget for the representative body the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples causing two-thirds of the staff to lose their jobs – Scraps food grants program for small farmers – Unemployment rate jumps to highest in more than 10 years – Cuts the wages of Australian troops deployed overseas by almost $20 000 per solider – Withdraws funding for an early intervention program to help vulnerable young people – Starts dismantling Australia’s world leading marine protection system …
But the sitting fortnight just concluded, the last before the May budget session, has been anything but impressive, starting out badly and getting steadily worse.
And deservedly so …
And with each day, the prime minister’s normally confident body language in parliament has chronicled that slide.
That would be a noticed and much commented upon pattern of behaviour, and has in the past been the precedent to “doing a runner”. This pattern will obviously be difficult for Abbott to maintain now that he’s PM, therefore it is expected that he will “go to ground” following mistakes, errors, blunders and confusing plus contradictory statements made by himself.
Mark Kenny then goes on at some length about the Sinodinos issue.
First came the storm over the past business dealings of his assistant treasurer, Arthur Sinodinos.
… but it wasn’t Abbott’s doing. He continued to enthusiastically spruik the imminent return of Sinodinos to the ministry.
In any event, the voluntary suspension has failed to defuse the issue amid new testimony at ICAC that Sinodinos was expressly warned of governance problems including the possible insolvency of AWH, when he was chairman in 2010.
This has become a running sore for Abbott. Colleagues worry that Abbott’s support will make it harder to cut the minister loose if needed, but it might actually make it easier, allowing the Prime Minister to explain the dismissal as anything but a personal preference.
Clever politics eh from the PM … wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
On top of these problems came Attorney-General George Brandis’ ham-fisted sales job for his changes to the Racial Discrimination Act. His legally correct yet politically insane observation, that people have a right to be bigots, was an horrendous own-goal.
Under the proposed legislation, “intimidate” is defined as meaning to “cause fear of physical harm” and “vilify” is to “incite hatred”. “This is an extremely narrowly defined protection, an extremely narrowly defined prohibition of racist speech,” Mr Dreyfus said.
He has also pointed to a clause in the Government amendments that appears to allow vilification or intimidation if it is “in the course of participating in the public discussion”.
“One could drive a truck through that provision,” Mr Dreyfus said.
I agree with Mark Kenny, yes Brandis’ draft legislation was “legally correct” but with the proviso that it was deemed unworkable (A third minister present at the meeting said the original bill had been ”terrible”); a very poor and amateurish effort from Australia’s Attorney-General.
Simon Rice, professor of law at Australian National University, said that Mr Tobin’s comments (concerning holocaust denial and ordered to be taken from Tobin’s website in 2008) would not be banned in Australia if his situation were to be tested by the government’s new exposure draft.
Then came the Prime Minister’s stunning return to old empire via the restoration of knights and dames in the Australian awards system.
While Abbott’s decision might easily be categorised alongside that which are known in the venacular as Abbott Brain-f*rts, and as per other ill-considered offerings from Tony Abbott have given journalists and the Australian public much cause for mirth … and puns, it does also represent as Bill Shorten expressed it, an example of Abbott’s “cruel and twisted priorities … awarding knighthoods but cutting the wages of cleaners”.
One Liberal observed that not even John Howard had wanted to turn the clock that far back and right on cue, Howard himself confirmed it, telling Fairfax Media, that even conservatives would view the move as ‘‘somewhat anachronistic”.
Howard used to rail against Labor’s tendency to govern for section interests.
Well that’s a surprise given Howard’s introduction of WorkChoices, and who can forget that which came to be known as “Howard’s Hand-outs”. Yes, John Howard used to rail against Labor’s “tendency”, but wasn’t that slightly hypocritical? From 2004:
- The money is a clear attempt to placate what are currently some of the more vocal sectional interests in the community. On Sunday, we also saw the Government pledge another bag of money to Catholic schools.
- Just months before the election, the Government’s populism had eaten up the expected budget surplus, leaving the Beazley opposition in a corner with either no money to spend or having to cut government programs to find money for their own agenda.
- Howard’s extraordinarily blatant targeted hand-outs to particular groups to shore up votes is a further indication of how far he is prepared to go in appealing to self-interest rather than national interest.
Mark Kenny however, is spot on with his conclusion:
But this week, it was the Abbott government which turned its back on mainstream opinion to pander to a couple of mouthy conservative commentators wanting to legalise hate speech, a cloister of protected banks wanting to reintroduce skimming, and a tiny cluster of 19th century monarchists.
Little wonder the Prime Minister has been ashen-faced in parliament this week.
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Ange Kenos -
Wayne Turner -
Carol Taylor -
lefturnahead -
lawrencewinder -
Fed up -
Fed up -
Ronniibee -
Fed up -
Kathryn -
Kathryn -
mars08 -
lollyshopgirl -
'george hanson' -
Stephen Tardrew -
Keith -
Carol Taylor -
Carol Taylor -
Fed up -
Stephen Tardrew -
Jay V -
Stephen Tardrew -
Dan Rowden -
Craig -
Michael Taylor -
Winifred Jeavons -
vera dinic -
The Captain -
National Indepence from Imperialist Scum -
corvus boreus
Return to home pageExcuse me but 100 days without a refugee boat? How do we know since he refuses to keep us fully informed. Then what about the gross human rights violations. The effective kidnapping of people on the high seas and then sailing into foreign waters to dump them? And I am sick to death of his moaning about 50,000 refugees in 5 years – what criminals each and every one of them is, especially their evil little children. ALL fully trained combat guerrillas, right Mr Abbott? Sorry, Sir Anthony? The Hellenic Republic (the nation constantly mocked by Hockey (eg Q Time, 17 March 2014) has averaged 100,000 per year for almost 12 years.
Of course this is old news about Abbott.The Libs hid Abbott at the 2007 federal election because of the joke he is.Abbott ONLY got some where when he sucked up and cut a deal with Rupert Murdoch,when Rudd fell out with Rupert.Then suddenly it was all positive press for bad policy moron Abbott.
Where was this MSM before the election? That’s right they were promoting the Libs before it.
Wayne, my impression also..where was the MSM..all praise for Abbott with his brain f*rts aka unworkable policies presented for general consumption by the MSM as “clever politics”.
Reblogged this on The Grovely Gazette.
How much longer can we afford the Liarbrils?
At least Mr. Abbott has put to bed one fallacy this week, with his knights and dames.
Yes it is clear now that the GG is not tthe Australian head of state. No, it is as we have always said, that the GG is the Queens representative.
Yes, the Queen is still our head of state.
I suspect her Majesty might nt be over the moon with Abbott’s action. After all, is is said she told PM Gillard it could be time to cut ties.
Abbott has gone the other way. Tightening the Queens rule over Australia.
Abbott and Margie have been forced to move into Kirribilli House this weekend, Could the questions we see, asking were has the wife been, have anything to do with the mover now.
Funny one daughter is moving with them. I wonder what happened to the two sisters going south to live. You would not have got any of my kids to move with me, at that age., Especially when there is a empty family home available. Still it means that Margie can continue with her job.
Mr. Burke’s summing up of this week. Mr. Burke left one word out. Yes, one can never ignore the word “sook”:. That has to be the word of the week.
http://www.alp.org.au/?e=dcaef3f908fac5b03fd7c22d1bcf69c2838500c7&utm_source=australianlaborparty&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=buzzfeed4&n=9
Wasn’t it another Julie Collins who once sang “Send in the clowns”…she must have heard about Abbott, and his cabinet
way back then. There has to come a time when Bronwyn Bishop has a psychiatric assessment, she is definitely on the brink of dementia
I believe dementia cannot be the trouble. This has been the behavior of Madam Speaker for decades, that I can recall. Too long, for dementia to be the culprit.
I suspect it is just the lady’s nature.
What amazes me, that all in the government, seem to be OK with the actions of their front bench and madam speaker.
Ange Kenos – in response to your first sentence – it has been wet season up north. I’m pretty sure the numbers would have reduced even if they weren’t “classified”. I nearly choked on my breakfast in January when an announcement was made about no boats coming, given the weather segment in the same news program was reporting on a couple of tropical cyclones.
(I haven’t mastered the mid-mouthful derisive snort yet)
Since the days of prime miniature Howard, the magnificent Mr Abbott has been the No1 Berserker of the Liberal Party.
I suspect his mission is almost complete and he will soon be retired from the front line. Abbott was the “action man” the party needed to win power. He was the stormtrooper used to hammer the LNP stamp on the new government. But now he is trying to think for himself and has almost outlived his usefulness. Once the IPA agenda finally gets up to speed…. young Tony will probably be replaced with a more restrained, “kinder” frontman.
Scotchmystery; Mark Kenny is a NLP media whore
@ fed-up ,11-35 p.m. i seem to remember a report that one of the abbott girls is studying in Switzerland and is living with her boyfriend . Can’t have that shameless little hussy coming back to OZ where she and the ‘squeeze ‘ would be hounded by the media mags , daddy would not approve . That is probably why they all went to France for XMYTH at the end of last year , where NO-ONE knows who t.abbott is , and if they did ,could care less if they tried . [ that also goes for the botox and re-construction in the U.K. the previous year ] NEW YORK state has more people than OZ , and a comparable budget .
I have been discussing the relationship of justice to reason fairly consistently as it has profound implications for politics and social justice. This Medical Press article adds support to the relationship between justice and rationality. Critical to advocates of social justice and relevant too research demonstrating conservatives are more emotional and progressives more rational. If social justice depends upon rationality then obviously religious ideology based upon emotional mythological imperatives will tend fail the test of rationality and thus justice. This is just what we see with the irrational judgement, blame and retribution found in many religious texts driven by strong subjective emotional drives.
Scientific determinates of behavior demonstrate we do not create out own realities and therefore we need tolerance, understanding and rational evaluation of the facts to deal with aberrant behavior and thinking.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-03-brain-scans-link-justice-emotion.html
Alan Austin unravels the kind of push that the Abbott gang will go through with is likely to stuff up the Australian economy. Onlineopinion appears to be a right of centre ejournal.
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=16160
Fed up, Madam Speaker has me somewhat stunned..something I am not alone in, I would suspect. For the person ready and at the drop of a hat to come forward pointing out the errors made by previous Speakers, why is she so oblivious to her own? I would suspect that the born to rule mentality looms large from Baroness Bronnie…
lollyshopgirl, Mark Kenny just couldn’t help himself, in a supposed criticism of Abbott’s “worst fortnight” (and that’s debatable as well..I know of many extremely crook ones) he managed to sneak in LNP talking points such as that Rudd and Gillard were “media tarts”, that Abbott is now more positive and “settling in” and that Labor governs for “sectional interests”.
I must say, this PM and his government is taking an extreme length of time to settle in.
I seem to recall the Whitlam years, that lasted less than three years, with an intervening election, achieve much. Much that survives to this day.
Only those who lived at that time, especially women, can realise the changes he bought, to what was a backward Australia of the time.
Whitlam did more in his first few days, with a ministry of two, than this government has done in six months.
It seems that Abbott wants to take us back to pre Whitlam days.
Abbott has not even had much success in his desire to demolish everything Labor has done, I suspect from the days of Federation. NO, great on issuing threats, but lousy on delivering.
Maybe Labor does get somethings wrong, in fact as is true of all governments do. What I can say, they set out to build, not interested in demolition.
Look at Brandis effort in creating, what he sees as lack pof free speech in this country. All have not only condemned his actions but have seriously criticised the quality of the bill her has bought forwarded. Yes, poor draughtsmanship in drawing up the legislation. So great is his failure, is that his own party has condemned him.
Same for repealing Labor’s financial and charity legislation. It is business and the charities themselves, that are asking, they be left in place.
The same is quickly becoming true for the dismantling of the CEFC suite of bills. His figures just do not add up. This government is being condemned across the globe for their actions., This will increase as the world goes on. There seems to be a move back to dealing with carbon emissions. This will increase, as world economies improve.
The world is also condemning this countries, for the inhuman ways they rtreat those seeking safe haven from terror. Yes, they have prevented people from arriving on out shores, where there is, or should be safe haven. Those who are failing, are still people who are left with little future. Left with nowhere to go. These people are not responsible for their fates., No one chooses to flee their homes.
Just listening to Shortens address to the NPC this week. Not a great fan of the man, but he does have a lot to say, which I believe, we should heed.
Abbott hyas today challenged FWA to take into account, his repealing of the CEF cost on carbon emissions, when looking at the new union claim for wage rise for out lowest paid.
One good thing about this action is that Abbott will have to prove to the court, that his repealing of the CEF bills, will lead to savings for these workers. I expect Abbott and Co will have big trouble proving this., Yes, the court will have to test his figures.
Abbott’s trouble is, that the time has come, where his slogans are being tested.
None are passing muster.
Yes. Shorten is right, in describing this government priorities are twisted.
Funny term to use, but describes the government to a tee.
I still see Labor as builders, the coalition, more so under Abbott, as demolishers.
Even his red tape bomb fire has turned out to be a fizzer.
Cracks are certainly beginning to show.
It is now well documented in The Australian, Fairfax and many other public media that the majority of arrivals over the last several years are fraudulent economic migrants that nonetheless get refugee status because of fraudulent but well-rehearsed stories and an utterly incompetent, biased assessment system.
This is hard fact and it is utterly wilful for the ‘refugee advocates’ to refuse to acknowledge it.
There’s also the overturning of court and tribunal decisions, as well as the provision of legal advice through legal aid by far-left extremist advocates and human rights lawyers as to how to state claims, so as to have them approved, despite it being disingenuous. This also skews the figure toward 90%. The actual figure is much less. It’s not a genuine humanitarian refugee intake or legal migration. It inadvertently puts multiculturalism & social cohesion at risk.
Though advocates claim 90% of boat people are genuine refugees. It’s disingenuous & biased as it depends upon the basis of which refugee status was granted. The UNHCR Handbook for asylum seekers specifies in Part B that if there’s no documentation, benefit of the doubt is a preferred option if the asylum claim seems credible. One part actually specifies it’s “frequently necessary to give the applicant the benefit of the doubt” because claimants can’t always prove their case.
I think that the far-left facts that are peddled by Burnside and other advocates is that the far-left facts aren’t facts, they are obfuscated. The reason why you see the Greens and socialist protesters go on about how it’s not illegal to seek asylum is because the refugee advocates who are more in line with extreme-leftist socialism had lobbied for a law that made it illegal to refer to unsolicited unauthorised irregular maritime arrivals by boat as ‘illegal’, a law which is upheld by the Australian Press Council. This is despite it being the natural opposite to legal migration.
There’s that bloody evil word socialism again. You got no idea what the hell it means. It is not a nasty social disease it is a legitimate are of academic study which includes your roads, and countless other services of social necessity. See the word “necessity.” This is not a airy fairy gift for the bludgers it is universal aces for all citizens. Define extreme left socialism and provide relevant references to academic papers. Sheesh you are nothing but an uneducated parrot.
Not in the mood for shite tonight.
Jay V,
Really? Links and evidence, please.
Pretty desperate assumptions in this article. The majority of Australians disagree with you…..
Craig, have you been paying attention to the latest poll?
Forget about the religious angle. Religion is a system. Just remind our catholic pollies what Jesus actually said and ask when will they live up to those teachings . start with the new pope as their guide.The churches only get it wrong when they get power and wealth. The Dalai Lama lives simply and gained great following when an exile.
ARISE…..Sir Pository Of Wisdom! I saw this on a facebook page! It sums up Tony Abbott! 🙂 LOL!
Jay V : well thank magic sky daddy that the Press Council upheld the laws on whether someone is “illegal”……..even though they are commies….you need to get out more mate.
.
Screw the imperialist white devil government its Zionist jew masters.
NIfIS,
If you must, do it in private.