From the Prime Minister’s website:
“As Prime Minister, Mr Abbott has promised to spend a week each year living and working in an indigenous community. In recent years, Mr Abbott has spent time working as a teacher’s aide in Coen and as a truancy officer in Aurukun as well as participating in Bush Owner Builder indigenous housing project near Hopevale on Cape York. Last year, Mr Abbott and a team of business leaders spent four days helping to refurbish the library of the local school at Aurukun.”
So, that must be coming up soon, I thought.
In fact, this very month according to this ABC story, Tony Abbott to spend week in Torres Strait, Northern Peninsula Region. But then the story is from the ABC and who can believe the ABC? After all they tell us in that article that:
“Last September, Mr Abbott ran the country from a tent during a week-long stay in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.”
While I may sound a little pedantic here, I seem to remember that he cut trip short, leaving on the Thursday to farewell troops to going to Iraq, but promising to return on the Friday. Unfortunately, due to “terror raids” he had to stay where he was, because, apparently, the security forces couldn’t manage without him.
Still, he did make the commitment and that means that he intended to do it. Intending to do something is the same as doing it? Isn’t that right?
Like his commitment to the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, which can be considered something that he did, because it was only scrapped when he decided that it would be better to make a commitment to improving childcare, and now that he’s committed to improving childcare, well, we can all feel better already and mark it down as one of the great achievements of the Abbott government like reducing the deficit and stopping the boats. Although some silly people tried to suggest that the fact that a boat made it to Western Australia the other week meant that we hadn’t actually stopped all the boats, they ignore the fact that this boat was stopped, and the people sent back to where they came from, like that SBS show has been suggesting for three seasons now.
Like those submarines that the Liberals promised would be built in Adelaide. The people of Adelaide didn’t seem to show any gratitude for the promise and seemed to think that by putting the process out to tender that wasn’t the same as actually building them there, which seems to rather harsh. To placate those ungrateful South Australians for presuming that just because there’s already a draft announcement awarding the contract to the Japanese that the decision not build the submarines there has already been made, Mr Abbott has now promised to build ships there instead… Sometime after the next election, but he has brought it forward to his next term in office so that he can ensure it starts, because if Labor get in, they may stop the project because Labor is anti-jobs, anti-Australian, soft on borders when it comes to “illegals” and too hard on borders when it comes to foreign investment and overseas workers.
And six months, Mr Abbott promised that good government would start that very day, which is another thing he should be commended for thinking and saying, even if he didn’t actually produce anything that could remotely be considered good government.
Although we did have Mr Turnbull telling the Australia-China Business Forum:
“While the unions will advocate for what they believe to be in their members’ interests – and the fact is that the vast bulk of 457 visa holders choose not to be union members – the Labor Party is supposed to be a party of Government, and that brings with it the responsibility to stand up for the national interest.”
Not only do they choose not to be union members, a large number of them choose to work for below award wages too, and enjoy being exploited, which is their choice and good on Mr Turnbull for saying so. Mr Turnbull is showing the sort of “good government” Mr Abbott was talking about back in the days when Joe Hockey was still prepared to come out of the house occasionally.
So, now that we know that Mr Abbott will be running the government from an Indigenous community in August. That should mean that we won’t see him going straight to see the Governor-General on Monday so that Bronwyn doesn’t have the chance to move a spill motion in the party room.
Gee, I hope there’s no emergency that’d make him cut his visit short this time. Still, we can rest assured knowing that Mr Abbott says something, he considers it as good as done.
Even if he never actually does it.
Abot is no ‘fixer’.
You hit the nail on the head 100%, I am sure that Mr Abbott in his confused state of mind, is pretty sure he has done what he said he would do, right!
I seem to recall he spent the promised week (just a few days actually) ensconced in a large Army tent filled with his usual “uniforms” & a large amount of communications equipment. All just to “face save” for himself.
How long can we tolerate Abbott as p.m. ? Budget fail, promises broken, inept performances at International Forums (just embarassing) dubious behaviour regarding acceptance of Scholarships for his daughter, $1Million on expenses even before becoming p.m.? Gonski, Medicare, NBN, NDIS all wrecked for base politics aimed at hurting Labor. That is not Leadership.
This Emperor has no clothes!
Abbott was only there a couple days/ Truth is Indigenous community shunned him Id going later this month. I suspect he will find excuse not to go. Maybe urgent trip to Middle East again.
Our Dear Leader reminds me of this Dear Leader?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8292848/The-Incredible-Kim-Jong-il-and-his-Amazing-Achievements.html
Or like Tom Cruise’s amazing achievements because he knows as a Scientologist he is the only person who can help?
http://gawker.com/5002269/the-cruise-indoctrination-video-scientology-tried-to-suppress
But he gives good publicity shots. 😀
(Miriam shakes head in pity for Australian politics.)
In a nutshell – thanks again Rossleigh- enjoy reading your contributions.
I can’t believe we used to mock George W Bush. We thought such a dud would never get into office in Australia.
True, Rais. I’ve often mourned to friends in USA that we have a prime minister who makes GW Bush look almost like an intellectual. At least Bush was just a kind of bumbling clueless, relatively amiable idiot that people felt like they could have a beer with — not exactly the qualities one would hope for in the president of the most powerful country on the planet, but at least he doesn’t bite the heads off small animals.
Abbott combines his monumental stupidity with a piercing nastiness. His clumsiness and lack of insight seem to be suffused with genuine malevolence Both are clearly puppets, but Abbott is so puffed up with his own self-importance that even his string-pullers don’t seem to be able to properly control him (example: knighting the Queen’s hubby).
Great to see labor making hay out of the rabbutt’s debt crisis lie and highlighting his borrowing thanks to the greens. Great to see labor making hay out of climate change and highlighting bobbie brown’s voting with the rabbutt in the senate(maybe that atrocious act was the prompt for milne?)
Great to see burke ‘fessing’ up to one rort after another nothing illegal but bloody greedy on his wage. Rule one no family/friends until absence from home is established by a public diary system. Rule two
If labor sets up a website for grass roots input to ‘entitlements’, ‘wages and conditions’. My family will apply for membership, in order to put our views.