I think I have worked all this out. Uncle Rupert has just annointed his two under performing sons as heirs to the News Ltd Throne. Ageing Rupert, now without Wendy, is preparing in time to renounce his US citizenship and return to Oz and accept his knighthood. It all now makes sense.

But he has already renounce his Australian citizenship

But he has already renounce his Australian citizenship

For Rupert anything is possible!

But he has already renounce his Australian citizenship

theres always New Zealand. uncle Rupert could rub his red nose with the Maori chiefs.

bit of luck they'll feel hungry one day

Credit where it is due... this govt has done very well in getting free trade deals with both Korea and Japan that could be a major boon to our agriculture/farming sector.

Credit where it is due... this govt has done very well in getting free trade deals with both Korea and Japan that could be a major boon to our agriculture/farming sector.

hmmm the reaction was a bit mixed today from what i saw.. dairy farmers in particular not happy.

in any case, the credit shouldn't be all this governments.. these (and other trade deals) were being pursued by labor, and even howard before, they just take time.

Edited April 8, 201411 yr by Grapeviney

Tough job being foreign minister

WTF

Credit where it is due... this govt has done very well in getting free trade deals with both Korea and Japan that could be a major boon to our agriculture/farming sector.

Really?

Not too bad for beef, but the deal hardly touches the 29.8% tariff Japan puts on Australian dairy products (mainly cheese). For an Australian industry now exporting $511 million in products per year to Japan, the measly tariff reduction is worth a whopping $11 million per year to Australian farmers. And that will take until 2031, or 17 years.

It's a joke. It's not a free trade agreement, but a 'trade-a-few-things' agreement.

How convenient that this happens just as the car industry went belly up. Was all that posturing and posing really about taking a moral stand against propping up multinationals or was it done intentionally to close this trade deal?

I am surprised on the cheese bit Maurie. They could do with some decent cheese (and milk). Most of the stuff available in the supermarkets was that bloody awful 'Hotel Cheese' that crumbled as soon as you cut into it and was gummy as all buggery.
Some of the stuff though farmers will never get. Rice for one. There is a whole industry there they need to protect. Beef and cheese? I wouldn't think so.

Tough job being foreign minister

WTF

I was at a Comedy Festival gig tonight and didn't laugh as much as I just did reading that.

Talk about hypocrites.. they went berserk and said national security was at stake when the same sort of trivial nonsense was released by Wikileaks, and yet here he goes and writes a book full of it. And then has the audacity to say it's better than Wiki and Snowden!

Half tempted to buy it just for the laughs but I'm sure the HS have extracted every single one of those nuggets for their yarn.

Really?

Not too bad for beef, but the deal hardly touches the 29.8% tariff Japan puts on Australian dairy products (mainly cheese). For an Australian industry now exporting $511 million in products per year to Japan, the measly tariff reduction is worth a whopping $11 million per year to Australian farmers. And that will take until 2031, or 17 years.

It's a joke. It's not a free trade agreement, but a 'trade-a-few-things' agreement.

I'd like to see the annual balance of trade figures, between the 2 countries, Australia & Japan; re our direct trading with one another in dollar terms.

Credit where it is due... this govt has done very well in getting free trade deals with both Korea and Japan that could be a major boon to our agriculture/farming sector.

Lets see the fine print before we give any credit.

You have an idiot and the idiots mates making the decisions here and one thing is clear to me. They never make decision for the good of the whole nation.

Are we really going to let the premier-who-fell-on-his-sword-for-a-$3000-bottle-of-wine story just pass without comment?

The haste with which he resigned suggests to me there's more to this story than meets the eye. Otherwise why wouldn't he dig in and ride it out?

Pollies have hung on to their jobs for transgressions far worse than this one.

I would have thought a simple "i accept I was wrong but still can't recall this particular gift, receive so many every day blah blah" would have been sufficient..

For Rupert anything is possible!

Well, yeah; he'll go to Britain for the khight, hood. Aus is too small for rupert.

Well, yeah; he'll go to Britain for the khight, hood. Aus is too small for rupert.

King Rupert the Fool

Has a nice ring to it

Uncle Tony & doing it with a little help from his friends.

the New australian 'W'

Uncle Tony 'W' Abbott

Uncle Tony & doing it with a little help from his friends.

the New australian 'W'

Uncle Tony 'W' Abbott

Lets call him George W

The name suits him better

Lets call him George W

The name suits him better

honestly, I can see similarities with uncle tony & George 'W', & even more concerning, Putin... both like opposite sides of the one coin

Oh boy, there are some truly cringeworthy posts in here. But I won't quote them cause I'm nice like that.

Is anyone going to front up to defend this budget?

Amazingly, Robbie has turned on him, now that Tony has asked him to pay a bit extra in tax. So he's out.

Benny is gone, but I'm sure he would solider on defending it like every rusted on Abbott supporter with referral to the budget "emergency" that doesn't exist.

HT perhaps? Anyone at all?

Or are we all agreed that this is the most deceitful and reckless budget from any government in recent memory. Certainly the polls now suggest that.

To hell with Abbott's hateful ideology of widening the gaps in our society, and to hell with his brazen lies and hypocrisy. I hope he gets booted unceremoniously, be it by his own party or the electorate, and his Prime Ministership viewed for the black mark on our history that it has already become.

I will quote one post. This is what I wrote in August of last year, so Lib voters now having regrets, you can't say you weren't told.

Whether or not Abbott is a nice bloke, or is even more personable, isn't the issue. I don't buy into the idea that Abbott is concentrated evil, no matter how much I might differ from him on certain values. I once met Barnaby Joyce in a pub and he's actually a very nice fella in person, and more open minded than he lets on. But I don't vote on who I want to have a beer with, I vote on who is best placed to run the country. The issue is Abbott's policy ambition, alot of which has been kept in the shade from the average voter, as well as his suitability as Prime Minister which is lacking on several fronts.

Forget all the gaffes and sexist remarks. What does he actually stand for? Abbott believes, in his own words, that "a productive society means greater inequality is inevitable". Fundamentally, he sees society as a market. The wealthy are given advantage to prosper and the workers and less well off must fend for themselves. But I guess that approach has worked out well in the US, UK and Europe. Oh wait..

There's little doubting that Abbott's policies will have the overall effect of distributing wealth further upwards.

There's the lowering of the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6000 that will drag more than one million low-income earners back into the tax system.

The proposed closure of the Low Income Superannuation Contribution which would leave the 3.6 million lowest paid workers in the country worse off to the tune of around $4 billion.

The ditching of the proposed 15 per cent tax on income from superannuation above $100,000 a year. The effect will be 16,000 high income earners with superannuation savings in excess of $2 million get a tax cut, while 3.6 million workers earning less than $37,000 will pay more than $4 billion extra in tax on their super over the next four years.

It's now discovered that lower-income shareholders will be the ones coughing up $1.6 billion towards the incredibly ill thought out paid parental leave scheme, his signature policy outside of "stop the boats".

He's said they wont go back to WorkChoices, yet the policy provisions he has released undermine collective agreements and shift workers back towards individual contracts, both key elements of WorkChoices.

Then there is how he plans to fill the gaping holes in his budget. He won't say, because it's obvious where the money will come from - health and education. Basic services required by, well, everyone, but especially those who are less well off. He plans to get rid of at least 12,000 public servants, but won't say where. So essentially, he may not cut certain programs or services, they'll just eventually fall over from neglect.

Basically, the rich stand to get richer while those down the other end of the food chain are going to be properly reamed under an Abbott government, and they don't even know it yet. How could they with Murdoch essentially being Abbott's campaign director? And let's not pretend that he hasn't played a major part in getting Abbott elected.

It's also not just the fact he's so out of touch with direction of modern society on issues of gender, sexuality and the like. He's just out of touch, period. Both parties have committed $17 billion to transport infrastructure, however Labor is allocating some of that to urban rail, whilst the aspiring "infrastructure PM" has not allocated a cent, and is putting the whole lot towards roads. To me this demonstrates little recognition of the trends in transportation, or indeed the massive frustration with public transport.

The fact of the matter is, we have a very good quality of life in this country, and the previous Labor governments have done well to keep the economy growing (14% since 2007) and our head above water during the GFC, when it seemed the world was falling into recession. But despite that, we have an incessant campaign that has convinced the voting public that a budget deficit means the sky is falling, and only THEY know how to fix it. It's garbage. It is going to mean needlessly sacrificing social services all so this bloke who has made no secrets of his desire to be Prime Minister for a long time, can live out his dream, and allow the Gina Rineharts of this world to stuff their pockets with a little bit extra.

The best thing to do is grit our teeth and ride it out. Thankfully as a Melbourne supporter, I'm well practised. Just remember if you vote for him, you remove your right to complain when he pulls out a swifty that you never saw coming.

But hey, if you have $2 million in super, you'll be sweet.

Oh boy, there are some truly cringeworthy posts in here. But I won't quote them cause I'm nice like that.

Is anyone going to front up to defend this budget?

Amazingly, Robbie has turned on him, now that Tony has asked him to pay a bit extra in tax. So he's out.

Benny is gone, but I'm sure he would solider on defending it like every rusted on Abbott supporter with referral to the budget "emergency" that doesn't exist.

HT perhaps? Anyone at all?

Or are we all agreed that this is the most deceitful and reckless budget from any government in recent memory. Certainly the polls now suggest that.

To hell with Abbott's hateful ideology of widening the gaps in our society, and to hell with his brazen lies and hypocrisy. I hope he gets booted unceremoniously, be it by his own party or the electorate, and his Prime Ministership viewed for the black mark on our history that it has already become.

I will quote one post. This is what I wrote in August of last year, so Lib voters now having regrets, you can't say you weren't told.

The Coalition won't get voted out this side of the next election and probably not then but it would gladden my heart to see them panic and give the bully boy Tony the heave ho. Couldn't happen to a more deserving " you know what I mean". What about Christopher Pyne for PM! anyone?

The Coalition won't get voted out this side of the next election and probably not then but it would gladden my heart to see them panic and give the bully boy Tony the heave ho. Couldn't happen to a more deserving " you know what I mean". What about Christopher Pyne for PM! anyone?

Probably not at the next election? I'll be stunned if they are not booted out. We will officially be the dumbest nation on the planet if we vote for this wrecking ball to have another 3 years at systematically tearing apart everything that's great about this country.

Probably not at the next election? I'll be stunned if they are not booted out. We will officially be the dumbest nation on the planet if we vote for this wrecking ball to have another 3 years at systematically tearing apart everything that's great about this country.

P-man love your passion but you are right we are amongst the dumbest voting nations on earth. There is a reason for that, Rupert Murdoch dominates the papers and we have the likes of Singo owning a number of radio stations that employ the likes of the abominable Alan Jones. In short we live among the worlds most concentrated media ownership. Fat cats with agendas for the rich.

Disengaged voters unfortunately listen to the likes of Andrew Dolt, read the Hun or the Oz and believe their best interests lie with their interests.

Edited May 19, 201411 yr by Viscount Hood

Oh boy, there are some truly cringeworthy posts in here. But I won't quote them cause I'm nice like that.

Is anyone going to front up to defend this budget?

Amazingly, Robbie has turned on him, now that Tony has asked him to pay a bit extra in tax. So he's out.

Benny is gone, but I'm sure he would solider on defending it like every rusted on Abbott supporter with referral to the budget "emergency" that doesn't exist.

HT perhaps? Anyone at all?

Or are we all agreed that this is the most deceitful and reckless budget from any government in recent memory. Certainly the polls now suggest that.

To hell with Abbott's hateful ideology of widening the gaps in our society, and to hell with his brazen lies and hypocrisy. I hope he gets booted unceremoniously, be it by his own party or the electorate, and his Prime Ministership viewed for the black mark on our history that it has already become.

I will quote one post. This is what I wrote in August of last year, so Lib voters now having regrets, you can't say you weren't told.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-man, on 24 Aug 2013 - 9:05 PM, said:

Whether or not Abbott is a nice bloke, or is even more personable, isn't the issue. I don't buy into the idea that Abbott is concentrated evil, no matter how much I might differ from him on certain values. I once met Barnaby Joyce in a pub and he's actually a very nice fella in person, and more open minded than he lets on. But I don't vote on who I want to have a beer with, I vote on who is best placed to run the country. The issue is Abbott's policy ambition, alot of which has been kept in the shade from the average voter, as well as his suitability as Prime Minister which is lacking on several fronts.

Forget all the gaffes and sexist remarks. What does he actually stand for? Abbott believes, in his own words, that "a productive society means greater inequality is inevitable". Fundamentally, he sees society as a market. The wealthy are given advantage to prosper and the workers and less well off must fend for themselves. But I guess that approach has worked out well in the US, UK and Europe. Oh wait..

There's little doubting that Abbott's policies will have the overall effect of distributing wealth further upwards.

There's the lowering of the tax-free threshold from $18,200 to $6000 that will drag more than one million low-income earners back into the tax system.

The proposed closure of the Low Income Superannuation Contribution which would leave the 3.6 million lowest paid workers in the country worse off to the tune of around $4 billion.

The ditching of the proposed 15 per cent tax on income from superannuation above $100,000 a year. The effect will be 16,000 high income earners with superannuation savings in excess of $2 million get a tax cut, while 3.6 million workers earning less than $37,000 will pay more than $4 billion extra in tax on their super over the next four years.

It's now discovered that lower-income shareholders will be the ones coughing up $1.6 billion towards the incredibly ill thought out paid parental leave scheme, his signature policy outside of "stop the boats".

He's said they wont go back to WorkChoices, yet the policy provisions he has released undermine collective agreements and shift workers back towards individual contracts, both key elements of WorkChoices.

Then there is how he plans to fill the gaping holes in his budget. He won't say, because it's obvious where the money will come from - health and education. Basic services required by, well, everyone, but especially those who are less well off. He plans to get rid of at least 12,000 public servants, but won't say where. So essentially, he may not cut certain programs or services, they'll just eventually fall over from neglect.

Basically, the rich stand to get richer while those down the other end of the food chain are going to be properly reamed under an Abbott government, and they don't even know it yet. How could they with Murdoch essentially being Abbott's campaign director? And let's not pretend that he hasn't played a major part in getting Abbott elected.

It's also not just the fact he's so out of touch with direction of modern society on issues of gender, sexuality and the like. He's just out of touch, period.

Both parties have committed $17 billion to transport infrastructure, however Labor is allocating some of that to urban rail, whilst the aspiring "infrastructure PM" has not allocated a cent, and is putting the whole lot towards roads. To me this demonstrates little recognition of the trends in transportation, or indeed the massive frustration with public transport.

The fact of the matter is, we have a very good quality of life in this country, and the previous Labor governments have done well to keep the economy growing (14% since 2007) and our head above water during the GFC, when it seemed the world was falling into recession. But despite that, we have an incessant campaign that has convinced the voting public that a budget deficit means the sky is falling, and only THEY know how to fix it. It's garbage. It is going to mean needlessly sacrificing social services all so this bloke who has made no secrets of his desire to be Prime Minister for a long time, can live out his dream, and allow the Gina Rineharts of this world to stuff their pockets with a little bit extra.

The best thing to do is grit our teeth and ride it out. Thankfully as a Melbourne supporter, I'm well practised. Just remember if you vote for him, you remove your right to complain when he pulls out a swifty that you never saw coming.

But hey, if you have $2 million in super, you'll be sweet.

he's not outa touch, he's in touch; with his own Ideological Agenda's.

Murdochs not campaign director, but his media are Riding Shotgun atop the abbott bandwagon... rupert's just their high paying cheerleader

he's a fan of abbott's ideas of taking us toward 1820 2020... he's too Old to get his hands dirty, when he can pay for others too, dial the numbers & listen Inn.

its for the other scoops who enjoy their $$$ perks to forego the Aussie fair go, for their own self Ends. ah what they wouldn't do for a nice fat & juicy Bonus.

the abbott shadow cabinet in carriage to 2013.... guarded by New' Corp operatives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corp#United_Kingdom

Edited May 19, 201411 yr by dee-luded

P-man love your passion but you are right we are amongst the dumbest voting nations on earth. There is a reason for that, Rupert Murdoch dominates the papers and we have the likes of Singo owning a number of radio stations that employ the likes of the abominable Alan Jones. In short we live among the worlds most concentrated media ownership. Fat cats with agendas for the rich.

Disengaged voters unfortunately listen to the likes of Andrew Dolt, read the Hun or the Oz and believe their best interests lie with their interests.

Be that as it may, even the Murdoch machine can't mask their mushroom readership from this.

They have time, but it will take a miracle for the Coalition to turn around the disenchantment over the breakdown of trust. Gillard got crucified over the carbon tax, so the fallout from this is going to hang around for a long time to come. Abbott and Hockey have all but destroyed their chances of re-election with this budget.

Oh boy, there are some truly cringeworthy posts in here. But I won't quote them cause I'm nice like that.

Is anyone going to front up to defend this budget?

Amazingly, Robbie has turned on him, now that Tony has asked him to pay a bit extra in tax. So he's out.

Benny is gone, but I'm sure he would solider on defending it like every rusted on Abbott supporter with referral to the budget "emergency" that doesn't exist.

HT perhaps? Anyone at all?

Or are we all agreed that this is the most deceitful and reckless budget from any government in recent memory. Certainly the polls now suggest that.

To hell with Abbott's hateful ideology of widening the gaps in our society, and to hell with his brazen lies and hypocrisy. I hope he gets booted unceremoniously, be it by his own party or the electorate, and his Prime Ministership viewed for the black mark on our history that it has already become.

I will quote one post. This is what I wrote in August of last year, so Lib voters now having regrets, you can't say you weren't told.

Why on earth would I be defending this budget??? I didn't vote for him and his cohorts and I would certainly be taking a long hard look at myself now if I had.

Why on earth would I be defending this budget??? I didn't vote for him and his cohorts and I would certainly be taking a long hard look at myself now if I had.

Not you mate. I meant the poster H_T. From memory he is an Abbott sympathiser.