I wonder why?

Poor Media Ownership Laws

Can't believe Abbott is still traipsing around in that bloody blue tie! Get over it man!

Try adding a dash of red, looks very fetching.

Red + blue - the colours of bi-partisanship..

Can't believe Abbott is still traipsing around in that bloody blue tie! Get over it man!

Try adding a dash of red, looks very fetching.

Red + blue - the colours of bi-partisanship..

OMG I don't want that idiot to wear such a great looking tie.

He better suited to wearing black and white as he would fit right in over there.

OMG I don't want that [censored] to wear such a great looking tie.

He better suited to wearing black and white as he would fit right in over there.

I don't want him spoiling the great game Aussie Rules, with a throw away half baked pommy reject. He's not even up to NRL level. or soccer.

Leave him to the polo clubs, & riding with his minder troupe.

I know I bang on about pollies using the word "mandate". In this case the Liberal Party suck up, Andrew Bolt discussed the UN not allowing the deregistration of heritage listing on certain forest acreage in Tassie. He suggested that the Abbott Gov't made it clear that they would try and do this at election time and 4 out of 5 seats went to the Libs in Tassie therefore the Gov't undoubtedly has a "mandate" from the voters to do that.

I want to vomit.

I have mentioned before that I believe a mandate is achieved when you have no obstacle to passing your legislation - winning both houses. Many voters vote differently in each house to "keep the bastards honest".

But that aside - how anyone after many months of this Gov't can pull out the mandate card now after the amount of election promises broken and backflips is beyond me.

Is Bolt suggesting that this Gov't has a mandate to implement what they said they going to implement but all broken election promises aren't subject to the same mandate they received ?

I want to vomit. ( I dont know why I even read him - I want to vomit)

Edited June 26, 201411 yr by nutbean

This makes me sick.

I remember I was told that I was a callous, heartless [censored] who didn't care about people dying at sea when I dared to call out the government's policy on asylum seekers who arrive by boat.
Apparently dying at sea is much worse than being sent back to your home country to be tortured and killed (both are horrible but this crap about wanting to save people's lives was what I said it was: disingenuous).

BTW Nutbean. It was funny that when Rudd won the 2007 election campaign that he didn't have a mandate to introduce a carbon emissions scheme. Surely if the Libs (and Tony Abbott) respected the will of the people, they surely would have rolled over to whatever the ALP wanted?

This makes me sick.

I hadn't seen this before.

I am ashamed to be an Australian. This is not what I thought our country was about.

That's all a picnic compared to this:

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/scott-morrisons-foul-bet-on-torture-20140625-zsll1.html

That's all a picnic compared to this:

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/scott-morrisons-foul-bet-on-torture-20140625-zsll1.html

I have no words.

I have no words.

I have a few, but most of them are censored on here.

I have a few, but most of them are censored on here.

Scott Morrison is an abomination! Now we are condoning torture, anything to keep the boat people at bay. Has anyone told Scott to have a look at the airports? That is where everybody is coming in, that is if you are worried about a so called foreign invasion.

Edited June 27, 201411 yr by Earl Hood

Scott Morrison is an abomination! Now we are condoning torture, anything to keep the boat people at bay. Has anyone told Scott to have a look at the airports? That is where everybody is coming in, that is if you are worried about a so called foreign invasion.

hmmn, QAF flight 459.. arrives every 3 hours. visas inc.

hmmn, QAF flight 459.. arrives every 3 hours. visas inc.

457? I get your point but DL you see the 457's are lifters not leaners so they are not on the radar.

Maybe the "fool on the hill" wants to revisit the reforms of 1967?

“As a general principle we support foreign investment. Always have and always will,” he said.

“Our country is unimaginable without foreign investment.”

“I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or, um, scarcely settled, Great South Land,”

Maybe the "fool on the hill" wants to revisit the reforms of 1967?

“As a general principle we support foreign investment. Always have and always will,” he said.

“Our country is unimaginable without foreign investment.”

“I guess our country owes its existence to a form of foreign investment by the British government in the then unsettled or, um, scarcely settled, Great South Land,”

lol

Wake me when this is over.

I think it's settled - Abbott is a doofus

I think it's settled - Abbott is a doofus

Um, I think he might disagree with you on that point ;-)

I think it's settled - Abbott is a doofus

Um, I think he might disagree with you on that point ;-)

457? I get your point but DL you see the 457's are lifters not leaners so they are not on the radar.

457's, Mmmn, they're the ones,.& they're hissing again at the, as minute Sam Newman says...

Quietly slivering them back into power again...

& sam will be able to hire his minute.Asian contractors again, on his short term underangement.

This one's for you Hood, I know you're the president of the Scott Morrison Appreciation Society Inc.

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/scott-morrison-interview-takes-on-pythonesque-proportions-20140704-zsw9n.html

Interesting looking back on this.

Rudd, Swan and Gillard blew the budget to smithereens - we went from a good financial position to massive debt - as usual under a Labor Govt. - even worse with the Greens in bed with them.

Have to give Abbott and Co a chance - even tho I don't necessarily like things such as the PPL and some of the stuff in the budget.

Abbott showing great leadership re the horrendous shooting down of the Malaysian plane and the loss of so many innocent lives.

Interesting looking back on this.

Rudd, Swan and Gillard blew the budget to smithereens - we went from a good financial position to massive debt - as usual under a Labor Govt. - even worse with the Greens in bed with them.

Have to give Abbott and Co a chance - even tho I don't necessarily like things such as the PPL and some of the stuff in the budget.

Abbott showing great leadership re the horrendous shooting down of the Malaysian plane and the loss of so many innocent lives.

Judging by your tone you are a rusted on Lib, but regardless you should be aware that you have been sold a pup with regard to the debt "crisis".

We are not in massive debt. Nothing close to it. Even when accounting for the measures that Abbott has taken in his first year to accentuate it, our debt to GDP ratio (27% up from 20% in 2013) pales in comparison to the likes of Germany, (81%) Japan (237%), US (106%), indeed the vast majority of the developed world.

Furthermore, now is not the time to be tightening our belts to the point of strangulation. Governments should act counter-cyclically by saving during the booms and spending during the downturns. The budget on the table is pro-cyclical – tightening belts further when times are already toughening. Simple, bad, economics. But, when you have an idea of how the country should run that you are absolutely dedicated to, good economics can become a secondary concern.

Debt isn't the ugly word that Abbott wants you to believe. As long as it is manageable, which it certainly is, it can be necessary to avoid recession, which we managed to do during the GFC. Just in case that needs to be pointed out again.

I haven't been sold anything - if you think a huge deficit getting bigger by the day is better than a surplus - well I feel for you.

I don't want our grandkids and their kids paying it off forever.

You only have to look at the mess in Europe to see the path Rudd, Swan and Gillard have set us on (was the waste on School Halls, pink batts etc. etc.O K? - I know it wasn't). What happens when the next crisis occurs - there is nothing in the kitty to bail us out again.

Judging by your tone you are a rusted on Lib, but regardless you should be aware that you have been sold a pup with regard to the debt "crisis".

We are not in massive debt. Nothing close to it. Even when accounting for the measures that Abbott has taken in his first year to accentuate it, our debt to GDP ratio (27% up from 20% in 2013) pales in comparison to the likes of Germany, (81%) Japan (237%), US (106%), indeed the vast majority of the developed world.

Furthermore, now is not the time to be tightening our belts to the point of strangulation. Governments should act counter-cyclically by saving during the booms and spending during the downturns. The budget on the table is pro-cyclical – tightening belts further when times are already toughening. Simple, bad, economics. But, when you have an idea of how the country should run that you are absolutely dedicated to, good economics can become a secondary concern.

Debt isn't the ugly word that Abbott wants you to believe. As long as it is manageable, which it certainly is, it can be necessary to avoid recession, which we managed to do during the GFC. Just in case that needs to be pointed out again.

true. but while these big players are in high debt, at a time when the world is sluggish & out of kilter, Its not good to be in debt at all.

However IMO having said that, we would be in worse shape without the spending during the early stages (first 4 Yrs) of the GFC crisis, which by the way, has never gone away, its just in hibernation. The world economy is still Sick. & why the tea party & other right wing parties the world over, are trying to get in power to crush the working class's conditions, so they can start to make big margins & profits, yet again.

This is the, or will be the Race to the bottom, as all world free economies try to outrace one another on productivity costs. instead of raising the Easts wages & conditions, they world economic powers want to lower every-ones conditions. & people will Die on the job from these negative measures..

the world will start to spin in reverse... as it were, prophetically.

I agree with you about spending, when it cycles downward, & save for the rainy day when economies are robust. But a better balance is needed between our ratio of domestic economy & overseas trade.

We trade too much, to our own expence of local business & workers jobs. Growth is a 6 letter cancer when its out of kilter with the domestic economy.

We have sacrificed our future, for a handful of gold fillings. wait & see. And once that iron is gone from our ground, we will be the next Nauru, of our own making. & importing Iron, Gas & Oil.

fossil - did you just not read my post?

There is no huge deficit. No matter how many times Abbott and Hockey tell you there is a budget crisis, it doesn't make it true. It was a political tool used to gain power, just as it is a political tool now to sell a budget seeking to make fundamental reforms to health, education, all the pillars that make us the envy of the world. You can reduce spending and increase revenue without having to tear the place down to the ground.

Ask yourself, if there really was a deficit disaster, why would Hockey add $13billion to the deficit, a lot of it plainly unnecessary, while the Treasurer's office chair was still warm from Swan's backside? Grandkids paying it off? The August 2013 PEFO had the budget returning to surplus by 2016-17! Those grandkids better pop out now.

Saying we have been placed on a path to Europe is total nonsense. The stimulus package was praised by leading world economists as being the single best response to the GFC in the world. A finding Abbott wholly rejected because impartial views that don't suit his agenda, no matter how expert, are treated with disdain. The economy, as it stands, is still very well placed to handle future instability.

As for pink batts and school halls, I would suggest you look up the IMF's findings as to which Australian government was the most wasteful spender in our history. Only two periods of profilgate spending have occurred. One was under Menzies. The other was under. Howard. School halls are no comparison to how loose with the purse strings Johnny was during the mining boom. We actually should have emerged from that a hell of a lot better than we did. But that's another story.

Your posts seem to be from someone who has been greatly misled and remains blissfully uninformed. But you are not alone there. That's how we got this idealistic dolt into power in the first place.

Edited July 26, 201411 yr by P-man