Should Abbott step down?

[Rorschach]

As for the LDP I'm not voting for gay marriage or more guns in the community just to name 2.
And if it wasn't for the LDP the Coalition would control the Senate.

[skippy]

Yes... I am Gillard got bad press, because she and Rudd ran a useless government and made bad decisions. GillRd was crucified by the pressAbbott has been on the end of a very negative and personal campaign since he became opposition Leader. for good reason he's now proven his detractors correct that he was a bad choice Gillard was even praised by people on the other side of politics like Alan Jones until she failed as PM. yes high praise indeed fom Jones calling for her to be dumped in a chaff bag at sea. Let alone screeching that her old man died of shame. Yes just the sort of press you want on your side hey?

[skippy]

Until political parties start listening to the voters that put them there we will have a revolving door of governments. The voters have not had a PM they wanted since Rudds first term. Now you can sit there are spin the old line that we don't elect PMs and while I know that's true in reality the voters in this country think otherwise. Until a party elects a leader the voters embrace like they did Hawke and Howard we will have one term governments.
Shorten will not go more than one term either he's as big a mistake as Abbott is.
If I were the coaltion I'd be luring Mike Baird into federal politics. I honestly don't know anyone from the Labor side capable of rallying the voters.

Well
1st... I didn't want Rudd and every reason why was brought out in his Prime Ministership.
2nd... I don't believe the majority of Australians think they have a direct vote for the PM.
3rd... I didn't like Hawke or Howard very much.
4th... If Shorten is so bad why vote him in at all?
5th... I don't like Baird.

Good for you.

[Rorschach]

Abbott in trouble after Medicare fumble
By Norman Abjorensen
Posted Fri at 1:20pmFri 16 Jan 2015, 1:20pm

The Government's backdown over the Medicare rebate is evidence of decision-making that is as chaotic as it is confusing, and does not augur well for a Prime Minister who continues to fumble, writes Norman Abjorensen.

It's been asked whether Medicare will survive the Abbott Government, but it might now be more pertinent to ask whether Tony Abbott will survive Medicare.

The extraordinary volte-face of the Government over the short consultation fee suggests that either the PM changed his mind on a key policy at the last minute, or this has been one of the most humiliating rebuffs to a prime minister in recent years, with the new Health Minister, Sussan Ley, being sent out to announce the retreat just a day after it was talked up by Mr Abbott.

What the Government's backdown means is that Australians will not pay more from Monday if they have a short consultation with their doctor. A mere 24 hours earlier, the Prime Minister was robustly defending the proposal to cut $20.10 from the rebate paid to GPs for consultations of less than 10 minutes.

Whatever gloss is put on the decision, the unavoidable picture that emerges to an outside observer is that that either the Prime Minister has been rolled, comprehensively, totally and most embarrassingly, or chose to back down at the last minute. If the latter, it would be interesting to know how he was persuaded.

Dissension in government is by no means uncommon, and prime ministers will from time to time publicly countermand ministers. It is far less common, however, for a minister to be out there publicly reversing a prime ministerial pronouncement.

Dissension properly managed will not turn into revolt, but unmanaged dissension can quickly morph into something more damaging - a power struggle. Australian political history is littered with prime ministers who fell after failing to manage dissent - Hughes, Menzies, Gorton, Hawke and, more recently, Rudd and Gillard.

This was inept whichever way you look at it. Not only were there howls of outrage from the medical profession and other groups, not to mention the embattled LNP Government in Queensland in the throes of a tight election campaign, but even from within Government ranks there was head shaking aplenty. This is not just policy on the run, it is policy at a frenetic gallop. It was an assault on what wise Ben Chifley liked to call "the hip pocket nerve". Did the Government not realise this? It is inconceivable that the Government was taken by surprise. Whatever the merits of the policy, it was bad politics, politics at its worst.

For starters, did anyone think about the timing with the Queensland election campaign under way? It was even more egregious than the former defence minister, David Johnston's gaffe, during the crucial Fisher by-election in South Australia, about the SA-based Australian Submarine Corporation not being capable of building a canoe. The comment came after pre-poll voting had opened but before the poll, and the Liberal vote plummeted in a contest that handed Labor majority government.

On another front, the audacious Medicare proposal was never going to get through the Senate, so why was it proposed in the first place? The rapid lining up of the crossbench Senators with the Labor Opposition suggested there had been little or no negotiation. Labor, the Greens and four crossbenchers had planned to disallow the measure when the Senate returned on February 9.

It appears that nothing has been learnt from the stalled budget - framed to appeal to the big backers of the Coalition, but with little chance of passing the Senate.

Leaving aside the economic arguments for the Medicare change (and social policy is always more than economics), this is evidence of a decision-making process that is as chaotic as it is confusing. Mr Abbott as opposition leader was scathing in his criticism of the heavy-handedness of Kevin Rudd and his micro-management, but this is far worse on every score.

First, it was a policy decision that could not be implemented, and merely exposes the Government to well-earned ridicule; second, it alienated powerful and vocal groups like the AMA without finding compensatory friends; third, it will do nothing to arrest the Government's slide after 14 months of dismal poll results; and finally it raises crucial questions about leadership.

The Government is now approaching the half-way mark of its term, and a nervous group of backbenchers who came in on the anti-Labor swing in 2013 will surely be looking towards 2016 with mounting anxiety. To compound their concerns, the looming election in Queensland on January 31 will see, whatever the outcome, a big loss of LNP-held seats from the landslide election win in 2012, and a similarly large conservative majority in New South Wales is also certain to be trimmed in the state election at the end of March.

And it is not only backbenchers who are looking at events with increasingly furrowed brows. The rapidity of the reversal of the Medicare decision smacks strongly of serious intervention; in effect, the Prime Minister was faced down and a new minister was sent out to save his face.

This scenario does not augur well for the Prime Minister who continues to fumble. His recent secret visit to Iraq, intended to show his support for the Australian forces there, merely offered another opportunity for embarrassment, when he referred to "president" al-Abadi at a joint media conference. Haider al-Abadi is of course prime minister (the president is Fuad Masum). A slip of the tongue, perhaps, but it did serve to undermine Mr Abbott's professed concern for and interest in Iraq. (An equivalent gaffe in Australia would be for a visitor to publicly greet Mr Abbott as the governor-general).

A Liberal MP with a deep interest in foreign affairs said to me at the time with a wry smile: "I wonder what Julie Bishop thinks of this?"

Indeed. And we also might wonder what role the Foreign Minister and Deputy Liberal Leader played in the Medicare revolt. It would not, one might reasonably assume, have been a minor one.

The Liberal party room will no doubt be a lively affair when the troops return from their electorates in a few weeks.

Dr Norman Abjorensen is at the ANU's Crawford School of Public Policy. He is co-author of Australia: The State of Democracy. He is currently writing a book on prime ministerial exits, to be published later this year.

You gotta be thinking also about Credlin and her influences and part in bad political decision making.

[Rorschach]

Yes... I am Gillard got bad press, because she and Rudd ran a useless government and made bad decisions. GillRd was crucified by the pressAbbott has been on the end of a very negative and personal campaign since he became opposition Leader. for good reason he's now proven his detractors correct that he was a bad choice Gillard was even praised by people on the other side of politics like Alan Jones until she failed as PM. yes high praise indeed fom Jones calling for her to be dumped in a chaff bag at sea. Let alone screeching that her old man died of shame. Yes just the sort of press you want on your side hey?

Gillard wasn't crucified by the press at all least of all the Prog left controlled MSM.
Alan Jones... yes. But only after she failed as PM.
Ray Hadley... yes.
Some goober with a poster... yes.

But honestly not the majority of the media in Australia.
Your memory shows your bias ignorance and very short memory Skippy.

[skippy]

Yes... I am Gillard got bad press, because she and Rudd ran a useless government and made bad decisions. GillRd was crucified by the pressAbbott has been on the end of a very negative and personal campaign since he became opposition Leader. for good reason he's now proven his detractors correct that he was a bad choice Gillard was even praised by people on the other side of politics like Alan Jones until she failed as PM. yes high praise indeed fom Jones calling for her to be dumped in a chaff bag at sea. Let alone screeching that her old man died of shame. Yes just the sort of press you want on your side hey?

Gillard wasn't crucified by the press at all least of all the Prog left controlled MSM.
Alan Jones... yes. But only after she failed as PM.
Ray Hadley... yes.
Some goober with a poster... yes.

But honestly not the majority of the media in Australia.
Your memory shows your bias ignorance and very short memory Skippy.

Where is the majority of media bias against Abbott? Pointing out he is less than impressive is not bias.
You call me bias yet I have lumped Shorten in with Abbott as atrocious leaders. Am I bias to Shorten for saying that?
I have also picked a reasonable Liberal leader in Baird while at the same time saying Labor had no one, so I must be biased towards the Libs then on your reasoning.

[Rorschach]

Oh FGS Skippy take your LW biased pinko glasses off for a moment.
lets look just at one small example shall we... the prog left love to ridicule don't they Conservatives seldom bother.
Just go have a google at images of Abbott and Gillard.... you'll be counting the Abbott ones till the cows come home.
And Skip if you make a biased or ignorant statement or one that's obviously wrong you can bet I'll mention it.

[Black Orchid]

Basically I think we are all saying the same thing. Why are we arguing about it?

[IQS.RLOW]

As for the LDP I'm not voting for gay marriage or more guns in the community just to name 2.
And if it wasn't for the LDP the Coalition would control the Senate.

I see basic math isn't your strong suit...

[mantra]

Never bluffed my way into anything. Maybe you are older than me there were always recruitment agencies in my day. Oh and the SMH classifieds.

And maybe you're older than me. I had left home and was working at 16 and didn't have the privilege of having mummy and daddy support me until I hit 35. I avoided agencies simply because so many of them conned you in there on the promise of a particular job, but ended up sending you somewhere else or into temping. There's nothing wrong with bluffing your way into a job if you think you're capable of doing it. Confident people, whether they're acting or not, usually gets the job over someone who doesn't have confidence.

Ah no, it was blathering Nazi nonsense, even you can do better than that. Found someone else to hate have we?

It was an analogy - no hate involved. Morrison is doing his job and some people would say he's doing it well, but it doesn't mean that he would be suitable as a PM.