Credlin

[boxy]

You've got to admit, the genius who came up with the "we'll get rid of the carbon tax, but the compensation stays" must have been drunk at the time

[IQS.RLOW]

Not really...it's just about impossible to drag back handouts in the form of payments through welfare agencies without copping a backlash. Just look at the whine about TEH MIDDLE CLASS WELFARE OMG!!!111!!!

[boxy]

Wont get a surplus with an attitude like that

[Aussie]

Anyone know if Tone was there when she left?

[IQS.RLOW]

Who was the saggy titted tall bitch with Tim while he was taking up another freebie in the US at a CO2 devil burning spectacle?

Not by Jules' side?
Not supporting his under siege partner?
Not being the beard he is supposed to be?

[boxy]

Pfft. You'd hit it.

[IQS.RLOW]

Pfft. You'd hit it.

So might Timmy apparently...maybe he's not getting enough at home? I can imagine the rivers would be running dry on the home front...

[Rorschach]

Some of you may have noticed me comment on Credlin in the past and blame her directly for things that have gone wrong for the Liberals and in particular Tony Abbott. Credlin is where she is today because she is married to Brian Loughnane, Federal Director of the Liberal party. IMO it's all rather incestuous at the top and in my opinion Credlin isn't up to it, nor the right person for the job as far as her politics is concerned. IMO both her and her husband are the wrong people in charge.

Tony Abbott must watch the Peta Credlin phenomenon carefully
Date December 11, 2014 - 5:14AM
Paul Sheehan
Sydney Morning Herald columnist

Sitting in the hairdresser on Tuesday morning I was confronted by Peta Credlin at every turn. She featured in two front-page news stories. She was in both Fairfax and the News Corp press. She was even attacked by a conservative female columnist in The Spectator.

In the ensuing days, the Credlin phenomenon has simply become bigger. She is exactly where you don't want a chief of staff to be: in the media. Frequently.

I've been watching and listening to this phenomenon build for a year, hearing much, writing nothing, but now it has reached a critical mass, a tipping point. This genie can't be put back in the bottle. It's out. It's an issue.

In the febrile atmosphere at the end of the parliamentary year and beginning of the holiday season there has been some spectacularly fact-free media bubbles floated lately. The most notable is that Treasurer Joe Hockey is going to be replaced, with Malcolm Turnbull speculated as his successor.

This has no basis in fact. It is not going to happen. There is no rift between the Prime Minister and the Treasurer who has to confront the growing debt and deficit.

Similarly, given that we now live with the Credlin phenomenon, there is media speculation that Credlin will seek a seat in federal Parliament in 2015. This, too, has no basis in fact. The complex machinery that would need to turn for that to happen is not turning.

The problem with the Credlin phenomenon is that the very existence of the Credlin Phenomenon is a problem.

There is a sense in the Prime Minister's office that all the attention the chief of staff is getting stems from the Canberra press gallery's constant desire for a big scalp, and getting at Credlin is a way of spilling Abbott's blood.

This, too, is fact-free speculation. There is no informal campaign against Credlin within the Canberra press gallery. The gallery is not self-generating these stories. The leaks are real. The poor opinion polls are real.

The bubbling up of material about Credlin is a response to the enormous power she holds within the Abbott government. And the manner in which she exercises that power. It is coming from within government.

The stories have an overall theme, that her control is a key factor in the rigidity of Abbott since he became Prime Minister, following the path of Julia Gillard, who went from robust to robotic after she assumed the prime ministership. She lasted one term.

Abbott has been wrapped in a tightly woven message. He refers to Credlin as "the boss". Unlike his predecessor Kevin Rudd, he is well liked within his government and not seen as a control freak. That black hat is worn by Credlin.

Personal disclaimer: I've met Credlin several times and the occasions have been entirely positive and pleasant. Beyond those occasions we've had almost no contact. I regard her as a formidable political intellect whose grasp of politics is unusually wide, extending to policy, planning, procedure, drafting, tactics and media.

No one in the government works harder than Credlin, a view Credlin herself certainly shares. It is remarkable that she has been chief of staff or deputy chief of staff to three consecutive Liberal leaders, Brendan Nelson, Malcolm Turnbull and Abbott.

But since coming to power she has ruffled so many feathers, so often, within the government that the government itself is pushing back. Hence the Credlin Phenomenon. There are three main elements:

She is widely perceived within cabinet as exercising too much power, in effect operating, day-to-day, as co-prime minister.

She is widely perceived in the party room as running a presidential-style government in which the party room is largely excluded and even the ministry is kept on a tight rein.

The Prime Minister's Office itself is a famously tense zone, not because of the Prime Minister, who is easy to work with, and because of the pressure-cooker of leadership, but because of the driving nature of Credlin's management and personality.

All this has generated the restlessness now rippling out in the widening circles of the Credlin Phenomenon.

The Prime Minister, because of loyalty, and because he sees first-hand the prodigious workload of his chief of staff, would be aware of the phenomenon but probably not the scale of it.

The upswelling of discontent has come from within his own government, not the press gallery. That is something Abbott might want to ponder during his summer break, as he retools his message to the electorate, and his leadership of the parliamentary soldiers.

[boxy]

Knives are out, eh.

[Rorschach]

Wanna expand or just be vague as usual boxy.
I've never been a Credlin fan... so IMO there have never been knives in or out...