Mrs Rudd

[skippy]

Has she done somthing illegal? or does she just play the game thats dealt? do people care that she's rich? is Turnbull just being a spoilt brat?

[Hebe]

No, she's just a successful businesswoman and Turnbull is playing with fire by singling her out. I think he's misread the populace with this one.

There's some good discussion on the Poll Bludger (but I always say that ). As far as I can see a lot of her money last year came from shares in her own company, from money she made (I'm willing to be corrected). She didn't make it by sacking people or underpaying them.

I think Turnbull is hammering the nails into his own coffin - pity, I thought he'd be better than this, but the Libs are all over the place.

[Hebe]

"What are we to think of the wealthiest prime minister Australia has ever had, a man greatly enriched by the privatisation and outsourcing of government services, standing up again and again to denounce the very policies from which he has profited so very extensively?''

Mr Turnbull asks in his essay written for The Weekend Australian newspaper, published yesterday.

Well, I tell you what the sacked workers at Pacific Brands probably think: firstly this attack will prompt them to remember Turnbull, too, is rich.

On latest estimates, he and his wife Lucy, who like Rein, has helped build the family fortune, are worth about $160 million. That's enough to buy and sell Rudd three times over - and keep a little change.

It will also anger those workers, and millions of others looking over their shoulders as a result of the recession, that Turnbull has personalised the political debate in their time of real need, choosing to descend into a war of words with another rich man about relative wealth when they, the voters, are watching what little they do have go out the window.

Sure, Rudd started it with his parliamentary taunts. But the difference is he's in government and riding high in the polls.

Malcolm isn't. And Rudd's wealth-based attacks on Turnbull have been sotto voce in comparison. Turnbull, as is his wont, has gone for the wall-to-wall approach.

This will live with him forever.

Playing the man is not an extravagance Turnbull can afford. Peter Costello would probably agree.

And no doubt by next week he'll be telling us so.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 30,00.html

And this from Glenn Milne - a journo who is loathed so much by the Left he's called the Poison Dwarf.

[mantra.]

I don't agree. Obviously Turnbull who lives in a glass house shouldn't be throwing stones, but he's made a fair point. Rudd is PM and even though I agreed with Rainbow that Therese Rein shouldn't be joined at the hip with Rudd in his stance on denigrating capitalism - nonetheless she is. She and Rudd (according to a source I haven't verified yet) - jointly mortgaged the family home to set up her business therefore they shared a joint debt to finance Rein's business interests. In the event of a divorce (and I'm plagiarising this comment) - wouldn't Rudd be entitled to an equal share?

Has she done somthing illegal? or does she just play the game thats dealt? do people care that she's rich? is Turnbull just being a spoilt brat?

Turnbull is just being an opposition leader which is expected of him. I don't remember the ALP's views when the old CES was outsourced, but I do know it was the biggest scam that any government could come up with and Therese Rein exploited every loophole for material gain. That's fine - but she's the PM's wife and he's spruiking disgust at extreme capitalism and executive salaries while his own backyard is tainted.

It is hypocritical. Did Rudd have PM aspirations at the time Therese was raking in the millions - if so, he and his family should have detached themselves immediately from this business - or was he just a plodder who hoped to be overlooked, but by default was thrown into the leadership campaign and lied to win the election? Mark Latham made the following comments:-

"When Kevin Rudd lobbied me in October 2004 to become Labor's shadow treasurer, his sales pitch was straight from the neo-liberal playbook. He was enthusiastic about pro-market policies such as deregulation and reducing the size of the state. [As leader] he went to the polls as Howard-lite."

I think he might be right.

[skippy]

Did Latham write that last bit mantra? I have his book he hates Rudd with all his heart, but that aside-
I hate neo liberalism as much as you and I believe it should stop, I'm not a huge fan of Rudds but I cant see what he or his wife have done is wrong, it might be immoral but its not illegal.
Does anybody know what lucy Turnbull earn't last year? does it matter? what about Costello's wife, what did she earn?
Should wives or husbands of politicians have to give up their jobs for the time their partner is in parliment? because thats the only way you are going to solve "the problem".

As for Rudd owning the bussiness( as that poster on anther forum said) I'd like to see some facts , that (poster on another forum) seems to know a lot about the PM that nobody else knows.

[Hebe]

That bit about Kevin's entitlements should he divorce are one thing, but the point is Turnbull was attacking Rudd and used his wife to do it. That's not on.

The Liberals' political stupidity in attacking Therese Rein is mindboggling - the Poison Dwarf and the Costello Club see it immediately and have stuck a few picas in the stupid bull as it has charged past.

Stupid to attack Rein because anyone with any knowledge of her business knows that if capitalism can have a compassionate face, it's Therese Rein. Her companies specialise in services to those that government systems have been unable to help or have not bothered to understand - the disabled, the sick, those that society leaves in its wake. Her companies typically don’t abandon cases when funding runs out - they wear the costs of eventually getting a good outcome for their case clients. If Therese, her fellow founder, and the other senior people who built the business had been more ruthless - more neo-liberal - they’d have been ten times as wealthy, and that extra wealth would only have come from human misery. The woman is as near to a saint as Australia has.

Turnbull insists he was actually complimenting Therese Rein, but actually he was using her to get at Rudd. Very bad political tactics and manners. He will pay. (God, who used to say that - Muslim Rex? )

[Jovial Monk]

Rudd didn't attack capitalism. He was talking about obscene salaries to those hired to manage big corporations and the low tax rates these fat cats paid.

[Jovial Monk]

Now the important question. Did Ruddy make a slip in the "political shitstorm" comment or did he ruddy well plan it? I dunno.

[Rainbow Moonlight]

Yeah, i was wondering if it was intentional- maybe he thought to use the same language the people who were his audience would, or maybe just feeling particularly frustrated in the face of so many losing their jobs after some of the opposition's comments. Anyway, doesn't really make a difference. His point was valid.

[Jovial Monk]

It came out pretty natural. "Shit" not such a big deal anyway.