Researching Tony Abbott

[Aussie]

It has had nil effect so far Roachy Poachy Puddin and Pie because there has been massive capital investment, and nil 'super' profit. If there were no drink drivers nabbed in February, would you do away with the drink driving legislation?

[Rorschach]

Apples and Oranges Arsie, apples and oranges.

For your information I basically agree with you. Except your political bias makes your argument weak and focus all over the shop and not where it should be.

Years ago I suggested that governments standardise the taxing of mining companies across the country. Different royalty rates and ways and means of taxing meant it was a mish-mash of inefficiency.

Problem with this tax is that it doesn't standardise it, it just adds a new tax level and churns money back and forth creating a bigger bureaucracy and inefficiencies as we have seen. A typically incompetent solution from a totally incompetent government headed by PM "Whatever it takes"... and that's part of the problem as usual she does whatever it takes to broker a deal instead of the right thing for the country.

Now try to focus.

If "Tony" does away with it, it will simplify that which they over-complicated and leave room in the future for real and sensible reform.

ps... stop making yourself look stupid, I've told you about inappropriate images.

[IQS.RLOW]

Aussie thinks businesses should pay millions of $ to comply with a tax that doesn't work and doesn't collect any revenue...and no one other than you leftwing pissants thinks that 'super profits' taxes are any good. Just ask Kev and Julia why

[Rorschach]

Political success does not hinge on how popular you are
February 5, 2013
Gerard Henderson
Executive director, The Sydney Institute

On the evidence so far, Tony Abbott is the most successful opposition leader since Gough Whitlam four decades ago. Certainly Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, John Howard and Kevin Rudd achieved big victories in 1975, 1983, 1996 and 2007 respectively. But all had relatively short periods as opposition leader immediately before becoming prime minister.

Whitlam, on the other hand, became the Labor Party's leader after Harold Holt's huge victory in 1966. He substantially reduced the Coalition's majority when campaigning against John Gorton in 1969 and defeated William McMahon three years later. Whitlam was the first opposition leader since Robert Menzies in the 1940s to lose an election a term before winning one. Abbott may be the third.

It is possible that Julia Gillard can rally Labor before the election and continue as Prime Minister beyond then. However, the only objective evidence suggests it will be a difficult task. According to the most recent polls, the Coalition leads Labor by 56 per cent to 44 per cent (Newspoll) or 54 per cent to 46 per cent (Galaxy Research).

Whatever the accuracy of the polls in indicating what the election outcome might be, existing empirical data should lead to a re-assessment about Abbott among commentators and political operatives alike.

Within the commentariat, David Marr's Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott (Quarterly Essay, Issue 47, 2012) states the prevailing view. It begins: "Australia does not want Tony Abbott; it never has". david marr... nuff said. A hopelessly biased prick.

A glance at Marr's first chapter indicates that what upsets the author about the Opposition Leader turns on his perceived social conservatism. There is a reference to Abbott as a "profoundly Catholic man" along with an implication that he still really may be "the homophobe, the blinkered Vatican warrior, the white Australian and the junkyard dog of Parliament" that, according to Marr, Abbott maintains are one-time characteristics of his that are now consigned to the past.

The essential problem with Marr's analysis is this. If Australians do not want Abbott, how come he very nearly became prime minister in August 2010 after winning 49.9 per cent of the two-party vote to Labor's 50.1 per cent? Especially since Gillard was leading Labor at the end of its first term and that no incumbent government had failed to win a second term since the Great Depression in 1931. The political operative Bruce Hawker does not intend to be advising Labor this time around. He is very much a Kevin Rudd loyalist. In an opinion piece at the weekend, however, Hawker came up with the anti-Abbott argument he has put since the member for Warringah was elected Liberal Party leader just over three years ago.

According to Hawker, Abbott is "Labor's biggest asset" since "he remains an unpopular and divisive figure in Australian politics who has managed to typecast himself as a conservative with decidedly mid-20th century values". Hawker claims that "women are particularly unimpressed with him" and that "young people see him as a throwback to an era before the internet and smartphones transformed our lives". According to Hawker, Abbott's "appeal lies largely with elderly people". Hawker... another prick.

This is precisely the line that Hawker ran in 2010. Yet, during that year, Labor was so unnerved by Abbott as to dump Rudd for Gillard. Then Labor only survived as a minority government after it did a deal with two independents (Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor) who came from electorates where the Coalition clearly out-polled Labor in the Senate.

Hawker's mantra that Abbott has a problem with women raises the obvious reflection. If this is so, and the opinion polls are even remotely accurate, then Gillard must have a substantial problem with men. A more likely scenario is that the likes of Marr and Hawker are too subsumed with the opinions of the inner-city men and women with whom they predominantly socialise. Some inner-city commentators in recent years have even acknowledged they do not know any Liberal or National voters.

The evidence suggests that Abbott's principal value to the opposition turns on his appeal to some traditional Labor supporters in suburban and regional Australia, where most of the marginal seats happen to be. Abbott's social conservatism and his Catholicism are exaggerated by the likes of Marr and Hawker. Even so, the Opposition Leader has a certain appeal in parts of socially conservative Australia, not only among Christians but also within Australia's growing Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim communities.

In any event, political success in Australia does not necessarily relate to popularity. Most of our successful leaders have not been beloved. In the last Morgan Gallup poll taken before he became prime minister following the dismissal of Whitlam in November 1975, Fraser had a disapproval rating of 54 per cent - about where Abbott's is today. Yet Fraser led the Coalition to a huge victory in December 1975.

Gerard Henderson is the executive director of The Sydney Institute.

[Aussie]

Has Abbott been on the 7.30 Report since Leigh Sales tore him a new one?

[Rorschach]

I thought leigh was pretty unfair/biased in that interview... pity she doeasn't save some of it for Labor MPs or the PM eh...
Not ABC policy I suppose...
So Arsie... no escape for you dopey no matter how long you try to avoid it.

Apples and Oranges Arsie, apples and oranges.

For your information I basically agree with you. Except your political bias makes your argument weak and focus all over the shop and not where it should be.

Years ago I suggested that governments standardise the taxing of mining companies across the country. Different royalty rates and ways and means of taxing meant it was a mish-mash of inefficiency.

Problem with this tax is that it doesn't standardise it, it just adds a new tax level and churns money back and forth creating a bigger bureaucracy and inefficiencies as we have seen. A typically incompetent solution from a totally incompetent government headed by PM "Whatever it takes"... and that's part of the problem as usual she does whatever it takes to broker a deal instead of the right thing for the country.

Now try to focus.

If "Tony" does away with it, it will simplify that which they over-complicated and leave room in the future for real and sensible reform.

ps... stop making yourself look stupid, I've told you about inappropriate images.

[Aussie]

I thought leigh was pretty unfair/biased in that interview

If you mean that after she caught him out, she never let the prick off the hook, you'd be right. If that is unfair or biased, let's see more of it on TV, which seems to be where phoney Tony gets exposed.

[Rorschach]

As usual Arsie says...



What was my point Arsie?
When are you going address my other post?

Oh dear... back to youtube for you eh.

If that is unfair or biased, let's see more of it on TV,

Yes it is when the ALP and their MPs aren't subjected to it. By all means let's see more of it... with the ALP on the receiving end for a change. Unfortunately I think leigh was told to turn it down after that one.

[Neferti]

I watched some of this "interview", then became totally bored.

Tony came across as knowledgeable and no umms and ahhs.

The faded blonde was being a yappy little ankle biter.

The ABC is owned by us TAXPAYERS. Remember that! I suggest they Privatise the ABC, sell it to the highest bidder and sack all the so-called ABC "journalists".

[Neferti]

I thought leigh was pretty unfair/biased in that interview

If you mean that after she caught him out, she never let the prick off the hook, you'd be right. If that is unfair or biased, let's see more of it on TV, which seems to be where phoney Tony gets exposed.

prick = male you don't know but dislike?

What word do you use for a female you don't know but dislike?

Hope it isn't the c-word, Aussie.

PS. I think the Lefties are losing it ............. skippy over at OzPol is hyperventilating.