The State of Australian Politics

[mantra]

Oh and BTW 60% of voters are basically tribal here. That leave 40% that are not.
That's a majority.

I have always voted for the party who I believed had the best interests of the country at heart. Since Bob Brown left the Greens - they have become more mainstream and strayed away from their grass root policies.

I don't think I dislike Abbott as much as some of his former supporters. His stance reminds me of the conservatism experienced by some of us who grew up in the sixties. There is something comforting and familiar in this, but it is also regressive and obviously doesn't appear to appeal to the majority of the voters.

I'm not happy with Labor and never have been. We should have tightened our belts in 2007, but the government today is trying to go too far and too quickly with their austerity measures. If they were moving a little more slowly, there wouldn't be such a backlash.

[Rorschach]

Right so because something is of the past it is regressive...

[Neferti]

I have always voted for the party who I believed had the best interests of the country at heart.

That is why I have always voted Liberal.

Since Bob Brown left the Greens - they have become more mainstream and strayed away from their grass root policies.

When Bob Brown was on his Environment-saving kick, he was well thought of in certain circles. Once he added all sorts of other rubbish to the Greens Agenda, he lost credibility. He should have stayed hugging trees.

I don't think I dislike Abbott as much as some of his former supporters. His stance reminds me of the conservatism experienced by some of us who grew up in the sixties. There is something comforting and familiar in this, but it is also regressive and obviously doesn't appear to appeal to the majority of the voters.

I have never, ever met Tony Abbott in person so I can't say whether I like him or dislike him. He is the Prime Minister and I don't bow down to politicians but I have the decency to acknowledge his position. However, that doesn't mean I agree with everything he (or his Cabinet) says or does. His Party (the Coalition) was voted in, in good faith and he should be given a decent time to get things done.

Australia in the sixties? Were you old enough to worry about who was the Prime Minister back then? I certainly was NOT.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... the-60s-15

I'm not happy with Labor and never have been. We should have tightened our belts in 2007, but the government today is trying to go too far and too quickly with their austerity measures. If they were moving a little more slowly, there wouldn't be such a backlash.

Keep an eye on how Good Old Queensland handles this if this Anna-thing-a-me actually gets in. Queenslanders have rocks in their heads and they deserve EVERYTHING that they wished for. She didn't even know what the current GST rate was. Huh? Her Father is Polish. Enough said.

You're on your OWN Queensland. Don't come whining to the Federal Government for hand-outs.

[Rorschach]

Bill Shorten and the chamber of petulance
Date February 11, 2015 - 9:00PM

Paul Sheehan
Sydney Morning Herald columnist

If puerile nastiness entertains you, or watching adults behave like petulant adolescents, then Federal Parliament was the show to watch this week. Anyone who witnessed question time, especially from inside the chamber, would have seen small-mindedness triumphant. If Australia is suffering from a failure of political leadership, causing a loss of business confidence and investment, then that failure is clearly bi-partisan.

With a precipitous decline in revenue as the price of all our major energy exports have plunged, and the Senate serving as a chamber where budget cuts go to die, Australia has a real challenge in finding new sources of revenue and new ways of curbing spending. The government has made efforts, and most of them have been rebuffed in the Senate and rejected by the public. New measures are needed. The time for posturing is over.

Yet this is what the alternate leader of the nation, Bill Shorten had to offer on the first day of Parliament in 2015:

Question one: "Given that nearly half of his parliamentary colleagues, including two-thirds of his Liberal backbenchers, have today expressed a lack of confidence in the Prime Minister, how can the Prime Minister claim to have a mandate from this country?"

Two: "Is the Prime Minister planning to abandon any of his budget measures? Or is he just planning to abandon his Treasurer, as he did at the press conference today?"

Three: "I refer to the Liberal member for Brisbane's perceptive comments yesterday: We cannot govern ourselves in an internal climate of fear and intimidation. And that is the unacceptable situation we have endured for the past five years. Does the Prime Minister agree with the member for Brisbane?"

Four: "My question is to the Minister for Communications [Malcolm Turnbull]. Minister, why are you still on the front bench?"

The answers were (question one) no; (question two) yes; (question three) no; (question four) because I'm not a treacherous back-stabber who helped bring down both leaders I have served under.

Mr Shorten then moved a no-confidence motion in the Prime Minister, yet devoted much of his energy to a gratuitous personal attack on Turnbull: "He, the Zorro of the dispatch box, has said that he wants the job but he will not fight for the job. He is prepared to injure his Prime Minister but he leaves his supporters hanging. He is a veritable ball of ambivalence!"

And so on. Shorten will not be remembered for his wit.

This week was an opportunity for him to display that he was a better man than the Prime Minister, that he was more than a vindictive point-scorer, that he had policies to address the nation's drift into debt and deficit. He did not take that opportunity. He missed it completely.

Then there were the voyeurs of the opposition, the members waving goodbye to the Prime Minister and Treasurer Joe Hockey. They were led from the front row by Jenny Macklin, who, you would think, would know better, having reached her 60s and been in parliament for 19 years. Nineteen years in which six Labor leaders were deposed in eight leadership changes, with all but Paul Keating departing at the behest of their own colleagues (Kim Beazley, Simon Crean, Mark Latham, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard).

The Dummy-Spit Award for the most childish member of the house was a tie between Pat Conroy and Nick Champion, both former union officials and both serial brats. Labor breeds haters. It is famous for that. Even the most colourless in its ranks, like Macklin, can revel in pettiness.

Observing all this was the omnipresent, non-partisan political editor of Sky News, David Speers, who, after noting the bilious gloating of the opposition, also noted that karma had come back to bite the Prime Minister. He pointed out that Abbott had baited Gillard with some similarly goading questions after she had suffered political near-death at the hands of her colleagues.

Karma is also repaying Abbott for his ingloriously unwise comment that "the adults are back in charge."

Tuesday was more of the same. Shorten's first question: "If good government starts today, what on earth has the Prime Minister been doing for the past 521 days?"

In summary, the second sitting day of 2015 was almost identical to the first. Unedifying.

Wednesday, however, was different. Shorten asked a series of constructive, penetrating questions. Perhaps feedback had come back that he had gone too far, been too nasty, too petty, and his gloating had been bad optics.

Let's hope, even if in vain as it surely will be, that the ALP will grow up and get onto being adults and doing their jobs for a change.

[boxy]

Let's hope, even if in vain as it surely will be, that the ALP will grow up and get onto being adults and doing their jobs for a change.

Boo hoo. They're just doing what Abbott showed to be proven formula while in opposition (cheered on by the likes of you). And now you're shedding crocodile tears? Spare me

Shades of Alan Jones, lamenting the loss of respect for the office of Prime Minister! LOL, the guy that said that a former PM (while in office) should be put in a hessian bag, and tossed in the sea.

Grow up, rightards

[Rorschach]

Actually no they are not Poxhead...
They are being more negative and more obstructionist and as usual with LW progs more hateful and childish.

[IQS.RLOW]

Let's hope, even if in vain as it surely will be, that the ALP will grow up and get onto being adults and doing their jobs for a change.

Boo hoo. They're just doing what Abbott showed to be proven formula while in opposition (cheered on by the likes of you). And now you're shedding crocodile tears? Spare me

Shades of Alan Jones, lamenting the loss of respect for the office of Prime Minister! LOL, the guy that said that a former PM (while in office) should be put in a hessian bag, and tossed in the sea.

Grow up, rightards

The Libs were never obstructionist for policy that was in the public interest.

You are a fuckstick.

[mantra]

Still the same old blame Labor game. Nothing changes. Even if the Coalition win the next election, they'll still be blaming Labor for their problems. The Libs never give up making excuses for their puerile regressiveness. Labor aren't much better, but they've never displayed the same self pity and petulance that the Coalition ministers do every time they open their mouths.

[Rorschach]

Still the same old blame Labor game. Nothing changes. Even if the Coalition win the next election, they'll still be blaming Labor for their problems. The Libs never give up making excuses for their puerile regressiveness. Labor aren't much better, but they've never displayed the same self pity and petulance that the Coalition ministers do every time they open their mouths.

Which party never achieved a surplus over 2 terms?
Which party blew a surplus?
Which party created an ever increasing debt cycle due to over spending?
Which party locked in spending while knowing we already had a revenue shortfall?
The only puerile regressiveness here is your denial.
You shouldn't be allowed to ruin our country by voting.

[mantra]

You shouldn't be allowed to ruin our country by voting.

Speak for yourself. At least I know what I'm looking for when I vote. You haven't got a clue what side of politics you're on and can't even be honest about it. Just say you're confused and I won't hold it against you.