Morgan’s latest survey combines two sets of phone polling conducted in the middle of this week and last week, producing an unusually large sample of 2231. Normally their phone poll figures consist of only one such set of polling. It shows Labor leading 60.5-39.5 per cent on two-party preferred – down from 61-39 at the phone poll of March 11-12, and from 63.5-36.5 in the more recent face-to-face survey released last week.
Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth
Morgan: 60.5-39.5
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314 Comments
Not much change. What has happened to gravity? Nelson an anti-gravity machine?
No significant change really.
Relevance deprivation can lead you to say funny things and reveals why Nelson’s tribe is having a hard time in the polls still.
Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has described the Prime Minister’s salute to the US President as unbecoming behaviour.
When Kevin Rudd encountered George Bush during the NATO summit he acknowledged him with a small salute.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/04/2208065.htm?section=justin
Got to love this line
“Liberal leader Brendan Nelson and his colleagues will be hoping they can continue this momentum in the lead up to the release of Labor’s first Federal Budget in more than a decade.”
continue this momentum????????????
What’s Gary been smokin?
This is some sort of honeymoon, did Howard get this sort of honeymoon?
Will the Nelson party now wake up and realise running a OO ABC LNP sniping campaign just doesn’t cut it? Better to appear a competent alternative than to be a perpetual critic. 15 months of the LNP and OO being continually negative on Rudd seems to have not cost him anything. There is a message in that.
Kina, poss has done an analysis of Howard’s honeymoon compared to Rudd’s and shown that, at this point in the cycle, Beazley was streets ahead of Nelson.
The narrowing and the increase in the LNP two party preferred vote will come as the effect of Salutegate on every day Australians hits home.
I must say that I am relieved to read the comments on that ABC story about “Salutegate”. Clearly, Nelson has a much inflated sense of self importance to think he should criticise the PM on what is so clearly a non-issue, and I am seriously amazed at the level of coverage this is getting.
{The narrowing and the increase in the LNP two party preferred vote will come as the effect of Salutegate on every day Australians hits home.}
Er yeah righto….. just like it did with “Burkegate” Al ?
Timbo: Al forgot to include the tags…
The ‘irony’ tags, that is
Ah…. too much american TV, don’t understand irony, sorry about that Al
hahahahh
may I suggest SportingBet to offer a bet on when the Libs dump Nelson:
a) in 2008
b) in 2009
c) in 2010
d) beyond next election
a) $1.10
b) $6.50
C) $8.00
d) $101.00
Sorry, my sarcasm setting was up too high. I think it’ll have about the same effect as the Heiner “affair”, i.e. something to talk about on the Akerman blog, but no one else will give a rats.
A Bank backflip? The Listening Tour falls apart at the seams.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23479592-421,00.html
I agree that there is not much change. It seems that whenever the media has snipped at Rudd with headlines the 2PP has dropped from the mid 60’s to around 60%. I seem to remember the Carer’s Bonus had a run at the time when it went down to 61%. Looks like only the real soft end of the vote has been affected to now and it would take perhaps a major event to pull the 2PP down further.
Some people would be confused (especially with the headlines) on what Rudd is actually doing overseas. I am satisfied that he is going according to a defiinate game plan and that as his trip continues this will become apparent to the public.
I can see even conservative commentators will give him grudging respect as Sheridan did the other day.
What would any previous PM have given to get the consistent Polling figures that the ALP is getting now?
I think people will be left with the image of Rudd being overseas being busy meeting lots of important people, being friendly with the USA and having a unique in with China and end up with the subconcious impression of ‘thats a good thing’.
With a barely attentive electorate Rudd will get home prestige and increased credibility from this, it all builds into the image of a safe and competent PM.
The problem Nelson and the LNP really have is that Labor are only going to get better as they get used to their portfolios and in dealing with the media as the government.
Before the election just about all the Labor shadows won their debates with Howard’s ministers, how much better are they going to be after three years in government?
AND just to make it easier for Labor Nelson still has a workchoices type IR platform. Not to mention the blood-letting and reorganising that is still to come.
what is Nelson thinking expressing sympathy for the banks? this guy has NO IDEA
I’m coming back!
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/entertainment/john-howard-used-to-promote-big-brother/2008/04/04/1207249428896.html
Shame they didn’t follow Howard’s advice.
David if we want any more advice it comes with a pricetag of $250.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23479941-3102,00.html
I think Jack the Insider has got to the crux of the “Japan visit” beat up..
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/jacktheinsider/index.php/theaustralian/comments/no_easy_listening_for_nelson
So how do the die hard left wingers feel to have an ALP Prime Minister who salutes George Bush whenever he sees him? LOL a far cry from Mark Latham’s views on W is it not?
Glen
He could have flicked ear-wax at him
Glen, its a much much much better feeling than seeing JWH over there!!!
ignoring Morgan’s ridiculous characterisation of this as momentum for Nelson(does this man care about credibility??), does anyone seriously think that Rudd will not fashion a politically savvy budget with enough sweeteners and surprises to get a positive reaction?? I think the government are overplaying the budget cuts line to dampen expectations
Actually Rudd looked kind of dorky flicking that little salute, the sort of thing you do when a little wave of acknowedledgement would look even more lame. I found it more amusing that Bush was wandering around by himself.
Best thing though is Rudd stuck to the withdraw from Iraq line with Bush.
Wonder how Obama and Rudd will get on?
How does it feel to have an ALP Prime Minister, Glen??? Absolutely wonderful – no matter who he waves at.
How does it feel to have a Liberal Opposition Leader???
Glen
seriously
You might have been drinking but grow up son.
While we’re at it why don’t we debate who had which foot forward when they shook hands; who squeezed harder; who rolled their wrist over; or if you really want to discuss body language we can get right in to the nuances of diplomatic protocol. a lame little gesture from a geek to a dimwit is NOT news, either in context of the PM’s current trip or the wider machinations of the planet.
My mum was right:
“small things amuse small minds”
Yes, Glen, it was. And your point is?
FYI, it was a Labor government that inaugurated the Alliance, way back in 1942, when Pig Iron Bob Menzies was crying “King and Empire!”, settling his fat posterios on a chair in Churchill’s War Cabinet. . Why shouldn’t a Labor PM and an American President be chummy? This is just very old nation-friends getting together.
The Liberals must have real problems to be going on the offensive over something as inconsequential as a hand gesture.
They obviously prefer to “raise” this unissue, than talk publicly the details of their WorkChoices policy MKII, the divisions within the federal and state parties, how they are to fund a number of upcoming by-elections without the benefits of incumbency.
How the born-to-rule have fallen! Talking hand gestures, if you please … while Rudd forges connections OS and Labor runs the country with competence and dedication.
Pig Iron holds the record for overseas trips, nearly six months to visit his preferred country. Six MONTHS.
To be fair it took 6 weeks by ship there and back – so he only spent 3 months in talks with the UK.
I’m just glad you saw it as a positive for Rudd Glen, unlike your leader. Nelson has made a goose of himself over this non event.
And funnily enough, it concided with Australia playing against England in the Test Cricket.
The Libs need something ANYTHING to divert attention away from the first rat deserting the ship of fools.
“Mr Rudd is seen raising his eyebrows to Mr Bush who was across the room, as the President saluted Mr Rudd, the Prime Minister smiled and slowly gave a salute of his own.”
http://www.scopical.com.au/articles/News/4119/Nelson-slams-Rudd’s-’light-hearted’-Bush-salute
Now will the MSM report “Shrub salutes Rudd” does “call me – Brendan” have any criticism for GWB for saluting the PM of Australia?
Brendan stick to listening – you only make things worse when you talk.
Oh Dear, guess who’s joining the Listening Tour.
http://www.postnewspapers.com.au/20080405/news/010.shtml
Kev obviously wasn’t blatantly taking the piss,
but I’d like to believe there was the merest, subconscious slither of irony at play there.
Like saluting loud old drunks on the street, or people who think they are Napoleon?
Isn’t such a gesture in a civilian Australian context always ironic?
Damn, a truth update – if ruawakes link is correct and George went first, then was he being ironic too?
“I’m gonna salute that nerd”
“I’m going to salute that idiot”
35 – There weren’t any tests during the war. Ming was actually trying to get a Imperial War Cabinet happening like in WW1 (The Canadians didn’t want a bar of it in WW2). There was a rumour he wanted to take over from Churchill as UK PM but I think he was about the only person who wanted that.
As for the saluting, if someone waves at you, isn’t rude not to reply?
Jeez, this is all too depressing, when are the Libs going to grow up and start behaving as an Opposition, not a carping bunch of public school dim-wits. The way they are carrying on is bloody unbelievable. As much as I detest Bush, he is the POTUS, and I would expect our PM to behave in a reasonable manner toward him. To even contemplate how Latham would have behaved is so irrelevant, time to grow up people, there is nothing to see here.
39 [“Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 9, and we will map out our plans for community consultations for the rest of the year.”]
It will be a very busy meeting to keep up with Rudd and to tell you the truth, I don’t think that even with the Listening tour and the Bishop consultations that they will finish the year ahead of him.
Oh no, I find something over which I agree with Howard, as per post 20 link:
“Channel Ten will use John Howard to help promote the latest season of Big Brother, despite the former prime minister once calling for the reality television show to be axed.
Basil, are you sure they’re not referring to John Howard the actor? I dont think I heard any specific reference to our former PM.
Although JH the actor probably has more pride than to promote garbage like Big Brother….
No it is JWH – the former member for bennelong.
I am disappointed by the ABC’s continuing coverage of this NON-EVENT. Now we have this:
“The PM has again defended his overseas tour schedule, while under fire for saluting the US President.
In Australia, [Rudd's performance at the NATO summit] has been overshadowed by the reaction to the way Mr Rudd greeted US President George W Bush.”
Seriously, after the public comments to the previous story I would have imagined that they might have stopped trying to make this nothing into a story.
Well blow me down. The speaking engagements must be few and far between then.
Fulvio: They’re using footage of a radio interview from 2006. That’s all.
Somebody should remind Mr. Rudd never to raise his right arm above his shoulder while trying to get something from the shelf. All hell would break loose in the Australian media if they got a shot of it….
-From ABC News
“Federal Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson has described the Prime Minister’s salute to the US President as unbecoming behaviour.
When Kevin Rudd encountered George Bush during the NATO summit he acknowledged him with a small salute.”
-From ruawake’s link
“…
as the President saluted Mr Rudd, the Prime Minister smiled and slowly gave a salute of his own.”
Why the difference?
Andos, the voice of clarity. Now I understand. A beat up of salutegate proportions. Thanks.
An Australian PM addresses NATO for the first time ever, meets the French President and the Canadian PM.
France agrees to send more troops and Canada pulls back from withdrawing troops.
What does “call me Brendan” have to say? “Er Kev I don’t like your non-verbal communication skills”.
Tosser.
fred, myself and him indoors almost glassed the telly with salutegate getting no. 3 coverage on the news. The ABC has become a joke. Antonio or Hass, if you’re around, you might want to point out to management that there is, it would seem, a growing number of people who regard the ABC’s credibility with less and less regard. Going the way of the OO.
Oh, and Antonio and Hass, you could also let management know that Insiders no longer is, and if the ABC wants to be as irrelevant as the Opposition, just keep it up.
Fulvio, I suspect like the non-offers for the superlative talents of Tip in a non-parliamentary context, where he might have to actually do some work, that didn’t stuff the economy, offers for the insights of the political genius that was JWH will just get cheaper and cheaper.
The ABC is upset that Rudd has out performed Howard’s 11 years of international foreign policy efforts in the space of week. They are doing a little childish whine.
But all the while they are keeping focus on Rudd’s efforts overseas so they are really shooting themselves in the foot while they think they doing something clever.
Nelson is just making himself look even more petty and incompetent when all he can do complain about something so trivial. People will obviously understand the situation the second they see it having been in the same situation in a crowded room many times ourselves.
I wonder what poor old Janet A. feels about Rudd thrashing to death Howard’s efforts of 11 years in less than 6 months? Three years of Rudd will make Howard’s 11 years look like a 100 days. Even the ABC thought police wont be able to hide that one away.
I can’t wait for the ABC thought police to be replaced, the Liberal hack workers being moved aside and some genuine balanced reporting being bought back.
There must be a number of ABC journos embarrassed by the current obvious Liberal support by some parts of the ABC.
It wont happen but I would love for Rudd to split the ABC into entertainment and News/Current affairs arms and put the thought police over the entertainment side. Just imagine how much they will spew and suffer when the ABC returns to balance presentation of news.
Kina,
Agree and disagree.
Agree that Nelson has been hopeless. Agree Rudd’s done pretty well on the trip. Agree that the press coverage of the trip has been inane.
Disagree that there is strong evidence of ABC bias – more likely they are just going with the press releases/comments of the day, whatever they happen to be. Suspect the Govt could do a better job of managing the media, which it seems to me is a different art in govt to what it is in opposition.
Still, it’s not as if any of this is hurting Labor at all.
What are you going to do straight after the budget? If media coverage of salutegate is getting to you this much, budget week (when, inevitably, there’ll be plenty of criticism flying around) might kill you!
Salutegate is not hurting Rudd at all I don’t think, I believe it is helping him by putting peoples focus on him being overseas doing stuff…that is what they will remember. The salute stuff is trivial.
The same will go for the budget. Unless there is something really dumb they will have to keep slanting the trivia, but at the end of the day people forget the fine detail and, just remember the govt bought down a ‘hard’ budget which, will probably help the cause of their being seen as responsible managers in another year or so.
I believe there is clear evidence of ABC bias, at least for the on-line news having been watching that for more than a year. But that is not likely to hurt Rudd at all. It is really the live TV stuff that affects peoples opinions as Matt Price observed after all the efforts of the murdoch press to hit at Rudd.
Yes…it will get up my nose considerably.
Bob Brown looking for some relevance?
Sorry Bob you have none.
Mr Bush once called the former Prime Minister, John Howard, his deputy sheriff in the Asia-Pacific region. Greens Leader Bob Brown says that was a bad look then, and the salute is just as damaging.
“This is a small thing in a way but a huge mistake by Kevin Rudd,” he said.
“It belittles Australia. It just reminds us of John Howard and his deputy sheriff gaffe back in 2003.
“We aren’t the 51st state of the United States – this is a proud and independent nation.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/04/2208473.htm?section=justin
It’s not so much any kind of bias that pisses me off – I can’t say I’ve observed any bias – it’s the absolute lack of analytical reporting. There seems to be a focus on producing the story most likely to incite controversy, as opposed to the story that reflects what’s actually going on. I wouldn’t expect any more from commercial media, but the ABC? I expected more.
Trivia is king of the news now.
Plastic bags, Carer-beat-up, tour too long, Japan put off until later, the little salute. Pretty damning stuff that will sit long in peoples memories. Meanwhile NSW Liberals trying to kill each other, Nelson favours banks over people, Turnbull’s fantasy inflation, Qld Libs gang of 4 cant agree on anything.
All trivial stuff – trivial attacks but even worse the Opposition seems trivial too.
You have to wonder how it affects people’s perceptions when Nelson and Co seem to be attacking over trivial matters of little substance.
Some have made the observation already that Nelson has no choice except to be trivial since he can’t develop his own policy platform for fear of creating anarchy within the party.
Andos @ 62, I agree.
Kina @ 63,
I agree that it’s all trivial. And that Nelson has major problems and I doubt if he can solve them.
I’m just unconvinced that this is proof of bias. Nearly all media is produced for people with one minute attention spans, by people with one minute attention spans. Naturally it follows that a slightly wacky greeting gets more airtime than troop commitments to Afghanistan.
Andos
Sadly too true.
As someone who used to stand behind a camera when Gough Whitlam gave his weekly press conferences (CTC-TV Canberra) and spent decades on various News shows the issue is not bias. Bias is all to easy to refute.
It is the quality of journalism – they get up in the morning and do similar things to many of us. They read the News and Fairfax web sites – that sets the agenda for the day and they all start to feed of each other.
Who was the head lecturer in journalism at Canberra Uni? Pru Goward (and my former sister in law was the other – who’s only claim to fame was she wrote the ACT buses newsletter).
During the elction campaign I emailed an ABC radio presenter and asked her if the “election report” was from the work experience kid – her reply was she did not get to choose.
We need a vibrant professional media to keep all side of politics honest. Tabloid tat does our country a huge diservice.
Kina, why use the ridiculous term salutegate? Do people think that adding gate to everything makes it important??
I want to see Bush asked about whether he thinks Rudd’s conduct was unbecoming (as per Nelson), so we can have a hissy fit about the rift between the opposition and the US
This will be over very shortly and noone will remember or care. Just look on the bright side, it’s Rudd, not Howard over there.
I wonder if there are any pictures of Bush saluting. That would make it a little difficult for Nelson to deal with.
Andrew: Kina didn’t coin ’salutegate’. The first use of the term in this thread (I’m sure it came up elsewhere too) was at post 7, 1:54 PM today by Al.
I believe it’s supposed to be ironic.
Curious that “The Locum” has the audacity to whine about Rudd’s conducting of business with the US. My strongest recollection of the (former)Congressman for Bennelong, Fishnets Alex and his good self & the US relationship was their permanent assumption of a position …horizontal, parallel to the floor (or at least as close as their stomachs would allow) and esp post 9/11, the total suspension of credulity.
Kina, why use the ridiculous term salutegate? Do people think that adding gate to e[verything makes it important??]
Well that is the point of course. Raise something truly trivial to seem of great importance serves to highlight its stupidity. ie Plastic-bag-gate
The press is just bored. And that is because they are hopeless. It is not like there is not real government waste that could be exposed with a little bit of effort. Plus the salute/wave thing was picked up by one person and then it is reported everyone else because they clearly don’t understand what the whole NATO meeting is about. Or they think that Australians are too stupid to understand.
These ridiculous stories about Rudd’s salute remind me of the stories in 1992 about Paul Keating ‘manhandling’ the Queen — that is, courteously directing her to wherever it was that she was going (who cares?). Such beat-ups are all froth and bubbles signifying nothing. Chris Ulmann’s story for the ABC was one of the worst and most laboured of all these pseudo-stories.
And further on the ABC’s lamentable decline. I emailed a complaint about The Insiders, asking for Piers to be superannuated from the programme on the grounds of: 1) poor intellectual capacity, 2) inability to follow arguments, 3) inability to say anything of interest re said arguments, and 4) partisan nature of his contributions. I received the following response from Kieran Doyle, Audience and consumer Affairs:
Thank you for your email.
The aim of the Insiders panel discussion is to canvas a range of ideas
and allow the panellists to challenge and debate each other. Panellists
are chosen to reflect a diverse range of views and to generate a lively
discussion.
Most of the Insiders panellists hold a range of views on political
matters and the ABC is satisfied that a balanced range of perspectives
are provided and that its audience is perfectly capable of considering
these views and drawing their own conclusions. This approach is in
keeping with the provisions of the ABC Code of Practice.
http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/codeprac07.pdf
Mr Akerman’s contribution is highly valued by the program.
Yours sincerely
Kieran Doyle
Audience and Consumer Affairs
From memory, it was Howard himself who coined the “deputy-sheriff” tag. If, as reported above, Bush gave the first salute then surely that makes Rudd the sheriff and Bush his side-kick.
However, just what saluting has to do with sheriffs mystifies me. I don’t recall anyone ever saluting a sheriff in any western I saw.
And regarding Ullmann’s comments about the cost of keeping troops for the long haul – I don’t recall Howard being under the same kind of scrutiny by the Media ?
trivial indeed
WaterGate however…
or perhaps…
scaper…gate
“Bush gave the first salute then surely that makes Rudd the sheriff and Bush his side-kick.”
Actually Mayo it is a sign of respect and I feel the salute has enraged the libs as they were hoping that Rudd would falter on the world stage as much as Keating said that Howard would with the Asian countries.
However Rudd is a welcome change from the giggling fop and the xenophobe.
The disappointing aspect is the media spin on it, but the story of Bush saluting Rudd first is out there and what are you supposed to do when a colleague or friend greets you, they wave, you wave, they stick a couple of fingers up and say how ya going ya old bastard you do the same.
But people are not dumb clones to be easily manipulated by the media, these childish slants on so called stories will just generate more respect and support for Rudd.
“Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has met with the leaders of Poland and Australia, but not with President Bush at the NATO summit in Bucharest.”
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_15902.shtml
Could it be that Kev is such a well liked bloke that he has become a sort of “go-between” for world leaders who aren’t on such good terms with one another?
Can see that Rudd wont be disappearing from the scene when his political career is done.
Is there or is there not, a bit of a consensus amongst Bludgers, that the ABC local Radio news, Online News and TV News, has gone Fafblog? Please see post on Larvartus Prodeo. Surreal as Rudd doing ‘return greeting in a sort of larrikin type fashion’. The MSM have gone bonkers. Horatio goes listening. To what?
I’m inclined to think both the Morgan and Newspoll will go positive for the government over the next decade, because, well, the opposition, also known as the alternative government, isn’t.
53
ruawake – if you think all that was Rudd’s doing you’ve got serious problems….
Vera,
Good poimt. Knows how to talk the talk and walk the salute.
Speaking Mandarin means he can talk to the Chinese “in their own language”.
Rudd is a valuable Western asset. Career has only just begun.
Geez, Glen, really focus on that. It will help not to focus on what a total heap of garbage the LP is at both State and Fed levels. Good luck.
No but if Ruawake thinks that Rudd stopped Canada from pulling out of Afghanistan or that he was responsible for the French contributing more troops to Afghanistan he’s a goose!
The evidence speaks for itself Harry.
“An Australian PM addresses NATO for the first time ever, meets the French President and the Canadian PM.
France agrees to send more troops and Canada pulls back from withdrawing troops.
What does “call me Brendan” have to say?
Tosser.
”
Now im sorry but i thought there were some intelligent left wingers but ruawake is making you all look stupid.
Harry just because we have garbage in the Fed and State Parliament on our side (the ALP has just as much garbage as us quite frankly) doesn’t mean i cannot point out Rudd saluted the President of the USA something Howard never did yet many of you call him W’s ‘bitch’ and that he’s achieved nothing in his 17 day trip!
No but if Ruawake thinks that Rudd stopped Canada from pulling out of Afghanistan or that he was responsible for the French contributing more troops to Afghanistan he’s a goose!
The evidence speaks for itself Harry.
“An Australian PM addresses NATO for the first time ever, meets the French President and the Canadian PM.
France agrees to send more troops and Canada pulls back from withdrawing troops.
What does “call me Brendan” have to say?
Tosser.
”
Now im sorry but i thought there were some intelligent left wingers but ruawake is making you all look stupid.
Harry just because we have garbage in the Fed and State Parliament on our side (the ALP has just as much garbage as us quite frankly) doesn’t mean i cannot point out Rudd saluted the President of the USA something Howard never did yet many of you call him W’s ‘bi%ch’ and that he’s achieved nothing in his 17 day trip!
Glen, I don’t think any of us are as stupid as to think Rudd, out of his own brilliance, got an increased comitment to Afghanistan from NATO. Do not have an argument with you about stupid Labor gov’t. N.S.W being a case in point.. But I don’t live there. Live in Vic., and while I’ll kvetch mightily about the Transport Ministers, at least on the whole, the Vic. gov’t is not corrupt, mostly has the health system running reasonably well ( I know, I work there) and despite some pretty challenging things happening in the sphere of Education, at least we haven’t wanted to finger print them…so far.
Harry personally I am more angry that the Liberals don’t offer effective Opposition in State politics than i am at State ALP Governments for being incompetent.
Apres @ 75
I also wrote to the ABC re the Insiders and got the exact same response – word for word. Nice to see that our comments are considered and given a tailored response according to what we wrote. NOT!
Oh well, it saves on originality I suppose.
How can Bush and Rudd exchanging familiar be bad, compared to Bush giving Howard the nod, and Howard assuming the position?
familiar should have read salutes; wiped the wrong word.
Yes, Sarkozy announced the troop increase when he was in the UK the other week. Super-Kev had nothing to do with it.
Snapper – Aunty hasn’t gone fafblog (fafblog rocks the yooniverse in dulcet tones that only a Sugarland/Bon Jovi duet could provide I’ll have you know!), they’ve just gone down market tabloid piffle with their online headlines and half their content.
Why is only something Mark Scott can answer – but it’s not a good look.
For those that don’t get what the fafblog fuss is about – this is a good example of why it’s arguably the most incisive political blog ever:
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2005/04/when-theres-no-more-room-in-trust.html
And has anyone noticed how much Sarkozy resembles Mr Bean ?
Harry ‘Snapper’ Organs at 83
‘Is there or is there not, a bit of a consensus amongst Bludgers, that the ABC local Radio news, Online News and TV News, has gone Fafblog’?
Think you answered your own question, Harry. Followed up by Possum.
I have been grumbling, so I assume I am among the discontented. Not confined, my grumbles, to those you mention. Specially discontented with Breakfast, so called, the name speaks for itself, really. Fran could do better, as I have said, but the producers are probably the real culprits.
Will nip off now to find out what Fafblog implies.
Ummh.
Swan’s budget long range forcast.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/swan_in_fight_with_himself_over_budget/
84 Glen
“ruawake – if you think all that was Rudd’s doing you’ve got serious problems….”
Glen – if you think that ruawake thinks that all that was Rudd’s doing you’ve got serious problems….
By the way – what’s the protocol when a subordinate salutes a senior?
(Remember that the Bush clown saluted Rudd, and Rudd responded – there’s a clue in there for you)
onimod ,
Glen’s furiously trying to “Google” it to find out what it is.
Maybe a journalist or two still have some hope….
Rock-Bottom Loser Entertaining Offers From Several Religions
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/rock_bottom_loser_entertaining
Couldn’t agree more with this and what do I say…but please all be well.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/john-button-the-best-pm-we-never-had/2008/04/04/1207249457714.html
66
ruawake Says:
April 4th, 2008 at 8:50 pm As someone who used to stand behind a camera when Gough Whitlam gave his weekly press conferences (CTC-TV Canberra)
Wasn’t behind a camera, but typing, stop, typing – great memories!!!!
Apologies for comment moderation delays. All unlocked now.
Sad news to read about John Button above, I have always regarded him as one of the truly decent men of politics, such a rare commodity!
Kina, had a good laugh at the Onion story, who said the Yanks can’t do satire?
While I was there I spotted this classic, Diebold accidentally releases the 2008 election results early, good for a chuckle:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/diebold_accidentally_leaks
Another excellent article by George Mega on the cultural warriors left and right, I guess I can forgive the ‘Australian’ some of their sins while they still keep George on staff:
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/meganomics/index.php/theaustralian/comments/warriors_of_the_bore_war/
Glen
Re my comment @ 53.
Sorry if you think it implied that Rudd had made these things happen. My point was that “call me Brendan” has not commented on the meeting – just the salute.
Glen 87
“…i thought there were some intelligent left wingers but ruawake is making you all look stupid….”
So you basically throw everyone into one of the three or four pots that are available in your limited thinking, stir them up until they’re completely blended and then you label the pots “Good’ ‘Bad’ and so on?
Looking at stories this morning on Mr Costello being pushed to challenge for the leadership my thoughts are this would’ve been a good idea if he hadn’t already gone through the whole “I’m leaving” schtick.
I honestly think they need someone with his force in the leadership for a while. Nelson is really like limp lettuce unfortunately.
However, Costello can’t be it because he’s now been seen to have been offered the ball, looked the other way and run as fast as he can.
Ah yes, but he was offered the ball by Howard. He didn’t want Howard’s hand me downs.
Now he’s been off in the wilderness, proving to the parliamentary party that they need him more than he needs them. (He may have also realised that to stay on the backbench means continuing to live on a backbencher’s salary, as noone else is making him a better offer).
Being begged to come back as the only person who can save the party from extinction is the sort of look Costello likes.
He has always wanted the leadership to be handed to him on a platter, so that everyone knows that he doesn’t have to take it but is acting for the greater good and putting his own interests last.
You can almost see the smirk as he accepts it now.
LTEP @ 111 – I agree that Costello would look extremely foolish if he challenged now.
However, I haven’t been convinced he’s really going, and I’m still not. It seems pretty clear that his phone hasn’t been ringing off the hook with lucrative board positions so his main options seem to be returning to the bar, or staying on and maybe ‘heroically’ stepping up to the plate towards the end of next year to save the party from a certain crushing defeat in 2010/11.
He would be able to bring in the changes he always wanted to SmirkChoices: removing awards and minimum rates of pay etc.
It is almost at the stage where the ALP is too far out in front for its own good. They really would love a double dissolution but aren’t going to get one if they are 20% ahead. There is no chance the Liberals in the Senate are going to oppose anything if they fear being wiped out off the map (6 or 5 per state to 4 or 5 could be the result in a double dissolution).
The Greens would love a double dissolution as it would mean a rise to at least 7 or 8 Senators. Except them to make a lot of noise about how both major parties are the same when the Liberals support ALP legalisation (or as Julie Bishop would call it “Not-Opposing”).
Xenophon is probably not going to be worried by a double dissolution. In fact he is likely to benefit from one as it might mean he won’t have to do any preference deals at all.
Family First’s role would be interesting. They might do rather well at a double dissolution if they are lucky and are in front of a Liberal final quota. The problem for Fielding himself is the place where that might happen might not be Victoria but SA or NSW.
I bet Nelson is stamping his little foot with jealousy
“KEVIN RUDD is facing unprecedented demand for his time during his four days in China next week with his office receiving more than 200 requests from TV stations and other outlets for interviews.”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/china-media-stampede-for-mandarinspeaking-pm/2008/04/03/1206851105827.html
1) Salutegate? Nah, more like Trivial Salute.
2) Was I the only one that cringed when our fraternal Fran interviewed Jimmy Webb a few mornings ago on Breakfast? The veteran performer was seated at a piano in an ABC studio. The gushing Fran’s final question was “Do you still perform?”
Four serious questions:
1) Was this suitable material for such a primetime programme?
2) Has anyone else noticed a severe decline in her capabilities of late?
3) Is Fran more like a ‘host’ than a ‘journalist’?
4) Is this sympomatic of the modern ABC?
If Howard saluted Bush you’d all have made just as big a deal as we’ve done!
Hypocrisy springs to mind…
118 [Hypocrisy springs to mind…]
Of course it would Glen when hypocrisy is the sole content of that mind.
Glen
the salute was initiated by Bush
Go google ’salute’ as Scorpio suggested.
Also note how Rudd was not dressed in crisp navy whites, that he didn’t stand to attention, and had a big cheesy Tin Tin grin.
Get back to us with the fruits of your research, and let us know what you’ve learnt.
It’s not about Howard – he’s yesterday’s embarrassing news. It’s about Nelson and the gossip columnists auditioning for a job at Entertainment Tonight.
So Glen are you admitting this slauting BS is just that, BS, a non story?
Make that “saluting”
Gerard Henderson thinks the salute is starting to cause real trouble for Australia out there in foreign affairs land. Is this guy for real?
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23486034-662,00.html
Sounds like another conservative ‘commentator’ suffering RDS – Relevance Deprivation Syndrome. Symptoms: shrillness, nitpickiness, hyperbole, bitterness. There’s been an epidemic of this since the rodent party was thrown out.
Looks like the Queensland coalition brawling is beginning to migrate Federally.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23485505-3102,00.html
Gary, did you mean to say Gerard McManus? There’s nothing in that article about Henderson.
Thanks William, you’re right. It is Gerard McManus. I find he is just as anti Labor in most of his articles.
What, as opposed to Howard dissing the UN to assist Bush’s unilateral wars at a whim program? Or Howard failing to ratify Kyoto for a decade? What, now because basically Bush and Rudd acknowledge each other (lets state what it really was) across a crowed room the UK and Russia etc are aghast!
That primary school piece of ‘journalism’. These people must truly be an a fantasy world where they intensely search for the slightest thing they can promote as large negative of Rudd. Lost total touch with reality.
It does indicate that many Murdoch journalists and editors were far too intimate and controlled by Howard and, now have a twisted unreal perspective of the world where Rudd is their enemy.
You really do have to wonder at the editorial quality at the Herald Sun if they let this sort of thing pass as a story. You would think any decent paper would be truly embarrassed to publish that sort of nonsense.
Rudd is away on what has been away on successful trip so far….these people believe it is there job to discredit the trip and try and take as much gloss of it as possible.
Ross @ 177: “TRIVIAL SALUTE”
Ave Ross!
I agree 100% Kina. I’ve e-mailed McManus a few times and, to his credit, received a reply each time. He rejects the notion of bias of course but any fair minded person knows it’s there. Feel free.
McManus, Gerard
Let me try that again – McManusG@heraldsun.com.au
On Rudd’s half salute: He does that all the time, he did it on Election night. It’s not a salute, it is the Rudd wave.
I think that the ’salute’ thing is actually a very Queensland mannerism. I see it and do it as a friendly gesture every day of my life. Don’t know about the other states because I rarely venture interstate.
steve
I do a similar thing as well. I am originally a POM, lived in the ACT, NSW, VIC, ACT and for the past decade QLD. I think it is a non-verbal sign of mutual respect.
117
Ross
Her interview with Jimmy Webb was cringe worthy.
Webb is seated at the piano ready to play whatever she requested and she was prepared to pless play on the CD machine instead. You’re correct, she is a breakfast host with barely a glimmer of jouralist to be seen.
133 + 134 the salute
I rarely refer to my own actions or direct experiences as they’re pretty irrelevant in the the context of a principled argument or debate, but I’m a saluter too.
I particularly salute to my friends fathers or, and this is the one that really gives me amusement in relation to the Ruddsters actions, I use the salute to acknowledge my peers across a room who I really can’t be bothered walking over to talk to.
If we still had hats it would be the equivalent of tipping the lid.
The big issues again take precedence with the media and the small mind of Brendan Nelson, who cares about some trivial salute.
By contrast, Richard Glover did an interview with Jimmy Webb on the ABC Sydney Drive program last week and it was great.
Webb sat and trilled away, sang some beautiful songs, laughed, joked and clearly enjoyed himself. Brilliant radio.
Glover is a bit clumsy sometimes, and can be infuriating with his “some people say…” questions, but he really knows how to use the resources of those Ultimo studios well. He’s single-handedly brought back live radio to the mainstream, and to good effect.
He the best presenter, overall, the ABC have got on Local Radio and he gets the appropriate ratings.
(And it’s taken me a long time listening to his show to be able to say that. At first I couldn’t stand him).
If Obama gets elected and puts Gore on the greenhouse gasses issue as he said he would (AL accepting of course) that will assist Rudd no end for the impetus to proceed as planned and, also in the PR and information / misinformation battle that the mineral and energy companies are just starting.
Al was a big fan of Labor’s attentiveness to the issue and a respected figure I believe. I can see Al throwing some weight behind Rudd on the issue and giving a quiet hand in some way. The Liberals & Howard on the other hand were pretty rude to Al when he was last here.
It will be interesting if it happens to see what it comes to. It would have to be positive for Rudd. I can just see the OO and Co getting ready their trivial attacks on Gore just in case.
Did anyone see the ABC news? What does Chris Ulmann (?) concentrate on? Rudd making a couple of errors in a speech and how tired he must be. Give us a break.
Ulhman searches for something negative to say on Rudd at each report but you can see he is getting fairly frustrated and needs to resort to the lame off hand comment.
Uhlman was the guy on ABC radio in a long preamble who compared Rudd’s possible election with the lending your keys to your new Ferrari to someone you didn’t know that well..that you would be shaking. He got a promotion to TV no doubt due to the thought police being happy with his obvious dislike of Rudd.
On another note I do agree with Mike Carlton that Rudd needs to change or at least mix up his talk patterns and needs to be much more direct and forceful in speaking as PM. He only need to look at a number of previoius PMs to know the stuff to use.
“Lost in translation – write stuff could make difference for Rudd”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/lost-in-translation–write-stuff-could-make-difference-for-rudd/2008/04/04/1207249457717.html
“MEANWHILE, Please-call-me-Brendan-I-prefer-Brendan has been traipsing around the country on his listening tour, leaving little bits of information scattered in his wake like Hansel and Gretel’s trail of breadcrumbs.”
Kini
I read a writer who claimed the electorate is more intelligent than the average commentator gave it credit for, and that the average voter is willing to accept there are ambiguities and grays in political discussions. Given that the commentators believe the prime ministers hand gestures was the important topic in the last 24 hours I suspect that the average voter is more intelligent than the average commentator.
What I find strange is Rudd has just won an elections and has taken the polls to places they have never been before and yet people keep coming up with truck loads of advise on what he should be doing.
I suspect the people giving the advice should be looking at what he is doing because it seems to be working.
Well, well, well, our man Kev saluted Bush and has sparked an international incident (well that’s the impression you get from the MSM anyway). My goodness me, this surely ranks with the assasination of the old Arch-Duke at Sarajevo for treachery. The implications of this incident are enormous. I’m telling you folks, the precursor to World War III has happened and its all Kev’s fault.
Seriously though, this balderdash that masqerades as journalism should be exposed for what it is. Utter crap.
charles,
I only half agree with you about what Rudd is doing.
The PM has a tendency, at times, to talk complete gobbledegook (exemplified in the quote in Mike Carlton’s column this morning). You are right in saying this hasn’t hurt him so far, and the polls and everything else have been fantastic. But it could well hurt him in future, especially when he has to make unpopular decisions.
I wonder if Labor will respond to the allegations in Ramsey’s column of today. If Ramsey is right, what they have done is straight out of the odious NSW ALP playbook.
Poss, been out to lunch. so yes you’re quite right. Fafblog was not the correct descriptor.
Giblets and the Medium Lobster could help the man with 6 guitars, an ex-earring, 2 ex-wives and an ex-party?
Glen, I understand you’re pain in relation to dysfunctional State Libs. It’s cruel. It’s real. Could you help by going on Brendon’s Magical Listening Tour with him? Help pack the groceries? Help pump gas?
Kina, Uhlmann has long form in relation to his reporting of Labor and Rudd. I don’t trust him.
Watch the Opposition Orifice spin this, regarding a Treaty.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23489777-5005361,00.html
Uhlmann is the typical TV Bimbo (Himbo?) that they used to make TV sitcoms and movies about in the 80’s and 90’s.
It’s like he’s a poor impressionist trying to do an Oakes or (the late) Richard Carleton, but comes off much closer to Richard (Dick) Wilkins.
No
Intellectual
Content
What’s that about people throwing stones at glass houses
Looks like Brendan will be a prime candidate for year two reading in the education revolution.
You would think a Dr would know the difference but then that’s probably why he has had three marriages.
Maybe he has a phobia about his organ!
Funny, but not as funny as the Brendan Nelson misadventure story from this week, which was snuffled out by the Nine Network’s Laurie Oakes.
While listening intently at a shopping centre in Wayne Swan’s Brisbane seat of Lilley, the Liberal leader was reportedly approached by a young man wearing a T-shirt which proclaimed the wearer to be an “Orgasm Donor”.
Dr Nelson made a small but crucial error in reading the slogan, and was well into a small speech of congratulation to the young man on his public-spiritness when he was gently corrected by another passer-by.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/annabel-crabb/ruddsnuggling-on-the-register/2008/04/04/1207249454003.html?page=2
142 Kina – Why change something that is working so well? You don’t fix something that isn’t broke.
Any treaty won’t fly. Public won’t back it and the Indigenous community is not likely to either. There would be too much disagreement over what was to go into it. As for who would sign it to on Indigenous side is another bunfight that would happen for sure. Internal Indigenous politics makes the Queensland conservatives look fully functional.
Kina @ 140 -
The Liberals & Howard on the other hand were pretty rude to Al when he was last here.
In one of the parallel universes Howard is still PM and Al is about to be drafted as the Dem candidate for the election he will win. Now wouldn’t you want to be the fly on a Oval Office wall during Howard first visit. Assuming he had the guts to show. I certainly would pay big money to be there!
Mind you, in the unlikely event Al were drafted in this universe I suspect Howard might find engagements on the lucrative American lecture circuit start to dry up. Seriously p*ssing off a potential future American Prez always seemed a really, really dumb move.
Not that I’m really complaining but has anyone else had trouble opening up the OO site? I get the front page but it freezes somewhere in the download everytime. I can open all of the other papers with no problems.
Loads fine here using Bigpuddle.
Thanks Frank – it’s strange because I’ve never had this trouble before.
Antonio-of-the-ABC
In light of Allan’s and my experience (75 and 91) of receiving identical responses from the ABC after our complaints about Pies on the Insiders, wtf point is there in complaining? Their response is simply windowdressing.
I am reminded of a sketch from Derek and Clive. Clive (a.k.a. Peter Cook) writes to Margaret Thatcher (then in her period as Opposition Leader before winning the 1979 election) complaining that he has “the horn”, and asks what action the Conservative Party proposes to take. The faint of heart are warned to proceed no further:
Just a thought but could it be the OO did do a Newspoll last week and it was so bad for their good buddy Brendon that they scuttled it? Then they said to all the OO “writers” (using the term loosley) and the ABC hacks “Get out there and compose some compost about Rudd, do whatever it takes, lie, fabricate, fornicate do anything but fer christsake make Australia hate Rudd so our boy can rise above 7 ##ckin” %”
Just a thought, we’ll see if the big salute has done the trick if they put out a newspoll on Tuesday.
The way the established journalists at the ABC introduce Uhlmann as “the ABC’s chief political correspondent” says it all. They do everything but hoik and lob a golly into the camera when they have to read his name out.
Bushfire Bill
uhlmann sorta sounds like the noise you make in your throat to ready the golly for hoiking
161
William Bowe
Ah, Derek and Clive…imf@ckingmortal!
I’m still not sure why the salute was so bad and I think that would be the case for most people.
166 Gary
Either there really is a fundamental difference in the way people interpret what Rudd did, or people are becoming ever more desperate to find a reason to chuck mud.
I have personally seen someone react to what he did – the rest of us in the room shook our heads and rolled our eyes, and some of them were not ALP voters.
I think things are definitely more subtle than ‘hate Rudd, vote Liberal’, though that seems to be the primary school level of thinking being employed by the media, who seem hell bent on a race to the bottom of the credibility well.
167 [the primary school level of thinking being employed by the media, who seem hell bent on a race to the bottom of the credibility well.]
Forget the salute, the media circus has moved on.
“IT’S time for Therese Rein to put style ahead of substance, according to some of Australia’s leading fashion designers.
After a week on the world stage, accompanying her Prime Minister husband Kevin Rudd on his 17-day tour, Ms Rein has been in the media spotlight more than at any time since last year’s federal election victory.
And her fashion statements during stops in Washington, New York, Brussels and London have left some of the country’s top style experts asking questions about her choices, given the public focus now placed on leaders’ wives.”
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23490661-3102,00.html
onimod I like your 2nd option. Its the ‘Rudd wave” , uniquely Australian and invented by Kevin07. He used the same Rudd wave on Election night & loved it
And Outgoing WA Senator Ruth Webber is being blasted for taking a “Farewell Junket”.
And yes, they HAD to drag up the Speeding Ticket on Election Day 2004.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,23490396-2761,00.html
Luckily Therse Rein didn’t attempt to catch peoples attention similarly to Sonia McMahon in the late 60’s.
This mob would have absolutely crucified her.
The problem with Rudd is he really doesn’t give them very much to criticize and much more that really should deserve praise.
But that is another story. We can’t have that sort of thing appearing in the MSM. Not with a string of critical by-elections coming up and our favored LNP needing as big a leg-up as we can possibly give them
Have to balance the ledger eh what!
Frank,
I can’t remember any such ballyhoo when our esteemed current diplomat in Italy took a similar lap of honour prior to her departure.
Or the numerous other LNP Senators and MHR’s who did the same thing.
Boy-o-boy, they sure hold Labor pollies to a high standard. Saint hood awaits.
The blatant hypocrisy we are seeing recently is surely embarrassing someone.
And it seems they are having trouble finding a replacment for McGauran
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/coalition-struggles-to-find-gippsland-candidate/2008/04/05/1207249548514.html
“It is understood the party has approached Sally Cray, a former lawyer who now works as an adviser to shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull, and Peter Harrison, a local school teacher.
But few potential candidates have expressed interest
Normally you’d have a blood bath, but there are no takers,” a senior source said. “It’s a broader indication that people think they can’t win the seat after the 2007 election defeat.”
I love the way Therese presents herself, she is bubbly and colorful and shimmies like sunshine. I don’t reckon she’d give a stuff what some snooty so called fashion expert says about her anyway.
“IT’S time for Therese Rein to put style ahead of substance, according to some of Australia’s leading fashion designers.”
Salute, plastic-bags, not visiting Japan on this trip, trip too long, cardboard cutout of Kev, Lib leadership uncertainty, NSW liberal party drama, Qld Lib?Nat drama.
Maybe it isn’t bad at all, the media and the Libs are characterising themselves as the trivia party implying that there are no serious problems with the govt, just minor foibles. And anybody would now vote for the LNP because?
But we are missing decent presentation and analysis of the real issues. But I guess that doesn’t sell.
For heaven’s sakes. One could be forgiven for thinking that Therese Rein has been wearing outfits designed by the “Crocodile Hunter” or something.
Get a life folks and leave her alone. She didn’t stand for election and has had to pay quite a price already because of your small minded pettiness in using her to attack her husband.
Case in point Mark Valie and Wilson Tuckey.
And no-one complained about what Janette wore on her trips with John, they were both wearing RSL Chic
Speaing of which, did he not wear his usual uniform when he was at the BBQ for Dubya ?
http://aussie_news_views.typepad.com/aussie_news_views/images/6_9_06_steve_irwin_pres_bush_pm_howard_a.jpg
Looks fairly clear now that Costello is not taking the bait and is determined to leave soon.
Looks like they are stuck with Half Nelson for a while yet.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/coalition-struggles-to-find-gippsland-candidate/2008/04/05/1207249548514.html
Janette’s ’style’ was (is?) the subject of much discussion in social circles, particularly Sydney unsurprisingly. But rather than throw stones I’ll just snigger to myself…
Therese is a champ and I hope she answers with a raised middle finger.
Even the Newspoll has the ALP hovering around 59% consistently up from the 53% at the election. I think the LNP have to thank the aura of Howard and incumbency for the narrowing that occurred coming up to the election.
The next election Rudd will have incumbency and but more importantly the LNP will not have an 11 year figure-head in Howard as a filter through which to view the party.
With Howard it really needed people to be fed up with him before there were enough willing to dump him. Howard got on the nose with Workchoices and his arrogant behavior but it still took Rudd to jump in and present himself as an acceptable alternative and, also give reasons that people could relate to as to why change was necessary.
For Rudd to lose the next election the party has to be on the nose for some pretty bad policy and the LNP need to have an attractive alternative (and no nasty policies).
I can only see Greenhouse Gas reduction policy as the only thing with a workchoices potential – so the ALP do need to use Carbon and other revenues sensibly to mitigate widespread problems. On that score we are beginning to get the scare tactics (reports and comments) from the energy and mining industry as to how exceedingly expensive it is going to be, how it is going to push down standard of living how it is going to make power so expensive and so on.
Rudd will not only need to get the policy settings right but also the language and follow up.
Vera Says:
And what do we have, Rudd returns a salute ( nice to be polite) and Therese doesn’t dress nice ( so she like most of our wifes doesn’t spend a fortune on designer cloths). The press really have lost it.
It looks like Howard and the press have lost touch with the common man, unfortunately the press can’t be replaced with an election. The Liberals have got no hope if they leave their work to the New ltd hacks.
180 [Therese is a champ and I hope she answers with a raised middle finger]
A fashionable salute indeed, Onimod.
I think it is a mistake by the press to home in on Theresa’s attire. Half the population won’t give a hoot (read male) and most of the other half will feel offended for her. In other words not only a non story but a self defeating non story.
Agree, GB #184. It just makes the Liberals and their running-mates in the mainstream media look like trivial spite-snipes.
On that count, I figure it actually helps Labor.
the best part of the Costello shenanigans is it shows just how desparate many are in the party to prevent Turnbull for getting the leadership. Turnbull is consistently the no. 1 voters choice for leader
Watch the party it itself apart when Turnbull tries
Andrew
In my mind, Turnbull is the logical choice for the leadership role of the opposition…I’m just not sure it will be called the LNP.
Maybe the Coalition is in a state of white ant degradation and demolition is the only approach in order to rebuild?
That a centrist like Turnbull is bitterly opposed, time and again, indicates that the Liberals are determined to avoid a centrist position, preferring instead the hard-right course in the Howard mould.
They have more or less ceded the centre ground to Labor, who hold it with a wide margin (as per the Morgan poll in William’s thread header). It is at the right fringe that the “Liberals” position themselves.
This story relates how the Liberals tied themselves into knots on the Apology issue, with Minchin cussing Turnbull, and general paranoia abounding in the Liberal camp …
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23180714-2702,00.html
Frank at 158,
I had the same problem – search for “the australian” using google and click on say opinion rather than the main title then you will be fine. Mind you, looks like it has been fixed now.
Kerneels, the problem is easily fixed. Use any search engine other than Google.
Kim Beazley’s thoughts on the “salute” LOL
‘It’s always a good way to greet an American with a salute, they do love it.’
http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/article.aspx?id=225874
Gillard wants all the rats who leave the sinking ship to have by elections on the same day to save money.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/national/gillard-urges-libs-to-go-for-super-byelection-saturday/2008/04/06/1207420166712.html
The ASIC inquiry report into Mortgage entry and exit fees is here.
http://www.treasurer.gov.au/DisplayDocs.aspx?doc=pressreleases/2008/018.htm&pageID=003&min=wms&Year=&DocType=
192 Steve, perhaps we can call it ‘Divine Wind’ Saturday, as they all line up to get into their Zeros and plunge to electoral oblivion
Basil, perhaps if they were more internet savvy they could take our snippets on board.
http://theorstrahyun.blogspot.com/2008/04/liberals-pray-to-tubes-of-internets-for.html
Speaking of the Intertubes, Milne is at it again attacking Labor over the Computers for every student.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23489688-5006009,00.html
Milne is the leak King – most of his stuff has super-dooper secret squirrel leaks to back up his fantasies.
On closer inspection this “leak” seems to have come from Peter Costello’s former political adviser – Tony Smith.
Tony a hint – scrap that bit from your resume.
Oh and check out the typical responses on the comments section – straight out of Liberal Party HQ.
WTF?
Albrechtson “Cut the Prime Minister some slack. Regardless of your politics, Kevin Rudd has done a fine job representing our economic and foreign policy interests on his 17 day trip abroad. Yet he made headlines when he offered a salute to President George W Bush.”
ah Milne, the floating turd of journalism.
Cut the Prime Minister some slack. Regardless of your politics, Kevin Rudd has done a fine job representing our economic and foreign policy interests on his 17 day trip abroad. Yet he made headlines when he offered a salute to President George W Bush.
Opposition leader Brendan Nelson thought the salute was conduct unbecoming of a PM, meaning Rudd had not shown sufficient deference to Bush at the NATO meeting in Bucharest. The Greens found it equally unbecoming but for the opposite reason. It was, said Bob Brown, a sign that we were still playing deputy sheriff to Bush.
Anyone who has met the PM can vouch for the fact that this simply his rather awkward form of greeting. No subliminal messages. Just a hi-there salute.
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/janetalbrechtsen/index.php/theaustralian/comments/pms_salute_much_ado_about_nothing/
How long does JA have to go on the ABC board? Maybe she is the first to see that the times they are a changin’
Thomarse,
I suspect that Janet A is thinking more about an extentsion on the ABC Board than any fair play about Rudd.
She will do ANYTHING to stay in Conroy’s good books.
I made a response to Albrechtson “When are you leaving the ABC board so it can start to recover its former glory?”
Which I suspect won’t be printed, or she will respond with some Smartarse comment.
Thomarse @199
A vain attempt at restoring some integrity. It must’ve been getting cold outside with the clowns (Ackerman), show ponies (Shanahan), dwarfs (Milne) and freaks (Bolt). She wants to get back inside the tent, where she might thrill her audience like in Howard’s times by inserting her head in a lion’s jaw (the ABC), swinging madly on the trapeze of truth (AWB, the Pacific Solution) or dragging around a comatose dancing bear (Costello for PM).
I posted on The Bolts blogs about JA – the first of my 3 part post made it so far.
Will the conservative bloggers attack one of their own?
Kina, you need to do a bit better than comment #200. So does Mungo McCallum.
Sorry if this is old:
Zimbabwe Embassy hotline:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b6BxywQD2c
Ha – I think it’d be great if the libs and Nats combined and became known as “non-labor”.
Obviously their reason for existence is a deep seated ideological base of…being different to the other blokes.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23493039-26103,00.html
But in some ways they are more different from each other than the Liberals are from Labor.
Gee Brendan Rudd is doing so well OS … impressive!!!!
or is it John H. Rudd?
Yes Shows On… the difference between Liberal and Labor is that the Libs are very anti-intellectual (i.e. very stupid) and the Labor Party is anti-intellectual ( i.e. stupid) … gees .. what a choice!!
213 Dingo
It just boggles my mind to think about how people in the future will look back and question why we actively fought against our best evolutionary asset in this time.
William @ 207. Message received.
And Computergate continues via “Your ABC”.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/06/2209196.htm
Just so I know: are there any try-hard Munga McCallum clones blogging from the Inner West of Sydney tonight?
“Can I just say how absolutely delighted and how proud I am that central council decided, so overwhelmingly moved yesterday, to step forward with the creation of a new, non-Labor entity in Queensland,” he told reporters on the Gold Coast.”
Hence the reason for their continual failures; the way they see themselves. Their greatest assets seems to be, being non-Labor. Well I guess they are fairly chuffed among themselves that ‘at least we aren’t Labor’.
Are they going to go to elections on the basis of what they aren’t rather than what they are? AND if they look at the polls and election results they are saying that ‘we are the not what the people people vote for party’.
Being such a critical issue of possibly ‘biblical’ proportions I hope the Opposition will, when the time comes, offer mostly bi-partisan support for solutions put in place rather than play politics.
Iceland: life on global warming’s front line
If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/06/2209125.htm
solutions do not look like the Opposition’s forte , looks like the’ll play party politics with this as well
Kina @ 218,
I think the point is not so much that the Liberal and National parties don’t stand for things (normally, though there’s a bit of an identity crisis at the moment).
The point is that the things they stand for are quite different from each other.
What do, say, Malcolm Turnbull and Ron Boswell have in common, apart from being non-Labor?
Kina@219
Speaking of ‘biblical’ proportions, I see that Charlton Heston has shuffled off this mortal coil. So goes another of GWB’s elderly supporters…
Who’s next? Ernest Borgnine or Jon Voight?
As important as the brazen, inappropriate salute was…..maybe things like below are just a tad more important. I wonder if the press will run with this at the same level as the ’salute’?
Cabinet linked to wharfies dispute
Dr Shiel said: “ACIL I defines the terms of the activist strategy that the cabinet signed off on. It canvassed the prospect of industrial action that would give the stevedores the option of dismissing their employees. That means cabinet approved provoking a national strike and that is sensational.”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cabinet-linked-to-wharfies-dispute/2008/04/06/1207420201380.html
Oh, Really! The press is down to salutations and costumery.
I like a nice outfit, myself. Some do, some don’t care. Aspect Ratio matters, as well.
On the other hand, no matter how well I dress, I am not likely to be the Prime Minister. Nor a Prime Minister’s partner. It takes a little more than clothing.
I noted, as I would, Jeanette’s deliberately grey dress, on the occasion of her husband’s, if I am correct, his tenth year in office. I assumed she and her advisers intended a less than triumphal appearance. When they thought they had it made. Whilst observing this, I thought it appropriately foreboding, as a shroud.
Not that this prevented Jeanette from wearing, on the night of the 24th, wattle in pale satin. Oh, I bet she wished she had brought another outfit. The old grey would have worked. And saved them some money.
The Myer Group has written to anyone who will listen to complain about interest rate rises and in particular their effect on retailers. Apparently, there is a whole range of economic data due out this week that is expected to confirm that the economy has been slowing slightly lately. This will make Swan’s job of framing the budget much easier than if everything was tearing along at break neck speed.
“Retail sales figures released on Friday show sales dipped by 0.1per cent in February following a similar fall in January. Although the official Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show department stores did better in both months, the Myer and David Jones chains are exposed to an economic downturn because a large share of their turnover is discretionary sales.
Reporting strong profits for Myers two weeks ago, Mr Wavish said that excluding store openings, sales were down in March, from the previous months.
Myer is particularly exposed, having been the subject of a private equity takeover at the peak of the market 18 months ago. Private equity shareholder Texas Pacific Group’s strategy of turning around the company’s profitability and then selling would be jeopardised by a retail slowdown.”
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23495905-601,00.html
Poor old Peter Costello seems to have snookered himself. No employer will offer him a job because they want to see him lead the Liberal Party and no liberal will offer him the leadership because they want him to get a job with an employer.
Bill’s back. About bloody time too. Nicholson’s does a fine job, but Leake delivers more consistently brilliant work, im(extraordinarily)ho.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/opinion/cartoons/
Kina at 224, even Janet “PNAC” Albrectson agrees that the salute was nothing to get into too much of a flap about, even though it was delivered to her personal lord and obermeistrefuhrer, The Imbecile himself.
The salute was hardly like the ones snapped off by the sar. major in the pom comedy “It Ain’t ‘Arf Hot, Mum” that’s for sure.
And yes, Kina, the rather good ABC “Bastard Boys” shown on telly before last years FedEl left little doubt that the training of strike-breaking mercenaries (mainly ex-Oz military personel) was not news to El Rodente’s Cabinet of the time.
Re Frank Calabrese at 176…
One wishes Mr Tuckey was an outgoing member of parliament… what use he is to the Libs I’ll never know. Unless his use is to make the rest of them look more relevant and sane by comparison.
Crikey Whitey @ 225 -
Oh, I bet she wished she had brought another outfit. The old grey would have worked. And saved them some money.
This brings up an interesting point. Does the PM’s sig other get a clothing or any other allowance?
steve @ 277 – I doubt Cossie’s phone isn’t ringing because business wants him to become Lib leader. It’s more likely that business doesn’t want him, full stop.
The people may have been fooled by his claimed economic brilliance until recently, but I don’t believe the suits ever were.
Just read the latest piece by the great Australian Dwarf (in keeping with recent discussions here, no link).
I agree with a lot of what he’s saying about Stevens, head of the RBA. But why oh why does Milne have to gild the lily with a description of him as “a boring Protestant”? And then why does he have to “prove” it with a nasty little description of him as being a guitar player at Sunday church services when he was a kid? And meeting his wife at a church function?
I mean, the whole “folk mass” thing (as the Catholics used to call their version of it) is not my cup of tea, particularly, but what’s compellingly, absolutely, unarguably boring about it, enough for Milne to describe Stevens with the phrase he used?
Milne has a few character rough spots himself, and not from when he was a kid, either. Milne’s moral slips have been of much more recent vintage.
I’m sick of this man continually writing off people in his column with unsourced innuendo, unimportant factoids and greasy segues from one aspect of a person’s character to another.
Milne is morphing into a nastly little piece of work, more so as his delusions of grandeur from hitching himself to Costello’s wagon recede into the history books.
The “Liberal” Party’s right-wing course appears to be being set.
Jack the Insider, The Australian, 3 April 2008:
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/jacktheinsider/index.php/theaustralian/comments/no_easy_listening_for_nelson/
230 Mayo
I didn’t bother saving the words, but Macbank and ANZ were quite specific about how they regarded the former future leader. An examination of the political donations list, and in particular the volume of donations, suggests that business saw the coalition in a much dimmer light than the opinion polls suggested.
Blogs need a little sarcasm or irony icon to tag the end of sentences so we don’t get misunderstood. ;]
228 Enemy Combatant: J.A is playing with our minds, surely. Or do I start believing in Doppelgaengers?
230 [I doubt Cossie’s phone isn’t ringing because business wants him to become Lib leader. It’s more likely that business doesn’t want him, full stop.
The people may have been fooled by his claimed economic brilliance until recently, but I don’t believe the suits ever were.]
I was hoping someone like you might be able to set him up with a job outside of politics, MayoFeral. Because the Nightwatchman sure doesn’t seem to be in the anyone but Costello camp.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/07/2209408.htm?section=justin
steve @ 235 –
I was hoping someone like you might be able to set him up with a job outside of politics, MayoFeral. Because the Nightwatchman sure doesn’t seem to be in the anyone but Costello camp.
Steve, these days I’m careful about what I write so no longer have much need of lawyers, and being retired a 5 year old can do my tax return…um…okay bad example…
As for Nelson, that article alone is proof that he is unfit to govern. Calling Lord Lunchalot a “valuable resource” suggests he’s also several sandwichs short of a picnic and the sooner his shrinks connect his temples to the national electricity grid and flip the switch the better! IMHO, about the only value Dolly still has would be as blood and bone.
Yep, the travelling journalists are bored. If this is news I’m Mother Theresa.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bruddbotb-pm-says-hes-no-automaton–but-he-talks-like-one/2008/04/06/1207420200595.h
236 [the only value Dolly still has would be as blood and bone.]
There must still be some hope for Dolly, after all he has just seen the Minister for Horseflu promoted to head of the racehorse breeding industry.
237 Gary that is the best news I’ve read all day.
Let me try that again.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bruddbotb-pm-says-hes-no-automaton–but-he-talks-like-one/2008/04/06/1207420200595.h
One last try – Michelle obviously doesn’t want me to do this.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bruddbotb-pm-says-hes-no-automaton–but-he-talks-like-one/2008/04/06/1207420200595.html
Another non story and another opportunity to mention the salute.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/beazley-says-rudds-killer-workload-cant-last/2008/04/06/1207420201383.html
I’ll get this right yet. Re 242
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/beazley-says-rudds-killer-workload-cant-last/2008/04/06/1207420201383.html
OMG, he’s roaming around with his hands in his pockets when he should be saluting the wardead, that was the comment last night from the shock horror RWDB’s when they saw that photo.
Rx @ 232 -
Minchin is also stirring the pot in the SA branch just as the opposition was starting to make some headway with the electorate. The Chris Pyne aligned ‘moderates’ have just bought preselection for the state upper house forward by 12 months in an attempt to head off Minchin’s right wingers gaining control of the process.
These turkeys just can’t help themselves. The only thing they hate more than Labor is each other!
With Rudd overseas and all sorts of interesting things are happening as we get represented to the world’s political scene it is a wonder any journalist is bored. Are they intellectually challenged that they must concentrate on trivial issues and really do not know how to inform the public of the important issues? I wonder if they are missing the “spoon feeding” that the Howard Government allegedly gave them (and therefore the Howard Government’s slant on the news). I am talking of the “journalists” in a general sense but we all know which ones are the main offenders.
Also their negative/trivial reporting could be a self interested attempt to get the Rudd Government to “spoon feed” them in the same way.
But they do seem lost at the moment.
I’m wondering why my respect for Michelle Grattan is sliding rapidly? I really thought she’d be above the personal potshots that seem to characterize mainstream journalism, and yet there she it talking about salutes and Rudds method of delivery at the moment.
How about having a constructive go at the substance Michelle?
I’m certainly not asking for glowing praise, but if you’ve got misgivings about the leadership, then holding back until you understand intellectually what’s wrong might be a bit more appriopriate. A little bit of analysis about the possible plus’ and minus’ to Australia’s economic and social development in relation to Rudds trip seems more worthy than trying to anticipate next weeks New Idea cover.
I agree with ’spoon feeding’ comment Doug. Heaven forbid that journo’s might have to think about their work.
I sense the journalists at home are starting to question the tactics of their touring colleagues. Yesterday on “Insiders” both right and left leaning commentators were dismissive of the salute and suggesting maybe their fellow journalists were struggling to find topics that would interest people back hiome. JA in the OO has come out with the same thing.
Today Mitchell, on 3AW made a meal of Rudd’s bureaucrat speak and went on to say that this will put an end to Rudd’s honeymoon. Is this bloke for real? Talk about wishful thinking. Mitchell did say however that he thought commentary on the salute and Therese’s attire was “a bit rough”.
I still believe if this type of tripe continues the journalists and their reporting will become the news.
Well my comment didn’t get published no surprise there.
Couple of posters showed Janet wasn’t moving leftwards much at all.
I have spent a bit of time on the Akerman blog (until the Fraser article) and one thing has really really struck me. The redhot vicious venom directed at Rudd who has been PM for barely over 100 days! You would think Rudd had introduced 95% taxation and hung ever firstborn for telephone poles! He has hardly settled in!
When Howard won in ‘96 I didn’t like it. I heard him make his first public speech and groaned “Oh no, not 3 years of this!”
It was his actions, lies, Hicks, Iraq, wasting of minerals boom windfall etc that turned me into a Howard Hater YEARS after he was first elected!
So right wing born to rule causing this abundant unearned venom?
I’m not a person that readily yells “conspiracy” even when there seems to be one but I must admit I’m getting the distinct impression Rudd has enemies in the press corp and they are out to get him politically. I don’t recall Howard receiving this much negative attention in his early days.
They have been trying to for almost 18 months now.
Not very effective, I would think. The constant high poll results would support that conclusion.
Scorpio
You could find as equally many negative articles about Howard especially during last years election campaign.
This one from News Ltd had the headline “I was drunk at work” and then the picture of him tripping during a visit to Perth. Doesn’t leave much to the reader’s imagination as to why he tripped.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22130111-952,00.html
There were similar headlines from the biography, I don’t recall Hawke getting such headlines despite his known frinking and his daughter’s drug problem.
Australian today also has the headline on McGauran getting the job with the horse industry and quite clearly questions this because of the $200 million plus he provided to help compensate for the equine flu crisis. Australian also pointed out other conflicts of previous Howard ministers, eg Reith.
Maybe there’s nothing to get him on – what you see is what you get. If that’s the case and if his brand of politics is popular with voters then you have to wonder why he is relentlessly attacked over non issues. Could it be that he won’t play along with some unwritten set of rules that the journalists and Howard had in place – something about mutual back scratching?
Quote #247:
Because their basic tactic is to get Rudd at the base, rather than a frontal attack.
If you take out the bottom card of a house of cards the rest will fall.
Witness Milne’s constant carping on about Burkegate, his frenzy over Rudd supposedly having been “thrown out” of the strip club (never repeated, by the way). Abbott’s attacks on Rudd’s christian beliefs. Pies’ fixation with the Heiner non-event.
And now we have salutes and use of jargon.
With Beazley Shanahan tried his brain illness, the short aggregate hours he had spent with Suzy Annis, his wife and the supposed “fact” that BEazley would miss Perth too muvh to be Prime Minister. Then came “Karl Rove”.
All of these are used to try to prove that the target has character flaws which, while they have only so far manifested in small matters, will loom large when the big issues emerge. They go to “character”. If you show “poor character” in buying the paper clips, or going out for a night when in New York, or allegedly missing your home town too much, then what are you going to be like when the sh*t hits the fan and the country’s at stake.
Of course when the journalists’ own character flaws are pointed out to them they say, “True… but I don’t want to be Prime Minister.” Hence Pies can be a fat slob. Milne can be a drunken biffo boy. Abbott can have illegitimate affairs while training to be a priest. Shanahan can completely ignore facts and write about a parallel universe. The rest can be drunks, serial adulterers, wife-beaters, dog rapers… whatever you like, but they “don’t want to be Prime Minister,” so they excuse themselves from the normal measure of moral equivalence.
Milne is on record as saying he’s trying to find some sort of cover up to pin on Rudd. Whetever it is Rudd will be “covering-up”, Milne will make sure that only the “cover-up” is discussed, not the original innocuous offence (a la Clinton/Lewinsky where a lie under oath about a blow job – surely something that just about every one of his accusers had experienced, and a great many of them while married – was turned into Presidential impeachment). Milne will be hoping to catch Rudd out in answer to a parliamentary question. Then it becomes “misleading Parliament”.
This is also why Pies was trying to get Heiner on the record in Parliament.
In the meantime they chip away, probing and nitpicking, keeping their target softened up for the big one, gradually wearing away at the “Boy Wonder” image the public has of Rudd until they can land what they hope will be a killer blow. then they’ll trot out all the other non-stories about Rudd and “put it all together” into one giant character assassination. “We’ve been telling you he’s no good for years, but you wouldn’t listen,” they’ll say, as they remind us of every single hiccup, gaff, purported lie and alleged hypocrisy they have levelled at him over the past 18 months.
The current accusations are all just going into the Dirt File on Rudd, to be trotted out one day when he’s on the back foot and regurgitated afresh to harm him.
I hope this answers your question.
253 Steve K
I thinks it’s generally all about the ‘government as a business’ mantra that Rudd seems to work under. If you’re running a business, the last thing you’re going to be devoting time to is journalists, because there’s a belief that you’re going to be judged by your peers based upon your actions and results. Time spent on pressers is time you’re not making money.
Now the press might be valuable occasionally, but that’s ‘dirty’ business, and does you no good in the long run. I actually think that it’d be great if political reporting could be divorced from the tabloids
Bushfire Bill at #254
Congrats, that is the second time [at least] you have summed up the media tactics admirably.
This one, and the previous, should be filed somewhere for easy access.
252 Rod – scorpio was resonding to my posting which concluded ” I don’t recall Howard receiving this much negative attention in his early days.” Note the words “early days”.
What Fred says at #256, Elegantly written Bushfire Bill, You Rock!!
Fred (256) Post 254 would have been more persuasive if had summed up ‘media tactics’ as it affects any person in a leadership position, whether Labor or not. In that respect, I thought BB’s earlier post (231) referring to Glenn Milne’s column on the Governor of the Reserve Bank, was the more illuminating.
Rod Says: @ 252,
Rod, what you have posted here just demonstrates even more so, the abysmal level to which much of the MSM commentary has sunk in the past 15 years.
The majority of these commentators have almost sunk to the level of leaving themselves open to public ridicule with the dramatic and accelerating lack of informed, accurate , investigative commentary.
The greater majority of Australia’s quality investigative journalists have either passed away or retired during the last 10 years.
That they have not been replaced by others of comparable quality says much about the system of mentoring and qualification for position of the current lazy, incompetent hacks.
They seem oblivious to the damage they are doing to the country’s social structure and cohesion with their biased, juvenile and meaningless rants that we are being exposed to on a daily basis.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23498136-12377,00.html
Howard wins $54,000 for good PM-ing
You have to love this quote from Howard in relation to Kyoto:
“You need a new Kyoto Protocol with all the major emitters committed to it. Then you are cooking with gas.”
I’m sure he’s not aware of the humorous nature of this remark.
The rest of the article is about how good he was for stripping ordinary people of basic work place justice and the like.
Living costs more important than republic: Nelson
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/07/2210024.htm?section=justin
People like Nelson will always say there’s something more important than this nation becoming a Republic. Maybe it’ll be a cat stuck up a tree or a kid with his big toe stuck in a plug hole; no time to follow that Republic business.
Two things I though were refreshing about Costello:
1. He supported an apology
2. He supported the move to a Republic
Fortunately Nelson and his kind at a diminishing breed.
More interestingly in that piece, Steve, is that Nelson seems to be saying that we need to concentrate on other issues apart from reforming our constitution, while Kevin Rudd yesterday stated that ‘The Republic’ was not his top priority.
Therefore, Brendan Nelson gets media coverage, seemingly almost ‘adversarial’, for agreeing with Kevin Rudd’s assessment of when to pursue constitutional reform.
Huh?
259 David – I take it you have many examples of Howard in his first year being subjected to the same treatment Rudd is copping from the media now?
#259 David Charles, ah yes, Stevens of the Reserve Bank.
No matter how ong Stevens lives, no matter what he does with his life, Milne has him pinged for playing the guitar at Sunday church services. There is no way Stevens can wriggle out of that. Once – in his boyhood – a boring Protestant, always a boring Protestant.
House of cards. Pull out an anecdote from a man’s childhood and you ruin him for life.
Take Rudd’s childhood narrative. Father killed when he was a boy. His mum forced to leave the farm. The landlord had to make the leased land pay, so out went the Rudd family.
So what to do?
Write a story that says the landlord was a nice guy, well-respected in town, and that Rudd is making it all up. Suddenly – from boyhood – Rudd has the taint of hypocrisy.
OK, so it didn’t work, but it’s still trotted out (especially by Pies). When you string them all together the bogud narrative goes something like this:
“From boyhood Rudd has been a dreamer and a liar. He made up a story about his family’s circumstances and a lot of rot about sleeping in the car. Whether this was true or not, it was trun in little Kevin’s mind. He began to hate money, power, doctors who had killed his father by allowing an infection to progress), and capitalism. So he naturally turned to Labor politics to fix problems which his warped mind had generated all by itelf. How ruthless he was is shown by his nickname ‘Dr. Death’, bestowed up him when he closed down Queensland hospitals one by one when working for the Goss government. People died, Rudd lied. Then came the Heiner affair, establishing at an early time Rudd’s complicity n a cover up involving the rape of an aboriginal girl. So much for his ‘Apology’ now. Rudd has been a serial abuser of aborigines since his early days in government and is showing base hypocrisy by claiming to love them now. It was not always thus. As if this hypocrisy wasn’t enough, Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, Rudd the ‘Christian’, has involved himself with convicted criminals in the WA LaborParty, Brian Burke and his associates. While it is not illegal to talk to Burke, anyone who does should be suspected of criminal intent themselves. Everybody knows what Rudd was up to in Perth, but still he denies it. More lies and more deviousness from Rudd. While never having been inclined to the military he hypocritically tried to usurp the glory of our Diggers by staging a fake event in Long Tan on last Anzac Day. More hypocrisy, more lies. His wife is fat and looks ugly in her frumpy clothes, but has made millions exploiting the unemployed and has ripped them off at every opportunity. Don’t tell me Rudd didn’t realise what was going on. What a hypocrit! What would he know about ’struggle’? He’s the millionaire Prime Minister, claiming to be a man of the working class. But what kind of working class man speaks using fancy language like Rudd does? Did you hear him the other day in Brussels? What a phoney. All those big words like some swot that you all used to hate at school. This person is a fraud, a disgrace to the battlers he claims to support. Finally we have his two-faced attitude towards America. He never stopped carping on about John Howard’s relationship with George Bush but when he got the chance, was worse than Howard ever was, saluting Bush when he thought the cameras weren’t switched on. He only ever does things like this when he thinks people won’t notice, like his whispered offer to help Hilary Clinton which heros of the press gallery managed to filter out of their recordings from the background noise. More insincerity. This man has a life-long history of deceit, lies, two-facedness and betrayal of those who trust him. All of this from boyhood. Rudd is fatally flawed and is not fit to be Prime Minister. We have been telling you of this for years now, but it has taken this latest incident [here insert whatever it is they're on about re. Rudd at some future date] to make you realise it.”
Nelson’s republic comments are for Liberal Party consumption, the anyone but Turnbull faction will love his words.
Bushfire Bill
Spot on.
Post that on Pies blog – you will be a hero. (If you omit the first bit).
#253
Steve K Says:
You know I think you have hit it on the head. Rudd pretty much got elected by bypassing the “The press Gallery”. The press gallery have now turned on him hoping to prove they are required, that he should pander to their wims.
What happens if the polls don’t move, will they then start acting in a professional manner, start reporting the ideas and the politics instead of boring us to tears with nit picking personal details and lets be honest that is where it’s been at for years; or have they discredited themselves so badly that recovery is impossible and what we are seeing are the death thrashings of fish out of water, of a section of the media that is no longer relevant.
Bushfire Bill @ 254
A very good summary. However, I wonder if, at least with some of the ‘journos,’ there isn’t also an element of blackmail.
It’s no secret that a few of them were virtually having their copy written for them by former ministers (or rather, their press secretaries) and they must be struggling now, or will be following anticipated retirements.
Not only aren’t they getting their columns handed to them, but they’ve also lost access to the seats of power so they’re having to work hard for the little information they do get.
Writing the piffle they are currently passing off serves two purposes. One, they don’t have to actually make any real effort, just let their warped imaginations run riot on crap like the salute, and secondly, the continual attacks may just wear down the current government enough to offer them a similar deal to what they had with the previous lot.
If the Libs keep this sort of thing up, the polls are going to be stuck at 60/40 or above, indefinitely. Groundhog day forever.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23481579-5013871,00.html
Not surprisingly, here is someone else who disagrees that John Howard was Australia’s best PM.
Unfortunately for her and the Howard camp, most of us don’t agree with either choice.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23475425-5013947,00.html
Howard was the most divisive PM in our history – deliberately so as it was his modus operandi. It didn’t matter who got hurt in the process (refugees accused of harming their own children as one example) so long as it achieved the aim i.e. to embolden the racist or to disenfranchise the needy.
Stone is of course one of key players in the conga line. This line:
(Howard was) the greatest prime minister title for being a leader who “gave us back our sense of pride in being Australians” makes me laugh. Howard made me cringe with embarrassment when he represented this country overseas.
At least Menzies was a man of his time. Howard was a man from another era
Chifley is my nomination for greatest ever PM – a man with a vision for the long term future rather than simply the next election.
Not surprisingly most people disagree with John Stone.
I’m getting sick of listening to the constant negative nit picking, name calling commentary in regard to Rudd by the 3AW announcers and the so called political journalists associated with the station. They have an agenda and they’re following it through to the letter. I’ve just sent an e-mail to them stating this. It’s just bloody incessant. If anyone elese feels inclined try here. feedback@3aw.com.au
The numerous commentators who have been bagging Rudd’s overseas trip must be getting all their information off the Liberal Party web site.
{AUSTRALIA and the EU will upgrade their relations through a new partnership deal announced by Kevin Rudd and EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso this morning. ]
{Mr Barroso, meeting Mr Rudd for the first time, told a joint press conference that “we really want to give an important upgrade to relations”.
The pair put out a joint statement, a rarity for the EU Commission chief and a foreign leader, stressing Europe and Australia’s “common values and close historical, political, economic and cultural ties”.
They have agreed in the statement “to intensify our work to upgrade EU-Australia relations through a new Partnership Framework, including priorities for cooperation on international security, trade, development issues, the Asia-Pacific region, climate change and energy, science and education, aviation and the movement of people, including visas”.
Mr Barroso said the EU-Australia relationship was “a key partnership both for Australia and for Europe”. }
If this and the other milestone discussions and agreements that Rudd has achieved so far, don’t count as an improvement on what went before, I’m astounded. And there is still the China talks to go yet.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23476583-5013947,00.html
Went to watch Tony Jones (lateline) launch the book he edited last night (The best australian politicla writing 2008)….he really did give a serve to the press gallery and how ministers were practically writing their stuff for them and how he could pick quite easily where information came from………he really did rubish their integrity and deservingly so it would seem……..
Check out the Possum’s latest spray.
http://possumcomitatus.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/is-he-australias-most-useless-editor/
Looks like there is not much joy for the Libs in SA at the moment either.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23495407-5013871,00.html
Says it all really.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23495407-5013871,00.html
It looks like the Libs are now trying for the “sympathy vote”. Trouble is, I don’t think they are likely to get much sympathy from any quarter.
This article is worth bookmarking for future reference.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23484820-5013871,00.html
Thanks Scorpio @ 278, I’d missed that. New post up.
Curtin, without a doubt, was our greatest PM.
A devout socialist (due to experiences in 1890s recession) self educated in economics he created economic reforms that are still with us, stuff like the Reserve Bank (tho he dealt with the Commonwealth Bank in the 30s & 40s) and uniform income tax across all Australia.
When Menzies eventually returned from the UK Curtin refused to join in a National Coalition War government (all responsibility but no power.)
When he became PM he steered through a hostile Senate the Bills that implemented his economic reforms, reforms still with us today. Curtin, in the middle of conducting the war operations still thought of the future and the post war immigration, Snowy Mts Scheme etc all arose out of his work, others like Chifley implemented them post war but it was Curtin’s planning for the post war resettlement that was underneath all that.
As war time PM he defied Rooseveld and Churchill together and separately over the destination of the convoy of Australian troops: Curtin wanted these back in Australia, C&R wanted them to go to Rangoon where, without their transport and heavy equipment the Japs would have had no trouble defeating & capturing them. These divisions eventually started reaching the Kokoda Trail just at the time the Japanese advance was both at its closest to Pt Moresby and faltering, the regular troops then began pushing the japs back and eventually out of PNG.
Chifley accepted changes to the Electoral Act that led to the Labor loss in 1949, pushing to nationalise the banks etc did the rest. Menzies then coasted on Curtin’s & Chifley’s work and when he did interfere caused 20% inflation which then required a credit squeeze (just when we rocked up in Australia in mid 1957!)
Any chance of a Newspoll tonight? After last weeks no show will it be a weeks break or a fortnights?
Scorpio
Is the fact that they lost the election finally sinking in? The first sitting of parliament gave the opposition some media, because it was a novelty.
I have “Google News Alerts” set up for most shadow ministers they have become almost silent in the past few weeks.
Opposition is difficult and I doubt that any opposition members who have had ministerial responsibility will be there after the next election.
Ruawake, just curious, do you speak from personal experience or just stating your observation?
Has anyone here heard the whispers concerning Kennett?
This campaign by the MSM is starting to have a certain MO that has a familiarity about it…is one retired or retyred???
Re: #280
McGauran should spare us the crocodile tears he cries for the jolt of changed employment conditions, from being in government to opposition.
He supported abolishing protection for workers from Unfair Dismissal, effectively exposing any and every employee to summary dismissal at a moment’s notice – no reason even required.
At least he had ample notice of his impending changed employment conditions – a luxury he and his conservative cohorts were only too keen to deny to other workers.
Sympathy for Coalition members (supporters of WorkChoices)? Come off it!
No need to answer, but I have wondered for some time now how many ex or current politicians are active on this site. Methinks quite a few.
What makes you say that Fulvio Sammut?
Fulvio.
Both
Well, nothing specific, but many people appear to have inside knowledge of the workings of government, and some pre-empt political and policy announcements. Some, like I thought Ruawake did, appear to speak from personal experience.
I could be wrong, I often am…
280 Scorpio
That article is fan-bloody-tastic! Congratulations Kate Legge.
Someone should take a copy of it and send it around with a handwritten “this is journalism” scrawled across it. Insightful analytical, and opening a window without being an “exclusive expose”.
People Skills:
“Even if you are by nature reflective there isn’t time for introspection,” Abbott says. “The routine breeds it out of you. You’re so busy advocating, listening to other people’s problems, we lose some of the emotional tools to enter deeply into our own experience … We don’t read as widely as we should. We’re unfamiliar with the language.”
ruawake,
I think there is still some degree of disbelief remaining with many of the Coalition Members, but I think there is a partial realization that their demise was largely of their own doing.
There is certainly “relevance deprivation syndrome” being experienced by previous Ministerial and Secretarial Members but they have to accept that their fate was predominately in their own hands and they just have to come to grips with it.
Claims that they need counseling etc to help them adjust is just confirmation that they were not fit to govern anyway and the Australian electorate certainly recognized that. It’s time that these sooks also come to grips with that fact and move on.
Poor old Downer doesn’t miss all the “hard work”. What a joke.
Most people would find it very hard to accuse Downer of being a workaholic. He couldn’t even take the time to read the e-mails and correspondence relating to the oil for food scandal with AWB.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23484820-5013871,00.html
293
Scorpio – no Cabinet Minister reads every email and cable he is sent not even Stephen Smith, get over yourself!
The problem for ex-ministers is that they have the Department removed from them.
This means the policy advisors for various facets are on the other teams side. Do not underestimate the power of Govt. Departments to de-politicise issues. I know someone in Agriculture who’s job was to make sure GM crops were not a political issue for instance.
Most politicans can not or will not accept the “de-motion”.
There are a few exceptions, the Creans, Beazleys etc. who were/are professional politicians – perhaps Howard also falls into this description.
Maybe Tony Abbott, Chris Pyne and a couple of others will hang in for the long haul. Turnbull will because he sees politics as an exercise in ego.
Politics is a blood sport – not many handle defeat for an extended period.
It is starting to sink in.
On the nose Australia-wide. No-one they can pay to be their friends anymore. Expect more heads to self-lop.
Glen,
I don’t think that any reasonable person would expect a Minister to read “every” e-mail directed their way but.
Most reasonable people would “expect” that any significant communication would be brought to a Minister’s attention and subsequent action.
That that did not occur in this particular case and that of the Trade Minister and PM, is a sad reflection upon the competence of not only them but their support staff also.
Either there was incompetence of the gravest order or their was corruption within Government.
You can take your pick of which one you favour, but there is “NO” degree of grey that can be attributed here.
Cheers, Scorpio.
279
Scorpio Says:
But do you win government by presenting coherent argument against the government or by presenting yourself as a better government, one with competent people and better policies.
No use complaining unless you have a viable alternative. In a lot of cases Rudd avoided the need for a better alternative by saying I will do it like that.
The present lot is complaining about a salute and a wifes choice of cloths, as if anyone cares.
Charles,
Not my words. John Wiseman, SA political reporter os the author.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23495407-5013871,00.html
Scorpio 270:
Interesting that even being so far behind hasn’t held the the LNP from handicapping themselves with ‘WorkChoices Mk II’. This is still a plan to sideline unions as Nelson hinted at the first time he revealed this ‘new’ policy.
It will be all too easy for Labor to paint this as WorkChoices. The LNP will be spending half their time during an election trying to say that it isn’t WC.
And if we do have any sort of a slow down with increasing unemployment the people are going to feel a little bit scared of WorkChoices come again.
*Pathetic sexist post alert*
For all the Kate Ellis devotees (and I know there must be lots of you out there), the lovely Ms Ellis will be live blogging tomorrow at 12 as mentioned here, presumably SA time. She is interested in ideas on youth issues. I’m sure I can make something up.
http://blogs.news.com.au/adelaidenow/guestblogger/index.php/adelaidenow/comments/youth_summit/
Kina Says: @ 300,
I would much rather Costello wander off into the sunset and take his radical Industrial Relations ideas with him.
I feel sure Kevin Rudd & Julia Gillard are having much difficulty containing their glee at the Opposition’s intent to continue shining the lantern of Workchoices so brightly almost every chance they get.
The polls will remain at stratospheric levels and the next election will be like taking candy from a baby. Nelson should get used to seeing 6 to 7% 2PP figures for a good while yet. Can they get any lower? Probably.
I don’t know what happened in that last post. Hopefully people can work out the link should have gone in after “Costello’s achievements”.
“Sort” goes in front of “Claytons”. Here is the link again.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23484820-5013871,00.html
Totally OT, but for those interested these 2 web sites give a wonderful insight into the loss of HMAS Sydney.
http://www.findingsydney.com/
http://presspass.findingsydney.com/blogs/search_reports/archive/2008/04/05/search-report-4th-april-2008.aspx
Fresh Newspoll: PPM 73 Rudd 9 Nelson
No further news at moment.
News Poll out. Nelson back to 9% PPM. Rudd at 73%. Wow.
Beat you by a beat. Nothing online yet.
Rotter. Yeah, nothing yet. I checked it too.
Probably have to wait till midnight before anything comes up on the Oz website.
Doing nothing about climate change- Labor State Governments and Federal Governments are coming up with fossil fuel solutions
Geosequestrian is costly, time consuming and a waste according to
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/climate-change/solutions/no-nuclear-no-geosequestration/not-geosequestration
Newspoll arrticle.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23503731-601,00.html
And, by gum, what a silly article it is…
“The poll, taken at the weekend exclusively for The Australian, shows the Coalition has failed to peg back Labor’s dominance despite Dr Nelson’s political win in forcing the Prime Minister to announce a June visit to Japan after the Opposition accused the Government of neglecting a key strategic ally.”
“Political Win” – how can it be a political win, if there are no spoils of victory?
oh and there is this gem:
What a load of crap.
Newspoll thread open, so I’m closing this one.