Fresh from apologising for monstering a terminally ill campaigner for asbestos related illness sufferers, Tony Abbott is taking a break from criticising others for their “sanctimony” to actually talk about his portfolio responsibilities. He’ll be debating Nicola Roxon today at the National Press Club at 12.30pm, an event likely to attract even fewer viewers than yesterday’s economics wormfest. Which is a pity as health has hardly rated a mention during the campaign so far. I hope someone asks Abbott about why he was so brazen in refusing to even negotiate a new medicare agreement for blatantly political purposes this year, and about why Cardinal Pell is apparently in charge of women’s health.
Feel free to treat this as an open comments thread on health and the debate.
The debate has started and Abbott is not there. Roxon bags him for being discourteous and demonstrating the govt is out of touch.
HA!!!
The journos are not happy that Abbott has squibbed it, so Roxon has just offered to do a ministerial impersonation, if it would help.
Lovely smile, laughs all round, nice one.
Tony didn’t turn up?
What about this line:
“Let’s be upfront about this. I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn’t necessarily mean that he is pure of heart in all things.”
Perhaps someone should be pure of heart themselves before they judge other people’s hearts.
Watching the discussion now and Abbott not showing is not going to play well in the papers whatever the excuse. A huge faux pas.
Roxon BTW is terrific, first time I’ve had a chance to see her in a longer format.
When you go Tony Abbott, you don’t attack him from the left. He loves that. What you do is go in and piss all over his favourite tropes.
Abbott’s first job as Health Minister was to backflip, climbdown and otherwise undo all of the policy that his predecessor Kay Patterson - a health professional - put in place. So: Abbott is a flip-flopper.
He had the discretion over RU486 taken off him because he was seen as Pell’s boy, and he lives in dread of the old boofhead making any more demands on him. When you consider how long he’s been in the portfolio, he is ripe for attack from the right: if I were as stark raving Catholic as Abbott pretends to be, it is perfectly accurate to say that Abbott has funded and facilitated more pregnancy terminations than almost any other Australian. Yes, there are some Protestants, some committed secularists, who haven’t been so culpable as Tony Abbott.
So: under attack from both left and right, this means that the only defence of Abbott can come from the moderate centre. Good luck fella! Ha ha ha ha!
He has arrived.
Opening statement: first sentence is critical of the media.
At the Press Club. After you insulted them by making them wait.
Onya, Tone.
Facking people with serious medical problems. If they’re not getting their special parking places, they’re claiming the moral high ground
It’s obvious Tony’s the real victim here.
I just tuned in as Abbott arrived. No real excuse given, just something about “things going awry”. Maybe his taxi driver couldn’t speak English.
One could be entitled to ask :
“How can you expect him to organise a department/hospital or anything, if he can’t arrive on time for a meeting with the press during an election?”
Re obesity, Abbott says: Parents have responsibility for what goes in their kids’ mouths, meaning, government will take little action against advertisers targeting kids with unhealthy products.
I don’t think Roxon will be getting a Christmas card from Abbott!
Go Nicola.
When asked why his travel arrangements cut so fine, Abbott blames the speed of the plane. Physics has a Labor bias.
If Abbott’s looks could kill, then Roxon would’ve died in the last two minutes.
Much more interesting than yesterday’s treasurer’s bout.
I agree; terrific. Intelligent and measured responding to questions. Backed Abbot into a corner on AWA’s for nurses (did he fail to rule that out BTW?) and when she pointed out that Tony had just admitted that the next health funding agreements would again be presented as a last minute ultimatum she had him on toast.
Nice parting shot by Roxon. Effectively saying that most of the thanks for todays discussion should go to her. Heh!
What sheer arrogance and contempt Tony Abbott has shown all at the Press Club and Nicola Roxon (he didn’t even apologise for his lateness to her or other guests!!) and most of all Australians viewing this program.
Nicola Roxon was very, very impressive both in style and more particularly in succinctly putting forward genuine policies. Tony Abbott on the other hand had nothing new to offer other than divisive digs at the “Labor States”, Kevin Rudd and “take us on our record” claims and a disingenuous comment about how much he loved being Health Minister.
Tony Abbott was “done like a dinner in this debate” by Nicola Roxon and it made it great viewing, if only to see this arrogant man’s ego deflated.
Tony Abbott, almost sobbing: I really, really, really, really, really care for sick people.
That line was so sugary anyone hearing it would turn diabetic. Abbott should have stayed on that plane.
I loved the final remarks of Ken the moderator: I hope to see you both (looking at Roxon) next year … in whatever (turning to Abbott) capacity - as if to say: Tony, you won’t be in this job next year, maybe not even in politics.
Back to selling used cars is probably the best option.
“Abbott … Back to selling used cars is probably the best option.”
Which begs the question: would you buy a car … ?
Tony Abbott knows it’s over he is only going through the motion,he is racking up the frequent flyers,before he takes his super.
I dare say he is studying the “Red Book” on used car prices.Although being a used car salesman takes some integrity.
And it looks like he has a problem taking over a ‘used hospital’ - now the Tasmanian Medical Council are unhappy.
I wonder if staff are still willing to buy the line that they won’t have to go onto AWA’s. Funny that the Gov isn’t enforcing the use of AWA’s at Mersey. If the staff are ’so much better off’ under AWA’s, it is irresponsible not to enforce its usage.
Della Bosca in NSW has been making the point for the past week that if the coalition wins, they’ll be forcing health workers and other public servants such as police and emergency workers onto AWAs. This is a big issue which I wish the ALP were making even more of.
The electorate thoroughly deserve to lose the pure hearted, devoted health Minister Abbott, if for no other reason than we are inattentive slobs, whose sleepwalking may mean we don’t have him any more. Serves us all right if happens!
Frankly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Brian Burke will not know whether to laugh or cry when he reads this from Howard either.
“As for what people I meet do - any more than you can be responsible for what the people you meet do - I can’t be responsible either.”
Opening up the issue of AWA’s is just part of his ‘bad hair’ day. Check out his headlines so far to-day:
“Apologise to asbestos campaigner, Abbott told”
“Abbott apologises to asbestos campaigner”
“Abbott late for start of debate”
“Mersey hospital takeover delayed”
“Abbott’s apology to Banton genuine: PM”
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual!
Let’s see this attack on Bernie Banton for what it is not.
The snide attack is not an isolated case of a Coalition Minister being over-the-top and cantankerous, although that is the Mad Monk’s habitual demeanour.
Abbot’s comment is more than an indiscreet personal style. It is part of a calculated modus operandi of the whole of the Howard Government: attacks designed to discredit and isolate critical individuals by questioning their integrity and denying the evidence.
The whole of the anti-union campaign is wrapped up in an attempt to discredit the individual unionist and union leaders. It is mongrel politics in which Government Ministers impugne all union leaders and union members with the rhetoric [”union bosses”] on the basis of some plain spoken and abusive union officials who probably get as good as they give as they work to protect their members’ interests. And the jellied betrayal of the union movement as Rudd caves into the supercilious taunting by Howard, Costello and Hockey abets these Coalition tactics.
Government Ministers - especially Joe Hockey, whose ignorance of some basic industrial relations concepts is appalling - have also savagely attacked the integrity of IR academics who produced a report whose results they did not like. But then, the Coalition Government has based its IR policy on ignoring research outcomes that don’t give comfort to the ideological presumptions of “Work Choices” [itself a rhetorical term so at odds with the realities of AWAs that the Government has tried to dump its own branding of an IR policy that gives ordinary workers little choice].
It is not merely an election ploy: it has been going on for the life of the Howard government. Just how successful this strategy is can be seen from how Labor supported the anti-terror legislation, which has undermined basic democratic legal rights. The Haneef case illustrated just how fundamentally changed Australian law has been changed by the Howard Government’s legislation, where someone can be incarcerated for weeks without charge on information that was evidentially wrong. Did the Labor Opposition focus on the injustice of the laws while Haneef sat in an Australian cell without charge? Rudd said he would accept the AFP’s advice on such cases.
The Haneef case brought out another aspect of the Coalition strategy. The Courts released Haneef. Immigration Minister Andrews - who, when Workplace Relations Minister, showed equal disregard for workers’ rights - took away Haneef’s work visa on the basis of “secret” details supposedly given him by the AFP on the basis of Haneef’s “character”. All the charges eventually laid against Haneef were dropped, but the Minister, contemptible of the legal proceedings, further impugned the doctor’s reputation and put him in no other position but to leave the country.
So, Abbot’s comment is not evidence of an idiosyncracy we have come to expect from the Mad Monk. It is an endemic strategy of a government which has turned nasty. It is redolent of the tactics of the neo-cons in the US Republican Party. And it reflects the tactics of autocratic regimes.
I am not so much appalled at Abbott’s insensitivity towards a dying man, although it provides insight into the man’s character. What alerts and alarms me is this evidence of arrogant authoritarianism. Such attacks on individuals’ integrity don’t have a place in democratic debate: they belong in repressive regimes. They are the first tactics employed in the repression of dissent: attacks on personal integrity are designed to silence the rest.
Learn to whisper if these people are re-elected.
Piffle! Not since Marie Antoinette promised brioche to the rioting mobs of Paris has there been a set of promises made in such a self-serving way by someone with so little credibility. This has undone the Liberals’ 4% Newspoll Fightback!, the tactical victory over Kyoto and all that strange girning Howard has been doing recently.
Far from Abbott being plugged into some wider meme, he is as he has always been: a swaggering bully who can dish it out but can’t take it. Do not underestimate the bruise upon his psyche that will come from being done down by (someone who used to be) a girl.
I’d be very surprised if they were not making quite a lot of it but just using communications channels other than the mass media. These are huge blocks of voters and well worth particular, dedicated communications strategies.
Abbott’s failure to even turn up on time demonstrates his base contempt for the public.
That is the reason the Libs are going to lose this election.
And it’s also the reason why our nation’s public hospitals are in such a bloody horrible state.
Sorry for being late to the debate, but just I had to heckle some cancer patients on the way in, and time just flew by.
That’s simply no excuse. I managed to get here and, as well, check whether anybody I met on the way or during the debate, were pure hearted enough to have the right to speak. Get a life, and get with the program!
But when one is pure of heart, ‘arrogant authoritariainism’ is merely the manifestation of being right. Get over it, loser.
How rude of him to allow a flight to be delayed.
How unthinking.
It has never happened to anyone else, ever.
The Governemnt should do something about it.
The government could have done something about it by ensuring that its health minister was not required to travel from Melbourne to Canberra on the day of a nationally televised debate on his area of responsibility. It was typically arrogant of this government to have Abbott in Melbourne on the morning of the debate. But Howard clearly decided, in his usually devious fashion, that a photo op with Abbott at a hospital would gazump media coverage of the debate. In keeping with the tenor of the times, the trickiness backfired and and NOW the story is ‘Health Minister Stands Up Australian Public’.
Was his flight delayed? I cannot find that info in any news report and Abbott didn’t offer it as an excuse. In any event: he chose to still be in Melbourne a couple of hours before he knew he had a live TV committment in Canberra and to have no back up plan (ie the asst minister or whoever to step in), very silly of him to say the least.
Abbott never even pretended his flight was delayed, that’s just another B.S. contribution from Razor. What Abbott said was:
In other words, once I was already running late, I couldn’t make the plane go any faster.
Fairfax are calling it Tony’s Day From Hell.
You know, it seems to me that the Libs are suffering from the “Schultz Syndrome” (for those of you old enough to remember Hogan’s Heros). Everybody seems to “know nothing” - it’s always the states fault. The exception of course, is Kevin Andrews who knows everything - but he’s not telling!
I look forward to “wall to wall” ALP governments - couldn’t be any more dysfunctional than the Fed/State realtions are now could it?
I love that from Julia
Tony got his excuses in early
Debate tally so far:
Rudd V Howard.
Winner, Rudd over a lying twitching cranky old duffer.
Swan V Costello.
Draw. Both across their brief.
Roxon V Abbott.
Winner, Roxon over an arrogant disorganised tool.
To come:
Gillard V Hockey.
McClelland V Downer.
I think we know where this is heading……..
The thing is - he was in Melbourne for a 10am appointment. He needed to be in Canberra for 12.30.
It takes, oh, twenty minutes from Cbr airport to the press club. The flight takes an hour. You need to be checked in half an hour before.
That would mean he would need to be at Melbourne airport at 10.40am AT THE LATEST in order to make it - now, frankly, given the airport location in Melbourne, unless you’re at a Hospital at Tullamarine, you’re not going to make it.
Clearly, this was very very shoddy scheduling.
The annoucement wasn’t even Melbourne-specific! They could have had it anywhere! Such a dumb-arsed move.
I’m having an organism,
You are too kind to Costello. Peter Hartcher gave that debate to Swan on the basis that if Costello didn’t win it hands-down, he was the loser.
I can’t believe I’m the first to mention the excuse that Abbott should have offered for being late: “I might have been drunk off my face or my political enemies might have drugged me.â€?
BBB
This brings to mind the game in which Zoe Goss bowled Brian Lara. Sweet.
Catlick - are you implying Abbot is comparable with Lara in some way?
Frank Calabrese “I love that from Julia”
Er…Nicola, Frank.
But now you’ve got me wondering what Gillard’s impersonation of Shrek would be like.
I’d happily supply the green deely-boppers if needed…
This should go down really badly with the seven people watching the debate on tele.
are you implying Abbott is comparable with Lara
FDB “arrogance” springs to mind.
I reckon Abbott was deliberately late.
The first thing he said was something about not wanting to make “a grand entrance” (as if). Upstaging your opponent by being late to show is the first trick in the book of dirty debating tactics.
The look on Roxon’s face when he first came in, said it all (contempt). As a former practicing lawyer, and his shadow for some time, she knows his form.
Abbott gave no coherent reason for being late and his apology was insincere. He was later recorded sneering “bullshit” in Roxon’s ear. Probably pissed off that Roxon had openly criticised his contempt for the viewers. How unfair.
And Roxon won the debate the moment she offered to impersonate Abbott in his absence to amuse an audience of cranky journalists.
Yep, my bad.
“This should go down really badly with the seven people watching the debate on tele.”
Monaro, it’s the images afterwards that will hurt. On all media. Especially, the course language, caught by mic, while pretending to shake an opponents hand and show good grace.
Two faced Tony has been exposed .
I’m gonna go against the grain here and say I thought Nicola made a hash of it by acting like a bitch about it afterwards when they were shaking hands for the cameras.
The 730 Report played that part complete with subtitles because they were speaking under their breath and I thought she looked like a real bitch, just giving him a hard time for the sake of it. Giving Tony Abbott a hard time for the sake of it plays well with the True Believers, but to most objective people, he was late flying from Melbourne to Canberra, and he apologised, after apologising she continued to act like a bitch after the debate was over.
I thought she would be been better served for doing what the rest of us do in society and accept the apology with a stern ‘don’t let it happen again’ kind of thing. As it stands I dont think that last bit made her look any better than him.
Damned time-zones! I miss all the fun stuff…
Oh, it will be pure comedy gold! I particularly look forward to Teh Downster carping on and on about teh “arrogance” and teh “shallow” and teh “I was totally cleared by the AWB Royal Commission. I didn’t know nuffink I tells ya! Nuffink’!”
I don’t know much about McClelland, but I hope he’s got a bit of mongrel in him. Downer will, no doubt, once again expose himself as a complete goose.
I thought she would be been better served for doing what the rest of us do in society and accept the apology with a stern ‘don’t let it happen again’ kind of thing. As it stands I dont think that last bit made her look any better than him.
Wait, what. “a stern ‘don’t let it happen again’” would have been OK but her much-milder-than-that post debate comments (to which Abbott creepily overreacted, natch) make her “a real bitch.” He did not apologise to her personally, as far as I could see on the telly.
And she was right, if he’d wanted to be there on time he could have. Howard and co set the time for their own policy announcements, no reason they couldn’t have done it to give him time to get there.
Oh and add to the list, Crean and Truss are debating trade at the Lowy Institute tonight, they put the audio up on their website the day after for the real tragics among us.
I think we now understand why Abbott has been invisible during the campaign until today. Who remembers the 2004 campaign, and his appearance on Lateline when he was caught out, cold, lying to Tony Jones that he hadn’t met with his mate Pell during the campaign?
Jeez he’s an asset.
No wonder Howard’s been keeping him out of harm’s way. Come to think of it, where are Andrews, Ruddock, Bishop, Minchin, Truss, McGauran etc etc?
No no no, Snorky.
The real Where’s Wally challenge is Where’s Bill Heffernan?
Poor bastard’s probably been shoved in an oil drum somewhere in a bank vault in South Australia.
(I believe Danna Vale is remaining brave and true exclusively in her electorate).
As much as I cannot stand ABBOTT, arent we overlooking the very bad press or media both Melbourne based and Sydney based on matters nursing and hospitals managed by the present State Governments,and isnt this part of the reasons that ABBOTT wants to be really successful in diminishing the Federal ALP on this,although I suppose Federal grants to the States are involved in the oversight all matters health and medicine!? So the question or questions of the validity or otherwise of the ALP administration,with obvious Liberal pressure and governance requirements,has to be separated in some way so it becomes a greater hazard to the administration by States of Health and Medicine!? Yet the Liberals cannot intervene on a daily basis,and any shit the ALP has to cop,is probably a case of needing enquiry anyway!? So has ABBOTT had a bad day if other peoples memories fail to see that the States of Victoria and N.S.W and even Tasmanian agreement with Howard cannot seem to get it right,and the last thing the people need,I will opine is controversy continuing in all this!? The more one of the major parties at state or federal level find weaknesses the more there is a ricochet movement of the bullets,and hurting everyone in their trajectory. If you had a choice between Lennon the Tasmanian Premier,who cannot imagine I suppose how willing BOB Brown would be to retire if shits like him werent around, as a then returning to practice Doctor,and say Howard knowing Bob was practicising medicine..who would you think would be better accepted by Doctors in Tas with that as choice!? The failures at State level in these areas of treatment arent sometimes the States Administration, but conservative medical practice,and, when the Administration is badly wrong its their conservatism,and both sets of conservative matters do end up being costly as they tend to clash regularily because of money involved.GPs could do more without overworking,if, they were more accepting of alternative medicine and new understandings of disease..they all seem like dependent intelligent children to me,rather than adults frightened of new community expectations and old medical paradigms. Why be part of the political cheer squads when there is more matters of concern passing through hospitals and doctors surgery that need as many angry responses!?
This has easily been the best day of the campaign.
I just love it when a bit of the ‘real’ Tony comes out for all of us to see, I remember that lateline interview in 2004 very well snorky, that angry condescending tone he took with Tony Jones was exactly the same tone he took with Nicola Roxon after the debate, what a genuine asshole.
Abbott and Gillard are together on Lateline tonight.
Stephen Lloyd ‘goes against the grain’ and suggests Roxon was over the top in her condemnation. I tend to agree but you have to remember these professionals are blinkered in the ‘give’m nothing ‘ school as one former Labor minister put it to me. The enemy is always the enemy even if you went to the same school, uni, et cetera.
Abbott is the probably the most ideologue Lib in the Howard camp. He would love to have been back running DEETYA (Dept of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs) that first let him loose on the political scene. But Work Choices eventually needed a human face so Joe Hockey carries the day.
Abbott must hate running health … all those sick people. He probably has trouble determining who he dislikes more…sick dependent people and/or ALP shadows. But you have to feel a little sorry for him in having to carry Howard’s crazy, impulsive vote grabs as the Tassie Mersey Hospital deal is now showing.
pablo. “Abbott must hate running health … But you have to feel a little sorry for him… “
No.
Whatever he gets, he deserves more.
Does Abbott’s behaviour remind anyone of all the “crazy, angry man” criticism levelled at Latham?
Seems to me that Abbott was getting very angry at his colleagues prior to APEC, when the wheels were just starting to get wobbly. He was determined to pull them all into line and back up his beloved PM (then being white-anted), but I think now he has basically just given up the ghost. I don;t think he believes they can win any more, and he doesn’t see much reward for years of grovelling and head-banging, or much place for himself, in a post-Howard Liberal Party.
Roxon rocks.
It’s hard to imagine why Mr Abbott has grown so angry and foul-mouthed of late.
He should be happy that daily it is becoming more likely that he will be the next leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party.
Well, I am somewhat inclined to think there’s something in what Mahatma has just posted after just viewing the Lateline television show. It was a lot funnier than Micallef too. Is it just me, but are those flappers of Tony’s getting more extensive? LINK
Julia was ON FIRE tonight on Lateline.
agree, kim
she ran rings around him!
he seemed a little punch drunk from all the knocks to the head he took today - but being an old pugilist - he knew he was fcuked, so just stood back on the ropes, waiting for the bell, in the end.
as for his heartfelt apology to bernie banton on the 6 o’clock news, he was grinning like a 8 year old kid, while saying how sorry he was (and on lateline). this wont go unnoticed.
Yep, jo, and the Mersey fuckup won’t either. And Julia nailed him - if AWAs are so very fabulous, why are they scrambling so quickly to deny that they’ll be “offered” to Mersey staff?
It’s quite a significant moment I think - will really undermine what little rep for “trust” the Libs have left.
And Julia was on song for sure! LP was on the money campaigning for her to be leader, just quietly…
That was splendid watching Gillard give the Mad Monk a right royal touch up on Lateline. Could Abbott be any more of a walking own goal?
he seemed a little punch drunk from all the knocks to the head he took today - but being an old pugilist - he knew he was fcuked, so just stood back on the ropes, waiting for the bell, in the end.
I don’t read the Hun myself, but I saw one open at the editorial page on the train. There was a great cartoon with Abbott as a boxer alone in a boxing ring, beating himself up mercilessly.
Maybe I’m just getting too cynical in my old age but my theory is that Abbott was deliberately late to the debate because he knew he would get trounced by Roxon and exposed as a fraud as Health Minister. Better to have the news talking about his tardiness than his poor debating performance and the government’s incompetence over 11 years.
It also robbed Labor the opprtunity of raising the profile of the excellent Roxon.
The beauty of this was that noone had any idea who Roxon was before today. Noone knew what she looked like, what she stood for and had Tony made the debate none of this would have changed.
The way things turned out raised her profile. A lot. If I was Mr Abbott I’d be looking to fire the person responsible for scheduling.
On the other hand, while it was very biased I couldn’t help laughing at one ABC report that described Mr Abbott as having his ‘very own sorry day.’ Bet they’ll be some complaints about that but LOL!
That’s right Gazzard, except for your last sentence. The excellent Roxon raised her profile because of Abbott’s absence and won the debate hand down, on points as well as substance.
But in any case, these debates are not really about substance (unless one of them fumbles the facts), they are about perceptions (how do they shape up against each other in open contest).
After his inadequately explained late entrance, his failure to directly apologise to Roxon, his careless blah-blah delivery, and his later sledging, Abbott was left looking lily-livered and emotionally confused when confronted by competent and courageous women (Roxon, and Gillard on Lateline).
Given that Cardinal Pell actually dictates the Government’s women’s health policy, because our Health Minister has no moral compass other than religious dogma, it is fitting that Abbott should be taken down in the end by women.
And that handshake, on the front page of the GG today, looks like a killer Latham moment to me. The doctor’s wives would have been watching.
“The beauty of this was that noone had any idea who Roxon was before today.”
Speak for yourself tssk. Many women interested in politics have not only heard of Roxon (she writes columns regularly for the SMH), but think she will make a fine Minister.
When is John Howard going to publicly apologise to the Australian people for keeping the Monk away from the debate? Clearly Abbot was forced to go down to Melbourne - probably against his better judgement - by Howard. And, then, in the reports I watched all I saw was “Honest” John making all the running while The Monk glowered in the background. Howard has taken to making public announcements with a bevy of advisers and ministers around him. The cost this time was to the Liberals’ campaign and especially, Tony Abbot, whose performance ofver the past 24 hours should earn him the new moniker of The Mongrel Monk.
Given that Cardinal Pell actually dictates the Government’s women’s health policy, because our Health Minister has no moral compass other than religious dogma, it is fitting that Abbott should be taken down in the end by women.
yes! Perhaps there is justice after all. Good one Grace!
Jackie Frank (the Editor of Marie Claire) was on Sunrise this morning and said as much in no uncertain terms, stating that Abbot’s attitude towards women was a barbaric thug and that this ‘day of hell’ couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. The hosts were genuinely stunned by her frankness on the matter and tried to gloss over it.
David Penberthy (editor of The Terrorgraph), rather unsurprisingly claimed that Abbot shouldn’t have to apologise to Roxon and that Abbot was laudable for being ‘a real person’.
Jobby: “…editor of The Terrorgraph…claimed that Abbot shouldn’t have to apologise to Roxon and that Abbot was laudable for being ‘a real person’.”
The editors of the Murdoch rags all seem to have gone completely bonkers. That’s if they ever were not.
Come November 25th, will they all be found stripped to their underwear, smeared with lunch, scribbling on the walls of their offices?
In reply to Grace, that may be true of us political junkies but I think a whole lot more people will be keeping an eye on her now. My wife who’d never seen her before went “wow, who’s this” when seeing footage on the box last night.
And she wasn’t too happy with Abbott’s response.
While I hate to use the GG term ‘punters’ I think out there in punter land this will play very well for the ALP.
Damn right, grace.
To get the whole “experienced government” thing up, Howard had (yes, we can start with the past tense) to rely on his senior ministers to monster the relatively inexperienced Labor frontbench.
In the debate with Swan, and the few other campaign events he’s been seen in, Costello was flat when he should have been upbeat, smirky and snide when he should have been statesmanlike and humble. True, Howard should have given him the ‘change of heart over Aborigines’ thing, but it’s also true that you can’t just sit around waiting for John Howard to hand you stuff. The case simply cannot be made that the Liberal Party would have been better off if Costello had become leader.
Then, Turnbull. The whole idea of leaking that most recent Cabinet discussion about Kyoto was to make Howard look Strong & Resolute in contrast to Weak & Vacillating and Worried About Own Seat. This didn’t work, and it also set up a situation that when it came time to give Labor a wedgie over post-Kyoto, the Coalition couldn’t capitalise on it. Instead of a muddled draw, that should have been a clear triumph for the Coalition - and the reason it wasn’t is the fault of Howard and the bunch of clowns who consider themselves Liberal strategists.
Now, Abbott. If ever Howard needed one of his big guns to blow the opposition away, now is that time. There’s been a poll bounce, and a big effort by Abbott coulda given the Liberals a lift. Not so: firstly, this is a boofhead who doesn’t really believe women should be doing non-domestic, paid work. Second, his staff let him down. One of the government’s biggest guns became a loose cannon. If a moderate had done this, Howard would have sacked them and be backfilling right now.
John Howard is now utterly exposed. None of his ministers can help him; even a big effort by a minister (say, Joe Hockey) would only set him up for opposition rather than help the Coalition get back in. The big guns are silent, and the rabbits all have calici.
You can stand up for Abbott (I liked his line about only wanting half the National Press Club souvenir), but you’d be a fool to say that anyone who was sitting on the fence until yesterday has now come down determined to vote Liberal. There were plenty who’d go for Labor now, and plenty more still undecided, but for the Liberals yesterday was terribly unconvincing. There is a great deal of wank about whether a campaign has “won the day” when that day is not election day, but yesterday was not so much a Labor victory as a dead Liberal loss.
I knew some people who worked for Abbott and who absolutely loved the man (always thought he was a swine myself). Any one of those people would have picked up the running sheet and seen that their man had just on two hours to get from Melbourne to Canberra, and would have thrown a fit - calling Loughnane or Nutt and demanding a change, and all but grabbing Abbott by the arm at 10 o’clock sharp and wheeling him out of the room toward the waiting car and aeroplane, wearing any flak from the wide boys on the campaign executive team. Howard would have forgiven him - Costello, not so much, and no other minister - but Abbott, yes.
Those staffers, the stone-cold professionals, have all gone to be government affairs dollies or lobbyists or some other role with more money and less responsibility, and have not been replaced by people of equivalent quality. An election campaign is lost by many factors, but poor staff work is part of it. This is also a symptom of an ageing government.
Yesterday was the first time I saw Nicola Roxon in action. I always thought she was a bit mousy and your standard staffer-union Labor hack, and inasmuch as there was any fuss about her it wasn’t clear to me what it was. Now I see that she’s got the goods to be a minister, smarts and toughness and a personality.
In the remainder bins around the nation’s bookshops, look for plenty of copies of Latham and Abbott: Hot for Boofheads by Michael Duffy. If it’s cheap enough, it should be good for a laugh.
Abbott was in Melbourne at Howard’s insistence. Abbott’s lateness for a TV appointment was Howard’s failure.
I guess you’re right, Grace. Unlike us political tragics, most of the “mob” think Kyoto is some kind of fancy japanese recipe, so they’re not interested in substance. I guess any publicity is good publicity in that sense.
A bit late but I just saw Lateline. Why TF are the ALP hiding Gillard and Roxon under rox? They are brilliant, articulate, classy women who made mince of T’Abbott.
The scribes will probably call the week a draw, but in my estimation Tone lost it for the Libs single-handedly.
How can one person actually possess three arseholes, at least one of them on his face?
Interestingly, the idea in my previous comment comparing Angry Abbott with Lethal Latham was picked up by the GG today, producing some very un-Murdoch-like opinion from Michael Costello:
Or not turn, as the case may be.
Abbott and Gillard did their usual Friday morning spot on the Today show this morning.(Is that tautological?) Somebody seems to have told Abbott to get back in his box. The Packer Puppets gave him heaps about yesterday while Gillard sat by grinning with delight.Only one slight growl. The attack dog has been well and truly muzzled.
Given the Puppets have the inside running on what’s happening with the Libs, there was a question hinting Abbott and Howard had had some kind of falling out, which Abbott denied. For those of you who can’t stand the Tosay Show, this circus is on just after 7 am every Friday. So you don’t have to sit through all the junk.
Nevertheless, the little gay Hollywood gossip columnist now visiting our fair shores is an absolute delight.
Am I the only one who watched this debate who found Nicola absolutely obnoxious, bullying, arrogant, condescending, viscious, uptight and insincere?
Obviously anyone who has decidedly jumped on the labor bandwagon adored it, so I realize I am running the risk of being mercilessly attacked.
However, I’m sure that any in who has a clear knowledge of how the health system works would see how superficial her responses actually were.
Furthermore, her constant nagging and references to Tony Abbots lateness got on my nerves.
He was late, obviously it was a bad move. However, it’s not completely unforgivable. He apologised several times.
Labor’s proposals are so weak that she had to spend a considerable amount of time chiding the opposition about not being punctual in order to cover up the fact that she had no worthwhile initiatives to propose. What relevance does Tony Abbott’s lateness have to the health system? It’s pathetic.
I’m not a diehard fan of Tony Abbott myself; but I really sympathized with him in this debate.
If I had someone being that unpleasant to me I’d snap as well. It doesn’t give me much faith in our political system if our elected representatives can’t even be civil and considerate of each other’s circumstances.