Now, we all know that poor Tony Abbott, after unaccountably losing his ministerial salary, is undergoing severe mortgage stress and struggling to pay the bills for his daughters’ private schools. Maybe that accounts for him popping up in what really is looking like today The Opposition Organ, rather than being boned by Fairfax, where his column previously appeared. Maybe he’s returning to his journalistic roots and angling for a gig as op/editor, which after all is up for grabs, Tom Switzer having joined Brendan Nelson’s staff. Along with Peter Hendy and other architects of WorkChoices, which would no doubt account for Nowhere Man’s stellar political trajectory.
John Howard used to say over and over again that he wasn’t a commentator, a line recently picked up by Malcolm Turnbull. Tony Abbott obviously is one, writing flights of fantasy about Rudd stepping down for Julia Gillard in 2012, justified by all sorts of far fetched historical parallels (after all, we all know in commentariat land nothing new ever happens, and everything that does happen can always be explained by analogy to Gough Whitlam or Tony Blair or Bob Carr of whoever). You can make of all that what you will, but in putting on his columnist’s hat, Abbott must have taken off his frontbencher’s cap:
The coming budget will help to reveal Rudd’s political character. One of the reasons for the anticipation around this budget is that it should be the new Prime Minister’s first brush with hard decisions. A budget that hacks into government spending will show how keen he is for the new Government’s economic credentials to be taken seriously.
Malcolm Turnbull was saying the other day that there was no need to cut spending at all. On the Howard principle that if you have the dosh you spread it around, I guess, and because we all know Wayne Swan either made up or created inflation. Of course, yesterday, Turnbull was simultaneously arguing that the government did have to cut spending and the government didn’t have to cut spending, so maybe Abbott was on message after all.
Btw, if anyone was looking at this post and wondering where the link to Tony Abbott’s column was, I apologise because I forgot to include it. That’s now been rectified.
Honestly, why would they publish this sour, bitter drivel? Where do you start? Ah, the envy in the line about 70% Prime ministerial approval is pretty funny.
I can’t abide the sneering, preening arrogant twit. He represents all that has gone wrong with the Liberals. If only Tone was still in power to make the hard decisions. Pfft!
I actually did the sums to see how badly off our poor mate Tony is when he first started complaining about mortgage stress. Strangely enough I couldn’t find any sympathy for him.
Abbott’s use of West’s words in order to persuade what he perceives is a gullible News Corp audience (understandable) into believing that Rudd = Tony’s construction of Carr, is quite amusing…& his argument that in a Rudd-led govt “riskless longevity” will dominate over “worthwhile policies”…now that is most definately a case of the “pot calling the kettle black”…but the kettle has yet to see the flames of time. Rudd’s smart…but he’s not stupid. He knows the electorate is demanding change, but he won’t jump to the beat of Abbott’s drum. Or into the traps him & his ilk have set.
Incremental change…isn’t that what King John was into?
“West could nominate only “the preservation of wilderness and strong children’s literacy scores”…”
As oppossed to introducing the GST, selling parts of Telstra, being blinded by the intentionally dimmed light of the AWB fiasco, bragging over a brutal refugee policy, taking part in the Iraq FIASCO, sitting on your hands as the rivers ran dry, feeding bonuses to under-educated kids to have babies & buy cheap electrical goods…hmmm
NSW Labor is turning out to be an Achilles’ Heel for Federal Labor. Each time the scab heals there’s an Abbott “on call” ready & willing to race into the melee, get down on hands & knees to dig their fingers in & draw more blood. Perhaps Labor needs to give NSW a left leg transplant?
However, “Preserving the wilderness” gets a big thumbs up from me…whereas pollies who spend more time focusing on their extra-curricula pursuits at the expense of their electorate & job, such as helping to transform a first class public medical system into a sucked dry caricature of its former self, gives me the proverbial sh*ts.
Heya Kim,
Where’d yer post on GTA driving males ta slaughter their partners go? I still see it in the feed-reader, but not here…
The Mad Monk channels Nostradamus!
But I s’pose Tone has plenty of spare time to catch up on his reading these days.
Readers of Nostradamus::
Please note that this apparently clear reference to my good self:
“another for ambiguous or sinister”
is not about me but about a sinning Minister [sinister] and an ambidextrous, contiguous [ambiguous] sword fighter.
With the old Nostradamus, it’s really all in the interpretation. This is often best left until AFTER the events, as you must surely be aware.
I AM mentioned in five other quattrains, but modesty does not allow futher explication
Ambi
Bloody hell! Gillette’s share prices must have soared since the Libs had the reins ripped out of their pudgy maulers.
Rumour has it that the Mad Monk is thinking of designing and marketing a purpose-built palm shaver. Apparently there has been strong interest among opposition MPs; Malcolm Turnbull is said to be especially keen.
“I think there is a desperate need for this type of device in Liberal party rooms country wide”, the would-be Liberal leader reportedly said.
I don’t get it; is that weird little crack at the end about Gillard supposed to be some kind of dire threat that the bogey-girl will get us if we don’t watch out? And if it is, hasn’t he been paying attention to the fact that Gillard has hardly put a foot wrong since her beautiful turn on election night and her popularity stocks have soared accordingly (not that they were that bad before)? These days even my dad likes her. The Monk needs to get out more.
She’s got red hair, is barren and is a Communist, Dr Cat. I think that must reflect Tone’s thinking on these matters. I think the poor old thing actually believed that the Coalition were going to win, and actually believes all the dirt he and Costello hurled was true.
Mr Creighton, I decided it was based on a false premise so deleted it. Motto - I shouldn’t blog about stuff I don’t know anything about.
“Gillard has hardly put a foot wrong since her beautiful turn on election night and her popularity stocks have soared accordingly (not that they were that bad before)? These days even my dad likes her. The Monk needs to get out more.”
agree Pavlov’s Cat…she’s an asset to this Country. I think The Monk does get out…but he doesn’t get off his bicycle long enuff to hear the real deal. Still, at least he’s not contributing to the carbon output problem like many of his comrades in opposition. Tho I do worry about the “hot air” emanating from his mouth sometimes.
nasking: have you checked?? are you sure his mouth is the relevant orifice?
At least Abbott is writing for the right paper now. What a load of drivel. Being poor must have addled his brain even more. He deserves everything that’s happening to him and more for his relentless bashing of people on welfare. Maybe he might even start to wonder if there’s something in the cncept of karma. Rudd standong down for Gillard in 2012. I wish.She’d probably end up with a higher approval rating than 70%. But then again, the Mad Monk has never been much of a prophet, despite his Opus Dei piety.
Tony’s tangled attempt to be Jesuitical needs to be read in conjunction with Melanie La’Brooy’s witty demolition of Liberal leadership contenders (in Tuesday’s Age) Psst! Want to be Liberal leader? Well here’s the secret … http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/psst-want-to-be-liberal-leader-well-heres-the-secret-8230/2008/04/28/1209234757229.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Though I’d quibble with “Attack dog” when Tony’s Oz effort was so very catty!
“nasking: have you checked?? are you sure his mouth is the relevant orifice?”
Ambigulous, can’t say i’m keen enuff to smell his chair in order to find out.
Red hair, barren, smart, refuses to be a good submissive little woman, doesn’t go to church…
She’s obviously a witch.
Stoke the fires!
Out of ideas, eh?
This is a man who’s been banging on about families, families, families all his political career (which has put plenty of distance between him and his sonless family). Now, he’s Shadow Minister for Families, Families, Families, Centrelink, Families, the Northern Territory Intervention, and Families. You’d think the man would be in his element - but no.
Not a word on his portfolio area - so Jenny Macklin joins Gillard and Roxon as Labor Women Who’ve Put One Over Tony Abbott. This is a man who will not, in official correspondence, address letters using the title “Ms”. When Kate Ellis starts to do him over, when people (particularly Labor people) start referring to him as “good old Tony”, he will have been completely de-clawed. This day is not far off.
The Liberal Party will not get rid of him straight away, he’ll hang around for a decade beyond his use-by date just like Bronwyn Bishop.
Andrew E
the possibilities abound: “good old Tony”, “the Latecomer”, “Ring Tone”, “Lower the Tone”, “Puzzled Tone”, he’ll be a veritable gold mine. Was he a boxer? He still has that pugnacious stance, somewhat like Mark Latham.
And that funny walk.
For me Tony Abbott will always be the lightweight behind the poorly-researched, half-baked, witless Mersey Hospital takeover. He hadn’t read the research papers that were the basis of the downgrade. Hadn’t talked to the Tas government. Hadn’t talked to his own department. Seemed unaware of the previous hopeless history of the hospital. Apparently unaware that the hospital was only serving 40,000 people and that full function hospitals need around 200,000 to provide appropriate case load and case mix. Seemed to be under the impression that the Tas govt was planning to close the hospital rather than take away some functions that were being duplicated 40km down the best road in Australia. Seemed to think that the road in question was a pot-holed dirt track. Was under the impression that spreading money around prior to an election is not pork-barrelling if the recipient community thinks it’s a good idea.
I was never a fan anyway, but that decision clearly established him as a complete tool.
The mad monk is at it again, this time through a column at the SMH.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/05/01/1209235053934.html
As Paul Burns mentioned @ 13….
“He deserves everything that’s happening to him and more for his relentless bashing of people on welfare.”
This goose seriously believes that payments should be quarantined 50% for ALL welfare dependent families. The assumption being that every famaily, in that position, cannot be trusted to take care of their kids properly.
“Mad”, he certainly is.
Paul Burns wrote:
He only does that to save his knuckles from the pavement. Watching him walk next to J-Ho just before the election last year made me wince.
Joe2,
I hope he goes bankrupt. Over the years I’ve known many so-called welfare dependent families who always made sure the rent or house payment was made, always made sure the kids were well-fed and clothed, and even managed to put aside some money for the kids to go to the movies. Finding work in a rural town if you’re unskilled is not always easy, and I know personally two single parent families where the mother has starved herself to the point of illness to ensure her kids were fed. And these are the kind of people Abbott is STILL bashing. It’s disgusting.
[Red hair, barren, smart, refuses to be a good submissive little woman, doesn’t go to church…]
And she can’t cook a steak on the Barbie either
I wonder if old Tony is considering a move into the WA Libs, they do need someone with high morals and ethics
nasking yesterday evening stated
“Ambigulous, can’t say i’m keen enuff to smell his chair in order to find out.”
Well young feller-me-lad, there’s no future for you in WA State politics is there? I believe the accepted term is “sniff”, by the way.
Jenny, good points about the Mersey Hospital. This was a bit strange and unfamilar for those of us living in Victoria [= far north Tassie].
You say, “I was never a fan anyway, but that decision clearly established him as a complete tool.”
There’s a book to write, Tone. Not “Tool Time”, that was on TV.
“The Compleat Toole”, an obscure reference to “The Compleat Angler” by Isaak W. May your book “The Compleat Toole” be replete with anecdote and stricture, Tone.
And don’t worry that it’s title sounds like “The Compleat Foole.” Dolly’s writing that one: hands off, you simply DREADFUL person, you !!!!
Actually, I’m waiting for “Dolly, the dirt grovelling years”. I’ll pay cash money for that one. Although, the monks memoirs, packed as they should be with sexual exploits and unknown numbers of illegitimate children could be our generations “Lolita”.
Abbott seems genuinely obsessed with stigmatising the less fortunate and bullying them about how to live their lives.
He is an odious self-righteous thug.
But is she made of wood?
Re dear old Tone’s suggestion that 50% of welfare recipients’ dosh should be quarantined, maybe we, his employers, should follow the same recommendation in respect of his salary. After all, he’s been bleating about not having enough money for the mortgage and school fees. We should be rightly concerned that the kiddies might not have a roof over their heads and a school to go to. Immediate quarantine, I say, although I’m surprised he hasn’t already done so seeing he’s so keen on it.
Heh!
Good one, Jane!
Yer, you have nailed him, Jane@29.
It is possible for this obnoxious toad to come out with the most outrageous and unreasonable propositions and be taken seriously and uncritcally by the likes of Michelle Grattan, for instance.
http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2008/05/01/1209235059147.html
He is more dangerous than Pauline Hanson ever was.
Indeed Jane & Joe2…now that Tony seems to be rather LOST…& roaming the corridors of the media like a chameleon searching for a habitat, rather than attending to his work as a politician, perhaps he needs to have his benefits suspended as an external motivation…until he appropriately puts his nose to the electorate grindstone again? I guess his attraction to his hobby rather than his work is understandable tho…in the light of his recent job insecurities and change in “guardian”…w/ Father John now travelling & yapping here, there & bloody everywhere, home must seem much lonier. Lucky he has those PERKS to keep him company. Many don’t.
nasking, if Tones was in retirement mode, i would feel a lot better.
If it was not true that he is behind moves to push the hapless, Bumbles Nelson, to an early grave, it would not be so bad. Once the next blokes words have clearly turned up bull…in comes Monk and ready to lead, just before an election.
What a scary prospect. He makes Howard look like liberal.
Sheesh, Tones is a resident of NSW, perhaps DOCS should be notified for an Emergency Care and Protection Order?
(perhaps he could ask Kevin Andrews for legal advice, surely one of the DOCS workers is Indian, owned a SIM card and gave it away to his cousin in England who had a friend, who drove a jeep and ran it into a building leased by a man who danced with a girl who might have been a terrorist but who, notwithstanding the above, once danced with the Prince of Wales?)
So true, Peter Kemp. Hush.
And a quarantine of Tones’ wages @ 50% would leave him with only $63,530, per year, base rate. I just cannot see how this little aussie battler would manage. Do you reckon he is prepared for the the same kind of scrutiny that he would wish on the poor?
If so, game on.
Shit! You mean he’d be expected to live on about the average male full time wage? Perish the thought!
“if Tones was in retirement mode, i would feel a lot better.”
I doubt he’d give you that pleasure joe2…he seems to enjoy hanging around & throwing “out of date” pies this way & that. Doesn’t he realise how expensive food is getting thanks to his lot & their allies?
The stab at Gillard does seem a bit odd and doesn’t fit with the rest of the article. However, Abbott often provokes Gillard like this to stir her into reponding.. he reminds me a bit of the guys at school who’d annoy the girl they liked to try and get their attention.
Speaking of Abbott and Gillard, I came across a great video of them on Youtube the other day which is definitely worth checking out: Linked text
Sorry, that link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57AZoqKQyZQ#
Thanks, Lorraine.
Yer thanks Lorraine, can someone please pass the bucket?