This leaflet arrived in our letter box this morning. It’s 12cm by 23cm, on heavy paper / light card, with glossy print. Not cheap.
Side 1: White print on blue background. “We listened. We learned. And WorkChoices is dead.”
Side 2: White print on blue background. “We will not bring back Workchoices. WorkChoices is dead. WorkChoices is dead and any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.” (Signed) Tony Abbott. Photo of Abbott sitting at a table, flanked by senior Liberal MPs, looking chairman-of-the-boardish. He is holding his hand out in explanatory mode and speaking. The others are listening. “Stand up for Australia. Stand up for real action.”
Evidently Liberal party polling is telling them that workers vote too.
I wonder how wide the distribution of this leaflet is. For the record, I’m in Adelaide, in the Sturt electorate, currently held by Chris Pyne for the Liberals, and likely to stay that way, unless the hometown “We love Julia” effect has an impact.
Have you received it?
desperate much?!
I wonder how many within the Liberal party are wishing they could reverse that pesky “workers vote too” business…
They lie.
Like it or not, believe it or not, that would be very effective way to negate the issue. Putting it in writing in plain terms will be very convincing.
Wonder who thought it up? Too smart for Abbott.
Well if they want to be cheeky and instead of racist Lindsay phamphlets they could manufacture a Labor Phamphlet that says..”Climate Change is Dead” “We will not bring it back and any suggestion to the contrary is wrong”
Stand up for Australia…
Stand up for the Mining and Coal industry.
Signing pieces of paper promising not to do things recalls two people: Mark Latham, and Bart Simpson.
that pretty much summarizes Tony Abbott’s personality though doesn’t it, Terry? The worst of both of them in one ugly big-eared budgie-smuggling package.
You won’t find me signing up for the “Green Left for Tony Abbott” express, sg.
Yeah, that’s exactly what they needed. “WorkChoices” printed in large type four times, with Tony Abbot’s picture and signature. Current frontrunner for the “I am not a crook” award for political message framing.
d
It also reminds everyone with that signature of his that he himself claimed only what he writes down can be trusted. Everyone who glances at that pamphlet will be reminded of that when they watch the debate!
Has anyone else noted Tony Abbott’s references to Julia Gillard “faking it”. He is using the words purportedly to refer to policies but as a dogwhistle it also has mileage with many males.
A friend of mine who has many years working with women who have been subjected to domestic violence says the words are coded to appeal to males with a tendency to accuse women of “faking it”.
Can anyone else shed some more authoritive light on this?
More ‘things you gotta do’ [if you are Tony Abbott].
Praise women.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-election/abbott-praises-the-women-in-his-life-20100724-10pd3.html
It was interesting to visit a newspaper online a day or 2 ago, I forget which paper, SMH or Age maybe, which had a poll that asked:
“Does Tony Abbott have a problem with women?’
The results were running about 2:1 ‘yes’ [presumably the Young Libs were asleep].
It crossed my mind that perhaps the question could have been:
“Do women have a problem with Tony Abbott?”
And a follow up question [which presumes the pretty obvious answer is 'yes']
“Why?”
Now OK they may not have had space to list all the possible reasons but its seems that noting that Tony is unpopular with most women is accepted now but rarely is the suite of reasons to explain such explored in the MSM.
Jeez mediatracker, if true that TA is using that phrase, then that is disgusting of him.
Include that on the list of reasons why most women can’t stand him.
A lot of of it really is specifically about the reproductive freedom issues. Even the handful of politically conservative women I know are all appalled by the rosaries-on-the-ovaries.
Nice dog-whistle, mediatracker. That really is a long bow to draw on the use once by TA of the term ‘faking it’. In the context of the interview I don’t see any difference or inference other than his previous statements that JG is a fraud.
Does anyone else find the “And” in “And WorkChoices is dead” irritating? It sticks out like a burr. Apart from being redundant, the presence of “And” screws up the layout – forcing that sentence to be split into three really uneven lines.
The whole thing smells of being thrown together at (almost literally) the last minute, with no audience testing whatsoever. I guess the SA Liberals must be messing their pants.
And what has Howard got to say about this?
The pamphlet is a negative for Liberals. Every time the word WorkChoices appears, in any context, it reminds people of WorkChoices, and the Liberal vote goes down just that little bit more.
It was said that the in the US, the Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for 40 years. The Labor Party could do the same with WorkChoices. It is the gitt that keeps on giving.
The phamphlet is a considerable positive for the Liberals. Labor will be dragging out Workchoices over and over, it wont be a secret. The whole previous election associated the Libs intimately with it. The electorate right now associate the Libs with it and Labor will beating this drum over and over.
The Liberals have done the right thing. It is come out with its baby and murdered it pubicly. And it has done it in the most authoritative way possible by putting in plain simple terms, in writing.
Do people really thing that if the Libs don’t talk about it nobody will remember?
I just checked the very, very fine print at the bottom of the pamphlet. It’s authorised by “Christopher Pyne MP” and it gives his electorate office address. It’s paid for out of “his printing and communications budget.”
Thomas Paine
I think you are correct. They are stating very clearly and openly that they have listened and learned and WorkChoices is dead. They will have to keep doing to to counter the negative (for them) campaigns being run about it.
Surprising though is the total absence of the LP Logo on the leaflet.
The Libs/Abbott/Pyne have a problem with their premature announcement of the ‘death’ of workNOchoices.
As illustrated by this:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/work-choices-not-dead-yet-says-abbott/story-e6frfku0-1225810093994
“While new Liberal leader Tony Abbott has maintained “the phrase Work Choices” was dead, he also believed aspects of the old legislation should be reinstated.”
There is more.
OK its over 6 months old and the Libs seem to want us to believe they have done a ‘backflip”.
But there is plenty of room for installing workNOchoices via other legislation.
As Kerry O’Brien showed when he confronted an evasive and uncomfortable Joe Hockey a week ago with one such example.
When Abbott appeared on radio and signed the piece of paper that workchoices was dead etc he could not resist within a few minutes qualifying that:
“But let’s, I mean, Work Choices, it’s dead, it’s buried, it’s cremated now and forever. But obviously I can’t give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations legislation. But Work Choices is gone now and forever.”
There is more in the link.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-abbott-signs-contract-on-work-choices-but-muddles-message-on-workplace-laws/story-fn59niix-1225893906267
The point is that the name ‘workchoices’ may be in hibernation but its essence is alive and well.
And people have cottoned on to that.
Which is why most Australians [women in particular] believe the Libs would re-introduce it if elected.
This pamphlet from Pyne will not convince them otherwise.
Coming from the good folk that revelled in the term ‘non core promise’ I trust this latest piece of Lib propaganda very little.
The leaflet doesn’t have the LP logo. Maybe it’s not really theirs.
It would be a very, very bold activist who sent out a leaflet like this, using the local MP’s name, as an anti-Liberal tactic. I’ve see nothing in the local rag decrying it. I suggesting that it’s not the Libs leaflet just because the logo is missing is a fairly long bow to draw.
yeah grigory they could have stuck the LP logo in big emblematic form just one word below the word “WORKCHOICES.” That would work out well for them I’m sure.
Deborah
Not really such a long bow to draw (nice phrase, hey?). South Aust has some history of misleading documents in electoral campaigns.
sg
Everyone already associates WorkChoices with the LP, so there really is no point in hiding it. I would not expect to see the LP logo anywhere near the naughty WC word, but it would not be out of place alongside the two-line slogan under the group photo.
I tried to magnify the small black print at the end of the leaflet to see who supposedly authorised it, but it pixillates and is unreadable. Anyroad, Deborah says it states it is from Pyne.
Maybe they can have another flyer like this when election day comes closer. In the middle they can have a picture of John Howard on fire, and they can photoshop in Tony Abbot, wearing his budgie smugglers, pissing in the opposite direction…
…Maybe onto an asylum seeker, to cover all their bases. But not a female one, because he’s cool with the chicks.
I’ve tried getting a better photo of the fine print, Grigory M, but my camera is not up to it, and I don’t have a scanner. But you’ve got the key detail i.e. Chris Pyne authorised it.
Thanks Deborah. Not to worry.
Would you trust Christopher Whyne any more than Smuggles?
They must be targeting the suburbs they drop it in, Deborah. I’m in Sturt too, and I don’t recall seeing it. (Although anything from Pyne goes straight into the recycling without more than a glance, so I may have missed it.)