Dear oh god, Abbott musty be as dumb as a box of doorknobs to have systematically fucked up everything so badly so far and yes, knighting a Duke was the final straw.
What kind of pack of dimwits try to go hardcore on idealistic changes that are way to the right of everything they promised when they don’t have the number in the senate to get the legislation through in the first place? That’s a special kind of stupid.
I’d like to see Turnbull get the gig because he would be the best option to silence the mad right wingers in there and drift the idealism back closer to centre. Given a decent run at it he could be a genuinely good PM. Abbott on the other hand has proven himslef an excellent opposition leader. He was a great opposition leader when Labor was in power and now that the Libs are in power he’s been a far more effective opposition leader than Shorten, but he sucks as a PM
(emphasis mine)
Take it from this American: ain’t no different up here. 
Simply put, 95% of the time, politics is the art of choosing the lesser of two jackasses. You have to ask yourself a question: “would I like to have the bucket of shit dumped on me, or the bucket of piss? Or, perhaps I should go for the bucket of vomit?”
This thread has several zingers, but this one is the best so far, thanks stui:
…whatever happened to ISIS’s plan to win the hearts and minds of all Australians?
Translation: “He TOTALLY sucks, but it would make me look bad to say that in my out loud voice. Malcolm, can I be deputy under you too?”
I’m watching but not enjoying it. Abbott’s a shitty person with shitty ideas, and I’m just hoping that none of it sticks before somebody finally scrapes him out of his seat.
Div and I talk of little else at the moment. Div’s hoping like mad that the spill fails and Abbott remains PM. Another leader might actually be able to get a budget through, and even if it wasn’t Abbott’s (Hockey’s) budget, it would still be a Liberal Party budget. Abbott as PM through the next election virtually guarantees a landslide LNP defeat.
I have no idea who is running Queensland. I suspect the Public Service. And that may be the best option.
That’s exactly how I feel about it.
Make no mistake; that’s who always runs government. The job of the politicians is to stop the public service from becoming moribund and to provide some influence towards public opinion. The job of the public service is to keep everything plodding along and act like a lead weight on politicians’ powergrabs and dumbass flights of fancy.
Pardon my ignorance, but is the “Liberal” LNP actually the more “conservative” political party of Australia?
Like how the “Liberal” LDP is actually the more “conservative” political party of Japan?
Yes. Liberal on the right, but still well left of American Republicans.
Nationals also on the right, in permanent coalition with the liberals, the party for rural folk.
Labor (spelled your way ;)) on the left.
Greens further left (tiny presence in the lower house, big enough to be a thorn in the government’s side in the Senate.
Palmer United Party (the current political comet) all over the shop, needn’t bother learning their name long-term.
I’m hoping that we get a decent federal government sometime soon but I’m not holding my breath.
Shorten is copying Abbotts playbook and playing small target in opposition, letting the government self destruct but I shudder at the idea of that twat as PM.
best outcome for me would be Turnbull in charge of the Libs, silencing or booting the far right nutjobs currently infesting the party and getting a good balance between left and right happening.
The opinion polls are well in Turnbulls favour but there’s two groups of people who don’t want Turnbull in charge of the Liberal party, the Labor party and the Liberal party.
Anyway, as you probably should know, the Aus Gov decided last year to move from a 3 Level system of Australian Honours, to a 4 level system. This is a sensible, rational decision: the 3 level system was broken, and incompatible with other national honours systems, which created diplomatic problems (even though it was copied from Canada, which made us like, the exceptional countries with the “right” way of doing it)
They couldn’t just promote everyone from the top level into the new top level, because the previous system was broken, incompatible with other national honours systems, and created diplomatic problems. So they restored the fixup level on the top, and are individually promoting people from the 2nd level to the 1st level.
For constitutional reasons, the Queen and her consort have a technical position at the top of our tree, and the decision to put Prince Phillip into the top level of our honours system is a technical move, which should have excited no comment, except that the opposition party has literally no political ideology other than FUD and name calling.
Australia day of course, because it’s an Australian honours system, and the office of the Prime Minister of course because this is so unimportant that it’s handled as routine.
But …
You don’t like Abbot, and the worst you can say about him is that he awarded a knighthood to Prince Phillip? Sheesh, the Labor party really has run out of ideas. And they ran an election campaign in Queensland on, “it’s got nothing to do with state government, but --Tony Abbot–”. Sheesh, the Labor party really doesn’t stand for anything at all, does it?
I voted independant in the last election, because I hate them all. And I preferenced Labor, because I hate the Liberals even more. But among the reasons I hate Labor, is their willingness to exploit the ignorance and stupidity of their own supporters, as shown by this episode.
[QUOTE=Melbourne]
I voted independant in the last election, because I hate them all.
[/quote]
Lots of people would agree with you about that, lots of 'em. The last 6-7 years have seen politics slide into insincerity, fakeness, bluster and name calling with it seems little else to speak for it. I am deeply ashamed of the whole lot. We need policy debate in health care and drug law reform, we need inspiring environmental projects, we need sincerity on promises made, we need science to remain vital and promising. And by the bloody hells we need representatives who speak for their people, not a party line and who don’t treat the people that elect them like complete rubes. We need representatives who you can actually believe - right now they couldn’t convince their way out of a wet paper bag. We need representatives who actually give a **** about advancing the simple dignities of modern life - rights for all, reason instead of regulation.
Instead we have people like Abbott, who thinks terrorists and old people working longer is what Australia wants to hear about. Nor does it care to see a ‘captains pick’ or whichever term Tony thought sounded cool to describe giving a useless honor from a forgotten age to an already entitled foreigner that patrons a bunch of charities instead of doing any actual work on the ground. Not worth coming to anger over it alone, of course - its just part of a pattern I believe people are seeing.
Right now I think there’s only one person who wants Abbott to continue as PM more than Abbott himself and that’s Bill Shorten.
Agree totally. I can’t see why the media continue to misrepresent this issue and the Labor politicians can’t explain that.
I must agree with the OP - I have my popcorn out and am enjoying the spectator sport. If I didn’t see it that way, I would end up in despair.
Probably for the same reason they don’t challenge the crap about the NBN - a high speed broadband network that pays itself off, becomes an asset (that a future Liberal government will undoubtedly sell) and opens up massive opportunities for technological innovation and business. Instead we get Fraudband, based around an aging, decrepit copper network that we’ll lease, not own, and will not only cost almost as much, but will need to be replaced in ten years or so.
I feel for poor old Malcolm, having had to sell that as a great idea for the last two years. I still remember your story on these boards (it was yours, wasn’t it?) about emailing him late at night as a lowly law student and getting such a cheerful reply back. That and the fact that he got turfed out of the leadership over actually taking climate change seriously, make him the only current member of cabinet I actually have some positive feelings for.