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On “Abbott Was A Wrecker In Opposition; Who’s Surprised He’s A Wrecker In Office?” at New Matilda
The thing that so many on the fringes of the political spectrum for get is that politics in this country is a game with a well defined rule book and no matter which side (speaking of the ALP/LNP ) you are part of the way to convince the public to give your side the treasury benches at a general election is by being far better at the day to day battles in the parliament and in the court of public opinion. The simple truth is that Abbott succeeded in opposition and at the last general election not because he was “a wrecker” As Chris Graham insists in his article but because he was a far more effective playing at the game of politics than Rudd/Gillard/Rudd. He would not have had a chance of success however had the ALP government not been so deeply flawed.
In the first instance Rudd was deeply flawed insofar as he was really good at capturing the imagination of the polity during 2006 and he made all of the right noises to convince the voters that he would be “Howard lite” he insisted to those of us concerned that a Labor government would be mad spenders were wrong to worry because he was “an economic conservative”. To the left he promised to be a champion for their environmental bet Noir of climate change and to do something about the then non problem of asylum seekers.
The history of the ALP’s last been much written about by its (cough!) stars (12 books and counting!) but one thing is clear and that the they were the wreckers, making changes that made no improvement to the country, Things like Rudd’s abandoning of the successful suite of policies dealing with boat people and the sorry story of “the greatest moral challenge of our generation” which when it came to the crunch he lacked that cahones to take to a DD election(which most pundits thought he could have won)
Rudd was a wrecker not because of his flawed ideologies but because of his flaws as a leader. A good leader of men is able to delegate and trust those to whom he delegates his authority to. Rudd was almost pathologically incapable of doing this. As an egomaniac and a control freak he managed to destroy the belief and trust of the public servants in his administration wasting both their good will and much of their work effort in his unreasonable demands and a bullying style to both his staff and parliamentary colleagues. Gillard was likewise a wrecker. First and foremost she was tainted with the dripping blood of the plotter’s knife but worse than that she was a political whore willing to say one thing to win office only to change like the wind when she needed the support of the Greens in the hung Parliament. The betrayal of her infamous “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” broken promise wrecked the remaining credibility of the ALP. The sad truth is that had she stood up to the Greens &’indies” and told them she would only agree to a carbon tax after the subsequent election Abbott would not have had his most powerful campaigning slogan.
In government the LNP under Abbott have not been perfect but they have been scrupulous in their determination to be true to their election commitments Against all of the predictions to the contrary the Abbott government has been able “stop the boats” and although this has upset the usual suspects, (hi Marilyn ;o) ) now that there is not the eternal new arrivals into the system the problem can be solved. There is still a large legacy of Rudd’s wrecking in the detention centers but that is being addressed.
Much has been made in this piece about the deployment of ADF people and planes to the fight against ISIS in Iraq but really what is the alternative? Can we really just look the other way and do nothing? Can we, as part of the civilized world ignore the slaughter of Shia people or the treatment of women and girls as prizes of war? Surely even the left must realize that destroying the Islamo-Fascists of ISIL is a moral and justified cause? Sadly too many seem unable to let go of their hatred of the United states for long enough to realize that they are all that stands between the world and the rise of a totalitarian Caliphate with global ambitions.
That said the problem that our own Muslim minority feels somewhat besieged by the tide of events is clearly not of the magnitude that many of the left claim it to be. In fact the number of anti-Muslim incidents has been very small and the panic from Islam apologists has been of far greater magnitude than any criticism of Islam in this country. Even the recent concerns about the Burqa in our parliamentary precincts has not created the sort of anti-Muslim hysteria that so many of the left invoke when ever there is an issue with ISLAM. On this Issue Abbott has been both calm and truthful He was honest about how confronting it is to have people who hide their faces in public yet accepting that we are not a society that wishes to prohibit those who want to do this.
To insist that Abbott Was A Wrecker In Opposition; Who’s Surprised He’s A Wrecker In Office? is to misread both the politics of the period of the last Labor government and to misunderstand the nature of a soundly administered government.
An open letter to Victoria Rollison
Dear Victoria Rollison
As one of those who voted for the Abbott Government I feel duty bound to address the points that you have made in your open letter because I do believe that you are very much mistaken in your missive:
I’m seriously unhappy with you. You might think that you understand why this is the case. You might think that I’m disappointed because the Labor Party is no longer in power, and it would be a lie for me to say this doesn’t contribute to my dissatisfaction. But what’s more important, and what’s driven me to write this letter to you all, is something far larger than the people who get elected. My issue is with you. You personally, and your greed and your selfishness, and your decision to put a fractional increase in your electricity bill ahead of your responsibility to provide a sustainable future for my planet. The planet I live on. The planet I am hoping will provide my children and grandchildren with a place to live. Yes, I’m hoping you haven’t contributed to the death of my offspring. This is how seriously outraged by you I am. This is personal.
It was neither greed no selfishness that motivated me to vote for the Abbott government, it was a profound disappointment with the six years of labor government, I was disappointed when its two leading lights Rudd and Gillard dissipated their electoral capital with their eternal self serving power struggle> I was also horribly disappointed by the fact that Labor never seemed to be able to manage even any of their sometimes laudable ideas properly into fruition> But when it comes to the Climate change policy they pursued I was angry at both the needless impost upon the cost of living and the clear futility of their grand plan. If the AGW theory is correct nothing that Labor did and that we are all collectively paying for is going to make a scrap of difference to the future of the planet.
So you probably noticed, or more likely didn’t unless Kyle Sandilands/Stefanovic mentioned it, that approximately 60,000 Australians turned out on Sunday to rally for action to combat climate change. You know, climate change, that thing that you deny, discount, laugh at, and generally ignore every time you have the opportunity. And yes, if you’re an Abbott voter, I do believe it’s fair to put you in this bucket. If you even begin to tell me you want action to reduce the catastrophic effects of climate change and that you also voted for the man who vowed to ‘axe the tax’, the very mechanism that was reducing Australian emissions and contributing to a world-wide acceptance of the need to do something about climate change, I will tell you you’re a moron. A dangerous moron. And this leads me to my reason for writing you this letter. I want you to know that I’m not just pissed off with you. I’m furious* (*not a strong enough word). And I’m not pandering to you anymore. This is a call for those who share my anger not to pander to you either.
I was well aware of the rallies you mention Victoria, but I think that you need to put the numbers that you are so proud of into perspective. We have more than twenty million people living in this country which means that as a proportion of our national population the turnout was truly miniscule. You may or may not be aware of this but the claims of a pending climate apocalypse have been rather oversold and like the boy who cried wolf its most vehement proponents are less than credible anymore. Like you I care very much about the fate of the planet that we share and will leave to our offspring and I’m even angry too. But I’m angry that so much effort and treasure has been wasted on the futility of mitigation rather than making us so much more flexible in our thinking and so much more capable of adapting to any changes that actually occur to the climate.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that climate change rally-ers have been out in the streets before, with similar rallies calling for similar action to do something about climate change. Yes, we’ve been out before. But I think it’s time things changed. I think it’s time to talk about what’s happened in Australia. I think it’s time to call you all out for what you have done. Australia had action and emissions were reducing. But now Abbott is undoing it, because you supported him to do this. Because you elected Abbott, you have brought about an outcome which equates to you personally choosing a few dollars in your pocket over the safety of the planet. You don’t seem to care about your taxpayer dollars being wasted on Abbott’s ludicrous tree-planting exercise, Direct Action. Nor do you care that every credible scientist – and most economists – know that this policy will not work. This waste of money scheme is going to end up costing you far more personally, through your tax dollars, than the Carbon Price would ever have cost you. And no one has yet been able to explain to me in words that make sense how you processed this decision into a rational thought.
Yes I understand that its the same people who turn up to such events and I even share some of your cynicism about Tony Abbott’s Direct Action plan but it at least has a chance to do some good for our environment even if the AGW theory is a load of old cobblers. That said there is no chance at all that the Labor scheme will make a scrap of difference to either the climate or to the environment in general. I just can’t understand why you cling so desperately to such a futile scheme that will enrich spivs and shysters.
I actually think it’s pointless that we, those who want action, rally quietly in huge numbers and then go back to our day jobs on Monday and tell our work colleagues that we were there at the rally and how it’s going to help. We’re talking to work colleagues who, in their majority, have used their democratic vote to empower a man who everyone with half-a-brain knows is a climate change denier, for the personally convenient purpose of maintaining his friendship/donor relationship with the likes of Gina Rinehart.
The thing is Victoria you have to want more than just “action”, you have to want “effective action” and there was no way under heaven that the Labor scheme could have ever given you that. All it could have ever been was an act of climate piety, an empty indulgence that would make an almost immeasurably small change to the climate even if the science is right and the Jury is out on that point.
But that’s the thing about Tony Abbott. You people, the ones who voted for him, invented him. Like a disturbingly incoherent Frankenstein thug, you needed someone to tell you that climate change wasn’t a problem. You needed someone to maintain your comfortable status quo, to tell you that your pastimes of shopping and buying credits on your Candy Crush iPhone game were perfectly justifiable ways to spend your spare time and money. You needed this man to give you a reason to do nothing, and to campaign against action when someone tried to do something about the biggest problem our society has ever, and will ever, encounter, to make you feel like you’re not doing something wrong by doing nothing. But that’s the thing. You’re not just doing nothing. You’ve given Tony Abbott a mandate to undo the only action we had. The action we, the responsible Australians, rallied for. You’re the handbrake, you’re the ‘control z’ that could destroy the lives of my future offspring. You don’t care that people are already dying in countries you’ve heard of but never visited, as long as your electricity bill isn’t more than it was last month, which it probably isn’t because you spent half the month in Bali drinking 50c beers and buying $1 copies of Breaking Bad Season 2 so your plasma TV wasn’t on for 18 hours a day. And this is the point I want to make.
The simple truth is Victoria that there are a lot of people who voted for the Abbott government who did so out of entirely altruistic reasons, we just want the government to soundly administer its programs and departments. We want our government to put the interests of Australians ahead of the making futile acts of climate piety. Nor are we all crazy slaves to consumerism many of us tread just as lightly on the planet as you yourself do. Some of us would never even consider taking the sort of overseas holidays you and so many of the participants and your climate rallies have on your CVs.
Climate change is not a debate. You have no right to an opinion on climate change. You’re not a climate scientist, I can guarantee it. Climate change is happening. It’s killing people now. Whether you like it or not in your comfortable little greed fest, we’re having more regular and more severe storms, droughts, floods and fires across the planet because of climate change, right now. People like me don’t go to rallies because we have nothing better to do on a weekend. And personally, I’m sick of the attitude that we, as a community of people who want to do something, should pander to people like you who refuse to listen, who refuse to understand what scientists are saying (note I say ‘understand’ and not ‘believe’ because this is not a fairy in the garden that you can choose to believe in or not). This is real. And it’s affecting those who want to do something about it just as much as it’s affecting you. But since you voted for Abbott, the coal companies are back in charge. Now we have a government who doesn’t even bother to attend the Warsaw climate conference, where the world is discussing plans to do something. Now we have an environment minister referencing Wikipedia to justify his denial.
This is where you go oh so wrong Victoria, everything in science is open to debate, without that its just not science, it is then nothing but a sort of religious dogma and it does otherwise intelligent people no good service to so misunderstand the principles of science and the scientific method. likewise it does you no good to inappropriately insist that only the priests (climate scientists) of your climate faith have any right to an opinion on the changes that you wish to impose upon our society and the whole world. We live in a democracy Victoria and the people have spoken, you seem to be implicitly arguing for some sort of totalitarian dictatorship to “save the planet” would you really want to live in such a society? To have every aspect of your life controlled for the sake of the planet?
So this is my statement: I’m not pandering to you anymore. I’m not pretending it’s a good use of my time to try to convince you of the completely and utterly proven fact of climate change. Polite diplomacy has not got us anywhere. You need to know loud and clear that you’re the problem. And you need to take responsibility for what you and your selfish lifestyle, and your prioritising of dollars on your electricity bill have done to the continuation of the planet we all live on, the same place where we all hope to see our children live without being destroyed by your selfishness and greed.
The planet will endure well enough without the Carbon tax et al, in fact the Australian economy and environment may well do better without out its odious burden. But beyond that I share your wish for us all to tread lightly on the planet. Like you I eschew the consumer treadmill In fact I am personally a great practitioner of the the mend and make do school of thought so all of my furniture and many appliances are on their second lives. The thing is such frugality is sadly less common from people of all political percussions, and it should be an underlying imperative for all of us.
Your legacy is a country which convinced other wavering, weak societies that there was no point taking action, because it would just be un-done if they did. You will be remembered, and studied by future generations as the people who had the chance to do something, but were too selfish, mean, greedy and self-centered to sacrifice just a small amount for the benefit of the future. I don’t give a shit if this statement upsets you. You deserve to feel upset. You deserve to feel like total cowards. You needed to think of people in the future, and all you could think of was an insignificant sacrifice on your electricity bill which might affect how much, ever so slightly, you can afford to spend on your lifestyle today. You could have just made the easy and smart decision to cut down on your electricity usage, which was really the point of the Carbon Price in the first place. But this was an inconvenience to you. Your mindset is a complete outrage. You’ve democratically elected the most dangerous person you could possibly have voted for at a tipping point in the future of humanity, and you argue in favor of this disastrous decision with all your energy whenever you can. This is beyond wrong. Your behaviour is reprehensible and it’s time we told you so.
Where your argument falls down is in your misplaced faith in the ability of humanity as a whole to consistently work together for a single purpose not just for a sort time but forever. Surely with your interest in politics and history you must realise that such cooperation is just totally at odds with the totality of human existence? We are by a very nature a quarrelsome creature who just can not play together well for long enough to make any Global scheme work. So you are just going to have to face the reality that the plan can n0t be made to work. Which means we have no choice but to adapt if and when the climate changes. There is just no point in doing anything else.
Next time you’re in the tea room at work equating climate change to the Y2K bug, I think someone should tell you you’re a blight on our future. Next time you spout your bullshit about the science not being settled on my Twitter stream, or you write loony comments on my blog to justify why you don’t want to do anything about climate change, I’m not going to engage in a debate with you as this just gives you the idea you’ve got some credibility in the argument. You have no credibility. I’m going to tell you you’re selfish and greedy. And I’m going to bring up this conversation with you rather than letting you ignore it. I’m calling on others who are as concerned as I am about the path this country has chosen not to pander to you anymore either. This is not a debate. This is you choosing to play Russian roulette with the lives of my unborn children. It’s not time for me to try to convince you to do the right thing because you’ve already had the chance to do the right thing and you spectacularly didn’t do it. Those who are worried about climate change aren’t going to get anywhere by being nice to you people. It’s time to get angry. It’s time to explain to you the gigantic error you have made. You voted for Tony Abbott. Now you have to live with what that means. It’s time to pop your comfortable little bubble. You’ve done the wrong thing.
Well I actually have children Victoria and I can tell you one thing and that is children certainly focus your attention on the future so I am doing my best to make sure that they are practical resourceful people who can make the most of what life throws at them. But I am also trying very hard to protect them form the sort of millenarian thinking that has clearly affected you on the issue of climate change. Our individual lives are oh so short and we are all rather insignificant. so all that I can do to close is suggest that when it comes to the climate we need to heed the wisdom serenity prayer even if you are, like me, an unbeliever:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference
We both as individuals will not be able to change the climate and it is nothing but a vain conceit to think otherwise so the only way for you to get past the pain and anguish you feel at present is to gain the wisdom about that which you can and can not change
Yours Sincerely
Iain Hall
The 25% solution and religion of science
It is entirely unsurprising that The Abbott Government will run a tight financial ship, that is what they promised to do when in opposition and clearly its what they are doing now in government. I for one think that if the new way of dealing with parliamentary travel expenses has a great deal of merit:
Ignore the Fairfax crowing, and instead look to the brilliance of the +25% penalty for an incorrect expenses claim
click for source.
Imposing a hefty and proportionate penalty for incorrect expenses claim should make all MPs think twice about making dodgy claims for travel expenses. This seems like a rather simple and elegant solution to the frankly rather small problem that has so enraged the minions of the left over the last few weeks. Well done Mr Abbott 😉
Which brings me to the victims of the Abbott Axe, those poor dears in the Labor bloated public service who will now find themselves out of a job:
click for source
Its clearly sad for the “scientists” who will find themselves down at Centerlink but I can’t help wondering if we as a nation will even notice their absence from the public payroll. frankly I think that just because what they do comes under the “science” descriptor should not mean that we as taxpayers can not expect some real bang for our bucks. Am I the only one who thinks that “science’ has become like a secular religion? And scientists its anointed priests? Like another religion its devotees think that questioning the holy is blasphemy and that those who do so are agents of the dark lord. I personally respect those who are learned in any field but I am just arrogant enough to question that which so many think to be unquestionable. Sadly mine is a heterodox position when it comes to “science” all that I can do is thank the blessed Saints (not of Kilda) that they no longer burn heretics…
Laters Comrades
Related articles
- An Open Letter to Laurie Oakes (theaimn.com)
- Abbott acts: crackdown on travel rorts affair (smh.com.au)
- Tony Abbott set to crack down on politicians’ dubious travel claims (theage.com.au)
- Abbott can’t simply ride out the expenses furore (abc.net.au)
- ‘Bills to fall’ after carbon tax scrap (skynews.com.au)
- The Abbott government: Climate policy as culture war (reneweconomy.com.au)
A fair go
Find below a piece by Mishka Góra reproduced here under the terms of its creative commons licence it was originally published here
Tony Abbott from his Facebook page
Most of you will already be aware that I am not a fan of Tony Abbott. If you raise the topic of Paid Parental Leave with me, for example, you may wish to brace yourself for a diatribe about the “calibre” of the women our Prime Minister privileges above other hard-working women who stay at home without any pay at all for years rather than months. I will probably also make liberal use of the words integrity and backbone in a less than flattering manner.
Nevertheless, I am disgusted by the plethora of groundless attacks on Tony Abbott that have increased in recent days instead of abating. In particular, a photo of Mr Abbott in his fire-fighting gear seems to have drawn a ridiculous amount of ire. I must say, as a photographer, that it’s a great portrait. No matter how his term as Prime Minister turns out, it’s a photo that he and his family should be proud of and treasure. It is no surprise that his official Facebook page has it as his profile picture.
Many, however, have used this photograph as any opportunity to attack Mr Abbott. It seems he can do no right.
If he didn’t fight fires he’d be accused of being out of touch with the ordinary Australians threatened by the bushfires. When he does, he’s accused of using it as a photo opportunity (even though he’s done this for over a decade).
When some photos turn out to be from previous fires he’s attended, thus proving it wasn’t just a photo op’, he draws criticism for allowing old photos to be circulated.
It’s symptomatic of the sort of people – more than 170,000 of them – who’ve liked the defamatory Facebook page Tony Abbott – Worst PM in Australian History.
Not bad for someone who’s only been in office for less than two months.
And there are others, of course, such as Abbott ‘the Maggot’, the content of which is too obscene for me to repeat.
My point is that, whatever his faults, of which I am sure there are many as he’s an imperfect human being like the rest of us, very few people are giving Tony Abbott a fair go.
Even those who consider his volunteer fire fighting “laudable” have criticised him for not getting his priorities right, suggesting he should be in his office on the end of the telephone at a time of a major fire emergency. I beg to differ.
At a time of unparalleled wireless communications, there is no need for our Prime Minister to be sitting in an office on the end of a landline. A good leader knows how to delegate responsibility to those with the expertise and resources to deal with the situation. I’m glad we don’t have a micro-managing control freak in charge of our nation.
Tony Abbott, in the past few days, has demonstrated we have an Aussie battler and hero as Prime Minister. I may not be an expert on bushfires, but I do know what it’s like to hear the pagers of two work colleagues go off simultaneously and see them scamper off with hardly a backward glance… then hear my own go off sixty seconds later summoning me to the ambulance for a trip into the fire-ravaged bush.
I remember all-too-clearly the overwhelming fatigue after hours standing on burnt-out ground in unimaginable heat surrounded by smoke and ashes. Merely donning fire-fighting gear in such conditions is an accomplishment – the actual work that follows is a feat most of us will thankfully never truly comprehend.
And that’s what makes volunteer fire fighters like Tony Abbott heroes. They risk their lives in the worst of conditions to protect us.
They don’t get paid, and they drop everything they’re doing because it’s an emergency. When Tony Abbott answered his callout with his local brigade, he set an example to all of us to buckle down and get on with the job. It’s about time we did the same and gave him a fair go.
Related articles
- Abbott says climate change not fire factor (sbs.com.au)
- AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER TONY ABBOTT puts himself in the line of fire. “For 4 long hours over the … (pjmedia.com)
- Tony Abbott’s Fire Chief: Criticising The PM Is ‘Wearing Pretty Thin’ (businessinsider.com)
- Tony Abbott, stop fighting bushfires and start the job you were elected to do | Paula Matthewson (oddonion.com)
- She’s talking out of her hat: Abbott (smh.com.au)
Hitting the ground in a coma
should we turn off the machine that goes ping for the ALP?
With the change of government comes a very big change of role for the Australian Labor Party they must get over their well deserved humiliating defeat and rally themselves to be an effective opposition and try to redeem themselves enough in the eyes of the voters to earn enough ticks on the green papers to once again do the “live at the Lodge” show.
Sadly for the true believers like our mate Ray instead of getting down to it they have hit the ground in a coma rather than even making any forward motion at all. There is only one person to blame and that is Kevin Rudd because his misguided attempt to “reform” the way that the parliamentary leader is chosen will mean that it will be weeks before we know who to laugh at as the ALP tries to look anything but silly.
The fourth estate has largely been made to look as irrelevant as they increasingly are and all that they have had to run on is the lack of vulvas in the Abbott cabinet, like who cares about the contents of the inner ministry’s underpants? I for one don’t want to see anything even approaching “affirmative action” in the way that key ministries are allocated. It has to be all about merit when it comes to picking who can sit on the big chairs or sexism wins. If being a man makes up the biggest qualification for high office its bad then so too is being a woman. Abbott has a good team here and their performance will vindicate his choice and we can leave the whining about the gender of cabinet ministers to the minions of the left.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Where it all went wrong for Kevin Rudd and the Australian Labor party | Jeff Sparrow (theguardian.com)
- Kevin Rudd concedes defeat in Federal Election (sbs.com.au)
- Australia’s Labor set for party vote (bbc.co.uk)
- Call and Response (iainhall.wordpress.com)
- Bill Shorten to contest Australian Labor Party leadership (arunbabyveranakunnel.wordpress.com)
- Election 2013: The Morning After (aliciavrajlal.com)
- Meet Your Candidate: Wayne Swan (Australian Labor Party) (eyesonlilley.wordpress.com)
- PM Kevin Rudd concedes defeat in election (australiantimes.co.uk)
- Kevin Rudd concedes defeat in election (bigpondnews.com)
- Lacklustre Labor Launch, New Liberal TVC (iainhall.wordpress.com)
Socialist ruby slippers of high office
If there there is one virtue in the sacerdotal tradition of the Catholic Church that I really admire its the humility and piety that has been exhibited by the new pontiff in his refusal to take up the ostentatious trappings of his high office. not for him are the palatial apartments in the Vatican, not even the fancy red shoes are important to Francis. I was actually unsurprised that our new PM Tony Abbott is following the same example in his choice of digs while the lodge is being renovated and even more surprised that some media commemorators from the Left like Radio National‘s Fran Kelly should be tut tutting that (and I paraphrase) “Abbott should be seeking accommodation more in keeping with the dignity of his high office” .Call me an idealist but I would have thought that a true socialist would be applauding the simple workman like piety on show here. This along with Julie Bishop‘s decision to travel business class for her official duties as Foreign Minister really seems to be striking the right tone for an incoming Abbott Government.
The lesson of history has been that socialists like Fran Kelly, Gillard and Rudd are often the biggest fans of forelock tugging deference to our elected officials even though you would expect their ideology to be endorsing the clear humility of both the Holy Father and our New PM (elect), yet if they did then they would have to explain or justify the love of the good life exhibited by the last two and a half Labor PM’s…
Cheers Comrades
Why Tony Abbott won the bunfight debate at Rooty Hill
Like a lot of political tragics I watched the debate last night and in many ways it was a reiteration of the recent debate here in Brisbane. Like the Brisbane debate Rudd talked more but as usual he actually said less than Tony Abbott and there is little doubt to me that he is already a beaten man, a man who is now just going through the motions to get to the September 7 election as quickly as possible so that he can finally leave his life in politics behind him. Sadly for Labor I suspect that there are an awful lot of voters who are dead keen on helping him do just that.
I’ll give Rudd points for an improvement in his delivery at last night’s debate but as Abbott has also improved on his own performance Rudd still came out the loser at the debate with stunts like his attempt to welcome Abbott into the ALP with an ostentatious handshake falling very flat when Abbott refused to take his hand,
More than anything though what killed Rudd on the night was his refusal to show any generosity to Abbott and concede that his rhetorical points were rubbish . His eternally repeated “seventy Billion dollars” is the perfect example. This figure has repeatedly been denied and denounced as false by Abbott and yet Rudd keeps trotting it out as if it is holy writ, Likewise the claims about the PPL scheme are overblown and over sold. While the generosity of the scheme can be subject to criticism for Rudd to give the impression that every woman who will benefit form it will be getting 75K is just utter nonsense.
By way of contrast what we got from Abbott was a consistent and credible show of humility and a desire to serve the people with real engagement with the questions and the voters who asked them. Certainly he trotted out his rehearsed responses but even then his delivery was far more persuasive than Rudd and in this sort of debate its all about positive engagement, Abbott engaged while Rudd performed his routine which is why in the end it was Abbott who won the debate,
Cheers Comrades
Did someone say buns?
Related articles
- An utterly predictable debate (smh.com.au)
Newspoll: Rudd On Track For Landslide Defeat
Kevin Rudd’s voter support has fallen to a record low in the latest Newspoll. Source: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
As I have felt for a while I see Labor federally following the same script as the Bligh government exited under up here in Queensland. If I may be as bold as to suggest that the land slid will be of the same sort of magnitude as well and if that is the case it will take the greatest type of discipline for an Abbot government to resit the call of hubris and over reach, however I think that Abbott has a real desire to retain office for a long time and I hope that desire will steady his hand far more than closer numbers in the parliament would.
Labor’s primary vote, at 34 per cent, is now at its lowest level since Mr Rudd removed Julia Gillard as prime minister and the Coalition’s primary vote of 47 per cent is at its highest during the same time.
Primary support for the Greens dropped from 11 per cent to 9 per cent as Mr Abbott spent much of last week campaigning against minority government, ruling out doing a deal with the Greens and challenging Mr Rudd to follow.
On a two-party-preferred basis, based on preference flows at the 2010 election, Labor’s support has dropped two percentage points, to 46 per cent, and the Coalition’s support has risen to 54 per cent.
Labor is now facing a four-point swing away from it since the last election, which would cost the government at least 14 seats if the poll were held now and the swing was uniform across the nation.
The latest Newspoll had a larger sample size and the margin of error, normally three points, dropped to just more than two points, giving greater accuracy.
Acknowledging Labor’s dire position in the polls, Finance Minister and campaign spokeswoman Penny Wong said yesterday that if the election had been held on Saturday, “Mr Abbott would be prime minister”.
While polls in specific seats have shown big swings against Labor, the worst trend for the government has been a sharp decline in the popularity of Mr Rudd and counter-rise for Mr Abbott.
Voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd dropped four points to 35 per cent, and dissatisfaction jumped six points, to 54 per cent – the worst personal support Mr Rudd has ever had as prime minister and just below when he was dumped three years ago.
Since Mr Rudd’s high point in voter support after his return in the first week of last month – 43 per cent satisfaction and 36 per cent dissatisfaction – voter satisfaction has fallen steadily by eight points and dissatisfaction has jumped 18 points.
Mr Rudd’s net satisfaction rating is -19, compared with +7 at the beginning of last month.
Cheers Comrade Yale
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