Unsurprisingly, it looks like a "one horse race". Unless "Beetlebomb" Abbott has something up his sleeves!
AJ
I think if Abbott gets a vote by the time the new leader is announced, I think we can safely assume that Abbott has become a member of ASF.
skintI think if Abbott gets a vote by the time the new leader is announced, I think we can safely assume that Abbott has become a member of ASF.
The company has released a statement expressing its condolences.
In its statement, James Hardie says it acknowledges the significant contribution Mr Banton made to raising awareness of asbestos-related diseases in Australia.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/27/2102204.htm
Banton family accepts state funeral
Posted 7 hours 25 minutes ago
Updated 3 hours 57 minutes ago
A friend of Bernie Banton's family says they have accepted the offer of a state funeral for the asbestos-disease campaigner, who died early this morning at home at the age of 61.
The offer came from New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma. The details of the funeral are expected to be released later today.
Mr Banton, who was diagnosed with the virulent stomach cancer peritoneal mesothelioma in August this year, was a long-time sufferer of the lung condition asbestosis and asbestos-related pleural disease (ARPD).
He passed away at home at about 1:00am AEDT.
Mr Iemma also says the Dust Diseases Ward at Sydney's Concord Hospital, where Mr Banton was being treated until the weekend, will be renamed in his honour tomorrow.
Rudd's tribute
Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, who received a huge cheer when he mentioned Mr Banton in his election victory speech on Saturday night, paid tribute this morning.
"Australia is going to be poorer for Bernie's passing," he said.
"He became a symbol, a living symbol, of what is right and decent and proper in the workplace relations of this country.
"Bernie's great great contribution was as a fighter. A real fighter.
"Not just in terms of his own struggle with this disease personally but in his struggle with that company to get justice for the people who suffered as a result of working there. And Bernie won."
Former NSW Premier Bob Carr says Mr Banton's legacy includes the improvement of research into asbestos-related diseases.
Mr Carr, a notable supporter of Mr Banton's, will today chair the first meeting of the board of the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute, which is being built at Concord Hospital.
He says Mr Banton played a major role in the institute's creation.
"Bernie insisted on this and this is his great tribute," he said.
"At the start of the meeting today I'll ask everyone to participate in two minutes' silence for the memory of a great personality, a great spirit," he said.
Hardie's condolences
Mr Banton worked with asbestos products during the 1960s and 1970s when he was an employee at a James Hardie plant.
Mr Banton and his mini-oxygen tank would later become synonymous with claims for compensation from the company for thousands of asbestos victims, including a $4 billion deal approved this year.
The company has released a statement expressing its condolences.
In its statement, James Hardie says it acknowledges the significant contribution Mr Banton made to raising awareness of asbestos-related diseases in Australia.
It also acknowledges his role in the negotiations over its fund to compensate Australians with asbestos-related personal injury claims.
AJ wowo - gee that's close - what are the bookies saying I wonderHere's an even funnier proposition...
Maxine is leading Johnny by about 2,400 votes with 79% counted. There are 7,000 absentee and postals votes yet to be tallied.
WOTIF - Johnny "Lazarus" Howard actually wins the seat?
WILL HE THEN BE A LATE ENTRY CANDIDATE FOR OPPOSITION LEADER? Curioser and curioser....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/27/2102887.htm
Bishop urged to contest Liberal leadership
The Federal Member for Kalgoorlie, Barry Haase, has urged former Education Minister Julie Bishop to run for the position of leader of the Liberal Party.
Ms Bishop is believed to be gauging her support within the party, but is yet to reveal whether she will contest the position of leader or deputy leader.
So far, three Sydney-based frontbenchers Malcolm Turnbull, Brendan Nelson and Tony Abbott have nominated for job.
Mr Haase says Ms Bishop would make an ideal party leader.
"She deserves to have a crack at leadership, and I would urge her to do so," he said.
"Julie you would be immensely capable of assisting in the solution to some of those problems by the development of good policy."
I think if Abbott gets a vote by the time the new leader is announced, I think we can safely assume that Abbott has become a member of ASF.
Sorry... one was mine.
I don't think I would ever laugh as hard if Abbott won. So I am perversely barracking for it.
Here's an even funnier proposition...
Maxine is leading Johnny by about 2,400 votes with 79% counted. There are 7,000 absentee and postals votes yet to be tallied.
WOTIF - Johnny "Lazarus" Howard actually wins the seat?
WILL HE THEN BE A LATE ENTRY CANDIDATE FOR OPPOSITION LEADER?
Curioser and curioser....
Or that Labor supporters see it as a way of ensuring whoever gets the job sticks at it for a long time - as opposition leader.I think if Abbott gets a vote by the time the new leader is announced, I think we can safely assume that Abbott has become a member of ASF.
More talent in his lill finger than the other contenders have combined. (IMO)
Personally I was amazed he got through the "Gunns pump mill review" as well as he did.
Blamed the Tas Govt (correctly you'd think) for what he couldn't change -
Left em with a list of things to double check and get right,
and gave the nod (the bottom line required by his party).
all this despite Cousins sniping at his heels in Sydney.
Strikes you as a political survivor, yes?
I hope John gos and get some counseling, poor fella must be feeling awfully depressed with his empire crashing around him like that
He's still wiping the gold stain from his hand , and unless airline hostesses come under the heading of counsellors , he may remain depressed for eons .
But I've heard of other therapies , like consultation and sitting on boards .
He may get some benefit out of these , but he'd have to keep up with his medication ............
A view of Malcolm Turnbull from his Republican Campaign Director:
. Malcolm Turnbull, up close and political
Greg Barns writes:
From May until November 1999 I spent almost every day with the man who now wants to lead the Liberal Party, Malcolm Turnbull. I was Malcolm’s National Campaign Director in the 1999 Republic Referendum.
So what sort of leader is he? Has he got tactical nous – the sort of nose for Opposition politics that requires positive policy development alongside plain old bloody minded negativity?
First, a caveat in my observations. As I said, it was eight years ago. And since that time he has mellowed in my view. He is a little more patient these days with his critics, and with his opponents. Mind you, the monarchist leadership group in the Referendum of David Flint and Kerry Jones would have tested the patience of Job, given their capacity for disinformation and scare tactics.
The one thing that stands out in my memory of the stint I had with Turnbull all those years ago was his indefatigability. This is a man who sends you emails at 3am. He is someone who constantly churns out ideas, strategies and missives to his staff. Turnbull works and works and works and travels, travels and travels for the cause. It does not matter what hour of the day. Just assume that Malcolm will be thinking and working. Of course he does sleep. But he struck me as being in the mould of Margaret Thatcher – requiring little sleep in order to function effectively.
There is in Turnbull also an endearing and genuine sense of egalitarianism that many in the Liberal Party lack. He is an inveterate user of public transport. Instead of taking a cab back to his office up the other end of town, he and I would often jump on a bus at the corner of Park and Elizabeth streets in Sydney, and hop off up at his Goldman Sachs office at the Bent/Phillip street corner. Turnbull engages people in a surprisingly natural way. I saw this at close hand during the fraught months leading up to the November 1999 Referendum. You could take Malcolm to a pub or a shopping centre, and know he wouldn’t look or feel awkward.
I have described Turnbull elsewhere as being the "brightest bloke" in the Australian Parliament. He is intellectually brilliant, no two ways about it. (I saw him write a speech in about 30 minutes on his way from Sydney to Brisbane during the campaign – and it was a cracker). He grasps concepts easily and runs with them. This of course means that suffering fools gladly is inherently difficult for him. Having said that, I was often surprised at Turnbull’s patience in dealing with the myriad of egos and strong personality types that dominated the upper echelons of the Republic campaign. Turnbull would often vent his spleen privately about X or Y, but publicly the only sound you would hear would be the grinding of the Turnbull teeth.
The question that many ask about Turnbull – and it arose again in the election campaign when he made sure the world knew he wanted Australia to ratify Kyoto but Howard vetoed the idea – is whether or not he is a team player. Is he too much of a lone ranger to lead a beleaguered Liberal Party, out of government everywhere for the first time in its 60 odd year history?
The capacity to win hearts and minds and to capture the confidence of his fellow party members is Turnbull’s biggest challenge. Some will argue that the Republic Referendum failed because he could not do that, and that he was just a little too brilliant for his own good. Some of the key advisers to the Republic campaign felt Turnbull wouldn’t take advice – that he wasn’t a listener.
I don’t put myself in that camp. Sure there were times when the collective wisdom of luminaries like now Liberal MP Andrew Robb, former Hawke strategist Peter Baron, pollster Rod Cameron, Neville Wran and the advertising gurus at John Singleton’s agency appeared to be ignored, or at least only partially heard by Turnbull during the campaign. But then, can anyone name a political leader of any note around the world who sometimes decides to back his own instinct against that of his advisers.
One thing is certain. If the Liberal Party goes for Turnbull it will be backing someone who is very different from John Howard, Peter Costello, or Brendan Nelson. It will be a roller coaster ride with Malcolm as leader, but then the Liberals have nothing to lose and everything to gain by throwing caution to the wind.
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