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Have a read of this article by the SMH.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...00-taxpayerfunded-library-20131001-2upee.html

It is amazing the fine detail they can present on the purchasing of books.
Yet could find 'sod all' on the purchasing of prostitutes, when Labor politicians where involved. lol,lol,lol
Here we go, here we go, the press union are on the go.lol

Really we need to move past this garbage and make journalists just report news.
Good or bad for either side, journalism is meant to inform the public, not push their political agenda.

Also before you jump all over me, I don't watch Bolt, watched him once and thought he was just as bad as Kerry O'Keefe the red headed head banger).
Hope a Labor person responds, as it is important, but without a debate it becomes a rant.:D
 
drsmith said:
Slipper and Thomson were not witch hunts. They are facing actual problems of their own making.

Labor I suspect won't campaign too hard on this one. It's a potential can of worms for both sides.

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/...ents/shorten_drove_our_dollars_a_lot_further/
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I guess you could take these events of Brandis and Joyce two ways.

Were they invited as official representatives of the Government or did they receive persoal invitations.

I am not sure where the line should be drawn

Seems a bit of storm in a tea cup when one looks at Shortens Comcar hire.
 
drsmith said:
You might be jumping to conclusions a little hastily there.

Time will tell.
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Agree. It seems fairly reasonable that in a 24 hour visit to Indonesia, Mr Abbott should focus on pure diplomacy, a smoothing of the waters or basic establishment of a relationship.

He can't win with many people here. Had he gone there, all guns blazing, telling the Indonesians to sod off, that he'd send all their damn boats back regardless of what they thought, he would have been blasted by the Left. He is now being castigated by all sides for either kowtowing to Indonesia or failing to in 24 hours fully enunciate to Indonesia every aspect of Australia's border protection policy.

So unreasonable.


sptrawler said:
Have a read of this article by the SMH.
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I'm rather disappointed in George Brandis, having always regarded him as intelligent, articulate and credible.
It seems almost all politicians just can't resist having their snouts in the trough to the maximum credible (or incredible) extent.

(wish we had an emoticon depicting exasperated sigh!)
 
Julia said:
I'm rather disappointed in George Brandis, having always regarded him as intelligent, articulate and credible.
It seems almost all politicians just can't resist having their snouts in the trough to the maximum credible (or incredible) extent.

(wish we had an emoticon depicting exasperated sigh!)
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Agree, however when you take note of the books they are quoting, they are of a political bent.
There is no way I would buy them.lol
Actually if you read the article, all the books sounded fair and reasonable, just a crappy headline for political mudslinging.:xyxthumbs
 
noco said:
I guess you could take these events of Brandis and Joyce two ways.

Were they invited as official representatives of the Government or did they receive persoal invitations.

I am not sure where the line should be drawn

Seems a bit of storm in a tea cup when one looks at Shortens Comcar hire.
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Given they weren't part of the Government at the time would be a bit hard to invite them as representatives of the Government. You'll need to come up with another flimsy excuse for them.
 
banco said:
Given they weren't part of the Government at the time would be a bit hard to invite them as representatives of the Government. You'll need to come up with another flimsy excuse for them.
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Agree.

The marriage of a two bit shock jock does not constitute a "Royal" wedding. Wake up Noco.
 
sptrawler said:
Agree, however when you take note of the books they are quoting, they are of a political bent.
There is no way I would buy them.lol
Actually if you read the article, all the books sounded fair and reasonable, just a crappy headline for political mudslinging.:xyxthumbs
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I'd agree with you if they were about areas that Brandis was responsible for in opposition, or that would educate him about issues important to the general public.

I'd love to hear your reasoning for billing tax payers:

The Marmalade Files
Best Australian Political Cartoons
Lazarus Rising
essays on "ice-cream, Obama, Churchill and my mother''

How did those books help Brandis to be a better Senator?

His need to buy A Dictionary of Modern English Usage and an international edition of Roget's Thesaurus shows how far behind the times he is when you could access it online for free and generally faster than a book.

I dare say if it was someone other than Brandis it probably wouldn't be so news worthy, but when you go on witch hunts like he did you better have no stones to throw in the glass house or eventually you will get caught for the odd broken window.

I suppose when you think how long the Coalition let Slipper get away with his shenanigans, it's easy to see how they can start to think this kind of behaviour is acceptable.
 
sptrawler said:
Why hasn't anyone asked Abbott how he felt about the personal sexist attacks from Labor and the racial attacks instigated by Labor?

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...he-had-fun-as-pm/story-fni0xqrc-1226731129310

It all seems a bit skewed even after the event.:D
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I started to listen to that Labor love-in; thought it might be interesting but couldn't hack continuously having to hold back vomit.

Has anybody interviewed Chris Bowen on the turning back of boats?
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The less we hear of that hater, the better IMO
 
Macquack said:
Agree.

The marriage of a two bit shock jock does not constitute a "Royal" wedding. Wake up Noco.
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Well, I guess I could say the same thing about you sociaisl left wing Labor supporters.

WAKE UP to your mate Shorten and his use of Comcar use.

Your silence is deafening.
 
sydboy007 said:
I suppose when you think how long the Coalition let Slipper get away with his shenanigans, it's easy to see how they can start to think this kind of behaviour is acceptable.
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Yes, I agree. They should have realised that when he made so many ComCar trips to Oxford Street and Kings Cross that the grub was up to no good.:rolleyes:
 
drsmith said:
You might be jumping to conclusions a little hastily there.

Time will tell.
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Yes indeed...time will tell. I'm afraid Doc that we have to face up to realities. Abbott's policy of turning back the boats, with the proviso of "where it's safe to do so" is dead in the water, because it will never be safe to do so. These dilapidated leaky boats are hardly fit for a one way trip, They are way past the end of their useful life.

The rhetoric has now been overtaken by the realisation that the only ones who can stop the boats are the Indonesians. If it is not in their interests why should they do so?

The Indonesian government is corrupt at all levels. Abbott's dilemma now, is how to buy their cooperation.

He said reporting of some of the Coalition's policies had been overblown - scotching suggestions the Coalition had ever intended to tow back asylum-seeker boats to Indonesia. "Our policy, which we have repeated until we are blue in the face, is that we reserve the right to turn boats around where it's safe to do so. There is a lot of difference between turning boats around in Australian waters and the Australian navy towing them back to Indonesia.
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See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...on-asylum-boats/story-fn9hm1gu-1226731192934?
 
noco said:
Well, I guess I could say the same thing about you sociaisl left wing Labor supporters.

WAKE UP to your mate Shorten and his use of Comcar use.

Your silence is deafening.
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What is your point?

Are you saying that he made billed tax payers for trips not related to his duties as a minister - similar to Abbott and his book signing tour perhaps?

IF you can show any of the trips he made at taxpayer expense shouldn't have been, then please present your evidence.
 
sptrawler said:
Have a read of this article by the SMH.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...00-taxpayerfunded-library-20131001-2upee.html

It is amazing the fine detail they can present on the purchasing of books.
Yet could find 'sod all' on the purchasing of prostitutes, when Labor politicians where involved. lol,lol,lol
Here we go, here we go, the press union are on the go.lol

Really we need to move past this garbage and make journalists just report news.
Good or bad for either side, journalism is meant to inform the public, not push their political agenda.

Also before you jump all over me, I don't watch Bolt, watched him once and thought he was just as bad as Kerry O'Keefe the red headed head banger).
Hope a Labor person responds, as it is important, but without a debate it becomes a rant.:D
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I don't seem to remember you criticising the Newscorp Newspapers over the last 6 months for some of the most blatantly biased articles and front pages I've ever seen in Australia. Strange that it takes a non newscorp article to make you want journalism to focus on the "news".

I sort of agree with you there's too much focus on the little things, and not enough focus on the issues we need to be facing up to. Governments at all levels have their heads in the sand over the age quake and falling workers to dependants. There's also not enough scrutiny over what the politicians promise. A much harder focus on keeping the bastards honest might help.

Still, I'm waiting for someone to tell me where the BUDGET CRISIS disappeared to. 3 years of Abbott screaming CRISIS here and CRISIS there, and now not a peep, not even mini budget to attack the CRISIS. It just..disappeared :confused:
 
Julia said:
Agree. It seems fairly reasonable that in a 24 hour visit to Indonesia, Mr Abbott should focus on pure diplomacy, a smoothing of the waters or basic establishment of a relationship.

He can't win with many people here. Had he gone there, all guns blazing, telling the Indonesians to sod off, that he'd send all their damn boats back regardless of what they thought, he would have been blasted by the Left. He is now being castigated by all sides for either kowtowing to Indonesia or failing to in 24 hours fully enunciate to Indonesia every aspect of Australia's border protection policy.

So unreasonable.
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Julia, it's probably because he never enunciated a policy before the election. It was just stop the boats, tow back the boats. Nothing more to his policy. He's now caught in the real world where you have to explain how you will do what you promised, along with how you work with others who have differing points of view or face other issues from the same source problem.

If Abbott had been a bit more honest in opposition then he might not be receiving the criticism he has. I for one am happy he's toned down the rhetoric. It wasn't doing us any good.

Abbott needed to start thinking and acting like he was in Government long before the election. He didn't and this wont be the only issue he's faced with u-turning on. He's already broken his election promise to not fund any infrastructure over $100M. Malcolm has already changed the goal posts for the NBN review from 60 days on forming government to 60 days after a new NBN board is elected.

If Gillard was a liar over not following her election promise of no carbon tax, doesn't that make any politician a liar if they don't implement the policy they went to the election with? How many times can Abbott and his ministers not do what they said they will do before we can use the liar term?
 
sydboy007 said:
Julia, it's probably because he never enunciated a policy before the election. It was just stop the boats, tow back the boats. Nothing more to his policy.
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"Stop the boats" - yes, he said this repeatedly. If you can produce a single quote of him saying "Tow back the boats", then I'll be interested to see it.

What he did suggest was that part of the overall policy of stopping the boats (and yes, the phrase is simplistic) could include turning boats around where it was safe to do so. That is not towing them back into Indonesian waters. There is a very clear difference.

And in terms of simple fact, the government has already on two occasions, with the obvious co-operation of Indonesia - returned would be asylum seekers to Indonesia.

As I've said on now several occasions, why on earth can we not wait for a while to see how it all works out, rather than this urgent rush to pour scorn on pretty much every breath Mr Abbott takes? Doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation to me.
 
Julia said:
"

And in terms of simple fact, the government has already on two occasions, with the obvious co-operation of Indonesia - returned would be asylum seekers to Indonesia.
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Indonesian boats in Indonesian waters! What else could they do? The only reason it hasn't occurred before was because our Border Patrol "Ferry Service" had been instructed to bring the smuggled illegals, off Indonesian boats in strife in Indonesian waters, (and in Indonesian Search and Rescue Region) to Christmas island. Abbott has at least stopped this nonsense. I hope.:dunno:

I think we can forget about "turning back the boats". We will have to rely on Rudd's PNG/Nauru "solution" with the threat of no entry to Australia.
 
Calliope said:
Yes indeed...time will tell. I'm afraid Doc that we have to face up to realities. Abbott's policy of turning back the boats, with the proviso of "where it's safe to do so" is dead in the water, because it will never be safe to do so. These dilapidated leaky boats are hardly fit for a one way trip, They are way past the end of their useful life.

The rhetoric has now been overtaken by the realisation that the only ones who can stop the boats are the Indonesians. If it is not in their interests why should they do so?

The Indonesian government is corrupt at all levels. Abbott's dilemma now, is how to buy their cooperation.

See more at: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...on-asylum-boats/story-fn9hm1gu-1226731192934?
Click to expand...
To some extent at least, he is going to have to buy their cooperation, but that's the problem any government faces in attempting to solve this. Even Labor with its attempted political solutions had to ultimately buy the cooperation of PNG, Nauru and also with its attempted Malaysia solution for their implementation.

TA though from what I can tell is looking for a broader, more mutually beneficial relationship with Indonesia than existed under Labor to the benefit of both countries with live cattle being one example.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...ive-cattle-trade/story-fn59nm2j-1226731159137

If he is successful in this broader context, it will help to create a more constructive environment to deal with the asylum seeker problem within Indonesia itself as there will be a broader underlying incentive to do so.

The fault for the boat problem ultimately lies with the Labor idiology that recreated this illegal people smuggling trade in the first place.
 
Has Fairfax political journalist Mark Kenny finally had a change of heart on Tony Abbott ?

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...tt-had-no-need-of-lplates-20131001-2uqry.html

IIRC, he described the Coalition's asylum policies as a shambles (or something similar of that nature) on the ABC's Insiders show on Sunday.

The Australian's Paul Kelly,

In Jakarta, Abbott reached out to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a personal, deferential and strategic sense.

The upshot is a situation once considered improbable. Abbott’s “make or break” pledge to stop the boats has become, in his words, a joint Australian-Indonesian project despite the different outlooks of the two nations…

Abbott ... said that because of support “over the past 24 hours by every level of the Indonesian government” he felt the boats issue could be solved, a landmark comment. On display in Jakarta is a more subtle and calculating Abbott than many expected. He tells the Australian media there is no change to his policy yet he tells the Indonesians he is prepared to work with them…

Whether boats will ever be turned is a moot point but the only conclusion from Abbott’s remarks is that operational collaboration will govern such activity…

The Abbott style as overseas PM was on display for the first time - firm, humble, constructive. It is an interesting mix. He doesn’t pretend to be an Asia expert or the smartest person in the room or morally superior. He knows what he wants but he is adaptable.
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http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/...he_bungler_in_indonesia_they_falsely_claimed/
 
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