The Abbott Government

drsmith said:

I was once very sceptical about Tony Abbott and to some extent I'm still a little cautious.

I don't agree with all his policies such as his PPL scheme, but in terms of discipline as a politician both in himself and strategy, he has very much stood the test of time.

He will face even tougher challenges as PM but if he is broadly true to his word, he will be an outstanding PM.

Congratulations to Tony Abbott and the Coalition on a well earned victory.

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Couldn't have said it better doc.

Abbott has taken more flack and press scutiny than any other opposition leader.
The majority of the press have been bagging him for ages.
He has won despite them, because the majority are nauseous at the thought of another term of Labor.lol
How could Labor stuff up so bad, well because it was about them, not Australia. Believe it or not.

What I found funny was the reaction from my facebook friends.

Since they are all gen y, the hatred was hilarious with all the memes to the swearing.

If only they understood anything about economics.

I hope he starts running the government like a business and remove all the crap and waste, which looks to be the case
Lets hope the only promise he breaks is that stupid maternity leave bonus - that's going to be rorted like no tomorrow, i can see, especially with bosses hiring spouses

The best and most consistent performers for the Abbott government over the last 9 years or so has been Latham, Gillard and Rudd (and of course the faceless men).

Dowdy said:

What I found funny was the reaction from my facebook friends.

Since they are all gen y, the hatred was hilarious with all the memes to the swearing.

If only they understood anything about economics.

I hope he starts running the government like a business and remove all the crap and waste, which looks to be the case
Lets hope the only promise he breaks is that stupid maternity leave bonus - that's going to be rorted like no tomorrow, i can see, especially with bosses hiring spouses

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In youth you think based on ideology, in age you think with sensibility.

springhill said:

In youth you think based on ideology, in age you think with sensibility.

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Friend passed on a quote from a university lecturer of his. Similar to your quote:

"When you vote Liberal when you're young, you have no heart. When you vote Labor when you're old, you have no brain."

It looks like in the Senate that Coalition + Others will outnumber Labor + Greens. This may be a positive.

The man behind the rise of Australia's micro-parties believes the Senate will have 18 members from outside the major parties from July next year.
Political consultant Glenn Druery, mastermind behind the Minor Parties Alliance, said the two-party state was now history in Australia.
"This is one of the biggest goals the minor parties have ever kicked," he told AAP on Sunday.
"To say that minor parties can't and shouldn't get elected is the same as saying the Coles-Woolies duopoly is best."
"These people are reasonable people," he said.
"I don't believe they will be holding the country to ransom in the way the Labor-Greens have.
"They all have their own issues they want to deal with and that will be between them and the coalition government."
Yet given the policies of the micro-parties and their opposition to the carbon tax, it is unlikely the coalition will have to call a double-dissolution election to remove any blockage.

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(my bolds)


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...te/story-e6frfku9-1226714678455#ixzz2eH6kz0lp

An interesting insight on Abbott by someone who seems to know the man, rather than the political starwman:

http://www.news.com.au/opinion/greg-craven-the-tony-abbott-i-know/story-fnh4jt54-1226714687111

That description by Greg Craven echoes the sentiments of others who know Tony Abbott well.

So different from any remarks about Kevin Rudd by anyone who actually knows him or has attempted to work with him.

Thanks for that article. Craven describes Abbott as "one of the most complex individuals ever to hold supreme political office in Australia". 'Complex' is a strange way to describe someone who holds so many obviously contradictory views. I would have used the word "conflicted" to describe someone who doesn't know his own mind. It's obvious Craven supports Tony only for his religious affiliations. He has then devised a way to justify to himself why he taken this position - the best he could come up with was to call Tony 'complex'. Aside from this, Craven's English expression is abysmal.

An interesting photo gallery of Abbott in The Age;

http://www.theage.com.au/photogalle...ny-abbott-20130908-2tdf6.html?selectedImage=1

Calliope said:

An interesting photo gallery of Abbott in The Age;

http://www.theage.com.au/photogalle...ny-abbott-20130908-2tdf6.html?selectedImage=1

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That headline from the Oxford mail would have people tearing the house down these days. Very un-PC.

Tony Abbott election promises - He said they were commitments "you can trust me to keep".

These are some of the election promises Tony will hopefully see as "core"

* Stop the boats
Measurement: No boats arriving after january 2015 - this gives Abbott well over a year to implement an effective policy.

* $1 billion reduction in Business compliance costs
measurement: Cumulative reduction of $1B by the next election of business compliance costs.

* PPL Scheme
Measurement: Scheme fully operational by July 2015, with evidence to show it has increased the participation rate and productivity (Abbott mentions this criteria as justification for his policy) by the next election

* Public Service headcount reduction of 12000 with NO FORCED REDUNDANCIES
Measurement: A 12000 reduction in headcount via natural attrition only.

* New roads "Work on the WestConnex in Sydney, the East West Link in Melbourne, the Gateway upgrade in Brisbane, the North-South Road in Adelaide, and the Swan Bypass in Perth will be substantially underway. The Pacific Highway duplication will finally be in sight and work will have begun on the Midland Highway in Tasmania and the Range Crossing at Toowoomba."
Measurement: A bit tricky but I'd say fair to think construction on all the above projects to have been underway for at least 12 months since he's used "substantially underway".

* Choosing of site for a second Sydney Airport
Measurement: New site announced, preferably with funding commitments and schedule for when construction will commence.

* 2 million new jobs over a decade / 1 million over 5 years
Measurement: I take this commitment to mean new as in over and above the usual level of job creation in the economy. Over the last decade on average 18,249 new jobs per month were created. Over the last 10 years in Australia 2,189,986 jobs were created. So the way I see it the Coalition would need to see over 4 Million new jobs over a decade, or 2 million over 5 years. Since these things take time to start rolling out lets say employment should be some 1M higher than the current 11.66 Million ie 12.66M people employed by the next election.

I think the above is reasonably objective criteria on which to measure the Abbott Govt performance. Others might want to add to the above list.

Syd, you forgot one.

* No carbon tax under a government I lead.

drsmith said:

Syd, you forgot one.

* No carbon tax under a government I lead.

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Will be very interesting to see how he goes about that as I don't see a DD allowing him to get there.

Would be quite interesting to know what the new senate may have looked like if we'd just had a DD. People might be shocked / happy depending on their perspective.

sydboy007 said:

Will be very interesting to see how he goes about that as I don't see a DD allowing him to get there.

Would be quite interesting to know what the new senate may have looked like if we'd just had a DD. People might be shocked / happy depending on their perspective.

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The threat of a DD will probably soon occur to the disparate band of new senators due to take their places in July 2014. If they have any sense, they will quickly realise that many of them got there as a result of public confusion about how the preferences were to be allocated, and if it were to go to a DD election then they'd almost certainly be out.

That should be sufficient to encourage them to support the Coalition's legislation.

Julia said:

The threat of a DD will probably soon occur to the disparate band of new senators due to take their places in July 2014. If they have any sense, they will quickly realise that many of them got there as a result of public confusion about how the preferences were to be allocated, and if it were to go to a DD election then they'd almost certainly be out.

That should be sufficient to encourage them to support the Coalition's legislation.

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True, also Abbott only needs 6 of them out of 8 to pass, and many of them are on the right side of politics anyway. I don't think there will be too many problems.

Knobby22 said:

True, also Abbott only needs 6 of them out of 8 to pass, and many of them are on the right side of politics anyway. I don't think there will be too many problems.

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That's right. A double dissolution would create more problems than it would solve, following the apparent ease of manipulation of preferences to micro parties in the election. There will be no DD.

The main reason that it is unlikely that a double dissolution would be held is that it would be likely to make it even harder for the Coalition to negotiate bills through the Senate. Because 12 senators would be elected in a state, rather than six, the quota for winning a seat would be lower. This makes it much easier for micro parties and independents to win seats. Given the high vote for micro parties at this half-Senate election, the likely outcome of a double dissolution in the next six months would be to increase the number of crossbenchers holding the Senate balance of power.

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...ul-double-d-poll/story-e6frgd0x-1226716373881

Julia said:

The threat of a DD will probably soon occur to the disparate band of new senators due to take their places in July 2014. If they have any sense, they will quickly realise that many of them got there as a result of public confusion about how the preferences were to be allocated, and if it were to go to a DD election then they'd almost certainly be out.

That should be sufficient to encourage them to support the Coalition's legislation.

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They've got a year to decide, and if they do go with Abbott he has to decide if he repeals the tax after the start of a new financial year? Could make things a bit tricky, or does he wait for the repal to start from July 2015, but then that leaves the tax in place for 3 years and if the economy hasn't been destroyed with the $100 lamb roasts then more people might start to question what all the angst was about.

Some of these micro parties might be thinking along the lines that a DD increases their chances of gaining more seats, especially if they do their preferences "right", though angst against the major parties may have subsided a bit by then which could encurage more direct voting to them. Makes for an interesting year. Lets hope the pork is kept to a minimum with the vote buying. maybe PUP as resource minister

I hope Rudd stays, despite many Labor members calling on him to resign. He is the smelly albatross around their neck. They spawned him. They deserve him and Griffith deserves him. It would be a sad day if any of his progeny ever make it into parliament. It's in the genes...like in North Korea.

From different interviews today with Nick Champion and Richard Myles, I get the impression Labor is softening its stand on the CARBON TAX.

I believe they have seen the light that to delay Abbotts mandate to scrap it will have long term consequences for the Labor Party and will surely be used against them at the next election.