With the news that Nikki Savva’s husband, Vincent Woolcock, is working for the PM’s office, it’s starting to look like a typical Turnbull black op is underway.
It’s nasty. It’s vicious. It’s over the top. Quite Turnbullistic.
Not that Abbott doesn’t deserve some payback for all the trouble and misery he’s caused.
But whatever the reason, and whatever the truth about Abbott and Credlin (and I’m still waiting for some insider, pundit or Possessor Of The Savvy – where are you, Laurie Oakes? – to put on the record a denial that something sticky was going on) the Liberal Party has turned into a soap opera.
It’s got everything: betrayal, sex, money, beautiful people (well…), power, and greed.
Or perhaps The Munsters Ministers?
This is what you get when you put a wrecker in charge. It’s a classic Frankenstein’s Monster scenario: when the Beast gets tired of chowing down on villagers, it just burns down the village. Wreckers wreck. It’s in their nature.
Putting Abbott in charge of a party was bad enough. But putting him in charge of a nation? Then cutting him loose? We got “dead” and “buried”, sure, but someone forgot “cremated”. When you’re dealing with someone who’s so good at coming back from the dead, that’s a serious omission. Pretty soon the public will adding 2+2 on the politics and the party that put him there.
It was entertaining to see Laura Tingle call the ex-PM “an oaf”, on Insiders Sunday morning. The Insiders un-loaded, big time today, but where was an assessment this blunt just a few months ago? They even had Nikki on to spruik her book. Gone were the “Prime Ministerial At Last” declarations and the “Bill Shorten is a nerd” jokes. Without the slightest whit of self-reflection it was declared that Tony Abbott had been all bad, all the time. If you ever doubted the Theory Of Evolution, Insiders today was a quintessential example of Darwinian adaptation.
The pushback against Abbott is on the way. The Turnbull forces are hoping they can warn Tony off. They can’t. Tony only listens to himself. If anything is the hallmark of Abbott’s career it’s that, and an inability to toe the party line. When you’re against everything, you stand out, be it in the party room, the cement factory or the seminary. Tony doesn’t like being told what to think. Tell him the subject of the day and he’ll find a way to take the contrary view. It’s his best bet to be different.
Turnbull is similar, but slightly more suave about it. But even with Turnbull the cat gets strangled, the rival is pilloried, the enemy is disgraced. His anger management problem isn’t smaller than Abbott’s, just different.
Right now the Liberal Party has two leaders. Neither will give in. The problem is that neither of them are leaders. The nation can only stand by, watching this farce unfold and for the spoils to sift through the cracks.
(Hint: when things descend to the level of sex-scandal, and you’ve sooled the Feds onto your rival, there’s only one way down.)
THE PUB 
They must be getting this “tough talk” idea from focus groups.
Poor focus groups! They want the government to be tough with cross benchers because the cross benchers rejected the very laws that the same focus groups hated under Abbott.
Geez. Talk about up ’emselves!
You have a similar cognitive dissonance with Tony Windsor. I heard John Hewson talking last night about a “revenge” votes against Windsor. Revenge? Yes, for not allowing Tony Abbott an extra 3 years to REALLY wreck the joint.
Windsor was one of the few outside Labor who saw Abbott for what he was… and acted on it. And they want to PUNISH him for THAT?
“Is this my cake? Can I eat it too?”
Nothing makes sense anymore.
Definitely logging off now.
tlbd
Prat! I can think of a few more expressive words than that. I hope they don’t give in to that bit of blackmail. To paint the senate as the problem is so wrong. As usual the msm are happy running that line.
Like BB, I’m off for a three day break, Razz’ Mum is coming to supervise her, while I am going with Kids and Grandkids to Mallacoota, and hopefully get to go in the new boat and maybe have a go at catching a fish.
Have a good long weekend everyone, and look forward to reading about whatever happened political wise when I return.
Interesting comment on the Whirlpool forum concerning regional NBN. capacity…I fully agree with this poster..:
” So, we live in a rural area. We *just* get mobile reception, but only with an external aerial (bouncing off a hill). Until recently, we had one of the old IPSTAR satellite systems, but it was always shit, and in the last year or so, stopped working completely. So we hooked up a mobile (Galaxy Ace), and were using that – it only gets 2 bars of reception, but that’s still 10x as fast as the satellite ever was.
About a month ago, we decided that we didn’t have enough downloads (1.5G on the mobile), so we got a new mobile broadband device and plan (http://www.telstra.com.au/small-business/broadband/mobile-broadband-devices/#tab-wifi-4g-advanced-ii – the $60/8Gb plan), hoping that it would have better reception. It didn’t – even with an extended aerial, it only gets one bar. The connection is much slower than the Galaxy Ace, and *way* more prone to extended drop-outs.
So we put the mobile broadband plan sim in the Galaxy Ace, and it worked – we were using the broadband plan, with the decent reception from the Ace.
Until this morning, when I get an SMS on the Ace, via the broadband sim, saying:
This SIM Card does not provide access to mobile data when used in a mobile handset. To access mobile data, please place this SIM card into a Mobile Boradband device, Tablet, or other data only device. To access mobile data on this device with this SIM card, please contact Telstra to change to an applicable postpait plan, or any prepaid plan. Need further help? Call us on 13 22 00 (Personal) or 13 20 00 (Business) we are here 24×7
I don’t want to change to a phone plan, because it costs way more per Gb, and I don’t want to use the thing for telephony anyway.
So my questions:
Why has this happened now? It was working for at least month. Have Telstra changed something?
Is there a good reason for this change?
Is there a way to get around this? Get the phone to report as a Tablet or something?
Is it worth even bothering to ring Telstra? I suspect I will just be fobbed off, or they will try to force me on to a more expensive plan. They have me by the balls, because no other carrier works out here, and there NBN satellite system is useless.”
Telstra must be chortling: “You only get a Turnbull NBN. once in a lifetime!”
Here is a report I put up in our (now defunct) community blog on a NBN. / Telstra / Local Govt’ meeting..
The “Find out more about” meeting on the 16th Sept’ 2015 at Cambrai Council Chambers between the ; NBN. / Telstra / Local Govt.’
I was in the “audience” as both observer and consumer of the Broadband Promise…I say “promise” , because that is what it was..a pledge to deliver 25MB/s. To every home by 2020.
Let me just make an observation here about one of our near neighbours , “across the ditch” ; New Zealand, who I believe, still mainly produce, package and export butter and other dairy products, get Broadband coverage of ..wait for it..from between 200MB/s. – 1GB/s. ..??
But we are told we WILL…not ARE…but will, (it’s a promise., remember..not a reality) get a whopping 25MB/s..because THAT , it appears , is all we will need..after all. WE are not making that much butter any more, since it seems we outsource our total manufacturing industries to the cheapest provider..Thank you LNP.
So let’s break down that meeting a tad..:
Basically, there were four “players” in the room..1) NBN. corp’ ; the owner or the product. 2) Telstra ; once the owner, now the retailer of the product ie; another ISP (Internet Service Provider). 3) Local Govt’ representative..; the liason / customer between US; the constituents, the ISP. Provider and the NBN. 4) WE, the people.
The NBN. Corp’ gave a power point presentation of what , where and when they will (see that ; “will” again) deliver that 25MB/s to one of three mixes in the area.
1) Fibre to the premises / node ?
2) Fixed wireless via selectively placed towers in proportion to population.
3) Saterlite to the sparsely populated areas.
Telstra , now reduced to little more than a ISP (internet service provider), delivered a mostly sales pitch about how THEY will (“will”)deliver to us ; the customer a superior service depending on your location, YOUR capacity with up to date tech’ equipment to be able to use that capacity . Townies , of course will be preferred. BUT..you can purchase these new, you-beaut products that will enhance your reception.
I will note here that there was conciliatory admission of the problem with “punching” transmission reception through the many thick limestone walls of these regional homes..hence the need for the customer to wander around the house and property to get mobile reception . On this point, allow me a degree of levity if I point out that The Vatican , with it’s limestone walls at least 10 feet thick, has not deprived The Pope, for at least a thousand years, the capacity to receive daily instruction from God through, I presume , a sort of “Royal Telephone”!…a delivery system with apparently so much more power that the NBN.
Local Govt’ and We the people can , I accept be bracketed in the one group on the subject : “What you see is what you will (“will” ) get” customer. In this age of the so-called “Free Market”, the one element of the equation that seems to always get over looked is the most important one..; The Customer….they , if the providers care to reflect are the reason the product is produced..THEY are the reason it will grow and become successful..if ..IF..the product is as good as promised and not just another crappy “just in time technology” that will have to be stitched and patched and band-aided over because of the ideological differences that demand a second rate product…Because, if we recall, under a Labor govt’ (and it can’t be either overlooked or denied!) the expectation from the original NBN. was fibre to the premises for every home in Aust’ except where physically unrealistic or impossible…but then with the LNP. govt’ the whole idea of a government owned enterprise was anathema to the ideology of the “free-market” principles of the LNP. and it’s succulents..so the NBN. was fractured, dissected, slaughtered to deliver what now looks like a dog’s breakfast of ; Multi mix, multi dates, multi ISP. Contracts and god knows when delivery with a MAX’ of 25MB/s!
In the end, I saw the whole exercise of the Information Day as a kind of “soft-sell” ..more of a reassurance that “it will come, it will come”..like the second coming and YOU will benefit ( there’s more “wills” in these promises than you’d find in the locked safe of any retirement village) ..But I will take a moment to make a sort of futurist observation..: In this high-tech’ shrinking world, I shouldn’t imagine it would be too difficult in the near future for a pirate broadband spectrum deliverer to broadcast from some inner-space platform, say; a all-weather balloon in the stratosphere or whatever, in another country’s air space , a broadband service to any who would like to hook-up and by-pass the local product for a “Better, Faster, Cheaper” broadband service..now wouldn’t THAT put the kybosh on things!
I leave the rest of the guessing to you, after all, you got till 2020.
Now, the funny thing is..Not many seem to “get it”..that NBN. co. has NOOOO intention to deliver AT ALL to the isolated regional areas…and we have been delivered into the greedy arms of Telstra as a “secure customer block” to do with as they please.
Tony Windsor “gets it”, many of us “get it”…the “it” being that regional Aust’, from the Fitzroy Crossing to Lakes Entrance, from the tip of Cape Yorke to The Gloucester Tree are going to be held in regional development suspended animation from the last century without a fully deliverable FTTP NBN. or it’s measurable equivalent in satellite or fixed wireless service.
We have not only been dudded…we have been betrayed and many are comatose on LNP. /MSM. Soma to even see it is being done
Think Big @Thought4rce 27m27 minutes ago
Turnbull will give us high-speed-rail to the node. The last kilometer will be serviced by horse & buggy. #BadgerysCreek #NBN #auspol
I’d like a bit of rain:
https://delimiter.com.au/2016/03/11/shorten-pledges-greater-role-fttp-labor-wins-election/
What if the cross-benchers turn the tables and vote for Turnbull’s crappy bill? Where does that leave He Who Wants An Early Election?
The cross-benchers could come up with a cracking good excuse about not wanting to create chaos by bringing on an early election. It would be believeable, seeing as the polls keep telling us the voters want the government to go full term.
Times a thousand, Leone!
Mike A.T. Edwards @mikeATedwards 26m26 minutes ago Perth, Western Australia
@canthavepudding Just a random thought, but isn’t threatening the senate undemocratic?
Well-informed, up-to-date on party affairs, these Greens – NOT.
The other day NSW Greens pollie Jeremy Buckingham made a big song and dance about his intention to run against Barnaby in New England. Buckingham is currently a member of the NSW Legislative Council.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-faces-pincermovement-threat-from-tony-windsor-and-state-green-jeremy-buckingham-in-new-england-20160309-gnepnd.html#ixzz42YdWSeBA
Buckingham is more your attack sloth than attack dog, but anyway ……..
Turns out the Greens already have a candidate for New England, selected in August last year, a Mercurius Goldstein. Mercurius is an educator, based in Sydney. It’s a bit of a surprise, given the small number of Greens and Greens candidates in Sydney, that Buckingham had not heard Mr G was already the candidate (well, maybe not, Buckingham isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer) and even more surprising that the ‘senior Greens source’ Fairfax spoke to had not heard of his selection either. It was even on the news.
http://www.nbnnews.com.au/tag/mercurius-goldstein/
So in a desperate bit of damage control Jeremy Buckingham has had to issue a statement in which he announces he won’t be running in New England, tempting though the idea was, and claims he and Mercurius (that name should go down a treat in New England) have both been slaving away saving the country from CSG and mining. Funny they never talked about being selected as a candidate though, isn’t it, seeing as they are supposed to be such good mates and all.
STATEMENT FROM JEREMY BUCKINGHAM ON NEW ENGLAND
http://greens.org.au/news/nsw/statement-jeremy-buckingham-new-england
Mercurius ran in the 2015 NSW election as the Greens candidate for Northern Tablelands, which covers part of the New England electorate. He didn’t do too well.
http://www.moreechampion.com.au/story/2644965/greens-promise-new-approach/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/nsw-election-2015/guide/ntab/
Fawlty towers worthy.
Even Waffles’ ‘new’ ideas are nicked. From Labor.
Same with innovation. It was Shorten’s idea. They copy some of the opposition’s policies while at the same destroying everything JG did.
I’ve been thinking. Maybe we should be blaming Windsor. If the cross-benchers had gone with Abbott in 2010, he would have imploded back in 2012 instead of 2015. We’d be four years clear of him by now. Ashbygate might not have happened, the visceral three year vendetta against Gillard would probably have been a lot shorter and less comprehensive. The ‘failed experiment’ of the hung Parliament would be on Abbott’s head, not Gillard’s. And they’d never have been able to actually claim a mandate for anything.
I’m only half-kidding here, and I admit I’m utilising a whole lot of hindsight. But if the cross-benchers had said, “OK Abbott, we’ll give you our support for the moment, on the proviso that we can withdraw it any time at out discretion, let’s see if you’re any good,” things might have been interesting.
Comment here about broadband in rural areas.
Our IPSTAR satellite, never real brilliant, has stopped working. To provider gives us no useful information,
a different story with every person we speak to. Can someone, I’m looking at you Jaycee but any advice is welcolme, give me their opinion on the state of the NBN satellite rollout & any options that may be available? We can only get satellite here, no mobile phone reception to speak of. I’ll look in in a few days (have no option because I’m now using the local library).
Great to see Windsor out & about again. I think he’s got a problem with the media though. Because one news story I saw nominated the NBN, Gonski & climate change as some of his main concerns. All areas heavily associated in one way or another with Turnbull & consequently all areas currently avoided by the media.
BSABob…At that information night back late last year, the NBN. chappy said that the satellite would be “operational” in 2016, but the regions would have to wait in a queue to be “served” by it..Our area could expect to wait till 2020…thatk you very much!
What is happening now, is that the NBN. has cut wireless services to this and I suspect many regions to next to useless(our LAP. office was without internet for a week or so) and has given Telstra a free hand to sell the outdated copper ADSL2. in the towns and replace wireless broadband with mobile broadband via a “Advance 2” modem…which is little more than a glorified mobile phone (w/sim card) for the more remote users….suffering the same sort of dropouts that you come to expect from a mobile in a remote area!
Welcome to the “real world” of Turnbulltech..
Denise C @SpudBenBean 40m40 minutes ago
Denise C Retweeted Van Badham
Seems the Greens have been played like a violin on senate voting reform. Why they should never ever trust the LIBS
Denise C added,
Van Badham @vanbadham
So the senate voting changes SURPRISE turned out to be LNP strategy to coerce the crossbenchers into Union-busting.
3 retweets 1 like
The doco
thanks , Duck..
Well goodness. Ms Murph and I have had the same idea.
I wouldn’t argue with that
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2016/mar/10/republican-debate-miami-trump-cruz-rubio-kasich-live-us-election?page=with:block-56e23e14e4b0dfdfc092590c#block-56e23e14e4b0dfdfc092590c
Noice!
I’ll have to find that poem about Penelope and that Athens Rose…I have it here somewhere…I think it may have been written by Thucydides..or Euripides..or someone…..maybe Socrates!…now where is it…?
Phemius (in The Odyssey)
“Neither a purple-dyed robe, nor flaxen tresses, nor gold, nor a gem from India, nor any other ornament so adorns a woman as fair chastity in a fair heart. Cupid vainly attacks the home protected by such a good guardian.
Oh chastity, source and measure of bountiful child-rearing, oh sacred rule of the marriage bed! You alone separate us from the beasts, servant and friend of our beauty. It is your doing that a man sees his offspring are legitimate and his bloodline secure.
You alone endure as woman’s glory. Surpassing heaven, you lift up to the goddesses women who are more suited by a chaste homeliness than beauty marred by base crime. As a gem befits a fair ring, so a pure mind shines on a woman’s snow white countenance. ”
No roses but not bad.
Bejeebus!…He’s got it baad!
Y’know…I just reckon I could do better than that….and without the aching male worship for “purity of mind”.
First Dog does a Niki Savva; only better
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2016/mar/11/surely-we-have-to-take-some-responsibility-for-electing-this-giant-man-baby
Rubio unhinges, to wild applause
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/10/marco-rubio-republican-debate-us-cuba-thaw
The Penelope bird:
For even Madam Time is paused and her dead-hand held fast as the young women sly pass..with but a glance and wistful smile to those who adore..touch not vain blade lest the moment spoil to but gaze upon and weep with desire.
Oh women!…thine eyes alone would tempt a greater God than man’s humble creation and thy beauty even if only in the beheld eye enough to blind the honest to thievery and if thou desires; let thee accrue the price or the cost , beholden to no man’s pitiful measure..for it is thy cup that pours the bouquet and let know but that you will choose the bloodline..and your body the time and place….no disgrace!
Your choice ; glory or vainglory, let time grow jealous and men grow old while you can choose to look to either, for heaven befits a granted grace and beauty will reach even the heart of a stone, but the moment loaned of a woman’s touch can be for a wanting man enough to satiate the longing hunger for heaven’s gate!
(But then…I’m not presuming to tell you ladies nuthin’).
Gradually becoming NE II: “We’ll decide where you people will get roads, roads and more roads; not some namby-pamby lot of well-informed researchers like Infrastructure Australia”.
Alert: very ugly photo at top of page!
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/mar/11/malcolm-turnbull-days-of-passive-atm-handouts-for-infrastructure-are-over
I really, really wish Gabrielle Chan had written that article.
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