The Friday Fling …

Fiona Uncategorized

… this week is in the Woolshed behind The Pub. So kick up your heels,

order your drinks and munchies from the indefatigable C@tmomma

be very polite to Mr Bushfire Bill

send your number requests to moi The Boss

and hugs and best wishes to CK Watt, his OH, and anyone else in need of comfort (pretty much all of us).

Last of all – enjoy the band!

692 thoughts on “The Friday Fling …”

  3. I think he’s stalling on a decision at present, Victoria.

    His wife definitely wants him to quit. Who can blame her, with a young family and the vicious campaign run against him by 2GB and the Nationals?

    I wouldn’t be surprised to see him end it, but I think he has mixed feelings. He believes his decisions have been defensible in terms of what he’s delivered to the electorate.

  4. Daughter has just left for the airport and the start of her career.

    Happy Mother’s Day, all you lovely ladies!

  6. If Labor does go down at the election, I lay it all at the feet of Rudd who legitimized every ridiculous attack on the government.

    Imagine had he been a team player how very different things would be.

  9. GD

    I for one, am grateful for Oakeshott and Windsor during this term of parliament

  12. jackhawks

    Currently watching replay of Hawks/Sydney game. As I was at a trivia night, I missed it. OH and son went to game, and thoroughly enjoyed the win.

    Re Labor’s election chances. A great deal has contributed to the position they currently find themselves in.
    From my perspective, they deserve another term to bed down the current reforms. I really wish the electorate would see it the same way

  13. Victoria,

    Thank you.

    As for Mr Windsor, hands off! Moi is going to marry him when moi grows up.

  14. Fiona

    Windsor is definitely a gem.

    BtwI have adopted your lovely turn of phrase re DD. The girls dont seem to mind either

  16. Undoubtedly, Victoria. They have been what has made this parliament a success, despite all the attempts to sabotage it.

    Gillard will be special because of her leadership strength, and many of her ministers have made outstanding contributions.

    But a lot of it started with Windsor and Oakeshott who set new standards of integrity. They did a fine thing, too, for regional Australia, which is finally getting some infrastructure investment after over a decade of disinvestment by Howard, who really only cared about electioneering. The Nationals faioled to deliver much in that time, while Windsor and Oakeshott have done more in three years.

    Oddly enough, I think in many respects the tenuous balance and dependence on the Indies probably helped Gillard deliver bolder reforms. Dealing with them suited her negotiating talents. She might even have found it harder accommodating some of the factional bosses.

  17. GD

    I attribute the success of this term of govt to both Windsor and Oakeshott, and the manner in which PMJG negotiated with them.

  18. About Rob Oakeshott

    Seeing as I actually live in Lyne, unlike the rumblers over the road, and seeing as I actually know Rob and have a son who has worked on his campaigns for years I think my word should have a bit more truth to it than the attention-seeking wafflings of Mod Lib and other trolls.

    Rob hasn’t said anything about his intentions yet. He has said several times that his local community will be told what he decides before he tells the national press.

    His wife and kids would love him to quit, they all want him at home, not in Canberra. But they will support him whatever he chooses.

    Rob has said that he wants to see what’s in the budget before he announces what he will do. He also has a few community forums he wants to get done.

    People close to him, friends of Rob and his family, have conflicting opinions. Some say he will quit, others say he won’t give up without a fight and will contest the election. They are all just saying what they think, Rob hasn’t said a word to anyone. He’s still just getting on with his job.

    So there you have it. Rumour mongers can say whatever they like, don’t believe a word until you hear it from Mr O himself.

  19. leonetwo

    I guess this means Oakeshott will make his intentions known in the next few weeks

  28. Peter Slipper’s statement on his PUP membership

  30. The Hawks victory over the hapless ducks was most enjoyable indeed, Victoria. The pain of the grannie lost is still there though.

  32. So no-one wants to marry Scott Morrison when they grow up? Or Chrissie Pyne?

    I do not believe either Christopher or Scott will EVER grow up. Schoolyard bully boy tactics and tantrums are their stock-in-trade. 😉

  33. So no-one wants to marry Scott Morrison when they grow up? Or Chrissie Pyne?

    I’ll marry Scott!
    Just to watch his head explode.

  34. Does anyone else remember the old Archie Campbell skit “That’s Good, That’s Bad”?

    For the young and young at heart, here’s a version of it.

    http://vimeo.com/64074434

    I am constantly reminded of that skit whenever I read one of the lesser lights discussing economics, especially the state of the Aussie dollar. Case in point, Eric Johnston’s article yesterday:

    Aussie dollar slumps below parity

    OOH, slumps, that’s bad.

    No, that’s good.

    “A lower Australian dollar is just what Australia needs right now,” Dr Oliver said.

    That’s good.
    No, that’s bad because the dollar has been “losing ground”.

    That’s bad.
    No, that’s good because the RBA wanted it to happen.

    The Reserve Bank of Australia cut official cash rates to a low of 2.75 per cent partly to take some of the heat out of the persistently high dollar.

    That’s good.
    No, that’s bad because now there’s less chance of another interest rate cut in coming months.

    That’s bad.
    No, that’s good because the downward pressure on the Aussie dollar is mainly coming from a resurgence in the U.S. economy and the American dollar.

    That’s good.
    Hard to say.

    Currency strategists, meanwhile, expect the Australian dollar to remain under pressure as the mining boom peaks, the Chinese economy maintains its weak outlook and the US economy recovers.

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/aussie-dollar-slumps-below-parity-20130511-2jeaw.html

    Is it any wonder that so many Australians think that the level of the Aussie dollar is a race?
    A big number is good, right? It means we’re winning against those bloody Yanks!

  38. Did anyone else cotton on to the perceptive point made by George Megalogenis on ‘Insiders’ this morning about messaging?

    If you haven’t seen it I think it is worth reiterating it.

    He said that Tony Abbott and the other spokesmen and women of the Coalition are excellent at the short, sharp disparaging comment.

    Whereas the government are mired in explanations that take more than a catchy slogan to explain.

    However, tellingly, he said, whenever Tony Abbott has been called upon to explain facets of a policy of his in detail, he too gets mired down in tangles of sentences that are hard to comprehend.

    Therefore, George said, if he were to get into government, he’d probably have just as much trouble as the government is now in explaining his actions and the ramifications of his decisions and policies.

    Too late by then, I guess, to achieve any positive blowback for the ALP out of that observation, except to put the onus back onto journalists, before the election, to try and extract explanations from Abbott beyond his glib one-liners.

    Such as it seemed an, on-the-ball journalist did this week when he asked Abbott how his too-generous-by-half PPL Scheme would apply to Adoptive Parents?

    Basically, Abbott had no answer at all to the question and just obfuscated.
    It was a different enough scenario for ‘Insiders’ to pick up on it, and good on them for highlighting something that Abbott would probably have preferred to have just sunk quietly beneath the waves. Credit to ‘Insiders’ where it is due.

    Which should also give an insight to ALP strategists for a new line of attack on Abbott in the run-up to the election. That is, they should prepare a daily list of substantive questions with regard to Abbott policies that journalists may wish to ask him at his Daily Press Stunt.

    Even if he walks away from the question it will still be out there hopefully starting to sow some seeds of doubt about the too-glib-by-half aspirant.

  40. Only a couple of hundred votes but it seems as though not everyone has drunk the Abbott Kool Aid on IR:

    Business has criticised Tony Abbott’s industrial relations policy for being too ‘timid’; would an Abbott Government be
    radical 45%
    moderate 41%
    timid 13%
    201 votes counted

    NewsRadio online poll

  41. Puffy

    A well-aimed breath on your wedding night would provoke a satisfactory facial expression.

  42. Anyone know anything about this Chris Johnson, who seems part of Fairfax’s “going feral” strategy against the government? I hadn’t heard of him until a couple of hatchet jobs.

    Maybe he was brought in to ginger them up a bit after the losses of Grattan, Murphy and Taylor. I’m surprised they haven’t learned anything from Stutchbury’s trashing of the AFR, Hartcher’s dwelling in fantasy land.

    It seems like a kamikaze mission at the moment. You’d almost wonder if the next step might be to poach Bolt or Ackerman.

  44. http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/national/as-labor-senate-candidate-nova-peris-is-ready-for-the-fight/story-fndo4gtr-1226640383439

    Labor Senate candidate Nova Peris is ‘ready for the fight’
    JORDAN BAKER
    The Sunday Telegraph
    May 12, 2013 7:50AM

    NOVA Peris has spent a lifetime hearing critics say she can’t do it. As a Labor Senate candidate, she tells Jordan Baker she’s ready for the fight.

    http://www.perthnow.com.au/money/wayne-swan-to-skin-the-fat-cats/story-fnhld3ta-1226640046866

    Wayne Swan to skin the fat cats
    SAMANTHA MAIDEN NATIONAL POLITICAL EDITOR
    The Sunday Telegraph
    May 12, 2013 10:00PM

    PUBLIC servant “fat cats” on six-figure salaries face a crackdown as the Gillard government prepares for bureaucracy cuts to save $580 million.

    Hundreds of public sector executive jobs will go as the government moves to focus on frontline service delivery.

    The Sunday Telegraph can reveal up to 400 jobs would go under Labor.

  45. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/policy-makes-its-creators-proud-20130511-2jerm.html

    Policy makes its creators proud
    May 12, 2013
    Phillip Thomson
    Reporter at The Canberra Times.

    …………………………..

    Macklin, Families Minister and a mother of three, has agreed to meet to talk about Paid Parental Leave. The policy started two years ago and has been a glittering example of governance for Labor, completely untouched by controversy since it was launched, even by the omnipresent turmoil of the Gillard government.

    Paid Parental Leave has been rort free, because working mothers have to have a baby to get it, and when Tony Abbott tried to trade punches with Labor by outlining his paid leave scheme for mothers this past week, he was left battered and bruised, facing a revolt from his MPs and from right-wing lobby groups.

  50. If Abbott’s Direction Action tree planting scheme comes into effect, it will be a case of the Coalition giveth and the Coalition taketh away.

    Far North Queensland wildlife ‘at risk’ if law changes allow more land clearing
    by Liam Parsons The Cairns Post

    MORE than 260,000ha of Far Northbushland including vital cassowary and glider habitats could be wiped out if the state’s tree clearing rules are relaxed, a new report shows.

    *****

    AgForce chief executive Charles Burke said the changes would allow farmers to produce food without the burden of green tape.

    http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2013/05/12/242215_local-news.html

    That dreaded green tape that stops people from clearing rainforest by joining two bulldozers with a length of chain and raping the habitat of native animals.

    But it’s okay – Tony’s Green Army will plant them again.

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