Tony Abbott and his government were elected to restore “sanity” and “trust” to governance in Australia. But national affairs are becoming more insane by the moment. And trust is thin on the ground.
Abbott got in because, when he was asked whether he’d tip everything that Labor achieved upside-down, he said he wouldn’t. There were so many unity tickets you’d have thought it was a scalpers’ convention.
He lied about it all, pure and simple. He knew he was lying.
True, the punters were in a mind to at least try to believe him, because of the Rudd termite nest set up inside the Gillard government, but they were worried about Abbott’s soundness on a personal level. The polls all showed they didn’t particularly trust him, as if they knew he’d try to swindle them out of their vote, like a cheap back lane card sharp.
Then there was the interview with Kerry O’Brien, where Abbott himself warned the punters not to believe his own words.
So Abbott, confronted with understandable public scepticism, not only repeated the promises at every opportunity, but he reinforced them by giving a blanket guarantee to keep ALL his promises, a sort of meta promise. Could a man who made such an issue of confidence and trust (as Abbott did) possibly be untrustworthy?
Of course he can.
Liars lie. And they lie about being a liar.
It’s an age-old logical conundrum called “The Liar Paradox”.
In doing this Abbott set his own benchmarks impossibly high, especially for a man like him, who has a reputation for shrugging off commitments and loyalties like a snake sheds its skin.
Eventually the public twigs to this, and that’s what we’re seeing now in polling everywhere. The government has lost its lead, and then some, between the 2013 election and today. It is just not supposed to happen that way.
The Coalition is going into a horror Budget with no set plan, no real policies and no clue as to how they’re going to pull it off except by frightening the bejesus out of everyone. They’re even putting up a plan to tax their way to prosperity, although I’ve lost count of the number of times they told us that idea just never worked.
They’re setting out to scare people, keep them stressed, and to incite fear and loathing in the community by pitting one demographic against the other.
Throw in the absolutist, Bunyip Tea Party nonsense emanating from the Commission Of Audit, and you have the recipe for a perfect political storm.
It’s a relentlessly negative, bleakly depressing strategy, and the voters aren’t buying it. They’re sick of national struggle and being part of a community in a state of perpetual ennui. Labor was comprehensively voted out of office 8 months ago. Labor is no longer the government. The public wants to know where the new Golden Age that Abbott promised has disappeared to. This Golden Age was perhaps the biggest lie of all, given the petty ideological obsessions of the man who said he would deliver it.
It may suit Abbott’s purposes, and his natural style, to have the entire nation on the back foot – that worked well enough for the boxing blue, the self-described “Whirling Dervish” – but it doesn’t cut it for the ordinary punters. A Prime Minister is supposed to raise peoples’ expectations, not king hit them while they’re not looking.
Ultimately voters want to be “relaxed and comfortable”, not having to endure ever more national emergencies, existential threats, working until they drop, less pay for longer hours. We’re not living in an ant colony. We’re a society of human beings. Just because there are some fanatical workaholics in that society doesn’t mean we all have to be part of the Great Machine. Civilization requires time to ponder greater mysteries than how we can afford to educate our kids, or pay our bills.
Life is replete with con artists and the tricks they play, but as crazy and laughable as it may seem, some of the mugs who invest in their get-rich-quick schemes, horse racing software, Nigerian scams, Pea-and-Thimble games and dodgy miracle face creams, have no shame. They were promised something impossible, but that doesn’t deter them. They contact The Check Out, wanting their money back. This is when their anger outweighs their embarrassment.
Similarly, some of the voters, dupes for Abbott’s promises to keep promises, repeated ad infinitum, might not have any shame, either. He only needs a few per cent to return to their initial impression of him as an untrustworthy liar, and it’s all over for the Coalition. Eventually cognitive dissonance becomes simple recognition. And that’s when the electoral rot sets in. Abbott’s cronies and henchmen know this only too well: they invented the game.
Contrary to Julia Gillard’s hurried, half-baked promise not to introduce a Carbon Tax, Abbott turned his personal integrity into grand opera., the fulcrum of the nation by which he told us he was not only glad, but eager to be judged.
He contrasted himself against Labor, depicting himself as a beacon of maturity, diligence, hard work and propriety. The “adults” were going to be back in charge. You couldn’t tax your way to prosperity. They had hundreds of fully-costed and thought-out policies, ready to go at a heartbeat’s notice. His promise was sobriety and honesty. He repeated it so many times it became an over-arching promise in itself: the promise to keep his promises.
Then he started breaking them. Can he ever be trusted again after some of the weasel words that have come out of his mouth in vain attempts to justify his political anarchism?
First he tried parsing his own words, telling the punters that what they thought he promised, wasn’t what was in his own head as the promise he made.
Then he tried the “shock-horror” stuff… look, it’s a rat’s nest in here! Who knew?
Now he’s down to outright breach, simply because he’s changed his mind: the “That was then, this is now” gambit (a phrase Abbott has used himself, about his own changeability).
He makes it up as he goes along. The only narrative is chaos. Thought bubble after thought bubble pop out of his brain and even his own ministers don’t know what’s coming down the Abbott pipeline anymore. He’s the bull who’s loose in his own china shop.
And he’s only just beginning to flex his muscles. They haven’t even gotten to their first Budget yet and it’s already utter confusion out there.
“Sometimes it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission”…
… only gets you so far. Just about everything Abbott is doing is more like the former, and less like the latter. He’s embarrassing his own people with his brain farts, and they have to clean up after him, making like they agree with him (which, for the most part, they don’t). One day they’ll get sick of making excuses for Abbott and throw him out altogether, or else the people will (with the rest of his party along with him… that’s the scary part for career politicians).
The Insiders this morning asked why he seemed to be in so much of a hurry.
It’s a combination of his natural style, which is to pick as many fights as he can, as often as he can, and a haunting ghost in his head that whispers to him that he can’t keep on fooling all the people all the time. His days are numbered, so he may as well go the whole hog.
Abbott’s entire career has been based on surviving the day. Thus, a three-year term of government must seem like an eternity to him. I don’t think he can really grasp how long a period “three years” is. He is acting as he has always acted, as if there’s no tomorrow. His classic style is to go for a knockout in the first round, to throw a haymaker at his opponent, even as he shakes their hand, except the Australian people are not supposed to be his opponents.
The ultimate victory of the alleyway spiv is to fleece his victims of their money and then disappear, chuckling to himself that there’s a sucker born every minute.
It’s a good way to get through the day, but it’s no way to run a country.
THE PUB 
The rest it just thieved and murdered for!
Just setting up my new Samsung Galaxy Note 3 but I found that it takes a micro-sim card. So I had to ring my provider for a new one as the old sim card won’t fit. Another three days and a $20 replacement fee.
First up on RC into Unions on Monday is Ralph Blewitt. I wonder which kind hearted judicious soul forked out the money to entice him to leave his paedophile bolthole Asia. Looks like the priority is get Julia in the union RC.
The information was in Shane Dowling Kangaroo Court of Australia blog if you want to get ill reading his crap.
Cliff…always knew the RC. into unions was a targeted affair….but just wait…those LNP. jerkoffs will live to regret it…after all, by their nature, there are way more crooks and shysters among the LNP. crowd than ever in the unions!…
I’m waiting for Turnbull to get done on insider trading!
On the wonderfully named Ralph (to throw up, vomit) Blewitt (blew the lot) –
Among all the ‘get Gillard’ rubbish in this piece from The Oz there is this little nugget of information.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/corrupt-awu-official-ralph-blewitt-first-to-face-royal-commission-into-union-graft/story-fn59niix-1226908862189#
So it’s a done dirty deal with Victoria Police – Blewitt tells his lies in court anfd they don’t arrest him for a string of serious crimes. He has not been able to return to Austraslia for years because he would have been slapped into jail as soon as he set foot in the country. His last visit, to dish dirt on Julia Gillard in 2012, was made under immunity from arrest. I hope whatever judge he goes before decides not to act on those police submissions and jails this creep for a long, long time, but i’d bet the Victoria Police have already lined up a tame and senile old judge who will do as he’s told for a small donation. Corruption in the police? Never!
I’d love to know who the benevolent ‘private citizen’ is. I have a few ideas.
Big 😀
That’s what I mean…Blewitt!!…to be relied upon!!??….give us a break…that sfb. will drop in all and sundry and those wankers who think he can be trusted will be running for cover.
They’re so bloody thick it can hardly be believed.
We all knew Blewitt was under protection when he was going JGPM.
I’ll bet the dirty little pr!ck has been up to no good back up there in Asia and the exchange of info between police forces “persuaded” him to “come for a visit” to the old country. Whatever happens, his hide wont be worth tanning after this appearance….whatever side of the Timor Sea he scurries to!
And Margie has been wheeled out
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/07/margie-abbott-urged-to-help-reduce-deaths-in-childbirth-in-png
Alpacorns roam.
A corker, Leone.
The wife of the prime minister is expected to take on a worthy cause. Most of them have. The exception was Janette Howard, who did bugger all for anyone. I think Margie will follow the Howard tradition. She doesn’t seem too keen on offical duties, unless royals are involved and she’s not interested in living in Canberra. Why would anyone think she’d decide to do anything for babies that are not even white, let alone babies of calibre?
The corker needs woofle dust.
Ha ha!…..that makes it sound like the jerks have some sort of crim-cred!
It’s bad then… “Trollface” on standby (“Problem?”):
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trollface-coolface-problem
I have no doubt ( and I speak from knowledge of these things) that Margie is fully aware of her partner’s failings and is doing her catholic duty to the oath (perhaps oaf would be more app’) of marriage under God by standing alongside the beast when needed…..like a good catholic girl.
Margie A is the first first lady who appears very reluctant to appear.
We can all guess but all will not be revealed until The Idiot has gone to His Asylum or till his colleagues send him to ICAC.
Mrs. Abbott, as we know, runs a daycare centre in Sydney.
More “women of calibre” popping out babies means more parents paying whatever Margie and her centre charges. And I’m sure it’s heaps.
Coincidence, right?
Riiiiiight.
BSA Bob,
We have owned a 2009 diesel Santa Fe since new – it has been a brilliant vehicle, approaching 130,000 km now with nothing more than one set of tyres and brakes apart from regular services.
It still has 3 months of warranty left too.
If the newer models are better than ours, as they should be, I’d well and truly recommend them
TLBD, re this:
The thing is, he can’t rediscover his storytelling ability. The stories he was telling in opposition were all about the things we was going to if elected. They were crude fantasies such as “by reducing the Carbon Tax we can get rid of the debt” and “we can stop the boats by turning them around when safe to do so” and ” cutting red tape will increase productivity” and “you can’t tax your way to prosperity”. All utter nonsense, but you can get away with that sort of stuff in opposition as you’re not accountable for anything.
Once elected, you can’t continue to foist these fantasies on the public. Because now you’re accountable for them, and actually doing them has consequences.
Now, I’d be more than happy for Abbott to rediscover his storytelling ability. All that’s required is for him to go into opposition again, and give it a year or two for people to forget what an utter failure he was in office. I’d be all for that.
He is still there.
jaycee and tlbd
posted this on the Guardian under your comment jaycee. Probably wont get up.
They have trotted Barnyard out on ABC NEWS this morning to defend the debt tax, things are going swimmingly!
Commission of Audit “Fudging the facts”
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/commission-of-audits-road-map-veers-off-course-says-report-20140507-zr6fk.html
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
In most cases the Fairfax articles are written by people whose names I don’t recognise.
The SMH shows the now symbolic deceit tax will raise peanuts and it points out far more effective and targeted ways.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/the-debt-tax-who-it-will-affect-20140507-zr6hb.html
And Lenore Taylor agrees.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/the-one-election-promise-tony-abbott-should-really-break
I wonder what the quid pro quo on this potentially concocted arrangement will be!
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/why-gyngell-took-a-fall-for-packer-20140507-37wks.html
Another example of the inexplicable terror of theocracies.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/saudi-liberals-website-founder-sentenced-to-10-years-in-jail-1000-lashes-20140508-zr6kp.html
Well worth a read – Mark Latham. He’s had enough.
http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/tony_abbott_and_his_great_big_trust_vsSqjbx94pEGClwYULzMBM
Napthine caught pulling strings he shouldn’t have been pulling?
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/premier-denis-napthine-accused-of-choosing-ballarats-mayor-20140507-zr65k.html
This regressive taxation move would go down well with the punters!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/drivers-excise-hit-cabinet-searches-budget-savings
Perhaps the psychosexual assessment should be extended to a psychological assessment. The nobody would get in!
http://www.smh.com.au/national/celibacy-not-a-factor-in-child-abuse-says-brother-20140507-37wkp.html
Oops!
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/liberals-may-not-have-refunded-10000-donation-from-awh
Can-Do gets his way and nobbles the Crime and Misconduct Commission.
http://www.smh.com.au/queensland/crime-and-misconduct-commission-changes-pass-paving-way-for-crime-and-corruption-commission-20140508-zr6k8.html
Section 2 . . .
Abuse survivors hit back at the Vatican.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/abuse-survivors-reject-vatican-claim-about-australian-redress-scheme
This issue just might be one the Coalition gets caught on.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/police-asked-to-investigate-asylum-seeker-boat-turnback-20140507-zr6gg.html
And this is a terrible look.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/07/asylum-seeker-lifeboats-stripped-of-their-safety-equipment
Van Badham piles into Turnbull’s woeful NBN.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/07/slower-less-reliable-less-productive-this-is-what-turnbulls-nbn-looks-like
An excellent contribution from Wayne Swan – “Abbott swings his wrecking ball”.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/demolition-man-abbott-swings-his-wrecking-ball-20140507-zr6by.html
I hope this doctor gets his wish and finishes up in court.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/another-doctor-reveals-he-helped-a-terminally-ill-man-die-20140507-zr6bx.html
The unrelenting demise of department stores.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/spare-me-stories-of-djs-doing-well-20140507-37w07.html
A beautiful contribution from Cathy Wilcox. Oh so true!
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/cathy-wilcox-20090909-fhd6.html
Ron Tandberg with the budget winners and losers.
David Rowe and dissention on the godd ship Liberal.
And here’s yesterday’s effort from Rowe.
The Fairfax strike restricts our access to news (perhaps sparing us a bit of turd polishing by the sounds of things). So I thought I’d post a thoughtful piece by Don Russell from yesterday
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/imagination-the-public-services-missing-ingredient-20140503-37p8x.html
This bit was disturbing, not for its accuracy so much as who we have in the job
prime ministers determine how government runs in Canberra. If the APS is to perform the key role that it should, then the prime minister needs to view secretaries and the APS as important assets that strengthen the prime minister’s capacity to manage an agenda and run an effective government.
The coalition made a partisan dumb mistake sacking Russell. Despite his closeness and affinity to Keating, he was always a career bureaucrat, not a party political person. He might have spared the country some grief through his experience, but that is assuming anyone would listen.
Pfffft – the Federal police will do whatever Brandis tells them to do. This is going nowhere.
And from the Land of the Free –
Chris Hayes lays bare a gun nut.
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2014/05/07/bang-chris-hayes-fact-checks-gun-owners-americas-larry-pratt/
Hilary Clinton gets it right.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/05/hillary-us-must-rein-gun-culture
The Repugs shot themselves in the foot with this hearing.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/07/1297644/-Obamacare-enrollment-hearing-a-total-flop-for-Republicans
Jon Stewart nicely takes down FoxNews. Again!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017190523
Good one Ian…yes, it’s there….the guardian is reasonable on posting I’ve found…as long as you don’t go too far..or if you do, make it funny, harrowingly true or entertaining.
This is delightful. The Newman government is spending $6 million dollars on TV adds, web sites to try a convince the public that the “best” thing to do is sell all our gov assets to Costello’s mates. The PR program is based on (another slogan) “strong choices”. The ETU registered the name ” strong choice” and are now telling them to stop using the name.
.http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/union-trademarks-governments-strong-choices-name-20140507-zr6j7.html
Oh dear! Even the most devoted shills are starting to complain. Full quote, so you don’t have to contaminate your IT gear by visiting The Oz.
Niki Savva, in The Oz, starts by criticising Costello and then moves on to this –
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/they-have-a-word-for-costello-and-its-not-thanks/story-fnahw9xv-1226909380677#
Joe Hockey, this morning –
“Claims that we said we would never introduce new taxes are just wrong.”
Tony Abbott, 14 March, 2012
“What you’ll get under us are tax cuts without new taxes”
I suppose that other famous Abbott quote will be dragged out now –
‘That was then, this is now.’
27 August 2012.
Miss Savva’s way of saying “Wwwrraowww”?
Onya, Swanny!…..bloody good one on breakfast….strange though, the so called “interview” ended up being an attack on and defence of Labor policy and fiscal management under Labor!
Nikki Saava gets the shits!……NOT a pretty sight!
I won’t be holding my breath that anything like the whole truth and nothing but the truth will come out of the Federal Police “looking into” the Asylum Seeker boat turnbacks. It will all be a complete whitewash.
A bit more ancient history, because I feel like picking on Mr Eleventy.
Hockey has always been a lover of weasel words. Remember this, from back when when Hockey and Abbott were having a go at the Gillard government for, they said, not being experienced with raising children?
http://www.joehockey.com/media/transcripts/details.aspx?s=393
Heart-rending, wasn’t it. These pitiful words about the financial strain having kids placed on the Hockey/Babbage family. Let’s look at Joe’s dire financial state –
http://www.blogotariat.com/node/1473046
Re that Nikki Savva blast.
Unfortunately it’s all in the last paragraph is what will be repeated over and over.
“the government did the right thing for the right reasons “
muskiemp
Just hang on to that line. When Abbott and Hockey plunge us into the recession we didn’t have to have it might come in handy for mocking this lousy government.
Apparently Hockey’s logic this morning went something like:
– People are saying we broke a pre-election promise when we said ‘no new taxes’
– The PPL is a new tax
– Therefore we didn’t say ‘no new taxes’
No, it means you lied, Joe. In making that spurious point, he necessarily had to make the argument that a levy is a tax – as we all know it’s been advertised as a PPL levy. So, that’s one to keep handy when they start making ‘distinctions’.
***
The ever-charming Kelly O’Dwyer was out and about this morning too. She was comparing the budget situation to a sick person who needs surgery. It didn’t go down too well. I’m watching the interview now. O’Dwyer tried to narrow the conversation down to: Labor Debt; Can’t Speculate on the Budget; Abbott is Keeping His Commitment. But she didn’t do very well and the last couple of minutes were mostly about whether she could give a straight answer to any question.
This idea that the conversation needs to go back to what the ALP did while in government just doesn’t seem to be sticking. And I’m not surprised, because all anybody cares about right now is what’s in the budget. It’s as if the Abbott government have already lost the argument over the state of the economy, and they want a second chance to fight it again. They’re idiots, clearly. The message they ought to be giving should be an outline of exactly what they need to do, and why they’re doing it – what it will achieve, when, and how exactly the short-term pain translates into longer-term prosperity. But they can’t get beyond slagging off the previous government. And that’s mainly because their economic measures are a grab-bag of ‘do something, anything’ ideas. There’s no plan in amongst them. So they can’t look forward, and therefore they have to look backward.
I just want to know why the people who are sitting in the positions of power seem to hate the Australia in which they grew up and provided them access to those positions of power?
And why do they want to turn us into the 51st US state?
My late father used to grumble twenty years ago that the failed ideas of the US would escape and spend ten years in the UK failing before Australians would think it was a good idea and have it fail here ten years after that. He would be terribly sad to know his prediction is now coming true with this Abbott government *sighs*
The sad thing is that the LNP. women seem to be nothing more than a little shiny badge pinned to the lapel of Tony Abbott’s suit…a shiny badge for different occasions that he shimmys in the sunlight so it reflects to his own glory.
Sad for the LNP. “women”.
Sad for women in general.
Aguirre, where are you watching that interview? I half-caught it while I was getting ready for work. Particularly liked when Trioli shut her down about the Libs adding to the debt by citing ABC Fact Check. I didn’t think she still had it in her. KO’D was really plumbing the depths when she had to resort to (in response to wtte “what do you say about Peter Costello’s criticisms?”) “Peter Costello is the greatest treasurer ever, John Howard was the greatest Prime Minister ever”. Oh, I chortled heartily at that. Still, any interviewer worth their salt should counter that with “What’ did Menzies do wrong then?” or “Who’s the second best?”
Abbott and the LNP. sat shtumm for three long years while the Murdoch press and others confected and constructed policy around them and sold the package to a gullible voting public….as with any over-hyped product, the reality when you open the can delivers a different product than what is the picture on the label…in the case of the LNP., Murdoch’s mob promised the gullible electorate “adult govt'”, ‘200 policies ready to go”…what we got in reality is a can of worms.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/08/six-onshore-immigration-detention-centres-to-close
Ah!…I remember that movie ..: “Dial “M” for murder”….life reflecting art?
Narns – the link is here:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-08/debt-levy-vital-to-arrest-enormous-spending-growth/5438036
The subtext of all these Liberal interviews this week is, “Look we’re going to shaft you, but we don’t want to deal with that now, let us figure out how to spin it next week.” O’Dwyer is as spivvy as the rest of them. She came in saying you’d have to be a psychic to know what’s in the budget, but she wanted to talk economy anyway, setting up the pretext for budget pain with all this Bad Labor talk. Anyone could see through that. They’ve got some pretty large indicators staring them in the face – including the AAA rating and Abbott’s own “you can’t tax your way to prosperity” line – and they just keep saying, “Nup, can’t see that, I can only see these highly selective and misleading figures.”