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FEDERAL ELECTION JULY - AUGUST 2010
Friday 20 August 2010
LIAR GILLARD ON MESSAGE RIGHT TO THE
END -
FINAL COMMENT
It is no meaningless abuse to call Julia
Gillard a liar. It's an objective description, a clear inference from her
conduct throughout the election campaign. This morning on Nine's Today show
she was compulsively at it again telling the electorate to vote for her and
the Labor Party because Tony Abbott is a very bad incompetent man. It was
more of the same, more of the mythological portrait Gillard and the
expanding leftist realm have constructed of Abbott over the years. Lying
about Abbott and his policies and what he intends to do is nothing to them.
It says something about the moral and political bankruptcy of Gillard and
her class that their push for government has been almost entirely dependent on the denigration of one man.
It says something about the state of Australian society if a majority of the
people can be conned by such cynical behaviour.
Gillard has not been alone. Wayne Swann, Nicola Roxson and Paul Howes (National Secretary of the AWU) have admirably supported her in her lies. Roxson deserves special mention. Her little woman appearance belies a real bitter nastiness.
From Macbeth: "False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
-x-
There could not be a greater contrast between two aspirant leaders than that between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Gillard is of the extreme left (that's her record), a radical feminist (joint founder of E.M.I.L.Y's LIST), a homosexualist, an atheist and a debunker of traditional moral norms when it comes to marriage and family. Tony Abbott is a Christian, a philosophical conservative, a supporter of tradition and traditional morality, and above all a man with a masculine character and a masculine morality. He is straightforward, honest, and not afraid of admitting he makes mistakes. Gillard and Abbott represent two different Australias. The electorate should know what they are voting for. Below are two comments I believe are accurate:
20.00
Monday 16 August 2010
FORMER PRIME MINISTER BOB HAWKE
FANTASISES ABOUT AUSTRALIA'S POST-WAR ECONOMIC HISTORY
Bob Hawke was in his element this morning as
he warmed up the audience for the launch of Labor's election campaign. The
silver-haired bodgie, now a little bent and florid from age, attempted to
employ Labor's tried and proven tactic of misrepresentation, distortion and
falsehood. He delivered his routine as well as an eighty-year-old well past
his best could be expected to do, but a long way short of Labor's mistress
of deception. I must admit I blinked in surprise as he said he was going to
assess the economic credentials of both Labor and Liberal in the same way
you would assess a racehorse - examine the form. He can't be serious, I
thought. He was.
His starting point was Labor's 1983 election win which left the Labor government a huge deficit from the Fraser year's to clean up. The Liberal party had been in government since 1949 and that whole period including the record prime ministership of Sir Robert Menzies (sixteen years) was, he claimed, economically calamitous. Quite apart from the falsehood of the economic assessment and the wonky history, it does not follow that if one Liberal administration is deficient in economic management, all other administrations are similarly deficient. These are obvious points of history and logic that I need not labour - excuse the pun. But there is another critical point here.
I have extremely clear memories of the anarchic behaviour of the unions that was crippling the economy during sixties and seventies. Fraser's real problem was that he could not deal with the union thuggery and the colossal damage they were doing to the economy. Hawke's achievement was that he was able to muzzle the great union beast.
Then to embarrass his case further we had the eleven years of Liberal government which was characterised by the widely admired economic management of Prime Minister Howard and Treasurer Costello. Poor Bob, he could not walk around that without due acknowledgment. Nevertheless, he insisted that the truly competent economic managers were the Labor Party. 'The Liberals are nothing!' he cried passionately. He said this as he looked into the audience where not far away sat Kevin Ruud who hardly six weeks before had been dismissed from the prime ministership by his Labor colleagues because of incompetence.
To borrow from Daryl Kerrigan, Hawkie must be dreamin'. People would have to be dreamin' to swallow that nonsense.
13.00
Friday 13 August 2010
LABOR'S CAMPAIGN IS ALL ABOUT
PERCEPTION - FOOLING THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTORATE
There has been a gap in my comments simply
because I have had the growing feeling that there is not much point in
commenting further. Labor's campaign is not about arguing their case
seriously and analysing the policies and principles of the conservative
parties. It is very clear to anyone whose brain is still functioning that
Julia, Penny, Nicola, Jenny, Tanya and Wayne are reading from a prompt sheet
which prescribes the responses to whatever questions are put to them. It
does not matter what. The responses are about establishing a particular
perception. It has little to do with argument and evidence - and nothing to
do with the truth. That perception is largely about Tony Abbott - who he is,
what he believes, what he has done, and what he allegedly will do. And it is
all bad, mostly vicious ugly distortions, and often straight-out lies. This
is the first time in my lifetime that one political party has cynically
abandoned serious debate and gone straight for the man. The result of the
2010 election will depend on how many in the electorate have been fooled by
the Labor campaign of deception.
09.30 Saturday 7 August 2010
CLEVER VIRGINIA TRIOLI ALSO CAN'T READ
A BALANCE SHEET
To further prove my claim that Reserve Bank
Glen Steven's remark about Australia having 'virtually no net debt' was
extremely mischievous, ABC News Breakfast's Virginia Trioli trotted out the
quote yet again this week to confuse some poor Liberal Party footslogger
whom she was interviewing.
She obviously thinks Steven's mischief is an irrefutable argument. I suspect
also she's recycling the Age's supportive editorial (see my comments
below). Trioli should know that ideology has precedence over rational (male)
analysis at the Age. That's the feminist way.
To repeat briefly what I have said below: first, a household or business having a modest net debt does not mean that it has no significant debt. Indeed, a company with a small net debt may have a gigantic debt on the balance sheet, making it extremely vulnerable; second, it is nonsense to claim that any sober-minded business owner or householder would think nothing of a huge debt on the balance sheet. The aim would be to reduce the debt as soon as possible to reduce the vulnerability. The ideal situation is no debt and thus no net debt, of course; finally, it is economic insanity to assuage one's mind about a big debt on the balance sheet (even though the net debt is small) by pointing to a company or nation that has debt so great that it has a bubble thin vulnerability to whimsical economic developments. Trioli should stick to her strengths.
08.00
Saturday 7 August 2010
JULIA GILLARD GIVES AN AIRY
DEMONSTRATION OF LABOR HYPOCRISY
The cavalier hypocrisy of the Labor
Party is a measure of how successful they think their campaign of Abbott
character attack has been. Last week Gillard gave a stunning example when
she feigned breathless moral outrage over former Liberal leader Alexander
Downer's personal attack on former PM Rudd. Downer said Rudd was 'f...ing
awful'. What was she so morally indignant about - the epithet or the
disgusting exploitation of Rudd's vulnerability because he was in hospital,
recovering from a gall bladder operation? In both cases, the hypocrisy is
screaming at you.
Recently media commentary on present and past Labor leaders (including Hawke and Keating) reveals how foul-mouthed they are - and apparently proud of it. Part of the Labor spin to explain the merciless assassination of Rudd was Rudd's unacceptable foul-mouthed abuse. Oh, dear! And to get all teary-eyed over the 'seriousness' of a gall bladder operation - give us a break. I've had a gall bladder operation which meant overnight in hospital and a handful of Panadeine forte that made me feel pleasant for a while. Gillard would know a gall bladder operation was no big deal. Certainly the raw life-style of some of her spitting-and-farting pals in the unions would have had many in hospital at a youthful age for the extraction of that constantly assaulted organ. More importantly, Rudd's temporary physical discomfort does not compare with that picture of an exhausted and broken man the Australian public was exposed after the 'Et tu, Brute?' assassination.
Downer's 'f...king awful' is an iced cup-cake compared with the anything-goes slander of Abbott. When it comes to Tony Abbott the slander and misrepresentation are only limited by what Gillard and her poll-driven apparatchiks think they can get away with.
Of course, when it comes to media hypocrisy there's hardly any instrument that competes with Melbourne's own feminist/homosexualist Age. They could not let a chance go by to sock it to Downer by including a comment by Lowy Institute Michael Fullilove whose main message was that Downer was a hypocrite. It's a pity to see a generally respectable organisation that is supposed to remain above the political bun fight falling in with the Age's ideological warfare.
10.00
Friday 6 August 2010
AWU PAUL HOWES HEADS THE FIELD
OF LABOR'S PROFESSIONAL LIARS
You have to hand it Paul Howes, National
Secretary of the powerful Australian Workers Union. He was right at the
forefront of the assassin gang that did Prime Minister Rudd in. Rudd was not
fit to continue as prime minister was the excuse Howes has served up until now.
Now Rudd is being called on to support Gillard in the most ridiculous
political circus Australians have been exposed to. Howes in today's
interviews does not blink - not one bit, not one heartbeat out of rhythm. We
are submitted to a turgid flow of wriggling rhetoric to make it all seem the
most normal development in world. While shamelessly justifying the new
alliance of two Labor people who reportedly hate each other's guts, he
pursues the tactic of smear and misrepresentation of Abbott's policies and
experience. He does this at the same time demanding Liberals discuss policy
while evading discussion of Labor policy and refusing to submit Abbott's
policy to the 'real scrutiny' his party says it wants to undertake. The man
is all transparent political lying and manoeuvring.
09.00 Friday 6 August 2010
YOU HAVE TO FEEL SORRY FOR
PEOPLE LIKE TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
People may be on the other team politically,
but you can still maintain respect for them if they are principled and fair
in their dealings. This is exactly what the Labor Party as a political
association is not. They're all about cynical tactics to engineer a
perception of their opponent that is advantageous to their cause. In Tony
Abbott's case the tactic is clearly character assassination. But there are
individuals who still maintain the dreams of the old Labour Party, the party
that my own father (now deceased) supported until the Chifley era. One of
those is Tanya Plibersek. However much I disagree with Labor policies I have
the impression that Mrs Plibersek is a woman of principle. This morning I
felt sorry for her while listening to her reeling off the transparent Labor
spin they're all reeling off. She said in line with the obligatory Labor cue
sheet that Abbott would be a disaster as prime minister. She knows that's
not true. She can argue that Abbott might not make the best prime minister -
I think he will in the tradition of Menzies and Howard - but you can hardly
argue seriously that a competent experienced Howard government minister will
be a disaster.
08.45 Friday 6 August 2010
GILLARD AND RUDD CAN'T WATCH
ABBOTT 'SLIDE INTO GOVERNMENT WITHOUT REAL SCRUTINY'?
What the...!!! I'm just waiting for the real
analysis of Abbott's actual policy and political philosophy to start - I
have been waiting three weeks for it to start. Yesterday's chummy
reconciliation for the cameras had Gillard and Rudd trotting out the same
lines in a boring story that has the complexity of Little Red Riding Hood
and the Big Bad Wolf. There's no scrutiny of Abbott's policies and there
won't be. Dynamic prime ministerial duo Gillard and Rudd will just keep on
calling Abbott the Big Bad Wolf. Perhaps they'll resort to sound effects in
the end - a low growling and lightening strikes in the background when being
interviewed.
08.30 Friday 6 August 2010
ASSASSINATED PRIME MINISTER
RUDD HAS BEEN RESUSCITATED TO KEEP GILLARD ALIVE
Has anyone seen a weirder political campaign
than the one the Labor government is running? Has anyone seen a more ad
hoc crisis management? The answer is no because nothing like it has
happened before. This sort of disintegrating political fiasco was unknown in
the Labour Party up to Prime Minister Ben Chifley. The reason for that is
that the Australian Labor Party is no longer the party that Curtin and
Chifley presided over. Gillard is the apotheosis of ideological processes
that came into full swing after former Labour leader Evatt's demise, for
which Evatt should take a lot of responsibility. Gillard is the end point of
materialist's philosophies - feminism and homosexualism in her case - that
have the Labor Party not really believing in anything that is substantial
and stationary. Life is all flux free any scheme of objective principles. It
explains why the electorate is being shamelessly exposed to cynical
Machiavellian machinations. How could anyone in the electorate be fooled by
this amateurish farce - fooled by the supposed reconciliation of Gillard and
Rudd? As I have said before, the Labor Party treat the Australian people as
fools.
17.00 Thursday 5 August 2010
KEVIN RUDD'S MEDIA CONFERENCE
SHOWED THE SAME OLD RUDD WITH THE SAME OLD EMPTY RHETORIC
You have to wonder how it is that Kevin Rudd
has not learned a single lesson from his dramatic fall from power. There he
was this afternoon in a specially called media conference speaking long and
hard in the same meaningless way. It should be obvious to him the most
people have seen through it all. That's the reason so many people have
abandoned the Labor Party. I suspect he will do more good in his campaigning
for the Liberal Party than for his own party. Perhaps that's the idea.
16.30
Thursday 5 August 2010
THE REAL FEISTY GILLARD IS STILL
TRYING TO CON THE ELECTORATE
There is no change in Julia's tactics nor
that of Nicola, Penny, Jenny, Tanya & Co, who are the most visible in the
Labor campaign. It's still all about Tony Abbott and how he can't be
trusted, etc. etc. There is no sustained analysis of his policies, not even
a true representation of them. The Labor Party are working solely on the
persuasiveness of the personal attack on Abbott.
16.00
Thursday 5 August 2010
TONY ABBOTT MISSPEAKS AND IT'S
ALL OVER THE MEDIA - AND JULIA?
Last Friday I commented on a terrible slip of
the tongue by Julia Gillard (see below). Gillard said her government was in
discussion with 'Nauru' over the boat people when she clearly meant 'Timor'.
Not word was said about it then or later. What a free pass for the darling
of feminism. Yesterday, Tony Abbott referred to the Gillard government as
the 'former Labor government', but he corrected himself a few seconds later.
That evening Laurie Oakes nailed him for the momentary error, suggesting
that hubris was involved. I heard it reported also on MTR1377 and this
morning on ABC News, with the same insinuation. The ABC was wink, wink...you
know. We conservatives knew beforehand that Tony Abbott, would not only be
battling the play-the-man tactics of the Labor Party, but also great
sections of the media, the unions and sundry PC organisations.
09.00
Wednesday 4 August 2010
'FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE LABOR
PARTY'
Janet Albrechtson's
article in today's Australian on the internal workings of the
Labor Party is a must-read. It is a true expose of the internecine
nature of the Labor Party since Chifley departed the scene and the cancerous
Left took over.
10.00
Tuesday 3 August 2010
IT'S A SAD DAY FOR LABOR WHEN
EVEN THE AGE'S POLITICAL DOYENNE TELLS GILLARD TO 'GET REAL'
It must have almost caused a collective brain
haemorrhage in the Age's editorial team to have to include Michelle
Grattan's reprimand of Gillard for the change of tack in her campaign (Get
real, Julia)
- editorial feminist tears no doubt dripping onto the page as it was
reviewed before getting the okay. What a dilemma for the Age: how to
support their failing chosen girl and still maintain the pretence of being
politically impartial. Anyone who comes to this website will know
immediately that its intellectual framework is conservatism. I even devote a
number of pages to explaining Burkean
conservatism. If the Age
levelled with the public it would identify its determining left-wing
framework - particularly its feminism, homosexualism and its bitter
anti-Catholicism. Tony Abbott is the Age's worst nightmare. If
there's a hope of Gillard revealing her real self, there is virtually no
chance of the Age openly admitting to its real political nature.
09.45
Tuesday 3 August 2010
LABOR PERSISTS WITH THE CAMPAIGN OF
CONNING THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTORATE
It does not matter how cogent or compelling
the arguments Tony Abbott runs to explain and support policy, Gillard & Co
ignore the substance of the argument and immediately turn to attempting to
discredit Abbott by character assassination and misrepresentation, or even
straight-out lying, about his policies. The object is unashamedly to conjure
a persuasive image of Abbott regardless of the person he really is and the
real content of his policies. When Julia Gillard was appointed prime
minister, many articles and commentaries appeared on the new Labor leader.
One of those in the Australian commented on the books on Gillard's
bookshelves in the prime ministerial office. There was a photo of Gillard
behind her desk and behind her the books. One of those books was
Battlelines, Tony Abbott's political reflections following the defeat of
the Liberal government in the 2007 election. The book was not there for
nothing. As the indisputably smart politician she is, Gillard would have
read that book to acquaint herself more closely with her opposite number. In
brief, Gillard would have acquainted herself with Abbott's personal
circumstances, his political philosophy and the arguments behind the policy
he supported. Gillard is well aware of the extent of her character
assassination and her misrepresentation of Abbott's policies. Lindsay Tanner
and Tanya Plibersek have been mindlessly regurgitating the same message this
morning on MTR1377. I almost feel embarrassed for them.
09.30
Tuesday 3 August 2010
PETER COSTELLO ENTERS THE CAMPAIGN
WITH SOME VINTAGE COSTELLO WIT
Asked to comment on Gillard's campaign change of tack to the 'real Julia',
Peter Costello on this morning's Today show immediately referred to the
smoked lamb shanks Masterchef Julie Goodwin was preparing for her Today spot
(the camera zoomed in) and said they looked like a deposed Labor leader. The
graphic close-up of the lamb shanks and the image conjured had everyone
laughing. He then went on to point out that polling by Labor's faceless
backroom boys had paradoxically determined that Gillard leave off the
'traditional election campaign' of poll-driven scripted and tightly
controlled routine to show and promote the face of the 'Real Julia'.
People will only learn about the real Julia Gillard by going back into the past and examining the political positions she has supported and the ideology that has driven her - as Labor clearly does with Abbott. It's all there if anyone wants to look. Essentially Gillard is of the hard left, a radical feminist, a homosexualist - and a great big fake.
09.00 Friday 30 July
JULIA GILLARD MISSPEAKS DRAMATICALLY
BUT THE MEDIA LET HER OFF
Anyone can do it. Some people do it more than
others. I think it has to do with the wiring of one's brain. I'm talking
about the worst sort of misspeaking which is actually saying the opposite of
what you mean because of the sneaking intrusion of one or more mocking
words. Yesterday Julia Gillard during one of her sessions with the media
said she was negotiating with the government of 'Nauru' about the boat
people when we all know that she meant Timor. What could be a more
embarrassing case of misspeaking? The media boys and girls present said not
a word about it. Nor was it reported on any of the media I listened to that
afternoon or that evening. Fair enough, you might say. It would be pretty
petty and nasty to blow up a fault most of us are guilty of at some time or
another. I agree. But let's have the rule across the political spectrum
instead of the hypocrisy of treatment we must all be aware of. I am talking
about the media and ALP treatment of John Howard. If it had been John Howard
guilty of misspeaking or prey to some other embarrassing incident, the media
and the Labor party would have been all over it for days, mocking Howard
from all directions. I commented on two cases: 1
2. Media and Labor Party hypocrisy is part
of the Australian political scene
11.00 Thursday 29 July
HELEN MCCABE, THE LEFTIST
EDITOR OF THE WOMEN'S WEEKLY, HAS DONE HER BIT FOR THE SISTERHOOD
Few people (at least thinking people) who
have been exposed to Helen McCabe's appearance on the Nine's Today show
could doubt that the editor of the iconic Women's Weekly is well and
truly on the leftist side of politics and believes her duty as the ultimate
decision-maker of that once great women's magazine is to disseminate the
dogma of the sisterhood and advance their cause. The present edition with
its studio photos of Julia Gillard and accompanying 4,000 word article could
not be more barefaced in its object. Remember that one of the major
accusations feminists level at men is that they make decisions involving
women on the basis of their being women. Logic or consistency have little to
do with the feminist campaign.
09.00 Wednesday 28 July
PLAYING 'THE BITCH CARD' IS
GILLARD'S MODUS OPERANDI
Nine's Laurie Oakes is not only on fire. He
is blazing across the media firmament. He has delivered the second bombshell
of the election campaign
(Gillard
government in chaos). Andrew Bolt followed that with a neat summary of
the leaks that are coming from inside the Labor Party, indicating a savage
internecine war, a war broken loose by the 'Et tu, Brute?' assassination of
Kevin Rudd
(Who
in Labor could possibly be leaking against queen Julia?). The feature of this latest episode that confirms me in
my opinion about Gillard is that her first response to the extremely
damaging leaks was to suggest that the Liberal Party was responsible. Quite
rightly Oakes called that a smear. There is no way the Liberal Party could
have authored a leak from inside the Labor Cabinet room. At the beginning of
this campaign I was despairing that Julia Gillard, the queen of fakes, would
lie her way into office with the help of the sisterhood. That looks less
likely now, thanks to Laurie Oakes and Andrew Bolt, the latter's
blow-torching of the Gillard con unrelenting.
22.00
Monday 26 July
'JULIA GILLARD PLAYED THE BITCH CARD'
Presenter Chris Smith on MTR1377 this
afternoon said that he noticed during the leaders' debate last evening how
'passive-aggressive' Julia Gillard was. Really? Has he only just noticed
that? I am staggered. But I would not call it passive-aggressive. Gillard's
manner with dealing with opposition is far more deliberately destructive
than passive-aggressive. I have said a number times that Gillard, whenever
she is confronted with a difficult question or a difficult opponent, resorts
directly to personal ridicule and mockery. Indeed, she couches her answer in
a vehicle of personal ridicule. She is all nasty evasion. Her immediate
reaction to Laurie Oakes's bombshell series of questions about her role in
the political assassination of her leader Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was to
attempt to belittle him professionally and get her media audience to laugh
at him. She did it time and time again to Tony Abbott during their debates
on Nine's Today show. She's doing it daily and will continue to do so until
the election. Her barbs and personal mockery are an essential part of the
fake that she is. But if I talk about her manner in terms of personal
ridicule, others are not so kind. One women listener rang Chris Smith to say
she was utterly disgusted that Gillard had played ''the bitch card'. She was
quickly backed up by other women who heartily agreed with her. Others said
she was patronising, and that she should leave off that sort of behaviour.
One important political breakthrough the national debate has achieved is to show Gillard to
many as she really is - an out-and-out fake.
10.30 Friday 23 July
NO WONDER MICHELLE GRATTAN CAN'T READ A BALANCE SHEET - THE PAPER SHE WORKS
FOR CAN'T EITHER
The Age followed the 'report'
about the mischievous comments of the Reserve Bank Governor (immediately
below) with an editorial titled: Wider World Wishes it had Australia's
debt. I rather doubt whether the world would want the Age's
understanding of the simple processes of running a small business, let alone
the complexities of a nation's balance sheet and fiscal policy. Indeed,
their editorial is a shining reflection of the Labor debt and deficit
mentality that has got Australia into trouble under just about every Labor
government since the time of Curtin and Chifley - from which the Coalition
has had to rescue it. The editorial begins by saying that the electorate is
faced with an 'odd choice' on election day. 'It is as almost as though both
major parties inhabit a mental world quite different from the real world in
which people live and work and provide for their families.' Let me break
here while I scream laughing. The Age accuse others of living in a
mental world different from ordinary people? Give us a break. It just goes
to show what a deluded lot they are at that sanctimonious feminist rag. The
editorial goes on to suggest that (contrary to 'the imagined world of the
Liberals and the ALP') we have no nightmarish debt - indeed, we have nothing
to worry about. Why? Because in comparison with other countries our debt
pales into insignificance. They're not worried about it, the Age
claims, Japan (allegedly) is not worried about their debt of 154% of GDP
debt, so why the hell should we get worried over measly $100 billion - to
which $100 million per day is added. Any SME business owner would laugh at
you if you suggested he should not worry about a building debt because a
Coles Myer or David Jones racks up a debt that would buy him out a million
times over. The practical features of small to medium businesses are well beneath the Age's
radar.
California on verge of fiscal meltdown
10.30 Wednesday 21 July
CAN THE AGE'S DOYENNE OF
POLITICAL REPORTING READ A BALANCE SHEET? - IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE IT
Today's edition of the Age had splashed
across its front page:
Reserve Bank undercuts Abbott's campaign on debt
The first paragraphs of the report (of which star political reporter Michelle Grattan was one of the authors) were:
RESERVE Bank Governor Glenn Stevens has undermined one of the key Coalition election policy planks, declaring Australia has ''virtually no net public debt''.
As Tony Abbott was in Melbourne pledging $1.2 billion in spending cuts and a ''complete focus on getting debt and deficit under control'', the Reserve chief was in Sydney preparing to deliver a speech that countered some of the debt arguments point by point.
If Glenn Stevens 'countered some of the debt arguments point by point' Grattan and her fellow authors said nothing about them. They obviously felt they had said enough by later quoting Stevens as saying there is 'virtually no net public debt in [Australia] at all in contrast to much of the developed world'. This came after the report scrupulously reproduced the cuts Abbott had just announced. So, we get the message, don't we, from this typical Age report?
Glenn Stevens says Australia has no debt! He's the Reserve Bank Governor, so he should know, shouldn't. Huh! What liar that Abbott is! Proven yet again. You just can't trust Abbott, can you? There he is cutting money from important public programs without good reason. Cruel and callous.
I wonder why Glenn Stevens has made this extremely mischievous statement in the middle of an election campaign. What's he up to?
Let's get to the nitty gritty. It's simple really. Those who run a business will know what a balance sheet is - or should know. A company having no net debt - the balance sheet will show whether it has or not - means that if the company were wound up, the sales of assets would cover the liabilities. Obviously a company with no net debt but with huge liabilities (debt) is infinitely more vulnerable than a company with no net debt and minimal liabilities. Any business owner would know that keeping costs and debt under control was absolutely crucial to the company's health.
This is a typical Age exercise of misrepresentation, the aim being to discredit Tony Abbott. The Age is a feminist newspaper. By hook or by crook Abbott has to be defeated.
15.30 Wednesday 21 July
THE WORM IS BACK - GILLARD WILL BE
PLEASED
The news has just come through that the
'worm' will be back for the Gillard-Abbott debate this coming Sunday night.
This is terrific, of course, for Gillard because the worm is on past
performance obviously on the Labor side. The last debate between Rudd and
Abbott had the worm shooting skyward, sometimes off the chart, even before
Rudd started speaking. I imagine the worm is getting all excited about the
prospect of having the chance to cheer on Australia's first feminist prime
minister. The worm's a joke, only there for the amusement of audience.
09.30 Wednesday 21 July
THE MEDIA ARE GOING FOR GOSSIP, THE SUPERFICIAL AND THE TRIVIAL
Tony Abbott is being criticised for his poor
campaign performance, particularly for his 'gaffe' and 'stumbles' over
Gillard's Work Choices attack and his failure 'to break through' the Gillard
performance. But what is due to poor campaign performance and what is due to
the media copping out on a sustained analysis and choosing to go for gossip
magazine forth and bubble? Take the ABC as an example.
On the last 7.30 Report, Midday Report and Breakfast News each of the political commentators (Heather Ewart, Dana Robertson and Melissa Clarke) simply reported the current media version of the Work Choices issue. As Dana Robertson termed it, it was all about the 'monkey on Abbott's back'. None of these three (as commentators) attempted to break out of the media lockstep and look beneath the surface at the logic and reasoning of Gillard's attack.
Is it so beyond their ability and comprehension to make reference to the nature of legislation - how it's developed, how its integrity can be maintained and what adjustments can be made without affecting or changing its substance? Is it so beyond their ability and comprehension to consult what Tony Abbott really thinks - what the essential principles are of his conservative political philosophy? Just last year his book Battlelines was published. Wouldn't you think that television journalists who are being heavily promoted for the ABC's new 24/7 news program would know a little about a potential prime minister's political philosophy and how it would have a bearing on his campaign utterances? Evidently not.
It is a travesty that appointed ALP bovver boy Simon Crean can get away with claiming that Abbott's wanting to make one change to the Fair Work legislation (if that is indeed the case) means that he wants to reintroduce the full Work Choices legislation and that he is determined to reduce workers' entitlements. For a start the argument is fallacious - his conclusion simply does not follow from the premise. Why can't the media even get to this elementary stage in argument?
Below I have reproduced a critical passage from Abbott's Battlelines. Political commentators who refuse to take into consideration the principles outlined here, choose to keep the political discourse at the level of playground name-calling.
To win elections, a political party needs an agenda that appeals to voters' values and addresses voters' problems but is also faithful to the party's positions and principles. Successful political parties don't normally change what they stand for, but the way they express their convictions is always evolving and their policies should certainly change to reflect the changing circumstances that countries and their people face. As Sir Robert Menzies, the Liberal Party's modern founder, once observed, an opposition should 'use the respite from the cares of government to rethink its position and develop for the voters' choice a position that was different.'
These days, Menzies' Forgotten People radio talks, like Winston Churchill's wartime speeches, are stirring evocations of enduring values but little use as guides to contemporary policy. Even former Liberal leader John Hewson's Fightback! policy, for its time a masterly compendium of the changes Australia needed to make, is now largely irrelevant because its recommendations have been substantially implemented. The next Liberal government will incorporate John Howard's principles and values, but it won't just replay his policies. The challenge is to express enduring ideals and aspirations in new policies that apply those age-old values to contemporary problems.
Tony Abbott, Battlines, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 2009, Intro. p. x
08.00 Wednesday 21 July
JAZZING JULIA MOVES FORWARD WITH THE BIG CON
Julia Gillard is not only an abject fake, she
is also a talented con artist - as her campaigning is abundantly showing.
Last evening she was entertaining her unions mates (to whom she is eternally
beholden) with Labor's great con about Tony Abbott and Work Choices.
Gillard, Swann and Crean are desperate to keep the Work Choices con going
because if they fail they will have very little else to go on. As Peter
Costello has just pointed out on MTR1377, Gillard has worked to give the
appearance she has resolved the differences with Abbott on Refugees, boat
people, and economic management so that they can be bring the focus on
Labor's fake deceptive campaign about Work Choices. The way they run
government ideologically and the way they win elections are two vastly
different exercises. Once again, the ALP show themselves to be a political
incorporation of professional liars. They treat the Australian people like
fools. They are convinced that the big lie about Work Choices and the
blackening of Tony Abbott at every opportunity will fool enough people to
get them over the line.
17.00 Tuesday 20 July
GILLARDS IS EVASIVE ABOUT TELEVISION DEBATES WITH TONY ABBOTT
Clearly Gillard does not want to risk a
television debate with Tony Abbott. The reasons are not clear at the moment.
It's possibly another tactic (refusing to debate) she has borrowed from John
Howard, at least the way she conceived a tactic of John Howard's. The way
she is evading the debates is as transparent as a pane of glass. With the
mocking superior laugh she usually gives when confronted with a difficult
question she says she has debated Tony Abbott many times, giving those
Friday exchanges on Nine's Today show as an example. Abbott would be no
trouble, she tries to project. Wouldn't he? I saw most of those Friday
debates. Gillard was far from dealing with a calm determined Abbott who
remained unruffled by the mockery she is so good at. Indeed, Gillard rarely
had anything of substance to say against Abbott. It was all evasion and the
mocking superior laugh.
11.00 Tuesday 20 July
MOVING FORWARD INTO MORE DECAY AND DISINTEGRATION
Jazzing Julia is keeping up the message, as
directed by the polls. Manipulating the masses. What are the great social
differences between now and the Menzies era? Now and not then: drug abuse
and addiction, alcoholism, AIDS, family breakdown, attacks on the family,
youth violence, a generation of lost boys, a pervasive nihilism, youth
suicide...we all know what they are. Women, especially elderly women, are
too frightened to walk their suburban streets. Labor has succeeded in
destroying the name and reputation of Australia's greatest prime minister
and statesman. What have they put up against Sir Robert Menzies and the
standards his government attempted to encourage? The amorality of Hawke and
Keating. It was their standards they prescribed for Australian society. Ten's movie
'Hawke' has come at the right time. It has given us a view of what's at
stake.
Gillard will rely on a great section of the Australian community being so corrupted by years of Labor standards that they will see nothing wrong in Hawke and Keatings' behaviour - and nothing wrong in hers.
09.15 Tuesday 20 July
AWU NATIONAL SECRETARY PAUL HOWES -WHEN YOU'RE ONTO A GOOD LIE STICK TO IT
AWU National Secretary Paul Howes was a major
player in the exclusive group that assassinated first term Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd. He was a major player outside the democratic system, belonging
to a clique that made an arbitrary decision without reference to the
electorate to get rid of a democratically elected MP who was presented by
the Labor Party as the future Prime Minister. Howe followed Roxon on MTR1377
and was modest about his role in the cold-blooded assassination when prodded
by Bolt (I am continually reminded of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar). Then to
show what a cool customer he is, he mindlessly reeled off the big lie
about Tony Abbott and Work Choices - which I have answered below. Howe knows
his Marxist theory about mass manipulation.
09.00 Tuesday 20 July
HEALTH MINISTER ROXON - WHEN YOU'RE ONTO A GOOD LIE STICK TO IT
Labor government Health Minister Nicola Roxon
is frontline in Labor's lying campaign. After all, the lie about Tony Abbott
and the health budget is one of their most powerful campaign weapons. On
MTR1377 this morning, Andrew Bolt in frustration asked her why she and the
Labor Party insisted on insulting the public by constantly peddling what was
obviously a lie - that Tony Abbott as Health Minister in the previous
government 'ripped a billion dollars out of the health budget'. The truth:
Abbott was not health minister and the government reduced the health budget
that had been increased by an enormous unprecedented $3 billion dollars.
Roxon insisted on the lie. The Labor Party is all about manipulating the
masses (good Marxist/communist theory) and their polling is telling them the
lie is working.
22.00 Monday 19 July
TONY ABBOTT ON POLICY DEVELOPMENT
To win elections, a political party needs an agenda that appeals to voters' values and addresses voters' problems but is also faithful to the party's positions and principles. Successful political parties don't normally change what they stand for, but the way they express their convictions is always evolving and their policies should certainly change to reflect the changing circumstances that countries and their people face. As Sir Robert Menzies, the Liberal Party's modern founder, once observed, an opposition should 'use the respite from the cares of government to rethink its position and develop for the voters' choice a position that was different.'
These days, Menzies' Forgotten People radio talks, like Winston Churchill's wartime speeches, are stirring evocations of enduring values but little use as guides to contemporary policy. Even former Liberal leader John Hewson's Fightback! policy, for its time a masterly compendium of the changes Australia needed to make, is now largely irrelevant because its recommendations have been substantially implemented. The next Liberal government will incorporate John Howard's principles and values, but it won't just replay his policies. The challenge is to express enduring ideals and aspirations in new policies that apply those age-old values to contemporary problems.
Tony Abbott, Battlines, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 2009, Intro. p. x
This is a clear statement of classical conservative philosophy, pure Burkean in its ideas. A reading of Sir Robert Menzies' two memoirs after leaving political office (Afternoon Light and The Measure of Years) will reveal similar passages. Menzies, Howard and now Abbott are essentially Burkean conservatives. To view Menzies as a classical liberal is not to know what Burkean conservatism is or not to be acquainted with Menzies' thought.
But not only do these crucial passage reveal Abbott's political philosophy - his vision - they also give an unambiguous explanation of why Abbott would not on principle reintroduce Work Choices and why he would leave the substance of the Fair Work legislation unchanged. It would go against his own enduring political principles to do otherwise. That does not mean that adjustments to the Fair Work legislation cannot be made without affecting its substance. Indeed, no legislation is perfect and it is just as likely that the Labor Party will find cause to 'tweak' or adjust their legislation. Political circumstances dictate the sort of adjustment any legislation may be in need of. Gillard's, Swann's and Crean's attempt to exploit Abbott's words on adjustment is merely cynical manipulation of the electorate, a skill they have developed to an impressive degree. They are all about manipulation of the masses.
16.00 Monday 19 July
FEMINIST GILLARD CRANKS UP THE FEAR CAMPAIGN
As expected, Gillard this afternoon dismissed Tony Abbott's claim to
have killed and buried the Coalition's Work Choices legislation. 'Tony
Abbott cannot be trusted', she said. Abbott not to be trusted? Give us a
break! Gillard and her lying mates have a front that runs further than the
Nullabor Plain. Backflips, policy reversal, failed policy have been a
feature of the Labor government. But nothing will stop Gillard or her mates
endlessly repeating the great smear. Why? Because they know it can work. For
forty years the Labor Party has sold the Australian people a counterfeit
dream. The tragedy is that the propaganda still works. No matter what
guarantees Abbott will give, the unrelenting smear will reduce the
confidence of many. Gillard knows that. She knows that many of the Labor
constituency are susceptible to Labor's type of smear. Australian people
should take pause and reflect on the smearing of Tony Abbott, on the playing
of the man, and why it will stick with many. In essence, it is Gillard's way
of dealing with Abbott's strong masculinity. Indeed, Gillard and her friends
in the feminist cabal are in deathly fear that Abbott's masculinity will
slow the campaign of the feminisation of everything.
The real Julia Gillard - not the fake we are being fed
14.00 Monday 19 July
FEMINIST TRIOLI SHOWS SHE'S A CUT ABOVE MOST OF
HER ABC COLLEAGUES - 'THE WICKED FAIR WORK DISINFORMATION'
Tony Abbott could not be more explicit about burying the Coalition's
'Work Choices' legislation that it went to the 2007 election with. On Neil
Mitchell's 3AW program (19 July) he even signed a pledge that Work Choices
was finished. Labor's Work Choices lie is arguably their major weapon
against Tony Abbott in 2010 election. I stress that it is against Tony Abbott
first and foremost because the immediate aim is to destroy Abbott in any
way Labor can - all according Graham 'Machiavelli' Richard's tried and true
prescriptions. Labor's campaign is a personal vendetta.
This morning (19 July) Virginia Trioli on ABC News Breakfast asked one or other ACTU functionary named Ferguson about Abbott's pledge to leave the Fair Work legislation untouched. That was the sign for Ferguson to launch into a tirade about not trusting Abbott, that Abbott was a liar, that he had not changed, that he was driven by the Work Choices legislation, blah, blah, blah. Trioli suggested that to simply ignore and dismiss Abbott's undertaking without more or ado was to indulge in 'wicked disinformation'. After all, if one dismisses such an explicit pledge, one logically cannot trust anything that anyone says, which is to turn any election campaign into an absurdity.
Trioli is clearly on the Left and a fervent member of the sisterhood. But what marks her as one of the best political reporter/commentators on the Australian scene is that she makes an attempt - and mostly succeeds - in keeping her questioning balanced. She understands uncommonly well for a leftie and feminist the conservative point of view. That separates her from just about every other leftie in the media. In this morning's interview with unionist Ferguson, I as a philosophical conservative could not have phrased the objection better.
David Speers of Sky News is, in my view, Australia's most competent political journalist. His questioning and grasp of the issues is so balanced that I have not yet been able to pick his political position. Trioli is not that far behind, her feminism often clouding her judgment.
12.00 Monday 19 July
TRICKY HYPOCRITICAL GILLARD, THE GREAT POLITICAL FAKE, ADOPTS HOWARD'S BOAT
PEOPLE POLICY TO DEFUSE CRITICISM
During the Howard government's 'Pacific Solution', ancient mythological
figures like Hercules and the Titans could not have contained the thundering
moral outrage and the super nova explosion of sanctimony of people like
Julia Gillard. Cruel! Hard! Racist! echoed continually through the house and
halls of parliament. Gillard's Timor Solution is in essence the same as the
Pacific Solution. Such cynicism and manipulation for political power is hard
to fathom. It is even more difficult to fathom how ordinary people can
swallow it.
10.30 Monday 19 July
THE LABOR PARTY CONTINUES TO HAMMER THE BIG LIES
There will be such unrelenting repetition of Labor's big lies until
election day that most of us will be screaming for mercy. The Gillard/Roxon
health misrepresentation has already had a big run: Abbott when Health
Minister in the previous Coalition government 'ripped a billion dollars out
of health'. Asked about the claim on MTR1377 this morning Abbott said what
he has said a million times. The 'ripping out' was the reduction of the
budget from the increase to $13 billion back to $12 billion. One has to
admire the lying ingenuity of Labor apparatchiks, but the billion dollar
rip-off is as crass a lie as any ten-year-old could concoct. Adjusting
projections is a normal process of government management. Adjusting
projections is a world away from reducing an established operating budget
figure.
10.00 Monday 19 July
JULIA GILLARD MORE IN TUNE WITH FAMILIES?
Thinking that deliberately barren and unmarried Gillard is more in tune
with families than Tony Abbott has to be a massive propagandist victory of
Australia's powerful feminist cabal. What irrational nonsense, nonsense that
is helped in its propagation by the herd of feminists scribbling away in the
media! Tony Abbott has been married for more than twenty years (sacramentally,
legally and according to civil norms), he has three children, a wife in true
partnership, and a stable abode, just the opposite of Julia Gillard who
rejects all traditional norms of marriage and relationships. Julia Gillard
is essentially a homosexualist: in relationships whatever goes is a fair
thing. The 2010 Federal Election is importantly a feminist election in which
the prime aim is to have a woman installed as prime minister. Who cares
what's she is like as long as she is a woman. Of course, that woman will
always be a feminist - none of those weak sappy women whose priority over
the sisterhood is a husband, children and a well-run household.
09.45 Monday 19 July
MOVING AUSTRALIA FORWARD?
Yes, moving Australia forward into the moral decay and social
disintegration that is the Labor inheritance. This election is about moral
and social issues foremost, and secondarily about economics.
09.30 Monday 19 July
THE COMPASSIONATE LABOR PARTY TARGETS TONY ABBOTT'S STUTTER
Tony Abbott did not have to say that the Labor Party would conduct a filthy
campaign. Mockery, ridicule, caricaturing, misrepresentation -
character assassination is the stock-in-trade political weapon of the Labor
Party. Nobody was more skilled and adept at finely tuned abuse and ridicule
than Labor giant Paul Keating. Some months ago Health Minister Nicola Roxon
trumped Abbott, according to some media reports, by mimicking his slight
stutter in the House. Just think: the Health Minister of the Labor
Government is mocking a stutter. To make it infinitely worse feminist Roxon
cynically used an embarrassing speech impediment to gain a political point.
When it comes to the great ugly political virtues the Labor Party is way out
ahead in hypocrisy.
Comment: gerard@gerardcharleswilson.com
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