The Down Under Lounge

[Marc]

Abbott called the human rights report "blatantly partisan" - yes, where's the balance? Where's the argument against human rights for children in detention camps?

Abbott may be trying a diversion.

The government recieve a human rights commision report last November and have been sitting on it. In the meantime they tried to get rid of the commissioner (Heather Trigg).

Now they have to table the report and the maggot isn't happy about it.

 

[Australis]

Weren't the Bali 9 trying to smuggle drugs out of Indonesia?

Abbot hasn't changed, despite his "near death experience". Him and Murdoch have that in common, not humbled by recent events, no matter what they say.

 

[Botany Bay]

Indeed they were trying to smuggle heroin from Thailand to Australia via Bali. A fact Indonesian president Widodo was unaware of when he rejected clemency pleas for the two Australians about to be shot.

Indonesia is awash with drugs, as any traveller to Bali will tell you. The heroin flows out of Burma and Thailand to Indonesia and, according to Widodo, 50 Indonesian drug addicts die every day. The death penalty was seen as the strongest possible deterrent to bring the problem under control.

Trouble is...it hasn't worked.

The police force over there is full of rotten apples and bribery is rife. So what happens effectively is the death penalty ends up being a very strong incentive to offer massive bribes to the arresting officers. The distributors with wads of cash walk, and foreigners with no money (although it is rumoured the Australian Chan offered a large bribe to the cops who arrested him) or hapless street pushers end up being shot.

Has the death penalty reduced drug use? Of course not. This battle is best fought by educating would be users about the misery of drug use rather than executing suppliers.

As Julie Bishop mentioned today, the only people that will end up suffering are the wonderful Balinese people who rely on Australian tourism to lift them out of poverty. Plenty of Aussies will simply boycott the region. I have to say it's just been one thing after another in Bali since 2002, and personally I can't imagine ever going back there.

 

[jaz'a]

Abbott is unbelievable. Worse unemployment rate in over a decade and he talks about Labors failure with jobs? Is he serious?

This goes to show what an utter failure his last budget was. The last thing that we need in our economy right now is for the government to cut spending and raise taxes.

Last week I was half hoping that Abbott would stay six months to ensure that Labor won next election. Seeing those numbers and listening to what's coming from the RBA I'm changing my view. We need him gone now. Our economy can't handle another 6 months of this. Business confidence can't handle another six months of uncertainty. Even getting rid of Abbott there will be uncertainty because Labor could (probably will) take government at next election but hopefully we'd have stability until then.

That the Liberal ministers backed Abbott shows they care more about not looking like Labor than they do about actually serving Australias interests. Pity I'm already a staunch labor supporter and I can't change my vote.

 

[Australis]

The real problem isn't getting the Libs out, they have effectively shot themselves in the foot. The real, uphill battle is the make Labor electable, and then fit to govern. They sure weren't under Rudd and Gillard. Oh, they were in fits and starts, but thery need more consistency and stability and a more public face, a better public face - they did good stuff but didn't publicise it very well, which was a big failing.

So that as well.

Any thought's on Ruddock's sacking? It seemed a bit out of the blue and is a bad look. Did Ruddock organise the coup that Andrew Robb hinted at?

Aussie politics is very interesting at the moment.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

In other words, we're fucked.

 

[Australis]

Abbot was right, it is very GoT, and he is a Joffrey.

 

[Botany Bay]

Any thought's on Ruddock's sacking? It seemed a bit out of the blue and is a bad look. Did Ruddock organise the coup that Andrew Robb hinted at?

Aussie politics is very interesting at the moment.

Sure is. Never a dull moment. But jazamul is right, it's not the main game. It's a distraction from the real issue : the halving of iron ore and coal prices in the past year that has totally changed the game for this country. This graph shows just how much we rely on income from these two commodities.

Cut those top blue lines in half, and we have a very big problem. Hockey should be all over the press with charts like this, explaining that the Commonwealth's finances are the equivalent of someone maxing out a platinum credit card then waking up the next morning and learning he's just had half his pay cut!

One thing Hockey did get right, apparently, was counselling Abbott to bring the spill forward a day to Monday. It probably saved Abbott the humiliation of being voted out of the job even though there was no challenger.

Ruddock, as whip, is supposed to communicate with the backbench on behalf of the leader and above all know how spooked the horses are. Apparently he assured his boss he could count only 16-18 votes for the spill. As it turned out it was 39. A whip who can't count is a pretty dangerous thing, so, father of the house or not, he had to go.

Predictably the Ruddock sacking will be used by those who want Abbott gone to start building momentum against him. Just get it over with. There are ministers in more senior positions who need to be moved along -- the country has bigger problems to face.

 

[Marc]

Any thought's on Ruddock's sacking? It seemed a bit out of the blue and is a bad look. Did Ruddock organise the coup that Andrew Robb hinted at?

Aussie politics is very interesting at the moment.

don't know about Ruddock organising it (Robb's a lying sack of shit at the best of times) but that he didn't stop it and may not be 100% in favour of Abbott as leader probably didn't help.

Having his leader come within 12 votes of a spill probably didn't help.

One of the replacements for Ruddock is a Abbott backer so that's probably a favored rendered.

Given Abbott hasn't shown any signs of changing and gaffes keep coming (holocaust of jobs anyone?) another spill attempt might not be that far away if the standings in the polls continue to drop.

Or maybe to twist comments made elsewhere Abbott has watched too much House Of Cards (in both the U.K and U.S versions, the main character starts out as party Whip until being overlooked for higher office).

Gonna bit a big mistake for Abbott (but what's new?) The party whip is a pretty powerful position and is responsible for keeping the MPs (esp the back benchers) in line by enforcing party discipline and making sure MPS are the for the votes (unless Abbott is asleep in his office after having too much to drink). Has to be some-one senior and knows the ins and outs and the party members themselves. From what I've read the replacements aren't exactly of that calibre.

 

[Australis]

Shaun Micallef couldn't have timed the return of 'Mad As Hell' any better. He has a Spill Clock up on his wall, set to 45 days until the next one. If you've not watched it, it's a more crazed version of the Daily Show, IMO. RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

What amuses me is they say they don't want to look like Labor, but wit, whoops, too late!

 

[Marc]

Shaun Micallef couldn't have timed the return of 'Mad As Hell' any better. He has a Spill Clock up on his wall, set to 45 days until the next one. If you've not watched it, it's a more crazed version of the Daily Show, IMO. RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

What amuses me is they say they don't want to look like Labor, but wit, whoops, too late!

Labor never had P.M who refused to do live interviews.

Apparently it's coming out via Laurie Oakes that Abbott will no longer do live interviews.

Though that shouldn't really come as a surprise - compares him in interviews vs Gillard and abbott comes off a very second best with his habbitt of ducking hard questions in a manner best described as "but labor"

 

[Australis]

his habbitt of ducking hard questions in a manner best described as "but labor"

Boom! Thanks for that, good line.

Went out today to saw a travelling exhibition on Anne Frank. Terribly sad but very informative. I never knew she was such a good writer. Such a gain and such a loss at the same time. If it comes your way (no future dates on the website now) you should check it out. Words really do change the world, and that's important to remember. Whcih is what I said to The Wife,a former journalist, and she didn't get it.

http://www.annefrank.org.au/About-the-Exhibition

 

[Botany Bay]

Happy (late) Valentine's day. I hope our female loungers were spoiled rotten.

As many expected, the Aussie pace bowlers destroyed England last night in a pretty lame world cup opener. Nice to see England wet their pants against pace bowling on the world stage, but 50 over cricket is more watchable when it's close. We might get that today with India playing arch-rival Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval. Someone was telling me this could be the most watched sporting event ever staged in Australia.

 

[Australis]

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cricket doesn't cut it for me, sorry.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Oh? I like bugs just fine myself.

 

[Australis]

Cricket, not crickets. Buddy Holly's good though.

 

[Botany Bay]

Trainwreck TV as Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen is found out to be clueless about income tax rates.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GB0dYaRkqA[/yt]

 

[Marc]

Trainwreck TV as Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen is found out to be clueless about income tax rates.

Embarrasing probably.

A train wreck? Nah.

The conservatives are jerking themselves off over it but that the end of the day compared the gaffes and screws up from the Government including a treasure who can't even get his budget passed it's nothing.

 

[Miss Chicken]

10.19am and the Coles truck just delivered my groceries and as a result I am sucking on a Fruit Tingle, one of my favourite Australian lollies.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I tried doing online delivery some years back, ordered I think 6 times altogether. Every single order had a mistake. Got other people's food and then was expected to wait at home while they came and got it (happened TWICE), food left out of order, substitute brands given when I hadn't checked that a substitute was okay, wrong sizes.. it was nuts.