BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

doesn't really take a genius to figure out why they'd prefer a labour market where you get to work outside in the sun all day rather than rain or permafrost. nor why they prefer working in a market where wages are paid at a 'white man's price, and not undercut to a polish master-race of worker. but no, must be because australia is a better place to live, objectively, for everyone.

Thats cool, but then again the largest single group is professionals leaving the UK and coming to Australia and mostly eastern bloc labourers migrating to the UK.
There's a net brain and tax drain from the UK, as people lower down the income scale don't actually contribute to the economy, they're generally net beneficiaries.
But no doubt you know best so I'll let you go argue with the Home Office
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-develo … -shortages
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/966706 … -them.html

Abbott just needs to leave politics and Australia will be much better off.

Abbott has no spine nor balls. He's wrapped in cotton wool and only parrots what he's been told to say. This is why his own party won't let him anywhere near a tough question. If he can't handle journalists he's got no business trying to anywhere near politics let along aspire to become PM.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Gillard should never have gone into politics.

I like spinach, really I'd say its more a comparison between shit and turd.

The thing is it's really not. Gillard has many faults but she remains a fairly decent Prime Minister. There's pretty much three skill that make a good Prime Minister; communication, organisation, and negotiation. Generally a Prime Minister has to be good with at least one of these. Gillard is a poor communicator, an able organiser, but above all a pretty exceptional negotiator. Added to that she is also a very skilled orator despite her godawful voice - look at her recent forced adoption apology and the infamous misogyny speech. Whether you agree or disagree with this you have to admit it had a lot of impact.

Tony Abbott on the other hand has shown no skill in any of these. His talents in communication have been outright embarrassing, so much so that he now avoids all interviews unless they're from his mates Sattler and Jones or similarly-dickless News. Ltd "journalists". He fears facing another situation like 7:30 where he was humiliated by Leigh Sales. He can't handle going on something like Q+A because he has an ability to respond to a line of questioning that hasn't been prepared and vetted for him. His embarrassments in this field are numerous and well documented, (and hilarious.)

Organisation? The man has not put forward a single reasoned policy. I mentioned a few pages ago that his only strategy for his often touted 'turn back the boats' is "uhh, I'm sure the Navy will come up with something." Meanwhile his other so-called policies are simply reversing what Labor did like the NBN, (because fuck forward-thinking infrastructure that around 75% of Australians want,) and the Carbon Tax, (because it murdered his Dad? Honestly I don't know any more.)

And negotiation? The man won't move on anything, I think he thinks it shows him as decisive and resolute, qualities which might be endearing if he had a fucking clue what he was doing or why. He failed to form Government despite having more seats, he failed to woo Andrew Wilkie after the pokie machine deal fell through, he failed to negotiate about asylum seeker solutions, he failed to convince one crossbencher on any issue - I could go on. As loud as he has shouted, as many times as he has repeated meaningless slogans, as many times as he has blatantly lied in order to score generally incorrect points, and no matter how much this has harmed the Government in the polls he is yet to actually have one impact in Parliament.

Even on the 'bonus' of oration Tony has nothing. Putting aside his poor communication record look at the opportunities he has had to just speak publicly. Look at his address at the forced adoption apology. It took him two minutes before he committed a faux pas and caused a lot of angry heckling. In my opinion it was a fairly minor offence that I honestly wasn't aware of, but Tony should have been as he should have read the committee report that outlined how what he said was offensive in that context. And besides that it wasn't a very good speech. His best made point was when he praised Gillard for what she said. He probably should have left it at that.

Gillard may be a bit tough to swallow for some but all Prime Ministers are while they're in office. However as far as demonstrating the actual skills it takes to lead Gillard is miles ahead of Tony.

Cybargs wrote:

tony abbot is the george bush of australia. at least he doesnt have a dick cheney buddy

Ernie Dingo for following PM.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Cybargs wrote:

tony abbot is the george bush of australia. at least he doesnt have a dick cheney buddy

He has John Howard sitting on his shoulder - I don't like Howard and I don't like the fact someone will be in the shadows pulling the strings of a puppet PM.

Ty wrote:

]Gillard may be a bit tough to swallow for some but all Prime Ministers are while they're in office.

I find it hard to believe many PMs could be this bad. Calling an election ~9 months out was a slimy trick by itself, and showering money on a couple of, independent, electorates to keep yourself in power is the same.

You seem to have a poor lack of how politics work. Any politician with half a brain would do both these things. It's how hung parliaments work.

It's funny you point out these two things yet totally gloss over the fact that Abbott in the same week has promised WA to keep their healthy GST revenue whilst telling SA and TAS that it will be sorted and it will be distributed fairly. That's just telling people what they want to hear, ie. flat out lying.

Independents who had a choice of whom came into government did what's best for their electorate based upon negotiations at the time and receive benefits as a result as this is seen as corrupt? lol

wtf? your first responsibility is absolutely to your local electorate because they're the people who gave you that job in the first place. who is going to stick up for them if you don't?

in other news, tony abbott revealed that his period of intense study has borne fruit and he now understand how taxes work

"This is a government prepared to tax people to fund its own spending."

well done, tony. i swear to god i am not making that quote up.

Last edited by Spark (2013-04-07 08:13:31)

i mean jesus fucking chriiiiiiiiiist that this man will probably hold high office is just a fucking indictment

Cybargs wrote:

Spark wrote:

wtf? your first responsibility is absolutely to your local electorate because they're the people who gave you that job in the first place. who is going to stick up for them if you don't?

dilbert doesnt really understand representative democracy lol

This is true.

Jaekus wrote:

Cybargs wrote:

Spark wrote:

wtf? your first responsibility is absolutely to your local electorate because they're the people who gave you that job in the first place. who is going to stick up for them if you don't?

dilbert doesnt really understand representative democracy lol

This is true.

I understand it fine, but there is a difference between looking out for your constituency and being true to their wishes and your manifesto and brazenly demanding bribes in return for supporting a barely legitimate govt.

Gillard is doling out taxpayer money to protect her own position, I bet its as much about pocketing more salary and pension entitlement as anything else, thats corrupt.