skippy. wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 3:44pm:

The faceless numbers men of the liberal party still believe they owe Abbott something for his performance in the last election.
What they are deluding themselves with is that it was Abbott that did the damage to Labor not Labor itself.
Labor destroyed their own majority Abbott is/was lucky enough to be in the position to falsely claim the credit, kinda like his puppeteer Howard did with the economy.

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 3:56pm:


Malcolm Turnbull would implement a tax on carbon emissions. - As will any government eventually even Abbott.

Malcolm Turnbull is a Republican.- So what? Both you and I are big fans of the USA a republic last I looked, besides this is a side issue that really only resonates with people over 60, the rest of us don't care either way.

Malcolm Turnbull would bring about some issues which would be against traditional moral values. - Again so what, it used to be ok and moral to own slaves, societies evolve, values change, its life.

Quote:





I wondered that MYSELF ?

longweekend58 wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2011 at 4:40pm:


This is what we mean,when Turnbull was leader Rudd was getting the best preferred PM polls in history, Turnbull didn't do bad, Rudd was the messiah in those days.
Abbott was in the right place at the right time, Abbott didn't take the Libs anywhere, Labor imploded. In fact Labor imploded sooooooooo bad that had ANYONE other than Abbott been leader last August the Libs would be in gov today.
You really need to get your head around the circumstances, Abbott, even today trails Gillard as preferred PM, Turnbull Hockey or even Robb would have better numbers.
The votes Abbott got at the last election is as good as its ever going to get for the Libs with him as leader, ANYONE, and I mean ANYONE of the other candidates have much less baggage and would have a much better chance at winning than Abbott.
I just cant get my head around how you don't see that, who do you think you need to attract to win? its me, me and the likes of smithy, and those other swinging voters out there, we are NEVER, NEVER EVER going to vote for the Libs with Abbott as leader.
There is no point the likes of you trying to spin the story, WE CAN SEE LABOR are not performing, so the Libs need to attract us with someone worthy of being PM, its up to them, and its up to you to swallow some pride, admit Abbott is not palatable to at least half the voters and get someone who is.

These 'Faceless Men" behind Abbott ;

Critical Times
independent news & views
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The real struggle for power
September 3rd, 2010 by Critical Times

Source: Guardian

During the election campaign Tony Abbott made numerous
references to the “faceless men” of the Labor Party (ALP) who had
organised a coup and “executed an Australian prime minister”. It is
no secret that Labor men Bill Shorten, Paul Howes, David Feeney,
Don Farrell, Mark Arbib and Karl Bitar played a role in convincing
caucus that they should dump prime minister Kevin Rudd.
But they were not the faceless men behind the coup who really
wield the power in Australia. If Abbott wants to talk about faceless
men, he should ask who were the faceless men behind the dumping
of Coalition leader Malcolm Turnbull and his own election as leader
of the Coalition. It is the same faceless men, just different public
executioners. There are striking similarities between the Abbott and
Gillard ascendancies to leadership.

When PM Kevin Rudd and Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull
sewed up a deal for Labor’s emissions trading system (ETS) to pass
through the Senate the alarm bells rang in the mining industry’s
corridors of power. Despite the scheme’s huge subsidies to the big
carbon polluters, they were determined to stop it.
And stop it they did. The opinion polls turned against Turnbull,
his leadership was destabilised and Abbott, the climate change denier
replaced him. The leadership battle was presented in terms of sliding
opinion polls and personalities in a bitterly divided party – and
they certainly played a part. But there were also some powerful
faceless men behind the scenes who played on those divisions and
poor opinion polls. They had buckets of money at their disposal for
campaigning and political donations and their agents within.
One of the most powerful of these faceless men behind Abbott’s
rise to the leadership was Mitchell Hooke, not exactly a household
name like Howes or Shorten. Hooke is the chief executive of the
Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).

“Hooke led the MCA, the leading mining companies lobby,
into two major policy battles over the past year. And he emerged
triumphant in both – the defeat of the Labor government’s proposal
for an emissions trading scheme to combat climate change and the
spectacular end to the resource super profits tax,” notes Colleen
Ryan in an interview with Hooke in the Australian Financial Review
(13-08-2010).

The unelected, “faceless” Hooke wields considerable power and
influence. He has been a member of the official Australian delegation
to WTO ministerial meetings since 1994. He is a past chair of the
Australian Industry Greenhouse Network, a business lobby group,
better known as the Greenhouse mafia. He also holds various positions
in other business lobby groups and deals with government at the
highest level in Australia and on international industry bodies, including
APEC. The MCA was a major player defending WorkChoices
prior to the 2007 elections.

In his interview with Colleen Ryan Hooke expresses pleasure
with MCA’s success in killing the ETS. The MCA had a war chest of
$100 million at its disposal when it launched a massive advertising
campaign against the Labor’s resources super profits tax (RSPT).
The big miners claimed they had shelved billions of dollars worth of
projects, and said the tax would not only make investment in mining
unprofitable but ruin the Australian economy and cost thousands
of jobs.

The opinion polls stepped in again with poor ratings for Labor.
Hooke, ably assisted (consciously or unconsciously) by sections of
the trade union movement as well as backroom boys of the Labor
Right (some from Rudd’s own faction), takes credit for the coup. In
particular, the right-wing Australian Workers’ Union, which has a
relatively cosy relationship with the mining industry, played a key
role under the leadership of Paul Howes.

Hooke, who had a hand in the execution of both Kevin Rudd
and Malcolm Turnbull, is just one of the real “faceless men” (and
women) who run Australia. They can be found in the boardrooms
of oil, mining, banking, finance, tobacco and other big corporations
and their industry lobby groups.

Climate change is one of the key issues that resulted in Labor’s
poor electoral performance. The Howard Coalition government was
kicked out by an electorate wanting action on climate change in
2007. Beholden to the big mining interests, Abbott treats climate
change as “crap” and Gillard has backed down on Rudd’s RSPT
and deferred action on climate change until 2013.

http://www.criticaltimes.com.au/uncategorized/the-real-struggle-for-power/

Miss Anne Dryst wrote on Jan 1^st, 2011 at 4:45pm:


Aha. The ALP is so stupid that they will try to axe another PM within term. Because the only people with any political savvy are people who require a dictionary to form the sentence, "Gillard will not last as PM this year, I think we all realise this."  <-- (NB: In case you didn't realise this is called sarcasm.)

I doubt an election will be held this year. I predict Gillard will continue to falter in the polls because she is quite a ridiculous PM. Nevertheless, while Abbott is the leader of the opposition we will continue to have very close poll results.  Gillard can be the worst of PMs, but it's still a better alternative than some right wing church loving maniac who has a knack for talking to simple minded people and raising fears in their minds.

Anyways, with the polls still very close, if an election were to be held this year the electorate will punish whoever it was who made them waste 10 minutes of their life on a precious Saturday. It is as simple as that. The polls will need to begin showing a slide in one party or another before anyone contemplates it.

aussiefree2ride wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2011 at 10:37am:


  Obviously that's a lie.  If it were true you would not be able to realise it.