In my last night in Australia, it gave me great pleasure and a fair bit of confidence that the most sensible member of the panel was a member of the British Conservative Party.

Shorten avoided every question he could on the leadership.
Bishop showed why I think she is a total airhead.
And yet again they seemed to find some old duddery battleaxe to throw in some curveballs.

However Dan Hannan reflected my views on nearly every point!

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Feb 20^th, 2012 at 9:39pm:


LOL the 1st person I thought of with his last comment was you

Shorten of course dodged the leadership crap, I think we are all just about over it (except those rusted on and see it as a sure way to get Abbott up), but once the program got onto actual policy questions he did well.
Agree about Bishop, you could see the fear when that lady asked exactly what was meant by flexability, Shortens example of Alcoha was telling. I think we can safely assume penalty rates are gone if Abbott wins.
Dan made some great points on Europe, actaully made me feel a little sorrry for the poor old greek tax payer/avoider.

Dsmithy70 wrote on Feb 20^th, 2012 at 9:52pm:


Funny he should be on actually.
In the last round of Euro elections it was his performance on the BBC's Question Time that switched my vote back to the Conservatives from UKIP.
He talks a lot of sense and there are some serious issues to be addressed in the EU - greater integration and more unified policy is exactly the opposite what we should be doing.

But given its an Australian show, they'd be within their rights for not giving a flying bugger actually so I was surprised he was on there.

I like a lot of Abbott's policies on workplace relations, don't get me wrong. I agree with an end to penalty rates, I agree with greater flexibility to respond to the global market capitalist supply and demand curve.

Bishop said all this BUT she parroted it. I didn't actually believe she knew what half of it meant and I reckon a 15 mins grilling on it and all she'd do is parrot the same lines and couldn't actually answer any of it.
I really don't think she understands!

I agree about Shorten, he is a slippery eel on the leadership thing BUT whilst I don't agree with several standpoints he takes, I can see he clearly actually does understand what he is talking about.

I actually think on economics and market capitalism I'd enjoy a conversation much more with Shorten than Bishop. I'd disagree totally with him but I know he understands and builds his point on knowledge.
The other is just an airhead.

No penalty rates and I quit and go on the dole. It's simply not worth the effort of getting up at 3am and getting home after 9pm. Then again, I'd probably find that my hourly rate would go up by 50% to make up for it because as it stands my employer has to bring in employees from 600kms away then house them and feed them just to make up the numbers.

Dsmithy70 wrote on Feb 20^th, 2012 at 10:14pm:


May be a tad harsh, but I thought it looked like he wrote Bishop off as an idiot early on. He clearly had more in common with Shorten which was interesting because he is from the Right of the Conservatives.

He's one of my local MEPs (we have 10 to elect in the SE of England) and he got my vote.

Anyway, I don't agree on either capitalism or the penalty rates.
Capitalism will stay because, put simply, it is the only card game in town. It's the best system we have.
It rewards hard work, it bases on people's natural instinct and that is to succeed and be rewarded for it through monetary value. That's what we as people are about.

Penalty rates have to go. They are a relic of a by-gone time and a by-gone set of markets.
We now operate in a global economy - In the 1970s it was Australian companies mainly competing with Aussies for the Australian market.

Now Australians compete with Indians, Chinese, European and North American competitors. It's important to keep Operating Costs down and to do this direct labour expense is a key area.

It's really important for competitiveness that we have a flexible, fluid workplace relation programme. I know that's what Bishop said, the difference with me and her is I don't think she has the first clue what it means.

Julie Bishop had a preconceived position to drag every topic back to the carbon tax.....Even when the high Australian dollar is the real problem Julie Bishop ignored the facts and played politics blaming the carbon tax for everything when it has not even been implemented yet.....She had the opportunity to talk up what the Liberal party would do and failed miserably.....Nothing less than what I expected from this horrible woman!!!

GoddyofOz wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 12:32am:

Keep ex-unionists away from our treasury. Is there anyone in labor who are not ex-union?

I likes the way he dodged Bishops question on would he work with rudd...LOL..

he had already signed in there when he was giving rudd kudos's  for being a fine man.. the video proved nothing..ha.ha.. and a fine Foreign Minister..

who bloody wouldnt be in his shoes.

he proved to me what a turncoat he would be when it comes to a confrontation....whats the betting he takes a sickie that day?