Oz Election Thread #6 - Abbott's LNP

There's a bit of pondering of what 'The Australia' is for when there's an LNP govt? Not much apparently. The print of New Corp's Australian business lost 350 million in the last year.

Still the journos are sticking with their man. This bizarre denialism on twitter from Samantha Maiden speaks volumes.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/tony-abbotts-broken-indigenous-promise-and-news-corp-breaking-bad/

What 'The AUSTRALIAN' is for goddammit.

And apart from his politics Abbott is just plain creepy. There is something about him and his manner that is very disturbing . My elderly mother always says he's the kind of man you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley. I don't want to have to keep looking at him for the next three years or more.

My only very selfish consolation in all this is that I live in Tasmania and already have nbn fibre to my home. Turnbull's 'fibre to the node' plan is ridiculous and internationally embarrassing. I was talking to a guy last year who was working as a consultant on the NBN and he seemed 100% confident that the Turnbull plan would never go ahead - but it probably will just because they're a bunch of arrogant pricks who won't admit how very wrong they are.

Hi Pearly - I'm trying to get over my personal dislike of Abbott - but his policy approach is near non-existent. For a Rhodes Scholar he seems bereft of anything addressing inevitable change and thinks steady as she goes is the answer - just like Howard.

I wonder if Abbott will get the chance to have a 'Port Arthur' moment - we he actually did manage to achieve something of social good.

His attitude to women is deplorable and firmly stuck in the early 70s.

Jealous of your NBNness - Turnbull has sold his soul on this one (although the cutdown NBN plan of his is actually better than what Abbott wanted) . His whole plan though will result in 25% if the performance at 70% of the cost - and that's not factoring in how much you pay for fibre from node to home OR the fact that much of the copper network is deteriorating and is still owned by Telstra (whereas the NBN separates infrastructure ownership from service delivery so we have true competition).

I sincerely hope we have no port Arthur moments! That's way too much to pay for an Abbott act of courage!

I know you didn't mean it that way.

When you sign up for an nbn plan they are very clear that the actual download speed you get won't be as fast as the theoretical speed you pay for and that it's affected by your own hardware, number of end-users etc etc. So, for example, I'm on a 50mbps plan and when I checked just then I was getting 30mbps . It's often slower than that. I could probably complain to my provider but I expect they'll just quote the disclaimer to me...and it's fast enough for what I need . Turnbull's plan relying on the old copper wire is going to be even slower again. I wonder if a 25 mbps plan on fibre to the node is going to be that much faster than adsl2. And just the fact that Telstra is still involved is scary and brings back nightmares from my very unreliable adsl days.

It gets worse, turnbull has hand picked ziggy twitowski to be on the board. He stewarded Telstra to an enormous drop in share prices then earns a living doing consultancies for the LNP. Remember the nuclear power feasibility study for Howard?

Thinking about turning this thread title into 'Dickhead Watch'

Today's dickheads are....

Joe Hockey and Chris Pyne

Hockey because he wants the Australian Taxation Office to send tax payers a breakdown of where there tax dollar is spent. He's a dickhead because I would expect our senior politicians to know that the ATO collects money. Treasury decides how it spent (that's the department you head Hockey - what's wrong? Want to distance yourself from your own decisions?)
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/joe-hockey-orders-ato-to-tell-taxpayers-where-their-money-goes/story-fni0d2cj-1226726341854

Pyne because in stating that intends to scrap labor's higher education reforms aimed at encouraging disadvantage access to University said:
‘‘Labor is obsessed with targets," he said. ‘‘We’re obsessed with outcomes ... I don’t think a target adds to good government."
Right Chris, so what outcomes are you trying to achieve if you don't set targets? Oh right, the ones that your efforts can't be reviewed against. This orwellian doublespeak would be embarrassing if it wasn't so malevolent.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/christopher-pyne-reveals-university-shakeup-20130924-2ucag.html

I STILL can't watch. Listening to music on the commute instead of Radio National.

Some fact checking on LNP's carbon tax claims - outcome: almost total bullshit.

Greg Hunt states projected figures as past data:



Truth-O-Meter on:
'When [the carbon tax repeal] bill is passed, Australian households will be better off to the tune of $550 a year."

http://www.politifact.com.au/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/17/tony-abbott/Carbon-tax-repeal-bill-mean-household-better-off/

Our ruling

The $550 saving spruiked by Tony Abbott refers to the 2014/15 financial year, based on Treasury modelling and some good faith in power companies. We gave that a Half True.

The forecast savings would be much less under a cheaper, floating price. Even if you accept that Labor only promised to move to an ETS early, it would have rolled over to a floating price in 2015 anyway.

So when Abbott says "households will be better off to the tune of $550 a year", it really only applies for one year in his best-case scenario.

We rate the statement Mostly False.

What do you think of the latest comments re Rudd?

I wonder if the NSW bushfires will affect the ostrich policy on climate hange?

I don't doubt for a second that roxon was speaking the truth as she saw it. Probably the objective truth for that matter, but perhaps it would have suited labor better if she'd kept shtum. I mean new labor leader bill shorten was instrumental in getting rid of Rudd (understandable) but also for reinstating him (unjustifiable).

Hey Guys, all of you post a superb discussion. Keep it up..

Feel free to contribute williamjack. Welcome to A2K.

Did you see last night's Clarke & Dawe?

Nice Eric Blair mention - I wonder how many heads it went over.

PLEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZZZZE tell me you jest!!!!

Sorry, no. Reported on the jays and the standard dailies, he literally said it in an interview with the BBC. ALIA (oz's library association) has already responded by mentioning in an open letter that perhaps he might reverse the slashing of library services in his portfolio by the former govt and base government decisions on more reliable sources.

Example source
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greg-hunt-uses-wikipedia-research-to-dismiss-links-between-climate-change-and-bushfires-20131023-2w1w5.html

Sigh.