Mister 16%

For those that may be remotely interested, my highly intelligent, critical analysis of the latest Newspoll results and the implications for Malcolm Turnbull can be found here.

In other news, Tony Abbott has introduced a new episode in the history of the Catholic Church with the establishment of “The Sisters of Perpetual Endorsement” in support of the beleagured Leader.

The Monk’s Tales

Clearly poor old Tony Abbott has a lot of time on his hands with the revelation that he is about to release a new – bound to be bestselling book – called “Battlelines.”

According to this report, Mr Abbott is sick and tired of the namby-pamby “feel-good” forward-thinking culture that is emerging in Australia and wants to see a return to what he calls “conservative traditional values.”

Mr Abbott suggested the Liberal Party should place the concept of strengthening traditional family values high on its policy agenda.

“Conservatism was the doctrine that dare not speak its name,” Mr Abbott said. “Now I think it is important that conservatism be acknowledged as a critically important component of the strands of thinking within the Liberal Party.

Aah, the return of the “old slient majority!”

“I think conservatism has a potential appeal which may well be much broader than the appeal of political philosophies which have historically been more acceptable in Australia, such as liberalism and socialism” he said.

An interesting display of “Abbott logic.” According to Mr Abbott, a philosophy which has been traditionally less-appealing in Australia, should be more appealing simply because he says so? Fascinating stuff. A bit like Jean Luc Picard saying “Make it so.”

Furthermore, despite the majority of Australians now of the opinion that the option of marriage should be available to same sex couples, Mr Abbott has the whole gay marriage issue clearly in his sights and wants to perpetuate discrimination by further elevating the superiority of “traditional marriage!”

“The point I make in the book is that a society that is moving towards some kind of recognition of gay unions, for instance, is surely capable of providing additional recognition to what might be thought of as traditional marriage,” he said.

I can see his point. We simply can’t have a society that has the same equality and recognition for same sex couples and opposite sex couples.
Mr Abbott’s concept must be something akin to a budget “no frills” concept of marriage for same sex couples as opposed to a “premium members club” type marriage for opposite sex couples.

“Something akin to Matrimonial Causes Act marriage ought to be an option for people who would like it,” Mr Abbott said. “Even though [marriage] is probably the most important commitment that any human being can make, in fact there are many, many contracts which are harder to enter and harder to get out of than this one.”

I know what he means. I tried to return a mobile phone once. It was a bloody nightmare.

The Matrimonial Causes Act, abandoned in 1975 in exchange for a “no-fault” system, provided 14 grounds for divorce, including adultery, desertion, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, imprisonment and insanity, or separation for more than five years

And his point is? (Completely lost on me.)

Or is he suggesting that same sex “marriages” are almost definitely going to involve adultery, cruelty, habitual drunkenness and insanity, unlike those good god-fearing opposite sex marriages?

Mr Abbott confessed that he had finally come to terms with the 2007 election loss through a process akin to “grieving” and was prepared to stay in politics over the long term.

“Like everybody else I am subject to the electors, the preselectors and circumstance.”

Well yes. And the fact that nobody likes you.

He said writing the book had been therapeutic, admitting to feeling “a little sorry for myself” after the election defeat, which he said particularly hurt because “I think we lost to an unworthy opponent”.

“A little sorry for himself?” “Gutted” would perhaps be a more appropriate description. It seems as though Tony just can’t get over the fact, that the majority of Australians rejected everything that the Liberal party and people like Tony Abbott stood for at the last election.

Of course, if Mr Abbott thinks he is on to “a winner” by motivating the Liberal party to navigate back towards traditional, conservative right-wing values, I’m sure the sentiment will appeal to someone.

Born to rule, as always.

The Resurrection of Tony Abbott

Hot on the heels of the spectacular implosion of Malcolm Turnbull in the polls, there is a growing concern inside the Liberal party that Malcolm’s dramatic fall from grace is beyond redemption.

If these reports are anything to go by, Malcolm has until Christmas to redeem himself, or face a leadership standoff that could see Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey jockeying for the top job.

The Liberals, in their infinite wisdom, believe that Tony Abbott could hold the key to their salvation.

Tony Abbott, one of the last remaining members of the Howardesque rat pack, has been praised within Liberal ranks over his performance in recent weeks in pursuing the Rudd government over the “ute-gate” affair.

Of course, there’s nothing new about Abbott’s tactics, they hark back to the days of the Howard government when the modus operandi of the day was to keep repeating the party’s mantra in the hope that constant repitition would help make some proposerous unbelievable rhetoric somehow plausible.

It didn’t work then – think WorkChoices and the so called “fairness test” – and it won’t work now.

The only thing commendable about Abbott’s performance was that it wasn’t as abysmally catastrophic as Malcolm Turnbull’s. Apparantly that’s sufficient reason for Liberal party insiders to consider handing over the reigns to Tony Abbott.

The Liberal party is suffering from a severe identity crisis. If they are to become a relevant force they need to reinvent themselves and clearly state what they stand for. At the moment they are a spent force floundering in a sea of irrelevance.

If they believe that the future lies with Tony Abbott at the helm then they are seriously deluded and more or less conceding defeat.

Tony Abbott: “Christian Voters Betrayed by Rudd”

Federal Opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott has accused Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of betraying Christian voters by allowing a ban on overseas aid for abortion services to be overturned.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has decided that Australian aid money can now be used to fund abortion services if terminations are allowed under local laws.

Mr Rudd told Government MPs that he does not personally agree with the decision, but recognises that the majority of his colleagues do not share his view.

But Mr Abbott says the Prime Minister now looks two-faced.

“He said before the election that religious values should be at the centre of the public square,” Mr Abbott said.

“After the election he has betrayed those values, his Government has abandoned those values, and I think that Christian voters who took him seriously have every right to feel let down.”

Now it might just be me (which it often is), however I wasn’t aware that the nation’s Christians were united in their stance against abortion. Sure, it’s common knowledge that Catholics generally are opposed to abortion, however to suggest that this is the widely held view of ALL Christians or religious people by Tony Abbott is presumptious to say the least.

Also, we’re talking about the funds being used in countries where abortion is legal.

It seems like this is just another example of Tony Abbott expecting his own religious views to be inflicted upon not only people living in Australia, but now in other countries where we provide financial aid.

UPDATE:
But wait there’s more:

Mr Abbott said there were “better uses” for Australian aid money and Christian voters had a right to feel deceived by Mr Rudd’s claim to hold conservative values.

“I think they are entitled to say he is a phoney based on this government decision.”

Tony Abbott. Missing in Action. Pissed. Asleep.

If anyone’s been wondering what Tony Abbott’s been up to lately, we need wonder no more.

Apparently the Liberal party backbencher has been lapping up the privileges of the Parliamentary dining room and getting stuck into their top shelf tax-payer funded wine cellar.

During what must be one of the year’s most important parliamentary votes – the $42 billion stimulus package, the Member for Warringah Tony Abbott, known for his fanatical outspoken religious views, was enjoying a few too many ‘communion wines’ with recent religious convert Peter Costello joined with Kevin Andrews and Peter Dutton where “numerous” bottles of wine were consumed.

In a report published in The Sunday Telegraph, Treasurer Wayne Swan, in the midst of a speech on the Government’s response to the global economic crisis, noted the absence of high-profile Liberal MPs.

“The Member for Higgins (Mr Costello), as this vital debate in the history of the country is going on, is currently in the dining room,” he said at 10.10pm.

“He is currently in the dining room with the Member for Menzies (Mr Andrews). He is currently in the dining room with the Member for Warringah (Mr Abbott).

“That is what they think about the strategy … those on that side of the house.”

Later that evening, Mr Costello, Mr Dutton and Mr Andrews returned to the chamber to vote on other matters.

However Mr Abbott was still nowhere to be seen. Hansard records show he missed five votes that evening.

The Warringah MP was asleep in his office.

Mr Abbott told The Sunday Telegraph the group had consumed a couple of bottles of wine, but denied he had fallen asleep as a result of heavy drinking.

Mr Abbott confessed that he had fallen asleep due to ‘exhaustion.’

“I don’t get a lot of sleep in Canberra. By the time you get to bed, it’s usually after 11 and I usually get up at five or earlier,” he said.

“If you start off the week tired, it’s very hard to catch up” he said.

True to the entrenched Liberal Party “born to rule” mentality, when asked whether he was drunk, Mr Abbott said:

“That is an impertinent question. I had dinner with the gentlemen you mentioned, there’s no doubt we had a couple of bottles of wine, I wasn’t keeping count, maybe two. This is an impertinent question. I’m going to politely hang up now.”

“Impertinent?”

More like inconvenient, or potentially embarrassing, however if Mr Abbott cannot recall how many bottles of wine he had consumed then I would say it’s a fair question to ask.

Surely, we as taxpayers deserve more from our parliamentarians.

“John Howard Never Ran Away From Public Scrutiny”

The Liberal party seems determined to gain some mileage over the supposed leak surrounding the “G20 Gate” conversation between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and soon-to-be former President George W Bush.

News Limited reports that Opposition frontbencher Tony Abbott has branded Prime Minister Kevin Rudd “a coward” over his refusal to answer questions about the leaking of details of a phone call with US President George W Bush.

The Opposition has accused Mr Rudd of leaking details of the conversation with Mr Bush to The Australian newspaper.