I never commented on the discussion of if you were right or wrong? Want to know facts? You embarrassed yourself after trying to personally insult someone who probably works harder than you, those are some facts.

Please mate, nobody works harder than batfink. He runs and owns his own 17 businesses our of a phone booth on the Nullarbor, rescues misguided youths from their heroin addicted baby momma, invented the spoon and hasn't had a day off since 1776 when he founded the United States by freeing the english from the english.

well here is my original post.........

can't see where our moronic friend can find an insult against his race or religion...

when you can point out where it is, I will apologise , until then go fuck your boot....

you should apply for the media officer for the ALP your about as accurate and genuine.....
thought you had a brain but obviously a bandwagon abuser

The country changed a fair bit in the 70's.

hi jim...:d

please read my original post and see where your hard working moron mate made the stupid comment that triggered my reply....until then fuckoff

In regards to Vietnam, I have to scoff at the idea that having to toil to survive is something to learn from. A people who have been raped and pillaged by other cultures and political doctrine for near on 50 years and large parts that are still recovering from agent orange and the birth defects attributed to it, as well as only in the past 10 years being able to open the country to tourism due to heavy pollution in the waters nearby.

Yes Vietnam is beautiful, but their work ethic as you call it is actually just surviving. Australians could learn the same values moving to western NSW or any farming community in Australia and feeling first hand how major corporations are raping our own farmers to save a buck. Earning just enough to keep creditors of their backs and holding onto the family plot that used to be something to be proud of but now is just waiting for the sword of Damocles to fall.

Sorry for being drawn into this useless debate.

Very well said.

-PB

vnh Rocknerd

Batfink :lol:

well I wasn't referring to having to toil to survive....they are very knowledgable farmers and well connected to the earth...

they have great family values and are very friendly and accommodating......

fully aware of the farmers plight in Australia and have touched on this with previous posts.....

Yes Vietnam is Beautiful and I hope when the country is opened up they can retain their identity and culture and family values without becoming to western....im sure I will be proven wrong...but it would be nice of they could find a balance

No they don't. I know several Vietnamese girls who have been ostracised by their family for dating a white guy.

Rudd says Abbott lacks 'ticker'
Date
July 3, 2013 - 7:40PM

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd suspects Tony Abbott lacks the "ticker" to debate him on key policy areas.

Mr Abbott has been "lying" to the Australian people about the state of the economy, his ability to turn back asylum seeker boats and the impact of carbon pricing, Mr Rudd says in his first major television interview since retaking the leadership from Julia Gillard.

"So what I would say to Mr Abbott - you've been doing this for a long time, it's time we had a properly moderated debate ... on his chosen subjects," Mr Rudd said on the ABC's 7.30 program.

"Mr Abbott, I think it is time you demonstrated to the country you have a bit of ticker on this.

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"He's the boxing blue. I'm the glasses-wearing kid in the library.

"Come on, let's have the Australian people form a view about whether his policies actually have substance, whether they actually work, or whether they are just slogans."

On his now-broken pledge never to return to the Labor leadership, Mr Rudd said Ms Gillard had vacated the spot and brought on the caucus ballot.

He said a second reason was the prospect of defeat at the 2013 election.

"The Australian Labor Party and the government was on track towards a catastrophic defeat and I wasn't about to stand idly by and see everything we worked for for the last five or six years go down the gurgler as Mr Abbott set about ripping it apart."

He said he was not motivated by revenge, but taking up the fight to Mr Abbott and coming up with a positive plan for the future.

Mr Rudd said he was working through policy changes but it would be an "orderly process".

He said he wanted to take the time to "think and take the best advice".

Asked whether Labor would be punished for its long leadership turmoil, Mr Rudd said he had faced four Liberal leaders over a period of four years after he took on the Labor leadership.

"In political parties these things happen from time to time," he said.

AAP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudd-says-abbott-lacks-ticker-20130703-2pbzp.html#ixzz2XyZ5SOp7

Can a guy who was made sick by a dagwood dog really accuse someone of "lacking ticker"?

Tony Abbott lays claim to 'inherently conservative' Australia
In interview with US journal, opposition leader says Australia is a successful society with a 'high and rising standard of living'

Katharine Murphy, deputy political editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 July 2013 15.27 AEST

Tony Abbott has used an interview with an American publication to argue that all successful societies are inherently conservative, and to assert that the Barack Obama’s administration is the most left-leaning government in Washington in 50 years.

The opposition leader advanced his arguments about conservatism in an interview with the journal World Affairs. He was making a broad point that in Australia elections are won from the political centre.

Abbott told Mary Kissel, an editorial board member of the Wall Street Journal: “All successful societies are inherently conservative … and Australia is undeniably a successful society” with its “high and rising standard of living”, “just and generally accepted institutions” and “a relatively happy recent history”.

“Good Labor governments can tap into that basic conservatism, just as poorly performing Coalition governments can alienate a basically conservative electorate,” Abbott said. The journal cited Abbott as saying the Australian public was “more comfortable” with the idea of a Liberal-led government. But, he added: “I think it’s inevitably got much more to do with their disappointment and dismay at the Gillard government.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Abbott brands Obama and his administration “the most left-of-centre government in at least half a century”.

He adds: “Now I’m not being critical of Obama … he’s following a well-trod path. But I think it is a fact that the Obama government is a much more statist government than the Clinton administration.”

Abbott suggests that statism is on the rise around the world in part due to the fallout from the global financial crisis, and the departure from politics of “charismatic centre-left politicians who embraced market capitalism” – figures such as Bob Hawke, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton.

Abbott welcomes the Obama administration’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific region, but he appears to question whether the changes outlined by Gillard and the US president will actually alter the status quo in practical terms.

As Kissel notes in the piece, the Obama administration negotiated a permanent deployment of 2,500 troops to Darwin, on Australia’s northern coast, by 2016. “Look, I welcome the so-called pivot to Asia,” Abbott says, “as does the Gillard government. But if all it is is a marine brigade in Darwin in a few years’ time, that’s hardly going to change the strategic balance in this part of the world.”

On Australian political issues, Abbott remarks that the Liberal party has been “very careful, at least in recent years, not to alienate minority groups”. He says the party during the 1980s made mistakes. The Liberals “were at serious risk of alienating newcomers”. Immigrants, Abbott reflects, “are natural conservatives if they are appealed to the right way”.

Abbott does not cite any specific examples in the published interview, but the Liberal party’s One Australia policy in the late 1980s proposed a cut in Asian immigration. John Howard later acknowledged that policy had been a mistake.

On the subject of foreign investment, the opposition leader notes there is “a degree of anxiety about Chinese and Middle Eastern investment. But in the end the vast majority of Australians understand that we need foreign investment.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/03/tony-abbott-australia-inherently-conservative

What a fucking moron

whatever.....


if I say white you say black....if I say left you say right....whateveeeerrrrrrrr](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

“It Was At About The 85 Minute Mark That I Realised This Movie Wasn’t About John Howard”

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he was well over half way into watching the latest Superman movie Man of Steel before he realised it was about a comic character and not his hero and mentor John Howard.

“I was just gutted,” Mr Abbott explained. “Everything about the movie fits the John Howard story – the superhuman powers, saving the planet, going off to fight the baddies, the funny tracksuit. I mean, the actor even looks like John”.

Mr Abbott said he sensed something wasn’t quite right when he noticed the film was set in the present day. “John still thinks it’s 1958, so I came to the disappointing conclusion that the film wasn’t about him. The title is just a cruel trick to lure people into theatres”.
http://theshovel.com.au/2013/06/26/man-of-steel-movie-not-about-john-howard/

Abbott makes one fair point actually. Like it or not Australia has been an inherantly conservative society.

I don't think we've been inherently conservative, no. I think we've been inherently stupid and racist. It took until 1967 for Aboriginals to conclusively be allowed to vote ffs. Not to mention the White Australia policy.

We still have a society that cotton wools children, freaks out over relatively minor things (like the Adam Goodes incident), etc.

what a articulate response......

Foul ball, batfink.

No need for personal attacks mate.

lol.

Senile Batfink; says he doesn't complain about working so much, but complains about working so much.

lol.

-PB

So Rudd to have a debate with himself next Thursday?

It has been our inherently (note spelling Afro) conservative nature that has created a stable, democratic, law-abiding society. I'll take that with pride any day of the week.

40 years ago, Malcolm Fraser, the leader of the conservative side of the conservative party, attacked the conservative leader Billy Snedden for not being conservative enough. (Feel free to read that one twice.) As soon as Abbott becomes the leader of the liberal party he walks away from them. The uber conservative of 40 years ago is too left for liberal (and half of labor). I think that says something about us now.

It's the same thing that's happening to the Republicans in the USA. The ultra right wing religious nationalist nutjobs have taken over.

Strange that my spell check didn't correct that. My bad.

I contend that our society is far from stable and law-abiding. People just take the "If I can't see it, it's not there" approach to things.

Joe Hockey attacks Kevin Rudd for hiring Treasury official

Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey has accused Kevin Rudd of politicising the Treasury, describing the Prime Minister's recruitment of a senior official as “a joke” and “wrong on so many fronts”.

On Wednesday, Mr Rudd announced that Treasury deputy secretary Jim Murphy, would be his new chief of staff.

Mr Murphy is head of the Treasury's markets group and is well regarded in business circles.

Mr Hockey also claimed the head of the Treasury, Martin Parkinson, had called him to complain about Labor appointing “so many” public servants as political staffers.

It is understood this conversation happened some time ago.

“At one stage the Secretary of the Treasury rang me up and expressed … disappointment that he was in a position where he had so many Treasury public servants in political offices,” Mr Hockey said on Thursday morning.

“He was doing the right thing in letting me know”.

A spokesman for Mr Hockey confirmed the shadow treasurer was referring to Dr Parkinson, but he would not reveal when the call was made or any further details of the phone conversation.

Fairfax Media has contacted Dr Parkinson's office for comment.

Mr Hockey told journalists that “it politicises the Treasury” when politicians such as Mr Rudd and former treasurer Wayne Swan, recruit Treasury public servants into their political offices.

“This is a joke,” Mr Hockey said. “Jim Murphy is meant to run the markets division of the Treasury … He has been plucked out to go and run Kevin Rudd's political office as the most senior official in that office.

“It's just wrong.”

Mr Hockey's complaints ignore a long history of movements between the Treasury and politicians' offices on both sides of politics.

Arthur Sinodinos moved from Treasury to the office of Coalition leader John Howard in 1987, returning to the Treasury in 1989 when Mr Howard lost the post. He rejoined Mr Howard's office when Mr Howard was reappointed opposition leader in 1995, staying with him as prime minister and becoming his chief of staff. Mr Sinodinos is now a Coalition Senator.

Treasury assistant secretary Peter Boxhall and colleague Peter Hendy joined Coalition leader Andrew Peacock's office when he replaced Howard in 1987. Mr Boxhall later worked in the office of Coalition leader John Hewson and Treasurer Peter Costello before being appointed head of the Department of Finance. Senior Treasury official Phil Gaetjens was seconded to Mr Costello's office to replace Mr Boxall. He returned to Treasury when the Howard government lost office in 2007 and is now head of the NSW Treasury.

Treasury assistant secretary Don Russell joined the office of Labor treasurer Paul Keating in 1985, later becoming his chief of staff as treasurer and prime minister and being appointed ambassador to Washington and head of the Department of Innovation.

Ken Henry was seconded from Treasury to Mr Keating's office in 1986. He returned in 1991 and worked closely with the Howard government on the implementation of the goods and services tax before being appointed head of the Treasury by Peter Costello in 1991.

Dr Parkinson himself worked in the offices of Labor treasurers John Kerin and John Dawkins from 1991 before returning to the Treasury and being asked by John Howard to run the prime minister's emissions trading task group in 2006.

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Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/joe-hockey-attacks-kevin-rudd-for-hiring-treasury-official-20130704-2pdyv.html#ixzz2Y3xSrjXn