Yeah, if it was a 1 man difference it's quite possible that the self righteous indignation of Abbott & Pyne would disappear pretty quickly.

I love how he literally pushes the guy at the end out of the way.

And this is the man many of you think would be suitable to be our Prime Minister.

well at least they stood by their convictions and declined the shit bags vote.....and in the end were forced to accept it.......

Not sure how you can defend this bloke. He is there to represent the people, he shouldn't be running around like a donkey.

i would defend him over gillard,albanese,thomson,shorten anyday.....

well obviously he didnt want thomsons vote.......at least he is passionate bout avoiding it......

i would defend him over gillard,albanese,thomson,shorten anyday.....

doesn't mean i think he is #1, just less of an evil than the morons running (attempting to run) the country at the moment

We know.

i know you know,and i know that you know that i don't really think abbott is a good leader, but anything and i mean anything is better than what we have......

a mate of mine has got it on good authority that Rudd is discretely doing the numbers and is going to challange and do away with the carbon tax.....and delay it until an ETS can be viably introduced......

The New South Wales Upper House has voted in favour of a motion supporting same-sex marriage.

There was applause as the motion passed this afternoon, 22 votes to 16.

The motion calls on the Federal Government to change the Marriage Act.

The vote had been delayed for a week because so many MPs wanted to speak to the motion.

Both Coalition and Labor MPs were given a conscience vote.

Seven State Government members gave their support, including Nationals MP Trevor Khan and Liberal MP Scott MacDonald.

Labor's Luke Foley was among those who voted against the motion, along with MPs from the Shooters and Fishers and the Christian Democrats.

Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who introduced the motion, was celebrating.

""What we've done today is send a very strong message to the Federal Parliament that they should act on amending the Marriage Act," Ms Faehrmann said.

"It's very significant because MPs from the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Labor Party and the Greens all voted for marriage equality, given a conscience vote.

"Tony Abbott needs to take note of that. MPs do want a conscience vote to be able to vote on these issues.

"When they're able to consider marriage equality and give it due thought and consideration, they vote for or against it but it's always a very respectful debate and that's what needs to happen in the Federal Parliament."

Anyone that actually thinks Tony Abbott will do anything positive for this nation, or will even cause less damage than the current government has caused (which is debateable in the first place) highlights the point that more care needs to be put into having an educated electorate (more 'over-educated fuckwits', as you would put it).

i don't think Tony Abbott will be better for this nation, i know the LNP will be better for this natian, i would love turnbull to be the leader and there is still time for that.....

more practical people who have worked in the right fields, business owners....doers not this current raft of bludgers who the majority are ex unionists and coucil members....never had a real job or experience.........

How is it you know absolutely everything about absolutely everything? Incredible.

Rudd won't take reins if bloodbath on cards, say backers

June 5, 2012

SUPPORTERS of Kevin Rudd are warning that he is not prepared to inherit the leadership if Labor's electoral prospects at the time are hopeless.

With yesterday's Herald/Nielsen poll showing Labor's all-important primary vote at a record low of 26 per cent, the sense of frustration is growing among those who do not believe the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, can win the next election.

Ms Gillard vowed last week to lead Labor to the 2013 election and to win it. The government is banking on a reversal of fortune after July 1, when the carbon price is introduced and the campaign against the tax by the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, is exposed as hollow. But two senior members of the government who back Mr Rudd said the former prime minister and foreign affairs minister would not accept the job if the government was beyond salvation.

''There will come a time when he says, 'This is all too far gone','' one of the MPs said.

The other warned: ''The longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes to do anything that may do any good.''

Both stressed nothing was being organised in terms of the leadership, but the emerging consensus is that there will be a change by Christmas if the polls continue as they are.

Mr Rudd, who has begun to lift his public profile in recent days following a self-imposed silence after February's failed leadership challenge, has gone to China this week.

The Labor strategist Bruce Hawker, who backed Mr Rudd in the February challenge, said yesterday that the ALP was ''in more trouble than the early settlers''.

The political consultant and former Coalition adviser Grahame Morris said policy alone could not save Labor. ''When you're this low, it's a personnel solution,'' he said.

Yesterday's poll also showed Mr Abbott's personal standing among voters had slumped. He is effectively equal with Ms Gillard in terms of preferred prime minister and both have similar approval and disapproval ratings. The poll showed Mr Rudd led Mr Abbott as preferred prime minister by 59 per cent to 37 per cent.

Labor attributed Mr Abbott's low personal standing to his aggressive nature, which came to the fore during the Coalition's parliamentary pursuit of Craig Thomson. However, while campaigning against the carbon tax on the Gold Coast yesterday, Mr Abbott hit back, saying his agenda was positive.

''What can be more positive than getting taxes down?'' he said. ''The best way to get taxes down is to scrap the toxic carbon tax … We'll get taxes down, we'll get spending down and that can take the pressure off interest rates. That's a very, very positive agenda.''

The Coalition is well advanced in its planning for a Labor leadership change.

One senior source said it had prepared strategies for Mr Rudd as leader, as well as for Bill Shorten, Stephen Smith, Simon Crean and Wayne Swan.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/rudd-wont-take-reins-if-bloodbath-on-cards-say-backers-20120604-1zs9x.html#ixzz1wsnbg0zJ

The chorus has been building for months from Coalition figures across the country: “now is not the time to introduce a carbon tax”. And it’s now swelling to a crescendo.

“This is the worst possible time to be introducing the world’s biggest carbon tax tax,’’ said Tony Abbott yesterday. “I cannot think of a worse time to be introducing the biggest economy wide carbon tax in the world,” tweeted Joe Hockey on Sunday. “Now is not the time to introduce the world’s largest carbon tax,” piped up Bruce Billson this morning.

Backbenchers had got the memo. Now “was the worst possible time to introduce a carbon tax,” Natasha Griggs said on Friday, the same day that Josh Frydenberg opined “there could not be a worse time for the Gillard government to introduce a punishing new carbon tax.”

Even the government’s critics in the commentariat were getting in on the act. “Has there ever been worse timing for the introduction of a great big new tax?” inquired Stephen Bartholomeusz at Business Spectator yesterday.

With unemployment below 5%, the RBA cash rate at 3.75%, CPI at 1.6% and about a quarter of a trillion dollars in investment commitments pouring into the resources sector, you might wonder exactly what economic indicators need to look like for there to be a good time to introduce a carbon tax.

When is a good time to introduce any economic reform? When times are crook and the need for reform is urgent? The Hawke government launched a round of major tariff reform in March 1991. Unemployment was over 9% (and proceeded to rise to 11%), the RBA cash rate was 12% (the days when monetary policy really did do the heavy lifting) and inflation was 5%. Hawke, Keating and Button never flinched, as tens of thousands of manufacturing workers who lost their jobs can attest. Imagine the hysterical reaction to that sort of reform today.

Or what about when “the economic sun is shining”? The Howard government had a whole term of booming revenues, falling unemployment control of the Senate and did nothing with it except attack unions via WorkChoices and give handouts.

But then the Coalition would argue this isn’t a major economic reform, it’s just a great big new tax. So when is the right time to introduce a great big new tax? The Coalition would know, because that’s what it did in 2000 with the GST, which in CPI terms was more than three times bigger than the estimated impact of the carbon price.

When the GST was introduced, the Australian economy looked very different. Unemployment was over 6%, on a participation rate nearly two points lower. The RBA cash rate was 6%. CPI (before a year-long spike caused by the GST) was 3.2%. The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment had gone deep into negative territory, hitting -6.8 in March and -4.2 and -3.7 in May and June (in comparison, it hit -5 in March this year and most recently was 0.8). And if we’ve got a stockmarket jittery about Europe and the US, in June 2000 we were three months into the Tech Wreck (and on the eve of a Federal Reserve-induced US recession).

In short, if now’s a bad time to introduce a carbon price estimated to have ~0.7% impact on CPI, mid-2000 was an absolute shocker of a time to introduce a GST that caused a 2.5% CPI impact. The only unalloyed positive was the dollar, which was around US$0.58, much to the chagrin of those who think the currency is a kind of national phallic symbol, but to the delight of exporters.

Of course, the Howard government didn’t flinch. And correctly. Its implementation of the GST was a model of reform, from taking it to an election (in which Labor out-polled it, and that almost cost it government) to resisting the endless demands of rent seekers and special interests calling for exemptions and differential treatment. Only when it was forced to deal with Meg Lees did it compromise on the quality of the policy (Lees, it’s now forgotten, bolted to London in July 2000, leaving Natasha Stott Despoja to have to deal with the political fallout of any implementation issues).

And throughout, Labor was every bit as negative and opportunistic as Abbott has been on the carbon price — but with the crucial exception that Howard had secured re-election on a GST commitment and had a clear mandate for the GST. Indeed, Abbott is now closely following the Beazley template and shifting his rhetoric as the commencement date approaches and it becomes clear that his claims about the impact of the carbon price are wildly overblown.

Beazley began referring to the “slow burn” of the GST (a phrase he’d later, and more accurately, use about WorkChoices). Abbott has gone for the more colourful metaphor of the python squeeze versus the cobra strike but, snakes or fires, the same logic applies.

However, a key difference, apart from the democratic legitimacy of Howard’s GST and News Limited cheerleading for the government, is that Beazley never wedded himself to repealing the GST in the way Abbott has with his pinky promise about repealing the carbon price. That may yet have ramifications between now and August 2013, which in political terms remains a very long way off.

'Stunning' Australian economy grows 4.3 per cent despite global turmoil

by: Phillip Hudson From: Herald Sun June 06, 2012

UPDATE: TREASURER Wayne Swan today hailed the latest economic growth figures as "a great day for Australia and for all of the people who work hard to make our economy strong."

Australia's economy posted a stronger-than-expected economic growth rate of 4.3 per cent per cent for the past year, despite global economic turmoil.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said today growth was 1.3 per cent in the first three months of this year.

The report card for the March quarter said economic growth was boosted by a surge in business investment and a surprising lift in household spending.

Mr Swan said the figures were "stunning'' and "paint a picture of exceptional growth''.

Victoria posted the third-strongest growth rate among the states of 2.7 per cent for the year to March - but it was eclipsed by the mining powerhouses of Western Australia and Queensland

NSW was the worst mainland state with growth of 1.9 per cent, while in Tasmania it fell by 0.8 per cent.

"The country should have a bounce in its step today," Mr Swan said.

"I just think it’s a great day for Australia and for all of the people who work hard to make our economy strong."

He said it showed the Opposition's attack on the economy not being able to cope with the introduction of the carbon tax was ridiculous.

"I see these figures as a victory for the optimists over the pessimists,'' Mr Swan said.

But he said not everyone was in the "fast lane" of the economy.

"There are sectors of the economy that are doing it tough. Workers in the aluminium industry are part of that," he said.

"What we have to do as a community is get behind them as much as we possibly can and make sure that we support them if they lose their jobs.

"There are going to be jobs lost in sectors of the Australian economy, that is very clear, because sectors of the Australian economy are under stress.

"We can face these challenges from a position of strength as a country.

"We have to do everything we possibly can to help those workers get work elsewhere."

Mr Swan said the Government’s plan to spread benefits of the mining boom to people hurting should be embraced.

"Not everybody out there is in the fast lane of the resources boom, not everybody out there is necessarily feeling the full benefits of it," he said.

Mr Swan said today's national accounts "showcase the rock-solid economic fundamentals which put our economy in a league of its own, despite ongoing global turbulence''.

"This is a remarkable outcome and reaffirms Australia's position as one of the strongest economies in the world, with the Australian economy growing faster than every single major advanced economy in the March quarter,'' Mr Swan said.

"In through the year terms, this result is the fastest growth in over four years, which have been the most turbulent in the global economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s.''

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/australian-economy-grows-despite-global-turmoil/story-fn7j19iv-1226386098335

Prostitute denies sleeping with Craig Thomson

by: Staff reporter
From: Herald Sun
June 06, 2012 6:35PM

A FORMER prostitute who claimed she had slept with MP Craig Thomson has changed her story.
The woman has told Today Tonight that she now believes she never slept with the embattled MP.

“I believed I had at the time,” she said.

She was asked why she now believed she had not had sex with him.

“Because there is evidence to prove it was not me,” she said.

A Current Affair offered her $50,000 and then $60,000 to tell her story of sleeping with Mr Thomson, she said.

She said she later called ACA and told them she was no longer “one hundred percent sure” it was him.

She accused ACA of going to air with the allegation even after she told them she wasn’t convinced it was her.


“I’m furious,” she said.


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/prostitute-denies-sleeping-with-craig-thomson/story-e6frea6u-1226386689801