This after Gillard and Swannie?

Fred Flintstone looks good in comparison.

Can you point to a time in the last where an Australian leader deserved it more?

Yep they will be worse (an almost impossible feat).

-PB

probably does, but Freddy will look a whole lot better compared to Abbot

I see people complaining about Gonski using Uni money, have you seen what people get paid at Universities?

Outlandish.

-PB

Gonski in principle is ok...however we have already seen that pouring money into schools hasn't improved students results the last round of rating and where we are as a nation was embarressing........institutional reform is required to get better results.....not just throwing money at problems as this government has done on so many occassions with little or no results.....

Noticed that by a few on here, add to ALP's stuff ups that I listed yesterday, the following:

Craig Thomson was arrested, ALP endorsed Peter Slipper's vote the next day; mass resignations of ALP MPs( Roxon, Crean, Husic etc); hearings in the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the former NSW Labor government were under way again.

How much more crap can we tolerate.

She has always been hated & unpopular though, this is my point.

Her policies are not perfect, but they're also not THAT bad and yet to stand the test of history if they work or not.

Not very many liked the GST when it came in either, but Howard (despite saying he wouldn't bring in a GST) didn't get anywhere near the vile, poisonous hatred that Gillard has received.

I guess it's a chicken/egg semantic roundabout we have found ourselves on. I maintain that she has always been treated different than Prime Ministers before her, and the most likely reason for this is her gender.



I think your definition of Failure is a bit warped.

Failed?

That's blatantly wrong.

The caucus cry of despair: 'Something has to give'
Date
June 15, 2013


Michael Gordon

Just when it seemed that Australian national politics couldn't get any nastier, grubbier or more worthy of contempt, along came Howard Sattler. Towards the end of a meandering interview on Thursday, the Perth ''shock jock'' took the opportunity to press Julia Gillard on whether her partner was gay. Not once, but several times.

The context was Sattler offering the Prime Minister the chance to dispel all manner of ''myths, rumours, snide jokes and innuendo'' - as if he was doing her some kind of favour. Gillard's dignified, good-humoured and restrained response in the face of Sattler's persistence and provocation was admirable.

The only sign that he rattled her was that she twice referred to the election date as September 12, when it is two days later.

Sadly, Sattler wasn't the only talkback host to bring respect for the office of prime minister to a new low. In an extended rant on Sydney's 2GB on the same day, Alan Jones variously cast Gillard as ''appalling'', ''misanthropic rubbish'', ''an embarrassment to the nation'' and someone ''seriously in need of emotional and psychological help''.

Advertisement
All of this came during a surreal week, dominated by claim and counter-claim about a vilely sexist menu written for, but not distributed at, a Liberal fund-raiser, and the reassertion of the issue of abortion and gender politics in an odd way by Gillard.

The fantasy atmosphere continued on Friday when Kevin Rudd ventured into two Labor seats in western Sydney to a celebrity reception, only to restate that there were no circumstances that would see him return to the Labor leadership.

While Rudd was high-fiving one group of students with the man tipped to be his treasurer, Chris Bowen, Gillard was taking questions from another group of students at her alma mater in Adelaide and ''getting things done'' - signing up another state to her school funding reforms and projecting confidence that everything is under control.

All the while, Labor MPs were preoccupied with another reality - the wipeout that looms on September 14 - and whether someone, anyone, has the will or the wherewithal to do something to avert it. ''Something has to give'' were the four words that peppered my conversations with a swag of them, including some who have not supported Rudd in the past. ''We can't go on like this, dying this agonising death,'' is how one of them expressed it. ''It's excruciating to watch - and even worse to be part of.''

Whether this fatalism translates into a mass delegation knocking on the Prime Minister's door as early as next Tuesday and telling her to step down, is, as yet, unclear. ''I don't know what's going to happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if something did happen,'' said another MP, one who has consistently supported Gillard.

Once again, Labor is confronted by a familiar but diabolical conundrum: a leader who has lost the confidence of her troops but will not step down; a challenger who will not challenge and is loathed by many of his colleagues; and a consensus that a caucus-room showdown will simply make things worse.

What has changed since March, when Simon Crean forced a ballot but Rudd chose not to stand, is that very little has changed. The hope of another slow, grinding comeback to competitiveness after the May budget has proved illusory, published and leaked polling has painted the same dire picture, and campaign resources have been redirected from the most marginal seats to those that would normally be considered safe.

To the extent that there has been a shift, it has been in the mindset of those who steadfastly opposed a return to Rudd, but it is neither dramatic nor uniform. Rather, there is a sense that a significant number of these MPs will not resist Rudd this time.

The question then is whether passive acceptance of the proposition that Labor cannot go to the people with Gillard as its leader will turn into something more active in the last two weeks of Parliament before the election. On this, opinions differ.

This is why Bill Shorten is being watched so closely. If he breaks, there is the expectation that others will follow.

Gillard's cause was not helped by another bad week that was intended to be all about building support for the school funding reforms (culminating in South Australia's decision on Friday to sign up). Instead, the Prime Minister's midweek decision to warn of abortion becoming ''the political plaything of men who think they know better'' if the Coalition won power - and a not very good joke about men in blue ties - bewildered many Labor MPs and angered others.

The media were not invited to attend Gillard's address to a group called Women for Gillard (modelled on Women for Obama), but the transcript and a video were released, which suggests that the target audience was those who follow the social media.

Back in October, Gillard's ''I-will-not-be-lectured-by-this-man'' speech was a YouTube sensation. That speech was a spontaneous response to Abbott in the Parliament; this one was planned and proactive, but came after Gillard backed an uncharismatic man to succeed Martin Ferguson in the safe Victorian seat of Batman, when a quality female candidate was on offer. It jarred.

The effect was to harden the view of Labor MPs that the government's biggest problem is not in the area of policy - where Gillard has presided over development of the national disability insurance scheme and school funding reform - but in the communication and credibility stakes. This is where the hard grind of the hung Parliament, Abbott's relentless assault and her own bad judgments have proved so very, very damaging for Gillard.

The case for Rudd is that he would cut through, give Labor some prospect of being competitive, and avoid the decimation that, on the assessment of some veterans, would see it with not many more than 30 seats in the 150-seat lower house.

But so many questions are still to be answered that a common view in the cabinet - where Gillard's support is stronger than in the caucus - remains that nothing will happen.

Would Rudd take the leadership? On what terms? How many current ministers would not serve under him? How many would he want to banish? What happens if a delegation puts its case to Gillard and she rejects it out of hand (which she has signalled very plainly would be her response)?

Then there is the question of how many MPs share Mark Latham's view, as he expressed on the ABC's Q&A this week: ''Labor is always strongest when it stands on principle, and I get the feeling now that, even reduced to a small parliamentary group, they've got a better chance of rebuilding for the future than giving in to the sort of bastardry that they've had to endure over the last three years from Kevin Rudd.''

The hope of many is that Gillard will reach her own conclusion on what is best for the party and act on it. But the expectation is for more of the same. ''It's going to be a very nasty fortnight in Parliament,'' one insider remarked. ''Two sides are going to go to war and, unfortunately, they're on the same side.''

Michael Gordon is political editor of The Age.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/the-caucus-cry-of-despair-something-has-to-give-20130614-2o9m5.html#ixzz2WGi7jN6t

If posting a picture from reddit is what classifies as trying hard these days, society has fallen further than any of us predicted.

Maybe they were just referring to your inability to post without stretching the page.

[youtube]V-WqnTrG204[/youtube]

Eleventy.

Abbott and his leadership will be the stupidity of GW Bush combined with the dystopian corporatocracy that Mitt Romney would've created, with a shade of the insane Family First/Tea Party religious extremism.

With no NBN, Climate Change counter-measures, no education reform and no super profits taxes, things are looking up for Australia!

Edited by macktheknife: 17/6/2013 08:51:26 PM

Kevin Rudd has listed his conditions for a return as PM

by: SIMON BENSON
From:
The Daily Telegraph
June 17, 2013

SENIOR MPs Wayne Swan and Peter Garrett would rather lose their jobs than back a return to a Kevin Rudd-led government.

PARTY GAMES: LABOR’S faceless men have egg where their faces should be over the issue of Kevin Rudd.

KEVIN Rudd has privately warned colleagues that unless Bill Shorten and other key ministers were prepared to publicly put their name to a putsch against Julia Gillard, he would resist any calls for a comeback.

Senior Labor sources close to Mr Rudd have confirmed he has put conditions on any potential return to the leadership, including the demand that Mr Shorten played a role.

But in a further sign of how dire things have become for the government, The Daily Telegraph has learned that NSW Labor had failed to find a candidate to nominate for the Central Coast seat of Dobell despite Ms Gillard's promise that they would find an A-grade candidate to run against former Labor MP turned independent Craig Thomson.

Gillard accused of ‘showing cleavage’ in Parliament

Nominations closed at the weekend for the seat but sources have confirmed the party could not find anyone - other than a former Liberal councillor from Gosford - who lived in the electorate to nominate.

The central party office now may be forced to install a "ring-in" from outside to spare embarrassment.

A source close to Mr Rudd revealed yesterday he would now not be part of a move to replace Ms Gillard unless key ministers, including some of Ms Gillard's supporters, declared their hand and "owned the decision". Several key ministers previously loyal to Ms Gillard have privately said they now supported the need for change but were reluctant to be involved in a spill.

"If they want this to happen, then they have to have the guts to put their name to it," one of Mr Rudd's confidantes said. "And if they don't, they can go and fall off the cliff.

Labor cooking up usual paranoia

"No one is getting a free ride."

Those that Mr Rudd would want to put their hand up include other ministers such as Penny Wong, Greg Combet and Jenny Macklin.

While MPs question the "mechanism" to trigger a change of leadership, one NSW MP pushing for change said that the mechanism was not relevant.

"Once the fundamentals are sorted out, that is a decision is made to changes, the mechanic of it will sort themselves out," they said.

Sources close to Mr Shorten said he had not moved despite mounting pressure on the Gillard loyalist to support a leadership change back to Mr Rudd.

Swan, Garrett would rather lose jobs than work for Rudd

But there is an increasing fear among those close to Ms Gillard that Mr Shorten would eventually shift his support. It is likely that any spill or moves to force Ms Gillard to step down will come at the end of next week, on the last two sitting days before parliament rises before the election.

Treasurer Wayne Swan refused to comment on the leadership, and instead attacked the constant polls pointing to a dramatic Labor election loss under Ms Gillard's leadership.

"I noticed today there's a whole lot of commentary around about opinion polls," Mr Swan said.

Gillard told to stand her ground in Rudd challenge

"You know, opinion polls used to come every month, then they came every fortnight, then they came every week and now they come every day and all of the commentary that comes with it.

"I don't take any notice of any of that because I'm focused, and the government is focused, on making sure we get this plan in place because that's what Australia needs."

Independent Andrew Wilkie yesterday said people were "disappointed" in the government and that Ms Gillard's outburst last week over gender was "regrettable" and had done a lot of damage to Labor.

Read more: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/national-news/kevin-rudd-has-listed-his-conditions-for-a-return-as-pm/story-fncynjr2-1226664712029#ixzz2WTNJmfmf

What the fuck is this fuss about Gillard's top having too low a collar? What a load of crap.

as if anyone would be interested in sneaking a peek????

Compared to?

Not me - I've no interest in her as a woman. She's a shit PM though.

They're calling it 'disrespectful'. Honestly, if you're more interested in what she's wearing than her policies then you should fuck right off.

what policies???

550 pieces of legislation have passed this parliament despite the destructive campaign of an Abbott led LNP.

Policies, your perception of 'lack of policies' (despite as notor points out, 550 pieces of legislation passing under her tenure), whatever. She should be judged on that, not on what she's fucking wearing.

you sound like Gillard, blame Abbott for everything.....she has all she needs to pass all the bills,except that her bedfellows don't even agree with her policies or direction

she doesn't rely on Abbott to pass bills........i'm glad we have someone protecting us from such a destructive politcian in this country

550 fuckups......they don't have informed policies they just shoot from the hip, that's why so many of there implementations fail.......simple as that.....

Name a Gillard-led Labor policy that didn't quote an informed opinion prior to implementation.

How can you pretend to be Impartial when you post tripe like this?

Normal admin jobs/salaries?

-PB

Batfink reminds me of Brian Griffin. "My loyalty is to reason" - and his reason tells him that the Liberal party is infallible.

Normal admin jobs don't generally require a degree, nor do they develop people for 'elite' jobs like architects, doctors, etc.

Fairly certain batfink is either a troll or an elaborate Labor party plant with the objective of getting wavering Labor-aligned voters on this forum to recoil from the Liberal political camp and thus minimise election losses :lol: