[size=9]GOOD RIDDANCE SHIT BAG....CRY BABY KEV ........GO AND JOIN JULIA, THE WORST TWO PM'S IN AUSTRALIA'S HISTORY[/size]

[quote=batfink]pot...kettle....black....brother

3 years time Abbott would have taken the crown.

-PB

To be fair that video really just carries as much weight as the one the lefties on here always bring up about Abbott unable to answer a question.

Either they both carry weight and we have two idiots as leaders of the major parties, or they dont carry weight and we still dont have great leaders of either party

I give you the ALP's answer to Rudd and Gillard......](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,)

[youtube]GFELLK8htKM[/youtube]

not as a cry baby.....perhaps as an anal rapist of ALP dildo's like shorten

I honestly don't believe you thought about that sentence very well before you typed it out :lol:

-PB

Seeya later Kruddy

Kruddy well

An 18 month old video :lol:

Try something more recent.

-PB

i'm sorry do brain dead morons suddenly transform into ubber intelligent people after 18 month cycle..????

No but there are differences between being a bencher and the actual leader of the opposition party.

-PB

c'mon Pauly.....he was incredibly stupid to make those comments....

:shock: ummmm point i was trying to make is....when the NLP do it it's terrible....now the ALP are doing it it is acceptable???? you defend it.......that's why...pot kettle...black....

the ALP were so anti negative politics but now are guilty of the same.....that's all

What? I've always been highly vocal in this thread of my disapproval of negative politics in this country and how it's bringing our leaders and forward thinkers to a standstill. Try again.

fair enough...but you are defending the oppositions negative stance

Edited by batfink: 15/11/2013 04:01:45 PM

There is politics with its usual play-acting and huffing and puffing, and then there's going a step too far. Joe Hockey has taken that step.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt, thought he couldn't be serious, suspected there was a careful use of weasel words to provide an out – but I checked and apparently the Treasurer means what he said: he'll throw a Tea Party on December 12 and slash government services when the existing $300 billion debt ceiling is reached unless the opposition gives him a $500 billion ceiling now. He won't accept the proffered $400 billion interim offer.

He told Parliament on Wednesday: “We will stare you down on this because the debt limit is being hit on the 12th of December and I want to know if the Labor Party thinks it is so heroic, so heroic, to go down the path of starting to close down government services because we may need to exceed that debt limit.”

And then there was ABC Radio on Thursday: “If Labor prevents an increase in the debt limit there is no choice but to start having massive cuts to government expenditure, because the government is running on borrowed money.”

Asked whether he was “seriously threatening to shut down government services,” the Treasurer replied: “There is no choice.”

Of course it takes two parties to be as stupid as US politics have become, but it is the Treasurer who has jumped right into the loony bin, raising a genuine question of whether he has abrogated his oath. Certainly he is not putting service of the people first.

The opposition is enjoying a bit of the boot being on the other foot, a little reaping of what has been sown, but it's not threatening supply, not threatening to cut services.

There is nothing statesman-like in forcing the government to come back for a further increase in the ceiling later. It is all rather petty, silly and unnecessary, as Peter Martin has explained.

But shadow treasurer Chris Bowen's game is not beyond the bounds of what has been played in recent years.

If Hockey is prepared to damage Australia's reputation for sound government, to take us down to the US level, to hurt people dependent on federal services, just to avoid a little political embarrassment down the track, well, you see why I have found it hard to believe – that he would so quickly earmark himself as unfit for his position.

It also makes you wonder what his offsider, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, was doing visiting all those Tea Party types in Washington. It looks like he was there to learn from them, not about them.

Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor.

Asylum seeker baby: Tony Abbott 'regrets' incident but won't apologise for fate of asylum seekers

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he "deeply" regrets that an asylum seeker was given limited access to her sick baby, but won't apologise "for what happens when people come to Australia illegally".

Latifa, a Rohingyan woman from Myanmar, gave birth in Brisbane's Mater Hospital last week but was returned to a detention centre while her baby remained in the neonatal intensive care unit.

For several days the Immigration Department only allowed Latifa to visit her baby at the hospital between 10:00am and 4:00pm.

Mr Abbott says he has read reports about Latifa's case and "deeply" regrets that she was separated from her child.

"But we've got to ask ourselves, why have any of these things happened?" he said on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka.

"They've happened because people have come to Australia illegally by boat and if you want to avoid these things, you've got to stop the boats.

"I don't, as it were, apologise for what happens when people come to Australia illegally by boat, because I am determined, as the new Government is determined, to stop this dangerous, this horrible business."

The baby was discharged from hospital yesterday.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said doctors at the hospital had advised that it is common for mothers not to stay overnight because of bed restrictions.

But in a statement, the Mater Hospital suggested Latifa should have been allowed to visit her child whenever she wanted.

The hospital says it encourages new mothers to be involved in the baby's care wherever possible to help establish a strong bond, and does not place restrictions on visiting hours.

"Mater places no restrictions on women and they can visit their baby anytime where possible," the statement said.

In his weekly media briefing today, Mr Morrison revealed he has asked his department to investigate the matter.

"I have requested my department to look at the arrangements that were put around that particular instance to ensure that a mother would have as much access to their child as they would request and consistent with the standards and opportunities that would be otherwise available to any Australian at that hospital," he said.

"The issue here was also bed restrictions and bed restrictions don't apply only to people who might be transferees in this situation, they apply to Australians as well."

"I'm sure no-one is suggesting that anyone who found themselves in this situation as an asylum seeker should be receiving preferable treatment over, to any, Australian in that situation."

Former Liberal leader John Hewson this morning accused Mr Morrison of arrogance and condemned the decision to limit the woman's access to her baby as inhumane.

"It's inhumanity in the extreme in my view, I mean a mother in these circumstances is normally given 24-hour access to a child in intensive care," Dr Hewson told Sky News.

"I mean for heaven's sake, Morrison can go make all the short-term points he likes out there, but this is something I think that sends absolutely the wrong message."

Government to split border protection briefings for 'integrity'

Meanwhile, the Federal Government is changing the way it involves the military head of its border protection operation in its weekly media conferences, saying it wants to protect the integrity of the Australian Defence Force.

Mr Morrison says Operation Sovereign Borders Commander General Angus Campbell will no longer be present for the entire weekly briefing.

From now, Mr Morrison says, General Campbell will give his weekly report on the number of boat arrivals and take a few questions before leaving.

The move comes in the wake of criticism of the Government's tight control of information about the operation.

At last week's briefing, General Campbell repeatedly refused to give details about questions he said related to "on-water matters".

This week, he said three asylum seeker boats had arrived in the reporting period, carrying a total of 163 asylum seekers and eight crew.

Two boats arrived at Christmas Island, one on Sunday and one on Monday. Another boat arrived in Darwin on Monday.

Morrison: Offshore Camp Can Handle A Profoundly Disabled Child

A profoundly disabled four-year-old Tamil asylum seeker in a Brisbane detention facility will be transferred offshore along with her father, probably to Nauru, The Global Mail has learned.

The family say they have been told by immigration officials that they will be sent offshore for processing, according to sources.

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, Scott Morrison, has reiterated that there would be “no exceptions” to the offshore processing of asylum seekers who arrived in Australia by boat after July 19, 2013.

The minister said: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a child, it doesn’t matter whether you’re pregnant, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a woman, it doesn’t matter if you’re an unaccompanied minor, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a health condition – if you are fit enough to get on a boat, then you can expect you’re fit enough to end up in offshore processing.”

Asked if he was satisfied that the Nauru detention facility was suitable for disabled children, the minister added: “Where there are any particular medical issues on any particular case, then appropriate care is provided for those conditions.”

“I’ve been in facilities where there have been disabled people, and that was occurring under the previous government, particularly on Manus Island, and it continues to occur now so appropriate care and facilities are put in place,” Morrison said.

However, Amnesty has described conditions at Nauru as deplorable and a woman with more than 40 years of nursing experience likened the centre, where she worked for three weeks, to a concentration camp.

The Tamil girl was injured in utero by shrapnel following a bomb blast in her native Sri Lanka, according to sources who know her and describe her as “heavily disabled”; she is confined to a chair and that she “can’t walk, can’t talk”.

A source who regularly visits the girl and her father at the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) facility, explains that the pair were separated from the girl’s mother and two siblings as the family attempted to board a boat to Australia. The girl was “strapped to her father”.

“The army intercepted the mother and she was left behind with two little children,” the source says, adding that the mother was jailed in Sri Lanka after the incident but has since been released.

“So he’s here with a heavily disabled child. She’s bright-eyed and beautiful. She turns around and looks everywhere. The other day I thought I’d just hold her hand for a bit and she held my fingers with a really strong grip and I was able to pull her little chair with me just holding her fingers. She thought that was wonderful.”

Another asylum seeker now in BITA was caught in the same bomb blast in Sri Lanka; her name is Suthakaran. “She was also pregnant at the time. Her husband was killed in the bombing, and she is now confined to a wheelchair,” the source says.

“The concern is [immigration authorities] are going to use the story of [the disabled child] and the woman in a wheelchair to say they’re just looking for medical assistance and they’re really not refugees.”

Refugee activists understand that Suthakaran is likely to be deported back to Sri Lanka.

Human rights lawyer and refugee advocate Julian Burnside, who visited Nauru in June this year, says he seriously doubts that medical facilities in Nauru are sufficient to deal with a seriously disabled child.

“It is not set up to deal with any significant health problems,” he says. “The health system there is not really effective even for their own people, as you know it is a tiny country with a tiny population and it’s bankrupt.”

“It is contrary to ordinary instinct that shifting a child to Nauru with one parent is going to be in the child’s best interests.”

Aus govt mocked by NGOs at climate summit

AUSTRALIA has won its third "fossil of the day" award at the UN climate talks in Warsaw, as international environment groups attempt to embarrass the Abbott government on the world stage over its decision to scrap the carbon tax.

The dubious honour has been awarded each day of the annual talks to a so-called "dinosaur" deemed by environment groups to have stalled progress on climate change.

The award tally and other news from the sidelines of the summit are published in a daily bulletin distributed among the thousands in attendance.

With UN Conference of Parties (COP) talks about to enter their fifth day, Australia has not been faring well.

It has won three of the four "fossil" awards handed out so far, with host nation Poland bagging one over its decision to hold a coal summit at the same time as the UN talks.

The Climate Action Network said the Australian government's reluctance on climate financing, "obtrusiveness" in negotiations and Wednesday's tabling of the carbon tax repeal laws had earned it three gongs.

Business groups at the summit are questioning recent policy changes in Australia.

Baker and McKenzie climate lawyer Ilona Millar said she had fielded questions from business delegates asking about the future of carbon pricing in Australia, and when the repeal was to occur.

"A lot of people who are working in that space are a little bit perplexed about why you would move away from a market-based approach," she told AAP from Warsaw on Friday.

Those excited about Australia's carbon market linking with Europe's emissions trading scheme had expressed "some disappointment" at the prospect of it being dismantled, she said.

Australia's scheme was to link with Europe in July 2015, when the fixed carbon tax period ended.

WWF climate manager Will McGoldrick said Australia could play a constructive role in Warsaw by showing a willingness to increase its unconditional five per cent emissions target.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt this week reaffirmed his support to that target, and to reviewing Australia's commitments ahead of a Paris summit in 2015 aimed at forging a new climate agreement.

The government broke with tradition and sent diplomats instead of a minister to Warsaw.

Ms Millar said Australia had been "very quiet" at the talks so far.

"That's possibly a function of the negotiating mandate that the diplomats have got," she said.

But she stressed there was still a week to go.

NBN Co’s interim satellites are reaching full capacity and the government-owned company has started turning away new customers in rural Victoria. These customers must rely on existing broadband infrastructure until NBN Co launches two custom-made satellites in 2015.

Satellite beams covering NSW, Tasmania and Queensland were also close to capacity, while those covering central and western Australia had some space left.

NBN Co only has enough space for 48,000 customers nationally on its interim satellite and has already connected 42,044 premises, according to figures released this week.

However, the new satellites would have capacity for 200,000 customers, and download speeds of up to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 5 Mbps.

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"We are not taking any new orders for service on the interim satellite Melbourne beam – there is a wait list for service if equipment is already installed at premises," NBN Co spokeswoman Simone Bergholcs told Fairfax Media. "There was always going to be a gap in capacity between the Interim satellite and NBN Co’s long-term satellite – and that is why the successful launch of the long-term satellite is so important as it has greater capacity and will be able to offer more services to end users."

Ms Bergholcs added that people living near state borders may still be able to access another state’s beam and should contact NBN Co.

A spokesman for Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbul said the government was considering buying more interim capacity on existing satellites.

NBN Co currently expects to deliver broadband via satellite to about 3 per cent of premises in rural and remote Australia. The rest of the country would be connected through fixed-wireless or fixed-infrastructure.

One man, who didn’t want to be named, told Fairfax he was angry to find out the Melbourne beam was full after he and his wife purchased a house in Mount Bruno, near Wangaratta in north-east Victoria. They had checked before purchasing that the property would be eligible for NBN Co’s satellite service.

"We were really disappointed that they did not tell us that it was approaching full capacity either when they gave us the initial advice, or any time since," he said.

"If you look at the NBN Co website it looks like it is full steam ahead for interim satellite registrations until you enter your property address."

The couple plan to live in Mount Bruno and need access to the internet for work. Their fixed telephone lines may not be able to carry ADSL broadband and mobile broadband was not fast enough and too expensive, he said.

"It is a major issue for us... If we can’t get the satellite and can’t get ADSL we’ll have to rent office space in Glenrowan or Wangaratta until the NBN permanent satellite is launched in 2015," he said.

I’ve had premonitory feelings for a while now that this strange government would not last, and while I felt sometimes that this may have been, for me, the wish fathering the thought, I now think that I was on the money.

Bronwyn Bishop’s idiot ruling on the epithet ‘Electricity Bill’, her bizarre threat to clear the gallery of the innocent as well as the disruptive, and the stunned faces behind Abbott as he demanded the House let the typhoons rip, gives, now, the Opposition the option of walking out altogether, and the Senate of refusing any bill that comes before it.

I had not thought my old friend could have been, in sum, so stupid. He has done what he need not have done, make a Monkey Trial of the Carbon Tax, declaring science to be the work of the Devil and sacking its adherents, and the only Global Warming that will come will be after Christ with a sharp sickle and a box of matches returns to save the righteous and immolate the damned. He has made a mad bitch Speaker. He has begun a Cold War with Indonesia. He has hailed and embraced the bloodstained Molochs of Sri Lanka. He has, now, no admirer in the world. He has a fellow traveller or two, some corrupt cash-groping bedfellows, but no admirers.

He is doomed, and there is no health in him.

He will be terminal by Christmas, and gone within a year.