I think we have to forgive batty because he's really hurting today but he all he needs to say is this:

Perhaps with more ........., random case changes and ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) ](*,) s and then we can all ignore his posts.

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nah i am happy Abbott is gone, but i don't concede the current government was worse than the GILLARD/KRUDD debacle

but anyway continue on.....OH and that quote is not mine, good job at doctoring though gr8 troll effort;) ;)

Nothing to do with Abbott going, you're just hurting that your team is suffering. It's plain as day, especially as I can see you are failing to comprehend what I wrote.

Never fear, the sun will come up tomorrow!

And Ray Hadley's had a go at 'elitist Malcolm'

Who listens to him anyway?

Queue 'Common People' by Pulp :lol:

Batty, I seriously think you need to calm down. Obviously the majority of posters on this site are left leaning and that's no surprise considering the probable age demographics around here. The apparent ALP supporters in here were the first to complain about Labor whilst they helped pass draconian data retention laws among a host of other things. The difference is that you look in the mirror and see an imaginary LNP logo tattoo on your face and need to defend "your party" no matter what objective scumbaggery they get up to. Just because they're "your side" doesn't actually mean they are doing good things.

Your argument boils down to: YEAH BUT THE SIDE I DON'T LIKE ALSO DID IT! How old are you? Two wrongs and all.

History has shown that people continually vote for shit policies that are against their own interests - People like you and Rusty just happen to be on the side that wants to conserve rather than progress. History will forget you while it champions people who actually have the future state of humanity, rather than it's present state, in mind. There's no need to get upset. You willfully accept that you side with these people. It's simple fact.

The saddest part of it is that you're from Western Sydney. So oblivious.

Edited by Draupnir: 15/9/2015 04:56:12 PM

The problem is that in "normal" circumstances Abbott would have never been able to win govt based on his very limited agenda.

I thought most of the policy ideas from Rudd/Gillard were reasonable, but because of the infighting there was virtually no structure to building up support, explaining the policies, having a real debate, then implementing said policy.

They threw a lot of policies up without explanation, or long term planning. Abbott exploited this (as he should), and policies were quickly withdrawn.

But Abbott actually had very few policy ideas aside from the 3 slogans he pushed. Once he got in and got rid of the carbon tax etc, he really had very little agenda.

There have been repeated interviews from crossbench senators that Abbott made no effort to contact them, discuss policies etc. That is why he struggled to get anything through the Senate.

His main principle was that "We are not the ALP". This may be fine for hardcore true believers, but the average person is not so binary in their approach.

It is the ALP's fault that they self-destructed so badly that Abbott could become PM with so little an actual policy agenda. But he proved to be a fairly authoritarian leader, both within his own party and with the crossbenches.

For those of you who want to blame an "obstructionist" senate for the LNP's inability to get legislation passed, the fact that Abbott just got dumped by his own party should demonstrate his lack of communication skills.

As much as I think both Turnbull and Shorten are flawed, I am hopeful that we have moved to a period of actual policy debate, rather than govt-by-slogan.

If I never hear "death cult", "we stopped the boats", "Rudd/Gillard/Rudd", "great big new tax" again, I will be a very happy man!

About 80% of politicians on all sides of politics are utterly incompetent and socially inept.

We need to ask ourselves why this is the case.

The reason is that, at the universities, the Young Liberals, Young Labor [sic], etc. are full of idiots who join those parties because they have no friends and are unbalanced in their political views.

We're not talking about highly socially-calibrated individuals who are highly intelligent, articulate and capable of absorbing new information and appreciating nuances. Those type of people are the ones you want in politics. You want some of the brightest and most competent people in the country to be in politics. But we don't get that. We're talking about, for the most part, complete idiots.

The Young Liberals, Young Labor, etc. from the campuses provide the proper parties with their next candidates. They also look after their own. So the Young Labor idiots get friendly with the trade unions, while the Young Liberal morons no doubt receive commendations for scholarships, internships, etc. Very powerful organisations (well, powerful in Australian terms).

As a result of this most politicians are stupid and, frankly, politics isn't particularly intellectually stimulating.

Over the past few years it has basically been a case of Tony Abbott screaming NO and Julia Gillard trying to pretend she stands for ordinary Australians and proving herself to be an abject hypocrite because she stripped universities of funding and removed payments for single-parents. Hardly looking after ordinary Australians.

It's utterly boring. If Q&A has two current politicians on it, it's not worth watching because you'll simply lose intelligence as a result of watching pointless, repetitive discussions which completely miss the point.

So what happens?

Well, the highly intelligent, competent people steer well clear of politics. Why would anybody venture into something so utterly intellectually dull. It's not rewarding, by any measure. Politicians get paid fuck all. The most intelligent people in the country go into law, medicine, finance, other forms of commerce if they want to do stuff which is intellectually stimulating and with the potential to pay well. The other bright people who aren't so fussed about pay go into research/academia.

They don't go into politics.

Probably, the only three Australian politicians who are competent, intellectually gifted and well socially-calibrated are Malcolm Turnbull, Tanya Plibersek and Josh Frydenberg. Turnbull is a bit sly, but that doesn't, necessarily, mean he's not fit to be Prime Minister. Anyway, the interesting thing is that Turnbull and Frydenberg had illustrious careers before politics as investment bankers/barristers. They make a heap of money outside of politics. So even the most competent politicians have other means.

So until Young Liberals, Young Labor, etc. are purged of morons who have no friends and aren't that bright, and until the brightest in the country are encouraged to enter politics, we're going to carry on seeing bewildering levels of stupidity and incompetence from Australian politicians on both sides.

Can probably add Julie Bishop to the list of competent politicians. Had my doubts in the past about how she deals with domestic issues (although maybe even the brightest won't appear that well in the current political environment), but she's a pro as a foreign minister. Apparently, DFAT love her.

Also, Dreyfus and Ruddock have their moments.

The rest are, mostly, idiots.

She's clearly picking and choosing to suit an agenda here. She even admits her main argument regarding the passing of acts isn't all that convincing:

"This isn't a perfect measure because a bill might be introduced under one prime minister and passed under the next; and a lot of legislation is routine, technical amendments."

Then there's this:

:Gross debt jumped from $59 billion in June 2008 (or 5 per cent of GDP) to about $430 billion by June this year"

I'm equally interested to know what gross debt was in 2013 at the end of labor's last term. Guess that wouldn't fit into the narrative of the article though.

You are unbelievably naive if you believe it works that way.

$257 Billion on 30 June 2013 according to wiki. It's since almost doubled.

Here's a chart of Australia's debt to GDP ratio over the last few years:



Glad Abbott turned around that budget emergency during his office.

Even so, here's a comparison of how our ratio compares to other countries even now:

Rationalism has always been the enemy of conservatism.

Yes, because I was going to sum up how the process of how legislation works in a single 10 word sentence :lol:

-PB

Edited by paulbagzFC: 16/9/2015 06:30:15 AM

=d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d>

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Especially seeming the senate actually did pass some shit legislation like metadata retention.

The fact is a lot of the shit legislation was not passed because:
1. They were breaking "promises" that they made before the election. As an aside, they promised so little it's incredible that they would break the few promises they had.
2. They were seen as patently unfair to all but the most right wing nutjobs

As a technical piece of legislation, it may have been written well and if passed, may have had the desired effect but that's not enough to make it "good".

:lol: applauding rebutted statements

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-PB

see your rebuttal and raise you a rebuttal

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=d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d> =d>

Good laugh for the morning :lol:



-PB

Hilarious :lol: Kinda along the lines of what I was pondering yesterday. It does need a few of the loony right of the Libs (like Bernardi) to break away to have the right sort of impact. I just can't see it though as they're power hungry and they would much prefer to sabotage what could actually be a decent centre-right party.

scary to think people like that exist

Luckily enough they're only a minority.

When they become a majority though...

-PB

I just rubbed out my morning chubby to that article.

Yep I hope that never happens.

lel



-PB

well minority groups seem to get way to much attention

The right to bare arms :lol:

Did he really just use the Ottoman Empire to warn us of dangerous migration levels? We are through the looking glass now folks

I really hope Cory Bernadi creates his own ultra conservative right wing party and breaks away all the conservatives from the moderate liberals so they can just fuck right off out of government.

The liberal government has been overrun by the knuckle dragging, ultra-conservative, god fearing young-earthers and ruined the party.