28 July 2015

The wrong way around










This is bullshit.





That too has been trashed.







  1. Thank you for blogging regularly on the abject performance of both this government and the Press Gallery. I trust there is an element of tension release, as it must be at times tiresome to have to dissect the banal and superficial slurry of words which the Kennys and Hartchers try and inflict upon those who still bother to read them.

  2. Bravo. She is really something. a movie worth of something. Toni Colette for the biopic.

  3. Absolutely brilliant! Thank you!

  4. "Well, he said he did - and the journos believed him!"

    Ooh, do tell, Andrew!

    1. Well, would you believe anything Abbott said without independant verification?

      I just assume he's always lying - it saves a lot of time.

  5. Mark Kenny is the cousin of right wing looney Chris Kenny.

  6. I saw that thing about Bishop being beholden to Abbott earlier, and it seemed to make some sense. (I lack your intimate personal knowledge of the players.) If I'd realised that hypothesis originated with Kenny, I would've dismissed it out of hand.

    In any case, it's hard to see how she could be any more partisan.

    1. Hardly intimate or personal, David. The next Speaker will expose Abbott and his team a lot more.

    2. Well, you've at least met most of them.

      I look forward to the next speaker, but I think we'll have quite a wait. It'll take about a kilogram of semtex to blast Bishop out of the chair.

    3. Heh. Looks like someone found the semtex.

  7. "This government has always been self-indulgent [and} lazy ..and incompetent"

    I want to know how these lunatics managed to take over the asylum.

    I assume that their masters (the miners, the press barons, the kings of coal, etc.) have other minions pulling the strings who are at least passably competent. Who are they? Who are the go-betweens, the apparatchiks who interpret the wishes of the Capitalists for the idiots in this government?

    Some of them appear in the IPA and the business council, I assume. Anywhere else, Andrew?

    An (ex?) insider's view would be fascinating.

    1. Follow the money. Kevin Andrews isn't the first to be exposed, and he won't be the last.

    2. Millennium Forum. THAT is where the money is, get the member list and you open the Pandora's box of corruption at the highest levels of government.

  8. Wow, very thought provoking.

    I share your opinions of this government and particularly of the press gallery and their tendency towards reporting only facts which fit their narrative (and, even worse, twisting facts to fit). Nowhere is this more apparent is the treatment of polling data - only polls which fit the narrative get headlines, and if you read only polling stories you'd think Abbott bounced in every polling week of the year...

    Where you have challenged my perceptions is with the idea that Abbott is beholden to Bishop and not vice versa. You make a very strong argument there. Ironically, the other person I've seen put forward that hypothesis in the past 6 months (albeit in a much less convincing way) was Katharine Murphy. Coming from her it seemed like another Abbott apologia, deflecting blame for the government's policies and dogma to Liberal Party powerbrokers controlling Abbott, but perhaps there was an echo of truth in it. Not that it improves my view of Abbott (who, contra Murphy, is and always has been a dogmatic arch-conservative who really did say and write all those things Gillard raised in the misogyny speech), but it certainly broadens my view of how this government works. Or doesn't work, as the case may be.

    1. It doesn't take any of the gloss out of Abbott's polished turd of a government to say he is beholden to powerbrokers. Whilst the 'blame' can be put squarely at their feet. Abbott is coasting along for the ride, and must accept a good portion of the blame.

  9. I really, really love you Andrew, your contempt for the Press Gallery is as dense as mine. They are lazy loathsome tools who sit in the gallery in the house and pick each others nits day in and day out and then say the same bloody things.

    1. That is the best image of the Canberra Press Gallery - busy digesting each others' nits.

      Yeuch, but so accurate.

  10. Hillbilly Skeleton29/7/15 10:22 pm

    Has anyone in the Press Gallery ever thought to do some real research into Bronwyn Bishop, other than sitting at their desks in the Press Gallery and calling up the Expenses list?

    Like how about someone seeks out her first husband and interviews him about the tawdry way he was treated by her when he had the temerity to ask for a divorce? She crushed him under her 6 inch stilettos until he was a man broken into tiny little pieces. He persevered and got his divorce but Madam Mackellar made sure he could never show his face in 'polite society' on the Northern Beaches of Sydney again. This woman truly is a witch and a bitch.

    So what if she knows the Standing Orders back-to-front and upside-down!?! That doesn't make her a good Speaker. She just uses them ruthlessly in her bald-faced attempt to de-nut Labor. It does not make her a good Speaker.

    What I find interesting to observe, however, in this melodrama being played out so publicly in the Liberal Party at the present time, is who will defend her and who will not. Christopher Pyne is going all out. Taking time away from touting his 'Look at me!' effort on the printed page (and I just can't wait to see how quickly it makes it's way to the Remainder bins), in order to come to her defense. Hmm.Why is that I ponder? Does Bronwyn know the skeletons in his closet? The closet he won't come out of?

    Then there's Tony Abbott. Valiantly stonewalling every effort by the taxi drivers of Australia, once his touchstone, to give her a duck shove. What Bronwyn doesn't know about the skeletons in his closet, and there are many, would be able to be written on a bus ticket. Actually, and that's something I constantly wonder about, why is it that the political journalists of Australia can make the effort to go back into Julia Gillard's past in order to dig up any dirt they can find about her but they can't be arsed to do the same thing with Abbott? There's a rich vein of dodgy behaviour that would be circulation gold for them if only they got out the metaphorical metal detectors. Over and way above that which David Marr sniffed out. Oh well, I live in hope that one day, but probably only long after he's gone, we'll all be entertained by the sordid details.

    On the other hand, Julie Bishop, Malcolm Turnbull, Joe Hockey and Scott Morrison are not at all afraid of attempting to cut Bronwyn adrift. She mustn't have anything on them. Or they realise that Abbott & Bronwyn Bishop are so intimately entwined that it would suit their ulterior motives to try and take them both down at once.

    Who knows the truth really though? But it is more fun to watch than 'The Days of Our Lives'.

  11. Talk about passing the "sniff test" The first thing I thought when I read Kenny's article was "Bishop on the backbench? Than ain't gonna happen"

    Thanks Andrew, great read as usual.

  12. 'This government has always been self-indulgent and lazy..', the worst of it is they never had any economic strategy (bar items off the IPA weblist) that went beyond the self satisfied assumption, that an incoming LNP government could simply improve business conditions and confidence. It seems to never have occurred to them, that perhaps that the shibboleth of the LNP as nation's 'natural' economic managers is just a long standing election slogan, and beyond that, that where and when the LNP has previously managed the books with some competence, under previous leaders, someone did some actual hard policy and consensus decision work to make that happen. That is why is was supremely ironic for Hockey to stand up and declare the End of the Age of Entitlement - because their self entitlement goes way beyond simply mooching off generous expenses - right to the assumption that their mere governing presence will solve the problems in state of play. Unqualified diagnosis: borderline delusionals...

  13. Fairfax were so busy kicking Gillard and thinking they'd steal some of News Corpse's market they all forgot how to do real journalism. Hasn't gotten any better since, and now they own a slice of Alan Jones, big surprise to see that bitter old toilet dweller getting more coverage on their site. It's a one way trip down the S-bend from here folks.

  14. Swollendanube30/7/15 9:08 am

    Andrew, I really can't see how Bishop can return to the Speaker's chair in 10 or so days. Community opposition is absolute, and our one-track media will chug along until then. The Libs can't vote in confidence of her with such strong community opposition.

    If you're saying that if Abbott asks her to step down, she'll white-ant him from the backbench and it will seriously upset the Libs internally, then aren't they completely stuck? Doesn't that make this a really big deal? I mean, I know she's powerful but if she stays in that chair no one will have any faith in the Government going forward. They'll never move past this issue.

    On any issue of conviction, Labor need just point to the chair.

  15. Bronwyn is following the manual - lost grip on reality, never made a mistake, skeletons in the closet - she seems to tick all the boxes to be a polly.

  16. cardboard brown2/8/15 6:52 pm

    I can see that it's more likely Abbott is beholden to B Bishop, and therefor , there would be parties within the LNP to seeking to take advantage and undermine her power. But what is politics behind the murdoch press being so keen to put the boot in.....
    Andrew, you're posts as always are a necessary read for backgrounding and an alternative angle.

  17. Abbott is a grossly weakened leader and has time and again shown terrible leadership judgement in the most crucial political moments - this current Bishop fiasco is not about his loyalty to colleague as NewsCorp wishfully advocate - it's just Abbott in yet further paralysis.

    Abbott will not remove her - the public will and it will be against Abbott's wishes. Abbott has literally gone into hiding this week to avoid any political accountability over his Speaker and her excessive expense largesse. That is stunningly weak from the leader of his both his parliamentary party and the country - say again - he is actually hiding from the media and public.

    Abbott's political judgement is again in the doghouse - he thinks he can ride this out - after his own LNP Treasurer told the country they are either (welfare) leaners or lifters? Abbott is so wholly committed to political skirmishing and its representation in the daily media cycle that he refuses to cede Bishop is a walking political corpse for fear of giving the ALP any victory - he is too myopic and stubborn to recognise that Bishop 's political corpse must be tossed for the public's devouring, not necessarily the ALP's.

  18. Spot on. Bishop is a major puppetmaster of Abbot's, and has him by the nuts. If she didn't agree to resign herself, and was pushed, then expect some dirt on Abbot to appear at various stages.

    By how long it took for her to resign, Abbot didn't push her. He didn't have the power to. She got a good deal to resign, and knew the gig was up.

  19. Andrew, your posts are becoming bitter and hysterical.

    And I disagree: Bishop will resign - it will be her final act of service. And, as you predict, the government will probably fall regardless.


    1. Joe: "bitter and hysterical"? "final act of service"? Bwahaahaahaaaah!
      You know what happens to those who fail the Scum King don't you Joe?

    2. Is that you, Smokin' Joe?

      -M Santorum

    3. 'Bitter and hysterical'. Sums up Australian politics perfectly.

      I disagree Joe that Andrew's analyses can be categorised as such but I suppose it is all in the eye of the beholder in the end.

      I think you are being overly generous to BB when you describe her resignation as a final act of loyalty. Come on Joe. It took her three weeks to display that loyalty. Even now some pundits are suggesting that she will be rewarded with a plum diplomatic posting.

      I hope not. In my opinion tact is not one of BB's strong suits. I have been astonished by critical accounts coming from her own side about Bronwyn's aggression.

      As a recent graduate from the Andrew Elder Academy of Political Crystal Ball Gazing I sniff a spill. Soon the land will groan and heave with a battle between Turnbull and ScoMo. Malcolm has been very visible of late. Not so Scott. I wonder if he has the abacus out in a back room somewhere. Of course my diploma is pretty worthless as Andrew himself would attest.

  20. "Final act of service" Yeah, poor Bronwyn.

    To quote Milton
    "When I consider how my light is spent
    Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
    And that one Talent which is death to hide
    Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent..."

    Okay, that seems a good place to stop.