Australia's PM gets the knife, again

A lot of schools are going to be upset as they had their fetes organised for the September election date.

LOL I can see Labor being the most hated party in history after pulling this stunt today. Imagine all the pre-game sponsorship $ that has been lost because they only had a 10min or so pre-amble!

Are you still smiling...? 14-nil

LOL How's about those fistycuffs?! If politics had that sort of passion maybe more of us would be interested.

24-nil... just sayin'

I missed the football. But I have to say, it looks like once again we're going to get the politicians we deserve

ETA: Mind you, an extended conversation between Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb on the pernicious influence of poll politics in this country makes me feel better....

I am literally at the point of anyone but abbot. All this does is change the PR image of the labour party - policies are still the same, last time I checked.

It's a merry-go-round. We now have the same PM that we had previously, before we got a new PM without an election. We got the old one back, also without an election.

It's just a burning merry-go-round. I wish people would wake up and realised that you don't vote for PM, you have little to no say in it, the only thing you determine is who represents your area.

And now I have to choose between a totally inept party and one I disagree vehemently with.

This is the one time I hate preferential voting. Greens may be at number 1, but eventually I've got to give my vote to one of the major parties .

_Sian_ said:

And now I have to choose between a totally inept party and one I disagree vehemently with.

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I have the same problem, only it's Labor I vehemently disagree with. What is scary is that Clive Palmer may be in with a chance simply out of spite towards the two major bumbling-idiot parties, reminiscent of how One Nation received their support.

It sounds similar to the problem we have here in that we don't like any of our politicians. The only thing I can suggest is voting local, not national. But that does work better in a FPP system.

I think Labour here has something in common with the US GOP - not ideology, certainly.

There are a whole lot of people who want to support Labour, but they can no longer support *this* Labour government, because they've made such a dog's breakfast of things. Or, more to the point, that the values they espouse now are not what they once were.

Personally? I'm thrilled about the outcome. Gillard, not Rudd, called for this spill - and she went all in. Winner takes all, loser doesn't just go home -- loser retires from politics. It needed to happen.

But I thought it was funny how she said the Party divisions have made her time in leadership difficult; that's all her doing. She pushed Rudd out in the first place, then she had to make deals with two Independent MPs to win majority in the next election - by one vote. So division is how she got to the top.

If Turnbull - or Costello - would make a return and oust Abbott, then we'd be talking. But Gillard and Abbott are really not a happy choice. Shame - I'd wanted to like Gillard, but the way she got there, and the cynical way in which she governed, made it impossible.

This result is probably better for her than waiting for an election. I'm betting that, like John Howard in 2007, she'd have ended up in the ignominious position of being a sitting Prime Minister who lost her own Parliament seat. (Note to Americans: Australia differs from America in that Aussies don't vote directly for their leader; they vote for their Parliament reps, then the party gaining a House majority chooses its leader from among their members in Parliament -- but it's always clear who that leader's going to be.)

Tony Abbott has one quality that Gillard doesn't: he is candid about his bastardry. His meanness is there for everyone to see.

poetinahat said:

the values they espouse now are not what they once were.

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Exactly. Both Labor and Libs seem to have gravitated to centre.

poetinahat said:

but it's always clear who that leader's going to be.)

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... sometimes

Likely scenario, of course, is that Labor will lose the election, forcing Rudd to resign as well and leaving us with...

I don't know. Does that leave Anthony Albanese and Bill Shorten as leader and deputy leader of the opposition?



(Also, to those thinking of voting Green, I urge you to look at that party's performance as part of the current Tasmanian government.)

SianaBlackwood said:

Likely scenario, of course, is that Labor will lose the election, forcing Rudd to resign as well and leaving us with...

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We could've had the Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth - but has he left politics to get back to rock?

Peter Garrett came and spoke at my son's school last month. While he was very friendly and personable mingling with parents, my goodness his speech was dull. He was stiff and obviously uncomfortable. There was no passion in his delivery. I personally think he has a lot more to offer our society by returning to rock, rebuilding his 'celebrity' status, and using that to support environmental endeavours. It is obvious that is where his passion lies.

I vote left, and I'm not a Kevin Rudd fan.

I thought this article from The Age on his previous go as prime minister was interesting. Basically, it states that he was very difficult to work with, unliked by the people who knew him personally, and constantly on the verge of disaster. I've spoken to someone who did some work for him during this period and they say the same thing.

I was sympathetic after he was initially deposed, but lost all of it after he continuously undermined the Labor party over the last three years.

Despite the very significant pieces of legislation that Gillard managed to get through parliament with a minority government, she is being characterised as someone who deliberately "played the gender card" to avoid talking about policy.

I'm not really happy with Australian politics at the moment.

The Green movement could probably benefit from Mr Garrett throwing his political skills behind them.

Half-heartedly trying to start an argument:

The most effective voting strategy is to take a close look at the people you're voting for and select your local member based on his/her intelligence and ability to function as an MP.

Unless you live in the electorates of Griffith or Warringah, you don't get to vote for Rudd or Abbott anyway. We choose the people who choose the leader - we don't vote directly for who we want as Prime Minister.

SianaBlackwood said:

The Green movement could probably benefit from Mr Garrett throwing his political skills behind them.

Half-heartedly trying to start an argument:

The most effective voting strategy is to take a close look at the people you're voting for and select your local member based on his/her intelligence and ability to function as an MP.

Unless you live in the electorates of Griffith or Warringah, you don't get to vote for Rudd or Abbott anyway. We choose the people who choose the leader - we don't vote directly for who we want as Prime Minister.

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I actually use that method for Local and State - afterall, those members actually get involved and do stuff for my immediate community. I am even on first name basis with the sitting members because they get involved and get to know people in our area.

Federal - I couldn't tell you who my member is, or what party they are in. Never see or hear anything from them. So for Federal I vote based on party.

poetinahat said:

Tony Abbott has one quality that Gillard doesn't: he is candid about his bastardry. His meanness is there for everyone to see.

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Yep. There's an assembly of miserable bastards on offer and he's the most viable for PM.

Personally, I'd rather have Turnbull.

I love that whomever wrote it went to the level of detail of even giving the futuristic Chinese-Indian cyborg a name. Kind of makes me want to find a copy to read
I do believe it would have been written by someone else, if only for the fact that many of the words used have more than 5 letters in them.