Tony Abbott made a guest appearance on INSIDERS today. The man has been absent from the interview circuit for some time letting his dogs of war take to the airwaves. But this time, the fuhrer himself made the speeches.
Barry Cassidy began the interview with a question about the last session of parliament. Abbott responded by saying that the ALP do not look like a government, but an alternative opposition. Barry asked him if the governments attack on him was getting to him. He asked Barry if he looked hurt. Barry added that he did say that the attack has been overly personal. And once more Abbott claimed that the Gillard government is acting like an opposition.
She is making attacks on the opposition that are more characteristically the attacks the opposition makes on the government.
TRANSLATION : When in opposition, you can use personal attacks. Governments are not allowed to do this apparently.
The conversation moved on to the tag of wrecker. Abbott claimed that if the government is using that tag, then obviously what he is doing is working. Problem though Tony is you really haven’t wrecked anything. You have not been effective if you had to change your tactics to in response to the latest polls. By the way, does this make you poll driven now Tony?
Barry then asked him but if you say something often enough and Abbott jumped in to show us what a clever little Rhodes Scholar he is and called it the Goebbels technique. He said if you keep repeating the big lie, people eventually believe it.
I think he meant this.
Fair dinkum Tony.
OLD TONY vs NEW TONY
Tony went on to say that if you watched the Coalition they had positive policy during the campaign. Thats why he is going to change them.
He reasserted that Work Choices was dead, buried and cremated, but also said that he had the best surgeons working on it to resurrect it if enough people make a case for it to be bought back. Other coalition policies that may need to be altered include the NBN, Climate Change, Disability policy, the War in Afghanistan, Welfare, Education, the economy and pretty much every other policy that he went to the election with.
He insisted that the coalition policies were great policies. But he also asserted that they may need to be changed since he forgot to actually ask the public their view. So he is going to spend the WHOLE year coming up with stuff. In other words, by not having policies out there, they can avoid having to defend them while poking fun at the governments policies. Nice move Tony! Tony gave us an insight into his new set of slogans. For the record the old ones were
- stop the waste
- stop the debt
- stop the big new taxes
- stop the boats.
The new ones he mentioned on the show are:
- Lower taxes
- Fairer welfare
- Better services
- Stronger borders
Basically he stopped talking about stopping things, but he kept it in as it rates well. Apparently it turns out that there is no waste, there is no big debt, there is no new big taxes, but there are a load of non white people still coming by boat. Tony still believes that this is a terrorism threat despite ASIO saying the contrary. Tony still thinks that it is safer if everyone came in by planes rather than boats because the terrorists who took down the World Trade Centers all came by boat. No wait a minute…
Actually if you look at Tony’s new gang of four slogans, there is nothing really new about them. For example lower taxes is basically stop the waste. Fairer welfare is basically stop the debt. Better services is stop the great big new tax – of course the services are meant for those in the mining industry most likely. And of course the last one is a re branding as well.
Barry kind of shook his head and said is that it? Four new slogans? Tony assured him that is not the case. He intended to ‘deepen his conversation with the public’. Tony goes on to clarify that he is not really going to change policy. In fact, all he is going to do is advertise them till people believe them. I believe Tony, that’s called the Goebbels technique right?
Tony talked about getting more people off welfare and into work. Sounds good! Barry responded saying that but the unemployment rate is low. Is there room for these people in working jobs? Tony tells him that employers tell him that they would love to employ more people but it seems they do not know where to go to do this. Well I would suggest advertising. Maybe even at Centrelink websites.
Actually what Tony is talking about is a way for business to get access to cheap labour and be paid by the government to do so at the same time. Now that’s what I call fairer welfare! Seriously Tony. If an employer is unsure about where to go or what to do to advertise for employees, then I don’t think they deserve to stay in business do you?
Then Barry talks about things that got cremated. Tony assures Barry it is. Then mentions that it may not. How deep is that? Tony and deep is like squid and ice cream. Let me show you an example of the deepness of the man. This is from an interview Tony had with Laurie Oakes on August the 1st this year.
LO: Another weathervane issue WorkChoices. Your current policy is not to touch Julia Gillard’s industrial relations laws. You say that they deserve a fair trial and business deserve certainty. That wasn’t your view, only – what – two months ago?
TA: The point is that I have been absolutely crystal clear…
LO: About changing your mind?
TA: Because I accept the verdict of the people in 07. And over the last few months in particular Laurie, I’ve been talking a great deal to the business people who live under these laws, to the people who work under these laws and they say that they can live with imperfect laws, what they can’t deal with is constant change, and that’s why I say I’ll give them a period of certainty and stability.
LO: But as recently as your Budget Speech in May, you said these the laws would destroy small business.
TA: That’s not quite what I said. What I said is I would like to see more flexibility, and the interesting thing about the legislation is that it does provide for flexibility.
LO: You said a few months ago that it’s massively unfair to small business?
TA: And as I said to you Laurie, I’ve been talking to small business and they say…
LO: Why wouldn’t you talk to them before you said that it was massively unfair to them?
TA: They make the point…
LO: Off the top of the head?
TA: They make the point, Laurie, that there are aspects of the legislation that they don’t like. But what they want above all else is a period of stability and certainty, and that’s what they’ll get under me.
LO: So, are you a weathervane?
TA: I’ll leave others to make their judgments. What I am trying to do is the right thing by the Australian people and as circumstances change, sure, the appropriate policies will change.
See? Even back then Work Choices was never dead, buried and cremated. And it is proof that Abbott will change a policy on the fly. Months before he deaded, buried, and cremated work choices, Laurie shows him that his firm belief was Work Choices was the best thing since sliced bread and the government policy will killing small business! He asserted the coalition policy to restore some of the IR laws to help small business. Shortly after making this return to a Howard’s end type policy, he had a change of heart. He claimed this change was from business it self. NOW he basically is flagging that business wants work choices again. WTF Tony?
The final part of the conversation was about Tony’s intellectual prowess. If you watch the news you would be familiar that the name of the WikiLeaks found is Assange, not A-sangy.
Really though Tony? Is that your policy and your plan for the next year or two? To take the same crappy phrases and re-brand them? Are you really saying that is all you have? I think Paul Keating said it best way back in March of this year.
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A. Ghebranious 2010 All Rights Reserved
From → Australian Politics
Ash's Machiavellian Bloggery 
I love a statement he made a couple of days ago. He did not think it was fair that PM Gillard was attacking him personally.
When it was pointed out that he was doing the same, his reply was along the line of that he was testing her mettle. This man is unbelievable in his double talk. Mr. Abbott’s is waiting for the business world to call for return of workchoice so he can ride to their defence.
The problem is if I recall correctly, there was ever a strong support for what Mr. Howard did from these same people. Strong industrial laws make an even playing field for small business as well as large ones. Mr. Abbott’s biggest problem is that he believes his own spin.
He really does believe that the public is stupid. Why does he live in the middle of last century? The model he is using is from Nazi Germany. His political mentor was Mr. Santamaria. His main adviser today seems to be an ousted PM from the last Coalition government. It is time he woke from his slumber and realises this is 2010 and the 21st century.
UGH!!!!!!!!!
*Lower Taxes
Who wants to add a GBNT to business to pay for his Paid Parental Leave Sceme? Who wants a Corporate Tax 1% higher than the Gillard government?
*Fairer Welfare
Who wants to give wealthy women more money from the public purse to look after their babies for 6 months? Who believes in subsidising Private Health payments and Private Schools fees and infrastructure spends from the public purse? Who didn’t agree with paying all pensioners a pension increase? Who favours self-funded retirees over pensioners?
*Better Services
Who cut public health, public dental and public school services to the bone as a member of the Howard government Ministry?
*Stronger Borders
Just as many boats came under Howard, depending on the global circumstances, even with the dreaded Pacific Solution.
Great article. Astonishing how much Cassidy lets Abbott get away with.
Great post, Ash. Visit australianblogsites.com where I’ve nominated it as the best blog of the week (under This Week’s Pick). I’ve also linked it at my own blog, Café Whispers. I want as many people as possible to see your post.
All spin! No substance!