Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Aussie climate skeptic Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been defeated in a snap party ballot. The new Australian Prime Minister will be Malcolm Turnbull, who supports carbon pricing and emissions trading
According to the Sydney Morning Herald;
Malcolm Turnbull will become Australia’s 29th prime minister after beating Tony Abbott in a dramatic leadership ballot in Canberra on Monday night.
Mr Turnbull’s victory is reminiscent of the coup former prime minister Julia Gillard staged against Kevin Rudd in 2010 and makes the former communications minister Australia’s fifth prime minister in just over five years.
Liberal MPs gathered at Parliament House at 9.15pm to decide whether Mr Abbott or Mr Turnbull would lead them to the next election.
The challenge has plunged the Coalition government into crisis. Ahead of the ballot, both camps were confident of having the numbers but chief whip Scott Buccholz announced Mr Turnbull had prevailed over Mr Abbott 54-44. One Liberal voted informally and another was absent.
The crisis has provoked significant turmoil in Australian politics. Abbott defeated Turnbull while the Liberal Party was still in opposition, in 2009, over Turnbull’s support for a bi-partisan carbon deal. Malcolm Turnbull’s challenge seems to have re-awakened many of the old internal divisions within the party.
Turnbull is deeply unpopular with some factions of his own political party – some senior members of the party making no secret about how they feel about the new leader. Given the circumstances of the challenge, and the accusations of disloyalty leading up to the challenge, uniting the party under the new leadership is likely to prove a significant challenge.
UPDATE – We now have footage from the Liberal Party meeting which ousted Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
What a mess.
After living in Oz of and on for 30 years, I’d say leading Australians is much like herding cats.
Reminds me of a great TV ad by ASB bank in NZ. Found it… still crack me up. Flock of cows. Herd of cows. Heard of chickens. LOL
Anthony, as an American, would you rule out CIA involvement? Prior PM K Rudd stopped supporting a carbon tax, and was gone in 6 weeks. A conspirator with Rudd’s replacement Gillard was Mark Arbib, who claimed in an interview to have been in contact with the CIA at an embassy. Gillard took the easy route, and just lied about her intentions.
The CIA was set up to manipulate banana republics, and Australia grows a lot of bananas
The CIA, of course, is the Vampire Squid across the face of humanity.Or was that Goldman Sachs. Wait… our new PM Malcolm Turnbull used to run Goldman Sachs Australia. So many coincidences.
I think it is unseemly for Al Gore to have private meetings with Prime Ministers.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2009/s2626488.htm
Come on. The CIA couldn’t take over the Melbourne City Council. (I’m amazed at their SPECTRE-like reputation the world over.) On the other hand I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of CIA types believe in AGW; they’re often liberal dweebs.
Strangely enough,RW, that is what they want you to think.When our ABC was first reporting the Arab Spring in Egypt they reported the CIA as saying how they were taken by surprise, they did not see it coming. I wondered at the time whether our ABC rang them, or did the CIA issue a press release.
They exist.
What do you think they do all day?
I’m so pissed at Turnbull, this guy had worse poll numbers when he was opposition leader than Abbott did when ousted and the liberal dicks panicked and dumped a good, sensible(mostly) PM.
Yes Anthony it is a mess, OZ has had a few honest prime ministers driven by what is right Mr Abbott was honest and honourable that made him an easy target. The press in OZ is mostly left wing and not above spreading BS about those they oppose, the BS sticks in the minds of those that still believe the press the radio and the TV. The truth comes out but in small print on the tenth page and no one reads it. Thus they stay above the law but still spread propaganda and lies. I am now old but see the identical spread of miss-information about global warming. Those that hold the keys to information and disseminate what they want to the gullible to believe control the world.
Fight the good fight my friend, for it is people such as you that are the only ones holding their feet to the fire, the AGW BS is also purely political and CO2 is a scapegoat. I have tried to leave the world slightly better than when I found it, I am a little, sad but such is life. It is now up to those younger than I to take up the good fight and to restore a modicum of sensibility to both science and politics. I am just going touring on my Harley.
Turncoat, the architect of “sell off taxpayers assets, like roads and airports, then tax the mug electorate for the right to use THEIR assets all over again”. This person will back ANYTHING that allows him to tax anything, CO2 is a soft, juicy target for him… Tony Abbott came to power on the mandate of burying the carbon myth…Turncoat will wallow in the swill of CAGW.
Ugh, politics. /smh
Me too. I think all ministers are past their prime.
So with 98 people officially voting, a ten-vote majority effectively determines the political economy of a commonwealth with a population estimated at 23,896,200.
What in the hell goes on in Australia, anyway?
Like Britain and other countries with the Westminster system we don’t elect representatives so much as delegates. The party with the that can form a majority in the lower house (House of Representatives here, though it functions more like the House of Commons in Britain than its US namesake) gets to form the government and whoever is leader of that party is Prime Minister. I think that the Queen in Britain or Governor-General in Commonwealth countries can technically refuse but that’s just not going to happen (though Google “Whitlam government” for something similar). Anyhow, if the party that’s formed the government wants to change its leader, and therefore the Prime Minister, it can do so. It happened in Britain in the early 90s at the end of Margaret Thatcher’s Prime Ministership and it’s happened here for the third time in five years. Before that we had an 11 year PM so it’s not an inherently unstable system. More that the parties keep putting hugely unpopular leaders up and then hitting huge trouble in the polls.
This reminds me of the putsch where Paul Martin replaced Jean Chretien as leader of the Canadian Liberals. The result was complete unmitigated disaster for the Liberals.
The Queen has no such power in Australia, not since federation. She is just a figurehead, nothing more.
Patrick, she is quite a bit more than a figurehead. Just ask Whitlam. 😉
Maybe then, not now. Her powers extend to appointing a Gov. General with the advice of a PM.
TA Was not hugely unpopular, a sycophantic bunch of morons believed the ABC and the rest of the gutter press…
A genteel coups d’etat?
It sure beats nine judges deciding by 5-4 that all states in the USA have to accept a redefinition of marriage even though their own citizens have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the traditional definition.
Amend the constitution if you don’t like it. The Supreme Court has made a lot of 5-4 decisions that were not popular or highly controversial. Bush v. Gore and Citizens United. And the ACA. And these are the recent ones.
No need. The appropriate amendments are already there:
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Amendment XI
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
Unfortunately, Tony Abbott only talked the talk. He did not walk the walk, and always pandered to the political left.
He was dumped because he betrayed his conservative base.
Tragically, Turnbull is a left wing Manchurian Candidate who will split the conservative vote and make a gift of government to the totally corrupt socialist Labor party.
We have gone from Tweedle Dee to Tweedle Dumb.
Australia is the new Greece; we are screwed.
Reckon the Libs had the choice between being competitive in the next election and being obliterated in it. I know life long Lib voters who were going to vote informal. Actually I think the Libs probably still will be obliterated in Melbourne and having Turnbull may simply mean Labor will keep a seat or two that the Greens might have won with Abbott as PM. Maybe they’ll even win Bandt’s seat back now.
You have no idea of the anger that has been released by this “decision”. The conservative base of the Liberal [centre-right] party is about to abandon the new Turnbull Government in droves. Once the serving federal members realize that close to 40 % of Liberal voters [The Party got 52 % of the vote in the last (2103) federal election] will never vote for the Liberal party again, there is a high likelihood that a new centre-right party will form based upon common-sense conservative principals.
This will mean that conservative vote will be split and the Socialist-Left/Greens party/parties will romp back into power. We are about to enter a new dark age here in Australia.
It’s not right to say that the “conservative vote will be split” because Australia has a preferential voting system where you designate your 1st choice, 2nd choice, etc. So conservative candidates can still win with the 2nd & 3rd preference votes. A candidate must get 50% + 1 votes to win.
The Liberal Party won the last election with a huge majority. The people voted for Tony Abbott and strongly supported his views.
Now that the left wing has again ignored the majority wishes for personal gain, the days are numbered for the Libs.
Every person I know is now looking for a viable alternative. With the strangle hold the Labor/Greens alliance have on hte country , this is not easy.
The Nationals (the Liberals’ coalition partner) dislike Turnbull and are very unhappy about this. There’s potential here for major repercussions. So don’t give the game away — it’s still on.
Only those in Abbotts electorate voted for Abbott. No-one in the voting public voted for Abbott as PM
I hope not, Bandt is an idiot and probably could not spell the word science even if it stood up and punched him in the gob.
does it occur to you that by being competitive he’s representing more of the population. Isn’t that what a government is meant to do?
Let’s lose the election and not betray our dwindling minority conservative base. It’s called shifting with the times.
Agreed.
I mean I agree with the original comment
Doubt it if the new PM is a Goldman Sachs guy.
Um, he was managing director for Goldman Sachs in Australia before entering politics.
Without getting into any type of conspiracy, he most assuredly is a Goldman Sachs guy. In his previous stint as opposition leader (Which was disastrous) the government of the time called him ‘the minister for Goldman Sachs’.
His other nickname is ‘Lord Wentworth’ which refers to his electorate (Wentworth) and his silver-spoon-up-the-fundament manner, which ultimately does not go over well with Australians. All Australians want their PM to have the common touch – to drink a beer and watch the footy. Turnbull is popular with the inner-city left who think Green but want fewer taxes. Ultimatley the majority of the country does not share their view.
Do you know what you are talking about. Tony Abbott never pandered to the left. Its comments such as this that make me think either you are an extreme right winger or you really don’t know anything. There are very angry people in Australia who absolutely hate Malcolm Turnbull, don’t be surprised if the Liberal party is decimated at the next election
I smell Paris COP21 and money.
My thoughts exactly
Um, his approval rating of 36% was probably the main factor, as well as the fact that the economy is suffering, hence a depreciated currency: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-09/kohler-why-tony-abbotts-approval-rating-is-bad-for-the-economy/6606144
I’m sure the new guy will “enjoy” an approval rating of 24%.
The reason the economy is suffering is due to the legacy of the previous left govt and the fact that they still control the senate.
The ABC is controlled by the left and any thing they say can be assumed to be biased against the right.
The media and the left targeted Abbott, Lord Monckton warned of this, they had to get rid of him before Paris as he was the lone holdout, Turnbull and deputy Julie Bishop (hint she will be PM one day, very savvy, managed to remain deputy through change of leadership) are all for pandering to diplomatic greenie pressure to up the climate stakes. Turnbull lost the leadership last time by voting FOR an ETS against his party. Very suspicious timing, who is pulling the strings???
Both the Liberals and NDP are big on job “creation”. We all know what that means.
oh yeah…abc who were/are the labor party/green biggest support crew? who got their over generous funding pared back?
hmm?
I voted LIB because of TA strong anti c02 crap stand
turncoat is a agw/ goldman sux/ tpp shill
deity help us all
and yeah NO ONE I know who voted Lib is happy about this..
looks like he nationals/ country partys going to get a HUGE increase in votes
That is exactly the thought of Christopher Monckton.
Yes the best that Canada can hope for is a minority government. Economically the Harper government has done a good job but on foreign policy he is just a lapdog to the USA. If he had kept us as peace keepers instead of mindless drones for the empire and saying yes to everything he would be a lock to get another majority. We’ll probably end up with a NDP/Liberal coalition.
Spooky… like a prophecy being fulfilled.
My understand of Turnbul’s climate change policy is that he will not alter what Abbott did, as that was part of the deal he made in order to ganner the numbers for his leadership challenge.
Who could evr trust Malcolm Turnbull. His nick name is not Turncoat for no reason.
That’s what all the prevoius leaders have said, before getting into power and attempting to/succeeding at ramming through an ETS/Carbon Tax/Carbon boondoggles
Turnbull is the one responsible for forcing all Australians to use CFLs and actually voted against his own government for the removal of the Carbon Tax. He is a disaster.
Glad to hear that Australia will be lead by someone who listens to science and reason. It is time to stop denying and start making changes in our energy system.
I think you mean non-science (or nonsense) and unreason.
Renewables don’t work, and I somehow suspect you didn’t mean nuclear power.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/11/22/shocker-top-google-engineers-say-renewable-energy-simply-wont-work/
Who cares if they don’t work.
Spending other people’s money on them make Luke feel good about himself.
And that after all, is the only thing that matters.
As I love to point out, thorium is as renewable (or more) than rare earth elements used in renewable energy devices.
What do you think I’m denying? Or anyone here? Be specific.
You do know almost the very first question he was asked after the vote as if he’d be changing climate change policy and that his answer was that there’d be no changes?
Australia should build a lot more desalination plants to cope with the perpetual drought that is sure to come soon, and enlarge the flood management dams to cope with the perpetual rain that will accompany the perpetual drought.
They can put all the miners and farmers to work on these projects. It can all be funded by the forex and bank charges saved by not having to export all those minerals that won’t be mined and food that won’t be grown. Jobs for all! There is just no downside to the magic of the carbon economy.
Now who was that other PM usurper who famously said “There will be no carbon tax.”
Luke
The joy in your life does not come from feeling morally superior to others — but from feeling that others are morally inferior to you.
What is the difference? The latter allows you to take action against those “morally inferior human being”. They can be marginalize and eliminated with a clear conscious.
Let me state it clearly — the joy in your life comes from hurting others. That is what motivates the hoi polloi of the left — the useful idiots are actually quite vicious.
Eugene WR Gallun
“useful idiots” pot, meet kettle.
Well said +100
Maybe history says that vicious idiots are quite useful…
In order to get enough support to oust Abbot, Turnbull had to state that he’ll stick with the existing policy on climate change. After all, supporting a carbon trading scheme was what lost him the Liberal part leadership last time. Who knows when he will dare move again on this issue?
If Julia is any kind of example, he’ll move as soon as he thinks he can get away with it. Promises mean nothing to them.
“Glad to hear that Australia will be lead by someone…”
I wonder why Australians are willing to be “led” by anyone. They ought to be as fiercely independent as Americans (long ago, that is).
“long ago” – see how well that worked out.
Mandy,
Have you ever had a positive thought?
Funny how some people can’t tell the difference between politics and science.
The only changes we need to make to our energy system is to get rid of those **** windmills and solar fields.
So, Luke what changes would you like to see in the global energy system?
Here’s what I desire:
I would like to see improvements made to the grid’s tolerance to geomagnetic superstorms (“unprecedented” and “robust” ones, by the way). This is a random threat to civilization which far exceeds any centurial temperature rise, as far as our inability to react and recover. It is true, observation based science and is manageable with our present technology. The impact of getting caught unprepared (due the economic disruption caused by the present climate change diversion) would be truly devastating to urban populations within weeks.
Scrubbed coal plants should be built in third world countries to allow the equalization of affluence without taking money from governments and giving it to other governments. As these countries join the free market economy and become affluent, the global population will naturally decline and the depopulation goals of the greens will be reached without it being necessary for billions to suffer poverty and death due to collapsed economies.
Meanwhile, the developed world owes it to humanity to develop the most dense sources of energy available and let the markets decide what works and what doesn’t (there are very few things the private sector can’t do better than the governments). The rest of the world will then be able to follow suit.
Obviously, unless unforeseen discoveries are made, solar and wind are not dense or reliable enough to provide sufficient energy to replicate their capture devices, much less power continental grids. This leaves the development of geothermal, hydro and molten-salt nuclear as prudent priorities for research. All will be profitable enough that the private sector can successfully develop them.
When I snap my fingers, you will awake from your hypnotic trance… oh well, I tried.
Oh, and when we’re in the latter part of this solar grand minimum and this CO2 nonsense is remediated, it will be past time to build fluidized-bed power plants to burn the solid wastes we are going to be up to our necks in by then…
Couldn’t agree more Luke. Make Renewables pay their own way instead of bludging on taxpayers.
WHat’s that? They can’t! Well cry me a river. Stop discriminating against the poorer members of society then.
Ex Prime Minister Abbot is a climate sceptic and reduced renwable funding as much as he could. New Prime Minister Turnbull is a climate believer and openly stated he was not listening to sceptics.
Turnbull did very well with Goldman Sachs and it is a matter of record they want a CO2 cap and trade.
http://www.infowars.com/cap-and-trade-is-a-goldman-sachs-and-enron-scam/
Reaction to Turnbull’s election within the party room has been one of disgust and betrayal and Liberal Party members announcing they will not vote for the Liberals.
His deputy Julie Bishop was highly respected before the vote. Now people are disgusted by her.
Turnbull was leader in Opposition but he was beaten by Abbot in a party vote because Turnbull rolled over for the warmist cause. The opposition to it was so strong, MP’s offices were inundated with protests against Turnbull’s position. SO much so he put his leadership on the line over CAGW and he was beaten.
He proceeded to white ant Abbot from that moment onwards. On other matters Turnbull was being soundly thrashed in parliament. Yet he claims he was asked to challenge for the 2nd time because he was a better communicator.
LOL, my big fat foot. Turnbull is a Liberal in the USA sense and he is widely disliked in conservative Australia but pampered by the left wing newspapers and ABC, all of which are left wing and support CAGW despite scientific failures of the models forecasts and the backflips by the IPCC.
The only Denial is denying that China burning Australian coal is the same as Australia burning Australian coal.
What science and reason is that Luke? Just more of your junk science and upside down fiddled data fraud. Lukey thinks that the upside down Mann is a great hero and also thinks that the 1940s drought in OZ was caused by co2 increases. A real genius don’t ya know?
Luke, Turnbull cares not for science and reason. He is a wealthy buffoon. All he wants is a free right on the carbon gravy train! Sad day for Australia. He’s not know as Turncoat for nothing you know.
I think you mean ‘led’ rather than ‘lead’…
yeah right mate
you got a monopoly on candles?
cos at this rate we will be using em to read by and to cook our dinner over.
Late night CBC spoke of how this will mean Australia can rejoin the family of nations against Climate Change. Is climate change that high on the list of concerns down under?
Not really, though I’d say we’re still slightly outnumbered by warmists, and probably heavily outnumbered in the media because of course we are.
That is the situation everywhere. Warm fuzzy feelings are very difficult to overcome. GK
Not at all.
It is just that a few “squeky wheels”” get a disproportionate amount of attention.
It is the same with all of these warm fuzzy issues. When people are asked if we should save the planet they will answer yes. When asked to pay for it they will answer no, let somebody else do that. That is why all of these fantasy renewable schemes are always mandated.
The economy, or lack there of, is a bigger concern. More and more people are finding themselves out of work. I work for a NSW Govn’t agency, which is being outsourced. Everyone here is being made redundant and I am fortunate to have a contract until December. After that, CenterLink? The ALP spent money they didn’t have to drive it, now the debts have to be paid back.
no ONLY with the greentard labor supporting abc lowlifes.
the rest of us are trying to get a job or run a biz with so many green laws n shite its damn near impossible.
watch this utter bastard sign our remaining jobs away via the TPP.
Rejoin the family of nations? Kind of loaded language.
It seems CBC infers rejoining humanity and civilization. It is unfortunate to be rejected as a human being for having a differing view on climate change, but the method is purposeful. A common tactic to marginalize your opponents is to dehumanize them so no matter the morality or ethics of any action against them it is justified in the name of humanity or the “family of Nations” as the CBC puts it.
No.
Nobody dares run a poll asking anymore, because they know what the answer was.
There was a poll recently which outed Australia as having the highest level of skepticism in the world.
Having lying, backstabbing, duplicitous politiicians continually trying to ram through carbon taxes will do that to a population.
At least there is this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510936/Cut-green-c-p-Camerons-private-view-energy-taxation-horrify-environmental-campaigners.html
David Cameron has ordered ministers to ditch the ‘green crap’ blamed for driving up energy bills and making business uncompetitive, it is claimed.
The Prime Minister, who once pledged to lead the ‘greenest government ever’, has publicly promised to ‘roll back’ green taxes, which add more than £110 a year to average fuel bills.
But a senior Tory source said Mr Cameron’s message in private is far blunter.
The source said: ‘He’s telling everyone, “We’ve got to get rid of all this green crap.” He’s absolutely focused on it.’
According to some, history is driven by fearful, lazy and greedy people looking for a safer, easier and more profitable ways to get things done (and they don’t know what they’re doing). The longer I live, the more I think it true.
Wow, there may be a point in there somewhere but I don’t have all morning to look for it.
Here’s a shortcut for you , Eustace: “It’s all a giant cluster-hump.”
Being the first to point out that something doesn’t make sense can help you look intelligent… unless the reason you’re the first is because every one else understood it. ^¿^
I agree, Claude, that’s why I quipped to Eugene R Gallum that history finds vicious idiots to be useful.
That’s Gallun, sorry sir.
[Fake email address. ~mod.]
Climate change policy had little effect on this change of leader. Unfortunately for him, Tony Abbott comes across as a clunky, foot in the mouth kinda meat head who has promoted meatheads to the fore of his ministry and they just keep doing dumb things that has opened the door to Turnbull.
The big shift came about 9 months ago when Abbott decided to go with one of his now infamous ‘Captain’s Pick’ choices. Without consultation he decided that he would have Prince Phillip (husband of Queen Elizabeth II of Britain) knighted. Now why TF would you even bother to ‘knight’ a prince no one could figure out. It absolutely outraged the country. Well not so much outraged as utterly bumfounded. It was the grandmother of poliyical own goals and made Abbott a laughing stock even in his own party, hell even among monarchists.
The foirst move against him came a month or so later which he survived and famously said that ‘good government starts now’ It didn’t. It has been a blunder prone outfit since the first budget in May 2014 that has allowed our leftist media ( Fairfax Media and the ABC, our equivalent of the BBC or CBC, let alone the GUardian etc) to make merry hell and just go feral with biased and beatup headlines day in day out.
M Seward has basically got it right. The Abbott/Dutton gaffe re pacific islands was simply one own goal too many; snatching defeat from the jaws of victory re the Syrian refugee intake announcement. Turnbull has already been reported as staying with the status quo re Climate Change policy in order to gain the numbers to take the leadership. Turnbull’s election gives the opportunity to clear out a lot of dead wood in the Abbott ministry, like the bumbling Treasurer, Joe Hockey. It’s the best chance for the Liberal party to retain government and prevent foaming-at-the-mouth warmist Bill Shorten and his Labor/Green claque from taking power next year. That would be the REAL disaster for Australia, not Malcolm Turnbull as PM.
Two of the main obstructionist countries
============
china and india? brazil and russia? who are these major players?
We’ll repatriate Tony Abbott as UK PM any day.
+1
no we wont
Little bit more context. Abbott beat Turnbull by just one vote in 2009 and arguably the party hasn’t been all that stable since. It just looked pretty stable in opposition when compared to the Labor government. In government Abbott has become electoral poison and I don’t personally know anyone who gave the coalition a hope in hell of winning the next election with him as Prime Minister. The polls would seem to back this up and the worst case scenario wasn’t just losing office but a large proportion of the House of Reps Liberals losing their seats. Turnbull won the rematch 54-44 (1 abstention, couple of absentees).
Nor is it a single issue thing. Abbott appears – appeared – to be out of step with public opinion on a bunch of different things, and while warmists outnumber sceptics here I’d guess that same sex marriage was actually by far the biggest bone of contention. Others included asylum seekers, the budget and a string of apparent broken promises, backflips, confidence destroying public gaffes (ever seen a head of government eat a raw onion, skin included, on TV? We did) and a habit of making policy decision on the fly without any consultation. Climate change was just one other thing, and being the main interest of WUWT it’s probably important to note that Turnbull has already said there will be no policy change there. Abbott had already moved in a warmish direction to try and mollify critics and after winning the vote Turnbull said he supported that as a cabinet minister and wouldn’t be changing it as PM. As far as the climate change debate goes it is probably business as usual in Australia.
Declaration: I’m on the sceptic side of lukewarm, probably more like tepid, and my voting habits include drawing offensive graffiti on the ballot paper and other forms of non-vote. If I cast a Senate vote candidates for both government parties end up a very long way down my list of preferences.
I once saw an Australian Politician eating earwax on TV..
earwax passes for brains in the ozzie parliament.
The current opposition leader has been filmed eating snot. At least what Abbott ate it a food. (And most people eat raw onion anyway, they just chop it first)
Angry Exile is simply parroting the Leftist-media propaganda line here in Australia. He has every right to his opinion but it is most certainly not in line with the vast bulk of the people in Australia who vote for the conservative side of politics. One thing he fails to mention is that we have a state broadcaster called the ABC [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]. It is very similar to the NPR/Public TV in the United States, the BBC in the U.K. and CBC in Canada. The state broadcaster is supposed to be “balanced” and it has a charter that specifically directs it to seek all views on a given topic. Unfortunately, it openly censors skeptical viewpoints on climate and as an organization it is proud of its censorship. This broadcaster has a taxpayer funded budget of more than $ 1 billion dollars. This is like NPR/Public TV getting a $15 billion handout from the in the US government instead of the $ 500 million it actually receives. This makes the ABC one of the dominant players in the Australian media scene. It is so large in fact that it totally distorts the democratic process. The distortion is so much that it actually threatens our democracy by continually pouring out a stream of leftist propaganda that effective stifals and distorts public debate.
Please pray for our country because it is coming perilously close to a complete break down of it democratic institutions.
CBC in Canada used to receive $ 1.1 billion it has been cutback somewhat. But sadly like the center right in Oz I fear Canada will (it looks like) suffer the same fate . The left is pushing hard in all the major cities where as usual the votes and the socialist thrive. I must also note that Soros supported groups are receiving $Millions to aid the left wing NDP and Trudeau jr leads the Liberals Our current PM Harper is under a lot of pressure anything that happens is blamed on him, from firestorms to floods it’s his fault. And the MSM does not do him any favors. We will know in a few weeks ( I shudder to think what might happen).
I forgot to add that the CBC decimated the only thing that they were great at and that was their sports. They did a fantastic job with the Olympics for decades so good that American networks bought their coverage. and also Ice hockey of course.(FI, they sold the theme song for “Hockey Night in Canada” for pennies when it was valued in the millions, just one example, there are many)
In Canada the Liberals were extremely successful in stuffing the CBC with Liberals and Quebecers, so much so that 10 years later they still twist the news to support them. the state broadcaster has an unlimited budget to slander any non liberal politician and uses it frequently, it still surprises me how much people believe the drivel
spot on..happen to hear big ideas? I think it was at 8pm last night btw?
ALL prowarmist team ALL bullshit statements with the constant reinforcment of NO dissent science is settled as per nauseating usual for aunty abc greentard scumbags.
Nice summary Angry Exile. I actually enjoy it when the major parties have to deal with independents and minor parties to get policies passed. Talk is easy but at least Turnbull said he is looking for a more inclusive and consultative approach both with his colleagues and the electorate.
MJD,
Angry’s summary is that from the viewpoint of the 30 % that are rusted-on leftists voters. I can show you that virtually every point he makes is just a paraphrase of the leftist media talking point here in Australia. It is not the opinion of the vast bulk of the people who actually voted for the Liberal National Government in 2013.
The rough equivalent is you thanking a Sanders supporter in the United States for his/her summary of Donald Trump.
Malcolm Turnbull is totally opposed to most the policies that backed by the party base and the last words you would use to describe his political style is inclusive and consultative. Despite leading a party that overwhelmingly doubted the alarmist global warming scare, he tried to shove a CO2 emissions trading scheme upon the country, knowing full well that as a merchant banker he would profit handsomely from the deal.
Its almost certain now that one of the major parties (i.e. The Liberal party) will be spit down the middle as its vote base starts to desert the party in droves.
Seems I’m leaning slightly more to the left with age. Both Jack and William (below) point out some of Abbott’s good and bad points. I’ve always found him poor on TV and the radio; not a whimper with Gillard’s misogynist speech; and if he hadn’t got rid of the carbon tax he would (for me) have been a total flop after that first horrendous budget. Perhaps getting rid of Hockey or Credlin would have bought him more time. The second budget certainly suggested that someone was listening to the electorate.
Abbot was and still is a volunteer firefighter, lifesaver at the beach and spends 2 weeks a year in Aborigine camps assisting them. He was and is more in touch with voters than the perfumed courtiers of Labor, greens and journalists.
An example, Abbot went to a pub in his electorate. A rugby team was having a few drinks. They asked Abbot if he would have just one with them, so he did.
The press here went into meltdown, Abbot encouraging drunken behaviour.
Opposition leader, Shorten, was in a different pub, obviously drunk and offering free drinks. The press here said what a good man he was. Shorten had just come from a Royal Commission into Trade Unions, where he was told to answer directly the questions because he was leaving himself open to interpretation that were not good. On the steps, of the Royal Commission outside, he smeared the Royal Commissioner.
If that was Abbot, he would have been pilloried and swamped with left tosh to resign as unfit to govern. Because it was Shorten, it was quietly ignored.
As for calling Abbot a meathead, he had dual honours in law and economics, was a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford, a dual Blue for boxing and rugby and a strong Christian. So that claim is false.
Jack, your observations are correct; but there is broader context which is important.
The sub text here is that Tony Abbott allowed all of this to happen. Anyone with even a minuscule smidgen of political nous would have taken each of these instances and used it to attack his critics. Abbott is totally clueless in the art of politics.
A classic case in point is the infamous misogyny speech by Julia Gillard. In this she smeared Abbott in parliament and made numerous personal attacks on him.
My expectation was that Abbott would respond by ripping into her like a pit bull on steroids. Instead, he sat there with a silly grin on his face, and looked like a naughty schoolboy being disciplined by his teacher.
It was pathetic and painful to watch. In addition, that speech has been a political winner for his opponent, and has been a running sore in his government ever since. Had he had any political nous, he could have turned this speech onto her, and made very significant political mileage out of it. Instead? Another political blunder.
Regarding his academic and other “achievements” which you note: it is difficult to reconcile these with the demonstrable stupidity of his numerous blunders in office.
While it does seem to be true that he is a decent human being, and a very nice guy; it is demonstrably true that he is not a shining intellect. It also brings into question the value of those “achievements”.
Democracy and the green bankers’ octopus.
Clearly an uncooperative Australia was unacceptable for the forthcoming Paris talks.
The GW gravy train was too much to resist………..the entire world is a mess now…
True, both Turnbull and his backstabbing deputy both believe in CAGW despite evidence to calm down.
So this is going to somehow remedy the global commodity price decline and China growth deceleration?Wrong.
turncoats son…has some “interesting” ties to finance etc IN CHINA
see ZeroHedge webpage yesterday as it was going down for Aus.
Oh, what a sad, sad blow to you all in Australia + in other areas/countries where science and common sense are struggling for their proper and just respect ‘as-is/as-should-be’ !
Hopefully, there will very soon come to a reverse of this and Abbot back in the seat again.
It seems to me, as if you’re hit by the same/insane/deadly virus as we are here in Sweden (and EU for that matter…)
Brgds from Sweden
/TJ
Above in a reply to Luke I think I made a salient point that I think worth repeating.
The need to feel morally superior is NOT what motivates the hotheads. What motivates them is the need to feel that others are morally inferior.
What is the difference? When you believe in the morally inferiority of another group then you can step on them like cockroaches or poison them like rats. Keep their papers from being published. Get them fired from their jobs.
It is the sheer pleasure of doing such evil that motivates most hotheads. (I really fixed that bastard! Haha!)
To think that these people have a need to feel morally superior is wrong and leads to a total misunderstanding of what motivates their behaviors. IT IS THE NEED TO FEEL THAT OTHERS ARE MORALLY INFERIOR THAT MOTIVATES THEM.– so that whatever vicious thing they do to get their rocks off is justified.
Moral superiority is a burden. Feeling that others are morally inferior deserve to be stepped sets the evil inside you free.
Eugene WR Gallun
damn == and deserve to be stepped on
EWRG
That’s how slavery works and what has motivates the muslims and dems.
Now, just include christians and jews and gun owners and small business owners and on and on…
“What is the difference? When you believe in the morally inferiority of another group then you can step on them like cockroaches or poison them like rats. Keep their papers from being published. Get them fired from their jobs.”
yep!
Intuitively, I’m not sure this squares with basic psychology. I also suspect you’d have some difficulties operationalizing this difference. (Or do you have any references?)
Even more context. Tony Abbott has been a pillar of strength and sanity in the fight against the climate change fanatics and charlatans (including the so called lukewarmers). He has drawn lines in the sand on international agreements, argued against wind farms, downgraded arrogant little climate change authorities, prevented the carbon tax, and ratcheted down renewables as much as electorally possible. The hysteria has perceptibly abated, except of course amongst the far green left who make up the national broadcaster and various academic talking heads. For this he is deeply and irrationally hated and vilified by the cultists and rent seekers of the left.
He kept some significant election promises, including stopping the boats of so called asylum seekers, thus preventing thousands of deaths at sea. He just announced a target of an additional 12000 Syrian refugees, a generous target for a nation as small as Australia. He also promised a plebiscite on gay marriage, which I guess is only a stopper on SSM if it is actually a lot less popular than the media elites make out. The “endless gaffes” are mostly trivialities or total beat ups by the media. The Budget issues are caused by the fact that all the big budget repair bills have been blocked by the Opposition in the Senate. Additionally, the left media keeps the electorate in the dark on the increasingly poor economic position of the country.
Malcolm Turnbull is a well known warmist and it is unlikely that his big money cronies will permit the climate gravy train to slow down any further.
Polls were lowish for the govt but Australians were enraged by the knifing of Kevin Rudd and are not likely to take this next coup in their stride. The only section of the electorate that has ever liked Malcolm is the section who will not vote for him; the green left and rusted on Labor voters. Turnbull’s own Party grassroots hates and distrusts him and always has.
I have really enjoyed this period of relatively stable and grown up govt, now at an end. It is going to get brutal again.
Incidentally, IMO AngryExile is obviously a lefty concern troll. A sceptic no voting lukewarmer, yeah if you say so mate.
Howard was further down in the polls in this part of his first term, he brought it back and introduced tough tax reform at the same time.
Rudd’s polls were about the same but he would have pulled it back and squeaked over, given the majority he had.
Abbott would have had a tough fight on his hand, but if allowed to stay would have won, maybe got a more sensible senate (particularly if he used a double-dissolution) and could have built on his second term with a lot more authority.
I don’t know which way it will go from here. All options looks bad, and my local member was one of the plotters and will not receive my vote. In fact there will be a message for his scrutineers to see on the paper.
Just in time for Paris.
Oh the power and corruption.
Watch out for the machinations in Paris soon.
From WUWT thread Japan building coal plants…from pat
September 14, 2015 at 12:41 am
Monckton’s comments…
“David King was asked whether all the nations of the world were now, in principle, ready to sign their people’s rights away in such a treaty. Yes, but there are two standouts. One is Canada. But don’t worry about Canada. They’ve got an election in the Spring of 2015 and we and the UN will make sure the present government is removed. He was quite blunt about it.
“The other hold out is Australia. And Australia we can’t do anything about because Tony Abbott is in office until after the December 2015 conference. So that means you all have to guard Tony Abbott’s back. Because the Turnbull faction, in conjunction with the UN, will be doing their absolute level best to remove your elected Prime Minister from office before the end of his term and , in particular, before the end of 2015, so that they can get 100% wall-to-wall Marxist agreement. They do not want any stand-outs. And the most likely stand-out at the moment is Australia. So look after him.”
Tony Abbott has been attacked mercilessly by the MSM for defending coal as being “good for humanity”,
And the next to fall will be Canada leading up to Cop 21? Follow the money around the world.
This is also another demonstration of why the U.S. “founding fathers” did not adopt the parliamentary system of government. They were” fed up” with the parliamentary system.
In the U.S., the president is only the CEO of the executive branch of the government. But lately the Congress has “forgotten” what their actual role is in the affairs of the United States. There is good reason why the U.S. House of Representatives is elected every two years.
Obama would be gone by now with snap elections and internal subsitutional democracy such as this.
Not as long as he controls the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Chief Justice.
The GOP controls both houses of congress, not that that has done much good, given the attitudes of Speaker Boehner and Leader McConnell and whatever dirt Obama has on Chief Justice Roberts.
Well, too bad for rational policies in Australia. I was hopeful they would devote those otherwise wasted “green” resources to the benefit of the Australian people.
Meanwhile, over at the NY Times Op-ED page, a wanna-be Climate Goebbels named Timothy Snyder, argues that “science deniers” practice a philosophy akin to that which Hitler and the Nazis used to effect the Holocaust. Outrageous, dangerous, mendacious, inane – these words come immediately to mind.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/opinion/sunday/the-next-genocide.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Thanks Mr. Worrall for posting regularly here at WUWT.
With professors like this at Ivy League Universities, why bother to send your children to these universities? May as well send them to your local Street-Car universities. They might even get a better education at local universities.
Oh, I get it. It’s the southern version of Italian politics.
With a skeptic president in 2017 to go with our already skeptical congress, the US might be able to save the world from those who want to save the world.
The leading GOP candidates, who beat Clinton or Sanders in most polls, are all skeptical, except ex-governor Bush (although he says scientists aren’t sure, IMO he agrees with his brother) and governor Kasich (but last month he flip-flopped to the skeptical position as a campaign ploy). Outsiders Trump, Carson and Fiorina, senators Cruz, Rubio, and Paul (although on Bill Maher’s show he waffled), governor Walker and ex-governor Huckabee are all skeptical to one degree or another. Among also-rans, Jindal and Santorum are skeptical, but Graham, Pataki, Christie and Gilmore less so to not at all. Former governor Perry, who dropped out, is a skeptic.
Or not. Such elections are huge money farming events, the larger cousin of the tax credit renewal auction process among industries and special interests.
This is a poor day for democracy given that Mr Abbott had been duly elected.
Today, personality in politics is important. Unless a leader (PM) has died, a change of leadership should automatically trigger an election to see whether the people support the new defacto PM
Abbott was NOT elected as PM by the voting public. He was voted as an MP in his electorate. No-one votes for a PM other than party members.
We didn’t vote for Abbot, we voted against Labor! In our stupid two party system that means Liberal won by default. The liberal party then continued the neoliberal tradition of both sides, selling us out to corporate and overseas interests in exchange for pumping up our ridiculous housing bubble and giving us debt slavery.
Hopefully this whole saga brings us one step closer to direct democracy.
Spoken like a true communist.
Australians are “subjects” not “citizens.”
It pay to remember this.
Unless we fight this, America be become the same way. It’s headed that direction right now.
Whatever might be the case in practice, legally Australians and most other “subjects” of the British crown became “citizens” in 1983, under the British Nationality Act of 1981.
Only to be replaced by UN and Brussels oversight
Canada is about to do the same thing :-/
PC minority with NDP opposition. Balanced budget, lower taxes for small business, reduction in TFSA limits. Not a bad scenario.
Wow, the IPCC said they were going to get rid of Tony Abbott and Stephen Harper. It looks like they may get rid of Stephen Harper in Canada. I may have to leave Canada for good then. I didn’t think they had a chance to get rid of Tony. Poof…and he is gone. What power they have!
Yes, and most people don’t realize that this power is even there!
For example, connections from Europe can be followed right into Canada.
IMF, UNEP, European Climate Foundation and then there are the U.S. connections to individuals and organizations.
Sadly, it looks as though we are left with the Shooters and Fishers Party, to find some sanity:
“The Shooters and Fishers Party believes the Carbon Tax is a political construct built on the
false premise that Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a real phenomenon”
You may now return to your soap opera leadership style.
Labour… can’t be trusted.
Part of the problem for the Liberal/ National party coalition was that it was doomed to lose at the next polls.
I note that Patrick has been pointing this out on these pages for some time.
In Australia most voters make up their minds a year before the polls are taken.
The campaigns are aimed at the marginals and the ‘swingers’.
This was one of the Turnbull points, the Government under Tony Abbot was consistently being beaten by a lacklustre leader of the opposition.
It was beaten in 30 consecutive Newspolls.
Just like Prime Minister Gillard rose to a position beyond her skill set, the Australian Treasurer, loyal to the competent Abbott, was not up to the debate.
Its a pity Hockey, our last treasurer, did not go at the last challenge and put in Scott Morrison.
Remember, Morrison was the one that actually ‘turned back the boats’.
The carbon policy is locked in now, as far as I know and there are bipartisan targets for ‘carbon emissions’.
Were the ALP to be elected, we would have no nuclear power stations,more windmills and solar, more subsidies and more Climate Commissions run by celebrity academics with no qualifications in the area.
The left of the ALP would also attempt to close down the coal industry.
Plenty of first term government have come back from their position. The last poll taken before the knifing was 52/48 with a +/- 3% error rate. In a well run election campaign that is an easy victory, especially against a lifeless opposition leader with big questions over campaign funding hanging over his head. The party could have done much better if half the front bench performed instead of white-anting and failing to support the leader.
Choosing leaders based on newspaper opinion polls is worse than choosing CEOs based on quarterly results. All you will get is short-term populism which is the way to the doghouse for a country.
Seems wrong that voters can elect a Prime Minister (through a party) and two years later the back stabbers can throw him/her out and stay in power pursuing their own mandate.
This is pretty normal in most systems based on the ‘mother of all parliaments’. Individuals elect a representative. The majorty party leader becomes the Prime Minister (or premier as we call it for each state gov). The leader can be changed at any time by that party.
In the Westminster political system, no-one votes for a PM other than the party. Abbott is an MP in his own electorate. Typically, leaders of parties become PM.
From here you can see massive shut downs of high wage industries. A lot of them were already in a precarious situation. Now the decision is more clear.
The car industry chose to shutdown under the ALP pantomime.
after….the labor/unions gave them mega millions
Yes. Toyota were given a grant of AU$72m by KRudd747, the man with hair to fly, to develop an Australian designed/made hybrid. I don’t see it in the shops.
14 Sept: WaPo: Ishaan Tharoor: Tony Abbott is out of a job, and another leading climate-change skeptic may soon follow
…Harper is now under threat, too. Canada will hold parliamentary elections in October…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/14/tony-abbott-is-out-of-a-job-and-another-leading-climate-change-skeptic-may-soon-follow/
A U.S. style political PAC has been set up in Canada known as GreenPAC which supports green candidates of all parties and purports to match donors with like-minded candidates for the upcoming October federal election.
Don’t know if foreign donors are included in these arrangements.
http://www.greenpac.ca
The current problem with Australian politics will sort itself out soon enough. We are rapidly running out of other people’s money.
But unfortunately, Australia will have to become the Greece of the Pacific before commonsense economics and hard work to add value become once again the drivers of public opinion.
Whatever Tony Abbott’s personal views on Climate Change, publicly and policy wise he has stayed in the warmer’s camp. He may have opposed a direct tax on Carbon, but he still set ambitious and destructive targets and raised the tax on petrol (gas) and diesel whilst he was in office.
Outside of Climate policies, his rhetoric was always divisive and fear driven. His first budget was more brutal than anything proposed by the most hard line Republicans in America, made worse by the fact that every cut he tried to make he had specifically promised not to cut during his election campaign. I am glad he’s gone.
The search for a politician brave enough to stand up to the Climate Change scam goes on.
While there are a number of reasons, the driving force was that Turnbull wanted to be Prime Minister. His ego over rides everything else. If he waited until after the next election (assuming a conservative defeat) he would simply be too old to win at the election afterwards.
It was simply “Roll Abbott or never have the top job”. His ego drove him to do it.
I meant the UN, not IPCC. Just in the nick of time for the UN as they are out of money.
There is a problem in Australian politics when the media can undermine governments including manufacturing statistics behind polls and then use these to oust elected leaders. It seems to be a media driven coup.
The Australian media seems to have gotten out of control, although I’m not sure how or why this is the case.
Because they haven’t been defunded, just like the CBC in Canada. I’d sell them off to the highest bidder in a New York Minute if given the chance.
The media is the enemy of the people, keep that in mind.
Because they have been infiltrated by the left for many years; because Malcolm Turnbull has been the Minister in charge of Public Broadcasting for the past two years and done nothing and because all governments are scared to actually do anything like selling it off in chunks as should be done.
every second story on CBC these days is about the gay bacon lettuce and tomato crowd and the Social Justice warriors
Absolute disaster for Australia. Turncoat is a mad climate action supporter and he and his mate will install an ETS. Sad sad day for Australia.
An ETS could not be legislated before the election next year, we will have a say, and I suggest we make it count. As you walk into the booth tell the Lib scrutineers that you won’t vote for Turnbull and pick a conservative alternative to vote for…. don’t know who that is, well ask them, after the ballot paper is decided the AEC publishes their details. E-mail them and ask them their views on climate and economics, small govt and individual liberty. Vote for the candidate that gives the best answer.
Like Britain, none are democracies they are in fact more akin to backward dictartorship[s were 20 votes can decide what 12 million changed. The US is far more advanced politically and mentally. In fact most South American countries are way ahead these days as well LOL
The poms have gone 300 years and Australia over 100 years without a Civil War. How did the American Republic do? Similarly the number of nations wanting to copy the US system are quite rare, unlike those trying to enter the British led Commonwealth. 😉
Australia and Britain have never had any kind of social revolution that wasn’t forced onto the subjects by the rulers, often against the wishes of the people. We never get to vote for the rules we have to live by for the duration of our lives, being only permitted to vote for a ruler from a menu of candidates preselected by The Parties.
In contrast, anyone in the United States can write a ballot initiative and try to get the signatures required to put it on the ballot. They don’t have to beg and plead and petition their so-called “representatives” to actually represent them. Sometimes they get to vote for the rules instead of rulers.
Australians can’t even fathom that idea.
The poms started a couple thousand years before the US, so I am not sure that comparison is valid. Britain just barely survived Scotland leaving, and had to offer devolution of power and lots of investment dollars to head that off. You had the Troubles for 30+ years. As far as nations copying the British system vs the US, a lot of that is the result of colonization, which Britain did and the US much less so. I’m not sure that is something to be bragging about….. 😉
The American colonists had about 150 years, 1620-1776, of dealing the British parliamentary system and did not adopt this system.
The U.S. presidential ticket has to get ballot status in each state to run in that state. No Coups allowed so that the will of the people won’t be thwarted by a few.
Tony Abbott is an honourable man who was hated by the left because he actually achieved a great deal and because he was modest and refused to pander to them
His final speech brought me to tears – http://catallaxyfiles.com/2015/09/15/tony-abbotts-farewell-speech/
We have lost a great deal to satisfy Malcolm Turnbull’s egotistism and grandiosity.
Hated by the left? He was dumped by his own party!
Our new PM Malcolm Turnbull is very much a supporter of AGW, Carbon Tax, ETS, gay marriage and will encourage more refugee boats to land in Australia. Sadly we no longer have a sensible Conservative party but yet another socialist party. This is why there will be droves of Conservative Liberal supporters looking for an alternative party to vote for in the next election.
Australia’s New Prime Minister To Stick To Government’s Climate Policy
Malcolm Turnbull last night said he would stick with existing Coalition policy on key issues such as climate change — and he expected the parliament to run its full term.
Mr Turnbull moved to head off concerns that he would take the party to the Left on social and environmental issues if he won the leadership pledging to be consultative and restore traditional cabinet government.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/abbott-v-turnbull-malcolm-promises-new-style/story-fn59niix-1227527251934?nk=f92e372d6ca7358c2b8e295fd263b931-1442299739
I knew Turncoat would challenge Abbott for the top jobs, and suggested that he would some time ago. But I would, like Gillard, would not trust a word he says regarding climate changed an ETS.
yeah…and he promised….to be a loyal party member TO the Elected leader as well.
I have voted for the LNP coalition for 40 years and won’t be voting for them again while Turnbill is PM. Turnbill is a manchurian candidate. Go the following site for some background.
http://stopturnbull.com/
When you have this amount of turnover at a top leadership position it means you have no leadership at a top leadership position.
Hey guys – when I paused blocking to look at your joke video, I got 99 different cookies, trackers, pingers, poppers, widgets and god knows what.
Blocking back on. That’s ridiculous.
There is probably a little bit more background information Tony Abbot was known in the Howard Government as a good performer and something of a head kicker in getting tasks done, he had great debating skills and his takedowns of the poorly performing Labor Government leaders, Gillard and Rudd were devastating and that is what got the Liberals back into Government with a huge majority.
What wasn’t understood was the resentment that had grown out of his exposure of Gillard and the sisterhood that was praising her as the first female Prime minister, and when GIllard pulled a huffy stunt and accused him of being a misogynist the labour sisterhood and American counterparts whipped up a convenient media storm.
Another thing to consider there is a rather tight knit group calling itself Getup that is closely modelled on Fenton Communications, GetUp who have their own agenda including a stake in promoting the Global warming myth,were busily organising in the background, collecting signatures and email addresses of good hearted Australians concerned about treatment of animals, environmental issues, or any other concern the media might drum up an issue about.
This gave Getup a lot of social power to quickly enlist people to back “ground swell campaigns” and claim they had members and influence, enough to bankrupt businessmen that they raised environmental or exploitation concerns about. Unions directed funds to them to exploit wage concerns and social issues and make no mistake about it as the Union Superannuation or “Industry Funds” run “only for the benefit of members” had huge war chests of money to indirectly fund the Labor Party and to fund “environmental” campaigns that could be tied into ways to bring down governments, discredit individuals and parties.
While Tony Abbot won the lower house convincingly, in the Senate Upper house there was some dirty work in which a parcel of votes went missing in Western Australia, that meant further elections and delay in results for the Senate and instead of winning an outright majority in both houses, the traditional caution and fears about unbridled power kicked in, not to mention a numbers game of preference swapping that elected a record number of independents. Clive Palmer said to be a rich mining promoter, ios said to have spent millions to cobble together an Alliance of independents, he had a few scores to settle with the Abbot party machine that failed to sell their souls and back his Queensland projects.
Palmer and Turnbull met at mysterious lunches where some say they plotted the destabilization of Tony Abbot, and later Palmer was involved in the strange alliance with Al Gore in his visit to Australia – Global warming Guru Big Al and would be coal baron Palmer who had suddenly become a Global warming enthusiast, a big man trying to shed his leopard spots ?
With a hostile ABC promoting every supposed misstep and not being able to get economic reforms through the Senate because of the blocking of the necessary legislation the Abbot government had an uphill battle, a lingering resentment in the Gillard sisterhood and a constant stream of targeted anti Abbot claims, he could do nothing right, and in that weakened state could not risk pulling the trigger for a Double Dissolution of Parliaments that should in normal circumstances have wiped out most of the blockers, as that is the way voting trends go in Australia, but the anti Abbot crowd made sure he didn’t get to celebrate anything with the media emphasis with his mean austerity budget,
He was however on track to reap the approval of many of his initial detractors and many of the things that Turnbull will now claim as resounding successes were the result of Tony Abbots honestly and zeal to stop the boats, fix the Labor debt ridden basket case economy and restore wages and industry to a competitive level where we could build exports, open up trade, reduce tariffs and the economic rewards would flow.
The well organized and well funded anti Abbot social media campaigners built such a wall of personal hate it started to show in media polls that were finally used as an excuse to bring on his demise. Many of the vocal critics were women and it seemed that women universally hated him, whereas, if you look at the social media it is mainly women that are now coming out and condemning the treachery of Turnbull, I can tell you that fair minded and yes conservative Australian voters are declaring they will not vote for the plotters or Malcolm at the next election – had Tony Abbot delayed the leadership vote two or three days, the plotters would have deserted Malcolm in droves.
That is not the whole story, Tony made errors, but not unrecoverable without those additional factors. Given the time in the lead up to the next election he was on track with results however I’ll leave that to others.to comment. I think we will be sold out by Turncoat and the plotters, sadly.
Thanks KenB for the most interesting info !
Brgds/TJ
Malcolm Turnbull has wisely confirmed that he will be taking Abbott’s climate change plans to the Paris Climate Conference, and will not introduce any ETS or carbon tax.
In the Australian Parliament, yesterday, Turnbull also informed the Greens leader that there are many ways to achieve a CO2 emissions reduction, and that it is the outcome that matters not the Green’s ideology that an ETS or a carbon tax are the only ways to achieve the desired outcome.
Having suffered the awful TV politics of this country for almost 40 years now, I can only say that I found Abbott a repulsive idiot, and likewise his two predecessors, Gillard and Rudd. Well, perhaps not quite as repulsive as Gillard, with that dreadful voice like an emptying drain, and perhaps not as mealy-mouthed and creepy as Rudd, but pretty awful nonetheless. Good riddance to the three of them!
As to how much better or worse Turnbull may be, that remains to be seen. Politicians rarely fail to disappoint. But at least he has had some previous experience in the real world, firstly as a journalist, then as a barrister, then as an ‘investment banker’ and finally as a successful entrepreneur (having founded an early and successful IT business in the 1990s). Those investment bankers do sometimes leave me wondering whether they would actually kill their mothers to get the last dollar on the table, but still he’s not a complete fool, so he may actually be able to do a half-decent job of it, the side-issue of climate change politics being of trifling importance compared to any ability to run a government creatively and effectively.
I personally would have preferred to have the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop replace Tony Abbott. She might have shown the world what a real female Australian Prime Minister looked like. A former law partner, she is as sharp as a knife, has vicious tongue, and is completely and utterly committed to her role as a politician and a government minister. Entertainingly devastating to anybody who crosses her in a TV panel discussion, as Foreign Minister she was admirable as in her words to Vladimir Putin following the killing of innocent airline passengers over Ukraine.
And politics is after all supposed to be entertaining. Not the miserable, mediocre, televised drear that we have suffered here for the past eight years. So now let’s see what Turnbull has got for us. Surely he couldn’t be worse than the previous three acts?
* * *
On a side note re carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, has anybody read the recent book “Life’s Engines” by the American Paul G. Falkowski?
One of the more interesting things we geologists live with here in Australia is the blatant change in atmospheric composition from one dominated by methane and carbon dioxide to one (rather unusually) dominated by nitrogen and oxygen, during the Proterozoic period. You can hardly miss it, because it oxidised all the previously dissolved ferrous iron in the oceans and then precipitated it out as thick beds of lucratively high grade iron ore, which we happily ship off to China and Japan, so that they can turn it into cars and power tools and sell it back to us.
Falkowski makes the point that whilst the catalyst for the oxygenation of the atmosphere was the evolution of photosynthetic life, the actual mechanism whereby oxygen came to dominate as one of the two major atmospheric gases was the consequent removal and burial of carbon. Atmospheric carbon (CO2) was fixed by photosynthetic microbial marine lif,e to form cellulose and other organic substances, and as these then died, it was precipitated out to form ocean floor carbonaceous sediment (black shales) or calcareous sediments (calcium carbonate limestones), and then be buried in vast quantities beneath the ocean floors.
Thus over many millennia much of the ‘C’ from atmospheric CO2 was fixed, sedimented out and permanently removed from the system by burial, eventually therefore (after the oxidation of dissolved iron and other reduced compounds in the oceans) leaving a surfeit of oxygen behind, to form the oxygen-rich atmosphere that we now enjoy and breath.
This casts a whole new light on the wisdom or otherwise of digging up much of this buried carbon’ and re-combining it with oxygen by burning, to reverse the process and convert oxygen in the atmosphere back to CO2. As a geologist, a miner and a shareholder in coal mining, oil and gas companies, I am all for digging up fossil fuels and burning them to keep us warm and make us rich. And I really don’t mind if the world gets a little warmer and wetter, greener and more tropically lush. But I must admit I do like breathing oxygen, so I wouldn’t want to take things too far down that particular track. It bears thinking about.
(And if anyone should pick up Falkowski’s book and thoroughly enjoy it, as I did, I can totally recommend as an even better, deeper and more revelatory read on the same subject matter: “The Vital Question” by the British evolutionary biologist Nick Lane. Lane leads you effortlessly to the cutting edge of biological science )