The NEXT coming Oz election thread!

I think this one is going to be too damaging even for The Prince to turn around. For mine this is a slow-burning issue and Labor has to treat it as such.

The opposition by the ACTU has been excellent - a credit to them for taking the fight right up to Howard.

Of course they and the union movement as a whole are fighting for their existence, some say, but for mine a union is never more relevant than when its members and potential members rights are under threat. In that sense I think the King of Hubris has miscalculated. His much-vaunted political skills (ie cunning as a certain variety of rat) have deserted him - hopefully permanently.

Costello must be fuming. Who has been driving this? Is it just the Little Emperor? Or is the Mad Monk behind it? Perhaps Mr Silvertail Banker? Is it about denying the Big C?

Is this a form of third party involuntary seppuku?

Have I completely bamboozled myself with obscure references?
(Yes )

I sincerely believe that "the prat" didn't quite realize what he'd taken on this time, hinge. He probably believed he could get away with just about anything, with the aid of some glossy, saturation advertising ... I mean, look at the last election result! But you talk to anyone you know ... everyone has an opinion on it & the general consensus is that it's outrageous. I wouldn't be at all surprised if JH was now quietly thinking that maybe he shouldn't have gotten so cocky over that last election result & had left the IR stuff alone. Oh, I bit of tampering, perhaps, but nothing like these 700 pages of crap that we're all now saddled with. People are not going to forgive him (& the Liberal Party) for this, just watch!

...Or, putting the most cynical interpretation on things, these IR changes are going stuff up the "mortgage belt battlers" far worse than a mere percentage rise in interest rates ever could have done! They trusted him, he kicked them in the teeth. THEY won't forget or forgive him for a long, long time!

OK, gf, I was right with you till these last bits. Now I'm bamboozled, too!

I worked it out msolga. The Big C is Costello. The seppuku remark is my way of saying that I suspect that the Big C is going to fall on his sword, not voluntarily, but pushed by the Mad Monk or the Silvertail or any other number of willing hands.

It seems to me that the Gnome Emperor has queered the pitch for The Big C who will not be PM but MAY find himself Leader of the Opposition (if the Mad Monk etc let him).

Okay that's obscure as well.

I need to get my dosage ramped up

No it isn't, gf!

I now understand perfectly!!!! And agree, what's more!

Does that mean I should ramp up my dosage, too?

Yes! I'm getting very tired of his grandstanding then caving in to the party line! His suggested changes to the IR legislation are just a bit of tinkering around the edges, really ...:

Beazley pressures 'flirting' Joyce on IR
November 23, 2005 - 2:31PM/the AGE

Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce is under renewed pressure from Labor to cross the floor and sink the controversial workplace relations reforms.

Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley today urged the Queensland senator to stop "flirting" with the media and side with Labor to use his pivotal vote to block the federal government's industrial relations ambitions.

"Barnaby Joyce should just say no ... now stop the business of sort of flirting with the media to get a bit of personal attention for yourself and start doing something for Queenslanders," Mr Beazley told reporters in Brisbane.

"If he votes with the Labor party this bill is dead, as simple as that. .. <cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/beazley-pressures-flirting-joyce-on-ir/2005/11/23/1132703234472.html

Barnaby is a tart.

btw the Soma's on me

He certainly is! And it annoys the hell out of me, the way he diverts the media attention away from the real (important) issues & onto himself! It makes me feel rather like hinge feels about the distractions of the Schappelles (sp?) & Michelles .... Boring, boring, boring & totally irrelevant.


Thanks for the Soma! It's gonna come in mihgty handy!

Bush? or some/all asia/pacific governments?

I can't see how it would affect Bush or the asia/pacific Dadpad, so I see it as ideology gone mad - no doubt the prat has some long lasting scars in relation to union power when he was in Fraser's government.

Mrs Hinge is completely down on Barnaby - had him picked from the get go, I was inclined to think he might actually cross the floor - but she was right, you are right; tart.

At the moment I cannot say I approve of the labour Party and Beazley at all - this is due to the Singapore execution of Ngyuen issue. My thinking on this is basic - Ngyuen breached another country's laws and thus must suffer that country's punishment. Never mind that Australian public may consider death by hanging "unfair" "barbaric" etc etc - this is the Singapore government's internal affairs and they have established legal jurisdiction over the accused. On what basis does Beazley or Ngyuen's lawyers have to question and fight the Singapore punishment? Nil.

Of course there's a basis for it pragmatic. They don't need jurisdiction. This is politics, not law.

Hi Pragmatic - by your line of reasoning we should shut up about Guantanamo Bay, Tianamen Square, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, the holocaust etc.

Opinions can be expressed between mature neighbours. (not that I'm suggesting either country is particularly mature)

Do you support the stoning to death of adulterous women in northern Nigeria? The cutting off of thieves' hands under strict sharia law?

It's easy to be 'pragmatic' when you aren't personally involved.

I really don't want you to feel under seige here, prag, but I have to agree with gf & hinge. I would have like Howard to have stated his opposition to the imposition of the death penalty in a much stronger manner & a lot early in the piece. I would also have liked the Australian government to have shown the same responsibility toward David Hicks as the British government showed towards its detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

... & on a lighter note: Age readers enjoyed a bit of hilarity this morning at our prime minister's expense. It was all about that rugged leather combat jacket he wore in Afghanistan. Apparently it was an identical copy of GW's combat jacket, worn on a similar pep up the troops visit! I hadn't noticed, but quite a few Age readers & Leunig did & had a bit of fun at JH's expense. Cruel, I tell you!

I agree with Prag people. The reasoning i apply is that a countries laws are a response to their own environment. Our environment and culture dictates a different response. Their response has developed from their experience in their environment and their culture. These cultures have grown up having to be barbaric to find a method of enforcing their laws. Because of the harsh environment (read desparate conditions) they live in people pay no attention to laws that are not rigidly enforced. Can anyone not agree that the message is getting out to foriegn culures that drug use/import/export will not be tolerated in indonesia or Sigapore or malaysia
I must respect the judicial process of singapore because these are their laws even if i disagree with the result. On the evidence that is available to me through the media (which i question every day) this man went to singapore with the intention of buying drugs and exporting them to Australia. Singapores stand on drugs is clear to me was it not clear to this man?

Remember too there are always shades of grey, for example cutting off a thiefs hand seems an unduly harsh puishment for someone here in OZ but in iran or some other middle eastern country where desparate times call for desparate measures by a desparate person a punishmnet such as this may stop someone only mildly desperate from committing a crime.

It should be noted that my response here is on a case by case basis. making a value judgemnt only in this particular case.

I am coming to the conclusion that the value of a life in this overpopulated world is becoming less and less valuable.
do the crime do the time

did anyone see JH's effort with the new ball in afganistan on the news tonight.

woefull tripple hop that didnt make the batsmans crease.

Sorry, dadpad, but I can't agree. I believe that putting someone to death is an inappropriate & archaic form of punishment, in any country. What Nguyen did was very wrong, I'm not excusing him at all. But to die for it? No.

Dammit, I missed that, too! I think it's all theory & wild enthusiasm from the sidelines (in both war AND cricket!) with JH!