BF2S Forums Australian politics thread.

I've thought the same thing. Turnbull will make the move and we would see the reverse of what happened to Labor, ie. popular vs unpopular leaders within the electorate.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Uzique The Lesser wrote:

that's the same sort of partisan mirroring and rhetorical finagling that we get over here in the UK political system. it never read made much sense to me, as a form of excuse-making. the "it's tony blair/gordon brown's fault that the tory's are being so bad" line of argumentation. always blaming it on the unanswerable previous incumbents. it betrays a weird sort of fatalism in politics.

Gillard is the current incumbent, she's answerable now, and I don't hold a candle for either side, I'd just rather both cnadidates weren't shit.

i know she's the current incumbent. the point is there's a terrible tendency in politics to shift the blame onto the last party that were in. or to justify the stupid policies of the current government as a 'necessary reaction' to the previous's mismanagement, etc. basically politicians pass the controversial hot potato.

New Zealand passed their gay marriage bill this week. This speech is well worth the watch.

Not quite sure what to make of this. Is it paid expenses to show up for research purposes or what? Spark? Ty?

Jaekus wrote:

Not quite sure what to make of this. Is it paid expenses to show up for research purposes or what? Spark? Ty?

Academically speaking Uni's pay people around 15-20 bucks an hour to participate in a research experiment.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

Jaekus wrote:

New Zealand passed their gay marriage bill this week. This speech is well worth the watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=gl8oKO7BAuU

NZ gov is pretty rowdy. Must be the hobbit leaf.

That's just how Westminster-style parliament works. It can make for entertaining watching - if that's what you're into.

I saw the third reading debate live, it was cool to watch. Williamson was the second speaker and kind of set the tone for the rest of it. Apparently he's become somewhat of a gay icon now, the New York Post reported that he was one of our few openly gay MPs - we have five, Williamson isn't among them. There were a lot of good speeches and Williamson's probably wasn't even the best but it makes good viral video material.



On this blaming Labor for Tony bollocks - see this is exactly the kind of fucked up logic that seems to hold so much sway. No matter what happens on anything, it all comes back to Labor and the Prime Minister in particular. I'm not going to deny that Labor has been shooting itself in the foot in regard to the leadership nonsense, I'm not going to deny that nationally Labor has a few problems, (such as the corruption inquiry into the former NSW Labor Government which I should note isn't limited to Labor members,) and I'm not going to deny that they probably need to have a close look at their pre-selection process. But this is only a very very small part of it and aside from that objectively this Government has been pretty damn good. And far better than anything Tony Abbott has offered thus far.

From a world perspective I doubt anyone could understand why given the success of Australia as a country why on earth they are thinking of changing the government, (cue Uzique saying something about how the world doesn't give a fuck.)

So why the Hell must Labor own so much of this blame?

Why is it Labor's fault that the Coalition has continued to back and support Abbott just because his particular brand of lies, exaggeration, and personal attacks have put them in a strong polling position?

Why is it Labor's fault the Coalition haven't replaced Abbott after repeated displays of his complete and utter ignorance even for things so basic like "Prime Minister aren't constitutionally allowed to fire MPs from Parliament" or "Governments aren't allowed to refuse an MP's vote" or "seeking asylum is actually legal".

Why is it Labor's fault that outright lies spread by the Coalition have been allowed to stand because they are failing to expose themselves to real media scrutiny, (and when they do it all falls hilariously apart.)

Why it Labor's fault when Peter Slipper gets revealed as a scuzzbag? He was a Coalition MP since the 80s and remained a Liberal as Speaker. Tony Abbott spoke in support of him far more often than Gillard did. And as I said at the time his ascension to the Speaker's chair was Labor taking advantage of a political fuck-up by the Coalition. As soon as the controversy gets brought up bam; no responsibility, no accountability, no association, Labor's fault.

Bullshit.

And why is it that the Coalition gets a free pass? How come no-one seems to care that Tony Abbott hasn't faced up to a real interview since mid last year and hasn't fronted Q&A since 2010. 2010!

And really, name me one thing that the Government has done that's so wrong that the Coalition hasn't also done? And before you try and bring out Craig Thomson, nah the Coalition has criminal charges against a sitting member covered. You probably didn't know because it didn't get much media coverage. Why is that?

So now we're opening the door to blame Labor for Tony Abbott... do you realise how utterly mental that sounds? It's so fucking mental that I can actually imagine when Tony becomes Prime Minister and fucks everything up, when the future Labor Opposition calls him to account on one of these matters he stands up and points an accusing finger saying "Well if it weren't for you I wouldn't be Prime Minister so there!"

Unbelievable.

It won't be Labor's fault if Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, it will be Australia's.

Which is funny because LNP are far more shit with Abbott as leader, not to mention their god-awful policies.

Rhodes Scholar ffs

Educated? I've come across more intellectually able people working at Coles.

clinton was a rhodes scholar.

I'm sure there are plenty of job opportunities for people with a degree in humanities.

Which is why the country is broken.