Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has become embroiled in a media storm after commenting that "sometimes shit happens" when discussing the events surrounding the death of a digger in Afghanistan last year.

Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney was shot dead in a major contact with Taliban insurgents in August.

The Seven Network on Tuesday broadcast footage of Mr Abbott in October discussing the incident with US commander James Creighton.

Mr Abbott, in Tarin Kowt, is seen saying: "It’s pretty obvious that, well, sometimes shit happens, doesn’t it.’’

The Liberal leader defended his comments on Tuesday. "Look you’ve taken this out of context," he told the Seven Network. "You weren’t there. I would never seek to make light of the death of an Australian soldier."

Mr Abbott then went on to accuse the TV station of "trying to turn this into a subsequent media circus."

When asked how that was occurring, and why his comments had been taken out of context, the opposition leader refused to answer for almost 30 seconds.

After being prompted further, Mr Abbott said: "I’ve given you the response you deserve."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/abbott-strife-over-diggers-death-comment-20110208-1alhr.html

TONY Abbott is fighting a report he dismissed the death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan with the words, "s--- happens".

The Opposition Leader was confronted by Channel 7 news with a video of him using the words while discussing circumstances around the August death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney.

At one point Mr Abbott froze and simply stared at reporter Mark Riley for several seconds, refusing to respond to his questions.

He had just been shown a Defence video which had been obtained through a Freedom of Information application.

It was shot during Mr Abbott's visit to troops in Afghanistan last October. During the visit he discussed claims the soldiers didn't have enough firepower with US Col Jim Creighton, commander of allied forces in Oruzgan province where the Australians are based.

Tony Abbott could use a few things at the moment.

An extra vote in the House of Representatives, for one thing.

A front bench team less riven by bizarre individualist paranoias and Byzantine manoeuvrings, for another.

But mainly, he could use a jog.

The story of Tony Abbott and physical exercise is a long and exhausting one.

He is not the sort of politician who puffs up Canberra's Mount Ainslie simply to defer the effects of cumulative formal dinners, or in order to appear more thrusting.

He is not John Howard, whose tracksuited daily excursions were a cornerstone to his image of dependability, while additionally supplying a modest dose of aerobic exercise.

Tony Abbott is a proper endorphin addict.

His punishing workouts - a pre-dawn bike ride the length of an average Western Sydney commute, an ocean swim, a pounding run - happen twice daily, if he can manage it.

And when he returns, colleagues say, he is fresher, sharper, and far more relaxed.

It's no coincidence that the one day of the federal election campaign that was an unmitigated disaster for Mr Abbott - the Work Choices day early in the campaign - was the one day on which staff did not manage to get him out the door for his morning pounding.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/10/3135496.htm

Gus: kryptonite works in mysterious ways...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Prime Minister's new health proposal represents a humiliating backdown for the Government.

Julia Gillard has abandoned the Commonwealth's plan to become the dominant funder of health services and is instead asking the states and territories to equally share the future growth in hospital costs.

She has also scrapped plans to claw back 30 per cent of GST revenue to pay for future health needs.

The new deal, which kills off another signature Kevin Rudd policy, is also conditional on the states agreeing to more transparency and local control of hospitals.

Ms Gillard says under the new offer to the states, the Commonwealth will invest an extra $16 billion over the next decade.

But Mr Abbott says it is an enormous backdown that will not bring any significant improvements for patients.

"This is an historic capitulation on what the Government was proposing. This is the biggest surrender since Singapore," he said.

"Compared to what Kevin Rudd was promising, this is an absolute, complete and utter wipeout."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/11/3136587.htm

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The biggest surrender since Singapore???? What a remarkable idiot!!!... And while OUR (their) ABC concentrate on the little shit response, the SMH reasonably explain "why" the new deal and how most of the people involved in the health industry see her new-look policy as a much better one. Not to mention THAT the LITTLE CHIEF HYPOCRITE'S MATES in Western Australia and Victoria were totally opposed to the Kevin Rudd deal... All Julia does is move a better health policy forward, but Tony-the-Oppose is only interested in opposing and wind-milling about nothing...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has proposed a 50-50 public hospitals funding arrangement with the states and territories, which she says will benefit patients.

Ms Gillard has been forced to come up with a new health deal, ahead of a meeting with state and territory leaders in Canberra on Sunday, after coalition governments in Western Australia and Victoria rejected an agreement reached with Kevin Rudd in 2010.

Under the Rudd deal, in exchange for roughly 30 per cent of the GST payments, the commonwealth was to become the primary funder of hospitals, taking 60 per cent responsibility.

Ms Gillard said that under the new offer the federal government would stump up half of the costs of growth in public hospitals.

The figure amounted to $16.4 billion to the end of the decade - about the same amount as the deal reached in 2010, the prime minister said.

But no figure has been put on the federal contribution to building hospitals - a departure from the 60 per cent funding pledge by Mr Rudd.

States and territories would be asked to put their matching funding in a single national pool.

"You will be able to see very clearly money in, money out, from the federal government and state and territory governments," Ms Gillard said.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-offers-5050-hospital-deal-20110211-1apfn.html

As one can see on the ABC website, the ABC is more interested in what the little shithead has to say, rather than what the PM has done with the Health policy. The ABC is shameful, dishonest and totally biased.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/11/3136587.htm

Gus: it takes us to the second part (only shown here — the first part being hyped opposing by the opposition without any understanding of the deal) to get a really fix on this story....

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The Opposition, though, claims it is a case of all Labor hype and no delivery.

"The Government has a plan on the table at the moment which is being critiqued by particularly a lot of doctors who believe this is a dud deal for patients," Mr Dutton said.

"Now whilst there was a lot hype around Kevin Rudd and his COAG so-called historic reforms 12 months ago, the same hype exists at the moment.

"But I assure you the wheels are going to fall off this incompetent plan as proposed by Julia Gillard."

But the Australian Medical Association (AMA) regards the agreement as "a genuine national commitment to health reform".

AMA president Dr Andrew Pesce says if delivered, it is a recipe for a better health system.

"It's the financing agreement which is necessary before the states were going to proceed with any other elements of health reform," Dr Pesce said.

"So I guess what Mr Dutton is saying is correct in that this doesn't actually deliver any real health reform per se, but it's a necessary starting point for the states to start delivering on the other reforms they've agreed to in the deal.

"That is reforms of the hospital system, devolution of decision making to local hospital networks, engagement of doctors and nurses in the management decisions of those hospitals.

"Health reform doesn't happen overnight, and it has to start somewhere. The main impediment to progress was the lack of an agreement between the states and the Commonwealth."

Having dismissed the deal, the Opposition is not planning to spell out its alternative blueprint for some time.

"We'll provide detail, further detail about our system in the run-up to the next election, exactly the same way as we did in the last election," Mr Dutton said.

The AMA says in the absence of a plan from the Opposition, Ms Gillard's deal deserves a go.

"I think the Opposition can, if it wants, come up with a proposal for a better system, and if they can then we would respond and comment on that," Dr Pesce said.

"But we can't afford there to be inertia and no movement now.

"So unless they can come up with a better deal, we are happy to proceed with this so that we can get the other health reforms going that we so desperately need."

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One of the tricks used by this Abbott-led "opposition" is that in every comment they make, from Pyne to Abbott and all the others gnomes, is to announce with gravitas that "this government is hopeless, bad, illegitimate, etc" — all of which words are reported by the news channels — which is of course TOTAL CRAP. The government report card is say 7 out of 10, while Tony Abbott survives on -1 out of 10...

I am so surprised that many journalists are taking Abbott's side in the Riley interview... I could not agree more that the story was badly heralded by Channel 7 as shown on MediaWatch... but Riley asked legitimate questions (not all shown on MediaWatch) and Abbott made a silent nodding fool of himself. End of story.

MediaWatch is trying to go round the block on this one. I know journalists who say that Riley was out of line to ask Tony about the footage, yet I know they would have asked the same thing...

Thus MediaWatch got the story of Minister Campbell out on the strength of the report by the media watch dog who said Channe Seven was okay to run a private life story (contrary to the code of ethics). On this one Channel Seven should have had its bottom smacked but it got away with it.

On the Riley/Abbott controversy MediaWatch missed the point.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has given his full support to the Government's health reform plan, which replaces the agreement he struck as prime minister less than 12 months ago.

It took eight hours of talks to get all states and territories to sign up to the new reform deal, which includes an independently run single funding pool, a separate pricing authority and a Commonwealth commitment to pay half of all new health service costs.

The in-principle agreement kills off the one negotiated by Mr Rudd in April 2010 when he was prime minister.

That deal would have made the Commonwealth the dominant funder of hospitals in exchange for the states and territories handing over one-third of their GST revenue.

The health reform deal was a key policy of Mr Rudd, but he says he supports the revamped agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/15/3138835.htm

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So there is no point for the "opposition" to announce that Rudd is opposed to the new health-deal... See toon at top...

Hi Gus,

Yes, I agree.

Another example of Abbott's deceit below .... the man makes my skin crawl.

Cheers,

John.

It's funny the things we think of as racist, or bigoted, or whatever. Eddie McGuire makes some ill considered, dumbarse crack about "falafel land" in western Sydney and we're all over him like Hitler's doppelgänger.

Tony Abbott carefully crafts his spending cuts to "pay for" the repair bill arising from Queensland's recent floods, by punishing little brown men, and we're like, "meh".

This is in spite of the fact that Abbott's carefully constructed policy bid was framed to appeal to the worst of our nature by taking money from the foreign aid budget, and specifically from funding support for "Islamist" schools in Indonesia.

It was a screeching dog whistle worthy of John Howard.

And unlike McGuire's off-the-cuff stupidity, it can be characterised as having been effected with malice aforethought. It's not just words. It's money and real world outcomes.

McGuire certainly insulted a few people, hurt their feelings, and exposed himself as a boofhead and an oaf of the first rank. There's a news flash.

Abbott, however, at least in my opinion, did something much worse. Needing to find an advantage in his ongoing struggle with Julia Gillard over how to pay for natural disasters, he proposed shifting the levers of state power in such a way as to disadvantage a particular group of people on the basis of nationality and religious belief. I think he did so because it was politically expedient. It is so much easier to sell an attack on The Other, especially when The Other is not a million miles removed in most people's imagination from The Enemy.

In doing so he confirms his lack of fitness for high office, not because he was playing politics - they all do that - but because of the damage this nasty, low brow populist appeal to the mouth-breathing One Nation demographic would do to our national interest.

Tony Abbott Has Sunk To A New Low

The government has swiftly moved to dismantle several pieces of environmental protection. It looks like natural Australian places won't be getting any Christmas presents this year.

MICHAEL KENNEDY

IN TWO ABC Environment opinion pieces this year (hereand here), I wrote about a looming environmental crisis as the Coalition Government's new policies began to bite. I'd warned about the Government's plans to devolve their national environment powers to money-hungry state and territory governments and to remove Commonwealth protection for the Murray River.

I'm afraid the news is not good; there will be no presents for the environment this Christmas.

Let's start with the Murray-Darling River ecological communities debacle, as it epitomises the chronically conservative and biologically ignorant attitudes of the Abbott Government towards environmental management.

The "River Murray and associated wetlands, floodplains and groundwater systems, from the junction of the Darling River to the sea", along with the "Wetlands and inner floodplains of the Macquarie Marshes" had been determined by the Commonwealth's Environment Minister's premier scientific advisory body to be two of the most "critically endangered" ecosystems in the entire country.

http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2013/12/17/3912555.htm

See toon at top and the article below it is spookily predicting...