TONY Abbott's pursuit of Craig Thomson in parliament has prevented Arts Minister Simon Crean and Liberal frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull from attending the funeral today of revered Australian painter Margaret Olley.

Mr Crean and Mr Turnbull - a personal friend of Ms Olley - had been "paired" last week to allow them to attend her state memorial service today.

But the opposition cancelled the arrangement, forcing them to attend parliament to vote on a Coalition motion to compel Mr Thomson to answer allegations of alleged credit card misuse.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had a state meeting this morning with the President of the Republic of Seychelles, James Alix Michel, was also denied a "pair".

The motion failed to win the necessary absolute majority of 76 votes after Greens MP Adam Bandt and independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor voted with the government.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-abbott-steps-up-attack-over-craig-thomson-denying-pairs-in-parliament/story-fn59niix-1226121007889

 

Tony's action is unforgiveable. He's a callous little shit.

As I have said Tony is not much chop for stopping the long established convention of pairing in parliament. BUT the entire Liberal party is in the same sociopath mold. The party should have pulled Tony back into a more decent mind set, but no, the party didn't because all of them in it are baying for blood whle pissing in their pants with excitment and got egg on their face nonetheless...

Wilkie should have sensed the horrible Liberals were actually more horrible than usual... He should have abstained if he did not want to support the government. He aligned himself with a party of dangerous fools.

The Government and Opposition traded insults after it was revealed this morning that shadow attorney-general George Brandis called NSW Police Minister Mike Gallacher about allegations against Mr Thomson before sending material about the case to police.

Mr Thomson has repeatedly denied allegations he used a union card to pay for prostitutes, admitting he authorised the payment but saying another man, who he has not named, used the card and forged his signature.

The Opposition too has repeatedly called for Mr Thomson to make a statement to Parliament on the allegations, and yesterday leader Tony Abbott tried to force Ms Gillard to address Parliament about the scandal.

In a feisty performance today, Ms Gillard said Mr Abbott should afford Mr Thomson the presumption of innocence until investigations into the matter were concluded, and was angry at the focus on her backbencher when Liberal Senator Mary Jo Fisher faced criminal charges for shoplifting.

She says Mr Abbott knew about criminal charges against Senator Fisher but did not mention them until he was asked.

"The Liberal Party sinks in its stinking hole of mud and hypocrisy; hypocrisy that is fuelled by their political interests," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-25/question-time-turns-into-thomson-brawl/2855828

The difference between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberals (conservatives) is reasonably simple. The Labor party is a quite forward working political party that tries to make sure most people have a go. The Liberals (conservatives) is a backward political party... The Libs (conservatives) are interested mostly in money and keeping the workforce as low paid slaves. They claim to provide a fair go for all, but they don't... They dream of hammering the workers and the poor into the ground. The Libs (conservatives) have values that would make 19th century bosses look like saints. Of course they are often engrained in "faith", using the bible, guns and belching trucks as motivation. With a fellow like Tonicchio as leader, the party has also turned into a nasty piece of work as well... Sure, the Labor party is not perfect and has divisions within itself about what to do about some issues, but in general, the Libs are loopy and simplistic about anything. With Tonicchio as leader, this party of liars (they went to war in Iraq without any proper "intelligence") is like a party of sociopath... The Libs (conservatives) have lost all sense of decency in order to bully their way into power. They have become a party of putrid idiots.

NEW South Wales Police Minister Mike Gallacher has launched an extraordinary attack on Julia Gillard, labelling her "pathetic" for using "dog whistle" politics to tarnish the reputation of Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione over the Craig Thomson scandal.

Mr Gallacher took aim at Ms Gillard during Upper House Question Time today, following accusations he somehow interfered in the investigation into the Thomson credit card affair.

Mr Gallacher denied any impropriety regarding telephone calls he had with Federal Opposition justice spokesman George Brandis and Mr Scipione about allegations against the Federal Labor backbencher.

Ms Gillard earlier in the day said she was "deeply concerned" that Senator Brandis had telephoned Mr Gallacher to tell him he would provide NSW Police with evidence against Mr Thomson.

The Police Minister in turn contacted the Commissioner to notify him of Mr Brandis' intentions.

"Our system of democracy, our system of government, relies on the fact that office bearers like police commissioners, independently of political processes, exercise their best judgment," Ms Gillard said.

In a scathing attack in Parliament, an angry Mr Gallacher accused the Prime Minister of inferring Mr Scipione may be susceptible to political interference.

"I'm incredibly annoyed in a way which you've hung him (Mr Scipione) out there and that pathetic Prime Minister who went on Sky TV this morning and had a go at him again," Mr Gallacher said.

"It's an absolute disgrace."

"The dog whistle, the inference is that the commissioner has allowed himself to have had political pressure applied to him with respect to the matter involving the member for Dobell (Mr Thomson)."

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said he stood by Mr Gallacher, dismissing suggestions the police minister had acted inappropriately.

"Contacting a police commissioner to say he was about to get a letter from a senator - there's no impropriety being suggested there," Mr O'Farrell said.

The Prime Minister also said today she would not be asking Mr Thomson to make a full explanation to Parliament over allegations he misused a union credit card, saying it was up to him.

"It's a judgment for each parliamentarian involved," she said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/besieged-craig-thomson-feels-the-heat-over-job-for-ex-wife-christa/story-e6frfkvr-1226121655008#ixzz1W2rl0jUU
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George Brandis should watch where he walk... he could step in his own poop... see toon at top...

Attempts by the Opposition to have the Prime Minister explain why one of her staff made inquiries into the Craig Thomson affair in 2009 have hit a snag.

News Limited reported this morning that Julia Gillard's chief of staff called the industrial registrar in 2009 to ask if he was investigating the besieged Labor MP, who has been accused of misusing a union credit card to pay for prostitutes.

Ms Gillard said she did not remember the phone call but said it was uncontroversial.

But this did not stop a renewed attack from Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who claimed it showed Ms Gillard had known about the matter for a long time.

Official records, however, contradict the reported chain of events, and show an Opposition senator knew of the communications more than a year ago.

Parliamentary records show it was actually the registrar, Douglas Williams, who made contact with Ben Hubbard, Ms Gillard's chief of staff while she was minister for workplace relations.

Hansard shows the registrar contacted Ms Gillard's office on April 8, 2009 after a newspaper report claimed Mr Thomson had misused his Health Services Union (HSU) credit card.

The two parties agreed it would be "inappropriate to discuss the matter further".

The information has been on the parliamentary record since May last year, in response to a question from Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson.

Ms Gillard this morning said: "Mr Abbott's been out there claiming that somehow that means I had knowledge of these events in relation to Mr Thomson, and didn't speak about them publicly, and I was the only one who knew - these things have been on the public record since April 2009.

"And let's look at the double standards and hypocrisy here. Mr Abbott jumping up and down; he knew about circumstances involving a Liberal senator, and charges against her, for weeks and didn't make the matter public until he was asked by the media."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-26/records-undermine-abbott-attack/2857656

You don't need to be an opinion pollster to sense the surly mood in the electorate just now.

Despite a long economic boom and some of the highest living standards in the world, Australia seems to be gripped by a malaise. The economy is still growing and most of us have jobs. But costs of living are rising, and uncertainty is corroding the confidence of consumers in ways that don't reflect Australia's strong economic fundamentals. In politics, an unpopular Government struggles to implement unpopular policies, while a ruthless Opposition seizes every opportunity to attack no matter the consequences.

Many citizens are dismayed. Some are angry. And if they paid any attention to federal politics this week, they should be.

You can see it in small and disorganised protests like the Convoy of No Confidence, an inchoate confection of complaints that revealed little about the nature of community discontent, and much about the enraged irrelevance of a certain radio host. But there is a broader disquiet in the community which is surely correlated with the current impasse in our politics and media. It is, I believe, a real sense of a loss of legitimacy, a loss of belief in the validity of the institutions that control our nation and over which ordinary citizens have little influence and zero control.

Underlying the disquiet is a polarisation of political opinion in the electorate, driven by the Coalition's determination to paint the Government as illegitimate, and a media generally willing to play along.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2857242.html

 

In the past I would have apologised for using crude language. But no more. The opposition led by a rabid Tony Abbott is beyond the pale - and the (mostly conservative) media is too willing to glorify his gross stupidity... No more Mr nice Gus here.

 

This morning's Murdoch press headline "from the lucky country to the lazy country"... is designed to enforce politicians to review the IR laws, destroying Labor in the process... It is my personal observation that many people work harder than ever and that is a cheap shot from the ritewingnut media. Another story of course relates to threats made to the health union boss when a shovel of dirt was left at her front door... I feel that the media is too willing to let people think that such stunt might have been done by some "Labor" mugs while in my book of great experience, the Libs have a 70 per cent chance of having done it to "stir the possum"... Political parties have their own thugs. Graham Richardson used to work for Labor (as a politician and a number's man) but now he is a freelancer and tea leaves reader hell-bent in destroying Labor... One of his mates was Rene Rivkin... Say no more... He, of course, now unofficially works for the Libs by pummelling Labor with irate comments designed to create bad weather for Labor, irrespective what is done right, for now or the future... He hates Julia's guts... Meanwhile, it has been said to me by reliable sources that Andrew Bold is a very clever man WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE IN WHAT HE SAYS but only stirs the pot with learned ignorance BECAUSE OF THE SHIT-LOAD of MONEY he's making out of being contrary — feeding the masses with idiotic unscientific crap... Andrew Bolt, according to the drum beats, SECRETLY BELIEVES IN GLOBAL WARMING AND THAT IT IS MAN-MADE... Well, mate, there is nothing like wreaking the future for the sake of mining a few now bucks (his presence on the Channel 10 screen is mainly due to Gina R — richest geezer in Aussieland for digging holes in the west)...

Tony Abbott begged crossbench MPs to make him prime minister, telling them: ''The only thing I wouldn't do is sell my arse."

http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-day-abbott-bared-his-soul-20110827-1jfgv.html

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has rejected claims he told independent MP Tony Windsor that the only thing he would not do to become prime minister is "sell his arse".

Mr Windsor made the claim during a series of interviews marking the anniversary of the independents' decision to back a Labor minority government.

He says he felt alarm and pity when Mr Abbott revealed how badly he wanted the top job.

"I remember him saying 'Tony, I would do anything for this job. The only thing I wouldn't do is sell my arse, but I'd have to give serious thought to it'," Mr Windsor told Fairfax media.

But Mr Abbott has strongly denied that he ever made the statement.

"I don't speak like that. People who know me know that I don't speak like that," he said.

"I engaged in negotiation to the best of my ability but I think that some of the people who I was negotiating with had already made up their minds."

The Fairfax report said the independents revealed that they felt badly treated by the Opposition.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-28/abbott-rejects-call-about-selling-arse/2859090

 

see toon at top...