Monday 25th of November 2024
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shuffle shuffle shuffle...

shuffle

 

 

 

Why a reshuffle and not just a plain, garden-variety shuffle is anyone’s guess. The LNP has been in power just 15 months and the only previous shuffle I can recall was a bit of tinkering at the edges to try and fill the yawning intellectual gap left by Arthur Sinodinos when he decided hiding was the better part of valour and stepped aside as assistant treasurer. The gap, sadly, remains unfilled.

You will recall Arthur as the chap in the ICAC witness box running his finger round the inside of his blue-tied collar when pressed on his memory, or lack of it, of sending money to himself, from AWH, of which he was a director, to the NSW Liberals, of which he was treasurer.

Arthur’s career finished at that point. He didn’t resign though. He kept the job title but just kind of hung around in the background, mooching. That left the overworked Joe Hockey to carry the nation’s financial burdens without an able assistant, and we all know how well that’s worked out.

No one wanted to mention Arthur’s name, because the next name anyone thought of was Obeid and no one wanted that. Sleeping dogs.

But apparently, someone in the Liberal Party finally decided enough was enough and that memories had dimmed enough for Arthur to have one last moment in the sun. Reluctantly, and with deep regret, Abbott, his strings being visibly jerked, announced Arthur was to hop in his Jag and bugger off. Arthur had a little flurry of press about pulling the pin then dropped off the radar

And that cleared the way for a shuffle and a jolly good bottom scouring.

I have only one question: where is Mal Brough when you need him?

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-great-abbott-cabinet-reshuffle,7215

 

 

shuffle shuffle shuffle...

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's new frontbench team has been sworn in at a ceremony at Government House.

The reshuffle was sparked by the resignation of Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos last week.

Josh Frydenberg will take over from Senator Sinodinos.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-23/cabinet-reshuffle-tony-abbotts-new-frontbencher-sworn-in/5985028

more shuffle in the back shuffle-room...

 

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has recruited a top ABC journalist as his chief spinner in a move that may well shock right wing commentators who attack the national broadcaster's political coverage as being too far to the left.

Walkley Award winning journalist Mark Simkin has been appointed as Mr Abbott's Chief of Communications. He will share the role with Mr Abbott's well regarded former press secretary and deputy chief of staff Andrew Hirst. 

Simkin has been the ABC's Chief Political Correspondent for the last five years and his journalism was respected by both Labor and Coalition MPs.

He and fellow ABC journalist Chris Uhlmann broke the news in 2010 that Labor was preparing to roll Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. In December 2012, Mr Abbott, as opposition leader, singled out the pair for praise.

"I have a lot of time for [Chris] Uhlmann, I have a lot of time for Mark Simkin. They are, I think, highly professional, even-handed commentators-reporters," he told the Financial Review at the time.  In January this year Mr Abbott berated the ABC which he accused of taking "everyone's side but Australia's".

Simkin's appointment to the Prime Minister's press team comes at a critical time for Mr Abbott, who is languishing in the polls and under fire internally because of the way his office operates. 

It also comes just days after a reported blow up between Mr Abbott's chief of staff Peta Credlin and the former chief press secretary Jane McMillan.

As late as yesterday the Prime Minister's office denied she had resigned as communications director, but on Tuesday said "Ms Jane McMillan will move to another senior position in the office".

 

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-hires-former-abc-journalist-mark-simkin-to-head-communications-team-20141223-12d3jk.html

 

 

There you are... As you may note on this web site, I have pointed out that Uhlmann seems to be a right-wing journalist. His reports and questions often discreetly appear biased to rubbish Labor and to praise the silly CONservatives... Mark Simkin is more "balanced" but then this also means not being fully engaged with the reality, but managing porkies from all sides into a neat package with little commentary. Uninformative...

Now, for the big jump into delivering propaganda. I expected better from Simkin.

 

shuffle shuffle cocks... er shuttlecock... er poppycock...

 

Inside Tony Abbott's new menistry

Sarah Brasch takes some time out from refining her household budget to analyse Tony Abbott's new ministerial line-up.

SORRY, but I have just got to stop bothering about the all-consuming household budget — but only for a few minutes, mind you, because that is all I can spare from the search for $550 in carbon tax savings.

Tony Abbott’s third ministry deserves closer examination. There has been far too much store placed on the so-called “winners and losers” so far framed around the celebrity personalities, such as they are.

There are other ways to skin this cat. Rather, it is horses for courses so the best runners in wet conditions get to be in the right jobs. That is the theory anyway.

There is not a lot to see in the new Abbott line-up and certainly no breathtaking moves in portfolio rankings. It is more some fiddling down the back-end of the list, where the bottom-feeders scrap.

The top seven portfolios were untouched other than a new face or two in the junior jobs while the next two down, Pyne and Macfarlane, got changes of title to add words like “Training” and “Science, thereby dealing with two of the smallest barnacles.

All this means is that there will be some public servants reporting to new big bosses and some different ministers, or the same ministers talking about new topics, popping up by the end of January — other than Scott Morrison fast out of the blocks on the case of his new enemies from Day One.

Machinery of government changes, as they are called, get bedded down very quickly in Canberra, even if they occur four days before Christmas and more than a few people are not going to get much of a holiday. The public workforce is flexible and very good at this sort of thing, contrary to the myths pedalled about it.

Shame on Abbott for spruiking Senator David Johnston in Defence as capable, trusted, on Team Australia and so on, and then moving him out. Loyalty and that first rule of being a minister: “cause no trouble, ruffle no feathers and do as you are told” obviously counts for much with the PM and, no doubt, Peta Credlin.

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/abbotts-new-ministry,7223