old sugar daddy tells Abbott he should have sweetened his first budget with saccharine...

not enough honey in the pot...

The Tony Abbott-led government should have done a better job at laying the groundwork for big reforms before it released its first federal budget, the father of the house, Philip Ruddock, said on Thursday.

Ruddock, who is the special envoy for citizenship, told reporters in Canberra the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is proving himself to be a good communicator.

He would not be drawn on whether former prime minister Abbott’s style contributed to his downfall, saying: “Everybody has a different style, don’t they?

“The point that I make is that you need to be able to argue your case, and I think that Malcolm is demonstrating the capacity to be able to do some of the things that you need to be able to do, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

Ruddock is the parliament’s longest currently serving member, and the second-longest serving member in history. He said he has seen leadership challenges in the past, but in this case members of the government need to fall into line and “move on”.

He said the Abbott-led government could have done a better job of selling its policies.

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/17/tony-abbott-should-have-explained-first-budget-better-says-philip-ruddock

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Sep 2015 - 2:50pm
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he did not see it coming...

drover’s dog: like a drover’s dog

Drover’s dog has been used since the 1940s in various similes, usually uncomplimentary— ‘a head like a drover’s dog’ (big and ugly), ‘all prick and ribs like a drover’s dog’ (lean and hungry), and ‘leaking like a drover’s dog’ (as in ‘the NSW Cabinet is leaking like a drover’s dog!’). It can also mean a nonentity, as when a politician commented in 1983 that ‘a drover’s dog could lead the Labor Party to victory’. (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/09/17/drovers-dog-could-lift-lib...)

http://andc.anu.edu.au/australian-words/meanings-origins?field_alphabet_value=91

If you're not familiar with some Aussie lingo, there are quite a few more bizos there... They explain why Aussie in parliament are not allowed to call each others LIARS, but can get away with some nasty twists of the tongue...

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Sep 2015 - 2:58pm
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strine classes...

Yesterday, Macdonald asked Labor Senator Penny Wong to stop speaking English in the Senate and urged her to rather speak Australian [, mate] . Initially offended by the portly Brisbaneian’s comments, Wong rose to her feet to object, asking her conservative counterpart to withdraw his statement.

Macdonald, who in the past stated that GetUp! is the Hitler Youth equivalent of the Greens movement, refused to withdraw his comment and Senate President Stephen Parry agreed that the statement didn’t carry any personal malice.

Up to here the Betoota news is quite kosher. Now for a bit of quite funny bullshit..

However, in response to Macdonald’s comments, Penny Wong has confirmed that she’s enrolled in Australian-English classes.

“Yes, it’s true,” said Wong. “At the moment, Ricky Muir is teaching me how to key bang a ute and Senator Heffernan has taken me under his wing. He said he’ll have me speaking like a 70-year-old farmer working sheep in the yards by next week, ya fuckarse [sic] thing.”

Of course Senator Macdonald is that idiot who has no idea about science but claims to know everything about light.

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Sep 2015 - 3:19pm
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spill in the ranks... and leaks from the benches...

On the night after the Malcolm Turnbull v Tony Abbott leadership spill, a Young Liberal meeting in Sydney erupted into wild scenes, with allegations a member of the Abbott-backing conservative faction physically assaulted a Turnbull-supporting moderate.

An official complaint was lodged with the NSW Liberal Party on Thursday morning, following the event at the City Tattersalls Club on Pitt Street on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for state director Tony Nutt said: "Sorry, we won't be saying anything."

The document, dated August 6, is headed "Protected: Sensitive: Cabinet." It includes a table of cabinet-level appointments to boards made since September 2013, when the Coalition came to power.

The leak, just days after Mr Turnbull rolled Mr Abbott for the prime ministership, shows that of the 16 appointments made to boards in the communications portfolio, only one was a woman.

That appointment was made in December 2014, when Mr Turnbull and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann named Dominique Fisher as a non-executive director of Australia Post.

In contrast, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and his predecessor Scott Morrison oversaw the appointment of 36 women to boards.

Workplace Minister Eric Abetz, who could be dumped from Mr Turnbull's new cabinet, also exceeded the 40 per cent target, as did Mr Abbott and Senator Cormann.

However it is understood that Mr Abbott's office, infamous for its micro-managing and authoritarian style, constantly held up board appointments.

Also, the table does not account for Dr Kerry Schott and Alison Lansley, who were both reappointed to the NBN board under Mr Turnbull's watch.

Mr Abbott has previously said he has no intention of undermining his successor Malcolm Turnbull, as former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd did to Julia Gillard after she knifed him in 2010.

In his first comment since his final statement to the nation as PM on Monday night, Mr Abbott told News Corp he intends to stay on in Parliament.

"It's been a tumultuous week and I now intend to spend some time with my family to think about the future," Mr Abbott is quoted as saying.

"My intention is to remain in the Parliament."

By Gus Leonisky at 17 Sep 2015 - 7:12pm
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on sick or spew leave?

Apparently the Honourable Tony Abbott has not shown his face on the backbench of parliament. Is this a breach of his honourable contract? He is paid by the public at large to perform whatever, whether it's taking this nation to perdition or polish backbenches. So he needs a good note from his parents to explain why he is acting like a truant. Is he sick in the guts, is he spewing chips or did he have to go to a funeral?

One must note here that no funeral is important enough for Tony Abbott, remembering that he stopped Turnbull pairing with Simon Crean to go to the funeral of that Australian icon, Margaret Olley.

Meanwhile Tony's staff is still populating Tony Abbott's former offices... If I was Malcolm I would not trust most of them, though he might have had his own spies in that lot. Malcolm thus is operating from his "Communication Minister's office...

Tony Abbott needs a good excuse to explain his truantism...

By Gus Leonisky at 18 Sep 2015 - 7:22am
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