Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has challenged Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to an early election on climate change, saying the Opposition will be ready for a fight.

In a speech today at the Millennium Forum in Sydney, Mr Abbott touted his environmental credentials while justifying the Coalition's opposition to the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS).

He has also pledged that he will not be a clone of John Howard, saying the party he will lead will build on the legacy of all his predecessors.

Mr Abbott says the Coalition under his leadership has shifted from a "government in exile" to a "fair dinkum Opposition" and is not afraid of an early election on climate change.

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see toon above... Sigh... Fair dinkum Tony dunny... Do we have to go again through the same rigmarole as we did with John Howard...

Providing reliable information on this site is paramount. Yet you may not realise it but it's hard yakka. The porkyists out-there make sure we don't exist. The media has no qualms in not mentioning our upright and bang-on exposés of whatever because they usually got it wrong in the first place — by mistake, by desire, by allegiances, by brown-nosing — and their nose is out of joint when we put it in their own doggy doo... Strangely, I don't know by what fortune or misfortune, but I have met most of the power brokers in this country... From Prime Ministers to their minions, from Premiers to their bodyguards... I have met many of the speechwriters to the boy couriers at election time... And I know zilch. And they know zilch because I am not myself and as mentioned before here, I don't exist... Yet, people like Tony Abbott make me sick because they abuse their privilege of being where they are for believing that they are to serve a puerile purpose that has nothing to do with the greater purpose of life...They have no understanding of the greater relativist relationship we are part of, blinded by the bullshit of religious ignoramus crap. At least Rudd has understood some of the greater animalistic survival purpose. He and his mob know they can't mess it up or else... It's hard yakka for them to weave their way through this. But for Tony, the flip-flop-flap man, it's a breeze to bullshit as much as he wishes in the name of being "in opposition". Fade away Tony boy, you're a nuisance. You might achieve your goals one day, but they stink like a garbage heap full of rotting raw prawns... And these smelly goals won't do anything to protect the planet from a humanity gone bonkers... Sad, sad, sad...

See toon at top.

The Federal Opposition says the Copenhagen summit was a comprehensive failure and a vindication of its stance against the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS).

THE FAILURE OF THE COPENHAGEN DEAL DOES NOT VINDICATE ANYBODY OR ANYTHING. TO THE CONTRARY, IT SHOWS HOW DUMB AND HOW GREEDY THE HUMAN SPECIES IS.

THE ABBOTTS OF THIS PLANET GLOAT WITH STUPIDITY ON THEIR OWN GRAVES AS THE PROBLEM OF GLOBAL WARMING WILL ONLY GET WORSE, YEAR BY YEAR.... THE ABBOTTS OF THIS SILLY WORLD PLAY THE TUNES OF THE TITANIC ORCHESTRA, CON BRIO... CON DROWNING GLORIOUSLY...

The talks in the Danish capital ended with a political accord rather than a binding agreement, with developed countries required to set emissions reduction targets by February.

THERE IS STILL TIME TO WAKE UP (NOT SLEEP ON THE JOB LIKE THE WORLD LEADERS DID IN COPENHAGEN TOWARDS THE END) AND REALISE THAT WE ARE IN DEEP SHIT.

GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL AND FASTER THAN WE CAN FEEL OR IMAGINE. INCREMENTS OF BARELY 0.05 DEGREE C EXTRA PER YEAR RELENTLESSLY LEAD TO AT LEAST 6 OR 7 DEGREES C INCREASE BY 2100 (TAKING IN THE COMPOUNDING EFFECT). BUT AS SOME YEARS CAN BE MINUS 0.05 AND YEARS CAN BE PLUS 0.075 (OR MORE), THE TRUE PROBLEM CAN BE MASKED BY FLUCTUATIONS.

PRESENT EMISSION OF CO2 CAN (WILL) LEAD TO AN INCREASE OF ABOUT 0.1 DEGREE C PER YEAR ON AVERAGE WITH FLUCTUATIONS. FOR EXAMPLE WE MIGHT HAVE TWO OR THREE YEARS WITH MINUS 0.1 DEGREE C ON THE PREVIOUS YEARS AND ONE AT 0.4 DEGREE C INCREMENT ON THE AVERAGE, WHILE THE NEXT MIGHT BE 0.05 DEGREE EXTRA ON THE AVERAGE. BY THE TIME WE REACH 2100, THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE WOULD HAVE INCREASED TO BETWEEN 9 AND 12 DEGREES C.

The Opposition says the global failure to strike a binding deal strips away Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's justification for trying to introduce an emissions trading scheme in Australia.

DESPITE THE FEEBLENESS OF THE AUSTRALIAN ETS AND THE GASTLY GENEROUS OFFERINGS TO "POLLUTERS" AND THE COST TO "TAXPAYERS", THE ETS WAS A STARTING POINT — A MOMENT FOR AUSTRALIA TO ACKNOWLEDGE THERE IS A PROBLEM.

NOW THE NEXT — EVEN THE FEEBLEST — SOLUTION WILL DEMAND DOUBLE THE EFFORTS AND SINKS THE WORLD CARBON ECONOMIES FURTHER, UNLESS WE DECIDE TO DO NOTHING CLOSE TO WHAT SHOULD BE DONE, AND PREPARE TO FACE THE FULL BORE OF WARMING BY 2032, THEN BY 2070 THEN BY 2100.

A PROPER STEP NOW WOULD BE A WORLDWIDE CARBON TAX AND IMPORT DUTY ON CARBON CREATED PRODUCTS SO FIERCE THAT EMISSION REDUCTIONS WOULD COME SOONER THAN LATER.

NEXT IS TO ENFORCE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, MOSTLY BASED ON NATURAL RENEWABLE — THIS CAN BE DONE WITH INCENTIVES TO INDIVIDUAL PURCHASERS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY, RATHER THAN GIVE THE INCENTIVES TO THE "POLLUTERS" ...

NEXT SHOULD BE A MASSIVE DROP IN CONSUMPTION, INCLUDING REDUCTION OF POPULATION.

THE GAMBLE IS SUCH THAT SHOULD GLOBAL WARMING NOT BE REAL, THE WORLD ECONOMIES WOULD BECOME CLEANER NONETHELESS... SHOULD GLOBAL BE REAL — 99 PER CENT CHANCE IT'S HAPPENING AND 99 PER CENT CHANCE IT'S HUMAN INDUCED — AND SHOULD WE DO NOTHING ABOUT IT, WE WILL BE FACING MAJOR CONSEQUENCES... NOT JUST US BUT MANY OTHER SPECIES WILL SUFFER.

see toon at top...

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will turn back boats carrying suspected asylum seekers if elected, while accusing the government of lacking the nerve to do it.

The interception of three boats in as many days has renewed scrutiny of Australia's border protection policy.

It was an untimely hat-trick for Australia, Mr Abbott said, adding things would be different under a coalition government.

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Yes, things would be different if generous-hearted-Abbott could whack those boat people on the rudder and shoot warning shots in front of  their bows... Then the poor seekers-of-a-better-new-life would sink their flimsy vessel and up to 100 people would die... This is the Catholic Mad Monk Solution, reminiscent of the inquisition, when the rack was more generous than being impaled or cooked to cinder at the stakes...

from Gerard Henderson

Not long ago, the words "people skills" were used about Tony Abbott mockingly, especially among journalists and political commentators. Abbott claimed to possess people skills when he thought about running for the Liberal Party leadership after the Coalition's defeat in 2007. Few took the description seriously and it was soon used by Abbott's critics to highlight a lack of self-awareness.

Yet the latest Herald/Nielsen poll, published yesterday, suggests Abbott does have people skills. The statistics tell their own story. As at last weekend, Abbott had an approval rating of 50 per cent with 41 per cent disapproving. This is quite high for an opposition leader.

Moreover, the Coalition and Labor are equal in the primary vote, with Labor leading by 53 per cent to 47 per cent after preferences. This equates with Kevin Rudd's winning margin over John Howard in 2007. It is customary for the gap between the parties to narrow close to an election.

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Adolphus Gustaphian Opa would have said : "Why peddle the harsh truth when you can be more successful by selling smooth porkies?"

Today's cartoon (14/05/10), in the Sydney Morning Herald, by Cathy Wilcox is good... and similar to my one at the top (posted much earlier —see it at top)... But she gave Tony Abbott some life with a variety of poses depicting his numerous conflicts of intentions.

I avoided that. I depicted Abbott as a woody one-dimentional character with a variety of hats and a change clothing to paraphrase that "the habit, a monk does not maketh.." or "the habit does not make the monk"... all showing his conflicts of intentions. And I made the conscious decision to show Abbott, from then on, in the same woody position with different tools or clothing that indicacted his moooooood of the day.

Abbott sells smooth porkies, wrapped in pink ribbon, like bankers sell subprime bundles at overvalued prime, in their spruik.

As mentioned in the comment above, Adolphus Gustaphian Opa would have said : "Why peddle the harsh truth when you can be more successful by selling smooth porkies?"

While wearing a different hat for each occasion to suit...

Yes Tony does not change much. He still is the spiritual child of Bronwyn Bishop and John Howard... He has acquired the Rattus cunning traits and the bumbling "bonhomie" of Bronwyn... Beware. In my view, he still is the woody populist dork that would make your life miserable with floggings disguised as benefits. See, you won't be able enjoy life, uness you experience the salvatory pain he would inflict upon you — miners and rich people excepted...

Abbott is said to be watchful of dissent in the party and paranoid about the polls, knowing that the Coalition's sky-high primary vote is his greatest protection against the weakness of his personal popularity.

And he is actively planning speeches and announcements in the new year designed to round out his pugilistic image.

The trouble with this caricature is that it rests on contradictions. Abbott cannot be both a shameless populist and a man of unshakeable retrograde convictions. He can’t be driven to say anything to get elected, while also insistently inflicting his unpopular religious views on the electorate. This is the conundrum of Tony Abbott to many of his critics (and not a few of his supporters). Hence the frequent claims of hypocrisy.

Abbott is many things. Too many things, really. He’s the “conviction politician” who frequently and spectacularly changes his mind. He’s the conservative who cherishes our institutions and constitutional arrangements, but would like to alter them radically to enable a massive federal takeover of health and education. His two greatest and most frequently cited influences are Bob Santamaria and John Howard. Santamaria was a Democratic Labor Party Catholic archetype, the kind who utterly despised the moral depredations and social ravages of capitalism. Howard is the author of WorkChoices, perhaps the most pro-capitalist, antisocial legislation of the past decade. They represented opposing brands of politics.

http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/july/1372600800/waleed-aly/inside-tony-abbotts-mind

Then The Monthly goes to to say that "Tony Abbott is a serious person..."

KOF KOF!!! Serious???.... Idiots... See toon at top ... and discover how this lying scarecrow lacks substance, is full of straw and keeps changing porkies to con the gullible of the moment...