Tony Abbott's sister has revealed that the Opposition Leader felt "conflicted" about voting against marriage equality in Parliament last year.

Speaking on the ABC's triple j Hack program, Christine Forster, who is gay, said her brother's view that marriage is only between a man and a woman is slowly "shifting".

"There's been a significant shift in how he approaches this whole question," she said.

"He said it after the last vote in Parliament last year, that he felt conflicted about voting against marriage equality.

"That doesn't sound like much, but it really is a significant shift for a man who all of his adult life has not even questioned his opposition to reforming the marriage act to have it also cover same-sex couples.

"Almost every time it comes up, with him you see slight, very small shifts."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-12/abbotts-sister-said-he-felt-conflicted-about-marriage-equality/4881576

If you believe Tony Abbott "has shifted" in small rainbow bits, you also believe in Santa Claus... Tony Abbott link to Opus Dei would prevent him to actually do anything towards the gays... except SAY THINGS  — ANYTHING — TO GET VOTES... NOTHING ELSE. 

the Liberal (CONservative) lies

As the adverts for "president" Tonicchio hit the TV screens, the adverts of the Liberals (CONservatives) designed against Rudd push some mighty whoppers... For example, when they announce that Rudd was spending $100 million per day, they don't mention the full truth. They don't want you to know the truth, they only want you to be stirred emotionally by a frizzle. They don't want to mention that this frizzle saved this country from the dumps.

To save this country from the GFC recession, Rudd spent some "borrowed" cash on JOBS, while most of the other OECD countries spent up to 100 TIMES MORE "borrowed" moneys on salvaging their banks. Result: this country was saved from the ravages of the GFC with unemployment hovering slightly above five per cent, while some countries like Spain have had unemployment figures up to a staggering 24 per cent — and the US has had to deal with about 8 to 11 per cent unemployed. And the situation in those countries has changed little. In most of Europe, unemployment is staying at about 12 per cent DESPITE HAVING SPENT MASSIVE AMOUNT OF MONEY ("borrowed") to prop up the banking system.

Like Malcolm trying to sell us his NBN wonky concoction, the problem stemmed from greedy banks that sold second rate packages at premium prices — packages the quality of which was guaranteed by those turdy "rating" houses of deceit like Standard and Poor's. The packages of course were not worth two rabbit's farts...

Back then, even the IMF was encouraging Rudd to spend double the money. I quote:

IMF says Rudd's stimulus package needs doubling
BY:DAVID UREN, ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT

From:The Australian January 12, 2009 12:00AM

THE International Monetary Fund wants the Rudd Government to at least double the size of its budget stimulus package to more than $20 billion in an effort to hold back the recessionary tide.

The fund's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, says additional spending of at least 2 per cent of global GDP is required but that countries with strong budget positions, such as Australia, should do more.

The fund's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, admits he does not know how effective such spending will be.

Many nations are planning to spend much more than 2 per cent of GDP, with US president-elect Barack Obama planning a package worth 5 per cent of GDP while China's budget stimulus equates, at face value, to a whopping 14 per cent of its economy.
--------------------
As well as Australia, China mostly used the money to create jobs rather than prop up its banking system.
The "borrowed" money was used on some great programs, that the adverts for the liberals against Rudd are savaging for no reason, considering the programs HAVING BEEN SUCCESSFUL. The insulation program for example (specifically mention as a grand failure by the Liberal [CONservative] adverts) was 98 per cent successful, which in terms of commercial rate of success is up there with the best of the best. Out of more than one million houses insulated, only 400 houses had problems — mostly minor problems and less than five insulation jobs had deadly result, due not to the program but mostly to shonky operators who did not train their staff properly and did the jobs on the cheap...
The Australian debt is ONE OF THE SMALLEST DEBTS per capita in the world, considering the world is about 120 trillion dollars in the red. 

Then we have the dummy dork telling us he will create two million jobs in the next decade... Of course this sounds better than the more than one million job created by Labor in the last five years, doesn't it? In fact, even with the fluctuation of employment, Australia "natural" (structural) employment grows by about one million every five years, regardless of who is in power.
The difference between the parties rests in the protection of wages, preservation of benefits and of rights which is still of course far better under Labor. Under the Liberals (CONservatives) wages and entitlements value of workers DO FALL massively in order to accommodate the same number of workers, mostly poorly paid, plus outrageous profits — most of which end up in Treasure Islands like the Bahamas. 
The CONservatives are full of shit.
Gus Leonisky.

 

There have been numerous moments of late when the day-to-day workings of Australian politics filter on to the world's news agenda; think Julia Gillard's misogyny speech; the leadership spill that never was; and then the spill that was. But never has the opposition leader Tony Abbottbeen the protagonist. That was until Monday.

As Abbott stood among the Liberal party faithful in Melbourne, glancing from side to side and surveying those loyally assembled, he let rip with a malapropism to rival even those of the infamously tongue-tied former US president George W Bush. "No one," said Abbott, "however smart, however well-educated, however experienced … is the suppository of all wisdom."

It was meant as a humble, man-of-the-people moment from the Rhodes scholar, who was making a dig at the prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Instead he became a global figure of ridicule.

He "hit a bum note" in the words of Britain's Independent; it was a"memorable slip of the tongue", according to CNN (which also felt the need to dictionary define suppository); NPR sympathised – the US radio network has had to post countless "correctums" over the years.

Billy Bragg, the beloved British songwriter who spent his heyday constructing lyrical anti-Thatcher songs, couldn't resist the crude opportunity, either. "Sounds like Tony Abbott's been talking out of his arse again," he tweeted.

And so it was that Abbott's first real moment on the global news stage was probably not what the carefully media-managed politician would have wanted.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/tony-abbott-gaffe-world-stage

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Anyone with a brain would have also noted Abbott silly gesturing down the barrel of a camera, as if he had rehearsed the stuff a hundred times looking at himself in a mirror... Make sure Abbott stays in the doldrums. DON'T VOTE FOR HIM. Kick him in the budgies. Do that before he kicks you in the head.