# OZ politics about to boil over



## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

The Australian government, under the leadership of Tony Abbott, has just passed its two year milestone. There has to be a new election sometime in the twelve months but they are trailing in the polls very badly and would be unlikely to be re-elected unless something changes.

In February this year there was a putative attempt within the majority party of the government coalition to change the leadership but the numbers weren't there to force a spill of the top positions, so Tony Abbott promised to change, be more consultative and stop making "Captain's calls" all on his own. He promised that "good government begins from today" and he was given 6 months to get his act together and turn around the bad polls.

He didn't live up to his promises and the polls are consistently showing that the electorate is waiting for the next chance to vote - waiting with cricket bats at the ready. 

Within the party there has been a growing number of disaffected and panicked members who are certain to lose their seats if an election were to take place tomorrow and they have been lining up behind a senior minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who is generally more popular with the electorate. This evening he announced that he has told the Prime Minister that he intends to challenge for the leadership. The deputy leader of the party, Julie Bishop, has also let him know that she is supporting the challenger.

There will be a party room meeting later tonight and the leadership positions will be declared vacant and a ballot will take place. We expect that Malcolm Turnbull will win the ballot because he wouldn't challenge unless he was pretty sure of the numbers. Whichever way it goes, the government will be completely reorganised. Not only is it likely that we will have a new prime minister, we will have a new treasurer and half the front bench is likely to be replaced by new faces.

Here is video of Malcolm Turnbull explaining why he is challenging for the leadership of his party, and by extension, for the position of prime minister.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-14/malcolm-turnbulls-full-press-conference/6774744

This is Tony Abbott's response.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-...alcolm-turnbulls-leadership-challenge/6775336

The Australian people have no say in this process but we will pass judgement at the next election.
The Brits will understand this system but the Americans will find this very peculiar. This is why I'm posting it.
I'll let you know the result.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

Why don't you "modernize" your primitive system?


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## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

Why? 
This is so much fun. opcorn:


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

You are a silly bunch...


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## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

It beats watching Big Brother or the football.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

Yes, politics as entertainment is the best viewing...


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## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

We have a new prime minister - Malcolm Turnbull - 55 votes to 44.
He will now allocate other ministerial positions and the Governor General will make the official appointments.

He likes leather jackets. Much better than budgie smugglers and lycra bike gear.


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## QuickSilver (Sep 14, 2015)

Do boil it down to terms this Yank will understand..  WHY are people so dissatisfied with the current leadership?   What did they say they were going to do but didn't?   and what are the politics of this challenger?  What is he running on?   Your process isn't of that much interest to me.. but your political stances are.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

He looks like an aging undercover on some lame crime show...nthego:


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## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

QuickSilver said:


> Do boil it down to terms this Yank will understand..  WHY are people so dissatisfied with the current leadership?   What did they say they were going to do but didn't?   and what are the politics of this challenger?  What is he running on?   Your process isn't of that much interest to me.. but your political stances are.


He was elected on a platform of three word slogans, made lots of promises which he then proceeded to break in the first year and brought in a very unfair budget where the lower income people bore the brunt of cuts while the wealthy maintained their concessions etc. They couldn't get most of it through the Senate and it was still a failed budget when the second budget was due.

The Australian PM is supposed to be 'first among equals' but TA was unable to lead a team so he had a tendency towards what he called 'captains picks' and made some very silly decisions that made him, the government and Australians look ludicrous. For the last 30 or so opinion polls the government has been trailing the opposition and looking like being a one term show. This is why his party decided that he had to go now while there is still time to regroup in time for next year's election.

In short, he was a formidable Leader of the Opposition and successfully shredded the previous Labor Government but he is absolutely inept at governing. Malcolm will do better if he can get the rest of the party to stop their infighting.

There are lots of sites tracking promises made at the last election.

This one is the ABC website and indicates promises delivered, broken or still in progress.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/factcheck/promisetracker/

This article looks at just one promise, made to the small business sector, and it shows how he made promises to be for the small end of town but when the legislation appeared, it favoured the big end. This is pretty characteristic of much of the legislation that was proposed and the reason why the Senate kept amending or refusing his legislation.

http://www.businessspectator.com.au...otts-broken-promises-will-come-back-haunt-him


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

What would Chief Inspector Foyle think of this guy?


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## Warrigal (Sep 14, 2015)

They would get on very well. 
Foyle wouldn't have thought well of Tony Abbott though.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 14, 2015)

Glad to hear it, but I'm not sure about his driver...nthego:


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## oakapple (Sep 15, 2015)

Ralphy, you do realise that Foyle is English, not Australian, or do we all sound the same to you, hmmmn?


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## oakapple (Sep 15, 2015)

We have been taking an interest DW, as we also have interest here, with a former Marxist firebrand now the Leader of the Labour party. hope that your new PM is better than Abbot.


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## Fern (Sep 15, 2015)

Australia has now had 5 PM's in as many years. If nothing else Abbot stopped the boat people.:encouragement:


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## Susie (Sep 15, 2015)

Ralphy1 said:


> He looks like an aging undercover on some lame crime show...nthego:


Ha, ha, Ralphy1--truly at your wittiest best!
Malcolm T. is one of the richest men in Australia, equal to Clive Palmer, Gina Rhinehart, whereas Tony Abbott has very little money, has even been cunningly denied a pension by being fired 4 days before due date.
Maybe Malcolm "will do better" because he's rich, has contacts with other rich people, but mainly because he thoroughly understands the importance of MONEY!


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## Warrigal (Sep 15, 2015)

Kate Carnell, speaking on behalf of the business community has given her seal of approval.
Rupert Murdoch is probably less than thrilled and a number of shock jocks have been thrown off stride.


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## BobF (Sep 15, 2015)

Tony Abbot has his possible retirement canceled for being fired 4 days before the proper date?    Seems like time for some sort of law suite or other settlement for those that close to fulfillment.    Like maybe a proportional amount for not doing full time.


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## mitchezz (Sep 15, 2015)

He'll still get a very generous pension....$300,000 per year but he won't get the extra perks of an ex PM....staffed office, car and driver etc


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 16, 2015)

Wow!  What a payoff for a PM.  Can a furriner like me run for the office?


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## Warrigal (Sep 16, 2015)

Yes. First you have to take out Australian citizenship, then renounce any other citizenship you may have. Then you can stand for election.
You should have started forty years ago because it takes time to climb the greasy pole to the top.


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 16, 2015)

My youthful demeanor and charisma should overcome any obstacle...


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 16, 2015)

You are all part of the Commonwealth and, thus, are sort of clones of the original stock...


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## Warrigal (Sep 16, 2015)

Which Commonwealth? The Commonwealth of Australia or the British Commonwealth of Nations?
Or do you mean the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, or Virginia?


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## Ralphy1 (Sep 16, 2015)

Don't get cute.  You know what I mean, and I might just come over there and straighten you lot out...


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## Warrigal (Sep 16, 2015)

Well, don't come by boat or you'll end up on Manus Island and be forever forgotten. :grin:


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## Warrigal (Sep 20, 2015)

Our new PM has just announced his cabinet. The Minister for Defence is a woman - Senator Marise Payne.







The Minister for Small Business is another woman. 
Kelly O'Dwyer is also Assistant Treasurer. 
She is still breast feeding her youngest child who is only 3 months old.






Ken Wyatt becomes Australia's first indigenous cabinet minister, appointed to the post of Assistant health Minister.





The times they are a'changin'....   for the better. And about time, too.


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## drifter (Sep 20, 2015)

Congratulations to you Australians on some improvement in Government. How about 5the Honorable joe Hockey, Finance Minister, is he staying?


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## Warrigal (Sep 20, 2015)

No, Joe is heartbroken because his best friend, Tony Abbott, was prepared to throw him under a bus in an attempt to keep his job as PM. He offered Joe's job of Treasurer to another MP, Scott Morrison, and also offered him the Deputy Party Leader's position, thereby offering to throw another supporter under the same bus. The ploy failed but the new PM has made Morrison Treasurer and Joe has resigned his commission and has announced his intention to quit parliament soon.

I feel for Joe. He tried his best but just wasn't up to the job.


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## WhatInThe (Sep 20, 2015)

Seems more like a parliamentary maneuver than a public mandate. 5 PMs in 5 years? The PM for this year will be...


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## Zante (Sep 20, 2015)

It has been interesting - we have time to fit in another couple before Christmas!
However, I would not like their job and I guess that they try to do their best - or most of them do - and most people don't like them - they spend a lot of time away from their families and even the least little demeanour gets headlines.


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## Warrigal (Sep 20, 2015)

Very true Zante. 
When Bill Shorten (Leader of the Opposition Party) announced on Monday "One down, one to go", he could very well have been speaking of himself.

There will be an interesting program from Four Corners on the ABC tonight that was being made last Monday before the challenge was mounted. When it was announced that the challenge was on, they were interviewing Peter Costello, former Treasurer and Deputy Leader under John Howard, and the interviews continued after the change of leadership. His observation is that the Liberal Party, his party, does not reward loyalty, only performance and success.

The clean way to change leaders has always been a deal in which the leader agrees to step down after a while in favour of the deputy but in recent years they have refused to do this. The result is either a challenge or electoral defeat if the leader becomes unpopular.

The Australian people have a lot of trouble understanding that the prime ministership is a gift of the party, not a matter of voters' choice.


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## Warrigal (Sep 20, 2015)

For Americans puzzled by the Australian political system (similar to the Westminster system of the UK) here is a potted history of leadership challenges. There is nothing unprecedented about the current leadership change.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-15/a-history-of-leadership-spills/6778070


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