Strewth Dutton could be Aussie PM

Written By: - Date published: 7:54 am, August 20th, 2018 - 87 comments
Categories: australian politics, climate change, Environment, global warming, sustainability - Tags: ,

And over the ditch Australia readies itself for a possible change of Prime Minister.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Supporters of Peter Dutton say the Home Affairs Minister is leaning towards challenging Malcolm Turnbull for the prime ministership and has the numbers to win, amid a crisis over energy policy and a horror new poll showing support for the Coalition has slumped.

Mr Dutton has spent the weekend taking soundings among Liberal MPs, leaving close colleagues with the clear view that he believes the government is now in an unwinnable position.

All indications were that Mr Dutton was ready to run for the leadership, they said, in another sign of a Coalition meltdown with conflicting claims over support for rival camps ahead of a policy showdown in the Coalition party room on Tuesday.

An exclusive Fairfax-Ipsos poll shows the Coalition has suffered a horror slump in its primary vote from 39 to 33 per cent over the past month amid open disputes on energy and speculation over the leadership.

In its worst result since early last year, the Coalition now trails Labor by 45 to 55 per cent in two-party terms in a result that would cost the government more than 20 seats at a general election.

Dutton is engaged in a dance with the seven veils over support for Turnbull stating that he supports the leader.  For now.

Turnbull’s handling of the implementation of the National Energy Guarantee is said to be the problem.  The NEG is an already watered down energy policy which would require energy producers to have emissions reduction as well as reliability targets.  The “reliability” target is an attempt to keep open coal fired power stations and is essentially a sop to climate change deniers.  The intent of the policy is also apparently to lower power prices.  The policy replaces the proposed Clean Energy Target.

The change in nomenclature says it all.  The tories do not want to give the slightest hint that they may support clean energy and they prefer to support short term price reductions to taking long term measures to dealing with climate change.

But it is amazing that this should have caused such a stoush within the Government’s ranks.  And that some believe that less respect for climate change is the solution to plummeting poll support.  After all when only 18% of the population think you are doing a good job on climate change and one in two electors already believe climate change is damaging the Barrier reef you have a significant problem.

I almost feel sorry for Turnbull.  Introducing a watered down weak commitment to renewable energy is causing consternation within the voting population and within his Parliamentary ranks.  But for completely different reasons.

Australia having Dutton as Prime Minister would round off the insanity of what is happening.

87 comments on “Strewth Dutton could be Aussie PM ”

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  1. dukeofurl 1
    20 August 2018 at 8:50 am

    Dutton ?

    I think his positioning is due more to the recent by election in a neighbouring seat, which used to be marginal for labour, but is now fairly safe. This makes Duttons own seat almost un- winnable. Unless….

  2. D'Esterre 2
    20 August 2018 at 8:53 am

    Strewth indeed. Out of the frying pan and into the fire for us here in NZ. The hard-eyed Dutton steering the ship of Oz? Not sure what my family over there will make of that possibility.

    Still and all, and given its form over the past several years, isn’t Australia overdue for another change of PM?

    • dukeofurl 2.1
      20 August 2018 at 10:01 am

      Theres an election due within, say around 9 months ( their timetables are complicated)
      The next election must be held by 18 May 2019 for half of the Senators (from the states) and on or before 2 November 2019 for the House of Representatives and the Senators from the territories. Wikipedia.
      As its is now convention to run senate and house elections on the same date, you can see the 18th May as ‘the last date’ that makes sense

  3. pete 3
    20 August 2018 at 9:01 am

    The USA getting Trump showed that idiots could get to the top. So why not Australia getting some sort of arsehole too?

    • Anne 3.1
      20 August 2018 at 9:58 am

      Trumps’ man in Canberra.

    • dukeofurl 3.2
      20 August 2018 at 10:04 am

      Trump dreams of having Australias immigration policy, which is quite restrictive in many respects but is fairly generous in allowing ‘UN type’ refugees but not undocumented arrivals.

    • Draco T Bastard 3.3
      20 August 2018 at 11:37 am

      When the majority of people are becoming worse off they will vote for anyone who promises to make them better off. It’s how we get populists as PMs and presidents around the world.

      Populists tend to be of the right-wing and dictatorial.

      • corodale 3.3.1
        22 August 2018 at 9:35 pm

        Dude, populists understand that democratic governance is in big trouble. Obviously they favour a dictatorial style, as least bad. It’s the same capital-market-shit in a different bucket. You’re just throwing around labels, in support of a mythological divide. Imagine Zen swordsmanship without the Zen. “There is no sword.”

        • Draco T Bastard 3.3.1.1
          22 August 2018 at 10:49 pm

          Dude, populists understand that democratic governance is in big trouble.

          No.

          They understand that we don’t have a democracy and that the political system is failing the majority of people. Using that anger they can get elected by sloganeering and then use the dictatorial system to achieve their own ends while appearing to cater to the wishes of the people as expressed by the anger that’s been fired up by the failures of the system.

          And it’s not really a mythological divide. Research is showing that the left and right think differently.

    • peterlepaysan 3.4
      20 August 2018 at 10:55 pm

      Ahem! Koff!
      Arseholes are both useful and necessary.

  4. Ad 4
    20 August 2018 at 9:15 am

    If Dutton succeeds in becoming Prime Minister we would see the proper anti-immigration politics from Europe and the US right in our face.

    New Zealand looks set to become a shining beacon in space – a survivalists bolthole, for both left and right.

    • Patricia Bremner 4.1
      20 August 2018 at 1:53 pm

      Sutton does not rate Kiwis and is happy to play the “hard man” of the right.
      He has what I call “Dead eyes”. He shows no emotion except disdain.
      Further he takes a hard line on race climate change and doesn’t ever appear to support women… though that could be just an impression?

  5. Sanctuary 5
    20 August 2018 at 9:21 am

    Let’s cut to the chase.

    Dutton is a populist racist and a bullying authoritarian and if he ascends to the PM’s role in Aussie it will herald a potential catastrophe for trans-Tasman relations, since the present NZ government has made it clear it has just about run out of patience with trying the softly softly approach to Australia’s racist discrimination against New Zealanders.

  6. roy cartland 6
    20 August 2018 at 9:31 am

    They couldn’t do worse if they went full Pauline.

  7. RedLogix 7
    20 August 2018 at 9:33 am

    Climate change has destabilised three Aussie PM’s already, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott and now Turnbull. Dutton is of course largely Abbott’s puppet (or at least will be hostage to his faction) and the Australian public will eventually reject that deal as well. They’ve largely held their noses and accepted Dutton because he’s held an effective line on stopping illegal immigration, but I’m not sure they’d want him as PM for the same reasons they didn’t like Abbott.

    Also quite visible here are increasing numbers articles in the msm, often reasonably conservative outlets, featuring climate change and it’s consequences as a real thing. Most people I meet (admittedly a narrow slice) would agree that coal has served it’s purpose and the sooner we replace it the better.

    The longer Abbott persists with his corrupt climate denial, the bigger the eventual backlash. Aussies may be marginally more conservative than kiwis, but they’re not idiots either. I predict if this Coalition govt goes from Abbott, to Turnbull, and now Dutton … the polls will crash on them even more dramatically.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/malcolm-turnbull-should-put-his-authority-on-the-line-over-neg/10138784

    • Pat 7.1
      20 August 2018 at 9:38 am

      Climate change may well have been a factor in the leadership woes in Oz but I suspect that the issue will remain as even though polls show widespread public concern re the impacts of CC that is not a measure of support for the actions required to address it…..the conflict will remain and meaningful action deferred as the clock ticks.

      Australia are not alone in this conundrum

    • Ad 7.2
      20 August 2018 at 9:55 am

      Keep us posted Red.

      • RedLogix 7.2.1
        20 August 2018 at 10:20 am

        Turnbull’s core problem is that his NEG (National Energy Guarantee) is actually a reasonable policy. It’s not perfect (nothing is in politics) but it’s workable. But this leaves him vulnerable to the shrill extremists from both sides.

        • mickysavage 7.2.1.1
          20 August 2018 at 1:46 pm

          Politically it is reasonable, in terms of what the environment needs it is very weak.

          Dozens of winter bush fires in New South Wales is not usual.

          • RedLogix 7.2.1.1.1
            20 August 2018 at 1:54 pm

            What the environment does not need is the collapse of our energy systems and the reduction of civilisation to a Mad Max dystopia. The only path through is for the researchers and engineers to be funded and supported to design and implement renewable non-fossil carbon solutions as fast possible.

            The risks lie at the extremes, business as usual climate denial or the demolition of the economic order we have. Muddling through the middle is our best bet.

    • dukeofurl 7.3
      20 August 2018 at 10:12 am

      Coal will be around for a while yet as its 63% of electricity production and 15% from renewables ( Coal was 80% around the year 2000)
      plus overall energy use:
      Oil remained the largest primary energy source in Australia, at 37 per cent
      in 2015–16, followed by coal (32 per cent), natural gas (25 per cent) and
      renewables (6 per cent).

      https://www.energy.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3411/f/energy-update-report-2017.pdf

      Plus energy exports in the form of coal and LNG are massive plus they are 10% of world uranium production

    • Jenny 7.4
      20 August 2018 at 10:37 pm

      RedLogix 7
      20 August 2018 at 9:33 am
      Climate change has destabilised three Aussie PM’s already, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott and now Turnbull.

      Australia’s prime minister on Monday abandoned plans to legislate to limit greenhouse gas emissions to head off a revolt by conservative lawmakers.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12110377

      The arm wrestling over climate change inside the Australian government continues.
      Both Abbot and Dutton have been implicated in this latest stoush.

      • Exkiwiforces 7.4.1
        20 August 2018 at 10:53 pm

        It’s actually could it bite Mal twice as he tried to a deal with Rudd when old Mal was the then leader of the Liberal Party and that got very untidy back then.

        From memory an awful lot of people from both sides of the house got burnt including the senate, which was probably the best chance we at achieving meaningful change IRT CC/ clean energy etc we ever had according to most in the fourth estate atm and those like me who were following it at the time.

  8. greywarshark 8
    20 August 2018 at 10:27 am

    Dutton is a leader in the backward facing attitude to NZ. They want to continue on turning their backs to NZ and decent treatment of humans completely. The Australian government is made up of capitalist mechanical monsters. We people have to continue having care for each other’s welfare, and try to elect politicians who will make decisions in conjunction with people, for everyone’s good.

    This morning a piece on Radionz, a NZ woman in Villawood, long term psychiatic facility. she had been in prison for 2-3 years earlier, now separated from family and ill husband. Her husband is in a coma at hospsital 20 mins away but they won’t allow her to visit. He apparently earlier had fled from hospital with trailing drip lines in an attempt to visit her. They have children and grandchildren.
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/364447/visit-with-seriously-ill-partner-turned-down-says-nz-detainee

    There was a mention of something similar in 2015 with a separated couple. They were finally allowed to see each other when the hospitalised person was near death and died in his partners arms. Even that tear jerking happening just runs over the hard metal surface of the politicians who have learned their humanity as children of convicts, people treated like criminals often for minor offences.l

    I was listening to an old song Yesterday, about someone resigned to ending a relationship. It seemed to fit our once fairly friendly one with Australia, now in the past.
    “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” lyrics
    Stevie Wonder Lyrics
    (condensed)

    What happened to the world we knew
    When we would dream and scheme
    And while the time away
    Yesterme yesteryou yesterday

    Where did it go that yester glow
    When we could feel
    The wheel of life turn our way
    Yesterme yesteryou yesterday

    Now it seems those yester dreams
    Were just a cruel
    And foolish game we used to play
    Yesterme yesteryou yesterday
    Writer(s):
    Miller, Ronald Norman. Wells, Bryan
    https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/steviewonder/yestermeyesteryouyesterday.html

  9. Cynical Jester 9
    20 August 2018 at 11:59 am

    A sixth pm in 8 years!!!!!! Lololol

    Turnbull hasn’t won a poll in over two years so I can see why he’d be rolled but imo its not the party’s place to fire the pm it’s the country’s , this goes for every party.

    I do get a giggle out of the coalition being such a shambles after all the shit they talked about the ALP though.

    I still think whoevers leading the coalition will just scrape through though. .. elections are a popularity contest and shorten is like a mix of Goff and Cunliffe and just doesn’t have it in him…

    If it’s Dutton as pm I imagine that’s the end of kiwis living /traveling to aussie without visas and if that happened we’d be screwed as a country because we’d have over a million kiwis coming home from OZ and nowhere to put them. We should plan for this scenario because eventually some populist aussie pm is going to campaign on it. They think of us like Americans think of Mexicans or the uk thinks of eastern Europeans.

  10. Exkiwiforces 10
    20 August 2018 at 12:22 pm

    The ABC has live running blog atm.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/politics-live-august-20/10138786

    My understanding is that Dutton won’t make a run for the leadership unless Labour wins the next the election, but with the mad monk holding court over the backbench then anything is possible.

    As stated by RedLogix, NEG is a very good policy and I’m hoping Mal and his team can push it through the party room.

      • RedLogix 10.1.1
        20 August 2018 at 12:50 pm

        The point is that NEG is a reasonable step in the correct direction. It’s doable. The Aussie Greens prefer to block it and so hand the outcome over to the Abbott gang denialists.

        Most people would think this is obdurate strategy.

        • greywarshark 10.1.1.1
          20 August 2018 at 1:02 pm

          The Greens have to think pragmatically which is hard for them when they have identified the likely future scenario and the steps needed to be taken in a timely fashion.

          But pushing the political boat out into deep enough water so it can turn in a different direction takes time, even if it is the Titanic. The first knot is a start, and then picking up speed and direction can happen. But FGS get it going you preachy purists in Green parties anywhere..

        • Pat 10.1.1.2
          20 August 2018 at 1:10 pm

          On the face of it it would seem to me to be the antithesis of the NZ oil and gas exploration policy….lock in coal and gas use and infrastructure in power generation for decades to come…it is easy to see why the Greens oppose it
          ..there appears some cognitive dissonance in play.

          • RedLogix 10.1.1.2.1
            20 August 2018 at 1:14 pm

            Coal power stations actually have a relatively short life span, usually in the order of 30 years. The problem for Australia is that they have a fair number of existing plants that are at or beyond their useful life and need to be replaced soon.

            The power companies don’t want to build coal plants because they know they’re quickly becoming a stranded asset, but neither is the technology quite ready to replace coal with renewables just yet. Awkward transition made worse by deniers like Abbott blocking every move.

            • Draco T Bastard 10.1.1.2.1.1
              20 August 2018 at 1:33 pm

              The power companies don’t want to build coal plants because they know they’re quickly becoming a stranded asset, but neither is the technology quite ready to replace coal with renewables just yet.

              And thus proving, once again, why power should be a state monopoly. The state can build significant infrastructure while not requiring a profit. They can even do it at a technical loss and not lose.

            • Pat 10.1.1.2.1.2
              20 August 2018 at 1:51 pm

              average life is 40 years ..taking us well past the date when the world needs to be CO2 neutral…..it could in no way be described as ‘the correct direction’…immediate large scale renewables on the other hand are the only current viable alternative that affords the remotest chance of achieving the Paris targets, inadequate as they are…..NEG is a white flag.

      • Exkiwiforces 10.1.2
        20 August 2018 at 3:42 pm

        The Greens really need to pull their collective heads in, as we could’ve had this sewn up under Mal last time, both Rudd and Gillard. But it’s their taken or leave approach which piss’s people off like me as rather have a half plan than have none at all because I want plan for the future. Also it plays into the hands of people like the mad monk and his cohorts.

        • Pat 10.1.2.1
          20 August 2018 at 6:04 pm

          a half (arsed) plan that locks in carbon generated power for the next 4 decades?…..carbon budgets care sweet FA for likes and dislikes.

      • greywarshark 10.2.1
        20 August 2018 at 1:24 pm

        Political grifters scrambling for personal and party advantage while drawing government salaries for rorting the people who pay put their taxes from their personal pockets, rather than business handouts from briefcases.

        • RedLogix 10.2.1.1
          20 August 2018 at 1:33 pm

          Abbott is more problematic than this; he actually believes.

          • greywarshark 10.2.1.1.1
            20 August 2018 at 2:11 pm

            The Mad Monk? These people need to realise that when the revolution comes they and their familiy will be on the list to meet the Czar.

            • RedLogix 10.2.1.1.1.1
              20 August 2018 at 2:56 pm

              Ah yes … and as a member of the loathed ‘landlord class’ I’m under no illusion that I too will be on that same list. Plus my family. Indeed if we were take out the despised 1% globally then pretty much everyone in the developed West can be piled up as corpses.

              So why stop at 1%? Surely the top 90% should go … and finally the meek can inherit a wasteland.

              • paul andersen …
                20 August 2018 at 4:27 pm

                top post redlogix. last line should be on a t-shirt.

              • greywarshark …
                20 August 2018 at 7:33 pm

                Sorry Red Logix it seems that we can’t criticise the rentiers of whom some good could be said before it became the only game in town. You had better start getting testimonials from your tenants to back up your claims to honesty and respect for them to show the people’s inspectors when they do a crackdown. Just be aware that this is like a balloon that is over inflated and when it explodes it won’t be one of those birthday ones filled with sweets.

                • RedLogix …
                  20 August 2018 at 8:04 pm

                  I think my point simple; when you start talking about ‘lists of people to meet the Czar’ you need to have some sense of exactly where the ideological killings will stop.

                  Because everyone seems to think it won’t include them.

      • OnceWasTim 10.2.2
        20 August 2018 at 3:00 pm

        I wonder if that’s cos he’s got Credlin TV rooting for him

        • Exkiwiforces 10.2.2.1
          20 August 2018 at 3:34 pm

          The mad monk is running very effective media campaign on Fox TV and talk back radio along with the printed papers such as the Oz (which I read) the Telly and Sun Herald.

  11. adam 11
    20 August 2018 at 2:00 pm

    Ah when liberalism slowly slips into a form of fascism, all in the name of pragmatism and the common good.

    Funny, feel like we been here before…

  12. Andrea 12
    20 August 2018 at 2:07 pm

    If Dutton slithers into top position what happens to those kids on Nauru? And Manus?

    Before Turnbull starts to roll – would he let them go?

    And what diplomatic things is Winston up to for Kiwis who are long-stay in Aus? Workers and tax payers. Them. A special category of citizenship, perhaps? With a character rating somewhat higher than a born-into Aussie…

  13. millsy 13
    20 August 2018 at 2:09 pm

    I wouldn’t expect a leadership change until after the election next year, when the next leader will get a clean slate. This is all political reporter making things up, which is what they tend to do from time to time.

    Though, Turnbull should have packed Abbott off to Vatican ambassadorship when he had the chance. Same with Gillard when she became PM. A big mistake was leaving their enemies where they were.

    • Exkiwiforces 13.1
      20 August 2018 at 3:58 pm

      Correct Millsy, Old Mal should’ve sent the mad monk off to the Vatican and we might’ve had an effective Government by now under Mal, instead we’ve got the mad monk, the right wing of both the libs and the nats white anting the government/ pollices.

      • Tricledrown 13.1.1
        23 August 2018 at 1:59 am

        Turnbull should call a snap election and that would put an end to the budgie smuggler.

  14. OnceWasTim 14
    20 August 2018 at 2:38 pm

    I’ve given up being amazed by our so-called ‘best friend’ across the deetch.
    Dukeofearl @3.2 above suggests Trump would be envious of Dutton’s Immigration policies (and he probably would).
    We shouldn’t be too smug though, there are a few public servants here in NZ (often ‘new New Zealanders) who’d be quite happy to see something similar.
    I think the time has come to state our (NZ) position loudly. Even if (after a Dutton or whomever other – a Tarn Yabbit maybe) comes to power, and then a Labor gubbamint, which seems inevitable in the near future, I’m not sure they’ll keep their contract – with NZ or the United Nations. Most of the blokes are too busy trying to show how tuff they are.
    We need another Nuclula-Free moment, and one that actually deals with the existential plight of human beings rather than with the potential that things might go tits up.

    Your average Okker bloke has become proud of his ability to bowl underarm.
    I even avoid the place these days as a transit destination. If I still had the Strain passport I once held, I’d be having a ceremonial burning

  15. Morrissey 15
    20 August 2018 at 5:07 pm

    Australian politicians are beneath contempt.

    In Canberra last week I met some Australian members of parliament. It gave me hope, because until I heard them speak I had always thought that Israel’s right wing politicians were the worst. —-(LAUGHTER)— I’ve never heard any Israeli politician speak about the Palestinian people the way that those Australian politicians did. But they are Australia’s problem, not mine. —(LAUGHTER)— I spoke with the Australian foreign minister; she talked and she was very nice but we could not agree on anything.”—(LAUGHTER)

    Gideon Levy, speaking in Mt. Eden, Sunday Dec. 3, 2017

    https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16-12-2017/#comment-1426789

  16. te reo putake 16
    20 August 2018 at 6:05 pm

    ” … and the immigration minister, Dutton, he’s evil.”

    I wrote about the devastating effect of being deported on a young man back in 2015.

    I called him Doug in the article, however his real name was Matthew. He’s dead now.

    Matthew hung himself in a Wellington playground a year ago. He had no chance here in a country where he knew nobody, his only ‘friends’ were in gangs and his family were back in Oz.

    His assessment of Peter Dutton lives on.

    Evil.

    • RedLogix 16.1
      20 August 2018 at 6:50 pm

      Yes I recall that article trp. I’m genuinely bummed to read of what happened to Matthew. NZ officials could well be a lot more proactive in preventing these cases; they seem to be able to handle the complexities of Dual Tax Residency ok, so it shouldn’t be too hard to simply determine that someone like Matthew was always an Australian resident and negotiate a lot harder to prevent these forced deportations.

      Dutton is not widely liked or respected; but he’s tolerated because he’s operated an effective policy on stopping illegal immigration. That and climate change have become the ‘third rail’ issues here in Australia for over a decade. Both issues present existential challenges to Australia to a degree that New Zealand does not suffer from. Dutton is merely a product of that dysfunction.

    • OnceWasTim 16.2
      20 August 2018 at 6:51 pm

      There are 3 of them that wouldn’t look out of place in jackboots:
      Dutton, Cormann and Morrison.

      I watched them today on Credlin TV.
      Even bloody Pauline Hanson in the Senate came across as far more sensible – and at least she’s got an excuse.

      And yes @ exkiwiforces, Credlin TV has got it down to a fine art. A panel full of hard righties with one so-called token leftie (a la ‘Richo’). Watch the way the likes of Rowan Deane and Bolt do that whole finger pointing thing. Deane is like a Hooton throwing a hissy fit.

      They’d be funny if they weren’t such callous bastards

      • Exkiwiforces 16.2.1
        20 August 2018 at 7:25 pm

        That muppet Richo is from the right wing of the Labour Party and quite frankly I wouldn’t piss on him even if he was fire as he is more useful for inflating hot air balloons with his hot air, hot wind and along with his over inflated ego than a couple of gas bottles used for inflating a hot air balloon.

        I think was only a senator and he only got there because he was a numbers man for the right as no one in their right mind would for him for a seat the House of Rep.

        He play the percentages very well in other words not a team player as he is more worried about himself than anybody else.

  17. Paul Campbell 17
    20 August 2018 at 6:29 pm

    It’s the middle of winter and Sydney is burning, meanwhile Australia is being run by a mob of emus with their heads in the sand.

    Australia is bone dry in the middle and now going crispy at the edges, meanwhile they’re using gas and coal to make their power, in a place where all that empty space could be full of solar.

    I think what’s going to happen when all their water drys up they’re all going to come here, I think that if they’re not going to be responsible and take global warming seriously we should remove the right for Australians to come here

    • greywarshark 17.1
      20 August 2018 at 7:25 pm

      Paul Campbell. We know that Oz is the place where you never have to say you’re sorry, and it isn’t ‘done’ to even think it.

      So Oz will screw each other but at the same time they will screw us as well and come over to see what is left from this country that not to deep down they consider lacks balls. They despise us – it shows up in their attitudes over decades, gradually worsening.

      Protecting yourself from entities with attitudes like that is important. If NZ wants to have a semi-decent country to live in and we can somehow rein in the more egregious practices and systems here, we must seriously take steps to limit what others can take from NZ remaining resource. This is limited because the traitors that undermined Labour and those in National decimated anything of quality in their policies, have sold our financial system to Oz and practically cut out NZs heart with their steely knives. We just have to hope that they haven’t killed the simple, trusting beast that represents how we used to be.

    • Exkiwiforces 17.2
      20 August 2018 at 7:41 pm

      Sorry you got it wrong, we are run a bunch of emu’s looking for water atm. You’ll be lucky now to a paddle boat up the darling river just past Wentworth let alone two blokes in a row boat atm.

      With fires breaking out all over the place atm along the east coast it’s getting a little bit crazy when one considers it’s still winter, hell even East Gippsland is about to be drought declared and that place is usually gumboot weather at this time of the year.

  18. Exkiwiforces 18
    20 August 2018 at 7:58 pm

    Here a wee piece from the ABC’s political reporter on the Coalitions right wing guerilla warfare on Mal atm.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-20/malcolm-turnbull-facing-guerilla-warfare/10139276

  19. te reo putake 19
    20 August 2018 at 9:52 pm

    Big story breaking in Australia tonight that Dutton isn’t actually eligible to be an MP. Ironically, he’s barely eligible to be human.

    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/leadership-twist-as-report-claims-peter-dutton-could-be-ineligible-to-sit-in-parliament-20180820-p4zyn1.html?platform=hootsuite

    • RedLogix 19.1
      20 August 2018 at 10:06 pm

      Borderline. A political hand grenade yes, but legally not clear-cut. The law is intended to prevent Ministers and MP’s from exerting political influence for their own personal benefit, and there is no evidence that is the case here.

    • millsy 19.2
      20 August 2018 at 10:28 pm

      Guess he won’t be making any moves yet.

  20. OnceWasTim 20
    21 August 2018 at 11:15 am

    Turnbull just called Dutton’s bluff according to Credlin TV by declaring leadership vacent.
    So now, a vote – both Dutton and Turnbull standing.

    What a joke

    • Cinny 20.1
      21 August 2018 at 12:00 pm

      Malcolm Turnbull will remain Australia’s Prime Minister after defeating a leadership challenge from hard-line Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, 48 to 35.

      11.50am: Peter Dutton has resigned as Home Affairs and Immigration Minister after his failed leadership bid. He will leave the government’s frontbench.

      • OnceWasTim 20.1.1
        21 August 2018 at 1:13 pm

        I might have to grab the popcorn and watch Credlin TV tonight. It’ll be like Dancing with the Fallen Stars.
        Credlin, The Bolt Report, Paul Murray live (keen to hear what you think), Alan Jones.

        We think we’ve got it bad here (and we do), but by comparison, the Okkers are positively feral no matter how hard they try and dress it up with the sophisticates
        Joolie Bishop and Bronwyn Bishop.
        I should send them a pair of pearl necklaces for them to clutch.

        It’ll be ‘outrageous’ darling!
        No wonder David Lipson got the fuck out of there

        • Exkiwiforces 20.1.1.1
          21 August 2018 at 1:19 pm

          Sorry Tim, I won’t be help to you as I found Fox Pay TV to be a WOFTAM as the wife and I handed back our box a few yrs ago.

          I only have the Oz paper now and that’s for the business, sports sections and their supplements in various topics.

          • OnceWasTim 20.1.1.1.1
            21 August 2018 at 1:39 pm

            🙂

            Have you ever noticed how the ‘well-assimilated’ upper muddle class okker has his/her name buggerised as a term of endearment between maaaaaaaaaaates?
            It’s either an ‘o’ or an ‘ie’ – such jocularity eh?

            Richo, Jonesie, Speersie.
            There’s probably a Deano (Rowan Deane) and a Credo (Peta Credlin) and a Paulie (Paul Murray) , etc.

            “We’re not prej dice eh?. Stray Ya was built on immigration”

            Sometimes I wonder whether it has all grown out of their inherent racism over time – you know: the Abbos, the Lebboes, the Grekos, the Chinkies, the Nargies, the Ities….

            As they become assimilated into the ‘Okker way and cultcha’ and become accepted as Stray Yans, maybe they have to translate it all to a personl level.
            (Or maybe I over-analyse)

            But I have to go …. Speersie is trying to get hold of Dutto for a response
            (He’s on a panel with Ashley Gillon – Gillo and the Tova OBbrien equivalent whose name eludes me atm)

            • Exkiwiforces 20.1.1.1.1.1
              21 August 2018 at 2:05 pm

              Unfortunately OWT, you’re find shorting one’s name happens from the big end of town all way down to the bottom end of town.

              Then you’re got white fella and black fella in some of Northern and outback parts of Oz, then there is old mate “ can’t remember his or her name”
              Then these one’ which really confuses the yanks
              Then there is old mate “can’t remember his or her name etc”
              G’day you old bastard
              G’day you old c**t or wanker or dick head, sheep shagger the list goes on.

              Then add in kiwi, Pom or pommy, lazy, mad, Saff’a, have moths attack you again or got the missus moths again etc.

              • RedLogix …
                22 August 2018 at 9:45 pm

                Yeah I recall one sparkie (a really great bloke) getting quite offended when I thoughtlessly called him by his real name!

  21. greywarshark 21
    21 August 2018 at 2:35 pm

    This was an Oz reporter talking to Guyon Espiner this morning. I think this is the one where the liine was about Peter Dutton standing firmly about limiting immigration. And was half defending his crusade against crime which allows him to pluck people out of their homes with a straight face and an up0standing posture. It should make Oz cringe, but their natural posture is at right angles so they wouldn’t know different.
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018659017/australian-politics-speculation-dutton-to-roll-turnbull

  23. Exkiwiforces 23
    22 August 2018 at 2:28 pm

    Well folks it back on again today and I don’t think Mal will survive today let alone the end of the week.

    Here the running blog from ABC News website

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-22/liberal-party-leadership-dramas-august-22/10150662

  24. Exkiwiforces 24
    22 August 2018 at 2:44 pm

    Turn on your telly folks or the wireless, Mal is going to the media at 1pm Australian EST.

    This is why I don’t get involved with Aussie politics at any level now as it’s rooted.

    https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/the-latest-leadership-spill-proves-one-thing-democracy-is-dead-in-australia/news-story/2626e417ac7df0fdde4778959e818353

  25. RedLogix 25
    22 August 2018 at 9:51 pm

    Breaking:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-22/liberal-party-leadership-dramas-august-22/10150662

    Truly a circus. But us kiwis should not be so smug either. Two fraught issues, illegal immigration and climate change have destabilised four Aussie PMs in the past decade. Both questions are of far greater existential weight to Australia than NZ.

    It’s mere geographic luck that we’ve been able to play both issues real soft; otherwise we’d be starring as the warm-up act in the big tent too.

    • Exkiwiforces 25.1
      22 August 2018 at 10:33 pm

      Yes, the knifes are out are tonight and the current rumour is the Australian version of Conan has withdrawn his support for Mal and is now supporting Cone head/ buttons. Conan is saying no and he is supporting Mal so fuck knows what going on there, but the big news tonight is that someone from Mal’s side, a staffer or someone from within the Liberal party has a big dirt file on Cone Head from section 48 of the Australian Constitution and his time as the minister for Border Protection over an o’pear whatever the spelling is someone who looks after kids for something in return etc etc.

      The petition is has enough signatures to ask the question of another leadship spill either tonight or tomorrow morning according to the ABC News.

      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-22/liberal-party-leadership-dramas-august-22/10150662

      It’s a shame Clarke and Dawes are around atm as they would have a enough material atm to last a life time with this pack of useless clowns, muppets etc.

      • Exkiwiforces 25.1.1
        22 August 2018 at 11:14 pm

        It should be section 44c not section 48 of the Australian Constitution, my apologies on that one.

        Anyway here’s the article about Cone Head and section 44- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-22/solicitor-general-to-check-if-dutton-in-breach-of-constitution/10153072

        • RedLogix 25.1.1.1
          23 August 2018 at 5:55 am

          Yes I just read that article on Dutton’s legal problem. At first I was inclined to minimise it, but given there is solid recent precedent with Bob Day I may well be wrong. Clearly someone senior has given instructions to sharpen the knife.

          In the light of this you have to think Dutton is toast. And even if he did make PM he’d be less popular than Abbott.

          • Exkiwiforces 25.1.1.1.1
            23 August 2018 at 12:10 pm

            I can’t stand old Buttons or the right wing of the Liberal Party at all. Old Mal has give it a far old crack it, but these old knuckle dragers from the right have been White anting old Mal since the last election.

            Bill Shorten is only there because he is a numbers man and is the current party room favourite. So watch the polls if he wins the next election would looks like to be at even odds atm.

            I see Conan has withdrawn his support for old Mal this morning. So the end is near for us forward looking voters who what change IRT CC, a meaningful debate on immigration and it’s back to populism politics.

      • Tricledrown 25.1.2
        23 August 2018 at 12:29 am

        Xkiwiforces the next election will give them the boot

        • RedLogix 25.1.2.1
          23 August 2018 at 6:01 am

          Like a woman Pope, you can only hope the ALP would be an improvement. Their past record ain’t encouraging.

          But seriously, the problem is not so much the personalities, but a political system grappling with two existential questions, immigration and climate change, that it has not been able to resolve. And the reason why it cannot resolve these questions comes down to an idiotic, counter-productive political polarisation by extremists on both sides of the argument.

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