Comments on: Royal commission a step closer, but will it be on Abbott’s watch?

By: Carl Peterson

Carl Peterson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 02:17:51 +0000

This Royal Commission under Tony Abbot’s watch would be the ultimate “Fox in charge of the hen’s house” cliche. Abbot would do anything to protect his Church and derail any efforts that could deliver justice to the victims.

By: Steve777

Steve777 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:52:50 +0000

Bipartisanship in calling setting up a Royal Commission is a very rare indeed. This RC is to address issues that concern pretty much everyone regardless of their politics. There is a desire on the part of all involved to both get it right and, for the most part, not play politics with it. The old saw that you don’t call an enquiry unless you know the result (and it is one which will embarrass the opposition) doesn’t apply here. For example, expect Royal Commissions into alleged misdeeds of unions and unionists when Tony Abbott takes power. In this case, while we know that it’s going to find some pretty appalling stuff, there seem to be no obvious political implications for either side. However, the full outworkings of what this commission will find can only be guessed at at this stage.

P.S. I haven’t read the Australian recently. I stopped buying it when it started openly campaigning for regime change like its tabloid stablemates and pushing voodoo climate science. It does seem from this article that Paul Kelly’s output has deteriorated in the last couple of years.

By: AR

AR — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:25:07 +0000

Polonius just gets wronger by the day, don’t he? Shorley time he was put out to grass or sent to the glue factory.

By: Mark from Melbourne

Mark from Melbourne — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:58:32 +0000

Couldn’t believe Paul Kelly was actually still in this dimension when he wrote his rave. Quite unbelievably detached from reality and swinging wildly at anything he was upset with.

I tried to resist but couldn’t help wondering: Kelly-Irish-Catholic??? Seemed quite out of character I must say.

By: Edward James

Edward James — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 03:33:46 +0000

This Royal Commission is answerable to no one political party, it will be in place to do what the victims have been calling for for decades. Once set in motion it can’t be stopped. The terms of reference are the next important part in moving forward. we do not want what happened with the inquiry expected to look again at the Heiner Affair in Queensland among other issues. Having its terms of reference restricted on a point of law. Restricting what the meaning of the word “government” meant as the scope was deemed too broad a field for investigation. Edward James