Comments on: Gillard’s D-Day: PM calls election for Sep 14

By: robinw

robinw — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 06:36:19 +0000

Very interesting article from the US about Republican tactics and their latest failure with Obama winning. The similarities with our local Republican nutters, aka the Coalition, are striking. I can only hope the outcome is the same. http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/finally-swaggering-republicans-are-afraid

For what it’s worth, I think that once again Gillard has thought outside the box, hence the squeals from the MSM commentariat and their bosses and I have a gut feeling that it just might work.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:31:50 +0000

Holden - I think it would be oil your cricket bat, although that may have changed with these newer bats.

As for the question - limited brain capacity springs to mind.

By: Holden Back

Holden Back — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:14:34 +0000

Why do Australian conservatives consistently pinch tactics, and even phrases, from the American Republicans’ playbooks?

Polish your cricket bat, surely, if you’re aiming for the local idiom.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:10:33 +0000

Holden Back - Wouldn’t it be down at the RSL?

By: Holden Back

Holden Back — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:13:41 +0000

I wonder in which location these baseball bats are being polished. Somewhere the sun doesn’t shine?

Or Mississippi?

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:45:25 +0000

SB - “people have 8 months to shine the baseball bats” Considering you have had these “baseball bats” being “shined” for the entire time Gillard has been in office you had better watch out in case they have been worn so thin they snap on impact.

I wonder could you provide 5 reasons to vote Abbott in, not vote Gillard out but 5 things that an Abbott govt will do that will be of benefit to the country.

By: Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:32:22 +0000

Throughout the recent American presidential election I often reflected that our forthcoming parliamentary elections would be a mirror image of the USA experience.
Ms Gillard’s early calling of the election day is evidence of the Australian unique ability to think outside the box or square and so break this political umbilical cord that Murdoch wishes to strangle us with.
She has now challenged the MSM in general and in particular the Murdoch rags to find the essence and substance of the alternative on offer and given them eight months to expose the inadequate leadership qualities that Mr Abbott possess to lead this country.
I suspect that Prime Minister Gillard has written the first par of Tony Abbott’s political obituary, for under the glare of proper media and public scrutiny he and Hockey Stick Joe et al will fall far short of the nations ambitions, for themselves and their offspring.
Ms Gillard has thrown down the gauntlet to the Mr Abbott and it will no longer suffice to be answered with one liners, platitudes, personal denigration, vitriol and PR cliches that the press have allowed him to indulge in over the past two years.
And even, if purchance, she should fail I think wiser heads in the Liberal party will quickly bring his tenure to an abrupt halt by kicking the early sods into his political grave.
Ms Gillard perhaps, even at the risks of political failure, will have done the nation a service in ridding our political landscape of this blot on our nation’s proud history.

By: John Drakes

John Drakes — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:11:38 +0000

Oh no!
8 months of campaign bombardment from both sides and then the inevitable outcome
- Rambo becomes PM. I hope I’m wrong.

By: El Nino

El Nino — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:45:48 +0000

@ Taylormade it seems you are correct, read a little more about how the PBO is supposed to function - little hope that it will do much good. Shame.

By: taylormade

taylormade — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:26:27 +0000

El Nino “I’m assuming the newly formed Parliamentary Budget Office will be costing any policies coming forward. A lot of work for those guys between now and the election”

Not sure about the now, I dont reckon Libs will release until August, and if Swan is anyway involved and he will be based on past experience, then i think the Libs will submit very little.

By: Andybob

Andybob — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:22:58 +0000

At last a wise political decision by Gillard. It takes the date speculation nonsense completely out of play and forces the focus on policy.

Four year terms and a fixed date for elections would be even better but I understand why we can’t have nice things.

By: El Nino

El Nino — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:59:44 +0000

I’m assuming the newly formed Parliamentary Budget Office will be costing any policies coming forward. A lot of work for those guys between now and the election.

By: tonyfunnywalker

tonyfunnywalker — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:25:45 +0000

I note the suggestion that choosing Yom Kuppir will upset the electorate with significant Jewish voters.

It did not stop Israel going to war in 1972.

” The war began when the coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which happened to occur that year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Israeli-held Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights respectively, which had been captured and occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War. Both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear superpowers. ” Wikipedia.

Again an example of poor research by News and other journalists.

By: geomac62

geomac62 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:15:24 +0000

The gormless grin on Howards face as he toyed with journos asking for an election date used annoy me no end . I see no real advantage or disadvantage for the PM to set the date early , just being pragmatic . While it may force the opposition to give more details on policy according to some posts whats to stop them doing nothing until close to the election ? Rel ying on the mainstream media looks like a false hope as the Ashby/libnat sham has shown . Focus on the pre trial PR and lose interest once the judge handed out his verdict . If Abetz can still sit on senate inquiries after the Greche fiasco don,t expect Brough , Pyne or Bishop to lose sleep over the Ashby case . Abbott is too busy doing stuff for Australia , important stuff you know .

By: tonyfunnywalker

tonyfunnywalker — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:11:39 +0000

Abbott caught out. What he tried to contrive by foul means has now caught his and the Liberals unaware. He will need every second and I wonder of the trip to Sri Lanka will be postponed.

Gillard is the master of surprise, she ” flies like a butterfly and stings like a bee. For a keen observer in these bloggs this was an obvious strategy and a less expensive one.

Labor understands that decisions are a learning process - so rather than knee jerk and Hip pocket strategies the voter can understand the different policies and make their decisions accordingly.

It is less dependent on advertising and the media which is expensive, boring and meaningless - people tune out.

It is interesting what the Liberals will do - at the moment it is a campaign to ” love Abbott” he is not just an attack dog.

The is will not be a campaign of populist slogans as the last one was and this one was shaping up to be all about the carbon tax.

Abbott says it will be about trust - note Gillard’s new spectacles. Someone has been doing a lot of work on the psychology of trust in the labor campaign room.

By: Suzanne Blake

Suzanne Blake — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:05:58 +0000

I wonder if this was McTernan’s idea?

It will be a failure, people have 8 months to shine the baseball bats

By: iggy648

iggy648 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:56:48 +0000

And they’ll double the sky commentaries where they have an ex Liberal minister and an old white male JG hating ex Labor man for balance!

By: Roberto Tedesco

Roberto Tedesco — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:13:39 +0000

I haven’t checked but I’m sure the knuckle draggers at the usual suspects’ blogs will have wheeled out their “worst prime minister ever” and “266 days? Pah, we wanna election now!” howls. If they have to keep doing that for 8 months they may not make it to the polling booth come September

By: Venise Alstergren

Venise Alstergren — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:13:31 +0000

It’s an interesting decision by the Gillard government. The major concern being the eight months of free advertising being given to the Liberal Party by News Corp. Perhaps if the PM had said the election will be held next month she would have gained a major hit on Tony Abbott.

By: geomac62

geomac62 — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:42 +0000

The gormless grin on Howards face as toyed with journos asking for an election date used annoy me no end . I see no real advantage or disadvantage for the PM to set the date early , just being pragmatic . While it may force the opposition to give more details on policy according to some posts whats to stop them doing nothing until close to the election ? Relying on the mainstream media looks like a false hope as the Ashby/libnat sham has shown . Focus on the pre trial PR and lose interest once the judge handed out his verdict . If Abetz can still sit on senate inquiries after the Greche fiasco don,t expect Brough , Pyne or Bishop to lose sleep over the Ashby case . Abbott is too busy doing stuff for Australia , important stuff you know .

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:18:19 +0000

“There was never going to be a switch to Turnbull. While the secret wet dream of a lot of lefties, Malcolm never have any power or support from the right wing of the Liberal party” If it got to June and polls were 50-50 or God forbid 51-49 Alp it might not have been Turnbull but there would of been some measuring up being done.

“if you track the 4 poll averages, there hasn’t been a lot of movement from 52/48 the coalitions way in a long time)” 52-48 is pretty good for the govt at this time, they have only got positive policies left to implement, Abbott has some massive budget problems, Newman’s & Balli eu’s slide will continue, the Carbon Tax will get less of an issue and who knows what will happen with Ashby and at some point voters might actually start thinking about what they would be voting in rather than what they are voting out.

There have been a lot of Govt’s who have won from 48-52 at this point in the cycle.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:12:40 +0000

Ian - I completely agree there are questions to be asked on Ashby (interestingly in the age a couple of weeks back there was an article asking why the media hadn’t followed up on the Ashby saga so it might bound back once parliament resumes and holidays end).
But you only have to look at Abbott’s performances on 7.30 et el and look at how often he does them to see that even if they don’t really ask the hard questions even the slightly harder questions are too much for him.
And the group think could change, if the story starts to become more about Abbott and what sort of govt he wold lead, or perhaps even about “could Abbott lose the unlosable election” if the polls close.

Not holding out much hope but you have to have some.

The Pav you better book you tickets early, I think if Abbott gets in there will be an exodus.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:09:02 +0000

There was never going to be a switch to Turnbull. While the secret wet dream of a lot of lefties, Malcolm never have any power or support from the right wing of the Liberal party. The Nationals were also not fans.
Abbott is, and has always been, the Coalitions best hope of victory as he has the support of both left and right wings of the party. The nutters love him, and the moderates can deal with him.
I’d be surprised if he doesn’t romp home to victory in September (the polls certainly appear to be leaning that way…if you track the 4 poll averages, there hasn’t been a lot of movement from 52/48 the coalitions way in a long time)

By: The Pav

The Pav — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:02:48 +0000

Scott

Normally you would be right but I think this is a totally different paradigm therefore it makes sense to do something different.

I don’t know if it will work but lets face it Abbott’s just been running a campaign since the last election instead of a credible opposition so there’s no change there other than he can’t now get away with the usual line of saying I’ll release my real policies when the election is on.

Remember last time when they couldn’t add up but it came out too late for people to realise

The other thing is it will throw responsibility onto the media to be more rigourous as it is now an election statement not the normal grandstanding

Interesting move, possibly smart and perhaps people will be glad of the forewarning

Getting my passport done up right now

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:02:14 +0000

Jimmy@7

With the notable exception of a couple of independent internet sites there would not be a msm journo with the very necessary internal strength, ethics, morality or courage to go against the groupthink.

An example….Who’s paying Ashbys’ legal bills? If it’s pro-bono?….Why?

Not even Abbott would be silly enough to front for a very public Jones or Uhlman groin massage.