The Australian Prime Minister

[Warrigal]

In response to a question elsewhere I'm starting this thread about Tony Abbott.
He is a politician like no other I have ever experienced.
He's a contradiction in terms because he is not a conviction politician.
He is an expediency politician IMO.

Here's a current open letter to him and it is not written by a fan.
My comments in blue

Posted: June 27, 2015| Author:Victoria Rollison|Filed under:Open Letters|3 Comments
Dear Tony Abbott,

I will try to keep this letter brief as I know you have a short attention span and since you’ve never responded to my previous correspondence, I can only guess it was because they were longer than your brain capacity could absorb. The main topic of this letter is to let you know that I think you’re an opportunistic, petty, vindictive creep and that you’re running the country as if you would like to imagine that all Australians are equally as petty and vindictive as you. But we’re not. And you’re not going to win your soon to be announced election because we’re better than that.

Over the last 24 hours, Barack Obama, the greatest President America has ever had and possibly the best leader the world has ever seen, has once again shown what it is to be a visionary, compassionate, highly intelligent, gracious, composed and dignified statesman. He sang Amazing Grace at the funeral of Charleston murder victim Rev. Clementa Pinckney as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to lead the chorus. He celebrated the decision by the US Supreme Court to recognise the constitutional legality of gay marriage by tweeting with hashtag #LoveWins. Obama is a giant of our world, whether you agree with his politics or not. And next to him, your pettiness, your aggression, your predilection for the path of least residence to the lowest common denominator makes you a meaningless flea. A blip that will be forgotten by history as a negative, sloganeering, fear-inducing, mean spirited low point of Australia’s history.

In the last 24 hours, you and your government have shown your true colours. With three terrorism attacks overseas in France, Kuwait and Tunisia, the pleasure in your eyes, the excitement at having a scare mechanism, the opportunity for you to use these events politically, make me feel ill. You’ve said the death cult is coming for Australians. (Death cult is one of his favourite expressions these days) You’re ramping up the rhetoric on threat levels which have absolutely no grounding in reality. You’re using the deaths of innocent people at the hands of barbaric, violent, evil, yet distant, criminals to further your own political cause. If you can’t see how low it is that you enjoy, and take pleasure out of these opportunities to be a scaremonger, let me tell you, it’s unedifying to the extreme. We know you’re only talking about national security because you’ve comprehensively failed to deliver vision, policies, negotiation, competency and functional government in any policy area so far in your dysfunctional term as Prime Minister. You therefore rely on plane crashes, on sieges carried out by mentally ill lone-wolves, and on the tragedies of people in far-away places to make yourself feel better about yourself. To keep your flag collection multiplying. (We count the terror level these days by the number of national flags trotted out for press announcements. So far the maximum has been 10) For opportunistic photo stunts. Petty. Vindictive. Creepy.

And of course, everything you do, everything you have ever done in opposition and seamlessly into government is just about wrecking progressive policies with your negative ‘always on’ election campaign. We hear this morning that you’ve already produced negative attack ads about Bill Shorten (the Opposition Leader who has come to politics from the union movement) . Is Shorten the first thing you think about when you wake up? I bet he is. You are the Prime Minister of arguably the best country in the world and all you care about is bashing your political rivals. Of giving jobs to your boys. You want to unpick every good progressive policy this country has ever delivered and take us back to a yesterday that none of us are interested in revisiting. Wrecking health and education funding. (When the pervious government introduced ground breaking legislation on a national disability scheme and a revolutionary education scheme that distributed funding according to need, not postcode, Tony Abbott and all but about 3 of his party were absent. He claimed to support them but in office he has all but dismantled them) Destroying technological advancement. Wrecking environmental policy. Wrecking whole industries and destroying thousands of jobs. Depressing consumer confidence and in turn destroying economic growth. Wrecking social security. Dog whistling about asylum seekers while they are treated in detention centres no better than captives of the ISIS ‘death cult’. Attacking the union movement. Your nasty little thought bubbles on user-pays public education and wielding your wrecking ball into highly successful industry super funds are just the latest of the daily onslaught of terror you wreck on ordinary Australians. And why do you do it? For the same reason as a dog licks his balls. Because he can.

I dare you to go to an early election Tony Abbott. I dare you to believe that Australia wants to give you another chance to do even more damage to the fabric of our community. While you use national security as your play thing, we can see what you’re trying to do. Your leaked memo made that very clear. And when I compare you, the petty, vindictive, creepy flea, to the likes of Barack Obama, I want to cry with frustration. The sooner you give me and the rest of Australia the chance to vote you out, the better.

Yours sincerely
Victoria Rollison
http://victoriarollison.com/2015/06/27/an-open-letter-to-tony-abbott-2/

Highly unlikely that we will get an early election so we're stuck with him for a while yet.

 

[Shalimar]

Wow, DW, what an indictment. Do many Australians share her outrage? How did this questionable individual become Prime Minister? Please forgive my ignorance of Australian politics. He sounds worse than our conservative PM.

 

[Warrigal]

I'm glad you asked but it's a long story. Starting with his university days.

Tony Abbott was a student at Sydney University and lived in one of the colleges, something less affluent students like myself were unable to do. Here he forged political alliances (our current Treasurer is a contemporary) and he became active in student politics as a Young Liberal.

Here is a bit of background that is pretty well substantiated. It was written before he was elected to power.

A SYDNEY barrister, David Patch, has corroborated a woman's claim that Tony Abbott behaved in an intimidatory fashion when she beat him in a vote for Sydney University Student Representative Council president in 1977.

Mr Abbott has denied the account from Barbara Ramjan - published in David Marr's Quarterly Essay, ''Political Animal: The Making of Tony Abbott'' - that he came within an inch of her nose and punched the wall on either side of her head.

But Mr Patch, who won the SRC presidency in 1975, said he had been Ms Ramjan's campaign manager in 1977, and she had told him about the Abbott incident immediately after it happened.

Sydney barrister David Patch has corroborated a woman's claim that Tony Abbott behaved in an intimidatory fashion.

He writes in today's Age: ''I did not see the incident, but I was nearby. The count had just finished. Barbara found me. She is a small woman, and Tony Abbott was (and is) a strong man. She was very shaken, scared and angry. She told me that Tony Abbott had come up to her, put his face in her face, and punched the wall on either side of her head.

In the report, Patch details more disquieting information about Abbott's underlying misogyny and bigotry:

The wall-punching event was not an isolated one, he writes. ''As President, Ramjan chaired SRC meetings. She did not want to be called 'Mr Chairman', but preferred 'Chairperson'. But for an entire year Abbott called Ramjan 'Chairthing' whenever he addressed her at SRC meetings.

''The gender-based disrespect for her office and her person is remarkably similar to the disrespectful way that Abbott treats the Prime Minister, and her office, today.''

Mr Patch says he knew Mr Abbott well at the time, beating him for an election for student member of the University Senate. ''Although he was an active member of a fundamentalist political movement with a religious base (the DLP and the National Civic Council led by Bob Santamaria), it was his personally offensive behaviour which stood out.

''He was always (verbally) attacking gays and feminists and lefties. You certainly knew what he was against - the trouble was that you couldn't figure out what he was in favour of! Once again, the parallels with the way he operates today are, to those who knew him then, quite remarkable.''


​

For Independent Australia readers, none of this information will have come as a surprise, as we have been investigating all these aspects of Tony Abbott's character for some time; only now does it seem that the starstruck mainstream press is finally catching up.Of course, his bullying and bigotry have continued to the current day. The following is a report we first published on this topic on 23 December 2010:

Tony Abbott: a relic from the 1950s

Tony Abbott is an elitist, a homophobe and a misogynist — Australians must not allow him to take this country back to the 1950s. David Donovan reports.

Tony Abbott is not fit to be Australian Prime Minister and there are many reasons for this, some of which I have previously written about. For example, he is untrustworthy — by his own admission, you can't believe anything he says unless his comments come from a carefully scripted statement. He is arrogant, ideological and prone to errors of judgement — like his decision to, and excuse for, going to a British Conservative Party Conference in preference to visiting Australian troops in Afghanistan in 2010.

But perhaps the major reason Abbott should never be allowed to be Australian Prime Minister is that he will not govern fairly for all Australians. Fundamentally, he does not believe all people are equal. He believes royalty are inherently better than “commoners”, is threatenened by homosexuals and is bigoted towards women.

Elitist Abbott

His attitude towards royalty is well-known and is a good example of his fundamentally inegalitarian nature. Despite being a Catholic himself – a religion specifically excluded from ever being the monarch (and therefore Australian head of state) by the 1701 Act of Settlement – Abbott is a fanatical royalist. Most Australians see the principles of selective hereditary succession for our head of state as being discriminatory, but Abbott sees no problem with the archiac principles of primogeniture.

It’s fine, Abbott wrote in 2007, because the Crown is '…hereditary…like looks, intelligence, aptitudes and even property'.

The Nazis in Germany believed that certain people were more favoured genetically than others and they, amongst others, used this as an excuse for their treatment of so-called "inferior" races.

Abbott should know that the principles of eugenics were discredited at around the same time Nazi Germany was defeated and discovered to be trying to breed a master race. Furthermore, it says that Abbott has an elitist, hierarchical, view of society. Workers will stay workers and bosses will stay bosses, he seems to say, because genetics has got us to where we are today. This is not a vision of an egalitarian society where any child could rise to the top through hard work. It is no vision at all.

Lots more but that's enough for now. Someone may wish to dispute the above.

 

[Shalimar]

DW, many people in my profession would speak of this as sociopathic behaviour, scary. As this individual ages, and his pride in his physicality diminishes, I wonder what will happen to the anger? Sets my therapist lights flashing.

 

[Warrigal]

But his pride in his physicality hasn't diminished all that much. He was a boxer and a rugby player at university at Sydney and at Oxford where he had a Rhodes scholarship. He once punched his mate Joe Hockey (now our treasurer) during a rugby game and knocked him unconscious. He runs, cycles, swims, is an active lifesaver and a volunteer bush fire fighter At least he was before becoming PM. He has less time for it now but still finds time for the usual photo ops. He can't get enough of opportunities to appear manly - visiting factories in a hard hat and hi vis gear, ditto the troops overseas for shoots in military vehicles (he does have a licence to drive a fire truck). Most politicians do this but he does it more than most.

Are you ready for some more?

 

[Ameriscot]

My in laws in Oz would all agree! They hate him!

 

[Shalimar]

Go for it DW.

 

[Warrigal]

OK. I'm on a roll. If you would like to view the videos, follow this link https://independentaustralia.net/po...sity-bigot-and-bully-and-still-one-today,4494 The one featuring Tony Windsor is particularly revealing. Windsor was one of the independents who had to decide whether to support Gillard or Abbott in the hung parliament of 2010. He chose Gillard.

More from The Independent

Homophobic Abbott

Abbott has a strongly questionable attitude towards homosexuals. In March 2010, when questioned about his attitude towards gays, he said he felt “threatened” by them.

If he feels threatened by them, it seems likely that he will avoid confronting their issues? We already know that he doesn’t believe in gay marriage – the touchstone issue of homosexual equality – despite the overwhelming majority of the Australian population being in favour of this reform. And, moreover, when someone is threatened aren’t they more likely to strike out in anger? Abbott seems more than likely to attempt to punish homosexuals by punitive legislation if he becomes Prime Minister, particularly when his strong religious beliefs are taken into account. (He refuses to allow a conscience vote for his MPs on any legislation legalising same sex marriage. His sister is a lesbian who wants to marry her partner)

Tony Abbott - 50's man
Play Video

Bullying mysogynist Abbott

Most disturbing of all, arguably, is the fact that Abbott is bigoted against 50 per cent of the population—women.
We were reminded of this during an ABC Four Corners programme screened in the aftermath of the Independents decision to side with the Labor Party after this year’s federal flection. In the documentary, after a meeting with the Independents in which Abbott attempted to placate the three over a massive black hole just discovered by Treasury in the Coalition’s election costings, a glowering Abbott emerged. The reporter, Sophie Ferguson, immediately asked Abbott the question that any credible journalist would, or should, ask under these circumstances: was this black-hole the reason the Coalition did not want to give the Independents their costings?

“That is a very offensive question” he snarled, twice, before looming up to the petite Ferguson, scowling. It was a scene reminiscent of the Mark Latham’s handshake with John Howard at the 2004 Federal election that had so cruelled Latham’s chances. It showed an Abbott that, when under pressure – when the fake charm is wiped away – is something of a bully and a misogynist.

Abbott has shown this several times before
For example, in a public debate with the shadow health minister Julia Roxon during the 2007 election campaign, Abbott was an almost unforgivable half-an-hour late, leaving Roxon to make her address and field questions on her own. Roxon began her address, rather understandably, by referring to Mr Abbott’s absence as a lack of respect for the importance of the debate. After the debate was concluded, in comments accidentally picked up by the microphones, Abbott shook Roxon’s hand and moved close to her before whispering that she was speaking “bullshit” and calling her “unpleasant”. The typical actions of a bully.



Abbott's biffo with Roxon - Australian election 2007
Play Video

Even worse was his conduct towards Julia Gillard just over a year ago. On September 10, 2009, before becoming Opposition Leader, Abbott confronted Julia Gillard during Question Time in Federal Parliament, aggressively telling her to stop wearing a “shit-eating grin". (In question time he kept up a barrage of soto voce abuse of Julia Gillard, just quiet enough to be missed by the microphones).

Abbott again revealed his misogynistic side after becoming Opposition leader. In February, he caused something of a stir when he said that the greatest gift a woman could give a man was her virginity. Soon after, in March, he revealed that he considered ironing to be woman’s work. He continued:

“What housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it’s going to go up in price, and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up.”​

In Australia, we must demand better from our leaders. Abbott is a politician stuck in the 1950s—when homosexuals stayed in the closet, women stayed at home and cleaned, and people revered the royal family like deities. Australia has moved on, greatly for the better. Allowing someone like Tony Abbott to try to put Australia back to those times is a risk to our way of life and Australia’s culture as a modern egalitarian nation. It cannot be.


Tony Windsor tells Tony Abbott some home truths
Play Video

All of the above was known before the election. The question remains, How did he manage to win the election?

 

[mitchezz]

Yes why DW? I think it was mainly due to the infighting of the previous ALP government. Abbott is the most loathsome uncaring red neck and he has divided the country more than any other politician I have ever encountered. He has set Australia back decades in so many ways. If he is re elected I fear for our future.

 

[Warrigal]

Yes, mitchezz, disunity is death and the Labor party died slowly over three years from the time that Kevin Rudd lost the leadership to the 2013 election. He didn't even contest the challenge when a spill was called for but then proceeded to leak against Julia Gillard during the 2010 election campaign. As a result she didn't succeed in winning a majority in the lower house and had to do deals with independents and the Greens simply to be able to pass any legislation. Even so, she did manage to achieve a lot. It didn't help that she needed to keep a couple of disreputable men in her tent (Craig Tompson and Peter Slipper). Meanwhile Rudd was undercutting her, even from within the ministry, until her got the leadership back, but too late to do more than save a few seats in the 2013 election rout.

We've just watched a three part documentary entitled The Killing Season that covered the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd prime ministership period and it wasn't a pretty story. Not only did it damage Rudd and Gillard after the event, it threw excrement on the current Labor leader.

Tony Abbott was able to exploit all of her difficulties, with the assistance of a complicit media but more of that later.