Yes, done deal. Staying on as a backbencher he says. Looking forward to the real story.

Youchie! Lots of not-the-real-story on ABC 24 at the moment. :hmm:
Buster, we expect a full report. :D

So what's the accepted goss on Ted? As a non Victorian, he seemed to me to be too commiitted to maintaining too many of the things Labor introduced to Victoria. People voted him in to make changes, but all he did was to maintain (Labor) business as usual.

It worries me that Abbott, if he gets in, will do the same. Abbott would do well to follow Whitlam's lead and do a Whitlam/Barnard "gang of two" and make sweeping changes in the weeks immediately following the election.

"People voted him in to make changes, but all he did was..................

nothing.

IMHO, he was like Bracks was in his first two years, like a
Rabbit dazzled by the headlights so did nothing.

We need - and always do IMHO, a LEADER like Kennett who is a go getter
who can not only get things done now but have a longer term plan to keep things moving.

And maybe not kick heads quite as hard as Kennett did.

Fubaar, Abbott will get in and he will do the same, the faceless men of the LNP will ensure that it comes to pass because rather than being a politician of conviction abbott is a puppet of the faceless men, no different at all to the red bogan.....no different at all, except abbotts faceless men are the likes of Leigh Clifford and Alan Joyce....max moore-wilton.....but at least they aren't labor people eh!?!

We get all worked up about who's is to blame for what and fail to see there is, in reality SFA difference between the two!! When the Gummint changes in September will we still see the usual suspects posting how many people arrived by boat week by week?? Of course not!!

At the onset of the GFC back in 2007, I remember my then boss blaming it all on K Rudd......that's right!, K Rudd was directly responsible for the US banking crisis.....who'd have thunk!?!?!

Well, I can assure you that this usual suspect will be screaming, Fleigs. I share your suspicions, however, that Abbott will be another Fraser and that he will waste the opportunity to unravel the nanny state that Labor has created. Malcolm Fraser was a disaster of a Primer Minister - and seems hellbent on creating a new record, to be in the top ten most disastrous ex-Prime Ministers. However, he comes a distant fourth to the top three in the TOTALLY disastrous stakes, Gillard (1st), Rudd (2nd) and Whitlam (3rd). I really hope, for Australia's sake, that Tony Abbott avoids getting himself onto that table. Or perhaps we should be hoping that he very quickly gets to the Number One spot from the point of view of a committed Greens/Labor voter.

Well, I appreciate your confidence in my sources however, I don't share the same opinion! ;)

What I liked about Ted was that he wasn't the "in your face every friggin day" type of Politician. I think he's the type that was happy to work diligently in the background & get things done, but wasn't media savvy enough to realise that this is the digital age & like it or not, people expected daily updates.

I guess Victorians were looking for a Kennett type when they elected him, but he's clearly not that. There's no doubt that the State is in a financial mess & whether the Liberals were overwhelmed when they realised the extent of the problem is purely supposition. Lots of back room changes have taken place in the VPS as a result but its not enough. Infrastructure projects have virtually stopped as they come to grips with the out of control debt. Many industry groups are urging them to get the ball rolling on projects, any projects, but the problem is that obtaining loans is the arch enemy of the Libs. Sometimes though, you have to speculate to accumulate.

If I get anything else I'll put it up.

Sadly though, at the end of the day, we have what I believe is a good man brought down by an odiuos one who is facing rort charges...things are crook in Tullarook!

No wonder Julia had everything out west scripted / staged.

Here is why.

Tattooed woman leaves her mark on Gillard

Interesting, thanks. I don't know a lot about Victorian politics. It sounds like they've done the opposite of the Qld LNP who jumped in boots and all and started slashing from the bottom up. That hasn't made them popular with a lot of people, but from what you say the alternative isn't popular with people either. Rock and a hard place! :ouch:
A pollie should be able to cope with that (which Gillard did, to be fair). She wasn't even throwing stuff...:}

I hope Janice Petersen doesn't lose her job over this excellent interview.


Skip to 2.34 if you can't bear to watch the whole thing, where she is asked about John McTurdman's 457 visa. :*

She doesn't want asylum seekers to have access to the labour market, just the welfare...:uhoh:

Personally I would only believe she was genuine in her sudden "Aussies First" rhetoric if she applied the same principle to taxpayers money instead of sending it overseas. :ugh:

I think I need a cover for my iPad so that when I :yuk::yuk: at JGs duplicity it doesn't leave a lasting bad smell.

Thanks CP for that link. How does JG sleep at night?

I wonder if the fact she has a non-citizen, ie someone who cannot hold the required security clearance to be working in her office, is just a "sideshow started by the opposition" as well?

Anyway she's starting to sound a bit like Pauline Hanson!!! :ooh: Would love to see her re-enact Pauline's time behind bars. :E

McTurden is a Brit so it's probably easy to get a clearance waiver or whatever is required for his job. Do you really need a clearance to shovel s*#t? Which is all the man does.

Pauline has very helpfully told a Brisbane news interviewer (Ch 10 IIRC) that 'the ALP are finally agreeing with her' wrt 457 visas :ooh:.
You just can't buy that sort of publicity when you're a struggling Labor government. :E :}
Sky News: Pauline's visa moves 'irrelevant'

... And Pauline Hanson announced today at she plans to contest a lower house seat in the upcoming Federal election. It will be interesting to see how large her primary vote will be. The crazy thing was, when I heard her interviewed after she made the announcement, was that she was giving straight answers to most if not all of the questions put to her. It was quite a novelty to hear that. The prime minister was also on 2GB this afternoon. I didn't hear the interview, but if the callers phoning in after it are anything to go by, she did not give straight answers to many if not all the questions put to her, particularly in regard to whether the man signing the power of attorney for the purchase of the Kerr St property was in the room when she witnessed the document.

dat581, as I understand it, the security clearance you need can only be given to someone who has Australian citizenship only. Eg if you were dual UK/Aus you would have to rescind the UK citizenship. I have done that myself so do know a little about it.

TurdMan is a UK citizen. He would not be eligable for the required security clearance. The reason for it is in case they were accessing classified information and passing it on to thier own country. Not that being an Australian citizen would necessarily stop that (Assange?!)

So, either he has been given a clearance when he is not entititled, or he doesn't have the clearance. Just another little opposition sideshow, nothing to see here :ugh::ugh:

Anyway now there seems to be more speculation that Bil "Whatever she says I agree with it" Shortarse is seen as a "cleanskin" contender for the leadership. THing is he is up to his eyeballs in the AWU scandal as well. "If this gets out we're all stuffed" etc etc. Would "GG Barbie" have to resign over the clear conflict of interest if he was made leader?

Let's just put Sir Les Patterson in the top job and then at least we can have a good laugh as the country crumbles around us. Are you with me, ladies and gentlemen?

Clare, are you sure that's still the case? I had a feeling it was changed about ten years ago.

I couldn't find anything concrete but this was buried in the AGSVA FAQ on clearances:
Australian Government Security Vetting Agency
S22(8) of the Public Service Act permits an Agency Head to waive the citizenship requirement for the APS; again, I think that's fairly new.

Re the 457 visa, agreed. I didn't think we were so short of PR flunkies that we had to import them. More the opposite if anything...:hmm:

Les for PM! :ok::E

As everyone on here knows I have no remit for Gillard. However, on the issue of 457 visas, particularly that issued to McTernan, I believe that we ought to cut her a little slack.

An overseas worker in that job is obviously what is required as any Australian citizen who cares about his or her country would be unable to carry out the job of being a mouthpiece for Gillard without vomiting continuously.

Hmmm... talkin to the truckers down at the greasy spoon ah got to hear an interesting concept.

When Shorten takes over if he could knock the global warming nonsense on the head he would probably win the next election..:ooh: ...seems them Libs are still a bit mired in the carbon crap thanks to 'President' Turnbull and that is takin the gloss of them a bit...:ouch:

Interesting days ahead..:cool:






.

Had a beer with 30-something number one son last night and he said that among his friends, Turnbull taking over from Abbott would be seen as a big plus. Me myself personally, I have a very different opinion, but I found it interesting that he would bring the subject up. Apparently, Julia Gillard has achieved one thing - she has got normally apolitical people talking about politics.

Regarding Shorten: was that 'cleanskin' or something you shout out while playing golf-skin? There'd be some who'd wonder if he be'd able to keep his zipper done up long enough to lead the pardee.