Communicator | Online Strategist | Considered Opinions
There’s a bit of discussion around the traps to do with dog whistling. The idea is that Tony Abbott is dog whistling to the electorate on the issue of refugees by talking about “being tough on boat people” (one of his 12 point plan is “Enforce strict border security and control”). Similarly, Abbott’s ad showing [...]
Joe Hockey’s budget reply speech yesterday to the National Press Club, universally described as a “shemozzle”, has revealed that the Shadow Treasurer doesn’t understand what productivity is. This is, of course, good news for Tony Abbott. Productivity is considered amongst neo-liberal economists as the key driver of economic growth and health. It is the key [...]
Tony Abbott has developed more policy on the run while running off his mouth as a speech in front of a bunch of wealthy West Australian industrialists. “There has got to be a system which encourages people to take up work where that work is available and certainly the idea of having people on the [...]
In yet another great week for Tony Abbott (@tonyabbottMHR), the Opposition Leader has admitted that he hadn’t really recovered from the Ironman event before embarking on a 1000km bike ride. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’m really recovered from the Ironman. I think I needed a longer break. That might have been [...]
Kim Crow from Back Page Lead opines in Crikey: What Abbott achieved on Sunday by finishing that ironman is phenomenal. He swam 3.8km, biked 180km and ran 42.2km. For me, that demonstrates incredible guts, courage, determination, persistence, resilience, strength of character, strength of mind and … fitness! These qualities are exactly the qualities you look [...]
Conservative politicians like Tony Abbott and Steven Fielding who widely promote the use of “temporary protection visas” and that boat people are “jumping the queue”, are in fact giving people smugglers a product to sell to desperate refugees. …We will put the temporary protection visas back in place. (Abbott, 18 March 2010) Temporary protection visas [...]
This week has seen what appears to be the end of the honeymoon period for Tony Abbott, coinciding with his triathlon run, resignation of key powerbroker Nick Minchin, reshuffle and demotion of Barnaby Joyce, and his disastrous health care debate with Rudd. Abbott’s reversal of fortune is a case study of Machiavelli’s advice to “avoid [...]
The Liberal Party in Australia has launched its new website, on the heels of Labor’s new “Labor Connect” site. I’ve written before about how previous Liberal leaders have mimicked a lot of the style of UK Tory leader David Cameron (Turnbull especially), but I haven’t commented on how much of the presentation of the Liberals [...]
Got some semi-live blogging of the South Australian and Tasmanian elections tonight. (Trying out the Google Wave integration with WordPress. Google Wave didn’t work. Old school now.) Make sure you refresh the page every now and then to get updates. There is discussion around the influence (or otherwise) of Nick Xenophon, who came out this [...]
As Tony Abbott spreads the “global cooling” conspiracy, more evidence demonstrates that temperatures are going up and up. A report by the World Meteorological Organization says that recent years are on track to be the hottest on record: The decade of the 2000s is very likely the warmest decade in the modern record, dating back [...]
I recently had a debate with a friend about new media versus old media. One of the points I made was that journalists at major newspapers and TV stations are just as likely as PR spin doctors and politicians to be pushing a line. Furthermore, I argued that journalists “beat up” stories to get copy [...]
Workforce Daily has a few interesting takes on Eric Abetz’s elevation to the IR portfolio as part of the new Opposition Shadow Ministry. (No link unfortunately, as it’s an email newsletter). Abbott: Abbott praised Abetz for his “long-interest in employment issues and his record of standing up for the rights of employees and small business [...]
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