Re: Aus Federal Politics thread (II)

[Bradman]

Actually the person who said that Shorten will be leader at the next election is pretty astute. This person (can't remember the journo) said this after Gillard formed minority governement.

Whoever it was, he may be astute prediction wise but a naif in regards to Shorten's electabilty.

Who would you suggest?

I've already said it. Faulkner. Though apparently Beattie, Carr and Bracks have all got delusions of granduer.

[Bradman]

the MM sinks further into the mire...clearly he wants to punish the working class through more workchoices type but has no intention of talking about it prior to the next election...has now now fallen out with the ex Minister for Dogs on the Wharves

from abc online

Former Liberal minister Peter Reith has hit out at Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for urging him to run for the Liberal Party presidency, then voting against him.

Mr Reith is furious that he was asked to run for the presidency by Mr Abbott, who then publicly showed his ballot paper to Mr Reith's opponent, the incumbent Alan Stockdale, indicating that Mr Stockdale had secured his vote.

And in revenge he has vowed to push for industrial relations reform, against the wishes of Mr Abbott, who has sought to avoid debate on the issue to avoid a Labor campaign on the divisive Workchoices policy.

Mr Reith said he had suspended his interest" in commenting about industrial relations policy since February because of a promise to Tony Abbott.

"The suspension, by his own hand, is lifted," Mr Reith told ABC radio this morning.

But Mr Reith denied he was bitter about Mr Abbott's about face.

"Tony and I have always got on very well, and so it's certainly not personal."

He said he promised Mr Abbott he would avoid talking publicly about policy to avoid a difficult industrial relations debate if he was elected to the presidency.

"He did ask me to run for the top job and we had quite a chat about it and I said 'Tony, you know my views on workplace relations'," Mr Reith said.

"I said 'look, I'll give up talking about policy because the job of a federal president is to talk on behalf of the organisation'. So that was the deal. So obviously I was disappointed with what happened."

He said he had rung Mr Abbott a couple of times and still had no explanation about why he changed his mind.

"Beats me Fran. I honestly don't know. I really don't. But he certainly asked me and he didn't only ask me, he asked people around him to join in my campaign," he told Fran Kelly on Radio National.

"I honestly can't tell you what happened, I just don't understand it."

And asked if Mr Abbott had "set him up to fail", Mr Reith said: "Well, you never know about politics".

"There's so many bits and pieces running around, it's all very complex. The good news is we're ahead in the polls, this is just a bit of a bubble for a couple of days."

Mr Reith was also angered that a report he had been asked to write on the administration of the Liberal Party had been "buried".

"First of all he [Mr Abbott] asked me to do the report on the Liberal Party and he actually said to me, 'Peter it would be great mate if you could do this because I just want someone to tell it as it is and we all know you're the sort of guy who speaks his mind'.

"I didn't realise then there would be some people wanting to bury the report, which I don't agree with."

True to his word, Mr Reith has begun his campaign for workplace relations reform, saying Workchoices was not necessarily the reason for the election loss in 2007.

"The Workchoices thing has been made - even by our own side - into this sort of huge bogie man. You know, 'we lost the election because of Workchoices'," he said.

"Even if they got back to the legislation we had in '96 which worked really well, which the Democrats all went along with at the time, Australia would be a lot better instead of going backwards which is where we've gone under Julia Gillard."

avoid talking publicly about policy

Well that's pretty standard for the fascists.

Workchoices was not necessarily the reason for the election loss in 2007.

Ahhh! What planet is he living on. I just wish the Libs were dumb enough to give him the presidency.

[skully]

God, the two parties eating themselves alive from within while the country goes to the dogs, due to an unelected tree-hugging nazi running the joint. I might move to the Principality of Hutt River.

[skully]

While the old Bill works the back room
The National Secretary sharpens the daggers
The Ranga will go the way of the Ruddster
When the new Bill will rise.

My version of Political Nostradamus

The game is already on

Fap, fap, fap.

Is that the noise that a knife makes on a strop?

"FORMER Labor leader Mark Latham is predicting Julia Gillard will eventually be "the next one for the knife" because key ALP figures hate her.

“(Deputy Prime Minister) Wayne Swan is no fan of hers,” Mr Latham told Sky News today, a day after Ms Gillard toppled Kevin Rudd.

“Gillard has, for reasons I never quite understood, enormous animosity from people like (Anthony) Albanese and (Lindsay) Tanner and (Jenny) Macklin.”

“I don't know what they did down there in the Victorian left in the 80s and 90s but they hate each other.”

-----------------------------------------

Yes, a bitter and questionable source, but a good read none-the-less.

Yesterday was the anniversary of these Latham remarks. Will they yet turn to prophecy?

[Bradman]

Lefties are the best haters in the world. Veer a mm from the factional line and you're toast, then you go start another left faction. Reminds me of that scene from "Life of Brian" where the PFJ are bemoaning the number of splinter groups.

[Zat]

Is there any way we could have the lot of them killed? I'd suggest 'rendered into vegetative states' as a kinder option, but it seems some of them are already there and still holding their seats.

[Bradman]

Yeah it could be getting to the point we have to start taking your signature line seriously.

[Big Dog]

Is there any way we could have the lot of them killed? I'd suggest 'rendered into vegetative states' as a kinder option, but it seems some of them are already there and still holding their seats.

I.E. Greens

[Bradman]

Is there any way we could have the lot of them killed? I'd suggest 'rendered into vegetative states' as a kinder option, but it seems some of them are already there and still holding their seats.

I.E. Greens

This is what happens when you have a bicameral parliament. Apart from the sh!tfight in Tasmania the Greens can probably claim to be the most functional (or should that be stable) party in the country.

[Big Dog]

Is there any way we could have the lot of them killed? I'd suggest 'rendered into vegetative states' as a kinder option, but it seems some of them are already there and still holding their seats.

I.E. Greens

This is what happens when you have a bicameral parliament. Apart from the sh!tfight in Tasmania the Greens can probably claim to be the most functional (or should that be stable) party in the country.

...just keep taking the tablets.

[Bradman]

Not saying I like it but compared to the way the fascists and pinkos are carrying on............?

[Big Dog]

Not saying I like it but compared to the way the fascists and pinkos are carrying on............?

The Greens are psuedo Marxists. Their policies will will fark the economy of this country far more than TMM or the Vulture.

[skully]

Is Centrebet offering any odds about Bob Brown being assassinated? Harsh, yes, but what a pompous, self-righteous tit he is.

Yes, he's always been like that, but now that he has power he is just unbearable.

[JGK]

Adam Bandt was pretty impressive on qanda this week.

[bodyline]

Adam Bandt was pretty impressive on qanda this week.

He must have shut his mouth for the whole program.

[skully]

Odd that he hasn't warranted any mincing poodle comments from the pinkos (ala Chris Pyne). Oh that's right, they're farked without his vote.

[bodyline]

Just ran into Senator Ron - sauce stained tie and all.

[bodyline]

Tony Windsor has spent almost $5.9 million in recent months buying three northern NSW farms in a region targeted for coal-seam gas exploration.
The independent MP's family company, Cintra Investments, bought the properties in Coonamble, about 100km west of Gunnedah, between January and March.

Mr Windsor, who sold his main property to a coalmining group in February last year, said he had bought the Coonamble properties for his family to farm.

"I've got a son out there; he's mad to go farming," he said. "I wouldn't say we're buying up big out there . . . I like farming and he seems to as well."

Petroleum giant Santos and natural and coal-seam gas group Eastern Star Gas hold an exploration licence covering thousands of hectares around Coonamble.

Mr Windsor said he "wouldn't have a clue" whether the Eastern Star Gas and Santos licence -- petroleum exploration licence 434 -- covered his properties.

"There may be a licence over them -- I don't know," he said. "They (Santos) have licences over a vast slice of country, and it doesn't doesn't mean there wouldn't be or couldn't be licences in the future, but that's not what's driving me."

It was unclear whether any of the Coonamble properties were subject to exploration licences.

According to property searches, Cintra Investments bought one of the properties, a 459ha farm, for $964,000 in January. A year earlier, the same property had changed hands for $544,400. Mr Windsor said he had no idea what the previous owners had paid for the property, but strength in the price of grain had boosted property values recently.

"It's beautiful soil and any good soil on significant-sized blocks is improving in value," he said.

Cintra Investments paid $785,100 for a second parcel of land, covering 373ha, also in January. That parcel had last changed hands for $461,000 in late 2007. Cintra paid $4.14m for a third Coonamble property in March.

A spokesman for Eastern Star Gas -- which controls a 65 per cent stake in PEL 434, with Santos controlling the remainder -- said any exploration in that region was in the preliminary stages.

"Before you can work out if there is a commercial resource or a project you can develop, there are a number of steps you can take," the spokesman said.

"The only steps we would be taking would be very early reconnaissance-type exploration."

According to Eastern Star Gas's website, PEL 434 is significantly under-explored. "The aerial extent and thickness of coals within the licence area are unknown."

In February last year, Mr Windsor sold his main farm, the 376ha Cintra, south of Tamworth, to Werris Creek Coal for $4.625m. The coalmine had been operating near Mr Windsor's homestead, which had been a factor in the sale.

The sale of the property delivered Mr Windsor about $12,300 a hectare, which was about three times more than nearby farmers who sold to the miner. According to land titles searches, the other three farms of substantial sizes to have sold within 18 months of the sale had changed hands for between $2767ha and $5128ha.

In establishing prices for such properties, several factors came into play, such as the volume and quality of underground deposits and the proximity to the mine.

Mr Windsor said his new properties were on a "beautiful bit of country" but "I don't think there is any coal under it".

"There's a large deposit of gold under all of them, of course, and then there's not much on top of that but the diamonds."





I know the Chinese have been buying up potential coal reserve farms for multiple times valuation (I heard of one case at 10 times - that could be total BS - or true).

[Bradman]

Not saying I like it but compared to the way the fascists and pinkos are carrying on............?

The Greens are psuedo Marxists. Their policies will will fark the economy of this country far more than TMM or the Vulture.

Again I don't like it. It's all the more reason for both major parties to get their acts together, start fleshing out policy and allow a reasoned debate. We're stuck with this situation for the next six years and the only way to manage it regardless of the colour of the government is to marginalise the Greens to the extent they're only serving their own narrow constituency. We can deal with their core values which aren't that far off mainstream thinking nowadays and ignore their loopier ideas, which are basically the result of hubris.

[Bradman]

Mr Windsor said he "wouldn't have a clue" whether the Eastern Star Gas and Santos licence -- petroleum exploration licence 434 -- covered his properties.

. Yeah right. Doesn't he have access to Google or an accountant familiar with due diligence

[embee]

Mr Windsor said he "wouldn't have a clue" whether the Eastern Star Gas and Santos licence -- petroleum exploration licence 434 -- covered his properties.

. Yeah right. Doesn't he have access to Google or an accountant familiar with due diligence

"Mr Windsor said he had no idea what the previous owners had paid for the property"

Why not?

The journo can obviously take the time to find out ...so it cant be that hard to do ...

Windsor's farms will be well fertilized with all the bullsh!t he produces ...

[bodyline]

Mr Windsor said he "wouldn't have a clue" whether the Eastern Star Gas and Santos licence -- petroleum exploration licence 434 -- covered his properties.

. Yeah right. Doesn't he have access to Google or an accountant familiar with due diligence

"Mr Windsor said he had no idea what the previous owners had paid for the property"

Why not?

The journo can obviously take the time to find out ...so it cant be that hard to do ...

Windsor's farms will be well fertilized with all the bullsh!t he produces ...

Snouts and troughs!

[JGK]

Mr Windsor said he "wouldn't have a clue" whether the Eastern Star Gas and Santos licence -- petroleum exploration licence 434 -- covered his properties.

. Yeah right. Doesn't he have access to Google or an accountant familiar with due diligence

"Mr Windsor said he had no idea what the previous owners had paid for the property"

Why not?

The journo can obviously take the time to find out ...so it cant be that hard to do ...

Windsor's farms will be well fertilized with all the bullsh!t he produces ...

Maybe only the journalist cares?

[skully]

Bolts cares. He gave it a good run on GB this morning.

[bodyline]

Bolts cares. He gave it a good run on GB this morning.

Democracy at work!

Bolts luvs Windsor and Oaksy.

Did the parrot rip into Juli-liar again?

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