Australia’s international standing sinks to a new low under Prime Minister Tony Abbott

The United Nations reacts.

International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott concerning his government's treatment of the President of the Australian Human Right Commission, Prof. Gillian Triggs.

This letter was copied to the United Nations Commissioner of Human Rights.

International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rig...

http://www.ishr.ch/sites/default/files/article/files/the_prime_minister_of_australia.pdf

On 26 February 2015 the ICC Chairperson spoke to ABC News Radio about his letter to Prime Minister Abbott and expressed his concerns about the federal government's treatment of the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. 

The next ICC Bureau Meeting will take place on 11 March 2015 at the United Nations Palais de Nations in Geneva and, I suspect that the Australian Government will be discussed at some point.

The truth about Tony Abbott's war on terror?

From time to time snippets of truth concerning Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s expensive war on terror, estimated to cost at least $400 million a year, appear in the media. 

This is one example.......

The Canberra Times 17 February 2015:

Iraq. The diggers are carrying diplomatic passports because Baghdad's government won't sign a "Status of Forces" agreement. Our troops are cooped up inside bases watching from the sidelines as Iranian Quds revolutionary guards prosecute the fight against ISIL (and whoever else gets in their way). Oh, and the Iraqis don't even want our aircraft based in their country. Abbott's like the boyfriend who can't understand a polite brush-off.

Looking for the chastened and transformed Tony Abbott

Word cloud created from Tony Abbott’s public utterances on 9 February 2015

On Monday 9 February 2014 Anthony John ‘Tony’ Abbott declared he had become a new version of himself – a chastened and transformed Australian prime minister.

In the space of a day he made a statement, called a press conference and took part in a televised interview.

I looked for this changed man in the many hundreds of words he spoke, but there was no true self-awareness on display, no empathy or understanding shown, no genuine acceptance of responsibility and no indication of a real intention to change.

The one positive was that, after years of fiscal scaremongering, he finally admitted that in essence, we are a strong economy.

However, his punitive and unfairly targeted first budget he repeatedly described as bold and ambitious.

Abbott continued to blame Labor for the entire budget black hole. The billions that have been added to the public debt bottom line, and the growing cash deficit,  since he took the reins of government apparently don’t exist for him.

He told us all that I've never been a skite as a preface to his favourite mantra; we said we'd get rid of the carbon tax. It's gone. We said we'd stop the boats. They've stopped. We've said we'd build the roads… the roads are going ahead.

He was silent on what might happen concerning the higher education ‘reforms’, new unemployment regulations and cash transfer payment cuts contained in the 2014-15 Budget.

He has not forsaken the latest version of Medicare co-payments for visiting a GP – all he promises is that there will be no new Medicare policies without the broad backing of the medical profession. Not a mention of seeking a mandate from the electorate.

In a strange turn of phrase, Abbott promised that we will socialise decisions before we finalise them and that way we're more likely to take the people with us.

There was little mention of other government policy except for a couple of sentences on small business tax cuts and child care payments. Instead, the ‘old’ Abbott (who appears to believe that political pugilism trumps policy development every time) was in full view as he boasted; I am a fighter. I know how to beat Labor Party leaders. I beat Kevin Rudd, I beat Julia Gillard, I can beat Bill Shorten as well.

Sorry is the hardest word for (an unrepentant) Tony Abbott

The tone of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's 2 February 2015 National Press Club address was quite frankly unrepentant.

He refused to own his personal mistakes - preferring to prefix mention of them with an "our".

The rejection of Liberal and National Party policies at state level he preferred to attribute to "absentmindedness" on the part of voters.

The waning electoral support for Liberal and National Party MPs and Senators was someone else's fault by the time his speech came to an end.

There was nere an I'm sorry or I apologise in sight. Not a hint that he understood that he was THE problem for the Coalition.

These are the words that dominated his speech to varying degrees:

Is this the road Tony Abbott is taking to make the poor pay more for food and other essentials?

The Drum 11 January 2015:

It appears Tony Abbott will try to expand the GST by replicating the campaign blueprint used by John Howard to introduce the tax in the first place. But what worked then might not work now, writes Paula Matthewson.

More than a decade after the Howard Government introduced a goods and services tax, political pundits remain divided over whether the accompanying GST campaign was effective.

Some point to Howard's re-election after proposing the new tax as proof of the campaign's success, while others claim Howard almost lost because of it.

Despite the lack of consensus it appears the Abbott Government is using the same campaign blueprint, this time in an attempt to create public acceptance for increasing or broadening the GST.

Back then, Howard was saddled with an earlier promise to "never, ever" introduce a GST but was being pressured to introduce one. According to one account, senior members of the business community were openly questioning Howard's economic reform credentials, while the press gallery were asking why he wouldn't lead (or at least follow).

So the then PM created a situation where journalists and economists, business and welfare organisations and even voters called for him to "reverse" the never-ever promise for the good of the nation. Howard did this by focusing the numerous fragmented commentaries into one national discussion: one that centred on Australia's "broken" tax system and how it could be "fixed" by scrapping a bunch of inefficient taxes and replacing them with just one.

The mechanism Howard used to focus the conversation was a taxation taskforce (incidentally chaired by Treasury official and former Keating adviser, Ken Henry). It was established to prepare options for tax reform, and recommended that a consumption tax be part of the mix.

A year later, following much public discussion, the Howard government presented voters not only with a proposed GST but an entire package of tax reforms. The package included personal income tax cuts, increases in the tax-free threshold and pensions, and the scrapping of wholesale sales tax. Nine other taxes imposed at the state and territory level were also slated for elimination. Most importantly, all the money raised by the GST was to be provided to the states and territories, supposedly ending their dependence on the federal government's largesse.

Howard then blitzed voters with a controversial advertising campaign before immediately plunging the nation into a moderately early federal election, which he either cleverly won, or foolishly almost lost, depending on whose analysis one finds more convincing.

PM Abbott is clearly banking on the campaign having been a success for Howard, because his "increase the GST" campaign looks eerily familiar.

A bevy of Treasury boffins is currently developing a tax reform paper, while the general public's awareness is slowly being raised through discussion in the media about the need to broaden or increase the GST.

Comments such as those made last week by government backbenchers and ministers serve to kick along the public discussion while keeping the PM's hands clean of the debate until the Treasury report is released later this year…..

Tony Abbott's waving a daughter in front of voters - have his poll numbers dropped again?

Because no media opportunity generated by or with the co-operation of Tony Abbott's family is spontaneous and unscripted, this snippet below is an obvious attempt to get him in the media without overt mention of politics during the Queensland state election period and perhaps boost his flagging opinion poll numbers.

The Daily Mail 11 January 2015:

She relocated from Sydney to Melbourne a year ago and on Saturday, Frances Abbott got to enjoy a Melbourne rite of passage.

Appearing at the Jeep Portsea Polo at Point Nepean National Park in Victoria, she had her boyfriend of one-year Lindsay Smith in tow at the event.

‘It’s my first time [at the Polo]. It’s very nice to be here and experience such a Melbourne tradition,' Frances told Daily Mail Australia at the event…..

Frances spoke candidly about her relationship with her father, Prime Minister Tony Abbott, admitting that just like any daughter she constantly worries about him, and despite living in another city they are always in touch.

‘My standard text message is: “You’re doing an amazing job.”’ And he’ll reply: “Thanks angel,”’ she explained to Daily Mail Australia. 

Adding: ‘I’m always thinking about him, especially with everything that’s happened recently with terrorism.’

While Tony is based in Canberra and Sydney, in between travelling across the world, he still finds time to visit his daughter in Melbourne. 

‘I don’t see him as often as we would like. We try schedule it so we can all catch up,’ Frances mused.

The Whitehouse Institute Of Design graduate credited her mother Margie Abbott to spearheading the family and bringing them all together.

‘Mum holds it all together, she is the one that keeps the family ship afloat. We’re all apart all the time and she pulls us back together.’ 

So how are the opinion poll numbers playing out for the prime minister? His unpopularity continues.

Essential Report 13 January 2015.

53% of respondents disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Prime Minister – down 2% since the last time this question was asked in December – and 37% approve of the job Tony Abbott is doing (up 5%). This represents a change in net rating from -23 to -16.

83% (up 8%) of Liberal/National voters approve of Tony Abbott’s performance, with 10% (down 5%) disapproving. 81% of Labor voters and 89% of Greens voters disapprove of Tony Abbott’s performance.

By gender men were 40% approve/51% disapprove and women 34% approve/55% disapprove.

35% (up 4% since December) of respondents think Tony Abbott would make the better Prime Minister and 37% (up 1%) think Bill Shorten would make the better Prime Minister.

37% of men prefer Tony Abbott and 37% prefer Bill Shorten – and women prefer Bill Shorten 38% to 33%.

Morgan Poll 14 January 2015:

Is Prime Minister Abbott so desperate to control the message and lift his flagging polls that he risks alienating Australian mainstream media?

This was how The Australian commenced its 5 January 2015 article about Prime Minister Abbott’s latest public relations misstep:

TONY Abbott’s office has triggered frustrations with the media by excluding a TV crew from the Prime Minister’s sudden visit to Baghdad, limiting access to his speech to Australian troops and joint statement with his Iraqi counterpart.

A camera crew sent by the major TV networks was left in Dubai when Mr Abbott flew into Iraq with his personal staff, forcing the media to rely on footage provided by the Prime Minister’s office.

This is how individual journalists reacted to the unannounced Iraq trip on Twitter:

What Iraqi News knew on 29 December 2014:

(IraqiNews.com) On Monday, the official government spokesman, Saad Hadithi revealed that the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott plans to visit Baghdad in the coming days, while noting that Abbott will discuss with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi the support and the equipment of security forces to confront the organization of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Hadithi said in an interview for IraqiNews.com, “Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will visit Baghdad in the coming days to meet with President Minister Haider al-Abadi to discuss military cooperation between the two countries.”

He added, “Abbott will discuss with al-Abadi the subject of development, training and equipping of security forces with weapons and ammunition,” adding that, “Australia has shown its willingness to provide military support to Iraq to face the terrorist gangs of ISIS.”

This is part of the 5 January speech Australian journalists were not allowed to hear as it happened:

This is my first visit to Baghdad. It is my first visit to Iraq.

Iraq is a country which has suffered a very great deal. First, decades of tyranny under Saddam Hussein. Then, the chaos and confusion that followed the American-led invasion. Most recently, the tumult, the dark age, which has descended upon Northern Iraq as a result of the Daesh death cult, but Australia will do what we can to help.

These are some of the images of varying quality which Team Abbott appears to have released to the media and/or posted on Facebook:

These are the poor quality propaganda videos his personal media crew created:

http://youtu.be/XCrDn8j812Y  http://youtu.be/Ba4XP0rhWL0

However, the Prime Minister's attempt to control the media message was not successful as one can see from this interpretation of that 5 January speech in The Sydney Morning Herald later the same day - which contained only one mention of 'death cult' and opened with this message about a war of which he approved and agreed to Australia's participation in:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has blasted in his strongest terms yet the US management of Iraq following the 2003 invasion, branding it a period of "chaos and confusion".

It seems the days when Abbott just had to don a helmet and flak jacket to have the media treat him like a hero have long since passed and his latest attempt to reverse the public relations situation is only making matters worse.

I imagine Jane McMillan is thankful she is on holidays and not returning to the the prime minister's office as his media chief. 

To quote Bruce Hawker writing in The Age: When a Prime Minister is on a collision course with public opinion there can only be one result.

UPDATE

Political cartoonist Alan Moir sums up what appears to be the general response, to the Prime Minister's visit to Iraq, in his latest effort for The Sydney Morning Herald on 6 January 2015:

Give 'em a good fright for Christmas

Despite the Martin Place siege having no apparent links to ISIL or to terrorism generally, Rupert and Tony are doing their best to usher in Christmas with a scary tale or two…….

There are people who would do us harm and can do us harm 

[Prime Minister Tony Abbott during his latest Christmas news conference]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/terror/sydney-siege-copycat-attack-fear-as-terror-chatter-increases/story-fnpdbcmu-1227165693867

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's on again, off again, support for White Ribbon Day 2014

White Ribbon Day helps raise awareness and funds to stop men's violence against women in Australia.

This was Prime Minister and self-appointed Minister for Women Tony Abbott sporting the official white ribbon at one of the main Canberra events on 25 November 2014:

This was the Prime Minister a few hours later minus ribbon during Question Time:

Apparently, unlike many of his parliamentary colleagues, he did not consider it worth the effort to wear this ribbon for the day instead of just for a morning media opportunity.

Bill Shorten on the other hand was wearing his ribbon during the afternoon as this second screen shot shows:

Tony Abbott's strange view of Australian history strikes again

The Abbott Government is now turning its ideologically blinkered eye towards ‘reforming’ the federation of states which underpins the Commonwealth of Australia.

Then we had no national government. Then, as we’ve been reminded earlier this evening, we had six colonies, each of them with a prime minister.....

A hundred years ago the states were clearly responsible for funding and operating public schools, public hospitals, public transport, roads, police, housing and planning. Under our constitution, the states are still legally responsible for them...

[Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Sir Henry Parkes Commemorative Dinner speech, 25 October 2014]

Oh dear, Australia had six prime ministers prior to Federation? Under the Australian Constitution the states are clearly responsible for funding public hospitals?

No, Mr. Abbott. The six colonies had six premiers, which headed governments with more limited power than a post-1901 federal government headed by a prime minister, because they were legally obliged to take direction from the British government of the day and a federal government is not so obliged.

As for who is responsible for providing public hospital services, the constitution clearly states that Commonwealth has the power to make laws for the provision of pharmaceutical, 

sickness and hospital benefits, medical and dental services and it was under Part V – Powers of the Parliament that the federal parliament created universal health care including inpatient/outpatient free care in public hospitals. So the federal government has accepted that it is responsible in large measure for funding public hospitals and clearly in broad control of health service delivery.

Thankfully it will take a majority of people in a majority of states and a majority of people across the nation as a whole vote 'yes' to whatever question our historically illiterate prime minister decides to put to the electorate in any national referendum seeking to dismantle the federation model in the Australian Constitution.

With his tin ear, I cannot see him convincing the average voter that 'reforming' the constitution to further cost-shift towards the states is a good idea.

The very infantile Tony Abbott......

Excerpt from doorstop interview by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on 13 October 2014, in which he foolishly declares he will be physically aggressive during the G20 Conference:

I’m going to shirt-front* Mr Putin – you bet I am……

I think that there’ll be a lot of tough conversations with Russia and I suspect that the conversation that I have with Mr Putin will be the toughest conversation of all…

This year we want to be a good and constructive leader of the G20, and if the Russian President turns up he will get – in no uncertain terms from me – Australia’s attitude… 

* 1. An aggressive scruff of an opponent’s jumper is often called a shirt front and is an illegal and reportable offense (but again, often subject to interpretation). In some cases, for example, one player will grasp his opponent’s jumper and aggressively pull and push him trying to make contact with the lower jaw with his fist.[Wikipedia]

2. http://youtu.be/-v8V1_xVSd8 [video - Jezza gets shirt fronted by Stan Magro]

Prime Minister Abbott patronizes an Australian citizen who paid him the compliment of treating him as an equal

Ever the media whore, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott ignores the young boy's hand outstretched to shake his hand and patronizingly pats him on the head as he leers towards a camera about to give him one more image for publication in mainstream newspapers.

Abbott at Yirrkala NT on 14 September 2014
Picture AAP Source AAP via @rastus2009 and @chrismurphys 

The only reason Australia's terror alert level has been raised is because it gives Popeye a visceral thrill to do so

Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the terror threat level has been raised from medium to high. He has stressed that people should continue to go about their normal lives and that there is no intelligence on a specific plot. [The Sydney Morning Herald 12 September 2014]

Mr Abbott on Saturday repeated his assurance that the upgraded alert level did not mean a terror attack was imminent. But it was designed to raise community awareness about the increased likelihood of a terrorist attack in Australia, with people urged to contact the authorities if they noticed anything suspicious. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 September 2014]

This was The Age and John Howard in September 2002: 

This is The Courier Mail, The Daily Telegraph and Tony Abbott in September 2014:

What’s radically changed in between these two headlines and caused Abbott to now classifiy the country as being likely to be the victim of a terrorist attack? 

Very little. Except we now have a prime minister desperate for media coverage in which he saves Australia from the battalions of baddies lurking around every corner intent on killing or maiming each and every voter.

And if that takes orchestrating a nation-wide scare dressed up as both an awareness campaign and a response to alleged physical danger; well so be it.

That what is being served up is classic right-wing political spin is obvious when one looks at both fear campaigns. In an effort to deflect scrutiny of the actual threat level the general populace is offered a diversion - the National Security Hotline which was set up in late 2002.

This was John Howard in February 2003:

The package is the second phase of the Government's campaign to alert Australians to the threat of terrorism, and includes a booklet, fridge magnet and a letter from Prime Minister John Howard. Delivery began yesterday.

The fridge magnet

And Tony Abbott's spin in September 2014:

BARRIE CASSIDY:  And the Prime Minister did mention at the Friday news conference that there will be a modest PR campaign, or an awareness campaign.  Can you say what that will involve?

ATTORNEY-GENERAL:  It will involve some advertising to make people aware of the importance of vigilance, we need to advertise the call number – 1800 123 400 – so that if people do see something that is genuinely suspicious, particularly around government buildings, military facilities and such, they should call that number – 1800 123 400.

It would almost be funny – except that cynical political moves like this sometimes have a nasty habit of turning into self-fulfilling prophesies.

A frightened and resentful populace may begin to discriminate against and socially isolate groups they have been told they should fear and resent, while the behaviour of equally fearful or aggrieved people within these groups may become volatile.

* Cartoon by Moir

Oh, Mr. Abbott, personal savings from your repeal of the price on carbon overwhelm me

THE LIBERAL PARTY ALL-SINGING-ALL-DANCING SPIN

             Snapshot from Liberal Party of Australia official Twitter account

MUNDANE REALITY

My first electricity bill after the 1 July 2014 repeal of the ‘carbon tax’ arrived in August. The one-off savings totalled $6.20 or 1.61% of my power bill.

Of course after that lordly sum was deducted I was still left with a rise in fixed charges of $27.53 which will endure as a cost rise until mid 2016.

Headline and Caption of the Year: "Tony Abbott has no interest in an election"

Almost died laughing at this click bait online headline, with caption, which should have had a flying pigs warning attached:

Spruiker: Tony Abbott has no interest in an election.

To be fair,it should have read 'Tony Abbott has no interest in any election he thinks he cannot win'.

In which Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott realises that even an aspiring fascist government needs to take the electorate with it until it has taken over and extinguished every democratic institution

It would be unwise to view this as anything but a brief respite during the Abbott Government’s determined march towards a totalitarian regime.

The Sydney Morning Herald 5 August 2014:

The Abbott government has backed down on controversial plans to water down the Racial Discrimination Act.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was a ‘‘leadership call’’ to bin the proposed changes to Section 18C of the act, which had been roundly criticised by ethnic community leaders and was unpopular with the wider public.

"Leadership is about preserving national unity on the essentials and that is why I have taken this position," Mr Abbott said….