A Nazi Piece Of Work

It was bound to happen – Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the Nazi leader meme:

PoliticsAustralia‏@AustraliaVote

#Australia PM Abbotts fascist styled legal inquisition against ppl who have a different opinion to his own #auspol pic.twitter.com/zI7JBQSri1

7:42 PM - 6 Apr 2014

Prime Minister Tony Abbott seeks to extinguish universal right to free speech and political communication - makes it an offence for Commonwealth public servants to be publicly critical of him in their private capacity

Apparently in the bible according to Tony Abbott, free speech and a right to political communication are things that will be available to journalists and shockjocks such as Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Ray Hadley - as well as to an assorted collection of wingnuts and racists across the nation.

However, a public service employee loses those rights even outside of working hours in their private capacity.

The first rule in Abbott's new world order is: Do not criticize Tony Abbott.

The Sunday Telegraph 6 April 2014:

PUBLIC servants will be urged to ­dob in colleagues posting political criticism of the Abbott government on social media, even if the comments are anonymous, under new Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet guidelines.

The sweeping new rules will even cover ­public servants posting political comments anonymously, including mummy bloggers on parenting websites, if a colleague knew their online identity.

The new policy clearly states it covers the use of social media in an official and unofficial ­capacity, whether for professional or personal use. If public servants are found to have ­breached the ­Australian Public Service Code of Conduct they could be sacked. Colleagues will also be encouraged to dob in each other.

"If an employee becomes aware of another employee who is engaging in conduct that may breach this policy, there is an expectation that the employee will report the conduct to the ­department,'' the policy states.

"This means that if you receive or become aware of a social media communication by another PM & C employee that is not consistent with this policy, you should advise that person accordingly and inform your supervisor."

Blogger and former public servant Greg Jericho, whose online identity as Grog's Gamut was unmasked by The Australian four years ago, said he was stunned by the policy.

At the time, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet PM and C ruled his own posts did not breach public service guidelines.

"This is so intrusive," Mr Jericho said.

"It is further evidence that the public service is scared of social media rather than seeing it as an opportunity to broaden the understanding of public policy, including correcting misinformation.'' he said…..

The new rules include a specific case study illustrating why public servants are not to criticise Prime Minister Tony Abbott stating being "critical or highly critical of the Department, the Minister or the Prime Minister'' on social media could prompt sanctions.

Breaches include "harsh or extreme in their criticism of the Government, Government policies, a member of parliament from another political party, or their respective policies, that they could raise questions about the employee's capacity to work professionally, efficiently or impartially."

There are also sanctions for "gratuitous personal attack that might reasonably be perceived to be connected with their employment."

The crackdown on social media posts covers posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Flickr, blogs, forums and Wikipedia.

This is the legislated code of conduct Tony Abbott wants to expand via regulations:

COMMONWEALTH PUBLIC SERVICE ACT 1999

13  The APS Code of Conduct

             (1)  An APS employee must behave honestly and with integrity in connection with APS employment.

             (2)  An APS employee must act with care and diligence in connection with APS employment.

             (3)  An APS employee, when acting in connection with APS employment, must treat everyone with respect and courtesy, and without harassment.

             (4)  An APS employee, when acting in connection with APS employment, must comply with all applicable Australian laws. For this purpose, Australian law means:

                     (a)  any Act (including this Act), or any instrument made under an Act; or

                     (b)  any law of a State or Territory, including any instrument made under such a law.

             (5)  An APS employee must comply with any lawful and reasonable direction given by someone in the employee's Agency who has authority to give the direction.

             (6)  An APS employee must maintain appropriate confidentiality about dealings that the employee has with any Minister or Minister's member of staff.

             (7)  An APS employee must disclose, and take reasonable steps to avoid, any conflict of interest (real or apparent) in connection with APS employment.

             (8)  An APS employee must use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner.

             (9)  An APS employee must not provide false or misleading information in response to a request for information that is made for official purposes in connection with the employee's APS employment.

           (10)  An APS employee must not make improper use of:

                     (a)  inside information; or

                     (b)  the employee's duties, status, power or authority;

in order to gain, or seek to gain, a benefit or advantage for the employee or for any other person.

           (11)  An APS employee must at all times behave in a way that upholds:

                     (a)  the APS Values and APS Employment Principles; and

                     (b)  the integrity and good reputation of the employee's Agency and the APS.

           (12)  An APS employee on duty overseas must at all times behave in a way that upholds the good reputation of Australia.

           (13)  An APS employee must comply with any other conduct requirement that is prescribed by the regulations.

See Public Service Regulations 1999

The truth that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Liberal-Nationals Coalition seek to deny

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott may think that climate change is 'crap', refuse to agree to a CHOGM climate change fund to finance climate change initiatives and, limit the inclusion of climate change 'clutter' on the agenda of the 2014 G20 Summit in the face of global concern.

However, science reveals that all Australians are at risk from global warming/climate change:

U.N. International Government Panel On Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. IPCC Wo...

Wasn't Australia lucky that Whaling In The Antarctic (Australia V. Japan: New Zealand Intervening) was already before the International Court of Justice by the time Tony Abbott became prime minister

This was Tony Abbott reported in The Age on 12 January 2010:

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says a Coalition government would not take international legal action against Japanese whaling…

While the Coalition would like Japan to stop whaling, ''we don't want to needlessly antagonise our most important trading partner, a fellow democracy, an ally'', he said.

''There are limits to what you can reasonably do, and taking war-like action against Japan is not something that a sensible Australian politician ought to recommend.''…

This is the victory for whale conservation in the Southern Ocean that the former Federal Labor Government bequeathed Australia:

WHALING IN THE ANTARCTIC (AUSTRALIA v. JAPAN: NEW ZEALAND INTERVENING) 31 March 2014 Judgment

Further information here.

Is Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott barking mad or merely a silly fool?

Sir Pository of Wisdom from the brush of Ron Tandberg

But that’s what Governors-General do – they encourage us to be our best selves. They are our cheerleaders-in-chief…..

As Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Lynne travel the length and breadth of our country, visiting all the places that aren’t important enough for Prime Ministers…

[Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Remarks At The Reception Following The Swearing In Of The 26th Governor-General Of Australia, Parliament House, Canberra, 28 March 2014]

Firstly, Sir Pository of Wisdom ignores the fact that a governor-general is not a cheerleader, but the Monarch’s representative in a constitutional monarchy and therefore one of the safeguards built into the Australian Constitution.

Secondly, he is wrong about the title of the Governor-General’s spouse – she is Lady Cosgrove. She would only be Lady Lynne is she had a title in her own right.

Thirdly, the Governor-General and his spouse take precedence over the Prime Minister and his spouse.

Finally, Sir Pository confirms that he considers much of Australia is beneath his notice as prime minister.

When a website tells the unvarnished truth.....

This is an image of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, on his feet during Question Time, which was displayed on the Australian Parliament website on 24 March 2014:

The real reason Anthony John 'Tony' Abbott waited until he was almost 24 years old to become an Australian citizen?

When Anthony John Abbott was born to an English father and a first-generation Australian mother at a general lying-in hospital in York Road, Lambeth, London, on 4 November 1957, his parents did not register him as an Australian infant born overseas or immediately apply for Australian citizenship on his behalf.

Presumably because at that time Richard and Fay Abbott thought they would be permanently living in England and raising a family there.

He therefore had only one official nationality status – as a British subject and citizen.

In fact it was not until over twenty years after the family had arrived in Australia as subsidised assisted migrants that Tony Abbott’s parents applied to register his birth with the Dept. of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and apply for his citizenship, in a document/s dated 19 June 1981.

This application appears to have been treated as urgent by departmental staff.

His parents were subsequently informed in a letter dated 1 July 1981 that Anthony John Abbott was now deemed to be an Australian citizen under Section 11 of the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 which allowed citizenship by descent.

At this time Tony Abbott was 23 years and 7 months of age and, had either applied for a Rhodes Scholarship or was intending to apply for this scholarship to study at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Currently such applications must be applied for after 1 June in the year a Rhodes Scholarship is on offer.

To gain a Rhodes Scholarship an applicant has to be an Australian citizen and have been resident in Australia for at least five of the last ten years.

Tony Abbott was apparently intending to depart Australia on or about 10 July 1981 and, started his scholarship course at Queens College, Oxford, in October 1981.

One cannot escape the suspicion that the future Prime Minister of Australia only applied for Australian citizenship at that time in order to gain a monetary advantage which would allow him to further his studies overseas.

Which, if true, would make him a somewhat reluctant Aussie and perhaps go some way to explaining his strong admiration of the British monarchy and those anachronistic English titles he has re-introduced (without consultation with Cabinet or party room) into the Australian honours system.

Note: Immigration and citizenship information found at the National Archives of Australia.

UPDATE

There is no National Archives record listed of Fay Abbott applying to register the overseas birth of Tony Abbott’s sister, Jane Elizabeth Abbott (born on 25 January 1959 at Hammersmith, London U.K.) either in 1981 or any other year.

In June 1981 Jane Abbott would have been 22 years of age.

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Fourteen

THE WILFULLY IGNORANT LIE

QUESTION:

Prime Minister, lastly, there’s a big rally today in Sydney against your Government. Do you have anything to say to those protesters today?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well, my understanding is that the only big rally in Sydney is the St Patrick's Day parade. That’s the big event - to be sure - in Sydney today and I wish all the St Patrick's Day revellers well and if their parade is rained on, there’s always some Guinness available somewhere around the city.

[Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott answering a question about March In March 2014 at a joint press conference in Sydney on 16 March 2014]

THE FACTS

March In March 2014 had been widely advertised since January 2014 on Facebook and elsewhere.

Twitter had displayed an almost continuous stream of #marchinmarch tweets prior to and on the actual protest days and, first as opposition leader and then as prime minister, Tony Abbott has maintained an active Twitter account/presence.

The Canberra Times newspaper was reporting on the event as early as 4 February and The Australian newspaper by 8 February.

On 16 March 2014 the number of Sydney protest marchers was estimated by various sources as between 10,000 to 30,000 people.

Journalist Richard Chirgwin tweeted that it took marchers 30 minutes to pass the point at which he watched the Sydney march. His short video of people gathered in Belmore Park is at http://twitpic.com/dygkbl.

The Sydney Morning Herald online 16 March 2014: Sydney March In March

 Across Australia it is estimated that over 80,000 people marched.

ABC News online storified this national protest in pictures.

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Thirteen

THE LIE

we are all totally committed to trying to ensure genuine and complete equality between men and women...this is a nation which has smashed just about every glass ceiling...

[Australian Prime Minister and self-appointed Minister for Women Tony Abbott, Address To The International Women's Day Parliamentary Breakfast, March 2014]

THE FACTS

On 24 February 2014 the Abbott Government made submissions to the Fair Work Commission Equal Remuneration Case arguing against "comparative wage justice" and the issuing of an "equal remuneration order" in redressing any gender-based undervaluation of the work of female employees in the early childcare sector.

New figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics  show that, on average, full-time working women’s earnings are 17.1% less per week than full-time working men’s earnings (a difference that equates to $262.50 per week). [Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 20 February 2014]

...according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, “a significant proportion of the gender pay gap is unexplained”, and discrimination remains a factor...

Pay inequality and income gaps between men and women increase over time and become wider in older age. When we look at lifetime earnings, across every educational level, women fare more poorly than men.

In their 2012 report for AMP.NATSEM, Smart Australians: Education and Innovation in Australia, the authors found that based on the current figures the lifetime earnings gap between men and women with a bachelors degree was $1.26 million, with men earning $3.66 million compared to women’s $2.4 million (see Figure 2).

A woman aged 25 years with postgraduate qualifications can expect to earn two-thirds of her male counterpart’s lifetime earnings and, on average, she will have lower lifetime earnings than a man with Year 12 qualifications – $2.49 million and $2.55 million respectively.

Women’s earning prospects have actually decreased since a similar analysis was conducted in 2009.

Using data and dollars from 2006, the report found that the gender gaps in lifetime earnings across educational levels are even greater where there are children, and that men with a bachelor degree with children earned almost twice the lifetime earnings of women in the same category. [The Australia Institute, What’s Choice Got To Do With It? - Women’s lifetime financial disadvantage and the superannuation gender pay gap, July 2013]

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in November 2013, full time female adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,270.50 and full time male adult ordinary time average weekly earnings for all industries was $1,532.10

Men still dominate in senior positions, even in industry categories with a high concentration of females in the workforce such as “health care and social assistance”.

Men also dominate in the full-time employment category for “all industries”.

Note: All graphs found at the Australian Government Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Tony Abbott - first outed in the Australian Parliament for being 'sexist' & 'misogynist' - now being called a 'homophobic' 'heartless racist'. Has a prime minister ever been so tellingly described in Hansard before?

On 9 October 2012 then Prime Minister Julia Gillard rose to her feet in the House of Representatives calling then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott for what he is in the eyes of many and, a fifteen minute description of him as 'sexist' and 'misogynist' entered the permanent parliamentary historical record, Hansard.

On 3 March 2014 Senator Scott Ludlum also rose to his feet in the Senate to address yet other facets of the Prime Minister's character and, an almost eight minute description of the Prime Minister as 'boring', 'thoughtless', 'homophobic' and a 'heartless racist' indelibly entered the political lexicon.

http://youtu.be/dtqrfiEV8Gshttp://youtu.be/dtqrfiEV8Gs

Australian Senate Hansard 3 March 2014:

Senator LUDLAM (Western Australia) (22:09): Tonight I rise to invite Prime Minister Tony Abbott to visit the beautiful state of Western Australia. I do this in good faith, because we are only a matter of weeks away from a historic by-election that will not just determine the final makeup of this chamber after July but also will decide much more of consequence to the people of Western Australia, whether they are thinking of voting for the Greens or not. Prime Minister, you are welcome out west, but this is a respectful invitation to think carefully about what baggage you pack when you make your next flying campaign stopover. When you arrive at Perth airport, you will alight on the traditional country of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, who have sung this country for more than 40,000 years. This is 200 times the age of the city that now stands on the banks of the Derbal Yerigan, the Swan River. Understand that you are now closer to Denpasar than to Western Sydney, in a state where an entire generation has been priced out of affordable housing. Recognise that you are standing in a place where the drought never ended, where climate change from land clearing and fossil fuel combustion is a lived reality that is already costing jobs, property and lives.

Mr Prime Minister, at your next press conference we invite you to leave your excruciatingly boring three-word slogans at home. If your image of Western Australia is of some caricatured redneck backwater that is enjoying the murderous horror unfolding on Manus Island, you are reading us wrong. Every time you refer to us as the 'mining state' as though the western third of our ancient continent is just Gina Rinehart's inheritance to be chopped, benched and blasted, you are reading us wrong. Western Australians are a generous and welcoming lot, but if you arrive and start talking proudly about your attempts to bankrupt the renewable energy sector, cripple the independence of the ABC and privatise SBS, if you show up waving your homophobia in people's faces and start boasting about your ever-more insidious attacks on the trade union movement and all working people, you can expect a very different kind of welcome.

People are under enough pressure as it is without three years of this government going out of its way to make it worse. It looks awkward when you take policy advice on penalty rates and the minimum wage from mining billionaires and media oligarchs on the other side of the world—awkward, and kind of revolting. It is good to remember that these things are temporary. For anyone listening in from outside this almost empty Senate chamber, the truth is that Prime Minister Tony Abbott and this benighted attempt at a government are a temporary phenomenon. They will pass, and we need to keep our eyes on the bigger picture. Just as the reign of the dinosaurs was cut short to their great surprise, it may be that the Abbott government will appear as nothing more than a thin, greasy layer in the core sample of future political scientists drilling back into the early years of the 21st century.

The year 2014 marks 30 years since the election of the first representative of what was to become the Greens—my dear friend and mentor Senator Jo Vallentine. She came into this place as a lone Western Australian representative speaking out against the nuclear weapons that formed the foundations of the geopolitical suicide pact we dimly remember as the Cold War. Since the first day of Senator Vallentine's first term, the Greens have been articulating a vision of Australia as it could be—an economy running on infinite flows of renewable energy; a society that never forgets it lives on country occupied by the planet's oldest continuing civilisation; and a country that values education, innovation and equality. These values are still at the heart of our work; nowhere stronger than on the Walkatjurra Walkabout, which will set off again later this month to challenge the poisonous imposition of the state's first uranium mine on the shoreline of Lake Way. As the damage done by the nuclear industry is global, so is our resistance.

Mr Abbott, your thoughtless cancellation of half a billion dollars of Commonwealth funding for the Perth light rail project has been noted. Your blank cheque for Colin Barnett's bloody and unnecessary shark cull has been noted. Your attacks on Medicare, on schools funding, on tertiary education—noted. The fact that your only proposal for environmental reforms thus far is to leave Minister Greg Hunt playing solitaire for the next three years while you outsource his responsibilities to the same Premier who presides over the shark cull has been noted too.

You may not believe this, Prime Minister, but your advocacy on behalf of foreign biotechnology corporations and Hollywood's copyright-industrial complex to chain Australia to the Trans-Pacific Partnership has been noted. People have been keeping a record of every time you have been given the opportunity to choose between predator capitalism and the public interest, and it is bitterly obvious whose side you are on.

So to be very blunt, the reason that I extend this invitation to you, Mr Prime Minister, to spend as much time as you can spare in Western Australia is that every time you open your mouth the Green vote goes up. You and your financial backers in the gas fracking and uranium industries have inspired hundreds of people to spend their precious time doorknocking thousands of homes for the Greens in the last few weeks. Your decision to back Monsanto's shareholders instead of Western Australian farmers has inspired people across the length and breadth of this country to make thousands of calls and donate to our campaign.

As for the premeditated destruction of the NBN and Attorney-General George Brandis's degrading capitulation to the surveillance state when confronted with the unlawful actions of the US NSA—even the internet is turning green, 'for the win'. Geeks and coders, network engineers and gamers would never have voted Green in a million years without the blundering and technically illiterate assistance of your leadership team. For this I can only thank you.

And, perhaps most profoundly, your determined campaign to provoke fear in our community—fear of innocent families fleeing war and violence in our region—in the hope that it would bring out the worst in Australians is instead bringing out the best in us. Prime Minister, you are welcome to take your heartless racist exploitation of people's fears and ram it as far from Western Australia as your taxpayer funded travel entitlements can take you.

What is at stake here, in the most immediate sense, is whether or not Prime Minister Tony Abbott has total control of this parliament in coming years. But I have come to realise that it is about much more than that. We want our country back. Through chance, misadventure, and, somewhere, a couple of boxes of misplaced ballot papers, we have been given the opportunity to take back just one seat on 5 April, and a whole lot more in 2016. Game on, Prime Minister. See you out west.

It is heartening to note that, long after Tony Abbott is no more, students and scholars will be able to read these two word portraits of the man and form a more accurate view of who he was than if they had relied solely on that put forward by the Murdoch media and Coalition spin doctors.

'Superman' Abbott and his international affairs 'skills'

On 2 March 2012 leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission release a statement:

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

March 02, 2014

G-7 Leaders Statement

We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and the President of the European Council and President of the European Commission, join together today to condemn the Russian Federation’s clear violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, in contravention of Russia’s obligations under the UN Charter and its 1997 basing agreement with Ukraine.  We call on Russia to address any ongoing security or human rights concerns that it has with Ukraine through direct negotiations, and/or via international observation or mediation under the auspices of the UN or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.  We stand ready to assist with these efforts.

We also call on all parties concerned to behave with the greatest extent of self-restraint and responsibility, and to decrease the tensions.

We note that Russia’s actions in Ukraine also contravene the principles and values on which the G-7 and the G-8 operate.  As such, we have decided for the time being to suspend our participation in activities associated with the preparation of the scheduled G-8 Summit in Sochi in June, until the environment comes back where the G-8 is able to have meaningful discussion.

We are united in supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its right to choose its own future.  We commit ourselves to support Ukraine in its efforts to restore unity, stability, and political and economic health to the country.  To that end, we will support Ukraine’s work with the International Monetary Fund to negotiate a new program and to implement needed reforms.  IMF support will be critical in unlocking additional assistance from the World Bank, other international financial institutions, the EU, and bilateral sources.

Australian Prime Minister Abbott has still not issued a formal statement. Instead on 3 March 2014 the Russian Ambassador was summoned to a meeting with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary.  

Background

Andrew Bolt having a friendly chat with 'Superman' about the Ukraine situation on 2 March 2014

Andrew Bolt having a friendly chat with 'Superman' about the Ukraine situation on 2 March 2014

U.S. President Obama telephones Russia’s President Putin on 1 March 2014 and issues an official statement of which the following is an excerpt:

President Obama spoke for 90 minutes this afternoon with President Putin of Russia about the situation in Ukraine. President Obama expressed his deep concern over Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, which is a breach of international law, including Russia’s obligations under the UN Charter, and of its 1997 military basing agreement with Ukraine, and which is inconsistent with the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and the Helsinki Final Act. The United States condemns Russia’s military intervention into Ukrainian territory.

The United States calls on Russia to de-escalate tensions by withdrawing its forces back to bases in Crimea and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine. We have consistently said that we recognize Russia’s deep historic and cultural ties to Ukraine and the need to protect the rights of ethnic Russian and minority populations within Ukraine.  The Ukrainian government has made clear its commitment to protect the rights of all Ukrainians and to abide by Ukraine’s international commitments, and we will continue to urge them to do so.

President Obama told President Putin that, if Russia has concerns about the treatment of ethnic Russian and minority populations in Ukraine, the appropriate way to address them is peacefully through direct engagement with the government of Ukraine and through the dispatch of international observers under the auspices of the United Nations Security Council or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).  As a member of both organizations, Russia would be able to participate. President Obama urged an immediate effort to initiate a dialogue between Russia and the Ukrainian government, with international facilitation, as appropriate. The United States is prepared to participate.

President Obama made clear that Russia’s continued violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would negatively impact Russia’s standing in the international community. In the coming hours and days, the United States will urgently consult with allies and partners in the UN Security Council, the North Atlantic Council, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and with the signatories of the Budapest Memorandum. The United States will suspend upcoming participation in preparatory meetings for the G-8. Going forward, Russia’s continued violation of international law will lead to greater political and economic isolation.....

Australian Prime Minister Abbott does not telephone Russia’s President Putin and does not issue an official statement. Instead he answers a few questions in a televised interview with Andrew Bolt on 2 March 2014 (which he then posts on www.pm.gov.au) in which he opines:

Look, I don’t want to offer a running commentary on what’s happening on the ground, just to say Andrew, that this is very, very concerning and I think that every Australian – I think people right around the world – will be thinking right now: hands off the Ukraine. This is not the kind of action of a friend and neighbour and really, Russia should back off.

Bolt goes on to ask:

Are you disappointed with President Obama’s weak response? Your response just then was ten times stronger than that rubbish that we just heard.

Arrant nonsense from an Andrew Bolt apparently intent on recasting Tony Abbott in the superman mold.

It’s been done before and at least then drew a laugh or two.......

loon pond

Political Cartoon of the Month

David Pope's work can be purchased at www.scratch.com.au/

The Lies Abbott Tells - Part Twelve

THE LIE TOLD TO PARLIAMENT

 Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his election promise to visit East Arnhem Land in his first week as Prime Minister....

Mr ABBOTT: What I actually said was that the first remote community that I would visit and stay in as Prime Minister would be a community in East Arnhem Land, and that is exactly what I am going to do....[Prime Minister Tony Abbott on the floor of the House of Representatives, Hansard 12 February 2014]

THE TRUTH

“Why shouldn’t I, if you will permit me, spend my first week as prime minister, should that happen, on this, on your country.” [YouTube, youtu.be/F1OKujvU2wQ, then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott at 21:27 minutes]

How the "Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs"* operates

The Canberra Times 15 February 2914:

Hundreds of Aboriginal public servants drafted into Tony Abbott's department to help "close the gap" are being paid up to $19,000 less than their new white colleagues doing the same jobs.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has more than 260 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bureaucrats, brought in from the old FaHCSIA department in a plan to bring indigenous policy under the PM's control.

But while the Prime Minister spoke last week of "closing the gap" in indigenous disadvantage in Australia, hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander bureaucrats were settling into their new jobs working for Mr Abbott's department on wages well below those of their new non-indigenous co-workers.

There was more bad news for the department's officials on Friday afternoon as Secretary Ian Watt told his staff that PM&C could not afford to maintain its present staffing levels and that job losses were inevitable.

In another blow to indigenous voices in the federal arena, representative body the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples says it is sacking two-thirds of its workforce, a loss of 23 jobs, after the federal government cut its funding.

The new Prime Minister's Department recruits from the old FaHCSIA department and 854 of the non-indigenous employees have been told they will not be getting the same wages as their new well-paid co-workers at PM&C and will continue to be paid their old salaries.

Wages are about on par for the most junior employees, but there are big gaps further up the pay scale with a mid-level APS6 former FaHCSIA official earning $12,000 less than their PM&C counterpart.

In junior to middle management ranks, a level 1 executive from the old indigenous department can be up to $19,000 a year worse off than their PM&C colleague.

PM&C is one of the public service's best-paid departments and among its least culturally diverse....

* “It is my hope that I could be not just a prime minister, but a Prime Minister for Aboriginal Affairs” [Tony Abbott, Garma Festival, August 2013]

Tony Abbott gets kitten-ed

Stoptonymeow.com has arrived:

Are you someone who likes to keep up to date with the latest news, but can't stand the sight of Tony Abbott's weird looking face? This is the browser extension for you.

Stop Tony Meow does what it says on the box: Replaces any image it can identify as Tony Abbott with a cute kitten.

A bit of fun by @taybenlor, @dannolan & @mattro.

Here are some of the images being generated by this app.

The Liberal Party is rumoured to be have altered their website configuration in order to avoid this in the future.

Sadly, there is nothing cute of cuddly about the real Tony Abbott - once a junkyard dog always a junkyard dog.