Turnbull Government staffer showing the world just what insensitive, boorish fools Australians can be when holidaying overseas

Third from the left appears to be Defence Innovation Adviser Jack Walker with his pants around his ankles
The West Australian

The Australian, 4 October 2016:

An adviser to cabinet minister Christopher Pyne has been revealed as one of nine Australians arrested for stripping down to Malaysian flag-themed underwear at the country’s Formula One grand prix.

The men, aged between 25 and 29, were reportedly intoxicated when they undressed and began to dance in front of thousands of spectators at the Sepang Inter­national Circuit in celebration at Australian Daniel Ricciardo’s race win.

Jack Walker, who is Defence Innovation Adviser in the Defence Industry Minister’s office, was among them.

Mr Pyne’s spokeswoman told The Australian: “This matter is being handled appropriately by the Australian High Commissioner. Until we have a clearer picture of the process at hand it would be unwise to comment further”.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s department confirmed it was assisting the men.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter, to a group of Australians who were arrested in Malaysia,” a spokeswoman said. “Due to privacy obligations, we are unable to provide further information.”

Treasurer Scott Morrison hoped the incident would encourage young Australians to respect local customs when travelling abroad.

“They are their laws, their rules. You’re on their ground, so you’ve got to comply,” Mr Morrison told Sydney radio 2GB this morning.

“It’s a timely reminder for young people when they travel overseas, know what the laws and rules are and respect them.”

Mr Walker has spent most of his professional life at Mr Pyne’s side, having joined his office in 2013. Mr Walker previously worked at PremierState, the lobbying firm chaired by Liberal factional warlord Michael Photios, and interned at Macquarie Bank.

Mr Walker has served the minister in numerous roles including as Mr Pyne’s executive assistant and as a liaison with Coalition backbenchers. He was appointed Mr Pyne’s Defence Innovation Adviser in July.

Mr Walker claims to have studied international relations at the University of Sydney, according to his resume uploaded to website LinkedIn.

“(I am) confident, hard working and always open to new experiences,” he wrote.

“I enjoy working with people and am always open to opportunities that will increase my personal development.”

The Star, a local Malaysian newspaper, quoted Sepang police chief Abdul Aziz Ali as saying the group was detained moments after the incident.

“They were under the influence of alcohol,” Assistant Commissioner Abdul Aziz said.

“Investigations revealed they bought the undies down under.”

Under Malaysian law, the offences of provocation and indecency can attract jail terms of up to two years.

The underpants were reportedly purchased from an Australian swimwear brand based in Manly, Sydney, and cost $55 each.

The company sells briefs based on the Brazilian, US, French and Japanese design, among others.

The nine men will be held for four days while police investigate claims of public indecency and disrespecting the Malaysian flag.

After all nine offenders plead guilty to a charge of public nuisance and received cautions they promptly returned home under the full gaze of the media. 

One suspects that a certain Defence Innovation adviser to Liberal MP for Sturt and Australian Minister for Defence Industry Christopher Pyne was hoping to quietly slip back into the country, with the media focused on those offenders who returned as a group through Sydney on Friday morning 7 October.

However, even after shaving off his beard he still found the media waiting as he left Perth International Airport on Friday afternoon.

Unfortunately for Walker evasion was never going to be an effective strategy as he had already been effectively skewered in The Spectator issue of 5 October 2016:

Walker isn’t a once off. He’s a part of growing culture within the Liberal ranks; the staffer brat.

The staffer brat is a twenty-something, arts degree graduate, typically moderate-leaning, Kool-Aid drinking political adviser.

With their Young Liberal membership firmly tucked in their chinos, they stroll the blue carpet of the Ministerial Wing with superficial busyness, often in the direction of free booze and networking. They flash their blue ministerial passes at Aussies to crush the spirits of junior staff who secured a rare trip to Canberra. They’ve seen the inside of the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge and they won’t let you forget it.

They greet senior ministers as close friends. They are the fly-in-fly-outs, over-promoted, under-qualified and full to brim with travel allowance to supplement their already over inflated salaries. They do not serve on the frontline, rarely accountable to voters and lean heavily on their department for support.

Their policy expertise often only extends to PVO Newshour and 140-character commentary. Their Instagram is laden with West Wing-style images of riding VIP jets, post-run selfies with the Foreign Minister and artsy pictures of the parliamentary courtyards.

The wanker filter is, unsurprisingly, always in heavy use.

And while potentially bright and occasionally competent, the electorate often proves more complex than their life experience allows.

Given Australia's love of alliterative nicknames, he now runs the risk of forever being known as Wanker Walker.

Having been invited to resign - which he did on Saturday 8 October - Jack Walker can now enjoy a few days of leisure before the Liberal Party old boys network finds him a new position where white male entitlement and boorish behaviour are considered career assets.

Political Career Path by ‏tweeter @interrogativus

The perception of Coalition corruption and rorting continues to grow.......

The longer this generation of Liberal and Nationals politicians hold sway at either state or federal level the more apparent it becomes that they have little to no understanding of business ethics or civic responsibility, nor any regard for the damage that even a perception of a conflict of interest can do to the level of public trust in political institutions.

Here is yet another example……

ABC News, 22 September 2016:

John Cotter Jnr.

A company run by prominent Queensland Liberal National Party members was part of a consortium awarded $3 million under a federal infrastructure program, the ABC can reveal.

The money is for a feasibility study for the proposed Urannah Dam in north Queensland.

The $3 million was secured by a consortium that was made up of the community group, Bowen Collinsville Enterprise Inc, and the Brisbane-based venture capital group, Initiative Capital.

Initiative Capital is owned by its chief executive John Cotter Jr and its executive director Gerard Paynter, who say the bid was made through an independent and transparent assessment process, with all funds to be managed by the state.

But the Queensland Government has told the ABC successful funding bids were selected by the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and that the Urannah Dam was not even listed as a state priority.

The $3 million for the Urannah Dam study came from National Water Infrastructure Development Fund. The fund called for applications late last year, with a panel of technical experts assessing the bids.

But the fund guidelines state "the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources [Barnaby Joyce] will be the final decision-maker".

John Cotter Jr is a member of the powerful Queensland LNP state executive and a regional party chair.

LNP sources said he was heavily involved in fundraising at all levels of the party.

When asked by the ABC about fundraising and his roles with the LNP, Mr Cotter said he was not allowed to comment.

"I can only confirm I am [an LNP] member," he said.

But a spokesman for the Queensland LNP confirmed Mr Cotter was on the state executive.

His partner in Initiative Capital, Gerard Paynter, is the Queensland managing director of LNP-aligned lobbying firm Barton Deakin.

Its website describes him as "an experienced Liberal National Party figure having been a Queensland and Federal Young Liberal president and a member of the Queensland state executive for five years".

It says he also has extensive experience in managing LNP state and federal campaigns, including holding a "central campaign role within the LNP for the 2013 federal election".

Mr Paynter told the ABC he did not hold any executive positions within the LNP.

He did not respond to follow up questions……..

The Australian, 27 July 2013:

MEMBERS of Queensland's GasFields Commission and their families enjoy lucrative financial interests in the state's controversial coal-seam gas industry that endanger the statutory body's independence, landholders and activists claim.

The commission, an election commitment by Campbell Newman's Liberal National Party, purports to promote sustainable co-existence between CSG miners and farmers - but critics say it is captive to industry……

Mr Clapham said landholders were concerned about the commissioners' links to gas companies. "To many people it appears the commission is there to facilitate the industry, not to even up the power imbalances. It's there to grease the wheels of the industry," he said.

The son of commission chairman John Cotter is the founder and major shareholder of a Brisbane-based consultancy that has close links to the British-owned Queensland Gas Company, one of four firms developing the state's $65 billion CSG industry.

John Cotter Jr's Flinders Group is involved in the $100 million construction of a jetty at Curtis Island at Gladstone, from where exports of liquid natural gas will begin next year. The Flinders Group has also advised resource firms, including QGC, on accessing land in more than 10 major projects, involving agreements with 1000 landholders.

Mr Cotter Jr said he no longer dealt directly with landowners because of his father's commissioner role and the group had created "Chinese walls" to avoid potential conflicts.

Activist Drew Hutton said the Flinders Group "scopes areas where coal-seam gas companies might need to target properties for gas wells and other infrastructure".

This was in direct conflict with Mr Cotter Sr's role in assisting farmers in dealing with mining companies, he said. "It's another case of where the Queensland government has structured things so landholders are disadvantaged against the might of the coal-seam gas companies."

Mr Cotter Sr, a grazier at Goomeri northwest of Brisbane, said he had no role in his son's business…..

Following closely on the heels of John Cotter Jnr's latest issue came this report in The Age on 26 September 2016:

A Turnbull government MP is facing questions over a series of taxpayer funded travel claims, including more than $2000 for flights to his own wedding in Melbourne.

Western Australian Liberal MP Steve Irons charged taxpayers travel costs of $1346 for a flight on October 18, 2011, three days before he was married at Melbourne's Crown Casino.

The West Australian reported on Monday that following the October 21 ceremony, Mr Irons charged taxpayers $911 for a return flight to Perth on October 25.

The Swan MP said the money had been repaid to the Department of Finance after "a self-audit" of travel expenses in his office.

Mr Irons' wife Cheryle was a Melbourne-based real estate agent at the time of the couple's wedding.

The revelations come days after it was reported that he had also used taxpayer funds to pay for flights to a Gold Coast golf tournament in December 2015.

Mr Irons said he studied golf tourism opportunities at the first stage of the International Team Challenge, after being invited to attend by the Australian PGA.

As chair of the parliamentary friends of sport group, Mr Irons said the trip had not broken any rules on taxpayer funded travel, despite it being claimed as "electorate business".

The December trip included a $258 bill to taxpayers for three nights' travel allowance in Coolangatta and $1875 for a flight from Brisbane to Perth.

A further flight cost is expected to be reported in future releases from the Department of Finance.

Mr Iron's office did not respond to requests for comment…..

Australia's 45th Parliament in action

https://youtu.be/Knob-rB35AI

“But before talking about what happened during the election campaign, I want to touch on something that is very close to my heart, and that is the national flag of Australia—our flag.” [Senator McGrath (Queensland) Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister]

“—particularly to you, Senator Cameron, who share my love of chocolates” [Senator Fierravanti-Wells (NSW)]

The New Daily, 12 September 2016:

The government began the second week of the new Parliament the same way it ended the first – amid high farce.

Little more than a week after being the first majority government in 50 years to lose a vote in the House of Representatives (it lost three) because Coalition MPs decided to go home early, it was the Senate’s turn to show the level of disorganisation within government ranks.

Soon after the Senate opened for business on Monday, the Coalition had no business to discuss.

And after another embarrassing session of Parliament ended, ABC’s Lateline revealed that Federal Cabinet had confidentially signed off on the mechanics of the same-sex marriage plebiscite, only for the details to leak almost immediately.

In the morning session of the Senate, a filibuster of Monty Python proportions ensued, leaving no one with any doubt the government was desperately trying to mark time until lunch.

With no legislation to debate, Coalition senators rose to talk for hours about their love of chocolates, love of the Australian flag, respect for roads, respect for a defeated candidate whose name they got wrong and other inane conversation.

It all led to Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong to chime in that the government had “no plans and no ideas”.

“They’ve got literally nothing to talk about,” Senator Wong said.

Meanwhile, manager of government business in the Senate Mitch Fifield put the word out that Labor was delaying passage of non-controversial bills in the House, therefore leaving the Senate with nothing to debate.

But the Senate scenes exposed further signs of chaos and weakness from the government, leaving Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appearing besieged from all sides…..

Australian Federal Election 2016: Nationals Nathan Quigley losing votes one Inbox at a time

I received this copy of a recent email exchange from an incensed Northern Rivers voter, upset with the political data mining involved in delivering the National Party message into his Inbox.

Especially one that informed him that Kevin Hogan favoured a far-right, homophobic, religio-political group (founded by Rev. Fred Nile) as the second preference on his How To Vote cards.

This reader's email to North Coast Voices was accompanied with the final comment "What a pack of b*stards!!!"

The email exchange..........

From: [redacted]  <redacted>
Date: 25 June 2016 at 7:16:09 PM AEST
To: Nathan Quigley <nathan@nswnationals.org.au>
Subject: Re: In one week…

Excuse me Mr Quigley,

I don't recall communicating with you.

How did you obtain my email address?

[Redacted contact details]

On 25 Jun 2016, at 3:41 PM, Nathan Quigley <nathan@nswnationals.org.au> wrote:

In one week Australians will vote in one of the most important elections in a generation. We'll have a choice between staying on course with an experienced government under Malcolm Turnbull - a government with a plan to keep our economy strong - or a gamble with deeper deficits in an uncertain world under Bill Shorten and Labor. That's why it's important for every single voter to go to their polling location informed.

So please download the "How to Vote" flyer below and take it with you when you vote.

Correctly filling in your ballot is ESSENTIAL to ensure we have sound management in Canberra and a strong local voice for the Northern Rivers and Coffs Coast.

Please share this email with your friends so they know how to vote as well.

Nathan Quigley State Director – NSW Nationals P.S. Remember, we need your support. Please CLICK HERE to download your "How to Vote" flyer for Page.

This message was sent from the NSW Nationals and authorised by N Quigley, Level 2, 107 Pitt St, Sydney. Click here to unsubscribe. [if!vml]>&lt[endif]&

UPDATE

From: Matt Kay [mailto:Matt.Kay@nswnationals.org.au]
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 12:15 PM
To: [redacted] <redacted>
Subject: RE: In one week…

Hi [name redacted],

It was supplied by Kevin Hogan’s office. I’ve unsubscribed you from our list.

Cheers,

Mat

Homophobia rules in the Christensen universe

Photograph from The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 February 2016

George Christensen (Dawson, Liberal Party) Australian House of Representatives Hansard, 25 February 2016  via Open Australia:

I rise as a voice for the thousands of parents who have been shocked when they discovered how the ironically named Safe Schools program is indoctrinating their children. When those parents consider just how unsafe this program is, they will wonder why the federal government is allowing it to be implemented in schools, much less spending $8 million of taxpayer money to fund it.

The things that the Safe Schools Coalition Australia are recommending to school students include pornographic web content, sex shops, adult online communities and sex clubs. The Safe Schools 'All of Us' teaching resource directs students to the LGBT organisation Twenty10. On 19 January this year, Twenty10 hosted a hands-on workshop for youth on sex toys and sadomasochistic practices. All of Us also directs students to the website of the LGBT youth organisation Minus18, which produced most of the Safe Schools resources. Minus18 advised the students on chest binding, penis tucking, sex toys and sex advice such as 'penis-in-vagina sex is not the only sex and certainly not the ultimate sex'.

Minus18 links to The Tool Shed—an online pornographic sex shop offering a range of sex toys, sadomasochistic items and pornography. Minus18 recommends Scarleteen—a teen sex advice site that promotes group sex, sex toys and sadomasochism. Minus18 is an event partner with Melbourne gay bar the GH Hotel, which features erotic homosexual entertainment.

Safe Schools recommends the transgender organisation Seahorse Club Victoria, which in turn recommends the Abode fetish club. Abode is located at the same address as The Parlour Lounge sex club, which provides sadomasochistic entertainment and rooms for sex.

Safe Schools is funded via the Foundation for Young Australians, whose partner agencies implement the Safe Schools program. New South Wales partner Family Planning NSW offers detailed information on oral sex. Tasmanian partner Working It Out recommends YouTube channels featuring such things as 'Gay guy sees first transgender vagina' and 'Anal for FTMs'.

These links to sexually explicit web content and external organisations of an adult or erotic nature raise serious concerns about child safety. Further, Safe Schools provides instructions to children on how to hide their internet browsing history. It advises them to ask for restricted websites that are blocked at school—and would be blocked at home—to be unblocked by their teachers without parental knowledge.

If parents knew their children were being exposed to this type of material, they would probably not let them go to school. If someone proposed exposing a child to this material, the parents would probably call the police because it sounds a lot like the grooming work that a sexual predator might undertake. Child and Adolescent Sexual Assault Counselling Incorporated is a New South Wales peak body for child sexual assault counselling. This is how that body describes the process of grooming:

Sexualisation of the relationship through conversation and exposure of the child to sexual material such as images; taking undue interest in the child's sexual development; assuring the child of the rightness of what they are doing; telling the child the acts will not hurt them; alienating the child from their parents and family so that they do not feel close to them; and shaping the child's sexual preferences and manipulating what the child finds exciting.

That all sounds very familiar. The Safe Schools program focuses heavily on child and teenage sexual activity and sexual attractions; justifies almost any sexual activity; diminishes possible risks and harms; encourages young people to hide their activities from their parents; and provides links to adult sex clubs, adult online communities and sex shops. What is more, the program portrays all of this as normal and wraps it up in a taxpayer funded package and calls it an anti-bullying campaign. The Safe Schools program is in fact an unsafe schools program and it leaves students open to being groomed on websites advertising adult sex venues.

I commend the government for undertaking a review of this program and I call on schools using this program to immediately suspend it pending the outcome of that review. I urge all members of this House, particularly those with young children, to take a close look at what Safe Schools is delivering. I seek leave to table two documents—a diagram and an explanatory sheet illustrating the external links of the Safe Schools campaign.

Leave granted.

The Member for Fairfax voices our worst fear.........

In the House of Representatives last week Queensland MP Clive Palmer voiced the fear of many – that Malcolm Bligh Turnbull will win this Coalition Government a second term, then swiftly be deposed and replaced as prime minister for the following three years by former prime minister John Anthony “Tony” Abbott:

Mr PALMER (Fairfax) (14:21): My question is to the Prime Minister. As Australia's third-oldest Prime Minister, if you are still Prime Minister after the election, will you serve a full term in parliament or will you retire to your unit in New York and do a switcheroo with the member for Warringah, sustaining yourself with innovation and growth opportunities your investments have provided for the people of the Cayman Islands? It has never been a more exciting time to be a Cayman Islander! Are you a seat warmer? [Hansard, 25 February 2016]

Australian Federal Election 2016: play up, play up and play the game.......

And this particular game is Help Yourselves & Help Your Mates before even thinking of the unpaid workers:

An ambitious sports media venture backed by an elite of Australian politics, corporate and sport figures, including Liberal heavyweights Malcolm Turnbull and Nick Greiner, has collapsed and faces wind-up action by disgruntled former employees.

The brainchild of entrepreneurs, Melbourne-based advertising executive George Tomeski and Sydney's Luke Bunbury, PlayUp was spruiked in Australia and internationally as a world first in mobile-based, sport-focused, social media.

It attracted tens of millions from a star-studded band of investors including Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull and son Alex, former Telstra chairman Bob Mansfield, pub and pokie king Bruce Mathieson and ex-test cricketers Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh.

Founded in 2006 as a possible online gambling app, PlayUp appeared to be in serious trouble by 2014 after burning through $75 million raised from investors between 2007 and 2011, including from BRW Rich listers Allan Myers, QC, John Higgins and funds manager David Paradice.

Documents lodged with the Victorian Supreme Court reveal that six former employees are seeking to wind up Revo, claiming they're owed $500,000 in unpaid wages and superannuation.

One of the company's shareholders, Ben Smith has joined the action, claiming $100,000 in the name of his personal superannuation fund.

The legal stoush is likely to resurrect questions about the company's finances and what, exactly, PlayUp offered to lure such a glitterati of backers.

[http://www.smh.com.au/national/turnbullbacked-sports-venture-faces-wind-up-20160116-gm7amv.html]

Sources said Alex Turnbull negotiated a secured debt status with PlayUp management in 2014, when former NSW premier Nick Greiner was chairman. Mr Turnbull is understood to be poised to strike a deal this week to sell his debt on to another party, in a transaction that will see him lose money on his original investment.

But the Turnbull family has still extracted more money from their investment than just about all of the high-profile shareholders in PlayUp.

Malcolm Turnbull was a PlayUp shareholder, buying $1 million worth of shares in PlayUp shareholder Revo Nominees in mid-2012. But in August 2013, he sold his stake after it was revealed in a Fairfax Media story that questioned whether his shares in a media company might be a conflict of interest given his role as communications minister.

Company records examined by Fairfax Media show Revo Nominees paid $921,478 when Turnbull & Co shares were transferred back to the shareholder vehicle in November 2013. At least a chunk of that is understood to have gone to the Turnbulls.

[http://www.afr.com/business/sport/malcolm-turnbulls-son-a-secured-creditor-of-failed-100m-tech-firm-playup-20160211-gmreai#ixzz413kTCK3E] 

Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie had second thoughts - too late!

An attempt by Senator Lambie to delete a divisive tweet on the Twitter record, 18 February 2016.

Image found at Politwoops.com

SHORTER ANDREW WILKIE: Grubby, grubby Julie Bishop

Excerpts from ABC News, 3 February 2016:

A history of treaties in the Timor Sea 

* In 1989 Australia and Indonesia signed the Timor Gap Treaty when East Timor was still under Indonesian occupation. 
* East Timor was left with no permanent maritime border and Indonesia and Australia got to share the wealth in what was known as the Timor Gap. 
* In 2002 East Timor gained independence and the Timor Sea Treaty was signed, but no permanent maritime border was negotiated. 
* East Timor has long argued the border should sit halfway between it and Australia, placing most of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in their territory. 
* In 2004 East Timor started negotiating with Australia again about the border. 
* In 2006 the CMATS treaty was signed, but no permanent border was set, and instead it ruled that revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field would be split evenly between the two countries. 

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has intervened in an application by a former senior intelligence agent to have his passport returned, rejecting his application on the grounds he is a threat to national security.

The former ASIS agent, known as Witness K, is due to give evidence at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague about an operation to bug East Timor's cabinet rooms during negotiations with Australia over an oil and gas treaty in 2004.

East Timor is hoping to get the treaty — worth an estimated $40 billion — torn up on the basis that the bugging was illegal.

Key to their case is Witness K, the former foreign intelligence service agent who ran the spying operation.

He has been unable to leave Australia since his passport was seized in a raid by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) on his home in 2012.

According to Witness K's lawyer Bernard Collaery, the new head of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, indicated last year that ASIO was not taking action on national security grounds regarding Witness K's passport.

But Lateline can reveal that Ms Bishop has rejected Witness K's application for a new passport despite what the head of ASIO said.

A letter to Witness K's lawyers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade explained Ms Bishop's decision:

Mr Collaery described the justification as laughable.

"How could it be a prejudice to Australia's national security for K to repeat what he has said? And that is that an unlawful operation took place abroad," he said.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who is a former intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, is shocked by the decision

"We need to understand here that the person who makes a decision about someone being a security threat or not is the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. In this case the head of ASIO has apparently judged that Witness K is not a security threat to this country," he said.

"That makes the apparent intervention of the Foreign Minister all the more remarkable.

"She is in no position to make any judgement about Witness K from a security point of view, which I think goes to show this is a political decision for political and diplomatic reasons and nothing to do with national security."…..

Mr Wilkie said the decision raised questions about how seriously the Government took international law.

"For the Foreign Minister apparently to deny Witness K a passport to give evidence at the Hague is really us just saying we don't care about the Hague, we don't care about international law," he said.

"Every way you look at this it's grubby."

Anthony John "Tony" Abbott has decided that contrary to popular belief he is still Australia's prime minister

This is the very arrogant MP for Warringah backgrounding mainstream media……

Sky News, 1 February 2016:

Tony Abbott has met US President Barack Obama privately in Washington, it's been reported.

The former prime minister also held secret talks with the president's spy chief, News Corp reported on Monday, noting that the meetings could irk Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Mr Abbott and Mr Obama met at an exclusive banquet on Saturday night, with sources saying the two had a very warm and intimate discussion.

A day earlier, Mr Abbott reportedly held secret talks with the US director of National Intelligence James Clapper - it's believed they discussed the war effort against Islamic State as well as broader global threats….

The Daily Telegraph, 1 February 2016, p.4:

WHO ABBOTT MET IN THE US

Barack Obama, US President

Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations

James Clapper, National Intelligence Director

John McCain, Republican senator and former presidential candidate

James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank Credit

And the reason for this high-level foray into foreign policy?

Well, in the first instance it is bound to get up the nose of two people most likely high on Abbott’s hate list – Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Secondly, Abbott has been travelling during that period of the year in which backbenchers typically go on taxpayer-funded ‘study tours’ and I’m betting that these meetings (along with a photo opportunity with former presidential adviser Henry Kissinger) will form the basis of a claim that he was on just such a tour.

Snapshot from Tony Abbott's Twitter account, 28 January 2016

Thus Abbott, who in all probability was paid to speak at the Alliance Defending Freedom dinner in New York on 28 January, will be able to claim a second time for expenses associated with his recent trip.

After all, this is the man who in 2009 decided that taxpayers should fund his own book promotion tour until he was sprung and had to pay back $9,400 in 2010.

The only way Tony Abbott will leave the Australian Parliament is if the voters of Warringah kick him out

Apparently desperate to hang on to his seat, parliamentary salary and entitlements, as well as intent on regaining the prime ministerial position he now recalls he ‘left’ rather than was sacked from – far-right politician Anthony John “Tony” Abbott is renominating in the Warringah electorate as a candidate in the 2016 federal general election.

---

THE HONOURABLE TONY ABBOTT MP

FEDERAL MEMBER FOR WARRINGAH 

RENOMINATION FOR WARRINGAH

January 24, 2016

After leaving the prime ministership, I said that I would spend some time talking to family, trusted colleagues and local Liberals about my future. I have been heartened by the support and encouragement I’ve received to continue to serve the country as a member of parliament. 

Therefore, I am renominating to represent the people of Warringah for another term as their Liberal MP.

I am proud of my work to establish the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust that has done so much to improve the amenity of former military land on North Head, Middle Head and Georges Heights. Should I be renominated and elected, I am looking forward to working with Premier Mike Baird to ensure that the Warringah Peninsula gets better transport links to the rest of Sydney.

It has been a great honour to serve the people of Warringah for 22 years and I hope to retain their trust and confidence.

---

Though I am not sure that the NSW Division of the Liberal Party of Australia or the voters of Warringah are quite as enthusiastic as Abbott about his candidature.

Cartoon by Cathy Wilcox at http://cathywilcox.com.au/

The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 December 2015:

Former prime minister Tony Abbott should quit Parliament at the next election to make way for new talent according to a majority of electors within his own safe Liberal seat of Warringah.

With Liberal MPs and supporters reading the signs of growing disunity within the Turnbull government as Mr Abbott and other malcontents continue to speak out, exclusive ReachTel polling conducted for the Australian Institute, has found most voters in the 65 per cent Liberal electorate believe the ex-PM's time has passed....

The New Daily, 21 January 2016:

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s habit of undermining the Turnbull government means he should quit politics before the next election, former Liberal Party insiders say.

Since being dethroned in September last year, speculation has been rife that Mr Abbott wants the country’s top job back.

Reports emerged this week that he had decided to contest the 2016 Election.

However, despite a distinguished record in federal politics and a formidable run of election wins in Warringah, Mr Abbott is being urged to quit because staying would hurt the Liberal Party.

Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson told The New Daily that Mr Abbott would be harmful to the party if he kept behaving like he had since losing the leadership challenge to Malcolm Turnbull.

“If he used it [his position in parliament] as a platform to criticise the government I don’t think it is terribly helpful to them,” Mr Hewson said.

When asked if Mr Abbott had been destabilising the Turnbull government since being dumped as PM to get the job back, Mr Hewson said: “Well there has been some inspired comments by his colleagues and himself … More or less inspired.”

Political commentator and electoral voting analyst Peter Brent emphatically agreed.

“I think it would be better for the Coalition and the Liberal Party if he bowed out [before the 2016 election] because as long as he is around he is a focus of discontent,” Mr Brent told The New Daily.

“With him gone at least everything won’t be interpreted as part of a push to bring Abbott back [as the PM].

“Every time one of them says something it is seen through that prism [trying to get the PM job back]. It would be in the interests of the party if he went away.”

Former media advisor to John Howard in the 1990s and political columnist for The New Daily Paula Matthewson said his true intention was only to disrupt any government he wasn’t leader of.

“I think it has become fairly clear that his intentions are more than upholding the broad church that is the Liberal Party in making sure there is enough conservative voices in it,” Ms Matthewson said.

“The fact is that he nurses the hope of going back to the leadership.

“Really, his true intention is about destabilising and finally trying to remind people that he should be leader.

“On that basis I would say no, it is not good for him to stay.”….

UPDATE

The Australian, 25 January 2016:

Tony Abbott clearly maintains a “flicker of ambition” to resume the prime ministership and any cast-iron guarantees he gives to remain on the backbench are “worthless”, says Victorian Liberal president Michael Kroger…..

The Australian, 25 January 2016:

Tony Abbott’s decision to renominate for the seat of Warringah at the next election carries a twin message for Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party: the former Prime Minister has considered his options and decided to remain in Parliament and conservative Liberals are reacting to what is seen to be a “scorched earth” policy of retribution.

Abbott’s personal decision was tortured and complicated, he could have chosen “anything” within the power of the Turnbull government to deliver and had it. He could have pursued a lucrative conservative international speaking career and made money.

Instead he’s decided to turn it all down and seek to become the local MP for the Northern beaches electorate of Warringah where he started 20 odd years ago and promised to work with the popular Liberal leader - Mike Baird - for the local people.

As far as Abbott’s pysche goes that’s about it. All the talk of him going to an ambassadorial posting or government appointment is gone. He’s probably still not even sure himself but the decision has been made and the challenges arising from it are clear.

The biggest test Turnbull faces, as has been the case from the moment he and Julie Bishop knocked off Abbott, is how he handles the conservative side of the Liberal Party and the growing sense of disillusion and fracture in the Liberal and National parties which could become much more than just being about Abbott’s leadership…..

There were attempts to “flush out” Abbott about his intentions as part of the move against his supporters in NSW - that’s failed dismally and Turnbull now faces a bigger challenge than he did just two weeks ago before the moves against so many conservative MPs got out of hand and took on a Party-wide significance.