John Howard's spin on lies caught out

This week the Prime Minister reached new heights in political double-speak and downright lying. He gets called on this by Peter Hartcher of The Sydney Morning Herald. 

 

"Howard deserves some punishment. He made a promise in 2004 that he knew he could not keep; he aggravated the problem by pumping more tax cuts and spending into the economy; and he is still trying to pretend that he is a superior economic manager.

And this latest rise, two weeks from polling day, cannot be good for his election prospects.

Howard has tried to talk his way out of it. He even invented a new concept in evasiveness yesterday to add to his other creations, the "non-core" promise and the "two-night" promise. Asked if he should be accountable for his 2004 pledge to keep rates at record lows, he said voters shouldn't look at every one of his utterances but only at the "aggregate impression" of what he had said."

Full The Sydney Morning Herald article:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/federal-election-2007-news/howard-adds-a-new-concept-in-evasiveness/2007/11/07/1194329318908.html

WorkChoices on the North Coast and the Church

The Anglican diocese went to bat strongly on behalf of the North Coast when John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull wanted to dam our rivers and pipe the water away. Now Rev. Rutherford of the Uniting Church is stepping up to the crease to show Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis that WorkChoices is an important issue in this region.

 

"The federal government's controversial WorkChoices is draconian legislation which does not create jobs, an Anglican reverend told a public forum in Lismore last Thursday.

Reverend Bob Rutherford of the Uniting Church was one of six panel members at a lively election forum hosted by popular ABC broadcaster Geraldine Doogue at Caddies Coffee lounge last Thursday afternoon.

He said WorkChoices was "absolutely a big issue" among the people he talked to through his pastoral work at the Lismore Regional Mission.

"I think the government has got it wrong if they think it's been a good thing for the country…it's been a bad thing for the country," Reverend Rutherford told the crowd of around 60 people.

He said if people in the region lost their jobs "they can't go anywhere, so they feel trapped".----

Ms Saffin said WorkChoices was "extremely unfair" and came up as an issue every day of her campaigning, especially among grandparents "deeply concerned" about its effects on their children and grandchildren."

The Northern Rivers Echo article:

http://www.echonews.com/index.php?page=View%20Article&article=18388&issue=297

Campaign Day 25

Now let me get this straight. Yesterday was the tenth interest rate rise in the last five years and the sixth since the last federal election in 2004, with another rate rise is likely to occur sometime in the next three months.

John Howard is telling us all that he is sorry this rate rise happened. Then pointing out the happy news is that in a time of good economic growth wages have been kept down and will continue to be kept down under a re-elected Coalition Government.

So it's vote 1 for Howard because his government will mean less money in the family wage packet and that's a good thing?

Somehow I don't think this is going to run well on the North Coast.

Are the Libs imploding halfway through the election campaign?

John Howard's election campaign strategies appear to be causing disquiet among a number of Liberal Party insiders.

 

This last week we have seen a suggestion that should the Coalition Government gain re-election, there would be an immediate move by his party to oust Howard from the position of prime minister.

Also making it into media reports is the fact that some Liberals believe that Howard's presentation of a Howard-Costello prime ministerial team was a fatal mistake.

Then we see that other Liberal insiders are unhappy with Tony Abbot's performance showing a government which is arrogant, blase and too long in office.

Another Liberal leak suggested that John Howard's attitude to this election was all 'me, me, me'.

 

The fact that Liberal Party members are leaking to the press in the middle of a tight election campaign suggests that they are indulging in a bit of early payback for what they see as John Howard's unwinnable position.

Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis thinks North Coast workers deserve lower wages

From the man who once said that housing 2,000 people on flood-prone land was OK because what was a flood here or there, comes another breathtaking opinion uttered during his debate with Labor's Janelle Saffin last week.

 

When defending WorkChoices Chris Gulaptis said: "Northern Rivers residents moved to the region accepting they would be paid lower wages as part of the trade-off for living in one of the most desirable parts of Australia".

 

Firstly, not everyone moved to the North Coast - a great many were born here.

Secondly, why should we be expected to accept lower wages along with reduced access to major social infrastructure and higher across-the-board costs? Scenery doesn't pay the bills.

 

What makes this Nationals candidate's opinion doubly offensive is the fact that he has previously boasted about his own comfortable income.

 

The Northern Star article on local debate:
 http://www.northernstar.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3753993&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

Campaign Day 24

Caught John Howard yesterday comparing Coalition pollies running for re-election to horses racing in the Melbourne Cup.

Small difference John - in Australia we like and respect our horses.

Melbourne Cup Day Newpoll release

Not-the-Mebourne-Cup cartoon in Crikey.com.au today

For this Newspoll 1,708 people were interviewed by phone.
Federal Labor leads the Coalition 53% to 47% two-party preferred.
Rudd remains the preferred prime minister leading Howard 47% to 43% with 10% uncommitted.
Of those interviewed 63% have decided exactly which candidate or party they will be voting for on election day.
Newspoll 2-4 November 2007:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/newspoll-6nov.pdf