A week in which Julia learned to tweet back to voters & Tony said "Dunno"

JuliaGillard @3AW693 Tweeting to @handypearce in the car #ausvotes http://twitpic.com/2dl4k3

This week Julia Gillard learnt how to tweet back to the electorate and Tony Abbott revealed he's not Bill Gates and finally said "Dunno, dunno, dunno" in reply to almost any question about information technology in the 21st Century.

Tony Abbott being quized by Kerry O'Brien on the 7.30 Report on 10th August

2010 Election Campaign Day 28 - Abbott puts government savings ahead of jobs

ABC TV "7.30 Report" 10th August 2010:

KERRY O'BRIEN: But you're talking about the big bang spending sprees; the big bang spending spree would have been $20 billion more than your big bang spending spree that Joe Hockey has already acknowledge a Coalition government would have spent. And in fact, if you're fair you would acknowledged that before the global crisis came along, the Rudd Government also delivered a budget that was more than $20 billion in surplus.

TONY ABBOTT: Which they did not deliver a budget. They did not deliver a budget outcome. Sure they told us ...

KERRY O'BRIEN: Because the Global Financial Crisis came along.

TONY ABBOTT: And they started spending like drunken sailors.

KERRY O'BRIEN: As you would have done.

TONY ABBOTT: And the point I make, Kerry, is that $20 billion is a very, very significant outcome.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But when you talk ...

TONY ABBOTT: And getting $20 billion off the bottom line is surely worth doing.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But when you talk about the massive amount of money overall that this country would have been in deficit - or the Government would have been in deficit - $110 billion in revenue that would have happened to you if you'd been in government, plus the $25 to $30 billion that you would have committed to a stimulus program - I mean, is that spending like a drunken - is $25 to $30 billion not spending like a drunken sailor, but $50 billion is

TONY ABBOTT: Well $25 billion! That's quite a lotta money, Kerry!

KERRY O'BRIEN: But at what point do you become a drunken sailor, is what I'm asking?

TONY ABBOTT: What I'm saying is you don't waste money, and this mob wasted ...

KERRY O'BRIEN: 200,000 unemployed.

TONY ABBOTT: ... - they wasted money. It's never right to waste money, and one of the extraordinary things is a prime minister who says a bit of waste is neither here nor there. It is always important to treat the taxpayer dollar with respect.

The YouTube political ad they couldn't kill

News of this ACTU political advert's demise was greatly exaggerated in The Australian today: "AN ACTU animated video showing two budgies flying into Tony Abbott's bathers has been suspended by YouTube for violating the site's terms of use. The peak union body uploaded the viral ad earlier today, calling it a humorous attack on Mr Abbott's workplace relations stance."
Because it was still displaying on YouTube this evening:

Nationals Kevin Hogan: Is he a political idiot or a political rogue?

Kevin Hogan pictured left

In 2006-07 the Howard Coalition Government had a water policy which included investigating diverting freshwater from Australian east coast rivers and transferring it across the Great Dividing Range and into the Murray Darling Basin river system.

The early 2007 Snowy Mountains Energy Corporation commissioned desktop study and subsequent Senate investigation of Clarence River catchment water diversion proposals confirmed just how wedded Howard, Turnbull and Vail were to the idea of harvesting water from environmentally sensitive coastal rivers.
Rivers to which local communities were culturally attached and on which regional economies were sometimes highly dependent.

Losing government in late 2007 did not result in any serious reconsideration of this policy by the Coalition and, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott recently stated his intention to fully implement the former Howard Government's water policy if elected on 21 August.

Yet in spite of this a spokesperson for the present Nationals candidate in Page Kevin Hogan felt able to make this somewhat curious statement; "If there was river diversion in any of the schemes it would be strongly opposed by not just the Nationals, but the Coalition as a whole.” [The Daily Examiner, 10 August 2010] and Kevin himself said; "There is no plan by anyone within the Nationals or anyone within the Coalition to dam anywhere or anything on the Clarence River" [ABC News,11 August 2010].

It appears as if the first-time Nationals candidate is rather blindly following his leader, as Warren Truss rejects as "absolute nonsense" any thought of a Clarence dam in the future.

Does Mr. Hogan have no understanding of Coalition history? Is he truly ignorant of continued calls within the Liberal and National parties for coastal river water diversion?

In 2008 the Nationals NSW State Conference resolved to "support greater efforts to reduce the amount of eastern water lost to the ocean and campaign for more in-depth investigations into finding ways to turn this water inland" [Tweed Daily News,16 June 2008] and Barnaby Joyce was still telling the media "You can't create water with money. That means you have to think about bringing it from somewhere else, like the Gulf or the Clarence" [The North Queensland Register,13 August 2008].

In 2009 Victorian Nationals MP Peter Crisp called for the Clarence River to be dammed and diverted [ABC News,25 May 2009].
Again in 2009, both National Party member Ian Causley [The Daily Examiner,27 May 2009] and Federal Liberal MP Sussan Ley [The Border Mail, 26 June 2009] wrote in support of diverting water inland with particular mention of a Clarence River dam by Causley.

While on 29 March this year Nationals Federal MP John Forrest described Bradfield and his water diversion schemes as "visionary" [www.nationals.org.au].

Perhaps like his leader, what Kevin Hogan really thinks is that Northern Rivers residents can be told any old version of the truth - that they are merely a flock of foolish sheep prime for fleecing.

2010 Election Campaign Day 27 - There's only one question

Can Australians afford the luxury

of a protest vote

on Saturday 21st August?

GetUp! calls Abbott a welcher and throws down the gauntlet

Excerpt from today's email from the lobby group GetUp!:

Yesterday Tony Abbott sent a campaign email entitled, "We will stop the boats." Ahead in the polls, he's announced that the Pacific Solution will return on day one of an Abbott Government. It seems Tony Abbott has a lot to say on refugees, except to those he promised to meet in June after GetUp members won a charity auction.

GetUp members chipped in more than $16,000 to help secure the winning bid in a charity auction for a surfing lesson and meeting with Tony Abbott. We gave the prize to a group of refugees because we know how powerful human stories are. But his office, having suggested the meeting would occur before the election, have now stopped returning our calls. They are refusing to hold up their end of the deal.

If Tony Abbott won't come to meet us, we've got to go and meet him. That's why today, with your help, we'll begin rolling out (literally - they're mobile!) massive billboards to follow him around on the campaign trail and remind him of his broken promise to go surfing for charity with a group of refugees............

We know it is only fair that Tony Abbott meet with Riz Wakil. After all, he promised to do so. When Mr Abbott's Press Secretary told us that Mr Abbott would like to have the meeting before the election, and that he would ring back to confirm a date, we took him at his word. But after repeated phone calls from us - that his office have now stopped returning - its time for us to up the ante.

With a week and a half left there's still time for Mr Abbott to meet his commitment before the election. That's why with your help we'll take a message to him that he can't miss: massive mobile billboards asking him to honour his commitment and meet with Riz.

You've stood behind Riz before - can you stand up for him again?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/HonourYourCommitment

Political candidate plays pocket billiards

Letter in The Daily Examiner (11 August 2010)