The convoy of no confidence 2013

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The media are rattling hollowly around their cages. I have never seen Australians as angry as I have this weekend. They may not seem it when you meet them but the fact the election is not a topic for discussion on Monday morning, it has been totally sidelined, the fact that people are getting the facts really clear on Twitter and Facebook is full of rude and vulgar messages about what we have done as a nation means Australians have drawn a line in the sand. We are not going to take this. People are angry Tony Abbott was voted in because he simply does not have the skills to work at that level and that was demonstrated well by his behaviour in parliament over the last 6 years and then the lack of capacity to show articulate and well considered policy. He has nonetheless been voted in. Not by much. Labour has the primary vote and so any notion they have not done well is nonsense. The price we have paid for biased , interfering and unbalanced media is the loss of two credible Prime Ministers. There is a third in the wings who is hog tied by the conspiracy of silence in the party and then the knowledge the change we have been offered is the change right back to the Howard era. So many of them are the same. They were ousted solidly in 2007 for a reason so people are angry they are back. People are angry we have someone who has no credibility and we are angry we stood by and let it happen. The media wrote the script and ascribed our roles. Sunday morning was a bitter, bitter taste. Britain investigated its press. France went through  the nonsense of its silly President who was not cut out for the job and have gone for someone very conservative even though he is from the socialist party. Australia then has elected an odd assortment of people into the senate some of whom are coming back to haunt us from the past and so there is a real feeling of uneasiness. Those who did not vote for Tony Abbott do not understand why you would let him be in charge with all the case evidence before us and those who did vote for him thought what? Nobody knows because nobody anyone knows voted for him. This election was corrupt. There were too many chiefs and not enough indians, too many cooks who spoiled the broth, too much scrutiny of some and none of others. The stuff of linguistic and advertising study. The election has been called a wash up in the news and yet The ALP experienced the single smallest seat-loss of any outgoing government since McMahon in the early 70s. Media are trying to interfere in the choice of a new Labour leader. Don't you think they'd have enough sense to leave well alone and keep their big noses out? Some are advocating that politics be taken off the main course in media and that people should take themselves off social media. Labour still has the primary vote so who is saying Kevin Rudd did a fine job in spite of a very brutal media bashing? Who has acknowledged that Julia Gillard actually kept this lot under control but couldn't contain the relentless stirring of rumours by the media? Who has noticed we can't think because everything is shouted at us? This election was the most corrupt I have ever seen because it was neither fair, nor balanced nor reported without opinion.One by one competent politicians are targeted and taken out. The Greens got quite a bashing too and yet the so called disaster for Adam Bandt did not occur. We are angry all of this is misreported, misrepresented and then ends us up in a place we have absolutely no wish to be - no respect , no pride , the laughing stock of the world and no leadership choices. The world watched it happen and saw what we did. This is why Australians have taken to some very colourful expression of their feelings. It has hit hard. We have some lessons worth learning but we need to learn them without interference. A psychologist says we shall find it hard to accept - someone quite rightly pointed out that many will simply never accept what has happened and the repercussion of that in Australia will be interesting to say the least.

Abusing Prime Ministers

Telling colleagues their job would not be over until the election was won, Mr Abbott observed: "Gillard won't lie down and die, and where there's life, there's fight."

Read more:

Gillard won't lie down and die, says Abbott

An interesting and harmful turn of phrase for someone who claims to be Christian. Apparently Grahame Morris said she should be kicked to death. The report is here. No one else seems to be bothered. Maybe it's just me and I don't think we should have this constant reference to death for parliamentarians and certainly not for our Prime Minister.

Blood sport thriving in Australia

The Federal Opposition has failed in a bid to force the Prime Minister to give a statement to Parliament about the issues surrounding crossbencher Craig Thomson.

I actually congratulate the ABC site for managing to report what happened in parliament today and get it all in perspective. I listened to the parliamentary session and question time today because I could.  Anna Burke held a ridiculous question time together really well but she must be fed up and exhausted. The ploy of constantly blocking standing orders must be well in excess to requirements by now and it's a pity we have no mechanism to shut it down. It wastes valuable time and energy and interrupts a positive flow...as does any disruptive influence. In other arenas people are not allowed to be disruptive and constantly negative. We have ways of managing their behaviour. Parliament seems to have to put up with it. Prior to question time there were some really interesting and well thought out speeches delivered which showed just how far we have come and how well we can do. I have to thank the commentator on Radio National for ensuring we were all able to follow the stuff and nonsense of question time and were in possession of adequate knowledge of the regulations, rules, policies and we knew who was speaking. I do  thank also the hung parliament for being the only parliament which has taught me so much about parliamentary and legal procedure. This seems to be our tragic sticking point at the moment. The delineation between the law, legal proceedings, legal entitlements and then parliament. There have been politicians and members of the press who have descended on Craig Thompson like a pack of hounds on the hunt and it has been relentless as a hunt is , and beyond endurance, as a hunt is. It is worthy then, that the ABC article raises the issue of our duty of care to other human beings. There are processes in place which are being followed and we need to follow them. We do not have the right to hunt people down. Or do we? The "hate mail " - what a glib term that was to fob off what Craig Thomson was reading as emails he had received - was deeply disturbing and no one should have to put up with that. It was scary just listening to his reading of it. These were people who were welcoming his suicide, his death, his end. Mal Washer is right to air his concerns about the way politicians treat each other and the way they are treated when things are not right. We know it would be good for the Liberals to get Craig Thomson so they can upset the balance of power but when it comes to being a blood sport then the disruptive, disturbing ugliness of  it is something we need to promptly reject. Being above the law is wrong. Being outside of our sanctioned experts is wrong and if it is just about holding up all the other politicians who can speak so well, contribute so well and move our country forward - then that is wrong too.

The divine oracle of the polls

Image: News

I feel like saying divine orifice. Honestly. I am waiting to hear we have brought out the sacrificial goat or virgin to seal it all. The media always point to the polls as though there is something divinely , mystically right about them. They are a small sampling of the population. They are by a biased media because so much of it is owned by one interest . They are not at all independently or scientifically constructed and yet we have polls in our heads. Polls , polls, polls. Polls are another form of media manipulation as are comments. It is far too easy to create a bias one way or the other and , frankly, polls are not helping us at all and we know it. There is no way we should be running our country and its people by polls.

So, the media today have reported much with regard to the Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard power struggle . We still have no idea what it would look like should Tony Abbott become PM. Mr. Abbott tried to give us an idea but the media have avoided this notion completely even though they are quite happy to claim certainty with regard to a Labour defeat at the next election. I love the crystal ball gazing which goes on.  To be honest, I have enjoyed what has been brought to me today via the media. I feel like I am getting to know my politicians in a very real way and a way which has been denied me until this hung parliament. Julia Gillard took Kevin Rudd into her cabinet because it would have been foolish not to. He is highly competent, hugely popular and the job as foreign minister suited him and us well. She battled those early days with great courage because the way she was treated had our mouths gaping and that is the thing we are still talking about now in SA. Perhaps it is because we were the first state to give women the vote. We are always conscious of how systems and institutions can harm and disadvantage women and it's one of the first things we note. So we are talking still about the way she was treated, what she had to put up with, how men just assume they can be Prime Minister. Remember when Costello wanted to be Prime Minister? Bad luck. John Howard was the Prime Minister and his party did not want to remove him. We vote in the party. The party decides on its leader. Labour is showing us this time that you can actually do that out in the open and it's quite nice being included. It is better than being excluded. We've noticed the Labour strategist just expects Ms Gillard to give up being Prime Minister because Kevin Rudd wants to be Prime Minister. He is popular. He is certainly very popular in his home state of Queensland.  Yet you don't judge your good boss by how popular they are nor if they can draw a crowd in the street. Sometimes bosses are unpopular when they try to bring about structural change and it is not fully understood what that means. Popular is important but John Howard stayed in power for far too long and I don't think anyone would claim that popularity was what kept him there. So I think we need to think a bit harder here. We have two really good politicians and it is a shame they are in the same place at the same time but history will depict it more clearly. Their style is different and they both represent something we want to see. We want a Prime Minister who can give us a good image internationally and both of them can do that. We want a Prime Minister who can effect the changes we need. They can both do that. Is it really about Tony Abbott? So where's that part of the picture?