January 2013
The decorum of Tony Abbott’s Libs versus The Fibs election strategy revealed today didn’t last long.
The Opposition Leader presented a nicely-nicely persona, a bloke who wanted policy to the fore and who would not call Prime Minister Julia Gillard a liar. He would merely make broad references to fibs.
“So my pledge to you is that I won’t say one thing before an election and do the opposite afterwards because fibbing your way into office is what’s brought our public life into disrepute,” he told the National Press Club.
Continue reading "How Thomson put an end to Mr Abbott’s nice guy act" »
You can’t believe Anthony Mundine is whingeing that he was robbed. You just can’t believe it. That said, it’s Anthony Mundine we’re talking about here, so actually, who’s surprised?
Daniel Geale failed to land a knockout blow last night but he was clearly the better fighter. A bit quicker, a bit smarter, a bit more resilient and as ever, a whole lot more humble.
As a sportsman, Mundine is no longer relevant. He was world class in his day but like Ricky Ponting, he is now in his late 30s and clearly past his prime. Maybe he’ll fight on, may be he won’t. The real question now is whether he is still relevant as a public figure.
Continue reading "It’s time for Mundine to act like a man, not The Man" »
Latest 2 of 144 comments
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stephen says:
Mundine’s too angry now. He’s lost respect for boxing, and every fight is for himself and revenge. I read once, months ago, that he doesn’t use a computer and doesn’t know how to. He should learn our modern ways, because as a fighter, he’s washed up, and now he’s even… Read more »
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Rob Bradley says:
Mundine is an oxygen thief with a chip the size of Ayers Rock on his shoulder.Fancy this retard comparing himself with Mohamed Ali.This moron wouldn’t be worthy of tying his shoe laces.Every time he opens his grubby gob he plants his feet firmly inside.What else would you expect this tool… Read more »
For a country obsessed with home improvement, we are remarkably apathetic about any attempts to renovate our national emblem.
From overhauling the kitchen to playing amateur interior designer, there’s no limit on our collective desire to spruce up our residences.
But turn the conversation to the topic of a little long-overdue remodeling of the national flag and suddenly it all gets far too difficult.
Continue reading "Flagging this change is not unAustralian" »
Latest 2 of 287 comments
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stephen says:
That flag belongs on our coast, any coast. But our colours come from the earth. Orange, aquamarine, and white (10 to 15%) will do it. However, the design will be very very difficult. We need a national competition, overseen by professors at Sydney Art College. Read more »
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Ben says:
>>Three years ago Ray Martin found himself on the receiving end of a predictable stream of abuse after expressing his hope that the existing “colonial” flag would be replaced with one of our own. What a terrible state of society it is when plebs dare to disagree with Ray Martin. Read more »
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has done the right and brave thing in telling the country when the election will be. Right because it focuses the year on policy and takes the focus off process.
Brave because it cedes her prime ministerial prerogative to keep Tony Abbott guessing.
Continue reading "Here’s hoping that policies will get a fair airing" »
Latest 2 of 206 comments
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Abbott on the way to the Knackery says:
Too bad Abbott was scratched and is on a float to the knackery Read more »
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abs says:
In your dreams john u are Read more »
At the weekend, News.com.au published a piece by The Punch’s Daniel Piotrowski. Dan took a tour of the Church of Scientology in the Sydney suburb Glebe and wrote a piece about what he saw.
In the piece, Dan described eerie corridors intentionally filled with white noise, hardcore study camps, and said he found the place “bewildering”. He pointed out that Census figures show the Church’s following in Australia has shrunk recently.
On Saturday morning, representatives of the Australian Church of Scientology, Vicki Dunstan, told Dan the piece “ridiculed” the Church. So The Punch has given Scientology spokeswoman Virginia Stewart room to reply to the piece, below.
Continue reading "Scientology fires back at our reporter, gently" »
Latest 2 of 152 comments
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R White says:
A simple question, moderated out, eh. OK, I’ll ask it again. How come the Scientology thread is still open for comments at 10:00 am on the day after comments were supposed to close at 8:00PM? Why is that? Read more »
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void says:
The cult calls it “volunteer work”. Read more »
Last week I visited the largest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab in northern Kenya, home to almost 450,000 Somali refugees.
I also visited the Yida refugee camp in northern South Sudan which has 60,000 Sudanese inhabitants fleeing from the conflict in South Kordofan, Sudan.
My expectations of an African refugee camp were shaped by the images on our TV screens of skeletal starvation and desperately malnourished kids.
Continue reading "Lessons from the largest refugee camp in the world" »
Latest 2 of 48 comments
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Pisces says:
@simonfromlakemba How many are here to be contributing members of society? Try taking a walk through some northern suburbs and see all the men sitting with their ilk in cafes and/or escorting their wives to do shopping (god forbid their women go out unchaperoned!). I ‘feel’ that they are here… Read more »
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Samson says:
@ Simon - why can’t they be found guilty of an offence that carries a jail term? If they’ve done the crime? Would you not just cancel their visa?? Read more »
You’d be hard pressed to find an opening news paragraph this week more ludicrous than “Tim Mathieson has apologised for making a joke about small Asian women and prostate examinations”.
It’s not quite up there with the classic “Gordon Ramsay’s porn dwarf double eaten to death by badgers” from 2011, but as far as news leads go it’s pretty much got everything going for it.
Well in 2013 it does, anyway. There used to be a time when a story about the Prime Minister’s boyfriend saying something stupid might have raised a few eyebrows on the gossip pages. (Actually, in years past the fact that the Prime Minister HAD a boyfriend was probably a more exciting story to begin with, but I digress).
Continue reading "Prostate gate doesn’t rate as an issue worthy of debate" »
Latest 2 of 97 comments
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stephen says:
I can’t see my prostate because my belly is sticking out. (Out of sight, out of danger.) Read more »
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marley says:
@Swamp Thing - I don’t mean to be disrespectful of Australia, but the “sensitivity” here to anything that is even slightly distasteful or disrespectful is pretty amazing. It’s no wonder Roxon, surrounded by people of that mindset, thought she could get that Human Rights bill through to ban offensive speech. … Read more »
It’s the thirty-oneth of the month. Let’s hope February brings happier times for these mandarin growers of Gayndah, Qld, whose crops have been ruined by the floods.
What, in your humble opinion, is the monarch of citrus fruits? Oranges? Mandas? The mighty grapefruit? Cumquats, perchance?
Anything else got you feeling especially sweet or sour today?
Latest 2 of 118 comments
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Christian Real says:
Australia is a democratic Country where any person even Craig Thompson is still innocent unless proven guilty. He may have been arrested but as yet no charges have been proved against him in a court of law. Also Craig Thompson is no longer a member of the ALP he is… Read more »
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pa_kelvin says:
sami ...I dont normally read much other than the Open Thread, but after your post I went to the thread to read some of the comments that you refere to. sami , what you have described and commented on is deplorable ,and should Not be happening in todays world, but… Read more »
Despite her denial, Julia Gillard has indeed called on the world’s longest election campaign by nominating September 14 as polling day.
The Prime Minister today was daring Tony Abbott - and to a lesser extent Kevin Rudd—to put up issues of substance or fall behind in the political debate.
And in yet another of the demonstrations of strength she has come to feel necessary, she has made clear she does not intend to be cowed into an early poll. Even if the May Budget is badly received or public opinion surveys don’t lift the way Labor wants, she will go to the voters on her terms, and on her timing.
Continue reading "This is the start of the world’s longest election campaign" »
Latest 2 of 271 comments
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gnome says:
TimB- the opposition leaders were respectively Kakrovski and Debnam. Of course you voted Labor. It was a damned sight easier choice than the one between Gillard and Abbott. Read more »
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John says:
Record wealth, record employment, record long term investment, low inflation and low interest rates. Best PM Ever ! Read more »
One of the most telling moments in the super-hyped Lance Armstrong confession was when he came clean about his vehement assertion that he was the most tested athlete in cycling history - so how could he be guilty?
It had been his war cry against all the non-believers; but in his tell-all with Oprah Winfrey, he scoffed at the cycling authorities’ hopelessly inadequate testing regimen.
He was never, he claimed, tested out of competition, almost never randomly, and almost always on the day of competition.
Continue reading "Testing time for the AFL on drug loophole" »
Latest 2 of 30 comments
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marley says:
@Stephen - the “three strikes” principle had nothing to do with Clinton. It was state law, enacted in California and, I think, Washington, 15 or 20 years ago, and it referred only to felons facing a third criminal conviction. The problem with this particular AFL rule is that it conflates… Read more »
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stephen says:
Agreed ... and there’s gotta be more drugs in Carlton players at any one time than in Lenin. Demetriou overproduces his job. He does nothing but excuse concerns that the better sports-journalists talk about. He PR’s his way around drugs, he concocts subtle but regular rule changes each year -… Read more »
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