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Abbott: Why I journeyed into the dead heart

Tony Abbott

by Tony Abbott

05 Mar 06:00am

Filed under: Election 2010, Indigenous Affairs, Politics, Tony Abbott

215 comments

Back in October last year, I promised a group of Aboriginal stockmen that I would soon return to observe progress in the re-establishment of an Aboriginal cattle industry in the Northern Territory.

Tony Abbott talks with men from the Ukaka Community at Middle Dam, Urrimbyni, 250km south of Alice Springs. Photo: Ray Strange

It was not a promise that I considered I could break just because I now had a different job. The problems of indigenous Australia need to be taken seriously by Australia’s leaders and not just by the ministers and shadow ministers with special responsibility for them.

That’s how I came to be on a quad bike, low on fuel, following tyre tracks in the gathering dark earlier this week. That’s how I sampled a witchety grub and honey ants dug up by the women of an outstation called Ukaka.

These are the sort of experiences that politicians need to have if they are to have some understanding of the issues facing remote indigenous people and some real engagement with Aboriginal people trying to live on country.

In 2001, on my first trip to Cape York as a cabinet minister, a local person had likened government officials to seagulls: whities who fly in, scratch around, and fly off.

Ever since, I have tried to build ongoing relationships with indigenous people based on something more than the standard drive around the community, meeting with the local council and, perhaps, visit to the art centre. Of necessity, there have been plenty of those. As health minister, though, I made three longer trips to the APY Lands in northern South Australia. As shadow minister for indigenous affairs, I spent three weeks as a teacher’s aide at Coen in Cape York in 2008 and, last year, spent 10 days helping the truancy team at Aurukun. Election campaign permitting, I will have another stint in Cape York later this year helping, I hope, local people who are building homes for their community.

Official advice is important but politicians can’t really hope to understand the issues they are required to deal with if they rarely leave capital cities and are never out of their comfort zones. One of the reasons why Aboriginal policy has been so unsuccessful, despite an abundance of official goodwill, is that few policy-makers have ever spent a night in an Aboriginal community or mixed with Aboriginal people except those who have made it into the middle class. The experiential gulf between most Australians and most remote Aboriginal people is so vast that it takes more than diligent reading to grasp.

Most remote Aboriginal people are only a couple of generations away from a hunter gather existence. Many have pre-modern connectedness to land, systems of kinship obligation, and sense of the sacred. This helps to explain contemporary Australia’s fascination with indigenous culture. Our mourning for the loss of so much traditional culture, in part, reflects regret for our own loss of authenticity. Modern Australians’ desire to engage with Aboriginal people is entirely to the good but it should encompass an unsentimental appreciation of the downside as well as the upside of Aboriginal ways of life.

Our best guides to deeper insights into Aboriginal life and how it might be more fulfilling are usually Aboriginal people who are fully immersed in their own traditional culture as well as in that of modern Australia: people such as Noel Pearson and the host for my latest trip, Ian Conway. Conway is a traditional owner of much of the land on which Alice Springs is built. He’s also one of the few cultural Aborigines to have built a successful private sector business in remote Australia. Getting a party of scratchy politicians and journalists across miles of rough country at night was a remarkable feat of instinctive navigation.

I may not have much uncluttered time for the rest of my period in public life. Even so, the press of events is a poor excuse for neglecting what’s really important in favour of the merely urgent. That’s why I will continue to seek opportunities to move off the well-worn paths of politics.

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215 comments

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    • acker says:

      05:45am | 05/03/10

      I cant understand why indigenous Australians are waiting for Minister Jenny Macklin to deliver $350,000 houses that never seem to get built, when so many pre-fab houses costing half that price are already built and ready to go.

      When a minister spends over $70 million dollars on administrative staff and has yet to finish building 1 house in over 2 years in office, I suggest they should be turfed out.

      Indigenous Australia deserves better than her indifference and impotency.

      Reply

    • Bob H says:

      07:06am | 05/03/10

      There’s money to be made and fun to be had in them outback aboriginal development program bureaucracies, as long as you have no shame.

    • Norma says:

      10:18am | 05/03/10

      Firstly, I am no Labor fan. My opininion of Jenny however is that she has bloody tried. She has stood up to the many do-gooders who tried to change the guts of what Howard started. Not a great deal has been changed. Sure, things have not happened which were supposed to, but when you look at the administrative abilities of those above her a great deal is explained. The problem is at the top - right at the top. Rudd is guided by votes, and there aren’t many that swing on aboriginal issues. Rudd thinks he did the trick re votes in that direction anyway with “sorry” day. I feel for Jenny. Her’s is a portfolio of the utmost importance, treated with contempt.
      Stick with it Tony. And insist your fellow shadows do the same.  Whilst our health system leaves a lot to be desired, our aboriginal “system” is an utterly shameful bloody disgrace.

    • acker says:

      12:13pm | 05/03/10

      @Norma ...unfortunately Jenny Macklin has become a champion for the ongoing income stream of some innefective public servants rather than moving indigenous Australian’s into houses. Mal Brough love him or hate him, at least got tangiable results.

    • Alice says:

      04:57pm | 05/03/10

      Houses are being built but very slowly but there is a reason for that.
      Aborigines are part of the building program doing traineeships and the like to give them job & skills experience.
      The two linking together was a darn good idea.
      Slow but delivers more than structures to the communities.

    • susie says:

      06:58am | 05/03/10

      Well done to Tony Abbott for trying to help indigenous Australians on a grass-roots level. I can’t imagine Kevin Rudd being willing to sample witchety grubs or sugar ants although no doubt he would love the photo opportunity - as long as he had his hairdryer handy.

      Reply

    • Marie Wyatt says:

      08:50am | 05/03/10

      Your party were in for 11 years and did nothing..hypocrite

    • Aitch B says:

      09:13am | 05/03/10

      Apart from throwing billions annually at a corrupt and bordering on criminal ATSIC who were charged with managing the whole thing and failed dismally, Marie, I suppose you may be right.

    • julia says:

      12:32pm | 05/03/10

      @ Marie: That intervention thing by Mal Brough was nothing.

    • Brian B says:

      01:39pm | 05/03/10

      Yes Marie, and if we follow your disingenuous line, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating did nothing - they tried, as have many others of all political persuasions have in the past. Take your blinkers off.

    • Robert Smissen says:

      02:35pm | 05/03/10

      As long as they were warmed up in the planes micro wave I’m sure Little Kevvy would eat them after he finished blow drying his hair.

    • Evan Findlay says:

      05:58pm | 05/03/10

      Having worked with aborigines in Alice Springs and surrounding communities I found it hilarious too see Tony eat a witchety grub raw. It’s a common joke played on unsuspecting white fella’s to see if their silly enough to eat one raw. Aborigines will cook theirs, as any sane person would!
      But I note with interest that Tony you believe that eating a witchety grub and savouring a few honey ants equate to, and let me get this right, in your own words, ” an understanding of the issues facing remote indigenous people”. Well done Tony! And here we were thinking for all these years that the issues were complex and the problems ingrained.

      Under the previous Howard government, which you were a party too for twelve years, you completely ignored the plight of our indigenous population. You were against Mabo and land rights, failed to make an effort to apologise for past wrongs and only in the death rolls of your government did you address the problems of alcoholism and child abuse in the communities. And if it wasn’t for the media making a noise about cases of children fronting medical personnal with sexually transmitted diseases the problem would still exist. Your past governments, your beloved Liberal party have a disgraceful record when it comes to indigenous affairs. So don’t think that just because you were duped into eating a raw grub that somehow makes you an expert in the field of indigenous affairs.

      Doesn’t one grub eating another grub constitute cannibalism?

    • persephone says:

      07:05am | 05/03/10

      No, Tony, that is not how you ‘came to be on a quad bike, low on fuel, following tyre tracks in the gathering dark earlier this week.’

      Thousands of people visit the Northern Territory each year without this happening to them - it’s not cause and effect.

      You came to be lost due to poor planning. poor organisation and lack of attention to detail.

      It was rash, reckless and irresponsible. It could have meant the loss of several lives, or at least the mobilisation of an expensive search and rescue operation.

      As for not being a ‘seagull’ how does going on a trip with a few elders who were not from that area give you a deeper understanding of their connection to the land?

      It’d be like me trying to gain an understanding of how Toorak residents live by taking them to Epping Plaza.

      Why didn’t you visit them in their community, rather than going off an a sightseeing trip with them?

      I would have been interested in your reaction to your guide’s decision to leave the party so that he could go off looking for mind altering substances.

      Reply

    • Nicole says:

      08:27am | 05/03/10

      Errr, how do you get ‘lost’ from ‘on a quad bike, low on fuel, following tyre tracks in the gathering dark earlier this week’? He doesn’t actually say that he didn’t know where he was going. Nice assumption though.

    • Bertrand says:

      08:51am | 05/03/10

      Who would know if you can gain a better understanding of how indigenous people live each day by spending 12 hours or so quad biking in the desert?

      Certainly though, if you spent three weeks as a student teacher in Cape York and 10 days at Arrakun, it would indicate you are giving it a red hot go.

      No one minds if you are pro- labor, but i think some credit where credit due is welcome.

    • Nicole says:

      09:06am | 05/03/10

      Ahh, just browsed a few other news sites and realised they were in fact lost near Fossil Creek. My mistake!

    • Sam Chowder says:

      09:26am | 05/03/10

      @persephone - Good point, the neglected residents of Toorak have been overlooked for too long - church and governments are both guilty of turning a blind eye to the plight of these unfortunate souls. There are some there, that do not even have granite worktops. The state and federal government need to Dyson all that is currently swept under the carpet, Italian marble or Indian quarry stone.

    • Zeta says:

      09:38am | 05/03/10

      It’s Pituri he was looking for, and it a crucial part of a host of indigenous ceremonies, and works as an analgesic / anasthetic as well. It’s not exactly potent, and you’d want a lot of it before you got circumcised with a sharp rock.

      They either burn it and inhale the fumes, or else mix in ashes from Acacia leaves and chew it. It’s really quite amazing that some 40,000 years ago, an essentially stone age culture were able to figure out that Acacia needed a monoamine oxidase inhibitor to unlock it’s psychoactive properties.

      Can you imagine being the guy who figured that out? Stumbling back to camp at dawn, and trying to describe in one of humanity’s earliest languages you’d just unlocked the secrets of the universe?

      I tried it once and it cured a peptic ulcer.

      So what’s your point about Ian Conway’s search for ‘mind altering substances’? Are you saying it’s a bad thing?

    • Saskia says:

      10:13am | 05/03/10

      Yup.  Persey you sure are rolled-gold, rusted-on ALP troll.

      How about you outline your hero, Kevin Rudd’s greatest achievements and strengths?

      Pin head big enough to write them on or perhaps you need a grain of rice?

    • persephone says:

      12:28pm | 05/03/10

      Saskia, done so frequently, I get a bit bored rolling them out post out after post.

      And what has TA done, other than get lost?

      BTW, guys, draw your attention to the original context of my post: Tony is talking as if visiting the NT inevitably leads to getting lost.

      It doesn’t. Lots of people manage to do it and find their way home on time.

    • Randal says:

      01:05pm | 05/03/10

      Perse, if that’s the best you got in having a crack at Abbott’s views on indigenous affairs, then I think he must be travelling very nicely indeed.

      I appreciate your concern on search parties that were not required for a politician who did not get lost , although I cannot recall you condemning Tim Holding, who actually got lost through his own recklessness and cost the State millions in a real search and rescue effort.

      Ah the hypocrisy of the left, one just has to laugh!

    • Brian Connor says:

      03:08pm | 05/03/10

      Not ALP politicans persephone (silly name).

    • Brad Coward says:

      04:31pm | 05/03/10

      You came to be lost due to poor planning, poor organisation and lack of attention to detail.

      Perse….I had to make sure that I was on the right thread !  For a second I thought that you had turned on Rudd & Co and were making sound and sensible comment about the insulation debacle and the revolutionary health reform plans !

    • Alice says:

      04:59pm | 05/03/10

      Hint, hint…
      Publicity stunt in time for the Health policy announcement.

    • Helen says:

      11:02am | 06/03/10

      Not ALP politicans persephone (silly name).

      Persephone is a famous Greek name. She was Goddess of Spring and the Underworld, among other things. Remember the old saying, Brian, better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than to open it and remove all doubt. THe same goes for keyboard fingers.
      (Also, Monty Python has rendered the name Brian pretty hilarious for some of us wink )

    • TIMFROMTHETOPEND says:

      05:23pm | 08/03/10

      Persephone and Evan Findlay, are you one and the same. What a pair of pathetic left wing snoozers you are. How can you pass judgement on the reasons for their delay in returning when you were not there.

      As for the posters who are applauding the SIHIP program and Jenny Macklin, watch this space.,If you think Insulation program was a debacle hold on to your hats. House painting $75,000- $100,000, houses that need $100k or more spent on them counted as new houses to satisfy the quotas the whole thing as a joke.

    • Fog Badger says:

      07:07am | 05/03/10

      This is the sort of leadership necessary to improve outcomes for our indigenous population.

      Not so sure about the eating the grubs!

      Reply

    • cybercynic says:

      10:51am | 05/03/10

      Weekend Australian Headline I’d like to see ....

      Big Grub eats Little Grub

      I will not hold my breath

    • Sam Chowder says:

      02:11pm | 05/03/10

      Aren’t politicians satisfied with rifling the indigenous program funds for their mates, now they are turning up on quad bikes to steal the food from their mouths.  They will have to find something more revolting than witchety grubs to sustain themselves in future.

    • Ben says:

      07:18am | 05/03/10

      Tony, you need to save us from the faltering ship of fools who currently hold the purse strings, BUT don’t just run the race and then sit back, we need real leadership, tough and sometimes unpopular decisions and a real sense of bipartisanship when appropriate.

      Keep Barnaby on a tight leash, as much as his free thinking brash talking style is attractive to some, in the cut and thrust of an election, he is potentially an election killer.

      Keep the worst Australian govt in history honest, and if you don’t win, keep fighting. This govt has to go!

      Reply

    • Fiona says:

      07:20am | 05/03/10

      Dear subbies - why have you called it ‘the dead heart’? Looks very much alive & thriving to me.

      Reply

    • John A Neve says:

      07:25am | 05/03/10

      Acker,

        I don’t care whether the houses cost $350,000 of “half that”, I ask why would you build houses at any price, when there is nothing else there?

      No work, little if any infrastructure and miles from anywhere, this sort of action only perpetuates reliance on social security.

      Reply

    • debbie says:

      07:27am | 05/03/10

      Abbott is truly a Prime Minister in the making,who is our prime minister now,?A person who cannot look past his own political ajenda to get a seat on the UN.Who runs his political ajenda for himself not the people,an arrogant ex foreign minister ...who no even even knew…Put in charge of our country and now it is all faling apart…with lies and mismanagement

      Reply

    • jennyjenjen says:

      07:31am | 05/03/10

      Could you imagine Rudd out their roughing it in the bush?! Never! All he can do is wear a hard hat and point at things!

      Reply

    • Norma says:

      10:23am | 05/03/10

      Correction. Hospital gown and cap is the garb from now until election day. Unless he changes his mind again on the greatest moral challenge.

    • Robert Smissen says:

      02:40pm | 05/03/10

      Jenny Jenjen, Little Kevvy likes his meals “hot” & where would he plug in his hair dryer? ?

    • Bailey's Mother says:

      03:17pm | 05/03/10

      Of course, Tony just needs to wheel out some poor unsuspecting patient in a wheelchair for his stunts…but that’s okay is it?

    • Daniel says:

      07:33am | 05/03/10

      It was another cheap political stunt i think.

      Reply

    • Steve says:

      11:33am | 05/03/10

      A cheap political stunt? It’s hardly been reported as front page news. If Rudd did something like this (big IF) it would be 5 minutes on the evening news and front page of the papers. Rudd made a big deal about his big apology but he’s yet do do anything to show any sincerity.

    • The Drover says:

      01:48pm | 05/03/10

      Cheap political stunts are K.Rudds forte, go for it Tony, you might just get there.

    • Evan Findlay says:

      06:04pm | 05/03/10

      Correct Steve, because it’s not news. He announced no policies, not that he ever does and the only reason he made the papers was because apparently he got lost. And at least Rudd apologised which is still more than what the Liberal party ever did!

    • Brian says:

      07:38am | 05/03/10

      The sad thing is that Mr Abbott almost had to disappear to get any mainstream media coverage of his activities with the indigenous communities over the past 9 years.

      If it was Kevin we would never stop hearing about it.

      Good on you Mr Abbott!  A true leader gets on with the job, and lets others find out what is going on.  Not one who trumpets there alleged acheivements.

      Reply

    • Alice says:

      05:06pm | 05/03/10

      Oh Pleeze give us a break.
      Independant studies already tell us the media favours the Coalition & anyone with half a brain would recognise that anyway.
      The Australian & Assoc press are full of Lib hacks or former staffers.
      Hadley, Jones, Bolte, Piers,Mitchell all self confessed Liberal hacks.
      So pleeze, spare us the BS.

    • Me says:

      07:54am | 05/03/10

      “Not one who trumpets there alleged acheivements. “

      Um, I think the full page article here demonstrates a bit of trumpeting here…

      Reply

    • Jonathan Appleyard says:

      08:04am | 05/03/10

      Inspirational stuff by Mr Abbott. Time for the left to lay off the man for his supposedly “extreme” social views (which are no different to Rudd or Keneally) and recognise the mountains of great work this man does for the community.

      Reply

    • persephone says:

      08:30am | 05/03/10

      Absolutely, Jonathan.

      I now want to go out and get lost in the bush, too.

      All red blooded Australians should do the same.

    • Phil says:

      11:34am | 05/03/10

      Persephone

      I will pay for the quad bike and a few litres of fuel

      We can drop you off say 20 miles from civilisation and see how you fare.

      A sat phone for emergencies, but to use it you will admit you have failed.

    • persephone says:

      12:31pm | 05/03/10

      Phil

      thanks for the offer, but I wouldn’t do something like that unless I was properly prepared.

      Taking risks is fine; taking risks without taking the proper, well known, precautions is irresponsible.

    • Randal says:

      01:18pm | 05/03/10

      A bit like not adequately planning the roll out of an insulation scheme that ends in the deaths of 4 workers, 100 house fires, 1000 electrified roofs and 240,000 with poorly installed insulation that offers no energy savings, as well as millions swindled from government coffers for insulation never laid.

      Yes I agree Perse, planning in government is very important, perhaps you could have a word with the dud’s that are in now and let them know your strong views on this.

      Hell it may even encourage them to actually do a feasibility study on the next looming fiasco, the National Broadband Network.

    • Phil says:

      08:14pm | 05/03/10

      Persephone

      Called you bluf didnt I.

      Abbott love or hate him looks to be having a go speaking to real people, not labor and union hacks on TV commercials.

      You lot are worried and it shows.

      Imagine 3 months ago thinking that Rudd could loose the next election.

      Labor could not run a bath let alone a country state council or ladies auxilliary.

    • persephone says:

      10:54pm | 05/03/10

      Phil

      What?

      You obviously don’t get irony.

      And no, I’m not at all worried about the election. Or Tony Abbott.

    • Philip Crowley says:

      01:19pm | 07/03/10

      persephone says: “And no, I’m not at all worried about the election. Or Tony Abbott”.

      Be afraid Persephone, be very afraid! Your Dear Leader is terrified ;-]

    • persephone says:

      03:27pm | 07/03/10

      He, like me, just looks at the polls and all fears evaporate.

      Maybe if Tony went from 30% to 50% in the polls I might get a bit nervous, but that aint gonna happen.

    • Gloria says:

      08:13am | 05/03/10

      Great stuff Tony, your a refreshing change in politics. Word of warning, Barnaby is going to cause you problems if you leave him in Finance. As I’m sure you are aware he is treated as a joke out here in voter land. Don’t give Rudd, Swan and Tanner the pleasure of being able to attack him, move him soon. Maybe Minchin as a replacement. How did the grub taste?

      Reply

    • jamie says:

      08:22am | 05/03/10

      It was rash, reckless and irresponsible. It could have meant the loss of several lives, or at least the mobilisation of an expensive search and rescue operation.

      Having been involved in untold search and rescues over the past 14 years I can confidently say that the only danger was spending an uncomfortable night in the bush. Apart from that an S&R op would not have been launched for a day or so, by which time they would have probably found their way back anyway. And even if they didn’t find their way back, the first phase of an S&R which is low scale, would have found them anyway.

      People get lost all the time, even when they plan their trips. Believe me, I know, I’ve spent many long days and nights in the bush searching for them. It’s part of my job.

      And just aside, can anyone see Rudd riding a motorbike around in the desert with Aboriginal people? No, I didn’t think so.

      Reply

    • persephone says:

      08:35am | 05/03/10

      Er…Tony himself admitted that, if they had been able to operate the phone they had, they were going to send a distress call.

      If you don’t think a distress call from the Opposition Leader wouldn’t have sparked a major search and rescue effort, you’re being naive.

      The point is that he got lost because he didn’t plan his trip. Even I (and I’ve never been within cooee of the NT) know that there are certain precautions you take for trips into the desert.

      Running out of fuel, water, having no spares, not knowing how to use the phone they had - that isn’t poor planning. That’s massive incompetence and reckless indifference to the safety of himself and others.

    • jamie says:

      09:32am | 05/03/10

      wow, get some sense of perspective perse.

      No-one was going to die.

      Yes, there would have been a search but they had fuel so could have lit a fire in no time. The search would have taken all of about 30 minutes I reckon once a plane was in the air.

      I’d still like to see you saviour Mr Rudd out in the bush, by that, I mean real bush, not in his moleskins, hat and blue shirt pretending to be in the bush.

    • Robert Smissen says:

      02:46pm | 05/03/10

      Persephone, even the army with all its gizmos can’t always find there way. Just look at the Yanks with all their stuff can’t find Osama Bin Crazy.

    • Mick says:

      03:10pm | 05/03/10

      persephone, you really do have no idea about bush survival do you?

      They had fuel, which means they could have started a fire, and once that fire was burning they could have thrown green tree leaf on to it to start a plume of white smoke, hell they could have even burnt the quads tyres and got some decent black smoke going. They would have been found within 20mins of starting the fire.

    • Cynthia S says:

      08:24am | 05/03/10

      What a bunch of hypocrites. I was here the other day and you were ranting about Aboriginal beliefs being taught in schools and today Tony Abbott is a hero for visiting them. They don’t need to be used as political pawns or for publicity stunts. They need real help Not impressed Mr Abbott

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      08:55am | 05/03/10

      So whats your option Cynthia? Ignore them, don’t go near them, in case you appear to be using them for a political stunt? I know who needs help. Your the only one calling Tony a hero, no one else. He actually has a genuine interest in indigenous issues, and he had the interest long before he was Oppositon Leader.

    • Bertrand says:

      08:56am | 05/03/10

      We can say that it is stupid to teach aboriginal spirituality in science or that presenting a hunter gatherer life style as land management as land management is a bit of a stretch, while at the same time striving to to lift them out of abject poverty.

      Thats hardly being hypocritical. Indeed, i think a large proportion of people i meet each day hold beliefs which i believe to be particularly silly, while at the time wishing them all the best in life in general.

    • Martin G says:

      10:03am | 05/03/10

      No, Abbott should have done nothing and just joined all the Labor politicians in the ivory tower and not bothered, right?

      ‘They don’t need to be used as political pawns or for publicity stunts’.

      Like what Rudd has done with the Indigenous Housing Program. How many houses have been built??? KRudd knows all about publicity stunts:
      - GNW (because of declining public opinion)
      - Hadley on 2GB (mate!!!)
      - The Health Plan (hardly a complete federal takeover… trying to deflect the batts scandal)
      - Sorry for everything (sorry I talk so much sh*t and spend all my time with my media unit)

      At least Abbott is making an effort, Cynthia S, unlike the current mob in power.

    • SarahJaneJones says:

      10:18am | 05/03/10

      Yes, because they were teaching about the dreamtime in science class up until year 10 which is when they would start teaching actual science. It is also coincidentally, the first year kids can opt not to do science. So yes, I have a pretty big problem with kids not being taught science in favor of aboriginal beliefs. I also think that though this may have been a little bit of a stunt, there is no doubt that Abbott has a genuine interest in aboriginal affairs, and a bit of favorable publicity is probably exactly what they need.

    • Zeta says:

      10:44am | 05/03/10

      So sick of this hating on the Dreamtime teaching. Maybe I’m just in a shamanistic mood this morning, but I think I’d prefer my children learn that all things are inexorably tied to an infinite dream complex of spiritual networks which stem from the actions and reactions of ancient totemic beings than teach them science.

    • persephone says:

      10:54am | 05/03/10

      SarahJaneJones

      you obviously haven’t read the proposed Science curriculum, which in fact pulls down some of the real science concepts to lower classes than they are taught in now.

      I’ve read the proposed curriculum and can’t find any reference to the Dreamtime at all, let alone a massive concentration on it.

      There are some references to creation myths, which would include the Dreamtime and also Adam and Eve, in the context of looking at how people used to explain the world without science.

    • iansand says:

      08:28am | 05/03/10

      The latest trip was a stunt.  The earlier trips he describes seem not to be.  I admire Mr Abbott for that commitment.

      I wish that all politicians who pontificate on indigenous affairs would commit to that sort of immersion in the indubitable problems that exist.  But what I really wish is that Mr Abbott and Mr Rudd would sit down over a beer and spend a bit of time and energy deciding on a consistent, long term strategy for overcoming indigenous disadvantage, fund it and commit to it for as long as it takes. Take the problem out of the pathetic bickering of partisan politics. 

      Playing politics with human misery is contemptible, and demeans all sides of politics.

      Reply

    • H of SA says:

      11:38am | 05/03/10

      Very fair comment Iansand. It would be really nice to see a bipartisan approach on indigenous affairs. Its too important to be a political football.

    • persephone says:

      12:33pm | 05/03/10

      H

      Rudd offered that to the Liberal party, they refused to take up the offer.

    • Me says:

      01:15pm | 05/03/10

      Well, would you want to sit down for a beer with Krudd? Best way to ruin a beer IMO…

    • Phil says:

      02:22pm | 05/03/10

      H of Sa

      Agree. In my opinion Rudd missed a massive opportunity by not installing Mal Brough to head up the intervention and oversee as a public servant Aboriginal Affairs. He appeared!! to be the first polli to really give a crap about the Aboriginals, probably cause he has some common blood with them.

      They should sit down. Problem is Aboriginal work is big business. It costs a lot and not much seems to get done. I am making that statement based on me being in the city having rarely ever been anywhere near them, so its a very unqualified statement.

      Iansand He was fullfilling a promise to return to them. His work for a very long time on Aboriginal issues is well documented. You can call it a stunt, that is your opinion and I respect that.

    • Owen Wyte says:

      08:36am | 05/03/10

      Well done Tony. You’re a real man and not just an empty politician.

      Reply

    • Krusty says:

      10:49am | 05/03/10

      The speedos show how real a man he is, am I right?

    • Macca says:

      08:45am | 05/03/10

      Good effort Tony, you’re are certainly the more passionate and honest of the two leaders

      Reply

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      08:59am | 05/03/10

      While Tony Abbott was volunteering for duty with emergency services, Rudd was attending Very Important Meetings to discuss agendas for other Very Important Meetings.

      While Tony Abbott was working with the Surf Lifesavers, Kevin Rudd was drafting new policies and procedures for managing management processes for the drafting of new policies and procedures.

      While Tony Abbott was pounding the pavement to stay fit, or taking part in charity events, Kevin Rudd was writing Very Clever articles on just how Very Clever he is.

      While Tony Abbott was talking personally with indigenous leaders round a camp fire, trying to help them, Kevin Rudd was talking personally with union leaders, round a boardroom table, trying to help them.

      The contrasting styles of these two men becomes clearer every day.

      Reply

    • persephone says:

      09:23am | 05/03/10

      While Tony was out there vounteering for duty with emergency services, Rudd was busy governing the country.

      While Tony was working with Surf Lifesavers (which I take, from the context, as being different from volunteering for emergency services…) Rudd was busy governing the country.

      While Tony was pounding the pavement to keep fit, Rudd was governing the country.

      While Tony was talking with indigenous leaders round a camp fire, Rudd was announcing major health reform…oh, and governing the country.

      While Tony Abbott was obsessing about his sex life (or lack of it), Rudd was governing the country.

      The contrastng styles of these two men becomes clearer every day. One of them does stunts and indulges in activities which stroke his ego, the other one governs the country.

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      10:02am | 05/03/10

      Actually Percyphone, the above refers to their activities before Rudd became PM. Abbott is a long-standing volunteer and charity worker, and I believe he has spent many, many hours in indigenous communities over several years - not just recently. While he was/is doing this, Rudd’s time is taken with his own three passions - attaining power, wielding power and retaining power.

    • Steve says:

      10:11am | 05/03/10

      Persephone, see your comment is valid. But only a little bit. Tony did all this while being in both opposition and while in government.
      Rudd spends too much time talking about doing more talking.
      You’ll see that once you cut that out. You do get time to be immersed with the people and that’s exactly what Tony has done. I agree completely with the comment above saying it’s only been turned into a mainstream media article because of the being lost part. It seems unreasonable to accuse Tony of writing a full page article that it’s ‘trumpeting’ his efforts. I would like to know what happened out there.. and this is the opportunity.

      “The contrastng styles of these two men becomes clearer every day. One of them does stunts and indulges in activities which stroke his ego, the other one governs the country. ” Can you clarify who you talk about when you say this?

      “While Tony was talking with indigenous leaders round a camp fire, Rudd was announcing major health reform…oh, and governing the country.” Lets not overlook the fact he was 9 months late on his own election promise.  grin
      I for one am not entirely sure about the reform, could be good if handled properly. Otherwise, it will just be another failed attempt at something. Hopefully the 9 month wait on the announcement means they put thought into this. And not rash decisions like everything else (no im not just talking about insulation)

    • Matthew says:

      10:15am | 05/03/10

      @persephone, not many people would describe what Rudd is doing as “Governing the country”.  LOL.

    • Martin G says:

      10:23am | 05/03/10

      ‘...Rudd was busy governing the country’

      Going on Good News Week, 2GB with his ‘mate’ Hadley, and writing children’s books is hardly what you would call ‘busy governing the country’. Persephone, haven’t you woken up to Rudd’s lies, deceit and spin yet? Does his lack of substance worry you even the slightest bit? He is in it all for himself, why do you think he has no friends amongst the Labor factions?

      ‘...does stunts and indulges in activities which stroke his ego’

      Yes, his name is Kevin Michael Rudd.

    • Seano says:

      10:25am | 05/03/10

      I think I’d rather vote for the bloke running the country than the bloke desperately seeking a new photo op.

    • hamlock says:

      12:36pm | 05/03/10

      can rudd please find other activites to do. if you call what he is doing governing the country we all will be looking for another country to live in

    • persephone says:

      12:40pm | 05/03/10

      Matthew, according to the polls, 55% of people believe he’s doing a good job - sounds like ‘many’ to me.

      Compare and contrast:

      Climate change: Tony ‘Weathervane’ Abbott - a policy which came out of no consultation with anyone other than the Liberal party, gives no incentives to anyone to do anything, and will result in higher carbon emissions.

      Rudd - extensive consultations, negotiations with key players, opportunities for public comment. Extensive negotiations on world stage. Extensive negotiations with Liberal party.

      Education:

      Tony Abbott; nothing I’m aware of.

      Rudd; National Curriculum draft released after extensive negotiations with stakeholders, open to public input. My School introduced. Huge direct financial investment in schools.

      GFC:

      Abbott: opposed stimulus package. Denied there was a GFC. Denies that government action was effective. His Treasurer has openly stated that they would have let unemployment rise to catastrophic levels rather than go into debt.

      Rudd: acted promptly to keep people’s jobs safe. Spent money in areas of long term need. International acclaim for actions.

      Health:

      Abbott: two word solution which is only to take place in two states.

      Rudd: nearly two years of negotiation to produce a very detailed proposal.

      I could go on but I won’t.

    • Martin G says:

      01:23pm | 05/03/10

      Rubbish, persephone:

      “Climate change:
      Rudd - extensive consultations, negotiations with key players, opportunities for public comment. Extensive negotiations on world stage. Extensive negotiations with Liberal party.”

      Actually, in the real world, Copenhagen was a major flop, the ETS is deeply unpopular and is a job-killer, the IPCC’s credibility on the issue is currently hovering around nought… Did I mention Turnbull is just a Labor stooge in Liberal clothing? That’s why he is now on the backbench and Abbott is leading the Coalition revival.


      “Education:
      Rudd; National Curriculum draft released after extensive negotiations with stakeholders, open to public input. My School introduced. Huge direct financial investment in schools.”

      A national curriculum black-armband version of history, lack of focus on European heritage (the dominant origin of Australia’s people). I suppose the theory of AGW will also be rammed down our children’s throats too. Sounds like the Left trying to get into the heads of our youth.

      “GFC:
      Rudd: acted promptly to keep people’s jobs safe. Spent money in areas of long term need. International acclaim for actions.”

      ‘Never waste a good crisis’. Still spending money, putting Australia deeper into debt and forcing interest rates higher. Dodgy Green Loans and Home Insulation schemes. Labor not ruling out tax hikes (we are massively overtaxed as it is).

      “Health:
      Rudd: nearly two years of negotiation to produce a very detailed proposal.”

      Can’t even get unanimous agreement from State Labor Governments (NSW and Vic… SA only agreeing because of looming state election). A half-arsed attempt at reform, not a full federal takeover (states are still funding much of the system). Claims from doctors for job-losses and potential country hospital closures, which would be disastrous for those in remote towns requiring urgent medical assistance.

    • Randal says:

      01:29pm | 05/03/10

      Actually whilst Tony was doing all these things was Rudd actually in the country???

      When he is here, does anyone actually have any idea on what he is saying, all I can recall from him is that he admits that being in government is really hard and that he is sorry to everyone.

      If that’s governing then we are real trouble are we not??

    • Max Power says:

      02:31pm | 05/03/10

      Persephone: “Rudd was governing the country”.

      Ha, Rudd hasn’t governed this country, he hasn’t been in it long enough to govern it. Yes, the contrasting styles of the two are becoming clearer. Rudd huffs and huffs and huffs but always fails to puff. He is a gas bag who promises the world delivers nothing. Rudd is a walking Bag Pipe. He has no substance and instead of answering the question, he dribbles a load of hot air which in no way comes close to answering the question.  His solution to all of the “crisis’s” Australia supposely has is either a new tax or levy, another talk fest which more than likely end in a job for a fellow labor/union hack.
      Tony on the other hand at least gives a straight answer and is prepared to take action.
      Give a choice between Tony and All huff no puff Rudd, I would take Tony everytime. At least with Tony you know what your getting, with Rudd, you don’t know which Rudd your getting, I guess it would depend on the latest poll or public opinion.

    • Evan Findlay says:

      06:12pm | 05/03/10

      So Steve because he’s fit and can lose himself in the bush he would make a great leader! And by helping them what has he done? There were no policy announcements, just a photo opportunity to once again show the intellectually impaired that ” Hey, I have no policies, I have no ideas but I’m a knockabout sort of bloke” Well Steve it doesn’t take much to impress you! You’d vote for someone because they look good in their speedo’s!!!! Interesting.

    • persephone says:

      10:44pm | 05/03/10

      Martin G

      Did I mention Copenhagen at all? but now you’ve brought it up, there was general agreement there that Rudd was one of the most effective operators, working behind the scenes to try and stitch it all together.

      No, he wasn’t successful, but again, he showed his willingness to negotiate, and demonstrated the respect he commands on the world stage.

      That Copenhagen didn’t achieve more was a global tragedy. But you wouldn’t understand that. Like the insulation deaths, the failure of Copenhagen is only used by Liberals to score cheap political points.

      Oh, and the ETS still attracts 50%+ support, last I heard that was the majority of Australians. And the IPCC is still respected, with another independent report coming out today confirming its major findings.

      Look, if this is a Liberal revival, I’m very happy for you. Labor will still completely thrash the Libs at the next election, given current polling, but if you want to go down smiling, who am I to throw nasty facts in your way?

      You obviously haven’t looked at the National Curriculum. There is one year on Aboriginal studies, compared to three looking at British/European history.

      I notice you don’t deny Tony’s lack of an education policy, or that the stimulus package kept us out of the recession.

      As for the health package, there’s still about 5 weeks negotiating to do. Wait and see.

    • cybacaT says:

      09:03am | 05/03/10

      There is no contradiction between wanting to help disadvantaged aborigines today but not buying the black armband view of white/aboriginal relations.
      What aboriginal people in remote communities need is real, practical help.  The Howard govt massively increased funding for aboriginals, whereas Rudd has simply offered a ‘sorry’ and a long string of broken promises.
      Abbott’s sincerity about dealing with the issue should see him much more successful in delivering real outcomes.  You can’t dine out too long on Rudd’s hollow promises.

      Reply

    • T,Chong says:

      09:16am | 05/03/10

      Hell of a bushman, Mr Abbott,  the LNP supporters are still in awe. Imagine, sitting on a quad bike , tootling around the scrub, Yes Tony showed he is an action man with all the answers.
      Just a bit hard to see how another publicity stunt going wrong shows this ability.
      Owen, Macca, Johnny Appleseed,Brian, Susie,How exactly does this show the Abbott is doing anything, other than mugging for the cameras?

      Reply

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      10:04am | 05/03/10

      The fact that this visit was his second that that particular community alone, and was conducted to honour a promise he made long before he became Leader of the Liberal Party, clearly escaped the notice of your one good eye, Chong.

    • Martin G says:

      11:07am | 05/03/10

      Open the other eye, TChong, and you’ll see Abbott showing the virtues of keeping promises.

    • persephone says:

      12:56pm | 06/03/10

      Martin G - he got to be Opposition Leader by breaking a promise he took to the last election, so I wouldn’t go there if I were you.

    • Khrystene says:

      09:29am | 05/03/10

      Why can’t we have the re-establishment of a sustainable, environmentally friendly industry, rather than cattle which has destroyed half of the countryside…

      Pfft.

      Reply

    • Kim says:

      03:27pm | 05/03/10

      Cattle don’t destroy half the countryside.  Cattle only eat the blades of the grass.  Sheep on the other hand pull out the grass roots and all.

    • persephone says:

      10:49pm | 05/03/10

      Kim
      cattle have split hooves, very destructive. They also eat shrubs as well as grass.
      Our property has improved immensely since cattle were removed, with trees growing in the paddocks and the riverside becoming revegetated.
      Every now and again some cows wander through - I can follow them by the churned up earth. Even one cow does damage that you can see.

    • Timmo says:

      09:31am | 05/03/10

      Well Tony, you go on about how you care about the aboriginal people, but I have noticed your opinions regarding the incompetence of Peter Garrett over the last weeks. Now Peter Garrett and his band Midnight Oil spent all of their musical careers writing and singing songs in support of the Aboriginal people. They travelled the world singing for the liberation of the aboriginal people with most of the songs about giving back their lands that were stolen from them. I am amazed that with all of Garretts and his bands imput in standing in solidarity for the Aboriginals , that there was not one iota of support for Peter Garrett from them, while you were stabbing him in the back. A bit disappointing. The amount of energy and passion that Mr Garrett put into his feelings for their welfare should put him into the same catagory as people like Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Mick Jagger, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul Mc Cartney and his great effort should be recoginized in the same way by all australians who really care for aboriginal rights and freedoms. His support for the Aboriginals would have had some effect on the returning of some of their lands to them, i am sure. I don’t know what you stand for. Maybe you could get out there and do the same thing as Peter. Put your money where your mouth is so to speak. After all your religions were very much the cause of their plight and disintergration as a race. Stolen generations etc. Do your really think the the Aboriginals, those who are left, really care about your obvious vote seeking stunt..? I think they have seen it all before. I don’t think that they would believe a word that came out of the mouth of a white man let alone a white politician after votes. What are you going to give them to lift them up, a new idea?, Now, I will wait for the flak from your supporters that write here. Won’t have to wait long i’m sure.!

      Reply

    • JR says:

      09:59am | 05/03/10

      All those songs did a lot for aboriginal people. Like live aid did for Africa. Or live8. Apart from the fact they did nothing(except give some cash to the warlords destroying the place).

      Don’t even have to be an Abbott supporter to jump on your empty wishful thinking, lets sing a song about it attitude.

      Do you really think the aboriginies care that Peter Garrett sang a song about their plight?

      Oh, and since he has been in a position to help since becoming an MP, what has he done for the aboriginals?

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      10:07am | 05/03/10

      Ha ha ha, what a joke. And what good exactly did all his singing and prancing about do for Aboriginal people? All it did was increase his bank balance. Garrett? Another hypocrite who bleats on about the needy while counting his own considerable wealth.

    • David C says:

      12:02pm | 05/03/10

      Maybe then his time is better spent singing?

    • Kim says:

      03:32pm | 05/03/10

      @Timmo.  Singing songs about the aboriginal plight…  As opposed to 4 deaths, 100’s of house fires, thousands of electrified roofs.  Yeah, I can definitely see why you’d explect flak.  Idiot.

    • Christian Real says:

      05:11pm | 05/03/10

      Timmo,Your words and your comment is written in perfection and is spot on.
      Tony Abbott would not even know if the truth bit him on the bum, because he always has his own version of the truth and this “lost in the outback’ is just another media opportunist stunt to gain publicity.
      Our People, would never have got lost in the outback,in their own tribal lands and I am sure that they wouldn’t have been too far from water and food as Mr Abbott claimed.
      Like the media hype and beat up story about Mr Abbott’s car almost getting crushed by a b double semi trainer,what kind of dipstick his comcar driver must be to stop stationary in the middle of a busy highway.
      Mr Abbott is making believe that he has a deep concern for our people,but it wasn’t that long ago that he was wanting the wild rivers act overturned so that his rich mining mate can mine and destroy the pristine wilderness and the wild rivers area of Northern Queensland.
      Recently Mr Abbott was saying that he did not think that ‘Sorry Day” and other Aboriginal things should be taught in schools across Australia.
      This is coming from the man who dreams of becoming Prime Minister at the next Federal Election,a man who claims to care about our people ,but in fact this is coming from a media opportunist and a shallow man who speaks with a forked tongue.

    • dick j says:

      09:39am | 05/03/10

      T Chong pushuing the barrow again for his/ her masters.  What about his actions over the last 10 years unreported. As for the cameras I understood they were not allowed on the bike trip.

      Mugging for the cameras is Rudd’s caper. Pass the hard hat and the lumo vest.

      Reply

    • 6c legs says:

      10:47am | 05/03/10

      “... no camera’s allowed on the bike trip” (BTW Tones, did ya get some nice snaps for the pollie photo comp?)

      *ahem* - so how do you account for the above image, magic, perhaps??

      “dick j”, you silly, *liberals* are the ones with the “masters”...

    • Jenni says:

      09:40am | 05/03/10

      As a lifelong Labour supporter it pains me to praise anything a liberal does, but in Tony Abbott’s case I may have to grind my teeth and do it ... sadly (for me, at least) this is not the first time I have been impressed by his actions.

      I can only hope he commits a major faux pa before the next election, or I might actually have to vote for the blighter!

      Reply

    • Simon Brodie says:

      10:05am | 05/03/10

      I have a keen interest in politics but am not enrolled to vote. Abbott and now you Jenni have inspired me to do so.

    • Marvin H says:

      10:06am | 05/03/10

      How long is life Jenni ? for a lifelong voter, you sure can’t spell the name of the party you voted for. Don’t you look at the ballot paper? it’s Labor. I suspect life for you was never!! The Liberals refused The apology to our Aboriginal communities, it took a Labor Government to do the right thing.

    • T.Chong says:

      10:09am | 05/03/10

      “Lifelong Labour” Jenni ? .
      Coincidental I know, that a “lifelong Labour supporter” making the same spelling mistake, so often the trademark of a ‘young Liberal’ poster ?
      And whats more Abbott is so good you might just vote for him ?  You sure about the “lifelong ” claim ?

    • Marvin H says:

      10:13am | 05/03/10

      Simon Brodie if you are of voting age , which I doubt, you are breaking the law.It is compulsory in this country to vote.

    • Henry says:

      10:24am | 05/03/10

      Watch out Simon - Marv will dob you in!!  Good on you Simon - hope you do vote for Abbott he is the real deal and I glad someone like you makes a critical judgment before voting.

      Apology for what Marvin?  ‘Stolen Generations’ was a term coined recently by a white academic who has been completely discredited.  It is an utter myth.  Provide some evidence rather than just parrot the brain-washed zombie-like ALP party line to appeal to the mouth breathers.

      When Abbott becomes PM I hope he makes an apology on behalf of all of us for those Australians that voted Labor in the 2007 Federal election.

    • SarahJaneJones says:

      10:24am | 05/03/10

      I feel exactly the same. When he become opposition leader I thought never in a million years would I vote for Tony Abbott. Now I find myself saying “don’t make me like you Abbott” far too frequently.

    • Me says:

      01:33pm | 05/03/10

      I agree although I’ve been a Liberal voter to date, admittedly with a major dislike for Abbott and his churchy, misogynisitc ways. When he because leader of the opposition I thought for a painful moment that I might have to vote for K Dudd’s Labor party… Like him or hate him at least Abbott has a clear direction; unlike Duddy with his ‘all talk, no action’ stance

    • Saskia says:

      01:37pm | 05/03/10

      Hi Sarah,

      Hope you do vote for Tony!  I think as you look into the man - he is a great person.  Real world, Rhodes Scholar, strong views, fit, intelligent.  The antithesis of Rudd.  Come over to the light - we will look after you! smile

      S

    • Andy says:

      10:01am | 05/03/10

      Re Persephone’s comments about Rudd “governing the country” whilst Abbott is doing his activities.
      You must be joking!
      As each day goes by more and more of the Rudd veneer erodes away to reveal the straw man Rudd truly is.
      What is disconcerting about your comments is that it is clear that no matter what anyone did (any leader of any party other than labor) you would attempt to ridicule it.
      This is my problem with the labor party at the moment, they don’t stand for anything. They want to be in government for the sake of being in government. No vision just ad hoc populist policies aimed at keeping them in power.
      The Australian people are a wake up to this and I now truly believe this Rudd government will be a one termer.

      Reply

    • Kim says:

      03:36pm | 05/03/10

      Don’t worry about Persephone Andy, I think he/she is being paid by KRudd.

    • persephone says:

      10:55pm | 05/03/10

      No, as I’ve often said, I’m doing this for free.

      You can tell by the silly hours I post.

      Funny, Andy, what you’ve just said is what I always thought about Howard.

    • Cyril Summers says:

      10:03am | 05/03/10

      Much ado Abbott nothing.

      Reply

    • Sam Chowder says:

      02:13pm | 05/03/10

      @  Nice one Cyril, you’ve raised the bar

    • Seano says:

      10:06am | 05/03/10

      I’m surprised you couldn’t find an opportunity to get your shirt off Tony.

      Reply

    • Horatio says:

      10:09am | 05/03/10

      A disgusting display of using Aboriginals as a political stunt, all on the taxpayers expense. It must be nice to tour Australia riding trail bikes and not having to worry about the cost. Shame on you.

      Reply

    • Max says:

      10:55am | 05/03/10

      Because a fuel for a few quad bikes and a couple of tents is a huge expense compared to flying 122 people to Copenhagen so they can fall asleep in a conference room.

    • JR says:

      10:56am | 05/03/10

      Horatio this is an article about Abbott on a quad bike in the bush. The government apology to the stolen generation was over two years ago.

    • Steve of Cornubia says:

      11:07am | 05/03/10

      Hilarious. If you’re worried that the taxpayer funded a quad bike trip, how about you tell us what you thought about Rudd’s massively costly yet useless trips overseas, complete with butler?

      And I doubt that Abbott threw any tantrums because his hairdryer was missing or his favourite sandwich unavailable.

    • Colin D says:

      11:13am | 05/03/10

      At least he kept his trousers on, my family eat dinner at news time and we discuss the news of the day. The last thing we are interested in is seeing a near naked Tony Abbott. It turns you off your meal All this discussion of his sex life is off putting and it invokes to many questions from my primary school aged children. Get some dignity Mr Abbott, many of us find you an embarrassment

    • Jamers Hunter says:

      10:22am | 05/03/10

      I worried about the immage. all these dudes with their bikes and not a crash hat in site??

      Reply

    • Abbott's End says:

      10:24am | 05/03/10

      Tony Abbott is trying to be a wolf in sheeps’ clothing. The wool will NEVER fit. So see-through.

      Reply

    • Macca says:

      10:27am | 05/03/10

      For all the blinker wearing adulation of the Abbott fans all I’m seeing is a man of little substance, massively assisted by a right wing press who can only oppose any reforms put up by Labor without offering alternatives.

      His popularity, despite the medias claims that he is sticking it to Rudd, is way low by comparison.

      At 53, he is mutton dressing up as lamb with his stunts.

      Exactly how do these stunts make him a better Prime Minister than any previous one, Liberal or Labor?

      Reply

    • Andy says:

      10:43am | 05/03/10

      Maybe he won’t be better, but he could hardly be worse than the current joker.

    • Steve says:

      10:50am | 05/03/10

      He hasn’t been assisted for most of his career by the press. Also, lots of media outlets are leftist, so your basis of argument is…..?
      in fact he does put up alternatives, lets not forget how Rudd got into Govt… he copied Howards’ policies… And only added very few of his own policies into the mix.

      Also, what’s wrong with being 53? Rudd is 53.. They were both born in 1957. Maybe, you should double check some things before you say them. Or did you mean that Rudd is mutton?

      Essentially, it’s Abbott that has ALWAYS been in the community. Rudd, has not.

    • H of SA says:

      11:42am | 05/03/10

      Macca, Mr. Abbott getting all this positive press - e.g. Dennis Shannahan trying to spin his 30% preferred PM as some kind of prediction that Tony is on the way to victory (huh 30% is good now? I must have missed that meeting) - should actually worry him.

      Its not a great thing when News Limited has to be the opposition, because it shows that the opposition is not (in News ltd’s opinion) doing enough to get themselves back into government and get News its desired cuts to company tax.

    • Jonny says:

      12:45pm | 05/03/10

      Why do Labor supporters/those on the left whing about a “right wing press”? What, because The Australian offers some criticism of Rudd? The fact is, taxpayers fund Australia’s largest news organisation, the ABC, which constantly tilts towards Labor and the left, even if they don’t do so by conspiracy, there are tons and tons of examples where a left/Labor narrative is the dominant narrative of that organistion. Then there’s the Fairfax press, which is largely pro-Labor/left. That the press-galleries of our parliaments have a left tendency is well documented.

    • Robert Smissen says:

      02:56pm | 05/03/10

      Macca can you run that past me again please? ?  Does it touch a nerve for all the “young” couch potatoes like yourself? ? 53 is hardly old, especially as his physical age would be closer to about 25. Why do I get the feeling that “Tony Terrific” could out-perform you by a factor of 5 to 1

    • Macca says:

      12:47am | 06/03/10

      One in two voters like Rudd, less than one in three like Abbott.  At anytime including right now if an election were held the coalition would be smashed.  There is no even handedness in reporting just a skewing of the facts as H of SA says.
      The purpose of the spin is to make the voters think that everyone else is thinking this way so you should be too, a herd instinct mentality.

      Give me some of his ‘sensible alternatives’.  You can’t. He only has naysay and it doesn’t matter if Australia or it’s citizens get hurt.

      BTW I am much older than Abbott or Rudd

    • 6c legs says:

      10:35am | 05/03/10

      I’m positive that when out in the bush Mr Abbott does genuinely care about the plight of our indigenous cousins. Then he comes back to Canberra, and….......

      Reply

    • James says:

      10:45am | 05/03/10

      Reading through these comments you can already pick the political sycophants of each party along with the expert bureaucrats sitting in their nice air conditioned offices making decisions for grassroots Aboriginal people without a clue of exactly what the need is or even what other government, non-government or private sector agencies are doing.

      Wake up you well-fed government morons, Aboriginal people don’t need your sympathy, nor your insensitively conceived solutions that are only about winning politicians kudos.  What Aboriginal people need are people to listen, working with them to help them help themselves and for all your do-good government missionaries to p*** off and leave them alone.

      As an Aboriginal man having worked in Aboriginal affairs for 16 years I have had a gut-full of you so called experts with no ‘real’ experience making decisions for people you have no idea about.

      Reply

    • Kim says:

      03:45pm | 05/03/10

      ” As shadow minister for indigenous affairs, I spent three weeks as a teacher’s aide at Coen in Cape York in 2008 and, last year, spent 10 days helping the truancy team at Aurukun.”

      Wasn’t that what Abbott was doing?  Listening to them? Working with them?

    • Tobby says:

      03:51pm | 12/03/10

      Kim that is the typical response I would expect from a white-bureaucrat.  Spend as little time as possible with clients, appear to be understanding their needs and then run back to your cafe latte life to make more idiotic government decisions with the “best intentions”.

      If Abbott really wanted to make a difference he would send staff like YOU out to communities to spend a whole year living the life, experiencing the disadvantage, without your hairdryer and makeup.  Then and only then would you truly understand what community people have to live with and then you will be better placed to make informed decisions.

      Until then, please don’t insult intelligent people with such narrow-minded comments.

    • Carie says:

      03:56pm | 12/03/10

      Listening to THEM?  Working with THEM?

      Kim do you realise how insensitive those comments are?  You are referring to Aboriginal people not them!

    • Babs says:

      10:57am | 05/03/10

      I enjoyed reading this article and when Tony Abbott spoke of the aboriginal, Ian Conway, “getting a party of scratchy politicians and journalists across miles of rough country, at night, was a remarkable feat of instinctive navigation” my first thought was to say - congratulations and well done Ian and thank you Tony for acknowledging this man and his ability to “instinctivly navigate” with such accuracy.

      Reply

    • wk says:

      10:58am | 05/03/10

      Who exactly has the Abbott team paid in return for all this adoring media lately?
      Sorry, but most women voters won’t be forgetting his numerous misogynistic misgivings…as much as every media outlet seems to be trying to make us.

      Reply

    • David C says:

      12:13pm | 05/03/10

      Personally I dont think its a media campaign at all, I feel Abbott is benefting from the public’s annoyance at the spin it has been subjected to over the last 2 years. I am also in disagreement with your comments about women voters, just read the posts here and comments in other news organsiations and it would appear Tony’s appeal is crossing the gender divide.
      His appearance on Sunrise this morning was excellent. Good to see someone rattle Gillard’s cage.

    • persephone says:

      12:46pm | 05/03/10

      David C - the latest Essential poll shows Abbott trailing Rudd with women voters on almost every criteria.

    • Kelly says:

      12:57pm | 05/03/10

      WK - I absolutely agree with David, I am a 30 year woman and I really quite like TA and as a small business owner, I am appalled that Labor maybe reneging on another election promise not to change the Howard/Costello small business’ basic policies.

      It seems that Nick Sherry has put forward the recommendations made by the tax board, with Union input, to wrap small business owners and contractors up in red tape.

      I just hope TA opposes this with as much gusto as he has opposed the ETS.

      Check out this link: http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1019586

    • Rowdy says:

      01:07pm | 05/03/10

      Is that the Essential Research Poll Embargo 16.30 dated 1st March 2010? If so, nowhere in that report does it refer to the sex of the respondents. Nowhere is there questions for women voters….or male voters for that matter. What poll report are you refering to?

    • persephone says:

      01:24pm | 05/03/10

      My understanding is that subscribers to Essential get details that aren’t released generally.

      Apparently these showed:

      Abbott approval: 43% among women, 45% overall.
      Understanding of problems facing Australia: +15 to Rudd among women, +13 overall.
      Good in a crisis: +21 to Rudd among women, +18 overall.
      Capable leader: +18 to Rudd among women, +16 overall.
      More honest: +15 to Rudd among women, +13 overall.

      Rudd beat Abbott on every crtieria, and scored 2% better on each with women.

    • Venise says: says:

      10:57am | 05/03/10

      Why does no one understand that a politician cares nothing about one group or another. Their entire performance is to play to the gallery in order to solicit peoples’ votes.

      With Tony Abbott we have yet another middle-aged man going through his menopause, which, for some strange reason, impels him to be photographed in the minimum amount of clothes, while uttering the minimum amount of words.

      It will be interesting to see whether he resorts to total nudity in the weeks prior to the election.

      Reply

    • P. Nut says:

      11:01am | 05/03/10

      Did he go for a swim in his speedos? If so, please don’t provide picture, I’m eating my lunch.

      Reply

    • The Drover says:

      02:18pm | 05/03/10

      Bit hard to go for a swim in speedos when you are out in semi arid desert country idiot, or did you think he was quad biking up and down Bondi beach with Aboriginal elders.

    • Fair Dinkum says:

      11:14am | 05/03/10

      Tony Abbot, as i understand it, is of the catholic faith,therefore he would have alot of relatives..It appears that many of them are blogging today.                Should we fawn all over him for doing what he is paid to do?                      Macca has some good points by the way!!!

      Reply

    • Wayne Fehlhaber says:

      12:28pm | 05/03/10

      FAIR DINKUM :  I note you still revert to the rusted -on Labor tactic of ridicule. When are you going to present facts to back your comments. ?
      MACCA is tarred with the same brush , no facts or constructive comment, just a load of sarcastic rubbish designed to ridicule.
      One thing certain is Tony Abbotts ability to put real fear into the Rudd
      camp . One term for Rudd is always a possibility & Labor is terrified of
      polling showing the gap closing on voting intention.

    • Christian Real says:

      03:54pm | 06/03/10

      Wayne Fehlhaber 01:28pm 05/03/2010
      G’Day Wayne,how are you coping with all that rain at Hervey Bay!
      Wayne, Abbott is a media opportunist,he appears to do anything for a story, even if it is beat a story like this one, to make out he is doing something when actually he isn’t.
      Our people would not have even got lost like Abbott claimed, but he sure has imbeciles like you and others jumping on the Abbott bandwagon cheering him on.
      He is a fake,  and every story that the media has beat up about him, is as false as he is.
      Abbott does not, and never did care about our Aboriginal people, not even during the 12 years that he was part of the Howard government, I didn’t believe that he was sincere then and I still do not believe it now that he is in Opposition.
      Why would this man, if he was genuinely concerned about our people want to over turn the wild rivers act so that mining would then be allowed in the pristine wilderness and the wild rivers areas.?
      Why would this man if he was so genuinely concerned about our people be against ‘Sorry Day’ and other Aboriginal things being taught in schools across Australia?
      It appears that Mr Abbott is a person of shallow calibre and his words are as hollow as he is.

    • Steph says:

      11:46am | 05/03/10

      Good on ya Tony, 2007 was the first and last time i vote for da ALP we have all paid the price that’s for sure. I am sick of hearing promises and nothihg else. Keep honest and keep being yourself and you will have my vote. we need change

      Reply

    • Radical Chick says:

      11:48am | 05/03/10

      Well done Tony!! You are a genuine straight forward Australian and as a leader of the opposition can I suggest that you promote the young University /Trade Students to spend time in the communities out there volunteering their skills and at the same time learning aboriginal culture?
      That would be great!!
      I cannot see Rudd doing any such thing…
      Well done Tony!

      Reply

    • 6c legs says:

      01:15pm | 05/03/10

      What a noice patronising (and typical liberal) suggestion. But i notice that it’s only “young Uni/Trade students”  that *you*  want to send - aren’t we oldies (anyone over 30) not worthy of going?

      But i don’t think you’d like it out there too much RC, ya fingernails and hair get real dirty, and the internet connection can be real dodgy out there, ya know. And the churches there are a little smaller and not airconditioned, like the Hillsong that you’re used to attending. . .

      All in all me thinks that your ‘radicalness’ would be severly tested; or were you suggesting that *others*, not yourself, go?

    • Fergus says:

      11:56am | 05/03/10

      Reads like his resume.

      So humble.

      Reply

    • Fergus says:

      12:00pm | 05/03/10

      Also, this is the same guy that said that Aborigines should get over themselves and stop grieving, and go out and get a job.

      Such a high level of understanding.

      Now people are falling for his publicity stunts and shameless self-promotion. A leopard does’t change its spots.

      Reply

    • Alex says:

      12:18pm | 05/03/10

      “this is the same guy that said that Aborigines should get over themselves and stop grieving, and go out and get a job.”

      When and were did Abbott say that, Fergus?

    • 6c legs says:

      12:39pm | 05/03/10

      But the leopard will put speedos/heck, anything on if there’s a News Ltd employee about.


      Please, could all the pro liberal posters stop with the “leftist media” crap? I’m ruining my screen with tea/booze/coffee [depends on the time of the day]  spit-laugh.

      Oh, and while i’m at it, all the; “your masters bidding” &  “power hungry”  jibes- you sillies, you’re “projecting”  wink
      Ta.

    • Timmo says:

      12:03pm | 05/03/10

      Well, JR and Steve, I think that Midnight Oil did a lot of good for the aboriginal people through their songs. While you 2 may not think he did much many people overseas became aware of the Aboriginals plight through their music. Yes Midnight Oil had a following all over the world as they were on the world stage and were one of the great superbands of our times. And Ha Ha Ha back to you obvious Midnight Oil non supporters. If you have one of there cds you will obviously go and destroy it right now. And yes Peter Garrett and friends were making a living from their music as they are Musicians. That’s what Musicians do. But at least they had a go for the downtrodden which is a bloody side more that you have done with your stupid comments. I suggest that you either put up yourself or shut up. And it’s quite likely that Live aid and live 8 did do something positive. Sorry, a bit unfair that comment, as I don’t know you both and deep down inside you are probably good people at heart. A lot of people attended those venues to give support and it made the world more aware of the poverty that people suffer. That being said, I hope that you 2 have your own special solution for these problems that you can put forward. But hey, even if you do, will any aboriginal listen to you. I don’t know but I presume they probably wont. They probably wont listen to me either. Maybe I can sing a song too. Hope i’m as good as the Oils. I don’t think I will be as effective as them. Anyway I’m going to play my Oils cd while you burn yours. Have a better day than yesterday won’t you and I hope you both make it though the night.

      Reply

    • Rowdy says:

      12:26pm | 05/03/10

      Sorry Timmo….”.....and were one of the great superbands of our times…” The Oils were ok but that is a little TOO much….....

    • JR says:

      01:44pm | 05/03/10

      Timmo
      Only someone who has no idea about life is that naive. One day when you grow up you will see our point of view. Perhaps it is unforunate, as you are clearly still young, that this idealism will be crushed by what us more experienced folk class as the real world. Hold onto it as long as you can, as when it is gone it never comes back. Until then, the aboriginals will continue not to be fed, housed or employed on your good intentions. And I do not care how condesending I have been towards you, as it is nowhere near as condesending as you are to aboriginals when you say that they helped out by someone singing about them.

    • Bob H says:

      02:24pm | 05/03/10

      Midnight Oil never translated overseas, they were never in that league and for local consumption only, even then they were rather dated.  We now know the lyrics and stance were just pop puffery, a marketing stance to help record sales.

    • Fair Dinkum says:

      12:11pm | 05/03/10

      Steph—-what price have you paid,may i ask ??

      Reply

    • Beagle says:

      12:23pm | 05/03/10

      Excellent Tony, now go and spend a week living anonymously on the streets with the homeless and then book yourself in for an operation at a public hospital. When you are done with that,  you can spend a week anonymously locked up in a maximum security detention centre and then live for a month on an old age pension. Because that’s what prime ministers need to do. They don’t need policies, or intelligence, they just need to spend time living within society. Everything else will happen by magic. Just trust the liberals, who couldn’t deliver in 11 years of trying.

      Reply

    • julia says:

      12:39pm | 05/03/10

      I dare Kevin and Wayne to eat a witchety grub.

      Reply

    • Helen says:

      12:46pm | 05/03/10

      Well done Tony - you are doing a fantastic job in all areas - what breath of fresh air and I believe that you are really committed in all your commuity activities.

      I think you have really got them rattled.  As for the PM unfortunately he has never been able to get out of the sand patch and learn to play with the big boys.

      Times are certainly changing - for the better.

      Reply

    • Helen (Another one) says:

      11:06am | 06/03/10

      Yanno, I just can’t fathom some of the commenters here. While KRudd and the cabinet get on with actual governing and policy, Abbott is literally bouncing around like Tigger in Winnie-the-Pooh, riding boys’ toys, stripping off at every opportunity, and making TMI remarks about his sex life and other peoples’. The impression I get is of a perpetual twelve-year-old. I really can’t imagine how people can read this overgrown hairy child as the adult and Rudd as the childish one.

    • chuzoo says:

      01:14pm | 05/03/10

      James…..I agree with you…they need to ask the relevant questions to find out what is needed in the communities both city and country, after all it is your future! I am white and mature aged…....blind freddy could see this

      Reply

    • Adam MacLeod says:

      01:53pm | 05/03/10

      Good on you Tony.  It’s a worthwhile thing to do, and you should be respected and admired for it.  Now, if you could come up with a decent way of reducing Australia’s carbon footprint I’d consider voting for you.

      Reply

    • Walter says:

      05:31pm | 05/03/10

      If you won’t vote for Abbott’s ‘Direct Action’ approach, are you instead going to vote for someone who grandstands on the issue, delcares it the ‘greatest moral challenge of our age’ and then goes quiet on it, putting it in the too hard basket?  That is the choice.

    • Seano says:

      06:58pm | 05/03/10

      Except Tony is a climate change sceptic who’s as interested in actually solving that issue as he is in forming policy, doing some actual work or putting on a shirt apparently.

    • Randal says:

      01:55pm | 05/03/10

      Abbott continues to take a direct approach to his political style and this is working.

      He has shown that it is not just enough to get up in Parliament and say sorry, get all the applause and then do nothing, instead you have to get out into the community and understand the issues first hand and that is exactly what Tony has done and for that he should be commended.

      No doubt his experiences, not just in the past few days, but over a decade of hands on involvement in Aboriginal communities with assist in formulating a strategy that takes direct action in assisting our indigenous Australian’s.

      Rather than an ‘ivory castle’ approach of the ALP which is nothing more than empty words and the re-establishment of organisations such as ATSIC that has so badly let down indigenous Australian’s in the past.

      Keep up the good work Tony!

      Reply

    • Seano says:

      05:29pm | 05/03/10

      Yeah it’s far more important to be seen quad biking?

    • iansand says:

      05:13pm | 06/03/10

      I must have missed the policy announcement after the escapade.  I must try to track it down.

    • dave says:

      02:08pm | 05/03/10

      one question…...where was tonys portable gps????? never go bush without one. tony better take care ....first he was nearly wiped out by a semi and now he gets lost in the bush ....a little more planning from mr abbotts minders please

      Reply

    • persephone says:

      02:45pm | 05/03/10

      What does it say about him, when his own minders appear to be out to get him? (Lost, at least).

    • Robert Smissen says:

      03:13pm | 05/03/10

      Dave you are obviously a townie, GPS are for townies & tools. Learn to read a map & use the sun & stars. How do you think we navigated before GPS ? ?

    • dave says:

      06:49pm | 05/03/10

      well maybe it looks good or is it human to make mistakes like getting lost..as for the gps i just figured he would have had one .me i always have a map and a radio as well as a phone ...however fair comment about the navigating ....i actually did that once used the moon and stars as my refence points to get me out of a remote rural area where the roads werent mapped and i actually made it lol

    • stephen says:

      02:38pm | 05/03/10

      Tis a pity Mr Abbott didn’t take Barnaby with him, and send him off into the
      desert lookin’ fer the ghost of Abelard.

      Reply

    • Angie says:

      03:13pm | 05/03/10

      Good on you Tony - real aussie not hiding behind Peter Garrett in Canberra.

      BTW the polling numbers? Polling takes place usually early evening around 6pm…...the only people who are home are not working people (no offence to stay at home Mums, I mean income or taxed workers). Of those people, the stay at hoome Mums and shift workers vote Liberal, the unemployed and layabouts vote ALP because the welfare is there.

      I hope Rudd gets tossed out - he is the hollow man - no costings on any proposal - he is an economic security threat to the country.

      Reply

    • Brad Johansen says:

      03:32pm | 05/03/10

      What a top bloke!  I’m liking this guy more everytime I see him.

      Brad

      Reply

    • BensonBird says:

      01:11am | 06/03/10

      and we sure see alot of him, much more and we have seen the lot. What an unpleasant thought

    • Joe says:

      04:00pm | 05/03/10

      Good work Tony. You are so much more down to earth and grounded than the media spun gawky geek who is all spin. Keep up the good work.

      Reply

    • Paul says:

      04:22pm | 05/03/10

      And Abbott says Rudd spins!!!! So must a PM get shot in Afghanistan to understand conflict (it is a good idea, if Howard, Blair & Bush had to go to Iraq we wouldn’t have been within cooee), have cancer to understand health (Abbott removed $1Billion from health knowing it would cause people to die), be homeless to understand poverty ( Rudd has done that has Abbott, oh Abbott says poverty is a lifestyle choice, be a banker to understand finance ( Abbott and his mates threw out a banker and promoted Joyce), shall I go on. Why does the media give this stuff space. At least Putin probably could survive, I’m surprised Abbott hasn’t blamed Rudd. Spin spin spin from the man who always says how it isn’t.

      Reply

    • DaS Energy says:

      04:35pm | 05/03/10

      Certainly a different story to that reported in the Courier Mail. Something about bush narcotics and so late home after finding them.

      Reply

    • Jeff says:

      04:43pm | 05/03/10

      It’s a great example that we can all learn from. Tony’s visit was a good thing to do. I hope I can always pen my eyes to the needs of others in Australia and abroad.

      Reply

    • S says:

      04:45pm | 05/03/10

      I cannot believe that so many people are willing to forgo Abbott’s previous comments relating to women’s issues, based on one trip (which, no matter how you want to argue it, was a classic example of media spin).

      Do you honestly think he’ll still be doing this if he wins the election? He won’t have time. He’ll be doing the exact same things that Rudd is doing now.

      Reply

    • Red Barron says:

      04:48pm | 05/03/10

      You are a wonderful man Tony Abbott and Australia should breath a collective sigh of relief that you are now the Opposition Leader and are bringing this errant Rudd government to book. Have a look at Gillards wasteful spending on the schools program next. Since you have taken over gone is the GREAT BIG TAX (ETS)  and the disgraceful Home Insulation program has been halted and more waste of the Taxpayers dollar exposed. This Health thing smells of a stufup too ? Keep up the good work Tony !

      Reply

    • DC says:

      05:51pm | 05/03/10

      Ha ha ha - this is too funny.

      Tony Abbott spends a few hours out in the bush riding around on a quad bike and suddenly he and his supporters think he’s Crocodile Dundee.

      Let’s face it - this was a stunt, just like Kevin Rudd turning up at a hospital.

      Does anyone seriously think that Tony Abbott will suddenly have all the answers to the problems faced by Aborigines just because he’s spent a few hours with some aborigines?

      If you think so then you need to get real and get a clue.

      Just a few years, Abbott and the Liberals couldn’t even say a simple “sorry” and yet now they want us to think that they are committed to the aboriginal cause.

      Reply

    • George says:

      07:09pm | 05/03/10

      @DC - And saying a simple “sorry” means that KRudd is committed to the aboriginal cause???

      Most of the comments here dare KRudd to get his ’ hands down and dirty’, knowing KRudd he wouldn’t even consider it.

      Geez all the Tony Abbott haters are all out in force today.  Oh I forgot its Centrelink payweek this week, and Centrellink clients love KRudd.

      Yes! I am a Liberal voter so don’t blame me for KRudd.

    • Dr John says:

      06:44pm | 05/03/10

      Mad Monk has certainly polarised Oz - those follower imbeciles who would if pressed eat a grub (with press secretary approval) and those Australians with intelligence and real concern for the future of the planet and Australia!

      Reply

    • DaS Energy says:

      07:11pm | 05/03/10

      Its about Tony, and Tony it has been about, so who gets noticed Tony. The rest are just backdrop.

      Reply

    • Timmo says:

      08:44pm | 05/03/10

      Hey JR, that’s not JR Ewing perchance?!.  Well howdy there JR, you are quite right about all your so called condescending remarks to me there in reply. But I take no offence as even tho young at heart I am very happy being me and out of everyone out there in the old world the great and the small I would rather be me. So thanks for that ol bean. But I tend to disagree with you on your mention of how i in writing how singing a song promoting aboriginal freedom could be considered condescending towards them.
      Now, if your friend, if you have one, i hope you do, (but you’ll never have me as one, your loss, as I am rather cute they say)—-. Now getting back to where we were - I wondered that If your friend were having a day filled with hopelessness, and you, knowing this, gave a flower and sang a song of support to him or her, you wouldn’t expect them to feel better and wouldn’t at all consider it condescending. I hope that made sense to you as I wouldn’t want to be condescencing towards you. I hope the ranch is running well and say hello to bobby from us all out here in the old OZ, To all the other Oil haters out there make sure you get out your screwdrivers and destroy those evil cds. The lead singer is no good you know. I wonder if Tony Abbot and those liberal party guys have any Midnight Oil CDs in their collections. Hmmmm, interesting isn’t it. What if their kids grow up and like the Oils music will they allow them to listen to the evil darth vader like garrett. I wonder. Hmmmm.

      Reply

    • Arios says:

      09:33pm | 05/03/10

      Good on you Tony. Stop throwing mud you losers. These days a politician like Tony Abbott is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. The thing that disgusts me is that there are duds in our society who will throw mud no matter what. You should be ashamed. This token effort is still more than Rudd has done.

      One of the key factors for me is that Tony keeps it. That says a lot about a person. Fat slobs won’t value that, but anyone well-rounded successful, will know the huge role that fitness plays in any successful person’s life (bar old mate Clive Palmer lol).

      Keep sticking it to the mud throwers Tony. If you want to go and spend some time with some Aboriginal guys in the outback, you should be able to without any mud being thrown.

      Mud throwers are the losers of our society. We should discourage them at all levels.

      Tony: Many Aussies are craving politicians like you to speak up more and talk the truth without fear of the civil libertarian bull crap. Crime, bullies and ethnics problems (no I’m not racist!!!). Speak up, it’s ok to say that immigrants bring new problems that we didn’t have before and you’re not being racist. Tony if you can offer the common Aussie solutions to these much-debated matters without pussy-footing around like fancy Rudd does, you will win votes. Talk from the heart about the real issues, it’s your country.

      Reply

    • DaisyMae says:

      01:19am | 06/03/10

      Excuse me but who are you calling fat, you know us all do you? I expect dignity out of a future Prime Minister and intelligence. I am not intrested in his sex life or his body. If we wanted fit bodies we would elect an Olympian and if they were going to be half naked all the time why would we want an old man? Its not only Abbotts country it belong to us all and the majority decide who we want as Pm

    • Alex says:

      10:11am | 06/03/10

      And exactly what are you doing? throwing mud at other other Australian voters, who dare to give their views!! The man was irresponsible by any measure going out there unprepared but I suspect this was all just a stunt to get more publicity

    • Timmo says:

      01:17pm | 06/03/10

      Arios, Well you obviously love Tony Abbott and think he is very fit and you don’t like fat people. I hope your waistline is still 28 inches. Now Arios, Tony is not the prime minister yet. But he hopes he will be one day. But not yet. He has to go to an election to get there. But I notice that he parades around like he has the job already. I don’t really care for any politicians really. Most are full of hot air. I don’t really care for pollies who have to inform the people of their Religious Principals. A recipe for disaster there as no one should believe a word that comes out of the mouth of a religionist. Definately not a vote winner around our place. But I wish him luck because that’s what he will need to get in, and a lot of it will be needed. As far as Tonys fitness goes, he looks to me like he needs a good feed. A bit skinny and anorexic there as different to having a bit of meat on the old bones. Always remember that fat people vote too.!

    • Public Record says:

      11:23pm | 05/03/10

      It’s my country too.

      I don’t need or want as leader a major political figure who triapses off into the blue totally unprepared,  no food, gets bushed, runs out of water and fuel, and then can’t even work his bloody phone, for Pete’s sake.  Stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and I’ve done a few miles in The Bush. No-one gets lost on my jaunts and every one comes back safe together, too.

      He’s a major public figure. And he’s got a family. He should have known better. What was he thinking? What sort of example did he set? A national record for stupid irresponsibility, from the Leader of the very Party that keeps lecturing us all about the responsibility of the individual. Very bloody poor show all round.

      No mud here, sonny - just a completely unnnecessary hole Mr Abbott dug all by himself.

      Reply

    • Ryan says:

      10:13am | 07/03/10

      In contrast you would prefer a leader who promises everything and delivers nothing, attends strip clubs on taxpayer money, eats his own earwax, abuses a female member of our defense forces and is well known to throw a tantrum even when he can’t have a hairdryer in the desert.

    • Bluey says:

      06:40am | 08/03/10

      Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bewdy Ryan. You left off a bit, mate:

      “This message brought to you by the party that eats its own leaders. Authorised by A Troll, Liberal Party Canberra”

    • Ryan says:

      04:17pm | 08/03/10

      @Bluey: You mean like you, persephone and Public Record who are clearly Labor trolls, at least I am not payed by the Liberal party to troll on here!

    • Bluey says:

      04:47pm | 08/03/10

      Yeah yeah yeah. Listen up, pal. No one tells me what to think. And no one tells me what to say.

      And didn’t Public Record say he was a minor party guy, to start with? Ya didn’t bother to check, did ya. Pity he’s gone. Good on him for picking Labor in the end!

      And didn’t Persephone say she was a Labor supporter by choice? What is it with you people? Anyone who knows what they’re on about is a paid stooge, eh. Bulldust! 

      Musn’t judge others by ya own grubby standards, pal.

    • Ryan says:

      10:45am | 09/03/10

      @Bluey: keep up the bulldust mate, are you sure you aren’t Rudd trying to “shake the sauce bottle”. I stand by what I said, play your online games all of you, claiming to be swinging voters yet know more about Labor policy than most of those of us who have been involved with the Labor party. Ah and then finally you resort to calling me names because you don’t like the truth, the truth shall set you free!

    • Bluey says:

      10:24am | 10/03/10

      Fair suck of the sav, mate. Swinging voter, eh. Bulldust. I vote Labor, never said anything else.

      So old Bluey knows about Labor policy, eh. Jeeze!  A bloke checks up on his Goverment, so he must be a flamin stooge, eh. Yeah yeah yeah, sure, mate.

      Mate, here’s the drum. Any coot can clue up on Lib policy. Any coot can clue up on Labor policy. Jeeze, it’s not flaming rocket science.  Listen to the radio. Read the papers. Have yaself a surf on the Web.

      Have a read and try and have a think, mate. Any tool can have an opinion. If ya give it a trot in public, ya need to say why and how. Ya gotta back ya words with facts.

      Piece of bloody cake mate, dead set. Give it a go. Check ya facts before ya post - now there’s a thought.  Youse’d put out less bulldust if ya just put a bit of work into it.

      My stuff? One blue so far. One. You ‘n Randall. Bugger! But that’s it.  Stand by what ya said, eh, Ryan. Yeah yeah yeah, sure pal.  Who gives a…...  Nobody tells me what to say. No bastard tells me what to think.

      My stuff is all me own work and its all “straight”. Cos I looked it up, mate, on the public record. Before I posted.

      See ya.

    • DWest says:

      08:11am | 06/03/10

      Fact: Publicity stunts still don’t disguise the 10 years of *do-nothing* on Abbott’s and the Liberals Resume, on Aboriginal issues. Yes Rudd is also the ninja of do-nothing but Abbott/Libs still trumps Rudd. It’s not a sequel of Dumber and Dumber, its a Spin Competition of Do-Nothing and Do-Nothinger. (And desperate Liberal “emergency” invention/invasion at election time does not count as serious or considered planning - or action.)

      I have to quote the astute political observer Flavor Flav, “Don’t believe the hype!”

      Reply

    • Helen says:

      09:39am | 06/03/10

      If Tony Abbott claims to be a respectful listener to the residents of central Australia, why does he trash the place by referring to it as the “Dead Heart”? This phrase, like Tony, is a relic of the old Imperial days where any place not looking like England must be “dead”. Ask any botanist, naturalist or anthropologist how “dead” Central Australia is.
      Maybe the “Dead Heart” refers to the Liberals, who’d have everyone in Central Australia on workfare and the rest of us on 12-hour days if they had their way.

      Reply

    • Robert Smissen says:

      10:16pm | 06/03/10

      Helen your heart appears to be cold & bitter, your twisting of the Honorable Mr. Abbott’s words don’t do you credit, have you ever heard of “dead reckoning” it is a geographical term as is “dead centre”. May I suggest that you grow a heart.

    • Bluey says:

      05:16pm | 07/03/10

      Gee, RS, don’t you know your Aussie explorers? Gregory called it The Dead Heart when he came back from Lake Eyre and The Alice. He wasn’t making some joke about being dead centre, either.  Crikey.

    • Christian Real says:

      03:13pm | 09/03/10

      Helen, the only dead heart in the outback appears to be Mr Abbott’s, our people would not have got him lost, nor would they have run out of food and water as Mr Abbott claimed that they did, the only twisting of words and of the story appears to come from Mr Abbott himself.

    • Harquebus says:

      09:56am | 06/03/10

      It’s a stunt. The more politicians try to help, the more they stuff things up. Why? Because most have been brainwashed since the age of three with religious crap and are not capable of making sane or rational decisions..

      Reply

    • Fog Badger says:

      08:33pm | 06/03/10

      Hey persephone,

      You’re earning your wage today. Smmmmokin’......  grin

      Reply

    • Dr John says:

      02:50pm | 07/03/10

      Maybe Bernie Banton should have the last say on Mad Monk!!!!!  But Bernie had too much class

      Reply

    • masealake says:

      01:03pm | 06/09/10

      Who parties danger Australia’s social fabric?

      Australia citizens now enter a very challenging political era for 70 years in the 2010 federal election, many reforms are demanding by voters are looking for a change with anger to share fairer resources supplied lives from the first term of government?

      Australia social fabric repair long over due?
      Voters’ voices do not hear?
      Voters’ pains do not ease?
      Voters’ cries do not care?

      ? Poverty will not be phase out if no fairer resources to share;
      ? Illness will not be reducing if no preventive measurement in real action;
      ? Agriculture will not be revitalize if urbanization continuing its path;
      ? Housing affordability will not be reach for young generation if government continues cashing from young generation debt by eating out the whole cake of education export revenue without plough back;
      ? Manufacture industry will shrink smaller and smaller if no new elements there to power up to survive,
      ? Employability will not in the sustainable mode for so long as manufacture and agriculture not going to boost.

      Ma kee wai
      (Member of Inventor Association Queensland since 1993)

      Reply

    • masealake says:

      01:12pm | 06/09/10

      Who parties danger Australia’s social fabric?

      Australia citizens now enter a very challenging political era for 70 years in the 2010 federal election, many reforms are demanding by voters are looking for a change with anger to share fairer resources supplied lives from the first term of government?

      Australia social fabric repair long over due?
      Voters’ voices do not hear?
      Voters’ pains do not ease?
      Voters’ cries do not care?

      ? Poverty will not be phase out if no fairer resources to share;
      ? Illness will not be reducing if no preventive measurement in real action;
      ? Agriculture will not be revitalize if urbanization continuing its path;
      ? Housing affordability will not be reach for young generation if government continues cashing from young generation debt by eating out the whole cake of education export revenue without plough back;
      ? Manufacture industry will shrink smaller and smaller if no new elements there to power up to survive,
      ? Employability will not in the sustainable mode for so long as manufacture and agriculture not going to boost.

      Ma kee wai
      (Member of Inventor Association Queensland since 1993)

      Reply
 
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