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Friday Fight Club: Who won week one of the campaign?

David Penberthy

by David Penberthy

23 Jul 11:45am

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Filed under: Election 2010, Fight Club

48 comments

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48 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • TrueOz says:

      03:42am | 24/07/10

      I don’t know who won, but I can tell you who’s going to lose - every single Australian - regardless of which one of these chumps gets elected.

      In the 30 years I have been a voter, I have never seen such a pitiful pair of human beings competing to become our “leader”.

      Reply

    • Radagast says:

      11:21pm | 23/07/10

      I think Bob Brown won.

      Reply

    • MarK says:

      10:36am | 24/07/10

      Maybe in Tolkien’s alternative universe where the Green policies actually might make some sense.  Back on Earth it was an interesting to see the greens do a preference deal with a party that has no green policy and no credentials in the area.

    • Mouse says:

      11:13pm | 23/07/10

      @JulesG every time I see Gillard on TV she is kissing something, be it babies or whatever. The smile is starting to wear a bit thin methinks as well that slow, nasal drawl. I have not seen her having to deal with a hostile media, if anything, she has been treated with kid gloves. The “after the election” rhetoric is becoming her new slogan and is as maddening as the “moving forward” monologue. She has nothing to offer except promises of maybes and sort ofs. Her ongoing discussions are all in her head, ask the East Timorese, and the things she has fixed don’t seem to be too fixed at all, ask the miners. I’m sorry, but I just don’t feel the love or the trust!

      Reply

    • Tigerbob says:

      11:01pm | 23/07/10

      I’ll break it up into the first half and then the second half week:-
      1st Half - Gillard 7/10   Abbott 3/10
      2nd Half - Gillard 2/10 Abbott 7/10
      In the first half of the week we had 90% of the media get stuck into Abbott over Workchoices etc. The bulk of the media are still infatuated with Gillard’s smile and hairdo. But as the second half of the week unfolded that revealed the emptiness of Gillard’s policies, the pendulum has indeed turned. We start with population where Gillard’s belief in a small Australia is defied by her belief that immigration shouldn’t be part of the discussion. Then we have the news overnight from East Timor warning Australians that there is no negotiations with East Timor for a processing facility. So Julia is doing this for election consumption only. then we have the new ETS talkfest. Gillard has now proved to the Australian people that she stands for nothing. She’s worse than Rudd though Gillard is the greatest spin doctor of our time. I believe there will be more revelations over the next weeks. But it’s only going downhill for Gillard from here on in. Sorry to all you labour voters.

      Reply

    • Anjuli says:

      09:41pm | 23/07/10

      I just wish all politicians would stop all these demeaning TV stunts and the nauseating habit of kissing babies just get on with it and show us some substance .

      Reply

    • raymond says:

      07:08pm | 23/07/10

      The campaign is all over even before it started, women will vote for Gillard in droves.  It will be a landslide to Labor, as the new polls coming out now are sufggesting.  Personally, I think this is highly unfortunate, as it will reinforce and continue the blundering decision making that is characteristic of Labor.

      Reply

    • Rose says:

      12:49am | 26/07/10

      I think you will find that it will not be a case of women voting for Gillard but in truth, women voting against Abbott. The man makes women feel very uncomfortable about the future with any government that has him at the helm.

    • Jason says:

      06:11pm | 23/07/10

      Neither person won because neither one seriously addressed any issues.  Gillard is all spin and always has been, Tony is working on his image rather than clearly stating alternative policy.  Totally pathetic and it will say a lot about this country if we vote a lying, backstabbing snake in the grass like Gillard into the top job.

      Reply

    • jck says:

      05:58pm | 23/07/10

      Has it only been a week?!  I am ready to send in my postal vote application - so I kick back & relax….............

      Reply

    • Bruce says:

      05:52pm | 23/07/10

      Joolya won the week by way of good old sugar coated lightweight gloss and Tony Abbott second for the lack of good old sugar coated lightweight gloss. Gone are the good days when a good politician just strait faced lied to use.

      Reply

    • MarK says:

      10:34am | 24/07/10

      I agree.

      To take it further if one of them would actually show a set and “say right you lot this is what we are going to do and half of you will hate it but I don’t care” it would go a long way to convincing me that either is fit for the job.

      Seriously this consensus environment policy. What a load of crap. It merely shows cowardice of the grossest kind.

      Someone just lead.

    • Nigel Catchlove says:

      05:19pm | 23/07/10

      Julia is also not encumbered by any sense of fiscal responsibility either.  While she was No.2 in the labor government they have spent like drunken sailors and you and others seem to think that’s OK, well it’s not.  Cuts to expenditure are an inevitable consequence of the irresponsible spending of the ALP and we can either take small cutsnow to non-essential expenditure such as our UN grandstanding or big cuts later on.  Unfortunately the ALP have left us little choice.  Vote for Julia at your peril.

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      04:29pm | 23/07/10

      ‘The media! The media!’ They shriek hysterically while clawing at their eyes and fanning themselves with a rolled up copy of AdBusters. The media is to wannabe political tragics as pedophiles are to parents. Some boogeyman to fear in the wardrobe. ‘On Today Tonight - the mainstream media. Do you trust them to be allowed into your schools?’

      The media don’t win in elections. We do, to the extent that we participate in a democratic process. But the media simply is. It is neither winner nor loser. It can neither be victorious, nor ever be defeated.

      The Greeks would have called it Pharmakos - the living sacrifice that is loaded down with all the village’s grief and horror and sent out in exile. Only our living sacrifice comes back, and burdens itself with more, and takes it away from us. It gives us sleep, without nightmares. That is what the media is for. Not so you can put down your paper, sip your Free Trade Coffee and reflect meaningfully on the myriad Truths you’ve read today. The media does not exist for you. It exists for those who do not seek objective truth but reassurance. The world is impossibly huge and terrible. Life has too many sharp teeth hidden in the darkness hungry for our souls.

      So newspapers exist to write reality into existence each day. They create a reality that is easily explained, digestible, that can be compartmentalised. A page for heinous crime. A page for celebrity weddings. A page for political machinations. A page for home renovations. 

      When your big enough and grown up enough and you think you’re edgy and interesting enough to put aside the well sucked pacifier of mass media you can go online and read all kinds of things that happen elsewhere other view points, deconstructed realities, critical reasonings - but they won’t satisfy you the way the mainstream media will. They’re the pocket knife your given for your 10th birthday that inspite of its gleaming blade won’t defend you from the monsters under your bed in quiet the same way as your thread bare safety blanket will.

      Truth is no one wants the truth. They don’t want the news to tell them exactly whats happening. They want sound bytes that instead of informing, remind them that God Is In His Heaven, All is Right With The World.

      Reply

    • David-L says:

      04:11pm | 23/07/10

      Funny how Abbott has latched onto the rumour that Kevin Rudd missed or deputised an adviser to take his place his place at security meetings, and that Kevin Rudd is unsuitable to be a minister because of it etc.

      And what of Abbott himself who failed miserably at “Scolding” Julie Bishop when she actually spoke publicly about some of the activities that the Australian Intelligence Service gets up to.

      Such Hypocrisy!!

      Reply

    • Northern Steve says:

      08:36pm | 24/07/10

      Rumour? Rudd himself couldn’t deny it. Best he could do say he didn’t miss any ‘critical’ meetings. What a crap response. Do you think people like that get together to have unimportant meetings?
      Rudd got caught out. He’s gone and should stay gone.

    • JulesG says:

      03:04pm | 23/07/10

      In this first, what some would say, crucial week of campaigning, Tony is accelerating backwards at a breakneck rate of knots with the promised cuts of 400 million to WA, announced yesterday. The ridiculous fiasco on Hey, Hey, it’s Saturday and the sickening and gratuitous, phoney baby kissing.  He proposes to stop our application to the UN security council, saving us a paltry 40 million but costing us so much more in our lost international credentials and opportunities that would surely result from such a massively, myopic and mean spirited move. Oh, then there’s the promised cuts to training and apprenticeships announced early this week. The NBN will take an absolute hammering under this bloke too. With the labour slogan in mind, it could easily be the opposite sentiment for the coalition with, ‘Backwards with Tony!’

      Well, it’s one way of stopping the boat people I suppose. Tony’s going to make Australia so insular and backward looking that the asylum seekers will not know whether they are jumping out of the frying pan or into the fire! Tony Abbott will take us back to the fifties and makes no secret of it. If you can’t beat ‘em (the boat people) then join ‘em! Eh, Tony?

      Who won the first week of campaigning? The Right Hon. Julia Gillard, that’s who, by miles and miles and miles. She is poised, articulate and has some ideas to take us forward. The fact that she is not encumbered by religion and children is a further plus too. She is not easily ruffled either, dealing with negative comments and an often hostile media with aplomb and statesmanship.

      Definitely the winner and the candidate for the job!

      Reply

    • Julia says:

      07:42pm | 23/07/10

      First sign of madness is talking in third person.

    • jamie says:

      06:45pm | 23/07/10

      She is poised, articulate and has some ideas to take us forward.

      Such as?

      East Timor solution?

      Delaying an ETS?

      No action on boat people, immigration, population?

      Ideas? Nope, silence.

    • BobM says:

      05:54pm | 23/07/10

      @JulesG - From the ABC website ( a favorite with the Lefties, no doubt)

      Tony Abbott: not mincing his words (ABC: Ashley Hall)
      I will be next PM: Abbott

      Speaking in Perth at the opening of the electorate office for Ken Wyatt, the Liberal candidate for the marginal seat of Hasluck, Mr Abbott said he believes he will defeat Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
      “Yes, I think that there will be a change of government and yes, I think that I will be the next prime minister of Australia,” he said.

      I tend to believe him rather than your two-faced, lying heroine - 4 more weeks and she’ll be out of the job.

    • SkepDad says:

      04:38pm | 23/07/10

      She is also unencumbered by any meaningful policies.

      Problem with Joolia is this: if you want her, you have to have Labor as well.  Of course if you want a decent future for the country, you could vote for the Coalition, but then you get Abbott.  Sigh.

      There’s no good result in this election.  Either way, we the people lose.

    • Nicole says:

      04:26pm | 23/07/10

      Poised? Articulate? Ideas? Forward? *Splutter spit coffee everywhere* JulesG….....Hmmm. Is that you Jooolya, singing your own praises? Thanks, I always enjoy a good laugh.

    • MarK says:

      04:04pm | 23/07/10

      “but costing us so much more in our lost international credentials and opportunities that would surely result from such a massively, myopic and mean spirited move.”

      Lets keep it simple hey, lets just look at his line

      Like what? Elaborate. Tell us something. Or is this sort of like the environmental policy that might perhaps maybe occur after the the next election? You know there are “opportunities” we just can’t work them out yet.

      Those “opportunities” you claim….please list them.

    • nosthow says:

      03:55pm | 23/07/10

      @JulesG - well said Jules - Abbott is a gift to the ALP. Mr Unelectable despite being smothered by his minders still cant come out with anything that would remotely make any sensible person vote for him. That “Abbott Family” ad said it all - Kreeeeepy !

    • David says:

      02:57pm | 23/07/10

      The media won - it is continuing to play extremely dirty where Abbott is concerned. Nothing is going to stop them from doing this. Even the justifiable complaints from ordinary members of the public who merely wish to be informed before they vote. How dangerous is that? Afraid they might not vote Labor or Green with Labor preferences?

      Reply

    • Peter Simmons says:

      05:09pm | 23/07/10

      Absolutely Correct.

      The 7.30 Report on Wednesday proved just how biased the Media is on the coverage of this election.  KOB for Deputy PM.
      Fairfax,  through the ABC and Sky News,  are a disgrace to Journalism.

    • DD Ball says:

      05:06pm | 23/07/10

      Spot on. Any fair assessment would mention that Gillard has no policy which she hasn’t opposed in the past, or which is only a pork barrel. Gillard has failed to say what she is doing right now with her mining tax or with her ETS plans. Her immigration stance seems racist, and fails to be as functional as the old Pacific Solution model. Meanwhile, Mr Abbott is firm but fair on issues like mining tax, migration, taxation etc etc.

    • Julie Coker-Godson says:

      02:12pm | 23/07/10

      What happened with The Fight Club?  I was on The Punch in readiness from 11.47am but nothing showed up on my computer.

      Anyway, for mine, I think it is a bit hard to tell at the moment as neither party as said too much about anything in particular that impresses me.  Julia talks as if she is Robespierre at the French Revolution with all this nonsense of “citizens assembly/committee” and Tony needs to develop his interviewing style so that he comes across unequivocally about not bringing back Work Choices and about policies generally.  He must learn to be more comfortable about being interviewed otherwise people will get the idea he is a waverer and that is NOT a good look.  I want the Coalition to win this election, so get learning Tony.  Good Luck.

      Reply

    • shabangabang says:

      01:37pm | 23/07/10

      My fave bit of todays chat; no mention of boat people. Shows how much of a non issue it actually is when you look past the media hysteria.

      Reply

    • Shelley says:

      02:17pm | 23/07/10

      YOU mentioned boat people. Macca replied. And here I am…

      So much for a non issue.

    • Macca says:

      01:59pm | 23/07/10

      Didn’t stop Julia from doing exactly what Rudd said wouldn’t happen. We didn’t really debate any issues / policies. what does that say about the election….
      Almost everyone said the Climate announement was crap and a majority of ppl think Julia had a better week than Abbott and should consequently win the election.

    • pete says:

      01:20pm | 23/07/10

      not us

      Reply

    • joolz says:

      01:13pm | 23/07/10

      Who put up Mandy????? Sick.

      Reply

    • SkepDad says:

      01:06pm | 23/07/10

      Thanks Punch.  That was good fun.

      I’m not sure if that’s what you were going for though - I think a bit more prompting from the moderators would have stirred up more actual political debate and snarking.  As it was, there was a lot of random wonkery and no real duelling.

      Reply

    • Bitten says:

      08:57pm | 23/07/10

      Ok, I finally have to ask - what is wonkery or a political wonk? I confess to neophyte status on this.

    • Zac says:

      12:43pm | 23/07/10

      Unelected third party - media - always win$$$$$$$$$$.

      Reply

    • John L says:

      12:14pm | 23/07/10

      Julia - by miles. Tony can’t fight in this weight category, and Julie Bishop i strictly a lightweight

      Reply

    • Nicole says:

      06:05pm | 24/07/10

      Seano, I think you should change your name to Eddie.

    • Seano says:

      05:45pm | 23/07/10

      @Nicole - Your undestanding of boxing is right up there with your understanding of politics.

    • hot tub political machine says:

      01:46pm | 23/07/10

      Oh to be fair dovif Danny Green may have some amazing federal policy initiatives its just that the Press didn’t think to ask him

    • dovif says:

      01:38pm | 23/07/10

      Green - all spin fight someone who has been retire

      Just like Gillard, running away from anything resembling a policy

    • Nicole says:

      01:16pm | 23/07/10

      Nice comparison Seano:
      Green: Worn out, washed up, past his use by date, fake, but I want to be the best, I want to be number one, says one thing then changes his mind.
      Gillard: All of the above and a whole lot more.

    • Seano says:

      12:48pm | 23/07/10

      Gillard. Made Danny Green’s effort look slow, admittedly she’s fighting a chump.

    • Zac says:

      12:41pm | 23/07/10

      Only if you are a BER-ista.

    • John L says:

      12:14pm | 23/07/10

      Julia - by miles. Tony can’t fight in this weight category, and Julie Bishop i strictly a lightweight

      Reply

    • Eric says:

      12:02pm | 23/07/10

      It’s a minute past twelve. Where’s my fight? Kill, kill!!!!

      Reply

    • Joolz says:

      11:56am | 23/07/10

      What are you playing? Marcel Marceau and his Big Band?

      Reply
 
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