Kev the builder’s silly stunts turn chamber into chaos

Evan says:

08:59am | 02/06/09

What about the Liberal party and the ‘stunts’ they keep on pulling? Instead of attacking the government over the numerous legitimate complaints they continue to play dumb and dumber in the house - and all this shows in the polls, while Rudd maybe losing ground the general public still don’t want Turnbull and co.

Braidy says:

10:13am | 02/06/09

Evan, what would you like the Libs to do? agree to everything Rudd wants?, allow the labor gov to run up more and more debt? What people must understand is that labor have mortgaged our future. the honey moon will be over for Rudd soon enough. Mr Rudd seems to think this can get paid back faster then it took the colation to pay back 96 billion in debt, he is misleading the public with his hard hat false hood of economic conservatism.

Oscar Zeta says:

10:38am | 02/06/09

God I love Bronwyn Bishop. She’s like the Queen Mum of Australian Politics. Why isn’t she leader? The Party has given these young bucks like Hockey and Turnbull a go and they’ve turned out to be boring, workshopped, and overly produced. It’s like watching High School Musical, or a Britney Spears film clip. Bronwyn and Heffernan would be the 2010 dream team. Like Beauty and The Beast.

Darren says:

10:52am | 02/06/09

good old Bronny - desperately trying to look relevant - anything to keep those young turks from taking HER seat in parliament away from her!

Shelley says:

11:03am | 02/06/09

A very petty and juvenile PM is what I saw in QT this week. Mean and vindictive. Is this really the image the ALP want the PM of Australia to project? The continued hackling and disrespectfully directly addressing the Opposition Deputy Leader as Jools without intervention from the speaker was cringe worthy.

A charge to the bottom lead by the PM.

Not quite the rush the ALP were looking for I’m sure.

I also noted the remark about your jacket Ms Bishop. Quite a cheap shot. All I can think is the Opposition must have hit a sore spot on the PM for such a petty personal comment to be made.

It was pointed out by to me by others that while the PM and his cabinet put on their amateur hour act in this way they avoid answering the questions asked , thus avoiding accountability for the budget and all other bungles.

This can be the only reason for such a shockingly low performance from a supposedly clever man.

I also note the transfer of funding from Education to the Environment and hope more will be made of this scam.

The Cabbie says:

12:27pm | 02/06/09

Talking of props, I hereby like to thank the right wing of the Liberal party for putting their best one up on Punch. A bit weathered but still entertaining. Thanks guys.

Evan says:

02:03pm | 02/06/09

Well Braidy lets start with stopping the hard hats and blow up dolls in parliament and start telling us WHY this policy or that idea is wrong, the libs are quick to oppose something but slow to tell us why this idea is bad and almost never seem to tell us their plans and ideas – in this financial crisis what is a ‘safe’ or acceptable level of debt for the country to go into? What ideas do the liberal party have to bring to the table? How would the liberal party have handled this? What expected level of debt would a liberal plan have ended up with? And this goes for both side – Get some intelligent discussion going on in QT and the media instead of each side bleating at each other and acting like siblings trying to get one up on each other.

Richard Ure says:

03:12pm | 02/06/09

The Opposition pitches its arguments at the innumerate and economically illiterate sections of the electorate. When the standard of debate improves and the Opposition specifies which projects should not have been funded, the debate will move to a higher plane. In the meantime, sadly, there will probably be more stunts until Kevin learns to ignore the Opposition.
I draw readers’ attention to the recent PBS Frontline story on how the US budget cascaded into deficit under Republican “small government” influence. The party professes to hate deficits but loves spending and doesn’t seem to understand the connection.

zebadiah says:

02:47pm | 03/06/09

Come on Bronwyn, you of all people should know that these ‘silly stunts’ are perfectly normal, every day behaviour in parliament. 

It is, quite frankly, embarrassing to watch grown men and women jeering and name calling, sneering and laughing at opponents, ignoring simple questions and instead spouting rhetorical nonsense on completely different topics to forward their own agenda (or more likely the agenda of whatever political party or ideology they are associated with at the time), and asking questions to which you already know the answer in order to embarrass or denigrate the other side. It is patently absurd. 

I would be mortified if my primary school children behaved like this towards each other, or their peers.  At school they call it bullying, and we have laws in place to prevent just such behaviour.

It really wouldn’t matter if these spoilt, selfish, tantrum-throwing, small minded individuals weren’t in charge of running our country, and making decisions that directly affect the lives of millions of people.

Surely we can rid ourselves of this archaic and pathetic waste of time, and just get on with the job.