Oakeshott across the bow

Bomb78 says:

03:23pm | 20/07/12

And that, MZS, should be the end of this story. the best thing about the next election won;t be the drubbing Gillard and the ALP will get, it will be that Oakeshott will disappear into the night and the fog forever.

Brad Coward says:

04:31pm | 20/07/12

The man just isn’t any good at getting his point across via the short statement, is he ?

Shane says:

04:37pm | 20/07/12

I had to stop and check to see if I’d missed some months and it was back to April 1st again.

Joakeshott says:

07:39pm | 20/07/12

Oakey doesn’t have the bottle. Its a veiled threat to keep Gillard and not to contemplate a return to Rudd. Gillard’s people doubtless put him up to it. I’d like to label him a ‘useful idiot’ at this stage but, truth be told, we all know Oakey doesn’t have the stones to pull the trigger so his threat isn’t too ‘useful’.

Rosie says:

09:27am | 21/07/12

MZS

Took the words out of my mouth.

Oakeshott & Windsor will say anything to remind the people that they are the real rulers while Julia Gillard remains the Australian PM. Again and again we have been treated as idiots, all because of those ambitious union thugs who now haven’t the balls to get rid of Gillard even if they so desperately desire to do so.

Every move Labor and their supporters try to instigate will make it worse for Labor than it already is. Now we have the Union ashamedly supporting Gillard and not how the Labor Minority Govt is governing. This is not a very good look - Australia in the 21st century who would think so???

Joan says:

10:25am | 21/07/12

Oakeshott - the guy who will go down in Australian history as Gillards minority government clown court jester and that his 17 minute ramble in 2010 has not in fact stopped. - just long pauses in between stupid outbursts.

james says:

04:02pm | 20/07/12

Oaky hates the nationals too much to support them, as he believes they have sold their soul to the libs and fail to act for the country folk.

Mattb says:

04:35pm | 20/07/12

james says: 04:02pm | 20/07/12
“Oaky hates the nationals too much to support them, as he believes they have sold their soul to the libs and fail to act for the country folk.”

what?, is their actually people out there stupid enough not to think that this is the case?...

Ruddslide says:

07:49pm | 20/07/12

Oakey fears a Rudd renaissance because a strong leader like Rudd will tell Oakey to POQ. Fear of instant relevance withdrawal motivates this swipe at Kevin. Oaken wants Gillard in so he can continue to order the Labor party around. A strong labor leader is the last thing Oakey wants.

Against the Man says:

07:02am | 21/07/12

james your statement might make you the weakest link.

Brian Taylor says:

01:32am | 21/07/12

@ mattb newman- gillard’s latest weapon and soon to be one term wonder.
care to put your money where your big mouth is matty boy
Newman will easily win his next election no worries.
strange how you mad dog labor mob turn a story about Oaksnot into a story about Newman.
funny that ...I didn’t see Newman’s name anywhere in the story…maybe I missed it?

Joel B1 says:

03:38pm | 20/07/12

See, the point you miss A, is that that is just conjecture (look it up ALP staffer).

The reality is that, between them Rudd and Gillard have actually (again, look it up) managed to fail at every ill-conceived, back-of-a-wine-coaster, thought-bubble, buy-more-votes, kill-freedom-of-the-press, keep-all-your-emails-and-site-visits-for-2-years thing we’ve been unlucky enough for them to “think” of.

That’s “conjecture” versus “actuality”. Not something the left is very good at.

Think Greens and people drowning at sea.

RMB says:

03:40pm | 20/07/12

@A. What’s Greg Withers up to these days?

Mattb says:

04:46pm | 20/07/12

newman- gillard’s latest weapon and soon to be one term wonder. 100 days from the election, a dozen broken promises with nepotism and ‘jobs for the boys’ rife within his government proves cantdo is just a crap as anna.

suprise, suprise, I see your another one of these ‘labor did it, so why cant the LNP’ hypocrites joel b. theres a reason bligh was shitcanned joel..

JT says:

08:03pm | 20/07/12

@Mattb

Does reality ever enter the minds of you Labor hacks?

‘‘After 100 days Campbell Newman is even more popular, polls say

The Liberal National Party leader has taken his team to a commanding lead with 56.5 per cent of the primary vote, while Labor’s rating has slumped even further to 21.8 per cent.’‘

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/after-100-days-campbell-newman-is-even-more-popular-polls-say/story-e6frgczx-1226415452124

Northern Steve says:

08:39pm | 20/07/12

Newman’s got three years yet.  He’s going hard and will hurt people at the moment, but he’s got time to repair that.  It’s a bit early to call him a one term wonder.  Hopefully he will actually do a bit of good to the state’s bottom line in the meantime.
The nepotism stuff is also not real smart, but new governments make mistakes.  If the LNP learn from this, people will forget or forgive over the next three years.  It’s a bit harder to forgive a party that’s been in power for 20 years for nepotism (as typified by Greg Withers), when they really should know better.

ZSRenn says:

01:31pm | 21/07/12

@A says: lol Combet’s mother in law is the Governor General and you give the LNP a lecture based on conjecture regarding nepotism. Hilarious!

Cynic says:

03:58pm | 20/07/12

I don’t have too much time for Oakeshott but one thing’s for sure - he has more guts than Wilkie. Unless he does something worthwhile to appease his electorate he knows only too well that he’ll be tossed out at the next election

Gregg says:

05:30pm | 20/07/12

@Cynic
” Unless he does something worthwhile to appease his electorate he knows only too well that he’ll be tossed out at the next election “

Don’t know about guts but he knows what side his toast is buttered on and right now he’ll be looking at how to butter the other side.
That’s all he is doing, aligning himself to blow in his own direction.

Keith Hammersmith says:

04:27pm | 20/07/12

I think thats it Fiddler.  He sees his power over this nation diminishing rapidly, and is trying to eek out every last morsel of said power. But in reality it is as JG above says, he must not be stupid enough to realize that he betrayed his electorate, is very unpopular there and stands no chance of holding on to his seat when the next election comes.
He and this is just a waste of time…

Against the Man says:

08:01pm | 20/07/12

Right on the money!

Keith Hammersmith says:

04:28pm | 20/07/12

really?
try and educate your self please, before making such inane comments.

ZSRenn says:

11:11am | 21/07/12

Is that really the bullshit you latte sippers are stupid enough to believe in down town Darlinghurst. Despite all the damage to the here and now that this the worst government in Australian History this is your reason for not voting for Abbott.

Even if your totally inaccurate statement were true you would not vote for him because his beliefs, regarding the end of times, are different than yours. 

On further thought, you must be a troll. Surely no one in Australia is this stupid.

Rip Van Winkle says:

01:07pm | 21/07/12

So sleepyrenn awakes from his hidey hole in China to tell us what he imagines is going on in Australia.
He gives us his bullshit worst government routine he parrots from the shock jocks with no basis in reality.
You must be a troll. This is certainly a good government.
Low unemployment, low interest rates, economy the envy of the world taking action to reduce emissions. The list goes on.
Sleepy, you gotta stop listening to the conservative propaganda.

Luke says:

08:25am | 21/07/12

That’s his only hope, he knows he’s gone at the next election unless he pulls the plug on Gillard to appease his electorate. It won’t work Rob!

pa_kelvin says:

07:17pm | 20/07/12

Problem being he is already seen as ‘the one that helped them stay in power this long’. He will be gone next election…...BYE BYE Oakshott..

pa_kelvin says:

07:19pm | 20/07/12

Sorry .....Here’s the ‘e’ I left out off Oakeshott.

Slothy says:

04:57pm | 20/07/12

I’ll pay it.

pa_kelvin says:

07:24pm | 20/07/12

Not your best,but it will do.  6.5 outta 10.

Inky says:

07:40pm | 20/07/12

Well played.

Mouse says:

12:45am | 21/07/12

hahahahahahaha I love your mind Karen!  lol :o)

Karen from Qld says:

11:57am | 21/07/12

Gee pa kelvin tough crowd. Could I say in my defence that I am getting over a nasty cold.

Luke says:

01:12pm | 21/07/12

7/10 Karen, not bad

pa_kelvin says:

02:04pm | 21/07/12

Okay ....Cold counts as 1.75….......new score 8.25 keep up the good work. Hot lemon toddies. Lots of scotch.

Northern Steve says:

08:32pm | 20/07/12

No, the PM can still call an election at any stage while she has the confidence of the parliament.  If the PM loses a vote of confidence at any stage, then the PM is expected to resign and advise the GG to offer TA the chance t form government. If TA is unable to gain the confidence of the parliament, then he would likely advise the GG to go to an election.

grey says:

02:34pm | 21/07/12

Your belief, delivered so authoritatively, seems to be without foundation.  In 1941 Lord Gowrie intervened personally to request the two independents support Curtin after they withdrew their support from Fadden.
Section 5 of the Constitution appears to give wide discretionary powers to the Governor General:
“5. The Governor-General may appoint such times for holding the sessions of the Parliament as he thinks fit, and may also from time to time, by Proclamation or otherwise, prorogue the Parliament, and may in like manner dissolve the House of Representatives.”
Since early elections out costs and inconveniences regarding the Senate, it is by no means certain that the GG would automatically grant a new election if she believed that there was a genuine probability of a stable government being formed.

Northern Steve says:

01:38pm | 22/07/12

Thanks grey, I’ll have to have a read of the ‘41 situation a bit more closely - I’m intrigued.  Your comment, however, does’t exactly answer the original question, which was whether JG could call an election at any time, and I can’t see any reason why not.

marley says:

02:50pm | 22/07/12

There was a rather major constitutional crisis in Canada back in the 1920s, when the PM of a minority government asked the GG to call and election and the GG refused, instead offering the opposition a crack at it.  His main reasoning was that the government was barely two months old at the time, and he felt another election was not in the interests of democracy, particularly as the main opposition party had more seats anyway. 

Although the issue is still much debated, the King-Byng affair resulted in a parliamentary convention in Canada (and it applies to other Westminster democracies) that the GG will do as the PM asks, unless there are exceptional circumstances (generally meaning, there’s been an election within the last year, and another party has sufficient seats to be able to govern).

(It also, incidentally, broke the nexus between colonial GGs and the British government.  From then on, the GG became purely the representative of the Queen and not of the UK Parliament.)

The issue arose again a couple of years ago, when the Canadian PM, heading a minority government which was barely six weeks old, asked the GG to prorogue Parliament so he could avoid a confidence vote which he was likely to lose as the opposition has just formed a coalition which gave them the numbers.  The GG took legal advice and agreed to the prorogation, as opposed to calling another election within a couple of months of the previous one, or offering the opposition the chance to govern.  Her argument was that she was bound to follow the instructions of the PM.  That one is still being debated as well, needless to say.

The point here is that modern convention seems to be that the GG will do what the PM advises him or her to do.  And while the constitutional experts can argue all they want about it, the weight seems to be on the PM calling the shots.  I doubt, given the history of the Dismissal, that an Australian PM would be too keen to have another try at acting against the wishes of the PM.

pa_kelvin says:

07:27pm | 20/07/12

Comment of the day…love it.

Brian Taylor says:

01:40am | 21/07/12

give him a couple of slaps for me too please lol hard ones

Alfie says:

10:48am | 21/07/12

Remind me never to mess with Nikki’s shit.  lol

Knemon says:

05:57pm | 20/07/12

You nailed it TimB. It’s pretty obvious. Rob’s a good man

PsychoHyena says:

06:01pm | 20/07/12

@TimB, I think you might have it there, obviously a removal of Gillard would be an attempt at preparing for the next election. Going to an election with Gillard would result in failure while booting Gillard would also result in failure.

Babylon in Canberra says:

05:15am | 21/07/12

When Gillard forced the Labor challenge, there was a spike in favourable poll numbers for the Labor party and Leadership.

The Labor party read this as the voting public being impressed by Gillard talking tough.

What it in fact was was the voting public coming back to Labor at the prospect of the return of Rudd.

Rudd is a big threat to a Coalition landslide at the next election.

This grandstanding of the Independents is a crazy stunt by people whom Gillard owns. It is not in the best interests of the Labor party.

The Labor party needs to understand Gillard has lost the trust of the Australian people. We cannot be bought. That trust will never return.

In fact it is the duty of all Australians, regardless of political persuasion, to vote Gillard out so as to send a clear message to future PMs, that we want honesty and integrity above all.

Personally I am so impressed, that despite millions of carbon tax compensation being tossed at us, we have remained resolute in our view of Gillard. Take a bow Australia!

PhilD says:

08:38pm | 22/07/12

Rob’s one of a growing group that could write a book titled “In bed with Julia”.

Bob says:

09:41pm | 22/07/12

Babylon in Canberra: Your theory is good, except that Abbott basically had his campaign vs Rudd written for him by the Labor party members who were publicly slagging him off. When facing Rudd he wouldn’t need to do much more than keep playing those clips over and over again. When they did that, Abbott can only have been hugging himself with joy.

Against the Man says:

08:04pm | 20/07/12

If he wants his seat back he stands a better chance if he triggers an election now, if he waits any longer he will be starting to fill out applications for a Green card pretty soon. He made himself public enemy, and maybe one of the few people actually just as stupid as Gillard

Alfie says:

08:07am | 21/07/12

‘Bobby’ - is that you Oakeshott? C’mon own up.

Terry2 says:

08:51am | 21/07/12

Morgan, a good and balanced analysis but up against a lot of conservative bigotry on this blog: well said.

TimB says:

09:37am | 21/07/12

‘Conservative bigotry’? Where? Do you even know what the word bigotry means?

You want to see bifgotry, just go read Drew from Darlinghurst’s post above.

And Morgan, the people who put him in power do not think he is legislating for their interests at all. It is not integrity when you completely defy the wishes of your own electorate, that’s just plain old arrogance.

The next election will make that clear to you.

Terry2 says:

12:31pm | 21/07/12

TimB: the definition that you are looking for.
Bigot: /noun: a person with strong and prejudiced views who will not listen to the opinion of others.
‘hope this helps

TimB says:

01:56pm | 21/07/12

Sound like you’re describing yourself there Terry.

Damn all those nasty conservatives here having an opinion, right? You shouldn’t have to listen to that shit.

Trader Vic says:

02:32pm | 21/07/12

conservative bigot - (n.) TimB, craig2, yotd, gregg, etc…

marley says:

03:38pm | 21/07/12

Geez, guys, there’s a difference between conservative opinion and conservative bigotry.  I know lots of conservatives who have reasoned explanations for their positions, as I know plenty of center-of-the-road types and left wingers who can back up their particular positions on issues as well.  And I know plenty on all sides who rely on insults rather than reason to back their arguments.  The Punch is replete with all types.

Well here’s a bit of reality:  just because someone takes a difference stance than you do on political or social issues, doesn’t mean they’re bigots.  By dismissing them as such without actually considering what they’re saying, you’re worse than the people you slap blanket labels on.

TimB says:

07:15pm | 21/07/12

Thanks Marley. You’ve explained it far better than I could have hoped to.

year of the dragon says:

01:02pm | 22/07/12

Trader Vic says: 02:32pm | 21/07/12
“conservative bigot - (n.) TimB, craig2, yotd, gregg, etc…”

I can’t speak for the others but I defy you to link to one comment by me (one) that is bigoted.

In fact, the closest thing to bigotry on this thread to bigotry is the assumption that because someone is a conservative that they are therefore also a bigot.

I will take your failure to do so as a humble apology.

Mouse says:

03:26pm | 22/07/12

yotd, it would depend on what Trader Vic & Terry2’s definition of “bigot” is. If it is that a bigot is anyone that doesn’t agree with them, then it may very well be that 70% of Australians are bigots and of that 70%, 56% or so are conservative. 
In a Democracy, the majority are supposed to rule, so maybe they should just shut up then. But in Australia we are in a Labor coalition rule, which is more socialist/communist rule, so maybe we should all just hide under the bed until it passes!  lol :o)

year of the dragon says:

05:23pm | 23/07/12

Mouse says:03:26pm | 22/07/12

“yotd, it would depend on what Trader Vic & Terry2’s definition of “bigot” is.”

I note that they have failed to rise the challenge thus revealing themselves as not only illiterate but also cowards and, ironically, bigots.

The most revolting thing about this style of progressive is that in indulging their pretentions they trivialise actual bigotry or whatever cause happens to be fashionable at the time.

All they are concered for is clawing themselves onto a pedestal from which they can lecture their inferiors using the very causes that they purport to represent as a tread.

Thunderoad says:

11:29am | 21/07/12

It took a while, we had to sit tight until Saturday to get it, but thatmosis manages to chip in late with a rolled gold cert for comment of the week.

I view Oakeshott as largely a harmless ditherer but you manage to, in all seriousness, equate him with Hitler and Stalin.

Congrats.

Nikki says:

12:45pm | 21/07/12

I for one am looking forward to the Today Tonight “Where are they now?” sty;e story in a couple of years time, about Oakey’s new career as a window cleaner and odd-jobs man.

Interviewer: So what prompted the move from politics? (apart from the absolute drubbing at the last election)

Oakey: I felt like I had achieved everything I set out to do in my political life and delievered on all my promises to my electorate, and I needed to spend more time with my family. *grins like village idiot*