This week’s lesson: politics is no fairy tale

Shane From Melbourne says:

01:19pm | 27/01/12

@poa- That’s right, it is all a conspiracy by the ALP….Keep taking the medication…....

Another flop says:

01:53pm | 27/01/12

Yeah,the moore you watch it the more fabricated it looks,otherwise someone would get jail,nice try but no banana Juliar

Disco Stu says:

02:20pm | 27/01/12

She’s a hell of an actress then. How anyone could fake looking that scare can’t be humanly possible! The nutty-slanted Liberals can’t help themselves, can’t keep it in their pants for ever half a day!!! If you really believe that conveniently joined load of crap, Another flop is right, you need medical help!!

Poa says:

02:33pm | 27/01/12

POlice are investigating and charges “may yet be laid”.
Hmmmm..wonder if they’ll report any faster than the 3 years it takes to look at other ALP luminaries?
Everybody knows Gillard’s biggest problem isn’t Tony ABbot…..It’s more like her Foreign Minister!
Everybody realize she didn’t deny it….just knowledge of it, and that’s she’s too busy to find out? Hmmm mm!

Rick of the Dustbowl says:

03:40pm | 27/01/12

Tell me something about that fairy tale.Why does everything but the glass slipper turn back at midnight? The carrige turns back to a pumkin the footmen turn back into mice. In the real version the ugly stepsister cuts off her big toe so she can fit into the slipper, what’s tones going to cut off? .........dont tell me….....the budgie!

Chris L says:

04:01pm | 27/01/12

They’re still blaming Keating for a global recession in the 90’s Shane. Best to not get them worked up or they’ll have to wear the jacket.

jf says:

04:37pm | 27/01/12

Shane From Melbourne says:02:19pm | 27/01/12

“@poa- That’s right, it is all a conspiracy by the ALP….Keep taking the medication….... “

Yeah poa, keep it real. No-one in politics would ever leak a story to make life difficult for the other side.

Poa says:

05:48pm | 27/01/12

staffer sacked.
Gillard looked genuinely terrified.
Maybe Abbot wasn’t the only one being set up?

Chris L says:

06:10pm | 27/01/12

Strueth! It was a Labor staffer! I actually underestimated how pointlessly spiteful politicians can be!

I retract my earlier comment and apologise.

acotrel says:

05:26am | 28/01/12

I wonder if anyone really believes that the press didn’t know that Tony Abbott would cause a riot when he answered that question ? They were probably all there salivating !

poa says:

07:39am | 28/01/12

Actually acotrel..I wonder if anyone rang the media from the PM’s office and told them to get their cameras to some awards function.
Guess the police investigation will work that out.
Lets not forget..this was a political assasination here. Using the media and public opinion to destroy a Coalition Leader.
Was this all the work of some crazed “lone gunmen” or was Tony Abbots personal safety and that of the PSO’s at risk due to more from the PM;s Office.? The sacked bloke was one of 4 senior media advisors to Gillard. Pretty senior.

Hmmm?

kaz says:

09:20am | 28/01/12

poa, have you ever thought about a career in writing conspiracy novels?
Gee, if only Julia hadn’t faked providing assistance to Tony Abbott, we may have had some real blood and guts for page 3.

poa says:

02:07pm | 28/01/12

Know a little bit about PSO’s kaz.
They would NEVER let themselves be filmed with the PM unless it was bloody serious. Julia’s concern may have been Julia 2.0 or real Julia ior whatever. No-one believes her anymore.
And just what WERE all that media doind there…they go to these things regularly?
as for conspiracy theories….well lets just say when all this is out in the open we’ll know more.

Tom says:

03:16pm | 28/01/12

Is this another Labor fanbois journalist trying to plead that it is all a joke?

I am not sure that making light of racial divisiveness is all that amusing given the bitter history involved.

Let’s see it as it really is, a disgusting piece of gutter politics by cynical Labor grubs.

Cynicised says:

09:31pm | 27/01/12

She doesn’t turn into pumpkin, you ninny, the coach does. Gingerella is still the same squeaky clean, rightful inheritor she always was.

Chris L says:

11:31pm | 27/01/12

The fairy godmother granted her a diaphram that turns into a pumpkin at midnight. Fortunately that isn’t a problem due to her friend Peter… Peter… something or other.

sunny says:

08:58pm | 27/01/12

Yeah classic just like in Romancing The Stone. Would’ve been good if they had to escape by swinging on a vine across a river while the natives threw spears and blew poison darts at them. Then as Bob Brown (in the Danny De Vito character) met them on the other side of the river, the arguments and bickering would start up again.

Shane From Melbourne says:

05:13pm | 27/01/12

Anyone know if flag burning is a criminal offence in Australia?

St. Michael says:

06:10pm | 27/01/12

It isn’t, which is to say any sort of charge along those lines wouldn’t make it to trial.

Oh, criminal damage is a charge, but you’d have to find the item’s owner to make the complaint—and then the issue is whether the Australian Constitution’s implied right to free speech on political matters thereby extinguishes a criminal charge brought on the subject.  There was a young moron over here in Western Australia who did the same sort of thing a few years ago, and they dropped the charge against him either because it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed ... or because of the fact that if the case went ahead, they would literally have had to invite every Attorney-General from every State in Australia to be at the proceedings, since it involved a constitutional issue of immense importance.

Still doesn’t do them many favours in the court of public opinion, though.  You’d think the Left could have come up with something more original than flag burning, the hippies in the US did it quite literally 50 years ago.

BJ says:

09:10pm | 27/01/12

Shane

Burn an aboriginal flag and you will find out.

acotrel says:

06:49am | 28/01/12

@Shane
Does anyone know if burning Tony Abbott is a criminal offence ?

Hoob says:

08:22pm | 27/01/12

Maybe you should be the target of a race riot to understand.

marley says:

06:47am | 28/01/12

To this impartial observer (I don’t like any of the parties) there was a crowd behaving in a highly intimidating manner towards the two most prominent politicians in Australia.  The police did their job, protecting the PM and Abbott, and pushing the crowd away without anyone getting hurt.  I don’t know what the hell else you expected them to do.

RyaN says:

07:38pm | 27/01/12

This isn’t England silly pommie, there are no Tories here.

VVS says:

06:45pm | 27/01/12

Nigeria, huh?

I guess I should send you my bank details now so you can make that deposit we were talking about…?

Shane From Melbourne says:

07:16pm | 27/01/12

Was there a conspiracy by the government to embarass Tony Abbott? No. Did a staffer within Gillard’s office step over the line? Yes. Did the protesters yesterday step over the line? Yes.
BTW that’s Melbourne, not Malbin.

Tom says:

08:49am | 29/01/12

You are entitled to express an opinion, Shane. My opinion is that this reeks of Gillard and probably a few other Labor grubs.

Shane From Melbourne says:

09:40pm | 27/01/12

Yeah right the government has control over the actions of mobs. They really would endanger the Prime Minister to embarass Tony Abbott? I don’t think so. The actions of one dumb ass staffer does not make a conspiracy…..

acotrel says:

06:54am | 28/01/12

It would be interesting to know who asked Tony Abbott that question !

poa says:

07:47am | 28/01/12

To get this to happen
a) the PM’s Office had to place Abbot in the vicinity of the tent embassy on “Invasion Day… Who picked the venue..THE PMO
b) Abbot had to be asked about the tent embassy on Australia Day
c) Someone had to to Misrepresent Abbots words and tell them where to find him
(That sure happened)
d) Someone had to stir the crowd.  A former Greens candidate sure did that.
We even had all the media on hand to record it, Gee Wh?y. Someoneone ring them to tell them.? When?
Answer these questions and ask whether Gillards Senior Media Advisor (one of 4) is a crazed “lone gunman” acting alone or whether this is a political assassination by the media of a Coalition leader.
If thats the case…the GG must call fresh elections.

GB says:

10:32am | 28/01/12

Still so cocksure Shane? This gets worse by the hour. Now we hear 2 staffers were seen in discussion with the protesters in the lobby before this all went down. If you honestly think this was all the work of one rogue media adviser you’re more rusted on than I gave you credit for.

marley says:

06:15am | 29/01/12

Well, Marilyn, here’s the deal.  People are indeed allowed to talk to one another.  They’re not allow to intimidate or threaten one another though.  And, while not illegal, screaming profanities and insults at those with whom you disagree isn’t actually “talking to” one another.

Reasoned, respectful explanation and argument can be effective in educating people, even in swaying their views.  Pounding on glass walls, burning flags, howling insults, trying to shout people down, achieves does neither.  The Aborigines involved in this protest have damaged the cause of Aborigines enormously through their actions.  What they’ve done is akin to what you do every time you spit venom about refugees:  you damage the cause you supposedly promote.  They (and you) should give way to better informed, more articulate people who can actually achieve something.

Rick of the Dustbowl says:

02:47pm | 30/01/12

Marley , Damage the cause of the aboriginies? dont you think the damage was done in 1770?

marley says:

05:59pm | 30/01/12

@Rick of the dustbowl - we can all be purists about what ought to be, but if we want to improve things, we have to be realists about what is.  Right or wrong, this country has been colonized and Aborigines have suffered as a result.  We can’t go back to 1700, though, so how do the Aborigines make the best use of public sympathy, legal rights, political pressure, and whatever weapons they might have?  Courts, Parliaments, public pressure - progress has been made, nowhere near enough, but progress - but I reckon this whole debacle has set back the progress being made by the real people working in the trenches for legal change back by years.  They must be spitting nails.