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We’ll all be rooned, except the Coalition at the election

02 Jun 06:00am

Filed under: Bill Hayden, Election 2013, Hung Parliament, Newspoll, Opposition, Politics, Tony Abbott, Weekend Punch

269 comments

Back in 2001, on the Nine Network’s now defunct Sunday program, Tony Abbott invented a new word. Roonism. The then Industrial Relations Minister was complaining about the relentless negativity of the Labor opposition under Kim Beazley.

Cartoon: Chris Taylor

“One of the real problems we have at the moment is roonism,” Abbott said. “As in ‘We’ll all be rooned’ said Hanrahan.” This was a reference to an Australian bush poem in which pessimistic farmers constantly predict disaster no matter how good conditions are.

Roonism, Abbott explained, “is a kind of a mutant sibling of the tall poppy syndrome, and it’s poisoning our public life at the moment and it risks doing damage to the economy. “And of course, the chief economic ghoul literally praying for bad news is Kim Beazley. The champagne corks pop in Kim Beazley’s office every time someone gets into trouble.”

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Food for a smarter debate says:

06:36pm | 08/06/12

I think this comments section is an apt reflection of public debate at the moment about domestic politics - nobody is really open to changing their mind and only a few commentators have sought fact to support their view - the few that did ended up in a more amicable… Read more »
jolly says:

05:52pm | 04/06/12

Was it Abbott who once said ” that the focus of women should be on domestic duties and who had older male role models…..” and what even worse is the fact that ALL of the coalition agree with him…Not one person on the Coalition side has told him to shut… Read more »

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