Tony Windsor

Some years ago the ABC ran an excellent program called Bush Mechanics documenting the amazing resourcefulness of indigenous car nuts in the most remote parts of Australia. These guys have no access to car parts but keep their bombs on the road by stuffing blown tyres full of tightly wound spinifex, using pieces of wood as chassis parts, old pipes as steering columns and so forth.

I was reminded of this program while watching Julia Gillard outline her thinking on the scandalised MPs Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper. Whatever reasons Ms Gillard offers for the line Thomson has apparently crossed which now requires his suspension from the ALP, and for Slipper standing aside as speaker amid criminal claims of rorting and civil claims of sexual harassment, the popular take on her predicament is that this the prime minister is desperately trying to keep a clapped-out bomb of a government on the road. Like the bush mechanics, Ms Gillard has been flailing about for months using almost anything to keep her hands on the steering wheel of government.

At almost every turn – most notably with the supposedly genius idea of luring the shonky Slipper away from the Coalition with the promise of the speakership – she has ended up crashed in a ditch, wheels spinning madly.

Continue reading "Will the creators of this government now destroy it" »

Today Tony Abbott leads his platoon of pedallers into Armidale in northern NSW, and onto what some see as a calculated ambush of the local federal member, independent Tony Windsor.

This is his Pollie Pedal, the two-wheeled cavalcade of middle-aged men and a few women in bicycle-fetish garb which has become part of Abbott’s annual state-of-the-nation tour.

Well, part of the nation, anyway. The bits you can cycle on the east coast, at least.

Continue reading "Abbott has the strength and will to go the distance" »

Independent MP Tony Windsor has revealed this morning that he has received death threats following the Government’s carbon tax announcement.

This follows yesterday’s decision to ask the media to gather around and listen to an abusive phone message he had received, calling him an “f’n dog” etc, etc.

This is really nasty stuff and despite Windsor’s grizzled rural “she’ll be right” veneer, the member for New England is no doubt personally a bit concerned by his new role as pin cushion for anti-carbon tax hatred.

Continue reading "Windsor’s world of death threats and carbon taxes" »

Independent MP Tony Windsor yesterday continued what is becoming a pattern of rather cryptic and fencing sitting statements. 

He told The Australian that he wasn’t sure he supported the Murray Darling Basin plan to buy back 3000-4000 gigalitres of water from irrigators, and that perhaps the Government should look at other methods to return water to the system like diverting water from other areas.

This is a perfectly legitimate stance, although it was his other comment about the likelihood of any legislation on the plan succeeding in Parliament that is confusing. Windsor told The Australian and later the ABC that he didn’t think any legislation would see “the light of day” in this Parliament:

Continue reading "You’re meant to sit on the crossbench, not the fence" »

There was a moment in last night’s brilliant episode of 4 Corners that might have undermined Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott’s argument the whole filming exercise was about posterity.

As the deliberations over the hung parliament arrived at absolute crunch time Bob Katter got uncomfortable with the ABC camera and said he would rather the crew left the office where he was meeting with his fellow regional independents.

But Windsor and Oakeshott had other ideas. You can watch the whole episode here.

Continue reading "Recording a moment in history or self indulgence?" »

Two weeks ago we were being told by the federal independent MPs that regional Australia had been neglected and was run down after years of not getting back a fair share of the riches it creates for the nation.

Today an alliance of regional towns is out spruiking themselves as alternatives to metropolitan life, by virtue of their great housing, cheaper living costs and an abundance of career and investment opportunities.

They can’t both be right. So which is the real regional Australia?

Continue reading "Would the real regional Australia please stand up" »

MONDAY 06/09/10

6:00am

Mobile rings. Gravelly voice says “It’s the devil”. Ask Bill Heffernan why he is calling at such an ungodly hour? Bill shocked I guessed it was him. Remind Bill he’s called me before and that picture of the devil comes up when he calls.

Ask Bill why he still does this?

Heffernan says he can’t help being a prankster. AND has had a lot of time on his hands since the Kirby ‘prank’.

Bill has never been funny.

Lunchtime

Joyce charges into office, demands $1 billion for veterinary hospital in his electorate. Slams signed declaration on desk that states he will not support Coalition if demand isn’t met. Ask Joyce who he will support.

Continue reading "Diary of a Liberal Frontbencher: End game" »

What has become increasingly clear from the dithering statements from the three independents is they are unlikely to announce a decision on who will form government today.

Tony Windsor is still speaking in some kind of Yoda code, now worried that the three buddies will split:

“To talk to the other two about the possible prospect of a 75-all I must, in which case we might have to even rethink our own thoughts.  Yeesssssss.

“How the other two are going to vote, I know not.  Going to put our cards on the table today we are.  To see if we can get to something that is stable, the main objective here is. If we cannot get to something, stable we may well end up back at the polls, that is.”

(That was a Yoda translation of what Windsor actually told journalists this morning, it really wasn’t far off)

Continue reading "Some cricket relief during a political rain delay" »

A hung parliament is a golden opportunity for serious reform. The independents should not waste their extraordinary power on ephemeral trivia such as the black holes issue. (This is essentially about whether Treasury’s long term predictions are reliable. They are not.)

They should do something for which they will be immortalised in the nation’s pantheon. They should propose fundamental reform to our system of government, making it more democratic.

Why do the people have to wait three or four years to pass judgement on a failed government?  Why shouldn’t they block a law they do not like?

Continue reading "Trivial independents miss chance at making history" »

This afternoon The Punch has obtained a new list of demands from the three men that hold the nation’s government in their hands:

Dear Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott,

We three independents, Rob Oakeshott, Bob Katter and Tony Windsor, who are now officially acting on behalf of every Australian voter have been impressed with the progress made in negotiations to form a Government thus far, but have decided our initial seven point plan was lacking some flair. In that spirit we demand the following in for the sake of Australian democracy: 

1. Bob Katter wants a new pony and a lone ranger outfit

Continue reading "10 new demands from the three independents" »

Meet Jackie Healy Rae. If Irish politics has a Bob Katter, it’s him. Like the member for Kennedy, he’s a rural independent and disaffected former member of an established party, who trades on his commitment to fighting for the peculiar concerns of his local constituents.

The parallels between Katter now and Healy Rae when he was first elected are as striking as their respective signature hats. The 1997 Irish general election produced a hung parliament in which the conservative coalition fell just short of a majority. Healy Rae was one of three independents who agreed to put old enmities aside and support the government in parliament. In return he extracted concessions for his constituents.

On the surface it’s all standard horse-trading, but there’s a murkier side that would be unwelcome in the Australian context. It has never been precisely clear what Healy Rae was promised in return for his support. And since 2007 Healy Rae has been propping up his old party again, under a deal which he openly says is none of the public’s business, thank you very much.

Continue reading "Heard the one about the Irish MP who promised stability?" »

Someone forgot to tell Julia Gillard yesterday that the ballot boxes have closed.

The Prime Minister gave a long press conference in which she made a pitch to the three men who could decide who forms government, Independents Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott. The problem is, it sounded a lot like the pitch she’s been making to voters every day for the past five weeks.

What both she and Tony Abbott need to realise is that the slogans they repeated with mind-numbing intensity during the campaign are part of the reason we’ve ended up with with a hung parliament.

Continue reading "Cut the crap, independents tell Gillard and Abbott" »