*Satire: Leunig, http://www.leunig.com.au/ used with permission …
Peter Dutton, GetUp image
The home affairs minister resigned and went to the backbench after winning 35 votes to Turnbull’s 48 in leadership spill …
First published August 21
Malcolm Turnbull has held on to his job after vacating the Liberal party leadership and calling a spill, prevailing in a against the home affairs minister, 48 votes to 35.
After a week of mounting pressure on Turnbull’s leadership over his handling of energy policy and election strategy, the prime minister used the regular Tuesday party-room meeting to spill the party leadership in an attempt to head off a growing conservative-led move against him.
But the result – narrow by historical standards for a first strike against a prime minister – sets the Turnbull government up for further instability and the possibility of another ballot before the next federal election.
Dutton immediately resigned from the home affairs super ministry, moving to the backbench, where he will not be constrained by cabinet solidarity that has seen him lock in reluctantly behind Turnbull’s position on the national energy guarantee and tax cuts for big business.
Both leadership positions were spilled. The position of the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, as deputy Liberal leader was also opened, but she was the only one to nominate and was therefore re-elected.
The Turnbull government has lost 38 consecutive Newspolls to the opposition Labor party, exceeding the 30-Newspoll mark Turnbull set for Tony Abbott when he deposed him as Liberal leader and prime minister in September 2015.
Despite the poll pressure, Turnbull has been able to hold together the government since he narrowly won the 2016 election in the face of consistent internal opposition from Abbott and conservatives who resent attempts to legislate an emissions reduction target in his signature energy policy …
Read the full, brilliant, Guardian report HERE
• Morrison’s Return Rocks Refugee Activists
• Facebook Ministry of Satire: Dutton’s early years and background …
• GetUp: How to stop Peter Dutton?
• Christine Wallace, The Conversation via ABC: A relationship of mutual convenience between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the federal Liberal party is drawing to a close. Each used the other for practical purposes. Mr Turnbull used the Liberal Party as his vehicle to enter parliamentary politics and become Prime Minister, having earlier tried but failed to win behind-the-scenes preferment for a Labor seat. The Liberal Party, in turn, used Mr Turnbull to squeeze out another election win in 2016, papering his face over that of his unpopular predecessor, Tony Abbott, who by mid-election cycle had proven a likely electoral loser …
• Peter Whish-Wilson: Government corporate tax cut Bill dies with Government … Senator Whish-Wilson said, “This is a victory for civil society over corporate interests. A cut to corporate tax would undoubtedly lead to cuts to the social safety net and public services for all Australians. …
• SMH: Dutton childcare company received $5.6 million in public money
• SMH: Turnbull government’s company tax cuts defeated in the Senate
• SMH: Liberal leadership crisis: Peter Dutton vows to challenge Malcolm Turnbull again LIVE
• SMH: ‘An absolute budget blower’: Turnbull and Morrison slam Dutton’s first policy
• ABC: Solicitor-General to check if Peter Dutton is in breach of constitution
• SMH: ‘Decade of dysfunction’: business delivers blast over political crisis
• ABC: Malcolm Turnbull’s ministers trying to jump ship — who’s in and who’s out A slew of resignation letters have landed on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s desk since the tight Liberal leadership ballot. Who are the detractors Mr Turnbull can no longer rely on …?
Geoffrey Swan
August 20, 2018 at 17:11
Surely this is not the new face we want as our new Prime Minister.
Putting aside his draconian attitude to refugees, immigrants and our Pacific Islands that are facing annihilation with the impacts of climate change, this man is a monster, IMV.
Jack Nimble
August 20, 2018 at 18:48
Dutton will now be able to sit next to the mad monk Abbott on the back bench like naughty little boys until the next election.
I doubt they will be around after the next election.
J. B. Nimble.
Pete Godfrey
August 20, 2018 at 20:12
Unfortunately the Talent Tarn that the Libs get their MPs from has become very shallow and stagnant.
Surely they have other more palatable applicants than Dutton.
I guess that they know they haven’t got a chance of winning the election next year anyway .. so the attitude is “Why bother?”
john hayward
August 20, 2018 at 20:23
How many countries are lucky enough to have a PM who is a de facto climate change denier and whose chief rival is explicitly so, in addition to being a serial liar?
John Hayward
TGC
August 20, 2018 at 20:27
#1… An IMV to be taken with a grain of salt .. or ignored!
Ted Mead
August 20, 2018 at 21:17
Abbott, Turnbull, Dutton … who’s next?
If Eric could, he’d be standing next in line.
Another Abetz/Abbott coup that will inevitably linger on until the next election.
Funny how Eric claimed he voted for Dutton, yet only a few days ago he said he was right behind Turnbull as leader.
If Eric isn’t the one doing the stabbing, then you can rest assure he’s the one sharpening the knives.
What an inspiring country we live in.
Guy Fawkes had the right idea!
And like Guy Fawkes and the torching of his effigy, we will probably be doing the same with one of these liberal square-heads in the future!
John Hawkins
August 20, 2018 at 22:10
Dutton .. he is the mainland Abetz.
The big difference is that Abetz only costs the Liberal seats in Tasmania.
Dutton will consign the whole shebang to the political dustbin.
Go for it, Dutto!
John Hawkins
August 20, 2018 at 23:05
Abetz, in an article published by the paper today along with his photograph, told a blatant lie to the Examiner in stating that he would vote for Turnbull.
He did not tell Turnbull to call a spill, but he was caught out. When the spill unexpectedly came, Abetz voted for Dutton.
As a result the Examiner was forced to publish a retraction in an UPDATE at 12:14 PM today:
[i]”Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz has revealed he voted for Queensland MP Peter Dutton in this morning’s Liberal leadership spill, which saw Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull prevail with 48 votes to Mr Dutton’s 35.
Senator Abetz said Mr Dutton was a “highly capable and competent ministerâ€.
“It is important that the Parliamentary Liberal Party has a strong and effective policy platform that is in line with the expectations of those who elected me,†he said.
“I accept the result of the party room and as always will continue to work with the elected leader to advance Tasmania’s interests.â€[/i]
EARLIER and in today’s Examiner …
[i]”Conservative Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz has declared his support for Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership in the face of senior minister Peter Dutton’s party room challenge.
Senator Abetz said he always supported the elected leader of the Liberal Party.
‘I’ve said on numerous occasions that I don’t engage in the cult of personality and it’s all about policy for me’ he said.”[/i]
Senator Abetz was booted from cabinet as Employment Minister and lost his role as Leader of the Government in the Senate when Malcolm Turnbull succeeded Tony Abbott as Prime Minister after a leadership challenge in 2015.
His demotion caused Senator Abetz to lose $175,000 from his annual salary package.
Andrew Ricketts
August 21, 2018 at 00:44
An interesting day. “No wrecking …” So trustworthy, eh!
We may well be witnessing the unofficial launch of Anthracite Australia Inc, a new national political party specifically to bring climate change doom.
John Hawkins
August 21, 2018 at 00:50
Letter to the Editor, The Examiner …
When I read your article in the Examiner today that Abetz supported Turnbull as Prime Minister, I thought immediately of his sacking and removal from the Liberal Front Bench, and his hatred of those who cross his path.
Abetz acts only in his own interests, and he had not foreseen a spill that would be called by Turnbull.
As a backbench plotter he was covering his tracks in advance of a Dutton coup.
He forced your paper into making an abject apology when he later admitted to voting for Dutton.
How can the Examiner, as the organ of the Liberal Party, support those who destroy your newspaper’s credibility?
These things need to be said .. but is your paper up to the challenge?
Geoffrey Swan
August 21, 2018 at 00:52
#5 …Trevor, your intelligent observations astound me. Surely you can offer something more profound about the very real concern that Dutton may soon me our PM.
I really do not want to blaspheme … but God help us.
Rob Halton
August 21, 2018 at 02:33
Bad luck folks, but the movements in Canberra will continue as Malcolm Turnbull still remains far too soft with his NEG policy and his immigration policy!
Dutton is not my choice as I don’t think that southern voters know him well enough, but I do believe that the no nonsense sharp shooting Scott Morrison as Treasurer, and as the new Home Affairs Minister, could be a better man for the job as PM.
The nation needs an energy policy that involves coal, and not gas as fracking is required for its extraction. Land-based fracking must be discouraged. Some worthwhile Renewables to follow coal and offshore gas.
Immigration must be bottomed at sustainable levels to reflect a nation’s population of 26,000,000 persons.
We must all consider the worst outcome for Australia .. Bill Shorten for PM!
Peter Bright
August 21, 2018 at 11:17
John Hawkins at #7 incisively describes Peter Dutton as “the mainland Abetz” which is somewhat less than the highest praise possible.
I’ve often wondered about Dutton’s background, about how this whispering steamroller (children a specialty) can be so callous. Cruelty is a very dangerous sign.
This helped me understand the man: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/08/21/who-is-peter-dutton/
Ted Mead
August 21, 2018 at 11:51
#12 … As far as the NEG policy goes, it was a farce from day one!
The Liberals have no effective method or plan as how to bring electricity prices down.
Whilst the Liberals keep privatising power energy sources, and allow an independent body such as the AEMO to set the power pricing/selling agenda, then nothing will change,
The only way people are going to obtain cheaper power is through the cheaper production of it.
That means individual solar installations and/or solar plants within micro grids.
But with the Liberals’ pathetic energy policy and fixation on coal, that is going to be a very slow process in Australia.
elk
August 21, 2018 at 13:39
Keep up the in-fighting, Liberals. You will soon be in Opposition! The sooner the better.
Peter Bright
August 21, 2018 at 14:04
Ted at #14, with his …
[i]”The only way people are going to obtain cheaper power is through the cheaper production of it.
That means individual solar installations and/or solar plants within micro grids.”[/i]
… speaks absolute good sense.
Leonard Colquhoun
August 21, 2018 at 17:15
“15. Keep up the in-fighting, Liberals. You will soon be in Opposition! The sooner the better.”
What’s ‘Venezuela’ in Aussie English?
max
August 21, 2018 at 18:03
# 12, Robin …Your fixation, and the governments, on coal is bordering on the absurd. Please explain how a privatised power industry which is losing money hand over fist on coal fired power stations can continue to do so.
The only way to continue using coal is to nationalise the power industry and put the burden of the obsolete coal fired power station onto the taxpayers. If we still had a carbon tax and a comprehensible power policy, by now the power companies would have sorted out the power problem. Tony Abbott has a lot to answer for. Did we get cheaper power? Well, no. We got chaos, and the world’s second dearest power.
Molten salt is the proven way of supplying base load power on demand, and we could use coal to melt the salt, but why? Why not use solar to melt salt ? It is cheaper, and the world would be better off.
#14 and #16 … Individual solar installations and/or solar plants within micro grids are good for the individual .. but not for the general population. Every privately owned solar installation creates a financial problem for whoever owns the the power companies. Privately owned independent power suppliers will force the government to do what they do for water and sewage. If it passes your property you will pay fixed service charges. This would result in dearer power for all power uses.
The Tasmanian government, if it owned all power generation facilities, could supply cheap power if its politicians kept their hands out of Hydro’s cookie jar.
TGC
August 21, 2018 at 18:34
#17 … “Matilda, Matilda, Matilda, she take me money and run Venezuela”.
Luigi
August 21, 2018 at 22:12
I see that Will Hodgman expressed his support for Malcolm Turnbull on the floor of the state House today.
I wonder if he had Erich’s permission to do that.
john hayward
August 21, 2018 at 22:26
It would be great if Dutto could take the Lib leadership and appoint Eric as his deputy.
That should renew the fascist stigma for another seventy-odd years.
John Hayward
Simon Warriner
August 21, 2018 at 22:46
It looks like the broad church is erupting in an internal schism. History suggests that those internal religious wars are always the nastiest.
Policy based on fact and reason is clearly a loser in this war. This is all about beliefs, and whose matter most.
Rob Halton
August 22, 2018 at 03:22
#18 Max … I am not to sure about your fixation with molten salt. Coal is cheap, and I am sticking with coal being available in limitless quantities to produce reliable base energy at a lower cost than gas and the majority of other methods.
I have no problems with the follow on coming from Renewables, but I would not put it into legislation as any figure showing % Renewables objectives!
Solar is an individual choice, however I see it as a positive for the government to offer a financial incentive for business and householders! No problems, baby!
John Hawkins
August 22, 2018 at 12:50
Go Dutto, go! Please bring Abbott and Abetz back to your front bench.
The perfect trifecta.
This will consign the lot of you to the dustbin of history.
This Liberal circus makes “Kill Bill” looks tame.
Dutto, you have allowed Shorten to rise from the dead as orchestrated by the religious right of your party led by the haters, Abbott and Abetz.
Well done all.
Now for the third act. What a show!
Luigi Brown
August 22, 2018 at 13:07
I have the answer: let it be pistols at 20 metres on the Parliamentary lawn.
But I’m sure that Tony Abbott will send his champion, Sir Dutton, in his stead.
john hayward
August 22, 2018 at 13:25
#23, Robin … Have you ever read anything scientific about the prognosis for the earth in climate change? Couldn’t you understand any of it?
John Hayward
max
August 22, 2018 at 13:42
#23, Rob … Coal is not cheap, it comes at a cost. It has to be dug up, carted, paid for and is polluting the world.
Solar power and hydro power are free, non polluting, and can supply base load instantly, unlike coal.
The next thing to consider is infrastructure. Hydro needs very expensive dams. Coal fired power stations, like dams, are expensive to build and take years to complete. Add it all up and the total cost to build and run it all is the deciding factor.
Would you build a coal fired power station, or spend billions on refurbishing, when tomorrow it could compulsory be shut down for health reasons and CO2 concerns?
Instead of coal perhaps you could support nuclear power from thorium. It makes more sense.
Andrew Ricketts
August 22, 2018 at 17:10
Nothing is better than photovoltaic panels. No moving parts. Couple them with modern storage.
Hydro turbines and wind turbines do need some maintenance, just as a coal fired power station does.
Solar panels just need the odd wipe down.
The national grid should be redesigned now.
Rob Halton
August 22, 2018 at 18:05
back to the leadership spill. the race is on this afternoon!
Look at it his way any clown from around the nation should know that peter Dutton is totally unsuitable as PM.
I am really interested in giving a decent follow who knows his sums Scott Morrison who is a Turnbull supporter who is running against Dutton to at least save the moderates within the party.
At the end of the day it would not be too bad if Sco Mo either replaced Turnbull but only on a consilitary note.
Again I stress that a Shorten government would ultimately be the worst outcome.
Andrew Ricketts
August 22, 2018 at 18:31
Broad Church – It is just bullshit.
The Liberal Party appears irretrievably broken. Of course it cannot govern alone anyway. It is a coalition.
Why not split it up formally, along the obvious and seemingly ideological differences.
Bernardi was simply a forerunner.
The writer of post #29 apparently has undying faith. For some unstated reason, I must say.
This whole saga is a bit like The Wreck of the Hesperus.
Tim Thorne
August 22, 2018 at 18:42
#29 … And what makes you think that Abbott, Abetz and their extra-parliamentary backers in the media would refrain from “wrecking, sniping and undermining” a Morrison government if Dutton loses?
The only chance of this happening would be if Morrison was more prepared even than Turnbull to roll over on policy matters. Where would that leave Pyne, Birmingham and the smaller-l Liberals?
Factions have damaged every party of any consequence at one time or another. Even the Nats, and certainly the Greens.
max
August 22, 2018 at 21:36
# 29 … The Life of Brian – a comedy. What have the Romans ever done for us all right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
Now for another comedy. The Liberal Party. What have the Liberals ever done for us? Fill in the answers.
Ian Rist
August 22, 2018 at 22:10
What a debacle.
A disgrace.
No wonder most people have lost faith in politicians generally.
They are behaving like hungry rats on a garbage heap.
The Liberals are heading down a long dark road from which they may not recover for a long, long time.
Simon Warriner
August 22, 2018 at 23:38
Does anyone want to try running the argument that a parliament of independents could possibly be sillier than the rabble we are witnessing today?
The Liberals have their heads so far up their collective fundament that they cannot see the people of Australia who selected them to serve, lead and govern.
As an advertisement for Independent political actors, you would be hard pressed to find better.
TGC
August 23, 2018 at 00:07
#27 … “Solar power and hydro power are free”.
Lunch anyone?
Andrew Ricketts
August 23, 2018 at 03:04
Trevor: Quite right re post #35. The gear is not free to buy or maintain. Penstocks are especially expensive, as are dams. Then there is the transmission. When you manage your own power you realise what a bargain everyone is getting.
But we will be increasingly reliant on new and less invasive technology. Indeed Tasmania leads the way in many respects.
I ponder the cost of changing leaders. Again!
Abetz and Abbott have backed ye olde potato head, yet he may not even be fit to be there (tells you something about their strategic prowess doesn’t it?) and if he is chosen and Malcolm leaves, and especially if the discontent in the Nationals translates into further changes to the floor of the parliament, then it would seem to be all over until the next election.
The Liberals need a permanent fix to their ideological schism. I cannot see the broad church operating into the future. Why should it? How would, what should be seen as a vast rift and the vehement acrimony, be repaired?
Rob Halton
August 23, 2018 at 09:15
#27 and #28 … Folks, the facts are that Renewables at large are not going to solve the nation’s energy problem, and most definitely are not going to decrease prices.
Too many fantasies within the energy generation sector fighting against each other by claiming that they are world’s best practice!
The strong possibility of a new Liberal leadership under Bishop/Morrison combination will be required to draft some necessary home truths for the energy sector to follow as the nation is on high alert, politically as well as living under the growing fears of sustainability at many levels example, energy generation, food production where water supply is a major issue and the population explosion now raised to 26,000,000 twenty years ahead of predicted time!
I think that Malcolm Turnbull as PM has been so unlucky to be leader during the post boom times for the Australian economy with too many daggers within his own party!
There is no doubt at his exit there will need to be significant change within the way the nation deals with its economy and the way Australians should be expected to live.
There will be a need to reduce migration numbers and for those coming to Australia will be required to go to regional centres as the big cites such as Melbourne and Sydney cannot afford to continue to out grow beyond sustainable levels of growth which is currently happening.
The consumption of energy is to the point of ridiculousness and cannot be sustained on either and environmental, social or economic level as Australians continue to live beyond their means!
Fortunately I grew up in a post war environment when thrift was common and enjoyment was to be earned after making personal effort.
Far too much is taken for granted today, but in my opinion it is starting to hit the hip pocket too hard for many who have little idea of affordable basic living standards.
The futrue of the energy sector under any of new incoming government will be interesting as we are forced into an era of climate fear and its forecasts of doom and gloom for all of us living within a largely overpopulated planet.
There has to be adjustments made as I am at the stage at the end of my useful life, but I am willing to contribute to an even lesser dependence on expectations of modern consumerism that is too widely rampant around me. Something as simple as aiming at staying healthy is a gift but it requires effort and positive thinking too!
Keep the lid on consumerism, its helps the planet.
TGC
August 23, 2018 at 12:21
#36 … “I cannot see the broad church operating into the future …”
This is, as is known, a Liberal reference, but it should be noted that the Labor Party has Left and Right, and astonishingly even Centre factions, and the Greens have been crippled by similar factionalisms.
They are all ‘families’ so what do you expect?
Even the best regulated ones have their downtime.
Andrew Ricketts
August 23, 2018 at 15:27
Re #38 … Currently we have peculiar form of internecine parliamentary warfare.
My expectation is that all members (regardless of their party) and regardless of which parliamentary house they belong, will work assiduously on matters of a public interest nature in running Australia to the best of their ability, rather than on an internal self-interested basis.
It is hard to see any other consequence than mutual destruction. Is that what you think families do, Trevor?
TGC
August 23, 2018 at 18:06
The overwhelming majority of the political experts, especially those in academia, had it wrong. Scott Morrison .. easily really, in the circumstances.
Do all universities need a department of political science/politics? Surely one would be enough. Most of what they put out is guesswork. TT contributors do equally as well! And free gratis!
Ted Mead
August 24, 2018 at 00:30
#37 … More dumbo stone-age thinking and rhetoric!
“The consumption of energy is to the point of ridiculousness and cannot be sustained on either and environmental, social or economic level as Australians continue to live beyond their means! “ Logging of our native forests for woodchips fits right into that, doesn’t it?
“There has to be adjustments made as I am at the stage at the end of my useful lifeâ€. Nothing useful to the planet with such conservative chop it down, dig it up ideology!
“Keep the lid on consumerism, its helps the planetâ€. What is clear-fell Forestry then, if it isn’t wasteful consumerism at the cost to the planet?
Leonard Colquhoun
August 24, 2018 at 14:59
A millennium ago, English king Æthelred II was nicknamed ‘The Unready’ for taking bad advice (so, not quite in our sense of ‘unready’, as it was a punning antonym on his name) and 600 years later, England’s uber-dramatist William Shakespeare gave us the template for Turnbull’s political epitaph:
~ some are born unready,
~ some make themselves unready, and
~ some have unreadiness thrust upon them.
Our Malcolm the Unready II^ made himself so unready that it seems he was born that way.
^ remember, we also had a Malcolm the Unready I.
Is this poseur toff and fake Liberal the Definitive Worst Oz PM Ever?
PS1: Æthelred is often written as ‘Ethelred’ in font-poor scripts; giving him his ‘Æ’ removes the ‘Ethel’ distraction. And this PS can be a reminder that ‘Old English’ (often aka ‘Anglo-Saxon’) was much more phonetic than post-1066 English – one example is that it had two distinct single letters for soft ‘th’ in ‘thin’ and hard ‘th’ in ‘this’.
PS2: and don’t forget his middle name – and would you trust your life to this one to get you back to civilisation after 3,600 nautical miles in a rowing boat?
max
August 24, 2018 at 15:10
# 4, Ted … Rob is reminiscing on a wasted career with his “There has to be adjustments made as I am at the stage at the end of my useful life†so he must be looking back at a life in forestry and what is left of our forests. It is always sobering to look back at the mistakes we made in life, and a life long career that could have left the world a better place for future generations .. and didn’t.
TGC
August 24, 2018 at 20:30
#41 … “The consumption of energy is to the point of ridiculousness and cannot be sustained …”
I’ll borrow the following …
“Let’s repeat it for the sake of the children: eating people is wrong: using energy is not. Until that is understood, public policy in this area will remain a hopeless muddle.”
Rob Halton
August 25, 2018 at 09:13
#44, Max … Evan Rolley changed the goal posts on forestry by engaging in HWPs instead of continuing down the traditional path of NF regeneration
His gamble with HWPs as a pulp-mill feedstock for a Gunns pulp-mill and pruning the better stands to support a saw-milling industry remained as a two way gamble remains as a very unconvincing strategy.
The last straw came with Ta Ann refusing HWPs based on wood property issues with laminate strength due to high frequency of limb whorls in HWP nitens leading to a relentless demand for young NF resource of sawlog potential for peeler logs!
Rolley set the next stage to cover his tracks by signing up to the TFA legislation which has left the future of sawlog resource stranded with much less NF available after 2030.
I suppose it could be seen as a waste of career path for a Tech Forester, such as myself, due to careless decision making by forestry heads of department such a Evan Rolley who has proved to be a multiple “turncoat” within Tasmania’s forest industry.
Not my fault, Max. I did my best to create a future NF resource as did most of my work colleagues. It made us look like cannon fodder at least most of us tried to win the forestry war by dedicated commitment!
You can laugh and criticise forestry but there are the facts, a worthwhile career wasted, so to speak, because of one individual, Rolley!
John Hawkins
August 25, 2018 at 11:56
Dear Rob, “You can laugh and criticise forestry but there are the facts, a worthwhile career wasted, so to speak, because of one individual, Rolley!”
Well said, Sir! But why did it take you so long?
Rolley is the key to Tasmanian Forestry and the problems that bedevil this State .. as per my submission posted under Parliamentary Privilege by the redoubtable Andrew Wilkie in the Lower House of the Federal Parliament.
Also on this day we get Sue Hickey saying it as it should be said over Abetz, his acolytes and their performance in the recent assassination of Turnbull.
Abetz would have told the stool pigeon Dutton that he could deliver the Tasmanian Liberal Senators to his cause.
This was wishful thinking and it proved to be so, for he could only deliver 3 out of 5, so yet again Abetz stuffed up.
Abetz and his power was derived from knowing where the bodies are buried, power that set up and brought down Turnbull over the Godwin Gretch affair the first time, thereby installing Abbott.
Power that moved Mantach to Tasmania, and then the power to protect him when he stole the funds from the Tasmanian Liberal Party.
Power to move Mantach on,to Victoria with no questions asked.
Power to influence the Mercury to demean a most excellent journalist Sue Neales and cause her to leave this State.
Power to use the Exclusive Brethren to stuff the Greens at an election, and then get Mantach to deny it.
Power to force Hodgeman into any corner that he wished to put him with the Dunce’s hat firmly and squarely lodged on his head.
Power to prevent an investigation into his tax affairs on the sale of his house on the Channel Highway.
Power to roll Ta Ann into this state resulting in the bankruptcy of Forestry Tasmania.
Power when funded by Gunns to minimise the attacks on the MIS scams that kept Gay and his bankrupt business afloat in tumultuous times whilst a Minister of the Crown.
Maybe, just maybe, the Liberals will see the light of day and now dump Abetz from the number one position on the Senate ticket.
Now that would be a result.
Andrew Ricketts
August 25, 2018 at 12:48
Why run Abetz at all?
Senator Abetz should resign.
The Liberals should find someone else, right now, to put on the ticket for the next election.
max
August 25, 2018 at 13:16
# 46, Rob … I apologise for touching a sore point. Unfortunately, as workers, we have little or no control over bad or stupid decisions made my those in charge.
The picture you paint of Rolley is not a good one, and highlights the ongoing problems of forestry, but it isn’t just one individual. He was backed by the LibLabs, and the problem is ongoing and still backed by the LibLabs .. and I can only wonder why.
I am like Don Quixote and can only tilt at wind mills, and when you still staunchly back clear-felling and the razing of our forest, I try to respond.
[i]As a foot note and something that is relevant … [/i]
Iceland lost most of its trees more than a thousand years ago when Viking settlers took their axes to the forests that covered one-quarter of the countryside. Now Icelanders would like to get some of those forests back to improve and stabilise the country’s soils, help agriculture, and fight climate change.
Ted Mead
August 25, 2018 at 13:23
Glad to see you are dark on Rolley, however he was just one of countless nature wreckers who were responsible for the demise of the native forest industry.
The forest managing fools before and after him were only marginally better. It’s just that Evan babe was a master at milking the processes to suit his own personal agenda.
As far as the industry goes, it was always doomed due to the myopic practice of clearfell and burning, driven by an insatiable and unviable woodchip market that turned a high quality product into a low-based commodity.
If you were a true forestry supporter and pro-industry activist you should have been standing at the gates of the Triabunna chip mill protesting at the at plethora of category 1 logs that were invariably disintegrated and destined for the cardboard packaging plants in Japan.
As far as your wasted career goes, nothing has changed considering you still advocate the same old forest harvesting methods.
I doubt very much that you tried to convince anyone that wood-chipping, clear-felling and burning were not in the industry’s long-term interests.
Let’s face it, as long as weak-spined, visionless disciples like yourself were rolling in the perks, and accepting the shut-up money each week, then nothing was ever going to change.
This autocratic behaviour within STT continues on today.
TGC
August 25, 2018 at 15:27
And #47 … The power to influence contributions onto TT?
So many anti-Abetz submissions they have to be contra-indicative on the basis of a ‘look at me’ – ‘all publicity is good publicity.’ I smell a perverse rat.