{"id":3673,"date":"2013-05-08T18:48:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T08:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com\/?p=3673"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:24:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:24:14","slug":"is-the-world-ready-for-pm-tony-what-he-meant-to-say-abbott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/is-the-world-ready-for-pm-tony-what-he-meant-to-say-abbott\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the world ready for PM Tony ‘what he meant to say’ Abbott?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"#WomenWithCalibre\"

#WomenWithCalibre<\/p><\/div>\n

By\u00a0Noely Neate<\/a><\/p>\n

May 8, 2013<\/p>\n

I was not going to go here, because all manner of Feminists, accredited and self-proclaimed, have had a say.\u00a0 Some I agree with, some I think are getting hung up on exactly what many of us on Twitter are always complaining about, that is, focussing on a \u2018gotcha\u2019 instead of the actual merits of a policy.<\/p>\n

I would love to be like some who try to be \u2018above it all’, like the so-called \u2018Legendary feminist Eva Cox\u2019 (Mia Freedman\u2019s words), though unfortunately, Ms Cox’s defence of Mr Abbott with “what Tony Abbott was trying to say in a somewhat clumsy way..<\/a>.<\/a><\/em>”\u00a0does not hold a hell of a lot of weight with me.<\/p>\n

Ms Freedman chose a rather provocative title for her piece when she came out to bat for Mr Abbott, “I’m defending Tony Abbott. Let’s go.<\/a>“, again translating what Mr Abbott \u2018meant\u2019 for us poor dumb punters as “He was simply making the point \u2013 albeit a little clunkily…”
\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet other articles have used various excuses for Mr Abbott such as \u201coff-the-cuff\u201d, \u201cun-intended\u201d. Even Paul Kelly on Sky a few weeks ago had to always interject with “So I think what you are saying…”<\/p>\n

The fact is they are probably right, he really probably did not mean for it to come across as it did.<\/p>\n

Tony Abbott would be an absolute moron to offend such a large proportion of the population intentionally, so to a certain degree I am sure that the example he used as to why this policy,\u00a0The Coalition\u2019s Paid Parental Leave scheme<\/a>\u00a0is so important, was basically just a brain fart.<\/p>\n

Before I go further down the Mr Abbott\u2019s all-time Bloopers road, let’s be above the petty gotcha’s and look at THE PPL policy.\u00a0 To me it’s not very pretty…<\/p>\n

Considering the Liberals are best mates of big business, it seems pretty stupid to be annoying them by smacking them with a Levy – (note the Libs are allowed to use the word \u2018levy\u2019 unlike the ALP or Greens levies, which are always \u2018taxes\u2019) – let alone telling them to fund this super duper \u2018ladies\u2019 special for him. \u201cAustralian Industry Group<\/a>\u201d\u00a0has already publicly let everyone know they are not happy campers.<\/p>\n

Now add in the fact that for the first time in forever there is dissent in the ranks. The Liberals for the past few years have been ‘tighter than (fill in the blanks)’ yet we now have three MPs and counting, and more muttering that they are not happy little vegemites, going against what they call \u201csound Liberal policy\u201d.\u00a0 So, close to an election that is not a good look.<\/p>\n

I am not sure why Mr Abbott is staunchly defending his policy. There does not seem to be any good reason, as we have a Maternity Leave policy in place that is adequate and most women I know are more interested in ensuring actually they have a job to go back to AND have affordable and accessible childcare when they do. So to put so many offside when the only ones who will really benefit are a few highly paid female executives seems pretty dumb.<\/p>\n

For people who keep saying ‘business is paying for it, not taxpayers’, you are delusional.\u00a0 There is no way in hell a Liberal Government is going to put a tax on their best mates, the 3000 big earning companies in this country, without them getting a concession at a later date in some way, shape or form.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t publicly fight this policy then you know that the nudge-nudge, wink-wink deal has already been done.\u00a0 When big companies get any sort of business concession that means less revenue for the Government and we taxpayers fill in the shortfall. Not to mention they will also double-dip (as banks tend to do) and pass on the so-called extra levy to the consumers of their products.\u00a0 So in fact, you, the taxpayer, will probably pay for Mr Abbott’s gilt-edged PPL twice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So why does Tony persist with his PPL? Chatting over a glass of wine, all we can come up with as a reason is that Margie suffered when she had to leave her job to have Tony\u2019s daughters and he has promised her that his expensively educated daughters of calibre will never have to suffer the deprivations she did. Who would know?<\/p>\n

What I do know is that a perverse part of me actually wants him to stand his ground on this one for the sheer pleasure of seeing the\u00a0IPA storm troopers<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0throw tanties about it.\u00a0 They have already stated they don\u2019t like it, and I would go so far as to say they are actually pretty pissed off about Mr Abbott not toeing the line on their ‘advice’.\u00a0 So part of me wants to see if Tony has the guts to stand up to them. I would pay tickets to that show!<\/p>\n

Anyhow, back to my original point, Mr ER UM AH \u2018slip of the tongue\u2019 Abbott. This is where I feel our most serious problem is.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time he has been struck by foot in mouth disease.\u00a0 Fortunately for Mr Abbott he has a forgiving media to explain away any gaffe and a public more interested in who got voted off The Voice<\/em> last night, so he gets away with these sorts of misspoken statements all the time. To revisit the classics, visit “Tony Abbott gaffes<\/a>”\u00a0 for a trip down memory lane.<\/p>\n

My point is, IF Mr Abbott is to become our next Prime Minister as the Australian Media keep telling me he is, then how the hell will he cope with important non-scripted encounters? Look at the last 12 months alone. Prime Minister Gillard has had to negotiate with India, China and our conservative states on NDIS and Gonski. Even the easier stuff like the states may not be his conservatives mates in the future.\u00a0 The fact is he will not be able to have staff doing this for him. They can only prepare so much. He will not have the likes of Peta Credlin at his side 24\/7 to make sure he doesn\u2019t \u2018miss-speak\u2019. He will have to stand on his own two feet.\u00a0 I find that pretty scary, as at the moment the bloke shies away from a challenging live interview!<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 Mr Abbott may be very good at saying NO, or three word slogans, but as for actually answering questions or interacting as a human in a real life situation UNSCRIPTED, the man is pretty much an epic fail. Maybe that is what we should be talking about?<\/p>\n

Cheers,<\/p>\n

Noely @YaThinkN<\/p>\n

If you would like to look at the D’oh! Peta graphic in a larger format it can be found here: \u00a0Exposing Tony Abbott & The LNP – Memes & Stuff<\/a><\/p>\n

PS: If the Coalition and Mr Abbott’s personal fan club News Ltd are putting up pieces like What about men of a high calibre Tony?<\/a>”\u00a0\u00a0I am pretty sure Tony has a bit of ‘thinking’ to do :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Noely Neate May 8, 2013 I was not going to go here, because all manner of Feminists, accredited and self-proclaimed, have had a say.\u00a0 Some I agree with, some I think are getting hung up on exactly what many of us on Twitter are always complaining about, that is, focussing on a \u2018gotcha\u2019 instead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,66,31,36,506],"tags":[530,2570,2575,551,554,429,470],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-Xf","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}