Tony Abbott.....

[blueandwhite]

Not sure about any one else but I beleive that his display of ineptitude,arrogance and contempt during the last 24 hours is an absolute disgrace. Politics aside this man is not only a member of the cabinet but the federal minister for health. His tirade of disgraceful tasteless abuse toward a man in the last days of his losing battle against an asbestos related disease was not befitting of a politician elected by the people of this country. Mr Howard should have dismissed Abbott instantly.

Mr Abbott ,who from time to time emerges from behind fundamentalist catholic ,Cardinal George Pells' habit and proclaims to any one who will listen that he is a devout christian, reminds me of one of the opus dei crowd from the Da Vinci code.
For someone to utter such abuse to a dying man is hardly the behaviour of anyone proclaiming themselves to be a christian.

He then proceeded to arrive a half an hour late to a press club debate in Canberra, and then swore at Ms Nicola Roxon who had the temerity to challenge him re: his apalling tardiness.
Mr Abbott should be pidgeon holed back into the role that suits him best, being the coalitions' best and most successful muckraker.
This is a man who is out of touch with reality, he has shown he has no respect for anyone, especially the media who will now hopefully turn on him like a pack of dogs.
The time is nigh for this man who has a disgustingly irritable habit: commencing and ending every sentence with "ah".

[Wedgie]

I don't think this has a lot to do with the SANFL mate so I'll move it to the Politics Forum!

[blueandwhite]

thanks wedgie..oops!!11

[locky801]

So in other words he is just like most pollies

[Psyber]

Tony Abbott did a good job sorting out the mess Health had become in 2003, but I agree his manners make Peter Costello [whom I have met] seem very pleasant by comparison. I think he is one of those people who become pollies as a career choice rather than from any impulse to serve the community, but, I agree, they seem to be in the majority in all parties.

[Blacky]

tony is nothing but a dickhead
and what he said after the debate
i would say in the last week of bullshit
will come back to backfire on him
bye bye jonnie

[BIG SEXY]

how dare he say anything bad about anyone who is ill....obviously because they are ill they must be perfect saints who havent even stepped on a snail in their entire life!
i agree with him, just because someone is crook doesnt mean they have lived a perfect life and always done the right thing by evreyone they cam in contact with. (ditto with the chasers and their song about dead people)

as far as him being late to a debate, would you have been saying the same thing if he walked out of the press conference 30 mins early?

[Leaping Lindner]

A senior member of the governement abusing a asbestosis sufferer. Nothing wrong with that. The lazy budger should get off his arse and get a job, and stop annoying members of the government. After all does he honestly think the federal health minister can help him with subsidies on drugs he needs to help him with his condition? God people expect a lot.

[RustyCage]

[quote="crushinator"]i agree with him, just because someone is crook doesnt mean they have lived a perfect life and always done the right thing by evreyone they cam in contact with./quote]

Who cares if he has or hasn't been a saint his whole life! Whats that got to do with anything?

[BIG SEXY]

what did abbot say thats so bad. i may have come in halfway through the segment. someone please give me the quote from tony abbot that has got you blokes carrying on lilke abbot stabbed your grandmother

[Psyber]

I didn't hear what Tony Abbott said either, and nor have I paid much attention to what is going on with the asbestosis victim in this particular case, but I am very aware that often the ill people who finish up paraded around the media are being manipulated by their "helpful and kind" crusading lawyers, who are really using them as a weapon in whatever the lawyers' social crusade, for their own personal or political ends, is.

[They are of course also advertising their company.]

This is a clever social manipulation, because when the misled ill person takes part in some stunt dreamed up by the lawyers the lawyers are able to use them as a shield to obscure their motivation, and whoever criticises the stunt can be presented as unfairly picking on a poor ill person - and the gullible in the community get sucked in by their sympathy. My sympathy is there for the ill person, and I believe neglectful or blantantly cheating employers should be dealt with firmly by the law, but I have no sympathy for the covert agenda of those running them up the flagpole, and I guess my sympathy for the victim is blunted by that to some extent sometimes.

In my work I go into bat and give evidence for people who are ill-treated in related Workers' Compensation situations, but I also have to point out to them at times that their lawyers thrust is to have them permanently disabled and getting a large lump sum the law firm gets a chunk of, whereas they may be better of getting effective treatment and recovering. I have even had reports of lawyers telling workers not to take the treatment as it will weaken their claim.

It sounds like Tony Abbott did not handle this well or insightfully though, from what I have heard..

[McAlmanac]

Bernie Banton attempted to deliver a petition to Abbott's electoral office. Not sure what the petition was about, but Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme funding has decreased under Abbott's stewardship, so this may have something to do with it. Abbott said, "I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn't mean that he is necessarily pure of heart in all things".

Anybody who saw Bernie Banton on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope program on the ABC a year or two back would have an appreciation of how crass Abbott's comment was.

[redandblack]

Sometimes things are simpler than that, Psyber.

Abbott just behaved disgracefully.

He then apologised, as he knew he should.

[Psyber]

Bernie Banton attempted to deliver a petition to Abbott's electoral office. Not sure what the petition was about, but Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme funding has decreased under Abbott's stewardship, so this may have something to do with it. Abbott said, "I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn't mean that he is necessarily pure of heart in all things".

Anybody who saw Bernie Banton on Andrew Denton's Enough Rope program on the ABC a year or two back would have an appreciation of how crass Abbott's comment was.

Abbott's statement, while it may be fundamentally true was both crass, and not very astute politically. I have written to Tony Abbott several times about problems with the PBS. I always get a polite reply from a staffer saying the matter has been referred to the TGA - which really means "buried in the bureaucracy" I guess.

The proportion paid for prescriptions by the patient has escalated in excess of CPI since about 1986 under both parties. Some of the cost drop may be due to strategies introduced for killing off things like pensioners getting prescriptions filled for enough paracetamol, and other commonly used medications, to supply their entire extended family, so one has to be careful about interpreting raw data.

However, there are gaping holes in the system where much needed products for severe conditions are unavailable for that condition on the PBS, even though they may be there for something else. [An example is Lamictal is available for Epilepsy but not as a mood-stabiliser for Bipolar Disorder, so it is priced out of that market as it is too expensive as a private prescription. On the other hand Xanax is on the PBS and should be taken off as it is highly addictive and widely abused.]

Sometimes things are simpler than that, Psyber.
Abbott just behaved disgracefully. He then apologised, as he knew he should.

I agree with you absolutely in this case, but sometimes things are more complex than they appear too. My respect for Tony Abbott was moderate in late 2003 and early 2004, but has gone down since.

[McAlmanac]

The proportion paid for prescriptions by the patient has escalated in excess of CPI since about 1986 under both parties. Some of the cost drop may be due to strategies introduced for killing off things like pensioners getting prescriptions filled for enough paracetamol, and other commonly used medications, to supply their entire extended family, so one has to be careful about interpreting raw data.

However, there are gaping holes in the system where much needed products for severe conditions are unavailable for that condition on the PBS, even though they may be there for something else. [An example is Lamictal is available for Epilepsy but not as a mood-stabiliser for Bipolar Disorder, so it is priced out of that market as it is too expensive as a private prescription. On the other hand Xanax is on the PBS and should be taken off as it is highly addictive and widely abused.

I don't think there is a voter in the country who would care (or know) about any of that. They just hear a senior Liberal frontbencher being obnoxious.

[Psyber]

I don't think there is a voter in the country who would care (or know) about any of that. They just hear a senior Liberal frontbencher being obnoxious.

Yes, you are right there. I was assuming a more thoughtful and informed collection of people frequented this forum, and may be interested in some of the battles that are being fought.

[Mr66]

Vote with a bullet

[Dogwatcher]

Peter Costello [whom I have met]

[topsywaldron]

Highly entertaining to hear Abbott on the radio this morning sooking about a 'Labor scare campaign they're running against me'.

My heart bleeds for the por lamb.

[noone]

[quote=Abbott]
ABBOTT: I accept that certain protections, in inverted commas, are not what they were. That whole raft of regulation, expressed in awards that sometimes ran to hundreds even thousands of pages.

I accept that that has largely gone. I accept that. I accept that the industrial relations commission doesn't have the same power to reach into the nook and cranny of every business that it used to have. I accept that. But in the end, the best protection for the worker, who feels he or she might be under pressure at his job, is the chance of another job. The chance of a better job.

That is the best protection. Not going off to some judge or industrial commission that might order your employer who you don't like or he doesn't like you to keep you in an unhappy partnership forever. So that is the best protection we can give people – the protection of an abundance of jobs.
[/quote]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jccehgDersQ


oops.. someone is going to be in the dog house for the rest of the week