Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended Tony Abbott's election eve comment that there would be no cuts to the ABC, saying he did not believe the Prime Minister intended to give the impression the national broadcaster would be exempt from any future belt tightening.
In an interview on ABC's 7.30 on Wednesday, Mr Turnbull said he and Treasurer Joe Hockey had made it clear during the election campaign that cuts to address the budget deficit had to made across the board and that "the ABC and SBS couldn't be exempt and that we would be seeking to address waste and inefficiencies".
He said some had been calling for the ABC's digital presence to be reduced and that Mr Abbott was reassuring voters this was not the Coalition's intention.
"These are not cuts. The ABC has been exempted from efficiency dividends for the last 20 years, efficiency dividends which apply to every other department in Government, every other agency of Government that is funded by the taxpayer," he told AM.
"The Prime Minister absolutely told the truth. We are not making cuts, we're making sure that what happens to the ABC happens with every other taxpayer-funded organisation across Government, and that's that it operates as efficiently as possible, and that is our responsibility.
War is peace, freedom is slavery.
To call them Weasels would be an insult to the Mustelidae family.
Turnbull will never again be embraced by the middle left.
The idea of Bishop launching a Murdoch-backed coup against Abbott absolutely terrifies me. While yes, it would be poetic justice to see Abbott overthrown as PM by a woman ala Rudd and Gillard, the only reason for her popularity is that she hasn't been in the media enough to show her incompetence nor policy intentions.
People seem to have forgotten how she bungled her ministerial debut in Indonesia so terribly that Abbott had to fly over in person to smooth things over, and MH17 was largely out of her hands. I've little doubt that the hard-right policies pursued by the Abbott-led government aren't new to the Liberal Party, but rather a matter of them finally having the gumption to push their crazy ideals onto Australia, polling be damned. If Bishop were to become PM, I'd be incredibly surprised if she changed course in any significant way, yet the poll bounce would probably be enough to drag the Liberals to an election win.
If things continue as they are and Abbott remains PM, I expect another minority Labor-Green government facing a hostile senate made up of crazies and nutters. With Bishop, a slim Liberal majority pushed over the line by an adoring press.
There is really no room for interpretation on that. Turnbull and Cormann's attempts to either redefine the word "cut" or blame the viewers for misinterpreting the clearest statement Tony Abbott has ever made are insulting and pathetic.
FOREIGN Minister Julie Bishop will be parachuted into the Victorian election campaign on Friday with Liberal strategists describing Tony Abbott as “box office poison’’.
Furious over the decision to hike petrol prices during the election campaign, Victorian Liberals are already blaming the Prime Minister’s poor popularity as a factor dragging down the Coalition.
But the rising star of the Abbott Government, deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop, has been plucked out as the most palatable federal choice to campaign in the dying days of the state election.
Ms Bishop, who is travelling back to Australia from New York where she has spent the week at the United Nations has confirmed the trip.
“I am looking to rejoining the campaign, after several previous visits in support of the Victorian government,’’ she said.
So... bets on a timeframe for the coup?
Lambie is also making further moves to distance herself from Palmer United. If she leaves, which looks all but certain, the Senate will be extremely difficult to wrangle for the Liberals.
More than 400 ABC staff could lose their jobs as the public broadcaster moves to implement the $254 million the Federal Government will cut from the public broadcaster over the next five years. Managing director Mark Scott made the announcement when he addressed staff at the ABC's Ultimo Centre in Sydney this morning.
Mr Scott said the Corporation was committed to using back-office and overhead savings to fund the $207 million that would be cut from the ABC's budget from July 2015.
"We anticipate that more than 400 people – close to 10 per cent of our ongoing workforce – face potential redundancy as we adjust our activities over coming months," Mr Scott said. "We regard the changes as vital to securing the long-term health of the organisation but I acknowledge that is no comfort to those who will lose their positions."
In his address, Mr Scott said there would be a review of the ABC's property holdings, with its site at Gore Hill in Sydney to be sold. The ABC's Adelaide television production studio and five regional radio stations will be closed (note: eat shit Pyne), and remaining non-news TV production in other states will also be wound down.
Mr Scott said there would also be a rationalisation of the ABC's television outside broadcast vans and a scaling-back of television sporting broadcasts.
The announcement also included details of proposed programming changes for ABC News, Radio and Television.
- A national 7.30 program on Fridays will replace the current state 7.30 editions and will include extended cross-platform coverage of state and territory issues seven days a week.
- Lateline will be moved to a new fixed timeslot of ABC News 24 and the broadcaster's foreign bureaux will be restructured to create "multiplatform hubs" and a new Beirut post will be opened.
- There will also be changes to ABC Local, Radio National and ABC Classic FM programming and an overhaul of ABC TV's sports coverage.
- Mr Scott has also proposed the creation of a new regional division and ABC Digital Network, to begin in mid-2015, and a $20 million digital investment fund.
It sucks losing the state 7:30. The Victorian host Josie Taylor has consistently been one of the most on point, anti bullshit hosts on the ABC in recent years, especially her handling of the recent state election debates. She's like in-his-prime-Kerry O'Brien levels of awesome.
It's like they took a shit in the room and are now complaining about the smell. No you coalition cretins, you don't get to complain about cuts in the ABC WHEN YOU ARE THE ONES WHO MADE THE CUTS.
Oh, the "it only failed because it didn't go far enough" argument, huh?
On ABC cuts, the Liberals don't even have a coherent story:
Malcolm Turnbull has denied funding cuts to the ABC are an “efficiency dividend” because the government first ensured the broadcaster had the capacity to make the savings without any cuts to programming.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, the communications minister said the ABC had announced programming changes as part of its budget cuts because it was using the government as a “bogey man” to give it “cover for changes it wanted to make anyway”.
Tony Abbott has repeatedly said the cuts to ABC funding do not contradict his pre-election promise that there would be “no cuts to the ABC” because they were really an efficiency dividend, similar to that imposed across government agencies.
Comments by David Johnston piss me the hell off. In 2013, he committed to building more subs at ASC. And yesterday, he says he wouldn't trust them to build a canoe.
And of course he's already trying to weasel out of it:
I wish to make a short statement to the Senate regarding ASC and Australian shipbuilding.
All Australian’s have come to know well the frustrations successive Governments faced in fielding a world class submarine capability. And today we are in the middle of a $8 billion program to build three Air Warfare Destroyers. We have all faced challenges. This can not be denied.
The frustrations of successive Governments with the performance of both the Collins Class sustainment and the AWD program are well documented.
In 2011, Labor Defence Minister Stephen Smith expressed his own concerns on the sustainment of Collins. He said:
“Without having confidence in our capacity to sustain our current fleet of submarines, it is very difficult to fully commence, other than through initial planning, the acquisition program for our Future Submarine.”
(ASPI presentation, 19/7/2011)
I am committed to leading the effort to fix our problems. And regrettably, in rhetorical flourish, I did express my frustrations in the past performance of ASC. In these comments I never intended to cause offence and I regret that offence may have been taken.
And I of course was directing my remarks at a legacy of issues and not the workers in ASC whom I consider to be world class.
And on the matter at hand, the Government has not made any decisions on the future submarine. Decisions will be made as I have said time and again on the advice of our Service Chiefs.
Our goal is to deliver to our Navy a new class of submarine that is superior to Collins, before the planned withdrawal date of the Collins class. Given the sheer scale of submarine programs, it is only by working together as a team that we will reach this goal.
The former Government’s submarine program was costed at over $40 billion by Defence and would have resulted in a capability gap. This is an unacceptable risk to our $1.6 trillion economy.
Whatever decision is made on the future submarine, there will be more jobs for South Australia and a more capable Navy for Australians.
Thank you Mr President and I thank the indulgence of the Senate.
Go fuck yourself Johnston. We all know you want to close the ASC and just buy a sub from Japan. Stop treating us all like naive children.
But that's just it. When they said "the adults are in charge", what they meant was "we're going to treat you like naive little children. We know what's best for you, and we'll only tell you what we think you need to know".
But that's just it. When they said "the adults are in charge", what they meant was "we're going to treat you like naive little children. We know what's best for you, and we'll only tell you what we think you need to know".
Wow. That's the same line Republicans framed themselves as when George W. ran for president. How eerily similar.
But that's just it. When they said "the adults are in charge", what they meant was "we're going to treat you like naive little children. We know what's best for you, and we'll only tell you what we think you need to know".
Wow. That's the same line Republicans framed themselves as when George W. ran for president. How eerily similar.
Abbott held meetings with US Republicans in the leadup to the last election. It isn't a coincidence; he's been quite overt in importing their rhetoric and electoral tactics.
One senior MP told Fairfax Media he had urged Mr Abbott to state openly that the ABC decision was a funding cut and therefore a broken promise in order to explain why it was necessary given the budget situation.
"It was like I farted in a lift," the MP said, describing the silence.
"Maybe we should try telling the truth" is indeed a controversial position to hold.
Edit: 5 mins in Photoshop:
Edit 2: The GP Copayment is dead, which also means that the $20m slush fund medical centre is now unfunded. The paid parental leave scheme appears likely to join it in the policy graveyard.
i mean, i know they were putting forward a bunch of deliberately extreme stuff so that the watered-down version which actually got through would be close to what they really wanted
but do they realize how that makes them look to, like, every living human
Functionally they cut every departments budget some % per year.
Then when they all end up understaffed and underfunded, they hire a bunch of consultants for 3x the price. But it's okay! Because they're "temporary expenses" now.
I think manager job security gets tied to it somehow?
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Donovan PuppyfuckerA dagger in the dark isworth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered Userregular
i mean, i know they were putting forward a bunch of deliberately extreme stuff so that the watered-down version which actually got through would be close to what they really wanted
but do they realize how that makes them look to, like, every living human
They don't give a shit what you think, unless you're a billionaire that donated to their campaign.
Seriously. They don't give a single solitary fuck.
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TraceGNU Terry Pratchett; GNU Gus; GNU Carrie Fisher; GNU Adam WeRegistered Userregular
Am I the only one surprised the liberals haven't pulled their mask off to reveal that they are in fact the Lizard People of the Deep Core?
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CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
Am I the only one surprised the liberals haven't pulled their mask off to reveal that they are in fact the Lizard People of the Deep Core?
I'm more surprised that they are named Liberals in an age that identifies liberalism more in terms of the exact opposite of what they are doing and not classical liberalism.
They should just change their names to Deep Core Lizard Values Party.
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Apothe0sisHave you ever questioned the nature of your reality?Registered Userregular
Reports of the death of the GP co-payment may have been exaggerated.
Dutton says they're committed to it and has suggested if they can't legislate they'll find another way - like a ministerial directive reducing the payment from Medicare to GPs.
Somewhere in the deep core there is a small group of lizard people expressing their fears that their conservative party government will remove their mask only to reveal they're actually the the LNP cabinet. WHY DON'T THEY JUST ADMIT THEY,RE ACTUALLY ABBOTTPEOPLE FROM OUTER AUSTRALIA?
Queensland's attorney-general has refused to front the Senate inquiry into the state government.
The inquiry chair, Palmer United Party Senator Glenn Lazarus, announced on Wednesday that Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie had been called to front the next public hearing on Friday.
But Mr Bleijie says he won't be front the inquiry because it's an expensive political stunt.
"I will not be attending the inquiry to give evidence," Mr Bleijie said in a letter to the inquiry secretary.
"Public reports confirm my view that this is a politically motivated inquiry that will not deliver any positive outcomes for Queenslanders.
"I regret that Labor and the Palmer United Party senators continue to pursue this expensive political stunt."
Queensland's government has previously labelled the inquiry, backed by Labor and the Greens, a "witch hunt".
Former solicitor-general Walter Sofronoff, former assistant health minister Chris Davis and independent MP Peter Wellington are also listed to appear at the next public hearing in Brisbane on Friday.
The two previous public hearings have been characterised by coalition committee members arguing, interjecting and bullying witnesses, most of which have links to either Labor or the Greens.
12. A witness before the Senate or a committee shall not:
without reasonable excuse, refuse to make an oath or affirmation or give some similar undertaking to tell the truth when required to do so;
without reasonable excuse, refuse to answer any relevant question put to the witness when required to do so; or
give any evidence which the witness knows to be false or misleading in a material particular, or which the witness does not believe on reasonable grounds to be true or substantially true in every material particular.
13. A person shall not, without reasonable excuse:
refuse or fail to attend before the Senate or a committee when ordered to do so; or
refuse or fail to produce documents, or to allow the inspection of documents, in accordance with an order of the Senate or of a committee.
14. A person shall not wilfully avoid service of an order of the Senate or of a committee.
15. A person shall not destroy, damage, forge or falsify any document required to be produced by the Senate or by a committee.
Jesus Christ, what a day to watch Question Time. Bishop shattered the record for most ejected MPs, being 18 to the previous 12. In a shocking twist all were from Labor. As for the GP copayment... literally nobody knows. Abbott's danced around actually saying if it's dropped or not. More likely that the Liberals themselves are unsure than this all being some dumb strategy of any sort.
A lovely little statistic as of today:
The total number of MPs removed by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop is 285. Five were Coalition MPs and 280 were Labor.
The SIS/ Official Information Act (FOA) enquiry has reported back in NZ.
Seems to confirm there was collusion with key staff in PM's office, the SIS DG and a right wing blogger over various releases. The former Labour leader, Goff, who was a target of such collusion during the 2011 electoral campaign Doesn't blame the PM himself.
It doesn't really seem to add a lot except that the former SIS head was actively aiding National over Labour, which is pretty big.
Posts
To call them Weasels would be an insult to the Mustelidae family.
The idea of Bishop launching a Murdoch-backed coup against Abbott absolutely terrifies me. While yes, it would be poetic justice to see Abbott overthrown as PM by a woman ala Rudd and Gillard, the only reason for her popularity is that she hasn't been in the media enough to show her incompetence nor policy intentions.
People seem to have forgotten how she bungled her ministerial debut in Indonesia so terribly that Abbott had to fly over in person to smooth things over, and MH17 was largely out of her hands. I've little doubt that the hard-right policies pursued by the Abbott-led government aren't new to the Liberal Party, but rather a matter of them finally having the gumption to push their crazy ideals onto Australia, polling be damned. If Bishop were to become PM, I'd be incredibly surprised if she changed course in any significant way, yet the poll bounce would probably be enough to drag the Liberals to an election win.
If things continue as they are and Abbott remains PM, I expect another minority Labor-Green government facing a hostile senate made up of crazies and nutters. With Bishop, a slim Liberal majority pushed over the line by an adoring press.
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There is really no room for interpretation on that. Turnbull and Cormann's attempts to either redefine the word "cut" or blame the viewers for misinterpreting the clearest statement Tony Abbott has ever made are insulting and pathetic.
Lambie is also making further moves to distance herself from Palmer United. If she leaves, which looks all but certain, the Senate will be extremely difficult to wrangle for the Liberals.
Edit: Our wonderful media
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From the party of mandatory data retention.
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Christoper Pyne has always been a massive tool though.
Every single thing about him has always screamed that.
Twiggy Forest still wants to press forward, but says the reason it fails is it was only partial restrictions.
On ABC cuts, the Liberals don't even have a coherent story: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/nov/25/abc-cuts-not-an-efficiency-dividend-says-malcolm-turnbull-contradicting-abbott
Comments by David Johnston piss me the hell off. In 2013, he committed to building more subs at ASC. And yesterday, he says he wouldn't trust them to build a canoe.
And of course he's already trying to weasel out of it:
Go fuck yourself Johnston. We all know you want to close the ASC and just buy a sub from Japan. Stop treating us all like naive children.
Wow. That's the same line Republicans framed themselves as when George W. ran for president. How eerily similar.
Abbott held meetings with US Republicans in the leadup to the last election. It isn't a coincidence; he's been quite overt in importing their rhetoric and electoral tactics.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
Flat out refusing to answer questions about aspects of how the terror laws will work in the Senate,
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
Edit: 5 mins in Photoshop:
Edit 2: The GP Copayment is dead, which also means that the $20m slush fund medical centre is now unfunded. The paid parental leave scheme appears likely to join it in the policy graveyard.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
but do they realize how that makes them look to, like, every living human
Functionally they cut every departments budget some % per year.
Then when they all end up understaffed and underfunded, they hire a bunch of consultants for 3x the price. But it's okay! Because they're "temporary expenses" now.
I think manager job security gets tied to it somehow?
They don't give a shit what you think, unless you're a billionaire that donated to their campaign.
Seriously. They don't give a single solitary fuck.
I'm more surprised that they are named Liberals in an age that identifies liberalism more in terms of the exact opposite of what they are doing and not classical liberalism.
They should just change their names to Deep Core Lizard Values Party.
Dutton says they're committed to it and has suggested if they can't legislate they'll find another way - like a ministerial directive reducing the payment from Medicare to GPs.
Somewhere in the deep core there is a small group of lizard people expressing their fears that their conservative party government will remove their mask only to reveal they're actually the the LNP cabinet. WHY DON'T THEY JUST ADMIT THEY,RE ACTUALLY ABBOTTPEOPLE FROM OUTER AUSTRALIA?
A lovely little statistic as of today:
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
The previous record of 12 was also set by Bronwyn Bishop.
Seems to confirm there was collusion with key staff in PM's office, the SIS DG and a right wing blogger over various releases. The former Labour leader, Goff, who was a target of such collusion during the 2011 electoral campaign Doesn't blame the PM himself.
It doesn't really seem to add a lot except that the former SIS head was actively aiding National over Labour, which is pretty big.
http://publicaddress.net/hardnews/incomplete-inaccurate-and-misleading/
Want to play co-op games? Feel free to hit me up!
Just watched the video of when Bishop booted Tony Burke for his two "offensive" questions.
Such a awful, biased speaker
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