RSS Feed
October 3rd, 2011 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
(Repeats item from Sunday with no change to text)
By James Grubel
CANBERRA Oct 2 (Reuters) – Australian opposition leader
Tony Abbott, a super-fit, marathon cycling politician likened to
Russia’s Vladimir Putin because he is regularly photographed
topless, is tantalisingly close to taking power.
Abbott, 53, has built an election-winning lead in opinion
polls with his relentless campaigning against Prime Minister
Julia Gillard and her key policies, and he needs only one vote
to swing his way in parliament to force an early election.
But a year after dead-heat elections, which saw Gillard
scrape back into office with support from the Greens Party and
three independents, Abbott is still looking for a crisis to help
him bring down Australia’s first female prime minister.
“He can feel the power, but he just can’t reach it. He just
has to be patient and he will be prime minister,” said Monash
University political analyst Nick Economou.
Abbott’s proximity to the top job saw him on Friday named
Australia’s third most overtly powerful person by the Australian
Financial Review newspaper, behind Gillard and central bank
governor Glenn Stevens.
“Abbott is indefatigable, a Duracell battery bunny of
negativity, who has actually taken the lead as preferred PM in
the polls,” the paper said.
Abbott is now looking to a crucial parliamentary vote in
October on the government’s bungled refugee policy to launch a
new campaign to force Gillard out of office ahead of the next
election, otherwise not due until late 2013.
FOCUS ON GOVT’S FAILINGS
Gillard, 50, is struggling to find the numbers to pass
changes to migration laws to allow her to send 800 asylum
seekers to Malaysia where they would have their refugee claims
assessed. If the laws fail, they will be the first major
government initiatives to be rejected by parliament.
Abbott has so far resisted pushing a vote of no confidence
in parliament, which will force the dissolution of parliament if
it is successful
He has said he will only do so when he is confident he can
secure the numbers. To succeed, Abbott needs to break the
loyalty of either a government lawmaker, or win over the Greens
or one of the three independents who support the government.
Instead, he used debate on the Malaysian deal to
launch one of his strongest attacks against Gillard and to
repeat his case for an early election.
“A prime minister who is incapable of protecting the borders
of our country is a prime minister who has manifestly failed in
the highest task she has,” he said. “Frankly it is a government
and a prime minister who should resign.”
Despite being one seat from power, Abbott has outlined few
details of his plans for Australia should he achieve his goal
and become prime minister. His strategy is to keep the
focus on the government’s failings, rather than open new debates
about his own policies.
He has promised to unwind the government’s carbon tax and
carbon trade schemes if he wins office, and is also against a
proposed 30 percent tax on iron ore and coal miners, due to be
voted upon in parliament later this year.
He has promised tighter control of government spending,
including cutting 12,000 public service jobs, and review
construction of the A$35 billion ($34 billion) national
broadband network.
The government says his promises will cost about A$70
billion to implement and Abbott and his treasury spokesman Joe
Hockey have so far refused to detail full costings or how his
pledges will be paid for.
BOXER, TRAINEE PRIEST
Like Russia’s Prime Minister Putin, Abbott has cultivated an
action-man image, and is regularly photographed in lycra or just
in swimming trunks.
He surfs, cycles and runs, usually rising at dawn
for a bike ride before work, or fitting in a workout or run
during the day. Each year he goes on a marathon bike ride of up
to 1,000 km, stopping at country towns to meet voters and
campaign.
A former journalist, Abbott was a Rhodes scholar who boxed
for Britain’s Oxford University and studied to become a Catholic
priest before he turned to the media and politics.
He worked for a time for Rupert Murdoch’s flagship The
Australian newspaper before becoming a political adviser and
then entering parliament in 1994, under the wing of former
conservative leader John Howard.
Howard lost office in late 2007 and Abbott became
conservative Liberal Party leader two years later on the back of
his strident opposition to a price on carbon, a policy he
continues to fight daily.
Abbott believes Gillard’s government is fragile and could
fall at any time. One heart attack could spark a by-election
which could lead to a change of government.
But Monash University’s Economou said without a sudden
by-election, Gillard’s government appears solid. The government
also points out more than 200 bills have been passed in the past
year, despite the slender margin in parliament.
“It’s like a never-ending election campaign for Abbott,”
Economou said. “But the independents’ and Greens’ deals with
Gillard are pretty solid, so there’s no reason they won’t stay
in power for the full three-year term.”
($1 = 1.018 Australian dollar)
(Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)
Related posts:
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
