THE DONKEY VOTE

Thank you Mr Tony Abbott for the 31st of October 2007. It was a laugh and then just got funnier and funnier.

It all started yesterday when the nutcase known as Tony Abbott had a go at Bernie  Banton describing his delivering of a petition with over 17,000 signatures on it to push for the addition of the mesothelioma drug Alimta on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) as a stunt.

He went on to say….

 ”Let’s be up front about this, I know Bernie is very sick, but just because a person is sick doesn’t necessarily mean that he is pure of heart in all things,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network.

Well at the crack of dawn Mr Abbott, one of the Coalition’s favoured politcal attack dogs was on the horn to Bernie doing his tricks, begging and rolling over.

Then he missed his big appointment with Nicola Roxon Labor’s Shadow Health Minister at the National Press Club for the Health debate! He rocks up 35 minutes late claiming he flew in from Melbourne where they made a major policy announcement and questions from journalists ran over time. Come on Tones, that is a lame excuse, even I have better organisational skills than that.

So that certainly put everyone in the room off side and gave Nicola more than a handful off free kicks.

One of my favourites being….

“I could do an impersonation if it helped,” she said to laughter. “My office says it’s quite good.”

Now I only got to watch the debate at the gym and some highlights ABC radio. Now if the worm didn’t like Costello or Howard can you imagine it’s opinion of Tonz? I thought Nicola performed brilliantly and I think her style and passion will make her popular with the voters, Labor need to wheel her out more.

Here is a blow by blow blog of the titantic affair that was the health debate.

Great Debate III - Tony Abbott v Nicola Roxon

And then to add insult to Tonz injury

As the debate was under way, Mr Abbott’s office announced the federal takeover of Mersey Hospital had been put on hold, a day before it was due to be handed over by the Tasmanian Government.

Haha. They say misfortune comes in threes, but I’m hoping it continues into Thursday.

NEWSLINK: TONY’S DAY FROM HELL

It was certainly Labor’s day, sure the Coalition released a health policy, but who knew? Everyone was too busy being informed of the antics of their Health Minister.

Kevin Rudd announced a health policy, $600million will be spent to reduce elective surgery waiting times in public hospitals over the next four years.

A good start, but health in Australia needs a lot more investment, I will be very disappointed if I don’t see some significant investment in health and education.

______________________________

I’m going to go to bed, I haven’t slept in three days.

Donkey, remember to post a Day 17 Wrap FFS.

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The last couple of days have certainly been better ones for the Coalition, which I have to say has surprised me. As previously posted on the Donkey Vote, Howard has pulled back four points in the two party preferred in Newspoll. Costello might be a little disappointed that he didn’t have a big win over Swan in the debate but from what I’ve read it was at probably a draw, maybe with Costello ahead but at least it wasn’t a loss for the government.

The big news story in the last day or two has been the gaffe by Labor over climate change. Garrett, shadow environment minister and sell out, came out and said that Australia would sign up to a post-Kyoto agreement even if developing nations weren’t signed up. Initially it seems that this position had Rudd’s support but after an attack by Howard saying that this position would lose Australia jobs, Garrett and Rudd both backflipped on the issue. After this Rudd came out and said he wouldn’t guarantee that Garrett would be environment minister in a Labor government. Personally I’d probably pick a politician with actual abilities to do the job rather than someone who’s been given a free ride due to his popularity. Then again, at least it would be one minister who wasn’t part of the union movement.

Turnbull is probably happy about this as it takes the focus on his problems for the moment. Climate change was one area where the Labor Party were outshining the Coalition so it will be interesting to see whether this has any effect on the polls. Labor did come out with an energy target of 20% renewable energy by 2020 which trumps the Government’s 15% as a way to deflect from the blunder from Labor’s all-star spokesman.

The we have Gary Parr, a Labor candidate for Bundaberg, who called the parents of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan “warmongers”. A clear case of foot in mouth disease I feel. Even if you believe that, you don’t say it. Howard’s putting the pressure on for Rudd to sack Parr but I’m not sure that’ll happen.

Funny how politics can seem to turn around in a couple of days. You’d have to argue that Rudd and Labor have lost some of their momentum of the last week with the gaffes that have been occurring recently. Rudd probably wishes some of his team knew how to keep their mouths shut.

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I am getting a little sick and tired of Brad and Sheldon not helping me with the Daily Wraps.

Anyway Day 16 is over and well it is really a couple of hours into Day 17.

So here is vaguely what happened!

The big event of the day was the Treasurer’s Debate at the National Press Club today at 12:30pm. The highlight of the proceedings was definitely the questions from journalists who shook things up a bit.

Both performed well and Peter Costello’s ability to turn a question around and fire it off in the direction of Kevin Rudd, Wayne Swan and the Labor party has to be commended.

The Coalition released a $168million small business training policy.

The latest Newspoll published in The Australian shows a Coalition comeback, with Labor ahead 54-46 TPP. It puts Howard in his strongest position since Rudd took over Federal Labor.

The Labor Party comes under fire because of rogue candidate for Hinkler, Garry Parr called a couple whose son is serving with British forces in Afghanistan warmongers.

Kevin Rudd commits Labor to a green target of 20% renewable engery by 2020. A move welcomed by hippies…I mean the greens and environmental groups.

A lot of other stuff probably happened, but how am I supposed to know?

I am just a donkey.

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