Tony Abbott: The Possibilities Behind the Illusion!

The Blowfly is well aware of the illusions of daily life.

In behind most of the things we see, and the events we experience, is a reality that is quite different.

And so it is with Tony Abbott!

Most of you see the person who turns up at businesses seemingly every day to make biscuits with the workers, drive a semi-trailer or pack fruit.

You also see the man known as ‘one-trick Tony’ who appears to have little else by way of policy other than he is going to repeal the carbon tax.

You also know him as the Opposition Leader who had the required amount of gall to be able to label the Prime Minister a criminal on the last day of Parliament without the evidence to back it up.

For most people his behaviour is strangely bizarre and offensive.

So The Blowfly has taken another tack---- and suggests that you might do this too---in order to make sense of this apparent buffoon who, if the Australian people let their guards down, may one day become our Prime Minister.

In order to allow illusions to reveal themselves fully one has to be bold with one’s imagination because the reality behind an illusion can be spectacular.

Here are some possibilities that may explain Tony Abbott’s existence and behaviour ----for you to consider!

1. Tony Abbott is being paid by people unknown to distract Australians from the real issues facing our nation.

In this scenario he is simply on the payroll of the ‘old world order’ and doing the bidding of the last wealthy person, red-neck or Catholic bishop he speaks to. This explains his response to the wealthy miners who want him on their side so they do not have to share our sovereign wealth with us. This also explains his opposition to pricing carbon. The old money is making a financial killing out of selling fossil fuels and polluting the planet and would have to spend huge amounts to convert to clean energy. During earlier sessions of Parliament he tried to distract Australians away from the over-investment in electricity infrastructure by blaming the increases in electricity prices on the carbon tax.

And in the last week in Parliament he distracted Australians away from asylum seekers and the PM being out of step on the recognition of the Palestinian state. He did this by organising his deputy to run the ball up regarding the AWU slush fund issue for which she appeared to have no evidence.

He still has work to do regarding this scenario. The Royal Commission into the abuse of children is starting shortly and he will really have to be on his toes if he is to succeed distracting Australians in this regard.

But no doubt there will more boatloads of asylum-seekers and possibly some starvations, lip-sewing and facilities-destruction to put the Royal Commission back a few pages in the daily rags.

2. Tony Abbott is an Australian crusader for a new global movement dedicated to the abolition of political hypocrisy

We all know that the best way of ridding ourselves of morally reprehensible behaviours is to expose them to the wider public so that they may be reviled and future children are taught to avoid those behaviours. With this in mind a new moral movement dedicated to truth is being set-up by the Quakers.

It will be known as ‘Political Hypocrites Anonymous’ and will be run on similar lines to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Abbott knows he has a sickness in relation to hypocrisy and he has been unable to beat it. When he was a student at St John’s College at Sydney University he was first introduced to hypocrisy and he found it addictive. He also knows it is inconsistent with being a Rhodes Scholar and the general teachings of the Bible.

He initially tried to treat it by spending long hours in the confessional with George Pell but found that it was impossible to lose his lust for it and indeed found his need for it heightened in the company of his confessor.

The most recent incident which demonstrates that the ‘demon’ hypocrisy has him hooked was his calling into question the Prime Minister’s character regarding her unproven involvement in setting up a so-called Union slush fund.

This involved considerable hypocrisy by Abbott given his efforts setting up a slush fund to ensure that Pauline Hanson was removed from the Australian political scene. Undoubtedly he reasoned many young voters would be ignorant of his role in that one and the older voters will have forgotten it anyway.

3. Tony Abbott is an envoy from an alien race in a faraway galaxy sent to make the human race question their sanity.

He is not alone here on Earth. Others who are also part of this inter-galactic mission in Australia are Piers Ackerman, Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones.

Most people think that the human race will experience some increase in awareness and consciousness when the Mayan calendar runs out on 21 December 2012.

Most people except Piers Ackerman, Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones and Tony Abbott that is!

They are dedicated to ensuring that ignorance reigns and points of view that can only be described as ‘dumb as dog shit’ prevail.

In a faraway galaxy there is a race of aliens that have set up a curious experiment/demonstration here. When they saw other inter-galactic civilisations breeding with us to improve our intelligence they placed a bet on their own ability to foil this push.

Initially they sent us the gospels, which they planted in caves in the Middle East, which resulted in any number of religions and then missionaries to convert the heathens.

Then they sent us Adolf Hitler and his offsider, Goebbels to demonstrate the power of propaganda and that lies repeated often enough can be transformed into the truth in the minds of most human beings.

Now they have sent us Tony Abbott in an effort to bewilder our sense of integrity, good manners, logical thinking and moral virtue. We find it puzzling that a good little Catholic boy can be so absolutely bereft of a moral compass and so absolutely endowed with an unrestrained capacity for hypocrisy and bare-faced lies.

Yet we have produced him! Our society! Our country! Our civilisation!

And he has been able to climb the ladder of our political system to within an inch of being PM.

Scary isn’t it?

Good work aliens---- wherever you are!

Nice experiment! Nice demonstration! Very nice!



4. Tony Abbott is collaborating with Clive Palmer to ensure that Australia is at the forefront of political humour globally.

Although they have had their stoushes it won’t surprise you to know that Clive and Tony have much in common.

Labelled as the ‘Mad Monk’ by his peers at University and later in his early days in politics he has taken a very similar pathway to Clive in his later years. Building the Titanic 2 and claiming that the CIA run the world may indeed seem to be fanciful but as usual there is always ‘method in madness’.

Abbott and Palmer have a striking ability to mimic the turn of phrase made popular by George W Bush.

I’ll bet most readers are not able to differentiate the authors of the following quotes:

• “They have miscalculated me as their leader”

• “…we just can’t stop people from being homeless if that’s their choice…”

• “You only have to go back to read the Church report in the 1970s and read the reports to US Congress which sets up the Rockefeller Foundation as a conduit of CIA funding,”

• ''I know that it's not possible that this child could be mine.''

5. Tony Abbott is the brainchild of a Silicon Valley start-up in the field of advanced robotics.

In this scenario Tony Abbott has suffered a fate similar to the ‘Stepford Wives’. He was hijacked when he was last in the US by a budding young robotics scientist from Stanford University.

This young entrepreneur figured that the quintessential promotional strategy of his new advanced humanoid start-up was to have one of his robots become the Prime Minister of Australia.

Some of you may think this is a bit way out but it would explain Abbott’s capacity for athletic endeavours and his decidedly awkward-looking gait.

It might also explain why he appeared to have a brain-fade in that interview with Mark Riley where he could not speak for what seemed like an eternity. It was probably a short-circuit or battery problem.

What this young entrepreneur plans to do next is a mystery.

But the rumour-mill is suggesting that Christopher Pyne is also part of the venture and is being groomed for a slightly different market segment.

6. Tony Abbott is actually an eccentric amateur physicist who has taken it upon himself to educate us about the existence of parallel universes and quantum physics.

We have known for some time about parallel universes. And the proposition in quantum physics that a particle can be in 2 places at once is mind-boggling to mere mortals and blowflies.

But it is possible that in another universe there is a Tony Abbott and he has chosen another pathway or response to the hung parliament.

The other Tony Abbott decided that the hung parliament was an opportunity to govern from Opposition. He was extremely creative and was able to garner the support of the Independents to push through a range of legislation that he believed were crucial for his government after the next election in 2013 where he was elected without much difficulty.

In the parallel universe the other Tony Abbott found he could be quite civil to the Prime Minister and had no need to be offensive towards her at all.

Now if this scenario is plausible many of you will want to be in that parallel universe.

But before you get too excited please be aware that in that parallel universe there will be no Julia Gillard-misogyny speech because Tony Abbott was behaving as a gentleman should behave and he and the PM were still flirting a little as they used to in the old days.

7. Tony Abbott is actually on the payroll of the Union movement with a mission to ensure that the ALP is re-elected in 2013.

This scenario exploits the tension that is within the ALP regarding Malcolm Turnbull resuming the leadership of the Liberal Party. Unfortunately for the ALP if Malcolm does gain the leadership they will have no choice but to return the Kevin Rudd as their leader.

This would be a fate worse than death.

Many of them would vomit at this prospect and it would make the next parliament unbearable. Kevin would know no bounds and would simply run amuck because there would be absolutely no way, after all the furore last time, that the ALP would have the courage to remove an elected Prime Minister.

So the Union-up-and-coming Paul Howes suggested some time ago that the best chance the ALP had of winning the next election was to keep Tony Abbott there.

He dug deep into the slush funds that abound in that quarter and was able to find a simple way of black-mailing Abbott and greasing the way for his alignment with this course of action.

Tony, of course, was interested because he was quite insecure. As leaders of the Liberal Party before him have experienced you can never be quite sure whether you have Rupert’s support. So a man needs a little security to pay off his big mortgage and pay for his daughter’s weddings.



8. Tony Abbott is a paid puppet of Malcolm Turnbull

This scenario starts with the proposition that Malcolm Turnbull is the true leader of the Liberal Party both financially and spiritually. And he can afford to pay Abbott what he demands. Behaving as the most obvious bastard presently in Australian politics does not come cheap.

Malcolm is much too clever to get involved in smear campaigns after the failures of the ‘Godwin Grech affair’ and Kevin Rudd’s ‘utegate’.

Initially prepared to sell his arse to become PM and then to build a hospital in Andrew Wilkie’s seat at a cost of $1 billion, Abbott has the sort of mongrel in him that Malcolm despises ---and yet lacks!

He has entered into an arrangement with Abbott to run the ball up to the Government in the most offensive fashion possible and then as the 2013 election is called Turnbull will take over. Abbott will be appointed as Ambassador to the Holy See and spend his remaining life confessing his sins and hypocrisy at the highest possible level.

Turnbull is quite comfortable that Abbott will honour the arrangement because both Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop witnessed it and they are sharing in the bootie.



9. Tony Abbott secretly has lusted for Germaine Greer from the moment he saw her raunchy nude photo and wants to stimulate sales for her reprint of ‘The Female Eunuch’ to curry favour with her

The Blowfly knows that no illusion can be fully credible without a bit of sex. And while it really stretched his minute brain to find a sexual angle the effort was worth it.

It works like this.

Tony saw the photo several years ago. He became quite besotted. He tried to meet with her several times but she refused his advances because he was too old for her. She prefers much younger men.

So Tony set about overcoming her predilection and subsequently the ‘budgie-smugglers’ were born.

But even that has not worked.

So he decided to try out the ‘shock-treatment’ on her. He devised a plan!

The notion was that if he adopted misogynistic behaviour in respect to Australia’s first female Prime Minister then Germaine would certainly notice him and perhaps, just perhaps, join him in a quiet moment of intimacy in a confessional somewhere off the beaten track.

This has not really worked but when Tony heard that her signature book was to be reprinted he saw his opening.

If he could simply have the women of Australia devote more of their thinking to ‘what bastards men are’ and how ‘they are all under the thumb and deserve more’ then Germaine would be suitably pleased and that much-imagined- dalliance in the confessional would be nearer.

Tony did not figure on the PM’s misogyny speech going viral and that has really increased his internal tension and expectations.

The last time he felt this excited he had to punch a wall!

But rather than going a little more steady and playing the patience game he decided to up the ante.

That was why he called the PM a ‘criminal’ in parliament last week.


If anything gets Germaine’s attention before Christmas it will be that! Surely!


10. Tony Abbott is walking evidence that the Creator has a sense of humour

The Blowfly will admit to being interested in spiritual matters and just had to appease those from the ‘Mind Body Spirit’ brigade.

It was Einstein who left us with the quote

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

That the Creator would seek to endow us with Tony Abbott, in The Blowfly's minute mind, is the most spectacular evidence that this universe, and our lives, are indeed not meant to be taken seriously

 This topic is undoubtedly a work in progress because if we took this subject too seriously many of us would be prone to a panic attack.

So we should all take a little dose of Christmas cheer and hope with all our hearts that Australians will truly get what they deserve when the next election occurs in late 2013.

Oh God! What have you done to Australian politics?

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The Blowfly, at the risk of seeming supercilious and irreverent, would like you to imagine that you are God.

A God with an extreme sense of humour!

A God with a sense of mischief!

A God with an enduring sense of the ridiculous!

One of your greatest joys is getting up the noses of the ‘true believers’.

You have been working for ages on the most delicious plot of your eternal life.

Hopefully it will prove to be the most intriguing and the funniest.

The foundation of this twisted joke on the ‘true believers’ is a simple ‘hung parliament’.

This little beast has allowed you , as God, to taunt both sides of politics in a delightfully obscene fashion.

Initially you  demonstrated how terribly painful and pathetic a devoted Catholic, totally consumed by his own disappointment, could be.

But lately it has provided the most wonderful insights into how women are viewed in politics and, for that matter, by our society.

Most people now know what the word ‘misogyny’ roughly means .In the pubs around Australia the term ‘misogynist bastard’ has become a term of endearment as men affected by alcohol stumble home to their dearly-beloveds in the evenings.

You have also been able to demonstrate the power of social media, a new invention of yours, in a most fascinating way.

Initially a media personality ,who thought he was clinging to your back as a self-pronounced Messiah, was brought to heel by the people. His large sense of self had been established as a highly successful Rugby Union coach who had moved onto speech writing and then onto the fantabulous world of ‘shock jocks’.

You were also able to make a slow talking red-headed female Prime Minister a YouTube hit when her verbal execution of a taunting Opposition Leader went viral.

Additionally you have created some wonderful tensions in the Parliament where the unashamed hypocrisy of politicians could be played out on a daily basis for all to see.

You have also been able to illustrate the true extent of the humanitarian natures of politicians on both sides. You sent asylum seekers by the boatload to goad them into doing anything but being humanitarian. In doing so you have boosted the economy of Nauru. This has been struggling ever since the supplies of bird-shit were depleted.

But you have also set up the most delicious potential confrontation with Indonesia by having the Opposition suggest that they will turn boats around.

You are particularly proud of the internal duelling and tensions you have created.

One strategy you employ is to pit Catholics against each other.

In the Coalition you have neatly organised a subtle, seemingly eternal sparring match. This is between an IT luddite and Jesuit-infected former monk who has a Cardinal as his proclaimed mentor and a wealthy, seemingly well-mannered, IT literate giant-killer who once took on Kerry Packer and won.

Presently you are seeking to develop a rather tantalising sub-plot involving the Catholic Church and paedophilia. You have engineered revelations that many priests have caused catastrophic mental harm to young men and the Church has been successful to date hiding these transgressions. There are now calls for a Royal Commission into this matter. But if the Coalition wins the next election you have created a potentially intriguing new drama wherein the Catholic Church will be resisting a Royal Commission and the Coalition will be led by a Catholic one way or another.

Another strategy you have employed is to develop a range of distractions.

One that you particularly enjoyed was positioning a well meaning, but forgettable, Liberal politician for the fall of his life. After he was elected Speaker, in a seemingly brilliant move by the Government, you then placed him at the mercy of a young gay staffer who seemed to have the knack of drawing out the worst in him. And by text as well so that Rupert Murdoch’s papers could publish them!

Recently you have taunted the ‘true believers’ with the opinion polls.

This is a great sport.

You manipulate these so that the true believers, deep in their hearts, begin to see that, although their party looks shot to smithereens, they still have hope.

But just as the red-head gets 10 points ahead in the popularity stakes you again dash their hopes.

A demoted leader who was once touted as the politician most likely to follow your son’s career as the Messiah is able to get one through the cracks with a book written by a former ABC journalist. Most ‘true believers’ thought that she was a ‘true believer’ and they are now doubly shaken to the core. You can hardly stop yourself laughing when you ponder that one.

As the next election looms you are contemplating your next moves.

Some of the vast panorama of options you are considering in order to entertain the voters and keep them from taking politics too seriously include the following:

·      The lady who had the privilege of having the Opposition Leader, in his student days, punch holes in the wall on both sides of her head is now suing a Liberal heavy for defamation. You are considering how you might translate this case into a full expose’ of the Opposition Leader’s student exploits and have many other women come forward to attest to his aggressive misogynist behaviour

·      Reveal that a secret meeting has taken place between Kevin Rudd and Bob Katter wherein they have discussed joining forces at the next election to throw a spanner in the works to both sides of politics in Queensland leading up to the next federal election.

·      Have Tony Windsor beaten handsomely by the former speaker of the NSW Parliament, Richard Torbay, for the seat of New England. Torbay then goes on to assume the leadership of the National Party from Warren Truss and he and Malcolm Turnbull lead our nation towards the new decade of prosperity in Asia.

·      Craig Thomson never gets to court because it is revealed that the brothel he is charged with having frequented is actually owned by Joe Hockey and was not declared on Hockey’s pecuniary interests statement. The powers-that-be conspire to get Joe off the hook. At about the same time Hockey is embroiled in a controversy about exam cheating at Sydney University. It turns out that Hockey had cheated in several key Economics exams. In your heart you know that many will not find this funny because it will explain much.

·      Early in the new year the PM announces that she is pregnant and the baby will be born just before the election. She confides that after nursing Penny Wong’s baby several times she started to feel ‘clucky’. This causes a major problem for Tony Abbott who knows that the populace will not tolerate him talking to an expectant mother in anything but respectful tones. It also provides her with the necessary ‘experience’ to frame a budget around some reduction in the middle class welfare, such as the baby bonus, that Howard handed out to win votes.

·      Mark Latham turns his very insightful pen to comedy and writes a very funny play that exposes the inside workings of the ALP. Set in the days when Rudd was the PM it shows the chaos that existed around him and the rich fabric that joins the union movement to the ALP. The play becomes a bigger hit than ‘Keating’ and Barry Humphries comes out of retirement to play Tony Abbott.

·      Angry Anderson gets to win his seat in the new Parliament and rather than give us a boring maiden speech he decides to sing it. In reply Peter Garrett modifies the original words of ‘Beds are Burning’ and sings back. This sets such a beguiling precedent that many other former singers announce that they will stand for Parliament. John Farnham would be the first cab out of the ranks, followed by Lee Kernaghan who says that he will stand against Barnaby Joyce, another entertainer.

I guess, if you were God, your imaginations could think of many more quite delicious scenarios that could be presented to the Australian people to stretch their senses of humour but this fun has to end somewhere.

And , in parting, The Blowfly needs to remind you of the words of George W Bush: 

“It will take time to restore chaos and order”

More than 40 days and 40 nights The Blowfly suspects! Much more!

The Day Gillard Finally Snapped----and it's about time!

The Blowfly posed the question "When will Gillard finally snap?" in a post in early April. Yesterday The Blowfly had goose-bumps as he listened to the PM. She had finally done it. She let Abbott have his just desserts. This post is published again simply to provoke reflection on the present stae of politics in Australia.
................................................................................................................................................................
Early April 2012


The Blowfly has often pondered the delicate line that Tony Abbott is treading in his pursuit of Julia Gillard.


Admittedly it is a difficult tightrope and most mere males would struggle with it!

But consider this!

Most women I have known in my time have a point somewhere in their psyche that draws an invisible line in the sand.

They cannot be pushed beyond that line!

Once there they simply decide that no man will get the better of them.

At some stage, and real soon, Julia is going to reach that point.

This may occur in a number of ways.

One possibility is that she will conclude that she will lose the next election and that she may as well leave her mark on Australian society.

She will then pull out the really big guns and go for broke.

Abbott won’t know what hit him.

She, for instance, could decide to back a couple of the really exciting new technologies that are lurking around that have the capacity to revolutionize our economy AND REPEAL THE CARBON TAX.

At the same time she could make herself a real saviour of the working classes and DOUBLE THE MINING TAX.

This would allow her to make a significant cut in company taxes and thereby reduce the impact of the mining sector’s vibrancy on the Australian manufacturing sector.

Another possibility is that she will simply determine that Abbott is the last thing she wants to inflict on Australians and she will set out to undermine him----but in a female kind of way!

She will do him slowly! Over a barbecue.

For instance she might start wearing a smart frock rather than the suits.

She will use her feminine wiles to side-swipe him and make Malcolm Turnbull look good.

She might even find a way to make Joe Hockey appear to be a talented economist.

And slowly she will whittle him away.

To nothing!

She did it with Kevin Rudd! And she can do it again.

More ‘Bob Carr’ moments!

No budgie-smugglers or scare tactics will save him then. Not even George Pell or Gerard Henderson will be able to save him. Nor Janette Howard!

The ultimate weather vane will have disappeared forever.

Someone else will have to run up the flag for political hypocrisy.

The Slipper affair may still be an illusion---and even more delicious!

After the events of yesterday The Blowfly revisited some thoughts he'd had about the Slipper affair back in April 2012. These insect-driven thoughts are posted to stimulate further reflection on this matter ...................................................................................................................................................... From April 2012   The Blowfly has been pondering the current state of politics in Australia.

He is a big-picture sort of insect.

The Blowfly is a keen reader and recently came across a quote from Galileo .

" Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regard to matters requiring thought : the less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them, while on the other hand to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgment upon anything new."

It also neatly aligned with The Blowfly’s recent re-discovery of the notion of illusion in our lives.

You might recall that George Bush and John Howard went to war in Iraq because they had ‘evidence’ that Saddam Hussein had ‘weapons of mass destruction’ at his disposal. This proved not to be the case.

Financial collapses are often born out of illusion. The figures show one thing but when you get in behind and understand the reality another scenario is revealed.

Magicians are working with illusion all the time. They cut people in half and put them back together again. They pull a rabbit from a hat. A coin from behind their ear. Illusion was Harry Houdini’s bread and butter.

And politicians work with illusion too!

Many people see the current situation with the Speaker as being a failure of Gillard’s judgement in trying to retain some semblance of advantage in a hung parliament.

Others see it as the result of a successful campaign by an Opposition leader who sees it as his divine right to become Prime Minister.

But it is possible that there is a deeper more complex agenda playing out behind these obvious facades which fill our newspapers, TV’s , radios and web-pages.

Let me speculate for a moment.

Let’s say that you were a purveyor of oil. You have wells, refineries and service stations all over the world. Your turnover might well exceed that of many sovereign nations.

A small nation then passes legislation to introduce their populace to the benefits of ‘clean energy’. They want to wean them off fossil fuels and provide them with potentially cheaper sources of energy. The Sun is one such source. Muon-catalysed fusion is another. Not to mention geothermal. And waves in the ocean.

Your revenues would in the long term be decimated. In the short term they would also take a hit because you are going to have to spend huge amounts on research and development to stay competitive. You will also have to spend huge amounts on public relations to ridicule the need to move to a ‘clean energy future’.

The value of your shares will most likely fall as you face these pressures. The wealth of your shareholders will decline considerably.

Now let’s say your shares were tightly held by only a few families. And let’s say that the banks who funded you were also fairly tightly owned by only a few families.

Would you expect that these families would move to protect their positions?

Absolutely!

Where would they start?

Well with the country who has passed the legislation.

That’s because a ‘clean energy future’ might catch on. You would have to stop it before it gets on a roll. Other countries might come to see the benefits to their populace of cheaper energy and emulate the initiative.

So what you might do is to start to undermine the parliament of the country that has passed the legislation.

After all this is not rocket science. This country has managed to get this legislation through a hung parliament. Just imagine how more swiftly it would’ve occurred had they had a substantial majority. Other nations have such majorities.

So you devise a cunning plan.

You have the Opposition leader in place. He’s a good one because he is a conservative and a Catholic to boot----with a strong relationship to a Catholic archbishop! (Remember that it was the Catholic Church who managed to delay the populace understanding the remarkable discovery that the planets revolved around the sun rather than the other way round. So why would they not move to support their interests given their real estate holdings and their revenues).

You have some strategic alliances in place too! This government has also had the audacity to suggest that the people of this particular nation should be entitled to a greater share of the non-renewable mineral wealth under its soils. Wealthy miners are lining up to support you.

You could organise something similar to the Charge of the Light Brigade.

But you are more subtle than that!

You start with the institution of government. A simple undermining strategy!

You manage to exploit a situation where a beleaguered female Prime Minister sees an opportunity to get an advantage to pursue her social agenda.

You put in place a debonair, disenchanted Liberal with a slightly exaggerated sense of his role to play and you set him up beautifully.

Firstly with some simple Cabcharge dockets. And then you raise doubt in the populace’s mind as to whether this disenchanted Liberal might be gay. He is the moderator of behaviour in the parliament and he can’t possibly do that if he is gay! In the UK maybe---but not here where real men are bronzed and muscled.

There are other tricks that you have up your sleeve to scratch this government out of existence too. They are even more subtle!

But in due course this government is wiped out at the next polls and your Opposition leader becomes PM and repeals the legislation with his huge majority.

The populace of this country are saved from a clean energy future and they have the pleasure of remaining dependent on fossil fuels for the rest of their days.

Your wealth is retained.

All you have to do is to keep on funding the research that says reliance on fossil fuels is not causing our planet to heat up to the extent that it will become uninhabitable. This is a minor impost to your profits. That’s because many of your allies are scientists who are funded by the public purse via universities and government grants.

Boy, these illusions are fun! Even for blowflies.

The Arduous Search for Reality in the Opposition's Rhetoric

The Blowfly is a curious insect and finds some satisfaction searching for the realities in his pitiful life.

For some time now the carbon tax has been on the political agenda and in people’s thoughts.

It first happened during John Howard’s reign over the hearts and minds of Australians.

But it was the ALP who got to run with that hot potato.

Our present PM thought that it was deserving of bipartisan support and that taking it forward without the support of both sides of politics would be divisive and damaging.

She let it be known, after she called the last election, that she stood by that view and her policy was not to proceed with a carbon tax during her time as PM.

However she did not get the majority she sought from the electorate and in order to form a government she had to bargain with the Independents and the Greens.

Out of this process came a changed policy position-----the Greens would only support her if she initiated a carbon tax.

The Opposition Leader, one Tony Abbott, seized on this variation and was able to label her a ‘liar’.

The Blowfly’s Oxford dictionary defines a lie as ‘a statement the speaker knows to be untrue’.

The reality of this situation is that when Julia Gillard set her policy on the table she was committed to no carbon tax during her reign. This would be consistent with her previous views and advice to Kevin Rudd on this matter.See also http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/taxing-the-truth-why-we-must-not-let-abbotts-dogmas-lie-20120706-21mlz.html#ixzz1zzQ5wJd

However, a clever Rhodes Scholar, very familiar with the work of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels since his university days ,was able to turn Gillard’s change of direction into a ‘lie’ and by simply repeating it often enough, many Australians have been encouraged to label Julia Gillard as a liar. And with the assistance of Alan Jones many Australians now taunt her as ‘Juliar’.

Then there is the reality of the promoter of this line.

Tony Abbott has access to a dictionary and would’ve used it on a few occasions during his tertiary study.

It is, by The Blowfly’s reckoning, Tony Abbott who has told the lie and is the liar.

He has either promulgated a statement about Julia Gillard that he knows to be untrue OR he does not know the difference between what is a lie and what is the truth.

If he is a Rhodes Scholar we would need to give him some credit for being able to use a dictionary.

So is it possible that our Opposition Leader does not know the difference between what is a lie and what is the truth?

The Blowfly humbly submits there is some evidence for this.

Let’s return to the carbon tax.

Abbott has maintained that the carbon tax will be the death of our economy. He has visited all manner of businesses around Australia pushing this line. His shock-jock ally Alan Jones has supported this claim.

Abbott has said that Whyalla will be wiped off the map. He has talked in terms of a ‘cobra strike’ and a ‘python squeeze’. His oratory has been indeed colorful.

But all the time he has been saying this we have the Treasury telling us that it is going to be insignificant.

As time goes on it is apparent that the carbon tax will not cause the sky to fall in and that Tony Abbott has been filling our heads with ----dare I say it---lies.

The Treasury estimated the impact of the GST accurately and there is no reason to believe that they would get the carbon tax wrong.

But for some reason Abbott has taken a position at odds with Treasury and has been able to promulgate this view widely in the community---with the help of his shock-jock friends!

If Treasury is wrong then I suppose we could acknowledge that Abbott had not lied to us.

But Treasury appears to possess a better reputation and track record for predicting these things than politicians of either persuasion. Sure Treasury is not perfect, but overall, we would have some level of confidence in them to get these matters right.

So, to my simple brain, the reality seems to be that Abbott has promulgated a lie and may therefore be called a liar.

…………………………………………………………….

Abbott has also been known to say that ‘this is the worst government ever’.

He repeats it just as Goebbels would’ve. The theory is that if you repeat it often enough then people might start believing it. His shock-jock friends also repeat it frequently.

But here we have a minority government that has passed approximately 380 pieces of legislation since they came to power!

Now you don’t do that if you are the ‘worst government ever’.

If you had a majority like Campbell Newman, has in Queensland, where getting legislation through is a fait accompli, then you might have all the circumstances necessary to become ‘the worst government ever’.

However when you are a minority government you have to garner the support of members outside your party to get your legislation through the Parliament.

This the Gillard government has done.

Weaving a pathway through the views and interests of the Independents and the Greens means that the legislative program has obtained wider cultural support than a majority government would’ve needed.

The reality is that the process of government has had to be truer to democratic principles than probably ever before in Australia’s history.

And as Steve Bracks has pointed out recently this governmenthas got some significant reforms across the line. These include

·      The establishment of a national broadband network with a view to being a leader in world-wide connectivity

·      Pricing carbon emissions with a view to moving Australia towards a more sustainable economic future

·      Reallocating the proceeds of our mineral wealth around the community

·      Rehashing the mechanisms and formulas for funding education so that Australia might generate the skills it needs for a growing economy

·      Creating a national disability insurance scheme

Now while it is true that not everyone in the community might support these reforms the reality is that they have come into being through a hung parliament.

It is reasonable to say that this government must be quite a reasonable government in that it is able to muster the parliamentary support it needs to pass its legislation.

That is the reality!

Again we might then observe that Tony Abbott is a liar.

He is making statements that he knows to be untrue.

……………………………………………………………………

We then revert to the future of our country.

Tony Abbott has continually described our economy as weak ----except when he travelled to the UK.

The reality is that our economy is quite strong.

Now here is the rub.

Abbott is continuing to troll the line that everything the government proposes would ruin our economy but everything the Opposition does will strengthen it.

The Government rightly or wrongly has committed to balancing our budget quickly.

In order to do that it has sought to make some savings in the Defence area.

Abbott has criticized these as not being in the national interest.

Again The Blowfly’s simple brain figures that in the event we are not at war with any nation we might re-allocate some resources to some of the areas where we are otherwise at war----especially economic war!

We need more skills to man our mining industry. We need to find ways of supplying the growing Asian economies. We need to find ways of developing new technologies that we might be able to sell to the rest of the world. And we need to do all this with an ageing economy.

As well we need to be able to deal with the enormous costs of using fossil fuels as our energy needs double and treble and our population increases.

But Abbott last week “committed an Abbott government to restoring defence spending back to 3% real growth per year, subject to improvements in the budget.”

The reality is that his promise does not mean a thing.

The Opposition, in reality, has not got a clue as to how they will fund all the promises Abbott has made.

And in any event he can ditch those promises “should budget circumstances dictate”.

The reality is that Abbott is simply doing and promising what he can to get votes.

He is hoping that Australians are, in the majority, dills.

Abbott is hoping that we are not good at deciding what is reality and what is fantasy.

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And now for one of the finest lies of all!

Abbott continually refers to asylum-seekers who come by boat as ‘illegal immigrants’.

Jon Faine on the ABC has challenged him on this. Julian Burnside QC has challenged him on this. But he continues in this vein.

The reality is that it is not illegal to seek asylum.

The Opposition leader also talks about this problem in terms of ‘border protection’.

This term is normally associated with invasion.

Remember the bombing of Darwin. We needed border protection there.

Do these people come bearing arms? No!

So again the reality is that it is the Opposition leader who is promulgating a lie.

And he knows exactly what he is doing.

He is trying to change the perceptions of numerous realities that Australians face in order to get our votes.

We might be a bit dim (as Barry Jones once inferred), but hopefully not that dim!

That reality would indeed be unacceptable.

Even for an insect!

Barnaby Joyce: The Purveyor of a Fine Illusion

The Blowfly is continually amazed by the capacities of Queenslanders to create illusions.

Bob Katter has created the illusion that he is a saviour of the State and quite capable of preserving all the inherently beautiful things associated with a world where telephones were the most effective form of communication.

Kevin Rudd managed to fool the ALP and the Australian public into believing that he was the Messiah and could lead Queenslanders from the wilderness.

And not to forget Joh Bjelke-Petersen who was able to create the illusion that he knew best----until the brown paper bags and other minor corruptions turned up!

And now there is Barnaby Joyce!

Keen to obtain a seat in the lower house of Federal Parliament our Barnaby has managed to capture the debate about the sale of Cubbie Station and turn it into an election campaign for himself.

The illusion is that he cares about who owns this farming property and whether it would be in the national interest to sell to Chinese and Japanese interests.

The illusion is that he cares about the local community.

But that is the best part of the illusion!

The Blowfly loves rotting carcases. They are dead. The only activity is that of maggots. No sign of economic activity however!

And so it would be with Cubbie.

If it is left to rot then the employment it creates will be lost.

The purchasing in the local community of supplies will be lost.

And all the economic flow-on effects!

As well farmers have been told for yonks ‘to get big or get out’.

So Cubbie is big. Very big!

Too big for any Australian business to buy with a view to profit.

So Barnaby suggests it may be an option to break it up and make it smaller and less viable.

And this comes from an accountant!

And he says he knows best what is in the national interest.

Wrong!

Barnaby knows what is in his interests.

He knows that to portray himself of the saviour of rural Queensland will ensure that he gets the support he needs to enter the House of Representatives.

The Coalition is quite happy to see interests in non-renewable mining resources sold to overseas interests but not renewable resources like farms.

“Oh dearie me “, as my late grandmother used to say, how hypocritical.

And then we have the Liberal Party wimpering at the sight of Barnaby doing his thing.

Abbott disagreeing with Barnaby but not flagellating him.

Hockey flagellating him but not landing the knock-out punch!

The truth behind the illusion is that they want Barnaby in because he will ensure the Queensland vote.

The Coalition is not stupid.

They just look stupid.

Still another illusion?

The Challenges of Being Tony Abbott's Guardian Angel

The Blowfly would like you to stretch your minds and imagine that you in a peculiar sort of purgatory.

You have had many past lives and you are presently serving time as a Guardian Angel.

This involves guiding and nurturing and, sometimes, an unbelievable wincing as your charge goes completely against a universal law or a simple principle that you managed to get implanted into their brain by a well-meaning intermediary-----perhaps a mum, a school teacher or even a parish priest!

As a Guardian Angel you are also aware that being stretched by your charge is also part of the game.

You are still learning as are they.

But presently you are really up against a wall.

You seem to have inordinate difficult teaching your charge that he should not tell lies.

As background, The Blowfly can advise that your charge is possessed of a strong Catholic background.

There was a time when you would’ve happily delegated lessons on telling the truth to the nuns.

But your charge mystically seems to have been insulated from that lesson.

You were hopeful that in high school his Catholic surroundings and a gentle introduction to the views of the Jesuits would’ve started the delicate shaping of his mind in the direction you had planned.

But still your charge maintained a remarkable ability to insulate himself from the benefits of telling the truth.

At University your charge excelled academically but showed even more resistance to the value of telling the truth. He also developed a few other traits which caused you concern.

He showed an interest in politics.

This was particularly troubling because you knew that if he ventured in this direction his appreciation of the benefits for  being truthful would never eventuate.

You breathed a sigh of relief when he chose to join the priesthood and serve the Creator.

At last you felt there was a hope that he might amount to something and possibly also contribute to the betterment of mankind----and for that matter Australia!

You did wonder how he would trim his interest in women and his tendency to treat them with disdain. You were also a little concerned about how he would deal with his streak of bully-boy which had developed in his latter years at university.

But hell, this is a loving Universe, and it works in mysterious ways, and after all as a mere Guardian Angel what would you know!

Then your plans for him started to unravel rather unfortunately.

He left the priesthood and started a career in journalism.

It was then that you became suspicious that other powerful dark forces at work in this Universe were interested in your charge.

You came to understand that this other force was countering all your best efforts.

This other force was not to be trifled with.

You became aware that you may’ve lost your charge to the dark forces but you never gave up.

You saw your charge get a Federal seat, become a Minister and then become Leader of the Opposition.

Then one day he found himself as the leader of an opposition in a hung parliament.

His day had indeed come!

Your charge became very effective as the Opposition leader by keeping it simple.

He was able to take changes in circumstances and portray them as lies. He used 3-word slogans very effectively. He massaged the media with aplomb.

He was on track to become Prime Minister.

And then your day came!

The day when you would be able to seize your charge from the clutches of the dark forces.

Your charge went one morning to confession in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney.

He found himself extremely troubled.

“Father, father I have sinned”, he began.

“My son’” the priest said, “what could possibly be troubling you so much?”

“Father, I have lied to the people of Australia for my own political gain. I told them that the carbon tax would cause the Australian economy to be decimated.”

“In my heart I knew that it would not be because I knew that Treasury would get the calculations right and that no public servant would let any reform through that would decimate the economy because their jobs would be on the line.”

“And, father, I just don’t seem to be able to stop with this lie.”

“Power prices are going up and I’m blaming it all on the carbon tax. I know that is not the reason.”

“And I’m starting to look like a straw man because my own energy minister and Malcolm Turnbull have both effectively caught me out.”

“Oh dearie me, father, what am I to do?”

You as his Guardian Angel know that this is your moment.

You use your best telepathic powers to get the correct response into the priest’s head.

It was going to be along the following lines:

“The Creator forgives all sins, my son, providing you are repentant and you work within the light going forward. You will need to commit yourself to telling the truth from this point on. Because once you tell a lie you will find that you have to tell another to cover the first one up. And so on and so on.”

At that point you experienced a great degree of static and you realized that the dark force was also in the priest’s head.

The words that came from the priest’s mouth were not yours.

“My son”, said the priest, “you will find that you will be able to cover up the truth for a long time.”

“If you want to have the levers of power you should persist with your current strategy-----but you might have to make the lies bigger!”

It was then that you, Tony Abbott’s Guardian Angel, realized that the embrace of the Catholic Church had not been of benefit to your charge.

For some reason the Dalai Lama came into your head and that thought has been there ever since.

Your charge, bless his soul, needed more Dalai Lama and less George Pell!

But, as we all know, life is a bitch, and we don’t always get what we need!

Or do we?