Alright, I was having a little joke when I suggested on 21 June 2011 that Wayne Swan would replace Julia Gillard as prime minister. Now Andrew Bolt thinks Swan might replace Gillard. Perhaps it is Wayne’s time to shine?
Joe Hockey is right to be concerned about Swan’s increasingly stupid stunts, which as Judith Sloan has also noted
I’m also OK with popular music. But I am not sure that I am about to use the mainly vacuous lyrics of Bruce Springsteen or Cold Chisel (two of Wayne’s favourites) as guiding principles for my thinking on public policy. For the life of me, I can’t see how cheap wine and a three-day growth is either inspirational or instructive.
Is Julia Gillard taking up photography as a post-Prime Ministerial profession?
So, dear readers, prepare to leave the country quickly as Wayne Swan uses the opportunity of acting prime minister to stage a coup against Julia Gillard. I’m sure his first policy will be the de-billionaireisation of Australia.
So my timeline might not be such a stretch. Gillard, Swan, Rudd and then finally Abbott as the people extract their revenge.
As it happens, Gillard is on holidays somewhere in Cairns/Port Douglas. Perhaps she’s also taking a few snaps looking for a new career in photography? Alright, stop laughing, I know it would never suit her – photography is an honest profession.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 4:18 pm
What a prize dork.
If there’s anything more shameful than liking Bruce Springsteen it’s an old flabby armed man wearing a t-shirt and jeans.
Infidel Tiger
1 Aug 12 at 4:20 pm
Seriously, I’d love Shane to become PM. No honestly it would a hysterically funny choice if it came to that. But it won’t because they couldn’t afford the number of resignations when that is announced.
I’d love to see him as PM though…. and if anyone thought it wouldn’t get any worse, just watch him.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 4:25 pm
I love it when he tries to get angry, when someone tells him he should. He and Emmo must have some pretty shite conversations.
Tiny Dancer
1 Aug 12 at 4:29 pm
Sorry Wayne
Pickles
1 Aug 12 at 4:32 pm
I’m guessing if W. Swan became PM,
K.Rudd would resign and there’d be a by-election.
anyway, she’s not budging.
candy
1 Aug 12 at 4:32 pm
When he’s lying or trying to make some shallow or misleading point he always jerks his puny little body around as though it helps him. Watch him next time. It’s a scream. I always get a great belly laugh.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 4:36 pm
Shane’s a low-rent party hack promoted well beyond his abilities.
Many have surmised that he must have the dirt on a few power-brokers but that implies the power-brokers could spot and encourage talent.
It’s stupidity not evil conniving that seen him promoted
He could bring even more shame on Labor and the country beyond the damage done by Gillard and Rudd should he become PM.
JamesK
1 Aug 12 at 4:37 pm
I’m assuming this is a nightmare and I’m gonna wake up and it will be 2.57 am, and bloody cold outside.
.
1 Aug 12 at 4:41 pm
Just look at the little jerking moron trying to spin the 10 election as though the Liars Party performed really well.
Watch how crest fallen he gets when he’s called out for being a thorough idiot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1BUVCdKJ2Y
JC
1 Aug 12 at 4:44 pm
JC and the downwards pointing finger – in interviews he always starts jabbing at the table like he is vigorously finger painting. Always with the right hand.
Brc
1 Aug 12 at 4:45 pm
I find it hard to believe he even has the hide to deliver a lecture named after a very good man John Button.Button was just pint sized but a man of real heart. Our watering hole for Friday afternoons in the Dept was called The Button Hole. JB came to officially open it.
Mother G
1 Aug 12 at 4:50 pm
this Govt is a joke
We’d be better off being governed by a bunch of Union heavies
Oh wait …
Do they all like music …
maybe we could teach them a different tune
…
val majkus
1 Aug 12 at 4:56 pm
World’s Greatest Treasurer. Then again, Yasser Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ivan Denisovich
1 Aug 12 at 5:01 pm
are we going to have adults in charge of this country again …. ever?
Sigh … and what business experience does Bruce Springsteen have …
val majkus
1 Aug 12 at 5:07 pm
Pickles
Ill see your guitar and raise you one..
Wanes speech could be enhanced by the same treatment.
I read his “speech” over on the drum.. Its a straw man constructed of song quotes and fantasy, Swan really is a lightweight wanker.
Eg: “Oooh evil Gina is buying influence”, but somehow missing the glaring fact of a media witch hunt run by the government.
thefrollickingmole
1 Aug 12 at 5:12 pm
If the goose does become PM, there won’t be a poll bounce, it will be a cliff, straight to single figure territory.
TheMissingLink
1 Aug 12 at 5:17 pm
Whenever I think of Wayne Swan the song which comes to mind is Ship of Fools…Save me from tomorrow. I don’t want to sail with this ship of fools Oh Whoa Whoa…
Skuter
1 Aug 12 at 5:18 pm
Wrecking Ball
We Take Care of Our Own
Red Headed Woman
One Step Up
Mansion On The Hill
Local Hero
Johnny Bye Bye
I’m Goin’ Down
Glory Days
Easy Money
Dancing In The Dark
Better Days
Backstreets
Just going by the song titles I can see how Woine would be attracted to Bruce’s songs.
Deep thinker, our Woine. Real deep.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 5:31 pm
All Tony needs to do is say “look (as he so often does)
, Swan is anti-aspiration. Any Australian who wants to get anywhere in this nation is going to be ridiculed by the Treasurer or now Prime Minister and should take their positive designs/contributions and leave.”
Lysander Spooner
1 Aug 12 at 5:32 pm
The question is could a Simon Crean save more furniture than a Rudd, Swan or Gillard?
The answer is the best reason why Gillard will still be PM.
That and she absolutely will not do the honourable thing and step aside.
She and her supporters are no servants of Labor.
Gillard and the lemmings who have supported her a year longer than they should have – not Abbott – are Labor’s destructive imperative
JamesK
1 Aug 12 at 5:41 pm
The Goose as PM could be the icing on this shit sandwich the Gillard Green alliance have been trying to pass off as a government.
Labor are so totally stuffed and bereft of judgement you couldn’t rule it out.
H B Bear
1 Aug 12 at 5:42 pm
James
The head honcho of the ACTU said if Gillard was replaced the union would withhold funding for Labor campaign at the next election. He said Gillard was to stay in the job.
The leader of the country has spoken and it will be thus.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 5:44 pm
Lindsay Tanner could have, but he pulled the pin and then drooped the chance to give them a good kicking which might have done them some good.
I think Swan would be excellent
Pickles
1 Aug 12 at 5:45 pm
This is what Wayne really wanted to say (hopefully with his “tongue” firmly in cheek).
stu
1 Aug 12 at 5:50 pm
heh heh, nice one Stu.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 5:53 pm
The question is – will we have to suffer this fool after he’s deposed at the next election (ala Peter Beattie) or will he disappear quietly into the night (ala Andrew Peacock)
Somehow I think he will be drawn to the luvvy crowd – opening writers festivals to the strains of Bruce Springsteen and ‘worlds greatest treasurer’ announcements, turning up at the cricket.
Please, Wayne, go home and listen to Springsteen in your bedroom by yourself.
brc
1 Aug 12 at 6:12 pm
Bill Ludwig and the union hacks backing the likes of son Joe and Shane are indeed the destructive force in Labor.
The ALP and the unions need to formally divorce, Gab.
JamesK
1 Aug 12 at 6:19 pm
But from where would they pick the up and comers, James? No. It will never happen, The Unions started the ALP and that’s the way they’ll stay forever and unhappily ever after.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 6:24 pm
That is exactly the sort of prick he is. Working people have to get up in the morning, but Swannie keeps them awake by blasting shitty Springsteen music at them.
Dangph
1 Aug 12 at 6:44 pm
You know, the more I think about it, the more I want it to happen. This guy has been one of the chief architects of the many achievements of the Rudd/Gillard era, but as he was not PM, he will not receive he proper recognition in the history books. So, Swan for PM!
Entropy
1 Aug 12 at 6:47 pm
I can’t believe that both 9 and 10 had a news item about Swan getting his inspiration from Sprinsteen. Talk about fiddling while OZ burns.
Biota
1 Aug 12 at 6:50 pm
Swan cartoons
The Moronic Lodge
1 Aug 12 at 7:06 pm
On the contrary.
If the pride of Nambour High, with his certificate of participation in Public Administration became PM, he’d be the ultimate symbol of aspiration.
For a generation, children with an abiding penchant for inserting crayons deep into their nasal cavities would know that they too have what it takes to become prime minister.
lotocoti
1 Aug 12 at 7:12 pm
The fact that Swan is doing a musically themed presentation and he has voluntarily given a heads up of this impending event, he must believe Skyhooks and Emerson was a masterstroke combo.
Not even Gillard would chose to do that.
DavidJ
1 Aug 12 at 7:32 pm
A new Swanism in that
wankpresentation ” sustistics “.Sustistics = suspect statistics.
Jumpnmcar
1 Aug 12 at 7:38 pm
C’mon, mAury and SoB.
Swan is a great example to gloat how genius the Gillard government is and that you lot are stupid.
DavidJ
1 Aug 12 at 7:42 pm
Lol. It would be great to see the little prick in the top job. God how we can dream.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 7:48 pm
I suspect John Button is spinning like a rotisserie right about now.
JamesK
1 Aug 12 at 7:50 pm
Button and others like him were serious players. I disagreed with the Carmakers support thing, but it was well tailored in its own way.
In a just world, Shane should be picking up their laundry.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 7:52 pm
Button car plan. The antithesis of shaneism
JamesK
1 Aug 12 at 7:56 pm
The thing with the Button plan was that they handed over money, but wanted serious reform in return.
Now they just hand over the money and ask for a photo-op with some dudes in fluoro vests, and don’t care if they close the plant the week after.
I agree – Swan for PM. I really hope it happens.
Nothing could encapsulate the entire disaster of 5 years of Labor rule more than ending it off with that lightweight.
brc
1 Aug 12 at 8:02 pm
A Goose by any other name is still a G O O S E !!
Jazza
1 Aug 12 at 8:24 pm
No.
No, God, No!
Rabz
1 Aug 12 at 8:24 pm
On looking at that video Mr Swan comes across as modest, unassuming, ordinary. the underdog of the ALP, a family man.
i guess that’s what he’s aiming at portraying right now, but there’s another side to him.
candy
1 Aug 12 at 8:35 pm
Oh Lord, I hope not.
The Red Barren is bad enough.
But THAT toerag?
Mk50 of Brisbane
1 Aug 12 at 8:37 pm
His car, its a dud, all stuck in the mud, in a swamp down in Jersey.
A bit like the Labor party, really.
blogstrop
1 Aug 12 at 8:41 pm
Joe Hockey should announce that Wagner is his political inspiration.
Infidel Tiger
1 Aug 12 at 8:47 pm
More (and more correctly quoted) from “Rosalita” – back when it was Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band and most Australians didn’t know he existed:
Hold on tight, stay up all night ’cause Rosie I’m comin’ on strong
By the time we meet the morning light I will hold you in my arms
I know a pretty little place in Southern California down San Diego way
There’s a little cafe where they play guitars all night and day
You can hear them in the back room strummin’
So hold tight baby ’cause don’t you know daddy’s comin’
(Something’s comin’, and the back room may have somethin’ to do with it)
blogstrop
1 Aug 12 at 8:49 pm
If we have to have a Labor government for the near term, then I want Swannie to be PM.
Nothing would be more sure to absolutely spiflicate the Labor vote into single figures. Even the rusted on retards who STILL prefer them, despite their actively seeking to ruin the country, would give up in disgust. The unspeakable ALP would be gonski forever.
Please please please make it so.
Dandy Warhol
1 Aug 12 at 8:50 pm
GO SWAN! YEEEEEAAAAAAH!
Hahahahahahaha! Oh this is the funniest cluster****k ever. if only it was happening to someone else.
By the time we’re done, the ALP party room janitor will be the PM.
wreckage
1 Aug 12 at 9:24 pm
An’ I’m goin’ down…
wreckage
1 Aug 12 at 9:28 pm
Much more appropriate. He should add AC/DC to his list.
wreckage
1 Aug 12 at 9:29 pm
Only a Swan Prime Ministership could make the Liar’s term in the Lodge seem like the good times.
johno
1 Aug 12 at 10:04 pm
Wow. Sinclair linked to this and not sure how many people have seen it. It’s really worth watching Hockey body slam the mental midget, Shane Wand. It’s just great how he treats the little prick with total and utter contempt in a uniquely dismissive way.
http://video.theaustralian.com.au/2262594288/Hockey-Rock-music-no-guiding-principle
Very good short speech and brilliant answers too I reckon.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 10:09 pm
LOL “Might as well have Glenn A. Baker and Molly Meldrum run the country. And they’d do a far better job”.
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 10:15 pm
Joe the amiable greengrocer is rubbish. Joe the nightclub bouncer might be better.
Pickles
1 Aug 12 at 10:22 pm
That’s very good. Didn’t think old joe could manage it.
entropy
1 Aug 12 at 10:22 pm
He must really hate how people always pick on him about his smarts and that he’s not up to it. I think it really gets to him.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 10:23 pm
Ok, it’s official, I now hate Bruce Springsteen. Just a reminder, New Jersey was destroyed by the social engineering, big government, high taxing, big spending Democrats. Then Bruce, being the intellectual heavyweight that he is, blames the Republicans.
Springsteen’s epic question from ‘The River’ is the ultimate line for the Left:
‘Now those memories come back to haunt me,
Haunt me like a ghost.
Is a dream a lie if it doesn’t come true?
Or is it something worse?’
For Australia, and everyone destroyed by the Leftie dream, the answer is: it is something worse!
By the way that photo of Wayne in the 70s suit reminds of an earlier line in ‘the River’
‘for my nineteenth birthday I got a union card and a wedding coat,
We went down to the courthouse and the judge put it all to rest,
No walk down the aisles no wedding days smiles,
No bras no wedding dress.’
Mainly the union card bit.
In Bruce Springsteen’s America no one ever succeeds, there is no triumph, just the grinding, destructive poverty of the American dream in song………which allows Bruce to live the life of the 0.1% of uber rich Americans. Hypocrite, like Wayne!
John Comnenus
1 Aug 12 at 10:28 pm
Perhaps Woine, like Emerson, is going through a mid-life crisis?
Gab
1 Aug 12 at 10:30 pm
They can see their careers coming to an end Gab. All Emerson will be able to say is that he got on TV a few times. He got a root though.
Pickles
1 Aug 12 at 10:37 pm
Maybe we can get Niki Minaj to influence our border policy, and I’m interested to hear what Katy Perry has to say about industrial relations. Such a shame Amy Winehouse is no longer around to inspire our health policy.
big dumb fu
1 Aug 12 at 10:40 pm
No, the deceitful little prick has one thing going for him. He seems to really posses a rat like cunning so he knows when death is close at hand. He knows he’s going to lose. He’s trying like hell to hold on -doing anything and saying anything in the hope they can hold government, keep his seat and maintain his perks.
It’s fun watching him squirm.
JC
1 Aug 12 at 10:42 pm
Perhaps the most apt composition I can find from Bruce’s collected works is “Red Headed Woman”
The chorus goes …..
Well brunettes are fine man
And blondes are fun
But when it comes to getting a dirty job done
I’ll take a red headed woman
A red headed woman
It takes a red headed woman
To get a dirty job done
It reminds me of someone … just can’t for the life of me recall who
Leigh Lowe
1 Aug 12 at 10:52 pm
Looks like a “proof of life” video.
Econocrat
1 Aug 12 at 10:54 pm
Oh sad little man, he’s trying to relive his ‘glory days’. However, I think he and the rest of his front bench members are still scared of the ‘Red Headed Woman’. She ain’t going nowhere.
delfino
1 Aug 12 at 11:57 pm
Completely incoherrent speech. So the lower tax rates especially company tax is doing bad things for us is it? Lower government expenditure is bad? Running up debt is good? On the one hand Swan is saying we have got it right here by having lower taxes and smaller government and on the other saying we should increase the size and scope of government.
No recognition of the main factors in my opinion of the US failing with everything duplicated in federal and state, even income taxes and debt the most serious issue. One good thing the US has created by having no tax offshore for investments unless money is repatriated is great multinationals.
The duplication issue is the most serious issue in Australia at the moment (debt could be but looks like is under control at the moment) with the feds getting involved in stupid ways with education and health and environment already duplicated. This is bi-partisan policy of continuous government expansion.
kelly liddle
2 Aug 12 at 1:23 am
If there is one thing unionist know how to do that is to demark areas of responsibility and they should be experts at making sure there is never any service duplicated by state and federal governments.
kelly liddle
2 Aug 12 at 1:27 am
Swanee left it too late for his tilt at the leadership – he needs a year in the big chair to get the staffing and chauffeur perks.
Too bad, so sad.
Winston SMITH
2 Aug 12 at 5:30 am
Winston he can still crack a year, just, if he goes now.
And to think that ALP ‘intellectual’ (oxymoron alert) told us the media was dumbing down politics. Crikey, in the words of Cold Chisel, Wayne: ‘you got nothing I want, you got nothing I need.’
John Comnenus
2 Aug 12 at 7:09 am
Judith Sloan yesterday in the Oz: ‘If I were to nominate a modern song that does contain a useful message, it would be The Gambler’.
A ‘modern song’, as in Kenny Rogers, 1978?
For dignity’s sake, perhaps everyone over 30 should avoid pop music references?!
James In Footscray
2 Aug 12 at 7:22 am
Well maybe Judith was using the Gambler because the protagonist in the story is ‘…on a train bound for nowhere…’ just like Australia under engine drivers Gillard and Swan.
John Comnenus
2 Aug 12 at 10:12 am
“Vacuous” is not an apt summary of the work of Springsteen and Don Walker, originators of two of popular music’s more worthy catalogues of lyrics, but it’s both shamelessly populist, and drawing a long bow, to attempt to relate them to Australia’s current political and economic climate.
Ron The Bear
3 Aug 12 at 12:11 pm