This is how Peter Smith starts his article, “Loud, low and thoroughly loathsome”, which you may find at Quadrant Online:
I hadn’t seen Julia Gillard’s ‘misogyny’ speech, just read about it. I thought I better see it for myself. You have to actually see it to understand the bile that she spewed out. It was vituperative; it personified the ugliest face of human nature. I felt strangely diminished and degraded when it was finished. It was beyond disgraceful, even taking into account the grossest of insults and invective that have been hurled in the past across the parliamentary chambers. It had no redeeming feature, no moment of common humanity. She demeaned the high office of prime minister.
Well, to be honest, I hadn’t seen it either but I have now. I would put it up for anyone in the fortunate position of also never having heard this rant before but if you’ve read about it that should be plenty good enough. But it was extraordinary and if people in her vicinity are found looking at their watch, I am not surprised. My approach is to dive for the remote as soon as the PM comes on the set, but obviously if you are in Parliament or sitting with her at dinner these are options not open at the time. But as I think of this government, so they think of sitting and listening to her. Will this never end?
So here it is, Prime Minister. We need your help. Please lay out for the rest of us exactly in what way it is appropriate to say to you that we think you are wrecking the country with your economic policies, wasteful public expenditure, rising levels of debt, absence of border protection, carbon and mining taxes and everything else. Since you appear to take these criticisms as a reflection of our dyed-in-the-wool misogyny, please provide instructions for us so that we can do it in a way that:
(a) makes it clear why we think your government is the worst government in Australian history
BUT
(b) does it in a way that does not make you think we are saying it because you are a woman.
A tricky one, I can see, since you never seem to be able to make this distinction. But if you put together an impartial committee of some sort – let me suggest Plibersek, Roxon and Milne – we could get to the bottom of this. Here is something you could actually do that might assist us out here in getting through to you why we think in the way we do.
Her critics are always wrong. She is always right. We all must accept this.
Who is Steve Kates to lecture anyone about anything?
when Tony Abbot , said she was a piece of works.he hit the nail on the head ,she is the worst of the worst in my memory ,no other person has demeaned the office of the Prime Minister as she has. The other comment I noticed said she is always right. that person is correct .every one should read PEOPLE OF THE LIE THE HOPE FOR HEALING HUMAN EVIL.WRITTEN M SCOTT PECK M.D.. IT WILL EXPLAIN THIS PERSON,the Prime Minister of Australia
I quite liked her until that parliamentary rant got reported on.
mUnty the mussel pops up to give us our daily dose of inane bullshit. Oh how fortunate that he interrupted eating his cake just for us.
Tell us honestly musselmeat, is there anything that Julia could do that would make you criticise her? Or do you think she’s perfect? I’d wager that she could club a baby to death on live TV and you’d still defend her. It’s pathetic.
You add nothing to a thread. Why do you bother?
I feel that way whenever I have the (inevitably very brief) misfortune of hearing that abominable nasal monodrone.
Which thankfully, is rarely, if ever.
Well we kept asking to see the Real Julia – now we have.
Then you sir, are a shallow, ignorant buffoon.
Evidence of her lying, unethical behaviour has been on show for years.
did you finish those cream buns m0ron?
Indeed it has. So has her hopeless policy making skills. Medicare gold was the most notable. But since she’s been PM, everything she’s touched has turned to shit. Yet she and her followers think she’s just awesome and it is just bad luck that nothing has worked. Her lack of self-awareness is astounding…
BWAHAHAHAA…. funniest thing I’ve read all year
Skuter
She is unlucky. Apparently Napoleon used to ask of generals, “Is he lucky?”.
She is unlucky. Almost incredibly. I suspect the problem is in part that, like too many Labor figures today, she got her job for the wrong reasons.
Well said. Ms Gillard has had enough and was justified in hitting back at Tony Abbott. Of course the vituperation heaped on her was because she’s a woman. She is being grossly bullied by the Right.
Male leaders are not bullied in this vile way.
Steve, the only vacinity is beween your ears.
Stick to economics, or find an editor.
This is the second time this week you’ve made a fool of yourself.
Actually he hasn’t. I doubt anyone can beat your record of making a fool of themselves anyway; every comment you make.
I owe her a debt of gratitude every time I hear her dulcet tones I turn her off and rediscover my love of music . Metallica and Guns and Roses are like honey to my ears after listening to her.
I’m a woman of comparable age to Gillard and I’m more than happy to call PM Gillard out and tell her here and now that…
“I think you are wrecking the country with your economic policies, wasteful public expenditure, rising levels of debt, absence of border protection, carbon and mining taxes and everything else.”
p.s. I also reckon you are a home-wrecking, husband-stealing harpy unfit to be Prime Minister of this or any other country. Can you please go away now and let us have an election.
I know an adult literacy class that might help….
you must have been a fucking awful teacher you cretin
Another adage is that you make your own luck. Good policy produces its own results; indifferent policy sold well is tolerated. This lamentable excuse for a politician foists bad or indifferent policy upon us and refuses to prepare or educate the electorate- little wonder when the voters reject it and take her to task. She is not just “unlucky” ; she is lazy and incompetent.
I strongly suggest you attend.
She is unlucky. Apparently Napoleon used to ask of generals, “Is he lucky?”.
Irrelevant metaphor. Was Napoleon lucky?
No, Gillard isn’t unlucky. She was chronically over-rated before she rolled Rudd and took office – to the point that many around here, including myself, thought her Prime Ministerial performance would be far, far superior to what it has been. Her sheer incompetence has been, frankly, shocking. She finds herself in the predicament she’s in today due to a series of decisions that she made. If she’s unlucky, well it must be because these were made by flipping coins or throwing darts at a board of policy options.
Do you believe this to be the case, Julian, or do you think she’s simply chief knucklehead leading a cabal of knuckleheads, and the result of this toxic stew of incompetence is the dreadful state of affairs in Canberra at present.
Unlucky? That’s, to be as charitable as possible, an extremely naive explanation of the PM’s performance to date.
Fuck off agent orange,.you supercilious git.
I think the Left’s problem is that they have bad policies, on the whole. They are often clever people, but there is a limit to what you can do to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.
And yes, you do “make your own luck” in a sense. But I also think she is “accident prone”. And chance does play a part.
I think she feels that she should have done better, and she takes her frustrations out on men in general. It is an ugly sight.
The irony is that she has survived because of the extraordinary tolerance of Australians, who have turned a blind eye to her peculiar personal history and arrangements. And yet she wants to put Tony Abbott’s personality to a forensic examination. It bears out what I have long suspected: the Left want tolerance until they get into power, and then they start being intolerant themselves.
She has survived because she formed a government after the last election. It’s called the Westminister System.
Julian, you can’t be serious? How were the Malaysia solution, the Australia day riot, the BER waste, the live cattle ban, the carbon tax lie, the abortion that is the MRRT, the Slipper affair, Rudd’s knifing, the Fair Work Act, etc., etc., bad luck?
Everything that has happened to her is her own doing. The unintended consequences were largely predicted. Instead of owning up to her mistakes and showing some contrition, she blames everyone else.
You’re right that chance does play a part, but what you’ve said directly above is very different from your initial assertion that her utterly dismal and frequently mendacious performance in office can be put down to her being unlucky.
To my mind, luck plays a very, very small role in the Julia Gillard story. And, to my mind, the cards she’s been dealt have often been good. Pity she plays them so awfully. That’s not bad luck. That’s artlessness.
Ah, our resident pedant Numbers is back with his red pen and his favourite word, ‘sic’.
I wonder if he’s mastered the complex art of blockquoting yet?
Pro tip: knowledge of basic HTML not required…just need to highlight the text you want to quote and push the button.
She has a range of problems:
Bad and unworkable policies.
A bad political situation with no safe majority.
Being an affirmative action choice.
Having a bitter rival in a position to do her damage.
Bad luck.
And Julian, there is no one on the political left that is ‘clever’. They only think they are clever. When reality whacks them in the face, it is apparently just ‘bad luck’ and misogyny, racism, etc. When the political left in Australia has been successful (i.e. Hawke-Keating), it came through the adoption of right wing ideas…
I didn’t realise he was. Perhaps you could point out where in this post he was lecturing somebody. Anybody.
Incidentally, m0nster, you might want to have a read of an excerpt from a bio of Dr Kates:
Hrm. In light of the above, your question takes on additional shades of stupid.
But then again, maybe you’re just unlucky.
You say she’s unlucky then you correctly identify she is a fraud. Which is it?
No, I think many on the Left are clever. It is a shame that so much of their ability is misdirected.
Are you saying that these are examples of bad luck, or are they various reasons as to why she finds herself in her present predicament. If it is the latter, please rank them in order of importance. If it is the former…well…we’re going to have some fun.
Which is it, sir? One can’t have their smoked mussel and eat it too, sir.
Julian, tripping over and face planting is bad luck. None of what you listed is bad luck. None at all…
There has never been such an Incompetant pack of overpromoted clowns ruling at Westminster! Kim Beazleys Dad Was more correct than he thought ,when he called the present alp “Loidrs” the scum of the lower middle class! How True How Very True!how these Bastards Ever Got Through University ? Show s how LOW Standards have SUNK. DEFUND THEM.
She has a range of problems.
Her failure is, as philosophers say, overdetermined.
Why is it that people of the left are great at coming up with all sorts of grand schemes but given the chance to do something their criminally inept.Could it be genetic.If so could we just set up coffee shops and keep them there and not let them bther the people with ability..
Westminster (proper noun) system (common noun) …
… fixed, it’s a pleasure.
The first and third stem from her poor decision to knife a sitting elected PM in the back. Being an affirmative action choice just assists in her advancement as per the Peter Principle, but she took the decision to take the top job. Her bad luck is almost completely self-inflicted.
In the name of the almighty dollar – every knee shall bend.
RMIT – School of Economics – AKA The High Temple of Stupid.
Gillard does have a range of problems…and they are all self-inflicted wounds.
Skuter said:
To which Julian countered
Julian, if you want to walk back your claim that Julia Gillard’s bad luck is a more plausible explanation for the predicament she finds herself in today as opposed to what skuter suggested, here’s a great opportunity, and as a result peace will reign, no hard feelings, think nothing of it, and so on.
However, if you double down on stupid, the derision is going to start flowing.
Bad luck is one of her problems.
Does that help?
Unlucky or a fraud. Come, come sir. An answer!
Oh god, he didn’t write that, did he? Yes, he did. Numbers, if you’re going to be a petty pedant, your own literacy needs to be flawless. You really are a witless fool.
Abu
Can I have choose a bit of both?
Julian – earlier, you seemed to be suggesting it was her primary problem. Do you still stand by this?
I think it is one of her problems. She “can’t take a trick”.
So you are walking back your original response to skuter?
I listed her problems above, one of which was bad luck.
I don’t like the woman, but I am trying to be fair. As I said, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, in respect of her personality, until her latest frothy rant, which finished her for me…
There’s no such thing as bad luck. He bad luck is a manifestation of incompetence and poor judgement.
I think luck is important in a career.
Numbers may have been thinking of the Yesminister System.
You did, but before that you seemed to be suggesting that bad luck – incredibly bad luck – was and is the primary hindrance in her performing her duties, and the major (and in fact only) explanation for the train wreck that is her government. You are yet to repudiate this. I’m not sure why you aren’t willing to.
Unlucky?! Good grief!
Incompetence: The East Timor solution, The Malaysia solution, the current asylum seeker policy, the ADFA Skype scandal, the BER, the NBN rollout, the carbon tax implementation, appointing zealots to the Climate Commission, appointing Roxon to AG, appointing Carr as Foreign Minister, keeping Swan as Treasurer, the MRRT etc
Lying: The carbon tax, the AWU scandal, the misogyny allegations, knifing Rudd, having “full confidence in the member for Dobell”, delivering a surplus etc
Ethics: Thomo, Slipper, the AWU scandal, the Australia Day riot, the affairs with married men, the slandering of Abbott, the Fair Work Act, getting Smith and Milne sacked etc
Being unlucky has nothing to do with it. She is quite simply the most incompetent, unethical PM this nation has ever had.
I suspect that Numbers mainly thinks about where he put his slippers, whether it’s Wednesday or not because they usually serve a half decent roast on Wednesday, and if one of the nurses stole that 50 cent coin he’s certain was next to the pot plant on top of the television.
Numbers, here’s a couple of suggestions…
1) walk away from the computer
2) go and have a shit to clear your mind
3) take your medication and4) don’t come back until it has kicked in.
I originally wrote this:
“She is unlucky. Almost incredibly. I suspect the problem is in part that, like too many Labor figures today, she got her job for the wrong reasons.”
I certainly don’t think that bad luck explains all her difficulties, but it is one of her problems. I have listed others, including the affirmative action issue, which I originally mentioned.
bad luck = bad karma
Buddhists believe “each of us creates our own karma. Our past thoughts, speech and behaviour have shaped our present reality, and our actions, thoughts and speech now will in turn affect our future”.
Makes sense if you ask me.
Note: Some Buddhist treatises divide the causes of bad karma into ten acts: the three physical acts of killing, stealing and sexual misconduct; the four verbal acts of lying, flattery (or idle and irresponsible speech), defamation and duplicity; and the three mental acts of greed, anger and foolishness.
Any of that sound familiar?
BWS – Beer, Wines and Spirits? No, Bolt Withrawal Syndrome. Sadly, Numbers has it.
As Peter van Wrongselen notes, she is not exactly surrounded by geniuses. It’s hardly surprising – you could have Anders Breivik loose in the caucus room and not hit anyone vaguely competent.
In a generation Labor has gone from one of Australia’s best governments, Hawke-Keating’s first term, to what must now be regarded as its worst.
Luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. That’s why she fucks up EVERY opportunity.
Then you won’t need to steal my dollar then, piss your own money up against the wall socialist.
And the special Walkeley for “Slow Learner of The Last Two Years” goes to Julian O’Dea.
Julian, with all due respect, have you been paying attention? Even with good luck socialist policy cannot be ‘successful’.
It brings to mind a quote “You can rely on the right people to do the right thing most of the time but you need rigorous incentives in place to ensure the wrong people do the right thing”
Have you ever noticed how the most foul and odious individuals seem to have no luck.
One of the fundamentals of building relationships is the fact it provides and effective network to assist when the plan meets reality.
The 5 years Gillard spent with the spiv Wilson would not be an anomaly. Somehow she missed the fact the man was ripping off everyone around them. How about the little talk to the miners so Wilson could steal their money to sink into some units?
She seems to have leveraged off and stepped over everyone on the way to the top.
The fact she has no back-up and does not have a deep network of expertise to draw upon is a reflection of her character.
Luck has nothing to do with it.
I cannot take that speech seriously at all, but it never hurts to say it one more time: There was nothing but insincerity in that Gillard speech. The Hollywood script created for her to mouth in parliament was previewed by Albanese prior to the Abbot motion even being known to the ALP.
“Whatever it Takes”
If Tony Abbott is a misogynist that makes me one too. It is a badge I shall wear with pride.
Well done, general-feldmarshall spudpeeler!
Mighty stuff, you whiny, self obsessed ol’ clown.
Mentioned in dispatches – julius o’dea and his truly unique brand of idiocy.
julius did however, have enough luck to be able to post his comments – and enough bad luck to cop the crap that the aforementioned comments deserved.
Fantastic effort all round, losers.
Julian, ‘she has a bitter rival…’. Oh, you mean that one, whathisname, that other half of the Twin Disasters, Kevin Rudd? The one that was democratically elected by quite a fair swag of Aussies, (not the writer, however accepted umpire’s decision), then a decision was taken by a faceless few, who soon came out, falling over themselves to step up with pride to say they took part in this first ever removal of an elected PM. One can understand his bitterness, though one wonders why he lurks around in this morally bankrupt government, being such a good christian as he is and we were privy to his church doorstops every Sunday. I can understand your concern, and you are trying to be chivalarous(I know I shouldnt have used that word, spell?). Dont waste your time, dear Julian, move on. Bad luck, how about hard luck for the rest of us.
She really IS a piece of work!
Given her record or policy implimentation Im fully expecting to be at war with someone within the next 6 months.
Weve won the security council seat, what could possibly go wrong with Labour in charge?
Gillard doesn’t have bad luck. Not in anything. Nothing.
It’s mismanagement.
The news clip I saw showed that when Gillard was talking the old fellow in the video pulled out his handkerchief and blew his nose, then slowly looked at the boogie. He didn’t seem impressed by our PM in any way.
Another of the Prime Miss-managers mismanagement slowly coming home to roost.
SCANDAL DEEPENS FOR GILLARD
Thankyou to Jupes, Viva and Token – your contributions to this thread were excellent.
Of Julian, well … please start paying attention.
On luck….. John Rawls “Theory of Justice”, Rawls claimed that people do not deserve to benefit from their natural assets (luck of the gene pool). Now someone like Ian Thorpe was “lucky” and did well in the pool partly because of his substantial physical assets. Perhaps Julian is suggesting Julia is lacking in this kind of luck…
Couldn’t agree more. I operate on the premise that good preparation will always overcome a lack of talent.
Our PM is not so much lacking in talent but totally bereft of it. Rat cunning however, she has in spades.
As a woman, an Australian, and a red head let me just say we’re not all like this. When she knifed (read I’m also a Queenslander) Kevin (who I didn’t vote for but you don’t go knifing a Qlder)and made her shady deals (which she did again to form the minority government) I sat and yelled at the TV and mourned that she, our first female PM, was going to set the benchmark. Any other clever woman that dares to try and lead this country will get compared to this corrupt, power-hungry excuse of a human being.
She is not our elected PM, she has never gained her position based on the majority of the Australian Public. She got there thanks to a bunch of blokes who put her there, the same men that will force her out when she loses the election and they get their Golden Swan, who I think they’ve wanted all along.
Please bring on the election. I’m rather looking forward to replicating what happened in QLD to Anna Bligh on a national scale. I dare say Kevin will be the only one that keeps his seat in QLD.
Numbers Boy, aka Patio Boy, probably wants to be more careful about chucking those [sics] around. He’s pedaling crap.
Just sayin’.
“I dare say Kevin will be the only one that keeps his seat in QLD.”
True, Fed Up; I didn’t vote and wouldn’t for kevni/Labor but we Queenslanders don’t forget.
Fed Up, I don’t think the electorate is that shallow. I just hope that people learn to scrutinize candidates more thoroughly than has been in the recent past.
On that note at least Abbott should provide no surprises. I can’t think of any Australian politician whose life has been so thoroughly examined.
Thanks for the link, Spot!
Those were the days – and the silly old fart is still fighting the war in his head with those whom he perceives as his betters!
Now he’s penniless in an RSL-backed nursing home somewhere, and they occasionally let him have his internet rations, and he immediately goes to one of his few remaining open sites, and lets fly with his own peculiar pedantry, invective, and crass stupidity.
He beclowns himself royally every single time, and yet keeps coming back for more?
It is sad, I suppose. He should have embraced education over and above class envy.
Julia Gillard’s government commands a majority on the floor of the house. Whether you like it or not, she is our duly elected PM.
All the tantrums, abuse, name-calling and dummy-spitting won’t alter that fact.
Suck it up……
Lots of folks have found themselves, for relatively short periods of time in their lives, in less-than-optimal circumstances not entirely of their choosing, Kaboom.
Few have embraced and held on to the injustice they felt at that point in time and made it the singular defining characteristic of their very being, and continued to do so for over four decades. Certainly no-one who ultimately became successful has done so.
I believe the best “two fingers” to those who decades ago made you do something you didn’t especially want to do, is to get on with your life and leave your former oppressors (real or imagined) in the dust.
But maybe that’s just me.
It is not ‘bad luck’, it is a lack of risk assessment and risk management.
All actions have a number of possible outcomes and should be considered. Gillard only considers the effect on the next news cycle. Hence so much goes wrong for her. No bad luck at all.
It seems the whole charade was carefully planned and executed, with the Speaker Anna Burke right in the thick of it. How else can this unprecedented attack on Tony Abbott be explained, when Gillard was actually defending the real women hater?.
It seems Glasgow gutter tactics have really resounded with our (the real) Julia.
A nursing home would be a very dangerous place in Queensland at the moment – Napoleon is closing them down at a rate of knots.
FWIW, like most Vietnam veterans I’m still earning a living, have not made any service related claims for pension, and probably contribute more to the general good than the nerds who post here.
You’re well stuck in the past believing the stereotype that was floated (substantially out of guilt) in the 80s.
Get over it.
sdog @ 1034,
I looked throuogh your reference and a little further up is probably a classic statement if ever there was one!!!!
The Abridged 1735099:
“Me me me!!! Look at me! It’s all about MEEEEEEE!!!!!”
4 years of tiresome bollocks from numero!!!!
“How else can this unprecedented attack on Tony Abbott be explained”
perhaps to deflect the married men affairs/deceptions that bloggers have been discussing and turning it around in an attack on tony Abbot – some kind of reverse psychology?
The PM office is probably outraged that bloggers dare to talk about this sort of thing.
I’m late to the party but I wonder how, with her pock marked past, this vile slag can show her face in public, let alone waddle up to the podium and whine at people on what to think and do.
It’s a shameful, grubby piece of work alright – if you were family you’d fair dinkum die of shame.
That’s before we discover just how deeply she was into activities for which other solicitors would be run out of town. Michael Smith is chipping away daily at the yet-another-married-boyfriend AWU scam and it seems he’s given it momentum which the authorities can no longer ignore.
You watch ‘em ignore it, Mick. They’ll ignore it so hard, that they will stick their collective heads up their collective arses in the effort.
The quote from the inimitable Habib, PBUH.
That’s why you’re known as da “spud peeler”, patio* boy.
Best you fuck off, now.
Your beclownings are becoming ever more epic the more you post here.
*Mentioned in dispatches: Spot da Dogue.
Yes, it’s like he’s a geography teacher spruiking pre-Socratic geography, or a Zulu witch doctor. His activities in this blog should render him unfit to teach basic economics, obsessed as he is with attacking the foundations of economic theory that the rest of society runs on.
One wonders whether his students get penalised in their essays (or whatever they do these days) for following Keynesian orthodoxy. Probably not, but how many budding minds has he ruined by trying to tempt them into useless worship of irrelevancies?
Wow, monty. You really are a rude pig.
So that’s all you got, insults? Yep, that’s your level of thinking.
LOL, you do nothing but insult me and then accuse me of having nothing but insults. Nice one Gab, you’re always good for a laugh.
Actually that’s a complete lie. But well you ain’t not nuthin’ else. Lies and insults, monty’s repertoire.
Julian and numbers,you are blind The woman we are forced to endure as PM (because of union power brokers) is not truthful or honest if facts being published at MichaelSmith’s blog are shown by police to whom they have been forwarded, to be true!
I began to doubt her honesty when I realised that there seem to be NO records of her ever alerting investigators or the AWU of details she KNEW in the years Wilson was allegedly rorting the union and Thiess company
Though she says she did nothing wrong, she has never shown she did other than keep quiet about those years and has had journos sacked for trying to bring it out into the light.If that’s the action of an innocent woman I’D HATE TO SEE ONE WHO WAS CROOKED!