Diary of our stinking opposition

[village_person]

Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh shifts position on previous support for a GP fee

Labor's shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh was once a strong supporter of a compulsory fee for visits to the doctor - a policy now slammed by the opposition as a “GP tax” that would hurt the community’s most vulnerable.

But in a 2003 Sydney Morning Herald article Dr Leigh, then a PhD student in economics at Harvard University, argued a Medicare co-payment was “hardly a radical idea”.

“As health researchers have shown, cost-less medical care means that people go to the doctor even when they don't need to, driving up the cost for all of us," Dr Leigh and co-author Richard Holden wrote.

“But there's a better way of operating a health system, and the change should hardly hurt at all.

“As economists have shown, the ideal model involves a small co-payment - not enough to put a dent in your weekly budget, but enough to make you think twice before you call the doc."

Dr Leigh argued the fee should be enough to deter “frivolous GP visits”, but not enough to limit genuine preventive care. The fee should apply to everyone, including pensioners, except those who are chronically ill, he wrote.

Dr Leigh, who has opposed the proposal in media appearances over recent weeks, told Fairfax Media: "Since 2003, a lot has changed in the health care system, and I've changed my view on co-payments.

 “A GP co-payment was originally a Hawke government proposal led by Brian Howe, a member of the Left faction,” he said.

“As long as it is applied fairly across the community, a co-payment is a perfectly valid policy measure. If Andrew Leigh, before he had to toe the party line, recognised that then I welcome his contribution to the debate. I respect Andrew Leigh as a sensible economist.”

On Saturday, Dr Leigh, a former professor of economics at the Australian National University, distanced himself from an article he wrote in 2004 supporting fee deregulation for universities – another policy opposed by Labor.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-frontbencher-andrew-leigh-shifts-positio...

Yes, it’s the very well respected ALP whey-faced Dr Andrew Leigh who virtually declared his previous books and speeches as mere works of fiction. This brings into sharp focus Dr Leigh's economics degree.

[icyfroth]

they asked him what he thought weirder - eating a raw onion or eating a hot dog with a knife and fork like brit PM David Cameron - he said it would be a dead heat.

[cherry*135]

Eating a raw onion WITH THE SKIN on... to be exact.. now that is WEIRD.

[idlewhile]

Very funny Icy, also it's so very funny how they all fall on every little thing to hate about our Prime Minister.

I feel sorry for them, what a sad life, what a sad pastime.

[idlewhile]

Abbott 'sneered at' over transgender support

Transgender RAAF Officer Catherine McGregor explains how the Prime Minister supported her gender transition and the following reaction.

Cate McGregor has a stinging message for Tony Abbott's more truculent critics: the Prime Minister deserves some credit for so publicly supporting her as the world's most senior transgender military officer.

Lieutenant-Colonel McGregor, who has become a national figure after coming out as a woman in 2012, said on Wednesday that Mr Abbott – a longtime friend – had unhesitatingly supported her even at the risk of provoking conservative elements within his own party.

Some people really need to know how to take yes for an answer 

In a wide-ranging, often deeply personal, address at the National Press Club in Canberra, she said Mr Abbott had nevertheless received scant recognition for what amounted to significant leadership on a key gender and sexuality issue.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transgender-military-officer-cate-mcgregor-def...

[tezza2844]

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@idlewhile wrote:

Very funny Icy, also it's so very funny how they all fall on every little thing to hate about our Prime Minister.

I feel sorry for them, what a sad life, what a sad pastime.

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Sounds a bit like some of the Gillard haters, but then again you were not around to see all the vile innuendo aimed at her.

[debra9275]

it seems the shorten vote has already been investigated by an independant reviewer who found nothing wrong

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bill-shorten-labor-leadership-ballot-above-boa...

An independent review has upheld the election of Bill Shorten as federal Labor leader, despite concerns about flaws in the ballot process.

Mr Shorten defeated Anthony Albanese 52 per cent to 48 per cent in a historic party ballot for the leadership in October 2013, involving the federal caucus and grassroots members.

But in February, party member and Auburn councillor Hicham Zraika was suspended for six months over allegations about changes to the postal addresses of a number of members in his branch.

The NSW party's review tribunal found 73 out of 124 changes to branch member postal addresses before ballot had occurred in the Auburn electorate.

However, tribunal chairman Greg James QC confirmed on Friday that nothing had emerged from the review to suggest the election of Mr Shorten as leader was flawed.

Mr James also found there was no prospect of a further inquiry producing any such suggestion.

[icyfroth]

 Labor considers calling in electoral commission for future federal leadership ballots

Future Labor leaders could be elected in a ballot conducted by the electoral commission after the NSW branch stared down a revived push to reopen allegations of possible rorting in the vote that saw Bill Shorten named Opposition Leader.

According to a statement from NSW Labor, the chair of the Review Tribunal Greg James QC found:  "Nothing was disclosed during the course of the Review Tribunal's deliberations which would suggest that the election of Mr Shorten as leader of the Labor Party was flawed."

But in February, party member and Auburn councilor Hicham Zraika was suspended for six months because of changes to the postal addresses of his branch members.

"I regard the fact that 73 of the 124 changes to branch member postal addresses in the lead-up to the federal leadership election occurred in the electorate of Auburn, as a serious matter," NSW Labor General Secretary Jamie Clements said in a statement.

Tim Ayres from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and NSW Labor Assistant Secretary John Graham raised the issue in February.

Mr Ayres told Fairfax Media the decision vindicated his decision to call for further investigation, including what role Senator Sam Dastayari might have played.

"It means that the party acknowledges there was a problem," he said.

Entire Article Here

Geez there'd have to be a lot behind-the-scenes shuffling to get the likes of backstabbing Mr Potatohead into the leadership position.

[cherry*135]

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@icyfroth wrote:

THE NSW election was meant to finish off Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Instead, the big Liberal victory threatens Labor leader Bill Shorten.

He’s in trouble because Labor in NSW ran a Shorten-style campaign — dishonest, negative and populist — that backfired.

Now Shorten is under pressure to explain why his own campaign would work any better.

How fast the tables have turned.

Just two months ago, most of the media — egged on by supporters of Malcolm Turnbull — insisted Abbott had to be dumped.

They claimed Abbott was so poisonously unpopular that he could kill the NSW Baird Government.

And so the Sydney Morning Herald, on February 5, claimed: “Federal MPs are under pressure from state colleagues to line up behind Malcolm Turnbull and force a change ...”

Except Abbott survived. And even thrived.

The Government’s poll figures have steadily recovered as Abbott dropped dud policies, talked more of hope, and put oppose-everything Shorten under pressure with a simple question: But what would Labor do instead?

And that last question is why the NSW results hurt Shorten so much.

True, Labor got a swing, but the previous election result was so crazily one-sided — the Coalition holding 69 of the 93 seats — that some correction was inevitable.

That was even more certain after Liberal MPs were caught taking unlawful campaign donations, and after Labor replaced its unelectable leader, John Robertson, with the more personable Luke Foley.

Labor dreamed then of winning back 20 seats, and even of snatching victory. Instead, it won back just 14.

First, in NSW, Labor banked on Abbott being so hated that NSW voters would ignore the real issues just to give him a kick.

“Tony Abbott and Mike Baird, peas in a pod. Both stand for selling off our essential assets,” Foley insisted.

“If Mr Baird goes next Saturday, Mr Abbott goes on the Monday,” he pleaded.

It didn’t work. Policies do count, after all.

Shorten, too, has lazily bet on the mad anti-Abbott campaign pushed by much of the media — a campaign now so unhinged that voters increasingly distrust the diatribes.

Entire Article Here

I thought that “If Mr Baird goes next Saturday, Mr Abbott goes on the Monday," slogan particularly distasteful.

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That's an oldie (March 30) from the Herald Sun.

What was the % swing towards Labor - 10% approx?

[cherry*135]

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@tezza2844 wrote:

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@idlewhile wrote:

Very funny Icy, also it's so very funny how they all fall on every little thing to hate about our Prime Minister.

I feel sorry for them, what a sad life, what a sad pastime.

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Sounds a bit like some of the Gillard haters, but then again you were not around to see all the vile innuendo aimed at her.

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I wouldn't be too sure about the last part of that sentence.

[polksaladallie]

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@am*3 wrote:

I wouldn't be too sure about the last part of that sentence.

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   Not a chance.