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alexander*beetle · ‎13-10-2014

These comments on the Pravda website.

I seriously hope President Putin washes his hands and sterilizes them after touching the grubby paw of Abbott. Tony Abbott displays a degree of insolence, arrogance and incompetence.
Once again, we see a country whose political class is divorced from the collective will of its people yet we see a politician who thinks it is cool to be rude, insolent, insulting, impolite, impertinent, unpolished, gross, unpleasant and downright impudent.

Many more comments too. I'm sure many Australians, though not all, are very disappointed to have our country's leader spoken of this way. I've read lots of derogatory comments from various news websites from around the world and it seems he has trashed the position and how we are viewed by many other countries. And I stress not every country is knocking him but enough to know that he is not popular.

"Tony Abbott said today that he will "shirtfront" Russian president Vladimir Putin when the pair meet at the G20 meeting in Brisbane next month." Is this seriously how we treat other world leaders? What happened to open dialogue and discussion?

We were once so admired for our leaders as statesmen, from both sides of politics. Tony Abbott has brought much criticism and shame and embarrassment to the position. No matter what side of politics, the position of Prime Minister should be held with respect but when we have one in the position who bullies and insults world leaders, then it is their prerogative to comment.

It is going to take some doing to win back the respect we once held.

alexander*beetle · ‎13-10-2014

lol I don't know about other states but this is what it means in Victoria.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/shirtfront-explained-what-tony-abbott-has-vowe...

polksaladallie · ‎14-10-2014

I thought for a second that he said shirtlift.

azureline** · ‎14-10-2014

How embarrassing for Mr Abbott. Surely his education and his position allowed him the use of more refined words?

rosieglen · ‎14-10-2014

Sadly our Prime Minister is no statesman.

icyfroth · ‎14-10-2014

@alexander*beetle wrote:
These comments on the Pravda website.

I seriously hope President Putin washes his hands and sterilizes them after touching the grubby paw of Abbott. Tony Abbott displays a degree of insolence, arrogance and incompetence.
Once again, we see a country whose political class is divorced from the collective will of its people yet we see a politician who thinks it is cool to be rude, insolent, insulting, impolite, impertinent, unpolished, gross, unpleasant and downright impudent.

Many more comments too. I'm sure many Australians, though not all, are very disappointed to have our country's leader spoken of this way. I've read lots of derogatory comments from various news websites from around the world and it seems he has trashed the position and how we are viewed by many other countries. And I stress not every country is knocking him but enough to know that he is not popular.

Oh dear. I've seen much worse than that on the stinking thread.

boris1gary · ‎14-10-2014

Confronting someone is one thing but they have to be guilty of the wild accusations thrown around first, otherwise it's just childish.

I'm no fan of Pascoe and he is a supporter of the LNP and abbott so he certainly isn't "left" but this puts it pretty well, although I don't agree with his opinion on the MH17 and who was responsible.

Vladimir Putin is no saint, but G20 is a club full of sinners

Among the democracies (and fifth overall in the world), the greatest perpetrator of official killing is the United States, but when it comes to terrible deaths similar to the MH17 victims, the US is the unchallenged leader this century with a figure well into six figures and still rising. I haven't heard an Australian Prime Minister suggest an American President was responsible for "murder".

This is where it's necessary to spell out why the MH17 victims weren't "murdered", as Tony Abbott keeps claiming - or agree that the US, UK, Australia and others are guilty of the same crime.

No-one has suggested the pro-Russian side of the Ukrainian war intended to shoot down a neutral civilian airliner. They thought they were targeting a Ukrainian plane. It was an accident. The MH17 victims were, to use the cold American euphemism that's now universal, collateral damage.

It was a mistake - and an expensive mistake for Russia as it focussed attention for a while on a war that most nations gave little attention to. Sanctions were strengthened a touch, in the generally hypocritical way such sanctions are imposed .

When American drones and planes accidentally kill civilians – totally innocent children among them – our Prime Minister does not call that murder. When Israel, with far greater knowledge of who was on the ground, killed children in Gaza, our Prime Minister and did not call it murder.

When the "Coalition of the Willing" rained artillery down on Iraqi cities in 2003, the four nations that contributed personnel to the invasion knew they were killing innocent civilians. Some would have been citizens of other countries. Those four nations were the US, UK, Poland and Australia.

The total civilian death toll in Iraq from the war and the subsequent and now increasing mayhem it unleashed is greater than the total number of Australians killed in all wars. It has been a most dreadful accident based on intelligence as bad or worse than that which led someone to fire a missile at a plane that turned out to be a Malaysian airliner.

So please drop the cheap "murder" rhetoric. It might play well in the domestic polls and sound heroic – "we warn the Tsar" – but it's wrong.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/vladimir-putin-is-no-saint-but-g20-is-a-club-ful...