Rudd vAbbott
- Thread starter Mush
- Start date
Tried to give kudos but gotta spread them.
Did anyone see Rudd did an AMA on Reddit a few days ago which attracted more than 9,500 comments. Abbot should also make himself available for anyone to ask him questions.
i_am_kevin_rudd_the_prime_minister_of_australia/
He has nothing to gain by going on QandA, just as Julia had nothing to gain by going on Bolt. May be they aren't great politicians then, but it is sensible from both of them.
I reckon if I was TA I'd go on Q&A just for a shoit stir, and a laugh at the Lefties.
Sorta like walking into the enemy's camp...takes courage.
No doubt something that Jeff Kennett would do - he wasn't scared - and he would enjoy every second of cutting a swathe through the green cardigans.
TA would win a lot of kudos from the Libs and the swinger votes.
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Agree, When you are a winning position you play safe. Peter
You can't properly submit yourself to the judgement of the Australian people by hiding from them. Q&A is by far the highest rating political commentary show in Australia. I would have thought a hour long grilling by an open audience is the least thing anyone can do who aspires to high office. It's far more of a real test than the "debates" we have seen to date.
While I understand politicians "playing it safe" by trying to avoid the hard questions, I don't condone it and I believe they should be judged harshly for it. We should be demanding all our representatives to front up to public forums and submit to the hard questions from the public - not just the occasional decent question that slips through from media interviews.
That goes for candidates in individual seats too - they should be taking every opportunity to publicly get in front of their communities and the media and explain and defend their policies. If they won't I can only conclude they either lack courage or aren't confident they have done enough homework on their policies to be able to properly defend them. Complaining about potentially being misrepresented is a poor excuse - if you have a good policy and can defend it strongly in front of the community you don't have to worry about that. Yet we let the vast majority hide behind their party machines and only face difficult questions when they're door knocking and no-one else can hear their answers!
I don't believe we should be letting our politicians get away with this. As for the Bolt report it's hard to say politicians should front up there when hardly anyone watches it - it needs to be a show / forum that people actually watch!
While I understand politicians "playing it safe" by trying to avoid the hard questions, I don't condone it and I believe they should be judged harshly for it. We should be demanding all our representatives to front up to public forums and submit to the hard questions from the public - not just the occasional decent question that slips through from media interviews.
That goes for candidates in individual seats too - they should be taking every opportunity to publicly get in front of their communities and the media and explain and defend their policies. If they won't I can only conclude they either lack courage or aren't confident they have done enough homework on their policies to be able to properly defend them. Complaining about potentially being misrepresented is a poor excuse - if you have a good policy and can defend it strongly in front of the community you don't have to worry about that. Yet we let the vast majority hide behind their party machines and only face difficult questions when they're door knocking and no-one else can hear their answers!
I don't believe we should be letting our politicians get away with this. As for the Bolt report it's hard to say politicians should front up there when hardly anyone watches it - it needs to be a show / forum that people actually watch!
I am fan of Q and A and been in audience twice but it is not a public debate forum as you suggest:
It is entertainment not information
It is compared not moderated
Even the questions are submitted days in advance, when you arrive, then you may get approval to be asked, and then may be asked subject to time.
I noticed question asking real commonness issues are left over for radical, fire and brimstone hooters like this:
Asylum Seekers:
TYPICAL QUESTION Asylum Seekers on boats risk life and limb for a better life, free from persecution, rape and torture, why do you not want them to be safe here Mr Abbott?
QUESTION VERY UNLIKELY TO GET UP Assylum Seekers on boats jump ahead of other patient and proven refugees, they risk the lives of our navy and themselves, they have money to pay for transit, whilst others sit patiently in poverty, do you agree they should not be advantaged by their action, Mr Abbott.
Peter
It is entertainment not information
It is compared not moderated
Even the questions are submitted days in advance, when you arrive, then you may get approval to be asked, and then may be asked subject to time.
I noticed question asking real commonness issues are left over for radical, fire and brimstone hooters like this:
Asylum Seekers:
TYPICAL QUESTION Asylum Seekers on boats risk life and limb for a better life, free from persecution, rape and torture, why do you not want them to be safe here Mr Abbott?
QUESTION VERY UNLIKELY TO GET UP Assylum Seekers on boats jump ahead of other patient and proven refugees, they risk the lives of our navy and themselves, they have money to pay for transit, whilst others sit patiently in poverty, do you agree they should not be advantaged by their action, Mr Abbott.
Peter
Of course - the audience in general is only interested in the difficult questions - not the easy ones. Same goes when Mr Rudd goes on - he is not going to get the easy questions either.
It's up to Mr Abbott in your above example to turn the question around from the first one and convince us all that it's actually all about the latter question. If he can't do that, across all relevant policies, better than his opponent then he doesn't deserve to be PM. Of course, I think he can do that and I want to see him do it. The fact that I support him doesn't mean I think it's a good thing he chicken out on this one.
There's a very easy answer to that question that not result in other marriages exploding or the end of the world. It's very simple.
Yeah I was trying to think and better example but I have seen and learnt some people, on either side a rusted on supporters regardless of logic or fairness.
I once had a man tell a public forum of a 1000 people that there were too many tourists in his town such that he could not get a park so he wanted toll gates on the town for tourists! He didn't care it was the town's lifeblood because he was gainfully unemployed, proudly living off welfare. What is in it for me?!?! type.
Peter
Can we hear it? I am interested. Peter
I disagree. Submitting yourself to the Australian people is the most open, revealing thing one could ever possibly do. Adding Q and A to the list adds little to the debate. Regardless, senior coalition shadow ministers are on there weekly.
I would submit to you that viewers of the show are highly politically engaged. I would further suggest that such people are on the whole, least likely to be swinging voters. Therefore, little to gain.
With regard to Bolt and ratings, your argument doesn't really hold, otherwise why would politicians appear on The Insiders or Meet the press, both of which are out rated by Bolt.
Well on the subject of Q & A, who saw last night?!
What a corker!
Rudd got some seriously hard questions and to me, he failed.
I am not being bias.
Only when he got angry with the Gay Marriage Question and after, did he show any fight, passion, land any punches. Prior to that is was all loooonnng words and drone, drone, drone, zzzzzzzzz.....opps sorry I feel asleep again ( seriously I did at one point).
My assessment : real opportunity lost. If he had gone hard, showed passion, admitted mistakes, etc.. gave straight simple answers he would have presented as a Leader and Tony Abbot as weak for not coming to Q&A.
I sense KRUDD is being managed so much : don't be the "angry Kevin", don't be "big promise Kev", etc...that he has no character.
Lastly, the audience , even the ALP declared voters, were the ones angry. Really angry. So many death stares.....Did you see the Nurse slap him down on "that is not andanswer"!!!!! when grilled on Aged Care. If not go to iView and watch the best Q&A ever. Some of twitters were pure gold.
Regards to all, Peter 14.7
http://www.news.com.au/national-new...-pastor-on-qanda/story-fnho52ip-1226709390623
Comment on Q & A and footage, Peter
Comment on Q & A and footage, Peter
Comment from an SMH news (Liberal candidate links asylum seekers to traffic jams and hospital queues)
So:
1) Refugees cause traffic jams
2) Female candidates are good because they have more sex appeal Obviously)
3)There is nothing wrong with body contact with a bunch of 16 year old girls. (Oh come on guys calm down Tony has watched a lot of girls playing netball)
4)Malcolm Turnbull invented the internet and hey it's fast enough already. (At least Mal did something back then because he won't be doing much in the new Govt that's for sure).
5)Rich women's babies are worth more than other women's babies. (Self evident really)
6)Climate change is caused by an invisible gas so who cares. (It probably isn't even real).
7)We have a democracy but it's simpler just to let Rupert decide the election (Of course why didn't I think of this? This could save a lot of money.)
8)Labor's education and disability policies are pretty good so Tony borrowed them (For the time being anyway).
9)If we buy up all the Indonesian fishing boats how are they going to send those bloody muslims at us (or fish I guess, pure genius, the fish will be happier too, who says Tony doesn't have an environment policy)
10)The north of Australia is a wasteland so we need to make it a special zone. (Even Kev agrees with this, maybe we can park the fishing boats up there).
11)$400 billion = $184 billion (or close enough).
12)Costings of policies aren't important, (no one cares, notably Tony).
13)Surpluses aren't really important anymore either (Not now that Joe will be running the place).
14)Kevin talks too much, no one can keep up with the guy. (Hey Kevin just Stop the Boats. Someone needs to tell him).
15)Gays can't get married(I am God)
16)Baddies are baddies(I think)
So:
1) Refugees cause traffic jams
2) Female candidates are good because they have more sex appeal Obviously)
3)There is nothing wrong with body contact with a bunch of 16 year old girls. (Oh come on guys calm down Tony has watched a lot of girls playing netball)
4)Malcolm Turnbull invented the internet and hey it's fast enough already. (At least Mal did something back then because he won't be doing much in the new Govt that's for sure).
5)Rich women's babies are worth more than other women's babies. (Self evident really)
6)Climate change is caused by an invisible gas so who cares. (It probably isn't even real).
7)We have a democracy but it's simpler just to let Rupert decide the election (Of course why didn't I think of this? This could save a lot of money.)
8)Labor's education and disability policies are pretty good so Tony borrowed them (For the time being anyway).
9)If we buy up all the Indonesian fishing boats how are they going to send those bloody muslims at us (or fish I guess, pure genius, the fish will be happier too, who says Tony doesn't have an environment policy)
10)The north of Australia is a wasteland so we need to make it a special zone. (Even Kev agrees with this, maybe we can park the fishing boats up there).
11)$400 billion = $184 billion (or close enough).
12)Costings of policies aren't important, (no one cares, notably Tony).
13)Surpluses aren't really important anymore either (Not now that Joe will be running the place).
14)Kevin talks too much, no one can keep up with the guy. (Hey Kevin just Stop the Boats. Someone needs to tell him).
15)Gays can't get married(I am God)
16)Baddies are baddies(I think)
Must be all those free new cars they get given.
Yeah, so what's the problem?
This would be due to the overall population in general, would it not?
And, we have folk here who reckon we need another 50 mill people or so in Aus.
Yep; good idea.
Good if you could evenly distribute the folks around the Country, but guess what happens?
Almost all the newbies move to the........CITIES.
Don't whine about the commute and traffic now, kids.
Just wait a bit.
