Australia General Discussion

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RIP to a hero. The Guardian has good collection of images, tributes, etc., and even an article about the dismissal from 1975. I had no idea that Australia once had the highest level of unionism in the world.

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Any sign of a spill against Newman in QLD? His numbers are shocking.

I can't think of anyone with a high enough profile to replace him. He's actually gone up in the polls recently, though, as the result of his new strategy where he avoids appearing in the news as much as possible.

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These Abbott morning show interviews I'm seeing lately are hilarious.  From today.

It's amazing that Kochie and Karl Stefanovic of all people are managing to fluster Abbott, considering that they're both basically national jokes.

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The Sydney Morning Herald says that it is a Shahada Flag, or a general expression of faith in Islam. It's apparently been associated with various groups, so there isn't really enough information to attribute it to any one in particular.

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It must be awful to have family in such a situation and not be able to contact them. I hope you get in touch soon and that your aunt and her husband aren't in any danger.

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So it looks like the cabinet reshuffle is happening. ABC thinks that Sinodinos will be replaced by Josh Frydenberg, current Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Sussan Ley will be promoted into cabinet.

I'm leaning towards thinking that there might be a further reshuffle.

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So it looks like the cabinet reshuffle is happening.

The reports are that David Johnston will be dumped from the Defence position, to be replaced by Scott Morrison. Who will replace Scott Morrison is not clear.

I hadn't heard about Morrison being moved into defence, but given the rumours about him being given a better position, it seems very likely. I'm very interested to see who will replace him in Immigration.

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Didn't she perform without competing? I think we should be able to compete, personally. Still, it's a start.

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I do think we should compete... as a reward for a our decades of support.

Exactly. I feel like we're more loyal to it than some of the countries that actually compete. And we have a European head of state so it's sort of ... plausible.

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Has anyone seen this website (the Atlas of NSW)? I just stumbled upon it today and it has NSW election maps dating back to 1858.

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Well, I heard their hard-right rhetoric, so I assumed the actions went into that direction.

They haven't gotten all that much done though since they don't control the Upper House.

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http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/abbott-government-mps-furious-over-prime-ministers-decision-to-make-prince-philip-a-knight-20150126-12y95q.html

This is a gift that keeps on giving.

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Based on Shorten's performance on Insiders he just sort of pleaded ignorance of the internal struggles of the LNP and stressed that changing leaders wouldn't change the underlying problem - that people didn't like their policies.

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That article in the Australian had a "senior liberal MP" who had publicly supported Abbott through the last spill suggest that Turnbull would soon be leader. I can't see him being leader at the next election after this.

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I thought he was in pretty good health, so this has come as a bit of a shock. Huh.

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Apparently Robbie Katter's threatening to withdraw support because of the scandal. Ugh.