I don’t row a boat, mate

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53 Responses to I don’t row a boat, mate

  1. Lee says:

    One thing is for sure; unlike any Coalition leader, Albo won’t be attacked by the left/MSM for being out of the country during a natural disaster.

  2. and says:

    Dennis (also known as “Tony” to some) is currently indisposed with high-level relations. Today, for example, Dennis is having a sauna with Manny, Justin and Klaus.

  3. Tel says:

    The ABC are prone to exaggeration … it isn’t really any sort of emergency but an unusually rainy day for Sydney in July (normally cool and hardly any rain).

    You notice that there’s no water over the road in any place … although officially closed for ceremonial purposes right now. As it gets dark you will see them bring in a few of the wisest elders to stand in the rain and make a small fire which appeases the Sky Gods. More important than that though … cops pick up a bit of Sunday overtime shift. No one begrudges the Second Responders some well earned phone twiddling.

  4. Cassie of Sydney says:

    Albo’s missing in action, too busy swanning around the world. Where are the screams, the shouts and the cries?

    Albo’s lucky, he has a media that will run cover for him. What a joke. But you know what? Morrison and eternally stupid Liberals never took on the MSM, all they did was either try to placate the MSM or worse, run a mile from any confrontation with them. What absolute cowards, no wonder Labor, the left and Albo are laughing.

  5. NoFixedAddress says:

    I think your all being a tad harsh on the PM.

    This catastrophic weather event has gone past the 1 in a millennia event and is obvious proof of, bows head, Global Warming and highlights the need to shut down more coal fueled power generation.

    Personally I think the foreshore of Sydney Harbour will look quite nice with giant windmills whirling away with rainbow coloured lights on the blades.

  6. Buccaneer says:

    Elbow has already appeased the climate gods with the sacrifice of multiple coal fired power stations and a refusal to support real energy security. Our moral betters in the msm would give him a Nobel peace prize just for winning office if his skin weren’t the wrong colour. They’ve determined already that he doesn’t need to answer any questions on any topic.

  7. Tel says:

    Personally I think the foreshore of Sydney Harbour will look quite nice with giant windmills whirling away with rainbow coloured lights on the blades.

    Three windmills on top of the Harbour Bridge!

    Better than all the flags put together, and a great time to strike back against those bloody annoying seagulls.

  8. Eyrie says:

    Better check the wind loads on the bridge.

  9. Fat Tony says:

    If our government wanted to screw Australia over properly, what would they do different??

  10. Entropy says:

    I do believe Tel has summarised the situation quite well.

  11. jupes says:

    So even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and our river systems…

    Tim Flannery. Professional idiot.

  12. Buccaneer says:

    Being a professional idiot pays darn well

  13. NoFixedAddress says:

    Tim Flannery. Professional idiot.

    Well trained marxist traitor.

    A BB (Bob Brown) with honours.

  14. Not Trampis says:

    Tel doesn’t understand irony.

  15. Prospero says:

    This is so, so stupid.

    a. A large part of the Morrison in Hawaii controversy was his office at first lying to journalists as to where he was;
    b. once his whereabouts was known, it still took him (from memory) a couple of days to realise it was a bad look and return early;
    c. a holiday in Hawaii, having beers with fellow holiday aussies on the beach, is not the same as an international trip to mend and improve foreign relationships. One is work, the other isn’t;
    d. the fire devastation of December 2019 was far more widespread in effect than the current, more localised, flood event around Sydney.

    Do people really think that the victims who did not want to bother shaking his hand would have responded better if he had taken the “always escalate” approach of Cassie, who I assume used to wear an onion on her belt, it being the style at the time…

  16. Buccaneer says:

    At least Morrison was honest about it being a holiday, and he didn’t give away $900m to aggrandise himself and attempt to shame a previous admin. It seems he would have been better placed to have ginned up a press conference and pretended he was working.

  17. Rockdoctor says:

    Prospero, seems to be a ton of sarcasm above. Most here are mocking the differing media coverage, seriously the fact that quite a few State Ministers were out of the country as well including NSW ones but didn’t receive the same scorn should be called out. David Elliott comes to mind, Palace”chook” was on a cruise and I do believe there was one Vic member MIA the whole time. At the end of the day the States were ultimately responsible given our state based system of Government.

    Albo had plenty to say at the time too, so did rubbish Tabloid journalists with tickets on themselves like News.com’s Sam Clench. I think fairs fair in love and war…

  18. Cassie of Sydney says:

    “Do people really think that the victims who did not want to bother shaking his hand would have responded better if he had taken the “always escalate” approach of Cassie, who I assume used to wear an onion on her belt, it being the style at the time…”

    Yes, you are stupid, glad you admit it. I would just add “really” stupid.

  19. Cassie of Sydney says:

    ““always escalate” approach of Cassie”

    I’ll always escalate with morons and hypocrites like you.

  20. NoFixedAddress says:

    Tel says:
    3 July, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    Personally I think the foreshore of Sydney Harbour will look quite nice with giant windmills whirling away with rainbow coloured lights on the blades.

    Three windmills on top of the Harbour Bridge!

    Better than all the flags put together, and a great time to strike back against those bloody annoying seagulls.

    Good point Tel but best to leave the rainbow lights off those 3 so the bloody flying vermin are not warned.

    Perhaps we could paint them in Aboriginal flag colours as a compromise…

    Just as long as the eastern grid is collapsed and we are saved from Global Warming is my concern…

    Though seagulls could become an essential food supply in Teal electorates.

  21. Lee says:

    b. once his whereabouts was known, it still took him (from memory) a couple of days to realise it was a bad look and return early;

    Only because of the hyper-partisan MSM and fellow leftists on Twitter never miss an opportunity to bash a Coalition PM (in this case Morrison, of whom I am not a fan, BTW), never a Labor PM.

    d. the fire devastation of December 2019 was far more widespread in effect than the current, more localised, flood event around Sydney.

    And what is any PM supposed to do that any deputy can’t, especially given that bushfire-fighting is a state, not federal responsibility?

    If a coalition PM such as Morrison did turn up at a bushfire scene, the likes of you would be the first to accuse him of using it as a photo opportunity and publicity stunt.
    Can’t win either way.

  22. Prospero says:

    Albo had plenty to say at the time too,

    Like this? (Quote from the Wednesday, after rumours began on the Monday that he was holidaying in Hawaii):

    Anthony Albanese addresses the controversy, by saying he will not address it:

    ” I’m not going to be critical of Mr Morrison personally in terms of his circumstances of taking leave with his family. I’m not going to do that. That would be cheap politics and I’m not into that. I’m into the issues. And the issues that count are a national response. Doesn’t matter whether it’s Mr Morrison or Michael McCormack, we’re not seeing a proper response from this Government.”

    The prime minister’s office remains mum.

  23. Boambee John says:

    I’m not going to be critical of Mr Morrison personally in terms of his circumstances of taking leave with his family. I’m not going to do that. That would be cheap politics and I’m not into that.

    Suuuuure he wasn’t. He just made sure he reminded the MSM of the political aspects of “the issues”. No “wink, wink, nudge, nudge” at all.

  24. Buccaneer says:

    Anyone one on socials saw the activists from Sydney and Melbourne pretend to be at the fire/flood zones and wail about what a terrible job the morrison government was doing. Albo didn’t need to have a go at him being on holiday, his mates had that stitched up already, the same way they are pretending now that Albo is on vital overseas fence mending exercises, ones that should have waited until he actually had some boots on the ground here for at least the energy crisis he says his government is facing.

    Albo didn’t even wait a couple of months before he went missing, it’s that shameless. He was straight out the door and has barely been back.

    I suppose, given the disastrous performance that led to him being sidelined for parts of the campaign, this appears an elegant solution for his handlers. Make him look presidential on the world stage where he will face (and answer) few domestic questions. Slate home any problems domestically to the previous government.

  25. Prospero says:

    MIA, the original post says.

    “Albo didn’t even wait a couple of months before he went missing”.

    A PM who is on the TV every night is not “missing”.

    Morrison, on the other hand…we literally did not where he was for a few days, until his office decided to tell the truth.

  26. Rockdoctor says:

    Fair reply Prosperi. I jumped at later articles afterwards, most impetuous of me.

    However the core of what I was trying to say remains and I don’t really get upset with it much anymore as I know the vast majority of what we consume from media has a bias. In fact I expect double standards and do get sarcastic or even at times facetious about it.

  27. Buccaneer says:

    He said he won’t take questions on domestic issues while he is overseas on more than one occasion. He is hiding, photo ops and video clips where he doesn’t have to answer hard questions do not make an accessible Prime Minister.

    Unless of course your’re happy to have a sock puppet do the job.

  28. twostix says:

    Albo is currently doing important Australian PM work touring an eastern european Russian bordertown shithole for the photo ops.

    Australian inflation, housing and energy prices blow up, PM goes MIA on a round the world jaunt.

  29. Prospero says:

    I expect his next approval polling will still be pretty good. He has an air of seriousness about him which had been missing during the “daggy Dad who cooks curries and just happens to be PM” years.

  30. Buccaneer says:

    In lots of ways what Albo is doing is way worse. Morrison dealt with crisis after crisis and went for a holiday when he thought he could.

    Albo gets in the job after spending his campaign harping on about how morrison went missing and that he never would. Then promptly f*cks off overseas and stage manages the content coming back and refuses to address domestic issues.

    It’s more than insulting.

    This is not a commentary about the election outcome, Morrison deserved to lose. Albo, though is showing he didn’t deserve to win. I suppose it doesn’t take too long to forget about the people when you gain power but didn’t even improve your primary vote.

  31. C.L. says:

    Bucc for the win.

  32. Cassie of Sydney says:

    “I expect his next approval polling will still be pretty good. He has an air of seriousness about him which had been missing during the “daggy Dad who cooks curries and just happens to be PM” years”

    LOL, hysterical. You need to make an appointment at Specsavers…pronto.

  33. Cassie of Sydney says:

    “This is not a commentary about the election outcome, Morrison deserved to lose. Albo, though is showing he didn’t deserve to win. I suppose it doesn’t take too long to forget about the people when you gain power but didn’t even improve your primary vote.”

    Well said.

  34. Entropy says:

    Personally I prefer Albo to stay overseas WRT disaster response. And not just because he is a low detail bumbler.
    The feds should not have a role. The only exception is if a State requests defence assistance.
    All that happened as a result of HawaiiGate was the feds now try to insert themselves in every disaster response. And as it doesn’t have fireys, SES, ambos and other on the ground responders, it can only offer to toss around huge buckets of money around, with little accountability and in such sums the state agencies that are given the task don’t spend it all, which is a bigger problem for politicians than an overspend would be.

  35. Entropy says:

    PS! Albo has already given Shane a stone the boot. Crocodile tears.

    POS: the other big problem with tossing big grants out Willy Nilly to those impacted by a disaster is it reduce and discourage the need for people to manage their own risks. They are encouraged to just shift it to the taxpayer.
    Why bother spending extra for a bigger pump out of reach of floods which costs more to run, and the cost of insuring it, when the government will give you a grant for the full cost to replace the one installed below the riverbank with a brand new one after every flood?

    Bad, bad policy.

  36. Prospero says:

    … and went for a holiday when he thought he could.

    And was so confident this was a reasonable thing to do, his office would not tell anyone where he was for three days, leaving it up to people and journos to play detective.

    Albo gets in the job after spending his campaign harping on about how morrison went missing and that he never would. Then promptly f*cks off overseas and stage manages the content coming back and refuses to address domestic issues.

    Repeat: working overseas is not “going missing”.

    Are we getting any sense that the current, Liberal, premier of NSW feels the flood emergency is not getting enough Federal attention? Nope:

    NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has requested a doubling of defence force troops to help out with the emergency service effort as floods take hold across Sydney and a bulk carrier remains stranded off Wollongong.

    SES workers performed 116 flood rescues overnight including 83 rescues since 9pm on Sunday. The rescues come as 64 evacuation orders in place across parts of Sydney and regional NSW including the Illawarra and Hunter regions, affecting 32,000 people.

    One hundred ADF troops have been deployed to help with sandbagging and evacuating areas in the Hawkesbury-Nepean region, where some areas have received more than four times their usual July rainfall within days.

    But the worsening outlook for rain into the afternoon has prompted Mr Perrottet to request an additional 100 troops as the flood risk intensifies. But he stopped short of announcing a state of emergency….

    Federal Emergency Services Management Minister Murray Watt has approved the request for an additional 100 troops and said more troops would be available with 24 hours notice. The defence force staff will help with evacuations and preparations for the floods, as well as the recovery effort.

    Contrast that with a report from 10 December 2019 (6 days before leaving to an undisclosed destination):

    The prime minister has rejected calls for more help for firefighters as the New South Wales bushfire crisis is expected to worsen.

    There were 85 fires burning across NSW on Tuesday, and 42 were uncontrolled. With predictions of temperatures surpassing 40C and a wind change for the afternoon, firefighters expected conditions to deteriorate.

    About 2,700 firefighters are in the field, many from volunteer NSW Rural Fire Service brigades.

    As smoke brought the city’s air quality to more than 11 times the hazardous level, Scott Morrison spoke in Sydney about the religious discrimination bill.

    Asked about concerns over how long the tens of thousands of volunteer firefighters – many who have been away from work for weeks now – were expected to continue without pay, Morrison said they “want to be there”.

    I would add – Morrison said in the same article the state governments were getting what they requested at the time, and I don’t know, that may be true. But by December, the bushfires had been a serious problem for months, leading to the public perception that that Federal government should be doing more, including providing relief for volunteer firefighters, leading to the rather condescending take on the matter above.

    On 16 December, the day he flew out, this is the news:

    Almost 2000 firefighters were battling 108 blazes across NSW on Monday, ahead of extreme heat forecast for much of Australia throughout the rest of the week.

    Heat records could tumble, with forecast tops of 44C in Adelaide on Friday, 41C in Melbourne on Friday, and 43C in Canberra on Saturday.

    Areas of inland South Australia are forecast to have five consecutive days of 45C or hotter, with three consecutive days of 47C and above.

    Brisbane equalled its record for the hottest December day at 41.2C on Monday.

    The situations are chalk and cheese. Morrison left the country for a holiday in a secret location in the middle of a series of extensive bushfires, at the start of a period of forecast record temperatures, and at a time the public had already been questioning the adequacy of federal response.

    None of this is similar to the situation with a PM attending high profile diplomatic meeting overseas and an East Coast low bringing fresh flooding.

    It’s transparent opportunistic “whataboutism”, and to keep those of you happy about media bias in treatment of Coalition and Labor PM’s, I see that the in depth journal of political commentary The Daily Mail has been happy to run with this fake news story by running Coalition complaints that this is so unfair

    I’m betting that the public can see the false equivalence, because it patently is.

  37. Hugh says:

    Entropy, snap!

    When will they learn?

    Same with government bushfire compensation.

    Heck, Australia is a big place, with no earthquakes or active volcanoes. There are still lots of places you can settle and not have to fear floods or bushfires. And you often can do something about them as well, apart from sitting back and filching off the wealth-creating taxpayer.

    Will we be ruing floods and bushfires in a thousand years time? At the rate we’re going, it seems, yes!

  38. Buccaneer says:

    The whataboutism was an election campaign that misled the public as to the statements Morrison made about these events. Morrison didn’t run this campaign or pretend he wouldn’t go missing. Albanese did make that commitment. He changed the rules and now refuses to adhere to them. Pretending the situations are some how different because you deem people are not suffering or you think it’s all under control or other wise is just bs.

    I don’t subscribe to the idea that the PM needs a leave pass and we all need to know the whereabouts of the PMs holiday. Then it’s not a holiday and that opens security issues. It’s ok by up you for Albo to gratuitously visit Ukraine, secretly, while his government has called an energy crisis in this country and he refuses to answer questions on it.

    This is far worse, that’s called living up to your commitments, and he’s broken that bond immediately on his entry to government.

    Not that I am worried, it’s great that this guy is all piss and wind.

  39. and says:

    All the sucking up overseas has paid off for Dennis. He’s been given the privilege… the great honour… of massaging Klaus on Wednesday.

  40. Entropy says:

    Prior to 2018-19 the feds tended to only get involved in the recovery phase, Prospero, and even would leave the delivery and operational aspects to the states, only providing a funding contribution. The result of the pile on after the bushfires is the feds are trying to give themselves a role.
    The real blame in 2019 was Gladys and Dan, who were very happy for the heat to be on Morrison rather than them and their actual failures.
    Palaszczuk was not as involved in the bushfire pile on, partly I guess because she was on a cruise somewhere, but also because Qld is just better at disaster response, as it happens to them more often than NSW and especially Victoria. Vic agencies and politicians do not have a clue. Vic Rural fire service excepted, but they don’t get listened too.

  41. Entropy says:

    I would also add that the other problem was an invisible Acting Prime Minister. The guy whose name I keep forgetting who was national party leader instead of a letcherous Barnaby.

    If Barnaby had been Acting PM he would have everywhere to annoyance levels, been shaking hands up and down the countryside, and no one except PVO or Trioli would have begrudged Morrison being away for a week.

  42. Prospero says:

    Albanese did make that commitment.

    And behold, there has not been a day where no one knew where he was.

    I don’t subscribe to the idea that the PM needs a leave pass and we all need to know the whereabouts of the PMs holiday. Then it’s not a holiday and that opens security issues.

    Huh.

    I’m pretty sure that it has been common practice for my entire life for the nation to know at least the seaside location, if not the specific building, in which our PMs like to take their summer beach holidays. An example:

    ”Every January my family and I drive down from Sydney towards Sussex Inlet to the Berrara Beach Park – it’s beautiful,” Mr Abbott has said of the idyll he has visited for almost 15 years. He even campaigned heavily in nearby Shoalhaven during the election.

    Even Paul Keating, who I might have guessed winged it to Europe for Christmas, apparently didn’t. (1995 interview on JJJ):

    AC: Do you go to the beach, or a farm, or stay home?
    PM: No. I mostly go to Sydney, because Sydney in summer is fantastic.
    You have the Festival of Sydney all the good shows on, half the
    traffic, it’s not too hot, and I mostly end up somewhere up at Pittwater.
    I do a bit of sailing, and I’m doing that this year, too.

    Anyway, you can stop clutching your fake pearls, he’s back tomorrow night. (Then off to the Pacific Island Forum next week. Given the way the Morrison government pissed off Pacific Islanders, who can blame him on being part of that pre-arranged meeting?)

  43. Prospero says:

    A PM with better PR skills than Morrison would have:

    a. at least stayed within Australia, where you can more convincingly be taken to know what’s going on in a continuing, widespread, emergency in real time (time zones not being an issue) just by watching the news (or listening to Radio National);

    b. told his office to disclose at least his general location within Australia, if asked;

    c. told his office to emphasise that he is being kept up to date all the time as to what is going on (and take at least a 5 minute call twice a day to make that plausible: “we doing everything we can at the moment? Yeah? Good.”);

    d. not be seen smiling with stubbie in hand with other holiday makers while scores of houses are burning and firefighters dying.

  44. Buccaneer says:

    But he has gone missing. He is not here, he did not cut his overseas jaunt short to come back to Aus for the energy crisis his government told us we have. Or for the current floods. Apparently, it’s all ok as long as we see his mug on the TV regardless of whether he’s willing or competent to answer questions about said crises.

    No matter of distraction via irrelevant quotes or mis attribution of the arguments of others here will change that. No amount of accusations of pearl clutching or whataboutism will change that either. Those just identify you as feeling like you need a crutch for your argument.

  45. Prospero says:

    Of course, now that I think about it, many Southern beachside locations that might have been convenient for a quiet Morrison holiday were actually burning that summer. Maybe he should have explained that’s why he had to go to Hawaii. Ha ha.

    But seriously, it might be hot and humid there at that time of year, but a week in a luxury airconditioned house on Hamilton Island would have been a better look than Hawaii.

  46. Buccaneer says:

    No PM with better PR skills than Albanese the missing, would

    a. Go on a series of overseas jaunts before stamping his authority at home
    b. Piss $900 b dollars away while overseas to self aggrandise
    c. Refuse to answer domestic questions from media after running a campaign saying he would never run away from questions from the press
    d. Be photographed on said overseas jaunt socialising with his wife and the French president and his wife after being taken for $800b
    e. Credulously pronounce for the nightly news that he had just witnessed a war crime in Ukraine. What a maroon…

  47. Buccaneer says:

    I agree that Morrison would have been better advised to holiday in Aus. The common theme between them is that power makes people arrogant and distances them from the plight of others. Usually, that happens some time after gaining it.

    The 4 corners episode tonight on the factional shenanigans will out how bad it was for Morrison, I expect. That whole episode is on him and his mate Hawke.

    Albo has set the bar and rightly or wrongly, people now expect something more from government. The media don’t set peoples expectations as much anymore. Most folks don’t catch the nightly news.

    They don’t trust him and this is why. No amount of smarty pants carry on will change that.

  48. Prospero says:

    ….come back to Aus for the energy crisis his government told us we have. Or for the current floods.

    Your tedious non argument doesn’t hold water.

    He went to Indonesia 5 – 7 June.

    AMEO took over the energy spot market on 14 June – after about a week of warnings that we might get brown outs, that never came.

    Everyone with a brain knows this wasn’t equivalent to sending additional manpower to a fire. The Federal government doesn’t have an elite corps of back up army engineers with generators to plug into your street or factory, last I looked. Whatever “solution” exists is obviously not going to be one that a PM can announce immediately.

    As for the current flood: he left for Europe on 26 June – now more than a week ago. The weather forecasts last week were, if I remember correctly, that there would likely be widespread rain in NSW in the coming week, but there was no certainty of flood. The formation of East Coast lows is not, AFAIK, something predictable a week ahead of time.

  49. Buccaneer says:

    Has not cut it short, won’t take questions, has gone missing. Your valiant attempts to excuse this clown are getting more and more shrill. That you constantly feel a need to try to belittle me doesn’t change the point. You don’t like albo being held to account by their own rules.

    Dismiss it all you like, this will eventually come back to haunt Albo. It’s not a good look to be this disconnected this early in a government.

  50. a reader says:

    Prospero also neglects the fact that Scomo was upholding a promise to his daughters. Frankly I think his family is more important than a state responsibility anyway. And I didn’t even like Scomo

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