Tony Abbott pushing for a plebiscite on the carbon tax on the grounds Australians haven't had a chance to vote on it ignores history in which he played a part, says Barry Everingham.
It’s a sad opposition in Canberra these days. A loony leader, a front bench senator who my colleague Mungo McCallum claimed had to remove his trousers to be able to count to 21 — that’s the other loon Barnaby Joyce.
Tony Abbott has gone over the edge.
He wants to spend millions of dollars on a plebiscite, which at the end of the day will mean nothing — no matter what the result. It’s just a ploy by Abbott to cover up the wild divisions in his own party on the matter of a carbon tax and it seems the opposition leader has become even more unbalanced than usual.
He says he wants the plebiscite because, he claims, Julia Gillard promised – which she did – there would be no carbon tax from any government led by her.
Tony seems to think Gillard’s actions were unique.
To coin one of Abbott’s famous phrases — that’s crap.
His spiritual father, John Howard, would be able to remind the current leader that Abbott was a member of his Government when he brought in the infamous Work Choices legislation, aimed squarely at stripping away workers’ rights and conditions.
The hateful legislation wasn’t mentioned in the lead up to the 2004 elections.
It eventually threw Howard and his government on to the dung heap of political history where they both rightfully belong.
Abbott’s memory is short.
Did Howard ask for a plebiscite to get the feeling of the electorate when he unilaterally made Australia a member of George W Bush’s team that invaded and subsequently looted and destroyed Iraq?
He did not.
Did Howard ask the electorate if it was OK to send 17 Australian soldiers to their deaths in Afghanistan — one of the world’s most corrupt countries?
He did not.
Howard was in the thrall of the most intellectually challenged US president ever — the president who, with Howard, lied to their people and the world about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction.
The greatest irony of all is that Abbott is the man who admitted that he doesn’t always tell the truth — sheer hypocrisy.
What Abbott is doing is singing from the Tea Party’s song sheet — he’s trying to spread a feeling of chaos and fear in the community in his all-or-nothing quest to bash and crash his way into The Lodge.
He is mad, he is bad, he is dangerous to know and he should never under any circumstances whatsoever be handed the keys to our nation’s future.
