Battle stations and it’s all about the money

The world’s in financial crisis, our superannuation schemes are being plundered and all the time grocery prices rise and petrol stays high, and Labor attack Turnbull over being a millionaire. Give me strength.

Isn’t Kevin Rudd a millionaire? Isn’t his wife a millionaire? Isn’t Peter Garrett a millionaire? And I’ve no doubt many other MPs on both sides of the house are too.

What I want from the Prime Minister is action that actually does something. No grocery, fuel watch gimmicks. Do something to keep this economy going.

NSW is in recession and Kevin Rudd praises Morris Iemma’s tenure as Premier. It’s so pathetic you have to laugh.

Please do something Kevin - it’s why I voted for you.

Turnbull is self-made, has started businesses and employed people. He made money. Rudd merely married into it. No comparison. Turnbull has runs on the board in many areas. Rudd is a bureaucrat.

Malcolm - trademark values?

I wonder, what is so different between these two parties values and beliefs:

Party 1:
We are the party of initiative and enterprise;
We believe in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples; and we work towards a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives; and maximises individual and private sector initiative.
We believe in government that nurtures and encourages its citizens through incentive, rather than putting limits on people through the punishing disincentives of burdensome taxes and the stifling structures of Labor’s corporate state and bureaucratic red tape.
We believe in those most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy - the freedom of thought, worship, speech and association.
We believe in a just and humane society in which the importance of the family and the role of law and justice is maintained.
We believe in equal opportunity for all Australians; and the encouragement and facilitation of wealth so that all may enjoy the highest possible standards of living, health, education and social justice.
We believe that, wherever possible, government should not compete with an efficient private sector; and that businesses and individuals - not government - are the true creators of wealth and employment.
We believe in preserving Australia’s natural beauty and the environment for future generations.
We believe that our nation has a constructive role to play in maintaining world peace and democracy through alliance with other free nations.
In short, we simply believe in individual freedom and free enterprise; and if you share this belief, then ours is the Party for you.

Party 2:
We value our nation’s long-term prosperity—achieved through a modern, competitive economy and ensuring quality of life for all Australians.
We value our security—security for our family, our community and our country. We are proud of our men and women who have served our nation and those who have died in the service of their nation.
We value fairness and equality and believe in a fair go for all—we believe that a nation should be governed in the broader interests of all, not in the sectional interests of a few.
We value our communities and our families. Our families are the bedrock of our communities which we need to nurture, protect and support.
We value our democratic and public institutions, which have the power to address exclusion and disadvantage.
We value compassion and dedicate ourselves to social justice. We believe that it is the Australian way to work together to help alleviate suffering and disadvantage when we can.
We value the environment that sustains us all—and which we must now sustain with our country’s united and urgent effort.
We value liberty—the freedom to hold whatever beliefs we choose while respecting those of others; the freedom to express those beliefs without fear or favour; and the economic freedom to pursue our own employment and enterprise.
We believe in opportunity, creativity and innovation as the basis for individual aspiration and being rewarded for hard work, achievement and success.

I wonder?

Labor would do well to shut their mouths on this topic.. It’ll go nowhere. One just has to mention Rudd, Keating and any other of a number of multi-millionaire laborites… As for Malcom only looking out for the wealthy. How is that different to only looking out for the wealthy unions. Wayne wayne wayne.. don’t kid yourself into thinking that the average voter doesn’t see straight through this tactic.

You give too much importance to a self-important prat who sold out his only claim to political fame the minute he had a chance to advance it.

Why don’t you brainless wallies in the media actually check the legislation sometimes and try and understand that things have to be legislated and debated in two houses of parliament before being amended, sent back and forth and then sent to the GG to be made law?

Unlike Howard and his control of the senate seeming to be the norm, it is not.

You all need to stop whining for a dog and pony show - go to the bloody circus.

Mr Farr this is the first piece of unmitigated drivel of yours I’ve read. Is this what the great Rudd has come to-make the bullets but leave others to fire them?  Where I come from its called cowardice.

Malcolm,question for you that no journalist wants to give me straight answer so far and my email usualy goes under rock.Is it not true that Rudd family made millions out of government contracts? 

When will Labor learn that Australians today are not class concious to any great extent, and that it is extremely hypocritical for a very wealthy Kevin Rudd (Peter Garrett too and others) to claim that Malcolm Turnbull is rich and therefore suggest that he is a lesser person. What about the multi-millionaire former Labor PMs Hawke and Keating, are they too to be ridiculed. Rudd is scared of Turnbull, and given their achievements before politics, education and career paths/experience, he should be. And Swannie too. A message for Kevin 07, now Mistake 08, get on with governing, reduce the overseas travelling, stop watching and do something positive for a change.

So the labor party decided they couldn’t criticise Mr. Turnbull for his wealth (a self made millionaire having made his money through the private sector), but he wouldn’t be able to relate to ordinary Australians.  I would love to ask Mr. Rudd “what exactly is an ordinary Australian”.  Is it the pensioner who is struggling to get by, is it the bloke earning $30,000 a year and in the process supporting a family, is it someone who is on the average weekly wage.  I watched question time yesterday and some of you labor blokes make me sick.  Several millionaires on your frontbench and you are trying to tell me (a part aged pensioner) that they relate to “ordinary Australians”.  The hypocrisy is overwhelming.  I consider myself an “ordinary Australian” and I admire people who have humble beginnings and through hard work make something of themselves, especially through the private sector.  These people have the guts and drive and willpower to better themselves and at the end of the day I personally don’t care what political views they have.  Obviously Mr. Rudd’s wife was one of these people, starting from scratch and doing well.  Does this mean that now Mrs. Rudd cannot relate to “ordinary Australans”, I don’t think so!

The Labor Party would want to be very very careful about throwing stones, because with Turnbull at the helm, a few will come back and may well be aimed at a few well heeled Labor MP’s who would rather their asset status remain quiet. The response to Rudd and his wealth was a fair warning of where he intends to come from. There is a real challenger now and I am not sure Rudd and Co. know how to handle him.

Poor Wayne, he is a very nervous man.
Labor attacks on people who have done well in the private sector, highlight what abject failures both Kevin and Wayne were when they left the safe folds of the Labor beauracracy.

Malcolm why do labor continue with this class war thing?  If anyone shattered the class war myth it was Howard, providing millions of Australians the opportunity to own their own homes, have a job and a family.  And Mr Swan is being a tad hypocritical when saying there is nothing wrong with being a millionaire and in the next breath attacking Turnbull for being one and supporting rich people.  Just look at some of the labor figures who are more than well off and also have their snouts in the trough.  And the trough is getting bigger with Rudd’s new taxes.

And Nelson, like Beazley was too nice.  Finally we have someone to belt Rudd about the head.  And Turnbull has picked a very big, over ripe target in NSW.  I like what I see in Turnbull so far.  It appears he’s not going to pussyfoot around or hold back.  And with their low approval rating they have nothing to lose at the moment.  And with labor in power just about across the whole country it’s about time they were brought back a peg or two.  I doubt Turnbull would win the next election but it appears he is a good long term leader prospect.  A new face with an aggressive nature.  Perhaps he can get that fat head of Rudds to actually turn around for once in parliament and face his opposition instead of sitting with his back turned, such is his arrogance.

I agree with Wayne Swan here. I used to live in the eastern suburbs and came into contact with Malcolm Turnbull all the time. He has no idea what people are struggling with. He has no idea what the battlers are doing or cant afford to do. His poll workers are pompous blue bloods and they make no bones about it either at campaigns. If Australians think this guy is on their side they really are dumb. Great article though Malcolm.

Thats a bit rich coming from the discracefull labor mob” who are the same mob as nsw ,take krudds wife she runs a employment agency which is funded by the taxpayers (120 million )and while “krudd the country wrecker “is bleating” on about work choices ,employment companies like hers rip 50%of unemployed persons wage off for the 1st 3 mths of his/hers employment when they find them a job on a 3 mths trial, on top of the funding they get from taxpayers,what a hypocrit”,and if thats not eneough here the union is going to court to try and get the same high wages” that the awa” workers are on 54,000 versus 72,000 on awa for the same job in public service,sounds like someone has been telling a lot of lies to us from where i stand,rotten to the core thats labor.

Why should we pick on richer people? Why have a “luxury” car tax? I am not rich, but I recognise that rich people pay more than their fair share of tax, and have usually risked a lot to get to where they are.

Daniel ,and swan does? give me a break these spin clowns dont know how to run anything just look at nsw.

One point I’d like to have cleared up is the reference to Rudd being a ‘self made man’ like Turnbull. My understanding is that Rudd is little more than a power hungry political bureaucrat used to crunching numbers and playing the party game. I believe it is Rudd’s wife who is the self made success. He looks more like the ‘hanger on’ in that relationship.

Turnbull has made it in business on his own. There seems little comparison between the two.

Malcolm, you said that yesterday, there was not a clear victor.To have a victor you have to have more than one in a contest and see that contest through to the end.Mr Rudd when asked a question now drivels on about anything that has absolutely no relevance to the question.When the opposition wants a point of order for relevance he gets his stooge, the Speaker,Mr Jenkins,to ask “have you finished” to which the illustrious Mr Rudd like a mongrel dog with it’s tail between it’s legs sit down and say “yes”.This happened on numerous occassions not just the once.Then he gets his cowardly attack dogs to get personal with response to their own ‘Dorothy Dixes’.When can you get a victor when one side refuses to show any courage in the debate.To pull out of the debate just shows how inept one is.I thought that when you were on with David Spears yesterday that you might have been a bit more balanced in noticing this, then of course you were with Mr Spears and we all know were he comes from, being one half of the bookends for Labor.

It’s a very slippery slope, given that Kevin and Therese Rudd are a VERY wealthy couple themselves.

I am truly sorry, but I didn’t realise we lived in a country where it is taboo for successful people who get off their backsides and make something of their lives and reach high positions in politics get canned for it. I guess the rest (i.e. losers) just join the Labor Party or a union or the Daily Tele and criticise successful people.