Is Tony Abbott Australia’s own Silvio Berlusconi?

Silvio Berlusconi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Is Tony Abbott Australia’s own Silvio Berlusconi?

After the results of the Italian elections started to become clear, I saw many news anchors, and reporters ask incredulously, how can a man like Berlusconi, who is a convicted tax cheat and currently facing court over under age sex allegations, poll so strongly?

Well Hullo!  The man owns around 80% of the media in Italy, and so the real question should be;  Are the people asking these questions being deliberately obtuse, or are they just plain STUPID?

Now in real terms, I am not comparing Abbott and Berlusconi, as there are many differences between the two.   For starters, I believe that Berlusconi is quite smart, corrupt but smart!

Image via CrunchBase

However there are some similarities, starting with the fact that Abbott, has Murdoch and

Rinehart backing him with their vast media resources, not to mention our/their ABC , with Mark Scott (A Howard appointee, who was once, amongst other things, a NSW LNP staffer) at the helm.

There is lots of evidence to indicate that, at the very least dishonesty, if not downright corruption, is something else that they have in common, and until the questions over Abbotts involvement in;

• Ashbygate and his unrelenting vendetta against an ex friend and the speaker of the house Peter Slipper.
• The Thomson affair, including his association with whistleblower K Jackson and her fiance, M Lawler, who was an Abbott appointee to the AIRC, which later became FWA.
• Abbotts own slush fund “Australians for Honest Politics” where he lied to the AEC

to name but a few, are answered, the spectre of corruption and dishonesty over Abbott and his party will remain.  I won’t, however,  hold my breath waiting for the MSM to ask any relevant questions on these issues.

The really scary thing is that there is not any longer even a pretence of balance in the MSM, when you look at the number of front pages relating to the Slipper case (around 30) to the number of front pages reporting the Justice Rares findings of collusion and abuse of process (0) which is surprising, as that ruling has effectively outlined the case against members and associates of the LNP, of conspiring to bring down a democratically elected government.

This should have sent our illustrious investigative journalists into a feeding frenzy, but the silence was deafening!

The truth is that an Abbott government (God forbid) will be bought and paid for by Murdoch and his fellow MSM moguls, which will effectively trash our democracy, our way of life and our future, for the sake of mega profits for a few.

Their lies and misrepresentations include;

• Gillard lied?  The LNP and the media quote “There will be no carbon tax under a government that I lead”, they conveniently leave off the last part of her sentence that say “But lets be absolutely clear. I am determined to price carbon”  The real truth is that we don’t have a Tax, but a price on carbon.   They lied!
• Incompetent Government?  Over 430 pieces of legislation passed, an economy that is the envy of the majority of the developed world, inflation, interest rates and unemployment at at very low levels, and debt to GDP a fraction of most other comparable countries.    Incompetent opposition!
• Wasteful Government?  Spending money to secure 200,000+ jobs and insulate us from the GFC, whilst building infrastructure sadly neglected over years of LNP governance.  According to the IMF, the most wasteful government in Australia’s history  was Howard’s Government, and the vast majority of that front bench are now Abbotts front bench   Mmmmmmm?
• The list goes on and on.

Berlusconi polls so well because he controls the media, Abbott polls so well because he is owned by those that control the media.  The following link to CW is a related story by Miglo and definitely worth a read.

Revealed! The media conspiracy against the Government

Now for those who so readily dismiss media bias as nothing more than an ALP whinge fest, let’s look at the last two weeks.

Abbott announces that he will remove the school kids bonus, he will wind back the tax free threshold and the pension increases, he will sack at least 20,000 public servants and he and his ministers continue to lie about the carbon price, its financial impact and the fact that it is working (energy emissions down by over 8%).

And despite the valid assumption that these measures (and lies) would be most unpopular amongst families, low wage earners, pensioners and the general community, the polls give Abbott a huge jump in his personal rating and the TPP.

With these things in mind, I find myself asking if Murdoch and Co can buy themselves a government in, what is considered, a strong democracy like Australia, what else can they buy?       Polls?      Policy outcomes?    Mining approvals without the proper checks and balances?    Our futures?????

Is Tony Abbott Australia’s own Silvio Berlusconi?  

Or just a close plastic facsimile!

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)