Albo trying to hog the spotlight with Julian Assange - 29/6
Jun 29, 2024 17:37:54 GMT 8
NFA likes this
Post by NFA on Jun 29, 2024 17:37:54 GMT 8
Albo trying to hog the spotlight when it comes to Julian Assange
Vikki Campion
An early election is on the cards, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s name is on every birthday card, no matter how late he was to the party.
Amid self-adulation for bringing Julian Assange home, Albo was tactically reticent to spotlight years of work by DFAT, Assange’s family, legal team and the Parliamentary crossbench delegation of Teals, Greens, Labor, Liberals and Nationals who flew more than 24 hours in economy seats to the other side of the world, privately funded and with no endorsement by Mr Albanese.
There was no taxpayer-funded private jet that Albo keeps in comfort, or even a meal allowance for the delegation when they lobbed into US senator’s offices, press galleries and even Ambassador Kevin Rudd’s abode to outline Assange’s case, with one of the entourage mistakenly copping
an eventually refunded $40,000 hotel bill for the experience.
Mysteriously, Albo cannot be remembered as attending any of the many Assange briefings at Capital Hill over the years open to all.
Even though his decades in parliament coincided with Assange’s jail and self-incarceration time, even in opposition where he could have said what he pleased, there was not a whisper of Assange on Albo’s Hansard until he was asked in Question Time 2022 by Kooyong’s Monique Ryan.
While he is experienced enough in politics to sign his name on every card on every present, one undoubted skill he has is assessing when to call an election. And it’s his call alone.
It will likely be after the $300 power bill subsidy is applied, after a nuclear scare campaign, which is easier to run than a nuclear education campaign, before the next quarterly energy bill, before an interest rate rise comes through on a bank statement and before the Australian Electoral Commission changes the boundaries to NSW and Victoria in mid-late October, which will see Labor lose Bennelong, Patterson and Higgins.
Issuing the writs after September 24, however, when the WA redistribution is determined could see Labor pick up another seat.
And if MYEFO (the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook) is brought forward as discussed, Albo’s campaign team could refill the marginal seat slush bucket.
Vikki Campion
An early election is on the cards, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s name is on every birthday card, no matter how late he was to the party.
Amid self-adulation for bringing Julian Assange home, Albo was tactically reticent to spotlight years of work by DFAT, Assange’s family, legal team and the Parliamentary crossbench delegation of Teals, Greens, Labor, Liberals and Nationals who flew more than 24 hours in economy seats to the other side of the world, privately funded and with no endorsement by Mr Albanese.
There was no taxpayer-funded private jet that Albo keeps in comfort, or even a meal allowance for the delegation when they lobbed into US senator’s offices, press galleries and even Ambassador Kevin Rudd’s abode to outline Assange’s case, with one of the entourage mistakenly copping
an eventually refunded $40,000 hotel bill for the experience.
Mysteriously, Albo cannot be remembered as attending any of the many Assange briefings at Capital Hill over the years open to all.
Even though his decades in parliament coincided with Assange’s jail and self-incarceration time, even in opposition where he could have said what he pleased, there was not a whisper of Assange on Albo’s Hansard until he was asked in Question Time 2022 by Kooyong’s Monique Ryan.
While he is experienced enough in politics to sign his name on every card on every present, one undoubted skill he has is assessing when to call an election. And it’s his call alone.
It will likely be after the $300 power bill subsidy is applied, after a nuclear scare campaign, which is easier to run than a nuclear education campaign, before the next quarterly energy bill, before an interest rate rise comes through on a bank statement and before the Australian Electoral Commission changes the boundaries to NSW and Victoria in mid-late October, which will see Labor lose Bennelong, Patterson and Higgins.
Issuing the writs after September 24, however, when the WA redistribution is determined could see Labor pick up another seat.
And if MYEFO (the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook) is brought forward as discussed, Albo’s campaign team could refill the marginal seat slush bucket.