It’s not quite the stability they predicted but it is true that you can’t put pig on a lipstick
Return to stability. Claire Bickers, The Courier-Mail, July 11:
Political analysts and MPs have predicted Australian politics is returning to stability … Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams … said (Malcolm Turnbull) surviving as leader this long was a sign Australian politics was returning to stability … “Both parties have now become fearful of changing leaders, so Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten are keeping their jobs. The dissatisfaction of Tony Abbott and a vocal minority is dwarfed by a fear of paying the price for changing the leader again.” … Jill Sheppard … (of) the Australian National University … (said) Australian politics was returning to stability …
Stability back! Peter Reith, The Drum, ABC online, September 13, 2013:
The return of stable government … Politics has been so normal for the last week I had nearly forgotten what it was like to have a government not consumed by its own internal contests and dysfunction … The last time this was the case was when John Howard was prime minister. The only real juicy bit of news is that Kevin is staying and might want the top job again … Wow, he really has lost the plot. But I hope he stays; it is great for commentators.
Return of Kevin and hyperbole? The Courier-Mail, August 17:
Kevin Rudd is telling … in a new book … how his … colleagues replaced him with Julia Gillard … Publisher Pan McMillan … (claims) “The betrayal of June 2010 is the most significant Australian political event of the century.”
Westerners are the most violent people on the planet. ABC’s Q&A, August 20:
Author Michael Mohammed Ahmad: If you’re a racist, if you’re a white supremacist, a colonialist, Islamophobe and a xenophobe, you should be afraid of me because I, in solidarity with the majority of people on this planet who will say no to you, and we will stop the bigotry and hatred that you’re spreading.
Host Tony Jones: In your case, you’re talking about with your pen or your typewriter, correct?
Ahmad: Because you’re worried that I’m implicating some kind of violent actions?
Jones: I’m giving you the opportunity to say that you aren’t.
Ahmad: Of course, I’m not. I just find it really cheap when there’s a concern that Muslims are inciting violence because if you looked at the foreign policies of the West they are the most violent people on the planet.
Tony, what were you thinking? Neil McMahon, The Sydney Morning Herald, August 21:
Ahmad … seemed, by the consistent volume at which he yelled at the camera, to be unaware he was wearing a microphone. But he made many a valid point … regarding anti-Muslim bigotry … Host Tony Jones — awkwardly would be an understatement — inquired of the nature of … (Ahmad’s) rebellion … Tony, what we’re you thinking?
What was C&P thinking? Global Peace Index 2018:
The four most peaceful regions … (are) Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific and South America … Syria … (is) the least peaceful country … Afghanistan, South Sudan, Iraq and Somalia … (are the others).
NBC Meet The Press, August 19:
Rudy Giuliani: Truth isn’t truth.
The truth. ABC News, August 18:
George Christensen: (commenting on the NEG) You can’t put pig on a lipstick (sic) and pretend it’s the homecoming queen.