02-02-2015, 10:15 PM
Australia's PM's Popularity Polls have Plummeted
Well, Duchess, looks like the man down under on whom you're kinda crushin' is having a hard time holding on to the reins.
![[Image: Tony_Abbott_2805574k.jpg]](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02805/Tony_Abbott_2805574k.jpg)
Since his election in September 2013, Abbott has accumulated more critics than supporters. A litany of broken promises and a stalled budget have left his achievements looking parlous.
He had promised there would be no cuts to health, education and pensions, nor the national broadcasters, ABC and the SBS. All have since faced reduced funding. His first budget has been hijacked by minor party objections and horse-trading. Many measures remain stuck in the Senate, the upper house of the Australian parliament.
He's managed to keep one of his central promises: to dump a carbon tax introduced by Julia Gillard, the predecessor he maligned for breaking promises.
And his government can be fairly said to have stopped the boatloads of asylum seekers making their way to Australia from Indonesian ports. This was achieved after several years, during which up to 1,000 people died on the journey.
However, even that achievement has come at a cost to his personal reputation. Sending asylum seekers to Australian-run camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru has ended in riots and one death.
Queenslanders took the opportunity to slap down his conservative allies by throwing them out of office in a statewide election last weekend.
Talk had begun, worsening after the Queensland poll, that Abbott would be dumped if he refused to resign.
Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/02/asia/a...index.html
Well, Duchess, looks like the man down under on whom you're kinda crushin' is having a hard time holding on to the reins.
Since his election in September 2013, Abbott has accumulated more critics than supporters. A litany of broken promises and a stalled budget have left his achievements looking parlous.
He had promised there would be no cuts to health, education and pensions, nor the national broadcasters, ABC and the SBS. All have since faced reduced funding. His first budget has been hijacked by minor party objections and horse-trading. Many measures remain stuck in the Senate, the upper house of the Australian parliament.
He's managed to keep one of his central promises: to dump a carbon tax introduced by Julia Gillard, the predecessor he maligned for breaking promises.
And his government can be fairly said to have stopped the boatloads of asylum seekers making their way to Australia from Indonesian ports. This was achieved after several years, during which up to 1,000 people died on the journey.
However, even that achievement has come at a cost to his personal reputation. Sending asylum seekers to Australian-run camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru has ended in riots and one death.
Queenslanders took the opportunity to slap down his conservative allies by throwing them out of office in a statewide election last weekend.
Talk had begun, worsening after the Queensland poll, that Abbott would be dumped if he refused to resign.
Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/02/asia/a...index.html