Some Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade staff are annoyed Prime Minister Tony Abbott's daughter Louise is working at Australia's embassy in Geneva, which is headed by former Coalition staffer Peter Woolcott.

"I'd just say that it is time for Bill Shorten to become a responsible leader of the opposition and start showing some restraint instead of being all complaint." Joe Hockey said.

Tony Abbott has attempted to draw a line under two weeks of budget controversy by declaring that the "watershed" economic plan included funding for a crime crackdown.

The chairman of a Sydney design college has insisted he had no part in awarding a prestigious scholarship to Frances Abbott, the daughter of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, but conceded he "probably" mentioned she would be a good candidate for it.

Les Taylor, a noted Liberal Party donor and long-time friend of Mr Abbott, is the chairman of the board of governors of the Whitehouse Institute of Design.

We learn a lot from a new government’s first budget. Strategic priorities, previously existing only in verbal form, are given concrete expression; promises are sorted into the various categories of core, non-core and empty; scores are settled and favours repaid. But the thing we learn most from the first Abbott government budget is about the Liberal Party and who owns it.

from Crikey …..

Well, hold the phone and smack me upside the head, this government is dumber than I thought!

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has described the budget as a "fire brigade" putting out a fiscal fire, as he battles to sell the tax hikes and billions of dollars in spending cuts announced last week.

ALL IS FORGIVEN TONY...

Dear Tony, I must apologise for having misunderstood you and your mates... Yes, you were right. That lying bitch Julia deserved to be shut down.

There is growing evidence that Joe Hockey is the dumbest Australian politician ever …

Last week, ICAC heard John Caputo, a key campaign fundraiser for both PM Tony Abbott and NSW Premier Mike Baird, has been allegedly passing dodgy donations to disgraced NSW Liberal MP Chris Hartcher that were subsequently laundered. Peter Wicks from Wixxyleaks reports. 

I do not know the status of the donations to the Liberal (CONservative) Party in general nor on the Central Coast. But I must say an acquaintance was surprised to see that all the Liberal (CONservative) candidates he saw passing through or parked, had the same/similar van with the same/similar advertising on it.

The conclusion was that there was a "central" orchestration of campaign designed to maximise the visual impact. Nothing wrong with this. Very savvy. The only problem now is to make sure that all the funding for this campaign was kosher. (Photo supplied).

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From Der Speigel

A few journalists call News Corp "news corpse"... I often call it the merde-och press. We're all wrong. News Corp is an art form taken to the limit of insanity and distraction with brilliance...