Via: Tony Abbott’s faux IR attack laid bare | smh.com.au.

Tony Abbott’s faux IR attack laid bare

WALEED ALY February 07, 2014

Liberal backbencher and member for Murray Sharman Stone is presently the most effective opposition leader in the country. She’s across her brief, argues her case powerfully and directly and carries with her an undeniable sincerity that spectacularly subordinates her own career advancement prospects to the interests of her constituents.

But, perhaps most profoundly, she has managed in the space of a week to surround the government with a series of intractable questions that drive at the heart of exactly what this hitherto opaque government is really trying to achieve. Stone is making the government transparent.

To be clear, she almost certainly does not intend anything so grand. Her aim is simply to reverse her colleagues’ decision to deny SPC Ardmona the $25 million it apparently needs to keep operating.

But when you accuse your own boss of “lying” and “hypocrisy”, and when you lay bare the political imperatives of making election promises to marginal seats that contradict the decisions you make in safe ones, you inevitably open a vein. This is no longer just about whether or not the government’s decision is justified. It’s about why it has chosen to present this issue the way it has.

Full article: http://m.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbotts-faux-ir-attack-laid-bare-20140206-324af.html