Friday, May 15
Tony Abbott: “Well I think we do need an [iron ore] inquiry.”
Sunday, May 17
Tony Abbott: “All I want to do is to know the facts and once the facts are out there, people will be in a position to make judgements.”
Tony Abbott: “What we want to do is get to the bottom on claim and counter-claim about what’s happening inside the iron ore industry at the moment … It’s important to get to the bottom of this. That’s why I think that an inquiry could make sense.”
Monday, May 18
Greg Hunt: “It’s a healthy thing to have a review of different industries at different times … So it’s the option on the table, but clearly the Prime Minister has indicated a desire to head down that path, so you would presume that’s precisely where we are heading and there’s very broad support for that — the details need to be worked through.”
Tuesday, May 19
Joe Hockey: “No, there’s been no decision made about an inquiry into iron ore, there’s been none made. Why? Because I think it’s important to consult with all the stakeholders which is what we’re doing, and we’re consulting with the Labor Party as well. I think that’s perfectly appropriate.”
Tony Abbott: “Obviously, we believe in the free market and we certainly haven’t made any decision to have an inquiry … we don’t have to make a decision here because there has never been any proposal from this government for an inquiry.”
Wednesday, May 20
Joe Hockey: “Bill Shorten was the one that was originally entertaining a potential parliamentary inquiry with Nick Xenophon, so Bill Shorten’s got to be put on the sticky paper on this.”
Tony Abbott: “We’ve made no decision to have an inquiry.”
Yeah, imagine the outcry from the usual suspects had the Gillard government made the above outlined comments. When it comes to the current government and their incredible backflips the MSM stenographers / churnalist are a forgiving lot
Anyway, when cornered, and as any self respecting LNP scoundrel would do, Hockey quickly deferred to say once again as usual …”De Labor Party did it / de Labor Party fault. And not one MSM stenographer / churnalist challenged the statement by just saying: How so Mr Hockey?
As for Mr Xenophon, these days, I for one, see him more and more as a opportunist deferring to mainstream populism.
Twiggy on the other hand should travel to China to see if he can encourage the Chinese (iron ore) price makers, to fulfil his wish. Don’t attempt to financially induce these people to make the decision you want, they might lock you up. Chinese government is not like Australian government.
Lastly, a simple observation: too much supply, …price goes down; too much demand, …price goes up. And Twig Ol’ son, be advised our iron ore producers are price takers and not price makers. The rest of the world has iron ore too.
News flash this afternoon on the ABC, special one for our vey own muppet, the Twig, …China has signed an iron ore deal with Brazil specifically Vale. You better visit them (Brazil) as well, tell them to charge more for their ore.
Further news, Bill. Hockey has just announced that there will NOT be an enquiry into the iron ore industry. That is according to ABC RNat, about 30 minutes ago (SA time).