Re your post; "... You may hate and loathe Abbott - but we still live in a democracy, and Abbott is as entitled as Gillard is to travel the world in pursuit of investigating current world trends. He is also just as entitled to visit our troops in Afghanistan on the way home."
Members of the Opposition should be making themselves ready to takeover from the Government. That includes travelling widely to get firsthand insight into the real world [ie. not the media constructed one].
Re-education, renewed insights into big picture issues etc. that enable the refreshing of visions & policies supported by sound implementation strategies.
We should be doing whatever it takes to enable Tony Abbott to emerge from his troglodytic myopia & his relentless pre-occupation with saying 'NO!' to the national interest. I'd book him a Virgin moonflight if I thought it'd help!
Of course we can only tolerate so much denial, refusal & failure to learn before we have to cut & run. We can only afford to invest so much in a Rhodes Scholar bogged in the philosophies of the 1950s DLP before we have to put him out to Greener pastures.
