"bill short term shorten short circuits "

Sheenan nails it.

Bill Shorten dominated the first day of Parliament of 2014. He dominated question time. He asked all eight questions allotted to the opposition. The first seven questions were about Toyota shutting down its manufacturing in Australia. Shorten also dominated the second day, asking question after question.
Tony Abbott's response to the first question remained basically unchanged for all his answers: ''I fully share the dismay of members opposite, of members on all sides of this House, at the announcement that Toyota made yesterday … just as we were devastated by the announcement in December that Holden would cease manufacturing, just as we were devastated by the announcement early last year, under a different government, that Ford would cease manufacturing and just as we were devastated by the announcement back in 2008, again under a different government, that Mitsubishi would cease manufacturing. It is not my intention to play the blame game. I will leave any of that to others.''
After an hour of questions on Tuesday, Shorten moved a censure motion: ''I move … that the House censures the Prime Minister for failing to stand up and fight for Australian jobs at Toyota, Electrolux, Simplot, Holden, Qantas, Ford, the Gove alumina refinery, SPC Ardmona and countless other small businesses around Australia …''
Normally, such a litany of setbacks would be a problem for the government but this time it is more of a problem for the Opposition Leader. As Shorten introduced his censure motion, the press gallery rapidly emptied. Shorten may have dominated the proceedings, but he did so in the way that feathers dominate a pillow. Everything is breaking against him. He is going from Electricity Bill to Bill Short-Circuit. Or Bill Short-term.

He is being compressed on multiple fronts. The Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt, answering a question from his own side between Shorten's barrage on Tuesday, said: ''Remember that throughout the term of the last government various members of the ALP said that the carbon tax was only ever going to touch 500 firms … So we asked Treasury [and] … do you know what they found? Not 500 companies, not 5000 companies, not 50,000 companies, but 75,000 companies are directly hit by the carbon tax in terms of the fuel tax credit. Seventy-five thousand: just a small, little error!'
''What are the firms being hit? In aviation: Qantas, $106 million in carbon tax; Virgin, $48 million; Rex Airlines, which described the carbon tax as 'disastrous'; Brindabella, which has gone into receivership. Domestic shipping and ferries; rail transport; mining; construction; small manufacturing; small warehousing; anybody using off-road diesel generators have been hit … And the opposition's policy is to extend the carbon tax on fuel to trucks and buses.''


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/bill-shorten-hamstrung-by-union-ties-20140212-32i54.html#ixzz2t8xTD5M7