The thing about a faked Rolex is that it can be extremely difficult to spot, such is the quality of such pieces coming out of China.

Sydney watchmaker Max Schweizer told The Australian Financial Review that usually only a watchmaker can tell a fake from the real thing.

"They're of such good quality that it's difficult, and you have to take the watch to a Rolex specialist who has the tool to open it up and check."

His comments come as the Financial Review revealed that then-federal Opposition leader Tony Abbott, opposition industry spokesman Ian Macfarlane and opposition spokesman for defence, science, technology and personnel, Stuart Robert were all given what they thought were fake designer watches by Chinese billionaire Li Ruipeng in June 2013. 

Read more: http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/watches-and-jewellery/watches/tips-for-mps-how-to-spot-a-fake-rolex-watch-20160210-gmqcbl#ixzz3zk0UDYR4 
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Since it's quite difficult to see that a "Rolex" watch is fake, even for watchmakers, how come our Liberal (CONservative) idiots who took over our ministerial dunnies could assert with certainty that these watches given to them by a multibillionaire were turdy? HOW INSULTING ! If fact I believe they "decided" these watches were fakes as a tax dodge — a way to bypass the official registry of gifts and sundries... 

An Australian politician has issued a timeless press release gushing about his Rolex watch in the wake of news that a group of Liberal MPs thought they had received fake versions of the signature timepieces from a Chinese instant noodle billionaire.

In that instance, Tony Abbott among others, assumed they were fakes, but Liberal backbencher Ian Goodenough has stepped in to praise the real thing, which he bought after “after learning of the brand’s history and commitment to achieving the best time piece product possible”.

The first-term politician from Western Australia said he had decided to invest in the device to celebrate his “momentous year of achievement” and wore it every day “to remind himself of the hard work it took to obtain it”.

“This same hard-working attitude Ian uses every day in his service and representation of the electorate of Moore.”

Goodenough’s effusive statement, written in the third person, attracted the occasional light-hearted barb.

The federal Labor MP for Perth, Alannah MacTiernan, was so bemused she issued her own version. In it, she described how she had once worked part-time at Coles “to fund her passion for punting and partying” and how she later found herself at the centre of a bag scandal known as “Chanel-gate”...

Read more: 

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/10/liberal-mp-gives-rolex-a-hand-following-fake-gift-watches-story

Former Defence minister and Labor frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon says it's "absolutely possible" that the Rolex watches given to Tony Abbott and former ministers Stuart Robert and Ian Macfarlane by a Chinese businessman could have been bugged.

Intelligence sources also said the issue of China actively targeting Australian MPs is one actively discussed in the intelligence community and that at the very least, gifts of any kind should always be checked.

Mr Fitzgibbon said on Thursday that when he was Australia's Defence Minister between 2007 - 2009 he gave every gift he ever received to the then Defence Signals Directorate (now Australian Signals Directorate ASD) for X-raying.

"Anyone in a senior position should do the same in the interests of national security," he said.

The offices of Mr Robert and Mr Macfarlane confirmed the watches were not submitted to any sort of testing. Mr Abbott's office declined to answer.

Mr Abbott, Stuart Robert and Ian Macfarlane accepted the Rolex watches from Chinese billionaire Li Ruipeng in June 2013. Mr Abbott was the Opposition Leader at the time, while Ian Macfarlane was the Opposition's spokesperson for Industry and Stuart Robert was representing the Coalition on defence personnel, science and technology issues.

Parliamentary rules state that any Member who receives a gift from a non-official source must declare the item within 28 days but the trio did not declare the luxury watches as they thought they were fake "because they all came out of a paper bag."

Former prime minister Tony Abbott has said his controversial 2014 budget is a "badge of honour" and "fundamentally fair", while predicting an Abbott government would have won this year's election.

• Tony Abbott defends his prime ministership in 4,000-word essay
• Says 2014 budget was "fair" and a "badge of honour"
• Says he and Joy Hockey were "careful to avoid breaking promises"
• Former PM confident he could have won 2016 election on budget savings

Mr Abbott has penned a 4,000-word essay for conservative journal Quadrant defending his prime ministership, which argues his government's achievements "will stand the test of time".

An extract of The Economic Case for the Abbott government, soon to be published, has been published in The Australian newspaper.

In September last year Mr Abbott was toppled by Malcolm Turnbull, who argued the Member for Warringah had not shown economic leadership.

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-27/abbott-predicts-he-would-have-won-election-defends-budget/7204896

Tony Turdy (sorry folks but HE made me do it) is delusional. Not only he has ruined Australia's good reputation as a fair world citizen, he has ruined the Australian economy, including destroying the car industry an other such. He is now DESPERATE to show that "he was not so bad — actually good" which is a mountain of crap. He does not want history to remember him as "out of his depth, idiotic, lying and deceitful, dishonest, rabid and completely scientifically ignoramus".

If Turdy was good, then Julia Gillard was 10,000 times better — and this is being conservative on the measurement of good, while being over-generous to Turdy, god forbid. 

see toons about Tony Abbott everywhere on this site going back to: 

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“Life isn’t fair and death less so. If there had been a shred of justice that blast would have detonated in an Ultimo TV studio. Unlike those young girls in Manchester, their lives snuffed out before they could begin, none of the panel’s likely casualties would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty.”

The ABC has called the article “a new low in Australian public debate” and demanded an apology and the removal of the article from the Quadrant website. In a strongly worded letter to the editor of Quadrant, the ABC managing director, Michelle Guthrie, said ABC staff had to be reassured of their safety and safety experts had to be called in to assess if there had been any damage to security from the inflammatory words.

Guthrie’s statement said:

Quadrant promotes itself as “the leading general intellectual journal of ideas”. Those words ring hollow in the wake of last night’s vicious and offensive attack on the ABC, its staff and its program guests.

To take issue with our programming and our content is one thing. But to express the wish that, if there were any justice, the horrific terrorist bombing in Manchester would have taken place in the ABC’s Ultimo studio and killed those assembled there is a new low in Australian public debate.

Your subsequent attempt to make amends by changing some of the wording (without acknowledging or apologising for the original article) has done little to undo the damage. The article continues to state that if a blast occurred in one of our studios, none of the likely casualties “would have represented the slightest reduction in humanity’s intelligence, decency, empathy or honesty”.

Like many others, I am appalled at your willingness to turn an act of terrorism in the United Kingdom into a means of making a political point against those you disagree with.

One of the immediate results of this behaviour is that while our staff both here and in Manchester were working long hours to provide extensive coverage of this unfolding tragedy, we were also forced to reassure worried staff who had read your article and call in our own security experts to assess any possible impact flowing from your inflammatory words.

I ask that this response be posted prominently on the Quadrant website, and I also ask that the article, which continues to contain entirely inappropriate comments about possible bombings at the ABC, be removed and apologised for.

In his piece, Franklin attacked Q&A panellist Lawrence Krauss as a “filthy liar” for his characterisation of the threat of Islam, and then imagined him being blown up by the terrorist bomb.

“Mind you, as Krauss felt his body being penetrated by the Prophet’s shrapnel of nuts, bolts and nails, those goitered eyes might in their last glimmering have caught a glimpse of vindication.”

The Australian’s associate editor, Chris Kenny, joined the debate about the article on Twitter, saying while the general argument was a worthwhile point of view, the line about the ABC was appalling.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/may/24/manchester-bomb-shouldve-been-exploded-on-abcs-qa-quadrant-writer-says

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Chris Kenny can be see here and there... and there and there... and plenty more...

It’s both comical and disconcerting to see the Prime Minister huffing and puffing over a few, admittedly expensive, gold watches.

As news of Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate’s up-market gifts for her senior executives surfaced this week, Morrison was apparently incensed.

The PM bellowed that he was “appalled”, he was “disgusted” with the “abuse of taxpayers’ money” and that it was “disgraceful”, before the suitably theatrical finale of, “And it’s not on!”.

It’s firstly comical that the PM can say the words “gold watch” with a straight face, given another gold watch fiasco a few years back. During that particular gift bonanza, it was Coalition ministers who received gold watches. Worth $250,000, those Rolexes were worth ten times as much as the "bargain basement" ones Holgate bestowed. One of the recipients of those earlier and classier timepieces was also Stuart Robert — a senior minister in the current Morrison Cabinet.

This, however, Morrison was neither shocked nor appalled to discover. 

Morrison’s confected outrage over Holgate's gifts to executives is even more disconcerting when you consider that it is his hand-picked Australia Post board that approved these particular gold watches in the first place.

Yet, in his characteristic, "let’s-find-a-scapegoat" style, it is only the current CEO who has warranted the PM's furious displeasure.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/scott-morriso...

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