Happy birthday and many happy returns David Huynh,Simon Holland and Amanda Allison. Born on the same day, across the years. Remember birthdays are good for you. Those with more of them live longer.
Why women should put faith in Abbott
Piers Akerman – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (12:03am)
THE Labor propaganda machine is working overtime to portray Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as a misogynist.
Despite her wish to retain some privacy for herself and her family, Margie Abbott, Tony’s wife of 24 years and the mother of his three daughters, went public on Friday defending her man.
No, she wasn’t standing by a bloke whose credit card had turned up in a brothel, or one who had been secretly taped telling insensitive stories, or even a fella who had been accused of rorting a union fund.
No, she felt the need to put an end to the stream of malicious stories being pumped out by the Labor Party’s taxpayer-funded team of media manipulators that has been unquestioningly accepted by the hordes of faux feminist and green luvvies in the media.
Abbott has a problem with women, they say. Abbott has a woman problem. But, as Abbott’s wife put it succinctly in her obviously heartfelt article in News Ltd newspapers: “Tony gets women. He is surrounded by strong women. He grew up with three sisters, has three daughters, is supported by a female deputy in Julie Bishop and has always had a female chief of staff.”
She was even more revealing in an interview with The Daily Telegraph where she spoke frankly about the loss she and Tony suffered when she had a miscarriage “between babies one and two”.
Far from being the one-dimensional stereotype Labor’s phony feminists have attempted to paint her, she comes across as a capable, decisive, well-rounded, mature woman who knows her own mind.While Fairfax and the ABC buy and promote Labor’s propaganda unquestioningly, Mrs Abbott challenged those who claim he doesn’t get women and mock his Lycra-garbed contribution to charity.
“Next time you meet someone who says that Tony doesn’t get women, ask them when was the last time they cycled 1000km raising $148,000 for their local women’s shelter? Which is what Tony did this year for Manly Women’s Shelter.
“And in 2006, he ran 24 hours non-stop up and down the stairs of Centrepoint Tower with Pat Farmer to raise much needed funds and to help lift the profile of ovarian cancer, a silent killer of Australian women.”
Unpretentiously, she declared that she was not a public speaker or, indeed, a public policy expert. There are no formal letters after her name, she said, and she has never been elected to public office but she can speak as a mother, a small business operator, a childcare worker, a volunteer and as Tony’s wife.
You’d be pressed to find anyone on the Labor side of federal parliament who could match those character-forming experiences - even leaving out the marital relationship.
Labor, and the feminist sisterhood, in particular, has always had a risibly hypocritical approach to Tony Abbott and his grasp of contemporary women’s issues because it is inherently Left-leaning.
It has failed to stand up for working women, especially working mothers. It has let down the female victims of Islamist insanity around the world in its desire to ally itself with all those who oppose conservative values, such as traditional marriage.
As Mrs Abbott pointed out: “It was under Tony’s leadership that the Coalition became the first major party to propose a paid parental leave scheme in Australia. And not a paid parental leave scheme based on a minimum wage, but a paid parental leave scheme based on a replacement wage. He has stuck with that policy, despite the flak, because he understands it’s crucial to giving families more choice when they have to juggle work, family, mortgage, budget and all the other commitments that crowd into family life."Abbott’s critics have also fallen over themselves to insinuate that he is driven by his Roman Catholic faith and that his policy towards women would be driven by his religion, particularly on abortion.
Introducing the divisive issue of abortion is more than a dog whistle for feminists, it is a full-on call to arms. But as Abbott has said incessantly, his policy is no different to that of former US President Bill Clinton, a man beloved of feminists despite his philandering ways.
Abortion will always be a conscience vote for Liberal Party members, Abbott says. Clinton once said that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare”, and Abbott agrees with that view.
“I have no intention of changing the rules about abortion,” he says, “but, as health minister in the former Howard government, I introduced a pregnancy support hotline to help women with unintended pregnancies and support for women is something I strongly believe in.”
His view is identical to that of the former NSW Labor premier Kristina Keneally who told the ABC in 2009 that “when it comes to issues like abortion, I recognise it’s very difficult to have a very black and white
position on this. I would say that
my position on abortion probably most closely resembles that of the former president Bill Clinton which was that abortion should be safe, it should be available”.Interviewer Monica Attard added: “And rare.” To which Mrs Keneally replied: “And it should be rare.”
Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd expressed his view on the subject in much the same terms.
It has not been easy for Mrs Abbott to enter public debate, particularly at a time when Labor is determined to make the personal the political.
But one wonders what it would take for those on the Left who so hate the notion of a conservative traditionally married father-of-three knocking on the door of the Lodge to accept the Abbotts as the epitome of mainstream Australian values.
Would these so-called progressives fall for Abbott if he abandoned his loving and supportive wife and daughters and took up with a married woman (or man) as has been the case with so many Labor heroes? Would it win him feminist plaudits if he smashed someone else’s home life?
Or if he sexually harassed a colleague or a staff member or if he encouraged his daughters to abandon the values they have learnt from their parents in the home they have made all the usual sacrifices to create?
The Abbotts are to be applauded for their contribution to public life and for being real role models as they strive to create a fulfilling life for themselves and their daughters.
Not the Brady Bunch, as Mrs Abbott said, but certainly in the eyes of ordinary Australians, decent family folk.
===
VOICES HEARD
Tim Blair – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (11:39am)
A recent controversy gives Tim Dunlop reason to celebrate the dynamism and responsiveness of commercial media:
It’s a good thing that so many have exercised their power as citizens and consumers to hit back against the shock jock and the company that employs him, via their advertisers.
Among those exercising their power: Skippy Bush Kangaroo, Cotton Mather, Anton Drexler, Andrew Bolt, D. Duck, M. Mouse, Bobby Limb, Dawn Lake, Burke and Wills, Phar Lap, the Magic Pudding and Ronald Ryan. Dunlop’s article appears courtesy of the ABC, where such campaigns are impossible.
===
HISTORY ERASED
Tim Blair – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (11:38am)
Viewers enjoying Seven’s Bathurst coverage may be puzzled by archival footage of driver Peter Brock, whose Holdens of the 1970s and 80s appear to have been sponsored by the Large Electronically-Obscured Word company. In fact, Brock’s cars were backed by this firm:
(This message brought to you by the Department of That Never Happened, Canberra, Australia.)
(This message brought to you by the Department of That Never Happened, Canberra, Australia.)
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SIMPLY SUSHI
Tim Blair – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (11:29am)
A quick and easy guide:
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VETERAN KNOWS WHAT YOU WANT
Tim Blair – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (11:27am)
Former SMH opinion editor Joel Gibson:
I have always believed people don’t know what they want to read until you show it to themand if you keep feeding them junk they grow fat on it and lose their sense of taste.
Gibson – who has taken redundancy – sounds slightly elitist, which is presumably the result of his many decades in the job:
I started as a trainee at the Sydney Morning Herald in 2003 …
===
OUT OF THE WILDERNESS
Tim Blair – Sunday, October 07, 2012 (11:16am)
Marcia Langton on the change of view among Aboriginal voters in the NT:
Strong local leaders have worked hard to bring economic development to indigenous communities where welfare has turned residents into perpetual mendicants reliant on the state. Time and again, native title groups have spent years getting an agreement with a resource company over the line, negotiating income streams that might shift indigenous people from the margins to the centre of regional economic development in return for land access, only for a ragtag team of ‘wilderness’ campaigners to turn up with an entourage of disaffected Aboriginal protesters to stop development at the eleventh hour.While the federal Labor government likes to feign shock at the more flaky antics of its coalition partner, Aboriginal people have known for years that the Greens are no good in bed. Their notions of economic development in remote Australia, which chiefly involve employing Aboriginal people as wilderness caretakers, are inspired by children’s books and anarchist tracts. As I’ve been saying for 20 years, this concept of wilderness is nothing but a new incarnation of terra nullius. With luck, the NT election represents a tipping point. The time of dismissing Aboriginal aspirations for economic development is over.
Thank God for that.
===
The Bolt Report today
Andrew BoltOCTOBER072012(11:32am)
Editorial: what was the real story of the week? And don’t tell me Alan Jones:
Tony Abbott: Julia Gillard should be held responsible for the campaign of smears. Ireland, rather than Greece, seems to the real warning to Australia. But no sign yet that the ending of the mining boom is forcing the Liberals to reassess their promises. (Transcript here.)
Panelists Tim Wilson and Gary Johns on which side won this week’s character test. Where’s the other Tim? And bye-bye Peter Slipper:
The real reason for Barack Obama’s debate disaster? He’s just not good enough:
Ms Roxon denied ever calling the opposition leader misogynistic, but insisted he had a problem with women. She said he routinely turned his back on her in parliament and refused to acknowledge her at social events, unlike other coalition MPs.
‘’Usually that’s a very friendly sort of environment because you’re a little bit off-duty, but not so with Mr Abbott,’’ Ms Roxon said. ‘’It’s known that we don’t like each other, but I don’t think that’s any reason why I’m not able to express those views....”
Memo to Roxon: people can find you personally unpleasant - smarmy and a scold - without having a single problem with women generally. In this case it really is about you.
Or should we deduce from Roxon’s admission she doesn’t like Abbott that she has a problem with strong men?
UPDATE
Nicola Roxon claims Tony Abbott’s attitude to her shows he has a problem with capable women.
The hole in Roxon’s argument: she’s not capable.
===
The fantasy president
Andrew BoltOCTOBER072012(5:36am)
Even before his inauguration, Barack Obama was an imaginary man, the creation of his admirers. Think back to the 2008 Time magazine cover depicting him as FDR, the Newsweek cover of the same year on which he was shown casting Lincoln’s shadow, or the $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"—this in 2009, less than a year after he had taken office. It was not that Obama had done nothing to deserve these outsized comparisons and honors—it was not just that he had done nothing—it was that he seemed for all the world to be a blank screen on which such hysterical fantasies could too easily be projected, a two-dimensional paper doll just waiting to be dressed in leftist dreams…The mystery Obama—the hollow receptacle of out-sized fantasies left and right—is not a creation of his own making, political chameleon though he may well be. It emanates instead from a journalistic community that no longer in any way fulfills its designated function, that no longer even attempts the fair presentation of facts and current events aimed at helping the American electorate make up its mind according to its own lights. Rather, left-wing outlets like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and the like have now devoted themselves to fashioning an image of the world they think their audiences ought to believe in—that they may guide us toward voting as they think we should. They have fallen prey to that ideological corruption that sees lies as a kind of virtue, as a noble deception in service to a greater good....The Obama of the imagination is the media’s Obama. Out of their fascination with the color of his skin and their mindless awe at his windy teleprompted rhetoric, they constructed a man of stature and accomplishment. Now, with the White House on the line, they’re waging an ongoing battle against the undeniable evidence that he has never been, in fact, that man.
The Rasmussen poll is detecting a good bounce for Romney:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday showsMitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 47%…These results are based upon nightly interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, only about two-thirds of the interviews for today’s update were conducted after the presidential debate.
===
Eastwood’s genius leaves its mark
Andrew BoltOCTOBER072012(12:01am)
The Left and many in the mainstream media - pardon me if I repeat myself - tried very hard to mock Clint Eastwood’s empty chair routine at last month’s Republican convention.
Eastwood was variously attacked for being old, senile, rambling, self-indulgent and coherent.
In fact, Eastwood added in indelible ink a portrait of the president so brilliantly accurate that even the New Yorker has adopted it in the wake of Barack Obama’s debate disaster:
A creative genius, is Eastwood.
===
Arkansas GOP calls candidates' slavery statements 'offensive'
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. – Arkansas Republicans tried to distance themselves Saturday from a Republican state representative's assertion that slavery was a "blessing in disguise" and a Republican state House candidate who advocates deporting all Muslims.
The claims were made in books written, respectively, by Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro and House candidate Charlie Fuqua of Batesville. Those books received attention on Internet news sites Friday.
On Saturday, state GOP Chairman Doyle Webb called the books "highly offensive." And U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican who represents northeast Arkansas, called the writings "divisive and racially inflammatory."
Hubbard wrote in his 2009 self-published book, "Letters To The Editor: Confessions Of A Frustrated Conservative," that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise." He also wrote that African-Americans were better off than they would have been had they not been captured and shipped to the United States.
Fuqua, who served in the Arkansas House from 1996 to 1998, wrote there is "no solution to the Muslim problem short of expelling all followers of the religion from the United States," in his 2012 book, titled "God's Law."
Fuqua said Saturday that he hadn't realized he'd become a target within his own party, which he said surprised him.
"I think my views are fairly well-accepted by most people," Fuqua said before hanging up, saying he was busy knocking on voters' doors. The attorney is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. James McLean in House District 63.
Hubbard, a marketing representative, didn't return voicemail messages seeking comment Saturday. He is running against Democrat Harold Copenhaver in House District 58.
The November elections could be a crucial turning point in Arkansas politics. Democrats hold narrow majorities in both chambers, but the GOP has been working hard to swing the Legislature its way for the first time since the end of the Civil War, buoyed by picking up three congressional seats in 2010. Their efforts have also been backed by an influx of money from national conservative groups.
Rep. Crawford said Saturday he was "disappointed and disturbed."
"The statements that have been reported portray attitudes and beliefs that would return our state and country to a harmful and regrettable past," Crawford said.
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., kicked off the GOP's response Saturday by issuing a release, saying the "statements of Hubbard and Fuqua are ridiculous, outrageous and have no place in the civil discourse of either party."
"Had I known of these statements, I would not have contributed to their campaigns. I am requesting that they give my contributions to charity," said Griffin, who donated $100 to each candidate.
The Arkansas Republican House Caucus followed, saying the views of Hubbard and Fuqua "are in no way reflective of, or endorsed by, the Republican caucus. The constituencies they are seeking to represent will ultimately judge these statements at the ballot box."
Then Webb, who has spearheaded the party's attempt to control the Legislature, said the writings "were highly offensive to many Americans and do not reflect the viewpoints of the Republican Party of Arkansas. While we respect their right to freedom of expression and thought, we strongly disagree with those ideas."
Webb, though, accused state Democrats of using the issue as a distraction.
Democrats themselves have been largely silent, aside from the state party's tweet and Facebook post calling attention to the writings. A Democratic Party spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment Saturday.
The two candidates share other political and religious views on their campaign websites.
Hubbard, who sponsored a failed bill in 2011 that would have severely restricted immigration, wrote on his website that the issue is still among his priorities, as is doing "whatever I can to defend, protect and preserve our Christian heritage."
Fuqua blogs on his website. One post is titled, "Christianity in Retreat," and says "there is a strange alliance between the liberal left and the Muslim religion."
"Both are antichrist in that they both deny that Jesus is God in the flesh of man, and the savior of mankind. They both also hold that their cause should take over the entire world through violent, bloody, revolution," the post says.
In a separate passage, Fuqua wrote "we now have a president that has a well documented history with both the Muslim religion and Communism."
===
Tony Abbott says the Prime Minister is responsible for personal attacks against him
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says Labor's campaign of personal attacks against him can be sheeted home to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
He says Labor ran a similar smear campaign against Campbell Newman, who led the Liberal National Party to a landslide victory over Labor in Queensland's state election in March.
"We saw in Queensland before the state election up there a nasty, personal campaign against Campbell Newman and his family," Mr Abbott told Network Ten.
"This is typical of the contemporary Labor party.
"When you can't defend your record, when you've got nothing of substance to say, you go personal and that's what they've been doing."
Asked who was behind the campaign against him, Mr Abbott pointed the finger at the prime minister.
"In the end the person who's got to take responsibility for what happens with any political party is the leader."
Mr Abbott's wife Margie went on a media blitz last week to defend her husband, declaring: "Tony Abbott gets women and ... the women in Tony Abbott's life certainly get him."
The opposition leader today denied his wife's public appearances indicated he was worried Labor's campaign was working.
"No it's a sign that Margie thought it was time to say 'That's what you think but this is the man I know'," he said.
Tony Abbott and wife Margie at Parliament House in Canberra for the annual Parliamentary Midwinter Ball. Picture: Ray StrangeSource: The Daily Telegraph
The government's campaign gained traction last month when Mr Abbott was accused of intimidating a female student council rival at university 30 years ago by punching the wall beside her head.
Senior government minister Nicola Roxon said Margie Abbott was entitled to sing Mr Abbott's praises, but he wasn't running for husband of the year.
Ms Roxon said Labor wouldn't back off criticising the opposition leader who she maintained had an "issue with capable women".
"Mr Abbott is not running in some election to be husband of the year or father of the year," the attorney-general told ABC TV today.
"It is fair game for me or any other minister ... to hold him to account for his public behaviour and his public comments."
Ms Roxon denied ever calling the opposition leader misogynistic, but insisted he had a problem with women.
She said he routinely turned his back on her in parliament and refused to acknowledge her at social events, unlike other coalition MPs.
"Usually that's a very friendly sort of environment because you're a little bit off-duty, but not so with Mr Abbott," Ms Roxon said.
"It's known that we don't like each other, but I don't think that's any reason why I'm not able to express those views.
"That's part of politics."
Canberra Labor frontbencher Jason Clare suggested Mr Abbott should ''get real'' rather than complain about personal attacks.
''Politicians are going to be judged on what they say and do and Mr Abbott needs to expect to be judged on some of the extreme things that he said in the past,'' he told Network Ten.
Fellow frontbencher Bob Carr hinted the government might wind back the personal attacks, having made its point.
"Without having discussed it with any colleagues, with any adviser of the prime minister ... whatever points needed to be made have been made," he told Sky News.
"Women voters will make up their own minds."
But asked about Margie Abbott's comments - that her husband "got women", was a softie and preferred watching Downton Abbey over rugby - Senator Carr pondered that "maybe she does protest too much".
Mr Abbott hasn't ruled out using his wife for more public rebuttals if the government's campaign continues.
===
Underbelly Badness: Real-life Decker reneges on deal to testify
THE DPP will appeal the sentence given to an infamous hitman - portrayed as Decker in the TV series Underbelly: Badness - after he reneged on a deal to testify in court.
The man, who can only be identified as Witness E, agreed to give evidence against the Perish brothers and a third man, Matthew Lawton, over the 2001 murder of drug dealer Terry Falconer.
The former army commando was played in the Channel 9 show by Jason Montgomery. He was granted a 50 per cent reduction on his sentence for assisting investigators, which included a walk-through of the crime scene where Falconer's body was chopped up. A judge sentenced the 42-year-old to a minimum 15 years in jail, but on October 24 the DPP will begin arguing to have the man imprisoned for even longer for not fulfilling his end of the deal.
While he was happy to answer questions in the witness box during the committal hearing for Anthony Perish, Andrew Perish and Lawton, the protected witness claimed he "could not recall" the answers to dozens of the same questions when asked at their trial.
He claimed that, despite being held in protective custody, his food may have been poisoned and it was affecting his memory. He is dying of cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy - doctors do not believe he will live beyond the next few years.
All three men accused of Falconer's murder were convicted despite the controversial memory loss saga.
Anthony Perish is behind bars in Lithgow along with Lawton, who is in a separate wing of the jail in protective custody - the two are subject to a non-association order.
The top-rating TV series ended last Monday.
Despite the success of the TV show, senior NSW police have taken issue with the series over the amount of police methodology that was made public.
This has prompted a departmental ban on any official media about the strike force due to "internal concerns".
This includes our request to speak with Tuno boss, Detective Inspector Gary Jubelin.
===
Alan Jones loses his Mercedes-Benz and Macquarie Radio Network suspends all ads over comments made about PM Julia Gillard's father
ALL advertising on the Alan Jones Breakfast Show has been suspended, following the fallout from Mr Jones's allegation that the Prime Minister's father "died of shame".
The founder of a Facebook page which campaigned for companies to pull advertising from Alan Jones' show says she believes businesses will stay away.
Jenna Price, who set up the Facebook page Destroy the Joint welcomed the announcement by Macquarie Radio Network on that it was temporarily suspending all advertising on Alan Jones' 2GB breakfast show.
Jenna Price, who set up the Facebook page Destroy the Joint welcomed the announcement by Macquarie Radio Network on that it was temporarily suspending all advertising on Alan Jones' 2GB breakfast show.
"We are thrilled with the reaction, but you can't think that this is going to fix the problem," she told AAP on Sunday.
"I'm not a person who wants to sack Alan Jones. I want to re-educate Alan Jones."
Macquarie Radio Network confirmed that ads have been pulled because of "unprecedented focus" on Mr Jones and the speech he gave at a NSW Young Liberal’s dinner.
"I'm not a person who wants to sack Alan Jones. I want to re-educate Alan Jones."
Macquarie Radio Network confirmed that ads have been pulled because of "unprecedented focus" on Mr Jones and the speech he gave at a NSW Young Liberal’s dinner.
Macquarie executive chairman Russell Tate said the decision was also made because of threats made by users of social media against companies that continued to advertise on the show.
"There is almost universal agreement that Jones's remarks were unacceptable, wrong and inexcusable. Alan himself acknowledged that from the moment he first advised me of them. He immediately arranged a media conference to state that publicly and apologise to the Prime Minister,’’ Mr Tate said.
"Alan Jones's audience, those who listen regularly to his program, also agree that his remarks were unacceptable. From research we have conducted over this weekend with them, it is also clear though the great majority acknowledge his apology and have not significantly changed their attitude towards the Alan Jones Breakfast Show.
"Importantly, nor is there any indication from regular listeners that their attitudes towards companies advertising in the program has changed adversely.
"Since we now know these things to be fact, we have to conclude that the avalanche of telephone, email and Facebook demands to our advertisers to "boycott" the Alan Jones Breakfast Show, and the threats to destroy their businesses if they don’t comply, are coming almost entirely from people who do not listen to Alan Jones or 2GB at all – probably never have done and never will."
Mr Tate has called the reaction on social media to Mr Jones’ comments "censorship, via cyber-bullying".
"We have taken this unprecedented decision to suspend advertising in the Alan Jones Breakfast Show until further notice so that all of our advertisers are on an equal footing, can regroup and discuss with us the way forward and how we together deal with these attempts to damage great Australian businesses. We’ll be doing that over the next week or so and I would personally also welcome discussion with representatives of the organisations behind the totally unwarranted pressure being put on our advertisers. But any discussion will need to be face to face, not hiding behind a keyboard.
"The decision obviously comes at a very significant short term cost to MRN. It is an insignificant price to pay for our audience to be able to listen to what they choose to listen to, and for Australian companies to advertise where they choose to advertise."
Alan Jones loses his sponsored Benz
Former supporter Mercedes-Benz will confiscate Alan Jones's $250,000 sponsored car, and has vowed to never again support the controversial broadcaster or his radio station 2GB.
The carmaker expressed its strong distaste at Jones's comment, revealed last week by The Sunday Telegraph, that Prime Minister Julia Gillard's father, John Gillard, "died of shame" because of "lies" told by his daughter.
"We want the car back, the deal is cancelled, it is over," Mercedes-Benz's corporate communications manager, David McCarthy, said.
If the car is not returned, Mercedes will send someone to repossess it.
Mercedes-Benz Australia-Pacific, owned by the Daimler Group, distanced itself from Jones and has cancelled all radio advertising .
The Sunday Telegraph revealed last weekend Jones told a Sydney University Liberal Club dinner on September 22 that the prime minister's 83-year-old father, John, "died of shame".
"We were appalled and shocked at the lack of respect (the comments) expressed," Mr McCarthy said.
Now the company has informed Jones it wants him to return the black 2012 S-Class Mercedes the broadcaster has been driving free.
Should the vehicle not be returned by October 31, a Mercedes-Benz representative would collect it, he said.
The Sunday Telegraph understands Jones had been able to use the expensive vehicle as part of a sponsorship agreement with 2GB's owner, Macquarie Radio. Mercedes-Benz bosses have ditched advertising on Jones's show and across the station.
"We have terminated ALL (sic) commercial arrangements with 2GB," the company said in a statement. "We cannot see a circumstance that will see us returning to advertising (on Jones's) show."
Mr McCarthy refused to reveal how much the deal with 2GB was worth, other than to say: "It's now worth a lot less than it was a week ago."
Macquarie is offering discount rates for new advertisers, and has emailed subscribers asking if they have changed their opinion of 2GB and its sponsors, many of whom have dumped the station and Jones.
"During the last week, has your attitude towards companies that advertise on the Alan Jones Breakfast Show changed?" the survey asked.
Earlier, Macquarie told at least one agency it would discount standard rates by at least 15 per cent. Advertisements on his show usually sell for $1170 and live reads for $3300.
More than 70 companies have backed away and shares in Macquarie Radio crashed this week amid estimates that the boycott could cost millions.
A spokesman for Macquarie Radio refused to comment.
Jones is still in demand as a speaker, with a spokeswoman for Saxton Speakers saying no bookings were cancelled. Jones charges about $12,000 per speaking engagement.
A Facebook blitz on sponsors has more than 11,000 "likes", with users bombarding advertisers with emails.
Jenna Price from the Destroy the Joint movement named after Jones's claim women such as Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore were "destroying the joint" - said one sponsor got 4000 emails.
Staff at 2GB told activists the boycott would hurt young employees, not Jones.
Shares in 2GB fell six per cent last week.
===
Sisters at centre of custody dispute in traumatic scenes at father's Italian villa
THE sisters at the centre of a bitter 16,000km tug-of-love have been involved in more traumatic scenes in Italy as two of the four attempted to escape from their father.
The four girls were taken straight to their father's family villa on arrival in Italy but the older two were involved in wild and hysterical scenes overnight.
When they saw a large contingent of Australian media at the gates of the enclosure, the two girls sprinted across the yard, pursued by their father and grandmother.
One was dragged kicking and screaming back to the house while the other pleaded with reporters to help her.
The girls claimed they had not been allowed to speak to their mother since they left Brisbane late last week after a judge ruled in favour of their father taking custody.
The girls' father, who has so far refused to speak to Australian media, broke his silence today to call for "calm", asking that his daughters be given time to heal and adjust.
He said his younger two daughters were handling the move better than their older sisters and had spent the past two days playing with their cousins.
He said they were quiet when he collected them from the airport in Rome after having little contact with him for the past two years.
"The little ones were more calm," he said.
"They didn't say anything."
A road leading to the home of a man whose four daughters are involved in an international custody dispute. PIctured are the Captian of the Carabinieri talking to the family's lawyer. Picture: Susan Wright
But he said his eldest remained traumatised by the legal battle.
"My daughters think that with the Australian media near them today, the journalists will save them," he said.
"But it's not the reality.
"Australian journalists were at the house today filming and they (the girls) were yelling out 'help, help'.
"These images will be shown in Australia - but this will not help my daughters."
The girls were kept inside the gates of the imposing family estate as media - both local and international - camped outside.
By mid afternoon, local Carabinieri (police) stood guard outside the property, asking reporters not to approach the family.
The father said the family needed privacy and the opportunity to heal.
"It (media coverage) needs to stop so the situation can become more tranquil," he said.
TRAUMA: The four girls at the centre of the bitter custody dispute who are now with their father in Italy.
"We can't continue with this spectacle that's been happening. The situation needs to become tranquil and we need to have common sense."
The family of the four sisters ordered back to Italy were reported to be "rigid with tears" when the distraught girls arrived home.
The girls' aunts and cousins gathered at the family villa on the outskirts of Florence, where they were reunited after two years in Australia and a lengthy Family Court battle.
Local media reports said "there was not an air of a party" when the sisters arrived at around 6pm Friday, Italian time.
They said the girls' father broke down in tears when he met them in Rome for an official handover.
Relatives told local newspaper Corriere Fiorentino the sisters were still distressed when they arrived in Italy.
The girls had to be separated in Brisbane after they became hysterical, screaming for their mother and their Sunshine Coast home as Australian Federal Police officers dragged them on board.
The two older girls were ordered off the plane after the pilot refused to take them.
They flew into Rome a day later than their younger sisters.
Yesterday, the girls' aunt told local media it would take some time to put the family back together.
"The children were tense and tired after the long trip and disoriented," she said.
"And now we have to make patient work to re-sew together the painful mess that we never wanted that was created."
The girls mother has repeatedly said she cannot return to Italy because she fears she will be arrested for kidnapping.
The paper quoted "the family" as saying they did not want to take the matter further.
"Even though she did everything to take them away, it is best for the children (that they) have a mother," a family member was quoted as saying.
The article commented that the Australian public had been swayed into sympathising with the mother after media showed images of the distressed children kicking and screaming as they were dragged through the airport.
"She decided to leave everything behind, her marriage, her husband, Florence, Italy and take the children like a souvenir on vacation," the article said.
It said local authorities would not "ask for her arrest" should the mother return to see her children.
But a city official told The Courier Mail "it could be or it could not be" when questioned about the chances of prosecution.
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