They're like a masterclass on how not to do political media management

Just up on Fairfax:

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has slapped down his Education Minister and ruled out collecting outstanding HECS debts from the estates of dead students.

Mr Abbott said on Thursday morning that the government was not going to change existing rules around HECS debts from the deceased.

''This government is not going to change the existing rules, and the existing rules in respect of university debt . . . is that they cease on decease,'' he told ABC radio.

Gee, he just can't help himself with the stupid three word slogans, can he?  Must be what they taught at Oxford during his Rhodes scholarship, was it? [The Abbott family has done well out of scholarships. :)]
The problem for Tone is that it was not just Pyne, but Smokin' Joe who thought it a good idea in principle too:

Treasurer Joe Hockey also earlier on Thursday appeared to back the idea.
''It shouldn't be different to any other loan,'' he told the Nine Network. ''It's only against the state of the individual. It’s not going to go across families and so on.''

On another issue, let's not forget the weirdness of Dennis Jensen, a climate change skeptic, nonetheless attacking his government's budget cuts to science. And people thought Gillard's office didn't do media management well!  Geez.