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A budget (from old French bougette, purse) is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending.^[1]

A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms.

In summary, the purpose of budgeting is to:

1. Provide a forecast of revenues and expenditures, that is, construct a model of how our business might perform financially if certain strategies, events and plans are carried out.
2. Enable the actual financial operation of the business to be measured against the forecast.
3. Establish the cost constraint for a project, program, or operation.

Why do we produce budgets?[link]

Budget helps to aid the planning of actual operations by forcing managers to consider how the conditions might change and what steps should be taken now and by encouraging managers to consider problems before they arise. It also helps co-ordinate the activities of the organization by compelling managers to examine relationships between their own operation and those of other departments. Other essentials of budget include:

• To control resources
• To communicate plans to various responsibility center managers.
• To motivate managers to strive to achieve budget goals.
• To evaluate the performance of managers
• To provide visibility into the company's performance

Business start-up budget[link]

The process of calculating the costs of starting a small business begins with a list of all necessary purchases including tangible assets (for example, equipment, inventory) and services (for example, remodeling, insurance), working capital, sources and collateral. The budget should contain a narrative explaining how you decided on the amount of this reserve and a description of the expected financial results of business activities. The assets should be valued with each and every cost. All other expenses are like labour factory overhead all freshmen expenses are also included into business budgeting.

Corporate budget[link]

The budget of a company is often compiled annually, but may not be. A finished budget, usually requiring considerable effort, is a plan for the short-term future, typically one year (see budget year). While traditionally the Finance department compiles the company's budget, modern software allows hundreds or even thousands of people in various departments (operations, human resources, IT, etc.) to list their expected revenues and expenses in the final budget.

If the actual figures delivered through the budget period come close to the budget, this suggests that the managers understand their business and have been successfully driving it in the intended direction. On the other hand, if the figures diverge wildly from the budget, this sends an 'out of control' signal, and the share price could suffer as a result.

Event management budget[link]

A budget is a fundamental tool for an event director to predict with reasonable accuracy whether the event will result in a profit, a loss or will break-even. A budget can also be used as a pricing tool.

There are two basic approaches or philosophies when it comes to budgeting. One approach is telling you on mathematical models, and the other on people.

The first school of thought believes that financial models, if properly constructed, can be used to predict the future. The focus is on variables, inputs and outputs, drivers and the like. Investments of time and money are devoted to perfecting these models, which are typically held in some type of financial spreadsheet application.

The other school of thought holds that it’s not about models, it’s about people. No matter how sophisticated models can get, the best information comes from the people in the business. The focus is therefore in engaging the managers in the business more fully in the budget process, and building accountability for the results. The companies that adhere to this approach have their managers develop their own budgets. While many companies would say that they do both, in reality the investment of time and money falls squarely in one approach or the other.

Government budget[link]

The budget of a government is a summary or plan of the intended revenues and expenditures of that government.

United States[link]

The federal budget is prepared by the Office of Management and Budget, and submitted to Congress for consideration. Invariably, Congress makes many and substantial changes. Nearly all American states are required to have balanced budgets, but the federal government is allowed to run deficits.

India[link]

The budget is prepared by the Budget Division of Department of Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Finance annually. This includes supplementary excess grants and when a proclamation by the President as to failure of Constitutional machinery is in operation in relation to a State or a Union Territory, preparation of the Budget of such State. The railway budget is presented separately.

Philippines[link]

The Philippine budget is considered the most complicated in the world, incorporating multiple approaches in one single budget system: line-item (budget execution), performance (budget accountability), and zero-based (budget preparation). The Department of Budget and Management prepares the National Expenditure Program and forwards it to the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representative to come up with a General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The GAB will go through budget deliberations and voting; the same process occurs when the GAB is transmitted to the Philippine Senate.

After both houses of Congress approves the GAB, the President signs the bill into a General Appropriations Act (GAA); also, the President may opt to veto the GAB and have it returned to the legislative branch or leave the bill unsigned for 30 days and lapse into law. There are two types of budget bill veto: the line-item veto and the veto of the whole budget.

Personal or family budget[link]

In a personal or family budget all sources of income (inflows) are identified and expenses (outflows) are planned with the intent of matching outflows to inflows (making ends meet). In consumer theory, the equation restricting an individual or household to spend no more than its total resources is often called the budget constraint.

Budget types[link]

• Sales budget – an estimate of future sales, often broken down into both units and dollars. It is used to create company sales goals.
• Production budget – an estimate of the number of units that must be manufactured to meet the sales goals. The production budget also estimates the various costs involved with manufacturing those units, including labor and material. Created by product oriented companies.
• Cash flow/cash budget – a prediction of future cash receipts and expenditures for a particular time period. It usually covers a period in the short term future. The cash flow budget helps the business determine when income will be sufficient to cover expenses and when the company will need to seek outside financing.
• Marketing budget – an estimate of the funds needed for promotion, advertising, and public relations in order to market the product or service.
• Project budget – a prediction of the costs associated with a particular company project. These costs include labor, materials, and other related expenses. The project budget is often broken down into specific tasks, with task budgets assigned to each. A cost estimate is used to establish a project budget.
• Revenue budget – consists of revenue receipts of government and the expenditure met from these revenues. Tax revenues are made up of taxes and other duties that the government levies.
• Expenditure budget – includes spending data items.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up budget in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Budget

• Origin of the word

James May
James May in 2006
Born	James Daniel May (1963-01-16) 16 January 1963 (age 49)[1] Bristol, England
Residence	Hammersmith, West London, England
Nationality	British
Other names	Captain Slow
Education	Caerleon Endowed Junior School Oakwood Comprehensive School
Alma mater	Pendle College, Lancaster University
Occupation	Broadcaster, journalist, author, pianist, media personality
Years active	1998 (1998)–present (present)
Employer	BBC, The Daily Telegraph, (prev. Channel 4, ITV & Sky)
Known for	Presenting: Driven, Top Gear, Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, Oz and James Drink to Britain, James May's Top Toys, James May's Toy Stories, James May's 20th Century, James May's Big Ideas, James May's Man Lab
Home town	Bristol, England
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Partner	Sarah Frater (2000–present)
Website
http://www.topgear.com/uk/james-may

This article may contain too much repetition or redundant language. Please help improve it by merging similar text or removing repeated statements. (May 2011)

James Daniel May (born 16 January 1963) is an English television presenter, journalist and writer. He is best known for his role as co-presenter of the award-winning motoring program Top Gear alongside Jeremy Clarkson , and Richard Hammond.

On Top Gear, May has the nickname "Captain Slow" for his careful driving style, a love of small underpowered cars and habit of getting lost and distracted while driving. However, in a July 2010 episode of Top Gear he drove a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, reaching a speed of 417.6 kilometres per hour (259.5 mph).^[2] After his attempt the Bugatti test driver Pierre-Henri Raphanel took the car to 430 kilometers per hour (267.5 mph).

May has presented a variety of other programs on themes including science and technology, toys, cars, wine culture, and the plight of manliness in modern times. In addition he has released a variety of DVDs and books with similar themes, and wrote a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph's motoring section.

Early life[link]

James May was born in Bristol, one of four children; he has two sisters and a brother.^[3] May attended Caerleon Endowed Junior School in Newport, then in Monmouthshire. He spent his teenage years in South Yorkshire where he attended Oakwood Comprehensive School in Rotherham and was a choirboy at Whiston Parish Church.^[4] He was also at school with Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes star Dean Andrews.^[5] A keen flautist and pianist, he later studied music at Pendle College, Lancaster University. After graduating, May briefly worked at a hospital in Chelsea as a records officer, and had a short stint in Her Majesty's Civil Service.^[6]

Personal life[link]

May lives in Hammersmith, London with dance critic Sarah Frater, whom he has dated since 2000.^[7][8]

May has owned a number of cars: Bentley T2, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Triumph 2000, Rover P6, Alfa Romeo 164, 1971 Rolls-Royce Corniche, Jaguar XJS, Range Rover, Fiat Panda, Datsun 120Y, Vauxhall Cavalier Mk1, Ferrari F430, 1984 Porsche 911,^[9] 2005 Porsche Boxster S (which he claims is the first car he has ever purchased new),^[10] Mini Cooper, Citroën Ami, Mazda MX-5 and several classic motorcycles including a Yamaha XJR1300, Moto Guzzi V11 Sport, a Triumph Daytona 675R and a 1978 Guzzi California. He has a penchant for prestige cars like Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, simple and basic cars such as the Fiat Panda, and motorcycles. He often uses a Brompton folding bicycle for commuting.^[11] He passed his driving test on his second attempt and justified this by saying "All the best people pass the second time".^[12]

May obtained a light aircraft pilot's licence in October 2006 having trained at White Waltham Airfield. He has owned a Luscombe 8A 'Silvaire' and an American Champion 8KCAB Super Decathlon.

May received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Lancaster University on 15 July 2010. ^[13]

Journalism[link]

During the early 1980s, May worked as a sub-editor for The Engineer and later Autocar magazine, from which he was dismissed. He has since written for several publications, including a regular column called England Made Me in Car Magazine, articles for Top Gear magazine, and a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph.

He has written a book titled May On Motors, which is a collection of his published articles, and co-authored Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, based on the TV series of the same name.

He has also written the afterword to Long Lane with Turnings, published in September 2006, the final book by motoring writer L. J. K. Setright. In the same month he co-presented a tribute to Raymond Baxter. His book, Notes From The Hard Shoulder, was published on 26 April 2007. James May's 20th Century, a book to accompany the television series of the same name, was published on 6 September 2007.

[edit] Dismissal from Autocar

In an interview with Richard Allinson on BBC Radio 2,^[14] May confessed that he was fired in 1992 from Autocar magazine after putting together a hidden message or acrostic in one issue. At the end of the year, the magazine's "Road Test Year Book" supplement was published. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started with a large red letter (known in typography as an initial). May's role was to put the entire supplement together, which "was extremely boring and took several months". He went on to say:

So I had this idea that if I re-edited the beginnings of all the little texts, I could make these red letters spell out a message through the magazine, which I thought was brilliant. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it was to the effect that "You might think this is a really great thing, but if you were sitting here making it up you'd realise it's a real pain in the arse". It took me about two months to do it and on the day that it came out I'd actually forgotten that I'd done it because there's a bit of a gap between it being "put to bed" and coming out on the shelves. When I arrived at work that morning everybody was looking at their shoes and I was summoned to the managing director of the company's office. The thing had come out and nobody at work had spotted what I'd done because I'd made the words work around the pages so you never saw a whole word. But all the readers had seen it and they'd written in thinking they'd won a prize or a car or something.

May's original message, punctuated appropriately, reads: "So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it's a real pain in the arse."^[15]

This was referenced by Jeremy Clarkson during episode 2 of series 17 (in the course of the "hot hatch"-challenge in Italy) when May was noting Autocar's opinion on the Renault Clio Cup he had chosen for the challenge, to which Clarkson replied "Autocar.... The magazine that sacked you...?"

Radio and television[link]

His past television credits include presenting Driven on Channel 4 in 1998-99, narrating an eight-part BBC One series called Road Rage School,^[16] and co-hosting the ITV1 coverage of the 2006 London Boat Show.^[17] He also wrote and presented a Christmas special called James May's Top Toys (for BBC One) exploring the toys of his childhood.^[18] This list was followed up the next year by a sequel of sorts, broadcast on BBC Two, entitled James May: My Sister's Top Toys, this time attempting to investigate the gender divide of toy appeal.^[19] In series 3, episode 3^[20] of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word, May managed to beat Ramsay in eating animal penises and rotten shark (which Ramsay himself couldn't keep down)^[21] and with his fish pie recipe.^[22][23]

[edit] Top Gear

May first co-presented Top Gear in 1999, before it was axed by the BBC because of poor viewing figures. He rejoined the show in the second series of the present Top Gear format in 2003, where he earned the nickname "Captain Slow" owing to his careful driving style. Despite this sobriquet, he has done some especially high-speed driving, including in Top Gear Series 9, taking a Bugatti Veyron to its top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h) which is nearly one-third of the speed of sound at sea level and later on taking a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport edition to 260 mph (417 km/h). In an earlier episode he also tested the original version of the Bugatti Veyron against the new Pagani Zonda F. On the show he claimed that it was 'a piece of cake' driving those cars, but seconds later Jeremy Clarkson played a tape showing him spinning wildly over the test track in the Zonda. Originally he did not want to do this test, but Clarkson had hurt his neck in the previous episode while driving a truck through a brick wall and Richard Hammond claimed that he was busy selling fish at Morrisons. He is often mocked for a poor sense of direction, shown getting lost many times throughout the course of the series, including race tracks and even being mocked once by Jeremy and Hammond for mistaking a normal Range Rover as the camera crew. He also flew in a Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon at a speed of around 1320 mph for his television programme, James May's 20th Century. He also became one of the first people – with co-presenter Jeremy Clarkson and an Icelandic support crew – to travel by car to the magnetic North Pole, using a modified Toyota Hilux. He claims to be the first person on the north pole who didn't want to go there. He was also one of the first people to drive across the Makgadikgadi salt plains in Botswana.^[24] He has driven a 1.3 litre Suzuki SJ413 through the Bolivian jungle and along Death Road and over the Andes to the Pacific Ocean in Chile. He also drove a modified Toyota Hilux (also used as a crew car during the North Pole expedition) up the side of the erupting volcano Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland.

Science[link]

May has also presented a documentary for Sky about sharks called Inside Killer Sharks and a series looking at inventions and discoveries during the twentieth century, entitled James May's 20th Century.^[25] In late 2008, the BBC broadcast James May's Big Ideas, a three-part series in which May travelled around the globe in search of implementations for concepts widely considered science fiction.^[26]

[edit] James May on the Moon

In June 2009 May presented a documentary on BBC Two called James May on the Moon commemorating 40 years since man first landed on the moon.^[27] This was followed by another documentary on BBC Four called James May at the Edge of Space, where May was flown to the edge of space (70,000 ft) in a U.S. Air Force Lockheed U-2 spy plane. Highlights of the footage from the training for the flight, and the flight itself was used in James May on the Moon, but was shown fully in this programme.^[28] This made him one of the highest flying persons, along with the pilot, at that time, after the crew of the International Space Station.^[28]

[edit] James May's Toy Stories

Beginning in October 2009, May presented a 6-part TV series showing favourite toys of the past era and whether they can be applied in the modern day. The toys featured were Airfix, Plasticine, Meccano, Scalextric, Lego and Hornby. In each show, May attempts to take each toy to its limits, also fulfilling several of his boyhood dreams in the process. For example, in August 2009, May built a full-sized house out of Lego at Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey.^[29] Plans for Legoland to move it to their theme park fell through in September 2009 because costs to deconstruct, move and then rebuild were too high^[30] and despite a final Facebook appeal for someone to take it, it was demolished on 22 September, with the plastic bricks planned to be donated to charity.^[31] Also for the series, he recreated the banked track at Brooklands using Scalextric track,^[32] and an attempt at the world's longest working model railway along the Tarka Trail between Barnstaple and Bideford in North Devon, although the attempt was foiled due to stolen batteries and vandals placing coins on the track, causing a short circuit.^[33]

Drink[link]

In late 2006, the BBC broadcast Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure, a series in which May, a committed bitter drinker, travelled around France with wine expert Oz Clarke.^[34] A second series was broadcast in late 2007, this time with May and Clarke in the Californian wine country,^[35] and was followed by a third series in 2009 called Oz and James Drink to Britain.

Career[link]

Television[link]

DVD[link]

Books[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Telegraph Motoring - James May's weekly column
• James May at the Internet Movie Database
• James May on Top Gear
• Daily Mail article on May

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (February 2011)

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011)

Ray Stevens (born Harold Ray Ragsdale, January 24, 1939^[2]) is an American country music, pop singer-songwriter who has become equally well known for his serious material as he has for his novelty songs.

Early life[link]

Stevens was born Harry Ray Ragsdale on January 24, 1939, in Clarkdale, Georgia. While attending high school, Stevens formed his first band, a rhythm and blues group he named the Barons. Following his graduation from high school, Stevens enrolled in Georgia State University as a music major.^[3]

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Capitol Records signed Stevens to their Prep Records division in 1957,^[3] and produced the singles "Silver Bracelet," that Billboard predicted to be a teen favorite, and "Rang Tang Ding Dong," about a Japanese sandman, for which Billboard credited the 16-year-old Stevens' vocals as "strong, attractive."^[4] The latter song was a cover of a song recorded by Manhattan doo-wop group The Cellos in 1957, and written by Cellos bass singer Alvin Williams.^[5]

In 1958, Bill Lowery created the National Recording Corporation (NRC), and brought Stevens on board playing numerous instruments, arranging music, and performing background vocals for its band. Around that time, he had adopted the professional name of "Ray Stevens," which was inspired by his middle name and his mother's maiden name. Lowery was unable to collect debts from his own accounts and was forced into bankruptcy.^[6]

Stevens then signed with Mercury Records^[7] with whom Stevens recorded a series of hit records in the 1960s that included songs such as "Ahab the Arab," "Harry the Hairy Ape," "Funny Man," the original recording of "Santa Claus Is Watching You," and "Jeremiah Peabody's Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolving, Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills." The song that introduced Stevens to most of his fan base is "Ahab the Arab," which reached number five on the Hot 100 in the summer of 1962.

In 1966, Stevens signed with Monument Records and started to release serious material such as "Mr. Businessman" in 1968, a Top 30 pop hit; "Have a Little Talk With Myself" and the original version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" in 1969, which became Stevens' first two singles to reach the country music charts. O.C. Smith covered the Stevens-penned Isn't It Lonely Together while Sammy Davis, Jr. covered Have a Little Talk With Myself. Stevens continued releasing novelty songs, and in 1969 he had a Top 10 pop hit with "Gitarzan." Stevens also became a regular on The Andy Williams Show during the 1969–1970 season, and he hosted his own summer show, The Ray Stevens Show, in 1970. In Australia, Ross D. Wylie reached the top 20 with his cover of the Stevens-penned, Funny Man. Stevens' collection of Hot 100 hits is evenly divided between serious and novelty.

As an A&R man, music producer, songwriter, and music arranger he assisted countless artists in the recording studio during his years at Mercury Records and Monument Records, 1961 through early 1970. Some of the acts he was associated with during that time period were Brenda Lee, Brook Benton, Patti Page, Joe Dowell, Dusty Springfield, and Dolly Parton. Stevens was a writer or co-writer of several songs those particular acts recorded. My True Confession , a Top-10 on the R&B chart in 1963 for Brook Benton, was written by Stevens and Margie Singleton. Stevens was the arranger for an obscure Doyle Holly recording titled "My Heart Cries For You" which had been recorded previously by Stevens during the late 1950s.

1970s[link]

Starting in the 1970s, Stevens became a producer and well-known studio musician on the Nashville scene. He recorded songs for Barnaby Records and Warner Brothers during 1970–1979. Stevens' biggest hit in the United States was his gospel-inflected single "Everything Is Beautiful" (1970). The single won a Grammy Award, was the theme song for his summer 1970 TV show, hit number one on both the pop and Adult-Contemporary charts, and marked his first time in the Top 40 on the country charts, peaking at number 39. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[8] His other 1970 singles were "America, Communicate With Me" and "Sunset Strip," both of which reached the Top 20 on the Adult-Contemporary lists. His novelty song "Bridget the Midget (The Queen of The Blues)" made number two on the United Kingdom chart in 1971 and in the US it reached number 50. Stevens had a gospel/country hit single in early 1972 with Albert E. Brumley's "Turn Your Radio On," reaching the country Top 20. Two more of Stevens' songs in 1971 were also minor pop hits, "A Mama and a Papa" and "All My Trials," but both crossed over to the Top 10 Adult-Contemporary lists. Stevens frequently toured Canada and went overseas to the UK. A rock-infected gospel arrangement accompanied his version of "Love Lifted Me" and it became a hit single in Bangkok in the fall of 1972, finding its way into the Top Five for the week ending September 30.

In 1973, Stevens had a top 40 country hit with the title track of his album, "Nashville," and increased his exposure on television by performing on a variety of prime-time programs of the era. In 1974, Stevens recorded perhaps his most famous hit, "The Streak," which poked fun at the early-1970s fad of running nude in public, known as "streaking." It made number one in both the UK and the US and No. 3 on the country chart. In 1975, he released the Grammy-winning "Misty," which became his biggest country hit (reaching number three on the country charts and number 14 on the pop charts); he also entered the country Top 40 with a doo-wop version of "Indian Love Call," "Everybody Needs a Rainbow," and a ballad version of "Young Love" in early 1976. Stevens' tenure with Barnaby came to an end in early 1976.

Stevens joined Warner Brothers in 1976, where his debut was a strong showing with three hit singles in a row. The first was the up-tempo version of "You Are So Beautiful," which reached the country Top 20, then "Honky Tonk Waltz," which reached the Top 30. He then released a novelty single: under the pseudonym "Henhouse Five Plus Too," Stevens recorded a version of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" in the style of a clucking chicken; it became a Top 40 hit in the US and UK in early 1977. In 1978 he had a hit with "Be Your Own Best Friend" on the country charts, and in 1979 he had his last Hot 100 hit (to date) with the novelty "I Need Your Help, Barry Manilow," which he released from the album The Feeling's Not Right Again. In the US, Stevens' singles would reach only the country chart nationally thereafter. He joined RCA in late 1979, releasing new material in 1980.

1980s[link]

After joining RCA in 1980, Stevens continued having hit singles, but with somewhat less success than in the previous decade. His debut single, the Top 10 "Shriner's Convention" and then the Top 20 love ballad "Night Games" performed relatively well on the charts. In 1981, only one single made the charts, the Top 40 hit "One More Last Chance." In 1982, after he had released a few more singles, notably the Top 40 "Written Down in My Heart," Stevens left RCA and returned to Mercury Records, the label that made him a star in the early 1960s. This resulted in only one album, the 1983 project Me, and only one chart hit, "My Dad," in early 1984.

In 1985, Stevens sung the credits song for Stephen King's "Cat's Eye" (1985).

Stevens then joined MCA in 1984 as a "country comedy" act and thereafter released only novelty song albums. The fan-voted Music City News awards named Stevens Comedian of the Year annually for nine consecutive years from 1986 to 1994. A few of Stevens' commercial singles charted on the Single Sales charts during this time, but only one single, "Mississippi Squirrel Revival," made it to the Top 40. "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" reached the Top 20, making that his final single to hit the Top-40 portion of the country singles chart. "Would Jesus Wear a Rolex" is the only single during his 1984–1989 stint on MCA that came close to reaching the Top 40, stalling at number 41 in 1987. Second to that, the other single close to hitting the Top 40 on the country chart was the number 45 hit "The Haircut Song" in 1985.

His comedy albums were nonetheless enjoying widespread success. His first series of albums for MCA all made the country charts with several of them remaining on the charts for months at a time. His first two albums for MCA reached the Top-5 with I Have Returned hitting the top spot in early 1986. Afterward his albums routinely peaked in the middle of the charts. A 1987 Greatest Hits album became a platinum seller while several other releases achieved gold status. One of the trademarks of Stevens' string of comedy albums were the photo shoots. For example, on one album he's dressed up as Napoleon Bonaparte, on another he's Humpty Dumpty, and on another he's dressed as General Douglas MacArthur. Stevens' lack of airplay wasn't affecting his ability to sell records. National shows like Hee-Haw and a variety of programs on The Nashville Network frequently gave exposure to all forms of country music.

1990s[link]

Stevens left MCA in 1989 for Curb/Capitol Records. His first release arrived in 1990. The two labels split up soon after and Curb Records continued releasing material on Stevens. His All-Time Greatest Comic Hits, a compilation project released by Curb in 1990, became a gold album by mid-decade. Lend Me Your Ears and Number One With a Bullet were released in 1990 and 1991 respectively. The latter featured the satirical hit "Working for the Japanese" in which Stevens sings about the American economy and how dollars are boosting overseas economies instead of its own.

In the 1990s, Stevens took new directions. The most ambitious was the opening of his own theater in Branson, Missouri in 1991. The theater business had been steadily growing in the small Missouri town of Branson for a period of years and by the time Stevens began building his theater the area was reaching its peak. Stevens benefited from the theater boom largely because his stage show was different from others. His reputation as a comedian and as an all-around entertainer meant that for most tourists his show was one of the destination spots judging by the number of sold-out performances he gave at the theater. When crowds reacted favorably to his music videos being played on a large screen at his theater Stevens began selling videos for his fans to take home.

In the spring and summer of 1992, his Comedy Video Classics became a million-selling home video through direct marketing and television advertisements. Commercials for Stevens' home video aired countless times throughout 1992, mostly in the morning hours and often during late-night. Branson was also experiencing its highest commercial peak in the summer and fall of both 1992 and 1993. Ray Stevens was back in the national media once again with his enormously successful home video and music theater. In the midst of all the success, though, Stevens closed down his theater after the 1993 season citing exhaustion and monotony after doing two shows a day, six days a week, for five to six months at a time. Several of his performances at his theater were filmed and surfaced in home video form. Ray Stevens Live! became another home video mail-order success in 1993 following the same path of Comedy Video Classics.

Meanwhile, Comedy Video Classics had become available for retail distribution and it became a big seller again. In 1993, it was named Home Video of the Year by Billboard magazine in their annual end of the year publication which cites the most popular artists, songs, CDs, and video items of the year.

Classic Ray Stevens was issued in the early fall of 1993. This was the first audio release from Stevens since early 1991. The album's title was a reference to the classical-looking photo shoot which features a bust of Ray Stevens mocking Beethoven. The home video of Ray Stevens Live! was released to retail stores in 1994 and it became a Top-5 success on Billboard's Home Video chart. The concert video often ranked above or below Comedy Video Classics on the charts. In the late summer of 1995, the movie Get Serious! was released on home video.

The movie, which runs 1 hour and 50 minutes, offers several plots and a collection of newly-produced music videos which act as commentary to the action. One plot point of the movie centers on a fictional record company for which Stevens records being bought out by a Japanese conglomerate. This is a reference to the consolidation practices taking place in the music industry. Another plot-point deals with Stevens' reputation as a comical singer and how the new executive of the fictional record company, based vocally on Paul Lynde, wants Stevens to change his image from comedy to classical opera. Stevens refuses and this brings to the surface another plot-point of the movie: political correctness. Seeking revenge on Stevens, the executive hatches a plan to ruin Stevens’ career by labeling him politically incorrect. The last plot-point centers on character defamation as numerous characters from several Stevens songs turn out to really exist and they want to sue the singer for defamation. This plot is based on a song that Stevens recorded in 1986 entitled "Dudley Dorite of the Highway Patrol" where a local policeman stops Stevens for speeding and afterward informs the singer that he's in a whole lot of trouble for using easily identifiable people as characters in his songs. The song was re-recorded specifically for the movie as Dudley Dorite is one of the main characters in the movie. He's portrayed by Stevens' long-time songwriting partner, C.W. Kalb, Jr..

The home video became another mail-order success throughout 1995 and was released to retail stores, via MCA, late in 1996. The video hit the Top-5 on Billboard's Home Video chart early in 1997 during a more than 20 week chart run. Stevens had by this point exited Curb Records.

Stevens found a new home with his previous label, MCA. MCA was responsible for the retail distribution of Get Serious! and for marketing Ray as a comical singer for the first time in the mid-1980s.

The reunion with MCA consisted of the retail release of Get Serious! in late 1996 and two new audio CD's in 1997: Hum It and Christmas Through a Different Window, the latter release being a collection of Christmas novelty songs. After the MCA contract ended, Stevens became exclusive to his own label, Clyde Records, for a period of years.

On-line rumors began circulating about his death. The confusion may have arisen in the summer of 1996 following the death of a wrestler named Ray "The Crippler" Stevens. The singer Ray Stevens once recorded a wrestling song entitled "The Blue Cyclone." Stevens, the singer, reported to the media that his office had received thousands of sympathy cards due to the confusion.

In April 1999 Stevens was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer and had to cancel his series of concerts at the Acuff Theatre that summer. Stevens received a clean bill of health upon successful surgery and returned to the stage in time to deliver his Christmas concert series.

2000s (2000–2009)[link]

After the partnership with MCA ended, he remained active on his own label, Clyde Records, until he found another home with Curb Records, returning to the label in 2001. Early in 2002, "Osama Yo' Mama" was released. It made the country Top 50, reached the Top-5 on the country single sales chart, achieved Gold selling status, and the album of the same name reached the country Top-30. After the release of this album Stevens returned to Branson, Missouri and re-opened his theater in 2004. He remained active there for three more seasons. He shut the theater down for good after the 2006 season, selling it off to cable network RFD-TV, which continues to operate it to this day.

An obscure release called "The New Battle of New Orleans" came along in 2005 as a response to the vandals and looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Many people confused the version of The New Battle of New Orleans by its principal writer, Chuck Redden, with the version by Stevens. The recording by the writer features much more pointed accusations and assertions and it is this version which appears on various web-sites specializing in lyric re-printing. The confusion arises when these web-sites credit Stevens as the singer of that version.

Ray and his songwriter friend Buddy Kalb removed a lot of the original lyrics in the song and supplied new lyrics in a more G-rated setting. In spite of the various lyrical re-writes by Stevens and Kalb, the overall point of the song that the locals expected and demanded too much from their government, is still clear. The song was issued as a single-only in 2005.

Curb Records, in the meantime, continued to release DVD music video collections on Stevens during this time. The music videos featured limited animation.

Stevens returned to releasing music once again in 2007, firstly in July 2007, with the single-only "Ruby Falls," a combination of jazz, blues, and country music, and secondly with the CD New Orleans Moon, released on his own label. This CD contains various songs in tribute and honor to New Orleans and Louisiana. Stevens covers "Louisiana Man," "Louisiana," "The Battle of New Orleans," "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," "New Orleans," and several more.

The following year Stevens issued the album Hurricane, also on his own label. It was released in February 2008 at Stevens' on-line music store at his website then was released nationally in November of that year to a wider audience. This CD featured a wide array of comical songs including a pair of redneck anthems, "Hey Bubba, Watch This!" and "Bubba the Wine Connoisseur." The CD also marked the debut of "Sucking Sound," a political/economic song about Ross Perot and how his warnings of the flaws in a global economy, which were mocked in 1992, became somewhat of a reality by 2008, resulting in massive lay-offs and job losses.

Concurrently in 2008, a tribute to the songs of Frank Sinatra that Stevens recorded was also being offered at the web-site store during the latter half of 2008. The album is titled Ray Stevens Sings Sinatra...Say What?? and it became nationally distributed in February 2009. Stevens did not promote or publicize the tribute album. Later in 2009 he released One for the Road, a CD aimed primarily at truckers. It was sold exclusively at the Pilot truck stops for several weeks prior to its release nationally. The CD contains a mixture of material ranging from truck driver oriented songs to somber ballads. There are also several re-recordings of his greatest hits added into the equation. There are fifteen tracks featured on the trucker CD in which the first three tracks, in addition to track seven, specifically deal with situations while on the road: "Concrete Sailor," "Convoy," "Right Reverend Road Hog McGraw," and "Hang Up and Drive." "Mary Lou Nights" and "Oh, Lonesome Me." "Retired" originated as a duet between Stevens and Brent Burns but for this CD it is delivered solo.

In 2009 Stevens was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame and he appeared on the PBS series Legends and Lyrics. A television show that Stevens stars in, We Ain't Dead Yet, became available to subscribers at his web page. The subscription is to an exclusive section of his web-page called "Ray Stevens Backstage" and each month a different episode becomes available. The series focuses on senior citizens and it usually features a special guest each episode stopping by the main set, a retirement home, to perform songs.

In the early fall of 2009 Stevens released a holiday collection of songs titled Ray Stevens Christmas. Late in November an EP became available featuring a couple of his serious Christmas songs but the main attraction was his cover of Seymour Swine's (a fictional group that recorded a stuttering rendition of "Blue Christmas") "Blue Christmas," complete with stutter. Stevens had also recorded a non-comical version of this song for his Ray Stevens Christmas release. The stuttering version can only be found on the EP release.

In December 2009, Stevens issued the single and on-line video "We the People," which quickly became a viral video and surpassed a million unique views in a month's time on YouTube. The video is critical of health care reform. Stevens followed this music video with "Caribou Barbie" in March 2010. This music video is supportive of Sarah Palin. The video uses a Palin impersonator and through the help of sight-gags it takes aim at several high-profile personalities on cable television.

2010s (2010–present)[link]

Stevens issued another music video on YouTube, "Throw the Bums Out!," as a direct response to the March 2010 passage of health care reform legislation in the House of Representatives.

In April 2010 Stevens released a collection that includes a CD and a DVD, titled We the People. The project features 22 political songs. The four music videos on the DVD are "We the People," "Caribou Barbie," "Throw the Bums Out!," and "Thank You," Stevens appeared in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2010, as part of the tax day rally associated with the Tea Party. On April 24, 2010 the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum honored the career of Ray Stevens in the recurring series "Nashville Cats: A Celebration of Music City Musicians." The special focused mostly on Stevens' career as a Nashville-session musician during the 1960s and 1970s.

On May 13, 2010, the music video of "Come to the USA" was released. This is a song dealing with the hot button issue of illegal immigration. The song uses exaggeration and small doses of satire to comment on illegal immigration acceptance internationally compared with the United States’ more passive policy. The song was written and recorded before the Arizona illegal immigration bill, SB 1070, was introduced to the nation. The music video became Stevens' second to surpass a million unique views on YouTube; the first being "We the People." Following the release of the "Come to the USA" music video Stevens found himself being spotlighted again on the Fox News Channel and then by The New York Times. Stevens' We the People CD made its Top-10 debut on the Billboard Comedy Album chart for the week ending June 26, 2010, and it moved into the Top-5 for the week ending July 3, 2010. Meanwhile, a new music video, "The Global Warming Song," had become available on YouTube on June 29. The song, the sixth release from his We the People CD, is a broad exaggeration on the global warming topic, drawing inspiration from the concept of the Earth's temperature rising beyond control. The song depicts a couple of brothers who hold fort in a frozen wasteland with a money-making scheme of awaiting the arrival of climate change. The song is purposely silly and plays on the fears of global warming.

Starting in July 2010 and running through August most PBS stations aired a special titled Marvin Hamlisch Presents the 1970s: The Way We Were during pledge drive fundraisers. The special celebrates the music of the 1970s and Ray Stevens participated in the proceedings. Stevens' contributions include "Everything Is Beautiful," "The Streak," and "Misty." On July 31 Stevens made a guest appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

On August 4, 2010 a new music video from Stevens made its debut on YouTube. This time around the subject matter is the Federal Government of the United States and the on-going war of words with Arizona over immigration. The song, "God Save Arizona," criticizes the policies of the Federal Government and it questions the competence of Eric Holder, the United States Attorney General with regards to the Federal lawsuit brought against Arizona. The beginning of the song starts out as a tribute to the U.S.S. Arizona during World War II before switching to a look at a modern-day verbal war between Arizona's State Government and the Federal Government.

Given the overall on-line popularity of his music videos on YouTube it enabled Stevens to reach a milestone in early September 2010. This milestone refers to the collective number of plays that all of his music videos had obtained up until that point in time. When the play totals for each officially-released music video were tallied the collective total reached ten million. "Come to the USA" obtained over four million YouTube unique views while "We the People" had obtained over three million.

Stevens returned to Branson, Missouri once again in mid September to kick off a nearly month-long engagement at The Welk Resort which ran through October 23. On the last date of his concert series at the Welk Theatre he participated in a Tea Party rally held in Branson earlier in the day. The rally was billed as 'the Pre-Election Pink Slip Rally and Concert' and it took place throughout most of the morning and into the afternoon. Stevens performed "We the People" and "Throw the Bums Out!" at the rally and that night wrapped up his concert series at the Welk Theatre.

On November 3, the day after the 2010 mid-term elections, Stevens uploaded a new music video on YouTube entitled "Nightmare Before Christmas." The song has nothing to do with politics or elections but instead deals with political correctness gone amuck as Santa Claus gets arrested and is charged with crimes against a politically correct society. In the video Stevens portrays himself, Santa, the prosecutor, and the Judge. Political correctness and the mockery of liberal-progressive special interest groups is at the crux of the song.

On November 29 Stevens alerted his audience via the social network site Twitter that he would be recording ten new political comedy songs. Several days prior, on November 23, Stevens announced on his Facebook page that he's in the process of recording a huge project of one hundred songs to be released at some point entitled The Encyclopedia of Musical Comedy Recordings. On December 2, "Bad Angel," a song that Stevens published and his daughter, Suzi Ragsdale, co-wrote, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Country Collaboration category. The song's trio of artists are Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, and Jamey Johnson. It is available on Bentley's CD Up on The Ridge.

On January 19, 2011 via Twitter, Stevens announced that he would take part in the annual CPAC gathering in Washington, D.C. The event takes place during February 10–12. On January 24 Stevens turned 72 years old and showing no signs of slowing down he embarked on what he referred to as a radio call-in tour. The first program that Stevens called was the Charlie Brennan radio show on KMOX in St. Louis on January 28 to promote a brand new recording about airport security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Next, on February 2, Ray called in to KWEL in Texas to promote his TSA song and the latest happenings in his career.

Stevens called-in to the Jim Bohannon radio program on February 4 resulting in an interview that lasted about one hour. On February 7 he called-in to the Martha Zoller program and a radio program that aired on Minnesota's KLTF. On February 8 a CD single along with an Mp3 single of The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore became commercially available. On February 9 Stevens was spotlighted on the XM and Sirius satellite radio program Cruisin' with Cousin' Brucie which spotlights 1960s pop songs.

Stevens performed three songs while at CPAC on February 10, 2011. The airport security/TSA song entitled The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore kicked off the performance while he followed it with "We the People" and concluded the appearance with a song entitled "Mr. President-Mr. President" which takes a comical look at how President Barack Obama is viewed by a segment of the population amidst domestic and foreign turmoil. On February 17 Stevens called-in to WSGI radio's Steve Jarrell program, "Big Daddy-o on the Patio." Later that same day Stevens uploaded the much-anticipated music video of "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore."

On February 18 Stevens called radio stations KSCJ and KDWN to promote the music video and to talk about politics in general. By February 24 "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" soared past the 52,000 play mark on YouTube.

On February 25 Stevens gave an interview on radio station WPTF's Bill Lumaye program and later the same day appeared on the Fox Business Network program, Freedom Watch, hosted by Judge Andrew Napolitano. In the television interview Stevens offered his opinions of the current political climate, the TSA, and announced that his next single would deal with President Obama's budget plan.

On February 27 the RFD-TV network reran a 1972 episode of Hee-Haw which featured Stevens as one of the guests. He performed Turn Your Radio On and Along Came Jones. On that same day, "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore" had amassed over 70,000 unique views on YouTube in a span of ten days. Continuing the mostly talk radio station promotion of his TSA song Stevens called the Daybreak USA program on February 28 and on March 2 he called in to Ed Morrissey's radio program. On March 17 one of Stevens' previous music videos, "Come to the USA," reached the five million mark on YouTube. On March 25, via Twitter, Stevens announced that he taped a performance for an upcoming television show hosted by country singer Ronnie McDowell titled Music City Late Night.

On April 14 Stevens decided to end his subscription-based web-site, Ray Stevens Backstage, after a two year run. The site was aimed at providing the most ardent of fans with exclusive content. Upon its cancellation it was revealed that elements of the Backstage site would be incorporated into the main Ray Stevens web-site. A classic music video from Ray uploaded on YouTube in 2009 but taped in 1992 entitled The Mississippi Squirrel Revival surpassed a million on-line views. This became the third music video from Stevens to obtain at least a million on-line views. On April 25 Stevens uploaded a new music video onto YouTube entitled "The Obama Budget Plan." A video clip was highlighted on The O'Reilly Factor. The same day, April 25, Stevens released his latest collection of songs, The Spirit of '76, which contains the previously mentioned "Obama Budget Plan," "God Save Arizona," and "The Skies Just Ain't Friendly Anymore."

The collection was available in its earliest weeks of release in digital download format. By May 1, Stevens' "Obama Budget Plan" on-line music video had generated over 95,000 unique views in less than a week's time. Later that same night news broke on the death of Osama bin Laden and as a result Stevens' music video from 2002 entitled "Osama Yo' Mama," which was uploaded on YouTube in 2009, experienced a resurgence in on-line activity. The video had received more than 990,000 unique views prior to the news of bin Laden's death and in the aftermath it received more than 20,000 additional plays causing it to surpass a million on-line views and as a result it became his fourth music video to surpass a million plays.

On May 5 Stevens called the Lars Larson show on radio station KXL to discuss current events. On May 11 he appeared at a conservative rally in Franklin, Tennessee billed as Conservatives on the Move. Stevens made the rounds of the Fox Business Network in early June during a trip to New York to promote the Obama budget music video and his Spirit of '76 collection. On June 2 Stevens made an appearance on America's Nightly Scoreboard, an economics program hosted by David Asman on the Fox Business Network. The following day, June 3, Stevens made an appearance on Freedom Watch hosted by Judge Napolitano.

On June 4 Stevens appeared on Huckabee, which airs on the Fox News Channel and is hosted by Mike Huckabee. It was on the latter program that Stevens performed "Obama Budget Plan" for the first time on television. On June 27 Stevens appeared at a star-studded reunion at the Quonset Hut Studio. Legendary session musicians and artists gathered to celebrate the studio's history, perform songs, and tell stories about the recording sessions.

After a low-key July, Stevens kicked off the month of August being interviewed on WSM radio. The interview took place on a program hosted by WSM DJ and Grand Ole Opry announcer, Eddie Stubbs, titled Intimate Evenings. The interview aired on August 1. The 2-hour series airs from the Country Music Hall of Fame. The host played several of Ray's songs and often mentioned how packed the venue was and how electric the atmosphere felt. A lot of time was spent on Ray's past (his career, after all, goes back to 1957) but yet there was also discussion of Ray's current recordings and activity. Ray offered his opinions on politics and other topical issues...bringing chuckles and cheers from the host and from the audience. Several days later, on August 9, the CD copy of his digital release from April, Spirit of '76, was released to wider distribution. Previously the CD copy had only been available at the singer's web-site store.

On August 12 the "Obama Budget Plan" music video surpassed half a million views and by the middle of September it had surpassed 700,000 on-line views. On September 27 Stevens uploaded the music video, "Mr. President - Mr. President," and it quickly amassed more than 200,000 unique views in a little more than a week's time. A snippet of the video, during the first days of its YouTube availability, was previewed on The O'Reilly Factor. On October 7 the song was heard on Mark Levin's nationally syndicated radio program. On October 10 Stevens announced that his upcoming novelty song encyclopedia will consist of nine CDs and will be released in January 2012. In December his music video, "Obama Budget Plan," obtained 1,000,000 on-line views. It happened on Christmas Eve.

The release date for The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music was pushed back one month from January 2012 to February. The release date was February 28, 2012. Publicity for the collection started a week earlier when Stevens made an appearance on the GAC news/video program, On the Streets, on February 21. Stevens gave an interview for the radio series, American Country Countdown, hosted by Nashville songwriter and half of the Brooks and Dunn duo, Kix Brooks. The interview is part of a segment known as The Back Forty.

On February 27 Stevens uploaded a brief video on You Tube promoting the collection. In the video clip Stevens appears on camera and talks about the collection. There is also footage of him performing at his recording studio. On February 29, just a day after releasing the 9-CD encyclopedia box set, Stevens' on-line music video, "Mr. President - Mr. President," passed the half a million mark in YouTube views. On March 8 Stevens appeared on the RFD-TV series, Larry's Country Diner, and performed four songs: The Preacher and the Bear, I Still Write Your Name in the Show, Get a Job, and Mississippi Squirrel Revival. The songs are part of The Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. Also on March 8 an article on Ray by a writer named Chuck Dauphin appeared on Billboard.com detailing the Encyclopedia's contents. The article also included Ray's feelings about the lack of an abundance of comedy songs on contemporary radio stations, the comedy song's lack of respect, and the unfounded stigma that exists about comedy songs.

April 5 saw the You Tube release of a live version of "We The People" recorded in Branson, Missouri during one of his series of concerts. The video's gotten more than 7,500 views with hardly any promotional hype behind it. A day later on April 6 a fast-paced four minute commercial was uploaded onto YouTube promoting the Encyclopedia of Recorded Comedy Music. The commercial features Buddy Kalb, one of Ray's business associates and songwriters, as well as Ray giving detail about the box set. On April 10 Stevens appeared on Fox and Friends and performed a brief medley of some of the songs on the Encyclopedia. Afterwards he appeared on their "After the Show show", and discussed more about the Encyclopedia and performed "Mississippi Squirrel Revival" in its entirety. Later that evening Stevens was a guest on the Fox Across America radio program hosted by Spencer Hughes. On April 14 Stevens was featured on the country music interview and lifestyle program, Crook and Chase. The syndicated series airs on Saturdays.

On May 6 comedian/actor George Lindsey passed away at the age of 83. A long-time friend of Ray's, Lindsey appeared at Ray's CD release party on February 28th when the 9-CD box set became available. Lindsey had also appeared with Stevens at the Country Music Hall of Fame during the induction of Sonny James in 2006. Stevens and Lindsey dressed up as Indians and performed the song, Running Bear, which had been a big hit for James. Prior to this, Lindsey made a cameo appearance in Stevens' 1995 direct-to-video movie, Get Serious!. Stevens attended George Lindsey's funeral on May 11th and performed "Everything Is Beautiful".

Videos[link]

Stevens' songs have been showcased in several videos. "Gitarzan" was featured on Disc 1 of "The Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection." Stevens videos were frequently offered via television commercials. 1992's "Comedy Video Classics" contained 8 music videos, winning the Home Video of the Year in 1993 as well as other awards. Two videos filmed at his Branson, Missouri theatre "Ray Stevens Live!" and "More Ray Stevens Live!" were released in 1993, although the second collection was only available to fan club members at the time. In 1995 he released a movie, "Get Serious!," which contains ten music videos sandwiched within an actual movie. The film runs 110 minutes. The video collection "Latest and Greatest" was released in 1996. In 2000 he released "Funniest Video Characters" including the video to his 1985 song "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone." In 2004 "Greatest Video Characters" was released...this was a large all-encompassing collection of music videos from Stevens that had been released on previous collections. Stevens' video albums are released by mail order on his own label, Clyde Records. Beginning in late 2009 Stevens began releasing new music videos directly to YouTube. A lot of the music videos released by Stevens since December 2009 are political in nature. The music videos, many of which have obtained more than half a million unique views, have helped establish Stevens as a legitimate political entertainer.

Grammy Awards[link]

Stevens has 11 Grammy nominations and won two Grammy Awards: one for "Everything Is Beautiful" and one for the arrangement of his country and western version of the jazz standard "Misty" (1975). Stevens was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1980 as well as the Georgia Music Hall of Fame.

Other awards and accomplishments[link]

• 1969: Gold Single — "Gitarzan"
• 1970: Gold Single — "Everything Is Beautiful"
• 1970: Grammy — "Everything Is Beautiful" (Best Male Pop Vocal Performance)
• 1974: Gold Single — "The Streak"
• 1975: Grammy — "Misty" (Best Arrangement of the Year)
• 1980: Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
• 1980: Georgia Music Hall of Fame
• 1984: Gold Album — "He Thinks He's Ray Stevens"
• 1985: Gold Album — "I Have Returned"
• 1986: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1986: #1 Country Album Plaque from Billboard — "I Have Returned" (week ending March 15, 1986)
• 1987: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1987: Platinum Album — "Greatest Hits"
• 1987: Gold Album — "Greatest Hits, Volume Two"
• 1988: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1989: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1990: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1990: Gold Album — "All-Time Greatest Comic Hits"
• 1991: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1992: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1992: #1 Home Video Plaque from Billboard — "Comedy Video Classics"
• 1992: Ten Times-Platinum Home Video — "Comedy Video Classics"
• 1993: Billboard Home Video of the Year
• 1993: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1993: Platinum Home Video — "Ray Stevens Live!"
• 1994: Music City News Comedian of the Year
• 1995: Platinum Home Video — "Get Serious!"
• 1995: Country Weekly Golden Pick Award "Best Comedian"
• 2001: Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame
• 2002: Gold Single — "Osama Yo' Mama"
• 2009: Christian Music Hall of Fame

Music City News was a monthly subscription magazine which reported on the latest happenings among country music celebrities. The magazine's subscribers for the most part voted in the annual awards. Years later fans from all over the country could call and vote for their favorite acts in addition to the subscribers who used voting ballots. The winners of the fan voted awards were showcased nationally in an awards gala broadcast on CBS and later, The Nashville Network. Stevens won in the Comedian of the Year category nine consecutive years and performed on their awards telecasts on a consistent basis.

Stevens was the recipient of several publisher awards from BMI Music for songs he either wrote, recorded, or published. Some of the recordings that received these citations were Everything Is Beautiful, The Streak, Shriner's Convention, Gitarzan, and several songs recorded by Sammy Kershaw and published by Stevens.

In July 2009 Stevens began uploading music videos onto YouTube for the first time. Many of the uploads were of music videos that were made in the early and mid-1990s. His user name, raystevensmusic, has since released quite a few music videos on YouTube and by late summer of 2010, a combined total of 10,000,000 unique views was obtained.

Discography[link]

• See Ray Stevens discography

References[link]

• Roy, Don (1998). "Ray Stevens." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music, Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 507.

External links[link]

• Official website
• Video magazine and subscriber's website

The Honourable Tony Abbott MP
32nd Leader of the Opposition Elections: 2010
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 December 2009
Deputy	Julie Bishop
Preceded by	Malcolm Turnbull
Minister for Health and Ageing
In office 7 October 2003 – 3 December 2007
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Kay Patterson
Succeeded by	Nicola Roxon
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations
In office 26 November 2001 – 7 October 2003
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Himself (Employment and Workplace Relations)
Succeeded by	Kevin Andrews
Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business
In office 30 January 2001 – 26 November 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Peter Reith
Succeeded by	Himself (Employment and Workplace Relations) Ian Macfarlane (Small Business)
Minister for Employment Services
In office 21 October 1998 – 30 January 2001
Prime Minister	John Howard
Preceded by	Chris Ellison
Succeeded by	Mal Brough
Member of the Australian Parliament for Warringah
Incumbent
Assumed office 26 March 1994
Preceded by	Michael MacKellar
Majority	22,252 (13.1%)[1]
Personal details
Born	Anthony John Abbott (1957-11-04) 4 November 1957 (age 54) London, United Kingdom
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Margaret Abbott
Children	3 daughters (Louise, Bridget and Frances)
Residence	Forestville
Alma mater	St John's College, University of Sydney Queen's College, Oxford St Patrick's Seminary, Manly
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Website	Official website

Anthony John "Tony" Abbott (born 4 November 1957) is the Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. Abbott has represented the seat of Warringah since the 1994 by-election.

Prior to entering the Australian Parliament, Abbott studied for a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws at Sydney University and for a Master of Arts as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. He later trained as a seminarian and worked as a journalist, business manager, political advisor and Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. Abbott has also been an author, ultramarathon runner and member of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

Abbott served in the Howard Government as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs from 1996-1998 and Minister for Employment Services from 1998-2001. He joined the Howard Cabinet in 2001 as Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business. Following the 2001 Election, he took on the additional roles of Leader of the House of Representatives and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service. In 2003 he became Minister for Health and Ageing , retaining this position and his role as Leader of the House until the defeat of the Howard government at the 2007 federal election.

Following the 2007 election he was appointed to Brendan Nelson's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services, Indigenous Affairs and the Voluntary Sector. He resigned from this position in Malcolm Turnbull's shadow cabinet on 26 November 2009 in protest against Liberal Party support for the Rudd Government's proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).^[2] Following a spill motion, Abbott defeated Turnbull 42 votes to 41 in a party leadership ballot, becoming Leader of the Federal Parliamentary Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition.

Abbott led the Liberal-National Opposition to the 2010 federal election, which resulted in a hung parliament. The incumbent Labor government led by Julia Gillard, formed a minority government after gaining the support of an Australian Greens MP and three independent MPs. Abbott was re-elected unopposed to the party leadership following the election.^[3][4]

Early life and family[link]

Abbott was born in London, England on 4 November 1957 to expatriate Australian parents.^[5][6] On 7 September 1960, his family moved to Australia on the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme ship Oronsay.^[7] His mother was an Australian citizen and his father had lived in Australia since 1940 when he arrived as a 16 year old to get away from the dangers of wartime Britain.^{[citation needed]} His father trained in dentistry and then returned to England.^{[citation needed]} His family first lived in the Sydney suburbs of Bronte and later moved to Chatswood. Abbott attended primary school at St Aloysius' College at Milson's Point, before completing his secondary school education at St Ignatius' College, Riverview in Sydney (both are Jesuit schools).^[8] He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics (BEc) and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB)^[5] from the University of Sydney where he resided at St John's College, and was president of the Student Representative Council.^[9] He then travelled via India to Britain to study at Queen's College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) in Politics and Philosophy.^[10] Following his time in Britain, he returned to Australia via Africa and advised his family of an intention to join the priesthood. He subsequently entered St. Patrick's Seminary at Manly, in Sydney.^[11]

During his university days, Abbott gained media attention for his political stance opposing the then dominant left-wing student leadership. On one occasion he was even beaten up at a university conference.^[11] A student newspaper editor with political views opposed to those of Abbott took him to court for indecent assault after he touched her during a student debate. The charges against Abbott were dismissed by the court.^[12] According to the Sun-Herald newspaper, it was "an ugly and often violent time", and Abbott's tactics in student politics were like "an aggressive terrier".^[13] He was also a prominent student boxer. ^[14]

Beyond his involvement in student politics, biographer Michael Duffy, wrote that during his student days he once "saved a child who was swept out to sea. Another time, helped save children from a burning house next to a pub where he was drinking. On each occasion he disappeared before he could be properly thanked".^[15]

When Abbott was 19, his girlfriend became pregnant and believed Abbott to be the biological father. The couple did not marry and put the child up for adoption. For 27 years, Abbott believed that he fathered this child.^[16] In 2004, the boy sought out his biological mother and it was publicly revealed that the child had become an ABC sound recordist who worked in Parliament House, Canberra, and was involved in making television programs in which Abbott appeared.^[17] The story was reported around the world, but DNA testing later revealed that Abbott was not the man's father.^[18]

In 1984, aged 26, Abbott entered St Patrick's Seminary, Manly.^[11] At high school, Abbott had been taught and influenced by the Jesuits, a liberal Catholic religious order, and nominates Fr. Emmett Costello SJ as a significant mentor. At university, he encountered B. A. Santamaria, a noted Catholic political activist who had led a movement against Communism within the Australian trade union movement and Labor Party a generation earlier.^[11] Abbott did not complete his studies at the seminary however, quitting the institution in 1987. His Catholic background and the fact that an "abbott" is a title for the leader of a monastery contributed to the invention of the nickname "The Mad Monk" for Tony Abbott during his later political career.^[19]

Following his departure from the seminary, Abbott married, worked in journalism, briefly ran a concrete plant and began to get involved in national politics.^[11]

Throughout his time as a student and seminarian, Abbott was writing articles for newspapers and magazines—first for the Sydney University Newspaper, and later The Catholic Weekly and national publications like The Bulletin. He eventually became a journalist and wrote for The Australian.^[9]

In 1987, Abbott met his wife Margaret Aitken, with whom he has three daughters (Louise, Bridget and Frances).^[9][20]

Political career[link]

Entry[link]

Abbott began public life as a journalist for The Bulletin, an influential news magazine, and The Australian Newspaper.^[9] While deciding his future career path, Abbott had developed friendships in the NSW Labor Party right and was encouraged by Labor's Johno Johnson and ministers in the Unsworth Government, including Bob Carr, to join the Labor Party and run for office. Abbott was uncomfortable with the role of Unions in the party however and wrote in his biography that ultimately Labor "just wasn't the party for me".^[21] For a time he was a plant manager for Pioneer Concrete before becoming press secretary to the Liberal Leader of the Opposition, Dr John Hewson from 1990 to 1993 and working on the Fightback! policy.^[9] Between 1993 and 1994 he was the Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM).^[5] According to biographer Michael Duffy, Abbott's involvement with ACM "strengthened his relationship with John Howard [of the Liberal Party], who in 1994 suggested he seek pre-selection for a byelection in the seat of Warringah.^[22]

Despite his conservative leanings, Abbott has acknowledged he voted for Labor in the 1988 NSW state election as he thought "Barrie Unsworth was the best deal Premier that New South Wales had ever had." Nevertheless, Abbott then clarified that he has never voted for Labor in a federal election.^[23]

Member of Parliament and Minister in Howard Government[link]

Abbott was elected to the Australian House of Representatives for the Division of Warringah at a by-election in March 1994 following the resignation of Michael MacKellar. He served as the parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (1996–98), Minister for Employment Services (1998–2001), Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Small Business (2001), Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations (2001–03) and Minister for Health and Ageing from 2003 to November 2007. From late 2001 to November 2007, he was also Manager of Government Business in the House of Representatives.^[24]

As a Parliamentary Secretary, Abbott oversaw the establishment of the Green Corps program which involved young people in environmental restoration work.^[25][26] As Minister for Employment Services, he oversaw the implementation of the Job Network and was responsible for the government's Work for the Dole scheme.^{[27][28][29][30][30][31]} He also commissioned the Cole Royal Commission into "thuggery and rorts" in the construction industry and created the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner in response and to lift productivity.^[32][33]

The Liberal Party allowed members a free choice in the 1999 republic referendum. Abbott was one of the leading voices within the Party campaigning for the successful "No" vote, pitting him against future Parliamentary colleague and leading Republican Malcolm Turnbull^[34][35]

When Abbott was promoted to Cabinet in 2000, Prime Minister Howard described him as an effective performer with an endearing style, whereas the Opposition described him as a "bomb thrower."^[29] Howard appointed Abbott to the key Health Portfolio in 2003, during a period of contentious Medicare reform and a crisis in Medical Indemnity Insurance, which was forcing doctors out of practice.^[36][37] Abbott worked with the states to address the crisis and keep the system running.^[33]

Abbott was involved in controversy in 2006 for opposing access to the abortion drug RU486, and the Parliament voted to strip Health Ministers of the power to regulate this area of policy.^[38] He introduced the Medicare Safety Net to cap the annual out-of-pocket costs of Medicare cardholders to a maximum amount. In 2007 he attracted criticism over long delays in funding for cancer diagnostic equipment (PET scanners).^{[39][40][41][42]}

According to Sydney Morning Herald Political Editor Peter Hartcher, prior to the defeat of the Howard Government at the Australian Federal Election, 2007, Abbott had opposed the Government's centrepiece Workchoices industrial relations deregulation reform in Cabinet, on the basis that the legislation exceeded the government's mandate; was harsh on workers; and was politically dangerous to the government.^[33]

Abbott campaigned as Minister for Health at the 2007 Election. On 31 October, he apologised for saying 'just because a person is sick doesn't mean that he is necessarily pure of heart in all things', after Bernie Banton, (an asbestos campaigner and terminal mesothelioma sufferer) called him 'gutless' for not being present to collect a petition.^[43]

During his career as a Minister, Abbott acquired a reputation as a robust parliamentary debater and political tactician.^[44][45]

Action against the One Nation party[link]

In 1998, Abbott established a trust fund called "Australians for Honest Politics Trust" to help bankroll civil court cases against the One Nation party and its founders, Pauline Hanson and David Ettridge.^[46] Prosecution resulted in Hanson & Ettridge being imprisoned.^[47] The conviction against Hanson was ultimately overturned, leading to criticism of a range of politicians for political interference by the adjudicating justice.^{[citation needed]}

Post Howard Government: shadow minister[link]

After the Coalition lost government in 2007 and he lost his health portfolio, in opposition Abbott was re-elected to the seat of Warringah with a 1.79% swing toward the Labor Party.^[48] Following Peter Costello's rejection of the leadership of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, Abbott nominated for the position of party leader, along with Malcolm Turnbull and Brendan Nelson. After canvassing the support of his colleagues, Abbott decided to withdraw his nomination. He seemingly did not have the numbers, noting that he was "obviously very closely identified with the outgoing prime minister."^[49] He also said he would not rule out contesting the leadership at some time in the future.^[50]

In December 2007, Abbott was assigned the Shadow Portfolio of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.^[51] As indigenous affairs spokesman, Abbott said that it had been a mistake for the Howard Government not to offer a National Apology to the Stolen Generations.;^[52] spent time teaching at remote Aboriginal communities;^[53] and argued for the Rudd Government to continue the Northern Territory National Emergency Response which restricted alcohol and introduced conditional welfare in certain Aboriginal communities.^[54]

During this period in Opposition, Abbott wrote Battlelines - a biography and reflection on his thoughts on the Howard Government, and a discussion of potential future policy directions for the Liberal Party.^[55] In the book, Abbott said that in certain aspects the Australian Federation was 'dysfunctional' and in need of repair. He recommended the establishment of local hospital and School boards to manage health and education;^[56] and discussed family law reform; multiculuralism, climate change; and international relations. The book received a favourable review from former Labor Party speech writer Bob Ellis, and The Australian described it as 'read almost universally as Abbott's intellectual application for the party's leadership after the Turnbull experiment'.^[57][58]

The number of unauthorised boat arrivals to Australia increased in Australia during 2008.^[59] Abbott claimed that this was an effect of the Rudd Government's easing of border protection laws and accused Kevin Rudd of ineptitude and hypocrisy on the issue of boat arrivals, particularly during the Oceanic Viking affair of October 2009, and said "John Howard found a problem and created a solution. Kevin Rudd found a solution and has now created a problem".^[60]

In November 2009, Abbott resigned from shadow ministerial responsibilities due to the Liberal Party's position on the government's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), leading to the resignation of other shadow ministers.^[61]

Leader of the Opposition[link]

On 1 December 2009, Abbott was elected to the position of Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia over Malcolm Turnbull and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey (See 2009 Liberal Leadership ballot). Abbott proposed blocking the Rudd Government's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) in the Senate whereas Turnbull sought to amend then pass the bill which the majority of the Liberal Party did not support.^[62] Abbott named his Shadow Cabinet on 8 December 2009.^[63]

Abbott described Prime Minister Rudd's Emission Trading plan as a 'Great big tax on everything' and opposed it. The Coalition and minor parties voted against the Government's ETS legislation in the Senate and the legislation was rejected. Abbott announced a new Coaltion policy on carbon emission reduction in February, which committed the Coalition to a 5 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020. Abbott proposed the creation of an 'emissions reduction fund' to provide 'direct' incentives to industry and farmers to reduce carbon emissions.^[64] In April, Rudd announced that plans for the introduction his ETS would be delayed until 2013.^[65]

When appointed to the Liberal leadership, the subject of Abbott's Catholicism and moral beliefs became a subject of repeated media questioning. Various commentators suggested that his traditionalist views would polarise female voters.^[66] Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard accused Abbott of 'lecturing' women when he responded to a question from a women's magazine by saying that he would tell his own daughters that virginity was 'a gift' not to be given away 'lightly'.^[67] He told press gallery journalist Laurie Oakes that he does not do doorstop interviews in front of church but regularly faces pointed questions about his faith which were not being put to the prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who attended Anglican services every week.^[68]

In a 60 Minutes interview aired on 7 March 2010, Abbott was asked: "Homosexuality? How do you feel about that?". He replied: "I'd probably feel a bit threatened ... it's a fact of life and I try to treat people as people and not put them in pigeonholes."^[69] In later interviews Abbott apologised for the remark.^[70][71] Unknown to journalists at the time, Abbott has a lesbian sister, for whom he has subsequently voiced public support.^[72]

In March 2010, Abbott, announced a new policy initiative to provide for 6 months paid parental leave, funded by an increase in corporate tax by 1.7 per cent on all taxable company income of more than $5 million. Business groups and the government opposed the plan, however it won support from the Australian Greens.^[73]

During his time as Opposition Spokesman for Indigenous Affairs, Abbott spent time in remote Cape York Aboriginal communities as a teacher, organised through prominent indigenous activist Noel Pearson. Abbott has repeatedly spoke of his admiration for Pearson, and in March 2010, introduced the Wild Rivers (Environmental Management) Bill to Parliament in support of Pearson's campaign to overturn the Queensland government's Wild Rivers legislation. Abbott and Pearson believe that the QLD law will 'block the economic development' of indigenous land, and interfere with Aboriginal land rights.^[74]

Abbott completed an Ironman Triathlon event in March 2010 at Port Macquarie, New South Wales and in April set out on a 9 day charity bike ride between Melbourne and Sydney, the annual 'Pollie Pedal, generating political debate about whether Abbott should have committed so much time to physical fitness.^[75][76] Abbot described the events as an opportunity to "stop at lots of little towns along the way where people probably never see or don't very often see a federal member of Parliament."^[77]

In his first Budget reply speech as Opposition Leader, Abbott sought to portray the Rudd Government's third budget as a "tax and spend" budget and promised to fight the election on the new mining "super-profits" tax proposed by Rudd.^{[78] [79][80]}

Election 2010[link]

Shortly before the 2010 federal election, Julia Gillard replaced Kevin Rudd as Australian Labor Party leader and Prime Minister of Australia after it emerged that Rudd no longer held majority support within party caucus.^[81]

On 17 July, after receiving the agreement of the Governor-General, Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the next federal election would be held on 21 August 2010.^[82] Polls in the first week gave a view that Labor would be re-elected with an increased majority, with Newspoll showing a lead of 10 points (55–45) two party preferred and the Essential poll similarly reflecting Newspoll.^[83]

The two leaders met for one official debate during the campaign. Studio audience surveys by the Channel 9 and Seven Network suggested a win to Gillard.^[83] Unable to agree on further debates, the leaders went on to appear separately on stage for questioning at community fora in Sydney and Brisbane. In Sydney on 11 August, Abbott's opening statement focused on his main election messages of government debt, taxation and asylum seekers. An audience exit poll of the Rooty Hill RSL audience accorded Abbott victory.^[84] Gillard won the audience poll at Broncos Leagues Club meeting in Brisbane on 18 August.^[85] Abbott also appeared for public questioning on the ABC's Q&A program on 16 August.^[86]

Labor and the Coalition each won 72 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives,^[87] four short of the requirement for majority government, resulting in the first hung parliament since the 1940 election.^[88][89][90]

Abbott and Gillard commenced a 17 day period of negotiation with the crossbenchers over who would form government. On the crossbench, four independent members, one member of the National Party of Western Australia and one member of the Australian Greens held the balance of power.^[91][92] Following the negotiations, the incumbent Gillard Labor government formed a minority government with the support of an Australian Greens MP and three independent MPs on the basis of confidence and supply, while another independent and the WA National gave their confidence and supply support to the Coalition, resulting in Labor holding a 76-74 tally of votes on the floor of the Parliament.^[93] The Coalition finished with 49.88 percent of the two party preferred vote.^[94] obtaining a national swing of around 2.58%.^[95]

During negotiations, the Independents requested that both major parties' policies be costed by the apolitical Australian Treasury. The Coalition initially resisted the idea, citing concerns over Treasury leaks, however the Coalition eventually allowed the analysis. Treasury endorsed Labor's budget costings but projected that Coalition policies would only add between $860 million and $4.5 billion to the bottom line (the Coalition had projected that its promises would add about $11.5 billion to the budget bottom line over the next four years).^[96][97][98]

Post 2010 election[link]

Following the 2010 election, Abbott and his deputy, Julie Bishop, were re-elected unopposed as leaders of the Liberal Party.^[99] Abbott announced his shadow ministry on 14 September, with few changes to senior positions, but with the return of former leadership rival Malcolm Turnbull, whom he selected as Communications spokesman.^[100] Abbott announced that he wanted Turnbull to prosecute the Opposition's case against the Gillard Government's proposed expenditure on a National Broadband Network.^[101]

Following the 2010–2011 Queensland floods, Tony Abbott opposed plans by the Gillard government to impose a "flood levy" on taxpayers to fund reconstruction efforts. Abbott said that funding should be found within the existing budget.^[102] Abbott also announced a proposal for a taskforce to examine further construction of dams in Australia to deal with flood impact and food security.^[103]

In February 2011, Abbott criticised the Gillard government's handling of health reform and proposal for a 50-50 public hospitals funding arrangement with the states and territories, describing the revised Labor Party proposal as "the biggest surrender since Singapore".^[104] Abbott opposed Prime Minister Gillard's February 2010 announcement of a proposal for the introduction of a "carbon tax", and called on her to take the issue to an election. Abbott said that Gillard had lied to the electorate over the issue because Gillard and her Treasurer Wayne Swan had repeatedly ruled out the introduction of a carbon tax in the lead up to the 2010 election.^[105]

In April 2011, Abbott proposed consultation with Indigenous people over a bipartisan Federal Government intervention in Northern Territory towns like Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek which would cover such areas as police numbers and school attendance in an effort to address what he described as a "failed state" situation developing in areas of the Northern Territory.^[106] April also saw Abbott announce a $430 million policy plan to improve the employment prospects of people with serious mental health problems Australia.^[107]

Following the first Gillard Government budget in May 2011, Abbott used his budget-reply speech to reiterate his recent critiques of government policy and call for an early election over the issue of a carbon tax.^[108] Rhetorically echoing Liberal party founder, Robert Menzies, Abbott addressed remarks to the "forgotten families".^[109]

In June 2011 Abbott for the first time lead Julia Gillard in the Newspoll preferred Prime Minister. ^[110]

In September 2011, Abbott announced a plan to develop an agricultural food bowl in the north of Australia by developing dams for irrigation and hydroelectricity. Coalition task force leader Andrew Robb claimed that Australia currently produced enough food for 60 million people, but that the coalition plan could double this to 120 million people by 2040.^[111] The head of the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce expressed concerns with the economic and environmental viability of this plan as well as its effects on the Indigenous Australian communities in northern Australia.^[112]

Reflecting on indigenous issues on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Australia Day 2012, Abbott said that there had been many positive developments in indigenous affairs in recent decades including Kevin Rudd's Apology and moves to include Indigenous Australians in the Australian Constitution. Later that day, Abbott became the target of protesters from the "Embassy" after one of Julia Gillard's advisers contacted a union official who advised Tent Embassy protesters of Abbott's whereabouts and misrepresented Abbott's views on Aboriginal affairs to them, saying he intended to "pull down" the embassy. A major security scare resulted which was broadcast around the world, and resulted in Gillard and Abbott being rushed to a government car amid a throng of security and fears for their safety. ^[113]

In an address to the National Press Club on 31 January 2012, Abbott outlined some of his plans for government if elected. These included an undertaking to endeavour to live one week of every year in an indigenous Australian community, and to prune government expenditure and cut taxes. Abbott also announced "aspirational" targets for a disability insurance scheme and a subsidised dentistry program once the budget had been restored to "strong surplus".^[114]

Abbott responded to the February 2012 Labor leadership crisis by criticising the cross bench independents for keeping Labor in power and renewed his calls for a general election to select the next Prime Minister of Australia.^[115]

Political views[link]

Constitutional monarchist[link]

Abbott is a supporter of the constitutional monarchy in Australia.^[31][116] Prior to entering Parliament, he was Executive Director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1993-94.^[117] Arguing against the case for a republican system of government in Australia in 1999, Abbott outlined his beliefs on conservatism and the monarchy:

“

There are some people who believe that any republic would be better than what we have now. “Republic or bust” zealots are incapable of perceiving any difficulties. Conservatives, however, don’t change anything lightly. Conservatives approach issues with instinctive respect for institutions and approaches that have stood the test of time. “If it is not necessary to change” the conservative ethos runs, “it is necessary not to change”. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” say conservatives, “and if it is broke, recycle it, don’t throw it away”.[118]

”

Abbott supports the argument espoused by former Prime Minister John Howard and Justice Michael Kirby that Australia is presently and should remain a crowned republic. He predicted in his 2009 book Battlelines that Australia would still be a Crowned Republic in 2020.

Climate change[link]

Speaking in July 2009, Abbott told the ABC's 7:30 Report that though he thought the science of climate change was "highly contentious" and that he thought that the economics of an ETS was "a bit dodgy", he nevertheless thought that the Opposition should pass the Rudd Government's ETS as he did not think it would be "a good look for the Opposition to be browner than Howard going into the next election".^[119]

At an October 2009 meeting in the Victorian town of Beaufort, Abbott was reported to have said: "The argument is absolute crap... However, the politics of this are tough for us. 80% of people believe climate change is a real and present danger".^[120] On 1 December 2009, when questioned about that statement, he said he had used "a bit of hyperbole" at that meeting rather than it being his "considered position".^[121]

Speaking in November 2009, prior to being elected Leader of the Opposition, Abbott told the ABC's Lateline program that in relation to Climate Change Policy:

“

I am always reluctant to join bandwagons. I think there are fashions in science and in the academe, just as there are fashions in so many other things. But look, we should take reasonable precautions against credible threats. I think it is perfectly reasonable to take action against climate change. The problem with the Rudd Government's position is that Australia could end up impoverishing itself through this dramatic ETS, and not do anything for the environment if the rest of the world does not adopt an ETS or something like it.

”

Tony Abbott addresses a forum on the Australian government's recently-proposed carbon tax in Brisbane in July 2011

Outgoing Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull wrote that Abbott had described himself as a 'weathervane' in relation to climate change policy in the months prior to his becoming leader of the Liberal Party.^[122]

Upon becoming Leader of the Opposition, Abbott put the question of support for the Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), to a secret ballot and the Liberal Party voted to reject support for the policy - overturning on an undertaking by Abbott's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, to support an amended version of the government's scheme. Under Abbott, the Coalition voted against the CPRS in the Senate, and the bill was defeated twice, providing a double dissolution trigger.^[123]

Abbott proposed an alternative 'direct-action' climate policy involving a 5% reduction in emissions by means of creating a $2.5bn fund to provide incentives for industry and farmers to reduce emissions and through measures like storing carbon in soil; planting 20 million trees over the next decade; and providing $1000 rebates to homes for installation of solar cells.^[124] However estimates by Federal Treasury put the likely cost of such a scheme at A$10 billion a year or more. The Rudd government eventually deferred its CPRS legislation until 2013.^[123]

The Liberal party's environmental philosophies have changed under different party leaders. Under Tony Abbott, the Liberal party has actively opposed the idea of a large carbon tax.^[125] Although opposing the Labor party's environmental policies, claiming that Labor would increase electricity prices, the Liberal party is in bipartisan support for the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets, which would see an increase to electricity prices.^[126]

Bioethics and family policy[link]