November 2007 Archives

I think there are going to some tricky problems of party management but I think I have reasonably good people skills.

Tony Abbott giving reasons why he'd be a good candidate for the Liberal Party leadership.

After twelve long years! So long that my 13 yo daughters had trouble grasping the concept of a change of government.

Winners are grinners! Maxine looks like being only the second person in Australian political history to defeat a sitting Prime Minister.

The tragic figure of the night. Should he have challenged for the leadership when he had the chance? Would things have been different if he had?

Gave a wonderful speech in defeat, but I couldn't help feeling contempt for the position he found himself in. If he'd resigned 18 months ago, it could've been so different. He would have left at the top of his game, and been revered as a legend in global conservative circles. Now he's just pathetic. A new Liberal leader could have distanced himself from the baggage of the past decade. The truest statement of the evening was Howard taking responsibility for the government's defeat.

Kevin's victory speech was true to image, safe and bland. We can only hope that he will, in fact, change a lot (if not all) now that they've made government. Labor governments don't last that long (federally at least) but they do produce lasting reforms. Let's hope Kev maintains the tradition.

Later: A late night and a few drinks play havoc with writing skills. Going over the last two sentences ... Let's hope Kev maintains the Labor reformist tradition.

With five days to go before polling day, it's as good a time as any to list some of the things I don't like about the current regime.

I rarely vote for the conservatives, so it wouldn't take many of these (perhaps none!) to influence my vote. However, I imagine many less committed voters are indicating their voting intentions (according to the polls) as a result of the cumulative dissatisfaction caused by some or all of the following.

In no particular order ...

1. The concept of the 'non core' promise.
2. The lack of support for the Republic Referendum.
3. Mindlessly following the lead of the US regarding foreign policy.
4. The deception used to justify joining the debacle in Iraq.
5. Cynically using the populations' xenophobia for political advantage. (Refugees, Tampa, the Pacific Solution, fear of terrorism, manipulating the legal system to detain suspects on minimal evidence.)
6. The abandonment of an Australian citizen to years of detainment without trial. (Until it became a political imperative to act.)
7. Ignoring climate change. Debunking the mounting evidence that human action is causing global warming. Not ratifying Kyoto, particularly galling after major concessions were granted to encourage us participate. The sabotaging of promising green technologies in favour of the coal industry. (Until it became politically impossible to ignore.)
8. Neglecting eduction. Increasing the funding to rich private schools by using a dodgy funding formula. Leaving public schools were left to fend for themselves. The financial squeezing of universities, and the neglect of skills training. (Until now, of course.)
9. The myth of being great financial managers, when all they've really had to do is redistribute mountains of incoming cash courtesy of the mining boom. The manipulation of the budget surplus to provide tax cuts at politically opportune moments. Not using those funds for desperately needed improvements in infrastructure, education and health.
10. Work Choices, or how to screw the weakest in society. (Until the next recession, when we all get screwed.)
11. The lack of an apology to the 'Stolen Generation.'
12. Promising to keep interest rates low while political expediency causes them to rise.

That'll do for now. It only took only a few minutes to compile. There'd be many others given more time.

I'm open to suggestions.

There's a lot of dissatisfaction baggage between Howard and an election victory.

Bring on the 24 November.

I can't help feeling that Howard's $800 per year per child education rebate may be a vote winner for the conservatives.

There'll be many parents in the outer suburb marginals who'll be sorely tempted by this bribe. They won't think about where the money's coming from, its effect on inflation and their mortgages, the leeway it gives for private schools to keep raising their fees, and the inequality of providing the rebate to the wealthy while those in real need with kids in public schools get little benefit.

It's a typical Howard move. Welfare supposedly aimed at the needy but in fact benefits the wealthier demographic. Just like the Health Insurance Rebate.

I'd like to think that the Labor party will not be tempted to match it in some way. Oink Oink, Flap Flap!

Update: The pigs are on the wing!

First seen on AustralianPolitics.com

Paul Sheehan wrote a scare piece in yesterday's SMH. In general I like Sheehan's articles. He's right wing but not hysterically so. This piece is an exception.

Writing about the prospect of the Federal and all State governments being Labor controlled, he states ...

Australia is thus approaching a fascinating historical juncture. Amid such benign economic conditions, we may be on the brink of an unprecedented experiment in power politics - giving control of every government in the nation to a political machine with a proven record of insularity and self-serving public patronage on a large scale.

This is uncharted territory. Nine Labor governments out of nine. Nine governments able to cross-fertilise each other's power base, exercising complete control over appointments to the judiciary and the senior bureaucracy. Nine Labor governments with big debts to the unions that underpin their finances. It could change Australia's political culture for a generation.

Actually, it's not that 'unchartered.' In 1969, all governments were controlled by one party, when the conservatives held all the speakers' chairs. I don't remember the country's political history being effected by that calamitous event. There have been several other periods when both sides held the Federal and all but one of state governments. It didn't hurt our democratic framework then, and it won't this time.

State governments have a lot of more pressing things to be worried about. They can't raise the funds to finance their activities. They've been marginalised to the point of irrelevancy by successive Federal governments using the Foreign Affairs and Corporations provisions to override state powers. It's hard to see how they can have any real influence in the modern era.

The fact that dodgy state governments have survived as well as they have is an indication of just how uneasy the population is about the current Federal government.

Besides, the clean sweep won't last too long. I'll make a brave (not) prediction that some of those state governments won't win another term. For the NSW government to survive another election would be a miracle.

Sheehan concludes with this ...

That is what the election on November 24 is really about. Under a Labor government, the deputy prime minister and minister for industrial relations would be a hard-left union ideologue and labour lawyer, Julia Gillard. The attorney-general would be Senator Joe Ludwig, who, in the great tradition of the Labor patronage machine, is the son of a Queensland Labor powerbroker, Bill Ludwig, the national president of the Australian Workers Union. Leaders of the machine would dominate the ministry.

So what's new? Labor governments throughout the century have been populated by ex-trade unionists. I don't need to point out the renowned Labor Prime Ministers who sport that background.

It's a pity commentators don't mention the business connections that fund and man the conservative parties.

Memo to K Rudd ...

A sure fire winner. Promise that, once elected, election campaigns won't be allowed to run longer than three weeks.

Take it from me. You'll romp it in.

Just received my second call from a political pollster in as many months.

As before, they were concentrating on my electorate, the seat of Bennelong. Can't think of the why they're so interested in that one ...

For the record, I reiterated my intention of voting against the sitting member.

Roll on 24 November.