Day to Day Politics: What’s needed is stable leadership.
Wednesday June 28 2016
1 The Prime Minister is pushing the line that because of the Brexit decision it is only he and his government that can provide the stability necessary in a period of crisis.
This is rather strange coming from a man who only a few months ago reckoned his government was so unstable that he decided to challenge his leader. So stable is the government he now leads that 13 members have left since his arrival. Hardly what you would call ‘stable’. You can add to that, they have been deplorable in their handling of the economy.
Perhaps he should look up the word ‘stability’ in the Oxford dictionary.
2 The Brexit decision has also raised the spectre of the revival of an Australian Republic.
A friend of mine and occasional writer for this blog, Stuart Whitman, had a word of caution:
“I am completely republican to the core as anyone who knows me well will attest. I want to see an Australian Republic more than anything but I am worried that this Brexit trend will produce the opposite if the referendum is held too soon. People will equate the crisis in the UK following the Brexit vote with a potential crisis if Australia votes for a republic. It’s a false equivalency but many cautious and conservative Australians would fear that.”
“Furthermore my dealings to date with the ARM lead me to believe they are making the same mistakes we made back in 1999 that I witnessed. There’s an elitist attitude they are demonstrating in their own organisation. We need to address the critical issue of constitutionallly and economically making things right with Indigenous Australians first before we move on the republic. Addressing the place of Indigenous Australians as front and centre in our nationhood should be first priority.”
3 What’s the difference in character of the two leaders? Well Bill Shorten has spent a lifetime working to better the lives of those he represents. Malcolm Turnbull has spent a lifetime in the accumulation of personal wealth. Take your pick.
4 The advertisement the Nationals are using against Tony Windsor in the seat of New England is a bit if a shocker. There is no doubt it implies that Windsor was or had an affair. He should sue the idiots.
5 Thought I should remind you, if you didn’t already know it, that marriage equality had its first birthday on Monday in America. Yes, the nation still exists, the churches are going about their Godly business and the country is trading satisfactorily.
An observation.
“Love has no gender”.
6 Those people who can be so critical of the ABC should pause and think. What would the national discourse be like without the abundance of programs the national broadcaster provides? Commercial TV provides nothing in the way of political debate or discussion.
An observation.
“Often our opinions are based on our values rather than our understanding and the difficulty is separating the two”.
A case in point was on Q&A Monday night when Liberal Mathias Cormann faced a total grilling for avoiding a Royal Commission into the Financial Sector. Both the audience and the panel members told him exactly what they thought of the Government’s low-key enquiry.
7 Another excellent example of ABC programing was Four Corners in which the incomparable Sarah Ferguson elicited answers to questions that mainstream media journalists would be unwilling to ask least they offend their masters.
8 I’m a little uneasy with some of these conservative types agreeing with my view that the plebiscite om marriage equality will generate a form of social disorder the likes of which we haven’t seen before. This time it’s Peta Credlin.
“I think it will be a very big schism inside the Liberal Party going back to territory of 2009” Credlin said.
She suggested that the legislation needed to hold a plebiscite wouldn’t pass the Parliament if the Greens and Labor opposed it. She said they didn’t have any “Plan B”.
10 Both parties are using Treasury figures on which to mount their respective cases. Treasury has also said that the figures it supplies for future growth are highly volatile and at best just ‘guesstimates’.
An observation.
“You would trust economic forecasting by treasury by as much as you you’ll trust the politicians who use them”.
My thought for the day.
“For the life of me I fail to understand how anyone could vote for a party who thinks the existing education system is adequately funded and addresses the needs of the disadvantaged”.
PS. By the way yesterday’s Essential Poll has Labor leading 51/49 boy it probably wont be reported in the media.
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Terry2 -
Sir ScotchMistery -
Clean livin -
helvityni -
Clean livin -
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wam -
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paul walter
Return to home pageOne observer commenting on the anniversary of marriage equality in the USA noted since the supreme court decision, no church had been forced to perform a marriage ceremony for a gay couple ; no bakery had been forced to decorate a wedding cake for a gay couple………no life, in fact, had been impacted in any way other than gay couples who are no longer discriminated against.
Take note Australia, this has nothing to do with religion and is merely removing discriminatory provisions in the Marriage Act.
We only follow America on things of armament, racism, invasions and support for businesses, particularly theirs.
With regards the ABC. Yes, you are correct in stating it is only the ABC that provides decent political coverage, however the guests rarely enhance the programs.
Take Morrison on 7:30 Tuesday night for example. Leigh Sales asked him a very specific question, re; same sex marriage, and he constantly refused to give a specific answer, giving himself the “out” when he needs to vote.
These people don’t seem to understand that their refusal to respond accurately to specific questions does them no favours, looking like the idiots they take their audience for.
Interested, educated audiences watch programs like the 7:30 program to learn something. If the guests don’t feel they want to respond to the question, in my book, they should not be invited back, as they provide no value, wasting ABC air time, and thus tax payers dollars!
On the other hand, it does give Leigh Sales and others the opportunity to show these people for what they are. Arrogant bastards!
What our politicians do and say reflects the society. The politicians want to please the electorate, they want to be voted in.
Educating the masses will get us better politicians too.
helvitni, nearly correct in what you say, but not quite…..
Politicians want to please the electorate before an election in order to get elected.
Once elected, they want to please their benefactors, which is not neccasarily the electorate.
Prior to the next election, their promises switch back to ensure their own personal survival.
Educating the masses is correct.
The big question is how, as public discourse is usually through the said benefactors.
Educating the masses will get us better politicians too.
Which explains the cuts to public education – the last thing big business wants are politicians who ask questions.
The marriage equality ‘debate’ highlights the startling reality of this government. It doesn’t know what it wants, only what it doesn’t want. What sort of reality are we living in when we need a plebiscite to confirm that nearly 70% of the population doesn’t have a problem with the proposal (pun intended)? What sort of reality are we living in when our ‘leader’ is unsure whether the plebiscite will be binding on our politicians? What sort of reality are we living in when individual members of parliament don’t know, or won’t say, how they will vote on this issue, when it has been in the public domain for years?
The words that come to my mind to describe or epitomise this current ‘stable’ government are vacuous and incoherent.
“You can add to that, they have been deplorable in their handling of the economy.”
Their handling of the economy has been undermined by their vacuous and incoherent ideologically driven inconsistencies. Take, for example, scummo’s explanation of the miraculous finding of $2.3bil over four years.
“”We are not weakening the system, we at strengthening it, so those entitled to the payment and support which are important get that support, but ensuring that the system doesn’t have the leakage and the waste and the overpayments or the abuse of the system which at the end of the day cost Australian taxpayers,” Mr Morrison said.
He said the Coalition would overhaul the checks and balances in the system and use technology more effectively to recoup the money.”
All of that to recoup $500mil pa from the most needy in our society.
Imagine if he was to apply the same thinking to parliamentary expenses, to corporate welfare, to corporate governance, etcetera. I would be prepared to hazard a guess that the ‘dividend efficiency’ would be significantly higher than $500mil pa.
The Obeid conviction has reignited the federal ICAC ‘discussion’, apparently to the chagrin of both of the major parties. A bloke called Chris Jermyn is in a spot of bother with the protectors of our democracy, the AEC. Tony Magrathea (self described as “Yes I am the pain in the bum who is trying to get Tony Abbott into the High Court.) is being openly thwarted in his quest by the AEC! His blog is well worth a look.
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi9-c7V78vNAhUBnJQKHaL5BLAQFggoMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftonymagrathea.blogspot.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNEEyX5SmPyDB6aGs5Hk41oSi7sTsg
It seems that many are trying to work out who to vote for or preference on Saturday. Whilst they may not know what they want, surely they must know what they don’t want?
Apologies for the rant and I hope you are well recovered. Thank you, Mr Lord. Take care
great read today, lord. 4 and 6 in particular. The whitman bit is interesting but no general interest till the incumbent goes which may not be for 10 years or so. by then the poms might be so rich we invite prince harry to be GG.
It is worth noting that there are many labor people who are terrified of words like treaty, invasion or constitution in relation to Aborigines (indeed a friend in the territory cites a reason for choosing his Qld??? retirement town as no Aborigines). My golf club labor mates were very worried by the reports of billy’s answer on QA even when I pointed out he was answering a direct question from an Aborigine and murdoch was twisting his answer.
I hope I am wrong but I thought I heard the government are giving a private company the right to garnishee people’s entitlement on SUSPICION? This reflects the guilty till you prove innocent attitude of the I’m alright jack supporters of the lnp but what a temptation to increase your profits without fear.
Clean livin, I too watch only ABC and SBS, and have no problems with Sarah Ferguson, but as for Leigh Sales interviewing Shorten: it was like a savage dog attack, yet all smiles and tilted heads for Mal. Nothing fair there.
wam, I seem to recall similar talk.. #auspol
Unfortunately whilst the ABC does provide the best quality political tv currently out there, it is increasingly being pressured by the LNP to ignore stories which the government does not want reported (e.g. NBN, Parakeelia), and when it does, they are so out of date as to be largely irrelevant (e.g. mafia donations to LNP). It isn’t difficult to discern Turnbull’s indirect threats to their journalists, and they defer to him accordingly.
On record, its hard to deny that when it comes to revenge, Turnbull has proved to be highly effective. Whether Tony is equally capable will be seen after the election.
It really worries me to think so many people are willing to vote for a Turnbull Government knowing what they are going to loose,
But what scares me to death is what they are going to do after the election ,if they get re elected
Thank you for an update in the polls ,you are correct we didn’t hear that from the MSM
they have it Liberal 51 Labor 49 ,it is a repeat of the 2013 election the same lies from the MSM,
I’m not convinced that many Liberal voters really do know what they are going to lose. I think many of them only tune in to politics at election time and their voting decisions are based solely on the spin they hear and read during the campaign. A staggering number of people have no idea who they are going to vote for before they arrive at the polling booth. The Liberal Party does a much better job of advertising to these people than the other parties do.
Agree. But I suspect that level of ignorance applies equally to many labor voters (and others) as well.
The notion that voters are aware of the policies and their implications when they enter the voting booth (both for themselves and society at large) is but a myth. For a great many, voting is just a way to escape a fine. Something you have to do. Not an exercise in civic freedom.
But then again, what would we do without myths? Heaven anyone? ? ?
The Brexit stays weird and weird..the coverage is macabre, full of denialism and sly jockeying for advantage in the volatile political climate.
To knock off Cameron? Well, what can you say? He, straight out Monty Python and four years assured in government, to bask in some sort of reflected Churchillian glory, but decides to call a referendum on some thing no one has particularly asked for as this stage in the century. although no doubt Euro is a massive source of grievance for huge numbers of people in places left behind by globalisation. Easy to trace much of it all back through Grexit and Syria, refugees, Iraq, Israel and the Meltdown recession starting 7 years ago.
For Australia, there is a class split, we can’t find a workable solution for refugees and the media is a joke..
Still, we get to see what we’ll see.