For some reason, the very inept Amanda Vanstone is still appearing in the media. Perhaps she is offered up for comedy value because she is sure as hell is no sort of objective political observer or analyst.
Her latest blatant propaganda piece in the SMH where she asks Will the real Bill Shorten please stand up? is just silly.
“Labor endlessly seeks to create the impression Liberals care more about business than they do people.”
Actually, it’s the Liberals that promote that as their strategy Amanda. They pretend that, if businesses make more profit (helped by paying their employees less and no tax), they will employ more people (as casuals with no entitlements or tenure).
Amanda goes on to explain why “the economy” is so important.
“If the economy goes bung, rich people sell a beach house or some shares. The not-so economically lucky lose their jobs and maybe their house. When the economy crumbles the people on the bottom get crushed. They are the first to fall. The weakest go down first, the strong survive. It’s “the little guy” and the disadvantaged that suffer first when the economy falters.”
OK, I may be a novice at this governing stuff but if we have an economy where the weakest suffer first then we need to reset how our economy works.
Amanda tells us that “A listless economy hurts the lower end of town in sometimes irreparable ways.”
Can you get any more listless than zero inflation, stagnant wages, welfare that has not increased in decades, and living standards going backwards?
She then says “Government can only do good things with revenue. It has to collect taxes. We need the private sector to be doing well in order to have the money to build roads, schools or whatever.”
Someone needs to tell Amanda that companies have been making record profits but that does not equate to revenue because… news flash… they use tax loopholes to avoid paying anything. Have a chat with Angus Taylor about the Caymans.
Amanda tells us that the only reason we survived the GFC was because we had no net debt when it hit.
“Labor claims credit for us coming through the crisis but without inheriting the no-debt situation it would have been a nightmare. They borrowed too much and spent it badly.”
No mention of the last six years of borrowing by the Coalition with no crisis and no ostensible benefit. They have more than doubled the debt during a time of world recovery and unexpectedly high commodity prices.
We are then asked to feel really sorry for the poor miner earning $250,000 who is just trying to get ahead. Then there is the kid who asked Bill Shorten about job losses when coal mines shut which, according to Amanda, left Bill “just blubbering”.
Amanda tells us there is plenty of evidence of Bill Shorten lacking credibility.
“When you actually say that you won’t say what you think because there’s a microphone on (and you say that whilst the mic is on) it just screams out to voters that you’re not the real deal.”
Has she seen the video of Morrison, Abbott and Dutton on stage joking about climate change until Scott points out there’s a boom mike recording them?
“One of Morrison’s greatest attributes is that he makes no pretence at being anything other than what he is. He is the real deal.”
Righto. So he’s a beer-swilling, sheep-shearing, tractor-driving, carrot-picking regular guy who enjoys playing soccer, lawn bowls, rugby, AFL, snooker and tennis in between whipping up strawberry curries for Jen and the girls. Hallelujah (are the cameras rolling?)
Amanda says that her “experience of Australians is that if you’re straight-up with them they’ll accept you even if they don’t always agree.”
She finishes her article by telling us that Scott’s “Authenticity, confidence and resilience” is “a powerful kit.”
Perhaps had we not just had to pay $185 million for Scott to expose his kit in a moody photo shoot on the jetty at Christmas Island, I could take your opinion a little more seriously Amanda.
Actually, in the interest of authenticity, based on your track record culminating in this latest pile of partisan horseshit, I doubt I could ever take you seriously.
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