The Coalition regrets having to announce that good government has been further delayed. At least until after the next election. Circumstances beyond my control.
I wrote this in jest just a few short days ago. But sadly for the Australian people it is a fact. During his tenure as PM Tony Abbott promised on many occasions to give us good government. Malcolm Turnbull, his replacement, it seems is also incapable of delivering. So with just a few months until the election it seems that for the term of this Coalition Government, good governance will have taken a vacation. It will have been on hold for three years. It was just an illusion.
But who is Malcolm Turnbull. He is a Republican leading a party of Royalists. A Prime Minister of Australia in which all state Premiers (except WA)and Opposition Leaders are republicans makes it more absurd. He is, despite his current utterings, a believer in doing something about Climate Change but the leader of a party that has many influential climate deniers in its ranks who think more about capitalist greed than the future of our children.
He is a committed believer in marriage equality leading a coalition of homophobes. He also leads a government intent on imposing its own religious values on a society rapidly backing away from religiosity.
Malcolm Turnbull is in effect an enormous contradiction.
He came to the job promising much. After Abbott’s calamitous period marked by ‘wars’ on everything he seemed like a breath of fresh air. He told the public everything they wanted to hear. No more slogans. Transparency, optimism and fairness would be the order of the day, he would respect the people. Things would be different. The public loved his enthusiasm.
However, after six months of heavily overdosing on syrupy over saccharised sweet talk he still remains in the concept of old politics. He gave promise to a new paradigm but other than style the prototype is still the same.
Lenore Taylor got it right when she said:
“He promised to “respect the intelligence of the Australian people”, to end the three-word slogans and instead advocate and explain policies he believed in.”
“But Malcolm Turnbull’s great dilemma was obvious as soon as he became prime minister. The public liked him for promising to be different, but many of his colleagues only voted for him because he told them he’d be pretty much the same.”
“If he can’t begin to resolve this dilemma quickly, Turnbull’s perceived authenticity – the view that he is a man true to his convictions, a different kind of politician – could quickly turn into a perception that he is an opportunistic fake, just more of the same.”
And it has. After 6 months of repetitious talk about coloured papers, taxation reform, proposals plebiscites and lectures about there’s never been a better time to be, well you name it, he has been a most indecisive leader.
The lack of any policy difference between him and Abbott is startling. The reason for this is probably contained in Lenore Taylor’s words:
” … his colleagues only voted for him because he told them he’d be pretty much the same.” As Abbott.
He has shown little desire to be his own man. Unlike most incoming leaders there has been no inclination to put his stamp on the party, instead allowing members free rein to run with their own ideas. Abbott, Andrews, Barnardi and others seem to be determining policy.
People are now questioning what they got. He has done an about-face on policies he once championed. He seems to be a leader captive to the extremists of his party?
Yesterday it finally dawned on him that the electorate have woken up.
All talk and no action’ rings the accusation. So he meekly fronts the cameras and tells us that all the talk and talk and talk about economic, and in particular taxation reform, will be revealed in the May budget with the door open, after more talking to other announcements before the election. The GST is being talked down. See what too much backbench talking can do.
It is all very mystifying because since day one they have said they had a plan. It seems like the original plan was to open a discussion to talk about creating one to replace the existing one. Now the plan has become a blueprint.
At least they will be able to skite to their tea party friends of the longest filibuster on record.
So we will have more talk about things that may or may not be included in tax reform. Around three months of it actually. I wonder if all the repetitive talk about what you may or may not do is sustainable without losing credibility. I mean they won government on budget crisis spin but after two and a half years need more time to talk about it. Perhaps they didn’t get their point across.
We will hear much more talk about what is on the table, what proposals will be talked about more than others. There will be talk about what will be ruled in or out together with discussion on the fairness of it all and how it will affect the future. They might even talk about delaying any decisions to give themselves more time to talk the issues through. Even a series of conferences titled ‘Talk Fests for Better Decision Making’
‘Gunna’ Morrison could give the keynote address.
My thought for the day:
The ideas of today need to be honed with critical reason, factual evidence and scientific methods of enquiry so that they clearly articulate the currency of tomorrow’.
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