Day to Day Politics. Turnbull’s New Year Turmoil.
Monday 18 January 2016
1 No doubt Labor starts the year behind the eight ball. But have you considered what Malcolm Turnbull faces?
He will be anxious to erase from the electorates mind two years of abysmal governance. Not an easy task given that after five months he has hardly made any impact at all.
Conservatives will want the policies of Tony Abbott to continue as they are now. Somehow he has to put his own stamp on the party he leads or be seen as just a smooth talking power grabber. And he will have to do it with Abbott and his supporters snapping at his heels.
It’s a ‘try to keep everybody happy’ scenario that will be hard to balance in an election year complicated by internal dissent.
It may well be the next budget that defines his leadership, his political philosophy and indeed his authority over the party.
Formulating the next budget will have many implications. It will be imbedded with many dangers, with many decisions to be made. All muddled by an economic white paper requiring decisions influencing the election.
Increasing the GST, Superannuation, negative gearing. An out of control NBN, Companies not paying tax, Capital Gains Tax, Subsidies to coal miners, Climate Change, Health, Money for science innovation. Investment in renewable energy and the revenue future.
A rise in the GST would mean further tax reform including cuts to personal income tax and company tax rates, as well as compensation for low-income earners.
However it will be a hard sell. Personally I don’t much see the point in lowering the company tax rate given its hard to get them to pay tax now.
Besides the ‘where is the money coming from’ to address the Climate Change question the one most challenging is the immoral Super tax rorts for high wage earners.
An observation.
‘Never in the history of this nation have the rich and the privileged been so openly brazen’.
If he retains them at the same cost as pensions he will be seen as pandering to the rich. If he acts against them he will have to cop the wrath of the powerful superannuation industry.
There will come a point in time where Turnbull will have to take ownership of Government policy. The difficulty might be matching the expectations and hopes people have of him with the undoubted difficult decisions that lay ahead.
2 When is it all going to end? Asylum seekers were demonised by Philip Ruddock many years ago purely for political purposes. It has continued to the point where both parties have become so ensconced in the immorality of it that history will record them as unconscionable retards.
What does it take to get a Royal Commission? We have people committing suicide, self-harming. Charities being maligned, growing lengths of detention now averaging 445 days. Millions of taxpayers money wasted. Paying criminals to tow boats back. New Zealand’s offer to resettle people being refused so that more lengthy detentions can be seen as a deterrent.
3 Lenore Taylor writes an excellent piece on Political Donations:
‘Combining stricter disclosure rules for donations and ending political ads dressed up as government information could enhance voters’ faith in the system’.
My thought for the day
‘In the information age, those who control the dissemination of news have more power than government’.
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Max Gross (@Max_Gross)
Return to home pageTwo years of woefull government under Abbott have been followed by 5 months of waffle and spin from Turnbull. Marshall McLuhan said the medium is the message and there is no doubt Turnbull is a better medium of communication than Abbott but if in the end the message is the same it will be rejected by the people.
Snake oil man
The Thug is gone a sigh released
The delusional dud all but deceased
Out on his arse, an Abbotteration
Reduced to a Rudd like machination
The snake oil man returns to power
All sweet, agile and able
All charm and conversation
Everything upon the table
This greatest of PR stunts
Has it fooled enough to win
Bill is on the back foot
The snake oil man can grin
The bimbo Brutus kept her job
Just like she’d done before
The snake oil man kept his word
The Thug now keeps the score
The Smirk is now the treasurer
Dumb as Joe but meaner
While Joe’s now off to Washington
Now known as “Smokin Joe the Leaner”
The Brussel sprout survived the cut
The Right’s enduring dope
In his putrid portfolio
Destroying lives and hope
The egghead in the Senate
With his litany of flaws
The know all who knows nothing
still in charge of making laws.
Don’t forget the “fixer”
Who stuffed up education
This poncy politician
Now in charge of innovation.
All in all not much has changed
Just better presentation
The money men who run the show
Still out to screw the nation.
The snake oil man will flash and fade
The facade will start to crumble
The rancid right will seek revenge
And the polls begin to tumble
Great article and great comment above.
Well said.
Love the doggerel.’
Thanks John. A request though, please don’t use the word ‘reform’ with regards to what this government (pretty clearly) plans to do with raising the GST and cutting company /personal tax rates. It’s theft from the poor, pure and simple. No ‘reform’ in sight.
On the subject of Political Donations, a good suggestion – not favoured by politicians so it must be good – was that all donations go to an independent body administered by the AEC with the donation clearly showing who it has come from and which party or politician it is destined for. The money is then distributed by the AEC who collect a commission for providing the service – no cost to the taxpayer.
All donations would be recorded online in real time for maximum transparency.
I’m sure had we known what was going on with Clive Palmer and Queensland Nickel and Arthur Sinodinos and Sydney Water Holdings, a lot more questions would have been asked at the time.
Turnbull has been visiting the troops overseas, right? No doubt, if things start getting too wobbly for him, we can expect another nonspecific terrorism alert.
There’s an unconfirmed rumour that The Bolt Report has been axed by Ten.
Makes sense Roswell. His hatred for Turnbull is counter productive to the cause.
Surely we must have an election before the budget!
John, I hear that he’s headed for Sky News. He’d fit in there.
There’s also a report he will join the ABC for an indigenous documentary….not joking.
That’s been in the wind a few weeks, however I see it’s being mentioned again.
PS – too incredulous for words. They fail me.
I lied. I do have words, but I can’t repeat them here.
No, not reform but social engineering on a scale this fine brown land of ours has ever seen.
Beginning with their innate belief welfare is bad.
If that “Bolt for an indigenous documentary” idea gets up, one hopes that all Aboriginal people will boycott it, refuse to participate in its production.
mmc1949, I can’t see Indigenous Australians taking an interest in it, Bolt or no Bolt. I think they’ll just consider it yet another white person’s interpretation of Aboriginal history.
Thanks John Lord,
your summary of the problems facing Turnbull and the LNP Government in keeping their so-called unity intact, assuaging the raging blood-thirsty appetites of the Conservatives in his government and in the backstage of party donations, while also getting the budget across the line, are all great headaches for poor ole Malcolm. My heart bleeds for him!
All is not lost for those of us still fighting the good fight on the combined Other Side. We need to get our acts together and show ourselves to be a force to be contended with. Yes folks, that means negotiation and prioritising of issues, principles, values that meet the needs of the diverse spectrum of Aussies, the environment and those asylum seekers, who would love to call Australia home once processed in a timely and humane manner. Building bridges between us is the way to go so think Alliance.
Why the need for political donations at all? The internet is surprisingly easy to publish on at very low cost. I don’t need your tv ads, your newspaper ads, your radio ads, your posters, or any of the other myriad ways of wasting money to help me decide who I should vote for, particularly because as we know, such advertising is largely selling falsehoods using emotion.
If the future is innovation, then the least our politicians can do is be innovative and cost effective in how they communicate with the electorate. And that should mean putting a limit on electoral spending. If your ideas aren’t good enough, we don’t want you in government.
Morrison out today, talking economy up they say. Not sure how he is doing that, as he wants election now plus GST so he can lower company tax.
The PM says he wants neither. At least I think that is what he means.
Steve, I agree we would get much more informative campaign is money was reign in. No flashy ads would be wonderful.
Roswell, we might learn what happened to Bolt as a child in the schools that his father was headmaster. Maybe one of the Aboriginal students beat him is class.
Maybe they showed him up on the sports field.
Something must have occurred, to make the man so bitter.
Sadly I suspect he is rearing his son in his own image. First job IPA.
Wonder what his father’s attitude was to the students of the schools he was headmaster of.
I am more interested in what made Bolt, not the Aborigines he is interpreting.
Is ABC providing the funds?
oh lord, why use the puerile ‘retard’?
Short sharp and to the point. Thanks John.
How the hell to set a true progressive agenda in this country?
It seems that only another deep recession and/or grand environmental catastrophe will move the pundits.
This time without Labor stimulus the property bubble will really burst and the strategies that saved us from the last recession will all be in vain wiped away in one glorious act of unnecessary austerity.
Welcome to my nightmare.
The worst is yet to come. Don’t take my word for it, just keep your eye on Malcolm Grech…