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Fear, Clive Palmer And When Exactly Is This Death Tax Coming In?

Listening to the results come in from the Queensland election, I was reminded of the old saying, “When you’re a hammer, everything is a nail.” Or is it, “When you’re a nail, you think everything and everybody is a hammer!”?

Whatever, as the results came in, I couldn’t help but remember the truisms that frame every election night broadcast.

  1. Political commentators are like the proverbial hammer to which everything is a nail. Last night, it seemed that the only reason Ana Palaszczuk had ever closed the border was in order to use fear of Covid-19 to help her win the election. There was no suggestion that maybe, just maybe she’d done it in an attempt to keep the state as free of the virus as possible. I’m waiting for the day that one of them says, “Well, picking such a photogenic wife is such an obvious ploy to get the voters onside and arranging for his mother to have that terminal illness is so transparent that I can’t see how they’d expect to anyone to fall for it.”
  2. It’s easiest to work out what’s happening by not paying attention to anything that the people on screen are saying and ignoring any numbers on the screen. All you have to do is look at the body language of the various people speaking. If someone looks cross and is red in the face, they’ve certainly lost. If they have a smug expression that looks like they’re doing a Scott Morrison impression, they’re doing very well. When the broadcast cuts to a candidate and they’re drowned out by noisy supporters, it rarely matters that everyone’s telling you that this electorate is still too close to call, that person is a winner.
  3. Unsuccessful strategies that you tried are reprehensible and immoral when the other side uses them and wins. For example, Labor last night were apparently running a fear campaign about Covid-19. The Liberals discussion about the economic ruin should Labor be returned was apparently a simple prediction aimed at enlightenment of the unwashed masses. And, of course, the African gangs that were running rampant in Melbourne at the time of the last Victoria election seem to have all stayed at home during lockdown.
  4. What one has predicted is never wrong. It’s just that events intervened in such a way as to make what one was saying just a few days earlier different from what actually happened but that was only because of whatever stopped you being correct. It helps to consider Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup to fully appreciate this: Russian Camelot will certainly win, but if he doesn’t it was only because either the jockey made a terrible error OR some of the other horses finished in front of him. Either way, my prediction is basically sound and it’s only because of that unexpected thing that I wasn’t expecting that some of you are questioning what I said at all.
  5. Some commentators have a knack for spinning events so that they’ll be able to go back to their fundamental world view, whatever the result. While I don’t have the actual David Speers quote from last night it was something along the lines that a win for the LNP would be a great boost to the federal party, but a loss would have no implications because that would be because of the strong performance by Palaszczuk. This is very much like the argument that some have used against Covid-19 lockdowns and border closures: “We’ve only had six cases and two deaths! Why do we need to stop people from areas with much higher numbers coming here?”
  6. And finally, once the narrative has been decided, nobody much questions it. For example, last night the consistent line from the LNP talking heads was that it was still early and postal votes normally favour them, even though the talk was all aboutl how unprecedented this was and how nobody could predict how the record number of early voting and postal votes would go. Later, it was all about Covid-19 and that favours the incumbent government. Why, it was amazing that they’d even managed to hold as many seats as they did. Nobody asked if this meant that Donald Trump was therefore a certainty to be re-elected later this week.

Now that the election is all done and dusted, I’d like to see an interview Clive Palmer where someone asked him the obvious questions.

  • Mr Palmer, you spent a large amount of time and money telling us about Labor’s death tax, but given Labor have been in power for two terms and there’s no Upper House in Queensland, why wouldn’t they have already done so if they wanted one?
  • Mr Palmer, now that Labor has been re-elected, how soon before you expect them to introduce the death tax?
  • When you said that you wanted to create another Titanic, were you referring to your own political party?
  • Clive baby, exactly what did you hope to get for the millions you spent? I mean, I know that Mr Murdoch wastes millions keeping unprofitable newspapers afloat just so he can influence public opinion, but at least every now and then the Liberals can slip him some money to cover sport and pretend that it’s not a bribe, what did you hope to get out of it?
  • Is it true that in an upcoming production of on the life of Henry the Eighth that you’ve financed that Campbell Newman will play the very important part of Henry, while you’ll play the rest of him?

Yes, I know. Clive would simply say that because of his campaign Labor is now too frightened to introduce the tax, that they had a terrific result and that they haven’t given up hope of some seats because the preferences from the informal votes are yet to be distributed and was happy to spend the money for the benefit of Queenslanders.

But we shouldn’t spend too much time on Palmer. After all, like Pauline Hanson, he received such a small percentage of the vote, he wouldn’t be worth talking about were it not for the way that we were encouraged to talk about him before the election. Yes, it seems that money not only buys you advertising, but it also buys you publicity.

Yes, I still remember the days when Clive was the politician we thought most like Trump. The politician who could lie about something even though it was quite clear that what he said was just not true. But now we have a PM who can look at the camera and say that they haven’t cut funding to the ABC and that it’s time to get out from under the doona because this virus can’t be an excuse forever.

Anyway, like David Speers said, this has no federal implications because it was about state issues and the fact that Morrison spent a week campaigning can just be ignored.

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8 comments

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  1. New England Cocky

    Rossleigh, you are so pragmatic!! But tell me which figure in the head pic is the dinosaur??

    Really you should be careful to wash your mouth out with soapy water after mentioning Rupert’s sycophantic apologist David Spew, the underwhelming copy boy sent to help destroy “”MY ABC””.

  2. Rossleigh

    NEC, what makes you think that there’s only one!

  3. Kathryn

    PROOF that the good people of Queensland have had a GUT FULL of the despicable, relentless LIES and character-assassinating slander perpetrated by the revolting, Jabba-the-Hutt Clive Palmer! This mean-spirited pathological LIAR has proven himself to be a totally corrupt, self-serving sociopath who, despite REFUSING to pay the due salaries of his hard-working nickle refinery workers, is STILL allowed to wander around free when he should be charged and jailed! Palmer is the waddling, mumbling personification of RELENTLESS greed and, clearly, a man who has ZERO self-control or compassion for ANYONE but himself. The man is a morally bankrupt, unscrupulous parasite who’s personal fortune has almost doubled YET his equally corrupt mates in the right-wing extremes of the repugnant LNP allow him to get away with thumbing his nose at his responsibilities to his workers for the sole reason that this bloated, entitled grub’s deceptive lies and spurious propaganda has, in the past, been used to good effect in the annihilation of Bill Shorten!

    NO MORE! Grease-my-palms Palmer has had his day! The parasite spent countless MILLIONS on a disgraceful, depraved political campaign that failed miserably! Tough luck and stiff shit, Palmer!

    Too bad the soulless, black heart of this conniving, self-serving psychopath isn’t as huge as his 4XXXX Size Belt !!!

  4. Kathryn

    New England Cocky, just to let you know that I placed the following complaint letter on the ABC’s facebook page and they TOOK IT DOWN. I kept putting it up and they kept taking it down which PROVES just how right-wing the LNP/Murdoch-manipulated cowards in the ABC have become. Ever since 2014, the LNP have defunded more than $800 MILLION from the ABC, the management – and what’s left of the staff – are terrified of losing their jobs, running scared and kowtowing to the demands made on the ABC by the undemocratic fascists in the LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance. Now we have our last taxpayer-owned media station, OUR ABC, being taken over, manipulated, controlled by a totally corrupt, depraved government who will vet, edit and remove ANYTHING that puts them in a bad light! Muzzling free speech, shutting down debate – its all business as usual by LNP and their evil Propaganda Minister, Murdoch!

    This is the letter the new LNP’s version of OUR ABC does NOT want people to see ….

    “””GET RID OF THE UNSPEAKABLY BIASED, EX-SKYNEWS, RIGHT-WING, MURDOCH-INFLUENCED SYCOPHANT, DAVID SPEERS! Australians are sick to the back teeth of the blatant right-wing PREJUDICE and right-wing bias infecting the ABC now that Ita Buttrose, David Speers and other right-wing minions have been plonked into positions of power in OUR taxpayer-owned ABC by undemocratic, self-serving members of the LNP who want to shut down free speech and egalitarian debate against the endless corruption committed by their fascist regime!

    Just REMEMBER it is us, the taxpayers of Australia, who OWN the ABC – not the bloody LNP!

    There is so much anger, disillusionment and disgust out there with the LNP/Murdoch/IPA NEW version of OUR ABC and their determination to only present ONE view – the right-wing LNP distorted and corrupted view pushed out by the worst, most corrupt, undemocratic government in our history! The blatantly biased, right-wing prejudice displayed by the revolting Speers last night (in relation to the Queensland State elections) ENFURIATED so many people throughout Australia. Thank God, the good people of Queensland had the good sense to vote back the Qld ALP because, God knows, the overwhelming majority have had a GUT FULL of Morrison’s smug arrogance and increasing level of criminal corruption!

    SHAME ON YOU for allowing Speers to spew out his rigidly, ultra-conservative bias! Do you realise that the despicable LNP/Murdoch/IPA Alliance would like NOTHING better than to DEFUND the ABC into oblivion and privatise it – probably selling off our LAST taxpayer-owned media to the uncompromising, twisted Murdoch, a non-Australian who just happens to be the LNP’s unofficial Propaganda Minister and who OWNS the LNP lock stock and two smoking barrels.

    When Howard rescinded the strict media ownership laws we once had in this country, more than 80% of ALL our media is now owned, operated and manipulated by the lying, conniving non-Australian Murdoch to the point where our Australian media is the most monopolised, corrupt and biased in the world!

    TO THE ABC? Get your frigging act together and STOP mindlessly supporting a fascist regime that DESPISES you and wants to DESTROY you! Wake up and speak on behalf of ALL Australians not just the Murdoch-manipulated, totally gormless percentage of mindless LNP supporters!”””

    If readers AGREE with my sentiment, PLEASE inundate the ABC facebook site with similar complaints. We have GOT to put pressure on the ABC to fairly represent us ALL. The ABC has a democratic responsibility and DUTY to be impartial! Click on the following link to ABC’s facebook page ….

    https://www.facebook.com/abc/

  5. paul walter

    Good try Kathryn. But no one can get through to their management because these are appointed through devious means within the public service… good example is Janet Albrechtsen.

  6. paul walter

    As others point out, it is interesting to see that this time Queenslanders weren’t gulled by the prick (Palmer).

  7. wam

    Rossleigh do you have to bring forth the image of newman as the organ dangling from palmer’s 4xxxx belt?
    spot on kathryn.
    The fact check conclusion:
    The cautious headline is that the Government’s claims of “no cuts” is ‘misleading’.
    I would say “blatantly dishonest” for the following reasons…..
    The ABC is reluctant to leave negative comments. Y\
    Perhaps ours are as relevant as those that say the ABC is left wing????

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