A brochure arrived in the mail…
I probably should explain that I used to live in the marginal electorate of Chisholm which meant that we’d be inundated with electoral material in the leadup to an election. I’m now in Kooyong. When I moved into Box Hill North over twenty years ago, I never dreamed that one day, I’d be in a house worth a million dollars in the electorate of Kooyong… Well, I never dreamed that such a thing could happen without me moving… Yep, they changed the electoral boundaries. Ok, I though, my vote won’t count, but at least there won’t be much campaigning.
Gee, was I wrong. There have been Liberals hovering around the local supermarket trying to force me to accept blue canvas shopping bags with Frydenberg’s name on them. “No, thanks,” I tell them, “I’d rather a plastic one, so I can flush it down the toilet and kill a few of those whales.”
And today Josh Frydenberg wrote to me to tell me all about the “Climate Solutions Package”. As well as his letter, there was a nice shiny brochure from the Australian Government so I’m unclear as to whether this is election propaganda or just more of that taxpayer-funded Government information stuff like those ads telling me that the Australian Government is working to create a fairer tax system. I mean that’s really good to know, but I don’t know how that’s going to help all those poor people losing the franking credit refund who’ll be forced to rely on their investments and not a refund of the tax that they haven’t paid because they worked so hard to avoid paying tax and now they want a refund from the government on the tax that they didn’t pay.
One thing I immediately noticed that it didn’t talk much about how the need to take action. The first page told me that it was all about meeting our “commitments” and had helpful dot points outlining their plans. If you were one of the brave souls who knows how to turn a page, you’ll be confronted with our “strong track record on climate change action”. This is backed up by some graphs showing details of comparisons of such useful things as per capita emissions for 2030. The next few pages give more detail on the plans from the first page. As well as telling us about the plan to continue to give businesses billions to do the things that they were going to do anyway, the booklet included such helpful information as:
“A national electric vehicle strategy will ensure the transition to new vehicle technology and infrastructure is carefully planned and managed, so all Australians can reap the benefits.”
No shit, Sherlock. What a shame that after five years in government all they have to say about this: We plan to have one. In other words, it is our plan to develop a plan.
But notwithstanding the fact that this booklet left me with the feeling that it had all the sincerity of Scott Morrison’s: “I’m ambitious for this fellow,” as he put his arm round Turnbull, I couldn’t help but wonder if Liberals further north were sending out the same booklet to their constituents. I mean have people in Warringah been receiving the same letter from Tony Abbott now that he’s a born again Paris convert? Will Craig Kelly announce that he intends to embrace “Earth Hour”? Has George Christensen broken away from his fiancee long enough to let his people know what wonderful thing the government intends to do…
Speaking of Georgie, does it seem strange to anyone else that Scott Morrison forcefully told us that Christensen hadn’t been to the Phillipines “on his watch”. I mean, wasn’t it all fine because he was visiting his loved one. Ok, he probably went a little too often for someone who was meant to be a full-time MP, but stopping him from visiting his fiancee altogether doesn’t seem very pro-family.
Nope, all things considered, it looks like the Liberals are worried that we’re taking this climate change stuff seriously and that large numbers of people may actually not care how well the economy’s doing, if mankind is wiped out in the process. While some people living in Hawthorn may aspire to a beach front property, I doubt that they want to be like me and the million dollar property in the Kooyong electorate, and get one without moving.
Now I’m not suggesting for a moment that Josh will lose Kooyong. However, the level of campaigning does suggest that the Liberals aren’t taking it for granted. Perhaps, the penny’s dropped and they’ve worked out that Wentworth may not have been an outlier. Or perhaps, they’ve just decided to ignore the climate deniers and do more to reduce emissions than shutting down the automotive industry.
Either way, the election will be interesting.
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