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On Turnbull and stability

Turnbull relying on Australians seeking stability during a time on [sic] unrest in Europe is the headline of Malcolm Farr’s précis of the LNP election campaign launch, held yesterday.

The problem with the word stability is that far too often, particularly in politics, it’s taken to mean “everything staying the same” regardless of whether that “same” is desirable or not.

According to Turnbull we need to avoid changing government at all costs, and we need to avoid a hung parliament at all costs. We need to stick with the stability (read sameness) of the two-party system, despite the profound lack of stability within both those parties, publicly demonstrated over the last six years.

Admittedly, the ALP seems to have pulled itself together and united behind its leader, achieving temporary internal stability. The same cannot be said for the LNP as Turnbull attempts to straddles the chasm between himself and the right-wing of his party. Revenant-in-waiting, Tony Abbott, continues to grimly stalk the Prime Minister and although he has been muted during the election campaign, it’s unlikely he’s relinquished all ambition to heal his pain by overthrowing Malcolm and reasserting himself as leader.

If it’s stability you’re looking for and you choose the LNP, you’re looking for love in all the wrong places.

It takes strength of character to weather uncertainty and instability, which together are the very substance of change, and, as Dylan said he [sic] who isn’t busy being born is busy dying. A politics with which we have become very familiar is in its death throes: look at Brexit and look at Trump in the US. This isn’t a time of stability it’s a time of change, and if we don’t get busy birthing the change we’ll get busy burying the dead.

Turnbull’s call for stability is a cynical and opportunistic attempt to co-opt the Brexit decision to his very unstable cause: governance by a party that is cataclysmically divided, and therefore incapable of providing the country with that which the government itself so conspicuously lacks.

The LNP will undoubtedly ramp up the emotional manipulation with its faux assurance of stability in an unstable world: Brexit is the best thing that could have happened for them at this time. Brexit could well be Turnbull’s Tampa: create fear, then offer yourself as the only protection from the terror you’ve manufactured.

It’s not about the policies, stupid. It’s about the emotion.

This article was originally published on No Place For Sheep.

21 comments

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  1. Gangey1959

    Isn’t it apt that Alice Cooper’s ”Poison” is playing as I read this.
    Piss off, turdbott. Your presentation yesterday was a joke, and I would NOT want you as Australia’s Prime Minister even if I did agree with where you stand on stuff.
    That I am 180 degrees opposed on EVERYTHING you say speaks for itself.
    Piss off to the caymans and rot.

  2. my say

    If the last three years of this lying, corrupt,secretive ,government arn’t enough to kick them out nothing will, surely Australians have had enough of all the hate and scare and lies that they spew every day
    The voters of Australia should think of what they are going to loose if this mob are voted in on Saturday,We cant have this government for another three years ,we are going to be on the scrap heap if we do

  3. townsvilleblog

    My 2 learned colleagues who have commented before me have basically said it all between them and left nothing for me to add.

  4. Wayne Turner

    So stable Bill Shorten has been leader of the Labor party,longer than Turnbull has been PM and Liberal leader.

    He talks alot of lying crap Turnbull.The Libs can and do dump their leader whenever they like.Turnbull has no control of it.Unlike Labor who have made it harder to change their leader.

  5. helvityni

    I was once fooled to think that the pro- republican Turnbull was a progressive man, today we have the for- plebiscite Turnbull, what kind of Turnbull will we have tomorrow…? I will not be fooled again.

  6. Florence nee Fedup

    Just like they spend money in all the wrong places.

  7. Maureen Walton (@maureen_walton)

    It does not seem to matter what LNP do they seem to be getting away with it. Always have and seems they always will. LNP have rich Strong backers behind them. Ordinary people have no idea of the Budget deficit, Parakelia, Authur Sinodinos Rorts etc Little said in Media about how bad Liberals/ Nationals are and what really goes on.
    All I hear is both parties are the same. When I say tell me what has Labor done, they can not come up with anything except David Feeney, when I explained a Liberal guy did the same a women was really shocked, that all they both had done wrong was to forget to declare their houses. She thought Feeney had rorted stacks of money..

  8. kerri

    The while premise of the right is that they are better! More stable! More economically adept! More agile! More innovative! They will create jobs and growth just because they are better people and we should trust them!
    When Turnbull mentions his government’s stability I keep envisioning a dying fish flipping and flopping from the frying pan…….

  9. Matters Not

    Brexit could well be Turnbull’s Tampa: create fear, then offer yourself as the only protection from the terror you’ve manufactured.

    It works! Particularly with the ‘retarded’ voter. And the evidence suggests there’s many of them.

    As for:

    you’re looking for love in all the wrong places.

    There’s a ‘joke’ there, but I won’t touch it. ? ?

  10. Freethinker

    If it one think that sadness me is that about 50% of the electorate support this mob.
    This show some of the values in our society.
    A sad reality

  11. Kaye Lee

    Responding to the recent turmoil in Europe, Malcolm Turnbull has added ‘stability’ to his party’s core message of ‘jobs and growth’, reminding voters that his party has gone almost a year now without changing leaders.

    “What our Government needs, what Australia needs, is stability. Now is not the time to change leaders. That time is in another 9-10 months,” Mr Turnbull said at the Liberal Party’s official campaign launch on Sunday.

    Mr Turnbull said the Coalition was the most stable government Australia had seen since 2015. “Let’s not return to the chaos of the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd years. Let’s stick with the chaos of the Abbott/Turnbull years,” he said to loud applause.

    “Mr Shorten has knifed two leaders. I’ve knifed just the one – so that’s twice the stability,” he said.

    http://www.theshovel.com.au/2016/06/26/turnbull-campaigns-on-stability-we-havent-knifed-a-leader-for-9-months/

  12. Florence nee Fedup

    Only knifed one. What happened to Nelson?

  13. Florence nee Fedup

    The Gillard govt was stable. Managed 3 budgets, piles legalisation.

    Only thing Abbott prevent was any type refugee legislation. One could say, his blocking of any legislation allowed the boats to keep coming. Responsible for the deaths. Stood on back that truck, gloating at every new boat that come. Inviting smugglers to send more. The fact he made his own scheme so secret, indicates he knew his action was pull factor, attracting more boats,

    Even then it was more Greens doing than Abbott.

    Abbott didn’t get rid Gillard, that honour belongs to Rudd.

    Rudd’s actions play big role in his own demised. Abbott for all his noise, was ineffectual.

    PM, you are correct, if you say the parliamentary party was in disarray. Same as yours seem to be. Differences is, the government has been shambolic, chaotic as we. To the point of not even getting budgets through.

    Gillard had to negotiate legislation through both house, with no majority in either.

  14. wam

    turnball uses words that have beliefs not meaning stable won in 2013 and is regurgitated as new with the smell of yes that is the libs.
    It seems incredible that australians will put their trust in a party that took us into the GFC rather than the party with the experience in getting through the GFC?

    The young are resilient so billy and tanya can wait till the libs stuff up the economy. The loonies have learnt that principles must be flexible in direct proportion to number of seats and the number of seats in indirect proportion to women speakers.
    I fervently hope that enough voters see through turnball to toss him out. But second prizes are losses to pynenut, briggs, griggs and roy with wins to lambe lazarus, I wonder if enough of the green boys will vote to put jody over shy???
    ps FNF
    nelson was the most arrogant politician I have ever met and self imploded, turnball got knifed in 2009 and shorten should have been.

  15. FreeThinker

    Malcolm is a gun lawyer and it shows. The Liberal Party have hired him to lead the party so as to absolve themselves from the fall-out resulting from buckets of lies offered by his predecessor, Tony Abbott.

    Malcolm has taken the case ( after all, as a lawyer, he will argue any case), not so much to get to the truth of the matter, but rather, to get the Liberal Party out of the hole it dug itself for almost 2 years under Abbott.

    We need to remember that thus is the Abbott-Turnbull government, and all that has changed is its primary salesperson.

  16. mark

    Wam -the liberal party was the one that was saving money. So when the gfc arrived (something generated from the usa and nothing to do with us ) we weather the storm. The labor party then spent that money on stupid ideas like pink batts,cash for clunkers, grocery watch, school halls that were not needed etc. This was supposed to get us through the gfc that never really hit here . It was mainly confined to the usa and europe. So at the end labor had spent all the money we had and they borrowed billions more.

  17. Kaye Lee

    mark,

    I doubt you got that view from anyone who knows anything about economics. Australia does not live in a bubble. We rely on foreign investment and that plummeted. Demand and price for our exports also plummeted. Business confidence fell. The dollar fell. Our terms of trade fell. People whose income relied on interest or share prices took an enormous hit as both plummeted. When private sector investment dries up then the public sector has to step up to the plate to keep us going. If you want to inform yourself rather than quoting Andrew Bolt (who is an ignoramus), then I suggest you read this.

    .http://www.treasury.gov.au/PublicationsAndMedia/Publications/2011/Economic-Roundup-Issue-2/Report/Part-1-Reasons-for-resilience

  18. Möbius Ecko

    “…the gfc that never really hit here.”

    This part of your statement has me curious. Can you show me the graphs and data that show the GFC never really hit here, for all the data I’ve seen shows a quite large fall in all the economic and business indicators for Australia at the same time the GFC hit the globe?

    I would be very interested in seeing diametrical information on this.

  19. Kaye Lee

    By November 2008 Australian equity prices had fallen by about 50 per cent from their peak a year earlier, and they fell further in early 2009. Australian equity markets fell further than US and global equity markets over this period.

    The terms of trade fell by around 10 per cent over the course of the December 2008 and March 2009 quarters, with further sharp falls in the June quarter 2009, largely reflecting movements in prices of our key commodity exports. The Australian dollar fell by around 10 per cent on a trade-weighted basis in the December 2008 and March 2009 quarters.

    By the end of 2008, business confidence had fallen dramatically and investment intentions had plummeted. Survey measures suggested that business conditions were at their lowest level since the 1990-91 recession. Consumer confidence had also fallen dramatically.

    Nominal GDP had been growing 8.1 per cent through the year to the March quarter 2008, but contracted by 2.5 per cent through the year to the September quarter 2009, driven in part by the large fall in the terms of trade.

    Business confidence started to recover from February 2009, following the announcement of the Nation Building and Jobs Plan and a further cut in the official cash rate. Consumer confidence rebounded sharply in June 2009 following the announcement of the March quarter 2009 GDP outcome, where the economy recorded solid positive growth.

  20. Möbius Ecko

    That mark got the fact on the GFC affecting Australia so wrong doesn’t hold out much hope for the rest of the erroneous and specious supposed basicses he posted. Indeed each one can be successfully pulled apart and proved to be false.

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