Actually, I don’t hate everybody. Let me be quite clear about this: I don’t hate actual people but I do hate their stupidity. Particularly, when it comes to politicians, the media and people with vested interests that try to pretend that they’re only concern is for others but this idea that’ll cost them several million dollars is bad for everyone and that their objection is not just out of self-interest but from a deep, altruistic concern for the whole universe.
Notwithstanding that, I must say that Labor are doing an excellent job at lowering expectations. I refer, of course, to their decision to leave the question about LGTBI+ people off the Census, only to reinstate some of the letters while ignoring others. This, of course, gave Dutton the chance to link those two words that can never be parted: “woke” and “nonsense”…
“Woke” is one of those wonderful concepts. It’s a bit like “communism” in that 98% of people who use it couldn’t define it… Or rather, they could, if one accepts “ideas I disapprove of” as just as valid as the Oxford Dictionary… (Yes, I know! Why should we let those academics who write dictionaries decide what words mean or even how to spell them. My spelling is just as vallud as the nexx guy’s and so wot if Trump got sumthink rong?)
Whatever, the general consensus is that we’re heading for a hung parliament where The Greens and Labor will have to work together and that will just be a disaster, according to people who completely ignore that more gets accomplished when they actually DO work together and don’t try to make each other look bad. Recently, in Victoria, The Greens and Labor agreed on a tax of 7% on short term stays which will go to social housing, as well as giving councils and body corporates some extra power about restrictions on such things. This, of course, led to several property owners ringing talkback to complain that it would just lead to higher costs which they would pass on to the holiday maker. My favourite would have to be the one who said that if this went ahead, she’d stop doing short term rentals and put a tenant in on long term lease. Oh no, someone being able to rent a place to live? What about those poor people wanting to go on holiday!
This lead to a predictable response from the Liberal shadow treasurer who suggested that this would lead to many people selling their accomodation, but no, lots of properties on the market wouldn’t make it easier for first home buyers because an increase in supply only brings down prices when the Liberals want that to be a problem.
Unfortunately, the recent legislation about the CFMEU wasn’t a situation where The Greens and Labor worked together. I say, unfortunately, because it meant that Labor negotiated with the Coalition, which led to lots of things that The Greens didn’t want.
While the ins-and-outs of the whole saga are complicated, it’s fair to say that the politics will be hard to read. On one hand, we have Labor fighting with a union while The Greens offer support. On the other, the fact that there are unions protesting what Labor has done may make the charge of Labor being under their thumb less convincing so it’s hard to know whether it’ll be a negative for them or not. Whatever, it was interesting that the media suddenly found John Setka a credible person worth interviewing… Now, I’m not saying that he’s not; merely that he seemed to follow a well-worn path of anyone expelled from the Labor Party where the media is calling for their head, only to find them a very interesting talking head once they’re on the outer.
So, according to the media, support for Labor is plummeting and we’ll have a very close election. As I always say, making predictions is easy; getting them right is hard because things change. However, I must say that I always find it interesting that political commentators place so much store in the polls, only to complete ignore large parts of them that don’t suit their narrative. The concern for Labor is that the polls are suggesting that support for them is dropping. The good news for Labor is that – in spite of recent mistakes – the polls are all suggesting a close election. As an incumbent government, there is always the chance to actually do something to boost your popularity, rather than simply promise it.
As for Peter Dutton winning back the “teal seats”, it does seem a strange strategy to be talking about cutting back on renewables and rethinking our emissions targets when a large part of the reason that the Liberals lost those seats was that while they were talking about net zero that was the sum total of what they were doing to combat climate change: zero. Who knows though, these seats may swing back because of the Liberals superior economic management. When Labor came to office inflation was over 6% and it’s now under 4%. The Liberals think that this isn’t good enough because – if they were in power – they’d have had a bigger surplus even though they haven’t had a surplus since Costello was Treasurer.
Whatever happens, I suspect that the morning after the election will have “Insiders” with Samantha Maiden, Phil Coorey and David Speers all talking about how this election would have been different if it wasn’t for the things that made it turn out the way it did and that one thing was whole story and that if it hadn’t been for that one thing then we’d have had a completely different result. Like I said, making predictions is easy; getting them right is hard because things change.
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