The Strange Case Of The Unelectable Albo!
As I said the other day, it’s easy to make predictions; getting them right is the hard bit.
So, I approach any future event with the supreme confidence that – barring something unforeseen – I’ll be 100% correct. If I happen to be wrong, well, that was because of something that I didn’t predict, but apart from that, everything else was right… or close to it!
Anyway, I notice that some people on social media are just as confident that Labor will lose the next election and that Peter Dutton will be Prime Monster. Some are overjoyed at the prospect at getting rid of this communist mob, while others are Labor supporters who can’t believe that the party hasn’t raised the rate/asked a Census question/declared war on Israel/refused to allow any fossil fuel projects.
Albo, it seems, is incapable of winning the election. Watching a couple of his political stumbles recently, I’d have to say that I’d be a brave man to predict the next election, but then I seem to remember that I thought the same when he was Opposition leader. In fact, I remember many Labor supporters posting on social media that he needed to be replaced and that anybody they replaced him with would have the advantage of not being him.
But the election is a long, long way off. No really. If a week is a long time in politics then several months is an eternity. And, of course, there are several things in Labor’s favour which don’t seem to be uppermost in people’s mind.
- Peter Dutton. It’s true that some people are very upset with Labor’s response to certain issues, but when it comes down to who gets that final preference in a number of seats, the fact remains that Dutton’s position is even less acceptable to those upset with the current government. After all, if you think that Labor isn’t being critical enough of what’s happening in the Middle East, are you going to prefer Dutton’s fulsome support of Israel? If you thought that Labor didn’t go far enough with the changes to the Stage 3 tax cuts, are you going to vote for the Coalition because they’re going to give those on $140k plus, the cut that Labor stopped. If you voted for an Independent candidate because you didn’t think that the Liberals were doing enough about climate change, are you going to be won back by Dutton’s we need to slow up renewables because we need to build nuclear plants in due course?
- They are the government which enables them to actually do things that make them popular rather than just promise to do them. Not only that, a handful of voters tend to swing back to the government on election day. There are more examples of governments surprisingly getting back in than surprisingly losing. Think 1993 and 2019 for the biggest shocks.
- Queensland will probably elect a Coalition government. After several months of the new government cutting services and doing all the things they promised not to do, Labor may be less unpopular in that state by the time the federal election date arrives.
- Inflation is on its way down. This won’t be much of a plus unless interest rates start to come down too, but the poor state of economic growth does leave some room for the government to argue that in order to prevent a recession we need to give people certain things which I won’t call bribes but I’m sure someone will. This may put them in conflict with the Reserve Bank who seem to believe that the economy is going well because they haven’t been sacked yet and nobody has suggested cutting their pay.
Of course when it comes to the Reserve Bank, I have to wonder if being devoid of empathy is a job requirement. Certainly, both Phil Lowe and Michele Bullock have made the sort of statements that make one wonder.
However, I found Bullock’s statements this week to be confusing on both empathetic and economic grounds!
According to the RBA head, we need higher interest rates, even if that means slow economic growth, higher unemployment and people selling their homes. Persistent inflation could lead to a recession, and we don’t want a recession. Why not? Well, recessions are bad because they lead to higher unemployment, slow growth and people being forced to sell their homes.
Yeah, makes sense to me too.
Whatever, the most obvious result is that Labor will lose some seats but not enough to give Dutton a majority. There’ll be enough Greens and Independents to lead to speculation about who they’ll support and the Greens will only agree to support Labor if they introduce something that they don’t have the Constitutional power to do which will be interesting right up until one of them suggests making Peter Dutton PM, at which point Dutton says that he won’t be held hostage to such a radical party but they do have some ideas worth listening to… like him being PM. At this point, we’ll all lose interest and Labor will limp on till Albo announces that he’s going on his honeymoon and someone will tell him that the honeymoon is over and Jim Chalmers is going to take over as leader.
Like I said, I’ll be right about everything except the bits that aren’t!
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31 comments
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Phil Pryor -
ajogrady -
Anon. E. Mouse -
Murray Maxwell -
Clakka -
Lyndal -
leefe -
Anon. E. Mouse -
ajogrady -
Anon. E. Mouse -
Baby Jewels -
Baby Jewels -
JulianP -
Terence Mills -
Frank -
Harry Lime -
Phil Pryor -
Bert -
Anon. E. Mouse -
paul walter -
paul walter -
Terence Mills -
Anon. E. Mouse -
GL -
JulianP -
Terence Mills -
JulianP -
paul walter -
paul walter -
Clakka -
Carina McNaughton
Return to home pageNegativity is high now, with little good being done worldwide and here. Even the recently elected Starmer government is forgotten, ignored. The “masses” in western counties are not very aware, are regularly disappointed, cannot fathom things like “inflation” regardless of whether they gain or lose by it. A Dutton, Trump, so many defectives, appeal to negativity, to nothingness, to resentment. We should be interested in policy, philosophy, selfeducated awareness, but, a slogan or picture can do a trick. My studies, memories, research, indicates that, say, a Menzies did nothing much personally, lacking actual skills apart from fronting and posing as skilled. He had other talented ones who worked successfully, for the party and nation. Evatt reduced himself to bizarre irrelevacy to most, while Arthur Calwell, a fine public figure, was seen as “not attractive.” In today’s scene, Albanese is not clearly doing well and the boofhead vote here is always to consider giving the “other bastard” a go. So, every government changed in the great Depression era. Sense has little to do with any of it. Dutton? Super Yuckky, downright ugly, untalented, ill equipped, but…
Lest we forget.
Brave young Australians lost their lives and youth fighting in far-off lands to protect those that the inhuman Nazi holocaust was directed at.
How has Zionist Israel shown its eternal gratitude?
Zionist Israel, with contemptuous disrespect and callous disregard for those young Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice, bulldozed sacred Australian war graves in Gaza. Not a word of profound condemnation or outrage from Australia’s spineless politicians or the complicit mainstream legacy media. Disrespecting our Diggers will have consequences for our grovelling craven politicians.
Albanese Labor’s inhumanity will not be forgiven at the ballot box.
The tragedy of Gaza was set aside by the Albanese government’s prioritising its grovelling
subservients to Zionism by the
appointment of an envoy for anti Semitism. How can apparently responsible leaders preside over this charade, which attempts to prevent Australians from engaging in real debate about an international humanitarian crisis?
Australia’s US toadying political class and its foreign policy
acolytes embarrassing and ill conceived no-holds-barred
gleefull rabbit hole dive into joining the taxpayer funded AUKUS fraudulant sham. AUKUS is more likely than not to prove one of the worst defence and foreign policy decisions our country has made, not only putting at profound risk our sovereign independence, but generating more risk than reward for the very national security it promises to protect. Who could imagine this decision being made by any of the Hawke-Keating Governments even when US sycophant Kim Beazley was Defence Minister.
Like Beazely, Defence Minister Marles’s love for the US is so dewy-eyed as to defy parody. Albanese’s craven and pathetic rebuttal of Keating’s arguments of the failings of AUKUS as that tmes have changed is beyond comprehension. It is worth repeating: the US is not preparing to go to war against China, it is preparing Australia to go to war against China. China is Australia’a number one trading partner, a trading partner that has sustained for Australians their high living standards for decades. Australians need a political class that works hard for the best interests of Australians, not the best interests of the USA.
aj, I think you mistake Albo’s handling of the Israel-Gaza war. If Albo had come out more strongly, Spud would have unleashed a campaign of division and hatred that could have resulted in extremist conflict and violence. Albo has been carefully managing it so that the risk of violence is minimalised. See how often Dutton trys to push the zionist agenda and Albo doesn’t rise to the bait. Albo is no mug.
As for the AUKUS deal that Morrison set up, after shafting the French, it would have made Australia a laughing stock internationally making us untrustworthy and not a place to do business with.
Rossleigh you are so anti Albo bias you must be a LNP STOOGE GET A GRIP and get off this platform
MM, didn’t see a shred of it. BTW, in case you missed it, Rossleigh’s articles are satirical.
Thanks Rossleigh for your article sometimes, maybe correct, or otherwise, predictions and analysis. Looking forward to your next parsing of common or garden variety politics.
The first job of a leader of the Federal Labor Party is to get the quite unruly collection of Labor MPs to work together, and the next is to keep the Greens, Teals and such independents talking together and giving some united support to the policies of Labor and not the Coalition. But it seems that our media and opinion makers consider the first job of the Prime Minister is to be a glamorous character with wit and grace and movie star charisma.
We are always being called upon to consider our Federal Government in terms of the last soundbite from Dutton or Albanese, as though these are the only criterion for the next election.
Thank you, Rossleigh. It’s the most sensible comment I’ve seen for some time on this subject.
Similar situation in USAnia: as much as people may deplore thhe Democrats support of Israel’s onslaught against the Palestinians, it would be far worse with Trump and Vance in the White House.
Clakka, I did see the satire, but maybe I let my fear of all out social division as Dutton seems to so desperately be trying to stoke get in the way of my sense of humour. My apologies.
As for my garden variety of politics, I am a Qlder so its all satire up here. Old Bob K provides lots of satire up here, with a smattering of truth – finding what is what is the impossible bit. Then we have the redhead, and to add more fun and games Townsville got itself a mayor that is pure gold for satirists.
Anon.E.Mouse
AUKUS was contrived by 3 deeply unpopular leaders in their own countries. Johnson, Biden and Morrison were looking for a boost in popularity and in Morrison’s case it was a cynical, desperate and deliberate election ploy.
AUKUS was signed and sealed by the thoroughly devious, deplorable and disfunctional L/NP government when it joined the pact in September 2021, the spoils of which have been delivered by the timid US groveling -Austral-American Albanese Labor Government in March 2023. The Labor Government and Australian taxpayers will pay a heavy price for what is being done in our name. We are being humiliated and demeaned by our own government.
It will not have escaped the attention of many
that some of the smartest people in Australia have serious concerns about the AUKUS alliance and the related agreement to buy nuclear submarines from the United States and/or the United Kingdom.
Perhaps what is more surprising and takes some explaining is why the views of the likes of former Prime Minister Paul Keating, security specialists like Brian Toohey and Hugh White as well as former senior public servants like Bruce Haigh and John Menadue aren’t taken more seriously. Paradoxically enough, it seems that more than half the population also thinks that the subs are either not worth the money or completely unnecessary.
Labor’s equivocation on the Taiwan question is rather unconvincing given its support of AUKUS generally and the submarine project in particular. The possible risks of this folly have been rigorously analysed by others. The consensus is that the subs are unlikely to deter China or keep Australia safe, will infringe on national sovereignty, will almost certainly cost more and preform less well than advertised, and are likely to be obsolete and vulnerable given rapid advances in cheaper forms of military technology anyway..Given the opportunity costs associated with the largest acquisition in Australian history, it is remarkable⎯and rather depressing⎯that it is a Labor government that is pursuing a deal dreamed up by its thoroughly discredited predecessors. After all, the assumed $368 billion the subs will cost could have paid for the electrification and
decarbonisation of the nation’s energy supply and solved the crisis in social housing, amongst a host of other worthy initiatives. It is like Labor forgot that there is a trillion dollar debt to be addressed.
aj, I agree with all you say about the AUKUS subs. They are a dud deal and will be outdated before they are delivered. I don’t know how Australia could have backed out of the deal especially as we plebs don’t have the full behind the scenes details. I hope that there will continue to be discussions about changes to the deal.
Anon. E. Mouse. It’s not Albanese’s job to allow Dutton to rule the country from opposition. Albo’s spinelessness is his signature. Who the hell cares what Dutton wants or says? Why is Albanese so gutless? We voted Labor in to right the wrongs they contributed to, by forever voting with the LNP throughout the LNP government. As always, he let us down.
ajogrady, thank you, I couldn’t have said it better.
Anon. E. Mouse. It’s not Albanese’s job to allow Dutton to rule the country from opposition. Albo’s spinelessness is his signature. Who the hell cares what Dutton wants or says? We didn’t vote for Dutton. Why is Albanese so gutless? We voted Labor in to right the wrongs they contributed to, by forever voting with the LNP throughout the LNP government. As always, he let us down.
ajogrady, thank you, I couldn’t have said it better.
Thanks Rossleigh, an entertaining read.
It’s interesting you mentioned Chalmers.
Someone else does too – and in the same context:
[ https://johnmenadue.com/a-minority-labor-government-is-likely-after-the-next-election/ ]
When the RBA Governor said that some people may have to sell their homes because they can’t afford their mortgage repayments – because the RBA has thrust thirteen interest rate increases on them since 2021 – it’s like saying one way or the other we will break this camel’s back and force these people onto the rental market : HELLO has anybody had a look at the rental market in Australia recently ?
They seem to be saying, your next home will be a second hand Holden Commodore permanently moored at your local Kmart carpark and the good news is that Kmart are having a sale on Monday.
It was in February 2021 that Philip Lowe, as then RBA Governor said that the RBA will not need to increase the cash rate before 2024 : subsequently he agreed that this was a whoopsie and thirteen rate increases followed in rapid succession.
By the way, I heard this morning that Tim Wilson has gained preselection for the Victorian seat of Goldstein (ahead of two Liberal women) and polling indicates that he will topple highly effective incumbent Zoe Daniel at the next federal election.
What a mad mad world we live in !
We we all know that Albo is a spinless jelly fish,the biggest laugh for me this year was when he said he was using quiet diplomacy to get Julian Assange released,,in fact it was so quiet nobody even heard it especially the Yanks,he had F all to do with Julian Assanges release,it was a combination of a group of MPs from all sides lobbying the Corrupt Biden administration along with many others that have been fighting for his release,but not surprising to see Albo take all the glory.Another thing that has truly pissed me of is the fact he has done a back flip and given into a small minority of people that believe they should have more recognition that others,im talking about the next censors having questions about sexuality,i for sure will not answer this question,this to me is a private part of my life and should remain so,its not something im willing to share with others,especially this government or who ever else is in power when this happens.What the hell has this to do with anything
Another bonus we can look forward to after the next election…the Toxic Tuber will no longer be running the country.
I note that Terence M has reported that a foul fraudulent filthfilled foreskinnish fake from the IPA, one Wilson, has lazarused up to get preselection (not always cheap) in his electorate, beating women of course, and has been said to have polled well enough to win. What an Australian disgrace, to sink to such depths in encouraging lying, cheating, dishonesty, insincerity, graft and humiliation for us all in this. Wilson is such a nematodal nitwit, a redfaced ratbag rortartist, a scummy irritant, a manipulator and polluter of meaning as we should expect it. One of Roskam’s rotten poxes is set to spread again, if…. but let us hope for better, in Ms. Daniel. Conservative garbage should be fought and beaten, in the name of progressive policy.
Satire, Clakka, isn’t that a bit like IRONY?
I have just been doing some thinking about critical thinking, perhaps a bit more critical thinking will see satire and irony and enjoy a good belly laugh as we read this article.
Oh, just an aside on the Israeli ‘bias’ which appears quite evident in the way politics has been played around that conflict, are you aware that over 250 Federal politicians have visited Israel since about 2010, as guests of the Israeli government and have enjoyed travelling (guided tours) to fully appreciate how good a government they are and how well they treat the Palestinians in their midst. Tours to Gaza and the West Bank are not encouraged.
Phil, you are so eloquent. You have a wonderful turn of phrase. I admire your use of innovative and o-so-apt adjectives. Superlative use of the language.
Not Ross’s best.
If labor gets chucked it will be down to its own intransigence and even dishonesty. As someone somewhere else said, “Labor never ceases to disappoint”.
To hold the Greens gun at voter’s heads is poor, like mum saying to the tin lids, “if you don’t do that (accept some of the junk like Aukus, Gaza, PwC, fossil fuels rip-offs)) I will tell your father when he gets home”.
Yes, Dutton is going to be fearful for Australia and Australians, as with Trump in the US for yanks and it is low but probably the politics involved, blame the Greens for calling bullshit on some of the last year.
Anything but commonsense from the government this year But for Dutton they WOULD be pitched. As for saying “unconstitutional”, hasn’t this been the case anyway, with refusal to legislate against defective stuff or even call out the monstrosities of Palestine, say?
Nah! I have usually voted Labor over the last fifty years and always this refusal to follow up on election promises and then blame someone else when they won’t do the policies instead.
Not this time. And the brain washed, pigheaded public can go to hell after its “mediated” responses to Gaza.
An old friend once said, “if you fall in a hole, don’t sit there, fill the f….g thing in”. Labor is anal on doing common sense this year, as over many turns since the Gough.
Furthermore, I’d ask the question, is Labor there for the community, as the ReserveBank is supposed to be,, or is it actually there as a class oppressor?
Labor has been condemned for its lack of support for Palestine and for not supporting the Greens motion declaring “the need for the Senate to recognise the State of Palestine”.
The greens motion was at best simplistic and Labor moved an amendment adding the words “ as part of a peace process in support of a two state solution and a just and enduring peace”. Senator Penny Wong noted at the time : “As reflected in our amendment, the government supports the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a peace process towards a two-state solution.”
The Labor amendment was voted down by the coalition and the Greens and Senator Payman crossed the floor, voted with the Greens and subsequently left the Labor Party : the Greens motion was defeated 52-13.
With all this condemnation of Labor could anybody enlighten me on what exactly Labor should have done – bearing in mind that since the noisy and self focused departure of Senator Payman, the killing has continued in Gaza and even now Israeli bulldozers are ripping up roads and essential infrastructure (water supply, sewerage and power supplies ) in their assault on the West Bank.
Is this another case of the Greens seeking the perfect and, through their intransigence, discarding the practical ?
Re the reserve bank, I do wonder if the previous RBA boss didn’t play a bit of politicking for the Morrison govt in keeping the rates artificially low – and his no rise until 2024 statement. It sort of set things up for a coalition opposition.
As for the Greens, I saw on TV a South Australian (I think) Greens candidate saying that to her the Greens shared a great deal of policies with the coalition. Then in Qld it appears there is talk of the Greens giving their preferences to the LNP in the SE corner.
We live in interesting times.
The usual weekly “Labor Bad” bullshit poll from the SMH’s pet Liberal Party Resolve Political Monitor gang.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/voters-blame-labor-for-inflation-woes-not-reserve-bank-poll-20240908-p5k8rg.html
Terence in answer to your plea, while I cannot say what Labor should have done, I submit the situation called for honesty from Government leaders, especially from Senator Wong.
At the time she spoke, the Senator would have known of the Israeli PM’s long-standing and obdurate rejection of a Palestinian State; that this hugely relevant fact was not mentioned by anyone says a lot.
Also the Senator would have been aware of the physical impossibility of a “two-state solution” – the Palestinians presently having about 16% of the land originally allocated to them – thanks to a continuous process of land theft by the State of Israel. The recent ICC decision confirms this.
Again, no mention of this by anyone of substance.
For there to be anything like a viable Palestinian State, Israel would have to withdraw back at least to the pre- 1967 boundaries. I’ve not lately heard anyone presenting this as a viable solution and I certainly can’t see anyone in the Government admitting of the possibility. and of course that would be anathema to Israel.
To add insult to injury, the IDF has now carved the Netzarim Corridor, a 6km long and 4km wide corridor that runs from the Israeli border to the coast just south of Gaza City, severing the territory’s largest metropolitan area and the rest of the north from the south – all the better to allow troop and materiel movement, at the same time stepping up land theft and dispossession in the West Bank; and so far as that goes, it’s business as usual.
Any word from our Government about this? Indeed any comment from anyone in the MSM?
As you note Terence, Senator Wong’s statement allowed recognition of the State of Palestine “ as part of a peace process in support of a two state solution and a just and enduring peace”.
All well and good, but was there any mention by Senator Wong of a cease-fire as having any possible relevance to the peace process?
Any word from the Senator (or anyone else in the Government) as to precisely where the Palestinians are now to live in this wonderful “two-state solution” – apart from living in tents that is?
Consequently on this issue I no longer have any regard for the Senator’s probity or good sense.
JulianP
Thak you for your considered input.
The UN also have been sadly missing at a time when action is so badly needed.
So, how do you see that the Greens blustering assists, if at all and has Senator Payman contributed anything of value ?
Terence it was kind of you to reply.
You are correct about the Greens’ blustering; ill-advised grandstanding, accomplishing nothing.
As to the Payman Affair, I believe the Senator’s action served to draw attention to the significant gap between Labor “policy” and the Albanese / Wong version of that policy.
One of the better commentaries I read at the time was written by a former editor of the Canberra Times – it gives a helpful wider context. I commend the article to you:
[ https://johnmenadue.com/payman-becomes-symbol-for-discontent-with-labor/ ]
Critical thinking.
After reading some recent posts here am rolling on the floor laughing.
History did not stop in the ‘rosy’ post-WWII period of reconstruction of the ‘Western Paradise’. It continued through ‘Western’ hubris, the same old ‘othering’, exceptionalism, expansionism, insurgencies, exploitation, extraction, greed, mercantilism, and militarization. And from the 80s, accelerated through the mindless application of consumerism and bling to the point of economic unsustainability and ecological devastation. It appears the ‘West’ had learned nothing from the effects of colonialism and imperialism, preferring to enjoy the spoils of contrived opportunity and ‘supremacy’. Where once the ‘proletariat’ were oppressed by the aristocracy, increasingly, a race ensued to become an ‘aristocrat’ via accumulation. It is not to blame the people, but the politics devised to create the impression of endless good fortune.
While the cosseted ‘West’ continued its journey, little attention was given to the (often imposed) plight of the rest of the world. That is until the rest of the world started to better organize themselves against the competitive wiles of the ‘West’. With the advent of the ‘global’ internet, and tech saturation, followed by social media, almost everyone became intimately aware of circumstances, attitudes, guile and increasing inequities across the world. The ‘West’ doubled down. Then all were met with dire warnings of anthropomorphic climate change and environmental degradation. In the race for supremacy via old means, the warnings were substantially ignored.
Now it’s become a tangible reality requiring critically urgent transformation of global politics and industry at massive financial cost, and given the inextricable global inter-dependencies, the manoeuvres are complex, edgy and subject to self-interested push-back. Each country, culture, political group and corporation trying to ensure its own survival.
Suffice it to say that perhaps across the globe there has never before been such a rise of dysfunction in political and economic alliances of which there are dozens, and increasingly new alliances, secessionist and devolutionary groups in the 100s as well as civil disruption, and ignoring / undermining of global institutions such as the UN, the ICC and ICJ. A phenomenon driven by existential fear, exacerbated by the GFC and covid pandemic. It appears to have become a stampede of complex prophesies, labile and polarizing, at a time when compromise and cooperative endeavour needs to be at the forefront to maintain stability and timely transformation.
Parsing long histories and their nuances on the basis of ideological convenience is of little value, circumstances are changing rapidly, so taking steps towards resolving the necessary transformations both domestically and globally without collapse is imperative. Oz has nowhere near the same critical mass and resilience of the ‘great powers’, so if we’re not attentive and careful with considered compromise, we’ll find ourselves in economic jeopardy like Euro-America, and at risk of kleptocratic authoritarianism like weakened America faces, amongst a world of potentially growing despotism.
Despite that I find myself quite often squirming, whilst accepting that not everyone will be satisfied, and that plans and schemes are never perfect yet need to be viable, to suggest that Albo is “gutless”, and Labor is “bad” seems to me to be ‘extremist’ nonsense, affected by incessant barrages from the feckless, sensation-seeking, celebrity minded mainstream media.
My greatest disappointment with Labor is the NACC. No one has been held accountable for Robodebt. Albanese claimed he would clean up politics and restore faith in politicians. I also am disappointed that whistleblowers. Ie Richard Boyle and David McBridenow in jail continue to be prosecuted. Gambling advertising should be banned. I would like open, honest transparent politics. I am hoping we get a minority government with more independants like David Pocock, Dr Monique Ryan, Zali Steggle, Zoe Daniel’s, Andrew Wilke, Kate Chaney, Allegra Spender. The two majors don’t govern for the people rather vested interests.