They seem to have a plan
By 2353NM
At the beginning of August, Prime Minister Albanese’s ‘preferred prime minister’ measure according to Newspoll was 61%. While pretty well every new political leader enjoys some fair winds and sunshine at the beginning of their term of office, Albanese is doing better than most. He seems to be confounding the experts that suggested the ‘honeymoon’ with the Australian public was over a month earlier.
At the beginning of July, Albanese was in France mending Australia’s reputation with the French President.
Asked if an apology from Albanese was necessary over the submarine fiasco, Macron said with a wry smile: “We will speak about the future, not the past. He is not responsible for what happened”.
He knew exactly what he was doing. As he did with “I don’t think, I know” [when asked if he thought former PM Morrison lied to him about the cancellation of the submarine order], Macron made the most of his moment in the sun.
On-August 11, the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide tabled an interim report. The report was immediately released by the responsible Minister, Veteran Affairs Minister Matt Keogh, who apologised on behalf of the Government for the backlog of claims. The Royal Commissioners were scathing of the Morrison Government’s response to previous reports highlighting the management of Veteran’s claims for compassion and support.
“In our view, the lack of response and progress from June 2019 to mid-May 2022 amounted to a dereliction of the Australian government’s duty to veterans,” read the report, which was released on Thursday.
The government comes in for particular criticism over a 2019 report that outlined several recommendations for improving the processing of claims but was never either formally accepted or rejected.
On August 12, Australia’s Education Ministers met in Canberra. There are a significant number of problems in education, from lack of qualified teaching staff (and more concerningly, a lack of people who wish to become teachers), a lack of funding equity between public and private schools and a recent history of demeaning the practice and professionalism of teachers by the former Coalition Government. Why is the August 12 meeting noteworthy? The Federal Education Minister Jason Clare invited teachers from across the nation to come to the meeting and provide their lived experiences. Asking people to share their lived experience certainly isn’t a novel idea, however asking for the opinions and advice of people at the coalface was never a highlight of the Coalition’s time in power.
It’s also noticeable the press conferences regarding the Royal Commission interim report and the education ministers’ meeting were hosted by the responsible Ministers – not a Prime Minister anxious for what could be good publicity.
Maybe that’s the difference between the Coalition and ALP Government. Albanese doesn’t appear to be seeking publicity for the sake of publicity. It appears that like the governments of Fraser and Hawke, the responsible minister is given the role of being – well – responsible for their portfolio. In short, Albanese is treating his ministers as adults who are perfectly capable of formulating and implementing government policy in a consultative and collaborative manner. By contrast, the Coalition Opposition can’t decide if Albanese’s upcoming job summit is a stunt (Opposition Leader Dutton’s opinion) or worth attending (Deputy Leader Littleproud’s opinion).
The week before we found out that Morrison held at least five ministerial portfolios, most apparently without the knowledge of the ‘responsible’ minister, as well as Prime Minister, Crikey’s Bernard Keane observed,
Morrison wouldn’t and couldn’t govern. Like Donald Trump or Boris Johnson, the actual day-to-day work of governing was beyond him. Sourcing vaccines, rolling them out effectively, protecting senior Australians in nursing homes, checking to make sure businesses that didn’t need support didn’t get it, developing a contact tracing app – all proved beyond the capacities of his government.
That was consistent with the wider performance of his government. Morrison had no agenda to implement and no capacity to implement it if he’d had one. What few policy initiatives he took – on industrial relations, or trying to destroy industry super – fell over. Notoriously, he was unable to address the most urgent policy issue outside the pandemic: energy and climate policy. His idea of governing was issuing media releases, calling press conference, and covering up embarrassments, of which there was a multitude.
It was a contrast to Malcolm Turnbull, who had an idea of active government driving innovation and encouraging Australia to embrace opportunities outside its traditional comfort areas of extractive industries, tourism and education. The contrast was symbolised by the ill-fated submarine project: Turnbull wanted them built by the French in Australia; Morrison dumped the entire agreement for a media release and a joint press conference with Biden and Johnson, leaving us with a yawning strategic gap.
Clearly Dutton is using the same tactics as Abbott did – total opposition – which is what got us into this ‘wasted decade’ in the first place.
Despite the various ‘experts’ ruminations on when it was over, that’s probably why Albanese is still ‘enjoying a honeymoon’ three months after the election. There are promising signs the adults are in charge and have a long-term plan that doesn’t rely on marketing and coverups.
What do you think?
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28 comments
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Terence Mills
Return to home pageAlbo might be enjoying a prolonged honeymoon,but the consummation won’t be complete until the wicked fossil fuel inlaws get the cold shoulder.And ditch those fucking bullshit tax cuts.(They will).Dutton?.. he’d be more at home with the moronic Trumpites in the crumbling Republic of Uncle Sam.Failing that he could always reprise some Boris Karloff movie.
‘Albanese doesn’t appear to be seeking publicity for the sake of publicity.’
Some small ‘l’ Lib voting relatives in Kooyong did not vote Liberal last election (guess indie Ryan) and approved of Albanese, why?
He seemed to knuckle down from the start and simply get things done without demanding the media spotlight and opportunities…. they also predicted Libs will lose the next election due to Dutton and the potential influence of the QLD LNP on social policies….. that simply do not fit Victoria and much of the nation…
I think Albanese and crew are being overly cautious, spooked by what happened to Shorten with his ambitious program. However unlike Shorten, Albanese won but he hasn’t yet, to my mind, acted on a lot of very necessary changes, e.g. capital gains, negative gearing, franked credits, an increase in jobseeker which everyone acknowledges is too low, and they keep ruling out the measures which could help the budget like a windfall profits tax, discarding the stage3 tax cuts and cracking down on tax avoiders like the fossil fuel companies as well as ending every subsidy to those companies. Opening up new areas to oil/gas exploration is only right if explorers are compelled to risk their own money, not ours, to locate and develop resources. Once upon a time there was, perhaps, some value in giving taxpayer funds to these companies but with climate change that imperative no longer holds. I understand the ‘jobs support’ arguments but say it’s time for them to get off the public teat and pay their way for what are the Australian people’s resources.
“”Slowly, slowly catchee monkey” may be appropriate elsewhere, but in Australian politics emerging from the dim dark ages of the RAbbott Turdball Scummo experiment in neoliberal deliberate disorganisation it allows memories of COALition corruption to fade from the public mind.
Then there are the political cover-ups; cutting staff for Community Independents from four (4) to one (1), ignoring the role of gg David Hurley personally advocating for the Australian Future Leadership Foundation Ltd ”charity” gift of $18 MILLION, an English corporate entity able agree unanimously to pay directors whatever they believe is appropriate, the festering sore of News Corpse in Australian life. Then how many days does Federal Parliament sit in 2022-2023? Is it enough to undo the nine years of damage done by the self-serving COALition for the financial benefit of their corporate ”mates”?
So we have passed100 days with the mainstream media-ocrity receiving fewer press releases from the Prime Ministers Office and needing to practice their professional skills rather than regurgitate the party line, but essentially nothing has changed in the presentation of news. Even on OUR ABC those Murdoch minions like David Spew interviewing other Murdoch minions, the strident Patricia Karvalos shocking the morning airwaves with yellow journalism, the underwhelming Greg Jennett implying pro-Liarbral bias needs a good stable clean out.
Have you noticed how, all of a sudden the coalition are aggressively supporting nuclear power ?
On Insiders recently Barnaby Joyce demanded that the government move on small modular nuclear energy reactors.
Meanwhile The Australian is joining the Coalition’s chorus for nuclear energy with US correspondent Adam Creighton claiming that nuclear is becoming “a more attractive option” overseas.
Even Peter Dutton (he’s the Opposition Leader incidentally – he’s employed on a casual basis evidently) is spruiking nuclear in recent weeks. This after spending a decade in office and doing precious little about our future energy needs beyond giving coal producers a leg up and rubbishing renewables.
Labor has long ruled nuclear out on economic grounds and favours renewable energy into the future : they also point out that nuclear power stations can cost $20 billion plus and take up to 10 years to construct.
Australia is one of the sunniest and windiest countries on earth, the Climate Council notes, with enough renewable energy to power our country 500 times over – we are even building infrastructure to export solar energy to Singapore.
So what are the coalition on about ?
PS : Albanese was quite competent at the Press Club !
Terence,
“So what are the coalition on about ?”
They have become a bunch of spiteful, whining, overprivileged tantrum throwing born to rule brats who have had their gold pedestal kicked out from under them to land in the sewer of their own making.
Watching weather info can be depressing, bad news prevailing. Greenland’s ice sheet deterioration is more severe than previous observations estimated, threats in Pakistan are a warning to the whole world, and Antarctic ice sheet stability is doubtful, with disaster possible, quicker than feared anyway. Having a plan to plan having a plan is the lying way to cheat, obfuscate, stall. But, nobody, no organisation, seems able to halt the arseholes who profit from misery, temporary luck, wars, disasters, and sheer complacency about repeating the old silly ways as if forever… Fossil fuel profits and needs dominate behind all corporations, in finance, investment, superannuation, taxation, consumption, transport, delivery, warmth for the world, communication. Australia has world leading conditions in wind, sun, tide, etc., for natural renewble energy production. Let us plan and spend accordingly. Meanwhile, let us plan on, to plan having a plan to do some planning…
Phil Pryor, a google search on the term ‘global warming is a hoax’ furnishes 3.8 million results, when filtered for ‘scholarly articles’, nearly 13,000. Vested interests who argue for the ‘hoax’ version will deny the reality even as the water laps around their ankles and Gaia gives daily representation of her distress. Capitalism, the monolith dragging humanity into the maws of hell, cannot register that it is the seed of its own demise as an insensate machine reliant on the fossil fuel harvest that will one day cease to provide.
You’re correct; fossil fuel companies will be in the game until the end, unless governments and citizenry collectively find the means to cease their use of these materials. It looks like a hopeless fight; but then the same was possibly said about the siege of Leningrad, or the London Blitz.
Phil, “no organisation, seems able to halt the arseholes”. Ironically last night on the ABC 7:30 Report, viewers were treated to one of the main causes of recent weather change. Watch the video below from 4:00 mins to 4:05. Check out the background sky criss-crossed with chemtrails. Thank NATO for geo-engineering the skies. If only we could work out a way to bill them for damages.
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/record-drought-is-wreaking-havoc-across-the-united/14036380
Len,
Put up empirical evidence to back up your thoroughly debunked tinfoil hat chemtrail conspiracy garbage or go away.
GL, most likely the source of ‘evidence’ is someone like Alex Jones.
re. ‘One of the main causes of recent weather change’….per a television news clip on the European drought, whether ironic or not and whether a ‘treat’ to the viewers or not, the imputation that, as GL notes, a thoroughly debunked chemtrail conspiracy theory has any relevance to global warming is as ludicrous a claim as those made flat-earthers and green cheese moonies.
Attributed to Einstein, most likely incorrectly, is the observation that “Two things are infinite, as far as we know – the universe and human stupidity.”
It has not been verified that he said these words. They may have first appeared in one of Voltaire’s works, where he said [trans.] “It is not the starry sky that can give the most complete idea of the infinite, but human stupidity.” At least three other French writers – Flaubert, de Maupassant & Renan – also referenced Voltaire’s comment, as did the British writer Robert Dell. Attribution to Einstein is likely a function of a book written by Gestalt therapist Frederick Perls in the 1940s titled “Ego, Hunger, and Aggression, in which he mentions Einstein making this claim. Author’s licence, no doubt.
Nevertheless, whoever claims originality, the observation stands, and is astute.
The chemtrail fallacy has had at least twenty-five years of mindless regurgitation and recitation. Maybe the tin-foilers can’t distinguish between that word and the more correct ‘contrail’. Or maybe they’re simply a bunch of dumb shills with inherent paranoia lurking as a psychic undercurrent that influences their world views. They exist, after all, these types of folks. Always have, always will.
Albanese has to show the courage to put Australians first by better using the tax cuts for people that don’t need them and by adhering to the ‘no new coal, oil or gas projects if the global energy sector is to reach zero emissions by 2050 …’ (IEA) before I consider him anything more than a ho hum politician. And he looks like he’ll do neither!
Did you know that you can go on Sky News and tell lies and peddle misinformation ? Indeed, they encourage it !
Sussan Ley, Deputy Opposition Leader was invited on by Chris Kenny who allowed her to slam electric vehicles again – not so much that they will ruin your weekend but that when it comes to electric utes or pickups, they don’t even exist. Sussan in full flight told the SKY audience that :
“And no one in the world is making an electric ute, by the way, and even if they were, it would be unaffordable.”
Chris Kenny in true SKY fashion failed to pull her up or question her source of information but motor dealers jumped right back at her false information. Among others, here is an article on electric utes :
https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/the-five-best-electric-utes-heading-to-australia-83988
It is not so much that Ley doesn’t know what she’s talking about, that’s a given. But SKY night after night, like their big brother FOXNEWS in the US push out this nonsense and in Australia, with free to air broadcasting into the regional areas, there are people who actually swallow this garbage.
Folks, we have got to hold SKY and Murdoch to account !
This is not about ladies, salacious deeds, filth, sexuality, social misfortune, etc., but, Sty non news is a pot full of turds rented by the Merde Dogs for the dissemination of lies, propaganda, pandering to peanuts and poltroons. Sluts run it, talk on it, do what they are told on it, for money, pose, ill fame, notice, attention and future imagined roles of advancement. So, greed and ambition work. There is a conspiracy of profiteering, by a coalition of interests without any scrape or smear of ethics, morals, decency, honesty.
Whilst we are in thrall to oil, gas and coal, whist we meekly accept this “truth”, this status quo, we are fucked. Labor’s answer, open up more fossil fuel exploration areas, approve more coal mines, no increase to dole, tax breaks for the wealthy, what other bastardry will these fuckers implement. Albanese, Labor, are not the messiahs, just simply lickspittles pandering to their masters. All well and good to spin the supposed good shit they do, but, for fuck sake, there is no excuse for the policies they pursue. Possibly the only hope that the independents prove to be the fly in the ointment. Wake the fuck up, we are in seriously deep shit, more of the same is not going to work.
Where is the innovation, the conversation detailing our plan for achieving emissions reduction, the transition from fossil to renewable, the manufacturing possibilities, the retraining, taxing the shit out of fossil fuel multinationals, etfuckingcetera. Fuck Labor
Terence Mills at 3:23 pm, Sussan Ley the numerology nutcase is obviously a slow learner; mentored by Scotty the schemer in the art of fibs, porkies, untruths, deceptions, inaccuracies, dishonesty, evasions, fabrications, fictions, falsehoods, lies & obfuscations.
While she may well be on the right path to master these dark art skills, the adjectival label of slow learner applies because she’s yet to comprehend that these very skills are what so disgusted the electorate at large that they gleefully and willingly tossed the rotting edifice of what was once a significant political party into the trashcan.
Five minutes worth of homework would have informed her about the factual circumstances of electric utes, but seemingly she was more excited at the prospect at sitting in the company of another serial liar and swapping butterfly kisses with the merde mouthpiece, truth be damned.
One shouldn’t be too hard on the poor fool… performances like these guarantee she and her ilk will remain in the political wilderness for many years to come.
Yes the ALP won and the LNP are but a rump. I wont get carried away with victory over scum until we know the new boss isnt the same as the old boss. On the economic front, the ALP are still mesmerised by the capitalist bug. Instead of doing things because its the right thing to do, they are following Harvard economic principles. Its quite obvious we need to squash the disease of exponential house prices. We need to help the people on the bottom a hell of a lot more. Acknowledge that full unemployment is a myth and deal with people in a compassionate way. Admit Superannuation is the least efficient form of social security. Its created an industry to suck out money from the economy, a whole $120b a year plus government subsidies through the tax system.
Labor wont turn against gas industry yet. My guess is that they are hoping it burns itself out so no political capital lost. They need to strike now, later will prove to be more costly. When you have power, you got to use the shit or you lose it.
I dont see any reforms that will make life better yet. Its not time to say fuck labor yet Roadkillcafe, but yes the clock is ticking.
I part compay wiith Labor after this tax cuts for the rich nonsense when so many REAL things need funding. Was it to do with the secret meeting with the Murdochs.
I shudder at the cowardice.
Paul
when these tax cuts were presented to the parliament they were in the form of an omnibus Bill which effectively meant that early tax relief to those who actually needed it was lumped in with tax cuts to the well off in 2024.
Morrison’s ploy was: vote for it all as a package or it’s all of the table and we will blame Labor for denying tax cuts to the poor.
Labor tried to split the Bill saying that the tax cuts in 2024 were not affordable and that planning tax cuts well into the future was dangerous because you don’t know what the future situation will be. The coalition of course stuck with their omnibus Bill and Labor had to let it through.
All Labor can do now, if they don’t want to appear to be back-flipping, is to defer the tax cuts in 2024 – not reverse them – merely point out that the economy cannot afford to give away so much revenue [$184 Billion over ten years] at the present time with so many other priorities and a trillion dollars in debt.
The Spud simultaneously spews faeces while trying to insert both feet in his mouth. Par for the course really.
@7.06 am
https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-opposition-open-to-backing-workable-wage-deal-reforms-national-cabinet-meets-to-debate-mandatory-covid-isolation-20220830-p5be0j.html#p5439j
GL & Canguro, ok forget ‘chemtrails’, let’s call jet exhausts ‘man-made contrails’. NATO’s adoption of sulphur-rich JP-8 fuel increased man-made contrails (formerly ‘chemtrails’). Google – NATO JP-8 contrail single fuel concept climateview for insights.
The article below looks at weather control and sulphur-rich mix jet fuel mixes versus an alternate way to cool the planet.
Modification of cirrus clouds to reduce global warming – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045102/pdf
Air travel is going the way of the dinosaur in the next 5 years (zero carbon) which is the public’s way of helping out, involuntarily.
paul, Labor has fallen on its own sword again. They always go to elections in the belief that they can swing Lib devotees by making policies more palatable. Given Labor only scrapped in, their plan of getting lots of swinging votes failed again.
Yaaawwwnnn……
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/31/australian-monarchist-league-former-liberal-senator-eric-abetz-australia-republic
Ok, Terence. You have my highest respect for your reply.
But tell me, would the politicians find a way if their lives depended on it?
Besides, msm did hurtful NDIS failings instead of discussing the role of oligarchs indenying necessary funds and to me “backflips” doesn’t work…how a restoration to reason can be reversed to “backflip” shows the dark arts of consent manufacture.
I can live with deferral and wonder that the politicans are so mulish as to not announced that earlier.
“No” requires little effort and it is a proven winner, in this century.
Dutton would be stupid to vary the opposition, at least, till he sees teal outcomes.
Paul
Back in 2019 when Labor were being wedged by the coalition – it seems that most coalition policy was designed to wedge Labor – Jim Chalmers said :
In 2019, Chalmers noted the [stage three] tax cuts “will cost almost $20bn every year” by the end of the decade. He argued that is “roughly what we’re spending on aged care or public hospitals this year and more than what we’ll spend on the NDIS. It’s roughly twice as much as we’ll spend on Newstart or carers and childcare this year.”
Now, in 2022 the Parliamentary Budget Office’s costings put the annual cost by the end of the decade at almost $30bn a year.
In 1983, Bob Hawke fronted the media soon after winning the election and told journalists that while he had promised tax cuts during the election, “Now that we had the full knowledge of the true budgetary situation … it [is] very significantly less likely that there would be an opportunity of any general tax cuts.”
Albanese asked Scott Morrison in 2019, “What programs and services will be cut to fund stage three of the government’s tax scheme.” He needs to be asked that question himself.
Albanese has the ammunition he needs to front up and say that these stage three tax cuts are unaffordable.
Deferral of the stage 3 cuts I can live with, provided they are continually deferred until things like negative gearing, franking credits, corporate taxation (including a proper sovereign wealth fund) are dealt with. Get those right and the system might be able to be balanced.
Economist Saul Eslake puts the Stage 3 taxcuts into perspective :
“At that time [when the stage 3 tax cuts were legislated], the budget was projected to be in surplus throughout the 2020s, and net debt reduced to zero by the end of the decade. Now, deficits are projected to continue as far as the eye can see, and net debt to continue growing in dollar terms into the early 2030s.
“It’s understandable that the government feels bound to honour the pledges it made. But that would seem to make inevitable that, sooner or later, the government will need to look for other means of raising additional revenues in order both to meet the electorate’s expectations for higher spending in disability, aged and health care, and to put the budget on a more sustainable medium-term path.”
That’s it in a nutshell.