Perception is a wonderful thing. As I wrote a few weeks ago, the Liberals have someone persuaded a good many people that they’re good at managing the economy when all the Howard government really did was come to power during a resources boom, after Keating had created a growing economy. But the Liberals have always been good with money because look at how badly Whitlam did. No, I said look at Whitlam. No, don’t look at what a mess the economy was in, after a few years of the Fraser/Howard show. Besides that was a long time ago and, anyway, that was then, this is now.
At the moment the Liberals are trying to create a number of impressions:
1. Malcolm’s a good man to have in charge of the economy because he’s rich.
2. It’s not really the Liberal Party in government. It’s the Turnbull Party.
3. Malcolm’s the leader and there’s no chance of an Abbott comeback.
4. Saying magic words like “jobs and growth” over and over is the same as actually having a plan.
I’ll deal with these one by one.
1. Malcolm’s a good man to have in charge of the economy because he’s rich.
While this is superficially appealing, it relies on the idea that because you have a skill set that’s enable you to be successful in one field, it enables you to have success in another. While there may be some truth in this, as soon as one applies it to other areas, one can see the obvious fallacy. For example, James Hird was a great player, therefore he should be coach of the Essendon Football Club. Just because you’ve accumulated money, it doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily wise or capable of running a country. Take Donald Trump! Of course, using the Liberal’s logic, Uncle Fred is extremely obese therefore he should be the one to organise the menu and distribute the food to the rest of the neighbourhood. Being rich is sometimes a result of being prepared to use information decisively and take risks without stopping to consider the consequences of being wrong. You know, the way Turnbull did with Godwin Grech. While this works for some, it’s worth remembering that most businesses fail, so just because you’re looking at one of the successes, it doesn’t mean that what they did was any more intelligent than the ones that failed; they may have just had the better marketing. In the end, it’s like saying that clearly this person is cleverer because they’re the ones with the winning Tattslotto numbers.
2. It’s not really the Liberal Party in government. It’s the Turnbull Party.
You may have noticed that the Liberal logo has disappeared from most party advertising, only to be replaced by a logo using the words “The Turnbull Government”. I suspect that polling has showed them that their best chance is to appeal to voters who don’t know which party is which and who may actually not know that all the policies which made Abbott so unpopular are still Liberal… sorry, Turnull Party policy, and that if Turnbull gets back in and we have Medicare records outsourced to Telstra’s Philippine branch, or when it costs more to go to the doctor than for Barnaby’s $100 lamb roast, the Liberals will ditch Mal the Magnificent, trot out their old logo and tell us all to vote them back in.
3. Malcolm’s the leader and there’s no chance of an Abbott comeback.
Yes, well, I did tell you a few months ago that Tony was going to London as High Commissioner. I know nobody took me seriously. Just like nobody took me seriously in 2014 when I wrote that it was a done deal that Malcolm would be PM. However, Tony’s sticking around. I suspect that if Turnbull increased his majority – and this is the sort of hypothetical that I’m just putting on the table because anything’s possible – then Abbott would tell us all that, much and all as he loves serving his electorate, he feels that he has a duty to a higher calling and to go over just so Phil can thank him personally for the knighthood. In the real world, when Turnbull loses x number of seats, the first thing Abbott will do is announce that he’s not challenging. Once a public figure denies a rumour, you can be pretty sure that it’ll be talked about. And once there’s speculation, Abbott’ll be forced to challenge just to end the speculation.
4. Saying magic words like “jobs and growth” over and over is the same as actually having a plan.
Yep, even the MSM are over this one now, with some commentators being so bold as to ask exactly what the plan is for jobs and growth. Ok, nobody’s actually been forthright enough to ask Turnbull to spell out his plan. Partly because they’re worried that he’ll say the magic word “innovation”, and then say how the government is encouraging innovation. And if there’s one thing that the government has encouraged is innovation. Look at the innovation of the CSIRO, all those climate scientists now have to find new ways of doing things.
Although I am wondering if this is their new way of encouraging jobs. Don’t wait to be offered a paying job. Volunteer. Well, it seems to be the way that their whole work experience/internship policy’s headed.
Anyway, on another matter, I noticed that the Herald-Sun had a running tally of how much the two parties had promised during the course of the election. Last week, the Liberals were on $523m and Labor were on $523b. That’s right. According to the Herald-Sun, Labor had promised 523 billion dollars. Talk about a black hole!
Strangely though, this week, the Liberals had increased to $899m, while Labor’s had reduced to a mere $9.657b. Talk about getting your spending under control. The Liberal have almost doubled theirs, while Labor has reduced there’s by over 90%!
