What do you suppose it is that causes political timidity - and its resulting by-product - perpetual opposition?
I only ask because there appears to be no shortage of "political timidity" in the Labor government. And I reckon that will lead them to "perpetual opposition".
It's only when they get there that they will regret going down that path.
I suspect it's what happens when you install a leader who has limited ability to lead. And when the party disciplinarians have been coached to not tolerate any independent thinking. Can't stand that can we - MP's who think for themselves?
So the vast bulk of the party MP's are all sitting about being "timid" while their future turns to sh*t in front of their very eyes.
It reminds me of the Beasley years. Perhaps those times were *normal* for the party and the interventions of Latham and Rudd were aberrations.
For those who don't recall or who weren't paying attention, Beasley was the *architect* of the *small target* strategy. He thought that the opposition shouldn't say or do anything that would alert anyone to their existence. And he didn't. And they didn't.
His view was that he would wait for the conservatives to perform their usual overreach and that would generate sufficient voter backlash to waltz him and his crew back into government. And anyway, he was much more interested in playing with the military hardware and other toys provided by his best friends in the US Military/Industrial complex.
The only tragedy is that his colleagues thought so much of him that they made him leader - twice.
And the tradition continues - the current government has installed him as our Ambassador to the United States.
There are some good people in the party who can and will stand up for the people and the nation - they just need a leader who knows what the game is and knows how to play it.
Is history repeating?
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Entitlement and an Angry Nation
Laura Tingle's Monthly Essay - "Great Expectations" has been in my Kindle queue for weeks - It's subtitled "Government Entitlement and an Angry Nation". And it was only yesterday that I finished reading it.
That is probably the only good thing about being encapsulated with a couple of hundred other folks in a flying sardine can for a few hours ;-)
Anyway, I think Laura has nailed her subject pretty well - there are a few bits to debate but nothing worth getting niggly about. So if you want to understand the new political dynamic then go read it.
But there are a few things that I do want to mention.
Firstly, Laura accurately describes the "governing actions and style" of our Prime Ministers from Hawke, through Keating, Howard, Rudd and now to Gillard. In particular, she shows how ideology drove Howard to frequently "say one thing and do quite the other". Particularly his attempts to defund the health and education systems and his overreach with WorkChoices.
It's just a pity that Laura and her colleagues weren't able to write more about those things at the time - because if they had then the Australian people would have been better informed. And a better informed electorate usually makes better choices.
And the other quite amazing thing is how none of the Prime Ministers mentioned have actually engaged with the people directly and explained the big picture. With the possible exception of Paul Keating. The major changes in our society have all been made *without* the agreement of the people - almost as though politicians think citizens aren't smart enough to be exposed to the *truth and the facts*.
To my mind this is the biggest failure of our polity. Politicians would probably be surprised by the reaction if they took the people into their confidence and explained what they can and can't do - and what our options are.
Almost without exception - Australian politicians prefer to discuss the *little* things with the people and make the *big* decisions in secret behind closed doors.
If they haven't yet worked out that this little game is well and truly over - then they soon will.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Are Federal Police Investigating?
You would think the man who is desperate to become our Prime Minister would demonstrate a little bit of class? And a little bit of understanding of history.
Not possible it seems. Today he rails against our government, the Finklestein enquiry and his imagined and made-up threats to "Freedom of Speech". I won't link to his rubbish but you can find the text of his speech on his website. The few smart Liberals who can read and are awake will be cringing.
Apparently Tony and News Limited editors are the only people in our nation who can see the *serious and absolute danger* of any form of media regulation. News Limited has been campaigning against Finklestein for months now - I think we all know why.
And Tony goes into bat for Uncle Rupert and his cronies - when everyone else in the Western World wants to close them down for the corrupt behaviour of their newspapers and management and staff. All exposed by Lord Leveson and well documented in "Dial M for Murdoch".
Our Tony has conveniently forgotten about all that and has developed a new found passion for "Freedom of Speech" - all based on Uncle Rupert's urging.
The only amazing thing about all of this is that they are so blatant about it. Shouldn't the Federal Police be investigating?
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The lame and the limp wristed
What fascinates me are politicians who think that voters are stupid. And it's not just our politicians.
President Obama is struggling to get much traction in the lead up to the US election in November - just 3 or so months away. He is behind his opponent with fundraising and could easily get trounced by Romney the clown. The Republicans are playing hardball with the US economy and are working hard to make it look like Obama is to blame for the place stagnating. Things are so bad that even rusted on Democrats are thinking of voting for Romney - just to get Congress to fire the place up again. I am not kidding.
Plus Obama is nuts to think that he can continue to pursue those on his "Kill List" each Tuesday and persecute Wikileaks and Assange and Bradley Manning on Wednesdays and then expect that "progressives" will vote for him at election time. Instead of changing Washington as he promised - he has been sucked into its orbit. He may well get blown out of its orifice come November.
But then the Democratic Party was never able to compete - a bit like our Labor Party. They don't know how to. Both of them rely on overreach by the conservatives to generate the backlash that gets them into government. They're piss weak.
The simple reality is that conservatives do crazy things - they start wars and look after their mates at the top end of town and screw the workers - whether they are in government or not. And the progressives usually just sit back and watch.
We need a progressive party that knows how to stand up for the people and the nation - and knows how to fight conservatives and win elections.
Instead we usually get the lame and the limp wristed running the place - who lack the ideas, the brains and the balls to do a real job.
Progressive political parties have become a huge disappointment - and that's why many of their MP's will be enjoying retirement after the next election.
President Obama is struggling to get much traction in the lead up to the US election in November - just 3 or so months away. He is behind his opponent with fundraising and could easily get trounced by Romney the clown. The Republicans are playing hardball with the US economy and are working hard to make it look like Obama is to blame for the place stagnating. Things are so bad that even rusted on Democrats are thinking of voting for Romney - just to get Congress to fire the place up again. I am not kidding.
Plus Obama is nuts to think that he can continue to pursue those on his "Kill List" each Tuesday and persecute Wikileaks and Assange and Bradley Manning on Wednesdays and then expect that "progressives" will vote for him at election time. Instead of changing Washington as he promised - he has been sucked into its orbit. He may well get blown out of its orifice come November.
But then the Democratic Party was never able to compete - a bit like our Labor Party. They don't know how to. Both of them rely on overreach by the conservatives to generate the backlash that gets them into government. They're piss weak.
The simple reality is that conservatives do crazy things - they start wars and look after their mates at the top end of town and screw the workers - whether they are in government or not. And the progressives usually just sit back and watch.
We need a progressive party that knows how to stand up for the people and the nation - and knows how to fight conservatives and win elections.
Instead we usually get the lame and the limp wristed running the place - who lack the ideas, the brains and the balls to do a real job.
Progressive political parties have become a huge disappointment - and that's why many of their MP's will be enjoying retirement after the next election.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Dial M for Murdoch
If you read "Dial M for Murdoch" by Tom Watson and Martin Hickman - as I just have - then you will be shocked by what the Murdoch's and their cronies and their various newspapers have been up to in Britain - over many years. It's subtitle is "News Corporation and the corruption of Britain".
This is a very sad tale of corruption and cover-up involving the top levels of British society.
And anyone who has even a remote interest in Murdoch's Australian operations will already know about the bias and distortion that so infects their Australian newspapers.
Even Dick Smith has been motivated by their local bad behaviour to send this very critical letter to their local leader.
One of the things that strikes me about the book is how the Murdoch's and their cronies invested so much time and effort in the criminal cover-up - and that it succeeded for years. They even had the police - the famous "Scotland Yard" in their pocket. It was only the dogged determination of a few key individuals and a bit of luck that led to them being found out.
Now I am not suggesting that the same level of corruption and cover-up exists in Australia. Who knows? But you can see the Murdoch intimidation and bullying and bias on display almost every day across the pages of their local newspapers - if you choose to look.
It’s very sad for Australia that Rupert has spent his lifetime parlaying his inheritance - the Adelaide Advertiser - into a huge international corruption machine.
Surely it's time to close the Murdoch's down and kick them out. Has anyone got the balls to tell them they are no-longer welcome here?
This is a very sad tale of corruption and cover-up involving the top levels of British society.
And anyone who has even a remote interest in Murdoch's Australian operations will already know about the bias and distortion that so infects their Australian newspapers.
Even Dick Smith has been motivated by their local bad behaviour to send this very critical letter to their local leader.
One of the things that strikes me about the book is how the Murdoch's and their cronies invested so much time and effort in the criminal cover-up - and that it succeeded for years. They even had the police - the famous "Scotland Yard" in their pocket. It was only the dogged determination of a few key individuals and a bit of luck that led to them being found out.
Now I am not suggesting that the same level of corruption and cover-up exists in Australia. Who knows? But you can see the Murdoch intimidation and bullying and bias on display almost every day across the pages of their local newspapers - if you choose to look.
It’s very sad for Australia that Rupert has spent his lifetime parlaying his inheritance - the Adelaide Advertiser - into a huge international corruption machine.
Surely it's time to close the Murdoch's down and kick them out. Has anyone got the balls to tell them they are no-longer welcome here?
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
What will they cut?
So the question bothering Australian's is "What will they cut"? As in what programmes will Abbott and the Liberals cut if or when they get to pull the levers.
It won't be the Nationals doing it - they never cut anything. They are more into distributing the nations wealth as *pork* to their mates as opposed to leaving it in our social programmes - so it will be the Liberals who do the cutting.
We already know that they are going to slash and burn the budget because Abbott and Hockey and Robb said that they were "going to cut $70 billion from Government services" when they win government. And during his recent trip to the US, Abbott gave the nod and the wink to his conservative mates who are ready to cash in on his *savings* programme.
The Liberals have a surplus fetish - which is even greater than that of Gillard and Swan. And much more dangerous.
Now $70 billion is not a small number. In fact it is a huge number and if taken out of the Federal budget it will leave a big hole - probably quite a number of big holes actually - all through the social programme. Because they won't be cutting Defence.
Which means that the Australian people who rely on those Government services are going to be seriously *pissed off* when they find out that they have been shafted - by their little mate Tony who doesn't like their *entitlement* mindset.
But we won't know the details until after the next election is decided - because the Libs won't be upfront with Australian's about where the $70 billion will come from.
Of course they will futz about a bit in the lead up to the election and it's quite likely that they will do what Joe Hockey did at the last election - and fool Australian's about their budget intent.
And they will probably revert to form and cut large amounts from "Medicare" and "Education" - those programmes that conservatives detest. Little Johnny spent his entire political career trying to defund Medicare - and we know that Abbott is working from his playbook.
And the really scary thing is that these cuts will be sold to the proles as a budget *savings* measure. As if a sovereign state like Australia actually has any constraint on its currency issuing!
That's the real problem - literacy and numeracy. Which is why conservatives do their utmost to keep us in the dark and feed us BS.
It won't be the Nationals doing it - they never cut anything. They are more into distributing the nations wealth as *pork* to their mates as opposed to leaving it in our social programmes - so it will be the Liberals who do the cutting.
We already know that they are going to slash and burn the budget because Abbott and Hockey and Robb said that they were "going to cut $70 billion from Government services" when they win government. And during his recent trip to the US, Abbott gave the nod and the wink to his conservative mates who are ready to cash in on his *savings* programme.
The Liberals have a surplus fetish - which is even greater than that of Gillard and Swan. And much more dangerous.
Now $70 billion is not a small number. In fact it is a huge number and if taken out of the Federal budget it will leave a big hole - probably quite a number of big holes actually - all through the social programme. Because they won't be cutting Defence.
Which means that the Australian people who rely on those Government services are going to be seriously *pissed off* when they find out that they have been shafted - by their little mate Tony who doesn't like their *entitlement* mindset.
But we won't know the details until after the next election is decided - because the Libs won't be upfront with Australian's about where the $70 billion will come from.
Of course they will futz about a bit in the lead up to the election and it's quite likely that they will do what Joe Hockey did at the last election - and fool Australian's about their budget intent.
And they will probably revert to form and cut large amounts from "Medicare" and "Education" - those programmes that conservatives detest. Little Johnny spent his entire political career trying to defund Medicare - and we know that Abbott is working from his playbook.
And the really scary thing is that these cuts will be sold to the proles as a budget *savings* measure. As if a sovereign state like Australia actually has any constraint on its currency issuing!
That's the real problem - literacy and numeracy. Which is why conservatives do their utmost to keep us in the dark and feed us BS.
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