Much of the Coalition’s enormous success in becoming not merely electorally competitive but to reach the verge of forming government lies in its successful selling of the idea of competence — Labor is incompetent, we are competent. Simple.
It’s true that Labor’s abject failure to explain just what a good economic manager it has been — as evidenced by yesterday’s GDP figures and the number of Australians in work — is partly to blame for this. Labor has also been the target of a deliberate campaign of distortion and deceit by News Ltd and, to a lesser extent the ABC, that has portrayed successful programs like the BER as “debacles”. Nevertheless, great credit must go to Tony Abbott, who spotted Labor’s weakness, homed in on it, and use all his political skills and aggression to exploit it. Regardless of the result, Abbott’s campaign should be a playbook for generations of politicians to come.
There’s accordingly a rich irony in the fact that, on the cusp of victory, Abbott and his economic team have today been made to look like innumerates in front of the three independents who will decide their fate. In response, Abbott tried to re-define competence. Economic competence, he insisted this morning, was not about costings trivia like what interest rates were used to calculate savings.
Perhaps — but then what is competence, then, if not attention to detail and an obsession with ensuring the utmost care with taxpayers’ dollars? If competence is not found in sound and thorough process, where is it? Is it demonstrated in outcomes? In economic growth, for example? In keeping Australians in work? In a low inflation rate? And who, specifically, is competent — the politicians who take the credit for decisions but who duck responsibility for failures, or their public servants who advise them and carry out their instructions, frequently well, sometimes poorly? And why are governments competent or not? A government that does nothing has less risk of making errors than a government commitment to change and action.
Competence requires much more than just showing up.
You’ll have to look it up in the “Limited News Dixshunry” – and follow there instruxshuns “Apply as applicable”, just like them – there’s one on the Left hand page “for others” and then, on the other hand, there’s the one they apply to themselves and their party – just like “Yore Write to Gnomes or Whatever”!
i don’t know that newscrap was any more deceitful, unethical or unprofessional than the abc.
The word competence and this mornings debacle of a press conference featuring the 3 stooges of the Coalition, is so far removed it could well be light years away.
Never have I witnessed such a disgraceful exhibition of sheer inability to tell the truth or accept the game is up on the contrived hiding of figures, until demanded by 3 independents who have shown more ‘competence’ in 12 days than Abbott and his cronies in 9 months.
Added to the debacle ,was yet again another timid softly softly approach to questioning these Coalition bandits, by the majority of the main stream media. They are a disgrace to journalism.
News is no surprise but why aren’t the Liberals being held to account by the ABC and Fairfax? Abbott, Hockey and Robb are hopeless and have now been shown up as liars but they still get an easy run from the media.
Sorry I missed that “press conference” – “(Rupert’s) Three Stooges Meet the Baron” (or was it “Uncivil Warriors”, “Cash and Carry”, “Half-shot Shooters”? I like em all) – did “Moe” Abbott use the monkey wrench or the plunger on Larry and Curly Joe ….. m-nyuck, nyuck, nyuck?