Tony Abbott refuses to comply with the speaker deal that his party initially agreed to (though somebody forgot to tell Alex Somlyay, who apparently wants to be the deputy speaker). Bob Katter responds:
“I think he has established a most unfortunate reputation for himself… I think he is going in there with an adversarial attitude and is not seeing the bigger picture and I think that he’s making a very bad political judgement there. The people are also sick and tired of this sort of approach.”
This is sensible politics on the part of the Coalition, our Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane said yesterday.
But if Katter’s right, the people don’t want sensible politics — not in that sense.
They want that other p-word. No, not paradigm. Say it with us:
–noun, plural -cies.1. a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc.: We have a new company policy.2. a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc.: our nation’s foreign policy.3. action or procedure conforming to or considered with reference to prudence or expediency: It was good policy to consent.4. sagacity; shrewdness: Showing great policy, he pitted his enemies against one another.5. rare . government; polity.
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Let’s see if they have any chance of getting it.
I read the last line as rare government potty and thought it made sense. Shame on me.
A neat summary of The Abbott Move: “a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency”.
Always reserving the right to reverse, resile from or renounce the chosen course of action at any point should subseqent expediency suggest it.
And always reserve the right to keep the Independents in your sights…..side with me you bastards or you will regret it, I am a mean macho bike rider, so don’t mess with Mr Piddle (woops) Pedal.
Of course integrity and genuine leadership would be nice too.
Alex Somlyay is brave/foolish and one can only imagine the pressure he must be under from party heavies right now, but that’s what happens when Abbott plays tough and keeps his “night of the living dead” shadow cabinet, and excludes the Next Gen like Somlyay. (On carbon tax, it is also not working out too well with Turnbull on the airwaves.) Along with alienating 80% of the independents (only Tony Crook remains!) Abbott has more or less cooked his goose in the last week or so unless there is some fiendishly clever strategy at work?
Previously I wrote in Crikey (crikey.com.au/2010/09/14/gillards-ministry-of-unsound/) that once the Gillard government came into being the true seat count was Labor:72 Coalition 72 with at least 3 independents (Wilkie, Oakeshott, Windsor) plus the Green (Bandt) committed to Gillard and one (Katter) who said he would not vote against them in a Confidence vote, and one true unaligned (Crook). That conjecture is much stronger today.
Effectively, on most votes it is :
Government: 76 (4 indies, 1 Green, excludes speaker Jenkins)
Opposition: 71 (excludes deputy speaker Somlyay)
Unaligned: 1 (Crook)
On votes of Confidence it would be 77 to 72 and Crook doesn’t really matter (is he noticing and maybe realizing he is much more likely to get something for his electorate if he reconsiders his position?).
Great going Tony. At this rate you’ll be down to just your shadow cabinet by Xmas. Are you sure you haven’t been taking advice from Barnaby (you know, the arithmetic thang)?
Incidentally the Katter interview on the ABC is here: abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/24/3020914.htm