Wayne Swan has had his John Howard moment. Bernard Keane writes in Crikey today:
“Whatever it was, Swan in his attack on mining magnates has produced something Labor has been sorely lacking, an agenda-setting moment that shifted the political debate, played his opponents off a break and sent a message about the government’s values.
“John Howard produced such moments regularly and easily, setting loose issues to which the Left would react with froth-mouthed fury, not realising they were playing into Howard’s hands by linking him ever more closely to the values of middle Australia. Labor long appears to have thought that the political agenda could be controlled through set-piece policy events. Howard understood that it requires an ongoing conversation as well, and set out to shape that conversation to his own purposes.”
Yes, Swan has taken one straight out of the Howard play book, after all, it was Howard and his cultural warriors who targeted “elites” who controlled major institutions and imposed their chattering, undemocratic, PC-and-snobbery based agenda on the rest of us. Swan is again taking aimed at the elites, urging voters to see beyond the hard hats, safety vests and utes to really scrutinise the mining magnates’ behaviour.
It’s simplistic, it’s certainly not nuanced, and there are all sorts of caveats attached but this is what it boils down to: Swan’s Press Club address made for good politics. And coming from the Labor government, that’s the most surprising kind of sound bite to come out of the Treasurer’s mouth.
It’s rare that we urge readers to ignore the substance and concentrate on the theatrics, but in this case the theatrics are the substance.
I actually caught Swan’ speech yesterday and it wass particularly good and contiues what has been a pretty good week or so from the govt.
Getting Carr was good but now they are managing to shift the debtate back to the economy and start to expose Abbott on what is clearly his weakest point. The coal.iton have struggled to maintain a coherent, cohesive & consistent position on even the most basic of things l.ike when they will produce a surplus and whether they will keep their paid parental leave let alone how they will pay for their $70b black hole.
The longer the govt can keep the focus on the economy and highlight the “singing for his supper” angle the better as if anyone ever starts to put his economic policies under the microsope they will see it is an absolute disaster and Turnbull will start to count his numbers.
If you add in Julie Bishops disussions with indonesia about “turning the boats around” (as long as that is OK wiht Indonesia but don’t tell anyone) and Abbott getting sued for making things up then all is not lost for the ALP.
I would also like to pre-empt some of the SB argument on the big miners right to lobby by pointing out that about 20% of the workforce are unionised and probably about 10% more best interests would be “represented” by unions, mining account for 2% of the workforce, Palmer, Rinehart and Forrest significantly less and their pockets are much deeper and their actions serve only themselves.
A splendid analysis, Bernard. Thanks. Those pillars of society, Rinehart, Palmer and Forrest,
could leave us all without a roof when they keep blowing their top. Rather than accommodating the Mining Resource Rent Tax, they use their monetary might to intimide others.
That stuff in the ground, surely, is our common wealth. Making off with profits that leave others gasping, even although in the process they provide employment, does not a society make.
I thought the Turnbull profile in the weekend paper was priceless. And he turns up on Q&A next week. Any one starting to see a pattern?
Australians actually like to hear politicians speak frankly, not the usual guarded utterances and party parroting we’ve been subjected to in recent years. Speaking frankly indicates strength.
I particularly lurve the way the tories have done the same-old same-old switcheroo that any criticism of the super rich is an attack on aspirational entrepreneurs, the middle class and battlers (WTF?!).
Both MM & Sloppy used that expression & variations over the last couple of days, showing how well they stick to the script written by their masters.