Is the Turnbull government genuinely different from its predecessor? Or are Labor and Tony Abbott right, that it remains the same government, just with a more electorally appealing leader?
There are some positive indications that some of Abbott’s poor policies — such as retaining Australia’s unsustainable superannuation tax concessions, and trying to curb investment in renewable energy — have been dumped.
But the core policy problems of the Abbott government remain: Australia lacks any credible policy on climate action, our strategy for returning to surplus is based on overly optimistic growth forecasts, we are needlessly involved in a Middle Eastern conflict that is in serious danger of spiralling out of control, and we are operating a detention facility on Nauru now synonymous with rape, child abuse and mistreatment of asylum seekers.
Moreover, transparency in Australian politics is at its lowest ebb in decades, with both ministers and public servants actively working to undermine what few mechanisms of public scrutiny exist in Australia.
The more positive, less combative, tone of politics that Malcolm Turnbull has ushered in welcome. This week, for example, we have actually had the beginnings of a serious discussion about infrastructure, with Labor unveiling a major policy and Cities Minister Jamie Briggs talking realistically about pricing for public transport.
But as Tony Abbott and the aggression and febrile partisanship he brought to Australian politics recedes into history, it’s incumbent on Turnbull to demonstrate how he is handling the key challenges facing Australia. And it is on that basis that he should be judged by voters.
At the moment Turnbull is a hamstrung huckster trying to tidy up round the policy edges.. an election campaign will bring these failings into sharper focus and mitigate the “Not Tony” factor..
Crikey, when it come to your gib, I like the way it’s cut. Turnbull does need to reveal more. The Libs could also do more about the biased press (i.e reduce Murdoch’s reaches), and dispelling the sense of entitlement and privilege that they hold for themselves and all those who are of similar ilk. I don’t think they really believe in democracy, or even have a full understanding of the concept, not when you hear mutterings such as, “It’s not government’s role to…blah, blah, blah.”, (Joe Hockey). My understanding of democracy is that it’s up to the electorate to determine a government’s role.
It was a sad day when Hoadley’s stopped the Polly Waffle production line – thankfully, now we have Spitbull….
[Which reminds me – did anyone else have a “Mr Potato Head” set, years ago? Grab a vegetable/fruit, any piece, and make a head out of it that you could change, just by sticking different pieces of plastic facial features in it – much like the Limited News Party?]
…As for that “aggression and febrile partisanship” receding into history? At least ’til Labor wins government again? Then it will be “business as usual”?
I wouldn’t, couldn’t vote tory were I hanging by my bal … err … fingernails over the Pit but do desperately want Bullturn to succeed with his colleagues.
Not by being Abbotrocious-lite, which seems to be what they expect, but by appealing to their reason, decency and better natures… oh, wait.
If he can at least cause the ratbags to split and form a Bernadzi (thanx klewi) Phalangist schism then he can go to his grave with the epitaph, ‘well done’.