Ready, aim, shoot yourself in the foot Crikey has been pointing out, for a while, the hypocrisy of coverage of the Coalition’s (eminently affordable and entirely necessary) COVID-19 spending spree as compared to the vitriol and bluster that greeted Labor’s equally important response to the global financial crisis.
But it turns out, we shouldn’t have bothered, because according to Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese a focus on debt and deficit is an entirely correct and sane way to assess government response to a financial and public health crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen in a century. First, a cheap gotcha on Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s unequivocal assertion in an interview on 7.30 that the budget *would* be back in surplus this year:
Yesterday, he once again argued the budget was being blown out under the Liberals, tweeting a graph of debt levels under Labor and Liberal governments.
And sure, there is an amazing double standard about what level of spending can be tolerated depending on the party that does it, but one would think that’s not a standard the apparently progressive major party should encourage.
Palmer on the borderline Clive Palmer’s attempt to get Western Autralia to reopen its borders got off to a decent start yesterday, with the state’s chief health officer conceding in the Federal Court that there was little public health justification for keeping the state closed to the Australian states and territories that had eliminated COVID-19.
Beyond his apparent personal enmity toward WA Premier Mark McGowan, Palmer has his eyes firmly set on next year’s state election.
However his case goes, though, Palmer’s populist judgement may have deserted him on this one. McGowan’s handling of the coronavirus has made him, by some distance, the most popular premier in the country. Just last Thursday, The West Australian reported on polling that put McGowan’s state Labor government at a crushing 66-34 lead over the Liberals, with McGowan’s personal approval at 86%.
WA is a population uniquely receptive to the idea of a closed border — remember, it’s a state that four times has been too conservative to implement daylight savings, but well and truly in favour of secession.
Foster the people University of New South Wales (UNSW) economics professor Gigi Foster has been getting plenty of attention as the academic voice of the “end the lockdown, sorry about your elderly relatives” movement, with appearances on Q&A, 60 Minutes and then Q&A again last night.
Less than two weeks ago UNSW announced it was cutting nearly 500 jobs, so the last thing its PR department needs is one of its employees going all General Turgidson on national TV. Unsurprisingly, it has been swift to distance itself from Foster’s comments.
That was then, this is now A few days before the 2010 election, then-opposition leader Tony Abbott told the National Press Club that, thanks to Labor’s mining tax, “we now rank behind Argentina, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Namibia and Botswana as a safe place to invest in mining thanks to the actions of this government”.
Firstly, it might shock you to find out, that was wrong. Now, in a piece for today’s The Australian, he has a very different idea about why investment in Africa would be attractive:
In Africa, especially, Western companies are finding it hard to compete because they can’t manage local politics as readily as Chinese-led consortiums …
Chinese-run mines in Africa have poor safety records, low environmental standards and largely use imported Chinese labour (often prisoners) and even local child labour. They get away with this because they can bribe local officials and eliminate local troublemakers.
We hope no investors were foolish enough to follow Abbott’s mining investment tips.
Admittedly it’s a tough gig at the best of times and these are hardly those, but unless Albanese starts to get some traction with some well-chosen bon mots at some stage before the next election, he needn’t keep nurturing any dreams about moving into Kirribilli.
Only three Labor leaders have won election from Opposition since WW2 – Whitlam, Hawke and Rudd. All were charismatic, larger-than-life, almost messianic personalities. Albo ain’t. Furthermore, I don’t know that I have seen that person in a Labor HofR seat yet. There are plenty of smart ones, eg Tanya, but none fits the model that has worked three times.
The Liberals can get away with putting up suburban solicitors or middle managers, but the electorate seems to demand more of Labor.
The Liberals have played it very cynically by hogging the National Cabinet and not inviting the leader of the opposition to contribute and then by shutting down the parliament.
Some say that China is a one party state but we are not far behind.
“WA is a population uniquely receptive to the idea of a closed border — remember, it’s a state that four times has been too conservative to implement daylight savings, .” Rubbish. Yes, the closed border is popular because, as McGowan said at the time, it makes us “an island within an island.” The leakage of the Victorian outbreak into New South Wales is illustrates how vigorously a state that has reached zero community transmission of COVID-19 needs to guard that status. As far as daylight saving is concerned, we tried it repeatedly with a referendum after each trial and as trial followed trial the negative vote grew stronger. Our long hot summer afternoons just lead to an extra hour of running the home air conditioning followed by having to get up for work at an hour when sleeping with minimal air cooling is still comfortable. And that’s in the south, never mind the burning hot tropical north. Nothing to do with conservatism, we just don’t support government-imposed hot discomfort. Of course people who live near the beaches would have voted “Yes.” Now, “but well and truly in favour of secession.” Stop it, Crikey, this is tabloid drivel. Why don’t you do a search for secession in the editorial and letters pages of WA newspapers? Or see if you can find someone interested in running a survey to gauge interest? (Hint: Nobody would bother to do it.) The 2017 rubbish you linked to, apparently without reading it, quoted a couple of half-hearted secession proposals that attracted little interest and faded into well deserved obscurity. “Well and truly uninterested in secession.”
Also agreed. McGowan is popular because he has put WA first, as he probably should. Palasczuk may do well, who knows, but Qlders seem to be liking her Qld first policies, and border closures, except for those seriously ruffled by it.
McGowan has done well, no doubt.
AA is nothing more than a place holder, a sock puppet with Jim Charmless’ hand up him.
I agree that the next Labor PM is not yet in Parliament but I fear not even in high school. Or even at school.
Oppositions don’t win elections, Governing parties lose them. You may be surprised.
I tend to agree Rais, at least for the LNP. DF above states that Whitlam, Hawke and Rudd were charismatic, larger than life figures. While true of Whitlam and Hawke, that’s not at all true of Rudd. He was more the intellectual equivalent of ScoMo’s daggy dad. As charismatic as a wet sponge, he couldn’t have been more boring.
Howard lost that election because he had been around too long, and a clear senate saw his political judgement clouded by his neoliberal fantasies. Workchoices couldn’t have been more Orwellian.
Albos debt and deficit talk should be more nuanced. He should be coming out saying that while the LNP are racking up debt, that is ok to address national programs. Even have a revolutionary discussion about MMT, denounce the debt as an accountants myth, and work from there on what govt debt should be put towards.
Gigi Foster appears to be an economist and a lightweight at that, which puts her around helium in terms of gravity and substance. If she has an argument she hasn’t put it yet. No cost benefit has been put forward, no figures, just rhetoric, and not even that. This is academia as celebrity, surely the worst of all worlds. Mind you, with the debauching of academia, that is a path to success.
Oh, Tony, you forgot to mention that when a government changes it usually does so with lots of gunfire.
And of course you lose the mine.