Astute readers may have noticed that I’m taking a break from the computer screen while I recover from an eye infection, but I did get a chance to write this story for Crikey yesterday before I went off and bought an eyepatch - which is quite Borgian, when I think about it. Republished from today’s Crikey email:
After any chance of his “United Conservative Party” succeeding in drawing the Liberals to the Nationals’ fold effectively collapsed on the weekend with the leaking of their negotiations with various far right groups, Lawrence Springborg has taken the extraordinary step of shoveling dirt into the Nationals’ grave in a new advertising campaign he launched yesterday.
The self-dubbed Borg told AAP that the omission of the Nationals and Coalition brands was deliberate - “this is a leadership campaign”, he said. The big L Leader expects the “new party” to “to seamlessly morph into” his “better way”.
This is an extraordinarily high stakes gamble for Springborg. He’s trying to replicate the Kevin07 campaign, but he appears not to realise that Rudd was a genuinely new leader, not a recycled one, and that Kevin07 was about polishing the ALP’s brand, not trashing it. Springborg only gained a swing of 0.4% in the last state election at a time when Peter Beattie’s government was very vulnerable. His own colleagues shoved him out of the leadership, but he managed to resurrect himself earlier this year. He’ll be contesting his third election, and his talk of “youth” only draws attention to the ancients on his own front and back benches, and hardly appears calculated to be an effective attack on Anna Bligh.
Focus group research Graham Young and I conducted on his leadership during his previous campaign was reported in Crikey in 2006. He had enormous baggage then, and was perceived by voters as “carping”, “whining” and “negative”. Those perceptions will still be out there.
The Borg had one shot in his locker as a justification for overthrowing Jeff Seeney - his UCP. Now some Libs, rocked by the resignation of state president Warwick Parer, are throwing around accusations that Mal Brough is “too close to the Nationals” as a reason for rejecting his candidacy. Parer’s standing down is being seen as a way for the party to wiggle out of the promise he made to put the UCP idea to the Liberal membership. If there’s one thing the squabbling Liberal factions will agree on, it’s that amalgamation and the new party are off the table - the tables are in fact being turned with Libs calling for the Nats to join them - under the Liberal name.
All this should tell Springborg something - he could well end up all alone with his Pineapple Party, out on a limb with Ron Boswell trying to saw it off.
The Queensland Nats seem determined to prove the truth of Marx’s axiom - history occurs the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.
Watch for the Coalition agreement to start to crumble as the next predictable instalment in this saga stuck on permanent repeat. The Borg had better hope that Queenslanders have short memories, and that having a youthful spring in his step will be enough.
Ironically, Anna Bligh’s regime has been under a lot of pressure over the last fortnight - with all manner of issues blowing up in Labor’s collective face. But there’ll be a smile on Bligh’s face today - Springborg is going to be fulfilling his traditional role of getting the government’s woes off the front pages, and putting conservative unity front and right of centre on the public agenda. It’s a fabulous time for connoisseurs of political farce, but a much less fabulous one for anyone who believes parliamentary democracy needs an effective opposition.
Update: Here’s the ad courtesy of the “Borg09″ YouTube Channel:
Elsewhere: More from Graham Young at Ambit Gambit.
Hmmm. Negative advertising to start off with? I suppose the Borg has no option - last time he ranted and raved about how everything would have been just fine if only the glorious achievements of the Borbidge government had been continued. I suppose he now wants everyone to forget that he was ever a Minister, since apparently he’s just beamed down from outer space. What’s the basis for getting people to believe that he’ll deliver?
He seems to be mashing up themes from all sorts of political campaigns - the Death Star like music from McCain, the “fresh” thing from Kevin07, and the tieless youth bit from David Cameron.
He’s got a new hairstyle too, I see.
Do the Nats really have such a large bucket of money that they can afford to keep this unbranded advertising up for another 18 months (or is the real plan to blow the cash before the Libs take over)?
God they are a mess. Unfortunately, all of the opposition parties in this country fall into the category of “carping”, “whining” and “negative”.
Can anyone tell me - is there a decent opposition anywhere in Australia at the moment?
The NSW opposition is useless and IMO going backwards. The Vic opposition appears to be doing a little bit better but not much. The Qld opposition seems to be in a right mess and don’t know if they are coming or going.
I admit I don’t know much about the oppositions in other states but are they also useless?
Graham Young observed that they hadn’t got the springborg.com site up and running yet despite releasing an ad pointing people there. The “under construction” thing has been removed, and there’s now a redirect to his old “Conversation with Qld” site:
[link]
Warning - it tries to trap your browser and disable your back button.
Also all about Lawrence and no party label.
All this suggests haste - probably to get this dishwater out in the public arena to try to bounce the Libs into the UCP this weekend - the Borg’s cunning strategy of assimmilation all along.
Polly - I think the Vic libs are actually doing pretty well. Not that I like it much, but Brumby’s doing a fair bit of not-that-popular stuff and they’re not sounding too shrill or ridiculous… just biding their time and stacking up the points.
Is it a personality factor? Brumby less cuddly than Bracks? And the fact that Baillieu isn’t a right wing Liberal?
Can anyone tell me - is there a decent opposition anywhere in Australia at the moment?
Well, the Greens still seem to be doing a good job but the media still seems to be ignoring them.
By contrast, Nelson is playing the media at every turn, complaining loudly about everything he can think of (whether it makes sense or not). And every time Nelson opens his mouth it gets air-time.
Speaking of Teh Borg, his mate on the Gold Coast, Tom “Team” Tate, has finally been declared a loser, with the incumbent Ron Clarke retaining the mayorship, which means the Libs got zip, nada, nothing out the local elections here.
Hey, BTW - an intelligent young woman is running the country right now and for the next 3 weeks!!! Worth a post at LP, girls?
Pollytickedoff: the opposition in WA is in horrible shape. Paul Omodei, who shot his own son, was recently deposed by Troy Buswell as leader, a first term MLA who is most famous for “snapping the bra strap” of a Labor staffer at a Christmas party. This prompted several Liberal MPs to quit the party and run as independents.
Dunno, Gandhi. Already did the Julia as Acting PM post last year - I tend to think it’s better to accept it as par for the course and wholly normal rather than draw attention to it every time as if it’s remarkable.
Good point, Kim. I forgot about that Bali trip.
She was acting PM on another occasion too.
The SA opposition is hopeless, too. However, with any luck, Downer might resign his Federal seat and stand for a state seat - he’d make a _wonderful_ opposition leader, probably for a very long time …
That’s how all urban voters perceive non-urban politicians and voters.
The Springborg ad also says at the end that it is authorised by The Nationals so whilst the omission of the brands on the bulk of the ad may have been deliberate, the authorisation of the ad will not go unnoticed.