According to accepted narratives (same narratives that ran last year), the budget will be a test to see if Kevin Rudd’s honeymoon will come to an end. Note to pundits: it appears to have been going strong since December 2006. I’m inclined to agree with Mark that we’re seeing a very different political pattern take hold. The question is - what to do? If you’re in the Liberal party, that is. Malcolm Turnbull has been speaking all sorts of gobbledegook about the economy, which Glenn Milne fancifully interprets as “attacking Rudd from the left”. I can’t see that, but Milne (credit where credit… etc.) is surely right that Turnbull’s approach does blunt most sensible lines of attack on the budget. But what of his esteemed leader pro tem?
Still, at least Turnbull has a macro-economic framework, based on his sources of advice, that he is prepared to argue. Brendan Nelson, on present evidence, has none.
His attack on Rudd’s suggestion that the baby bonus might be means-tested was excruciatingly populist: “Every mother loves her baby,” Nelson said. “Every baby is valued, and Mr Rudd should value all babies equally. We should not live in an Australia where Mr Rudd thinks that some babies are more valuable than others. It’s very, very important that Mr Rudd understand that every mother loves her baby and this should be an Australia where all babies are equal.”
Nelson, bless his sincerity, is like a piece of emotional blotting paper. Whatever interest group he is addressing, he feels their pain. But this will not substitute for a credible policy response on budget night.
Newspoll has Nowhere Man dropping back to 9% (within the margin of error, Dennis). So much emoting for so little electoral benefit. Maybe if the Liberals just all went away - had a very long lunch with Dolly, or went on a cruise with Wilson - for about a year, that might prove a better strategy than whatever passes for opposition in these times?
The Nelson opposition is increasingly becoming a re-make of ‘Weekend at Bernies’, only this time, with cheaper laughs.
The latest Shamaham Turd polishing effort.
[COALITION support has risen to its highest level since Brendan Nelson took over the Liberals but the Opposition Leader continues to languish in the head-to-head contest with Kevin Rudd.
The ALP’s primary vote slipped from a record high as the Government promised there would be big spending cuts in next week’s budget.
According to the latest Newspoll survey, conducted exclusively for The Australian last weekend, primary support for the ALP fell four percentage points from 51 to 47 per cent and the Coalition’s support rose from 34per cent to 37 per cent, a high since the election.
Based on preference flows at the last election, the two-party-preferred vote still has Labor with a huge 14-point lead of 57 per cent to 43 per cent.
This is the Coalition’s best party result since Dr Nelson became Opposition Leader, but his personal support has worsened with a fall back to single digits as preferred prime minister and a decline in satisfaction.
The only Opposition lader in Australia with a lower personal rating is embattled West Australian Liberal leader Troy Buswell, who survived an attempt to remove him as leader yesterday. ]
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23652050-601,00.html
What’s Nelson’s line of argument here? That we’re rewarding motherly love? Does this mean that if a mother doesn’t love her baby (and it might be shock to DR Nelson, but it happens) she shouldn’t get the bonus? What if she just likes it a little bit? Does she have to wait until it warms on her until she gets the full bonus?
Or is he implying that, as soon as it hits the operating table, the baby is an independent being, ready to start out on its own, and thus needs the dosh so it can go out and rent itself a trendy little pad?
OK what he said sounded a bit odd but give him a break. The poor bloke had probably been up until 3 am sitting in a gutter somewhere comforting a mother who’d just lost her home.
Pollies of all persuasions want to be a bit careful here. Babies are all well and good if you happen to own one (have one?) On a phone poll on Sunrise this morning (Yeah, I know -Kochie has just discovered the existence of spyware and is currently terrifying suburban mums and dads about it) - anyway, in this poll which asked if workers - oops, working families - were prepared to have a levy of c. $5 something a week taken out of their pay to fund universal maternity/paternity leave, 95% said NO!!! My sentiments exactly. Why the f*** should people have to pay for other peoples’ children? Esprcially if they’re well-off.
Bumbles with his Gettysburgh-like address on babies and the baby bonus should take note.
In the 1980s, Liberal moderates could not articulate a position dramatically different from the Hawke government. The Liberals lost election after election, they purged the moderates and dragged the party to the right. Eventually, two things happened that enabled the Liberals to win office: a) the ALP exhausted themselves and b) they created enough of a difference to appeal to voters. Different, and not tired: the requirements of an opposition ready for government.
Today, Liberal conservatives cannot articulate a position dramatically different from the Rudd government. The Liberals will lose election after election. That’s it, really. There are no cohorts of moderate Liberals laying in wait to redress old wrongs, as to be a moderate Liberal means that you have to be an anti-Howard Liberal. There is no such thing as an anti-Howard Liberal.
There can be no such thing as an anti-Howard Liberal. In 1972, every Liberal was an anti-McMahon Liberal, there were well-constructed narratives for Liberals to take up and carry through opposition into the following government (”The Liberal-Country Party Opposition 1972-75 was the most successful Opposition in Australian political history” - Discuss.). In 1983 every Liberal was an anti-Fraser Liberal, and many still are. In 2008, nobody is attempting the post-Howard thing, not even Malcolm Turnbull, which is why nobody is staking out that territory.
Not only are the Liberals still in the cave, they have their eyes shut to the shadows on the wall.
Lyons Opposition against Scullin was pretty good, though they did have to get their leader from the ALP.