As Dennis Atkins observes, Brendan Nelson yesterday took what appeared to be a calculated gamble in breaking the convention that senior pollies don’t comment on the Reserve Bank’s interest rate decisions. Nelson called for a cut of 50 points in the cash rate.
I suspect this was some sort of pre-emptive strike to try to forestall any credit claiming by Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan if (as expected) the cash rate is cut by 25 points later today. The politics haven’t played out to script, with Nelson’s comments that he wouldn’t make such a call in government playing into Rudd’s hands.
But it was interesting to hear Nelson’s justification on Lateline last night. Nelson argued that he was reflecting what “many Australians” thought. For those who’ve been paying any attention to what he’s had to say since he became leader, that’s typical. He appears to regard himself as some sort of transmission belt. Hence all the emo-ting. It’s an intriguing view of political leadership because it completely eviscerates the notion of leadership itself. Perhaps it’s one reason why his own leadership is in so much trouble.
Speaking of which, Christian Kerr, who brings you “balance and fact”, occupies his column inches this morning deconstructing Peter Costello’s interjections in Question Time. Perhaps this is his own small contribution to balancing out the purported paucity of analysis on the part of bloggers. It’s really important for our nation’s destiny, after all, to parse Costello’s throw away lines every which way:
“Wow! What about the meaning of life?” Costello exclaimed.
Mind boggling. The leader of the party that sought to screw millions of innocent employees, now and for untold generations into the future with WorkChoices … purporting to speak for “Australians”. If it weren’t so obscene it would be almost funny.
“Many Australians” think that Stud Nelson should not be allowed anywhere near the levers of leadership.
Astoundingly, Stud appears to pay them little heed.
That’s leadership for you.
Nelson is just desperate for some relevance. A problem for the opposition at the moment is they are running around like they should be in with a show at the election, when really they should be concentrating on a two-election strategy. It was the one thing Beazley did really well - not run around like it was a contest or anything. Along came Pauline Hanson and a number of early Coalition mistakes and it was game on.
Someone needs to tell Nelson and his party to calm down some. Stop swinging at every pitch.
yep, Howard C, Kimbo did that really well, not running around as if it was a contest: lazy, unengaged and sloppy are other adjectives (assessments) one might proffer.
BRENDON NELSON gets nut caught on penis!
Oh wait…sorry…that was a Malaysian welder. I got the two mixed up. My bad.
Carry on.
Sometimes the best thing to do is very little. What can Nelson actually achieve at the moment? Better to be quiet and give the MSM only the government to write about.
An unjustifiable act, but at least it’s a public act. Historically when the ALP interferes with Reserve Bank decision-making in government it simply does so behind closed doors. No silly talk about conventions that way. Hopefully Swan’s quite proper refusal to give the RBA public advice extends to the private sphere.
BBB
Historically, BBB? It would be fair to point out that the convention didn’t exist before the independence of the Board was guarenteed by Costello in 1996. Keating was well within his rights back in the day, and if we’re to believe him now, exercising restraint was a dumb move - because his recession was actually Bernie Fraser’s!
Re - the Beazer, I think I’m with Howard C. The Libs would be better off keeping their heads down. It’s the relevance/media tart syndrome that’s doing them in (among other factors - but it accentuates those).
On that same Lateline interview, the Beazer mentioned his wife (No 3) in the context of how he would be remaining strong/resolute as Opposition leader. While I agree with the ‘media tart’ analogy I’m getting the feeling that adversity - the polls, Cossie, an ETS - are only making Brendan a more hardened, more shrill performer. For someone who once flirted with Labor we have to be sceptical that Nelson has any deep political motivations. Power is the aphrodisiac and I would like to know more about wives 1,2 and 3 - strictly in the political power sense mind you.
Pablo, I think you mean “Emo Man”. “The Beazer” = Kim Beazley.
Wait, this so-called convention is precisely one Government old? Some convention! Alright alright, that’s a cheap shot in view of how long Australians kept rejecting the ALP and its programme. We’re now all aware that Keating has admitted interfering in what should always have been an apolitical decision making process. He didn’t have the decency to formalise independence. Costello, to his everlasting credit, did. Unfortunately for Keating’s acolytes his admission, which was made and manufactured to deflect responsibility for the catastrophic economic circumstances of the early 90s, now looks a little pathetic. He didn’t grasp the bigger picture or have a fully formed vision of what independent monetary policy could be. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? Nelson is making a complete fool of himself while Swan and Rudd get to ludicrously claim that their solid budget surplus, an extremely marginal and inconsequential factor in monetary policy, is the alpha and omega of today’s RBA decision. Check this line out: “The savings we put in place, the delivery of the tax cuts, the creation of the investments funds were all put in place to create the environment and to make the room for the Reserve Bank to bring rates down.” Simple, outright, bald-faced lies. And bizarre inconsistent lies at that: “The savings made this happen. No wait, the tax cuts [the opposite of government ’savings] made this happen. No wait the investment funds that have not yet spent a cent made this happen.” What an embarrassment. I do not expect any serious analysis of this monstrous deception, here or elsewhere.
BBB
Yes of course thanks Mark
No probs, pablo.
BBB, I would certainly agree that the blame-gaming and credit-claiming on both Rudd and Nelson’s sides is gibberish almost completely disconnected from reality. The slowing of the economy isn’t due to the election of the Rudd government but nor is the size of the surplus driving the rate cut.
Yes, and my opinion of Turnbull is diminishing by the day as he persists in throwing Rudd and Swan idiotic questions like ‘why has the economy slowed since you guys got elected’. It can’t be fooling many.
BBB