I’m sticking to my no politics on the weekend rule, and have a busy day tomorrow, so I’m going to save up my thoughts on the first anniversary of the defeat of the Howard government and the election of the Rudd Labor government for later on. But there’s no doubt that there will be a fair bit of discussion about it, so please feel free to use this thread for posting links, and making any observations you may have. I think it is a useful milestone to place the government’s performance in some sort of perspective that’s deeper and less transient than the everyday trivialities of most political commentary.
Update: Here’s my take, focusing more on politics than policy. Graham Young looks at the deficit issue. An Onymous Lefty emphasises the Not Howard issue. At Crikey, Bernard Keane wishes everyone a Happy Kruddiversary and readers weigh in, and Scott Bridges writes in New Matilda.
Update: Andrew Bartlett notes the anniversary and the fact that it happily coincides with the long over due removal of statutory discrimination against same sex couples.
Perhaps the most refreshing thing about the last 12 months has been the seeming lack of ideology permeating government decisions. I think the difference has been stark- Howard made decisions it would seem on an ideoological/ a priori basis for much of the time, whereas Rudd seems to favour an a posteriori/ evidence based approach towards formulating public policy. This is no doubt due to Rudd’s time in the public service. It has also made it difficult for the Liberals to take their usual quick and easy culture wars type positions on issues. This has been laid bare in Turnbull and Abbott’s ad hominem attacks Rudd.
I guess the thing that worries me is some of the knee jerk popularism, and moralising as particuarly evidence by the Henson case. That and Rudd’s lack of vision, and inability to deliver a good speach remain a constant source of annoyance. I think Rudd needs to learn to delegate, and unlock some of the talent he has sitting on his backbench. The public will get bored of his wooden public persona after long. I think the secret to success for Kevin will be in learning how to let goa little.
It’s salutary to note how much the Liberals are favouring a command economy, now that they’re out of power. Swan should do this, Rudd should do that, to achieve this or that outcome. Hey, guys, you were supposed to be in favour of the free market, get with the program. (I’m not suggesting that the Rudd government is free-market, just that Liberal suggestions lately have been reliably interventionist).
Well ….
I don’t know if much has really changed at all. The Education revolution was both underwhelming and appears to be petering out, the climate change policy looks like it’s going to be watered down and they still haven’t moved on IR which I don’t understand at all. Sure it’s been difficult for Rudd in the first year, but I continue to get the feeling that electing a Rudd Labor government has been nothing more then electing a 3 year caretaker government.
Where are the big reforms that were promised, where is the leaner and more responsive public service. All we have had so far is reviews, half-attempts and endless moralising about irrelevant garbage. Which to be Honest, was the Howard mantra, fortunately this time without the conservative spin.
I’m not advocating a return to the Liberals, but I don’t believe we have done ourselves any favors by electing this government. We really need some strong leadership, and some innovative thinkers to get this country moving again, but it just seems that we are never going to find such people in government, especially while the Libs and the ALP are still around.
PinkyOz
Is it really 12 months already? Wasn’t Rudd supposed to be out by now, replaced by that mad barren socialist so Teh Left could have its diabolical way with us? I could have sworn I read lots of confident forecasts like that about 13 months ago …
Speaking personally I can’t say I’ve noticed much change. In the Howard years when I read the political local news my emotional responses were usually in the ration 1 part incredulous laughter:2 parts mild depression:3 parts righteous wrath. These days it’s more like 1:3:2. Progress of a sort I suppose.
Since most of the factional favours must have been payed back by now, surely it’s time to cut loose some of the weaker ministers and give them some “special projects” to keep them away from anything important.
Bad + Ugly:
Kim Carr for example. Why are we giving Ford $13 million dollars to keep that 50 year old boat anchor engine in production? It was obsolete in 1965, and was far more economical in 1995 than the ridiculously overpowered and incredibly expensive thing it’s become. Yet, Ford now go begging for dough when they simply could put the 1995 version back into production to get the fuel economy back. It’s ridiculous. Epic Fail.
Where’s Combet? Surely he’s got the nous to be a John Button type of character where Kim Carr is an economic dunce.
Jenny Mackie and the intervention in the NT – she’s a bunny caught in the headlights too afraid to make a decision based on the parts that are failing, and without the guts to reassert the racial discrimination laws. Epic Fail.
Garrett, the minister for plastic bags. Epic Fail.
The good:
Swan, despite being the most boring man on the planet, has grown into the treasury pretty well and the Lindsay Tanner combo has neutered the perception that the Liberals are better at managing economies. (except for KIM BLOODY CARR).
Rudd, whilst being unhelpfully po-faced and conservative on social matters and too willing to comment on them, is effective at everything else.
Gillard is a complete star, if only they could get the workplace changes moving faster instead of being distracted so much by international events.
Penny Wong – made some ill informed decisions but overall pretty impressive.
I agree with the criticisms posted by others. Am perturbed to the ACCC is still going, and a unionist might be on the verge of going to jail for attending a union meeting and refusing to tell the ACCC what happened at it. I would have thought that could only have happened under Howard.
I don’t like Rudd’s po-faced moralism on some social issues either.
Or the terribly slow progress getting rid of Workchoices.
And I’m very concerned that he’s a free trade rather than fair trade advocate. But apart from the Internet I think globalism sucks anyway.
And I don’t like the way he seems to be backing down over whaling.
On the plus side, he is doing something about global warming, but probably nowhere near enough.
He did makle a much delayed and much needed apology to Indigenous people which made the whole country feel – well – bloody incredible and he brought tears of joy to the eyes of most of us by doing so.
His immigration policies seem to be a vast improvement on Howard’s.
And what over PM would get up at APEC and make the betterment of the world’s poor, an international issue? By that I was mightily impressed. In fact, for a few brief minutes I even got the glow again.
He’s giving pensioners $1400 to blow and he’s going to increase the pension next budget. He’s stopped government discrimination against disabled pensioners to some extent, and that’s a big plus for me.
Sure, he’s not doing everything we want.But he’s doing a fair bit.
And, most importantly, he got rid of Howard completely, with a bit of help from Maxine McKew and the rest of us.
Overall, at this point, the pluses outwiegh the minuses. Just.
Oh, and he told the world George W. Bush was a goose. That’s another plus,
Somebody should do something about Garrett and do it quickly, but otherwise I’ve got no complaints. Except that, pace Timothy Watson, I’d like to see a little more ideology. And I never ever want to hear the word “families” from a politician’s lips ever again ever, with or without “working”.
Not sure whether this should go on this thread or on the postmodernism thread. But one year into Rudd Labor, the number of aboriginal children removed from their homes has risen sharply. In 2008, the rate is four times the rate in 1968!!
Removed, Stolen, or Rescued?
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24695603-601,00.html
Garrett should go. He is a complete and utter dud, and if I had any Midnight Oil CDs I’d destroy them.
Apart from the other pluses and minuses mentioned above, Senator Evans is doing a pretty good job in immigration, and I still hold out hope for Tanya Plibersek.
Don’t know about Marn, and Maxine’s been strangely silent lately.
You only need to watch the Howard Years to remind yourself how far we’ve actually come, it’s just that it’s nowhere near far enough.
He’s playing “small target” politics still. It’s all about that 2nd term. Above all elese don’t really annoy anyone too much. It’s going to make it hard for us conservatives to get rid of him and you guys on the Left are going to have that “is the glass half full or half empty sort of feeling. ” He risks being seen as the most average grey PM of all time but likely to get 2 terms and maybe a 3rd but by the 3rd sitting on the fence won’t be so easy.\
He’s Tony Blair with even less charisma.
Did we have a change of government 12 months ago? I hadn’t noticed.
Whatever happened to that 2020 summitty loveydovey thingamybob? What’s happening out in the bush now that we’ve said sorry? How much our emissions have dropped since we signed Kyoto? How many new jobs have been created since we got rid of workchoices? How many kids now have a laptop? Where’s that fast broadband I was promised!
Kingsley
The conservatives should be shouting from the rooftops. Rudd is the Most (large L) Liberal PM since Menzies!
Senator Christine Milne on carbon capture plans
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/24/2427729.htm
Paul, do you mean the ABCC? What’s the circumstances?
David Rubie: the reason why you just can’t bring back the 1995 Falcon engine is simple – emissions regulation. That was what was going to kill it off in 2010, until the government bribed Ford to spend the money to update it.
It’s actually a pretty remarkable engine, especially in its turbocharged form – it’s faster than a Holden V8 and gets considerably better fuel economy. The biggest problem with that engine is that it’s sized to carry an 1800 kg lump of lard around at warp speed; about the only thing that can do that economically is the latest generation of European turbodiesels and they have their own emissions problems.
Plastic bags are a classic example of the environmental movement going off at a convenient but inconsequential target. See this thread. Far more important is Penny Wong’s inability to persuade Victoria to get rid of its restrictions on water trading, to be honest.
If Combet can reduce the number of stuffups on defence procurement, he will have done a remarkable job and I wouldn’t shift him any time soon.
Kim Carr is an old-style factory-hugger, but not every stupid decision relating to the car industry is his fault. A lot of that stuff seems to be coming straight from the top.
The tax and pensions review seems like a genuinely good idea, and hopefully some good stuff will come out of it. Ditto the new defence white paper. The stupid election promise to introduce a “Department of Homeland Security” seems to have quietly been ditched.
The big unanswered questions for me for the remainder of the term are what they’re going to do on health and education, particularly tertiary education where it’s their direct responsibility. Obviously, there’s an element of self-interest here, but I really do think universities need a lot more money (not necessarily all coming from the federal government) and a lot less micromanagement from the feds.
RM @ 15,
Yeah. ABCC. Noel Washington is a CFMEU unionist who went to a union meeting in his lunchtime. He was hauled before the ABCC and refused to dislose what was discussed at the union meeting. He goes to court on 3 December and is likely to face 6 months jail. There are rallies in Sydney and various other places. There are quite a few sites on this, and I’m too blind to link them,(which is why I don’t link)but if you Google Noel Washinton you’re sure to get the info in more detail. There is also an on-line petition.
Robert Merkel wrote:
What happened to that promise that if the states didn’t get their health and education houses in order, the Feds would step in? Surely the deadline on that must be looming. Somebody has to save NSW from the congenitally mentally challenged political class we have fostered here.
…and sure the turbocharged six puts out gargantuan amounts of power and is marginally more fuel efficient than Holden’s V8 truck engine, but who exactly is using the warp speed these vehicles are now capable of? It’s the main reason I refuse to ditch our ancient EL – anything newer than that, of comparable size, uses at least 25% more fuel at the same speeds (or 40% more if you choose the morbidly obese Territory). They blew it in the usual way by forward planning exactly five minutes into the future. Back in the late nineties, fuel economy was one of the selling features, now you barely hear it mentioned except by companies that build sensible cars (that you can’t fit three kids in).
If it wasn’t for the Credit Crisis, which forced the government to actually take some action, I doubt anybody could name three things the Government has done outside of symbolism, reviews and love-ins.
They sold themselves to the electorate as Howard-lite and so far they have lived up to the ‘lite’ part of the bargain.
And on the subject of Ford engines – I don’t give a toss what they produce. I will continue to buy Holden V8’s.
There was a comment on one of the morning TV shows this morning that the Rudd Government is not going to take over hospital systems from the states. I wouldn’t vouch for its accuracy.
I’ll get out the cystal ball and make a prediction that Rudd’s biggest most frustrated critic will be Paul Keating. The “Kevin’s all about praise” will be just the tip of the iceberg when he really gets a head of steam up
David, the V8’s and turbos of the Ford and Holden ranges are apparently one of the few bright lights in local car sales to private buyers.
If they didn’t have those, it’d be 10 out of 10 sales going to fleets, not 9 out of 10.
And as somebody who owns perhaps the slowest-driven hoonmobile in Australia (it’s also driven very little; you can’t beat the fuel economy of a bicycle), if you have to think about the appeal of a fast car, you’ll never understand it.
never woulda picked you as a HOON, Robert!
Robert,
I’m a long time car hoon, from Volvo 850T5’s, BMWs, too many Alfas to count (including the 164) the list is endless and heartbreaking. The current Oz hot rods simply make no sense in a country where most people primary kilometres are done at 20km/h crawling through city streets. The simple fact is that the locals don’t make cars anybody sane wants to buy, except when they’ve done their 70% depreciation trick over three years. Unless you have access to a novated lease and are happy to wear the losses, there isn’t a single new car made by Holden or Ford that is remotely desirable, even to a hoon like me (and I love V8’s, I really do but in a family car?).
It’s beyond time Rudd and company simply announced they were cutting the locals loose from the teat and started buying cars that made financial sense. Which government official needs a rapidly depreciating Falcon when they could be driving a Corolla? Better resale, better value for the government, less emissions and lower fuel consumption (and keep the bloody things for four years instead of just two). It’s about 20 years too late of course, but better late than never.
It would probably mean the death of the local performance car, but good riddance.
Ambigulous: beneath this inner suburbanite exterior lies the heart of a kid who grew up riding trailbikes and sliding utes through muddy paddocks.
David: it may not be particularly rational, but the fact is that people do pay good money for hotted-up Holdens and Fords, unlike any other model in the range. And I’m pretty sure it’s not the government fleets buying them.
And hot rods make no rational sense anywhere except Bavaria. Probably not even there, because the German trains are excellent. If we had any sense, we’d all drive Skoda Roomsters or something similar.
Worked 5litre in a WB 1 tonner on gas and purpose built for my deerhounds, large steel stock-crate tarped and heavy duty rubber matting with full width timber toolbox bench to throw the swag on. Way over sensible weight with farm jacks, chains etc but it gives me 5 clicks to the litre and so compares favourably on price.
My wife has a Santa Fe 2.7 V6 does 10 clicks at twice the cost, so we break even.
On thread, sorry was terrific, I still feel heaps better than before a year ago but would like to see some results and action from the huge backlog of inquiries.
Oy, you leave those rapidly depreciating fleet falcons alone David Rubie! How else are people supposed to pick up a third hand falcon for $5K with less then 90k on the dial, ah?
Living in yummy mummy territory where a Territory is considered errw, ‘try hard territory’ – I like having a bit of metal around me when said tiny blonde is behind the wheel of whatever euro tank talking on the mobile with ipod in, and coming straight at you in streets 15 feet wide.
you get a lot a metal for your money with a falcon, parts are cheap as chips and just as importantly the cheapest torque on the market to likewise avoid the above and not get stuck in traffic. If I ever had to leave the eastern suburbs on a regular basis it would not be economical fuel wise, but as this is not going to happen, I’m buying on purely defensive grounds. When they ban 4wd’s in the cities is the day I’ll be toodling along in a eco-lite buzz box made of recycled coke cans. You couldn’t pay me to ride a bicycle on Sydney roads.
Oh, the Rudd Govt ……. a few ” yah’s” ……lotsa “good’……. some ‘huh’……and a bit of ‘wtf-ery’. Will expand on later but got kid home with gastro. And yet another reason to curse this AGW spring weather – it’s perfect virus weather.
“I’d like to see a little more ideology” Pavlov’s Cat
Yeah, pulling down detention centres, and retiring the ABCC would be nice.
jo wrote:
I dunno jo, I think there might be cheaper and/or better ways of making sure us second hand buyers get a steady stream of reasonable vehicles other than the government paying over the odds for them in the first place.
Let’s face it, if the government payed over the odds for a fleet of Prius (wtf is the plural for Prius? Priuses?) then you and me would get more than a decent shot of buying a hybrid at a reasonable price which IMHO would be a far better deal than an ex govt. BF Falcon – a car that should probably be on my shopping list but is so thirsty and carbon inefficient I can’t bring myself to buy one. The EL will stink up the driveway until it stops, at which point I’ll just leave it where it stopped
A whole year. No wonder I’m sick of him. Shame we can’t go back to the old one year tenure the Romans had. C’arn Kevvie git a job laddie. Let’s have Julia Gillard in. If for no better reason than Andrew Bolt’ll have a heart attack.
The major pluses, and they really are significant, are not having to listen to Howard and Downer on the news every night. The TV was pockmarked from things I used to throw at it.
Kev’s a bit of a disappointment and we could have seen that coming, but at least he’s our disappointment. Julia is our future writ large, if someone whipped 240v through Swan he’d be OK too, and Tanner is probably the other part of our future.
if someone whipped 240v through Swan he’d be OK too
.
.
You mean if someone whipped 2400v through Swan we’d be OK, right?
.
not having to listen to Howard and Downer on the news every night.
.
Yeah. That one I have to hand to Kevvie. And telling the Chinese off. $35 mill to Toyota? Not too cool Kevvie and the Jabberfest of the Chosen Kilo? Kevvie please, there’s nothing wrong with masturbation but keep it to yourself alright.
On that logic the more volts we stick through him the more people benefit. It’s worth a go.
Mark,
Apart from the odd lie here or there (anyone for an Education Very Very Gradual Evolution?), Rudd’s been pretty good at keeping his promises. What more can you ask for? Economically the team is rapidly maturing – as phil@vvb suggests Gillard/Swan/Tanner will be the intellectual centre of Australian parliamentary politics until 2013 – and will continue to shape itself into a fairly solid neoliberal government. And leaving aside the indulgences granted to appalling conservatives like Conroy, the scoresheet is also looking fairly good on the social policy side. The Coalition spruikers and doomsayers have been proved well and truly wrong.
I do hope, however, that they dispense with this aversion to borrowing for infrastructure (by which I mean investment in things that are genuine public goods/natural monopolies, not this and that from the Teh Left’s unending wish-list). The Howard/Costello balance sheet was criminally lazy. Rudd and Swan know that it is dumb to continue like this, but will they unchain themselves from the politics? All this talk of $40 billion holes in budgets isn’t encouraging. Credit crunches come and go. And would Turnbull be big enough to admit the basic economic truths that lie at the heart of prudent public sector investment?
You can already see what the lasting legacy of this government is likely to be: the new State/Federal arrangements that mimic the old National Competition Policy framework. That structure worked for Keating, and it’ll probably work for Rudd. Except in this case the neoliberal-esque incentives will be unleashed across the whole spectrum of shared sectors: health, education, etc. The fact that it’s taken an ALP government to do this ought to shame the likes of Howard and Costello.
Finally, the tax inquiry is shaping to be a cracker. Simplification, broader bases, lower rates, etc. are all on the table (and publicly so – not many missed the buttering up that Henry has been doing). Again, shaming Howard and Costello on this stuff is turning out to be too easy.
OK, that was a largely incoherent rant, but I’m not going to go back and tidy it up.
BBB
Update: Here’s my take, focusing more on politics than policy. Graham Young looks at the deficit issue. An Onymous Lefty emphasises the Not Howard issue. At Crikey, Bernard Keane wishes everyone a Happy Kruddiversary and readers weigh in, and Scott Bridges writes in New Matilda.
Personally I’m a bit disappointed. I mean sure it’s a plus we don’t have to put up with John Howard and Peter “WorkChoices never existed” Costello anymore but there are some troubling things. I’m seriously annoyed about this internet filter coming in and all the ramifications of it. Originally it was supposed to be an opt out system but now it’s going to be mandatory. We know the PM can speak Manadrin but this ain’t China!
Also continuing with the Aboriginal intervention and taking control of their welfare payments. Supposedly the Government want to bring that in for everyone on welfare with kids and we know when that happens what will come soon after. Open slather on the poor much like Howard and his non-core Work For The Dole system and his heartless Welfare To Work reforms. At least those on pensions will be getting that big payment next month. Still it seems the Government are fine with the disaster that is the Job Network system and taking so long to abolish WorkChoices.
Pretty poor really and hopefully Gillard gets the gig sooner rather than later.
Team Rudd, Tanner, Gillard, Swann, Macklin doing fine. I remain impressed.
I reckon the internet censoring stuff is pure politics, not policy – remember where the balance of power is in the Senate. Conroy is probably hoping that the thing indeed turns out to be technically infeasible, cos then he can turn to Fielding and say “well we tried …”.
And, yes, Rudd should delegate more. But his personality means he won’t.
Swan was a dope in opposition and is proving no better in goverment (building expectations about pension increases you can’t immediately meet and making a deficit in a recession look like something undesirable were both first class own goals). Neither the government or the country can afford him in present circumstances, so Rudd should be looking for a way to put Tanner or Gillard in his place.
As for the business welfare, it really sucks – the car package is the worst so far but its far from an isolated case. But unfortunately it’s to be expected because of the way Labor owes some of the unions big time (we’re replacing crony capitalists with crony unionists).
Update: Andrew Bartlett notes the anniversary and the fact that it happily coincides with the long over due removal of statutory discrimination against same sex couples.
jo: nicely put.
David Rubie: if Prius is Latin, perhaps the plural is ‘Prii’? But I suspect it’s not Latin.
Interesting that several ex-Ministers on “Howard Years” pointed to the sheer pragmatism of early 2001, as John Howard became deperate to halt the Govt slide in polls. Sheer pragmatism: is that part of what finished up making them look shonky, lazy and shrill?
Robert M confessed: “beneath this inner suburbanite exterior lies the heart of a kid who grew up riding trailbikes and sliding utes through muddy paddocks.”
Good to hear it! One day you’ll have extra value, as one of the people who can still remember muddy paddocks
derrida derider @ 38,
The internet filter is coming in. Fielding and Xenophon are all for it and you’d think a lot of the Libs would be too. No chance whatsoever it doesn’t go through.
All I know if it does come in the ALP have lost my vote at the next election.
Ambigulous wrote:
Despite being a worthy vehicle, it still sounds like something uncomfortable a doctor uses on your prostate.
Jacques de Molay, there is a clear path toward ridding us of the filter whether that luddite Conroy succeeds or not: civil disobedience. It’ll be trivially easy to circumvent the filter when it arrives, and although it’ll slow down internet access for a while, our technologically challenged overlords will quickly see the error of their ways.
DR,
They use a gloved hand, index finger and lots of lube. And it makes you grunt.
Y’know, there’s some things I reckon are better left unknown until the last possible minute Paul. That’s one of them
Pavlov’s Cat
Except that, pace Timothy Watson, I’d like to see a little more ideology
Not a bad idea. But what ideology are you suggesting?