Bernard Keane picked something interesting out of last night’s debate (yes, it is possible – see previous LP discussion here and here):
Watch for Labor to ramp up its attack on the Liberals’ paid parental leave tax. Gillard’s most effective line last night was to talk about that tax driving up grocery prices. Labor will set out to “great big new tax” Abbott, but connect it directly to the issue both sides acknowledge as a key one.
It’s quite a neat play – and allows the PM to appeal to small business at the same time (and small business owners dissatisfied with the Fair Work Act might, bizarrely, be inclined to vote against the Coalition who say they won’t change it rather than its author).
This move also plays into the “lived economy” theme – Labor is in touch with pressure on costs of living, etc, and reinforces the attempt to claim the right side of the security/fear dichotomy both majors are wrestling over.
Tony Abbott was clearly trying to appeal to women last night with his constant talk of the parental leave plan (and it’s also one of his few positive, if ill thought out, policies). But whoever advised him to effectively claim in his closing remarks that it’s sexist to vote for Julia just because she’s a woman (and that’s not why she’s ahead among women) is very ill-advised. It may, of course, have been Abbott himself. I wasn’t the only one on Twitter last night who thought his opening statement about being a family man was something of a dog whistle.
In any event, Newspoll has Labor’s vote among women falling back towards where it is among men, though there’s plenty of other polling evidence around that female electors are more inclined to back the ALP than the Coalition – a reversal of the usual pattern.
Elsewhere: Still Life With Cat.
Elsewhere: In A Strange Land.
I also thought Abbott was dog whistling.
Oh dear. Are we really lauding the Government because of a decision to pursue a lower level of paid maternity leave funded by business ?
Can’t we find something else to support the Government on which is a progressive issue – must we say that the best, most palpable hit was the idea of increasing business taxation to fund a measure which might lead to productivity and will certainly lead to participation benefits for women in the workforce ?
Me three.
Elsewhere: Still Life With Cat.
Liked Rod Quantock’s take on the ‘great debate’:
‘Perhaps this is the time to do what Hawke began, a marriage of political parties in the service of unsustainable growth and big business. We could call them the Laberals.’
Abbott is to dog-whistling as a desert is to sand.
The sexist thing was not the only time Abbott slipped the knife in.
Gillard is trying to use positive rhetoric, but has certainly left herself open on the East Timor thing, the Citizens Assembly etc.
They say governments lose power rather than oppositions win it. Abbott is saying “no” and “stop” a lot. He’s arguably trying to help Labor to lose rather than win with his own program, which is shambolic if it were actually subject to scrutiny. But the meeja are having a lot of fun beating up on Julia. Unfortunately she has left herself open. It’s pointless worrying whether Labor would have done better with Rudd because it’s entirely unknowable (contra LE, with great respect!)
@ Brian I just hope that TA’s relentless negativity will start to grate on people sooner rather than later. That they begin to understand that that’s what he will be like if he were PM.
It was a very high pitch dog whistle in my view. He doesn’t call himself the “Political Love Child of John Howard and Browyn Bishop for no reason.
Also, it was a bit rich for him to try to suggest that the Abbott’s live somewhere on Struggle Street coping with a mortgage, school fees etc, etc.
In 2010 he was called to account for not declaring a $710,000 mortgage on the Pecuniary Interests Register. He reportedly took this out when his salary of $200,000(plus perks)had dropped by $90,000 after he went into Opposition.
At the time Tony “joked” to The Australian (23 June 2010) that “The advent of the Rudd government has caused serious mortgage stress for a section of the Australian community, ie former Howard government ministers”
“You don’t just lose power, in inverted commas, you certainly lose income as well, and if you are reliant on your parliamentary salary for your daily living, obviously it makes a big difference.”
Margie Abbott according to Phillip Coorey(SMH Dec 5 2009)was previously a merchant banker at Rothchild, a teacher and now operates a Childcare Centre in the exclusive suburb of St Ives.
Life can be tough on Upper Struggle Street!
@Tosca – indeed! That struck me as well.
I’ve been watching ABCNews24 this morning. Gillard was asked in Launceston by the media why Tim wasn’t with her, and Abbott is accompanied by his wife in Brisbane talking about child care.
@2 Melbournehammer. The point is that the Labor Party’s paid parental leave scheme which was passed by the Parliament just before it rose will be funded by the taxpayer. The Tony Abbott proposal while financially more generous will be an impost on business.
The other point is that Abbott announced the new policy without consultation with his party. This while screaming about “the big new mining tax” and vowing not to impose any new taxes and criticising PM Rudd for not being consultative.
It is also pertinent to the issue that by declaring that he will not pass the Mineral Resource Rent Tax he cannot match Labor’s proposal to reduce company tax and is in fact about to impose a big new tax, sorry levy, on business.
Elsewhere: In A Strange Land.
Dear Tosca – i understand the politics.
I happen to think that if the politics are all we have to fall back on (we are better for business than you) then i wonder what the progressive voter has left. Anyone can be critical in an election campaign of the other side – I’m wondering when we are going to have something where we can say – this is the Labor way – this is the way of assisting people which identifies a problem and proposes a solution that whitlam, keating, hawke, chifley would all say – yes i recognise this. Reducing company tax of and by itself certainly is not it.
And forgive me if I think the position of Gillard on the RSPT/MMRT is just a tad of kettle meet pot. the ALP gifted $8b back to the miners – money which could have paid for health, indigenous education, upskilling the australian workforce etc.
On a different thread mark correctly identified that the latham article (if one can leave the bile out of it) was something of substance. my interpretation on it was that when Chif was about the ALP stood for something – something about improving the lot not just in a weekly wage way but in a big picture way. the present ALP having lost the core issue is now about power – because power is what allows all of the other things to be distributed. anyway thats my take on it. I’m not sure I completely agree with the thesis but maybe you can convince me otherwise – what aspect of that debate or this campaign would allow you to say this is what we fight for.
I can find some things which i can fight against, but I’m stuffed if I know what I am fighting for.
the debating trick of stealing the other side’s ground isn’t it.
@Melbournehammer –
I read somewhere this morning that the Libs believe that Labor’s strategy is to obscure any differences with the Coalition on policy, and just differentiate on leadership. I think that’s pretty much right.
Well, that won't take much effort.
Action Man!
Tony says it’s ‘cos she’s a girl
The voters prefer Julia.
Another insult he can hurl
Though from him it is peculiar.
Is she exploiting ‘feminine’
With batting eyelids, female curves?
Who’s playing archetype ‘masculine’
Flexing muscles for all to perve?
Who’s running to the podium
Showing off his manly splendor,
Aggressive, rousing odium?
Isn’t he exploiting gender?
But will Julia ever evoke emotions as intense as these?
As soon as Abbott mentioned being a family man the 3 women watching the teev at our place, 2 grandmas and a mum, if you wish to use that criterion to describe people, reacted as if someone had dropped something very smelly in the centre of the room.
Abbott is reported as having told the WA Liberals Conference on the weekend that his mother is a woman, his wife is a woman, his daughters are women and his sisters are women. This profound disclosure was the source of much mirth on Insiders on Sunday morning.
Paul, he also noted that Julie Bishop is a woman. This was a promotion for Julie, who was a “girl” when Tony held his first media conference as Opposition leader last December.
It was interesting watching Channel Nein’s debate with the two worms how as soon as Abbott would start going negative/aggressive the female worm would drop noticeably.
Yet according to Graeme Morris on Sky this afternoon women don’t have a problem with Abbott. That’s why he gave that speech on the weekend about how many women are close to him and his wife has just emerged on the campaign trail.
If I wanted to know what women in Australia really think, I’d definitely be asking Grahame Morris!!!??? He’s the Mel Gibson of political punditry.
Loved one of the Letters to the Editor in the DT today.One irate writer bemoaned the right of women to vote given their dreadful leaning toward Julia and suggested that a move to voluntary voting would fix such outliers in the future.
So really we had Gillard defending big business in order to attack a more generous parental leave scheme than she offers. The left hates the fact that Abbott’s scheme offers more the the ALP’s, through a tax on big business. Even Bob Brown cheered on Abbott on this one.
Gillard and her right wing agenda is clear again. Pro big business, anti tax on big business. She could be a Liberal.
Doesn’t that make Abbott a lefty (pro-tax on big business)?