Tag Archive for 'mark latham'

“The poor will always be with us”; Abbott’s Brutopia

Published
by
Mark
3 weeks, 2 days ago
in Authoritarianism, Philosophy, Politics and Sociology
. 149 Comments

It must be ‘write an op/ed for Fairfax about something a political leader said to me’ week. First, Nina Funnell, and now Michael Perusco:

I was in Canberra last week and had the opportunity to ask Opposition Leader Tony Abbott whether a government under his direction would continue with the Rudd government’s goal of halving homelessness by 2020. His answer was no.

In justifying his stance, Abbott quoted from the Gospel of Matthew: ”The poor will always be with us,” he said, and referred to the fact there is little a government can do for people who choose to be homeless.

Perusco, the Chief Executive of Melbourne’s Sacred Heart Mission, goes on to refute Abbott’s claim that homelessness is a choice, and to underline how vital action in this area is.

It’s instructive to compare Abbott’s remarks, which he presumably didn’t think would end up in The Age, with this piece of puffery from Senator George Brandis in The Australian: Continue reading ‘“The poor will always be with us”; Abbott’s Brutopia’

Tony Abbott, you’re no Mark Latham

Published
by
Mark
1 month, 1 week ago
in Polls
. 32 Comments

Possum has compared Tony Abbott’s polling with Mark Latham’s at the start of his leadership, and found:

So while Abbott and Latham have some similarities in their early polling performance, Abbott was literally miles behind where Latham was at a comparable time.

Great big new tax scare campaign game: Two can play

Published
by
Mark
1 month, 1 week ago
in Climate change, Economics, Federal Elections, Media and Politics
. 34 Comments

Both the Government and the Coalition are publicly committed to a 5% emissions reduction target. Tony Abbott claims he will get there via ‘direct action’ and avoid the ‘great big new tax on everything’ – his characterisation of Labor’s ETS.

Kevin Rudd today:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is warning voters that the coalition’s approach to climate change will be very costly.

He says the policy, to be unveiled by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on Tuesday, will be a large tax with very little environmental impact.

‘One huge mega tax from Mr Abbott to fund his approach to climate change,’ Mr Rudd told the Nine Network.

When in doubt, muddy the waters?

According to the Abbotariat, the big problem with the Government’s approach is supposed to be that the public doesn’t, on the whole, understand the detail of the ETS. Kevin Rudd is betting that no one understands what Abbott’s proposing either. Labor’s line will be that Abbott’s claims that he can fund over 10 billion dollars of policy (according to the Department of Climate Change’s costings) through unspecified efficiencies are spurious, and that he would have to raise revenue to fund his promises. Labor, supposedly, won’t, because the ETS is meant to be budget neutral.

All this is fairly complex, but we won’t see much of that complexity debated in the public arena during an election year. Kevin Rudd’s playing one of the oldest tricks in the book – make your opponent deny something you claim they’re going to do, and hope that:

(a) they’re perceived as less trustworthy; and/or

(b) obfuscating the issue will make everyone discount it because neither side can be believed.

It’ll probably work.

Continue reading ‘Great big new tax scare campaign game: Two can play’

“Malcolm Turnbull is the Coalition’s Mark Latham”

Published
by
Kim
8 months, 3 weeks ago
in Politics
. 259 Comments

Quoth Jim Turnour, Labor MP for Leichardt, in Federal Parliament yesterday.

As Utegate stumbles to a halt, it’s becoming apparent that the more important questions go to the suitability of Malcolm Turnbull for political leadership.

Guy Rundle’s article in Crikey today is an interesting and important contribution to this debate, and I’ve reproduced it (with permission) over the fold.

Continue reading ‘“Malcolm Turnbull is the Coalition’s Mark Latham”’

The Costa Diaries

Published
by
Kim
1 year, 5 months ago
in Books, Writers & Writing, Economics, Media and NSW Government
. 41 Comments

Michael Costa has taken a leaf out of Mark Latham’s book… Forced out of office and Parliament? Write op/eds attacking your former party!

LISTENING to Kevin Rudd at Council of Australian Governments meetings as he tried to connect the global economic situation to the more mundane items on the national reform agenda was often excruciating.

Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of economics would have quickly concluded, as I did, that the Prime Minister didn’t have a good understanding of these issues.

Can a tell all book be far behind? Would it need to be a three volume set to contain slurs on all the people Michael Costa doesn’t like?

Here’s a suggestion for the under-employed former pollie – why not join the Liberal Party? You’ve already got News Limited Columnists eating out of your hand (you actually are one too!)… And your right-wing views should see you fit in nicely. Perhaps with your added ruthlessness, you could spark endless speculation about Malcolm Turnbull’s polling and leadership and unlike the Great Pretender seize the top job by the power of the Word!

Power couple politics NSW style and the alleged disciplinary double standard

Published
by
tigtog
1 year, 9 months ago
in Levity, Media, NSW Government, Politics and Women
. 109 Comments

Well, hasn’t it been a busy week or so for NSW Minister John Della Bosca and his wife, Federal backbencher MP Belinda Neal?

Of course, for the last few days we’ve only been hearing about her, despite Della Bosca’s documented history of multiple traffic offences leading to a revoked driving license and allegations that he was part of the alleged drunken and abusive behaviour in a Central Coast nightclub last weekend.

Last month Della Bosca’s licence was revoked for six months following a series of speeding offences, after which he reportedly swore at a newspaper photographer for taking pictures of him riding a bicycle.

Yesterday, he refused to speak to irate teachers who invaded his office to vent their fury at the Government’s decision to change the rules under which school principals hire staff. [source]

Perhaps the newspapers are a bit bored with Della Bosca’s temper, plus although people like to lampoon him he’s simply not that easy a target for anything more (such as collecting a political scalp for the editor’s wall), due to the degree of power he wields in the NSW Labor party. But his wife doesn’t have the same powerbase behind her, and besides – a woman with a filthy temper, there’s a news story with legs – cue hordes of gleefully chortling editors. Neal’s excesses have made the international newspapers now, which gives us a very pithy summary of the key points that are being latched onto for the news cycle: Continue reading ‘Power couple politics NSW style and the alleged disciplinary double standard’