The Greens oppose the CPRS not because it is too weak, but because it will point Australia in the wrong direction with little prospect of turning it around in the timeframe within which emissions must peak, says Senator Christine Milne.
Rudd and Turnbull’s egos destroying everything in their path
|
The egos of Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull – the two supermassive black holes at the centre of the Australian political galaxy – are tearing apart the political unity needed for Australia’s governing class to effectively address the financial crisis. Two weeks ago, when he announced the unconditional banking guarantee – a bad policy made necessary by growing pressure on banks and the government – Rudd should have been more honest in describing what he was doing. It was a rushed decision, made in the midst of a global financial meltdown, and the chances that it was perfect were zero. That’s the point of taking time to develop policy – to work out all the consequences that can’t be understood at first blush. Oh the irony of Kevin Rudd now being criticised for failing to do the thing that he’s been getting bagged for all year – taking his time to work out what to do. But that would’ve been forgiven if Rudd has been upfront that the policy, as a massive intervention in the financial sector, would be likely to have teething problems and unforeseen consequences. But these could be dealt with with good will and patience in cooperation with the finance sector. No one – with the possible exception of the Coalition cheerleaders at The Australian could’ve reasonably objected to that. Instead Rudd wanted to look like he was perfectly in control, and that any negative consequences were mere matters of detail to be worked out by the regulators. And in Parliament in the week following, Opposition questions about the operation of the guarantee earned only claims about the Government’s decisiveness and how it was ahead of the curve – or demands that the Opposition “get behind our regulators.” For his part, Malcolm Turnbull was happy to do anything to ensure he wasn’t sidelined by the crisis. An Opposition’s lot during a crisis is a not a happy one, but Turnbull was determined to do whatever it took to ensure Rudd wasn’t getting all the credit for managing the response. The Prime Minister was quite right in saying Turnbull wanted to have it both ways on the economic stimulus package. Turnbull said he supported and wouldn’t quibble with it, but in that very press conference said the Coalition would “obviously” have produced a different type of package, and his frontbenchers were happy to spend the rest of the week explaining exactly how it should have been different. And a significant part of this week was spent on what increasingly looked like a vendetta by the Coalition against the Treasury Secretary. Reckon Don Randall would’ve been made to issue an apology if he had a crack at Ken Henry rather than Glenn Stevens? It got personal yesterday in a rancorous end to the current Parliamentary session. Rudd saying Turnbull was out of control. Turnbull saying no control freak of a Prime Minister was going to silence the Opposition. A censure motion that ended any faint bipartisanship in relation to the financial crisis. Tony Abbott abusing Anthony Albanese en passant after a division. An exasperated Harry Jenkins telling everyone to take a deep breath and calm down. The good humour that is usually present even when proceedings turn cranky had vanished. As a consequence what is in the scheme of things a minor consequence of the deposit guarantee has been beat up into a wasteful and pointless drama. So the likes of Andy Penn whinge about the effect of the guarantee on his French-owned insurance company. It’s not even clear how many of the redemptions are a consequence of the guarantee and how many reflect a crisis-induced flight to safety. No one has quantified the impact on business and household lending. And what about investors who’ve cashed out their shares and put the money in the bank because it’s safer? Where’s the hue and cry about companies affected by the flight from equity markets? What’s the difference? Considerable time in Parliament and Estimates committees has been devoted to this issue, entirely without benefit to anyone. The dominance of the issue in Estimates was particularly wasteful. Given the crisis besetting the world economy, untrammelled access to Treasury officials for eight hours should have been used by senators of all persuasions to tease out the consequences for Australia. Instead we had senior officials being called liars and threatened for refusing to cooperate. Our governing class has not exactly covered itself in glory this week. And at the centre of events are two men unwilling to countenance the possibility that they may be less than perfect, or, for that matter, that in politics perfection is pretty much impossible anyway, especially in an unprecedented crisis. The whole lot of them should use the two week break to locate some much-needed maturity. |
|
|
16 Comments
I am so bored with stories that reduce the national debate to battles between leading politician’s egos. I’ve learned nothing from this article. What is it about Australian journalists that they can’t leave this bleedingly obvious, low-brow stuff alone?
Well now we know! Rudd and Swan not only got it all wrong, but they were forced to admit it and bring in some heavy changes to their stupid guarantee scheme. Took them two weeks (of chaos), then they had to announce it at 4pm on a Friday - the usual weasel way out.
Just the first of their disastrous tricks to be sprung!
As a self funded retiree i have no money in mortgage funds which are market based like all of our super. My super is too precious to put into these hugh return but high risk funds. Aren’t some of the funds freezing the capital not the distributions.
Just after the announcement on bank guarantees I saw a TV clip where Turnbull came out in agreement with the government’s scheme on bank guarantees. Now he is back tracking causing the lack of bipartisanship.
There is nothing more off putting than Turnbull thinking he knows it all and can solve every problem in the world. Maybe one day he will run for USA president. ( ha ha)
Yes I agree Bernard maybe everyone has to take a deep breath, maybe with some give and take, not take any political advantage including all members of the respective parties and come up with a bipartisan plan with the appropriate regulatory authorities.
So it’s the Simon & Garfunkel response from the CC’s & Venise…….not unexpected I’ll admit.
> Instead Rudd wanted to look like he was perfectly in control, and that any negative consequences were mere matters of detail to be worked out by the regulators.
I think Bernard Keane has accurately identified the principal malaise of modern Australian politics here — the rather insecure practice of taking an authoritarian and unbending stance, and always maintaining that they are ‘right’ and have done a complete and entire job on the first pass, often flying in the face of actual evidence.
The actual bank guarantee policy unfortunately is unintentionally loaded with what the Americans call ‘moral hazard’ — what was intended to be a guarantee for Joe Depositor becomes a flight of capital from all other investment vehicles. Ireland levied a similar guarantee, and I heard of an immediate £250 million deposit from an English source. Multiply this by some unimaginable figure for the full magnitude of the guarantee backed by the Irish government. The banks will be awash with money they don’t need, while other sound investment firms will go broke from equity withdrawal akin to a bank run simply because of an inequitable guarantee promising a bottomless pit of publicly-funded support. This is ironically a bank run in reverse.
I bet Kevin Charles Herbert has crawled back in his box after that toothache of a post.
A patronising ‘we hacks’ as he admits he’s delivered sub-standard copy somewhere sometime in his yet-to-be publicly celebrated life. And then KCH (sounds like a fast food) commits another career hari-kari if he’s really had a professional writing career by sniping at Gary for sub-standard spelling and proofing after his own hamfisted attempt to tell us Turnbull is on “a srteep learning curve”.
Still up there in the ether he accuses Gary of graduating from “.another Narnargoon School of Economics and lambasts him with “c’mon Gary tell us your whole name, or aren’t you prepared to be publicly associated with your bizarre analysis”.
I cant see how a Kevin Charles Herbert is more credible than a Gary?
Dear Commentator Cowards all,
Don’t you get it? …obviously not…unless you’re prepared to identify yourself, your comments are
WORTHLESS…toilet door graffiti……permanently stuck in the 5th form……..
Venise, I expected better…I mean I don’t know if you’ve actually insulted me…….yet…….are home duties stupefylingly BORING?
I’m with you, Andrew.
I stopped reading newspapers and subscribed to Crikey cos the papers were full of opinion pieces about personalities, not real news about real events.
Crikey has been infected with the same malaise.
Cathy: you’re my new favourite Commentator Coward (taking over from wee JimmyK):
Brimming with bile…but spineless…how could I respect u in the moUrning?
What’s your full name & email address…or STAY IN THE 5TH FORM 4EVER !!!!!
The fact that Gary is both perceptive and correct in fact is no problem for Kevin Charles Herbert as he is quite unable to recognise those qualities.
Opinion polls when left leaning, Rudd sycophant journos and and just about any left wing drivel published is more his cup of tea.
I had thought Turnbull might be the next PM but Kevboy with his faux endorsement has put the mockers on him
“As a consequence what is in the scheme of things a minor consequence of the deposit guarantee has been beat up into a wasteful and pointless drama.”
A minor consequence? …so as a self funded retiree caught up in this mess, I’m told by the treasurer, today, to nick down to Centrelink and ask for a hand-out. The one thing I had planned never having to do.
I think this mob would be happy to have half the population living off the other over-taxed half. How many new taxes this year?
Surely one simple phone call could have helped here. all PM rudd had to do was call Glenn Stevens to ensure he had exhausted all appropriate steps in the due diligence process….the idea that Ken Henry’s and Glenn Stevens minds were “as one” sounds risible, and equally Rudd should not have had to rely upon what amounts to hearsay evidence in forming such critical policy….
(One only wishes Bill Leak was around to draw the twin-headed “Glenn Henry” or should that be “Glennhenry”?)
Unless, of course, Mr Rudd really didn’t want to hear directly what Stevens would say
The PM is fond of claiming his passion for “evidenced-based” policy, and he does seem to be a very “process” driven mandarin…but where was the process to guarantee the government operated off the best available evidence?
How ironic if one of Rudd’s great strengths to date, his operational and organisational method, became his own undoing, outstripped by potential hubris and inexperience…and this early in the term
I think the Government did overcook fears of inflation very early in the term and certainly the RBA gave us a rise too far, as seen by their reversal of policy within only 6 months…
Now we have a second and more serious misstep…
What Rudd really needs to be doing is persuade his European friends to engage in far more aggressive rate cuts, lest their obsession with inflation turn what could have been a financial crisis and potentially damaging but containable into a far more substantial economic crisis.
A more strategic use of global fiscal policy may have preempted what now seems to be an imminent death-spiral for the world economy..
Dear Bernard, I also think that a holiday may be good.,
We elected Mr . Rudd not turnbull, I just heard Christopher Zen’s comment from Consumer affairs,
which all should probably listen too.
One has to remember that guarantees are from the Tax payer not some magical fund that is out there .
We should remind Mr. Turnbull of that.
I was quite shocked the way he stood up in parliament re his censure motion, i could not believe what i was hearing and seeing.
I get the feeling Malcom likes to be in charge. Well he is not, and i am not for a bipartisan agreement because the Tories have a different way of thinking.
But i do think the less said the better as was pointed out on Radio today depositors only started taking out their capital when the media and some politicians started talking about it.
Yes they are still getting their allocated pensions, it is only the capital that is frozen, for the time being, and i have NO fear if them needing a guarantee, this is not the USA. I have every faith in all our monetrary insitutions.
Loose Lips SINK SHIPS this is a time of crisis and words should be measured before spoken. I have elderly friends who wanted to take their money out of the bank as soon as they heard Turnbull mention the 20th dollar cap , its amazing how many opinions this man has had.
Kevin Charles Herbert: Is that Kevin, Charles Herbert? Kevin Charles, Herbert? The only condescending remark thus far has been your airy “We hacks understand….” If you are a scribe of renown please tell us your publication. Or for whom you write.
To name call is odious, but someone out there in the bloggosphere thought Malcolm Turnbull might have been a contender to become a Prime Minister. Blink blink! I would imagine the monumental arrogance of the man might be off-putting to the average voter. I mean Wentworth is so much a toffy electorate. I cant imagine him going down well at the Gilantipy - Wandiligong footy club. Entrance via the pie stall.
Whilst your article is accurate I think you give too much latitude to Rudd. Whthe has done by guaranteeing deposits in nothing short of pharsical, it achieved nothing except guaranted a flight of capital from mortage trusts and other well performing investment vehicles to the Banks. This has delivered cash bonanza to the Banks reducing their need to raise funds off shore to fund the loan books. It has also meant Rudd waisted the $8 billion put in to support no bank lenders, they can’t raise funds OS, tey don’t have a Sovrign Guarantee, the Banks do and that is all that was needed. Guarantee the borrowing of Banks for loansOS giving them access to the AAA rating. Depoit guarantees are feel good measures for you and me and harm hundreds of thousands or retirees. Cain Kirner economic management.
Bernard: have a two week break yourself. Your commentary is condescending to say the least. However, we hacks understand that it’s very hard some days to come up with the quality copy the news editor demands.
Rudd’s the PM, & is therefore charged with calling the shots…he’s done a pretty good job on the run, according to those who count…ie. the opinion polls.
Turnbull is a sideshow to all of this..and his performance to date has been pretty ordinary. He’s in a srteep learning curve, but I have no doubt that he will become a stellar Opposition leader in due course.
Finally, the quality of Gary’s analysis & commentary above is matched only by his spelling & proofing skills…another Narnargoon School of Economics graduate….c’mon Gary tell us your whole name, or aren’t you prepared to be publicly associated with your bizarre analysis.