Comments on: Open letter to Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop

By: Cameron

Cameron — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

What a well-founded appeal to Turnbull Bishop & Co who indeed are acting on behalf of themselves and not the clientele. Gutted by their own recession you’d think they’d be empathy charged for those left to mop up. When the party for business went out of business and the world did much the same global economies united in the spirit of the times but over at Turnbull Bishop and Co au contraire. Their salve for the nation is political dissidence. Right now Turnbull Bishop & Co are busy taking care of themselves - a case they’ll argue at the next election.

By: dermot

dermot — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Earth to Bernard. this strong article marred by a glaring flaw

A sell assets to your mates campaign such as that Howard Jull and others embarked is not a ‘small government agenda.’ It was the beginning of corporate welfare on a grand scale.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well done Bernard. Unfortunately the myth of the Liberals being better economic managers will be hard to lift because the nongs who believe it aren't interested in political or economic debate.

To prove that point, some are now denigrating the $10b package from December and calling it worthless. Well there is $10b in the economy that wouldn't be there now if it wasn't done. At an average rate, about $2b to $3b or so of that will come back as tax receipts from the expanded profits of the business, and god knows how many jobs are being held on to because of the extra breathing room that created. If they had done nothing then everyone would be whinging, and the fact is that the money went to the groups in society most likely to spend it. No-one can say with authority what would have happened without the stimulus, but you can say with some certainty that there is more money in the system because of it.

And of course not one of the naysayers have come up with anything remotely like an alternative solution, but no surprises there.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The message to the Liberals is loud and clear. They also participated in the events leading to our nation’s involvement in the global downturn or depression. Now in Opposition the Liberal/National coalition steered the ship for more than a decade using its hands-off policies to keep us on course with other economies headed for disaster. No doubt its politically desirable to use the all care but no responsibility taken way out but they went hell for leather to curry free-market monetary policy that led to the world market collapse. Critique from a back seat while the nation fights to survive their legacy is also cowardly but not politically surprising. You just hope for once that political parties in dire times could put people and economies ahead of their own agendas.

By: Eli

Eli — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Excellent letter, Bernard and will link to it on my blog. I have been getting frustrated with Malcolm Turnbull for quite a while now. He seems not to understand the basic premise that he is not going to be able to either win the next elections or to contribute to the debate meaningfully with thought out, credible policies. Instead, all we have been getting is a bunch of knee-jerk political reaction with no coherent thread thorugh them, and supplemented by not much else but a reliance on Malcolm’s personal charisma. That is not good enough.

Vladimir Putin said this about Barack Obama the other day: “I am deeply convinced that the biggest disappointments are born out of big expectations“. Malcolm would be wise to keep this in mind.

http://beatsandpiecesblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/expectations-and-disappointments-malcolm-turnbull-edition/) a line

By: steve martin

steve martin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I would be happy to be a co-signatory to your letter Bernard, a small point though, even if punters use a tax cut to pay off on their mortgage, is not that money helping re-finance the banks and allowing them to increase their lending. In any case not all have mortgages to handle.

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I don't dislike Malcolm Turnbull - au contraire! It's the latent lair in him which I admire as much as his obvious intellect, the latter, of course, setting him apart from the rest of his party, just as it does the (sadly) pedestrian Rudd. I think that, often, MT is on the money, but not now.

I couldn't give a rats about petty point-scoring and one-upmanship at the present. What I, and I believe, many Australians want to see, is a concerted effort by all politicians, irrespective of party, to confront and confound the serious and dangerous problems challenging our economy.

My son, who has an honours Arts degree from the University of Melbourne couldn't find work last year except as a builders' labourer. Fortuitously, he actually enjoyed the physical exertion and really delighted in his resultant, firmer, stronger body, his newfound practical knowledge, and the freedom of working in an outdoors environment. Just before Christmas, however, he, and his colleagues, were told that there was no more work. At 26 years of age, he was horrified to see big, burly, hard men burst into tears, crying for their families' futures.

My opinion is that, whatever government can do to assist ordinary, average Australians to keep putting bread on the table is to be encouraged and endorsed.

So what, if we go into deficit? We've been there before and will be again. This is a high expectation society and Australians really aren't so dumb that they don't know that they'll have to pay to continue to receive government support and buffering. For better or worse, that is the ingrained Australian Way, and if one wishes to blame anyone, blame Governor Arthur Phillip!

And why have we forgotten the $600 billion plus foreign deficit (March '08) which Australia inherited from Howard/Costello? Without that burden, our problems would be much lessened. Methinks that Mighty Malcolm and the Liberals might address that, too.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Excellent little letter. One of the reasons I like reading Crikey is that you get the other sides feelings on what the pollies are up to.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

As you mention, Bernard, the Libs started off well - however it really is tiresome now to constantly hear about how good they were at managing the economy.

Sure, hindsight is a wonderful thing. However even prior to the election result and the financial crisis, their lack of vision and prudent investment (which lead to skilled labour shortages, buckling infrastructure etc etc) coupled with their cynical porkbarelling, was both obvious and infuriating!

Not that Rudd's got it much better. "Environment and Climate Change and all that ... lets invest in making cars".

By: Bohemian

Bohemian — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well said!
It always strikes me as funny the State fails to invest in the things that will actually advance it. For example, why is it on the hottest of days when the call on airconditioning is at its greatest, we dont take advantage of the sun at its hottest to cool us down! The present system has power companies paying spot rate (about double) for power the sun could deliver very efficiently for free! That is even with our present level of “unclassified” technology. There are many things we could be doing as a country that would ween us off crude oil and which would reward those with the initiative to set them in train.
So, Opposition, get some imagination! Inspire the people rather than frightening the heck out of them.

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with you on the Howard years and the bullsh*t spouted by Turnbishop in recent months. But I reckon you let Rudd & Co off the hook too easily. At least when Howard was in charge you could literally see the contempt he held for the Opposition. Rudd spouts endless crap about bipartisanship above the desk whilst leaning underneath to kick Turnbull in the balls.
Why doesn’t Turnbull get stuck into him for the $10 billion wasted at the pokies? Why doesn’t anybody care that all of that money was wasted? It was TEN BILLION DOLLARS, not change left over from a Labor fundraiser. And now he wants to spurt out a few more billion, no doubt all nicely backed up with facts and figures, when BLIND FREDDY can see it will bribe people to vote Labor.

By: Decisive action

Decisive action — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The $10.4 billion pre-Christmas stimulus package was a waste of taxpayers’ money. It delayed, but didn’t prevent, the downward economic trajectory. However, it is money which has now vanished and is unavailable for the infrastructure spending which is the best thing the government can do to help get the economy going again. The other thing the govenrment can do is to encourage private investment in new and green technologies. Malcolm’s biochar, solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal initiatives are the future which could give Australia an edge. If young workers fill those fields, we’ll avoid a decade of high youth unemployement.

By: barb

barb — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Bernard,a sound effort.
Will you publish any response from the addressee?
.
Tax cuts, yes, but surely in the form of reducing GST for the lower end of the income rainbow. That ought to satisfy the moralising "It all goes to the pokies brigade. After all, every one else received tax cuts aplenty in the previous regime,and look where that got us?
Incidentally, none of the Pokies Billions recipients of my acquaintance spent their bananza on the pokies.Or purchased plasmas.
Interestingly, several invested in good quality garden tools or rainwater tanks that are normally off budget
Which leads me into saying that in this case I'm with Bob Brown . I believe his suggestion of retrofitting existing homes with solar panels and insulation amkes excellent sense on a number of levels: employment and reskilling,technology development , and, Oh yes, the future energy policycould be responsibly shaped.