A politician is an arse upon which everything has sat except a man
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From the deep north, we report that the government in is diabolical trouble. Not only do they not like Kevin Rudd’s Great Big New Tax (54%, according to the Galaxy poll) they don’t understand it (68% say the government has explained in badly) and they don’t want to (anecdotal evidence). As a result the coalition is now clearly in front — 52 to 48 on two-party preferred. But the truly grim news is that Tony Abbott has caught up with Rudd in the preferred Prime Minister stakes, trailing by a single point — 44 to 45. Labor’s fallback position has always been that their guy might be pretty much on the nose, but the other guy is unelectable — too crazy to take seriously in the top job. The theory, now revealed as little more than wishful thinking, has been that while the voters might find the idea of the Mad Monk a bit of a distraction, something to brighten up the daily spin-driven tedium that politics has become, when it came to actually casting a vote they would draw back; caution and discretion would take over. It now appears that in Queensland — Rudd’s home state — the punters are preparing to forget about the parachute and jump out of the plane. Admittedly this is Queensland, the state that gave Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Russ Hinze, Clive Palmer and the cane toad. But where Queensland goes, can Western Australia be far behind? And if the dominoes start to fall, suddenly we will wake up to find Abbott in the Lodge, Joe Hockey in the Treasury, Julie Bishop running foreign policy, Phillip Ruddock, Bronwyn Bishop and Kevin Andrews running ministries and Barnaby Joyce — the shadow finance minister who had to take off his trousers to count up to 21 — naming his own price for keeping the Nationals in the coalition. The prospect, once the stuff of febrile nightmare, is rapidly turning real. And the truly bad news is that no one in the Labor camp seems to have a clue what to do about it. In the circumstances the workers should be very grateful to Fair Work Australia and the $26 a week catch-up award for the lowest paid, which came through last week. Under a coalition government there would not be too many like it. Abbott, in his Mr Nice Guy mode, assured the honest toilers that he was never one to begrudge them a rise — but he only hoped it would not be a case of one man’s rise being another man’s job, the usual code for the employers’ line that it is never actually the right time for a wage rise — in good times they cause inflation, in bad times they add to unemployment. With the unions stepping up their own campaigning against the miners and the coalition, it is likely that industrial relations will play more a part in the forthcoming election than either side had anticipated. Labor was always going to use the line about Abbott planning to bring back WorkChoices as part of its scare campaign. But it now looks as though the unions, realising that a change of government is suddenly a real possibility, are going to get back on the airwaves in a big way. Frankly it’s just as well; so far the government’s advertising campaign extolling the RSPT has been even more boring and unconvincing than the miners’ campaign against it — and given that all the facts and logic are on the government’s side, that is condemnation indeed. At least the backlash against Rudd’s broken promise on this aspect of the campaign has been less severe than might have been expected; Abbott and his colleagues have had a bit of fun with the apparent invocation of a national emergency, but by and large the public seems to have shrugged it off. As Rudd and other have pointed out, Howard did much worse and much more of it and in the current mood of disillusionment and despair at the whole process, that is all that needs to be said. All politicians are bastards, a politician is an a-se upon which everything has sat except a man, and whoever you vote for a politician always gets in, so why bother? This public reversion to cynicism about politics and its place in society is perhaps the very worst legacy Rudd could leave Australia, but seems highly likely he will do so. His election campaign and the first year if his government did a lot to restore the hope and trust that Howard had so badly eroded; but in the past few months he has p-ssed it all away in favour of timidity, indecision and, of course, a sack full of broken promises. Part of the problem is the group of time-servers, mercenaries and mug lairs he has collected around him; mainly refugees from the New South Wales right, they are ignorant of the past (it’s irrelevant), uninformed about the present (they only talk to each other) and uninterested in the future (it doesn’t go past the next Newspoll.) But it is Rudd himself who has been the most crashing disappointment: Kevin 07 has melted in to Kevin Zilch. What a pity Barack Obama again has been forced to cancel his visit; it would have been nice to see a real politician, if only from a distance. |
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38 Comments
Yes, but apart from two wrongs not making a right, the key difference is that Rudd made a big show of promising not to.
Mungo obviously means Mark Ahbib and Karl Bitar when he says “Part of the problem is the group of time-servers, mercenaries and mug lairs he has collected around him; mainly refugees from the New South Wales right”.
It is an enduring mystery to those of us not inside the loop of intra-party politics how such people acquire reputations as brilliant and great strategic thinkers etc. Especially given that presumably they must take a lot of the blame for the current state of the NSW Labor party. They must have Machiavellian powers to manoeuvre their men into positions of power within the party but why would Rudd value that when he sits at the top? And in the long run (actually relatively short run) the results are unarguably so awful.
Ahbib is not stupid but equally his appearances on the likes of Q&A have not revealed him as a profound thinker or exceptional speaker/wit/etc. Bob Carr mark II he is not. And once again we see Lindsay Tanner on the correct side of the arguments but on the wrong side of the decisions and party strategy.
Another post from an ‘old leftie’ that thinks just in terms of Labor vs Coalition.
The polls say that today, for every two Labor voters, there is now one Green. The public are starting to wake up to an alternative, an alternative that many ‘old lefties’ are working hard to ignore.
I’m sure that old party loyalties would never let things go this far - but on many issues we are at the the stage where both Fraser and Whitlam could vote Green. (Has anyone actually asked them how they would vote?)
@WMH: Without having any inside knowledge, I’d imagine Mr Whitlam would vote Labor (but preference Green in the Senate, particularly). Mr Fraser I don’t think would vote green: DLP, perhaps (as Menzies did in 1969)?
I agree with all of it. The NSW Right is worse than a waste of space, it’s downright detrimental. It w ould be nice to see someone in Labor with guts enough to argue for a progressive platform instead of leaving it all to the Greens.
“What a pity Barack Obama again has been forced to cancel his visit; it would have been nice to see a real politician, if only from a distance”.
I wouldn’t hold up Obama as some sort of exemplar.
The man has mishandled the oil spill as badly as Bush mishandled Hurricane Katrina, with a crushing majority in Senate and Congress he had to beg to get Hchanges to the Health Care system across the line, sits atop a government that seems to slide from one scandal to another, has failed to change the international political situation and he is in danger of emulating Rudd as a one term leader.
Having Obama and Rudd in the same room would be a salutory lesson to all aspiring politicians, “this is what failure looks like”.
I agree with the question of ” smart operators ” or potential leaders that each party seems to favour. I dont know much about the NSW right labor faction but form would suggest that they aren,t much cop. What has me puzzled is the opposition backing what I consider to be mediocrity like Dutton. I have yet to see any potential in that man as a minister or even a back bencher. I think the cabinet has had too little to say and we have had brand Rudd doing the PR and not very well. It was the team that gained Labor office, that plus Howard lost any creditability with the punters. Selling the miners tax should have been a no brainer. Do we want to be like Norway or Nauru for example. What about we will decide who gets the cream from our resources and the manner in which it is spread ? No apologies to the racist of the original version for para phrasing.
Profoundly depressing. All the analysis at the moment is about Kevin Rudd’s deficiencies. The idea of Abbott et al at the tiller fills me with horror.
What a cynic you are, Michael James.
What exactly do you (and the Fox News-led right-wing commentariat) expect Obama to DO about the oil spill? Don a wetsuit and plug it up personally? Have BP executives summarily shot? Tell us how it can be fixed - we’d all like to know.
Having a “massive majority” in Congress is one thing, but having a two-thirds majority, in order to stop hysterical Republicans blocking progress is quite another. Scandals? What scandals? Some setbacks, maybe… some embarassments, maybe… but scandals? No stained dresses, no presidential advisers breaching national security - nothing anywhere near that degree of seriousness.
And so he has “failed to change the international situation”. Well jeez - it took George Bush eight years to stuff that up (and the US economy along the way) and Obama’s only been in for 18 months.
Rudd is a two-faced creep - he’s my local member, so I found that out several years ago. But he has a (mostly) solid team behind him (Conroy is a complete dud).
Abbott is creepier, and his team are just awful. Who’s your pick for Foreign Affairs - Julie Bishop? Bronwyn Bishop, Kevin Andrews? Barnaby?
High expectations usually lead to disappointment, and Rudd is feeling that now. But what expectations does anyone seriously have of People Skills?
@Tone47B - Common sense prevails!
Who is guiding the Labor Party strategy? It simply doesn’t work! “We have to work harder” and the repetitive “working family” mantra doesn’t wash! Another one of Rudd’s “mea culpa” stunts is just sickening! The government needs to work “smarter”, starting right now! Do we need a price on carbon? Yes we do! Do we need a resource profit tax? Yes we do! Do we need a better health system? Yes we do! Do we need weirdo’s like Akerman, Abbott, Bolt, Joyce, Fielding etc. No we don’t!
Do we need a decent opposition? Do we need a decent senate?
Yes we do!
Hopefully all the disillusioned are purging their anti-Rudd bile right now. When they have recovered from their gastro attack they might look up from the loo, look around at the real world again and see - Abbott coming at them like a runaway train. And hopefully jump out of the way before it’s too late. If this train keeps coming it will kill off more than just a rabble of woozy idealists having tantrums on the blogosphere like spoiled teenagers with a hangover.
On the bright side, if Labor loses, those hard-working “hot-house cabbages” that Rudd has chosen to surround himself with, as “advisors” (who, in their arrogance and lack of experience out in the field, seemed to think all they had to do was show up), and such, will have held out against any of that influence of those infernal “progressives and radicals” that wanted the party to “do something for” the country!
What disappoints me is the legacy Rudd will leave for the Labor Party. Extremely able Ministers such as Lindsay Tanner are more than likely to find themselves out of a job once the dust has settled after this upcoming election. His seat of Melbourne is likely to fall the Greens. Tanner is one the of the key assets within that party- a man of far more character and ability than I believe Rudd will ever be. Rudd won the ‘Battle of the Nerds’ between himself and Howard with the ‘It’s time’ factor on his side but now that that task has been completed he has been revealed for what he really is- a man equal in honesty, integrity and imagination to his Liberal Party predecessor. Why the Right Faction of the NSW liberal party has played such a large part at the federal level is beyond me when you consider that it is an utter basket case in its own state. They are a cancer on the Labor party at every single level.
Rudd hasn’t been good and he must regret wimping out on ets - he wouldn’t have liked doing this. The press have been incredibly unbalanced to rudd especially the oz has had a campaign for 2 years now to get rid of rudd. Rudd has been pretty cyncical but as mungo indicates nothing like howard and he was there for 11 years.
What gets me is the ignorance of so many on refugees and mining they don’t seem to be able to think for themselves. Mind you I made a similar comment (but more diplomatic) on the news website and they didn’t display it - how pathetic -
we’re becoming like america where you see red necks arguing against the government trying to provide decent healthcare chanting the corporate line not understanding the detail at all.
The criticisms of obama above is amazing - I agree with mungo he is a real statesman - he is in a very difficult environment and he still got the healthcare bill through - he is the perfect blend of idealism and pragmatism
At the end of his term he may not have many earth shattering reforms but he certainly will have undone some of the terrible damage bush did
I suggest that you all read David Marr’s essay.
You’re right, a politician gets in. Of course, at the end of the Weimar Republic Germans avidly wished for something new. They wanted something other than a politician, and they got a WWI war veteran and sometime painter. Is this your point, Mongo?
@SHEPHERDMARILYN:
Hear, Hear!
If the man let others do their jobs and if he used the Cabinet rocess a bit more, he might achieve a bit of party unity and a bit more sleep. He obviously thinks that he is surrounded by idiots who are incapable of working as a team.
The difference between Australian politics and American politics surely lies in the difference between the people of these two countries. As Mungo mentions, correctly, it means a return to the overt cynicism which Australians have always had about politicians.
But the Americans have a wonderful naïvity and heart-on-the-sleeve belief in miracles. This allows them to miss a jump, but go on to clear the next one.
The people of Oz retreat back to their caves, they lick their wounds, and they brood.
Yet again a leader has failed them. Gough Whitlam, John Gorton, and now Kevin Rudd. We really wanted these men to fulfil their promise. Did they? Not really. As Whitlam was a giant he doesn’t deserve to included with the other two. He showed the right-wing voters that it was possible to question the status quo. That a vote for Labor was not a vote for Communism. And revealed to them that Oz had more than one party to vote for.
Deep in the throes of terrible despair, it is possible to say, “What else is left but cynicism?” or “The mining industry runs the country, so why bother to vote?”
This disheartened voter does, at least, have the option of voting for the Greens.
The only man who ever merited my absolute non-cynicism was Paul Keating.
Paul, you were the best!
It’s a sad essay, I was crying at the end. My disappointment is that Gillard and the other putrid morons are allowing commonsense to be over taken regarding refugees.
This disgusting policy is all Gillards. All the ALP states voted it down but the ALP congress adopted it for reasons that are completely unknown.
Anyone who thinks Gillard would be a good pm needs to think about my friend Amir. He is an excellent Iraqi doctor who trained in England but went home for the good of the Iraqi people and was monstered by our own Richard Butler and had to flee Iraq. He was locked up for 11 months and he spilled the beans on the killer Abu Quessay in February 2000 and was ignored by ASIO and the feds who I believe then paid him to work for them.
The result was SIEVX. Anyway when I first met Gillard she was in Adelaide and this lovely man appealed to her decency to help him get his wretched TPV made permanent because his kids had got trapped in Baghdad and they are Mandaeans (they follow St John the Baptist) and live was difficult after Butler monstered him. He is a humble doctor, Butler told the Iraqis he was making weapons.
Her hair didn’t move. She ignored him completely and from that day forth I hated her.
The second time was worse. One of the young Woomera lawyers asked her to intercede with Ruddock (whom she loves) on behalf of a homosexual from Iran who was facing deportation and certain death in Iran.
She ignored the lawyer, it took a colleague in the senate to do the job.
It was Latham who first raised with Howard about locking up kids - she couldn’t have cared less.
As for the fat mining moguls, with oil gushing and killing in the Mexican gulf they need to just shut the fuck up.
The idiotic notion that they will go broke drives me crazy.
@John Bennetts, spot on. Rudd’s response yesterday to another poor poll (‘I must work harder’) was exactly wrong. ‘I will listen, consult and delegate more’ was what we needed to hear, and what he needs to do.
Marilyn, I’m always comforted to know that my tax dollars are helping fund your bile. Isn’t it time you found a job?
I seem to recall that when Mr. Howard saw some bad polling in 2007, he said “it makes me want to work harder”. Sound familiar?
Michael James (Monday) is mistaken about the Katrina/oil spill comparison.
Katrina was a disaster because Bush appointed a hopeless crony to run the government agency that deals with large-scale emergencies, and he botched the job badly. That’s a direct mistake of Bush’s.
Obama, however, has little power over a foreign oil corporation and is governing millions of people who scream “socialism!” and threaten to secede if he so much as hints at regulating big business.
I wish Obama would start kicking some heads, but really the situations couldn’t be more different.
Well, that’s quite apparent.
JBG: “I’m always comforted to know that my tax dollars are helping fund your bile’.
OUCH!
Te…….Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe….: 
@ShepherdMarilyn:
At least this contributor is informative. Playing the man (or woman) might feel good at the time, but transmits nothing of value behind.
Mungo, it was all good until this:
#What a pity Barack Obama again has been forced to cancel his visit; it would have been nice to see a real politician, if only from a distance.#
Not sure if Marylyn was joking about reading Marr’s essay on Kevin Rudd and feeling like weeping at the end, but I actually did too. I found it profoundly sad, and grossly unfair! He sounded inhuman - partly due to bad writing. No-one could be that one-dimensional.
Doesn’t Rudd have any redeeming qualities at all?? It doesn’t say much about Marr that he cannot paint any highs to contrast with the lows. And since when is Marr a a Psychologist?
How exactly is someone is “driven by anger”. What? he wakes up, brushes his teeth in anger?
Is the anger there every day? Or does it come out on special occasions?
It seems to me that anyone can just print anything about the PM and it’s automatically set in stone. The media and Libs have been scathing for so long, and really… get over it! Labor leaders are by definition idealistic. After 12 years in opposition, a lot was promised, not everything was achieved. I can forgive it in a first term, but not so generous in a second.
Abbott cannot be handed something on a silver platter. He has not earned it.
Actually Swinger you need to be a bit deeper mate. The sadness probably won’t be understood by those whose lives have been cushy and easy but Rudd’s early years will never be forgotten or recovered from and his hard work and will power to overcome them is awesome.
Marr got it right. It’s an anger that drives him to try and do good. He is just a bit too easily led on some things.
A mungotic “real politician” is one who rules against the will of the people.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/may_2010/60_favor_repeal_of_health_care_law
A bit like Wen Jiabao, Barack Obama, Hugo Chavez, Bashar al-Assad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, etc. after mungo-beloved etc. ………
You’re right, Marilyn. His anguished early childhood is what drives him. If the media understood this and portrayed it with some objectivity … and, dare I say it… sensitivity….
they would discover that elusive “narrative”, that everyone talks about.
Rudd’s narrative seems to escape everyone, but it’s there for all to see.
He believes in an Australia that can provide opportunities for all. Good public schools and hospitals are central to this. A kid with a deprived childhood can make it big. (ok, I’m not a deep thinker…lol)
Good on you swinger, the media in this country have become a bunch of bile laden arseholes because they have decided that Rudd actually forces them to do their jobs rather than continue the lazy old Howard era where every sound bite or press release was passed off as “News” and they didn’t have to do anything.
I don’t know how many know about the press gallery in the Canberra Taj but it is enclosed on itself and miles of aisles from anything or anyone else. For MP’s and staff to get there they require a packed lunch and drink bottle.
They live in the rarified aircon. set on 22 degrees all year round and I think it fries their lazy brains.
One thing stands out for me that was so dishonest and so callous by the media that it makes me choke.
Kate Ellis worked like a slave to rescue over 500 child care centres after the ABC lot went broke. She brokered a wonderful sale deal with NGO’s and the administrators to take them over, thus eliminating the need to build hundreds more child care centres.
What happens? Kate is dismissed by the media without a single question or thought to her while Rudd was dismissed as a coward.
It was a disgraceful display of utter chauvanism by a media pack of morons who didn’t bother to ask.
They also didn’t bother to find out that schools now have federally subsidised before and after school hours care, 15 hours per week free care for all 4 year olds, - no they were too busy destroying Kate’s work. It took Adele Horin in the SMH to finally publish what was a success story for taxpayers and their kids. The government spent millions and saved hundreds of millions.
But hey, why bother with the fucking truth.
It is patently absurd to blame only the Labor government for the descent into Chaos in which Australians now find themselves. (Chaos as in meaning a state lacking order or predictability, not the mathematical one, which is beyond my capabilities)
At the Federal Level there is a man adrift purporting to run the country. A man which the media depict as being psychotic and running on anger, a neurotic workaholic who won’t delegate authority. All in the words of David Marr on the ABC, last night. Whether David Marr is a trained psychiatrist is questionable. What is not questionable is the snide hatchet-job and the ease with which he attacks Kevin Rudd.
The snide and patronising sneer was apparent within days of the Rudd government being elected. Immediately the destructive print media poured out astonishingly nasty, vicious smears of anyone who was a member of the Labor government.
Prior to the election, in 2007, Rupert Murdoch had wielded his millions of dollars in an effort to deny the Australian people the right to a free and democratic vote. The right to choose their own political parties. It was all done by default, of course.
Post election, Murdoch continued to use his enormous fortune to mount a smear campaign in which his hired guns in the media threw endless buckets of shit-at the democratically elected government. Why?
In turn, right-wing industries -Overwhelmingly owned by foreign interests mounted a campaign of hatred against the Labor Party. Why?
Prior to Kevin Rudd’s announcement of the proposed RSPT the Mining Industry began their own war against the Labor government. Why?
The destruction of Kevin Rudd complete, Rupert Murdoch, the Mining Industry, right-wing lobby groups, foreign owned mega-businesses, and the rural industries have taken it upon themselves to tell the Australian people, that, next time it will be the turn of Tony Abbott to lead the nation.
A man so patently devious, self-doubting (all the athleticism and Lycra-covered, menopausal display a man who appears to doubt his own masculinity) Previously unelectable and a mere puppet of the odious John Howard led Liberal government, and their running dogs of the so called National Party. Under this great and virtuous John Howard, Tony Abbott was appointed, with the help of Brian Harradine (Indp), to be the destructive Minister for Health, prior to the 2007 election.
Tony Abbott is not loved by the Australian people. Now he is being rammed down our throats as the man who will lead us back to the promised land of the Coalition.
Even if he had remained stable, Kevin Rudd, our “Prime Minister” in case no one had noticed; a conservative God-fearing leader is being vilified as a communist, a mental case, a liar, and a mere bureaucrat for Christ’s sake!
The implicit message being that we voters are half-witted and incapable of political judgement.
Why does Oz have elections if, ipso facto, our leaders are pre-ordained by the weight of the enormous wealth of the vested interests? Why?
From Chaos we have descended into farce, and if Senator Bob Brown isn’t careful he will meet with a terminal accident amongst the gum trees. Being Green is not loved by the timber industry. The mining industry and the rural industries
It could be argued that that our political leaders are merely puppets of big business, because they are the ones who decided to pull the plug on John Howard who had become a cantankerous (and losing) old man. The coalition had lost their smarts, the Labor Party had swung to the right. And, at this stage they looked to be a fairly safe bet.
On the state level, stale, corrupt state governments-Labor- started to fall like rotten fruit. In Victoria the veniality of the John Brumby régime has become visible even to the Hun- reading masses of ‘public opinion’. Swayed by the constant blather of Andrew Bolt. (who owns the Hun? Not Rupert Murdoch?)
By the end of this year we will have big business, in command of all our State and Federal governments. Unless the Greens, and perhaps Malcolm Turnbull, pull off a miracle at the Federal and State of Victoria elections this year. The Labor Party is headed to oblivion.
The right-wing commentariat are orgasmic with joy. The Liberal party and the National Party will assume their God-given destiny and right. They are born to rule.
If, and when this country ever descends into anarchy, the right-wing commentariat will have no one to blame but themselves. People born to rule frequently have nasty endings.
The Labor Party, if it is to have a chance to ever lead this country again-and it won’t in my life-it must front up to the reality of changing their leader BEFORE the election. Their present leader has been nobbled so badly he is being mocked and laughed at by everyone over the age of eighteen. In case no one had heard the QandA audience on Monday night.
No horse carrying the weight of the errors made by the Rudd Government, ever made it to the winning post. Why should a human being?
For the sake of Oz, Lindsay Tanner and Julia Gillard, do what is required.
JAMESK: A politician who rules ‘against the will of the people’ is a Dictator.
It is that simple James.
No, Venise,
A person who rules against the will of the people is quite possibly a foreign, nonvoting newspaper proprietor.
Thankfully, the days of dead tree newspapers are numbered. A more egalitarian medium, to wit, the internet, is emerging as an alternate news channel. Crikey is far and away my current favourite, but if Tamas Calderwood isn’t soon required to adopt civilised and rational means of arguing a point, this might have to change.
I have no opinion yet as to whether the even newer electronic media such as Twitter will hold the attention of the population long enough to have any effect in the polling booths.
Mungo writes:
“… in the past few months he {Kevin Rudd} has p-ssed it all away”
Aren’t you overlooking something? The media barrage against him? The majority of the mainstream media, from News Ltd to their ABC, has been out to destroy this government, and the Prime Minister in particular. While going all out to boost the unworthy Abbott. Such was admitted by a Liberal to a Fairfax paper recently. I’ve never seen such a concerted media campaign.
So disgraceful are their actions that I’m boycotting their “products” and have subscribed to Crikey instead. Long live independent media! Mungo, please beware the trap of propagating MSM memes.
TONE47B: “Who’s your pick for Foreign Affairs-Julie Bishop, Bronwyn Bishop, Kevin Andrews? Barnaby?”
I think I’d cut my throat.
The divine Phillip Ruddock