- Wayne Swan had a poor run on The 7.30 Report last night. While there wasn’t much he could have done about Kerry O’Brien’s focus on the leak, he gave the issue new momentum by saying bluntly, and truthfully, that there wasn’t anything the Government could do to stop the leaks. Far better to have stuck to some folderol about not being distracted from the real issues of concern to voters, in the same manner he correctly refused to discuss his post-assassination dealings with Kevin Rudd.
- While this week’s Essential and Newspoll polls suggested the gender gap was closing, the latest Morgan poll shows it’s still relatively strong. Julia Gillard has dropped in approval and Tony Abbott has gained, but male and female voters are still divided over the leaders by up to ten points on measures like leaders’ approval.
- The strange, yet preternaturally boring, will-she-won’t-she indecision of Belinda Neal as to whether she will stand as an independent in Robertson will finally be ended today. Her running against Labor was held by the media to be potentially damaging to the party but I can’t understand why this would possibly be the case. Given her reputation, what better way to demonstrate that Labor has improved than for her to campaign against them? Or maybe that was the plan all along.
- At $2.55b, the Liberals’ corporate tax cut is a very expensive political fix in response to Labor’s ‘Coles and Woolies tax’ line — and Labor still gets to go on using it. Only the removal of the PPL levy in full will fix the problem for the Liberals. Joe Hockey prepared the way for that yesterday. It will cause the Liberals some angst over the inevitable “backflip” headlines but it’s worth it to get rid of a levy that Tony Abbott would never have got through shadow Cabinet if he’d bothered to check with them.
- Meanwhile, in the real world, the remorseless accumulation of evidence about global warming continues. The ANU’s Andrew Glikson points out that, in addition to global temperature data from sources like NASA GISS, the northern hemisphere is steadily racking up temperature records during its summer — hottest temperature on record in Asia (53 degrees in Pakistan in June), hottest day ever recorded in Moscow, hottest day on record in Beijing, hundreds of maximum and minimum temperature records in the US and Canada broken. Meanwhile, here in Australia, we’re rolling out new coal-fired power stations and a man who says “the world’s warming has stopped” and instead there has been “a slight cooling” is a credible candidate for Prime Minister.
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7 Comments
That last paragraph is what makes the whole political process in this country a complete fraud perpetrated on us by the media and the politicians.
Laurie Oaks trots out a bit of bile from presumably some Rudd backer, and we have wall to friggin’ wall commentary, Abbott running around gleefully shouting that the government is “unraveling”, and the entire country supposedly fixated on who ‘leaked’ this bit of calumny.
Spare me.
This country’s politics is a woeful charade, and we’ll end up paying a far bigger price than a couple of school halls for it.
Christopher D, I agree 100%, piffle and trivia now dominate the debate.
The other really bad aspect to the final point in Bernard’s article is that Tamas Calderwood will be flushed out of the woodwork again. Give me strength.
The problem with backflipping - absent some new piece of information to justify a change in position - is that those who were opposed to it still remember that you tried and they are no more than partially mollified; those who were in favour of it are now outraged at you; and everyone sees you as either foolish for taking the original position, spineless for changing, or both.
The sensible position - when the facts have changed. Absent some change in facts however…
Zut, Regarding the irrational yet unstoppable TC, prepare thyself with references. One from ABC News: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967433.htm?section=justin
John B,
One can prepare oneself with references and facts until one is full to the gunwales - but one is never, ever, adequately braced for TC. The TC phenomenon is quite exhausting.
Agreed. Sad, but true. That is one reason for my concern re the 150 good men and true or whatever Ms Gillard proposes as a reason to blame her failure to act. The folk most highly driven to join this party are precisely those with nothing to lose in the way of academic respectability, credibility, friends.
If I want advice as to build a house, I ask a builder or an architect or a building tradesperson - several ways to go, but all based on qualifications.
If IPCC … ditto… climate change… ditto… qualifications.
It’s not so odd, then, that climatologists, atmospheric physicists, etc are in general afraid to show their heads.
‘Tis best we learn to listen to the experts. Hear that, Julia?
Has anyone read the articles on climate change and politics and the problematic UK economy in the The Times Higher Education magazine of 22 July 2010.?
Its called the Profits of Doom.
Definitely worth thinking about.