The inimitable BK provided his much loved links today and one of them bears closer scrutiny…
“Jaqueline Maley with a long and reasonable article about the issues that will dominate this election year. Note how thin the Opposition’s stances are.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/the-10-issues-that-will-decide-the-election-20130104-2c93p.html “
“Reasonable”? BK is too kind.
It looks like Maley’s spoken to Mark Textor pretty exclusively for her analysis (with Hawker-Britton looking on). It boils down to how things will “play”, from a institutionalized Liberal spruiker’s point of view, written up by the SMH’s “parliamentary sketch writer” as proper “journalism”.
On the Carbon Tax Maley posits that the punters will hold a grudge against Gillard for the “lie”, made in August 2010, even as they realize Abbott has been full of shit about the dire effects of the CT. As droughts and fires take hold over the next ten years, she assumes the punters will STILL vote against the government, even if it means their houses burn down and their water runs dry.
For someone who treats her own readers as if they have no memory, Maley now asserts they never forget anything.
“But that doesn’t mean voters have forgiven Gillard her carbon tax “lie”, and it doesn’t mean they are convinced of the value of the carbon pricing reform on its own merits.”
The same goes for the Surplus “promise”. Millions – amateurs and professionals – have been begging the government for relief from spending cutbacks. Swan, according to the experts with a vested interest in doomsaying, waited months longer than he needed to, just to make sure everyone was on board. He finally did what they were clamouring for him to do. And that’s dumb?
It’s so typical of a “parliamentary sketch writer” to obsess about broken promises, years old and now irrelevant, indeed welcomed in many quarters as sensibly and wisely broken. Yada-yada, I guess Jackie would say “It’s all about perception”.
No, it’s not. It’s a last fling Maley is having before she is forced to wake up and realize the public is concerned with outcomes, not the mindf**ks of political opinionistettes who see everything in terms of Journalists Club rules and regulations.
“Thou shalt not breaketh promises, for parliamentary sketch writers will … um … houndeth thou for them, even if the public doesn’t… um … give a toss.”
How about this for a possibility? Labor convinces the punters that Carbon pricing is a good thing, is essentially un-repealable (without causing more chaos than it’s worth from something that’s now basically bedded down), that Global Warming is real – which it is, conveniently – and needs to be countered, and that ditching the obsession with Surpluses is not only a good thing as far as outcomes are concerned, but a good thing for the political process, breaking the chain of reflexive calls for a yearly credit balance no matter what. At least if she countenanced this possibility Maley would distinguish herself from the groupthink that passes for “political analysis” nowadays.
On IR, Maley believes (or is it Textor in her ear again?) that the public will welcome a return to Work Choices (in name or nature) because Craig Thomson is alleged to have used hookers nearly a decade ago and a Labor vice-President looks like he’s ripped off the same union.
She confuses the issue de jour of about a year ago, one of those that excited calls for Prime Ministerial resignations (along with Slipper, who I will come to later) and was classified as a government-busting scandal, with the more sanguine point of view that Thomson was only important because of the numbers in a hung parliament. Any attempt to make it bigger than that and to sustain this until, and throughout an election campaign is risky business, indeed.
The two – union power and petty union corruption – only seem to be connected, and that only in Journo World, a theme park where two flies crawling up a wall make it to the front page. If they crawl back down again, Peter Hartcher writes an obtuse leader and Michelle Grattan tells us either one could come out the winner (or maybe the cockroach will beat them both).
One – union power – protects all workers from the Americanization of our places of employment, which, given our stubbornly low jobless metrics and position as just about the world’s best economy, are things to worry about losing, and which are being worried about, even if the (paradoxically, heavily unionized) Journalists Club thinks it’s a trivial matter of what “she said” while “he said”.
The other, union corruption, can be fixed with a couple of court cases, fresh, clean union elections and stricter regulations. Then we can get onto millionaire Point Piper merchant bankers not being prosecuted for stealing the life savings of gullible self-financed retirees. Why one and not the other?
Punish the wicked, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Let’s not get too carried away thinking that scandals only happen to the Labor side of politics. If Textor/Maley think Craig Thomson and AWU are going to bamboozle the people into loving work Choices, begging for its return, over an alleged (but importantly not yet adjudicated and vigorously denied) bit of t’other by Craig Thomson, they’re even further gone than I thought.
Even without getting Textor’s imprimatur, I could think of another scandal that may provide some light relief for the punters: an LNP plot to bring the government down by dropping Peter Slipper, the Constitution’s highest parliamentary officer, into a homosexual honey trap that everyone in Canberra to the left of the Chair seemed to know was coming, at the same time as having no “specific knowledge” of it. This was followed by the wall-punching, Mr. “Sell Your Virginity Dearly” Abbott getting up in parliament to ask Madame Speaker-Thing to allow him to have a motion passed condemning… misogyny. After that came The Speech, something an insouciant Maley assured us needed to be taken in context… hers, of course.
I wonder where the pugilistic Abbott learned to lead with his chin?
Ashby-Slipper has already survived an almost impossible legal test: a successful accusation of abuse of process, an often argued but so unlikely an outcome for a court case that it makes hens’ teeth seem about as rare as an IPA talking head on The Drum, i.e. not.
If the Libs – including Textor/Maley presumably – believe a Federal Court finding that the fix was well and truly in re. Slipper is going to just disappear – has already disappeared – while 20 year old allegations that Julia Gillard had an intra-office tiff with her partners and was encumbered by a boyfriend with dubious (although as yet, again, unadjudicated) connections is going to get a guernsey as Scandal Of The Century, they may have to find their thinking caps, place them on their bobble heads, and use Velcro to keep them on in the storm that’s about to come.
A common way to cut a policy off at the knees is for a journo at a presser to yell, “Where’s the money coming from?” If there’s no money, then they don’t have to examine policy or do any serious analysis. They just shake their heads and waffle on about how “The Polls” say the voters reckon the government isn’t as good as Joe Hockey – he of “Interest rates will always be {too low|too high|out of control} under Labor” – at managing the economy.
So Textor/Maley today throw out the tired line:
“But there will be natural voter scepticism around funding for the reforms. The review recommends increased funding of $5 billion a year (based on 2009 figures, which amounts to $6.5 billion in today’s terms) and no agreement has been reached with the states.
Textor says the Gonski review might be a talking point among Canberra’s press gallery, but it adds up to just that – talk.
“It’s seen by many as a bunch of recommendations and things they say they’re going to do . . . Have any changes resulted?” Meanwhile, he says, the Coalition can campaign on its “practical approach” to education and “proven ability to negotiate with the states”.
Note how Maley quietly divorces herself from “Canberra’s press gallery”, using Textor’s words? They’re the journos over there, those other ones, the ones who reckon Education is important, not the ones who know the Coalition has a “proven ability to negotiate with the states.” Presumably Textor/Maley are referring to John Howard’s stunning achievements with … um … let’s see… the Murray-Darling, for example? That was a brilliant success, eh? Unlike the miserable Gillard failures of actually passing the MDB legislation through the parliament, shaming the states into agreeing to co-fund the NDIS and her egregious lack of accomplishment at getting NAPLAN testing up and running. What a miserable record of “negotiating with the states” Labor truly has!
I could go on, but I have to go out into the garden and complete the breaking of my lower back shovelling compost for Her Indoors, so that it’s nice when she comes back from a zesty swim at the pool.
Suffice it to say this: before the 2007 election Jason Koutsoukis wrote weekly articles in the Sunday Age telling his readers in great detail how the Coalition had Rudd just where they wanted him: on a slab, prepped for vivisection without the anesthetic. They also had a dirt file on Gillard that proved beyond doubt she was guilty… of something. Never mind, the smear would do.
In 2007 it was scandals and meta-politics that were going to win the day for the Howard government. The Coalition’s default position was that their policies didn’t need to be considered because, well, everyone knew what they were. Jason eventually broke out of the thrall he had been in – for all I know a spell woven by the same Mr. Textor that has today been at Jacqueline Maley – and wrote the truth: the Coalition were on a hiding to nothing, and they relied too much on smear and innuendo.
Today, in 2013, little has changed.
They continue to run on sensational headlines that come to nothing. they continue to cling to the belief that John Howard – who not only lost office, but got chucked out of his seat as a bonus – is on the comeback trail. Not the man himself, but his successors – Abbott, Hockey, Robb, The Puff Adder, Mesma, The Poodle, that bloke from Queensland who’s never asked a question, the stylish Truss, the Human Caricature, Barnarby Joyce, and of course the glamourous Lady Bronwyn Bishop – will stage the revival.
The question that seriously needs to be asked about the next election is: “Are they serious?”
Continuous polling snapshots show the Coalition still in the lead, yet the gap is narrowing. To any reasonably sentient observer that would mean the government is gaining. Yet the Gallery continues to frame its blather around a conservative lead in the polls that is dwindling, the smug spruikings of hired guns like Textor, and an Opposition leader who is about as popular as a fart in a knife drawer, and who has never, ever been popular.
They are up against a party and their leader who have accomplished so much, given the incessant harping, whingeing and moaning from the media and political opponents alike, plus the millstone of a hung parliament strung around their necks.
The media see no future for themselves as they sit in their empty offices, working double shifts to meet the 24 Hour News Cycle. So why not bring everyone down to their level?
The Opposition, stenographed through the media, mindlessly trash-talk the economy into near-recession, then seek to blame the government, without producing alternative policies, except gimmicks like subsidized nannies and more highway bypasses.
A lot can happen in 8 months and it doesn’t necessarily have to be all in the Coalition’s favour, no matter how hard the media push that barrow. Abbott leaves us with a picture of… sameness. Same faces, same policies, same tactics, same telecommunications infrastructure, same negativity. They, and their supporters, have made the fundamental mistake that the Republicans made in the recent US elections: they believe their own publicity.
Also believing the publicity is Jacqueline Maley, who would be better off finding a new career as a waitress, rather than in her chosen, but dumbed-down profession. After all, they say Hospitality is the new boom industry.
THE PUB 
Not quite …
“There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night—
Ten to make and the match to win—
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote
“Play up! play up! and play the game!””
I agree that Peta understands that Strike three is going to happen – not even a chance of a foul to pad the batting ranking..
Duck
[There’s a breathless hush in the Close to-night]
You live in a Street.
Wade can’t catch or bat in the 2nd innings
This little black duck
When it comes to poetry a bit of Kipling and Afghanistan is still the go as we “expedite” our retreat.
“If your officer’s dead and the sergeants look white,
Remember it’s ruin to run from a fight:
So take open order, lie down, and sit tight,
And wait for supports like a soldier.
Wait, wait, wait like a soldier . . .
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!
Fibs to stick with Tone, makes no sense to come out of the woodwork all of a sudden and spill your guts about sensitive Tony and his fridge. Especially as everyone sees it for what it is.
5 to win so off we go for a tea break.
Tony’s Fridge – ‘Neat’!
I don’t know much about IVF, never wanted to, but I’ve been talking to a family member who has been through IVF twice and she has been very informative. I asked her why a woman undergoing IVF treatment would need to keep her drugs at work. Was it because you have to take stuff at regular intervals? My informant just laughed. As Ms Credlin needed to keep her drugs in the fridge my informant tells me she would have been on the ovarian stimulation phase of the treatment. You inject yourself with the drug once a day. Women are advised to chose somewhere safe and private to do this. Doctors recommend doing it at home where you can be comfortable and relaxed. Women are also advised to do their injecting at night, because they are going to be at home and will, most likely, have someone at there with them.
So – knowing all that, why would a woman decide to lug all her stuff – drugs, syringes, whatever – into the office? Why leave it in the boss’s bar fridge, the one that holds after work drinks, instead of a fridge in her own office? And why on earth would anyone choose a busy office and a stressful work environment over a quiet spot at home,? It’s all completely unbellievable.
The cartoonists could have a ball with wrigglies with red speedos!
leonne
On the other hand . . . . . .
Possum Comitatus @Pollytics
The most intelligent comment about #IVFDrugFridgeGateCacophony I’ve seen http://bit.ly/VsuHde
The article suggests that Credlin now has the progressives where she sants us. Well, you read it and see if you agree with the logic.
BK.
[ The cartoonists could have a ball with wrigglies with red speedos! ]
And big flapping ears! 😉
BK,
Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose? A bit like Ken (Barbie’s boyfriend) – who last time I looked (nearly 50 years ago) had his jocks moulded to his body …
Tweet from Emmo
@margokingston1 No discernible sign of Daily Telegraph interest in Ashby conspiracy. Maybe because they were conspirators. Other media quiet
I wondered where Pyne keeps his points of order!
spinebill4
By what logic does Possum believe this is an intelligent comment? Pure drivel. No one is attacking a woman having IVF treatment. The story itself reeks of desperation and is beyond stupid. It is as simple as that
victoria
I admit I can’t always understand Possum.
Sam Maiden said it was a “good story” because now it opens the field for more questions about Tony.
“More questions”? When do journos ever ask any? She’s just trying to justify using the press release from Credlin.
Too convoluted, by half, is this analysis:
“So we’re apparently all hypocrites (on Sunday, no less), but Abbott’s got control of the frame and that’s all he and his chief of staff care about. The ability for a story like this to influence public opinion is only dependent on progressives attacking Abbott and his chief of staff over it.
People aren’t going to see Abbott differently on women’s issues because of a piece in a newspaper or an interview with his chief of staff in Marie Clare magazine. Views on this topic are well and truly entrenched. All getting triggered by it and attacking it does is allow conservatives and Abbott a way out of the mess of their own making.”
http://bit.ly/VsuHde
Yada-yada-yada… why “progressives” don’t like this story is that it’s so bloody transparent.
I haven’t seen anyone attack IVF.
What they think is that Abbott and Credlin are so desperate for coverage they’re prepared to put this in the Sunday papers at an otherwise dead time in politics.
Plus it leads to speculation as to what ELSE is in Tony Abbott’s fridge.
Going all “meta” is far too complicated on this one. It’s a dud story, overdone and completely obvious. Laughable. And desperate.
spinebill4
This tweet sums it up
Yep obvious to most RT @MichaelByrnes: When you read the Peta Credlin puff piece backwards it says: “Desperate Political Strategy”. #auspol
Read the last line of Brian Loughnane’s Wikipedia entry before the Liberal Party take it down:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Loughnane
😀
spinebill:
Not sure where Poss or the author of that post is coming from either. Nobody is attacking anyone for having IVF!
I think Andrew Elder’s observations are far more astute. He is basically saying Credlin needs a change of image and a reason to leave Abbott.
what will next weekend’s advertorial expose of Abbott’s gentle side be?
[What they think is that Abbott and Credlin are so desperate for coverage …]
Yep. Nil to do with politics or news.
BB
Spot on!
How many of the current Fibs are big cow cockies and cattle breeders. I understand Bull semen needs to be kept at a certain temperature to. Gee I hope Tone has a big fridge.
Funny thing is Bull semen is sold as straws.
jeffemu – Get yourself a drink.
Please spare me!
“This has been one of the Liberal Party’s tactics since Abbott became leader and it has allowed them to control the frame of the national conversation. Support something progressives support, let progressives attack them for being inconsistent and then point out the hypocrisy of how progressives oppose something they support just because “Tony Abbott” supposedly supports it.”
This might be true if progressives WERE attacking IVF, which they aren’t.
And if Tony Abbott only put this in the paper so he’d get talked about, then he’s succeeded. Something this stupid and over-egged DESERVES to be talked about.
Consider the corollary: “We should never talk about Tony Abbott, because talking about him is what he wants us to do.”
Equally stupid. It seems Tony Abbott wants us to talk about him, and we want to, but we shouldn’t because we’re only doing what he wants by talking about him. So don’t talk about him. In fact, give him a free pass.
victoria
Being a little old-fashioned, I suppose, I would never broadcast IVF attempts in such a way. The fact Credlin has “revealed all” to help Tony really does say they’re desperate, as you say.
The next thing will be Tony’s tenderness as a lover (with Margie, of course). Heaven forbid!
I was right about 3 months ago on Poll Bludger, when I said Possum Comitatus had begun to believe his own publicity and subsequently disappeared up his Possum fundament following the smoke signals from the stuff people had been blowing up there for way too long now.
Consider the corollary: “We should never talk about Tony Abbott, because talking about him is what he wants us to do.”
Yes, it’s just a poor piece of logic.
BK,
Thanks for your dawn patrol reports over the last 2 weeks.
Much appreciated.
spinebill4
It is laughable to say the least
spinebill
[Being a little old-fashioned]
There’s nothing old fashioned about that.
spinebii4
The next thing will be Tony’s tenderness as a lover (with Margie, of course). Heaven forbid!
I’ve just been sick
Joe
It has been a pleasure.
And thankyou so much for your efforts and those of your fellow moderators and feature writers.
A potentially large hole has been filled.
6Pack – Your ‘extra’ run.
Did you have to go far or just the other out and back?
I’m not even quite sure i believe that P Credlin is on IVF.
Mari R @randlight
The thing that saddens me is that female journos seem to be the most virulent against PM,egs M Grattan, J Maley, S Maiden, Janet A, M Devine
This tweet of mine started off a deluge of tweets, retweets etc and still going on, but it is the truth it does sadden me so much
samantha maiden @samanthamaiden
@Pollytics @GordonGraham I always find Gordon’s observations interesting and although don’t always agree often excellent.
I’m assuming it was ‘Gordon’ who wrote the illogical piece above?
BK – Yes your morning links. I might not do land of the free unless you really say read this one.
But I don’t bother to check domestic stuff because I know you’ll be on the job.
A big Thank You.
This was my comment to Gordon on his blog:
What a load of unmitigated bollocks, Gordon.
The article is a puff piece concocted between Tony Abbott, Peta Credlin & Abbott’s campaign manager, Mr Peta Credlin, to try and show that Tony has a sensitive side, really, he’s not a chauvinist pig.
Any woman who knows anything about IVF will tell you that Peta Credlin’s story about the IVFmeds in the fridge is BS. You need to be in a stress-free environment, where you are relaxed, before you take your shot of ovulation-inducing hormones. A bit of sex after doesn’t go astray either, you know, just to get your body thinking it wants to actually make babies.
And like a typical gullible, know-nothing male, you have fallen for the fairy floss bait, hook, line and sinker.
Mate, you’re the one Credlin wanted to suck in, and boy, has she succeeded.
CTar1,
Just a quick run to tidy things up before everyone else starts again tommorow.
I am having a break next week just do minimal work and I best take the OH. out for lunch a few times.
Sunday arvo drinks have begun and I don,t expect to be up at 4.00am tommorow 😀
All the best, Joe.
BTW did you get my email asking you to forward a file to kaffeklatcher?
Shout out to leone, who provided the background necessary to inform my comment to Gordon. I have no great knowledge of IVF, being Irish Australian Catholic, I just had to fall out of bed and I got pregnant! Thank goodness for contraception! 🙂
J6P
[ and I best take the OH. out for lunch a few times.]
How many $200 pizzas can a man’s wallet stand?
Ditto from me to BK, and the other Authors and Moderators, you know who you are 🙂 for a sterling effort over the last couple of weeks. Great idea, and we couldn’t have done it without us! 😀
What Peta Credlin was really saying here is; one can’t leave a single stone unturned in the search for a vote.
or
Every Liberal loves their voter! 😉
[ “This is a really important election and you can’t leave these things unsaid if they need to be addressed.” ]
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/with-tony-on-my-side/story-e6frezz0-1226548140341