Mandy Vanstone is off and running in the New Year with a whinge about… whingeing.
“Australians used to joke about whingeing Poms but I fear we have adopted that rather unattractive trait as our own. True enough the federal Parliament, indeed most of the parliaments, did not cover themselves in glory in 2012. I am not defending that.
It is just interesting that so many people who are happy to put the boot into parliamentarians do not appear to have tried to excel in their own work. We have a new class of people who appear quite happy to just be critical of others for not meeting the excellence bar.
Yes, it’s the old “Parliament is a disgrace” gambit, and no, Mandy doesn’t ascribe blame. She just has a whinge that the parliament is a joke. By parliament” she means Question Time.
But the truth comes out in her statement: “I am not defending that.”
Why would Mandy feel she owns some of the responsibility for the goings on in QT? She’s not a parliamentarian anymore, so it can’t be that.
But Mandy is still a Liberal, and it’s the Liberals who have gone out of their way to wreck QT and this parliament. No wonder she feels it necessary to – almost – apologize.
Pointless points of order (most of which are struck down); defiance of the Speaker resulting in record numbers of ejected members; heckling and all the rest of it are all played out to a bored Press Gallery, sitting in their reserved box seats like so many indolent Roman patricians, who maintain the fiction that QT is the most important gauge of governance… why?
Because they can. They have the privilege of the ringside seat, so they flog it for all it’s worth. What’s important – and pointedly, exclusive – to them, is what rates in parliamentary and political coverage.
So it’s all QT’s fault that the nation has turned into one whingeing, seething mass of dummy-spitters, says Mandy.
Wrong. It’s the trash-talk about everything – the economy, industrial relations, retail sales, and yes, parliament – that does it.
It is self-evident that a government concerned with re-election, running the country, keeping the economy on an even keel and passing its legislation through the parliament, would NOT wish to trash-talk its own efforts to maintain peace, order and good government (Can-Do Campbell, with his notable “Queensland is the new Greece” ejaculation, being the exception that proves the rule).
So who is doing all the wrecking?
It’s the side of politics that never has anything good to say, that puts out the message to do nothing – sit on your money – until they get into power, that makes up outright lies about the effect of the Carbon Tax, that threatens continuous elections just to restore us back to “Australia, circa 2007”, that says interest rates are always too low or too high, that tells us no matter how good this month’s figures are that next month’s will be the worst on record, that introduces scandal, smear and outright abuse of the Courts in shady efforts to alter the numbers in their favour, that plays with the lives of boat people just to score political points… in short, the side of politics that never stops whingeing and moaning… they are the ones to blame for the depths to which our nation has sunk.
Once upon a time there may have been a point to it. There was a chance that if they could king hit the government early, convince the independent members to switch sides or express “No Confidence” in the government, we might have had to go back to the people (who elected the hung parliament, after all) and sort it all out. That option expired by about mid 2011.
After that it was just a mindless pursuit of bad polls for the government so that their captive journo mates could write up the next election as a lay-down misere. If the result was so certain then there’s no need to talk about government policy because the government won’t be around long enough to carry it out. There would be no need to talk about Opposition policy because Oppositions don’t “do” policy until the campaign. With no need to consider either government or Opposition policy, we could get down to The Vibe, such an easy ride for all concerned.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can just spew out whatever comes first into your empty head and pass it off as critical analysis.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can run the next election endlessly, day after day, week after week, quoting the same polling numbers each time, saying there’s no hope for the Prime Minister.
- Writing about The Vibe means you can fill columns with you personal political biases, your likes and dislikes, and get it into the newspapers.
- Writing about The Vibe permits you to dismiss the government and to treat the Opposition as the government-in-waiting, or even the co-government, even though the Opposition has never won a substantive vote or passed a serious motion in the House for the entire time since 2010.
- Writing about the vibe means you can then blame the government for all this, or at worst, not have to blame the Opposition.
Unfortunately, writing about The Vibe has a downside for it purveyors. Your readers lose faith in you, they stop buying your newspaper, you go broke. As for the wrecker-politicians, their approval ratings tank to almost unprecedented levels. The Economy sags due to low confidence levels. The nation stagnates.
The critical 5% of punters who make up the difference between a vibrant economy and one in the doldrums are too miserable to get out of bed in the morning – Mandy uses this exact “Get out of bed scenario”. They don’t go shopping, or get to work. What should have been an optimistic, energetic place to live becomes a dull ache somewhere in the backs of people’s minds.
Funnily enough, I agree with Mandy, at least half agree with her.
There does need to be a resurgence of confidence and a cessation of whingeing. But it has to come from a recognition of the causes of the nation’s ennui. Australia needs to get a grip on itself and recognize that its salvation is in its own hands.
Confidence is highly under-rated as an economic output. We talk of prices and supply, taxation and industrial relations, market forces and government stimulus, but rarely do we consider confidence as anything more than some kind of waffly feel-good/feel-bad indicator, a product of an economy.
Confidence is not just a product of an economy, it is also equally its driving force. None of the other indicators matter unless the punters have enough confidence to literally get out of bed in the morning and believe their efforts will make a difference, and that their participation in the economy and society will benefit them, their families and ultimately, their society.
When conservative politicians continually trash-talk the economy for no good reason other than political advantage, a spike in the polls, a quip they can make about Pink Batts on Q&A, and when this results in too many people taking them at their word and staying in bed, the consequences can be serious indeed. We’re seeing that now.
A media that’s suffering decline seeks to spread its own misery to the rest of the country. Conservative – Liberal and National in particular – politicians continue a bad habit of negativity whose chance of success expired years ago. Economists, congenitally conditioned to never saying “Bet the house on this” take the easy option and tell their clients and readers, “Put you money under the bed, and then lie in that bed and stay put.” Here’s why: no economist ever got sued for advising their client to be cautious, even stupidly cautious.
Sound familiar?
Our economy is among the best in the world, our dollar is a reserve currency, our life style is rated No. 1, our debt is low, interest rates, taxes and unemployment ditto, we are on the Security Council doing good work around the world, our Treasurer wins prizes for his accomplishments, our Prime Minister is lauded all over as a Boadecia-like figure in the cause of women’s rights, big initiatives – the NDIS, Health and Education reforms, the NBN, anti-tobacco measures and many more – are either in train, or planned in a professional manner with proper consultation and hard bargaining… yet we are told we may as well stay in bed because Craig Thomson looks like he may have used hookers ten years ago, or the PM had a shoe malfunction, or her arse is too big.
Sound familiar?
The commentators are continually wrong about almost everything. Their predictions are laughable, and their errors are grievous. The government will fall, Rudd will come back, the states will never agree, the money can’t be found.
Sound familiar?
It’s not just Question Time or the parliament. It’s a national malaise, infectious and malignant, spread by political and business forces that have a vested political interest in maintaining their cosy pasts, to the detriment of their own present and future self-interests.
Working an extra hour and a half a day – Mandy’s suggestion – should not be the cause of recovery from this illness, it should be the result of it. But it can only become a reality if the conservative political forces that have so far been spreading it start helping to clean it up.
And to do that we first have to face the reality of where this disease is coming from, keep the carriers and spreaders of it from office, and drive a stake through the cesspits they have in place of human hearts.
THE PUB 
gecko
I’m lurking at PB for the time being. I’m waiting for my new computer before I go back to PollBludger, not that William will be missing me, nor a quite a few others.
For some reason the Crikey site takes too long to load on my poor old computer, and it drives me spare trying to log-in, getting booted off (that’s by the site, not by William) and then the ubiquitous message saying that “no data has been received” and having to go through the process about 5-10 times just to get to a new page.
The PUB is so much easier for me, plus I really do like . . . oh, I won’t go there.
Patricia
If your still here, check email 🙂
Fiona
Free, free, your free at last. 🙂 Please take it easy though, you don’t want to undo all the good that the rest has done.
Tobe,
Like any sensible person, I don’t take much notice of online polls, but if it is anywhere near the reality of how people are reacting to sensitive Tony stuff dressed up as news, it supports my view that Abbott is well and truly known and you can apply as much deep crimson lipstick to Abbott, and he still looks like the vauntingly ambitious, weather vane flake he is.
I’m also of the view that the Libs. have tied themselves to him to the next election.
There’ll be much panicking when the polls shift, but they don’t know what else to do. So they’ll keep doing more of the same in the forlorn hope that it worked so well for the first couple of years, that if they just redouble their efforts, somehow they’ll win.
The MSM will continue to do the predictable, and then try and pretend it was those MSM over there who got it so horribly wrong, while surreptiously wiping away substantial scrambled egg dripping down their chins.
Go on kezza2 ,
you were gonna say me, I know .
Love the newly formatted blog …the timestamp acts as ‘permalink’ …click on one & then copy/paste resultant address when linking on twitter/facebook/other blogs …
Have tested it & it works perfectly …means I can isolate & tweet a link to Bushfire …or any other interesting post … 🙂
Gecko – both, but I agree with Roy Orbison, about a certain insufferably smug poster over there.
2gravel
Unfortunatley some times my truck driving will interfere.
markjs1
Good that’s working then.
Thanks for testing
Gerard Henderson has had too much Chrissie cheer and is starting to tell jokes in his latest column:
Ha ha ha, Gezza, that’s a good one.
Here’s another one:
According to Gezza, the panellists of Fox News Watch’s last show for 2012 were the epitome of decent political debate. These folks attracting such high praise were Jim Pinkerton, Juan Williams, Richard Grenell and July Millen.
Golly gee, Gezza, I can barely hold my sides together.
Anyway, the article is about how the ABC missed the story of the year. Yessiree, Abbott and Turnbull contradicted each other about bias at the ABC.
Guess we know which side Gezza’s plugging. I wonder if he’ll make the article a submission to the committee re the ABC.
Sorry, didn’t copy the link before I closed the tab and I ain’t going back for it. It’s an article in today’s SMH entitled something along the lines of abbott/turnbull clash over ABC bias.
350 @350_PPM
Tony Abbot’s famous ‘Climate Change Is Crap’ now has a visual. twitpic.com/btg3zv #auspol bit.ly/UEyiJv
Dates are great. The numbers can slumber.
Ignore the link “bit.ly/UEyiJv” …just click on the twitpic link…
Joe6Pack
Got me in one!
Hey, thanks for all the work you’ve done here, especially fixing up the time. It really helps people like me who have a very slow computer, because I know not to refresh the page unnecessarily.
Oh, re-reading my post about lurking at PB makes it seem as if I meant that I was going to abandon the PUB. No way, I’m not even going to leave at closing time. Even when you frog-march me out of the joint and have taken my keys. Unless, of course, you throw me out.
Gecko,
There is no slap in the face for WB. We are just branching out a bit.
I will post on PB. if I have something to say but atm. this is taking up a bit of time.
This is a blog that has more stricter rules re. appropriate behavior than pb. and so far it seems to be working well.
Feel free to contribute whenever you wish to.
joe6pack
Time stamp works for me, and that clip you put up of Julia was great too, I watched it live because guytar always let everyone know when Julia was going to be on the TV. I got lucky a couple of times when glancing at PB to see his messages.
Talking of trucks, why don’t you get one of those ones the mines have that you can drive from your computer at home. 😉
HSO,
I know that the Kate Ellis scam wouldn’t work, though you’d be surprised the number of electors who judge pollies superficially. Or maybe you wouldn’t be surprised. 🙂
kezza2,
You can sleep under the bar. 🙂
Just remember y’all that the strength of PB is that there is no genetic cleansing. I’m not sure you can moderate away differences or recalcitrance without damaging the grand plan of diversity of thought, argument and debate. Emotive response, annoyance and anger often serve to fast-track to the truth and they are therefore valid ingredients to vibrant discourse and a healthy blog. But I’m sure you know that already.
Just sayin’
xx
Is this true?
of photoshopped (I’ve been tricked before, so I’d better ask the experts)
C@t at 6.09pm,
Thanks, I think (can’t see which emoticon you’ve entered at the moment – sometimes when I refresh the site comes back in longhand)
Did anyone see the Drum tonight? I managed to catch thirty seconds on my way out. Bernard Keane was talking about Ashby/Slipper case.
Rummel saves Rummel ?
http://twitter.yfrog.com/3ujgxnrlrmheywggqxaeyxjcz
BB – don’t bother with Dr. Google, just come to THE PUB
Yeah poor Bryan (pre-PB)… from memory his site was mainly Lib and slowly got taken over by the Left. I was away when he shut down the site, but I was told that posters were all doing lawyers at 10 paces… as if you can slander an anonymous alias 😀
well i want be posting there any more
but thats ok i am no loss
gecko
There is no genetic cleansing.
If truth be told we banned 1 person and that was that.
Since then no problems, hardly any editing,moderation was needed.
Just telling
xx
How did I do that? Just copied & pasted the link, and now it’s on here.
Hmm!
Anyway, don’t bother answering my question, I didn’t see the comment accompanying it!
[C@tmomma
JANUARY 8, 2013 AT 6:09 PM (EDIT)
kezza2,
You can sleep under the bar. ]
Only after she finishes cleaning it
C@t,
I always keep in mind the bell curve of intelligence when it comes to the general population. O.K., it has its shortcomings, but Kath & Kim wasn’t a hit for no reason.
Kath: “But you are effluent, Kimmy.”.
Wouldn’t it be delicious if iron ore prices stayed up and we got that budget surplus after all.
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/01/iron-ore-twirls-higher/
[So as H&H stated in his last post of 2012 back in Mid-December iron ore’s twirl towards freedom could have gone anywhere with the following upside possibility.
So, it’s a Christmas gift for Australia with iron ore surging to new post-bust highs. If the price can hold at these levels for three months all sorts of things will happen. Rate cuts will be off. The budget surplus will become a reality. The dollar will go to new highs. Roy Hill may even get funding.]
Ctar
its sideways how many drinks have you had?
I wouldn’t be surprised if a surplus is achieved..
Every one was saying it wasn’t important, so the govt. took the heat of the issue.
If swan does deliver one watch joho turn red.
Btw he is looking more orange than usual or is my tv playing up.
Joe6Pack
No cleaning for me, kiddo.
I’m female, I only DestroyTheJoint.
How do I post quotes? Square brackets don’t seem to work.
any one watching 7.30
no one has mentioned the g w word yet
Joe I would do a happy face but don’t know how.
Inquest NOW 🙂
hope we can get a text from the 7.30 report
the interview from the weather bureau was very good
about the weather we are now seeing.
Gecko:
Just remember y’all that the strength of PB is that there is no genetic cleansing.
As Joe said, the moderation has been light. I think in the first couple of days about three or four posts from various sources were deleted outright.
Bemused brought an attitude here, well telegraphed in the last days at PB before Christmas, tried to foster antagonism between moderators (with an inverse “GoodCop/Bad Cop” routine), was warned and then banned.
90% of Bemused’s posts were about himself and how he was a martyr to free speech etc. etc. ad infinitum. He continues his self-obsession elsewhere. I’ve no doubt his audience and William are enthralled with the story he has to tell and the erudition he regularly displays.
He has since bragged that he didn’t like it here anyway and stopped posting voluntarily.
So that sounds like a “Win-Win” to me.
Anyone else who was asked to tone it down a bit did so, much to their credit and to peace and good order.
Free speech is one thing, but antagonism, insults and personal abuse bring no credit either to the commenters or their targets.
There has been no cleansing, genetic or otherwise. If certain people didn’t post here I’d like to think it’s because they realized they wouldn’t get away with their usual disruptive and downright childish antics.
We are trying hard to make this a blog about politics and current affairs, not a blog about itself.
The motto remains: “Say what you like, but treat others as you would want to be treated.”
Best, BB.
6Pack – Rummel did the sideways bit!
Very glad U posting here my say/denese ..it’s a friendly PUB with no huge egos to negotiate …feels very comfortable & friendly …
…& the beer’s ice cold!! …heaven 🙂
LaurieB,
How do I post quotes? Square brackets don’t seem to work.
It’s the around the appropriate letter, like I for italics and b for bold, and blockquote, that will get you there. 🙂
Colour me insane, but I made Chicken Vindaloo for Dinner. By request. So, maybe I’m only half insane for agreeing to do it! 😀
my say,
Their loss is our gain. 🙂
Sorry, just Testing
[blockquote]just Testing[/blockquote]
[b]just Testing[/b]
just Testing
[i]just Testing[/i]
just Testing
markjs1,
…& the beer’s ice cold!! …
With a nice head on top, not too big, not too small, just right. 🙂
Having a superior barmaid helps. 😀
Tobe,
So it does work with square brackets too?
C@tmomma …no arguments there 🙂 …but U still not getting Gordons Gin …my pension won’t stretch that far 😀
denese,
Did you see on ABC that the Pope has sent a special message of support to Tasmanians? Bet there’s a big turnout to Mass on Sunday to hear it! 🙂
It seems to allow you to use HTML tags for formatting… So for the examples in my previous post replace the [ with a .
Thanks C@tmomma.
Just went an d took a look at Bolt’s blog.
Still the same old rubbish.
The Earth started cooling 16 years ago, “Warmism” is a commie plot etc. etc.
Thank God he;s done his dash. I was getting worried there for a while.
I always predicted a return to hot, dry weather, plus natural disasters like these fires and the awful heatwaves will have a salutary effect on the opinions of many re. Global Warming.