The edifice crumbles…

bushfirebill Uncategorized

 

Tony Abbott and his government were elected to restore “sanity” and “trust” to governance in Australia. But national affairs are becoming more insane by the moment. And trust is thin on the ground.

Abbott Fear

Abbott got in because, when he was asked whether he’d tip everything that Labor achieved upside-down, he said he wouldn’t. There were so many unity tickets you’d have thought it was a scalpers’ convention.

He lied about it all, pure and simple. He knew he was lying.

True, the punters were in a mind to at least try to believe him, because of the Rudd termite nest set up inside the Gillard government, but they were worried about Abbott’s soundness on a personal level. The polls all showed they didn’t particularly trust him, as if they knew he’d try to swindle them out of their vote, like a cheap back lane card sharp.

Then there was the interview with Kerry O’Brien, where Abbott himself warned the punters not to believe his own words.

So Abbott, confronted with understandable public scepticism, not only repeated the promises at every opportunity, but he reinforced them by giving a blanket guarantee to keep ALL his promises, a sort of meta promise. Could a man who made such an issue of confidence and trust (as Abbott did) possibly be untrustworthy?

Of course he can.

Liars lie. And they lie about being a liar.

It’s an age-old logical conundrum called “The Liar Paradox”.

In doing this Abbott set his own benchmarks impossibly high, especially for a man like him, who has a reputation for shrugging off commitments and loyalties like a snake sheds its skin.

Eventually the public twigs to this, and that’s what we’re seeing now in polling everywhere. The government has lost its lead, and then some, between the 2013 election and today. It is just not supposed to happen that way.

The Coalition is going into a horror Budget with no set plan, no real policies and no clue as to how they’re going to pull it off except by frightening the bejesus out of everyone. They’re even putting up a plan to tax their way to prosperity, although I’ve lost count of the number of times they told us that idea just never worked.

They’re setting out to scare people, keep them stressed, and to incite fear and loathing in the community by pitting one demographic against the other.

Throw in the absolutist, Bunyip Tea Party nonsense emanating from the Commission Of Audit, and you have the recipe for a perfect political storm.

It’s a relentlessly negative, bleakly depressing strategy, and the voters aren’t buying it. They’re sick of national struggle and being part of a community in a state of perpetual ennui. Labor was comprehensively voted out of office 8 months ago. Labor is no longer the government. The public wants to know where the new Golden Age that Abbott promised has disappeared to. This Golden Age was perhaps the biggest lie of all, given the petty ideological obsessions of the man who said he would deliver it.

It may suit Abbott’s purposes, and his natural style, to have the entire nation on the back foot – that worked well enough for the boxing blue, the self-described “Whirling Dervish” – but it doesn’t cut it for the ordinary punters. A Prime Minister is supposed to raise peoples’ expectations, not king hit them while they’re not looking.

Ultimately voters want to be “relaxed and comfortable”, not having to endure ever more national emergencies, existential threats, working until they drop, less pay for longer hours. We’re not living in an ant colony. We’re a society of human beings. Just because there are some fanatical workaholics in that society doesn’t mean we all have to be part of the Great Machine. Civilization requires time to ponder greater mysteries than how we can afford to educate our kids, or pay our bills.

Life is replete with con artists and the tricks they play, but as crazy and laughable as it may seem, some of the mugs who invest in their get-rich-quick schemes, horse racing software, Nigerian scams, Pea-and-Thimble games and dodgy miracle face creams, have no shame. They were promised something impossible, but that doesn’t deter them. They contact The Check Out, wanting their money back. This is when their anger outweighs their embarrassment.

Similarly, some of the voters, dupes for Abbott’s promises to keep promises, repeated ad infinitum, might not have any shame, either. He only needs a few per cent to return to their initial impression of him as an untrustworthy liar, and it’s all over for the Coalition. Eventually cognitive dissonance becomes simple recognition. And that’s when the electoral rot sets in. Abbott’s cronies and henchmen know this only too well: they invented the game.

Contrary to Julia Gillard’s hurried, half-baked promise not to introduce a Carbon Tax, Abbott turned his personal integrity into grand opera., the fulcrum of the nation by which he told us he was not only glad, but eager to be judged.

He contrasted himself against Labor, depicting himself as a beacon of maturity, diligence, hard work and propriety. The “adults” were going to be back in charge. You couldn’t tax your way to prosperity. They had hundreds of fully-costed and thought-out policies, ready to go at a heartbeat’s notice. His promise was sobriety and honesty. He repeated it so many times it became an over-arching promise in itself: the promise to keep his promises.

Then he started breaking them. Can he ever be trusted again after some of the weasel words that have come out of his mouth in vain attempts to justify his political anarchism?

First he tried parsing his own words, telling the punters that what they thought he promised, wasn’t what was in his own head as the promise he made.

Then he tried the “shock-horror” stuff… look, it’s a rat’s nest in here! Who knew?

Now he’s down to outright breach, simply because he’s changed his mind: the “That was then, this is now” gambit (a phrase Abbott has used himself, about his own changeability).

He makes it up as he goes along. The only narrative is chaos. Thought bubble after thought bubble pop out of his brain and even his own ministers don’t know what’s coming down the Abbott pipeline anymore. He’s the bull who’s loose in his own china shop.

And he’s only just beginning to flex his muscles. They haven’t even gotten to their first Budget yet and it’s already utter confusion out there.

“Sometimes it’s better to seek forgiveness than ask permission”…

… only gets you so far. Just about everything Abbott is doing is more like the former, and less like the latter. He’s embarrassing his own people with his brain farts, and they have to clean up after him, making like they agree with him (which, for the most part, they don’t). One day they’ll get sick of making excuses for Abbott and throw him out altogether, or else the people will (with the rest of his party along with him… that’s the scary part for career politicians).

The Insiders this morning asked why he seemed to be in so much of a hurry.

It’s a combination of his natural style, which is to pick as many fights as he can, as often as he can, and a haunting ghost in his head that whispers to him that he can’t keep on fooling all the people all the time. His days are numbered, so he may as well go the whole hog.

Abbott’s entire career has been based on surviving the day. Thus, a three-year term of government must seem like an eternity to him. I don’t think he can really grasp how long a period “three years” is. He is acting as he has always acted, as if there’s no tomorrow. His classic style is to go for a knockout in the first round, to throw a haymaker at his opponent, even as he shakes their hand, except the Australian people are not supposed to be his opponents.

The ultimate victory of the alleyway spiv is to fleece his victims of their money and then disappear, chuckling to himself that there’s a sucker born every minute.

It’s a good way to get through the day, but it’s no way to run a country.

561 thoughts on “The edifice crumbles…”

  1. Janice

    Yes, it is fantastic. Only cutting another $124 million out of TAFE, why their generosity knows no bounds.

  2. “This is an Australian practice which we should guard ourselves against,” Parkop wrote. “We are a compassionate nation and people known for our hospitality and compassion in reaching out to people in hardship, distress or seeking comfort.”

    Funny, we used to be all that and seen as a compassionate nation.

  3. billie

    Wow, more and more roads and stuff, just overwhelmed here, now I’ll have to vote nappytime in November.

  6. Port Moresby Governor, Powes Parkop, presented with the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award for 2013.

    Your turn, Sir Peter Cosgrove …

  10. 2gravel,
    unless you live in a seat that the nats might lose.

  12. Today’s Essential – no change from last time 52/48 in Labor’s favour.
    http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport

    Some interesting figures on the other questions.

    What gets me is why so many people still insist only the Coalition can manage the economy. They never could, they never will do anything but make a colossal balls-up of it, but the myth persists. Maybe a good dose of the Abbott’s will finally put an end to that lunacy.
    http://essentialvision.com.au/category/essentialreport

  13. 2gravel.
    Yeah, although I think the $75 million they’ve put into Latrobe Regional Hospital shows that they’re concerned about the seat of Morwell despite the margin.

  15. The US ambassador make’s Grunt l;ook like an absolute cretin. Grunt had to speak straight after John Berry delivered a speech on what the US id doing to address climate cange. Grunt did not do well.

    How refreshing to hear a federal government representative speak purposefully and positively about mitigating dangerous climate change and driving the low-carbon economy. And how disappointing, when that person is not a representative of the Australian federal government.

    Speaking on Monday at the opening session of the 2014 Australian Emissions Reduction Summit, hosted by the Carbon Market Institute at the MCG in Melbourne, the US ambassador to Australia, John Berry, provided a timely contrast between the American government’s approach to climate policy, and Australia’s.

    To begin with, Berry actually mentioned the words “climate change” (many times) and “renewable energy” in his speech, which is more than can be said for Australia’s federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, whose own address to the summit followed Berry’s.

    Direct Action vs the World: How Australia’s climate policy stacks up
    http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/direct-action-vs-the-world-how-australias-climate-policy-stacks-up-81106

    The US embassy in Canberra is tweeting this article to the world – 11.3 thousand followers.

    Transcript of the full speech.

    Click to access 20140505.pdf

  16. Essential is always slow to react. And it is true that there are a proportion of people who will blame the ALP for bad economic indicators no matter who’s in power. I think the reasoning behind it is that anything with a positive social or environmental effect must have a concurrent detrimental effect on the economy – as if treating people well and looking after the environment are luxuries that can only be undertaken under an ideal financial position.

    It’s this dichotomy the Liberals always put out there – either look after the people or the economy, you can’t do both. People actually believe that. They’re shit scared that a few social programs will spiral us into a recession. And the idea that needy people get looked after while the whining upper middle class gets nothing is apparently a repugnant one to many. I don’t know why they think giving rich people more money is a good thing. That money always gets salted away or shifted offshore. The more money that goes to the poor, the more that gets spent, because you know they’re going to pump it all back into the economy. And that keeps it all ticking over.

  18. Tony should have gone to Indonesia…..
    Tony Abbott’s policy a failure as boats keep coming, says Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa

    “What Australia is doing now is clearly against and denies all comprehensive principles in dealing with the issue of asylum seekers. Australia is acting as if it can simply move the problem to its neighbour,” he said.

    Dr Natalegawa was speaking outside a conference that Prime Minister Tony Abbott hastily withdrew from on Friday allegedly because of embarrassment over the imminent boat return.

    However, that’s not the explanation Mr Abbott gave the Indonesians — and which was accepted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — that he was too busy preparing the federal budget and dealing with the Commission of Audit report.

    Dr Natalegawa said there had been “no detailed explanation of the reason for his absence” and that it was “up to the Australian government to provide information”

    http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-policy-a-failure-as-boats-keep-coming-says-indonesian-foreign-minister-marty-natalegawa-20140506-zr5q7.html

  19. Another triumph for the Abbott government – consumer confidence has fallen dramatically, 8% in the past fortnight, it is now back to depths of the GFC level as all the talk of new taxes and charges spooks everyone. Well done Tony and Joe, What an achievement.

  20. I can only deduce that The Idiot is deliberately trying to put the Indonesians offside.

    Those in Oz agreeing with that already vote for him.

  21. The Indonesian president holds out an olive branch by inviting Abbott to a meeting and the uncouth idiot knocks it back. It was only for a day, surely he could have made the effort to go. Either he’s too scared to face the Indonesians or he is trying to provoke a war. Or both.

    If his ‘I’m busy with the budget’ excuse is true then it’s another failure by this lousy government. The budget should be done by now, it should be at the printers. But we are being told cabinet is still discussing changes. You wouldn’t let this lot try to run a sausage sizzle at the local preschool let alone a country. They’d turn up three weeks late with two loaves of stale bread and three off sausages and expect to be feted for their effort.

  22. The problem is he told SBY “budget” and he told Oz “embarrassment”.

    It is an unbelievable two-faced effort.

  23. 7.5 is going Clive Palmer. Not a nice picture of the PUPster.

  24. HAH!

    The home insulation royal commission has heard the Federal Environment Department withheld crucial warnings about the danger of foil insulation from then minister Peter Garrett.

    And… the bosses know best.

    The royal commission heard the briefing note to Mr Garrett said electricians wanted foil insulation banned but the industry did not, and the bureaucracy supported its continued use.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-06/bureaucrat-admits-garrett-kept-in-dark-on-foil-warnings/5434584

  25. There is so much to take offence at in this govt’ that it is difficult to know where to start. I cannot recall a more inept bunch of operators since the Keystone Kops took to the screens…..God!..it’s a disaster!

  26. Did not the Indonesian military leader say that his Australian counterpart agreed no more boats would be turned back? I think then Morrison responded that there had been no policy change, meaning I guess that we would not be told.

    So the turn-back, even if this time the Navy did not enter Indonesian waters, is an insult. But if other asylum seekers were actually added, it is an absolute disgrace. And illegal. It seems Abbott and Morrison are crazed with their zero tolerance, and must maintain this at any cost.

    It will not go well for Australia.

  28. There is one good journo in the Tony Jones household.

    Hint: it’s not Tony.

  29. Puffy,

    That’s only the start of bum biting for the instigators, I reckon.

  31. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/brawl-a-bad-look-for-any-casino-ambitions/story-e6frg8zx-1226906607322#

    Brawl a bad look for any casino ambitions
    Mark Day The Australian May 06, 2014 12:00AM

    IT is hard to imagine a more “Sydney” story — a billionaire and his best mate brawling on the Bondi beachfront on a sunny Sunday afternoon, filling the air with wild punches and profane insults before limping away with black eyes and lost teeth.

    If it were written as a movie script, it would be rejected as unbelievable.

    The weekend brawl between James Packer and David Gyngell merely adds another chapter to the lustrous pugilistic heritage of the Wild Men of Sydney.

    The whole town was laughing yesterday at the antics of a pair of middle-aged men who have been mates for 35 years — and say they still are.

    It remains to be seen whether others around the world get the joke.

    Packer controls the Crown Resorts casino empire, including multi-billion-dollar investments in Macau. Chinese businessmen are known to put a very high value on good behaviour and may not easily comprehend, or dismiss, a display of rampant fisticuffs in a public place, photographed and recorded for posterity.

    Governments that license casinos are also highly sensitive to matters of probity. The Sri Lankan government has just rejected a proposal from Packer for a casino because of fears it would attract anti-social elements. His reported plans to try to buy into the goldmine of the Las Vegas strip may face uncomfortable scrutiny from the Nevada Gaming Commission.

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/billionaire-james-packer-has-flown-out-of-sydney-on-his-private-jet-after-a-violent-fist-fight-with-friend-and-nine-boss-david-gyngell/story-fni0cx12-1226907055133

    Billionaire James Packer has flown out of Sydney on his private jet after a violent fist fight with friend and Nine boss David Gyngell
    John Lehmann, Mark Morri, Ben Pike and Ben McClellan The Daily Telegraph
    May 06, 2014 9:30AM

    IT was probably not the look he wanted as he jetted off for a business meeting in Melbourne but billionaire James Packer flew out of Sydney this afternoon on board his private jet after a meeting with Seven boss and friend Kerry Stokes.

    Mr Packer, however, is probably quite pleased to be leaving the city after he was caught on camera in a violent fist fight with Nine boss and long-time friend David Gyngell.

    Mr Gyngell admitted today the violent fist fight on Sunday was his fault.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/06/is-it-time-for-a-hunger-games-style-lottery-for-millionaires

    Is it time for a Hunger Games-style contest for millionaires?
    If still photos of the brawl really sold for $210,000, imagine how much money could made on pay-per-view – James Packer and David Gyngell already have the skills
    Alex McClintock
    theguardian.com, Tuesday 6 May 2014 12.25 AEST

    It hurts me to say this as a boxing writer, but it’s time for us to forget the sweet science as a mainstream sport. Cage fighting, for all its blood and bike shorts, is never going to take its place in the popular imagination, either.

    No, the west needs a new kind of gladiatorial combat to bring it together. Something that can unite us all in animalistic bloodlust.

    And if the street fight between James Packer and David Gyngell showed us anything, it’s that the time has come for the super-rich to fight each other for our entertainment (which, from what I understand from reading the rightwing press, is pretty much what Thomas Piketty’s book is suggesting).

  32. free article
    http://www.afr.com/p/national/cutting_dole_for_jobless_who_won_TKidvWIxVPnMLM67SublEK

    Cutting dole for jobless who won’t move gets thumbs down
    PUBLISHED: 19 hours 4 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 13 hours 54 MINUTES AGO
    Joanna Heath

    The government’s Productivity Commission says a proposal by the National Commission of Audit to cut unemployed people off welfare if they refuse to move closer to jobs won’t work.

    http://priceonomics.com/the-obsessive-curator-of-the-internet-jason/

    http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=1600

    https://newmatilda.com/2014/05/06/whats-hockey-hiding

    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2014/05/05/shame-shame-shame-on-the-commission-of-audit/

  34. “200 policies, costed and ready to roll….we are ready to govern”…..the first lie.

  38. Leone, the fact Howard and Costello got lucky with the mining boom and therefore ran surpluses, while Labor got stuck with the GFC, cements the meme that the Coalition can manage the economy and Labor cannot.
    It’s ridiculously easy to relate the Federal Budget to the household budget, it makes sense to the average punter despite being categorically wrong. Surplus=good, deficit=bad.

    Sorry, AJ – you got PENDINGed – hence the revised submission time.

  40. And Insight is about many new cancer treatments.

    One lady was in palliative care and had been farewelled three times – 12 months ago.

  41. Second-last afternoon of lectures for this semester done. Last afternoon on Thursday. Still have to write my exam (and practice exam) questions, then I can sit back and twiddle my thumbs until exam marking …

    Goodnight all.

  44. I just figured my post had been deemed too boring to be displayed. I know I’m probably the least interesting poster here.

  47. I just looked at the Election Countdown at the bottom of this page. Only 2.3 years to the next federal election.

  50. What the Commission of Audit cost – 2.5 million. The budget was $1 million but they ran a bit over. Not to worry, it’s government money….

    The coalition predicted in its midyear Budget update that the commission would spend about $1 million examining the innards of government spending.

    But calculations suggest taxpayers coughed up more than double that amount after a small army of bureaucrats were co-opted to produce the five-month study. Publicly available figures show it cost taxpayers about $2.5 million to produce the audit.

    It cost $1.9 million for expert staff drafted in from the departments of Finance, Treasury and the Prime Minister and Cabinet to work on the study.

    The head of the commission’s secretariat, Peter Crone, was paid $157,000 to oversee the probe, while chairman Tony Shepherd was paid $85,000.

    Former Howard government minister Amanda Vanstone received $85,000 for her role as a commissioner. Consultants Boston Consulting Group were paid $50,000
    https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/business/a/23208047/audit-costs-2-5m/

    Tony Shepherd, at the senate hearing last Friday, said the budget had been $1 million but ‘we’ had spent less, something a bit under $800,000 and a lot of that was for printing. He was lying.

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