federal politics
23 May 2008
The Honeymoon Is Over
On the eve of the Rudd Government's six month anniversary, Cynthia Flobberbutton is sick of sleeping on the wet patch
Every person with even a skerrick of interest in Australian politics remembers where they were the night of the 2007 Federal election. Sure, Kevin Rudd's declaration of victory was a little on the lacklustre side of Gold Logie acceptance speech, but nobody seemed to care. At least, not anyone who had ever raised their voice in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, the introduction of WorkChoices, the cruel treatment of refugees, the increasingly lopsided tax system, or the strangulation of the public health, education and income support systems.The election of the Rudd Labor Government was almost universally hailed as the beginning of a new era in public policy, to be marked by a reversal of the more damaging aspects of the Howard years. Combined with State Labor governments from coast-to-coast, suddenly no public infrastructure project seemed too outlandish, no establishment of an intergovernmental taskforce to solve intractable socioeconomic problems merely platitudinous.
Chardonnay socialists everywhere poured themselves another glass.
Six months later, the intoxication with our new Federal Government is still going strong. Assisted in no small part by the disarray into which the Coalition is steadily descending, Kevin Rudd is enjoying the largest opinion poll lead in 30 years.
However, more interesting than the extent to which Rudd continues to be considered the preferred choice for PM, is the extent to which self-identified progressive sections of the Australian community have refrained from openly criticising those aspects of Federal Labor's policy initiatives that, had they not been pursued by the new Labor Government, would have drawn sustained, public consternation.
This neutralising of soft left criticism is not merely a function of an extended post-orgasmic, honeymoon glow. It has been achieved through the unspoken but nevertheless strongly projected ALP mantra: "Don't Forget, We're Much Better than the Other Guys".
The problem with these tacit allusions to the previous government is that the reference point offers a pretty sub-optimal basis for comparison.
But after 11 years of enduring the implementation of a radical neo-liberal economic agenda coupled with social policies that were as embarrassing as they were draconian, who are we to judge? After all, no one who suffered during the Howard years wants to contribute to the Coalition returning to office after only three years in the wilderness.
So why quibble about the fact that hundreds of Australian troops will remain in and around Iraq, providing critical support for the US-led occupation that has cost the lives of almost one million Iraqis in five years? There's no need to question Australia's ongoing activities in Iraq, let alone the less than $50 million we will provide to assist in reconstruction efforts next year (compared to the more than $3 billion Australia has spent on the war so far) - and let's not even mention the equally disastrous war in Afghanistan. All our troops fighting in Iraq will be home by Christmas.
And why split hairs over the damaging effects of the NT Intervention, including land appropriation, the overriding of the Racial Discrimination Act and the failure to implement the key recommendations of the Little Children are Sacred report? The PM has apologised to the stolen generations, complete with homage from Paul Kelly!
Don't worry that the Government will be quarantining money for State-approved expenditure at specified outlets for families receiving income support - the baby bonus will be means tested! Oh and never mind that $400 million, 800-bed, maximum security immigration detention facility about to be opened Christmas Island, or the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent next year to continue deflecting asylum-seekers from reaching our shores - the Pacific Solution is over.
Best of all, WorkChoices is dead - well the bits that the previous government was being gradually forced to unwind anyway. The laws that limit union entry onto worksites, mandate secret ballots for industrial action, prohibit pattern bargaining, outlaw industrial action outside of specified enterprise bargaining periods, and permit employers to sue construction workers individually for stopping work for health and safety reasons, will remain.
Oh come now, I hear you gasp. It's only been six months; it's a bit fanciful to expect a new government - especially one that has been out of office for more than a decade - to right all wrongs in six months.
To a certain extent these sentiments are true. Labor may have wrested control of the ship but it will take time to prise off all the nasty barnacles that burgeoned under the previous administration, let alone to reorient the vessel. But this is not an issue of petulance regarding changes not yet enacted. Rather, it's a call to question the course that has already begun to be charted.
Me-too-isms aside, the election of the ALP arose predominantly from the distinction the Party was able to establish between itself and the incumbent. In addition to his Fresh Approach for Working Families, Rudd himself was put forward as the anthropomorphic representation of the future: shinier, sprightlier, more culturally sensitive, more compassionate, more intellectually rigorous, and less likely to be swayed by xenophobic populism.
But now in office, the ALP is arguably working hard to subdue those elements of civil society that risk exposing the reality that it will not herald anything close to a social democratic utopia. In days gone by, these tactics were referred to as co-option. Under Rudd they have been shrewdly repackaged as the 2020 Summit.
In addition to offering the chance for delegates to be considered one of the New Labor Government's 1000 most trusted confidants, the 2020 Summit cemented the elitist idea that hand-picked "experts" should drive public policy. Tripping over egos in the rush to be anointed as among "Australia's best and brightest", the foundation was neatly laid for the influential class's support for the "Kevin Again in 2010 (Three Years is not Nearly Enough)" campaign.
Summit delegates were not only conveniently encouraged to ignore the pivotal role of broad-based, grassroots social movements in delivering electoral success for the ALP, but to forget how those movements managed to stave off some of the worst excesses of the Howard government, even when it controlled the Senate.
All this is by no means an effort to downplay the significance of some of the Federal Government's policy announcements. An apology to our Indigenous people, abolition of temporary protection visas for refugees, repealing (parts of) WorkChoices and a commitment to withdrawing (some) troops from Iraq are important shifts in rhetoric and practice. But for those of us who have grown used to fighting for the crumbs hurled in our direction, it is tempting to mistake ALP initiatives as dramatic steps forward rather than an amelioration of policies that should never have been countenanced in the first place.
It would be a mistake to unquestioningly accept these initiatives as sufficient compensation for failing to actually move public policy in a progressive direction, or as balance for new regressive measures. An apparently greater willingness to talk with advocacy organisations should not be confused with a commitment to meaningful consultation - and action.
Ultimately, the Federal Government must be judged on the strength of its policies, not on how they compare to the policies of the previous administration, or to hypothetical horror scenarios imagining 15 years under Howard.
So while there may still be some reluctance to call an end to our starry-eyed rebound affair with Rudd, it's time for those of us who are committed to creating a truly just and sustainable Australia to begin pointing out that we're no longer willing to sleep on the wet patch.
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As I have said before, Rudd is a carbon copy of Blair in Britain, a Tory in Labour clothing. His religious conservatism is going to wear very thin very soon. I am not even sure that he has any real new ideas. An Economic Ir-rationalist to the core, he is not going to pursue policies that will keep this planet from dying from Excess Carbon…his pandering to Big Coal and Big Mining assures us of that. I am, and never have been, blinded by his supposed brilliance, I remember too vividly what he did to workers in Queensland in the Goss Days.
As Blair departed Britain in total disgrace, and his party sundered behind him, so will Labor in Australia, if we stick too long with Rudd. It would be a total disaster for the other mob to get back in before they have had a BIG re-think, and a BIG change of parliamentarions, but I see nothing but heartache for ordinary Australians from the ministrations of Rudd and his right wing agendas. Someone here wrote that Rudd did wrong by pandering to the lowest common denominator to gain power, and it is not the natural HIM…but I think this is wrong, he IS that person.His natural inclination is to look after the Big End of town. He has always done so. Dazza.
There may be something in what Dazza says, that we are all doomed, that there is nothing that can be done, let’s give up on everything, woe is us. Oh well, back to my mountain cave.
On the other hand …… Joe
douglas jones
I hope change is still to come but so far the forehead knuckling to America remains, the big end is still favoured, the financial ramifications and implied need for international action
of the sub prime scam, is ignored. In the main by politician and media alike. Oil and the part cars play and in carbon emission is answered by promises to do something about petrol costs rather than by serious efforts at redesigning our transport system and our cars. Though there is the offer given a government hand out to maybe develop a hydrogen powered vehicle by a big ender.
Then there is the attempt to take the president of Iran to the ICC based on reported comments., only grandstanding to the previously castigated UN? Now maybe Mr Rudd has better sources but the internet tells me the offending words are actually a mistranslation, his target was the Zionist Nationalist Government not Israel. However seeking the ICC is a bit rich when our own efforts, even if brown nosing to America are ignored in the legal retribution stakes. Again maybe it is a state matter but if we are not again being lead up the path surely Carbon control will need to cooperation of us all using all available measures rather than waiting the Big Grand Technical fix. Perhaps a State matter and perhaps not as urgent as stated for were it so we would at state and federal level be being asked to avoid that car trip put on the extra jumper and all the other personal moves each of us could make even resorting to that simple technique of a solar heater and using the sun to dry our clothes.
Anyway I wait to see what comes. Waiting not on Godot but Garnaut.
Any article that start’s out with a phrase like ‘sick of sleeping on the wet patch’ has to be a good ‘un and our Cynth’ doesn’t disappoint. The Budget pretty much gave us a taste of the ‘land of the bland’ era that is to come, I fear.
In an aside, and offence definitely not intended, I can remember a time long, long ago in my Goon Show addict days when I would have given anything to have been born with a surname like Flobberbutton. But alas, it was not to be. However years later I did get to admire ABC Radio’s gorgeous Virginia McSporran in the flesh and I was not disappointed there either.
At the time of the election we all thought "it can only get better from now on".
True.
But rather disappointing how little difference there really is - the general tone may have changed somewhat, but action has not.
I believe nothing will change for the better before Australia gets rid of it’s two party ping-pong system and people start voting for what they want instead of always just voting in what they perceive as the lesser evil short term.
That is quite a monniker Cynthia. My mother used that name when she smoked cigarettes for a whole year in sin city. I cannot bear to listen to Kev. Of course I did not expect anything different. Blair, Brown, Rudd are all clones from the same genetic pool. The awful thing is we aint seen nothin yet. I am going back under the blankets.
I am not being flippant for it is so awful for the people who are in such dire circumstances and there is no one willing to take a stand. The left-wing of the Labour Party if such a thing exists is sounding more like an oxymoron every day. I read somewhere and I don’[t know who said it but it went like this "There was a time when Labour politicians were drawn from the best of the working class and now they are drawn from the mediocrity of the middle class" I rest my case.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/detainees-protest-on-villawood-roof/…
More truth about asylum seekers here - http://tinyurl.com/6fuqgr.
Does Kevin have the bottle to do unpopular things? It’s not looking good. Why give oxygen to the idea Canberra can or should reduce fuel prices by talking about the tax review? What hope is there for a carbon tax on fuel when the government hints at reductions in existing fuel taxes? And if means tests are a good idea wouldn’t logic require any assistance with fuel should be means tested. How does a GST reduction handle that?
And why is the Haneef case still open and consuming resources one would think are needed for real cases?
Conniving again in 2010?
Are you kidding?
We’ve had the Rudd slide,
The Kev quake, since Kevin 07.
Cynthia, if that’s really your name,
I apologize, but think yourself lucky your "wet patch" is’nt means tested.
I mean the talk about fiddling with the gst (get stuffed tax),frightens the input tax credits out of me. I mean its enough to make my supplies go belly up and my non capital purchases go through the roof.
The fun has’nt started yet, keep your incontinency pads close to your chest, before they increase the gst on them.
The black economy will have the biggest injection in the arm since July 2000.
Howard’s true act of bastardry the intro of the get stuffed tax, which was supposed to "unchain our hearts",for a measly $200, we (business people) got stationery, software and all that Officeworks had at its disposal to implement this harsh and unreasonable tax.
What’s Kev baby and Swanny going to do about that? Increase Gst to 12.5% after the mini budget in August. Mark my words we are going to pay a lot more for our chardonnay before thge lights go out in 2010. Oli
Mungo McCallum described the new PM as a "prissy godbothering smart arse" and I suppose if Mungo is right then we cant expect any inspiration any time soon, shame I was looking for some inspiration, something more substantial than the rhetoric and flourish on the 16th feb for the national apology,where is the commitment to the carers of the disabled in he recent budget, NZ leaves us for dead in this regard,why is the new ALP govt supporting a denounced and corrupt funding formula for wealthy publicly funded private schools ? there was no dialogue with the states about the implementation of the "education revolution" and now the pesky details of rolling out the laptops to over a million students is apparent, especially when the state Labor govts are hijacking 50% of the funds to pay for wireless capacity for run down and neglected publc schools,too much talk again and not enough proper planning and thinking through, does every school have to have laptops, what is they want some other mode of delivery ?
it is isnt enough to say"well at least they are different from the Howard govt" that govt was so appalling and morally bankrupt that a local council might be better at governance BUT still looking for inspiration and really disappointed so far after 6 months, especially when we find out that the refugees seeking asylum have been rejected by Sen Evans, channeling both Vanstone and Ruddock
No drover’s dog who has been squirrelling away his black money under the bed will live in poverty if he gets his laptop and child care benefits.
Provided he has already eaten his master, sold his master’s car , does’nt get sick or lose his teeth and can get affordable public housing inside one of Mr Iemma’s brothels.
Thanks, Revilo, I’ve now got this image of a fat, toothless and sexually gratified dog under a bed on a laptop, surrounded by pups. Who says you can’t learn anything valuable from New Matilda ? Joe
Cynthia you’ve been disillusioned for too long, too many great expectations.
Learn to enjoy your wet patch, even get to love it - water is so precious nowadays.
Don’t become so cynical and hard while your newly elected PM seems still so surprised and overwhelmed by even his own measure of success.
Learn to see only the good he does and ignore his mistakes and lies - afterall he’s only new in the job.
And anyway life is so much more enjoyable that way - without constant criticism and people watching over your shoulder at every move you make.
He may be the PM, but he is afterall just a man. Would you like to be scrutinised every day for every utterence and move you make? No I don’t believe any of us want to be analysed to that degree.
Just a thought - perhaps you need some psychiatric help for you incontinance - these problems are sometimes not just physical - but stem from stress, overwork and other worries?
bruce haigh
Rudd is getting into deep water in a ship of state badly in need of repair.
In order to avoid what he thought might provoke a public service mutiny, Rudd, on assuming power, thought he could put to sea without any repairs or refurbishment to the vessel Howard had near flogged to death over the past eleven years.
Many senior members of the crew are Howard loyalists, but Rudd has not the leadership and courage impose his agenda upon them.(Probably because he hasn’t got one).
The crew is now running the ship. Rudd defers to Keelty, who has exceeded his mandate. He has retained senior public servants who at the very least should be dismissed over past failures toward Australian public.
Incredibly after only 6 months it is Rudd v The Public Service. And Rudd is a former public servant. Or is he? More likely he is a graduate of the DFAT school of suck up and kick down.Done in the nicest possible way and
done without any heed being taken of the need to actually address and solve issues.
The issues are big and growing at a rate that requires leadership not spin, but spin is the only skil that Rudd and most other members of the Federal Parliament appear to posses.
Bruce Haigh.
Higher energy prices are a "legitimate" way to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Gordon Brown’s chief adviser on climate change said on Friday, even as the government faces mounting pressure from MPs to ease fuel taxes.
Adair Turner, the chairman of the government’s climate change committee and new head of the Financial Services Authority, told the Financial Times that, as a matter of principle, "everyone accepts that putting a price on carbon is a crucial instrument" to cut emissions. "That will put up the price of energy and there is no way round that. We should not deny that is what these policies do," he said.
Lord Turner’s comments underline the growing conflict between environmental policies - which rely on increasing the cost of energy to encourage people to cut their emissions - and the government’s need to respond to widespread concerns over the effects of high energy prices. The timing of Lord Turner’s intervention could hardly be worse for Mr Brown.
As Labour on Friday suffered its worst poll rating since records began in 1943, the prime minister remained under intense pressure over his handling of the fuel crisis.
Financial Times, 30 May 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/574768f8-2e89-11dd-ab55-000077b07658.html
Kevin Rudd has left the way open for petrol to be excluded from the looming greenhouse gas emissions trading regime, sparking warnings that power prices could rise and that Australia’s climate change response could be compromised.
The Prime Minister yesterday refused to say whether the transport sector would be covered by the emissions trading scheme, which will be developed after his hand-picked climate change expert, Ross Garnaut, reports later this year.
Mr Rudd’s comments come as government advisers are working frantically to develop amodel for the promised emissions trading scheme. The comments also follow a week of intense pressure on Labor over record oil prices, which sparked this week’s political crisis over the introduction of the national FuelWatch monitoring scheme.
Any decision to exclude transport would likely mean the Government would use other measures to curb emissions, such as tougher pollution standards or registration costs on cars and buses linked emission levels.
Speaking on ABC radio yesterday the Prime Minister said: "We are currently working our way through what will be included and excluded from our own emissions trading regime and we will have something further to say on that later in the year once the Garnaut report, in its various stages, is released".
The Australian, 31 May 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23786483-2702,00.html
Not gunna spin your way out of this one, Kevin!
Bruce Haigh - if it’s Rudd v. The Public Service then he is in battle with himself because he IS the leader of the Public Service which after a decade of Howardism must have an entrenched Liberal/Conservative culture/leadership, that will take some time to rout out and refurbish with some Labor bright sparks that think and act in a more Rudd-like/Labor way.
The spin is not a Labor generated iniative either, but stems from the presssure that the media puts onto politicians at every opportunity to keep them honest. Public scrutiny goes too deep and broad now, to worry too much about the ‘daily surface spin’ these journalists are drumming up to create controversy - otherwise without it, they’re out of a job.