Tony Abbott's "Latham moment"

While I had some sympathy for Tony Abbott following the initial furore over his "shit happens" comments regarding the death of an Australian soldier in Afghanistan - I mean after all shit does happen in a war zone, and there's no reason to doubt Abbott's sincerity over the death - his follow up deer in the spotlights interview  see here was just about the most embarrassing thing I've seen from a major party leader since Alexander Downer's "things that batter" gaffe.
I would even go as far as to say that this is a career ending performance? A Beazley or a Turnbull may've survived that type of performance because they were at least considered politicians of substance, but Abbott has so many question marks against him already that he just couldn't afford such an embarrassment. For a man who's considered a dangerous ideologue and a bully, to do a Latham and look like you want to punch the reporter in the face is a horrible mis-step.
And this performance comes at a time when Abbott is defending the insensitive Liberal Party donation campaign to stop the flood levy (you know, any money you have to donate to a worthy cause, don't give it to the flood charity, donate it to us instead so we can use it to score political points).
So while the Prime Minister shakes off her wooden image with that cynical use of the flag as a prop in the Lower House (which undoubtedly will play well to the masses, but not with me), Abbott just comes across as nasty and mean spirited.
Like I've said previously, I don't expect either of them to be leading their parties at the next election.

Gillard, Abbott, the flood levy....and the lack of leadership

Ross Gittins of the Sydney Morning Herald recently wrote a piece bemoaning the destructive partisanship in the federal political sphere at present read it here , with comments along the line of "what he's saying (Tony Abbott) to the nation is: I'll do all in my power to make Parliament unworkable until you make me leader".
Well Gittins is certainly correct in criticizing Abbott - just about the most objectionable Opposition Leader we've had in modern memory - and the public in general for not supporting the quite mild flood levy. But in order to understand why that's happening, we have to look at the other side of the political divide, and there I think lies our answer?
In power at present we have the extraordinarily lightweight Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who since rolling Kevin Rudd last year for the top job has gone on to underwhelm us all with her performance. While Deputy Prime Minister, she took on the role of Question Time comedian in chief, and revelled in the all puff piece profiles of our lady in waiting by the journalistic sisterhood. So as the speculation continued to mount about a possible challenge, I naively held to the belief that the factional warlords wouldn't roll a first term PM who led Australia successfully through the GFC. And I didn't want to listen to my contact (who likes to ingratiate himself with those same warlords) who prophesized that Gillard would come to power with enormous fanfare, and be swept to victory in a honeymoon election a few months later.
Well he got the first part right, she successfully knifed Rudd, but only fell over the line in a hung parliament election, and this only because the Opposition were led by the unelectable ideologue Abbott.
So she came into the job a pragmatic centrist with no strong ideological views (a careerist in my view), and with me being a cynic my expectations for her were very low to begin with, but since taking over she has managed to prove to everyone that even I had overestimated her talents! She is showing the nation with every passing day that she is dangerously out of her depth, and her wooden, scripted responses to issues are certainly not endearing her to the electorate.
So getting back to Gittins' point, I believe the reason that Gillard has suffered such blow back to the levy, with Abbott feeling empowered to attack it, is because everyone can so clearly see through her; she inspires NO ONE, with confidence in the institutions of Government being at historic lows.
I came to the conclusion that after her embarrassing wikileaks comments late last year that her position was now terminal, and only a matter of time before her demise. This of course doesn't necessarily mean that Abbott will be the next Prime Minister, it's quite possible that there'll be two new people sitting in the PM and Opposition Leader's chairs by the time of the next election?
And Gillard?.....well she may take up her rightful place as a Madame Tussauds exhibit?

who should pay for the QLD flood damage?

The political debate is now well and truly up and running as to how best to pay for the QLD (and now Victorian) flood damage. There's been plenty of talk as to whether the Feds can keep their "return to surplus" predictions, and whether initiatives like a temporary Medicare levy increase should be adopted?
While it's obvious that the Federal Government has a meaningful part to play in the disaster recovery, we need to take a step back and just consider for a moment who is really responsible for funding the recovery efforts?
There's are a whole range of issues at play here (which hopefully the judicial inquiry will look at), and they include;
Do people who willingly choose to avoid paying the "flood premium" on their insurance expect anything in return?
What about the (unwritten) assurances that after post 1974 building of the dam that Brisbane was "flood proof"?
What about the people who live in areas where "flood cover" is not provided by the insurers?
Do we need go down the path of compulsory "force majeure" insurance as happens in a number of places around the world? And how would this affect the viability of the insurance industry (not to mention the effect on premiums)?
Alleged mismanagement of the Wivenhoe Dam by the premature release of water from there (as insinuated in The Australian newspaper)? What's their responsibility in providing compensation?
And the big daddy of them all, what about the planning policy failures of (generations of) local, State Governments, with their cow towing to greedy developers (with brown paper bag in hand?) who've consistently downplayed the threat of natural disasters in order to get zoning approval to build profitable properties in flood prone areas?
So I now go back to the original point, why should everyone start pointing at the direction of the federal government with begging bowl in hand? The reasons for the unprecedented damage caused by these floods seem to (at face value?) lie within the purvey of the State authorities. This seems to be their mess....so let their tax payers clean it up!

Gillard's lack of leadership

While I've made passing reference to the lack of ability of our lightweight careerist PM Julia Gillard in this (and other) forums, thankfully I'm not the only one who's starting to see through the thin veneer.
Labor thinker Bob Ellis fired off the first round recently when he said of her; "civilised people's hands are already over their faces every time she speaks. That cannot last. She has no power, no influence, no friends, no learning. There's not much there", and "she's not well-informed, she hasn't, I think, read a novel or seen a film with subtitles....she has not much except a kindergarten sandpit response to things" read here .
Granted, pretty catty stuff that we may snicker at and dismiss, but unfortunately in the wake of the devastating QLD flood crisis Gillard's complete lack of leadership talents (and instinct) are on full display. Somehow she's managed to make a wooden, barely competent State Premier (Anna Bligh) look like Rudy Giuliani after 9/11 see here . Can you imagine the difference has Kevin Rudd still been in charge? In his admittedly over the top style, he would've been out there in an SES jumpsuit up to his knees in water. It's at times like these where the victims need to hear the soaring rhetoric of a Rudd, a politician with an instinct of hitting the right note and resonating with the electorate (and while it all eventually came undone for Rudd, he showed he could connect with the people).
But alas, no such inspirational leadership from Madam Lightweight Julia Gillard, instead all we get are dry statements which are more at home in the Industrial Relations Tribunal in her old job as a labour lawyer.
But the great tragedy of all this is that the alternative is even WORSE. A Coalition led by the "mad monk" whose poll numbers increase every time he stays silent! What a vacuum of leadership we're forced to endure at the national level....and there's little respite in sight.

QLD floods and asylum seekers

With the State of Emergency situation created in northern QLD with the recent severe flooding, we've seen frantic calls being made from local authorities for federal intervention to deal with much needed infrastructure repairs, ie roads, housing, etc. And we've also been hearing that there's a desperate shortage of available skilled labour to perform this urgent work.
Well I have an immediate cost effective solution; we've currently got overcrowded immigration detention centres full of able bodied adults who would jump at the chance to assist Australia in its time of need, by providing their labour. How many doctors, nurses, engineers, all round handymen etc do we have sitting idly by in these "prisons"?
What a way to a) circumvent the current skills shortage, and b) provide positive imagery to Australians of asylum seekers chipping in to do their bit to help out the nation that they're hoping to call home?
But alas it will never happen, instead the Government will continue to get wedged on asylum seekers by the mouth frothing populists, and as for the flood victims......well good luck to them....because they're going to need it!