Loyal readers, I'm going to have to put the blog on 'care and maintenance' for a while. I am simply too busy with other projects, I'm sorry, to prepare the kind of analysis that I would like to write.
During this time, if you would like to contact me or discuss something, please use the email address that you see above. I'll check it periodically.
For those new to the site, have a look through the 170-odd posts that I have completed so far. These should give you an idea of my conclusions as to the character of Chairman Rudd.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
White noise, red anxiety, Rudd bumbling
You may have come across yesterday's article in the Sydney Morning Herald on the case of two Australians arrested in Dubai.
This sort of thing is not new. A few years ago, when al Qaeda started making itself known in Saudi Arabia, the spate of bombings were blamed on westerners feuding over alcohol imports. A number of British and American accountants and engineers, working for international oil companies, were arrested, tortured and held without trial for months before their governments could arrange for their release.
Equity Private captures the phenomenon associated with being in these places well:
I have spent quite a bit of time in Dubai and seen a number of sides of the "Middle Eastern Shangri-La," not least of which being the experience of a female expat in the jurisdiction. I can only describe this last as characterized both by the constantly disconcerting presence of an ill-defined malice (perhaps best understood as a sort of ambient white noise of potential danger) and the occasionally terrifying and instant materialization of real, even mortal danger from this shapeless white snow of audio. (This last I know only second hand, having watched the arrest of a friend without accompanying her into custody).
Sad as it is to say, much as these places - Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur - look like western cities, the resemblance is only skin deep. Behind the facade lie ancient prejudices, colonial-era hatreds and hurt feelings, delusions of cultural superiority and deep anxiety about relations with the west and its power to overthrow illegitimate ruling cliques.
Stern Hu and his colleagues are victims of just such feelings. And Australia is now feeling - and will continue to feel, for some time - the anger of the paranoid inadequates in Beijing.
It is greatly to his credit that Kevin Rudd has perceived the nature of the communist regime in Beijing. He is under no illusions about them, as is clear from his writings and his speeches.
Unfortunately, his diplomatic skills are nowhere near as developed as his Mandarin. It has been his mishandling of Chinalco's audacious and completely unacceptable bid for Rio Tinto, the provocative defence white paper, his mentioning of human rights in Tibet to a roomful of Chinese students, his bumbling over the dinner with the propaganda chief, and the slight given to the otherwise unremarkable Madame Fu on Vritish television, which has landed us in the mess that we find ourselves.
The officials in Foreign Affairs are tearing their hair out in frustration.
But it's all of a piece with St Kevin's fantasy of himself as a peerless diplomat, and his desire to control everything while at the same time being unable to focus sufficiently on a task to deal with all the Hard Questions and produce both realistic goals and viable strategies.
Witness the Asian diplomatic community that he is pushing for - an unrealistic goal, given that it is something which no-one in the region actually wants - and his strategy for achieving it - sending 80-something Dick Woolcott out to spruik its benefits.
No surprises for guessing how this is going to turn out.
Meanwhile, the 'white noise' atmosphere of menace from the Red Kingdom will keep intensifying.
This sort of thing is not new. A few years ago, when al Qaeda started making itself known in Saudi Arabia, the spate of bombings were blamed on westerners feuding over alcohol imports. A number of British and American accountants and engineers, working for international oil companies, were arrested, tortured and held without trial for months before their governments could arrange for their release.
Equity Private captures the phenomenon associated with being in these places well:
I have spent quite a bit of time in Dubai and seen a number of sides of the "Middle Eastern Shangri-La," not least of which being the experience of a female expat in the jurisdiction. I can only describe this last as characterized both by the constantly disconcerting presence of an ill-defined malice (perhaps best understood as a sort of ambient white noise of potential danger) and the occasionally terrifying and instant materialization of real, even mortal danger from this shapeless white snow of audio. (This last I know only second hand, having watched the arrest of a friend without accompanying her into custody).
Sad as it is to say, much as these places - Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur - look like western cities, the resemblance is only skin deep. Behind the facade lie ancient prejudices, colonial-era hatreds and hurt feelings, delusions of cultural superiority and deep anxiety about relations with the west and its power to overthrow illegitimate ruling cliques.
Stern Hu and his colleagues are victims of just such feelings. And Australia is now feeling - and will continue to feel, for some time - the anger of the paranoid inadequates in Beijing.
It is greatly to his credit that Kevin Rudd has perceived the nature of the communist regime in Beijing. He is under no illusions about them, as is clear from his writings and his speeches.
Unfortunately, his diplomatic skills are nowhere near as developed as his Mandarin. It has been his mishandling of Chinalco's audacious and completely unacceptable bid for Rio Tinto, the provocative defence white paper, his mentioning of human rights in Tibet to a roomful of Chinese students, his bumbling over the dinner with the propaganda chief, and the slight given to the otherwise unremarkable Madame Fu on Vritish television, which has landed us in the mess that we find ourselves.
The officials in Foreign Affairs are tearing their hair out in frustration.
But it's all of a piece with St Kevin's fantasy of himself as a peerless diplomat, and his desire to control everything while at the same time being unable to focus sufficiently on a task to deal with all the Hard Questions and produce both realistic goals and viable strategies.
Witness the Asian diplomatic community that he is pushing for - an unrealistic goal, given that it is something which no-one in the region actually wants - and his strategy for achieving it - sending 80-something Dick Woolcott out to spruik its benefits.
No surprises for guessing how this is going to turn out.
Meanwhile, the 'white noise' atmosphere of menace from the Red Kingdom will keep intensifying.
Theatre of the Absurd
Yesterday my mother showed me a press report about Father Robert Fuller, the catholic priest who has been charged by the Police with attempting to solicit favours from pre-pubescent girls over the internet. Fuller was caught in a sting - thinking that he had found a young vicitm, he was instead actually propositioning a bunch of boofy middle-aged policemen.
While I found the news somewhat disturbing, it wasn't at all a shock. There have been so many scandals such as this that I've almost come to expect them. And the constant 'drip drip drip' of such scandals, together with the complaisant attitude of the management of the catholic and other churches, that has left me with feelings of near complete contempt for organised religion. If these priests don't at all believe in what they are preaching, then why should I? And if the church itself isn't willing to impose discipline on its own offenders, then why should it retain the respect of the community?
For me, the church, its leaders and its priests have lost all credibility. It appears to me that they have no idea what they are doing, their application of their own moral code is utterly inconsistent, their lack of contrition for the vile crimes committed by their fellow priests and covered up by the organisation is appalling, their thankless soaking up the time and resources of the many decent lay volunteers assisting them is exploitative, and their preaching in public is opportunistic. Like many others, I simply can't listen to a priest or other religious talk and take them at all seriously.
......................................
Of course, I wasn't always conscious of this feeling. It had been in my mind for a long time, really every since adolescence, when I and the other prisoners at the local catholic systemic school used to mock the brothers for their bone headed stupidity. But it really only came to the forefront of my mind when I realised the sheer number of cases of child abuse which had taken place not only throughout history but in my lifetime, and that but for, as they say, the grace of God, it could have easily happened to me or to my friends. And when I put this incident together with other episodes from my own experience - being roused on by alcoholic priests for innocent misdemeanours, seeing friends have their faith abused or their volunteer services exploited - it all came together. These people have no credibility, and ought not to be taken seriously.
That was the start of an awakening in my mind. I suddenly realised that those in positions of authority actually had little more idea of what was going on than I did, were actually less moral and less courageous than me and my friends, and were no more deserving of a serious audience than was I.
Almost immediately, evidence for this conclusion started pouring in. Watching the whole shemozzle of America's invation of Iraq unfold was a revelation. It was clear that the whole crew - Dubya, Cheney, George Tenet, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Franks, Sanchez, Abizaid - had no idea what they were doing, and were completely at a loss when the war took an unexpected turn and began taking them out. Bob Woodward's books, looking into the US government's handling of the occupation, give the impression of a blockheaded Dubya watching things steadily deteriorate and sitting pat because he has no idea what to do next, no clue who he can call upon to turn things around, and no understanding of the urgency of the situation. He just reads the steadily worsening reports, says thankyou, and then goes out to do another press conference or local rally.
But what confirmed this belief was the events of last September. Suddenly, all that crap about how the finance sector employed the best of the best, that its risk management processes and products were top notch, that its managers deserved every cent of their multi-million dollar bonuses, that it could be trusted with the nation's savings - all that went out the window when a complete loss of trust and confidence caused the financial system to melt down. Clearly, the people who had placed themselves in charge of the system, and who had extracted enormous incomes for themselves by virtue of their self-proclaimed special insight into the operation of money, were just a bunch of charlatans.
Ruddwatch's disillusion was complete.
.........................................
What I had thought was a phenomenon confined to the more blatantly self-seeking, emotionally crippled and self unaware in our society appeared to be endemic. It wasn't just Kevin Rudd, or the clowns in the organised churches, who were intebt on perpetrating a fraud against the gullible and guileless. It was actually in the system: society somehow had no way of protecting itself against these bacteria, of guarding against their intrusion or removing them once they lodged themselves into its institutions. We are condemned to be put upon by fraudsters, hustlers, apolcalyptic lunatics, opportunists, careerists and criminals, because even after identifying them our system cannot rid itself of them.
The consequences of this failing, in Australia at least, became evident this week in the debates over the government's ETS legislation. There is no evidence that human activity is causing a serious environmental problem, there is no evidence that, even if it were, Australia's ceasing its economic activity would improve the situation, there is no evidence that, if we wanted to help the environment, this is actually the best way to do so. There is on the other hand plenty of evidence to say that the ETS will seriously impair the community's standards of living, and there is plenty of evidence to say that it will not help the environment.
In other words, this is, purely and simply, bad policy.
This rubbish has already passed through the lower house, on party lines. It failed in the Senate along party lines. But there is not consensus in the Liberal Party over just how bad it is. The Terminator's response has been to propose an alternative scheme, which would be more effective in curbing direct emissions of carbon dioxide and would impose lower costs on the community. But this is the wrong approach: surely the task of the national leadership is to admit that the whole exercise is bunk, that we don't need any scheme, and that to impose even the slightest costs on the community in pursuit of this impossible goal is madness?
Our leaders have failed us. They should have demanded, from the start, that the apocalyptics present hard science to support their claims, and that they answer each and every query from concerned citizens and scientists. What has instead happened is that, rather than leadership, we have had opportunism. First with some politicians jumping on the environmental bandwaggon, then with others following them in order to maintain their share of the vote.
The only person to have shown any courage in the debate has been Senator Fielding, who dared as the Empress about the New Clothes that she was 'wearing'. But even after this episode demonstrated clearly that neither the Minister, nor her department, knew the least thing about what it was they were using to beat the electorate into submission, the political juggernaut kept on.
So, we have arrived at a point where the nation's leaders have no idea what they are doing, but, driven by electoral pressures which they themselves have encouraged with years of their ignorant fear-mongering, are now trying to outdo one another in crippling the industrial base of our society.
These people have no credibility. They have no idea what they are doing. They ought never to have been allowed to run around without close adult supervision. In their pandering to religious zeal, they are going to impose significant handicaps and discomfort on their fellow citizens. They cannot be taken seriously.
We are fallen among fruitloops.
..........................................
Lest you think that I am completely in despair, let me reassure you that I do in fact hold out some hope for our society. The fact that we have, at the top of the economic bureaucracy, two people like Glen Stevens and Ken Henry, is evidence that the sytem can indeed place good, competent and serious people into positions of authority.
And evidence that the system can repair itself, even from serious damage, exists in the form of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
I just wish there were more of them at the forefront of our society. And that opportunistic charlatans like St Kevin, the Climate Empress and the Terminator were confined to the local parishes, where they belong, and where their pious bleating can do little harm.
While I found the news somewhat disturbing, it wasn't at all a shock. There have been so many scandals such as this that I've almost come to expect them. And the constant 'drip drip drip' of such scandals, together with the complaisant attitude of the management of the catholic and other churches, that has left me with feelings of near complete contempt for organised religion. If these priests don't at all believe in what they are preaching, then why should I? And if the church itself isn't willing to impose discipline on its own offenders, then why should it retain the respect of the community?
For me, the church, its leaders and its priests have lost all credibility. It appears to me that they have no idea what they are doing, their application of their own moral code is utterly inconsistent, their lack of contrition for the vile crimes committed by their fellow priests and covered up by the organisation is appalling, their thankless soaking up the time and resources of the many decent lay volunteers assisting them is exploitative, and their preaching in public is opportunistic. Like many others, I simply can't listen to a priest or other religious talk and take them at all seriously.
......................................
Of course, I wasn't always conscious of this feeling. It had been in my mind for a long time, really every since adolescence, when I and the other prisoners at the local catholic systemic school used to mock the brothers for their bone headed stupidity. But it really only came to the forefront of my mind when I realised the sheer number of cases of child abuse which had taken place not only throughout history but in my lifetime, and that but for, as they say, the grace of God, it could have easily happened to me or to my friends. And when I put this incident together with other episodes from my own experience - being roused on by alcoholic priests for innocent misdemeanours, seeing friends have their faith abused or their volunteer services exploited - it all came together. These people have no credibility, and ought not to be taken seriously.
That was the start of an awakening in my mind. I suddenly realised that those in positions of authority actually had little more idea of what was going on than I did, were actually less moral and less courageous than me and my friends, and were no more deserving of a serious audience than was I.
Almost immediately, evidence for this conclusion started pouring in. Watching the whole shemozzle of America's invation of Iraq unfold was a revelation. It was clear that the whole crew - Dubya, Cheney, George Tenet, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, Franks, Sanchez, Abizaid - had no idea what they were doing, and were completely at a loss when the war took an unexpected turn and began taking them out. Bob Woodward's books, looking into the US government's handling of the occupation, give the impression of a blockheaded Dubya watching things steadily deteriorate and sitting pat because he has no idea what to do next, no clue who he can call upon to turn things around, and no understanding of the urgency of the situation. He just reads the steadily worsening reports, says thankyou, and then goes out to do another press conference or local rally.
But what confirmed this belief was the events of last September. Suddenly, all that crap about how the finance sector employed the best of the best, that its risk management processes and products were top notch, that its managers deserved every cent of their multi-million dollar bonuses, that it could be trusted with the nation's savings - all that went out the window when a complete loss of trust and confidence caused the financial system to melt down. Clearly, the people who had placed themselves in charge of the system, and who had extracted enormous incomes for themselves by virtue of their self-proclaimed special insight into the operation of money, were just a bunch of charlatans.
Ruddwatch's disillusion was complete.
.........................................
What I had thought was a phenomenon confined to the more blatantly self-seeking, emotionally crippled and self unaware in our society appeared to be endemic. It wasn't just Kevin Rudd, or the clowns in the organised churches, who were intebt on perpetrating a fraud against the gullible and guileless. It was actually in the system: society somehow had no way of protecting itself against these bacteria, of guarding against their intrusion or removing them once they lodged themselves into its institutions. We are condemned to be put upon by fraudsters, hustlers, apolcalyptic lunatics, opportunists, careerists and criminals, because even after identifying them our system cannot rid itself of them.
The consequences of this failing, in Australia at least, became evident this week in the debates over the government's ETS legislation. There is no evidence that human activity is causing a serious environmental problem, there is no evidence that, even if it were, Australia's ceasing its economic activity would improve the situation, there is no evidence that, if we wanted to help the environment, this is actually the best way to do so. There is on the other hand plenty of evidence to say that the ETS will seriously impair the community's standards of living, and there is plenty of evidence to say that it will not help the environment.
In other words, this is, purely and simply, bad policy.
This rubbish has already passed through the lower house, on party lines. It failed in the Senate along party lines. But there is not consensus in the Liberal Party over just how bad it is. The Terminator's response has been to propose an alternative scheme, which would be more effective in curbing direct emissions of carbon dioxide and would impose lower costs on the community. But this is the wrong approach: surely the task of the national leadership is to admit that the whole exercise is bunk, that we don't need any scheme, and that to impose even the slightest costs on the community in pursuit of this impossible goal is madness?
Our leaders have failed us. They should have demanded, from the start, that the apocalyptics present hard science to support their claims, and that they answer each and every query from concerned citizens and scientists. What has instead happened is that, rather than leadership, we have had opportunism. First with some politicians jumping on the environmental bandwaggon, then with others following them in order to maintain their share of the vote.
The only person to have shown any courage in the debate has been Senator Fielding, who dared as the Empress about the New Clothes that she was 'wearing'. But even after this episode demonstrated clearly that neither the Minister, nor her department, knew the least thing about what it was they were using to beat the electorate into submission, the political juggernaut kept on.
So, we have arrived at a point where the nation's leaders have no idea what they are doing, but, driven by electoral pressures which they themselves have encouraged with years of their ignorant fear-mongering, are now trying to outdo one another in crippling the industrial base of our society.
These people have no credibility. They have no idea what they are doing. They ought never to have been allowed to run around without close adult supervision. In their pandering to religious zeal, they are going to impose significant handicaps and discomfort on their fellow citizens. They cannot be taken seriously.
We are fallen among fruitloops.
..........................................
Lest you think that I am completely in despair, let me reassure you that I do in fact hold out some hope for our society. The fact that we have, at the top of the economic bureaucracy, two people like Glen Stevens and Ken Henry, is evidence that the sytem can indeed place good, competent and serious people into positions of authority.
And evidence that the system can repair itself, even from serious damage, exists in the form of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
I just wish there were more of them at the forefront of our society. And that opportunistic charlatans like St Kevin, the Climate Empress and the Terminator were confined to the local parishes, where they belong, and where their pious bleating can do little harm.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Neverland, home of the Future Eater
I must confess I didn't get too excited about the death of Michael Jackson. Nor could I see any justification for the media's wall to wall coverage of the event.
Yes he once had been very popular, and this popularity had reflected his talent. I'm thinking of the late 70s and early 80s. Even pre-teen Ruddwatch was bopping away to Thriller and Beat It in those days.
But by the late 80s not only was his best music behind him, but Jackson had turned into a one-man freak show.
I can remember rushing home after school one day to watch the premiere of his 'Black or White' song, with commentary by Molly Meldrum, would you believe, only to be left wondering why I'd bothered, and what the hell had happened to Jackson's skin, face and hair.
After that, it just kept getting worse. The face kept morphing. The lifestyle more extravagant, the marriages phoney, the interactions with other people, and, worryingly, with children, more bizarre.
Jackson spent the last third of his life until his premature death living in a fantasy world. One in which money never seemed to be an object, where wives could be acquired and then disposed of once they'd outlived their usefulness, where Jackson's inadequacies, stemming from his own troubled childhood, could be foisted upon unsuspecting kids.
Unfortunately for Jackson, reality kept intruding. It intruded in the form of parents concerned about what he was doing to their children. It intruded in the form of US attorneys general prosecuting Jackson for offences against children. It intruded in the form of medical problems arising from his lifestyle and body-scuplting. And it intruded in the form of creditors beating down his door and demanding that he open up a new income stream with which to pay his debts. And this last intrusion led to his untimely death.
For all his wealth, Jackson could not cut himself loose from the obligations and dependencies which comprise social relations. He could not separate himself from society, nor annul its obligations, nor escape its realities.
* * *
One thing that strikes me, as I have been reading through the press reports, watching the blather on the idiot box, and listening to discussions (both informed and uninformed) on the radio, is simply how far removed from reality a lot of the 'national conversation' has become. At least, as it is reported in the media.
It's not just things such as Michael Jackson, and the reporting on Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. A good deal of the political conversation is similarly focused on trivia. Hence we are treated to acres of print, and whole reams of airtime, on such things as Peter Costello, Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, Godwin Grech's bowel, the soporifics of the Labor National Conference, etc. It fills in the available space, of which there is plenty, because there's nothing really important to talk about, right?
Even when there are matters of great pitch and moment, the coverage is superficial. However, the blame doesn't lie solely with the media. Actually, there are some honourable exceptions in this area. The main problem lies in the political class, which insists on dealing with these matters by focus sing on political priorities, rather than on good public policy. And although the opposition is complicit in this, the government is the chief culprit.
One instance of this is the discussion of amendments to the former government's industrial relations laws. St Kevin and his Parliament of Saints talk often about the need to improve Australia's productivity performance, and also about how they are against a return to the 'bad old days' of unions engaging in criminal behaviour on construction worksites. And yet the changes that they are proposing to industrial relations laws, including the abolition of the ABCC, will both remove the one impediment to union thuggery and reduce productivity growth.
The reality of the situation is not being addressed by those responsible for it. Instead, the public is given a stream of platitudes and is left to cross its fingers.
This approach is utterly cynical. Just tell the public what you wish to be true, and then do what you want to do anyway, even if it is at cross purposes and inconsistent with the outcome that you have mentioned as desirable in your public statements. Reality is a matter that can be safely dealt with tomorrow - for now, it is best to look after political interests.
* * *
This has, so far, been the government's approach to most of its policy preparation. For the most part, it has been able to get away with it because of the great reserve of wealth and good policy built up under 25 years of overwhelmingly prudent government under Hawke, Keating and Howard (and, we must also acknowledge, Costello). You can waste $100 billion of tax revenue on duplicate school halls and plasma tellies for the masses in some bizarre display of voodoo economics, without having a significantly adverse effect on the economy, only because previous governments were responsible and stored away the public's acorns.
And you can then write long and near-unreadable essays on how terrible your predecessors' policies were, how much smarter you are than the markets, and what a better job you and your cronies are going to do, safe in the prosperity and security that those policies delivered.
Rather like a full-bellied, warmly-clothed and safely-housed child berating its parents for their failings.
You can do all of this - the idiotic, self defeating policy, the cringeworthy essays, the strutting on the world stage - only because the hard work of those you berate has provided you with a cushion against reality.
That cusion is likely to last some time. In Britain, it took ten years before the folly of the Blair-Brown years became manifest.
However, once the cushion is gone, no magic incantations about 'neo liberalism' (whatever that is), nor appearances on soft telly shows like Rove, are going to bring it back. Then, it is back to the hard slog, which so many tried so hard to do away with last time - before you came along.
* * *
This is the case in most instances. St Kevin's indulging himself, at the expense of the rest of us and of future generations, is not bumping into any reality checks. But it is not universally true.
There is one area where reality will follow hard on the heels of policy stupidity. Come on down, Carbon 'Pollution' Reduction Scheme.
Longtime readers will know Ruddwatch's position on the widespread belief in anthropogenic climate change, and the hysterical fantasy cult which has sought to hijack public debate.
Ultimately, the blame for things having spun so far out of control, and the debate having moved so far from reality, lies with the political class. From the time when the scientists started flagging the possibility that people could be causing climate change, and that change could be dangerous to society, the political class - including those thousands of public servants responsible for policy advice - should have begun engaging with the matter. First, determining what the science was actually saying. Secondly, looking at the best way to approach the problem via rigorous cost benefit analyses. Thirdly, presenting all viable options to the public for their decision, via the democratic process.
Unfortunately, our leaders have not been up to the task. First, the debate was hijacked by 'chicken little' scientists intent on grabbing the public's attention with doom-laden scenarios and proclamations along the lines of 'we gotta do sumthin about this and do it soon and do it before anythin else and anyone who doesn't listen to us is worse than a child molester'. Because of this breathless stupidity, the science wasn't checked, so that the government was left relying on half-assed computer models and appalling frauds like the 'hockey stick' temperature forecast, and the cost-benefit analysis stage was completely bypassed, so that the costs associated with reducing social emissions of carbon dioxide were not weighed against the expected benefits, and alternative avenues of mitigation - such as using the wealth from unimpeded economic growth to develop new technologies - were left largely unexplored.
What we were left with was the loopy scientists and politicians vowing to 'do something' to curb emissions of carbon dioxide. Hence we have the collective lunacy of 'Earth Hour', groups of idealistic kids attacking coal trains, and St Kevin proclaiming climate change to be the greatest moral challenge of our time.
And, of course, the C'P'RS.
Now Mr Mole, being the utterly cynical short termist that he is, thought that he could use the scheme to earn brownie points with the electorate, win the greenie and climate-worrier votes, and postpone any intrusions of reality until well into the future, by setting the scheme's goals as far into the future as 2020 and 2050. You will, no doubt, recognise this behaviour as standard operating procedure for our friend the saint.
Until now, the Mole and his offsider, the stunning, show stopping, awe inspiring ice queen, the First Empress of Sun, Wind, Air and Sky, have done a good job of fighting off any opposition. Those questioning the science behind the whole climate movement are written off as 'denialists'. When it was demonstrated that a carbon tax would be a better policy than an emissions trading scheme, the government publicly ignored them but changed the scheme - fixing the price and offering unlimited credits - so that it in fact would operate just as would a carbon tax. And now that the scheme is up for a vote in the Senate, the government has so terrified an opposition weakened by The Terminator's drawn out political suicide that even an experienced and usually sensible politician like Tony Abbott is considering passing the legislation.
But reality has intruded. It has intruded in the form of the power stations, or , to be specific, the managers of the institutions which own the power stations.
Unlike the Great Mole and the Climate Empress, these are serious people, who are paid to consider the long-term consequences of near-term decisions, and who are directly answerable for these decisions, and only these decisions, in the near term - ie, immediately.
I now pass over to Robert Gottliebsen, in Ruddwatch's book one of our living national treasures:
It has no comparison in importance, but like the Washington Post writers on Watergate, every time I write on the Australian carbon crisis I feel this will be my last commentary on the subject. But every time I write, new information is put before me to encourage me to keep going.
Such is the power of Business Spectator that yesterday most of the players, excluding the Canberra public service, met with me (and Alan Kohler and Steve Bartholomeusz) under the 'Chatham House Rule'. What they told us had me reeling. Much of what I am about to write will be denied but have no doubt it is true. Having got through the GFC this is without doubt Australia’s biggest looming crisis and it will effect all citizens.
Effectively large segments of global energy capital will either black ban Australia or demand much higher returns with enormous consequences to this nation, including consequences for new renewable energy projects.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go step by step through what is about to happen to our nation because of an inexperienced government and an incompetent opposition.
-- In most parts of the world, apart from Australia, it is believed that the form of carbon trading scheme being proposed by Australia will not promote investment in lower carbon energy alternatives. We are about to prove the rest of the world right.
-- When a nation or a company is doing something stupid there will be a trigger that explodes the wrong strategy. In this case it is the Latrobe Valley brown coal power stations. These stations have huge debt repayments and emit a lot of carbon so the Canberra plan was that they should go broke and be bought at token prices. The plan was that the market would do its job and the power companies that own the stations and the banks that funded them will suffer well-deserved losses because they knew the risks they were taking when they made the investments and loans. If only it were so simple.
-- There are a number of large global players who invested in the Latrobe Valley, and they have not had big returns. The accepted practice in the US and Europe is that while there are no big profits for investors in legacy coal power stations there are no big losses. The power station owning groups need to have strong balance sheets to invest in renewable, gas and other low carbon power generating alternatives. Australia is thumbing its nose at the giants and global bankers and wants the world to follow us. We are about to learn what happens when you play that game and get it wrong.
-- The first step is that a number of the Latrobe Valley companies will halt long term maintenance. TRUenergy has already announced this, but at least one or two other Latrobe stations follow. The power stations say who in their right mind would spend cash when they have no idea whether the generators will be viable in the short and long term because the level of carbon charges and carbon policy is not known. Last summer every Latrobe Valley station went without a break down – the first time that has happened. This summer the odds are that they will break down. The companies are gradually abandoning long term contracts and going for the spot market which means that when there is a power station failure they will go into an Australian wide bidding process for power sending prices through the roof. However, there is a limited amount that can be sent to Victoria so Victorians will have the main burden of the price hikes and blackouts.
-- The banks will have the power to take control of at least one Latrobe Valley power station within six to nine months. They will be trying to extract as much money from the station as possible so will also cease long term maintenance and go for spot prices. If Australian and Victoria think the blackouts next summer are going to be bad wait for the following year when the full impact hits the nation.
-- Victorian Premier John Brumby’s staff know exactly what is going to happen to their state and realise that although this is a Canberra induced crisis they will cop the blame. Brumby’s people have gone to Canberra and been met with a wall of Godwin Greches. They might not fake emails, but they have no interest what so ever in the truth about what is going to happen. Fortunately there are some signs that not all the Canberra public servants are trained in the Godwin Grech mould and one or two are showing interest in discovering the facts.
Now even applying the usual 'hype discount' to journalistic forecasts, this is serious stuff.
I'll leave you to do the reading - not because I'm lazy but because Gottliebsen does a good job laying it all out and this post is already very long. There are links to other Gottliebsen gobbets at the end of the article I've referred to. But essentially, what you have to know is that the C'P'RS is affecting business decisions now. And power stations are only the most visible of the businesses pulling in their horns. Across Australia, all businesses will be adversely affected. The consequences for employment and investment are profound, and are being considered both in board rooms and around kitchen tables as we speak.
This reality should have intruded much earlier into St Kevin's little abbey. He is tremendously fortunate in having a vocal choir of climate loons singing from the First Hymnal of the Apocalypse, and a non-performing opposition. But it is beginning to intrude now, and will, if Gottliebsen is correct, certainly manifest itself in the coming year, in the form of power shortages in Victoria. Even then, St Kevin might be able to get away with passing the buck to his Victorian counterparts.
But, at least, now you know the Mole's game. He is living a political fantasy, courtesy of you and I, and the sacrifices you and I made over the past 25 years, and which our ancestors made over an even longer stretch, to get Australia where it is. St Kevin's fantasy trip is being fuelled by our future.
* * *
This is only one aspect, albeit the most serious, of St Kevin's adventures in Neverland. There is another, which is (so far) not relevant to broad policy but which is quite worrying in what it indicates.
One of Ruddwatch's favourite pastimes as a child was mucking around with Lego. Although not at all creative, and often building objects according to the wordless instruction booklet contained in the pack, lots of fun was to be had creating scenarios for the little yellow men and women who lived in the Legoland that I and my sister created. Best of all, the possibilities were unlimited. You could have one fellow locked up in the police cell. The firies dousing flames at a house down the road. Someone else jetting off to space. Or, following cups of red cordial, Godzilla smashing his way through the town.
You could let your imagination run free. The material - including the humanoid figurines - were all there ready to fill any part that you wanted them to play. They had no agency of their own, they never talked back, they were free to be where you needed them, when you needed them. Reality only intruded when Mum couldn't afford to buy the 'Castle and Knights' set, or when dinner was ready. Or when your sister wanted the same rare block as you, or when two blocks became stuck together, recalcitrant to separation via Mum's pearl-handled bread and butter knives or, in desperation, one's teeth. And when reality did poke its nose into the fun - well, didn't the frustration well up and vent itself in hissy fits!
And you see it all the time. Do you work, or are you at university, or even school? Call to mind when those around you suffered a hissy fit. It was frustration at the world not going their way which caused it, yes? People not fitting in with their appointed roles - heaven forbid, exercising some agency on their own part!
Remember, now, the hissy fit over the airline food? Or the hairdryer? Remember the terse, biting commentary and sarky dismissive statements, uttered through thin lips, whenever a difficult question was asked at a press conference?
Why do these clowns keep exercising agency? Why won't they simply fit in with my plans, my glorious plans, for governing Australia?
It gets worse. Remember the Sunrise episode. You know, where you arrange to change the timing of the dawn service, to fit in with your plans. Then you tell a lie, and say that you did no such thing - after all, who the hell are these clowns to question you? And then finally are forced to admit the truth when presented with documentary evidence.
Why don't these clowns all just buzz off and let me get on with my plans?
Or going further back, smearing the name of Aubrey Low, in order to create the fantasy of a childhood setback, and then berating at length the journalists who, in doing nothing more than there work, have discovered that you made it all up?
* * *
It's all a fantasy. The appalling essays. Howard's 'Bruitopia'. The neoliberal scapegoats. Sticking it to the Chinese on Tibet. The ridiculous working hours devoted to minutiae and political tactics and devoid of the hard work of policy development and strategy. The dream of a hot meal on every flight and a hair dryer in every tent. The plan for a $43 billion fibre to the home broadband network. All of it, just part of a game far removed from reality and for which others face the dangers and are picking up the tab.
This blog has been an attempt by me to alert people to this fact, and at least to get the Prime Minister and his cabinet to face reality, if not to stop the charade completely.
Will you join us?
Yes he once had been very popular, and this popularity had reflected his talent. I'm thinking of the late 70s and early 80s. Even pre-teen Ruddwatch was bopping away to Thriller and Beat It in those days.
But by the late 80s not only was his best music behind him, but Jackson had turned into a one-man freak show.
I can remember rushing home after school one day to watch the premiere of his 'Black or White' song, with commentary by Molly Meldrum, would you believe, only to be left wondering why I'd bothered, and what the hell had happened to Jackson's skin, face and hair.
After that, it just kept getting worse. The face kept morphing. The lifestyle more extravagant, the marriages phoney, the interactions with other people, and, worryingly, with children, more bizarre.
Jackson spent the last third of his life until his premature death living in a fantasy world. One in which money never seemed to be an object, where wives could be acquired and then disposed of once they'd outlived their usefulness, where Jackson's inadequacies, stemming from his own troubled childhood, could be foisted upon unsuspecting kids.
Unfortunately for Jackson, reality kept intruding. It intruded in the form of parents concerned about what he was doing to their children. It intruded in the form of US attorneys general prosecuting Jackson for offences against children. It intruded in the form of medical problems arising from his lifestyle and body-scuplting. And it intruded in the form of creditors beating down his door and demanding that he open up a new income stream with which to pay his debts. And this last intrusion led to his untimely death.
For all his wealth, Jackson could not cut himself loose from the obligations and dependencies which comprise social relations. He could not separate himself from society, nor annul its obligations, nor escape its realities.
* * *
One thing that strikes me, as I have been reading through the press reports, watching the blather on the idiot box, and listening to discussions (both informed and uninformed) on the radio, is simply how far removed from reality a lot of the 'national conversation' has become. At least, as it is reported in the media.
It's not just things such as Michael Jackson, and the reporting on Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O. A good deal of the political conversation is similarly focused on trivia. Hence we are treated to acres of print, and whole reams of airtime, on such things as Peter Costello, Malcolm Turnbull's leadership, Godwin Grech's bowel, the soporifics of the Labor National Conference, etc. It fills in the available space, of which there is plenty, because there's nothing really important to talk about, right?
Even when there are matters of great pitch and moment, the coverage is superficial. However, the blame doesn't lie solely with the media. Actually, there are some honourable exceptions in this area. The main problem lies in the political class, which insists on dealing with these matters by focus sing on political priorities, rather than on good public policy. And although the opposition is complicit in this, the government is the chief culprit.
One instance of this is the discussion of amendments to the former government's industrial relations laws. St Kevin and his Parliament of Saints talk often about the need to improve Australia's productivity performance, and also about how they are against a return to the 'bad old days' of unions engaging in criminal behaviour on construction worksites. And yet the changes that they are proposing to industrial relations laws, including the abolition of the ABCC, will both remove the one impediment to union thuggery and reduce productivity growth.
The reality of the situation is not being addressed by those responsible for it. Instead, the public is given a stream of platitudes and is left to cross its fingers.
This approach is utterly cynical. Just tell the public what you wish to be true, and then do what you want to do anyway, even if it is at cross purposes and inconsistent with the outcome that you have mentioned as desirable in your public statements. Reality is a matter that can be safely dealt with tomorrow - for now, it is best to look after political interests.
* * *
This has, so far, been the government's approach to most of its policy preparation. For the most part, it has been able to get away with it because of the great reserve of wealth and good policy built up under 25 years of overwhelmingly prudent government under Hawke, Keating and Howard (and, we must also acknowledge, Costello). You can waste $100 billion of tax revenue on duplicate school halls and plasma tellies for the masses in some bizarre display of voodoo economics, without having a significantly adverse effect on the economy, only because previous governments were responsible and stored away the public's acorns.
And you can then write long and near-unreadable essays on how terrible your predecessors' policies were, how much smarter you are than the markets, and what a better job you and your cronies are going to do, safe in the prosperity and security that those policies delivered.
Rather like a full-bellied, warmly-clothed and safely-housed child berating its parents for their failings.
You can do all of this - the idiotic, self defeating policy, the cringeworthy essays, the strutting on the world stage - only because the hard work of those you berate has provided you with a cushion against reality.
That cusion is likely to last some time. In Britain, it took ten years before the folly of the Blair-Brown years became manifest.
However, once the cushion is gone, no magic incantations about 'neo liberalism' (whatever that is), nor appearances on soft telly shows like Rove, are going to bring it back. Then, it is back to the hard slog, which so many tried so hard to do away with last time - before you came along.
* * *
This is the case in most instances. St Kevin's indulging himself, at the expense of the rest of us and of future generations, is not bumping into any reality checks. But it is not universally true.
There is one area where reality will follow hard on the heels of policy stupidity. Come on down, Carbon 'Pollution' Reduction Scheme.
Longtime readers will know Ruddwatch's position on the widespread belief in anthropogenic climate change, and the hysterical fantasy cult which has sought to hijack public debate.
Ultimately, the blame for things having spun so far out of control, and the debate having moved so far from reality, lies with the political class. From the time when the scientists started flagging the possibility that people could be causing climate change, and that change could be dangerous to society, the political class - including those thousands of public servants responsible for policy advice - should have begun engaging with the matter. First, determining what the science was actually saying. Secondly, looking at the best way to approach the problem via rigorous cost benefit analyses. Thirdly, presenting all viable options to the public for their decision, via the democratic process.
Unfortunately, our leaders have not been up to the task. First, the debate was hijacked by 'chicken little' scientists intent on grabbing the public's attention with doom-laden scenarios and proclamations along the lines of 'we gotta do sumthin about this and do it soon and do it before anythin else and anyone who doesn't listen to us is worse than a child molester'. Because of this breathless stupidity, the science wasn't checked, so that the government was left relying on half-assed computer models and appalling frauds like the 'hockey stick' temperature forecast, and the cost-benefit analysis stage was completely bypassed, so that the costs associated with reducing social emissions of carbon dioxide were not weighed against the expected benefits, and alternative avenues of mitigation - such as using the wealth from unimpeded economic growth to develop new technologies - were left largely unexplored.
What we were left with was the loopy scientists and politicians vowing to 'do something' to curb emissions of carbon dioxide. Hence we have the collective lunacy of 'Earth Hour', groups of idealistic kids attacking coal trains, and St Kevin proclaiming climate change to be the greatest moral challenge of our time.
And, of course, the C'P'RS.
Now Mr Mole, being the utterly cynical short termist that he is, thought that he could use the scheme to earn brownie points with the electorate, win the greenie and climate-worrier votes, and postpone any intrusions of reality until well into the future, by setting the scheme's goals as far into the future as 2020 and 2050. You will, no doubt, recognise this behaviour as standard operating procedure for our friend the saint.
Until now, the Mole and his offsider, the stunning, show stopping, awe inspiring ice queen, the First Empress of Sun, Wind, Air and Sky, have done a good job of fighting off any opposition. Those questioning the science behind the whole climate movement are written off as 'denialists'. When it was demonstrated that a carbon tax would be a better policy than an emissions trading scheme, the government publicly ignored them but changed the scheme - fixing the price and offering unlimited credits - so that it in fact would operate just as would a carbon tax. And now that the scheme is up for a vote in the Senate, the government has so terrified an opposition weakened by The Terminator's drawn out political suicide that even an experienced and usually sensible politician like Tony Abbott is considering passing the legislation.
But reality has intruded. It has intruded in the form of the power stations, or , to be specific, the managers of the institutions which own the power stations.
Unlike the Great Mole and the Climate Empress, these are serious people, who are paid to consider the long-term consequences of near-term decisions, and who are directly answerable for these decisions, and only these decisions, in the near term - ie, immediately.
I now pass over to Robert Gottliebsen, in Ruddwatch's book one of our living national treasures:
It has no comparison in importance, but like the Washington Post writers on Watergate, every time I write on the Australian carbon crisis I feel this will be my last commentary on the subject. But every time I write, new information is put before me to encourage me to keep going.
Such is the power of Business Spectator that yesterday most of the players, excluding the Canberra public service, met with me (and Alan Kohler and Steve Bartholomeusz) under the 'Chatham House Rule'. What they told us had me reeling. Much of what I am about to write will be denied but have no doubt it is true. Having got through the GFC this is without doubt Australia’s biggest looming crisis and it will effect all citizens.
Effectively large segments of global energy capital will either black ban Australia or demand much higher returns with enormous consequences to this nation, including consequences for new renewable energy projects.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go step by step through what is about to happen to our nation because of an inexperienced government and an incompetent opposition.
-- In most parts of the world, apart from Australia, it is believed that the form of carbon trading scheme being proposed by Australia will not promote investment in lower carbon energy alternatives. We are about to prove the rest of the world right.
-- When a nation or a company is doing something stupid there will be a trigger that explodes the wrong strategy. In this case it is the Latrobe Valley brown coal power stations. These stations have huge debt repayments and emit a lot of carbon so the Canberra plan was that they should go broke and be bought at token prices. The plan was that the market would do its job and the power companies that own the stations and the banks that funded them will suffer well-deserved losses because they knew the risks they were taking when they made the investments and loans. If only it were so simple.
-- There are a number of large global players who invested in the Latrobe Valley, and they have not had big returns. The accepted practice in the US and Europe is that while there are no big profits for investors in legacy coal power stations there are no big losses. The power station owning groups need to have strong balance sheets to invest in renewable, gas and other low carbon power generating alternatives. Australia is thumbing its nose at the giants and global bankers and wants the world to follow us. We are about to learn what happens when you play that game and get it wrong.
-- The first step is that a number of the Latrobe Valley companies will halt long term maintenance. TRUenergy has already announced this, but at least one or two other Latrobe stations follow. The power stations say who in their right mind would spend cash when they have no idea whether the generators will be viable in the short and long term because the level of carbon charges and carbon policy is not known. Last summer every Latrobe Valley station went without a break down – the first time that has happened. This summer the odds are that they will break down. The companies are gradually abandoning long term contracts and going for the spot market which means that when there is a power station failure they will go into an Australian wide bidding process for power sending prices through the roof. However, there is a limited amount that can be sent to Victoria so Victorians will have the main burden of the price hikes and blackouts.
-- The banks will have the power to take control of at least one Latrobe Valley power station within six to nine months. They will be trying to extract as much money from the station as possible so will also cease long term maintenance and go for spot prices. If Australian and Victoria think the blackouts next summer are going to be bad wait for the following year when the full impact hits the nation.
-- Victorian Premier John Brumby’s staff know exactly what is going to happen to their state and realise that although this is a Canberra induced crisis they will cop the blame. Brumby’s people have gone to Canberra and been met with a wall of Godwin Greches. They might not fake emails, but they have no interest what so ever in the truth about what is going to happen. Fortunately there are some signs that not all the Canberra public servants are trained in the Godwin Grech mould and one or two are showing interest in discovering the facts.
Now even applying the usual 'hype discount' to journalistic forecasts, this is serious stuff.
I'll leave you to do the reading - not because I'm lazy but because Gottliebsen does a good job laying it all out and this post is already very long. There are links to other Gottliebsen gobbets at the end of the article I've referred to. But essentially, what you have to know is that the C'P'RS is affecting business decisions now. And power stations are only the most visible of the businesses pulling in their horns. Across Australia, all businesses will be adversely affected. The consequences for employment and investment are profound, and are being considered both in board rooms and around kitchen tables as we speak.
This reality should have intruded much earlier into St Kevin's little abbey. He is tremendously fortunate in having a vocal choir of climate loons singing from the First Hymnal of the Apocalypse, and a non-performing opposition. But it is beginning to intrude now, and will, if Gottliebsen is correct, certainly manifest itself in the coming year, in the form of power shortages in Victoria. Even then, St Kevin might be able to get away with passing the buck to his Victorian counterparts.
But, at least, now you know the Mole's game. He is living a political fantasy, courtesy of you and I, and the sacrifices you and I made over the past 25 years, and which our ancestors made over an even longer stretch, to get Australia where it is. St Kevin's fantasy trip is being fuelled by our future.
* * *
This is only one aspect, albeit the most serious, of St Kevin's adventures in Neverland. There is another, which is (so far) not relevant to broad policy but which is quite worrying in what it indicates.
One of Ruddwatch's favourite pastimes as a child was mucking around with Lego. Although not at all creative, and often building objects according to the wordless instruction booklet contained in the pack, lots of fun was to be had creating scenarios for the little yellow men and women who lived in the Legoland that I and my sister created. Best of all, the possibilities were unlimited. You could have one fellow locked up in the police cell. The firies dousing flames at a house down the road. Someone else jetting off to space. Or, following cups of red cordial, Godzilla smashing his way through the town.
You could let your imagination run free. The material - including the humanoid figurines - were all there ready to fill any part that you wanted them to play. They had no agency of their own, they never talked back, they were free to be where you needed them, when you needed them. Reality only intruded when Mum couldn't afford to buy the 'Castle and Knights' set, or when dinner was ready. Or when your sister wanted the same rare block as you, or when two blocks became stuck together, recalcitrant to separation via Mum's pearl-handled bread and butter knives or, in desperation, one's teeth. And when reality did poke its nose into the fun - well, didn't the frustration well up and vent itself in hissy fits!
And you see it all the time. Do you work, or are you at university, or even school? Call to mind when those around you suffered a hissy fit. It was frustration at the world not going their way which caused it, yes? People not fitting in with their appointed roles - heaven forbid, exercising some agency on their own part!
Remember, now, the hissy fit over the airline food? Or the hairdryer? Remember the terse, biting commentary and sarky dismissive statements, uttered through thin lips, whenever a difficult question was asked at a press conference?
Why do these clowns keep exercising agency? Why won't they simply fit in with my plans, my glorious plans, for governing Australia?
It gets worse. Remember the Sunrise episode. You know, where you arrange to change the timing of the dawn service, to fit in with your plans. Then you tell a lie, and say that you did no such thing - after all, who the hell are these clowns to question you? And then finally are forced to admit the truth when presented with documentary evidence.
Why don't these clowns all just buzz off and let me get on with my plans?
Or going further back, smearing the name of Aubrey Low, in order to create the fantasy of a childhood setback, and then berating at length the journalists who, in doing nothing more than there work, have discovered that you made it all up?
* * *
It's all a fantasy. The appalling essays. Howard's 'Bruitopia'. The neoliberal scapegoats. Sticking it to the Chinese on Tibet. The ridiculous working hours devoted to minutiae and political tactics and devoid of the hard work of policy development and strategy. The dream of a hot meal on every flight and a hair dryer in every tent. The plan for a $43 billion fibre to the home broadband network. All of it, just part of a game far removed from reality and for which others face the dangers and are picking up the tab.
This blog has been an attempt by me to alert people to this fact, and at least to get the Prime Minister and his cabinet to face reality, if not to stop the charade completely.
Will you join us?
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Back physically, posts yet to come
Dear patient readers, I have returned, but have not yet had the chance to put something together for you.
Hopefully this week I will be able to write a few posts. There is a lot happening: the economy, the C'P'RS, China, and of course another overly long intellectual imposture.
But, just quickly, isn't it odd how quickly things change. Just over a month ago St Kevin's star was waning, as a result of his own shortcomings. Then we got the story of the Ute, and things reversed very quickly. It now looks as though he'll win another term, only to face Tony Abbott at the election after.
I had hoped that I could wrap up the blog within a year, but it looks like I'll have to keep going. Anyway, whatever happens - let's continue to have a laugh together.
Hopefully this week I will be able to write a few posts. There is a lot happening: the economy, the C'P'RS, China, and of course another overly long intellectual imposture.
But, just quickly, isn't it odd how quickly things change. Just over a month ago St Kevin's star was waning, as a result of his own shortcomings. Then we got the story of the Ute, and things reversed very quickly. It now looks as though he'll win another term, only to face Tony Abbott at the election after.
I had hoped that I could wrap up the blog within a year, but it looks like I'll have to keep going. Anyway, whatever happens - let's continue to have a laugh together.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Real ugly
I apologise, I'll be away on business for the next couple of weeks, and won't be able to post any of my analysis.
Meantime, you can enjoy watching St Kevin reveal his true nature. Now that he is clearly in the ascendant, thanks to the Terminator's bungling of possibly the easiest free kick that he will ever get in his life, St Kevin has turned nasty.
And how!
The Oz is in his sights, as a regular and persistent critic of the idiocy of Rudd and Co. And there are reports that St Kevin is sending The Uglies in to bully corporate Australia into punishing the more vocal of his civil society critics.
Not exactly the sort of behaviour you want to see from our nation's leader. To be fair, St Kevin isn't the first minister suffering paranoia - Peter Costello was known for chasing down critics. But there are still no excuses for it. However, this behaviour should come as no surprise to regular readers, familiar as they are by now with the shortcomings in the Rudd character.
Now you know why I operate under a pseudonym.
Until next time,
Meantime, you can enjoy watching St Kevin reveal his true nature. Now that he is clearly in the ascendant, thanks to the Terminator's bungling of possibly the easiest free kick that he will ever get in his life, St Kevin has turned nasty.
And how!
The Oz is in his sights, as a regular and persistent critic of the idiocy of Rudd and Co. And there are reports that St Kevin is sending The Uglies in to bully corporate Australia into punishing the more vocal of his civil society critics.
Not exactly the sort of behaviour you want to see from our nation's leader. To be fair, St Kevin isn't the first minister suffering paranoia - Peter Costello was known for chasing down critics. But there are still no excuses for it. However, this behaviour should come as no surprise to regular readers, familiar as they are by now with the shortcomings in the Rudd character.
Now you know why I operate under a pseudonym.
Until next time,
Saturday, June 27, 2009
St Kevin 1, The Terminator -1, Australia -100
Just when you thought things couldn't get more interesting, we have a week like the one that just was.
How utterly extraordinary. And how completely unpredictable.
David Marr and Phillip Coorey tell the story of how The Terminator fluffed the chance to claim the scalp of Brother Wayne - who is clearly up to his scapula in quicksand - and now finds himself under siege. Peter Hartcher draws on Paul Keating's surprisingly accurate dissection of the Terminator's character to tell us why.
Yesterday, Laura Tingle wrote a good column in the Financial Review. Clearly, the media is being swamped with 'backgrounders' trying to explain the extraordinary events and spin the coverage their way. I also liked Glenn Milne's piece, and await an essay from John Stone on the subject.
Meanwhile a government which deserves in every way to be copping a beating has, thanks to The Terminator's impetuosity, got its tail up. This is not good news. The ferocity of the government's attack on Turnbull, and the 'Chewbacca/Silly Monkey' defence that they have repeatedly vomited onto the national airways over the past week, demonstrates that they have mastered the arts of modern politics, just as surely as the OzCar matter, the irresponsible spending splurge, the failure of GroceryWatch, BankWatch et al., the re-regulation of employment, the return of the boat people prompted by so-called 'compassionate' policy amendments, etc, demonstrate that they aren't particularly fussed about governing in the national interest.
St Kevin appears to be morphing into the federal equivalent of Boob Carr. Having lived in NSW all my life, I can assure you, that is a terrifying prospect.
Here's an example of why. The Oz's Michael Stutchbury wrote an excellent piece explaining the consequences of St Kevin's economic illiteracy and visceral aversion to market-focused economics.
Although he has shown an effective side-step in the confessional, I still don't think it is too late for Brother Wayne to be called to account for his sins - they are so grievous that The Terminator might still be able to claim his tonsured scalp as a prize. But in the first big and utterly undignified contest between the heavyweights, The Terminator has damaged himself, and this makes him less effective in calling St Kevin and his frontbench to account.
And, given St Kevin's tendencies, that is a poor outcome for the country.
After such a horrible week, both in Australia and around the world, and after over two years of focussing on the shortcomings of our national leader, I feel obliged to introduce some positive elements into the blog. So, apropos of nothing, please enjoy the following pictures of cherry blossoms and jacaranda trees. Here's hoping that the coming week will be better.
How utterly extraordinary. And how completely unpredictable.
David Marr and Phillip Coorey tell the story of how The Terminator fluffed the chance to claim the scalp of Brother Wayne - who is clearly up to his scapula in quicksand - and now finds himself under siege. Peter Hartcher draws on Paul Keating's surprisingly accurate dissection of the Terminator's character to tell us why.
Yesterday, Laura Tingle wrote a good column in the Financial Review. Clearly, the media is being swamped with 'backgrounders' trying to explain the extraordinary events and spin the coverage their way. I also liked Glenn Milne's piece, and await an essay from John Stone on the subject.
Meanwhile a government which deserves in every way to be copping a beating has, thanks to The Terminator's impetuosity, got its tail up. This is not good news. The ferocity of the government's attack on Turnbull, and the 'Chewbacca/Silly Monkey' defence that they have repeatedly vomited onto the national airways over the past week, demonstrates that they have mastered the arts of modern politics, just as surely as the OzCar matter, the irresponsible spending splurge, the failure of GroceryWatch, BankWatch et al., the re-regulation of employment, the return of the boat people prompted by so-called 'compassionate' policy amendments, etc, demonstrate that they aren't particularly fussed about governing in the national interest.
St Kevin appears to be morphing into the federal equivalent of Boob Carr. Having lived in NSW all my life, I can assure you, that is a terrifying prospect.
Here's an example of why. The Oz's Michael Stutchbury wrote an excellent piece explaining the consequences of St Kevin's economic illiteracy and visceral aversion to market-focused economics.
Although he has shown an effective side-step in the confessional, I still don't think it is too late for Brother Wayne to be called to account for his sins - they are so grievous that The Terminator might still be able to claim his tonsured scalp as a prize. But in the first big and utterly undignified contest between the heavyweights, The Terminator has damaged himself, and this makes him less effective in calling St Kevin and his frontbench to account.
And, given St Kevin's tendencies, that is a poor outcome for the country.
After such a horrible week, both in Australia and around the world, and after over two years of focussing on the shortcomings of our national leader, I feel obliged to introduce some positive elements into the blog. So, apropos of nothing, please enjoy the following pictures of cherry blossoms and jacaranda trees. Here's hoping that the coming week will be better.
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