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| What's more fun – being PM or trashing the other mob? | What's more fun – being PM or trashing the other mob? |
| (8 days later) | |
| Phew! The excruciatingly embarrassing political circus we’ve endured not just for the past five frustrating weeks, but the last three years, is now behind us. | Phew! The excruciatingly embarrassing political circus we’ve endured not just for the past five frustrating weeks, but the last three years, is now behind us. |
| Given the ridiculous campaign never debated the most basic issue affecting and confusing every Australian -– why the world’s most liveable economy is apparently “stuffed” – what was the venomous Abbott v Rudd dog fight all about? | Given the ridiculous campaign never debated the most basic issue affecting and confusing every Australian -– why the world’s most liveable economy is apparently “stuffed” – what was the venomous Abbott v Rudd dog fight all about? |
| The first thing Anthony John Abbott – Rhodes Scholar, Catholic seminarian, would-be journalist, aspiring business manager, right-wing political advisor and contrarian monarchist – uttered as the nation’s prime minister-elect was intriguing to say the least. Gleefully, he told his adoring supporters that Labor had “suffered its greatest defeat” in a hundred years. | The first thing Anthony John Abbott – Rhodes Scholar, Catholic seminarian, would-be journalist, aspiring business manager, right-wing political advisor and contrarian monarchist – uttered as the nation’s prime minister-elect was intriguing to say the least. Gleefully, he told his adoring supporters that Labor had “suffered its greatest defeat” in a hundred years. |
| Why, you might ask, did he choose that as his opening sortie in Saturday night’s victory speech? | Why, you might ask, did he choose that as his opening sortie in Saturday night’s victory speech? |
| Some of us who’ve been around long enough to be familiar with his politico-religious roots might argue that destroying the ALP as an ideological force has always been at least as significant a goal to Abbott as becoming prime minister. That being the case, the most direct way to smash Labor was for him to get to be elected with a crushing victory. | Some of us who’ve been around long enough to be familiar with his politico-religious roots might argue that destroying the ALP as an ideological force has always been at least as significant a goal to Abbott as becoming prime minister. That being the case, the most direct way to smash Labor was for him to get to be elected with a crushing victory. |
| On Saturday, he got commandingly close – but not close enough to crush the ALP. The Labor brand is still alive, not exactly kicking, more stumbling around the ring in a mind-numbing daze. | On Saturday, he got commandingly close – but not close enough to crush the ALP. The Labor brand is still alive, not exactly kicking, more stumbling around the ring in a mind-numbing daze. |
| The delicious irony is that as desperate as Abbott has always been to trash his opponents, Kevin Rudd, his opposite number in the election, has been not so interested in destroying the Liberal Party as getting to be prime minister again. You could argue that the poor old Australian electorate were left with an invidious choice between two vain men, both of whose motivations sucked. | The delicious irony is that as desperate as Abbott has always been to trash his opponents, Kevin Rudd, his opposite number in the election, has been not so interested in destroying the Liberal Party as getting to be prime minister again. You could argue that the poor old Australian electorate were left with an invidious choice between two vain men, both of whose motivations sucked. |
| Occasionally, as a print and television merchant, you figure being a cartoonist would be great. Right now, I keep on getting two tragic images in my head – one of macho man Tony pulling on the skin-tight cycling shorts, the late B A Santamaria perched on the handle-bar and pounding up the hill to Parliament House; the other of not-so-nice Nerd from Nambour Kevin, standing in front of a mirror in his school uniform practicing being prime minister at the ripe old age of 17. | Occasionally, as a print and television merchant, you figure being a cartoonist would be great. Right now, I keep on getting two tragic images in my head – one of macho man Tony pulling on the skin-tight cycling shorts, the late B A Santamaria perched on the handle-bar and pounding up the hill to Parliament House; the other of not-so-nice Nerd from Nambour Kevin, standing in front of a mirror in his school uniform practicing being prime minister at the ripe old age of 17. |
| While we’re collectively scratching our heads over the political chaos of the past six weeks, six months or even six years, has it occurred to us that arguably, none of it would have happened had the agreement reached by then prime minister Kevin Rudd and then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull on the ETS not been thwarted by an unlikely self-interested coalition of the politically naive Greens and the anti-climate change flat-earthers of the Liberal party? Thanks for nothing, guys! Both Rudd and Turnbull unravelled and became unstuck from their parties because of the failure to deliver a policy, and the rest is history. | While we’re collectively scratching our heads over the political chaos of the past six weeks, six months or even six years, has it occurred to us that arguably, none of it would have happened had the agreement reached by then prime minister Kevin Rudd and then opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull on the ETS not been thwarted by an unlikely self-interested coalition of the politically naive Greens and the anti-climate change flat-earthers of the Liberal party? Thanks for nothing, guys! Both Rudd and Turnbull unravelled and became unstuck from their parties because of the failure to deliver a policy, and the rest is history. |
| Now, picture an election with no Gillard coup against Rudd, no Abbott-inspired coup against Turnbull, no rise and rise of Abbott as opposition leader, no Rudd re-coup against Gillard, no carbon tax repealing, no inhuman and humiliating bi-partisan race to the bottom over asylum seekers, no lies about the economy from the Libs, no too-smart-by-half trickery from Labor and then, unlike the one we’ve just had, maybe even a totally different, ideologically intelligent left of centre versus right of centre debate and election – maybe even one that doesn’t begin and end with somebody calling somebody else a liar. | Now, picture an election with no Gillard coup against Rudd, no Abbott-inspired coup against Turnbull, no rise and rise of Abbott as opposition leader, no Rudd re-coup against Gillard, no carbon tax repealing, no inhuman and humiliating bi-partisan race to the bottom over asylum seekers, no lies about the economy from the Libs, no too-smart-by-half trickery from Labor and then, unlike the one we’ve just had, maybe even a totally different, ideologically intelligent left of centre versus right of centre debate and election – maybe even one that doesn’t begin and end with somebody calling somebody else a liar. |
| In other words, a different, civil country – is this asking too much? | In other words, a different, civil country – is this asking too much? |
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