When I look back at previous years of this blog, I'm sometimes surprised at how much I was thinking about Australian politics, especially at the Federal level.
But as should be clear from the greatly reduced frequency with which I comment on it now, I have been finding it somewhat boring since the replacement of the awful Morrison government with a bland, but basically competent, Labor government.
Sure, it was fun watching the Liberals think that the charmless version of Mr Potato Head Peter Dutton could win over voters, as well as his getting badly burnt by being associated too much with the poisonous Trumpian politics of the USA. But it has also felt dull watching the deeply unappealing Susan Ley try to straddle to internal chasms within the Right side of politics here and paint a new picture of how Liberals really were for everyone.
As for all the talk of One Nation polling so well - we all know that they have no organisation skills of any depth, are based on the (alleged) straight talking appeal of one ill educated but resilient woman, and just attracts the disgruntled old "Australia isn't what it used to be, with all these foreigners on the streets" vote. Just wait to see they perform in an election campaign before counting the eggs in the basket - I expect it won't go well.
I've been saying for years and years that the fundamental issue on which the Coalition needs reform - to show it is in fact a credible and unified party that believes in real things and hasn't become culture warred into believing nonsense - is climate change. The tensions that such a key issue to various aspects of policy keep causing just keep resurfacing, to be pushed down again with unconvincing "no, no, we really do believe it - or most of us do, and those that don't, well, we're a broad church, aren't we, and that's a good thing, right?" excuse making just keeps coming back to ruin their overall credibility.
Turnbull had a chance to bring it to a head, but didn't. I wonder if he regrets that now?
Angus Taylor is, of course, exactly the way to keep this lack of credibility going.
So, it looks likely to continue being kind of boring.
3 comments:
I grok that. The ALP is boring, almost as if Albanese is unlike other PMs, he just wants to do the job and not play the media game. It is fun watching conservatives become all excited by the rise of ON and not appreciating that it invariably commits hara-kiri when it becomes popular. What they don't appreciate is ranting about energy is not going to magically bring back coal, that nuke plants take so long to build and are so expensive energy costs will soar. Their perennial threats of blackouts make them look like chicken littles. Taylor and Co will trot out the same old talking points, not an original idea in all of them. That's their problem, they want to appeal to a base that is old and intransigent. I watched the 4 corners doco on the liberals last night. A woman made an interesting comment. The average Australian now is a 37 year old woman, the average Liberal member is an over 70 male. That sounds extreme to me but is in the right direction.
Yeah, I missed Four Corners last night.
That doco is the first on Aus politics I have watched in years. Currently I'm much more interested in the antecedents to the Abrahamic religions. Just watched an interesting one challenging the historicity of Moses.
Post a Comment