Im beginning to think this page should be renamed Clive Palmer should NEVER be Prime Minister or Clive Palmer should NEVER have been elected. How people were ever stupid enough to vote for this buffoon just boggles my mind. #Auspol #BSWNBPM #PUP -THERE is a belief in its upper echelons that the repeal of the carbon tax will come to represent the big switch moment in the so far not very happy life of the Abbott government, the moment when public perceptions begin to change for the better and a positive story begins to emerge. Come the next election, the ideal narrative for the government would be that it has delivered its signature election pledges of abolishing the carbon and mining taxes, stopped the boats, made substantial progress in fixing the budget, strengthened the economy and canned the soap opera. Some of it will come true but, given the nature of the participants, so much of it could turn out to be wishful thinking, hoping and praying. Normally, governments dictate agendas and messages. Not now. This one is hostage to a beast, a Palmersaurus, and when one of the main stories out of the first Liberal federal council meeting post magnificent victory is a public tiff involving two of Tony Abbott’s closest colleagues, George Brandis and Christopher Pyne (ostensibly over party rules, but really over the re-election of Tom Harley as party vice-president, whom the Prime Minister and Education Minister failed to dislodge) it has all got too weird. More sci-fi than soapie. Stepping off a plane on Thursday night to be confronted by news footage of a joint appearance by Clive Palmer and Al Gore was like crossing over into the Twilight Zone. It felt as if the plane had been sucked into a wormhole between Honolulu and Sydney then spat out not into another time, but into another, seriously warped universe. In the US, the news at least made sense … Central American parents sending their children by the thousands illegally into the US to escape the drug gangs that thrive on American consumers; whether Hillary Clinton would run for the presidency; the pursuit by the Internal Revenue Service of right-wing political groups and the disappearance of emails which could implicate the White House; whether Hillary Clinton would run for the presidency; the disintegration of Iraq; whether Hillary Clinton … Palmer and Gore didn’t compute despite a bizarre symmetry. Gore’s movie on the existential threat posed by climate change provoked such a reaction in 2006 that John Howard was finally forced to act, so it was only fitting that Gore, responsible for the conception of an Australian carbon pricing scheme, should be there to mark its burial in a death dance with the man who pledged to kill it. Palmer as usual was having a lend of everyone, doing his sick PUPpy act, pretending to support things he believes will never happen, so if he succeeds in getting re-elected — assuming his legal tangles do not end up disqualifying him from office — then shame on voters for being fooled twice. Palmer has chosen another part-time occupation, populated by people he despises, to work in an institution he treats with contempt. He shows no desire to reform or improve it, and creates chaos at every opportunity. At least Groucho Marx had enough self-respect not to join any club which would have him as a member. Groucho was smarter and funnier and, despite his dark views of human nature, nowhere near as cynical as Palmer, who surely cannot expect people to believe anything he says, given it changes from huff to puff. It must be so liberating for a politician to feel free to treat everyone like mugs. His debasing influence on the body politic is such that no one — not Abbott, not Bill Shorten, not even Christine Milne — is game to criticise him over reports of dubious business practices and erratic behaviour. He has bought political immunity with the votes he controls. Palmer’s antics suck up political oxygen, so that it matters little what the Prime Minister says or does. The greater importance lies in what Palmer makes of it or intends to do about it. He has usurped Shorten as Opposition Leader, although Shorten is benefiting temporarily from the lack of scrutiny, but right now it is Abbott who is suffering the most. People have a mental picture of prime ministers which Abbott was already struggling to fill. Palmer has made Abbott’s task that much harder by smothering him. Palmer disses Abbott and rubs his nose in his dependence. Despite the timing, government backbenchers were not reacting to Palmer when they announced their plan to try to save Australia’s remaining aluminium smelters, along with the jobs that go with them. Nor was it a revolt in the traditional sense. It does, however, provide an insight into the internal workings of the government while at the same time highlighting the talent, not to mention frustration, of those waiting, watching on the backbench. More than three weeks ago, Dan Tehan, whose electorate of Wannon includes the Portland smelter, organised a meeting in his Parliament House office of MPs concerned about the future of the industry in Australia, and the unresolved threat posed by the renewable energy target, which the government is reviewing. Five MPs attended that first meeting. They resolved to devise a plan, kept talking, and finally decided on the letter seeking 100 per cent exemptions for smelting from future RET costs from January 1 next year, which Tehan circulated to like-minded MPs. He quickly got 25 signatures. Monday a week ago, he rang the Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, to warn him that the letter was on its way. Hunt did not discourage him. The next day he spoke to the Industry Minister, Ian Macfarlane. Macfarlane did not try to dissuade him. Evidently, they were more than happy to have it publicly ventilated, particularly by someone as coherent and plain-speaking as Tehan. Tehan achieved a policy position in a sensitive area for the government — and this is the main lesson from the exercise — by consulting colleagues, then formulating a plan, then revealing it with a clever media strategy with discipline and focus. No self-indulgence, no double speaking, nothing weird, just politics and government as it should be.- theaustralian.au/opinion/columnists/palmer-making-the-pms-job-that-much-harder/story-fnahw9xv-1226975603802
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 23:09:35 +0000
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