Queensland election – the washup

Despite the result of the election being a foregone conclusion, the extent of the shellacking Labor copped is a surprise to pretty much everyone.

It was pretty much a given that the LNP would win with the very big “It’s Time” factor of being in power for 14 years (20 years if you’re an LNP supporter), but it’s supremely disappointing that the voters of Ashgrove swallowed Newman’s spin and voted him in.  They now expect to be fully ignored and treated as the stepping stone to higher office that there were meant to be.

I would like to congratulate News Limited (especially the Courier Mail) on an outstanding campaign…not for them the short term blitz of the election campaign proper, but they played the long game sticking the knife into the ALP at every single opportunity over the past 3 years with lurid headlines and vaguely fact-bearing articles.  It was a masterful effort at opinion shaping.  Of course they let themselves down a bit when the Newman dodgy deals stuff came out, but that was just so juicy that they couldn’t help themselves and reverted to their baser instincts.

Now of course we can expect the current NSW and Vic disease to wend its way up here, with broken promises, deals for mates, and public service cutbacks galore.  I fully expect Tim Nicholls to come out before the week is up proclaiming that the budget is worse than expected and that the promises will not be honoured/deeper cuts will be made.  OF course it will be conveniently forgotten that the budget was thoroughly vetted by both the independent Treasury and Auditor General, as was pointed out during the election coverage on Saturday night.

The Goldfish Bowl talking heads were out in full flight today pontificating on the effect of this result for the Federal Government, drawing fantastical predictions of no seats won in Queensland blah blah blah, doom and gloom, blah blah blah.  All this despite the entire election campaign on both sides being run on State issues, particularly that Labor have been in power for “20″ years (LNP time).  But then since when have Mark Riley and Graham Richardson been taken seriously by anyone apart from the hosts of Sunrise.  Richo had the nerve to say that the ALP needs to focus on what will win them seats in Western Sydney, then had the gall to accuse them of not governing well.  I thought the actual problem was that they were governing for everyone and not pandering to the Western Sydney bogan to win an election…the other alternative is to go back to the Howard years of governing to the next election instead of for the greater future.

Anyway time will tell how things go up here…though I struggle to see how a political party that was so devoid of talent that they had to go outside their own ranks for a leader suddenly has the skills to govern effectively.  Should be fun…

 

Queensland election – the battle of mediocrity

With the election upon us on Saturday it’s already a pretty foregone conclusion that the LNP will romp in and that Labor will be shellacked thoroughly.

I know there is a big “it’s time” factor with getting the LNP over the line, but it’s profoundly disappointing that no-one is paying attention to the astonishing lack of talent in the LNP ranks.  The fact that they had to go to someone outside their ranks to lead them is a pretty serious indicator that there is nothing going on at all.  The fact that that they barely laid a glove on a seriously blunder-prone ALP government is telling…the Courier Mail was the defacto Opposition for most of this time.

The Presidential style campaign by both sides has been a telling factor in hiding the deficiencies in both camps, but I think Campbell Newman has been extremely lucky to be in the position he is in.

Normally a pollie who jumped ship from a major disaster recovery effort for a big promotion leveraging his elevated public profile who have strips torn off him, but he has managed to skate through relatively unharmed.

The questions about his and his families business dealings are verging on the suss, but the manner that the ALP pursued it has turned off as lot of voters…unnecessarily I think.  I believe he still has some questions to answer and his continual answer of “I’ve done nothing wrong” is your standard get out clause, conveniently sidestepping the issue of someone he has employed doing something wrong.

Newman has always been a prickly character and is remarkably thin-skinned for a politican…witness his refusal to shake Kate Jones’ hand after the debate, insisting that she personally apologise to his wife.

The other serious question of his character revolves around the leadership issue.  Now it’s anything but a foregone conclusion that he will win Ashgrove, so any normal organisation would have a back-up plan especially in this unique situation.  This gives us two options; either they have no “Plan B” or they have a backup plan and are not going to communicate it.

If they do not have a backup plan then they are either incredibly stupid, or amazingly arrogant to assume that he will win.

If they do have a backup plan but don’t want to publicise it then this is an indication that they do not have faith that people are voting for the party but simply voting for the leader i.e. only voting LNP to get Newman in power.  This seems to indicate that they have no confidence in the abilities of the other leadership candidates or their appeal to the public.

So though this campaign is all about Newman, he can’t govern the state by himself and requires others of some ability to govern with him…and it appears that none of his colleagues have that ability but are being masked by the Newman hoopla.

I’m afraid we’ll have to suffer through another 3 years of neglect, but hopefully the voters of Ashgrove will come to their senses and make sure that the tunnel builder extraordinaire will not get a seat and can bugger off back to his dodgy developments.

The Goldfish Bowl in full flight

There were some us who thought that once the media’s leadership was finally resolved after 12 months of beating up, that there would some sort of hysteria hiatus and a return to some semblance of actual journalism…how stupid do I feel right about now?

Not 5 minutes after the result of the spill was announced (the REAL result not Philip Coorey’s pretend result) It was straight on to “will Rudd challenge again”.  After this was wall-to-wall for a day or two, the next big “story” was who would replace Rudd and the cabinet re-shuffle.

Of course the underlying narrative was “jobs for the boys” and “punishment for those who dared side against her”…in the total absence of any information whatsoever.

And finally the shit cherry on top of the pile of crapulence that is the political media reporting this week was that Bob Carr was offered the FM position and vacant Senate seat but the PM was overridden.  Despite Carr explicitly stating that he was not contacted by the PM about the FM position, it keeps going around and around and around.

And as a final kicker, Tony Abbott took out first prize in the massive hypocrite stakes for saying that Julia Gillard was loose with the truth…this from the man who has admitted that you can’t trust anything he says.  Of course no-one mentioned this because that would require having a memory of more than 2 days, as well as a fully developed sense of ethics and morality.

Fortunately our media aren’t blessed with either of these things so we can expect even more of the unhinging, and now that the leaks will reduce they will just be making shit up out of whole cloth.

As we can see by the hysterical “we didn’t beat this up…look, it happened!” going on in the media they will say and do absolutely anything to keep their preferred narrative going and absolve themselves of any part in any reactions to it.  They are a blight on the Australian populace and do far more harm than good.

 

UPDATE:  As comments to this post seem to have degenerated to a whiny bitch-fest about one email address, I’m going to close them.

Media WINS!

A heartfelt congratulations goes out to the media today.

They have now successfully proven that they have just as much clout and concern for the good of this nation as Clubs Australia or the big miners.  After all they finally got a Government politician to jump through one of their hoops after months of trying.

In my opinion, by feeding the media trolls and forcing the spill Rudd has specifically highlighted why he should not be allowed back into the top job.  If he has been the one doing the undermining of the Government with his leaks, then this entire process is all about him…not what’s best for the country or the government, just about him.

This makes him the Tony Abbott of the ALP…only concerned about getting into power and not about the consequences after it happens.  The fact that Tony Windsor has come out and explicitly stated that he will not support the Government if Rudd gets back in should put paid to any ascension by Rudd…unless of course they are all incurably stupid and media/poll driven.

By far the best possible outcome is that Rudd loses the vote resoundingly and goes quietly to the back benches.  Of course if it is indeed all about him and not what’s best, when he loses he would have a dummy spit and quit all together forcing a by-election…thereby proving the point that he is not the right man for the job.

Anyway let’s see how the events unfold next week.  In the meantime prepare for the orgy of self-congratulation by each and every member of the Canberra Goldfish Bowl…and look out for the smug smiles of the ones that manage to get their heads onscreen.

UPDATE:  A better way of saying what I’m trying to above.

UPDATE 2:  Tim Dunlop with a typically lucid take on it.

A new media strategy

It’s pretty obvious to everyone by now that the Government’s media strategy (if they actually have one) is not working at all.

From what I can see their strategy seems to be to not ruffle feathers even when provoked…anything to avoid the dreaded “gotcha” moment.  Of course this has the effect of the goldfish-brained media trying even harder for the gotcha, ending up in a death spiral of irrelevance and rampant sensationalism.  Even though the public are starting to see this media behaviour for what it is and starting a slow burn of resentment towards them, I don’t think this is happening fast enough to turn things around for the Government.  I thnik now is the time for them to get proactive and start pushing back harder against the feral media.  After all, they are not going to get a fair go no matter what they do, so why not show some spirit that the public will appreciate…no-one has respect for anyone who lies there and takes a kicking when they could fight back.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1.   When having press conferences about legislation and policy, refuse to answer any questions not related the subject.  How many times have we seen a PC dominated by inane questions about the latest non-troversy with no-one doing there job and asking about the matter of substance.

2.   In conjunction with this hold a weekly/twice weekly open slather press conferences where everything is on the table…this way there are specific forums for pertinent information to get out and then a place for the gossip and rumour mongers to have their fun.

3.   Don’t accept spurious lines of questioning from journos.  If their premise is wrong, tell them and don’t answer.  Refer them to places where they can get the correct information.  They are used to politicians bowing and scraping and letting them get away with shit in their dread to avoid a gotcha…if they push back the public will appreciate it more.

4.   Don’t engage with Abbott or the Opposition in the press.   They are not worth the carbon dioxide expelled when talking about them.  If the press raised things they have said, comment with “that’s interesting” and then point them towards the correct facts.  the less said about them the better.  It means Abbott will be driven to do more and more stunts to get attention, showing him to be the clown he really is.

5.  Bring some of the Question Time spark into the public arena.  On a day to day basis the Government totally pwns the Opposition in Question Time, leaving them to resort to kindergarten style insults and the inevitable censure motion that’s doomed to fail.  the public loves a bit of spark far more than the colourless droning that is currently visible.

6.  Have your own cameras during interviews.  It’s a bit petty I know, but if you have your own record you have a counter to dodgy editing.  It also means they can go to town on journos with impunity.  If they slice up the footage in a misleading manner, all they do is post the full interview on YouTube or other places and say “here’s what actually happened”.  This has the added bonus of tarnishing the media’s reputation even further, hopefully drawing back towards the light.

7.  Social media is the future.  The Government do a really good job with social media, in particular Twitter.  Some of the tweets from the House are downright hilarious, showing more of the personality of the pollies and this can only be a good thing.  More of Albo and Ed Husic tweeting their thoughts and observations can only be a big plus, however the straight policy announcements can’t be too dry…they need a bit of flavour.

 

Well that’s my thoughts.  I know it’s only a pipe dream, mainly because I think the Government’s media advisers are stuck in the 20th century and wouldn’t have a clue what the general public think any more, but it’s time for the Government to realise that the media is not their friend and is not a friend of the Australian public.  They need to work through or around them to get their message out…the media certainly won’t help them.

The Great Unhinging II – totally batshit insane

After my last post I thought the degree of unhinging in the media couldn’t get much worse, but bugger me if I wasn’t rapidly and thoroughly proven wrong.

With the media collectively going mental over one question posed to the PM in the 4 Corners episode on Monday, the leadership speculation dial has been cranked right up to eleventy.

For me, the most laughable moment happened this morning with the faux outrage exhibited by the Sunrise “news” people about Gillard fobbing off Mark Riley.  I know that news in the morning TV world is a trivial joke, but they take themselves quite seriously and put on their profound voices when speaking about it.  So it was a struggle to keep my Corn Flakes down when she was complaining to Bruce Hawker about the ongoing leadership speculation and how sick of it everyone was.  I don’t think I have ever seen a more profound lack of awareness considering that it has been the media driving this faux leadership challenge for the last 6 months, hoping desperately that if they keep saying it it will happen.  It takes someone with absolute cluelessness or a complete lack of morals to wash their hands of something entirely of their own making…or at least their profession’s own making.

Sometimes I wish the Government members would behave like normal people when being questioned and put them in their place…bring a bit of the Question Time spark to interaction with the press.  I mean let’s be realistic, they are never going to be given a fair go so why not stick it to them with a bit of vim instead of being limp-wristed about it.  As much as I would love the PM or Albo to tell a reporter with a stupid question to “fuck off you idiot”…which I’m sure a sizeable part of the public would love as well, there are other ways.  Instead of accepting the premise of some spurious line of attack why not turn it back on them, asking why they think this is important, or why is this of more interest than actual matters of substance for the country?  Chances are they would be edited to cast them in a bad light, but why not have your own cameras there and post it on YouTube…show the Government having a bit of gumption.  I’m sure it would win more fans than it would turn people off.

I think it’s becoming increasingly clear to even the normal viewers out there that the media apoplexy is much ado about nothing and that it’s nothing but a beat-up.  After all there has been an election since the “coup” so it’s not like she can be tarred as “illegitimate”.  After all, it’s not like people are howling for an in-depth expose on how Abbott knifed Turnbull in the back (by only 1 vote) then proceed to renege on a deal with the Government about the CPRS…and it’s not like we are ever going to get one either.

It’s now more than clear that we have more than one Opposition in this country…we have the Coalition Opposition, the News Ltd Opposition, the Fairfax Opposition, the 7 Opposition, the 9 Opposition, the 10 Opposition and the ABC Opposition.  With this latest effort they shown themselves to be actively campaigning to destroy the Government.  they are no longer reporting the news, they are trying to create the news.

The Great Unhinging – now with extra stupid

If there were any of you out there who thought that this year might herald a return to a more sensible political debate replete with fact-based investigative journalism, well it didn’t take long to be proven resoundingly wrong.

Despite a brief glimmer of hope last week when some journos thought about questioning Abbott’s profound lack of intelligence around the economy, they all went stacks-on back into the “leadership speculation” bandwagon with a huge sigh of relief…after all why tread new ground that might make them use dusty old neural channels when they can slip back into the comfortable old routine of poll beat-up, baseless leadership speculation and kicking the shit out of the Government for basically anything while accusing them of not being able to get their message out.

Any rational person would have thought that Abbott’s dismal “set the way back machine for the Howard years” epiphany at the NPC was a licence to go him boots and all, and for a sliver of time a couple did, but shortly their training re-asserted itself and the golden goose was left unruffled once more.

And this morning we had what was to my mind the cherry of moronity (??) on top of the sundae of stupid that is Australian political reporting.  A Newspoll was reported that stated that Abbott was viewed by the “people” (I hope to god I never meet someone this stupid…they’d be lucky to be able to stand upright) as being able to handle the economy by 43%-34%.  I don’t know what country these people live in, or what cave they’ve been living in for the past 12 months, but this just blew my mind.

And the final kicker was that Joe Hockey was viewed as being the equally preferred Treasurer as Swan!  This just made my morning…how anyone could see Joe Hockey of the missing $70bn, the non-audit audit, and the flick passed budget reply as being any remotely close to competent is a really dangerous sign.

After this performance I’m becoming increasingly convinced that there is a special enclave of people who disengaged from society around the 1960s who are being repeatedly tapped for all this polling…nothing else seems to make sense.  After all, why would you give kudos to someone who is going to stick it to you massively to get some more bickies for his mates at the big end of town?