Sitting in Judgement of Abbotts First Year
The first anniversary of an Abbott led government is almost upon
us. What yardstick do we use to judge its performance? For me there is
only one. That being that all governments exist to serve the people and
by extension the common good. In this respect the current government is a
wretched failure.
Tony Abbott as leader has, probably because of his natural disposition
toward negativity, failed to ignite the imagination of the Australian
people. He has tried to adapt his pugilistic depressive personality
characteristics to leadership, and it simply hasn’t worked for him.
Abbott has never been a popular politician. He is universally perceived
as a revengeful vulgar liar, and untrustworthy. His disposition towards
saying anything that suits him with an expectancy that he should be
believed has done nothing but reinforce people’s aversion of him. It may
have been a special brand of hate politics that won him victory but
once in power people expect governance not vindictiveness. All of this
is reinforced in a preferred PM status of just 30%.
Judging Abbott’s first year to date is made somewhat easy (if based on a
criteria of common good fairness) because it has, or will, impact on so
many vulnerable people.
First and foremost in the public’s mind has been the blatant lying. All
of which is well documented and authenticated. So much so that Abbott
and those of the same ilk, his ministers, cannot deny it.
However, Abbott try’s to do so with a stoic stony faced indignation
which takes a certain type of megalomania. And it’s his
self-righteousness, the inability to concede another view in the face of
contrary evidence that earns the wrath of people.
‘‘Why is the Prime Minister lying and why is he lying about lying?’’
Bill Shorten.
The Hocky/Abbott Budget is still craving legitimacy weeks after its
presentation. Even genuine dyed in the wool LNP voters (41% of them
thought it unfair) were taken with its broken promises and its
dishonesty. Its ideological assault on the poor, young folk, pensioners,
education and the sick in favor of the rich and privileged alienated
people.
If ever a budget characterised a government’s values and philosophical
intent it was this one. It’s called serfdom. A master servant philosophy
of another time. All in the face of growing world inequality that
learned social commentators and researchers believe together with
climate change will be the two greatest problems facing the world.
The Government has sought to justify its actions by insisting that the
budget is in crisis. That they have inherited a Labor debt and deficit
disaster beyond the electorate’s comprehension. Whilst everyone
acknowledges the need for fiscal responsibility commentators and
economists have dismissed the notion of a pending disaster as scare
tactics.
Abbott came to power on the back of an orchestrated media campaign by
the Murdoch press, his own negativity and Labor’s leadership
dysfunction. Not because the conservatives were a new shining example of
fresh democracy with policies to match. The fact is that surveys
suggested that people were comfortable with Labor policies just not the
leadership.
Abbott viewed if differently opting for no policies other than his
unpopular PPL scheme. He saw an opportunity to paint the political
landscape in pessimistic depressive terms. Blaming everything on
everybody else and pretending only he had the answers. He lied by
omission during the election campaign preferring to dump his IPA
inspired policies on an unsuspecting electorate when the electorate had
settled. He thought they would be compliant. He was wrong.
And so we are approaching the first anniversary of a government that
seems to be putting its foot in the political mire on a daily basis. It
is a government that has failed to spell out a narrative for Australia’s
future other that saying it will be built on coal. We have a Prime
Minister for undoing rather than doing. A person who has failed to
represent us internationally. One who imbues on the Australian political
scene a dour negativity when what we need is inspiration.
It raises this question.
Has Australia ever elected a Prime Minister so ignorant of technology,
the environment and science? So oblivious of the needs of women and gay
people. So out of touch with a modern pluralist society. And such a
perverted liar?
They are a Government on the nose, contemptuous of any view other than
their own. Simply playing politics as if it were some sort of plaything
dedicated to improving the lot of big business and the privileged.
Oblivious to the common good. It’s easy to understand why so many
Australians have disengaged from politics.
In short they are a government bogged down trying to justify an
ultra-right wing political ideology to an electorate whose only desire
is for government for the common good.
No comments:
Post a Comment