Mood:
loudTopic: election Oz 2007
Picture: John Howard as the Washington Post chose to present him earlier this year 2007 with tongue poking out, around the time our PM sledged Barak Obama, coloured presidential candidate.
Crikey.com ezine yesterday:
Charles Richardson: This ain't no Tampa ,Friday, 22 June 2007
argued the Aboriginal child welfare policy announced by PM Howard late arvo on Thursday is not the new Tampa, that is an all trumping federal election strategy as per 2001. We agee. But we also disagree. It's one of the decks of the new Tampa. Read on.
We well remember the footage of Treasurer Costello shaping up fists in the air in a mock gesture of boxing it to the ALP Oppositon despite the adverse polls. A defiant image from their Liberal Party national conference, and no doubt with knowledge of the big dollars to flow in the budget he designed. And perhaps reprising the real history of colleague Tony Abbott a sporting boxer, but also a student thug who punched my friend Peter Woof and was forced to weasel out of it in the Glebe Magistrates Court in the mid 70ies.
But the polls didn't bounce after the budget. And the great 'game' of the 2007 election has increased another 100m of water pressure on the deep diving submarine aka Coalition Government already a kilometre down in the polls.
They need some "torpedoes" to borrow PM Howard's metaphor. While dodging the depth charges.
One depth charge was the precocious attack by Rudd as PM in waiting on the economics of productivity. We read closely Wayne Swan here Wayne Swan: Howard, Costello in state of denial | Opinion |
in the conservative The Australian and rather unconvincing, at times trite, selective and sleazy riposte of Costello here:
Peter Costello: Productivity all Greek to Rudd | Opinion | The ...
[We notice Ross Gittins has a leading headline in the press today too - Productivity should be a spin-free zone which should make for an excellent read.]
This attack by the ALP on economic competency, making inroads in traditional Coalition territory had their MPs squealing and snorting with staged ridicule and indignation rearing up on their born to rule horseback last week in the Parliament. At risk of falling off backwards, we thought.
So now media expert Howard has been forced to take revenge on the impertinent ALP bearing down on him where he lives in the polls. Having been accused by the headline in The Australian of being 'in a state of denial', Howard has in effect sought revenge for the alleged ALP States 'state of denial' (boom boom) on Aboriginal child welfare. And he may yet get the traction he needs to wedge the ALP. He is already talking of recalling the parliament. Warren is calling it a rabbit out of the hat in his Friday cartoon in the Sydney Daily Telegraph - see following 2 cartoons in a series with the latest at bottom:
It has taken us a day or two to really absorb the political synergies in this latest surprise policy foray. But here it really is - with experience of the NSW state election Coalition driven ethnic version of Laura Norder to inform us, a strategy that severely shook up NSW society, but ultimately failed for Peter Debnam, Alan Jones, Tim Priest, and Malcolm Kerr in Cronulla etc. In John Howard's home state.
"Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime".
This was Tony Blair's famous winning election dictum apparently.
Most victims of crime are lower and middle class folks who probably do vote Labour/Labor unless they are so alarmed about law and order they want the "Father Party" [US Republicans equivalent of Coalition here] to take over for a bit and restore control, order and presumably peace, more than they want kindness and love from Mommy [The Democrats like our ALP] meaning job creation and social welfare and environment.
We are seeing this Law and Order theme breaking out everywhere now:
1. the biggest is Iraq of course a sort geo political huge law and order policy, first v Saddam, and now versus the Insurgents, Islamofascists, USA haters and probably Iraqi economic patriots, Iranians etc;
2. Child sexual assault in Aboriginal communities - in the news everywhere since the Howard policy coup late Thursday this week eg today:
Black or white bad parents face penalties
- 'Just imagine if it was Marrickville'
- Howard took no interest last year: NT
- How Captain Decore broke the spell of inertia
- Anger simmers over Iemma's rejection of funding increase
- Non-indigenous prey on young
- Consult us and give us respect: expert's plea
- Medical checks could be assault
3. The death by criminal violence in Melbourne of my school mate from Warrnambool CBC, successful solicitor and public hero Brendan Keilar. On front of all the press this week and again today in the Sydney SMH Saturday edition in a heart wrenching tragedy including for this writer. Iindeed the SMH page 1 juxtaposes the Laura Norder topics 2 and 3 in my list. And note significantly the editorial in the Saturday Daily Telegraph in Sydney also juxtaposing topics no.s 2 and 3 here: Editorial: Action Howard had to take
But the original coverage in Melbourne early in the weak dwelled on how could this Hudson criminal bloke be roaming free to do this? How could the State Police let it happen? Why did it take Joe Public to locate his car a block away 24 hours later? That's Laura Norder pure distillation. The police and we suspect not just in Victoria but NSW and Qld were under the hammer for various prior offences by this crazy. They were lucky he gave himself in, having tried to kill himself (as we predicted actually on the SAM news site).
Brendan, a commercial lawyer married with 3 kids to a merchant banker of obvious Liberal Party leaning. Country town boy made good, saves a young woman assault victim. Shot dead for his Christian act and courage last Monday. A fellow who connects by 3 degrees of separation probably with virtually every person in south east Australia. Via Aussie rules, cricket, law, regional Victoria, CBD Melb, developer/construction industry, an exemplar of high achieving Liberal Party connections, even to this greenie. Everyone who believes in fairness. Everyone with kids. Lawyers like Melbourne based Peter Costello, and PM John Howard here.
His mother says in the Warrnambool Standard owned by Fairfax last week, that when he got married in 1992 'everyone in Warrnambool and Denniliquin was there'. It was a huge funeral yesterday Friday 22nd (this writer's birthday in fact). The ripples just go out and out from this horror and the Coalition know it.
And here is a shocking sleeper - the gun. Was it a NSW police glock? A colleague, who spoke to a source, who presumably knows someone else told me yesterday that the LA Police had their USA military design and manufacture a 15 bullet rapid fire glock, and then 10 bullet version for the NSW police. They are dangerous rapid fire things apparently that even the cops had trouble preventing accidents. The story goes a crate of these went missing on the docks and turned up in Lakemba. The sinister version I was told involved corrupt police inserting these weapons into the drug cartels they didn't control (unlike Kings Cross) implying it was to promote intercine violence for some racist agenda. Sounds incredulous. But where did the gun come from that killed Brendan and was it a stolen NSW police glock?
4. Union alleged thuggery, like the NUW v TWU conflict in Sydney, but also the bad language and melodrama of Joe McDonald and lesser degree Kevin Reynolds. Never mind
- fascist $20K individual fines for striking.
- tax rorting by developers.
- OH&S shocking risk levels. Indeed we still shake our head recalling one Saturday this year in Sydney CBD a crane on a site in George St CBD lowering and flipping a dumpster filled with scaffolding which duly bounced and spun missing a worker by 12 inches maximum. We were slowly driving by in traffic, jaw dropping in amazement. That's got to be illegal I thought to myself.
5. The multi billion dollar security industry and their political proxies shadow boxing with civil society groups over feral protests or worse at APEC come Sept 2007. Never mind the real threats of missing rocket launchers as a result of corruption involving
and corrupt airport security problems
Copping out on airport security | The Australian Gotcha with Gary Hughes
and failed intel in the bombing in Bali 2002
Two face ASIO Act charges | National Security | The Australian
6. Posture and counter posture over the acquittal of policeman Hurley on a Black death in custody case, on Palm Island infamous for seriously dangerous domestic violence and alcohol abuse, gving momentum to the extraordinarily political police union back lash, in sensitive election state of Qld. Those radio attack adverts of the police union may not be a return to Bjelke's corrupt days but we think they are an electioneering agenda.
[7. to this list we belatedly add the last political synergy: 'Leadership' symbolism in this first week of the Parliamentry Break helps shore up his own situation vis a vis the depresssed polling for the Coalition under his guidance, and vis a vis in particular any wandering loyalties to Peter Costello pre election.]
.......................
Who would have thought we were heading to a Laura Norder federal election? As another famous politician said: "Events dear boy, events" seem to be informing John Howard's political strategising and we are in the grip of real time adversarial engagement with each party shifting and parrying. And Howard has just crystalised a serious counter multi pronged synergistic political if not sustainable policy strategy for the 'next 6 months'. We know now that he made his move with the latest rabbit from hat policy after a cabinet meeting only this Thursday last 21st June 07.
It doesn't seem a coincidence to this writer that Vic Attorney General Hulls is moving on a micro law and order issue in the radio news this morning about digital perverts filming women, and Minister Linda Burney in NSW is moving on a fair trading issue of some kind, also being a prominent Aboriginal lady in politics here.
Nor that Rudd has taken the advice echoed in crikey.com recently to stay above the fray but have attack dogs bite back on the govt from the centre left: Stanhope, Iemma, Beattie and others are all fully engaged in public rhetoric on their aspect of the list above.
A cunning precious is our PM Howard and a profound adversary he proves to be. The ALP get it as per the advert on SBS tonight for the child with basketball waiting for their dad to get home safely from work paid for by the NSW Govt. That's Brendan Keilar's murder merging into federal political atmospherics.
Indeed the apologist for all things Right, Tim Blair (a $2 version of Will Bailey character in West Wing?) has an amusing but still perverse attack on climate change science again today Holy climate change, Mr Blair in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, showing the Right and no doubt Howard will stubbornly fight tooth and nail to keep power, flying in the face of this sober expert warning:
UN accused of underestimating sea change, The World Today - Wednesday, 20 June , 2007 12:34:00 Reporter: Karen Barlow
The best world scientists way ahead of the UN politically constrained IPCC report are formally giving us fair warning as per this quality report on ABC World Today programme.
We laugh at, not with, Tim Blair because he unintentionally confirms what we always say about the Daily Telegraph. That it is a cartoon book and therefore wholly unreliable as a news source in terms of weight or prominence. Indeed the premise of the cartoon is totally skewiff - it was a US Bush White House aligned spin doctor Frank Luntz, a Republican Party strategist, who invented the replacement of the term 'global warming' to 'climate change' in an exercise in spin as explained in his extensive Wikipedia entry here . But actually there seems to be quite a bit of debate who first used the term global warming too, scientists or anti science spin doctors: Cleantech Blog: You Say Climate Change, I Say Global Warming
Here is the Tim Blair sleaze conflation of climate scientists with his own barrackers, the big fat coal and oil pimps of big business in cartoon parody form, and like we said it is sleazy (and may Raymond Chandler author of the Big Sleep have mercy on his soul for stealing his Phillip Marlowe detective character - yet another echo of the Laura Norder theme, eh? Talk about cunning communication strategy/tactics):
Postscript #1 26th June 2007
To our list of 6 law and order type political synergies converging with the PR around Aboriginal child welfare is this internal domestic concern for John Howard:
7. 'Leadership' symbolism in this first week of the Parliamentry Break may help shore up the PM John Howard's own situation vis a vis the depresssed polling for the Coalition under his guidance, and vis a vis in particular any wandering loyalties to his Treasurer Peter Costello pre election.
