4 posts tagged “malcolm turnbull”

Malcolm turnbull

The current unhappiness with uninvited guests refusing to leave an Australian vessel in an Indonesian port has stirred up the old race hate fans like Wilson Tuckey and Barnaby Joyce with a view to scoring some cheap political points.

Notionally it is better news for the Opposition and has given them a breather from the damaging infighting but it’s not all beer and skittles for them just yet. The problem stems from firstly not having a policy to follow and secondly a lack of logical thinking on the part of their Leader.

In the first instance. chaps like Iron bar Tuckey have no set rules to follow (assuming he actually would) and he gets a bit excited. In Iron bar’s case it led to the bizarre demand that Aussie soldiers should throw the asylum seekers off the vessel.

Now either Tuckey doesn’t have much of a grip of geography or he is running a bit shy of how diplomacy works but sending troops into another country to throw their weight around is not likely to go down especially well with very many people and in all likelyhood is illegal in the International court. (Policy fail)

Secondly, if you do want to score political points as Turnbull wishes to do, it’s a good idea to try making the statement out loud in front of your advisers but in private. This way you can check your statement for logic without it going on record. Clearly young Malcolm didn’t think it through this time when he claimed the current boat load of asylum seekers having originated from Indonesia “completely destroyed Kevin Rudd’s argument about political pressure in Sri Lanka.” That's right up there with the struggling logic displayed by his Deputy Julie Bishop.

News reports from Sri Lanka make it perfectly clear there is a very unsympathetic Government dealing with the surviving Tamil Tigers and for that matter ordinary Sri Lankans who disagree with them. Conciliation is not on the agenda. One boat load can hardly be claimed to be representative of the whole problem.

This really points to Turnbull’s ongoing problem in front of the media. He seems to get over excited and forget to leave himself some wriggle room. Yes, he could make some mileage out of the current problem but he has to be a bit more thoughtful. Blowing his credibility at the opening of an attack gets the focus on him instead of the point he wants to make. It’s not the first time he has made a dill of himself and I think it stems from his attitude that he is always right. Some Press Conferences seem to show him thinking on his feet rather than being prepared.

Can he fix it? Well yes, but does he know he has a problem? I think his attitude suggests he thinks he is without blame in the current despair gripping the party room and unless he takes a “good hard look at himself” he will probably leave the job feeling he was never given a fair go.

He has been given fairly good support but when he drops the easy ball like this you can’t blame the Libs looking for a better player.

Malcolm turnbull

Since before the last Election here in Oz, I have been operating under the theory that the Greens have something to offer the political process. In fact I even handed out their “How to Vote” cards even though I didn’t vote for them. The reasoning behind this gesture was a theory that despite the annoying behaviour of Senator Milne, I thought their being in the Senate would be helpful in steering Labor towards honouring their Environmental commitment.

Then along came Snowy with this excellent post about the Greens not providing hard facts. Once the discussion got beyond a couple of comment posts I realised I had fallen asleep at the wheel and become accepting of them just being there. Where is the valuable input?

Snowy and I have had discussions about the Senate before with me believing it improved the quality of legislation and Snowy claiming the minor parties are just show stoppers. (I’m sure he will fine tune this summary if I have made it too simplistic.) This ended up with some interesting comments between Andrew Bartlett (a Democrat Senator at the time) and Snowy.

Well now I find myself climbing down from my original position with the current makeup of the Aussie Senate. Instead of supplying some nice hard facts and figures the Greens, under Bob Brown, seem to have decided to just provide background noise rather than offer some helpful suggestions. I expected much better.

Add to this a few Independent Senators trying to build a profile and the hapless Steve Fielding who has suddenly discovered he is a Climate Change denier and things have gone into Never Never land. Incidentally, how can you claim to put families first then decide to wreck the Environment for your kids? Must be a God thing.

 Although he doesn’t realise it yet, this has left Malcolm Turnbull with the chance to undercut all the grandstanding in the Senate and play the hero by supporting an ETS. Effectively wiping out all the plans of the Independents and flipping blokes like Wilson Tuckey on his back.

The reason I believe he hasn’t realised is because I had a letter from him today defending his position and it’s clear he is more interested in trying to score petty points than put the interests of the country first. The opening was a doozy.

“However, it is vital that we get the design right”

The hell it is. An ETS is a complex beast. You just have to look at the range of figures Accountants have offered of the Global Financial Crisis to see how varied the ideas are. What is vital is we start NOW and then fine tune as we go. All the lead in time involved can be started on now rather than wait another year after Copenhagen while the paperwork is being done.

 After the Election I thought there may be some back sliding by Labor but it has turned out that is the least of our worries. Senators trying to differentiate their position from their fellow Senators is a much bigger problem. The fact that they put their personal status ahead of the country is a sad commentary on their morality.

I can’t see myself handing out How to Vote cards next Election. I’d much rather see some action.