The Prospect of Tony Abbot As Prime Minister

[tcpip]

Recent opinion polls show Tony Abbot has a better-than-even chance of becoming Prime Minister. This possible requires some serious thought. If you are gay, you can absolutely forget about same-sex marriage rights. At least with Labor, all that's required is to get the matter tabled at cabinet and the vote will be won. His absolutely archiac and offensive attitudes towards women, climate change and indigenous people is infuriating.

He carries a dangerous attitude towards to industrial relations and his deep indifference and ignorance of economic matters. Abbot loved 'Workchoices', and will bring it back; especially targetting unfair dismissal laws, pay and conditions, and penalty rates. Opposing the economic stimulus package, which is considered among the best designed in the world, with excellent results, Abbott not only expressed opposition to it, but slept through the vote after a night on the sauce.

Absolutely reckless cuts are planned against nation-building IT and environmental infrastructure, in favour of handing back $10.5 billion of resource rents from our commonwealth, to mining companies; because Tony understands that billionaires are having tough times. Abbott's accounting has been slippery or stupid. [T]he Coalition asked the department the cost of giving the Productivity Commission an extra $4 million a year. Yesterday the department replied poker-faced that it would cost $4 million a year.. One can only echo the words of Craig Emerson; Australia has never had in the post-war era a more economically incompetent candidate for the prime ministership than Tony Abbott.

Update: Former Reserve Bank chief, Bernie Fraser, (hardly a radical) blasts the Coalition over their economic policies.

Comments

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

What's also troubling me is the fact that the ALP, despite actually holding power, currently, seems to be continuing its game of "let's chase the Libs to the right whilst the media machine continues to buy into the idea of us being left" thus shifting the apparent 'centre' further and further to the right. It doesn't change my opinion of Abbott or the LibNats, but it still troubles me.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I understand the need and desire to find the political centre in terms of public opinion. Finding this, and remaining at least somewhat progressive is difficult. For example, I understand how Gillard et al have framed the asylum seeker issue; no more mandatory detention for application (except when they arrive 'unauthorised'); no more temporary protection visas, any processing centre to be located in a country that's a signatory to the UN convention. OK, I can swallow that - with a grimace - because I understand in deepest darkest suburbia there is more than a few people who are apparently scared stiff at the prospect of Tamils and Afghanis risking their life to get here.

In other instances I think greater clarity should have been expressed. For example the offer of a "market based solution" to carbon pricing leaves the door open to both the ETS (some of the Libs) or a carbon tax (Greens). I think by this stage it should be obvious that the Libs aren't going to play ball.

In other areas I think they have seriously misjudged where the political centre actually is; on same-sex marriage, the Internet filter, and the NSCP, the majority of the population is far to the left than what's being offered.

[jennifergearing.livejournal.com]

I can see your point, to a degree; I think perhaps it's more that I'm saddened by the conflation of the centre vis a vis public opinion with some kind of 'actual centre' (for want of a better term - brain slightly fried at the moment).

I suppose there's an argument to be made that it makes more sense to define the 'actual centre' in terms of the number of people on either side, and I can see that being perhaps a more democratic notion of the centre, but it saddens me.

The Right seems to be very good at moving the Overton window in their favour, whereas the Left often seems to spend more time buying into these moves than countering them.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

One tactic in stopping a moving Overton window is to circumvent it by introducing a compromise policy just as a position is moving from acceptable to popular, which I suspect is happening a fair amount in the quest for 'small target' on some hairy issues (immigration is always a popular one among the knuckle-draggers).

It is, as you imply, very important that the left start with building radical alternatives which are sufficiently viable that they can move from the fringe, through acceptability, popularity then policy.

I must confess I have never given this much thought but in hindsight most of my political activism operates on this basis.