ALL the polls are now pointing to a Labor wipeout (can we have a song, Craig Emerson?) in September and a return to some sort of normality.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone capable of presenting a rational argument to support the retention of either the Gillard minority government or the ALP in its current form.
The Labor-Green-independent government is properly seen as dysfunctional and the problem starts right at the top and runs through the ministry to the backbench and includes the crossbenchers who, in their own narrow self-interest, just manage to keep it afloat.
The utter contempt felt for independents Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, in particular, both in their own electorates and more broadly, is, while deeply personal, based on the view that both men betrayed their conservative electorates to install the most radically Left prime minister in the nation’s history.
Curiously, no one appears to have claimed that these MPs are being targeted for criticism because of their gender, though this is frequently asserted by some young feminists when Julia Gillard’s extraordinarily flawed judgment is subjected to legitimate questioning.
Gillard’s record of appalling policy and governance has succeeded in lightening the load of opprobrium that was rightly accorded the Whitlam government over the past 40 years. To be sure, she has been assisted by her Treasurer Wayne Swan and such freaks of modern politics as Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, competing for the dishonour to be at the top of an ever-lengthening list of successfully worsening appointees, but they have all been her own appointees.
Ever since her predecessor Kevin Rudd managed to strip caucus of its time-honoured right to determine who would sit in a Labor cabinet, the prime minister has had no choice but to accept total responsibility for poor ministerial appointments and the abysmal policy decisions that have flowed from her cabinet. In her defence, it must be acknowledged that Rudd left her with some dreadful policies, such as the NBN, which were set in motion before she was running the catastrophe.
Others, such as the lethal boat people policy, are of her own making. Gillard actively participated in dismantling the Howard government’s successful border protection program when she was Rudd’s deputy.
She was solely responsible for the non-existent East Timor Solution, she was the architect of the Malaysian Solution which not only has the High Court rejected but which was clearly always going to be a ridiculous proposition.
Further, as The Daily Telegraph revealed in recent days, more than twice the number of boats that came under the Rudd government have reached Australian waters under Gillard and have delivered nearly 29,000 people since she came to office.
The Indonesians have been saying for years Australia should stop making it attractive for unlawful non-citizens who choose to make unauthorised boat arrivals to risk the trip.Their message has been clear: Take the sugar off the table.
Under Gillard, the sugar bowl has not only been placed on the table but its contents have been replenished.
Again, this has nothing to do with Gillard’s gender but everything to do with her gross incompetence and flawed judgment.
As does her decision last Sunday to embrace notorious broadcaster Kyle Sandilands at a Kirribilli House charity fundraiser.
Having won a degree of notoriety with her own mendacious attack on Opposition Leader Tony Abbott last year, during which she claimed he was guilty of misogyny and sexism, Gillard’s invitation to Sandilands, who once attacked a critic calling her a “fat slag” and questioned a juvenile abuse victim about her sexual experiences, was gob-smacking hypocrisy at its best.
The biggest task for any conservative government after it manages to replace the current rabble and embarks on restoring the nation’s economic security will be to sweep out the political correctness that Gillard and her team have used in their endeavour to reshape the national cultural identity.
One respected Labor veteran nailed the problem during a conversation last week when he said that the Rudd-Gillard governments had completely lost their way when they abandoned serious policy issues and started responding to their Left-Green inner urban branches.
“Out went concerns about mainstream Labor voters and in came hand-wringing about gay marriage and arguments led by fringe ideologues like the global warming lobby, open-door policy refugee advocates and student feminists,” he said.
Labor has no plausible defences for its policies and the mainstream is no longer interested in buying its excuses, alibis and phony accusations.
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/piersakerman/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/roll_on_september_and_end_of_gillard/
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