ogQ!(U~$(KGrHgoOKjYEjlLmS1ctBJ1K-4Uyh!~~_7.JPG?set_id=81 "i-need-a-martini"){kind=avatar}
This is an interesting editorial on the meaning of his speech by Vitoria Rollison.
http://victoriarollison.com/2014/11/16/what-abbott-actually-said/
A small excerpt:-
โTwo issues in particular that I lay before my colleague leaders: we have tried to deregulate higher education, universities, and thatโs going to mean less central government spending and effectively more fees that students will have to pay. We think that this will free up our universities to be more competitive amongst themselves and more competitive internationally but students never like to pay more.โ
Correct me if Iโm wrong, but I thought Pyneโs argument was that deregulation of university fees would make fees less expensive? Pyne has also argued that his policy is a โgood dealโ for students, although this was clearly never the case. How is it a good deal to be paying more for something and having to pay interest you previously didnโt pay, whilst getting the exact same product you used to get? But the point is, Abbottโs government always argued that this policy was about improving the university sector โ not about balancing the budget. Yet yesterday, Abbott was using this policy failure (letโs call a spade a spade that has failed to get through the Senate) as one of the reasons heโs finding those revolting peasants in his kingdom so terribly hard to force into line. Because students โnever like to pay moreโ. Apparently Abbottโs budget woes are nothing to do with his and Hockeyโs incompetence and are instead apparently all university studentsโ fault and their sense of entitlement that they should be able to get an education without taking out a mortgage on their future. An education, by the way, that benefits the long term economic success of Abbottโs precious economy. Not that Abbott seems to be able to put two and two together in this way. Abbott hadnโt finished yet though, because it wasnโt just the students who were to blame. It was also the sick.
But ultimately, if you were really listening, youโll have heard that it wasnโt just the students and the sick and hypochondriac Australians who are to blame for Abbottโs inability to fulfil one of his apparent four core promises to โget the Budget under controlโ. Because right up front, Abbott said this:
โโฆit doesnโt matter what spending programme you look at, it doesnโt matter how wasteful that spending programme might appear, there are always some people in the community who vote, who love that programme very muchโ.
Get that people? Itโs all of us voters who are so stupidly in love with government spending on programs that are just a complete waste of government spending. Itโs all our fault that Abbott canโt balance his books! Us stupid voters refuse to let him send a wrecking ball through our civilised society that we have spent generations building! How dare we block his wrecking ball!
So yes, I was offended, as a member of the domestic audience that was the true target market for this speech. But once I had calmed down and thought about it for a moment, I realised that I was also incredibly proud of Australians. Abbott can blame us all he likes. But the fact of the matter is that the worst of Abbottโs budget โ the parts that hit the most vulnerable hardest โ like the GP co-payment, like Pyneโs assault on the higher education sector โ are being blocked by our democratically elected leaders in the Labor Party, the Greens, various independents and low and behold, the Palmer United Party. So we might be dumb enough to elect Abbott in the first place, but I hope the world leaders, and those across the world who may have been tuning in, can see weโre not dumb enough to let him wreck the place, no matter how hard he might be trying.
