Nothing Like Talk Of A War To Silence A Small Target Opposition Leader
Voters don’t want the government to dismantle Australia’s social democracy. The sentiment is apparent in both opinion polls, in the nervous whispers that began to emanate from Coalition backbenchers, and in the ordinary remarks of individual voters.
The Coalition’s trust deficit is exacerbated by the fact that it never promised to radically reshape Australia’s social safety net. Abbott’s much ridiculed promises of “no cuts” to health, education, pensions and the ABC have garnered plenty of coverage since they were broken, but the bigger picture is that by committing to maintaining health and education spending, Abbott appeared to be accepting the social democratic consensus of the Rudd-Gillard years. All that has gone by the wayside.
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In stark contrast to Abbott as opposition leader, Shorten has not made himself into an attack dog, relentlessly tearing at the government’s credibility and performance. Nor has he appointed a suitable colleague to play that role – even when, in Anthony Albanese, a rugged street fighter is close to hand.
In fact, you could make a good case that the government’s most damaging wounds after a year in office have been self-inflicted.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/09/18/nothing-talk-war-silence-small-target-opposition-leader
After their abysmal performance in NSW, where the Union-dominated Right-wing allowed corruption to flourish to the point where Labor was all but wiped off the map electorally, it's hard to credit they'd keep giving us more of the same federally, where they had a real chance after the divisive Rudd-Gillard years to come up with a viable, electorally popular leader who could fashion a parliamentary party that would wipe the electorally unpopular and inept Tony Abbott off the political map.
Instead, after the grass roots vote showed a clear preference for Antony Albanese to become leader, the union-dominated Caucus came up with Bill Shorten,. the only man in the House of Reps who can match Abbott in the boring stakes.
Devoid of personality, devoid of passion, and seemingly devoid of ideas, he's doing the unthinkable – making an Abbott second-term look inevitable.
And yes, here he was today, in lockstep with Abbott, marching Australia off to this phony war, which is almost entirely the product of Howard's equally phony war in 2003.
I despair, I really do.
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