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The Forum > Article Comments > Permanent dysfunctionalism: Australia's leadership disease > Comments

Permanent dysfunctionalism: Australia's leadership disease : Comments

By Binoy Kampmark, published 10/2/2015

'Removing a first-term incumbent leader should have been taboo after the turmoil that followed Labor's decision to make such a move against Kevin Rudd.' Peter van Onselen, The Australian

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I'm often criticised for relentlessly panning Abbott on this forum. runner calls it Abbottphobia.

Notwithstanding that time after time Abbott and the PMO have seemingly choreographed shambles, I thought perhaps I'm so partisan that I was overdoing it.

However, recent events, culminating in a spill motion less than halfway through Abbott's tenure as Prime Minister - unthinkable when he was swept to office in September, 2013 - seem to support my view.

Abbott's odd "captain's calls", his embarrassingly vacuous countenance in the Prime Ministerial role, his discomfort in the presence of other leaders and dignitaries, his ridiculous and repetitive sloganeering (now with the addition of "consultative and collegial"), his mendacious style of leadership...all these things led to the recent spill motion.

He's an A1 sledger and the adversarial role in Opposition is where he shone. Those qualities, however, have not translated into good leadership.

Less than 24 hours after pledging to begin "good government", Abbott's team are already embroiled in yet another debacle, playing semantics on the SA submarine tender, Senators and Ministers making fools of themselves attempting to play with words so as to obscure the latest round of what was and wasn't offered by Abbott when he was making pre-spill motion overtures.

Smacks of the same old ineptitude that has plagued this govt since the budget was delivered last year.
Posted by Poirot, Tuesday, 10 February 2015 11:40:50 PM
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Some may ask why the Asian Development Bank is important to us. We have no money for infrastructure because of our Govt debt of $600 billion and this has increased with a 20% depreciation in our $ in relation to the USA $.

Currently we rely on inflating the property and share market to get money into the productive economy. Only 8% of QE money (ie money printing) finds its way into the real economy. Most of this money inflates the gambling derivative market which is 10 times the GDP of the planet.

This is why we need The Asian Development Bank which Abbott has shunned to keep our masters in the USA and Britain happy. Knighthoods are the mindset of Abbott and not developing Australia which will create real jobs and keep a lid on our already over inflated house prices.

Abbott sees the only solution is to reduce wages here to the level of the USA so foreign capital will come here. Well the USA has 50 million on food stamps with real unemployment of 24% and their economy continues to slide. Wages in the USA are half that of Aust.

Abbott has a religious,simplistic scorched earth philosophy to economics. He thinks that if he punishes the economy like he punishes his body on his bicycle,things will get better. Tony is trying to shrink to greatness.
Posted by Arjay, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 7:18:22 AM
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Some people will never accept the democratic decision of the people to tip the Rudd government out in Canberra.

The squealing has been particularly shrill from the hordes of bureaucrats, academics and professionals who fell into cozy and very lucrative jobs and consultancies as a result of the Whitlam government setting up the victim and multicultural (also victims, apparently) industries.

The inherited and growing deficit - growing because the Senate has blocked savings initiatives - demands action to prevent our children and grandchildren being shouldered with debt that will break their hearts and limit their choices.

Several government reports have identified that young couples are not having the children they want and planned for because they simply cannot afford them as a result of high cost of living, of which high taxes and user-pays (also taxes) are a major contributor. The 'One World Government' Greens and the 'Progressive' faction that has taken over Labor are unconcerned by the restrictions on fertility being forced on young Aussie couples. Both the Greens and Labor would prefer open door immigration policy and ramping up (it that is even possible!) of the 'endless diversity-we-are-forced-to-have'.

There is no 'Australian leadership disease' . That is yet another fabrication for sensationalist headlines to belittle leaders and disrupt. However there is a growth in spineless and selfish career politicians who focus on short term populism, while knowing that practically any service will deliver them the golden handshake of long retirement after politics, all paid for by the taxpayer.
tbc.
Posted by onthebeach, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 7:37:10 AM
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contd..

If the federal government does not take urgent, strong action to reduce government spending ALL parties should and will feel the wrath of young working Australians whose futures and choices have been forever restricted by the spendthrift ways of the leftist 'Progressives'. The way ahead is to tip governments out after a single term and before they manage to soil their nappies.

The electorate must also demand immediate change to the overgenerous parliamentary superannuation and entitlements that were only ever made so generous because it was argued that political representatives would come from successful business and leadership careers. -That they should be recompensed for the substantial losses such community minded leaders with a demonstrated record of successful achievements would endure, from sacrificing the highest earning years of their working lives (and when their children would have left the nest).

It was never envisaged that there would be young men and women career politicians who could take advantage of those entitlements, or one term premiers (eg Qld) who could retire on 75% of final salary plus other generous benefits.

Apart from that there is no way possible that young working Aussies are going to continue to shoulder the weight of the welfare system, increased as it was by 'Progressive' Whitlam and others. Young women workers (and their partners) for whom the biological clock is approaching midnight want the same rights and opportunities as their parents and grandparents to have the children they planned for. It is very cruel to force them to continue to put their shoulders to the wheel to buy infrastructure and 'Wonderful Centrelink' for hundreds of thousands of migrants every year who already have the children they wanted and will have more to support.
Posted by onthebeach, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 7:52:14 AM
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Arjay, your post is riddled with false assumptions. Look at the facts.

With the technical exception of the USA, no country's central bank is private.
We have no money for infrastructure because the government is unwilling to fund infrastructure.
Because we own the RBA we have unlimited credit. Even if our debt were six trillion dollars, we could fund infrastructure just as easily as if we had no debt at all.
The fall of the Aussie dollar agains the greenback didn't make any difference to our debt, because Australia's debt is in Australian dollars. It's been about twenty years since an Australian government last took out a foreign currency loan. And I think that was in yen!

Involvement with The Asian Development Bank may improve our standing in Asia, but domestically we don't need it.

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onthebeach, EVERYONE accepts the democratic decision of the people to tip the Rudd government out in Canberra. And many are regretting it!

Audstralia's debt will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WHATSOEVER to break the hearts and limit the choices of the next generations. The same can not truthfully be said of the government's cuts.
Posted by Aidan, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 10:11:22 AM
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The lieberals need a few terms in opposition to relearn what "for the good of all Australians" means, what Bipartisanship means, and showing the proper respect for the office of Prime Minister and government.

They need to stop the sewer politics of "Juliar", the "debt and deficit" lies and the rest of their attack dog politics as so perfectly committed by rabbott.

They need to get rid of the tea partiers, the far right, free trade neocons that only believe in more for the rich and stomping on the poor.

They need to return to the party of Menzies and Fraser and repudiate the raygun/thatcher dogma of "small government", cut welfare and health and sell everything.

They need to stop with the leaners BS and their harsh treatment for the poorest and defenseless while sucking on cigars and rorting their entitlements to sell books, buy houses or go to weddings.

They need to be honest BEFORE the election and not lie about everything they said in their election pledges.

They need to listen!

Maybe then people will begin to regain confidence in our leaders and begin to support them, maybe even trust them. Which can only be better than the cynical, dare I say hateful, way we see them now.
Posted by mikk, Wednesday, 11 February 2015 11:40:25 AM
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