RobP, what Costello thought or was doing, was regularly reported
in the financial pages by the financial press, but few punters
out there are interested in finance, preferring the sports or
other pages.

Lets face it, a large part of the community are pretty well
financially illiterate and as long as they have money in their
pockets, a bit more then before, they are happy.

I remind you that Howard was driving the bus, it was up to
Howard to do most of the marketing and promoting. Costello
played a huge role in parliamentary debates, if you ever bothered
to watch and he did extremely well in those. In fact once
Keating left, he was the star performer for years.

I gather that behind the scenes, he was arguing with Howard a lot,
who wanted to spend more, whilst Costello wanted to spend less,
then either pass it back to taxpayers or pay off Govt debt.

It sounds to me that you are looking for a circus performer to
amuse you, rather then somebody who shows sound judgement.

Sometimes its even positive, if things are ticking over smoothly,
for a treasurer to do nothing, rather then constantly fiddle
with the system.

The present BAS is pretty simple. Those who can't do it, should
maybe not be in business.

“Oh no, its far more then that. Demographers, econimists etc, tell us that we will be a nation of retired old farts, with no young taxpayers, when the baby boomers retire.”

Yabby, the message being put out there regarding the purported benefits of high population growth is grossly one-sided, and it is very largely coming from vested interests, or from governments as a result of the enormously powerful big business vested-interest lobby. It certainly doesn’t have the overwhelming backing of the general community. Sure, some support it, but many don’t…and most don’t give a hoot

If a balanced message was put out there, expressing all the advantages and disadvantages of continuing with a system that is based on the rapid population growth – economic growth spiral, with the only possible conclusion being a redirection of policy away from this endless expansionism, then I reckon the community would predominantly support it…or at the very least, not go against it to any significant extent.

Politicians COULD get elected with that sort of genuine sustainability platform.

The writing was on the wall for this growthist philosophy years ago. The Howard government should have started to steer us off of the growth spiral. They could have done that, slowly and carefully, without too much fuss.

I consider it highly dishonest for Howard, and Costello and the rest of that government…and the opposition… to have just continued with the same old expansionist mantra.

And I consider Costello’s promotion of it, which was well and truly outside of his role, to be disgusting.

Within his outrageous promotion of a higher birthrate, he repeatedly told the Australian community a gross untruth - that births weren’t keeping up with deaths. This was at a time when the birthrate was far higher than the deathrate.

Mark O’Connor, author of ‘Overloading Australia’, had some interesting comments regarding this on Life Matters on Radio National yesterday: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2600274.htm

examinator,

Or should I call you 'Don Quixote?'

Tilting at windmills... is that with or
without a donkey and a suit of armour?

Seriously though, I guess we can only take
people as we find them - and obviously
Peter Costello did not impress you in a
favourable way. (Jeff Kennett made the same
negative impression on me).

Dear Ludwig,

I fully understand your concerns about sustainability,
and the continued rise in our population stats.
However I do believe that the Minister for Immigration
has cut the quota by approximately 14%. This figure
of course does not affect humanitarian assistance that
we are legally obliged (having signed treaties) to keep.

Dear Yabby,

Talking about clowns, and entertainers, and so on -
I saw two cartoons recently about Peter Costello.

One showed Malcolm Turnbull behind a desk asking Peter
Costello, "Allright, do you want to be the Shadow Treasurer?"
To which Costello replies with a smile,
"No. I'm enjoying being the Shadow!"

The other cartoon was of "Little Peter," being taken
to the doctor by his mum. The doctor says,
"Mrs Costello, your child has Attention Deficit Disorder."
"What's that?" asks Mrs Costello.
"Well, if he doesn't get attention, he creates disorder!"

Ho ho ho Ludwig, methinks that you really are kidding yourself,
about how politics really works. Fact is its ruthlessly pragmatic,
ie win the next election or you are out on your ear, soon forgotten.

Do you really think that most politicians imagine that our ETS will
make a scrap of difference in the real world? Of course not, but they
need to be seen to be doing something, for the press has stirred it
up as a subject and some voters will vote on it, so they have no
choice.

Do you really think that the liberals now believe that work choices
was a bad idea? Of course not, they are fully aware, that for a
globally competitive and flexible economy, it was the way to go,
but it was politically unsalable, as everyone clings to their
cushy benefits, which simply don't exist in other part of the world.

Fact is that the press and how the public responds, drive these
debates. Politicians put out their feelers and if an idea can win
them the next election, they will back it.

If you want to win this one, you need to convince enough journalists
to create an issue over it, so that worried voters ring their
MP and it will become an issue. Forget everything else.

That is how politics works these days.

"Costello played a huge role in parliamentary debates, if you ever bothered to watch and he did extremely well in those."

Oh, I did watch sunshine. Which is exactly my point and the one you are missing. While he was doing his grandstanding and putting the rapier through the Opposition at the time, he was only doing what was EASY FOR HIM. What hard stuff did he do that made a difference for the ordinary Joe living in suburbia? In the long run, that's what he'll really be judged on, not on how well he was viewed in the hallowed halls of the IMF or World Bank. Now as a so-called farmer, I'd have thought you'd be right onto that idea. Obviously not.

"It sounds to me that you are looking for a circus performer to
amuse you, rather then somebody who shows sound judgement."

Wrong. You are either being dishonest or you think I am saying something that I am not.

It was interesting to hear a short time ago a report coming out of Canberra saying Treasury thought the current Treasurer is showing much more interest in sounding out their ideas and opinions than Costello ever did. Sounds like Costello was rather remote and never got his hands dirty negotiating with others. As a farmer, if you did that, how far would your business get? And if you did, would you expect to be called a good farmer?

“Ho ho ho Ludwig, methinks that you really are kidding yourself, about how politics really works. Fact is its ruthlessly pragmatic, ie win the next election or you are out on your ear, soon forgotten.”

Ho ho, ho ho, a squabbling on OLO we will go…!!

Yabby, a sensible careful winding back of the future-destroying continuous growth philosophy is NOT at odds with ruthless pragmatism! As I keep saying, the general community WOULD allow it to happen.

All pollies want to be remembered favourably. Well, none of the motley crew in the current or previous governments are going to be remembered at all favourably, once the sustainability ethic becomes entrenched and the general public fully realises just how utterly irresponsible those who promoted rapid continuous expansionism were.

Of course pollies think in the short term, as far as appealing to voters and winning the next election goes. But again, this certainly doesn’t have to be at odds with the realignment of political philosophy. They, and the general public, also think to some extent in the longer term. And when the longer term is looking very bleak, it becomes much more important. It is then that longer term issues become vitally important to the short-term goal of re-election.

I hate the way our political system seems to be steering us towards the proverbial cliff. But I’m apparently not as pessimistic as you about our ability to escape this road to ruin. I think that the change will happen, and when it does, our system will work well to promote and enforce it.

As Paul Gilding, ex head of Greenpeace says here; http://www.abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2009/2592909.htm, we can do amazing things if we all have the same mindset, as per the war footing that this country went onto during the threat of invasion in WWII.

Now, Costello told us a gross untruth (see my last post). And he repeated it many times. He should have been sacked for this. It is this, his promotion of the baby bonus and his utter lack of nous regarding sustainability, that he will ultimately be remembered, and condemned, for.