Rudd government walking both sides of the street

The Rudd Government is starting to position political discourse in such a way that it becomes the "sensible centre" of Australian politics, by sending out different messages to different audiences.

As noted yesterday, Kevin Rudd took the opportunity in The Age/SMH to again attack "neoliberalism" as the source of the nation's woes, and his own government as the compassionate alternative. Railing against neoliberalism does not win a lot of votes in marginal seats, but keeps the left-leaning middle classes happy and has the added virtue of sending The Australian's opinion writers into paroxyms of anger and furious rage. The fact that their only readers these days may be the left-leaning middle classes, who continue to feel the comfort of having The Australian to hate as a reminder of the good old, bad old days of evil John Howard, needn't matter.

Meanwhile, his Employment Participation minister Mark Arbib can rail against young people being "job snobs", speaking the language that Today Tonight viewers in marginal seats readily respond to, and stealing the clothes of their political opponents such as Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott.

I think the planning for a Federal election in early 2010 may have already begun.

Kevin Rudd on the economy

Kevin Rudd has written a long essay on the Australian economy again. This time it is in the Sydney Morning Herald. Shaun Carney at The Age predicts that:

The article will, predictably, be dismissed and ridiculed by his opponents and other media outlets, not only for what it is but what it argues. Rudd has, as a small part of his argument, quite intentionally climbed right up the noses of free marketeers and neo-liberals over what he sees as their culpability for the global financial crisis. This is a reprise of another one of his long-form essays, which appeared in The Monthly magazine a few months ago.

Anyway, here is part of the article. The rest can be found here.

When Australia last experienced a global recession worse than this one, Jim Scullin and Joe Lyons were prime ministers of Australia, Don Bradman had just begun his Test cricketing career and Charles Kingsford Smith had just made his first flight across the Pacific. Of Australia's current population of nearly 22 million, only 1 million of our number were alive to experience the traumatic impact of the Great Depression.

In its response to the global recession, Australia has sought to learn some lessons of recessions past. To cushion the impact, the Government took strong, early and decisive action through the Nation Building for Recovery plan to support jobs, small business and apprenticeships today by investing in infrastructure for tomorrow.

The alternatives were to do nothing or, worse, effectively replicate the Premiers' Plan of 1931 when governments cut expenditure, thereby compounding the problems created by a private sector already in retreat. The result, of course, was an economic rout, appalling unemployment and a decade of negligible growth through the 1930s.

By contrast, the economic data today suggests the Government's plan is working so far. Australia is performing better than most other economies, with the fastest growth, the second-lowest unemployment and the lowest debt and deficit of all the major advanced economies. And we remain the only advanced economy not to have gone into recession.

What's hot? Peter Costello!

Excitement is building around Australia at the prospect of Peter Costello becoming leader of the Federal Liberal Party. Indeed, around the News Limited HQ at Surry Hills, it has reached - as Bruce McAvaney would say - fever pitch.

Will Peter's memoirs be a 'tell-all' book about the Howard years? Will he challenge Buccaneer Brendan Nelson for the leadership? Can Tony Abbott contain his enthusiasm for Peter? Will Christopher Pyne make more friends on Facebook?

As new proof of the growing 'Peter power' sweeping Australia, check out Prue and Trude's 'What's Hot' list. For more see here.

Song to say goodbye

As excitement builds about Peter Costello' memoirs (yeah, sure) and whether he will become leader of the Federal Liberal Party (a job he had on a platter 9 months ago if he was prepared to work hard), here is a contribution from Placebo that is in keeping with Paul Keating's sentiments from yesterday:

Bringing back the biff in Australian politics

From today's Sydney Morning Herald:

Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating says John Howard and Peter Costello were "the biggest pair of policy bums the country has ever had''.

Mr Keating today slammed the Liberal Party for reconsidering Mr Costello as a leadership candidate, calling the former treasurer a "nong'' and a "mouse'' in an acerbic attack at a book launch in Sydney today.

He said Mr Costello had "not made one valuable structural change in the 12 years he was treasurer''.

"He's a guy without imagination and he is a guy without courage. That point was proven by the fact he let (former prime minister) Howard stay there for so long,'' he said.

"It's a Liberal Party so bereft of talent that they have to go to such a low-grade performer as Costello to come back as their leader.''

Senior Liberals have said Mr Costello will not challenge Brendan Nelson for the Liberal leadership but may agree to a "friendly takeover'' if Dr Nelson stands aside, according to News Ltd reports.

Mr Keating said such a move would be ruinous for the opposition but good for Labor.

"In national terms, to have such a nong - and he is, in policy terms he is a mouse - to have him back again, speaks volumes about the Liberal Party,'' Mr Keating said.

"In Labor Party terms, I sort of hope he does, as he makes it a better pitch for us.''

When Keating speaks, you still do pay attention. Meanwhile, Peter Costello goes jogging (yawn!), and tells us he knocked back a job with the World Gold Council (yawn! - what about a job with the IOC?), as we wait six weeks for his memoirs.

More boring Glenn Mine columns await us.

Ute-man

A lively little debate has started on Larvatus Prodeo about the mythical or real status of a creature known as "ute-man".

The debate was started by Canberra press gallery commentator Glenn Milne's observations in The Australian that (and I will use quotes here) the "shock result" of the Nationals' holding the seat of Gippsland in a by-election - which they have held since 1923 - was due to the "genius of Brendan Nelson's uber-populist post-budget announcement that he would introduce a 5c a litre cut in the fuel excise", combined with "a backlash against Labor's "alcopops" tax grab by its own "ute man" mixed-drinks base".

I'm not sure whether the base Glenn Milne is referring to here is the Labor Party voting base or the base spirit Bundy or Johnnie Walker that gets mixed with the coke. I can only hope that, wherever it was that Mr. Milne was mixing this base with his "Liberal strategists", he did not mix it with the headache medication that led to problems at the Walkley Awards in 2006 or else this might have happened.

Anyway, if you really want to understand "ute-man", go not to Glenn Milne but to Glen Fuller and his Event Mechanics blog. I'll just throw in a few quick observations on this one:

1. As someone who has worked at a university campus that also doubles as a perpetual building site, I can assure you that "ute-man" does exist, at least in Brisbane. He is notable for having a considerably newer and better car than the academics (let alone the students), and for having a lot of bumper stickers on it.
2. The "ute-men" really, really hated Work Choices. Whatever they thought about just about anything else, they had well and truly decided to vote out the government that gave them Work Choices.
3. As "ute man" does not read The Australian, Glenn Milne's new found love for him is likely to remain purely Platonic. He is also unlikely to be a Brendan Nelson fan, no matter how many guitars he owns, tho' he may knock down a bevvy with Belinda Neal if she's shouting (the drinks, that is, not at him).
   
4. He is also unlikely to read the Garnaut Report on climate change, so there is lot of scope to explain what it really means for aspiring pundits and politicians. He may instead be reading The Tradie, so there's a thought.
   
5. The "what to do about ute man" question is a variant of the age-old question that troubles advertisers, marketers and political campaigners everywhere, which is what to do about the young male, who may inherit the earth if he can get off the couch.
   

As Homer Simpson famously put it, "I'm a white male aged 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are."