These 6 news articles show a subtle shift from unquestioning Cheerleader for everything Abbott to the beginning of not taking Abbott at face value. For a media that seems to think the balance for right-wing rhetoric is far-right this does not represent the Great Leap Left, but there is a change. Perhaps there will be a liberal leadership spill soon, and the media are switching their allegiance.
Merchants of doom, beware by Peter Hartcher in Fairfax
June 9, 2012
Tony Abbott and the opposition must be careful their wrecking-ball approach doesn’t rebound and hurt them.
It’s strike one against Tony Abbott’s scare campaign on the carbon tax and mining tax. “Australia reported its economy was the fastest-growing in the developed world in the first three months of 2012, sweeping aside growing gloom,” reported The Wall Street Journal this week.
With the new taxes due to take effect in three weeks, the facts on the health of the Australian economy show a very different country to the one that, if Abbott is right, should rightfully be cringing in fearful anticipation…
[Abbott] knows the risk. He knows that we’ll wake up on July 2 and the sky will not have fallen and we’ll still be eating T-bone steak. He’s already started to adjust his rhetoric accordingly, a pre-emptive exit from the trap of his own making.
Instead of the long-promised “wrecking ball”, Abbott has now begun to liken the carbon tax to a python. “It’s going to be a python squeeze rather than a cobra strike,” he said on Monday. So no sudden death, apparently.
“But it is going to hurt from day one and as time goes by it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse and the only way to fix it is to change the government.”…
The Abbott opposition needs to show that it can build, not just destroy. It needs an alternative to doomism, and it needs it soon. The first strike against the carbon tax scare story has been delivered, and it’s not even July 1 yet.
For the full article: Merchants of doom, beware
Joe Hockey and the template of doom by Katharine Murphy in Fairfax
June 6, 2012
POOR old Joe.
Forced to flick the default personality switch from “generally avuncular” to “prophet of doom”, Hockey flailed at a loss, sinking deeper the more he spun in his own rhetorical quicksand.
Good economic news was just that. Good.
For the full article: Joe Hockey and the template of doom
Undefended, climate policy will die Fairfax editorial
June 6, 2012
AS JULY 1 approaches, the government is becoming more assertive about its carbon tax, which comes into force that day. That is a good sign. The Herald published yesterday an interview that the Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, gave to Lenore Taylor, in which he criticised, quite rightly, the negative tactics of the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, on the issue, and committed Labor to continue to fight for the carbon tax even should it lose government.
…A carbon tax, operating through the billions of decisions, small and large, made daily in the marketplace, will make the path to that objective smooth and painless. The carbon tax prepares Australia’s economic future.
The implication, which in the right hands ought to be devastating, is a question: how, in the absence of a price on carbon, does the opposition propose to do this in the eight years that remain until the deadline? Where is Abbott’s plan?
For the full article: Undefended, climate policy will die
Haneef lessons must be heeded by Michelle Grattan in Fairfax
June 6, 2012
Naturally, the opposition has jumped on the story of fleeing alleged people smuggler ‘‘Captain Emad’’ like a big brown dog. But let’s not throw out all our normal respect for proper procedures.
…Those inclined to action at all costs might recall the salutary example of Mohamed Haneef, an Indian doctor arrested at Brisbane airport in mid-2007. Haneef was held for nearly a fortnight in connection with a failed London bombing and then charged with providing support to a terrorist organisation. His immigration visa was cancelled. But then it all turned into a fiasco. The charge had to be dropped; the cancellation of the visa was later found to be unlawful; substantial compensation had to be paid.
Being seen to be doing something doesn’t look so good if what you’ve done is later found to be the wrong thing.
For the full article: Haneef lessons must be heeded
Then there was Kathy Jackson, who Abbott had described as heroic, Miranda Devine described her as a feminist role model, and up til now, was described in the media as a “whistle blower”. Abbott had tied his future as PM and an early election to Jackson, in an attempt to destroy the member for Dobell. However, the media are stepping back from unanimous support for Jackson
Kathy Jackson faces action after allegedly attempting to contact judge outside court by Ean Higgins for The Australian
June 05, 2012
UNION leader Kathy Jackson faces possible court action for allegedly trying to make contact with a judge hearing the case to place the Health Services Union’s allegedly corrupt East branch into administration.
For the full article: link may not work, try copying and pasting into a search, like, say, google for example Kathy Jackson faces action after allegedly attempting to contact judge outside court
Continuing the one Doom-And-Gloom message for Australian audiences, and another for overseas audiences, Joe Hockey went on a little world tour
World hears Joe Hockey’s praise for economy by Ben Packham for The Australian
June 04, 2012
OPPOSITION treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has conceded Australia’s economy is in reasonable shape and endorsed Wayne Swan’s commitment to returning the budget to surplus.
Speaking to an international audience on Bloomberg TV, Mr Hockey said …“Australia is in a better position than most other western nations,” he told Bloomberg’s Asia Edge program.
…Labor pilloried the Opposition Leader last year when he talked up the Australian economy while in London after consistently attacking the government’s economic credentials.
“On the face of this comparative performance, Australia has serious bragging rights. Compared to most developed countries, our economic circumstances are enviable,” Mr Abbott said at the time.
For the full article: link may not work, try copying and pasting into a search, like, say, google for example World hears Joe Hockey’s praise for economy