Bronwyn Lay
An enjoyable read.
It is like I have said. LNP are classic
neoliberal laissez-faire, meaning they like to sit on their hands and
let the market take care of everything because the market can do no
wrong in their eyes. As such they actually have little relevance. Both
parties know that you don't get 'jobs and growth' from an economy
without spending money. This election is about who makes the decisions
about where to spend the money. LNP policy is to give this decision
making function over to the board rooms of big business with their
continuing tax cuts for the big end of town. ALP policy is for
government to do it's job and spend this money where it is most
effective. Rarely has there been a clearer distinction between the
effects of our votes.
Jobs and growth will be generated by the
construction of and transition to a sustainable economy. The rest of the
world, even a rusted-on carbon producer like Shell Oil, recognise this
and allocate resources accordingly. The LNP response is to defund the
CSIRO and accelerate Coal and CSG production. Whole new industries will
need to be created from the ground up involving masses of jobs and
sustained growth.
I like the authors' turn of phrase; never heard
the term 'Fordist' before but it conveys the meaning intended
efficiently, but she sort of misses the significance the w-word. We
still have four weeks to go. The LNP played the race card two weeks ago,
through Dutton if you recall, something they usually don't do till the
last week of elections. Now they drag out the emotive 'war'-word in a
roll of the dice in the power game they see politics as. This pathetic
little trick is common to conservative strategy and has been used
frequently in the past two centuries. You pull out an emotive word like
war and apply it to an issue, or in this case, the policies of your
opponents. This frightens the voters because war is a frightening
threatening thing. You then portray yourself as the only one with
policies which will save the poor frightened voter from this emergency
situation. Hysterical, yes, but designed to incite hysteria in the
voters so that they won't change governments. Hopefully everyone is on
to this trick now and it doesn't work but if people just vote the way
they've always voted without thinking, the LNP will get back in and if
that happens the damage to our society will be irreparable. Four weeks
to go and they've already made two of their characteristic strategic
plays. Surely a sign of panic.
I hope I am wrong but I think we
may have to write the Great Barrier Reef off as a victim of global
warming. A laughable attempt was made to put a price on saving it was
announced last week with no mention of global warming. As if the
bleaching is not being caused by global warming at all but by
firtiliser/coal dust run off from the land. We've been an international
laughing stock since 2013 so no one takes us seriously. This article
highlights this point well. I like to talk about my cringe meter going
off scale and my crystal ball blowing a head gasket but that's just a
turn of phrase. The state of things is being understated in the
mainstream media to avoid panic I fear and when it all hits the fan
there will be turmoil.
