#2 Old Dogs but New Tricks

This week Tony Abbott reshuffled his front bench and a number of Howard era stalwarts found themselves very much back in the game. The post Turnbull coalition front bench now includes Bronwynn Bishop, Eric Abetz and, yes you guessed it, Nick Minchin. Some of the most deeply conservative of our federal politicians and, from the outside, a jarring swing to the right. Talk of a carbon pollution reduction scheme is now, at best, on the bottom of the opposition to do list and Work Choices by another name is back on the agenda.

Are these moves going to drive potential Liberal voters into the arms of Labour? I don't think so. Abbott has made it clear he's going after the "Howard Battlers" having already somewhat immodestly dubbed them "Abbotts Army" (no more left right, left right, left right...it's all right, right, right, right). In making the changes he has to his front bench and articulating the policy swings he's made he has at least defined the turf he wants to fight over.

A very wise former radio colleague of mine once made the observation that in regard to creating a competitive brand "it's good to be better but it's better to be different". The challenge for the Liberal and Labour parties in our thankfully moderate political environment is defining themselves clearly from each other. Way too often the major parties have looked like Liberal or Labour Lite as they've both chased the legendary swinging voters that occupy the middle ground of Australian politics and then been gobsmacked when individuals or organisations at the fringes (Pauline Hanson or the Greens) have popped up and pinched a swag of network airtime and votes.

Don't underestimate Abbott. He's smart, he's tough and he's looking for fight.

Oh, and in the tradition of including at least one song reference in my blog I give you (hi Bronny) the Elton John classic "The Bitch is Back"

Post #1 Crisis? What Crisis?

First, apologies for including a Supertramp song title in my blogging debut but in the wake of the spectacular victory of the Climate Change Skeptics earlier this week I'm wondering if the coalition will take that song title to the next federal election as their campaign slogan? Barnaby Joyce, Nick Minchin et al managed to unleash that deep seated mistrust of science and deep thought that lies at the heart of most conservative political thinking. "If you can't see it and you can't sell it, then how can it be real".

But climate change is real. It's as real as Melbourne's water supplies are low. 30 percent at the beginning of what promises to be another blistering Summer. It's as real as the mid November heatwave Melbourne and Adelaide experienced with temperatures in the high 30's for Melbourne and in Adelaide tops in the 40's.

The conservatives claim that an emmissions trading scheme would cost thousands of Australian jobs, and it might but here's an interesting reality check from the Greens Bob Brown. The entire Australian Coal industry provides only 30,000 jobs while the various industries (fishing, tourism etc) that depend on the Barrier Reef provide 65,000 jobs. At the current rate of global warming the reef will be 90% dead within 30 years and the jobs that depend on it will be gone too.

There are opportunities for Australia to step up to the mark in regard to climate change and there is a lot of money to be made from developing alternative and renewable energy. If the conservatives are truly, as they claim the parties of enterprise, why aren't they looking just a few years down the track when oil goes back to $150 and beyond a barrel, petrol prices skyrocket and Western economies once more find themselves on the verge of collapse? Show us your vision for the future, not just the next election or soundbite. Give us some hope to avoid that inevitible crisis. Oh but there you go,I forgot; Crisis? What Crisis?