Right Pulse

The three independents are currently ruminating about who to vote for in the November parliament. All expectations are that they will likely go with Gillard and have only been looking for an excuse to vote ALP as part of the ‘negotiations’ with Abbott.

Well in a final last ditch pitch against Abbott the ABC Online has come up with this ripper of a headline: “Independents stand firm in the face of fear campaign”.

This news content – not meant to be editorial comments – is referring to the Coalition claim that because of the ALP-Green pact a Gillard government would most likely be the most left-wing in Australian history. Instead though of examining the validity of this claim the ABC instead is trying to portray the independents as brave souls battling the evil fearful Coalition:

The Coalition has done away with the niceties in a last-ditch effort to take office, embarking on a fear campaign to win the support of the independents that can deliver it a parliamentary majority.

The claim that the Coalition is on a fear campaign is an argumentative assertion, yet the ABC portrays it as a news statement of fact. Presumably the ABC is hoping to woo the independents and thereby give Gillard a helping hand in forming government.

Even former prime minister John Howard is joining in, warning the Labor Party made a significant shift to the left in signing an alliance with the Greens on Wednesday.

At this point we are all meant to be thinking: ‘what, JH has an opinion!!! Yep, even JH is getting involved, wink wink….’

Some Coalition sources have even told the ABC that they feel they have lost.

The statement above is news worthy? There is that word ‘even’ again. All round a fairly grubby article, both in content and tone.

Damning report into the ABC’s online coverage of the election, via The Australian:

In the week of the Rooty Hill debate the ABC appeared to abandon any pretence of providing balanced opinion on its websites. Gillard and her campaign were praised 93 times – more than Abbott during the entire campaign, while he was showered with criticism. There was not a single online opinion article where a conservative substantially criticised Gillard or praised Abbott that week and at least 17 articles on the other side of the ledger.

…and how the internet kills the need for a public broadcaster like the ABC:

We now live in a world with a surfeit of news coverage. Through our computers, we each have access to news content from thousands of sources around the world, taking every possible perspective. Many of these sources are as good or better than the ABC. We do not need public broadcasters to get quality news…

No matter what your interest or how oblique and unique your tastes, the internet means that you can find news and information to satisfy your demand. With the internet, there are no ‘gaps’.

If public broadcasters are no longer needed to fill their traditional role, surely it is time to ask if we need them at all. Should taxpayers be funding the ABC to compete against private providers who both want to and can do everything that the ABC can do?

I want my $1 dollar back – time to privatise.

The Governor-General has sought advice regarding any conflict of interest – real or perceived – that might arise if she has to make a decision regarding the ALP and the prospect of a hung Parliament. Bearing in mind that Bill Shorten – the man that sharpened the knife that stabbed Rudd in the back and the bookies favourite to replace Gillard - is the GG’s son-in-law.

The ABC has put out a deceptive media report via AM Radio National. It is headlined: No conflict of interest for GG with MP son-in-law: Law experts. The report also goes on to state that: “The University of New South Wales Law Professor, George Williams, does not see a conflict either but says it’s wise to seek advice.”  This statement is completely untrue. None of the constitutional experts interviewed said there was no potential conflict of interest. Williams said that he did not think a conflict of interest would arise because he thought it would be unlikely that the GG would be placed in position as to influence who governs. If one actually reads on, Williams states that if the GG is placed in such a decision making position:

An administrator could be appointed and that would mean someone like Marie Bashir, the senior Governor from New South Wales, could act and make the decision on her behalf.

Williams was interviewed by Alan Jones on Monday in which he made it abundantly clear that there could be a potential conflict of interest. Some tricky ABC sub-editing and voice over has made it appear that there is no problem with the GG’s position, when in fact there could be a problem.

Bryce is a highly political figure. As GG she has actively campaigned for ALP policies that are opposed by the Coalition: Rudd’s UN seat and the ALP’s version of paid parental leave come to mind. Having seen off Rudd, if Abbott is able to form government, that will kill off Gillard and likely see Bill Shorten lead the ALP. The GG would then be shamed into resigning because of a High Court injunction threatened by Peter Faris QC on the basis of the GG’s perceived conflict of interest. That would be the hat-trick we have all been looking for.

Editorials and blog posts in the Wall Street Journal, both Asian and US editions, have given Abbott a ringing endorsement to form government. WSJ Asia had an issue by issue comparison of Abbott and Gillard, and their conclusion:

It’s no stretch to say Mr. Abbott—Rhodes scholar, devout Catholic and family man—has singlehandedly resurrected the conservative movement in Australia. He took over the Liberals after his predecessor had proved too willing to go along with the agenda of then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and he promptly moved the party to the right. Mr. Rudd was overthrown a few months later in his own internal party revolt and replaced in June by Julia Gillard, who as Australia’s first female prime minister (and as a more centrist figure than Mr. Rudd) should have had the political wind at her back.

Instead, the Liberals enjoyed what Mr. Abbott called a “savage swing” on election day Saturday. Though unable to win an outright majority, they made up a double-digit poll deficit in less than five months, denied Labor a governing majority, and may yet take the reins of government if they can form one themselves. He has done it by doing the one thing so many Republicans in America and Tories in Britain shy away from: explaining what conservatives believe in, clearly, sincerely and without a hint of shame.

Remember the media pack in Canberra never gave Abbott a chance when he first took over the leadership nine months ago. The US look at the election as a microcosm of what Obama has to deal with during the mid-terms and his eventual re-election. Big government is on the nose.

The Liberal revival was led by Tony Abbott, a cabinet member in earlier governments, who tried to make the election a referendum on Labor’s spending and willy-nilly expansion of government. He was especially pointed on cap and trade, which he helped to stop, and the miner’s tax, which he has pledged to drop….The bigger picture is that, in Australia as in the U.K., voters have stopped the revival of big government dead in its tracks.

Certainly an historic occasion. 80 years of history over turned by for he most part a conservative agenda. When you consider that Australia has no Fox News and only a small conservative blogging community, what Abbott was able to achieve should scare the wits out of Obama. From the US WSJ:

First it was the U.K. choosing right-leaning David Cameron in May and last night, Australia drifted even more right than anyone expected. With U.S. Congressional campaigns set to ratchet up in the coming months and a federal election there about two years away, the island nation is trying to become a calling card for those on the right the world over.

“I reckon we’re nearly there. And up next, Obama,” said Timothy Sutton, a Coalition supporter and Australian land broker on the floor of Tony Abbott’s election headquarters party at the Four Seasons in Sydney last night.

There has also been a brief discussion about Abbott’s approach being a template for a future US Republican Presidential candidate. Simple, too the point, on script and above all conservative.

On the campaign trail during the past five weeks, Mr. Abbott fashioned these values and ideas into a platform mantra that addressed voter concerns. “A Coalition government will end the waste, pay back the debt, stop the big new taxes, stop the boats [illegal asylum-seekers] and help struggling families.” Few people who have heard Mr. Abbott can claim that they don’t know what he believes in. Could the same be said of British Prime Minister David Cameron? Or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney?

The election coverage on channel nine last night was easily the most entertaining. The funniest part was this Wayne Swan comedy act in which he promoted the importance of a strong a economy. Swan even had Peter Costello laughing.

Laurie Oaks expressed disappointment at the Liberal reaction, claiming that Swan had saved the economy during the GFC. This of course comes from the same journalist that said voting down the ETS, getting rid of Turnbull and putting in Abbott would be electoral suicide. Clearly after last night’s results Oaks does not have a clue about conservative politics and should keep his counsel to himself.

Wayne Swan did not save this economy from the GFC. The following did:

1. Well regulated and capitalised banks,

2. Stable housing market,

3. The fall in the Australian dollar,

4. The fall in interest rates,

5. Stable M3 supply and inflation,

6. The strong fiscal position of the Federal budget,

7. A strong mining sector, and

8. Maybe the $900 cash ‘bonuses’ feeding into retail sales for the last quarter of 2008.

Anything else the government attempted to do was either at the margins, was too late and/or will result in such a large interest bill as to negate over the medium term any positive impact their programmes may have had on the economy.

Consider also the industries that Swan directly attacked or has undermined over the course of 2008-2010.

1. The entire mining sector via the ‘super’ profits tax,

2. Mutual superannuation funds via excessive bank guarantees,

3. The home insulation sector by creating a government subsided bubble,

4. The local car industry with the government’s defacto tax on locally produced cars via Gillard’s cash for clunkers programme,

5. The economically viable electricity generation industry because of ‘renewable’ energy mandates,

6. Virtually the entire primary sector, including fishing (marine parks), cotton production and food production (water buy backs), and

7. Any industry that heavily emits carbon dioxide, including steel production via the ALP’s now defunct yet to be resurrected carbon taxation scheme.

Wayne Swan will go down as one of the most ill-informed treasurers in Australian history.

The Sunday Telegraph has backed Julia Gillard, saying she deserves another chance.

The Sunday Telegraph believes Julia Gillard and Labor should have another chance, a chance to prove they really can be different.

So let’s get this straight, in what environment do we normally not give people second chances:

1. A sports player trying to make first grade,

2. A test or examination for school, university or TAFE,

3. A speeding driver, or

4. A bad government that has wasted billions of dollars of other people’s money and is prepared to lie about their own record to get re-elected and stab their own leader in the back in the process of doing so.

Gee….hard question to answer. Being in government isn’t like taking a test. There is no coming back at the end of next semester to take a make-up test. You are normally gone. There are no second chances because the stakes are too high, something clearly lost on the Telegraph.

One wonders where Piers Akerman was in this decision.

It is widely know that between 2003 – 2005 Gillard had a relationship with fellow ALP hack Craig Emerson. The relationship destroyed Emerson’s marriage and his family of three young children. Gillard is a feminist so her disdain for marriage should come as no surprise. The media think Gillard’s personal life should be off limits to reporting, because it is supposedly irrelevant to Gillard being PM. 2GB’s Ray Hadley on Monday said he didn’t care about the affair. I wonder what Craig Emerson’s wife and children think. I gather they cared at the time.

Gillard’s personal choices are relevant to the campaign. Hadley and others of his ilk might consider that Gillard’s personal life clearly indicates that she cares nothing for the institutions of family and marriage – two of the foundation blocks of the modern conservative movement. Gillard’s true opinions on a host of other social issues then follow. For instance, how much does Gillard really want to support stay home mums, the family tax-benefit, etc… Or given Gillard’s extra-marital affair, de facto relationship and feminist background how convincing is her opposition to homosexual marriage. Not very.

The feminist movement has been rallying against heterosexual marriage for 30 to 40 years, so it is no surprise that they support homosexual marriage, hoping such a social change will devalue marriage generally to make it meaningless. Spectator Australia asks the question but can’t come up with the answers:

What I’m getting at here is that these feminists can’t have it both ways. Marriage is either, by its very nature, an anachronistic heterosexual institution that advantages heterosexual men and should be done away with, or it isn’t. It can’t simply be extended to include any type of person who is intrinsically excluded from it just because minority rights are cool. Why put so much time and effort into exposing the tradition as a tyrannical, oppressive, bourgeois fiction then campaign to resurrect it for a particular group?

I think the answer is not to be found in a Gillard born-again political conversion. The radical left know what they are doing and it is hard to believe that Gillard is too far away from them. Devalue – destroy.

Looks like the mining industry is ready to go to war on the ALP and their new defacto partners the Greens:

Small and medium miners, including Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group, are considering restarting the advertising campaign against the government’s mining tax.

Mr Forrest, the chief executive of Fortescue, has told a teleconference in Perth this morning, his company and its counterparts not only remain opposed to the tax, but they now hold grave fears because the Greens may win the balance of power in the Senate.

The Greens of course want to basically abolish the mining  industry. I think the mining industry will do a much better job at attacking the ALP than the Liberals are currently doing through their advertising campaign. Hard but true. Still we don’t have a new attack ad. Is someone asleep in Liberal HQ? They should be rolling out a new ad every two to three days and bringing forward their party conference to rest back some momentum.

Noticed that Rudd is back in the news. Apparently he wants a job with the UN. Typical. Rudd would rather serve the UN than Australia, and don’t confuse the UN for the world. It also shows how self serving Rudd is and how quickly a politician can fall. Rudd has been leaking to the media as badly as a people smuggler’s boat since he was deposed as PM. For someone of his ego he must be raving mad at Gillard. A pesky journalist with a bit of courage could probably pry some type of public reaction out of him. That would make for juicy news. Better still, a punch up or stouch between Gillard and Rudd in a Westfields in Brisbane. Gillard would probably win.

ABC has launched its 24 news channel tonight. Just in time to help get the ALP across the line this election. Your tax dollars at work. I have a feeling that the ABC presence may move Sky News to the right to help them retain some market share. Here’s hoping.

All the motivation Tony Abbott needs. Every media conference should begin with a playing of the campaign theme:

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… The A-Team.

It seems over at Bolt’s blog that the over whelming consensus is that Abbott has so far let himself down. I am not prepared to write the whole election off after only two days as Bolt seems prepared to do  – he did on MTR this morning. It was always going to be tough, with so much history against the Coalition this being a first term government.

I was surprised at the Liberals first election advertisement. They should have just gone straight for the throat first off. This is not a time to take prisoners. No one it seems expects the Coalition to win so don’t hold back.

This has been a very bad government. Easily the most incompetence in living memory – people have died as a direct result of this government’s domestic policies. The ALP has admitted as much by not dwelling on what has gone on before and by pushing another childish slogan. Something about moving forward together to even greater depths of incompetence and political spin mastery. You know what I mean.

There is also so much left unsaid by the ALP over what they plan to do on carbon taxation, border security and a host of other issues large sections of the media seem to lazy and inept to ask about. Can you imagine John Howard going to an election with such scant detail on the GST? Some how I doubt the media would allow him to get away with it, but the ABC and the TV news seem perfectly happy to give Gillard a great big free pass.

As a side, I’ve never been more convinced as to the basic immorality of the ABC. Taking conservative voter tax money to push a left-wing line on virtually every issue one cares to think about and then have the effrontery to claim they represent Australian values.  They have started to believe their own propaganda.