Rudd’s secret polling on his leadership
The extraordinary media campaign against KRudd’s Labor government continues in the Oz and it seems Fairfax media has been suckered into the media agenda. Yet if evidence of the failure of the mainstream media to explore the story behind the news was ever wanting then today’s article by Peter Hatcher and Phillip Coorey illustrates just how shallow journalism can be.
On the face of it the SMH story is based on rumours that a KRudd staffer is checking on the party room support for his man. Well blow me down if that has never happened before. Then there’s bit of duboius context before we get something more concrete, that is the concerns of Labor MP’s as expressed in the caucus room, any one of which would surely be more newsworthy than a bit of speculation based on hearsay.
However…
The chief concerns MPs listed yesterday were asylum seekers, the cost of living, mental health, the mining tax, and climate change.
also illustrates the extent of the problems face by KRudd and Co and I think explains some of the optimism in the mind of the Mad Monk. On asylum seekers and boat people the government is faced with a force completely beyond their control. Let’s face it, as the world goes Australia is a pretty good place to live and it’s inevitable that the hundreds of millions of people immediately to our north agree. Short of sinking the boats and and throwing everything we can into protecting our northern frontier we will find increasingly that more people are going to take the risk of a journey in an open boat to our shores.
Likewise cost of living is a problem largely beyond the control of the governments of today since costs are largely determined by the private sector who profit from making life affordable for the masses. Another sharp jump in oil prices for example would be a killer for the government but something over which they have no control. Similarly if food production was suddenly hammered by catastrophic climate change then there’s bugger all the government can do about it. This is a consequence of laissex faire economics, something no socially progressive government with leftish tendencies has actually dealt with in recent times.
Similar arguments can be extended around mental health. I am reminded of an experiment where rats or mice were allowed to keep breeding but their physical constraints were fixed, that is as their numbers increased they became more crowded. Their social patterns became disrupted and individual behaviour became more erratic. Humans are not rats or mice but our 21st century lifestyles are relatively a long way from our hunter gatherer evolution. Does KRudd have a panacea for that?
Of course global warming is a subject far far away for this government but it and the mining tax also illustrates how the combined conservative right in this country is frustrating the will of the people as expressed in the election of KRudd and Co yet simultaneously exploiting the political impasse to gain popular advantage. Without senate control Labor’s laws always had to be negotiated through which meant that anything which upset the myriad of self interested groups represented by the various nutbags in the senate (stand up steve fielding and nick xenophon) as well as the reactionary right as represented by the liberal party and its country cousins wasn’t going to see the light of day. And then Labor gets smashed in the popular press for inactivity or failure.
Australians took a half step towards the left when they elected KRudd and Co but the parliamentary system deliberately constrains the capacity of governments to act. Journalists have no such constraints and they seem incapable of any insight beyond the fascade of sensationalism or opinionated speculation.
Rudd’s secret polling on his leadership.
