How the Liberals found their inner Kevin

In the old days, Liberals believed that an economic accelerator was a policy aimed at reducing taxes and red tape.

Leaving aside the question of an Australian Prime Minister promising to “merge” things, his plans, priorities, strategies, programs, programs, pioneers and accelerators exude a bureaucratic and technocratic mindset to which the Coalition seems to be a slave. .

It’s a language and a way of speaking straight out of the Kevin Rudd School of Management. On some issues the Liberals and Labor may differ, but their mode of government is identical. Eventually, how something is done turns into what is done, which is a lost point for the Coalition and is the great insight of the old adage about hammers, nails and problems.

Morrison has spoken of “plans” more than a dozen times. Albanians, no less than 20 times.

In his Press Club speech, Morrison talked about his “plans” more than a dozen times. In his speech, Albanese of his “plans” no less than 20 times. Presumably, the party focus group tests tell them that voters want not just one plan, but many.

Few Liberal MPs would have heard of Friedrich Hayek, and even fewer would know what he said about planning: “The more the state ‘plans,’ the more difficult planning becomes for the individual.” When people want ‘plans’ and politicians agree, it’s no mystery why the trajectory of public policy in Australia is towards more planning and bigger government.

Towards the end of his speech at the Press Club, Morrison lamented that “only 40% of Australian researchers work in the private sector, well below the OECD average”. Part of that is surely because when the government showers the country’s public universities with plans and promises, there’s little incentive for a bright young scholar to trade taxpayer largesse for uncertainty. the private sector and the free market.

It is worth putting the Prime Minister’s speech this week into context. It is the product of 8 and a half years of coalition government. More than one Liberal Party supporter (and more than one Liberal MP) might ask what has changed during this time. For many, it seems like the big things haven’t changed much and neither have the little things.

Late last year, the Australian Council awarded $80,000 to a cabaret artist whose performance includes writing abusive messages about the Prime Minister on particular parts of her body. It is in the wake of COVID-19, when the performing arts across the country are devastated and an organization such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The government’s $80,000 donations to cabaret singers make the assertion “We’re all in this together” somewhat hollow.

As small business owners battle the effects of phantom lockdowns and plan how to make next week’s payroll, they can contemplate how different their lives would have been had they become a taxpayer-funded cabaret singer – or a civil servant or a politician.

Comments are closed.