australia

Great to hear that Peter Dutton is talking about ending political junkets and pointless travel. Although Scott Morrison travelled just as much as Anthony Albanese, his neglect of the Solomon Islands led to that country almost falling under the hegemony of China.

Fortunately, Labor’s foreign minister Penny Wong, has managed to salvage much of the damage done by the Coalition and since the defeat of pro-China’s, Mr. Sogavare, geostrategic stability is returning to the region. This was through skilled negotiation with all stakeholders, without sacrificing $20 billion worth of trade, which happened under Morrison. Labor has restored that trade something greatly welcomed by all businesses involved.

What about the long-lunches for small business at tax-payer’s expense? Is that not a junket of sorts?

As for getting rid of public servants and replacing them with consultants we know that leads in the long run to greater expense, choosing favourites, and less frank and fearless advice.

As for attacking diversity, equity and inclusion, don’t let Dutton fool anyone that he is not emulating Donald Trump’s playbook to the last dotted ‘i’ and crossed ‘t’. Like Trump he will rely on billionaire donors. Gina Reinhart, via the Sydney Mining Club, will pump hundreds of thousands of dollars into Liberal coffers. How will that help Dutton’s “everyday Australians”, millions of whom Dutton was complicit in in denying a tax cut, when he is invited to Mar-a-Lago to share a toast with Trump?

First it was Josh Frydenberg’s “Back in Black” now it’s Peter Dutton’s “Back on Track.” Frydenberg came nowhere near to delivering that promised surplus but voters believed his boast and the Coalition won the election of 2019.

Now Peter Dutton is promising to get us ‘back on track’, except, this time unfortunately he’ll do just that. We’ll have inflation back to 6 per cent, eye-watering debt, 5 per cent unemployment, tax cuts for top income earners, no credible climate change policy, remembering they had 22 plans but were did not implement any of them because they were terrified of the likes of Dutton and Barnaby Joyce. There will be no compassion for the poor (remember Robodebt) and no tax cuts for low-income earners.

Now Dutton beats the Donald Trump drum. The wealthy will wallow in the spoils, the less fortunate will be left behind.

There is also much talk of Peter Dutton’s secret weapon of focussing on crime. The thrust of this line of attack is to evoke doubt and fear. It is, in essence, also a criticism of our judiciary. Former Liberal attorney-general, George Brandis, once stated that Dutton always found the judiciary “an inconvenience”. This tactic of amplifying crime worked in the Northern territory and in Queensland which is federally Dutton’s strongest state. It worked for Donald Trump who said thousands of murderers had crossed US’s open borders and that illegal Haitian immigrants were eating the cats and dogs of the citizens of Springfield, Ohio.

But it backfired for Dutton in Victoria when he demonised African Australians as making it difficult for others to go about their normal lives. Labor premier Dan Andrews increased his majority in the subsequent election.

The real issue is cost-of-living. Many are doing it tough but there have been more than a million jobs created which helps more people to pay their bills. Average unemployment is at 3.9% which is far better than the 5.6% under Tony Abbott and 6.3% under John Howard.

While opposing every cost-of-living measure introduced by the Labor government, the Coalition beats the well-worn drum of excessive spending. But its own record of blatant pork-barrelling via sports rorts and car parks and handing millions of dollars to companies that were already making huge profits, is hardly glowing.

Dutton may think crime is his trump card (pun intended) but when it comes to the broader Australian community, he’ll need to propose viable alternatives to all the policies he has opposed, especially those on housing, cheaper medicines, child care and tax cuts for all Australians.