New Matilda slices and dices MalcolmTurnbull

Mark Bahnisch at his finest in PollieGraph (New Matilda) yesterday.

The Libs don’t seem to have any capacity for a disciplined approach to opposition. Despite the claims from Nick Minchin and others that Nelson would bring a “consultative” style to the leadership - in contrast to Howard’s - it appears clear that in the absence of the prize of government they’re incapable of turning their fire on Labor as opposed to scattering it among themselves. Just as some of the shine had rubbed off Swan’s budget, they’ve handed the government two devastating lines of attack - the disunity angle and the fact that they themselves know that their centrepiece budget reply “measure” is a piece of populist garbage and that they were concerned it would tear up their mythical but much cherished “economic management” brand.
Nelson sacking Turnbull would be an absolute disaster for them, for reasons that ought to be obvious. On the other hand, Nelson keeping Turnbull would be an absolute disaster for them, for reasons that ought to be obvious.
A lot of this can be traced back to their continuing failure to adapt to opposition. They need to make the government the story, not contend - in undignified and risible ways - with each other for their 15 minutes of fame in the public eye. Turnbull’s under-reported attempt at a censure on the budget after Question Time last week is a more revelatory moment than has been written up - it shows his own lack of discipline and overweening egotism in trying to shove himself into the spotlight on a day that should have been Nelson’s. Even from the point of view of a leadership contender, it’s a thousand types of dumb.

* Alternative portrait of Malcolm Turnbull (above) found at ABC News.

ALP rank and file sock it to Iemma and Costa in Crikey

Excerpt from article on the privatisation of NSW electricity in Crikey yesterday.

NSW ALP ignoring an ever-angrier rank and file
By Ben Aveling, Secretary of the Alexandria Branch of the ALP:

But now, Morris Iemma and Michael Costa have announced that they make the decisions, no correspondence to be entered into.
The Alexandria branch is a small branch, a couple of private sector employees, some public sector employees, a few small business owners. None of our regulars is a "staffer" and, like most similar branches, we are not factionally aligned. We don’t expect to dictate policy, but we do have a right to stand up and be counted.
We first tried to do this through our local State Electoral Council. Our motion against electricity privatisation passed, as did stronger motions from other branches. But in violation of two rules, the meeting had been postponed, moving it past the cutoff date for conference submissions and none of the motions reached conference. Nor was this the only attempt to manipulate the decision of conference.
In frustration, we turned to the rulebook and found that we could ask the Administrative Committee to consider the behaviour of Iemma and Costa, which we did. John Della Bosca’s response was that it is “unacceptable” for rank and file members to expect senior ministers to be bound by party rules.
Iemma has gone further: if any MP obeys the rules and supports a policy in defiance of "cabinet solidarity", Iemma will seek to have that MP thrown out of the party. Michael Egan has made his own contribution to doublespeak: Labor governments should not listen to outside forces like the Labor annual conference; as if Iemma and his supporters could have been elected without the word Labor after their names on the ballot papers.
Make no mistake, the rank and file are angry. There is a small group of people, with no grassroots support, who are trying to hijack the Party and the state. Our collective opinion was heard loud and clear at State Conference and will not be silenced by bully boy tactics from a Premier and Treasurer who seem happy to split the Party for a policy rightly regarded with deep suspicion by the electorate. We have always negotiated and compromised. Now we are being told to walk away completely. We will not.

Current Lib leadership not worth a bent zac

I wonder when the Liberal Party of Australia is going to realise that its political salvation does not lie in a choice between Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull as federal leader.
The party's entire federal front bench is so tainted by the Howard years, that public opinion polls are not likely to firm into double digits for any length of time with any of the usual suspects captaining the ship.
Every time one of these shadow ministers front a camera it is hard not to recall that they all turned a blind eye while refugees drowned at sea, drove people into madness in detention centres, allowed mates to fund a dictator with brown paper bags full of money, sent our kids to war based on WMD lies and generally rorted the political system.
Time for new blood fellas - or your particular craft just might sink without a trace.
Right now, as teh Opposition, you are p*ss weak.

Every breath you take, I'll be watching you

Tucked neatly into Joe Ludwig and Jenny Macklin's joint media release, on the welfare debit card to be introduced this year for Centrelink clients under income management and all baby bonus recipients, is this little admission.

Using the EFTPOS network will make more data available for better-targeted compliance checks aimed at detecting breaches.

What this sentence means is that every purchase made with one of these cards will be recorded against the name of the card holder and the data stored by the Federal Government.
Because it is nigh impossible to monitor for breaches without doing so.

It seems that the Rudd Government in its wisdom has decided that everytime the holder of a welfare debit card decides to purchase Kleenex tissues over Coles own brand, Arnott's biscuits over Dick Smith's cookies, Panadol over Nurofen, dried peas over fresh peas, or if a card holder buys over-the-counter haemorrhoid relief cream, it needs to know all the details.

As these debit cards will bar the purchase of alcohol, tobacco, pornography and not allow cash withdrawals, collection of additional information is insensitive, intrusive and needless.

Given that there is every indication that the Rudd Government intends to eventually roll out the welfare debit card nationally to include all government pension, benefit, allowance, concession recipients; every Australian citizen should be concerned with the implications of this data collection drive.

When one adds to this the recent Rudd Government announcement that it intends to access the full details of bank accounts held by people receiving cash transfers through Centrelink, whenever it deems this necessary; every citizen should be alarmed at where this attitude is taking our society.