Sunday 10 July 2011

Oz PM Gillard and her 'word games'



When politicians wonder why their profession is ranked by the public somewhere between tax-collector and kiddie-fiddler, they may like to study Australian PM Julia Gillard's campaign to convince us that black is white, up is down and a clear statement that 'there will be no carbon tax under the government I lead' actually means the exact opposite. Whether or not she manages to brush off criticisms of her gross dishonesty as an exercise in 'word games' remains to be seen. We shouldn't put it past her, she's already achieved the seemingly impossible task of making Tony Abbott look like a safe pair of hands.

Naturally, when the BBC reports this, there's not a mention of her pre-election promise, nor any critique of the ludicrous anti-science of calling carbon dioxide 'pollution'. But that's the BBC for you, totally un-biased as long as you are imprisoned in the same fallacy echo-chamber as they are.

HT: The Humble Servant

UPDATE: Via Counting Cats I see this report from renowned scholar (ahem) Andrew Bolt:


3 comments:

The Humble Servant said...

No argument from me on this one. If you break your big election promises then it should go to an election or referendum.

This will be Gillard's downfall and I can't say I'll miss her however a country with Abbott at its head is a terrifying prospect.

Last time I was in Australia, there was a buzz around Rudd and many feel he might return. I would accept that. But Gillard is managing to piss everyone off in one way or another. Perhaps Gordon Brown's advisors are on a gap year.

Angry Exile said...

... she's already achieved the seemingly impossible task of making Tony Abbott look like a safe pair of hands.

You've hit the nail on the head there, TT. The only thing to add is that this is coming about because of a Green tail wagging the ALP dog. The ALP failed to win a majority in the House of Reprehensibles and nobody's had a Senate majority for years as far as I know. As a result of the last election the Greens have the balance of power in the Senate and are part of it in the House of Reps. Gingery Dullard, I suspect, has gone back on her pre-election promise because Senator Bob Brown has told her to if she wants Green support in other areas. This may be costly since one of the ALP's own big constituencies, the unions, are not happy about it or about the about turn.

On the other hand... Tony Abbott. You might say that he couldn't possibly be worse and I wouldn't disagree, but I strongly doubt he'd be any better either.

The Humble Servant said...

nobody's had a Senate majority for years as far as I know

The last time there was a majority in the Senate was after the 2004 election when the coalition took hold and almighty Howard decided to use his power to amended the Workplace Relations Act (not an election pledge) and abolish compulsory student unions (not an election pledge).

As many will fondly recall, Howard not only lost the next election but became the first Prime Minister in 78 years to lose his own seat too.

Perhaps Gillard should read her history books because Australians aren't fans of changes they didn't vote on. The Abbott alternative is a terrifying prospect though.