On the issue of boatpeople, Prime Minister Gillard was reported as stating yesterday
I’m not going to offer a slogan. And I’m going to say to people this is a complex problem. There is no simple fix. Anybody who pretends to you that a slogan and a bit of chest-beating is going to fix it simply isn’t telling the truth.
Is the Prime Minister repudiating her previous love affair of slogans? Who can forget the “education revolution”, “working people” and so forth. When Gillard removes the signs from schools then we might know she is serious about not being about slogans.
And who can forget Labor’s 2007 election slogan about “new leadership”. That lasted barely 2.5 years.
What is it about Labor that it elects mad leaders? Billy Hughes, Jack Lang, Ted Theodore, Joan Kirner, Doc Evatt, Gough Whitlam, Paul Keating (as Prime Minister), Mark Latham, Kevin Rudd and probably many others.
It’s not a complex problem at all.
You announce a position that says that illegal immigration is wrong an unfair to genuine refugees and legal migrants. You then seek to build a consensus around that position, and you implement policies that are consistent with that position.
That’s what the Indonesians have done, at least.
This is just Labor smoke blowing (again) to cover their inability to make hard decisions. However don’t hold your breath waiting for the pre-schoolers in the press gallery to pick up on it.
Good on you for picking this up Sam.
Dandy Warhol
4 Jul 10 at 10:06 am
“New Leadership,” wasn’t a slogan – it was a promise… the leadership is always new, because they’re always getting toppled.
In this case, she’s just preparing the ground against Abbott, so his statements on border security can be merely dismissed, rather than argued against (Rudd used a similar tactic in the health debate by dismissing Abbott’s arguments as “going negative”… of course, all criticism is negative by definition – but this allowed him to escape addressing any points he raised)
Soundbites win elections – not reasoned argument.
Fleeced
4 Jul 10 at 10:21 am
She’s on fire. The RSPT, or whatever those taxes are called now was done acceptably well, but this is very, very good. This sort of stuff could stop marginal seats falling to the LIbs.
In a way it’s a triumph for democracy. Labor has recently been forced to listen to the people – and I suspect a lot of this listening was done in the Penrith by-election – and they’re actually coming out with policies that will probably be effective and in line with public opinion.
Which wedges the Libs well, because they don’t have decent policy. They’ve just tried to wedge Labor on its downward slide with maternity leave and green armies. So, in a further triumph for democracy, if they want to have any chance of winning they need to come out with some real policy in line with what the public wants, and sell it in a way so they believe it may actually have a chance of working.
If the new RSPT (or whatever it is) actually looks like wedging the Libs, I reckon it might be viable to say we’ll keep it, but we’ll make some serious cuts to company tax, like was initially intended by Ken ‘wombat man Labor hack’ Henry. And vie to recapture that credibility edge they had over Labor on boat people, by saying they’re going to reinvigorate industry, creating more employment and opportunities at all levels, through lower taxes and less red tape.
Michael Sutcliffe
4 Jul 10 at 10:53 am
I still think a paid migration visa which for a fee of $30000 allows anybody who passes a medical and criminal checkup to become a permanent resident would go some way towards mitigating people smuggling activities. It would be orderly, limited and would fund the public infrastructure that everybody is concerned about.
TerjeP
4 Jul 10 at 11:12 am
Works fine for me Terje. I think in some ways you can do it. My mechanic is a Rhodesian, and he was talking about the cost of getting his elderly mother here. He could do it on the basis of family, but he needed to put up a bond of $100K or so. At least that was the way he described it.
Michael Sutcliffe
4 Jul 10 at 12:00 pm
Which wedges the Libs well, because they don’t have decent policy.
What a strange comment. They’re the only party that does have policies and Labor’s strategy is simply to copy them.
C.L.
4 Jul 10 at 12:15 pm
It’s fine to copy them so long as you do them better.
Michael Sutcliffe
4 Jul 10 at 12:55 pm
Gillard doesn’t need to offer a slogan because she already has one… “another boat on the way, another policy failure”.
DavidJ
4 Jul 10 at 1:48 pm
Where’s David Marr is all this.
JC
4 Jul 10 at 2:02 pm
oops… in all this…
JC
4 Jul 10 at 2:04 pm
And who can forget Labor’s 2007 election slogan about “new leadership”. That lasted barely 2.5 years.
.
The slogan was founded in the Labor Party’s committment to truth. New leadrship means new leadership. Two and a half years into the job you start to get a bit tarnished mate. You start to get a little rusty. The new upholstery smell is well and truly gone bro’.
.
So we got a new leader.
Adrien
4 Jul 10 at 2:17 pm
My favourite slogan is: Black, white, yellow, red; copulate in a king-sized bed!
.
Don’t hear that one much anymore.
Adrien
4 Jul 10 at 2:18 pm
Of course there is a simple fix. The Coalition’s policy had fixed the problem until GRuddllard reversed it.
That’s assuming she is actually talking about the boatpeople, and not Labor’s political problem of placating both the electorate and the luvvies. That’s a complex problem!
Paul Williams
4 Jul 10 at 2:51 pm
DavidJ, JC and Paul – strong applause from me.
Dandy Warhol
4 Jul 10 at 2:58 pm
Samuel wants politics without slogans? Give me a break!
Boris
4 Jul 10 at 4:48 pm
2-4-6-8
show us your tits!
I heard this slogan in year 4 and it’s still my favourite.
Yobbo
4 Jul 10 at 10:10 pm
Pissed, lost,….show us your map of Tassie.
Well, Yobbo, in line with your ribald comment above, this is my favourite. You’ll note the sophisticated humour to which I’m sure we can all relate.
Michael Sutcliffe
4 Jul 10 at 10:42 pm
Yobbo.
How did that work out for ya?
JC
4 Jul 10 at 10:43 pm
No wonder we don’t get anything done in this country
tal
4 Jul 10 at 11:12 pm
Boris – while it would be nice to not have slogans in politics, I’m just pointing out that the master of slogans is saying she won’t use slogans!
Samuel J
5 Jul 10 at 6:44 am