Over the merry Christmas break, I am thinking of assembling a list of political clangers. I’ve bought a large notebook because I think I will need it.
Two today caught my eye, both from the Prime Minister.
We’re doing something something serious, we’re running the government, we’re running a nation.
Oh, come on. Governments don’t run nations. Even Joe Stalin didn’t run the USSR. What happens in a nation is the result of millions of atmostic actions by the citizens; the idea that a government RUNS a nation is not just ludicrous, it is SCARY.
And another clanger from the PM:
The government is strongly commited to a rigorous system for assessing the regulatory impact of proposals which are likely to impose an obligation on business or the not-for-profit sector.
Sure. Would that be the government that exempted the 700+ page Fair Work Act 2009 from a regulatory impact statement? And would that be the government that granted 14 exemptions in 2010-11, including the MRRT and changes to the anti-siphoning laws for TV? This was up from 4 in the previous year and 6 in 2008-09.
And that would be government that buried the process of regulation review in the bowels of the Department of Finance (good work, Lindsay, you always knew that keeping the function with the PC was too revealing and dangerous for the government) where the sun does not shine.
Additions to my list of clangers will be most appreciated.
Running the government, but ruining the nation…..
Entropy
16 Dec 11 at 7:29 am
The way they run the country is like running a bath – with putting the plug in.
Aqualung
16 Dec 11 at 7:43 am
I agree about the first comment, but it is fairly common for governments of all flavours to overstate their role as ‘running the country’, so I wouldn’t give it the status of ‘clanger’
However, ‘we are us’ is quite possibly one of the dumbest things a politician has ever said…
Papachango
16 Dec 11 at 7:53 am
agree Papachango … because we are us.
Judith Sloan
16 Dec 11 at 8:07 am
Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou! I’ve been saying this for ages. Papachango’s right, that this isn’t limited to Ms Gillard and her crew. But we need to separate the state from the country or the people or the nation! It’s protototalitarianism at its finest.
Alexander
16 Dec 11 at 8:22 am
It was little more than a year ago that KRudd was PM and whenever he opened his mouth he’d say something cringeingly awful. Come March when he is restored to the lodge, our teeth will again be set on edge with his every pronouncement.
ar
16 Dec 11 at 8:28 am
Good point, ar. I particularly fond of ‘we must stop this reckless spending’ and in government, promptly moved the ratio of government spending to GDP to the highest figure since 1945! Higher even than Whitlam!!
Judith Sloan
16 Dec 11 at 8:34 am
Speaking of kevni ruff:
“I am a fiscal conservative”.
Rabz
16 Dec 11 at 8:40 am
Who said “there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead’ and ‘The Australian people voted for this Parliament and this Parliament gives us an opportunity to price carbon, and we should; it’s the right time to do it.’
see http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3148281.htm
it’s a consistency clanger if nothing else
val majkus
16 Dec 11 at 8:53 am
“historically high interest rates”
Rudd in his monthly essay on economics.
True only if history began when Rudd became PM.
“Another boat another policy failure”
- Gillard
Judith, I think you’ll need more than a large notebook. Try cloud storage with unlimited quota.
No Worries
16 Dec 11 at 9:04 am
here’s a site of clangers including ‘hyperbowl’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Byczjh6yI
val majkus
16 Dec 11 at 9:09 am
Greg Combet ( Asked on 7.30 this week about Plimer’s new book and the climate science )
“We respect that people have different views……………………”
When did that start Greg?
Jim Toohey
16 Dec 11 at 9:16 am
Running a nation…..right into the ground
boy on a bike
16 Dec 11 at 9:20 am
Additions to the list :
anything Mad uncle Bob says, anything Milne says.
No Worries
16 Dec 11 at 9:26 am
Looking back all I can think of is:
Moving forward…Yes…in the national interest…fastest fiscal consolidation in Australia’s history and I have more chance of playing full forward for the bulldogs than being PM.Obviously she meant more chance than being a GOOD PM.
John Comnenus
16 Dec 11 at 9:32 am
But we need to separate the state from the country or the people or the nation! It’s protototalitarianism at its finest.
No we don’t. The officers of a state are drawn from the people. To say the state is separate from the people is like saying a club and its officers are separate from its members which makes no sense. But I do agree with the claim that “the idea that a government RUNS a nation is…ludicrous”. However, I have no problem with the claim that “a government GOVERNS a nation”. How could anyone?
dover_beach
16 Dec 11 at 9:36 am
Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis chastised Ms Gillard for her “clumsy” language on the issue.
“As far as I can see he (Mr Assange) hasn’t broken any Australian law,” he told Sky News.
“Nor does it appear he has broken any American laws.”
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1434991/gillard-red-faced-after-calling-wikileaks-illegal
val majkus
16 Dec 11 at 9:50 am
Perhaps not so much a clanger as an admission, but coming from Gillard given her silly twirl around the “region” looking for someone else to solve the asylum seeker problem she created…
– Gillard, September 2002.
Gab
16 Dec 11 at 10:04 am
Joe Ludwig.
Woolfe
16 Dec 11 at 10:21 am
Judith, your two examples are totally consistent. The second provides the methodology of the first i.e. this is how we are
runningruining the nation.Biota
16 Dec 11 at 10:25 am
A very worthy project!
Michael Warren
16 Dec 11 at 10:26 am
Greg Combet to Tony Abbott, June 2011.
Gab
16 Dec 11 at 10:35 am
I give in. What’s “atmostic”?
ar
16 Dec 11 at 11:28 am
Then it’s time to change the law.
jupes
16 Dec 11 at 11:36 am
dover_beach
So when a state decides to execute a minority, the minority are committing suicide?
“…How could anyone?…” Try Thomas Payne, in the most well known mass-read political pamphlet of the ages:
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/sense2.htm
Society != State
Robbo
16 Dec 11 at 12:54 pm
Kevin Rudd -
“But let me just say this”
And he did over and over and you couldn’t work out what he was trying to say anyway.
candy
16 Dec 11 at 12:57 pm
Programmatic specificity
John Comnenus
16 Dec 11 at 1:17 pm
I am not sure these are actually “clangers”. Both Gillard and Rudd have the ability to say things that are the complete opposite to their actions – I am not even sure they are lies, possibly because neither of them seem to have any real belief system that I can tell.
It is not Orwellian, in the sense that they seek to change history or what they have said, they simply keep going. At times this gives the appearance that they think the voters are stupid (such as the lady who confronted Gillard on the couple of days she tried to sell the carbon tax before giving up, “I’m not stupid you know”).
This was also a characteristic of the quintessential modern politician, Tony Blair, which made life so much easier for the writers at Private Eye.
I’m not sure it is confined to Labor either. Howard used to talk about small government all the time before going on a spending and welfare blow-out whenever the elections rolled around.
H B Bear
16 Dec 11 at 1:46 pm
ar I think that word is meant to be agnostic
val majkus
16 Dec 11 at 2:05 pm
Judith, don’t forget the RIS for the carbon tax. Given that the policy will have large impacts on business and the community in general, the analysis in the RIS is virtually non-existent. There’s nothing resembling cost-benefit analysis in the document at all.
I dare say the move of the regulation review function to Finance has undermined its independence.
Art Vandelay
16 Dec 11 at 2:21 pm
Still doesn’t work…
Judith, was that a clanger???
ar
16 Dec 11 at 3:01 pm
I thought Judith meant atomistic.
No Worries
16 Dec 11 at 3:12 pm
In the name of balance, let’s us include: I say yes to manufacturing.
Judith Sloan
16 Dec 11 at 3:52 pm
How about one from the right. In the interests of fair and balanced.
“Shit Happens…”
Then there are all of Craig’s it wasn’t me’s
And then Slippers statement that he didn’t realise that it would more than likely ensure the gov’t completed it’s whole term…
dakingisdead
16 Dec 11 at 4:35 pm
Just about forgot:
Kevvie’s “Fxxk the future”
dakingisdead
16 Dec 11 at 4:39 pm
Hey I didn’t give you permission for that title!
Oh come on
16 Dec 11 at 4:45 pm
Kevvie’s words were one might say ‘very self illustrative’
and might reflect other laborite parliamentarian’s opinion as well
(I say ‘might’)
‘Fxxk the future … what about me’
Is that the theme of a pop song
val majkus
16 Dec 11 at 5:17 pm
“But if a tax goes down, that’s f—in’ fantastic,”
Just for the amount of shxtstorm it caused on the twitterverse.
dakingisdead
16 Dec 11 at 7:17 pm
Didn’t that all start with Paul Keating saying “now we’ve got hold of the economic levers!” as a declaration of triumph?
John A
16 Dec 11 at 9:48 pm