Comments (5)

By Les Scammell, November 28, 2009 12:41 pm

It’s a sad day in politics when politicians start using Twitter and Facebook to help them make decisions. That is the case in Australia at present as one major political party goes into total melt down. Australia only has two major political parties, the ALP and the Liberal party. The ALP currently holds power and it seems will continue to do so for quite some time – at least until the Liberal party can get their act together.

Joe Hockey, a probable candidate to take over as leader of the party at some time in the near future, is now using Twitter and Facebook get feedback on climate change issues – specifically a bill before parliament that will bring in a carbon credit system together with a carbon emission reduction goal. This legislation has torn the Liberal party apart – hence Joe Hockey’s use of social media.

He has been a staunch supporter of current leader Malcolm Turnbull and the his efforts to broker a deal related to the new legislation. He is now trying to find an out for this support and is using Twitter and Facebook to help him. At the end of the day he will say that public support is not behind Malcolm Turnbull or the government so he is going to reverse his stance.

That’s pretty weak. First, Twitter and Facebook are not representative of the Australian population. Second, unless someone actually counts every response, we only have his word for the end results, and finally, people use situations like this to gain an advantage. I would love to know how many new followers he received over the last few days and how many of them offered the advice he wants to hear.

This is politics and we all know how two faced they can all be. Tony Abbott was one of the biggest supporters of this legislation a couple of months ago. In fact he was quite up front in promoting it and urging the Liberal party leadership to support it. Guess what, when things got tough he was the first to jump ship and swap sides – and then throw his hat into the ring for the job of party leader.

Am I cynical – you bet. This hasn’t nothing to do with the environment the new legislation – this has just been the issue used to create a disturbance in the party room to force the removal of Malcolm Turnbull. He is his own worst enemy. He is too aloof, too much of a control freak, and just not likable enough to get away with it like Kevin Rudd does (he is also a control freak).

As for Joe Hockey – surely he is not a political suicide freak. Anyone who takes on the leadership job now is on a hiding to nothing. The Liberals will get badly mauled at the next election – only a year away now. If I was Joe, I would step away and let Abbott take the job. Let him take the bruises, and, like every other losing party leader, lose his job after the next election. Then he can step in and rebuild the broken party. Turnbull needs to do a Howard. Howard lost the job of opposition leader and sat back and let everyone else do the hard work. When the time was right he stepped back into the limelight and the rest is history.

Where to know for the Liberals. I guess they will all be heading to Twitter and Facebook to find out who the public wants to see as leader. They may as well – they can’t make a decent decision themselves!

Comments (1)

By Les Scammell, October 20, 2007 1:01 pm

As Australia moves closer to election day it is becoming more apparent that Labor leader Kevin Rudd will defeat current Prime Minster John Howard, probably by a big margin. The question is why? Why will they will dump one of their most popular Prime Minsters for many years.

The answer, while sounding simplistic, involves in depth psychology. The very fact that John Howard is so popular is also going to be his downfall. Kevin Rudd has one very strong thing going for him – he looks, sounds and acts like John Howard. He looks like a father or grandfather (not that he is that old) – he is confident and compelling in front of the media without looking arrogant – finally, he is down to earth, your regular everyday ‘aussie’.

John Howard on the other hand has become arrogant. Gone are the days when he looked like reliable father/grandfather. He now looks desperate that desperation is showing as arrogance. Some of the legislation that has hurt workers over the last 12 month is also starting to sting – particularly when he insists that no-one has been hurt.

Finally everyone knows that he is not in it for the long haul – he has stated that he will quit after about 12 months and the job over to his deputy, Peter Costello, who is not particularly well likes. For John Howard and the Australian Liberals, it looks like it is going to be their turn on the opposition benches – probably for quite a while.

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By Les Scammell, October 8, 2007 2:25 pm

Here in the land of Oz (in case you don’t realize it, I live in Australia), we are about to hit election time. The current Prime Minister, John Howard, is so far behind in the polls that it will probably take a miracle to win. But, he has done it before.

One of the dangers he is facing at the moment is that everyone knows the election is looming, in fact unofficial campaigning has started. Herein lies his problem. By the time he calls the election most people will be so sick of the campaigning that they will switch off totally – if they haven’t already. If he goes to the election now, he will lose – no question about it.

The last two elections have been come from behind wins. But in each of those elections there have been major dramas around the world. We had 9/11. We had Iraq and Afghanistan. We had the Bali bombings. These dramas really did help him get re-elected.

One can only think of a couple of reasons why he hasn’t called the election yet. One, he is just hanging on and hoping. Two, he is hoping for another major event that will save him, or three, he is just hanging on long as possible because once the election is called, his political career may well be over.

Number one, he has no hope. Number two, I don’t even think a major drama can save him this time. The people of Australia have come to see through his manipulation of these events come election time. Number three, well it sounds about right – the last gasps.

Having said all this of course, the opposition party needs to be very careful. If they start to feel they are unbeatable, mistakes will happen and I believe the only way John Howard can win this election is if the opposition leader, Kevin Rudd, starts to make major errors.

Somehow, I cant see that happening.