A question for Kevin Rudd

Where’s my money man?

Boatpeople fail to make a dent in Rudd’s popularity

I have been dreading this week’s Newspoll. The Rudd government has stumbled through the big issues since coming into office yet the PM has managed to retain an approval rating hovering around 70 per cent.

Despite the mistruths and attempts to rewrite economic history, the rightards have until now failed to make an impact on the public,  which rightly concurs that issues such as the global financial crisis is beyond Australia’s control but Rudd is managing it reasonably well.

Hence I dreaded a significant decrease in Rudd’s popularity this week as it would have shown that most Australians rate the asylum seeker issue important enough to change their vote. For a government to be popular during a recession to suddenly become on the nose because of a perceived soft stance on asylum seekers would be a very sad state of affairs ineed.

Thankfully today’s Newpoll suggests otherwise. Not only has Rudd and Labour maintained their popularity (Rudd slumped a bit, but from very high base), the Liberal Party have failed to make any ground from the tragic deaths of five asylum seekers near Ashmore Reef, despite doing it’s best to lay the blame squarely at the government. In fact Malcolm Turnbull’s popularity has dripped even more.

On the issue of which party would best manage the asylum seeker issue the Government has a slender lead  at 27 per cent compared with 26 per cent for the Opposition. A significant 33 per cent say they are uncommitted.

This surely was the last bastion for the Libs to make up any ground on Rudd.

But the bit that made feel good was that only 36 per cent of voters  voters believe a tougher regime would make any difference in cutting illegal arrivals, while 57 per cent believe it would do nothing to stop boatpeople.

What figures we don’t have is of the 53 per cent who believe a tougher regime would stop boat people, how many have formed this opinion based on their own ingorance or racist attitudes. I’d like to think a minority. The same minority who wave the Andrew Bolt flag and are welcomed to insight hatred in the Herald Sun comments section.

So I’d like to admit I was wrong. Issues like asylum seekers in peril don’t bring out the worst in Australians. It just gives the racist minority an excuse to have their disgusting views aired.

The trouble with living in the blog world is you assume everyone else gives a shit about what these fucktards  (and me for that matter) have to say. But they don’t. And as Newspoll shows most people see what happened on Ashmore Reef, shake their heads in either sympathy or indifference and move on knowing that these things happen.

While I’ll always be concerned about such matters perhaps I should do the same, or at the very least stop getting worked up over what is an ugly but insignificant section of our community.

Did Rudd’s stimulus package work or not?

The Federal Opposition have come out and called the Rudd Government December stimulus package a failure, claiming that most people saved the money rather than spent it. They then said it had no impact on the negative growth in GDP for the December quarter – despite the fact Australia has travelled a hell of a lot better than the rest of the world’s leading economies and that the full impact of the stimulus won’t be known until we see the figures for the current March quarter.

And what about the following media reports that say the package was found to have a positive impact on spending and the GDP?

Stimulus, rates behind sales boost – The Australian, March 3 2009

Shoppers embark on January spending spree – WA Today, March 3, 2009

Kevin Rudd’s $10b stimulus package stokes retail sales record – The Australian, March 3 2009

Australia retail sales suprise to the upside – ForexPros.com, March 2, 2009

Gross domestic product would have been worse without stimulus ACCI  - The Australian, March 4, 2009

So why then are there also headlines like:

Rudd squandered economy: Turnbull – Brisbane Times (Fairfax Digital), March 4 2009

Households shun PM’s retail therapy – Business Day, Brisbane Times (Fairfax Digital), March 4 2009,

Stimulus packages have failed: Turnbull – Sydney Morning Herald, March 4, 2009

So one hand the stimulus package worked, but it didn’t work enough. Australia’s prosperity in recent years has been driven by the mining boom so it should come as no surprise that a drop in mineral production and exports, particularly to China, will have a huge impact on Australia’s economy. To say Australia’s GDP has dropped purely because Australians are saving their money is too simplistic and according to some of the above reports wrong in any case.

Face it, we’re in recession, but to criticise the Rudd Government for managing the global financial crisis’ impact on Australia, rather than stopping it, is like blaming the CFA for not stopping Victoria’s disastrous bushfires.

Let’s face it, most of us are “out of touch” not just Turnbull

The Government’s attack on Malcolm Turnbull’s wealth and his apparent inability to associate with everyday Australian battlers is a shallow, dog-whistle dig that Labor hopes will resonate with voters.

The fact is all politicians, are out of touch with those struggling to make ends meet as would anyone who earns a minimum of $130,000 a year knows they’ll be sorted for life come retirement.

This was ably demonstrated by Labor MP John Murphy, who used parliament to complain about the allegedly piss-poor amount of beef stroganoff that his wife was served up at the Parliament House canteen.

But while everyone is quick to jump on Murphy for his petulance, is he any different to the rest of the population who are doing pretty well but expect the world and complain about every minor inconvenience.

For example are people who complain that it’s getting to expensive to fill the petrol tanks of their $60,000 four-wheel-drives in touch with struggling pensioners?

And what about everyone who criticised the Rudd Government for cutting the baby bonus to people earning more than $150,000?

You never heard too many people say “I don’t need the money give it to pensioners instead”.

The thinking is that we’re entitled to anything the government can give us.

Ironically, it’s the Liberal Party, which is condemning the Rudd Government for not raising the single aged pension, which chose to spend billions of the budget surplus, when in government, on tax cuts and hand outs for middle and high income earners, rather than on the most vulnerable in our society.

It is the same party which, while calling on the government to allocate billions to raise pensions, is opposing a luxury car tax that will add just a couple of thousand dollars to the price of a $100,000 sports car, as though that will have an impact on anyone who can afford such car.  Surely if they are that worried about pensioners they’d approve the luxury car tax on the proviso the money raised would to raising pensions.

The Howard Government raised the battler bar to include people who are living pretty comfortably. Sure most people will complain about petrol prices and interest rates, but that doesn’t stop shopping centre and superstore car parks being full at weekends.

How many of these people can honestly say they are in touch with those doing it really tough?

Who’ll take credit for trade surplus?

The Australian reports Australia has broken broke a five-year run of trade deficits in April, recording its first surplus since March 2002.

The impact of the commodities boom and an improvement in rural exports fuelled by an easing of drought conditions briefly propelled the national trading performance into the black.

Figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show Australia recorded a trade surplus of $12 million in April but slipped back into the red in May – partly as a result of the spike in international oil prices.

This is good news for the Rudd Government and I eagerly await Andrew Bolt’s column praising it for making the most of the high Australian dollar and it’s work in slowing inflation which puts the brakes on imports.

I also await Brendan Nelson’s praise. I mean he’s quick to sink the boot in on petrol prices and interest rates with Rudd being in power for just six months – so why not give credit when it’s due. And I’m sure Brendan Nelson wouldn’t even think to claim credit on behalf of the Howard Government for this turnaround in the trade surplus.