www.politics.net.au
August 25th 2006 00:53
Masters at Work
The two best politicians in Australia have been showing how it’s done these last few weeks.
John Howard and Peter Beattie are the great survivors of Australian politics, being in power for 10 and 8 years respectively. They are adept at playing the media, managing dissent and shamelessly worming out of sticky situations by beguiling the punters with tricky language and blaming others.
They have also both been helped by the collective rabble that is their opposition.
In Canberra, the big guy John Howard is still able to pull all the right strings.
A few renegades threatened to cross the floor over the asylum seeker bill, so Howard stopped the debate rather than face a loss.
Then right on cue, some boat people rocked up on Ashmore Reef, so Howard could play the populist line on how this bill was needed to stop the hordes of boat people, blah, blah, blah.
He then followed this up by announcing this week an increase in defence spending of up to $10 billion, which will aim to recruit an additional 2500 troops.
The dissenters and the opposition were suddenly soft on security, while Howard was the man of steel. The fact that Iraq is a bloody quagmire, with Australia’s presence there arguably worsening our security situation, has not dented his security credentials with the mainstream.
In Queensland, the man with the never ending smile is set to win a fourth election when the banana benders go to the polls in September.
Like Howard, Peter Beattie has avoided by being tarnished by scandals which have plagued his reign as Premier.
Why is this so?
Beattie is media savvy, a man of the people who likes footy and he is adept at that great Queensland game of stoking paranoia by blaming Canberra for “interfering”.
Only he could get away with playing the WorkChoices card, a federal issue, in a state election. It is a tactic that is succeeding brilliantly.
He is also lucky to have perhaps the worst opposition in the country.
The ridiculous move to merge the National and Liberal parties in Queensland, which was tellingly vetoed by Howard, was the most ridiculous political stunt of the year.
Howard and Beattie are Australia’s two most populist and successful politicians. What does that say about the electorate?
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