I would like to start by saying that you suck. More coherent and constructive criticism will follow, but the adolescent insult seems like a good way to start.
What's that? WHY do you suck? Well, let me enumerate, in no particular order, the various kinds of fail you people as whole are currently epitomising.
1. Banning bank exit fees/having a single account number that works across all banks
Look, my parents have been in banking for longer than I've been alive. You don't grow up in that kind of environment without learning something. To quote George Negus from tonight's 7pm Project, banks are not a charity, they are a business. Which means, if you remove one means of income from the business (i.e. exit fees) the shortfall will, and indeed must, be made up from elsewhere. In other words, Wayne Swan's calling people who quite rightly point out that the banks will do this "outrageous" is in itself outrageous. It's a denial of reality from a government I suspect will become famous for it.
As for the account number thing, there's actually a quite serious logistical problem there. Your account number is not like a phone number - there is no standard amount of digits, and no single way of organising bank account details. Some banks have six digits, others have nine or more, and apparently there are various squiggly bits involved along with the numbers. Can you imagine the time and cost conflating every bank/credit union/whatever account would take? It seems like a colossal waste (not surprising as it's Gillard and co,) and more to the point, pretty bloody stupid so far as security is concerned. At the moment, if someone hacks your bank details, chances are it's only one account at one bank. A single account number across all the banks would mean all your accounts at all the banks would be hacked and drained. Even if you do only bank at one bank, or have only one account, problems such as recently arose with NAB could and would easily spread throughout the entire banking system, because they'd all have to be linked. An entire nation with their pay cheques frozen. Yep, that's a great idea, Wayne.
2. Still all talk and no action
This one's pretty basic. Before the overthrow of Rudd and the Julia's rise to power, I blogged about how little the government had done since coming to power in 2007. I ought to search that out and just paste it here, because nothing has changed. Think of one thing that has been done - not announced, not promised, not discussed, nor had a committee set up for it. Julia says they'll discuss gay marriage. When? Ooh, in about two years or so. Julia says they'll start implementing the national curriculum. When? Oh, just some bits here and there for now. We'll wait another couple of years before we really get to work on THAT. And the list just goes on. Yes, I know it's fair to say that their hands are tied by the nature of their hold on power, but the fact remains that if they were serious about this whole hand-holding bipartisan bunkum they were spouting when Oakeshott and Windsor picked Labor, and they were serious about the things they want to do, then they would be actively finding ways to do them, because if nothing else, it would play well for them. But they're not - they're only interested in hanging on to their jobs, and hiding the fact that they don't currently have the funds to do any of it.
3. Failure to punish for failure
Has anyone but me noticed that Peter Garrett is, for all intents and purposes, Education Minister now? The guy mismanaged a simple insulation scheme so badly that it was rorted beyond belief, and had tragic consequences for four young men. And yet they give him a portfolio containing a scheme that was itself badly exploited by various unscrupulous persons and only slightly less poorly managed by the woman who is now our Prime Minister.
And Rudd, as we all know, has been given Foreign Affairs. He's probably quite good at it, because he was a diplomat. But the fact is, those same diplomatic qualities are the reason why he was such a shit PM. He fed us nothing but buzzwords and spin, and the Labor Party rightly ousted him for it. But to let him then take a central role in the new government is an act of brazen stupidity, no matter how well suited Rudd may be. No-one in the Cabinet can possibly feel comfortable with Rudd still in a central role, least of all Gillard. And Rudd can't in conscience trust any one of them, because neither he nor we will ever know exactly who was in on the deal, who supported it privately but backed in him publicly. The man is surrounded by people who he must distrust.
Both of these men are serious weaknesses in the Federal Labor Government, and considering Julia keeps insisting that they're looking to provide stable rule, why both of these obvious instabilities remain in key positions on the front bench is beyond me.
4. Focusing on the small issues/pandering to the media
The small issue here is the R18+ classification for gaming. Now, don't get me wrong, this is important to me and many other people. The idea that adults are essentially banned from accessing adult content is ridiculous, as is the fact that 15-year-olds can currently buy games that would require ID in other countries. But, as issues go, it's not massively important, relative to some of the others needing attention. The NBN is important. Balancing the budget is important. The list goes on and on, but all of these things need attention before something as relatively fringe as gaming classifications is dealt with. This is assuming that the government can only manage one thing at a time, and as I've yet to see anything to the contrary, I think it's a fair assumption. The reasons they are dealing with classification issue are pretty simple - it'd be cheap to do, potentially put more money into the struggling retail sector, and from there into government coffers via tax, they know that they have broad community consensus in support of R18+, and they desperately need to be seen to be acting on at least one issue.
It really is all about appearances over substance with this government, just as it was with the last one. For evidence you need look no further than last week, when our Prime Minister (who, as much as I find her contemptible and useless, does hold the highest governmental office in the country, and thus deserved some respect, if only from herself) seemed to decide it was appropriate and normal for her to join Oprah onstage at Fed Square in front of 50,000 screaming morons. Yes, I know that Oprah has interviewed Barack Obama, but he's a US politician and so actually vaguely relevant to the big-teethed shouty one, especially as she supported him (that's Yank political speak for 'gave him money') during his election campaign. There was no relevance to that meeting, beyond the pictures it gave the news outlets. It made Oprah look good, to get the Prime Minister of Australia, and Gillard's staff must have hoped it'd make the government look good too. Nope. Stupid, stupid, beholden to the media bullshit. Oprah (who I could quite easily write a whole other blog about, simply marvelling at the idiocy and spiritual emptiness of all the people who have essentially allowed our nation to become her private fun park, and who, what's more, are humbled and honoured by this opportunity to lick her boots) has no claim at all on the head of our government's time, even such an incompetent one as Gillard. This government must stop acting like celebrities and start being politicians.
So that is why you suck, Federal Government. Shape up or ship out, because goodness knows your grip on power is pretty bloody weak.
Sincerely,
Me.
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