On my iGoogle homepage today was the following quote attributed to Peter Ustinov an English Actor and Author:
"Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much."
Although I do not know to whom Ustinov was referring I immediately thought of Barnaby Joyce. Joyce is a hard hitting take no prisoners kind of politician. He prides (and sells) himself on being a straight talking conviction politician. But he has a tendency to speak first and think later. Many will criticise Kevin Rudd for his outlandish use of words (and sometimes even making them up) but you will never find him producing the rhetoric that Barnaby sprouts which could seriously damage our countries credibility on the world stage and does seriously undermine his own parties economic credibility. Whether it is on foreign ownership or Australia being unable to repay its debts.
Barnaby should seriously consider returning to back benches. He is much more effective as a back bencher who says what he wants without needing to fully understand what he is saying. He is much better with the one-liners than with the detailed knowledge of policy and economics that the Shadow Finance Minister requires. It is truly amazing to see how Barnaby is faltering. It must be truly difficult on the front bench when a seasoned retail politician can flounder so much and so regularly. And it is beginning to show in his demeanour and style. His performance against Lindsey Tanner on the ABC's program QandA was nothing short of horrible. Barnaby looked rattled, aggressive and generally hostile. This is not how a Finance Minister should be.
He is not doing his team any favours and continues to provide journalists with the distraction of asking every Shadow Cabinet Member questions about Barnaby and his position rather than on either their policies or the criticisms of the Government.
Barnaby you should return to your strengths, sniping very funny one-liners from the tall grass! Because you are doing little good as a Shadow Finance Minister, other than to the Labor party.
While I agree with the general thrust of your argument, it's a shame that our society has become so superficial that 'appearances' become everything. Tanner may 'look' the part, but he's an economic illiterate selling the lines his Treasury minders put in his mouth. Simple fact. Barnaby, OTOH, does know exactly what he's talking about, because he has the qualifications and career experience to validly comment. I've recently kicked off a blog dedicated to sharing that fact, if you're at all interested.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, in Tanner's "performance" on Q&A that apparently impressed you so, he blatantly lied about the Whitlam govt's record on debt. I've dug into the RBA's historical data, and proven that he lied in a detailed analysis on my blog.
Yes, Barnaby would doubtless have a far easier time of it from an economically-clueless media and (arguably) even more economically-clueless Labor 'economic team' if he could sit on the backbench and snipe. But I for one am pleased that he is on the front line. Because despite the occasional minor gaffes due not being a media-trained & polished BS artist, at least (over time) his vital message about the huge danger debt poses to this country will get something of an airing. For mine, something is better than nothing.
Cheers.