Both sides of the political spectrum are not hitting the mark when it comes to the battle for our vote come the election later this year. There are fundamental problems with both sides for differing reasons.
The Rudd Government has developed a habit of sensationalising issues with grand statements like the one used to push for Climate Change. Prime Minister Rudd claimed that "climate change is the great moral challenge of our age." This may be true. But if it is, why did he shirk this great moral challenge? This is type of grand statement has been repeated on many occasions – Tax reform, Health reform, Indigenous issues ('The Apology'), Asylum seekers, Grocery watch ect...
On each of these occasions, grand and catchy statements were made to highlight how important the issue was only to be followed by either little tangible action or withdrawal all together. The Prime Minister shelved the ETS, made changes to border protection rules which rolled back human right enhancements made by the Government and tax/health reform fell well short of being actual reform. The Government is falling short on issues because it is either overstating the problem or failing to live up to the challenge.
The Opposition, on the other hand, has far greater problems. They are over time becoming a rabble of ill disciplined motor mouths. The problems began with the Leadership debacle which saw Tony Abbott ascend to the position of Leader. He then took a massive gamble and placed Barnaby Joyce in the Finance portfolio. This spectacularly backfired which saw Barnaby demoted. Then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott admitted to lying in the heat of debate and said the only thing you could believe were his carefully scripted remarks. While this may be true of most politicians, to say it shows how uncontrolled he is. Then Julie Bishop made some incredible statements regarding the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of Australian Passports in the assignation of a senior Hamas Leader in Dubai earlier this year. She said that Australian spy agencies used forged passports as well. Although she later said she had misunderstood the question. She also said that the expulsion was done for political reasons. Of course it was. It was done for the reason of sending a message to the Israeli Government that Australian Passports are off limits.
The main problem for the Opposition is that they cannot control their message. They hold more extreme views than the Howard Government did and now those views are boiling over and can no longer be hidden from view. They see a political point scoring opportunity in everything the Government says or does. They are an opposition for opposition's sake. And under Abbott they are a scary, extreme and reckless alternative Government.
I hope both sides can improve and provide us a more effective Parliament that can truly reform Tax, Health and bring down the cost of living expenses. I hope they can stop political point scoring and work on fixing the problems facing our country.
Now that may be too much to ask for.
