Angus Will Take Australia In The Right Direction…Whatever That Is!

I just saw a little clip where Angus Taylor was being interviewed by Peta Credlin. I’m not sure if it was part of a longer interview or whether she just interviewed him for the Liberal Party ad, but whatever, it went something like this:

Credlin: Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Taylor: Because I believe that Australia is worth fighting for.

Credlin: What’s the problem?

Taylor: Australia is going in the wrong direction.

Ok, I may have left out the visuals and any inspirational music but that was basically the gist of what he was saying. And when I say gist. That was pretty much all of it. So we’re left with the idea that Angus will be fighting someone for Australia because it’s worth fighting for, but we’re left with only a vague idea of who he’ll be fighting. Is it Labor or the Greens or One Nation or the women in the Liberal Party? Or all of them because they all threaten the Australia that’s worth fighting for. Or will it be the ISIS brides and is he prepared to go all the way to Syria to fight them? Or is it migrants generally?

Anyway, we know that Angus wants a fight so we’ll just have to wait and see who he has in mind.

As for Australia’s direction, I’m not sure what he means. I’m presuming that he doesn’t mean the way it spins on the Earth’s axis because suggesting that it could spin the other way would just be a denial of basic facts and put him at odds with scientists and… ah, yes, I do see your point there.

Anyway, presuming he means something else there are a number of possibilities. It could be economically and he thinks that we should aim for a balanced budget and cut both spending and taxes. Of course, if we cut taxes, then we’ll need to cut even more spending and while voters are happy to cut spending in theory, it’s always a little different when someone suggests something like: Maybe we could slash the medicare rebates and let people pay more or Do those private schools really need a $24 million stadium? 

Or perhaps by Australia going the wrong way, he could possibly mean the voting public and the fact that they’re deserting his party in droves. Yes, by going to One Nation or the Independents, the Australian public could be perceived as going the wrong way by someone who thinks that they should vote for him because well, he wouldn’t say that he was born to rule, but he certainly belongs to that class of people who do a better job, even if they’re the only ones who think it…

I did see another clip of Angus where he was talking about how his upbringing on the farm where he learnt to scare sheep and assist his family in other ways turned him into the fine man that he is today. He lamented that kids today don’t get that sort of thing where they can help out on the farm or in the family business. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the refusal of those on the dole to go out and buy a farm…

While Angus will no doubt be pleased by a poll that showed Albanese’s disapproval rating was much higher than his own, he should be careful in placing too much store in any of the future polls. In the case of this particular one, the “Undecided” was much higher in his case and the approval ratings weren’t that much different. In other words, people have made up their mind on Albo because they know him, whereas Angus will need longer to get his disapproval ratings to better than fifty percent. And, of course, the thing about the PM’s disapproval rating is that it contains not just people who are appalled with his “communist” ideas, but also one who think that he’s too similar to the Liberals or hasn’t done enough with his massive majority.

I suspect that future polls will show an increase in the Liberals vote at the expense of One Nation. While this may lead them to pat themselves on the back, it doesn’t necessarily put them any closer to government. Whenever they copy something that Pauline says, they not only give her more legitimacy than she deserves but they also lose some of the voters in the centre. There’s nothing great about going from two points behind One Nation to two points above it if you lose votes in the very seats you need to win back.

Whatever I am looking forward to the interview where Taylor does that breathless scoff and reacts as though the question is so absurd that it doesn’t deserve an answer and that’s not just because he hasn’t got one; it’s just that the answer might be… um…you know… I mean, surely… you’re not suggesting… isn’t it… look, this is hardly what we should be talking about when Australia needs people who’ll fight to put it in the right direction… what do you mean by no Liberal Treasurer has delivered a surplus since Peter Costello?