There are moments that turn an election campaign…
I mean, all of them. Every moment turns an election campaign because either something significant happens or it doesn’t. If it does then that’s significant but if nothing significant happens then that also has a big effect on what happens because… well, if nothing significant happens then we can expect what we can expect… unless there was something significant that we didn’t notice like Mark Latham’s handshake which probably didn’t really change anyone’s mind but it’s a nice symbolic moment in retrospect…
All of which brings me to Peter Dutton’s howler on the price of eggs. Anybody who’s shopped for eggs recently knows that they’re not $4.20 but that’s not the problem for Mr Dutton. The problem is why on earth he said something as specific as $4.20.
Was it to make it sound like he knew, and this would impress all the people who didn’t know what was going on? Of course this opens up a whole can of worms… which, if anyone is interested is available for $79.40 at Bunnings. Actually that’s the Tumbleweed Can-o-worms and it doesn’t include the worms which don’t come in a can and are $32.90 for a box of 500…
Anyway, there’s a problem with trying to appeal to the people who don’t know the answer and that’s because it makes it easy for your opponent to discredit you even if – by some chance – the price was actually $4.20. And even if Albanese had accepted the $4.20, he could have blunted Dutton’s who attack on the cost of living by simply saying, “Gees, we’ve been successful at taming inflation because eggs were $7 last time I looked…”
Yes, a rather risky strategy because of the fact that anyway who attempts to find eggs for $4.20 may be annoyed at you… Then again they might be annoyed at Dutton for lying about the cost of eggs and misleading our poor PM…
Whatever happens on Saturday, you’d have to say Labor have convincingly won the tactical battle in this election campaign. Their decision to try and make things as boring as possible means that nobody seems to have noticed their lack of ambition on climate or various other things. To be fair, they have at least announced some policies on things and then hoped we were paying attention. The Liberals have tended to do one of three things when Labor’s announced a policy: 1. Ignore it 2. Copy it 3. Announce something else that they say was not actually something they intend to do and that it was all the fault of someone else that this was even discussed because Labor tried to misrepresent the policy so we’re shelving it rather than explain it.
While Scotty From Muckingitup was famous for his “I reject the premise of your question”, Dutts has a different strategy when asked a difficult question.
“Mr Dutton, about your candidate who made the disgraceful comments on social media, wouldn’t you be calling for his resignation if he were a Labor candidate?”
“I’ve already answered that.”
“No, you haven’t. Could you…”
“One question per reporter, please. Next.”
“Yeah, well I was going to ask the same question.”
“Look, I just answered that.”
“No you didn’t.”
“If nobody has any questions about anything else…”
“I have one about immigration.”
“Go on”
“Yeah, but you’ve already answered that dozens of times in previous interviews, so there’s no point in asking…”
“I will decide when I repeat myself and the circumstances in which I talk about who comes into Australia and when I channel John Howard.”
Actually it seemed more like he was channeling Donald Trump when he talked about the “hate media” the other day, but that was just a joke and a flippant comment that was only amplified by the hate media who like to jump on every single misstep that Dutton has made in the past few days…
As for his comment that the Greens were an “anti-Semitic, Jew-hating party”, I couldn’t work out what he was trying to do. The context was that he was being asked the candidate who’d made inappropriate comments about First Nations people on social media around the time of the Voice referendum. Dutton pointed out that there was no problem because the candidate had apologised but he wouldn’t be taking a lecture from the Prime Minister because he was “accepting preferences” from the Greens. Apart from the fact that you don’t get to decide how other parties direct their preferences, it was an all round strange way of deflecting criticism. I mean, it would have only taken one journalist to say: “Well, you’re not taking lectures from the PM, but would you take one from me?” and Dutton would have been forced to say something silly like…
Oh, that’s right. He already said it. You know, the thing about some members of the media being the hate media and therefore their criticism is invalid too.
I guess he only takes criticism from the sections of the community that don’t tell him that he’s wrong…
Still, at least he’s been consistent. It’s ok to be racist and sexist as long as you apologise and it’s divisive to stand in front of the Aboriginal Flag, and he’s promised that he won’t stand in front of more than one flag if he becomes PM, unlike Tony Abbott who used have several Australian flags behind him when he was PM.
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View Comments
"Still, at least he’s been consistent."
He's been very consistent in continually torpedoing any hope of the LNP winning the election on Saturday. The Libs will most likely attempt a Julius Caesar on Duddy (unless he chickens out and steps down for "the good of the party") and replace him with someone even thicker like Angus.
Dutton gazes thoughtfully at an egg and tells it.'we have much in common dear egg, not just our external appearance but you like me are an organic vessel, partially formed and unfertilized. Like me you have lost the opportunity for incubation to a viable embryo and into a sustainable lifeform.... Alas dear egg, I fear that like you, come the weekend I will end my days in an Egg McMuffin......possibly the most constructive thing I have done in my miserable life
Speaking of Angus, is he an Australian version of the English twit? There seem to be some commonalities - born of landed gentry, an education at The Kings School, the most expensive private school in the country, years spent as a 'management consultant,' i.e. telling others how to spend their money and being paid exorbitant sums for so doing, joining the Australian equivalent of the Conservative Party, rorting and law-breaking where & when he thought he could get away with it (Eastern Australia Irrigation, Jam Land), entering Parliament as if to the manner born, and making a complete dunce of himself, floundering, out of his depth, endeavouring to smear opponents unsuccessfully, as in the forged document controversy and Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and his allegations of millions spent in travel allowances.
A mystery, that the LNP have such a long track record of having twits and fools represent them. Must be that early conditioning... the former AG Christian Porter is another example, as was Fishnets Downer and the Giggler, Christopher Pyne.
There are a few twits campaigning.
Working at a pre'poll booth, handing out how to vote for the Labor candidate a young lady confronted my on the price of eggs.
I responded by asking why she thpught the price was high, and why there was a shortage.
It was Labor's fault apparently.
I did mention Avian flu and the killing of thousands of hens, but apparently I hsve no idea what I was talking about, being of the red shirt brigade.
J dared not mention that the egg risis was reported on both the ABC and in the Guardian
Eggs are expensive because of the shortage due to bird flu.
But energy has gone up because of Russia's war on Ukraine. Sure we don't buy gas from Russia but a lot of Europe does. Now they push up demand from other sources.
Not only is Dutton out of touch, but trying to blame Labor for factors well beyond any control in Australia. Liberals are most likely to do worse, much worse.
I was a bit bemused by channel 7 for bringing up the egg episode. Donald Trump did the same thing when he blamed Joe Biden for the high price of eggs. In both cases ignoring the fact that millions of chooks world wide had been euthanased because of the avian influenze (aka bird flu). Hence the shortage of eggs on the shelves. Trump actually said that he would fix that problem early if he was elected.