Time Bomb Defusing 101

A careful analysis of the PM's political tactics reveal a lot about what makes him tick and perhaps sadly, what makes us vote for him.

Blessed with an economy that is booming thanks to the sustained rampant growth of the Chinese and other Asian economies and their thirst for our raw materials, in each three year term he has worked overtime for the first two years to deliver to those who voted him in, big business, the privilged, Little Aussie Battler Rupert etc.

Some 6-9 months before the election he assesses what are the hotspots in public opinion that need hosing down and sets about doing just that, one by one.

That is not to say that he will actually fix any real problems. Rather, he will create the allusion that problems are either fixed or in the pipeline and therefore need no longer be of concern to his dear friends, the Voters.

This coming election, industrial relations, climate and water are the BIG issues.

His new 7-point Fairness Test is his attempt to defuse Industrial Relations. His sudden conversion from Climate Sceptic to True Believer is designed to lull us into the belief that something is at long last being done to stop the clock ticking re sea-level rise, global warming etc. The Government's $10 billion, back-of-an-envelope plan to save the Murray is supposed to quell voter backlash to its 11 years of neglect in this area.

One by one we are being fooled into believing that these issues are no longer likely to explode in our faces whereas the truth is that little is actually being done to tackle the problem.

We are being encouraged, via a $7.6 million allocation in the budget, to convert from incandescent to new-fluoro light bulbs. This could be achieved for no cost by simply banning the sale of incandescent bulbs from,say, the end of this year. I doubt a black market in incandescent bulbs would spring up. In any event this in tinkering at the edges of a very large problem.

The government has doubled the subsidy for solar panels, back to its once-previous level of $8000 per house. Since a decent sized system costs more than double that figure, few people are going to be in a position to take advantage of the scheme. Once again the perception is that a lot is being done when the reality is just the opposite. A better use of these funds would be to either increase the subsidy for installing solar hot water, a far more efficient technology, or give the money to organisations involved in improving the efficiency of solar panels. Australia used to be the world leader in this area but sadly now trails the field.

Of the much vaunted $10 billion Save the Murray scheme total, only $50 million will be spent in the next year.

At the same time of course, the Government will spend hundreds of millions of your dollars to tell us what a wonderful job it's doing. Just before the election; what a coincidence.

Believe that and you'll probably be silly enough to believe there are no unexploded bombs left in the PM's kitbag.