Friday 6 March 2015 39 AFR www.afr.com | The Australian Financial Review Editorial&Opinion Your government would like to hear your thoughts ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Just in case you missed it, Joe Hockey and change its operational style and whether his Canberra Tony Abbott want to have a chat with you. government can overcome its dysfunction. observed ‘‘We need to individually own our destiny One source observed this week that there After 18 and this is a conversation that we know the was a considerable irony in the fact that, months of nation wants to have so we are going to when cornered, Abbott had gone to exactly monologue, work with the Australian people to develop the sorts of areas that were his greatest the policies ahead that are going to make a weaknesses – his aggression in the way he Abbott and difference to their quality of life,’’ Hockey dealt with the Triggs affair – and to the one- Hockey want said when launching the latest trick-pony issue of national security. And so to talk to intergenerational report on Thursday. much of it relied on his own call on issues. voters, but Hockey had warned the Australian This is why the switch to economic issues people beforehand they would fall off their is so crucial. The budget and the economy have they chairs (possibly at the barbecue) when they are Abbott’s weak spots. Also, his Treasurer learnt enough saw the report. Perhaps having had the has to recover credibility with business just to listen to crisis, debt and deficits thing rammed down as Abbott has to recover it with voters. what voters our throats for decades now, it didn’t really Despite attempts by some in the party have that effect. room to bring on a spill this week, the cracks have to say? But no one is going to say no to having a in the front bench which have to occur if any conversation with the government, change is to follow did not spread. including its own backbench, after almost But what is becoming apparent is this is 18 months that has seemed a monologue. as much a product of ministers positioning In the wake of a prime ministerial near- themselves for future battle as much as it is death experience, the government has not a vote of support for the Prime Minister. just discovered conversation, but the value We came in to the last fortnight with the of bipartisanship this week. Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey: full of friendly confidence this week. PHOTO: ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN leadership competition a two-horse race ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● Laura Perhaps, still not sure if bipartisanship with Malcolm Turnbull. We leave it with was a manly virtue, Abbott told the House of On Monday of last week, the Dorothy Julie Bishop having signalled she plans to be Tingle Representatives on Thursday that ‘‘there Dixers went like this: national security, Parliament House this a candidate in her own right who may be might be a temptation [by Labor] to scour national security, law enforcement, more acceptable to the party’s right. And, of this document [the report] trying to score economy, budget, education, child care, week was like a parallel course, there are others who fancy their political points but, Madam Speaker, I think green army, industry, work for the dole. universe where all the chances: Scott Morrison and Andrew Robb. we’ve seen the better angels of the Leader of On Tuesday, amid a barrage of Labor The circling will go on, even if in a more the Opposition on a lot of subjects lately’’. questions about whether the government angst of the past few subterranean way, unless Abbott’s stocks ‘‘We can make serious efforts to address had sought the resignation of Australian keep improving. It could be even messier. our nation’s problems and, Madam Human Rights Commission president weeks might have never Meantime, the one thing we don’t seem to Speaker, we will address them better if we Gillian Triggs, and offered her an be having a conversation about is the can do it in a bipartisan spirit.’’ inducement to resign, the Dorothy Dixers happened. wisdom of committing troops, for training So much love and affection. Sunlit were on: national security, national security, or anything else, to Iraq. This is despite uplands as far as the eye can see. The Prime Iraq and Syria, national security, asylum analysis both here and abroad that it is a Minister was even having a conversation seekers, defence, economy, small business about his conduct and his political touch. very, very bad idea. with the Australian Medical Association on and tax avoidance. Abbott retreated to the national security A lengthy article in The Atlantic Monthly Thursday in which he did a mea culpa on By Wednesday, the subject matter was all space and locked himself in, dragging with says our failure to appreciate the essential the political debacle of the Medicare co- foreign investment (we like it as long as it is him his most solid base in conservative difference between Islamic State and al- payment and the government’s failure to not from foreigners) and by Thursday, a politics. The party room saw a Qaeda has led to dangerous decisions. talk about it with doctors. switch had started to a predominance of parliamentary debacle. Voters heard about Tom Switzer, former Australian editor of One measure of the changing nature of economic questions. It’s stayed that way this baddies and berries. The Spectator and research associate at the the conversation the government wants to week, despite the government announcing The tactics worked. Parliament House United States Studies Centre at the have with the Australian people is in the the commitment of 300 troops to Iraq, and a this week was like a parallel universe where University of Sydney, wrote this week: ‘‘It subject matter of Dorothy Dixer ‘questions spectacular backflip on a Defence Force pay all the angst of the past few weeks might pains me to say it, but Abbott has learned without notice’ in the House of offer. The shift represents a lot more than a have never happened. It was apparently nothing about Iraq. He’s taken the Islamic Representatives. (Every second question, change of conversation. gone almost as quickly as it had erupted. State’s bait.’’ And the deployment is likely to with allowances for the occasional question Last week, the Prime Minister was in all Abbott and Hockey recovered confidence. make a bad situation worse, Switzer says. from the Independents, is what is known as sorts of trouble with his colleagues. His All the forces at work over the past few But Labor doesn’t seem to keen on this a Dorothy Dixer. That is, a planted question frontbench was leaking. The majority of the weeks have not all gone away of course. The conversation either. to the government frontbench asked by a party room clearly did not want to move questions remain within the Coalition party ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● backbencher which allows some free against him so quickly after last month’s room about whether Abbott can really Laura Tingle is The Australian Financial advertising on the subject of the day.) spill motion, but they were in open despair change his form, whether his office can Review’s political editor. Report a wake-up call to squeeze policy just a little harder ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● The 2015 intergenerational report is the system with the states via Infrastructure in downstream processing? Demographics fourth official wake-up call to Australians The good news is it is Australia to identify and fund high-quality Why can only the Italians process our The looming that an ageing population, coupled with the state infrastructure projects. He must also superfine wool and durum wheat? How do crunch of an rising cost of healthcare without not all austerity and ensure that federal infrastructure spending we attract the world’s leading processors to ageing fundamental policy reform, will result in tight belts. is subject to external cost-benefit do their thing here, to exploit the world’s population lower living standards and unsustainable assessments. cleanest and greenest fresh produce, rather public indebtedness in the decades ahead. In terms of private sector productivity, a than just flogging these off to the highest means that Current legislated policy settings imply national supply chain review of each big overseas bidder? the federal ongoing underlying cash deficits reaching First, we need a just budget compromise Australian export commodity would help to Fourth, we should promote key public government almost 6 per cent of gross domestic product that passes the spirit of key structural identify infrastructure bottlenecks, which institutions and processes that help to needs to take by 2054-55. Net debt is projected to reach reforms in the first Hockey budget, but are reportedly costing the nation billions in educate and sell the reform message to the almost 60 per cent of GDP by the end of the jettisons the unsupported small beer cuts. lost export earnings. public. We need road maps that identify the four big projection. Combined with the Then add a key fairness initiative, such as Third, we must encourage innovation biggest bang for the policy buck. For reform steps indebtedness of state governments and eliminating high-end tax concessions for and entrepreneurship in private enterprise example, by expanding the role of the before the private households, which is significant in superannuation contributions and/or and especially among the young and new Productivity Commission to report league worst 2015, this is a problem for all Australians. capital gains. The result – a fair budget and arrivals.