Incomprehensible twaddle

Wow. Crikey has posted this leaflet doing the rounds in Albo's electorate.

Cute that it looks to be unauthorised election material - but that's a minor issue.

The biggest rant is about the pay packets of MPs and their superannuation arrangements. The anonymous writer might like to note that Tony Abbott is on the same employment conditions as Albo. He might also like to know that the pollies - on the initiative of the ALP but implemented by Howard - terminated the lifelong pensions and moved to exactly the same kind of super scheme as everyone else.

It goes to the "incompetent administration" point - ignoring that the rest of the World thought our GFC response was exemplary. As I've blogged before the auditor found BER was effectively administered for what it tried to achieve, and the roof bats had less safety issues during the program than before!

As a nation we simply do not have "huge debt" (and writing in capitals makes it no bigger).

It is a pity that incomprehensible twaddle can be circulated like this.

Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

sports anchor - here I come

Thanks to Crikey's video of the day for giving me hope I could still be a TV sports anchor



Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

For the "reform" obsessed

Since the stunning "success" of a series of micro-economic reforms (mostly competition policy) under Hawke and Keating, and some IR reforms under Keating and Howard (the first lot)a vast array of commentators keeps braying for more "reform".

But they are never very clear about what they want. Marisse Payne writing in The Punch has at least been clear about the value of what could be called "second order Federation reforms". These are the things like national registration of the professions that reflect a twenty-first century single market in services.

Elsewhere a section of the coalition pushes with a certain zeal IR "reform". In Crikey today Bernard Keane has done a stunning job of explaining why there is simply no case for further IR reform - there is no economic upside.

Meanwhile real reform is being pursued by the Gillard Government. Reform to the fundamentals of our economy through the adoption of ICT to a Digital Economy is driven by the NBN and the Digital Economy Strategy - though incredibly under-represented in the budget papers. Reform of our energy security and the creation of new energy industries will occur through the development of a climate change policy that prices carbon.



Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

Blogs

Just been going through some old blog posts to put Tags on them all (for me really - hate it when I can't find one I know I wrote X years ago).

Came upon this one from May 2006. It was an SMH list of ten top blogs.

All but one seems to be still alive and very good - and one just sold for $315M US.

And another in which I quoted Guy Rundle from Crikey writing of blogs

Those blogs that survive will and are evolv(ing) into multi-person sites, some with collective and decentred ways of uploading, others with hierarchies essentially identical to paper editing. This repeats the birth of newspapers out of the "pamphlet wars" of the 17th century – the latter a product of the creation of a cheap, single operator platen press. This may be the necessary stage of development required to create a media sphere which genuinely overturns the mass media model – one in which a range of well-edited moderate circulation outlets can charge and get subscriptions. Whether they could turn into full newsgathering organisations remains to be seen.

Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

Cyber-bowling in groups

Mark Bahnisch (of blog Larvatus Prodeo) had a nice piece in Crikey today (but behind the paywall).

He notes the consequence of Saturday being the talk of party reform within the ALP. He takes particular aim at the suggestions built on Putnam's Bowling Alone that the collapse of "social capital" means you can't build an active party.

He says there are two problems, it’s not true and it avoids rather than engages with the problem.

The data actually shows there’s no lack of interest in political issues among many Australians, particularly among young Australians. But existing structures don't engage that interest. He draws attention to a UK Fabian Society report, Facing Out Online: How Party Politics Must Change To Build A Progressive Society and "the disjunction between frozen institutional structures and activist impulses."

He suggests that now is the time to engage with the issue by experimenting with new structures, including considering the kinds of things covered by Gov 2.0.

Certainly a better policy discussion can be had online in a forum than in a dusty school hall. Members can be engaged with the movement every day, not just once a month.

The ALP in NSW experimented with a "Central Policy Branch". The next step should be the "Virtual Branch". Active participation in the (or one of the) virtual branches should give you just as much right to vote in preselections etc as central policy or real branches.

Thanks Mark (and yes - if you want to read the whole original I'd back Mark and recommend a Crikey subscription).

PS And cyber-bowling in groups does happen - its just different kinds of games.


Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

BOF vs KK

As a follow-up to my earlier post I want to compare and contrast the two leaders - BOF and KK.

Interestingly for those like me who think the political rot starts with "professional politicians" - BOF is one whereas KK came later to the game.

KK was impressive with her energy though there is no leader in ALP history - other than perhaps Mark Latham - who hasn't been just as committed and eager throughout the campaign. But it really has been a bit rich for KK to talk about the people of NSW not leaving the ALP, but the ALP leaving them. She was, after all, a part of the sub-factional nonsense. Though, if memory serves me right, on the fateful day of Rees decline it wasn't a question of if he was going as who was replacing him and that Frank Sartor thought the prize was his till very late on the day.

But to endorse Walt Secord for the Legislative Council, when there isn't even a current vacancy - only the rumoured one of Eddie Obeid - is reflective of the same degenerate culture that brought the ALP to this place.

All the talk is now of KK heading to Canberra with even Bob Hawke joining the fray. (though there was the antithesis of the Latham/Howard handshake just before polling day, Hawke with Kenneally where you were pretty sure all he was thinking of was bonking her). Why it would be good for either I have no idea - and the words "Carmen Lawrence" should be enough to dissuade everyone of the idea.

And as for BOF. His strength was in getting the Liberals to focus on their opponents not themselves, on being prepared to make unprincipled decisions (electricity, school league tables) for the political value, and to stick to the plan of keeping the message simple.

It is notable that BOF thanked Mark Textor in his speech. So much of the NSW campaign was reminiscent of the last Federal campaign from the Liberals, including the concept of a "contract" with voters and the simple five point plan (previously critiqued here).

This formula has been frighteningly successful and Labor needs to start now thinking of ways to defeat it. The contract part overcomes any amount of counter ads about "real plans". It comes down to the fact that when you are in Government you should talk about (a) your record and (b) how you plan to build on it.

That might have been a problem for NSW Labor, but Bob Carr's piece talked about much of the good they did early. On Saturday KK chose to talk with pride about what had been done for people with a disability.

The ALP needs to fix its internal problems, but also learn the error of the Federal Party in 1996. The job starts now of building the story of a successful Government that got tired.

As Poll Bludger wrote today in Crikey "It has been more than three decades since a government stood before the people asking for an advance on 16 years, something that -- despite Bob Carr's audacious claim to the contrary yesterday -- seems objectively impossible to achieve in modern politics." The public does punish longevity, they want a change, but give them reason and they will come back.

The other thing we know about Mark Textor's campaigning is that in Government he runs a good fear campaign. So in 2015 expect lots of dragged up ads about the perceived disasters of the last four years. The ALP can and must start now convincing voters that really Labor wasn't "so bad" - even good. They need to make that their sole focus for the next six months and largely ignore BOF - the less like an opposition they look, the more he will over-reach (which means the Liberal play book of cut services).

Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est

What is mainstream media?

Australia's leading alternative delivery media source, Crikey, has again been excluded from the budget lock up.


As Crikey says, this decision seems to be at odds with the whole thrust of Senator Coonan's media reforms. To remind you this is the suggestion that greater concentration is OK because new media entrants are creating competition (but only if they are able to report).

In yesterday's subscriber edition (not available on line), Crikey correspondant Guy Rundle commented on the world of blogs. He compared their early popularity and subsequent decline to CB radios - which is certainly an OK analogy as far as the rise and fall goes, but perhaps less so comparing what was primarily listened in to person-to-person versus the one-to-many model of media/blogs.

He claims that what staled the CB experience is what is staling the blog experience "its networked capacity, which makes everyone producer and consumer, and hence collapses the notion of an audience (since time does not expand, while blog numbers do).

However it is not all doom and gloom. He goes on;

"Those blogs that survive will and are evolv(ing) into multi-person sites, some with collective and decentred ways of uploading, others with hierarchies essentially identical to paper editing. This repeats the birth of newspapers out of the "pamphlet wars" of the 17th century – the latter a product of the creation of a cheap, single operator platen press. This may be the necessary stage of development required to create a media sphere which genuinely overturns the mass media model – one in which a range of well-edited moderate circulation outlets can charge and get subscriptions. Whether they could turn into full newsgathering organisations remains to be seen."

If he is right, it would be nice to be part of one of those evolving blogs. But this opens a whole new discussion about the distinction between reporting news and providing opinion - most blogs are about opinion. It also seems to miss in the evolution of newspapers the big role played by classified, rather than display, advertising. It is not really that long ago that the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Times was shipping news.

Now We Are Talking

No one ever comes here because I am such an unreliable poster - so no one will notice if I say that I have some sympathy for Telstra.

Their public affairs chief Dr Phil Burgess has observed that there is a lack of "third party platforms" for decent policy discussion in Australia. While the point is perhaps debatable (as the Centre for Independent Studies, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia, the Institute of Public Affairs, the Sydney Institute and the Australin Institute might) and the cause almost a more interesting point for discussion - at least Dr Burgess has tried to do something different. He created their "Now We Are Talking" website - I have it in my links.

But so far the effort is failing. He's tried promoting it through Crikey and speeches, but apart from Telstra's "publicity" it is getting very few comments and very little debate. There are a couple of serial pests of whom I am one - but the rest are mostly in a Telstra adulation society. And the site's format isn't really condusive to debate.

Great effort though and I'll keep supporting it - despite the near abuse I'm attracting.

On a related point I note that Laurel Papworth in her blog "Online Communities" (which I've also added to the links to the right) picked up some comments I made when Telstra started the site. Laurel Papworth and Now We Are Talking