And How’s the Family?
We caught the tail end of the 7:30 Report on ABC Thursday night for a little Q&A with Mark Latham following his response to Peter Costello’s budget plan announcement. I have to admit I was somewhat underwhelmed, but if we’d managed to watch the response itself, perhaps I’d have felt differently. (The best bit of the program was the satire at the end, with John Clarke playing Costello and interjecting the word “family” for every other noun.) Mr. Latham continues to tubthump in these situations, this time over the plight of citizens at the lower end of the economic spectrum, those earning $1000 per week or less, who are not getting anything out of the Liberals’ budget cuts (unless they crank out more children – in response to the government’s tiresome ploy of playing up their commitment to “family values,” apparently consisting entirely of keeping mothers at home to care for their ever-growing gigantic broods – in which case they’re going to get plenty in lump sum payments, not that their expenses won’t increase along with their population, a worse than zero-sum game indicative of the party-in-power’s social irresponsibility for the state of the nation beyond the next 3 years), and while I’m not unsympathetic, I’m glad of the bracket-creep adjustment I’ll get out of this just the same. The real problem with Labour’s response is that it’s not particularly substantive, which is terribly frustrating during this lead-up period to the next election – August or September or October or November, nobody knows, but at least no later than that – albeit understandable, since Labour doesn’t want to play their hand too soon. (Sometimes I think I’d sell my vote, too, if I had one.) Fine. As much as I appreciate the concept of “getting it right in the first place,” its hard to see the trees for the forest getting thrown up in our faces. It’s been interesting since December to watch Labour pull off Clintonesque moments, stealing a march on fiscally responsible (and socially progressive) ploys the Liberals ought to have accomplished months before, such as the superannuation reform they forced down the government’s throat. But now we’re in a waiting game, waiting for the Liberals to call the election so campaigning can begin in earnest. This ought to happen any minute now, unless they’re waiting for the post June 30 pregnancies to go into their second trimester.