Wednesday, February 04, 2009

I shouldn't but I do...

Peter Costello's a bit of a guilty pleasure. His politics aren't mine, his earnest Christianity bugs me and he was a senior Minister in what I consider an amoral government and yet, I thoroughly enjoy him. Last night's inteview on ABC's Nightline perfectly encapsulates the man. Preening, posturing, glib and smarmy and yet, undeniably good politics. He excoriated Rudd, he wedged Gillard, he smote Turnbull (well, not really but I wish he had) and ignored Howard. Tony Jones seemed even to enjoy the occasionally patronising remark. He's apparently unelectable as PM - so Liberal and Labor pollsters will tell you - but were I Turnbull, I'd be nervous as hell.

Again, though I don't agree with Costello on many issues, I can't not appreciate this:
You know, actually, we ought to be much more assertive here. We're Australian. I think the Australian model is what can be held up around the world. So why doesn't Kevin Rudd want to say that? Because there's a certain ideological fervour to him. He can't say the Australian model's the answer because he wasn't part of putting it in place. That would be to give too much credit to the Coalition Government. Now, I think at a time like this, he ought to drop his pride; he ought to say as Julia Gillard - in all fairness, Julia Gillard had the honesty to say, "Yes, the Australian model was the best." And he shouldn't be ashamed of actually giving credit to the Liberal Party, rather than writing these appalling essays for The Independent Monthly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Amoral government"? Is there such a thing as a "moral government" - and by whose standards? Isn't the business of governing inherently grubby and corrupting (or are you one of those West Wing fans)?

backin15 said...

It's a fair point, seriously, however what offended me about the last mob was their propensity to lie, deceive and corrupt themselves so long as they remained in power. Maybe I really should have said immoral, it did cross my mind. Actually, I think a government entirely unnavigated by a sense of value is pretty dangerous though we might debate what values they should be.

Anonymous said...

Fair call. The Tampa affair was definitely a low point in Australian history. I do think most governments reach a point where they delude themselves into thinking they are pursuing the national interest (and their own party) values by doing some pretty dodgy things.

backin15 said...

One of many lows. I was pretty disgusted by the way in which Howard prostrated himself to the US; they might be allies, but this ought to be a sovereign nation in its own right. Things like the NT intervention are tougher to analyse; there are parts of it that show no signs of development since 1788 and others that could be beneficial.

But you're right, the longer they're in power the more likely they are to think that whatever's in their best interests, is also in the nation's.