I have been catatonic since the election. I can only now bring myself to blog. Time heals all wounds, but the gaping ones need medical attention first, or time simply makes you bleed to death.
I got my medical attention from Dr Brenden Nelson. I'm not recovering well - no solids yet but i'm keeping down my jelly and ice-cream. The wound he sewed up was my feeling that the Howard legacy was dead and buried.
If the Liberals are to remain a potent force in Australian politics we must honour our achievements and the leaders that brought them. We must stand by our past leaders and our policies and defend them even in opposition. In the wake of the election defeat certain forces threatened to make the Liberals in impotent force, devoid of balls and direction. Those forces are called Costello and Turnbull. I'll deal with Costello later, he's no longer important. The bigger threat was and still is Turnbull.
Turnbull had the momentum for the leadership because he held his seat against difficult odds, and took a more media-friendly position on Kyoto during the campaign. He smelled an opportunity in the days immediately after the election and he was playing to win. His leaked advice to cabinet gave him profile, but it opposed the official party line and damaged Howard. This is all clever politics and one can't get too upset about the dis-loyalty. Turbull hardly toppled Howard, the media did that, Turnbull was just make the best of a losing battle. It's more honourable to fight and die alongside your commander but not everyone is as virtuous as I am.
The real problem with Turnbull was not Kyoto, which there is no longer any point in opposing, but rather that he was quick to repudiate WorkChoices, which was and still is a good policy that this country needs.
Turbull could have got his wish, and moved the Liberals to the left, if only he had been more like Rudd, and kept his trap shut about his real feelings until after the vote (more on this later). Instead he shot his mouth off about gay rights, Kyoto and WorkChoices on ABC radio. This led to the headline in the Fin Review 'Turbull Slams Howard'. Alot of right-wing Liberal party members read the Fin Review. These are the same people who refused to back Costello (a right-winger) against Howards. Why would they endorse a lefty who lauds political imagery above hard-headed policy?
Brenden Nelson did not win this contest. Turbull lost it. Turbull is vain and thought people actually shared, or cared about, his views. If he had kept them to himself he'd be leader now. He misreads the party base, and the electorate.
Kudos to the Liberal Party room for electing Brenden Nelson as leader. We now have a doctor to oppose Rudd's National Health System(yes he wants and Aussie NHS literally!!!), and a former Education Minister Julie Biship as deputy to oppose what was Rudd's and is now Gillard's education-revolution. Game on. Nelson knows how much power we can wield from opposition 'we have to make sure labour gets it right'. Rudd wants to hold onto power by avoiding a Whitlamesque surge to the left, and consequent dumping. Rudd will still want to me-too the Libs in opposition. We won the culture wars don't forget.
Nelson is a no bullshit kinda guy, and as such cannot be anything other than a defender of the Howard Legacy. Howard is the second last conviction politican left in the world. Howard is the enemy of bullshit.
The Howard Legacy revolves around one issue: Iraq. Nelson has form for shooting from the hip on this one. Nelson is known all around the world for saying what no-one else had the guts to say. As Defense Minister he was the one political world-wide who said publically that energy security was one of the reasons for military involvement in the middle east. There was a brilliant cartoon of this in the Times of London (i'll find it later) which showed the British PM and the US and everyone globally running in panic and feigned shock at the Austrtalian govt's remarks. Brenden Nelson is a man of balls coming from a ballsy portfolio. He's perfect to lead the Libs.
Nelson's remarks on Iraq seem unpalatable to those on the left because they admit we acted in national self-interest, and to those on the right right because we admitted anything. The great thing about the remarks, apart from the fact that they are obviously true, is that they dismiss out of hand the WMD motivation for war. We did NOT go to war on a lie. We went to war because out national (self)interest was to install democracy in the middle east by force. The WMD angle was a joke cooked up by Blair and Colin powell to convence the poms (who never fought in Vietnam and a peaceniks as long as their empire is not under threat) to go along with the war. But this post is not about defending the war. Nelson already did that.
Nelson's defense of Howards and the coaltion on the most unpopular decision of the last decade shows him to be the best person, indeed the only person, that can be trusted to stand by Howard's legacy when the chips are down, and when they are already bet and lost and being cashed by the ALP. It doesn't matter that we lost. Well obviously it matters, Australia is now in great danger of becoming socialist, but it does not mean we were wrong.
The other key issue over which Howard's legacy is in danger, and the one still to be played out in parliament, is of course IR. Nelson is opposed to the immediate rollback of WorkChoices. This brought him the votes of the Liberal right in NSW lead by Abbot, and made him leader.
I fully support the position that the Libs should stick to what they believe and oppose the rollback of WorkChoices for as long as they hold the senate. The ALP never respected the Liberal 'mandate' on the GST so fuck them.
The idea that the election was all about WorkChoices is in large part a media-beat up, but I accept that most of the Australian people didn't like it, or at least they didn't like what the ACTU ads said about it. Children don't like to eat Brussell sprouts either. It does not mean it isn't good for them. WorkChoices might taste yucky but it will help Australia grow up to be big and strong. Patronising? Who me?
If the Australian people voted Howard out that's all fair enough. It's a democracy. They got what they wanted, for now, and we paid the price, but we can't be too hasty to get re-elected by jetissoning all our ideas. They are good ideas and there will come a time when they are needed again. This is the political cycle and conservatism must remain a potent political force for the sake of the country.
Turnbull was all for rolling over, for the sake of getting re-elected. He is too quick to change tack. He's not a conviction poltician. Does anyone believe that a self-made multi-millionair could possible believe honestly in a more regulated workforce? We all know from her actions in Britain that Kevin Rudd's millionaire wife doesn't.
Turnbull is just saying what he thinks is popular. OK he's saying was is popular, right now at least. The thing is that we are looking at a long period in opposition. We wont win the next election, or the one after that unless Labour fucks up big time. I think Rudd is too smart to let that happen. He'll just bracket creep and stealth taxed like Brown and Blair to fund his social engineering. He wont do it so quickly that people will notice.
But eventually people will see the drift to the left, the loss of individuality and confidence and the inevitable resulting brain drain. They will see their taxes go up. They will see PC thuggery legislated. They will see the community fracture under a devisive immigration policy. These things will happen, and when they do we have to say I TOLD YOU SO, really loudly.
We have to stick by the free-market principles that have been proven to be right time and time again. We dont only need to stick to them, we have to be proud of them and sell them to a new generation. To be proud of our principles we must be proud of our achievments and our leaders, dispite their unpopularity with certain sections of the media and the public.
The Liberal Party must honour the achievements of John Howard for the sake of the country and for it's own political survival. We honour John Howard by defending his legacy and his legislation in the face of hostility.
Howard was right. We were right. We are still right and time will prove us right. Australia cannot go back to being a holiday home for unionist meatheads and pot-smoking middle-class university drop-outs. Howard's reforms were ambitious but Australia needs ambition to compete in the Global economy. If the prospect of a bit of reform scares the Australian people then the alternative will scare them more.
We won't have to wait too long, maybe a year or three, until the unemployment rate starts to go up again and the welfare bills increase. I am right behind employers and employees who are rushing to take advantage of WorkChoices whilst the legislation is still in effect. We can give them another 6 months to keep driving the jobless figure down. There really can be no going back. If Rudd want's compromise he is going to have to give ground on the unfair dismissal laws. I forsee legal challenges in the high court against unions imposing a group-agreement on 100% or a workplace even in with 51% support. It's against individual freedom. This fight is not over.
I am Proud to have supported John Howard to the bitter end. I even poo-pooed the polls untill we got the late swing back. I refused to believe we were done for. That's what loyal supportes do. That's what team players do. That's what Shane Warne did in the 2005 ashes series. He faught tooth and nail and screamed at his teammates to do the same. And when defeat inevitably came he laughed in it's face. He was laughing at himself and his own delusion as much as anything - but he still laughed.
Warne was a warrior. So was Howard. He lost in the end but he never ran from a fight. He chose political death before dishonour. Howard is a hero of mine and i'm proud to say so. I'll go you if you say a bad word about him.
