Costello - Next PM of Australia?

[Sean K]

3. learning the trade? - what trade would that be - trying to win the next election from where he is ? - lol , yuo're joking mate.

Maybe he should take up a "dual trade" - take up carpentry for instance - the last miracle maker was a carpener as I recall

To be honest, I haven't been following him enough to make a better assessment. If you rememer the 'who will be the next Lib leader' thread, I did vote for him. I don't get question time here, but I do read all the news and his position on stuff. But, that's the medias interpretation. I met him when he was Def Min and heard him speak at length on various topics. A very smart man and had me transfixed. That may have been the vino though...

I actually think Kev will be in for some time, once he gets back to being the likeable man he was. I'm sure his team are sorting that out now. He's just relaxed too much into the job I think, and got a bit cocky.

 

[2020hindsight]

Hell his student days were mainly on the Left side of politics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Costello

During his student years, Costello was active in student politics as a socially radical Christian. For a time, he was an office-bearer of the Social Democratic Students Association of Victoria, an affiliate of the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor. In 1977, Costello was punched by a rival student politician, receiving mainstream media attention for the first time in his career as a result.[6]

After graduating, Costello became more conservative but retained liberal views on some social issues.

that's "liberal" as in "more like Labor"

In 1984 he was a founding member of the H. R. Nicholls Society,[7] a think tank on industrial relations. In the late 1980s, he was identified as part of the New Right movement,[4] which was organised to some extent in the H. R. Nicholls Society.

Member of Parliament
In 1990, having defeated the sitting Liberal member Roger Shipton in a preselection ballot for the safe Liberal electorate of Higgins, Costello entered the House of Representatives at the age of 32

and the rest is history as they say ...

A federal election was held on 24 November 2007. Exit polls of 2,787 voters by Auspoll, commissioned by Sky News, included a question on the statement "I don’t want Peter Costello to become Prime Minister". Fifty-nine per cent agreed, while 41 per cent disagreed.[18][19]The Coalition lost the election. The next day, Peter Costello announced that he would "not seek nor accept" leadership or deputy leadership of the Liberal Party. [20] A week later, he indicated that he would be unlikely to serve out in full his parliamentary term of three years. ...

 

[2020hindsight]

(re Nelson) I met him when he was Def Min and heard him speak at length on various topics. A very smart man and had me transfixed. That may have been the vino though...

I actually think Kev will be in for some time, once he gets back to being the likeable man he was. I'm sure his team are sorting that out now. He's just relaxed too much into the job I think, and got a bit cocky.

kennas - ok I've never met him. But I don't think I want to either lol. To me, Brendan is a man who will stand for any and all causes - especially his own As leader he tries to summarise the opinions of everyone from A-Z in the coaltion - from Coonan to Turkey (oops Tuckey) - and it comes out as gobbleygook.

Then of course there was this little example of "geniuine honest Brendan"

Brenden Nelson - He use to never vote Liberal.

As for Kevin being "cocky", I would disagree, - and with the same vehemance that I would argue that I have no problem with Costello's alleged smirk. (just imo ok)

 

[Sean K]

As for Kevin being "cocky", I would disagree, - and with the same vehemance that I would argue that I have no problem with Costello's alleged smirk. (just imo ok)

The cockiness is just what I have read in the papers. Maybe the news papers (who owns them?) are turning against Labour.

They have made me think it, with no other information available.

Damn, wish I got Question Time here. It's a hoot!

 

[Macquack]

His brother is a handicap in modern secular Australia.

How could you consider Tim Costello to be handicap to his brother Peter.

Tim is a decent charitable fellow (he is an Australian Living Treasure) and should be a major asset to his younger snotty nosed brother.

On second thought, you could be right.

 

[Sean K]

How could you consider Tim Costello to be handicap to his brother Peter.

Tim is a decent charitable fellow (he is an Australian Living Treasure) and should be an major asset to his younger snotty nosed brother.

On second thought, you could be right.

Yeah, he could be an asset, to get the baby boomer vote, but their political preferences don't change too much. My mum still votes for Bob Menzies...eeek!

Australia may be one of the most secular countres in the world now, along with the UK. (read that somewhere. Maybe a comment by Wayne)

I have a perception that whenever religion is raised the majority turn negative. Happy to have someone with facts or another opinion counter that. (I am in Peru, which is even becoming more secular...eeek!)

I just think modern people turn off at the dogma now.

But, I have strong bias.

I don't give religion a chance...

 

[alleyronin]

Costello will never be PM. Simple reason....... it takes agates.

Hawke had them, Keating had them. Howard had them.
Rudd has them. Even Helen Clark has them.

Pete was too busy in the smirk queue and there were no agates left

 

[wayneL]

Costello will never be PM. Simple reason....... it takes agates.

Hawke had them, Keating had them. Howard had them.
Rudd has them. Even Helen Clark has them.

Pete was too busy in the smirk queue and there were no agates left

Little coloured marbles???

 

[noirua]

Is thought to be attending lessons at an Academy "How to make friends and meet people", includes "how to learn Mandarin in six easy lessons".

 

[alleyronin]

Little coloured marbles???

Refer Australian translation :

http://www.mudcat.org/aussie/index.cfm

 

[derty]

We will have to see what Peter has written in his upcoming book. If he has flung a bit too much dirt about, chances are he won't be really welcome to take the Lib's throne.

 

[Warren Buffet II]

I am more than happy to let Rud fall to its deepest before Costello takes its turn. 3 years 6 years, if Australians want to have the recession Rud and Swan are promising, then, they have started with the right foot Rud-Swan

By the way, where Swan? I haven't seen him for a while, is he already hiding?

WBII

 

[2020hindsight]

1. Yeah, he could be an asset, to get the baby boomer vote, but their political preferences don't change too much.

2. My mum still votes for Bob Menzies.

3. I am in Peru, which is even becoming more secular.

4. I don't give religion a chance...

kennas,
1. Are you saying your mum is a baby boomer ? Not important, but I guess that makes you a Gen X ... (see below)

2. my mum's heading for the big ton - she still votes for "Joh for PM" m8

3. Ahh - I know all about Peru - Mainly because I saw "Across the Andes by Frog" a couple of times.

4. Well, lol, I'd agree - or rather that's logical - except that millions thrive on it.

PS Generation X, the decadent generation :-

In the U.S. Gen X was originally referred as the "baby bust" generation because of the small number of births following the baby boom. [1]

In the UK the term was first used in a 1964 study of British youth by Jane Deverson. Deverson was asked by Woman's Own magazine to conduct a series of interviews with teenagers of the time. The study revealed a generation of teenagers who "sleep together before they are married, don't believe in God, dislike the Queen, and don't respect parents," which was deemed unsuitable for the magazine because it was a new phenomenon. Deverson, in an attempt to save her research, worked with Hollywood correspondent Charles Hamblett to create a book about the study. Hamblett decided to name it Generation X.[2]

Presumably Gen Y are the ones who stay at home till they are 30 +

Generation Y (sometimes referred to as "Millennials"[1] or "Echo Boomers"[2]) refers to the cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1980 and 1994.[3]

 

[bvbfan]

John Howard is one of the few who hasn't done this.

He's been too busy travelling on the tax payer funded air travel allowance.
He's only been out 9 months, give him an year or two and he'll be harping on too.

I've said it before Costello should have gone up in the election, all tip and no iceberg LMAO

 

[robert toms]

I think that John howard has interfered already...he has endorsed Nelson and his favourite candidate in the Mayo preselection.
Of course former PM's ,with some exceptions, cannot keep their own counsel....most have egos that will not be silenced !

 

[skint]

Costello doesn't have a prayer nor the ticker. He's never challenged for anything, and even now he would only assume the leadership if it was handed to him on a platter. Many have confused his term as treasurer during the largest boom in memory as evidence of good management. I disagree. The big economic changes that have placed Australia in a position to prosper from the boom are:

1) Floating the dollar. Find an economist who disagrees!
2) Decentralising wages
3) Tying wage increases to productivity following a temporary wage freeze to stem the wages breakout that occured under Howard as treasurer
4) Compulsory super to cope with the costs of an ageing population (Johnny cut the progress short)
5) The establishment of a 2-3% inflation target range that has now been adopted in the rest of the developed world

These changes sound like they originate from the conservative side of politics? Check the history books. The sum total of the coalition's reforms were to introduce a GST and go gangbusters with middle class welfare and ridiculous sspending. The reserve was screaming at them for years to stop fueling inflation, and by extension, interest rates. We know how that story ended as well.

As well as being a lousy treasurer, polling has indicated that he is very clearly unelectable. Surely the coalition can come up with someone, anyone, to put Nelson out of ours and his misery.

 

[Julia]

Many have confused his term as treasurer during the largest boom in memory as evidence of good management.

Have to agree here, Skint.

So if Nelson is impossible (which he is), and Costello unacceptable (though if this is correct why did a recent survey indicate quite a high rating for him: suppose it simply reflects the lack of alternative talent), does this just leave Malcolm Turnbull? He can perform quite well and probably has more clues than most about e.g. the tax system, but he seems to lack political nous on occasions. And it's pretty much all about Malcolm, I think, rather than being about the country.
(Maybe that applies to all politicians).
Sigh.

 

[skint]

Have to agree here, Skint.

So if Nelson is impossible (which he is), and Costello unacceptable (though if this is correct why did a recent survey indicate quite a high rating for him: suppose it simply reflects the lack of alternative talent), does this just leave Malcolm Turnbull? He can perform quite well and probably has more clues than most about e.g. the tax system, but he seems to lack political nous on occasions. And it's pretty much all about Malcolm, I think, rather than being about the country.
(Maybe that applies to all politicians).
Sigh.

Hi Julia,

My guess is Costello may be attracting some sympathy in the electorate due to his eternal bridesmaid tag. Hard to say. Turnbull appears to be their best bet, but as you say, he could be a bit of a loose canon. No doubt, the Liberal system will flush out someone eventually.

Its a pity with such a big win at the last election, Labour hasn't taken the opportunity to do what needed to be done in their first budget. What they came up with was a bit less inflationary than what the coalition were proposing, but they needed, I think, to go further. Whilst they needed to match part of the Lib's tax cuts to get them over the line, I think they could of (gratuitous Julia feather ruffling) delivered the cuts with a commensurate increase in super contributions. The long term benefits to the economy at large, and also to individuals, would have far outweighed any short term benefit and also dampened pressure on inflation and interest rates. In short, an improved but insufficient budget IMHO.

 

[wayneL]

Costello doesn't have a prayer nor the ticker. He's never challenged for anything, and even now he would only assume the leadership if it was handed to him on a platter. Many have confused his term as treasurer during the largest boom in memory as evidence of good management. I disagree. The big economic changes that have placed Australia in a position to prosper from the boom are:

1) Floating the dollar. Find an economist who disagrees!
2) Decentralising wages
3) Tying wage increases to productivity following a temporary wage freeze to stem the wages breakout that occured under Howard as treasurer
4) Compulsory super to cope with the costs of an ageing population (Johnny cut the progress short)
5) The establishment of a 2-3% inflation target range that has now been adopted in the rest of the developed world

These changes sound like they originate from the conservative side of politics? Check the history books. The sum total of the coalition's reforms were to introduce a GST and go gangbusters with middle class welfare and ridiculous sspending. The reserve was screaming at them for years to stop fueling inflation, and by extension, interest rates. We know how that story ended as well.

As well as being a lousy treasurer, polling has indicated that he is very clearly unelectable. Surely the coalition can come up with someone, anyone, to put Nelson out of ours and his misery.

A lot of fair comment in there, plus a healthy dollop of bias (but don't we all ).

But I wonder if our treasurers are beholden to outside influences. What makes me think so is that while Oz has had a conservative government for the last ten years, the UK has had a Labour government (spelt with a u here) but yet fiscal and monetary policy have been substantively identical.

Crash Gordon was the mirror image of Pete (just less sense of humour and much uglier) benefiting from the reforms (incidentally, quite similar to Keating's reforms) of the Tories.

Indeed the Hawke government and the Thatcher government were remarkably singing from the same fiscal/monetary hymn sheet.

What gives?

One for the tin foil hatters I suppose..... hmmm I might go and dig mine out from the junk room.

 

[skint]

But I wonder if our treasurers are beholden to outside influences.

Unfortunately, that is what is consistently disregarded or not understood by the electorate, come voting time. Economic booms and busts are inevitably attributed to the encumbents, with scant regard to the global situation.

Fraser did not save Australia from the stagflation that resulted from two oil shocks during Whitlam's term. Hawke did not end the drought that had been weighing on the economy at the time, and Costello was not responsible for massive boom we've benefited from over the last decade or so.

Subsequently, I tend to focus less on the short term oscillation of the economic indicators, and more on a government's structural changes and spending patterns that enhance or diminish prosperity, within a global framework. On that score, whilst Keating was not a fiscal saint, he whipped Costello by a country mile for economic reform, for the reasons I outlined previously.

The 2-3% inflation target, for example, was not a global trend. Rather it was Jenny George, Martin Ferguson, and Bill Kelty going to Keating with the proposal, argueing that that was the socially responsible thing to do. They all trottled of to the Reserve, who adopted it. The rest of the first world also adopted what was an Australian initiative.

Fiscally, the coalition also has a crook record. Why would a government, receiving rivers of gold from the boom, slash investment in future prosperity through cuts to education and CSIRO and other infrastructure, in favour of imortant initiatives such fishing museums, the invading of countries for no reason, over the top pork barrelling and a few squillion on Coalition advertising, which dwarfed any previous government of either persuasion.

Although, I'm obviously very critical of the way the country was mismanaged for over a decade, it's not all about Liberal-bad, Labor-good. In my previous post, I alluded to my concerns regarding Labor's first budget. They would, however, have to work hard to make a bigger mess of it over time, to match the previous mismanagement. Time will tell and the facts will speak for themselves. Here in NSW, for example, we have a state Labor government that has an atrocious record, by any measure. The only reason they are still there is that the alternative has been overun by the christian hard right with NFI.

In short, at a federal level, it would be a social and economic disaster to have Costello as PM. At a NSW state level, we're in dire need of a credible alternative. Thankfully, Costello is highly unlikely to get up, and would have to wait two terms regardless, based on what we know historically, and NSW Labor are on the critically endangered list.