Dr Nelson's Budget Reply Speech

A group of pensioners have taken their clothes off in central Melbourne to protest against the lack of an increase in their welfare payment in the Budget.

They received an annual bonus and a new utilities allowance but many were hoping for the single aged pension of $273 per week to be boosted.

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Nelson's populist petrol gambit is a foolish gimmick
Date: May 16 2008
Peter Hartcher

BRENDAN NELSON has followed the Hillary Clinton playbook in how to rescue a desperate candidacy.

Just as the failing candidate for the US Democratic nomination proposed a populist gambit on petrol excise, so has the Australian Opposition Leader. Just as the dominant Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, shrugged it off, so will the politically unassailable Kevin Rudd. Just as it proved useless for Clinton, so it will prove quixotic for Nelson.

Nelson's tactic is transparent. He is trying to drive a wedge between Rudd and his "working families", the middle-income constituency that helped carry him into office.

And, for a while, his proposal to cut petrol excise by 5c a litre will put Rudd on the defensive.

Every media interviewer will demand to know why Rudd will not agree to this measure to help "working families" save 3 per cent on their petrol bills.

If Rudd still thinks he is electioneering, he may waver. But when he reminds himself that he is now governing, he will dismiss the idea persuasively, just as John Howard did for many years. Because the idea has not grown any smarter since Howard rejected it.

Nelson described the proposal as "modest but meaningful." Worse than modest, it's tokenistic, worth about as much as a Woolies petrol discount voucher. Yet Nelson represents the alternative government. Voters expect more from him than from a Woolies outlet.

And worse than meaningful, it's just gimmicky. It would make no real difference to family incomes, but it would be bad policy... etc

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Budget Reply: Nelson's economic cred on death row
Friday, 16 May 2008
Bernard Keane writes:

Brendan Nelson’s deeply self-contradictory Budget Reply last night leaves Australia stuck without a credible Opposition to keep pressure on the Rudd Government. Under Nelson, the Liberal Party has abandoned any claim to economic credibility, in favour of populist stunts and more of the handout mentality of the Howard years. etc

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2020hindsight said:

Julia - this also from crikey.com ...

http://www.crikey.com.au/Budget-08/20080516-Budget-Reply-Nelsons-economic-cred-on-death-row.html

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Duckman#72 said:

Whether or not the opposition is credible is open to debate.

But regardless, it is hard to argue that the Rudd Government isn't under pressure at the moment. At last Nelson,Turnbull and the rest of the cronies are working together instead of against each other.

But the other factor has been a noticeable shift in the mainstream media. Suddenly the media seem interested in putting the spotlight firmly on the new Government. For the first time in a long time Labour is up against both the opposition AND a questioning and reinvigorated media. It is quite Machiavellian really - after championing him for the past 18 months, the game now seems to be...."let's give him a quick run under the blow torch and see how he goes".

Duckman

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Julia said:

Yes, exactly what I've been thinking over the last few days. Couldn't help laughing during tonight's 7.30 Report at Mr Swan looking very, very uncomfortable in the face of this latest leak about the useless petrol watch scheme.

Loyalties are fickle, aren't they! The meedja has turned on Mr Rudd et al, and even the celebrity darling Cate Blanchett is offside with Mr Rudd following his condemnation of Bill Henson's photographs.

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Australian troops begin Iraq pullout: report
Posted 2 hours 51 minutes ago
Updated 2 hours 37 minutes ago

Reuters news agency says about 500 Australian combat troops have begun pulling out of their base in southern Iraq, fulfilling an election promise by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to bring the soldiers home this year.

A British military spokesman in the southern city of Basra said the pullout from Talil base in Nassiriya was underway, but a spokesman for the governor of Dhi Qar province said it had been completed, with US forces replacing the Australians.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says troops will hold a ceremony overnight to symbolise the start of the nation's troop withdrawl.

The ceremony will include the pulling down of the Australian flag.

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