Recently I wrote about the plight of the manufacturing
industry and the lack of direction being provided by the Abbott Government.
I touched on the disjointed messaging coming from Government
ministers – to industry, to those losing their jobs and as a result needing new
ones and regarding any potential new “innovative” ideas to create jobs and
industries of the future.
The Government is not instilling confidence in people that
it is going to be able to generate tangible solutions, or come to the rescue of
important employment industries, and it needs to.
Tony Abbott and even Liberal Victorian Premier Denis
Napthine, have now jumped in boots and all to the CFMEU and union corruption
claims being run out in the media. Both leaders have had very little positive
to say lately, but now they have found a favourable fight to join which will
absolve them from having to generate any ideas of substance of their own – for
a while.
Politically, it’s a good fight for them to kick along. Labor
is steeped in the union movement, tarnishing the unions then hurts the ALP and
helps regurgitate the AWU slush fund scandal that implicated our most recent
former PM.
I should clearly state here, that I also support cleaning up
unions or any other organisations (especially fee/membership based
organisations) that have acted inappropriately, so I have no qualms about applying
proper scrutiny where it’s deserved.
However, going as far as signalling a Royal Commission exposes
that this is absolutely a purely political move and a hugely costly one – one
that would come at the expense of the people and industries that the Abbott
Government is currently neglecting.
You’re unlikely to get out of a Royal Commission with any
change from $50 million (twice what SPC Ardmona is seeking to retain jobs in
this country) and in fact, the eventual bill is likely to be closer to
$70 million.
You’re also unlikely to get out of it with any real or
meaningful change being effected beyond what is already possible through law
enforcement agencies.
So, while millions upon millions of dollars are being
frittered away on a political exercise that holds a realistic potential to
achieve nothing for anyone but the government in its popularity contest, the
Liberal Government is also busy axing foreign aid and rejecting the notion of
applying funds to industry assistance packages to keep people in jobs at SPC
Ardmona and Holden.
It makes it harder to swallow when Treasurer Joe Hockey –
who has decried Labor for living in debt, happily lifted the debt ceiling to a whopping $500 billion –
audaciously tells companies to learn to live within their means as he proudly
thumbs his nose at them and their workforce.
Where does it leave Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane who is
trying desperately to prove to thousands of jobless people and the industries
that support them, that the government is serious about their welfare and will
not just throw them on the scrap heap of life?
Tony Abbott’s version of a long-term strategy and big
picture vision is purely about how he can succeed at the next election. It’s
not about how to improve the environment, or people’s rights or living
conditions by generating jobs of the future – unless of course there’s
significant political capital in any of that.
Further illustrating a growing lack of confidence in our
PM’s ability to lead a charge of great ideas for the future, was his
embarrassingly narrow-minded showing on the world economic stage in
Davos recently.
At his first big chance to demonstrate his big picture prowess to some of the
world’s most influential people, he reportedly
left them with an accurately
underwhelming impression of his government’s inability to set aside petty local
politics in pursuit of issues of a global nature.
Today’s cabinet meeting in Canberra saw a divided Coalition
cabinet go against securing local jobs for SPC Ardmona. It was a revealing test
for the Abbott Government’s ability to put principles, policies and the
long-term welfare of others above its own immediate political needs.
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