How the Liberals have found their inner Kevin – The Australian Financial Review

Once upon a time Liberals believed an Economic Accelerator was a policy to cut tax and red tape.

Leaving aside the issue of an Australian prime minister promising to fuse together things, his plans, priorities, strategies, programmes, programs, trailblazers and accelerators smack of a bureaucratic and technocratic mindset the Coalition appears to be in thrall to.

Its a language and a way of speaking straight out of the Kevin Rudd School of Management. On some issues the Liberals and Labor might differ, but their method of governing is identical. Eventually, the way something is done turns into what is done, which is a point lost on the Coalition and is the great insight of the old saying about hammers and nails and problems.

Morrison talked of plans more than a dozen times. Albanese, no less than 20 times.

In his Press Club speech, Morrison talked of his plans more than a dozen times. In his speech, Albanese of his plans no less than 20 times. Presumably the parties focus group testing is telling them voters want not just one plan, but many.

Few Liberal MPs would have heard of Friedrich Hayek, and even fewer would know what he said about planning The more the state plans the more difficult planning becomes for the individual. When the people want plans and politicians agree its no mystery why the trajectory of public policy in Australia is towards more planning and bigger government.

Towards the end of his Press Club speech Morrison lamented the fact that only 40 per cent of Australias researchers work in private industry, well below the OECD average. Surely part of the reason for this is that when the government showers the countrys public universities with plans and promises, theres little incentive for a bright young researcher to swap the largesse of the taxpayer for the uncertainty of the private sector and the free market.

Its worth putting into context the Prime Ministers speech this week. Its the product of 8 years of Coalition government. More than one Liberal Party supporter (and more than one Liberal MP) might ask whats changed in that time. To many it seems as if the big things havent changed much and neither have the little things.

At the end of last year the Australia Council awarded $80,000 to a cabaret artist whose performance includes writing abusive messages about the Prime Minister on particular parts of her body. This is in the wake of COVID-19, when the performing arts around the country are devastated and an organisation such as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra is on the verge of going broke.

Gifts of $80,000 from the government to cabaret singers makes the claim Were all in this together somewhat hollow.

As small business owners struggle through the effects of shadow lockdowns and plan how to make the following weeks payroll they can contemplate how different their life would have been had they become a taxpayer-funded cabaret singer or a public servant or a politician.

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How the Liberals have found their inner Kevin - The Australian Financial Review