I keep wondering why the coalition’s Go for Growth campaign hardly ever has HoWARd and Costello doing a duet.

On Thursday- 08/11/07, I got a glimpse as to one explanation of this lack of ‘Go for Growth’ as a plural. The Coalition’s treasurer- Peter Costello was interviewed by Fran Kelly on her ABC Radio National Breakfast show. From the moment she introduced him as potentially Australia’s future Prime Minister, Costello was at his worst (or best, if like me you want him to help himself be totally unelectable). We all know he is tetchy and surly, but with Fran, his insufferable, misogyny and nastiness really surfaced. He wasn’t going to have any of her probing questions regarding a hubristic comment he made in an interview with fellow ABC Radio journalist Jon Faine.

“Fran, Fran don’t you worry about questions he (Jon Faine) asked me, they’re all on the transcript. You ask me your questions. ” – Source

The Liberal party knows that Costello is not a hit with the chicks and has deliberately reduced his visibility and is not mentioning the succession.

Women cannot bring themselves to vote for a government where Costello may eventually be in charge. It is evident that Peter Costello palpably dislikes strong, smart and powerful women. He is the unpleasant growth that we are supposed to Go for. However, we have booked an appointment to remove the bunion, wart and itchy verruca.

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Today we learn that both flavours of Environment Ministers/spokespeople- light and lighter, also known as Peter Garrett and Malcolm Turnbull talk to Australian media in an impromptu, off-the-record way.

Garrett is on record as having said- albeit in a jocular fashion:

“Once we get in we’ll just change it all.”- Source

Turnbull is alleged to have said, (but is denying the comment) :

“I just want you to know I hate this so-and-so mill, I hate it.”- Source

It is interesting to note the differing ways that the two Environment hopefuls handled this lapse in judgment. One said sorry and the other denied ever having said anything.

However, the bigger issue is the nasty mileage that the coalition has tried to make of Garrett’s ‘gaffe.’

Peter Costello, in particular, seized on the remarks, claiming Labor would abandon its pledge to match Coalition promises.

“These are the words that are going to haunt this campaign from now on. The Kevin Rudd me-too policy is a pretense. They don’t really believe in this tax plan, they don’t really believe in the pension announcement.”- Source

All that said, the most interesting development is how I, and many previous Labor voters, find ourselves smiling as we hope that Garrett’s gaffe is true. Far from the fear which Costello et al. are trying to instill in the voting public, people such as me are pleased. YAY I say- finally a Labor position I can recognise. It is certainly going to make voting Green and preferencing Labor a much more palatable option in this campaign of me-tooism.

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On Friday, as a thoughtful start to the last day of my working week, I was treated to a delicious cup of coffee courtesy of the your rights at work mob.

It seems that the sitting member for the seat of Lindsay– Jackie Kelly is really angry that the Unions are active in her area and she has been forced to publish 20 four-page liftout newsletters in three Penrith newspapers featuring photographs of herself with the Liberal Party’s new candidate for Lindsay, Karen Chijoff.

“There are certain benefits of incumbency and when the unions are mounting such a dishonest campaign, as they have done on WorkChoices, I have an obligation to set the record straight. I’ve spent 12 years driving unemployment down in my electorate and I would not have voted for WorkChoices if it wasn’t continuing to contribute to full employment. I’m telling my community they are being told garbage about WorkChoices by the unions and Labor.”- Jackie Kelly

Now if Jackie had at least offered to bring back a few baguettes, I might have been more sympathetic to her protestations that she has put 12 years of hard work into the electorate.

In tonight’s Leaders debate we saw arrogance, obsequiousness and finally some assertiveness.

First the arrogance:

“Mr Howard revealed in two days time, Australian force commanders will begin discussions with their coalition partners about the evolving role for those forces.”-Source

This is supposed to be a revelation. What, after four years this is the first time that the Australian Military talk to the US military about their evolving role.

Then the obsequiousness: What have the government and the Australian force commanders been doing up until this big discussion tomorrow- reading the tea leaves, tossing a coin, whatever they were told?

Finally, some assertiveness:
After having the live feed was cut, sourced from an alternative place, cut again then sourced again, Channel Nine’s director of news and current affairs John Westacott defended using the worm live to air.

“I think it’s (the worm) an editorial decision for the Nine Network, not for the leader of the Liberal Party what we put to air. I can only agree with [News Ltd chairman] John Hartigan in his excellent Andrew Olle lecture where he said that political interference in journalism is increasing, not diminishing. And this is a perfect example – the leader of the Liberal Party trying to dictate one of the key events in the election campaign.” -Source

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For many years now only a handful of Australians have publicly joined the chorus of opposing our illegal involvement in the war in Iraq.

A recent survey has shown that:

“Sixty-four per cent are opposed to Australian involvement in Iraq, and 50 per cent to Australian involvement in Afghanistan.” – Sydney University’s US Studies Centre.

Thank you fellow Australians. Now if we can only follow the British lead of withdrawing troops.

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