Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Spin no cure for depression

By Bruce Haigh - posted Friday, 21 November 2008


For the past six months communiqués on the collapsing world economy have been increasingly grim. The retreat of markets has been as steady as it has been relentless.

For investors and superannuants weekends come as a relief, no bad news, as good as a spell out of the trenches, but the fear remains; the bombardment will recommence on Monday.

Trembling money marketeers and business professionals have convinced the government the economic slide can be reversed through a boost in morale. They contend that it is all about confidence. It is not; it is structural and caused through poor lending practices in part driven by people seeking to live beyond their means.

Advertisement

Spin has become a primary tool of government over the past few decades. With full employment and a rising stock market the spin worked. It worked so well that a majority of Australian households built up a less than healthy debt on the basis of this government and business spin.

We were assured that Australia was rich and blessed and was likely to get richer and even more blessed, despite a growing shortage of water and encroaching climate change. The good news spin was an effective smoke screen.  The plight of refugees, the war in Iraq, the underlying strength of the economy, and failure to spend on public assets was spun, and the benefits of privatisation were spun.

But as the NSW government has discovered, past spin has all but spun them out of power.

We have a government who inherited the Howard spin machine and all the operatives that greased it, and Rudd has been happy to use both the Howard machine and his grease monkeys. He has praised, promoted, and defended them but the spin machine could never be a substitute for substantive policy making and implementation.

Reality can’t be spun; it just makes victims of the spinners as Menzies discovered in 1941. It would not have been good for British morale during WWII to do any less than tell it how it was and was likely to be.

The Rudd government has sought to gild the lily over what Australia faces, and will have to face over the next two or three years. The extent of private debt will ensure a rough ride. Australian managers are no better than their overseas counterparts.

Advertisement

The level of corporate remuneration indicates that senior managers have been infected with greed and the loss of judgement that attends it. Many younger managers know nothing but the good times, so they haven’t been trained to manage hard times.

It is irresponsible and immature to attempt to hide prospective problems along with possible and probable outcomes. How can Australia avoid what the embrace of globalisation will deliver? By what stretch of the imagination can Australia escape what has befallen other countries?

What we do have is time and we should be making use of it, but we are squandering it through self-defeating denial.

In my opinion, it was not wise of the government to throw $10 billion into the economy just before Christmas. It smacked of panic.

There is an old military maxim, never commit your reserves until you know the strength of your enemy.

Rudd has thrown in the palace guard with little prospect of new recruits. He is going to have to introduce conscription: go into debt. There is nothing wrong with that except that he might have had $10 billion of real money to deploy judiciously on strategic targets when they presented themselves.

This panicked response is like pouring petrol on the dying embers of a campfire at dawn. The fire will certainly flair, but when it dies down there will be little left of it. Instead, he should have scouted around for some timber and gradually built the fire up again.

What is required is some leadership. Tell it like it is so that the rest of Australia can all make some timely and prudent decisions.

This is not a time for bureaucratic mumbling; this is a time to appeal to the strengths of the nation. Plain, clear headed, honest speech, of a type that Australians and their leaders were once noted for.

Rudd and the Labor Party need to take a leaf out of Barack Obama’s public presentation notebook.

If they don’t, in 12 months time, Malcolm Turnbull and his air of certainty will look a lot like authority and leadership. The deniers still have an edge, but for how long? And, when reality bites, how far will their fall from grace be?

Ask Nathan Rees; hell hath no fury like an electorate scorned.

Gird your loins, we are in for a tough few years but as a nation we will come out of it stronger, more cohesive, more efficient and more self-sufficient.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

19 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Bruce Haigh is a political commentator and retired diplomat who served in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1972-73 and 1986-88, and in South Africa from 1976-1979

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Bruce Haigh

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Photo of Bruce Haigh
Article Tools
Comment 19 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy