Kevin Rudd is not afraid of the boogey man

The neo-lib boogey man didn't used to exist either. Before the boogey man, we had another super villain known as the "inflation genie". On their way out of the office, Costello and his neo-lib mates unleashed the inflation genie back in 2007 and Kevin and Wayne spent the first 12 months in government trying to put him back in his bottle.

At the same time that Rudd and Swan were tackling the inflation genie, Rudd went to Bali to declare war on climate change. This was the greatest challenge of our time and would require decisive action and bold decisions. In Rudd's latest essay, climate change has been relegated to pretty much an afterthought.

If it's not interest rates, it's inflation or unemployment or climate change, and in each case we are told that only Labor can make the "tough choices" needed to protect Australia from the current threat. The playbook is pretty simple:

1. identify a threat;
2. declare a state of emergency and instill concern and fear in the public;
3. use the heightened sense of alarm to justify government policy;
4. take "decisive action" (and, more importantly, repeatedly tell everyone how "decisive" you are being) to look statesmanlike and bash the Opposition for not agreeing with you.

I wonder what evil calamity will next befall Australia, and will it be real, imaginary or manufactured? One thing is for certain, we can all sleep soundly tonight knowing that, whatever the threat, Captain Kevin will be there ready to take decisive action to save us all.