Miscellaneous
Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan instigated a brand of neoliberal economics and politics that affected the world for almost four decades. They left the political scene over 30 years ago, and whatever people think about their economic practices and policies – we think they were an absolute disaster for the world – they were major political figures of history steeped in the politics of the Cold War. But they were people of the 1980s and 1990s, and their policies are not the right policies to even remotely think about if we're looking at resolving all the economic issues of the 2020s. New thinking is required but is the Liberal–National Party the party that has the right ideas? Is Josh Frydenberg the right Treasurer for the times? We don’t think so.And the politics of COVID-19 continues, and it seems to be business as usual. Whatever people might think about the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, he turns up every single day of the week, delivering all the bad news about increasing numbers of coronavirus cases, facing the pressure forced upon him by the media and his many political opponents. And this is what the electoral expects from our leaders. Face the music. And lead.But where is the Prime Minister? As far away as possible from the problems, campaigning in Queensland, inspecting tuna fish at a Liberal–National Party donor’s seafood company, and heaping more political pressure on Andrews from a far-away distance, and supporting Clive Palmer’s High Court case to re-open the Western Australian borders. This is not the right leadership for the times.Just when we might think corruption might be over in government corporations, or directors might be more circumspect after all the focus on financial services and a Royal Commission into the sector, there's another large scale scandal occurring in iCare, the worker’s compensation scheme managed by the NSW Government. Or mismanaged. But whichever way, at least Eddie Obeid can longer be blamed for corruption: this is all on the heads of the NSW Liberal–National Government.