Tony Abbott’s left-wing instincts are destroying the economic credibility of the Liberal Party.
Although he’s an effective opposition leader, it’s important to ask what sort of economic agenda Abbott will pursue as Prime Minister, apart from repealing the carbon and mining taxes. It’s becoming increasingly clear that it won’t be liberal.
To the extent it’s possible to decipher Abbott’s economic philosophy - his book Battlelines and the Budget Reply speech certainly provide little assistance - it would be democratic socialism. It’s a political ideology that sees the government playing a major role in the economy and is a far cry from the free-market liberalism normally associated with the Liberal Party.
Four economic policy issues - middle class welfare, climate change, maternity leave and industrial relations - show an opposition leader far more social democrat than economic liberal.
The most odious example is Abbott’s extraordinary defence of middle class welfare. Labor’s inspired decision to freeze indexation of welfare at $150,000 per family in this months budget elicited an extraordinary rebuke from the opposition leader.
Abbott described them as “class war cuts” and accused the government of declaring war on “aspirational” Australia. But the only war is against those who aspire to live beyond their means, and anyway, freezing indexation at $150,000 is not so much a war as a pillow fight.
The opposition are boxed into extending welfare for those who can comfortably fend for themselves. The “cost of living” pressures these families face is whether they can afford a second new car or have to slum it with a perfectly functional second-hand one - not whether they can put food on the table. It might be good politics to prop up the upper middle-class with welfare but it’s absurd economics.
The Liberal Party have replaced Labor as Australia’s champion of welfare and if John Hewson or Jeff Kennett were in a grave, they would surely be rolling in it.
The ideological depravity of Tony Abbott is also evident in his approach to climate change. Labor and the Liberals are equally committed to tackling climate change through a five per cent reduction of Australia’s 2000 carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. The only difference is one of method. Labor will introduce a market-based mechanism, and the opposition government-funded direct action initiatives.
It’s not surprising that Abbott would choose costly government programs over a market-based mechanism to reduce carbon emissions - it’s what a true social democrat would do.
The only other explanation is that direct action is a front for inaction. If Abbott is dubious about the scientific consensus behind climate change or the long-term economic wisdom of cutting Australia’s carbon emissions, he should have the courage of his convictions and junk the five per cent target. Otherwise, the only conclusion is that he has an ideological preference for unwieldy government programs over the market.
Tony Abbott took a maternity leave plan to the last election that slugged big business with a new tax to fund wildly generous payments to new mothers. Not only was it pure economic vandalism, it was enthusiastically embraced by the Greens - which is the kiss of death for any economic policy.
Abbott also ruled out any industrial relations reform during the 2010 campaign. The charitable explanation is that Abbott didn’t have the backbone to fight for a politically challenging policy that he privately believed in. You can’t govern from the opposition benches, or something like that.
The alternative conclusion is that he has lost his passion for industrial relations reform and has little sympathy for John Howard’s job-creating Work Choices. The Labor Party’s Fair Work Act is re-regulation gone mad but embracing it when in government is perfectly consistent with Abbott’s social democratic ideology.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the Young Liberals flummoxed by the leader’s economic heresy. A rare positive opposition initiative is its vow to cut public servants in Canberra. There’s nothing wrong with starving a beast that has delivered us malfunctioning pink batts, overpriced school halls, an education revolution in name only and free electronics for the old and unwell. Maybe if government departments had fewer resources, an Abbott government would be less inclined to use them so ridiculously.
Unfortunately, Tony Abbott will not have a competent team to rein in his interventionist urges. John Howard was a profligate spender as Prime Minister. Real spending increased by 3.3% per year between 2000 and 2007, which is significantly more than Labor governments before and after. Spending would have been even higher if it wasn’t for the Scrooge McDuck of the Coalition party room, former Treasurer Peter Costello, one of the few spendthrifts in the Howard government.
If Peter Costello were Black Caviar, Joe Hockey is a portly little pony. It’s not as though Hockey has much to live up to, as Wayne Swan has been a truly awful Treasurer. However, the shadow Treasurer has been so ineffectual that he makes Swan look good - a miracle beyond even Jesus. Hockey would be no obstacle to a free-spending Abbott.
Tony Abbott has political skill and his relentlessly negative approach to opposition has been a brilliant success. If politics were a game, he is a winner. But popularity in politics isn’t an end in itself and the ideological Abbott is destroying his party’s credibility.
It should be obvious to Abbott that the Liberal Party is at its best when it pursues economic growth through liberal economic policies - and that this strategy, by and large, defined the successful Howard-era. Unlike the Labor Party, it’s not supposed to have an ideological identity crisis.
But the Liberal Party now have a leader whose basic economic instincts are the antithesis of all that was good about it.
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RT @lynlinking: @farrm51 Well the links should be posted on Twitter more, by people that care about the Government. Perhaps the MSM could help cheers lyn
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