Rudd and Swan’s spin spinning out of control

Michael says:

09:35am | 01/06/09

I don’t understand why they don’t just give being honest a try, its such a rare tactic for pollys to use, The spin all politicians try to use doesn’t work, I think we all see through it and just choose the side we are less annoyed with at the time. Mr Rudd please just call a spade a spade and a debt a debt.

Tim says:

10:25am | 01/06/09

Of course the reason for this obfuscation certainly isn’t the baseless scare campaign waged by the Coalition last election. (“Deficits are bad, Labor is bad, Unions are bad, they’ll eat your children!” etc.)

joe2 says:

10:35am | 01/06/09

” We also have no political bent, ... no ideological skew “.

Looks like The Punch has failed to live up to it’s own spin, otherwise it would also have pointed to the even more clumsy attempts by the opposition to hide how much they would have spent.

Lucy says:

11:27am | 01/06/09

To Joe2 - just because the Government is criticised, doesn’t denote a political bent. Last time I checked, free speech was enjoyed in Australia - we’re not North Korea, China, Zimbabwe or Fiji.

The Opposition, in case you hadn’t noticed, isn’t in Government and therefore doesn’t have 100,000 bureaucrats on hand to put the Budget together. It is not required to provide an ‘alternate budget’.

The Government clearly tried to avoid saying the numbers to avoid the media grabs, but they botched it up. Now trying to spin something alternate to that is fanciful. It amazes me that someone with the experience of Laurie Oakes was so easily sucker-Punched!

Shelley says:

11:40am | 01/06/09

No one can predict Coalition outcomes on ALP policy. The Coalition would be operating under different policy if in power so the question is rubbish.

Rudd and Swan have stepped in a pile of doo-doo with their failure to plainly state the $300 billion dollar debt in the budget release. Their failure to answer questions up front immediately after has opened them up to ridicule and claims of incompetence.

I had very little confidence in their ability to manage a chip shop let alone our economy profitably after Rudd lying about living in a car and the fools watching stuff sites were set up to chase inflation genies.

And when one of their own media supporters writes they’re too incompetent to spin you know you’re in trouble.

They have only themselves to blame for this mess.

Ian says:

11:44am | 01/06/09

The opposition seems to gaining the upper hand in the present field of rhetoric about the budget. Partly this is because the PM and the Treasurer are playing coy about the components of the budget, the targets of the budget : the groups, organisations, the states, what they will get and why. The other part which is hamstringing their acceptance by the electorate is their dire need not to be heard saying the political or economical wrong thing. This means they have to continually recall the appropriate buzz words advised by their spin doctors. This takes away the immediacy of the conversation and stops us hearing the ‘real’ story about the intention and impact of the budget. Both PM and Treasurer need to show more confidence in their subject to speak ‘plain speak’ so people like me can understand them!

The cabbie says:

12:13pm | 01/06/09

Oh dear, politicians not answering direct questions with an honest answer. Nothing new here then. My guess is that there is so much scope for the numbers to blow out, that answering the question truthfully now would turn to embarrassment later on. Whatever the number, we have dug a deep hole in conjunction with the rest of the western world; it will be interesting to see at what cost we have to fill it in.

joe2 says:

12:18pm | 01/06/09

“To Joe2 - just because the Government is criticised, doesn’t denote a political bent. Last time I checked, free speech was enjoyed in Australia - we’re not North Korea, China, Zimbabwe or Fiji.”

Lucy ,  you are geographically accurate, we are in Australia, though, I am not sure where I called for an end to freedom of speech in the homeland. All I am suggesting is that a political “bent ” can be revealed by only presenting one side of the story.

Flash says:

12:22pm | 01/06/09

Hi, I love Kevin Rudd. Yay!

Jane says:

12:35pm | 01/06/09

I guess it depends whether you want a democratic opposition or a rubber stamp.  It is the governments job to come up with policies and the oppositions job to find the holes in such policy. Destroy the opposition and you are left with a one party state.  Is this the aim? If so, be very, very careful what you wish for.

Alex says:

01:47pm | 01/06/09

Rudd and Swan’s days are numbered providing the libs get something stable together before the next election. I think Costello could be playing a strategic backbench position until it ripens towards election time, then go for the leadership of the liberal party when the time is right to jockey into position. At least he knows how to work the books, even with Rudd and Swan we have a bunch of mechanics who think they are heart surgeon’s. Tick tock, tick tock

kevin phillips says:

02:29pm | 01/06/09

The labor government inherits a surplus of nearly $22 billion and now we are going to owe more than $300 billion. The labor govt try to “stimulate” our economy by giving out money to people living overseas and to dead people and by subsidizing pink batts. Maybe some voters are now starting to realize they were duped by a bunch of con artists in an election campaign by a constantly repeated catchphrase “working families” and now families are lucky if any of them are actually working.

janet says:

02:32pm | 01/06/09

Surely it is time to vote Independants, and keep the parties out of it.

Duncs says:

02:38pm | 01/06/09

I’m so glad you picked up on this Tory.  I found it fascinating that we were watching the actual line being drawn by Rudd & Co. between attempting to ‘positive spin’ their way out of trouble, and taking ‘collateral damage’ instead.  The longer this Federal Government relies on former NSW Government flacks to run their show, the more amusing this will all become. Just a shame it’s with out our tax dollars…

Nigel says:

02:42pm | 01/06/09

I recall the Government explaining away our deficit with the ‘positive’ news the amount was in fact up to seven times less than some of the deficits of other leading Western economies. But don’t populations figure highly in the equation that is the economy? So…  Australian population 22 million. USA population 305 million. That’s 13 times as big. But the best we can do is seven times better? I would have thought that would be kudos to Obama rather than Rudd…

zebadiah81 says:

03:23pm | 01/06/09

I really cannot fathom why they found it so hard to say the words, but I think it has been blown out of all proportion, and is now obfuscating far more important topics.  I saw an interview with Turnbull after the budget, and for 20 minutes he kept turning the conversation back to Rudd’s inability to say a particular word.  We laugh at the Americans with their dirt-digging politics, but it is becoming the norm over here as well.
My problem with the budget has nothing to do with an ability to phrase it coherently, but with the inherent illogic of providing a ‘promised’ tax cut (which was only promised in response the Liberal’s last ditch effort to buy votes at the election), when the resulting deficit is going to be so large.
If Rudd had come out and said: “Sorry, but the promise of tax cuts was made in a completely different financial context, and it would criminal of us to pass it on when we are heading into a recession.  Instead, we are going to increase taxes for the obscenely rich, and those who’s actions contributed to this mess in the first place.”, then I am sure he would be respected for his ability to make the hard decisions when needed.
Unfortunately, his own personal fortune would put him in that category, so it is unlikely that we will ever see any change in this direction, but it is even less likely from Turnbull.

joe2 says:

03:31pm | 01/06/09

Well, Tory, it looks like your spin on the deficit has had the desired response. There is an orgy of a agreement , in the syle of the standard opposition talking point, that “we are rooned” because of massive debt, when it is actually a smallish amount of money for the government to pay back, as a percentage of its future income.  The stimulus package has actually worked brilliantly to save our economy from stalling .

Gus says:

03:53pm | 01/06/09

Laurie Okes was once a respected journalist in Canberra. he was the first to crow that Howard had gone by his use by date.  Journalistic left wing hacks like Oakes, Bongiorno et al who have beeen hanging around for over 30 years have well and truly reached their use by date. Their left wing bias and protectionism of Rudd is contemptible, as it is with most of Australias left leaning journalists.

Mark M Aldridge Independent says:

04:19pm | 01/06/09

I find it rather amusing that anyone would consider either of the 2 parties would ever put a foot wrong, LOL the sad fact is our democracy is 2 party prefered, preffered by the 2 parties. we have to include them in our prefferences, the 2 party system of counting ensures in a majority of cases that our precious vote ends up with one or the other.

If we were to consider the American slogan “Change” would that entail voting non of he above? True democracy entails the Freedom of choice by an informed electorate, where is the freedom of choice, and how does one become truely informed about all the candidates, especially considering bullshit is now called spin, he he he

I think Independents Day is around the corner, well at least I hope.

Marilyn says:

05:21pm | 01/06/09

We have never had such rubbish foisted on us.  Spin, Spin. Spin with no substance or truth.Bib and Bub are out of control.  It will take us 15 years to get out of debt again.

Anthony Marshall says:

06:19pm | 01/06/09

It seems pretty obvious that both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer were simply trying to avoid handing the Coalition a free kick for the next campaign. The only place the Prime Minister put 300 Billion together was on the ABC, which is unusable in campaign material.

I think that whoever was advising them screwed it up though. The Coalition can now say that both Swan and Rudd were too scared to admit the size of the deficit. However, the Coalition do not generally run good election campaigns. The last campaign was lost by the message not getting out. What they could have done (and I suggested this way before the last election on Andrew Bolt’s blog) was to put up huge signs of Mark Latham along with the then current Labor shadow cabinet and add the caption, “These people thought that he would make a good PM and now they want you to trust their judgement”

Craigo says:

07:52pm | 01/06/09

Where are the Journalists asking the hard questions? Why are the politicians allowed to spin?

My guess is that the same people who supported the election campaign and encouraged others to vote Labour now have a vested interest in keeping their snouts in the same trough.

At least we can expect more “swift and decisive” spin. Pity we haven’t had any “declaring war” on incompetence.

Lucy says:

08:08pm | 01/06/09

To Joe2 - a couple of points.

As I see it, the Punch is ‘opinion’ - and the piece by Tory Maguire was commenting on how Laurie Oakes presented the Government’s spin. Therefore, effectively the Labor side was presented by referring to what they apparently told Laurie Oakes.

The fact that Laurie bought this argument is extraordinary in the first place.

As to your reference to the ability to repay debt, you claim it is a small amount based on future income. What is the guarantee of that future income to which you refer? As I understand, the Government refuses to release the assumptions that Treasury have based its growth forecast on.

The last debt of $100billion took 10 years to pay off with a mining boom and the sale of Government assets. The assets are no longer there, and the mining boom is over. So, where is the money going to come from? This is a question the Government doesn’t seem to want to answer.

The Government clearly doesn’t agree with you that this is a relatively small amount of money. If they did, they would be more than happy to acknowledge it.

Lucy

Mark says:

08:09pm | 01/06/09

Am i such a fool to be able to see through these two pretenders. I thought i was “average Joe” but apparently not. There are people in Australia that actually think Rudd is doing a good job. I guess if your’e on the dole, yes, or a union lackey, yes, Rudd is keeping you nice and comfy, but the rest of us that work for a living hate seeing our hard earned tax dollars being thrown to the wind without a thought of how to pay it all back.

Matt says:

09:53pm | 01/06/09

The more Kevin smiles during cross examination on the box the more transparent he becomes.Tony Jones was right to grill him but it took until Qtime last week for Tony to get his answer….300 billion he wispered in the house to howls of merriment from the opposition.
    Have not had so much fun on lateline since Tony Jones caught out Tony Abbott lying about a visit to see George Pell.

Johnno says:

11:26pm | 01/06/09

The Budget incompetance of the Rudd-Swan duo is, sadly, exactly what you get when people who have never run a real business get their hands around billions of dollars. When the revenue line starts to get a bit thin, they don’t know how to react. They didn’t mention the ‘D’ word or the amount, because neither they, nor anyone else, knows within 20%. If China follows Japan, or worse pays even less for our Iron Ore, there goes another $4B next year and $25B over 5 years. If the economy picks up earlier than expected (Green shoots appearing in India, Japan and China in spades today), it will happily be $20-$40B less. So be honest - a budget with a range of outcomes is enough, and honesty about the scale of what we don;t know is far more reassuring than claiming everything is planned and shovel-ready. Personally the truth beats spin in spades!

joe2 says:

12:51am | 02/06/09

Lucy to suggest that Labor is represented by Laurie Oaks is just absurd.
He is a journalist not a government press secretary. Incidentally, Tory makes the same mistake. She says ...  “Government would rather say it cocked something up than admit its PR was poorly managed” when it was not the government that said this but Oaks. Since when has a member of the press gallery moonlighted as official Labor spokesperson? Her opinion piece fails because it is based on nothing the government has admitted but hearsay from another journalist.

David says:

09:36am | 02/06/09

Dear Joe2,

You’ve clearly never spent time in the Press Gallery. There are large numbers of journalists that worked for Labor Members of Parliament - and many that have left the press gallery to go work for Labor Ministers or Members. Sure, there are some on the Lib side too, but far more on the ALP side.

Where did Laurie Oakes get the information from that it was a ‘cock-up’? Clearly the Government’s spin doctors gave it to him. That’s how the gallery works.

I wouldn’t put Laurie in the category of ‘Labor spokesman’ - but I agree with Lucy, he seems to have - whether intentional or not - become a victim of the Rudd spin cycle.

joe2 says:

10:27am | 02/06/09

There is an obligation to confirm information with appropriate sources. If you can point to an official government document or statement that shows them admitting to having “cocked up” that is another matter. Otherwise it is clear that Tory has just made this whole thing up based on Oakes’ hearsay.

And I am sure Laurie would adore your characterisation of him as a victim of the ‘evil Rudd spindoctors’.

Sandra says:

12:58pm | 02/06/09

Can anyone out there tell me when “The Budget” has to be passed?  We are assuming the end of this financial year.  How long can the pollies drag things out for?  After watching “Kindergarten Question Time” last week with everyone scoring points off each other we are giving it a miss!  Don’t they realise just how ridiculous they are - and to think they are “our representatives” in Parliament!  Makes one cringe!

Andy from Kirra says:

05:18pm | 02/06/09

The amount of spin form RUDD & CO shouldn’t surprise anyone as ALL Politicians are nothing more than professional ‘stand up philosophers’ after all!
The only job where you can be paid to be a professional BS artists.