Lindsay Tanner

Lindsay Tanner isn’t happy with the mainstream media’s treatment of politics and politicians. The mainstream media is lazy, superficial, biased, banal. It has a pack mentality and a short attention span. It cooks up or makes up stories, fails to correct errors, and can be easily conned. It is unwilling or unable to examine big ideas and serious policy debate.

No fun at Lindsay's fair. Illustration: Michael Perkins, The Australian

As for social media, well, that’s just frivolous nonsense. All those people writing their silly tweets. And politicians shouldn’t have fun or show their lighter side. Costello dancing the Macarena – what was that about? Just stupid.

With his furrowed brow, his Brylcreemed widow’s peak and his dark and dated suits, Lindsay Tanner has long had the demeanour of someone who is 50 going on 75. It befits him to have authored such a grumpy and meandering book, Sideshow: Dumbing Down Democracy. This crotchety polemic combines random anecdotes from federal politics with haphazardly-selected quotes from professional haters of mainstream journalism to bolster his thesis that politics is stuffed, and that it’s (almost) all the media’s fault. 

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  • Dave says:

    10:17am | 31/05/11

    Russia, Canada, USA, are some of the countries who will “Not endorse the next Keyoto meeting” we are so great are we not? we are going to save the world, the whole 22 million odd people in this country, our food and the cost of living is one of the… Read more »

  • Brad says:

    10:13am | 31/05/11

    Lazy journalism appeals to lazy people! You can add to your list the last time any of them wrote about constitutional issues or even dare mention the fact that we have a constitution.  To be fair though, we don’t have any politicians who ever reference that almighty document that is… Read more »

 

Sitting around in a café the other day, one of my former colleagues bemoaned the fact that young people where not as active as him when he was studying. He raised his frustration that each generation is getting more politically lethargic and ranted about the generational changes we are seeing.

Here's looking at you kid, 20-year-old Liberal MP Wyatt Roy. Picture: Ray Strange

Apart from reminding him that ‘his generation’ had not done such a bang up job in solving the world’s problems, and actually delivering some new ones, the whole area of ‘generational research’ is one that is deeply flawed. That is, to clearly define a population’s attributes based on their ‘generational status’ tends to homogenise a population by their age – despite there always being significant differences within each cluster.

Despite this, we see books and papers about Boomers, X-ers and Y’s – all presented as if this is the missing ingredient in understanding the way of the world and what is going on with our society. So is this the case?

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  • Forgotten Australian Family says:

    06:20pm | 14/11/10

    No plaque will help us!  From one abused child, four adults on disability have resulted. Three of them - his wife and two daughters, were high achievers whose spirits have been crushed by the lack of compassion and restitution shown to this man.  Taken as a small child by uncaring… Read more »

  • Against the Man says:

    06:03pm | 14/11/10

    Look at Labor, look at families, especially in my area of Western Sydney - it isn’t pretty. The ALP and Gillard don’t care. Why should Gillard care? Read more »

 

Lindsay Tanner was just on AM and made an observation so obvious it was almost funny. He said people only complain about the consultation process when they don’t like the outcome.

Those were the days! Has the gang of four become the gang of two? Cartoon: Peter Nicholson

That might explain why people in the ALP are now complaining that Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan came up with the Resources Super Profits Tax all on their own, without even consulting the other half of the so-called “kitchen cabinet”, Tanner, and Julia Gillard.

Tanner denied the claims, saying as Finance Minister he’s a key part of the Budget process, but he did stop short of asserting anyone else in Rudd’s increasingly invisible cabinet was brought into the loop. If Rudd and Swan were responsible for formulating the RSPT, their back bench is now holding them responsible for stopping the bleeding it’s caused.

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  • acai berry colon cleanse says:

    08:58pm | 04/12/10

    Think Lot,means assume base woman month tone base world beside threat cost sufficient thought machine government secretary physical bring meal programme reasonable blue condition fairly take introduce flat neck confidence form bright standard weight leg appoint nevertheless right move selection cover below ready welcome provided finger reality comparison dead less… Read more »

  • Maladroit says:

    11:01am | 16/06/10

    Persephone, Hawke proposed to levy a PRRT on onshore petroleum and then hastily withdrew the idea because it was a state-owned resource (except for onshore Barrow Island where Burke agreed to it).  More fundamentally, Rudd’s mantra that justifies imposing higher income tax on miners is that the resources belong to… Read more »

 

In Rudd Government-speak “hysterical” is the new “denier”, as in the mining industry is “hysterical” over the RSPT the way people who questioned the details of the ETS were climate change “deniers”.

Hmmm, that's a keep hole isn't it. Cartoon: The Oz's Bill Leak

The Rudd team is once again relying on a simplistic argument to sell a highly complex policy, and this time they’ve gone all in.

Tony Abbott keeps saying the coming election will be won and lost on the Resources Super Profits Tax, which for political watchers’ sakes I hope is an overstatement. Certainly there’s no way Rudd can afford to dump it in the same bin as the ETS.

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  • LeLilia says:

    06:25pm | 18/12/10

    I received 1 st loans when I was 32 and that supported me a lot. However, I need the commercial loan over again. Read more »

  • David Lee says:

    09:58am | 05/06/10

    Look at how Norway manages their oil resource; these are limited resources, once it gone, it gone. Try not to think as you are mining billionaire… Read more »

 

This morning’s Channel 10 news debate between Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and his Opposition counterpart Barnaby Joyce was the first time the two have gone head to head since Joyce took up the job.

.Jenny Macklin separating Tanner from Garrett. Probably not a bad idea. Photo: AP

The clash was a good example of how a political debate can appear one way in Canberra and unfold in another when it comes time for people to actually tune in.

To give a cricketing analogy, Tanner has won the test match of a parliamentary sitting fortnight but Joyce just won the higher rating Twenty 20.

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  • fast fat loss says:

    02:18pm | 02/07/10

    Order Award,trust from display screen together want plenty fit immediately operate roof tall voice professional next chemical technical note relationship in left right award western could enterprise western realize bird itself find subject breath figure sequence job clearly health essential resource unlikely instead confirm soldier medical we test before direct… Read more »

  • Jack Thomas says:

    11:16am | 15/02/10

    Nice one, you can’t seriously believe that? Sexual assault victims’ statements. Take a second and say those words again. Then think how you would glibly shred them and spend years denying it. Tell your story to any policeman, internal affairs investigator, etc., they may disagree. Read more »

 

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