It's OK to be White and other dogwhistles - the Australian politics thread

What a terrible question that has no bearing on his performance.

Itā€™s a pertinent question that has everything to do with the matter at hand.

How do you evaluate his performance? Could/would anyone do better?

Dutton and Abbott would more than likely lead with more authority.

What rot. The guys that did fuck all except sit around and play with themselves for a decade are your examples of great leaders?

Thereā€™s more to being a leader than being an obnoxious twat.

No, iā€™m just pointing out how silly your question was. The question revolved around who would lead with more authority, not whether they would lead well. Abbott, as much of a dumbarse as he was, led with a decent chunk of authority (at least at the start)

The fact that you point out that Albanese is the ā€œbestā€ of the current options, shows the sorry state the politics in the World currently is. Maybe we should stop settling for the best of some crap options and actually start holding politicians accountable for the drivel they come up with. Giving someone a pass, because they screwed up and the other side is worse, is just absolutely crap and does nothing to help society in the least bit.

He was PM for 18 months before his party spilled.

How much authority do you think he had?

Youā€™re trying to make a weird dichotomy between leading well and leading with authority. Itā€™s nonsense. If you lead well, you have authority. If you effectively co-ordinate a government to enact itā€™s agenda, then youā€™re leading well.

Albo is doing about as well as can be expected and probably better than anyone else could.

I know people want a hero, or a beacon of light. Iā€™m just more outcomes driven when it comes to politics.

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More than Albanese. Itā€™s funny because youā€™re acting like iā€™m of the opinion that Abbott was an amazing leader. Rhysm made a statement on Albaneseā€™s lack of authority, youā€™ve indicated yourself that it must be the mark of a bad leader by asking who would you preferā€¦

While I agree that Albo hasnā€™t been that bad, heā€™s also not really done much to tackle the more controversial issues. The failure in dealing with the CFMEU for one (until he was forced to) and then throw in a failure to take a stance against Israelā€¦

People donā€™t want a hero, people want someone thatā€™s just going to the right thing and do it with conviction.

Well we know that the war in Ukraine wouldnā€™t have started cause he would have shirtfronted Putin.

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So you want a leader thatā€™s got strong convictions, but is responsive to criticism and is highly accountable. Willing to deal with the issues you find controversial, but obviously only in a way you agree with (people on the other side of the controversy will just have to bow down to the strength of the leaders convictions).

Also, things like tax reform, workplace relations, foreign relations, federal budget position - these things donā€™t count for much, apparently? As long as they look like a strong leader, maybe get in a fire truck once in a while - that sort of thing?

Also, thereā€™s no example of this kind of person, because theyā€™re completely fictional. But asking about a real life alternative is ridiculous.

I want a leader who agrees with most of my views, but then doesnā€™t do shit like stating heā€™s for a two state solution, yet refuses to condemn the country thatā€™s destroying the second stateā€¦ I fully appreciate that there will never be a leader or a party that 100% aligns with my political views, but at the very least, Iā€™d love a political party that, when it comes to human lives, just does the right fucking thing.

Those people generally exist, they just donā€™t go into politics

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And I want the govt to do more on climate change, energy policy and Medicare.

But I know Iā€™ve realistically got two choices. One government that might deliver on that stuff (and will certainly try) and one that absolutely will not.

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1000010617

More seriously, Iā€™ve said it before in this thread, but I think our media-byte political sphere puts far too much emphasis on leaders and personality because we actually have an extremely narrow field of disagreement when it comes to meaningful policy.

Presenting leaders as authoritative or on how much they will deliver, or policy as reasonable/good government, leads us down a road that ends in Trump, a billionaire who can somehow paint himself as a refreshing political outsider who will ā€œdrain the swampā€, then implement a reprehensible policy agenda, because at least heā€™s willing to say ā€œthe way things are right now isnā€™t workingā€

I donā€™t think itā€™s super great that Albo did an about face on this issue and Iā€™m glad weā€™re back to including the question, but not publicly criticising the PMā€™s handling of it isnā€™t the way to ensure this sort of thing doesnā€™t happen again. Politics isnā€™t a team sport and a lot of Australians have (once again) had their identity become the national punching bag.

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You donā€™t have to be specifically authoritative but at the least have charisma and direction. The Obama more than Trump. Obama had an air of authority but that came from him having an air of charisma and competence. Yes he had his failings, but heā€™s still a fairly positive President as US Presidents go

Canā€™t emphasize this enough. The fact we now have polls based on popularity rather than who would be the better government is ridiculous. We donā€™t have policy debates, we have sound bites and wedging and a complete lack of bipartisanahip to benefit the nation.

Drives me nuts that, especially in an election campaign, it is ALL about the leader, not the ministers. PM cannot be across every detail effectively, so let the ministers speak. PM should hold them to account, and lead on only the few most important issues. I want an effective team governing, not some narcissist. To be fair, Albo does let his team do some of this (cop flak) with Shorten and Chalmers in particular, but should be much more broad.

The more we go down the path of American personality presidential politics, the worse it is. Took off under Rudd imo.

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On the census question, I donā€™t get why they would ever have dumped them. The party had already committed to it, the ABS was tooled up, I never got the feeling that there was any rationale to dump them barring some mealy mouthed bullshit about wanting to avoid ā€˜divisive debatesā€™.

The timidity is galling. Theyā€™ve landed in the right place but this stuff has a cost.

I mean, Putin annexed Crimea while Abbott was PM.

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We have both - ā€œwho would you prefer as PM?ā€ is the beauty contest question; ā€œif an election were held today, which party would you vote for?ā€ is the one that gets to who you want in government. These questions are also not new - theyā€™ve been asked in this way for decades.

Can we just not though?

Who would you vote for, fair enough. If the other questions was ā€œwhich party would provide better government?ā€ itā€™d a prompt at whatā€™s important. Even if itā€™s party based, not individual would be an improvement. Weā€™re a Westminster system based on parties, not presidential.

Which ever party gets me more clouds to yell at wins my vote.

Does a great job imo, but it will never not be funny that the Libs made Angus fucking Taylor shadow treasurer. Who thinks old mate who magically turned a couple grand in Sydney City Councilā€™s travel budget into $15M without explanation should be in charge of the national books?

The only possible explanation is they just chose whoever had their snout furthest into the public trough.

What? They tried to exclude the question to placate the right. Then are rightly criticised for the stupidity of the move, and back down in stages contradicting themselves as they go.

It was stupid to start with. Then it was a stupid process as they were forced to back down from the stupid decision they made.

Itā€™s another example where they have to be forced to do the right thing and, in trying to placate people who are going to scream at them no matter what, exposed their motives as purely political without regard to the people theyā€™re supposed to looking after - regular Australians.

So no, they donā€™t get any fucking credit for the inclusion of the questions.

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