By Alex Schlotzer:

With today’s opinion polls showing the Gillard experiment is working for Labor, despite a number of gaffes and missteps in the three weeks of her reign as leader, theangle’s Alex Schlotzer analyses the problems for the Coalition Opposition ahead of an imminent federal election.

The classic saying, “Nothing makes more noise than an empty vessel,” describes the current state of the Liberal Party of Australia,* very well as they have stepped up the revisionist rhetoric to paper over gaffes and public utterances. One major example is their attempt to re-write history on Abbott’s support for WorkChoices in the then Howard government. If you believe official Liberal documentation, the present Opposition Leader was never a committed supporter of WorkChoices and that he advocated against its introduction within cabinet.

But how can voters believe that when so many examples of his enthusiastic support for the legislation exist?

He was a key minister in the Howard government cabinet that pushed for WorkChoices. Everything he’s said about WorkChoices since the 2007 election indicates he’s a strong supporter and advocate for the controversial workplace reforms many credit for the defeat of the Howard Government.  A very good piece was written recently on the R@W News blog (on the Your Rights at Work website) – Does Tony Abbott ever support workers? – listing some of
Abbott’s anti-worker activities.

The Liberals are also trying to take opportunities to make ‘policy’ announcements of big dollars, which recently included one for mental health. And they’re ramping up the anti-refugee rhetoric launching their ‘policy’ on asylum seekers. But can we take these as the gospel truth if elected? Since the acid test for the Liberal Party of Australia, by admission of its leader, is to only believe the things that are written down, I did some digging around on their website.

I found what could only be described as ‘undergraduate’ dribble in the form of their ‘pledges’. They read and look like something straight out of university politics. Perhaps there is something in the theory that Julia Gillard as PM has rattled Abbott, and together with a few too many blows to the head in his boxing days, he thinks he’s at the University’s Parliament. It’s entirely concerning that the bulk of their policies are seemingly these weak pledges. They say very little and commit the Liberals to nothing concrete. They are clearly designed to provide the Liberals with a great deal of leeway and interpretation so they can announce whatever they like and not really be held to account.

But then to listen to the party claim that we should only believe the stuff written down, (“Gospel Truth”) we need to ask the question: does this include media releases?Are the Liberals so devoid of policy that all they’ve come up with are ‘pledges’ and policy-through-media-releases?

The voting public, especially Liberal party members and supporters, must be very concerned about this lack of policy depth or articulation. If the Liberals want us to believe they are the alternative government-in-waiting then they should have more well-rounded policies, not a collection of amateurish pledges. Of course the rusted on supporters will defend the use of these terrible pledges arguing ‘they aren’t in government so policy depth isn’t as necessary’ or similar.

These are rubbish arguments because we already know the policies of the government as they’re debated everyday through the mainstream media, and increasingly the Internet. But as the supposed alternative government, the Liberals’ policies are extremely important. Not knowing exactly what they are or what they mean to the nation is very concerning. The Liberals are definitely making a lot of noise but there’s scant details in the offing or to use some ‘artistic licence’: “Nothing makes more noise than a Liberal Party with no policy detail.”

* Note well: I no longer bother referring to the Nationals given they have essentially no policies to
speak about and have become even more marginalised federally. Undoubtedly the Liberal-National
Party shenanigans in Queensland will further destabilise the federal Nationals’ electoral fortunes.

Alex Schlotzer is a straight talker when it comes to politics and loves to vent his spleen. Actively involved in Australian and international politics with a keen understanding of the dynamics of the political machine, Alex has a prolific online presence and has been a cyber activist for over 15 years. Regional editor of theangle.org, he can also be found at his blog and his exciting online project Australian Politics TV.

Tags: federal election, julia Gillard, liberal party, newspoll, tony abott liberals