I think I’m going to run a series of these. I first applied this phrase to Jenny Macklin in a post over the weekend where she was criticising the government for not implementing a budget promise when in fact they couldn’t because Labor has held the legislation up in the Senate.
Now I’m sure that Howard et al will do their bit to keep the series running, but at the moment it’s Labor that’s making all the fancy moves. Today it was Wayne Swan, criticising the government for it’s second round $600 payment to families with children. According to Swan, some families would get no benefit from it because it would just go to meet their Centrelink debt, (which apparently average $700 per family). Well, that would be because they have already effectively had the benefit wouldn’t it? Apparently Wayne would like them to have the debt, but no payment, but wants to get an extra benefit for himself by criticising both the debt and the payment.
September 06, 2004 | Graham
Heads you lose, tails I win
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The reason the doctor’s will prefer Howard’s health policy is because it removes the “soft” price control that has been present in Medicare since the beginning. The Labor proposal aims to strengthen this by limiting the increase to bulk billing consultations. At the other end, the introduction of the safety net by Howard has removed restraints on high end fees.
The doctors have replaced the farmers – they’ve got the conservative side of politics completely underwriting their incomes – why wouldn’t they support Howard?
At first I thought it was a masterstroke from Howard but after a couple of hours reflection I’m not so sure. I think people have a lot of trust in doctors to cure them when they are sick (and most people will pay through the nose for medical services if it comes to the crunch) but I’ve heard almost as many cynical comments in my time about doctors feathering their own nest as I’ve heard about politicians. If Labor can run a successful subliminal message on this I think they can probably defuse or even reverse any favourable reaction to Howard’s announcement.
Comment by Alex McConnell — September 7, 2004 @ 8:24 am