They say that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels and I can’t help thinking that political “conventions” about how you talk about your predecessors in overseas media and  forums are one of the great hiding places for ineptitude that the labor party and its facilitators  are trying their darnedest to invoke in a rather shabby  attempt to ignore their own repeated and egregious policy failures both domestically and internationally.  Take the criticism of  Tony Abbott for his robust characterisations of the previous Labor administrations as  “whacko”:

During your campaign you called for a repeal of the carbon tax imposed by the Labor Party. Why are you against this tax?

The carbon tax is bad for the economy and it doesn’t do any good for the environment. Despite a carbon tax of $37 a ton by 2020, Australia’s domestic emissions were going up, not down. The carbon tax was basically socialism masquerading as environmentalism, and that’s why it’s going to get abolished.

It will be abolished this year?

As soon as possible. If the Labor Party wants to give the people of Australia a Christmas present, they will vote to abolish the carbon tax. It was damaging the economy without helping the environment. It was a stupid tax. A misconceived tax.

You said in your victory speech that Australia is once again open for business. Does that mean you believe that the previous government was unfriendly to businesses?

I said Australia is under new management and is once again open for business. The previous government would often say the right thing but it would invariably do the wrong thing when it came to business. There was an explosion in red tape and green tape. There was a whole thicket of new restrictions in the labor market. There were big new taxes. It was a government which thought that there was no problem that more public servants, higher taxes and further regulation couldn’t fix.

So you’re reversing that?

We will do our damnedest to shrink the public service and have a bonfire of red tape and unnecessary taxes.

{…}

Labor wanted a national broadband network?

It’s a government-owned telecommunications infrastructure monopoly, which was proceeding at a scandalous rate without producing any commensurate outcomes. We are changing the objective from fiber to every premise in the country to fiber to distribution points, and then we will use the existing infrastructure to take the broadband to individual premises.

Is that cheaper and more efficient?

Vastly.

But Labor wanted to extend fiber to every household?

Welcome to the wonderful, wacko world of the former government.

So you believe the former government was doing a lot of things that were bad for the country?

I thought it was the most incompetent and untrustworthy government in modern Australian history.

Be more specific.

They made a whole lot of commitments, which they scandalously failed to honor. They did a lot of things that were scandalously wasteful and the actual conduct of government was a circus. They were untrustworthy in terms of the carbon tax. They were incompetent in terms of the national broadband network. They were a scandal when it came to their own internal disunity. They made a whole lot of grubby deals in order to try and perpetuate themselves in power.  It was an embarrassing spectacle, and I think Australians are relieved they are gone.

Source

Of course according to the Age this constitutes a terrible affront to the conventions of international diplomacy and their headline suggests that this interview is a terrible assault on the standing of our country but I can’t help but think that the Luvvies just have no ability to appreciate the importance of frankness and honesty when it comes to the way that our nation will be appreciated on the international stage, further we live in the internet age, a time when there are effectively no media islands any more. No discreet little places where the news and politics of a country can be hidden away from global scrutiny and while I can appreciate the desire not to see our dirty laundry aired in public its not as if we can (or should) hide the simple fact that the previous government was utterly incompetent in most areas of its remit. So there really is no reason or excuse for a lack of frankness when it comes to any international media interviews by the current government ministers or by our Prime minister. The ability for anyone anywhere on the planet to find out just what has been said domestically  by our political players means the more important consideration should be that they produce a message that is consistent both domestically and globally.  Tony Abbott has done precisely that in this interview. and I for one think that he should be celebrated for his candour rather than being admonished for it by the Luvvies at the Age who are hoping that Labor’s incompetence can be swiftly forgotten. Sadly for them I think that it will be remembered for a very long time and will keep the Labor party where they so deserve to be, in the in the dry and desert like  political wilderness, after-all, sinners need to become accustomed to the environment where their souls will reside for (nearly) eternity…

Cheers Comrades

Related articles

• Aussie PM: carbon tax is ‘socialism’ (dailycaller.com)
• Wacko the Diddle O – Mr. Abbott Speaks to Washington (and rants about the previous government) (ausopinion.com)
• Australian gov’t faces carbon tax backlash at poll (bigstory.ap.org)
• New Aussie Prime Minister Calls Carbon Tax “Socialism” (antzinpantz.wordpress.com)
• Australia’s new gov’t vows to scrap carbon tax (bigstory.ap.org)
• Tony Abbott to reveal draft legislation to repeal carbon tax this afternoon (abc.net.au)
• Australian Parliament to Vote on Carbon Tax Bills (abcnews.go.com)
• PM’s direct action on climate draws sceptics (smh.com.au)
• PM calls on Shorten to axe carbon tax (theage.com.au)