Australia's Worst Person

For years I thought this had to be John Howard.

The rat like cunning, the hatred of gay people, black folk and anyone not born in Australia who couldn't prove their links back to an Anglo Saxon origin. To say nothing of the mangling of the language, the GST, no apology, middle class welfare, Tampa, Cornelia Rau, Workchoices and the ridiculous veneration of his holy trinity of Bradman, Gallipoli and Menzies.

Really, when it came to considering Australia's worst, the bloke had form.

But... he got old and having been unceremoniously booted out of his seat in 2007, he retired from politics and public life, save for the odd occasion when he pops up as the guest of a right wing think tank, giving his views on contemporary society and reminding us all just how awful he was.

Post Howard, public life in Australia has been somewhat lacking for villains.

Kevin Rudd gave it a shot, at least among his colleagues, but he was so awful that they did away with him before he could really entrench himself in the position. And the woman who ousted him, Julia Gillard, just doesn't have enough elan, enough panache, to really cut it as a villain. She simply plods along, largely reviled and abused on all sides, nodding her head earnestly as people call her a witch and promising to do better next time. As for her opponent, Tony Abbott has the panache for villainy, but not enough substance to make people really care what's he up to, like a baddie in a 'Police Academy' movie.

Where then to turn, to try and find Australia's Worst Person, if we're not to find them in their traditional breeding ground; Federal politics? A reasonable back up option might be the business community, and so perhaps we should consider...

... Gina Rineheart.

Head of mining company 'Hancock Prospecting' (founded by her late father Lang Hancock) since 1992 and Australia's richest person, Rineheart has, until recent times, kept a low profile and herself out of the news. But in these recent times, Rineheart has lurched awkwardly into public life, exposing, at least on occasions, the dark heart that lies within and making a pretty fair case that she could be Australia's Worst Person.

Consider the evidence:

1. In 2010, the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd proposed a new tax on inflated profits in the mining industry. Fuelled largely by China, mining in Australia is enjoying a decade long boom, as our non renewable resources are dug up and shipped overseas at record prices. The companies that do this digging and shipping are, in most cases, largely owned by overseas interests, meaning that a good chunk of the revenue generated by this industry flows back out of the country. In other words, we are selling off a very valuable but finite resource and most of the money is going elsewhere. Hence Labor's 'Super Tax' policy, designed to claw back a bit of this cash so that the Government can use some of it to build things - roads, schools, hospitals - for the benefit of people that actually live here. Something that Ms Rinehart definitely did not want to see. The new tax threatened the gi-normous profits her company rakes in each year, and so we were treated to the grim spectacle of one of the world's wealthiest people taking to the back of a flat bed truck to demand that she be allowed to keep a disproportionate share of her income.



Rinehart, and her fellow wealthy CEO's from the industry, would spend $22 million on an advertising campaign against the tax, claiming (quite inaccurately) that's its introduction would mean the end of the mining industry in this country. But, it has to be said, that her approach was successful, as bad polling followed in the wake of the advertising, Labor would dump both Rudd and the policy.



2. Having bested her regulatory enemies and sent the Government away to whimper in the corner, Rinehart was free to do what she pleased with her mining interests. Free, for example, to sell a massive chunk of Western Australia to a Korean mining company, as she did earlier this year. South Korean steel company 'Posco' now own 15% of the Roy Hill iron ore mine in WA, which Rinehart sold to them for $1.5 billion. So she has a little walking around money, even if we don't, as the cash will flow to her pocket and bypass the tax system almost entirely. Thank goodness we got rid of that tax, eh?



3. With the above two events having generated some fairly negative media coverage, eventually, Rinehart then took some pin money, a lazy $200 million , and increased her stake in Fairfax media to 13% (up from 5%). While a long way short of a controlling interest, Rinehart's stake make her one of Fairfax's largest private shareholders. With the publisher of 'The Age' and 'The Sydney Morning Herald,' wobbling somewhat, as part of the general malaise in the newspaper industry, they could be ripe for someone with deep pockets, guess who, to take over in the near future. Rinehart also owns 10% of Channel 10, and sits on their board of directors, meaning that she is quickly turning into one of Australia's largest media owners. You don't need to have seen 'Citizen Kane' to know what happens when wealthy business people with no scruples get involved in running the media.




4. With her wealth skyrocketing and her grip on the nation's airwaves inexorably tightening, there is a rumour about that Rinehart may move into politics proper. If this proves to be true (and I honestly doubt it, since she can influence our elected officials so easily now, why bother with campaigning every three years?), you would probably want to be very concerned. At least, if an article Rinehart wrote last year is anything to go by. In it, Rinehart outlines some of her ideas as to what sort of country Australia should be; low taxing, small government, brutal on criminals, favourable to low paid guest workers, people like herself free to drive around the streets in Hummers running poor people over and doing pretty much anything else they feel like. It's such a chilling vision, she should perhaps consider moving to the States and running for President as a Republican.

So what do we think? Do we have a new champion? Australia's Worst Person?

I'll print the tee-shirts...

Guarantees

There's a touch of the Mark Latham's about Tony Abbott. And I'm not the first one to think so. When both of them, particularly Latham, were on the rise a few years ago, journalist Michael Duffy produced this book, comparing the two:



And it's easy to see why. They're both about the same age, they both represented the next generation in their storied political parties and they both employed a bit of the biffo, head-kicking, enforcer type style to get their point across. Latham even acknowledged that they had something in common in his hilariously bitchy published diaries. On taking Abbott to meet some of his constituents:

He seems strongly committed to the principles of social self help. Not rampant individualism, but the revival of old style mutualism in society.

This being something that he, Latham, believed in himself.

And this was on my mind yesterday - long after Latham had taken his bat, ball and fat guy shirt home - watching Abbott role out a dodgy gimmick on the campaign trail.

Abbott was trying, with the kind of lack of success that could only be deliberate, to explain his Industrial Relations position to Melbourne radio's Neil Mitchell. Under repeated questioning from Mitchell about whether or not Abbott would seek to revive the previous Liberal Government's hated 'Work Choices' policy, Abbott snatched up a pen and a bit of paper and said he'd sign an agreement to that effect. Not to bring it back, that is.

What he wrote was 'Dead, Buried, Cremated,' signing his name underneath in a way that, according to one prominent 'graphologist,' showed he wasn't thinking about what he was writing and didn't believe a word of it anyway. Or something.

Shades of Latham in 2004, signing some sort of ridiculous novelty contract thingo that declared he would always keep interest rates low. Or something.

And so the lesson of Latham's ultimately doomed election campaign should be clear to the current opposition leader. Leave the gimmick's to 'The Chaser' and stick to what you're good at. In Abbott's case, running around the country looking and angry and demanding that the boats be stopped.

Truth be told, Abbott had a tough day yesterday, as he tried to simultaneously say two different things at once; that he both wanted to keep the current, Labor Party style of Industrial Relations law AND look at revisiting some aspects of 'Work Choices.' No wait, that wasn't it. No, actually he was quite happy to keep Labor's system for the next three years before junking the entire thing and replacing it with 'Work Choices.' No, no, that's not right either. Of course, the thing that he signed. The Mitchell thing! What it is, see, is that 'Work Choices' has actually been cremated already so there's no need to worry about it... but also that Tony has the urn full of it's ashes and he's going to keep it handy just in case he needs it for something.

How any one who's meant to be John Howard's political protege could cock something like this up so badly I have no idea. I mean, why didn't he just say he'd 'never ever' bring back 'Work Choices' and then just introduce it at the next election.

John Howard never signed nothin.'

The TV Ads

And so they came. On a Sunday night, prime viewing time, with 'Master Chefs' and 'CSIs' being watched by millions, the first real moves of the 2010 election campaign were unleashed. By which I mean, the first batch of television ads went to air.

And they're interesting to watch, both because they give us an insight into what the major party's focus groups have been telling them, and to what the major party's think their probable support groups look like. To take them one at a time then, starting with the Labor ad:



Focus Group Feedback AKA 'Q: What Do You Like About Julia?'
Julia Gillard is a nice person who cares about the same things I care about. She really cares about Australia and wants to see it develop in a responsible way. She cares about strong border protection but she wants to target the wicked people smugglers not the asylum seekers. She wants to move the country forward (this last repeated at the end of the focus group meeting, 14 or 15 times, drone like).

How the ALP Views Their Supporters Based on This Ad
ALP voters are a pack of easily frightened simpletons who are so dense that they'll only be able to understand our policies if we whittle them down to two or three words each and even then we'll have to repeat them twice. And we better say those words in a soothing tone with some soft music playing or else the voters in the mortgage belt seats are likely to hide under their beds and miss the slogan. These people don't like the boat people but they do like the economy so we'll be sure and say that those are the things we dislike and like too. And, did I mention the slogan, 'Moving Foward'? Better say it a few more times so that it really lodges in there.

And the Libs:



Focus Group Feedback AKA 'Q: What We Like About Tony'
Tony Abbott is a man of conviction, a man unafraid to speak his mind, a man not constrained by the evils of moderated speech and political correctness. A man, in short, that we can rely on to take charge of things, shake 'em up a bit and maybe rough up the deadbeats while he's at it. He may be a successful politician but he's not that dissimilar to YOU! I mean, ME! He understands that Labor has let the darkies take over the country again and drive up electricity prices and this worries him, just like it worries YOU! I mean ME! Really, the similarities between YOU/ME and Tony Abbott are amazing when you think about it...

How the Liberal Party Views Their Supporters Based on This Ad
That there are a lot of people out there in the suburbs that are ready to join a neo-Nazi style cult, with uniforms and symbols and rigid rules and that, if such a cult isn't available, they may as well vote for the Liberal Party. These folks want a leader who'll throw a few punches and we've got one who's positivity popping out of his suit wanting to get his hands on someone. Kevin Rudd would have been better but Julia'll do. Equality and all that! So give 'em a logo and a four point plan and we'll hand out the red meat at the rallies. We've got a lot of work to do!!!

What's Interesting About Both Ads
That there is neither an ALP nor a Liberal Party symbol on display anywhere. Are these guys running as independents?