I have noted before that the Albanese government is a facsimile of the Howard government:
- budget surpluses;
- housing bubble policies;
- mass immigration for big business to crush wages;
- fake border control;
- China and US arse-kissing;
- punishment of the unemployed;
- minimal efforts on climate change;
- minimal reform;
- culture wars.
It is no surprise. Howard pioneered the fake right, indistinguishable from Albo’s fake left.
Both are all symbolism over substance. As genuine policy debate and reform fall away, the polity must be cajoled and harassed all the time. The airwaves must be filled with drivel to distract from the emptiness.
John Howard knew this, so he forever stuck his beak into everything. He also understood that omnipresence has the added political bonus of marginalising oppositions from a debate.
Albo has adopted this Howardist tactic too. He won’t shut up. Is an expert on everything (that is nothing) and won’t leave a single issue alone.
There is no better example of this than his running at the mouth about the Matildas.
Having declared a public holiday in advance of victory only to jinx it with undue pressure, Albo is today at it again:
Praising the Matildas for their fighting spirit last night, Anthony Albanese says captain Sam Kerr had led the team with honour.
“They have been amazing. They’ve carried themselves so well, not just on the field, but off the field as well,” he said this morning on 2SER radio.
“You can just get that sense of belonging to a team that they’ve had.”
This has nothing to do with national unity, the Matildas, public utility or any feelings for Sam Kerr.
It is about Albo and his strategy to ladle tripe onto every airwave. Win, lose or draw, Albo drowns it out with himself.
John Howard could get away with this because living standards were soaring during his tenure. It came across as the natural course of events. Given appeared to be doing his job.
But Albo is crashing living standards, and all his blather feels like cheap salesmanship and gaslighting to distract from failure.
There’s a groundswell of anger building against the Albo phony.
