Mungo MacCallum (Dec’d)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull blaming everyone but himself.

    The constant refrain of economists who get it wrong is that we should never rely on just one set of figures. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Saving democracy.

    Protests are all very well, but only if they are seen to be ineffective. … It is yet another indication that serious dissent cannot and will not be tolerated.  (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull will do anything to secure an outcome.

    Malcolm Turnbull’s experience in negotiation has been in the boardroom of Goldman Sachs, but the atmosphere of the Senate crossbench is more akin to that of the Istanbul Souk. 
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  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. George Brandis is a dead man walking.

    What is not clear is whether George Brandis was genuinely ignorant of the implications of the tax case or whether he deliberately ignored them. In either case, he should immediately have resigned.  
    (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. the National Party is ‘feeling its oats’.

    Mungo MacCallum writes that the National Party may not yet be out of control but it represents a far more frightening prospect to Turnbull and the Liberals than the cross-benchers ever will. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trump, Turnbull and ANZUS.

    So with a single bound across the Pacific, Trumpery has come to Australia – or at least to our elected leaders, which is the troubling bit.

    Last week Malcolm Turnbull was inveighing against the elites – yes, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, the multimillionaire lord of Wentworth, Mr Harbourside Mansion himself.

    His complaint that the “elitist” ABC was talking about section 18c – the ABC, not the manic Murdoch press which has spent relentless months on the same subject until Turnbull was forced to throw a chunk of raw meat to his right wing predators in the form of an inquiry, and the forthcoming dismemberment of the unlucky Gillian Triggs, who has been designated as official blood sacrifice. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Donald Trump – a change agenda?

     

    First the Poms abandoned common sense in backing Brexit and now the Yanks have voted against their own best interests (and those of the rest of the civilized world) by electing Donald J Trump.

    This was not a rational decision; it was the ultimate political gesture, a defiant middle finger towards what they imagined was The Establishment, by which they actually meant anything and anyone they resented.

    It was the act of a demented driver who deliberately veers across the median strip into the oncoming traffic: he knows it will certainly harm him, he may not survive, but with any luck he will take a couple of expensive imported limousines and their fat cat passengers with him. There will be carnage and mayhem, but what a spectacle – that will show them all. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Shorten and Trump.

     

    Malcolm Turnbull and his supporters regularly deride Bill Shorten as standing for nothing – first as a populist weather vane, and more recently as a constant nay-sayer in the style of Tony Abbott.

    And there has been some grounds for the accusations: Shorten has not always appeared a firm and consistent advocate of policies. But in the last couple of weeks he has changed, standing up for both his politics and principles.

    Both have been on display with his rejection of Turnbull’s demands to restore the Building and Construction Commission and to pass the Same Sex marriage Plebiscite; this was inevitable and predictable. But he has also doubled down in joining, improbably, with Jacqui Lambie to pursue an international competitive backpacker tax. And more importantly to opposes Turnbull’s unconscionable move for a lifetime ban on refugees to ever set foot on Australia. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Paranoia about boat people and manufactured demagogic outrage.

     

    There must surely be more to the government’s latest assault on the boat people than simply crude wedge politics and gratuitous cruelty; but if there is, the Prime Minister is not saying – at least not yet.

    This, of course, is part of a long-standing tradition. When and where asylum seekers are concerned, nothing is to be revealed unless it is absolutely necessary, and not always then.

    But Malcolm Turnbull’s announcement last week that anyone seeking to arrive to Australia by boat after July 2013 is now to be banned from our fair shores always and forever seems more than usually puzzling. The boats stopped two years ago. So the new move is not only sadistic: the image of a jackboot trampling on the faces of the already defeated and helpless is hard to avoid. It is also, as Bill Shorten equivocally avers, ridiculous; and worse, it is almost certainly unworkable. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Family First or Day First?

     

    The name of Bob Day, the now former senator, was never one to conjure with.

    If he was noted at all, it was usually as the Sancho Panza to David Leyonhjelm’s Don Quixote – a loyal and reliable hanger-on, grounded where his leader tended at times to eccentricity. Leyonhjelm, the Liberal Democrat Libertarian, could be a touch unpredictable and troublesome, most recently in the brouhaha over his attempted deal to rebirth the Adler shotgun.

    Day, on the other hand, was an unswerving ideologue, a relentless crusader for a hard-line economic fundamentalism. Given that the designation of his party was Family First, it might have been thought that he would have put social concerns – the family, in fact – at the forefront. But while he was sturdily conservative over such matters, these were essentially side issues. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trickle down.

     

    The economic theory known as supply side is better known as trickle down, because it goes something like this.

    You give large sums of money to those who already have it, because they know the best way to handle it – they will invest it rather than simply trouser the loot.

    As a result, the benefits trickle down to the rest of the community in the form of more jobs, better productivity and higher wages and conditions. And there may even be a few drops left for those at the very bottom: everyone benefits. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. What worthwhile lawyer would want to work with George Brandis.

     

    Our bumble-footed Attorney-General, George Brandis, has finally got something right. The resignation of the Solicitor-General, Justin Gleeson, was the proper course of action for him to have taken.

    Indeed, it was inevitable: when the first and second law officers of the nation are irrevocably divided, one of them must give way and if the first won’t, the second must. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Concealing crimes in Manus and Nauru.

     

    Those eminent jurists Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis are normally very careful with the words they use; indeed, Brandis did his best to bore a senate committee rigid as he spent many minutes explaining exactly what he meant by the term “consult.”

    But in spite of their learning and erudition, our latter day Perry Masons seem unable to distinguish between the difference between “refute” (which is the one they constantly use) and “rebut” (which what they presumably mean). (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Turnbull-Abbott shoot out.

    In the normal world, the question of whether a gun could fire seven rounds or five rounds would be largely academic; if there was a dispute it could be expected to be settled swiftly and uneventfully.

    But in the confused and murky world of Malcolm Turnbull, in which reality and fantasy merge into a nightmare and every step seems mired in quicksand, with progress tortuous and salvation impossible – well, that’s just another average week.

    Within four short days what should have been the merest glitch has developed into major shit storm in which Turnbull and his predecessor, Tony Abbott, are trading accusations of deceit and engulfed in righteous outrage which will delight the opposition and the media for days, if not weeks to come. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Brandis vs Gleeson.

     

    Our Attorney General George Brandis states as an unviolable credo that a barrister must give fearless and impartial advice at all times.

    This is a legal ideal, and perhaps one that he believes in, but the fact is that he, like all his predecessors in the office, faces an irreconcilable conflict of interest.

    Certainly he is a lawyer, and a very important one: he is the first law officer of Australia. But he is also predominantly a politician; a senior government minister. And as such, he has an obligation to both prosecute and defend the decisions of the cabinet and the party room, even if – indeed, especially if – he disagrees with them. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull’s problem in the parliament.

     

    Another week, another stuff up. Once again Malcolm Turnbull’s year of delivery has delivered a parliamentary prat fall.

    This one was unprecedented, but not actually serious: for the first time ever, the government voted against itself. The mistake was quickly corrected, but there was considerable embarrassment in the process, an embarrassment compounded when the offending minister, Kelly O’Dwyer, was unable next day to explain the legislation of which she was in charge during the fiasco. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Royal Commissions for Labor prime ministers and trade union officials, but not bankers.

     

    So the great inquisition is over, and the tycoons have laughed all the way back to their respective banks.

    As the gleeful business spruikers pointed out, the politicians did not lay a glove on them – they were lashed with a feather, flogged with a limp lettuce leaf. But did anyone seriously expect that it would be different – even (perhaps especially) Malcolm Turnbull? (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Honorary doctorate for John Howard.

     

    Let me join in the chorus deploring the honorary doctorate conferred on John Howard by Sydney University.

    And it’s not because I’m a Howard hater per se – although there was plenty to detest about the policies of our 25th Prime Minister. Iraq, Tampa, kids overboard, the Pacific Solution, the refusal to apologise to the stolen generations, the racist response to the Wik decision, WorkChoices, to name but a few; even the GST, that lazy and regressive boost to revenue while offering a sweetener of tax cuts for the wealthy. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull’s low road.

     

    So much for Malcolm Turnbull’s great fortnight in parliament, followed by his triumphant march through the marbled halls of New York and Washington.

    His claque of supporters raved, of course, but the paying customers – the voters – remained resolutely unimpressed.

    Newspoll, the bible on which our Prime Minister relied on when he made his grab for power, put his government behind on preferences, and the primary vote fell below 40 percent – where The Australian’s Liberal spruiker Dennis Shanahan used to gleefully describe as “the death zone” when it involved Labor. Now he is more reticent, as is just about every other conservative. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Cheering for East Timor.

     

    It may sound unpatriotic, but I could not help cheering when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague brought down its decision last week, and it was against Australia.

    After more than 12 festering years, this finally brings to a head a shameful and shameless exhibition of browbeating and exploiting our newest and poorest neighbour, Timor L’Este.

    John Howard claimed much of the credit for defending the independence of the nation, and so he should; but it has to be said that his motives were not entirely altruistic. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. World’s best practice – the Gulags on Manus and Nauru.

     

    At a sparsely attended audience well past prime time at the United Nations General Assembly, Malcolm Turnbull used his pulpit to proclaim that Australia’s border security was the world’s best.

    And it is – up to a point. Not since the demolition of the Berlin Wall has there been such ruthless sealing of our frontiers. The boats may not have stopped entirely, but they have been very effectively repelled from our shores.

    We have, as even Peter Dutton, Turnbull’s hanger on in New York, admitted, something of a natural boundary; the country is, as our national anthem notes, girt by sea. No other major nation on earth has such an advantage. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Happy birthday Malcolm Turnbull.

     

    A bit over a year ago, Malcolm Turnbull decided that it was all about winning.

    Not winning for the nation, or winning for the party, and certainly not winning for his long-held policies, but winning for himself – making himself number one.

    So he set about buying votes; it was, after all, almost second nature. That was the way he obtained his preselection and bludgeoned his way past the sitting member for Wentworth in the first place. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. ALP Ambush.

     

    When Sam Dastyari was promoted to the shadow ministry earlier this year, Bill Shorten was unable, because of the opposition’s salary cap rules, to give him a pay rise.

    But now Dastyari can surely apply for a lavish bonus from Malcolm Turnbull, because his stuff up in accepting money from a Chinese firm was the only thing that stood between his stupidity and a week of total humiliation for the government.

    It was not only the defeats on the floor of the House of Representatives in the dying hours of proceedings; these were a fitting climax to a shambolic two days in which the Prime Minister was constantly on the back foot, driven by Shorten’s agenda to the extent that his own program – the great political, economic, moral issue of budget reform was barely visible. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Undermining Malcolm Turnbull.

     

    The baying pack of coalition backbenchers demanding the abolition, or at least the dilution, of the Racial Discrimination Act may be sincere crusaders for free speech.

    On the other hand they may be motivated by a desire to attack small-l liberals, of whom one is (or at least was) their own leader, Malcolm Turnbull. And some are just nasty.

    But in all cases they are guilty of that most heinous of political crimes: they are out of touch with the electorate. Despite the fanatical efforts of the ideological zealots of The Australian, there is not even a squall in the twttersphere of protest about the horrors of the repression of section 18c. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Scott Morrison – channelling Paul Keating or Joe Hockey.

     

    In his latest jeremiad on the state of the economy, Scott Morrison seemed torn between channelling Paul Keating or Joe Hockey.

    There was an echo of Keating’s warning about the country turning into a banana republic, in the prospect of the national debt reaching a trillion dollars (that’s $1,000,000,000,000, a figure of sheer fantasy for ordinary voters) and a glance to Hockey’s need to end the age of entitlement and designate the populace as either lifters or leaners, rebranded by Morrison as the taxed and the taxed-not (by whom he means not the wealthy who employ armies of lawyers and accountants to avoid their obligations, but the indigent who collect more in entitlements than they contribute to his coffers – a soft target for the richly rewarded demagogues of the tabloid press). (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Long Tan – minding our manners.

     

    It is entirely understandable that Australian veterans were disappointed by the Long Tan commemoration stuff up; it is clear that the negotiations, such as they were, between the governments in Hanoi and Canberra were misconstrued, probably on both sides.

    It caused unnecessary grief and irritation, and this is to be regretted. But it is worth looking at the bigger picture: allowing the erection of a memorial cross at Long Tan at all was a remarkably generous gesture by the Vietnamese. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Born to rule and oppose.

     

    It is really hardly surprising that Bill Shorten is proving reluctant to co-operate with the new government he so nearly toppled.

    After all, when the Liberals were in opposition from 2010 t0 2013, they had a policy of remorselessly opposing anything and everything that the government suggested.

    Tony Abbott extravagantly sauced Julia Gillard’s goose, and now Shorten is applying a touch of relish to Malcolm Turnbull’s gander; What goes around comes around. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. The Olympic Games. A chance to celebrate and honour human achievements.

     

    My favourite Olympic Games story comes not from Rio in 2016 but from Persepolis in 492 BC.

    The setting was the court of King Darius I, who styled himself Darius the Great. His Persian empire was vast, but there were problems: the Greek Ionian states had revolted, and although they had been ruthlessly put down, the root cause remained — Greece itself.

    So he sent a trusted general, Mardonius, to finish off the Greek mainland. Mardonius’s troops smashed through Thrace and Thessaly with little serious resistance; but then something strange happened. Suddenly there was no resistance at all.

    When this was relayed to Darius the king suspected a trick, and called one of his Greek captives to explain. Well, said the Greek, it was simple: this was the time of the games at Olympia, when every four years the young men of Greece abandoned war to compete in various sporting contests.

    Incredulous, Darius asked what could draw them to these games; the winners must surely receive huge fortunes. Well no, actually, replied the Greek; all the winners received was a wreath of olive branches.

    The courtiers rocked with mirth and derision: what gullible fools these Greeks must be. But Darius was wiser. If these Greek will do so much for honour alone, he mused, what will they do when their homes and families are threatened? And at the battle of Marathon the Persians found out. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull, accident-prone and careless.

     

    When you’re hot you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not.

    Our Prime Minister was hardly responsible for the fact that the Australian Bureau of Statistics site crashed (or, the boffins insist, was pulled down) on census night. Only the very partisan and very silly are saying that it was his fault.

    But that’s not the point: he will still have to wear the blame for what has been an embarrassing blooper which not only may have derailed the census, but also will set back the public’s confidence of all forms of electronic commerce – what price internet voting for elections? Forget it. (more…)

  • MUNGO MacCALLUM. Campaign against the Australian Census.

     

    My first encounter with the Australian census was in 1971, and even then there were worries about its privacy.

    Gordon Barton, the proprietor of Nation Review, the paper for which I then worked, ran a fierce campaign against what he thought was a dangerous tendency for the government to collect people’s personal details.

    I spoke at length to the responsible minister, a somewhat bemused Billy Snedden; neither of us could see what the fuss was about, and 45 years later I still can’t. The census is a necessary and desirable tool of government, a snapshot of the nation to allow administrators to analyse and, it is to be hoped, improve the condition of the citizenry. (more…)