Rudderless euphoria

VETERAN social researcher, Howard-hater and Fairfax columnist Hugh Mackay was one of those euphoric about the election of the Rudd Labor government last November.

But Mackay acknowledged in a recent interview with the ABC's Kerry O'Brien that such euphoria is unsustainable - a view Prime Minister Kevin Rudd seems to unable to entertain. According to Mackay, voters "thought this was a government that was going to, if not perform miracles, then at least do something dramatic to the spirit of the nation. "And things like Kyoto and the apology and the 2020 Summit - those big symbols early on - really stood as reinforcement of that rather euphoric expectation.'' Euphoria, Mackay says, "by its very nature is ephemeral, and we're already seeing it evaporate just a few months after the Government has come to office. "Already, there's some cynicism - certainly scepticism - in the community about whether the symbols are more significant than the substance, whether all this big-picture, statesmanlike stuff that fed the euphoria is gonna happen or not.'' But it's not a "few months'' since the Rudd government came to office It's a week short of eight months, and all the public has seen is symbolic gestures: several bold statements that have then been whittled of almost all meaning by reference to committees and inquiries, or the announcements of initiatives that will not be taken until after another election, if then. Mackay isn't the only Ruddophile to believe that a government needs more than a quarter of the average term of office to do something meaningful. Sydney Morning Herald writer Peter Hartcher offered this apology for last week's blow-out in the consumer price index: ``Of course, Rudd is only eight months into a three-year term. "It's utterly unreasonable to expect that he could have any serious impact on such big problems so quickly. Indeed, it is utterly unreasonable to expect that he could have any serious impact at all.'' Hartcher did admit Rudd had created the expectation that he could achieve something, but then excused him from responsibility by blaming "forces beyond the control of any government'' for the sharpest hike in inflation since the one-off hit caused by the introduction of the GST. Mackay and Hartcher need to be reminded that Rudd could, in fact, have done something about the problem. As shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull pointed out, the Rudd government's nonsensical $3 billion tax on alcopops - sold to the public as a measure to curb teenage binge drinking - was one of the factors adding inflationary pressure to the CPI. Thanks largely to that one unnecessary (and unsuccessful) measure, the price of spirits jumped 6.1 per cent during the June quarter. As the explanatory note issued with the CPI figures said, it was "the largest quarterly increase in the price of spirits since the series began in the September quarter of 1980, and was predominantly due to the introduction of an increased tax on all pre-mixed drinks from April 27, 2008''. But the alcopop tax wasn't the only inflationary measure added to the burden of "average working families'' by Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan - as the public will learn to its cost when the full effects of the luxury-car tax and the changes to the Medicare levy surcharge kick in. Turnbull is correct in saying that Swan is "not an inflation-fighter at all. He's added upward pressure on inflation.'' The first Rudd-Swan Labor Budget was a net contributor to inflationary pressures and hardship for the average working family, but the real whack will come should the Government's draconian, ill-founded emissions trading system come to fruition. ALthough Swan has indicated he expected unemployment to rise because of his first Budget, the numbers thrown out of work by Labor's ideological approach to the climate-change phenomenon will ensure that whole industries are laid waste and tens of thousands of jobs are shipped offshore to nations that couldn't give a fig for the Labor leadership's moral posturing. China and India aren't going to take a skerrick of notice should Rudd, Swan and Climate Change Minister Penny Wong take the axe to the Australian economy to prove their green credentials to covens of doctors' wives and members of inner-urban Labor Party branches. The populations of India and China aren't going to be persuaded that they should use less power or even green power. They need more energy, they're determined to harness more energy, and their efforts to build their economies will swamp whatever piddling energy-reduction measures Rudd and his coterie force on the Australian public. With the price of fuel oil still astronomical by historical standards, more coal-fired plants are being built in China and even across the oil-rich nations of the Middle East, despite Rudd's bleating to assorted world forums. A caring government would be attempting to make things easier for the nation, not tougher. Those who experienced such euphoria at the election of the Rudd government were either wealthy enough to be cushioned against its destructive economic policies, or silly enough to believe the spin that it cared for those suffering from higher grocery, fuel and housing prices. The union movement has already begun mounting a new wage push to compensate its membership for the higher prices forced upon them by the inflationary policies of the Rudd government. Far from offering downward pressure on inflation, Rudd and Swan have merely been exacerbating the problem - and they still show no sign of understanding how the economy works.