Well done, Tony, but what about the next two years?

HAPPY anniversary, Prime Minister Abbott, now what about the future? Over the past week commentators, me included, have looked at the performance of the Abbott government over the last twelve months. None of the regular contributors to the ABC and Fairfax media admitted they could not have been further off the money if they tried, and believe me, they were trying. They were trying, in their forecasts of the Abbott government’s performance, to be as negative as they could be and they were uniformly wrong. On stopping the boats, ending the carbon tax, ending the mining tax, cutting red tape, eliminating useless Labor legislation – they were so far off the mark they might well as been on another planet. It’s been a year of dogged persistence for the government, traits that have long been evident in Tony Abbott. But the future, importantly, the remaining two years of the government’s term, are absolutely critical. In headline terms, Scott Morrison’s work in stopping the boats was the stand-out achievement and it was one policy which the Left, from the Greens to the Labor Party, to their media cheer squad, simply said was unattainable. There are not enough eggs in the nation to coat the faces of those who prosecuted that view. Not only were the boats stopped but the billions being spent to cater for those who rushed to benefit from Labor’s open border policy were dramatically cut. Billions have been saved, as well as untold numbers of lives. Voters are still to see count the dividends from ending the carbon tax, but they will. The end of the mining tax is more problematical on several fronts and the government’s handling of this issue and its deal with the erratic Palmer United Party in the senate to get the tax repealed should set alarm bells ringing. Since 2007, this column regularly noted the failure of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s government and then the pathetic weaknesses of Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority Labor-Green-Independent regime. The claims that Rudd was some sort of enlightened genius made by the usual suspects were totally false. He was – as cadres of his former colleagues have rushed to concede – an obsessive with no talent for policy or administration. He became prime minister, as Paul Kelly stressed in his excellent book, Triumph and Demise, because of Julia Gillard’s factional support. Together they were able to do what neither could have done without the other – win government. Without Gillard, Rudd was exposed, without Rudd, Gillard hard to rely on the Greens and Independents to govern. The challenge for Abbott now is to govern without becoming as reliant on the unreliable Clive Palmer and his bizarre coterie of senators as Gillard became on the Greens, and Independents Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Andrew Wilkie. Populist Palmer is putting one over on his supporters with his more-Aussie-than-Vegemite patter. His folksy humbug should have warning signs all over it. His call for support for failing businesses (whose would they be?) is sheer protectionism. The economy needs growth and the nation needs to lift its productivity but bailing out second-rate managements with taxpayers money is just not on. Palmer has also led the hue and cry – and been given a megaphone by the ABC - over the nominal $7 co-payment charge for visits to GPs. These are stunts. The same sort of stunts beloved of the Greens and Oakeshott, Windsor and Wilkie. The sort of stunts Gillard signed up to. The Abbott government must weigh up the value of any trade-off with Palmer, the evidence of his erraticism and lack of policy foresight is overwhelming. It must also weigh up the value of symbolic gestures such as the mooted acknowledgment of Aboriginals in some statement either included or attached to the Constitution. What is the upside and what is the downside of this stunt and who will it genuinely benefit, if anyone? Finally, Opposition leader Bill Shorten should use the current break to assess his political strategy. His noisy antagonism to all of the government’s domestic policy is not a vote winner. Mandatory superannuation, introduced by Labor, will not prevent 80 per cent of retirees from receiving full or part age pensions by 2050. The super benefits Shorten claims workers will be losing will be going straight into workers’ pockets, and they will be able decide whether they wish to contribute to their super fund or pay off their mortgages more rapidly, or save for something they need now. Labor doesn’t like the idea of less money flowing into super because super funds have given too many union bosses comfortable, profitable and powerful board positions. The errors of the Labor years have been well explored -Abbott must not go where Rudd and Gillard went.