Tony Abbott and his Vision

In today's Daily Telegraph Simon Benson tells us Mr Abbott needs to show us his "Vision" . Apparently bad things are going to happen to Tony if he doesn't clean his spectacles and " need to start articulating a fiscal policy setting to manage the mining boom and associated inflationary pressures, as well as a responsible plan of tax and welfare reform to deal with the expanding wealth gap it will bring."

I'm unimpressed. Much the same thing was said about Barry O'Farrell for the four years he was Opposition Leader. Yet he went on to win an election with a record majority.

John Howard also lacked Vision according to the pundits. When asked about his Vision in 1996 Mr Howard said he thought Australians wanted to be relaxed and comfortable. Thats no Vision said the pundits. He was contrasted with Mr Paul Keating who apparently had lots of Vision. Well, John Howard went on to win that election and became Australia's second longest serving Prime Minister.

Grand Visions are not the conservative way. It implies that we have to follow some politicians view of what our future should be. My own vision for an Australian government is very simple. Get the budget back to surplus, pay off the debt then give tax cuts every year which was what Howard did. Let Australian keep the money they earned so they can follow their own vision.

John Howard rejects an Australian Bill of Rights

The other night John Howard attacked proposals for an Australian bill of rights correctly seeing it as an elitist attempt to weaken democracy:

The adoption of a charter or bill of rights would represent the final triumph of elitism in Australian politics: the notion that typical citizens, elected by ordinary Australians, cannot be trusted to resolve great issues of public policy, and that the really important decisions should be taken out of their hands and given to judges who, after all, have a superior capacity to determine these matters.

The three great guarantees of Australian democracy are a robust parliamentary system, an independent and incorruptible judiciary and a free and sceptical press.

Our parliamentary system has many flaws but ultimately it sets the tone of national debate and ought to be the ultimate decision maker. It is the identifiable and collective representation of public opinion.

I do miss our former Prime Minister.

Good sense from John Howard

John Howard gave an interview last night and as was spot on:

Asked what he would have done to combat the global economic crisis, Mr Howard immediately pointed to the abolition of Work Choices, saying that by overturning the controversial industrial legislation the Rudd Government had added to unemployment.

"Work Choices helped give us the lowest unemployment rate in 33 years," Mr Howard said.

"The biggest challenge that the Government now faces is stopping unemployment going too high and they are now, by dismantling our industrial relations reforms, they are adding to unemployment.

"If the name of the game is to protect jobs, why do you follow policies that destroy jobs?"

And as to what he would do to get us out of the recession:

The former PM, who lost the top job in 2007 to Kevin Rudd, said the Rudd Government's multi-billion-dollar stimulus packages had worsened the economic situation in Australia by increasing debt.

Instead, they should have followed policies such as a "payroll holiday", which would have encouraged business to retain jobs, Mr Howard said.

"I wouldn't have thrown money around and given cheques to people," he said.

"I would have actually said to the states, 'We'll give you, I think it is $16 billion collected throughout Australia for payroll tax', give them payroll tax relief for a year in order to lift the burden of payroll tax, and that would have helped firms to keep staff.