Team Australia in Trouble. Captain at Fault!
To use cricketing parlance, cracks are beginning to show in the
pitch. The pitch that is, that Tony Abbott is making to the Australian
public. In fact some of the cracks might indicate a turning wicket.
For some time I have been suggesting that the Prime Minister and his
team have been playing the ball with a negative bat-mentality, totally
against the spirit of the game. Take for example his budget, which was
hit for six by all and sundry.
Despite its universal condemnation Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey
continue to defend a budget that put all the heavy lifting on the lower
order. Hitting taxpayers to square leg is simply not cricket.
The true test of a civilised society is how it regards and treats its
most vulnerable. The budget has failed miserably on this point.
Pandering to the rich and the lily-white corporate sponsors in the
members pavilion indicates no balls.
And blaming the other side for your own poor form brings one’s own captaincy into question.
In an effort to divert attention from his own poor form Captain Abbott had this to say when urging an end to political bickering.
“In an atmosphere of rancid partisanship, few great national questions can ever satisfactorily be decided,”
“It is in this great country of ours possible to have a better form of government”
I would have thought a good place to start would be to stop telling lies and play a straight bat with the supporters.
The problem is he wants everyone to join Team Australia when his
captaincy is tarnished with a 20 year record of disrespect for the game
and its supporters based on a boots-and-all partisan mentality of
negative gutter politics. Now he wants everyone to play ball his way.
Be it not for me to tell the PM how to manage the team but might I
suggest that there is an enormous difference between ruling and leading.
I mean take his policy of Direct Action on climate change. It
addresses the problem with all the sincerity of someone who once said it
was crap.
How that fellow Palmer gets a game is beyond me. His body mass
matches his ego; highly inflated. He is unfit to play. They need to take
the game more seriously.
Two and a half billion dollars of taxpayers money is a lot to spend
on a direct action plan that nobody thinks can work. What happens at the
end of 2020? Is there more money if it doesn’t? Or even if it does. And
why have they agreed to spend taxpayer’s money on an inquiry into an
ETS that they guarantee not to implement? It goes against the flow of
play. They should be no-balled.
The world’s population is tipped to increase by 50% in 2042 to 9
billion and stabilise at 10 billion in 2062. Add in the effect of
climate change and what do we have? A dead rubber and no second innings.
And all these bloody inquiries into the way your opponent plays the
game. Trying to hit people out of the park for your own vindictiveness
smacks at reckless bowling – underarm stuff that you would expect from
someone who has spent too much time in a Chappel.
Former captain John Howard had it right when he sad that the Royal
Commissions would set a bad precedent. That comment had a few supporters
on his own side stumped. Goodness, everyone knows how good he was at
bowling spin on sticky wickets.
Of course this is the same captain who said he was embarrassed when
he learnt that Iraq didn’t have WMDs. It seemed to indicate he was more
concerned for what people might think of his personal judgement rather
than a concern for the thousands of deaths resulting from it. Still on
the back foot afraid to leave his crease I think.
It took Senator Brandis just five days to respond to a request from
the Royal Commission into Trade Unions for a time extension but it took
the Government two months to respond to a request from the royal
commission into child sexual abuse. Strange that.
I reckon Abbott is undermining the authority of the commissioner by
authorising a police inquiry into union affairs before he has even made
any findings. Let alonerecommendations. Simply not cricket.
Add to that the fact that the people who oversee the conduct of the
game, the corporate regulator, ASIC says Australia is too soft on
corporate criminals and increased civil penalties including more jail
terms are needed.
“Australia is a paradise for white-collar crime” says ASIC head. Royal Commission!! Too many short balls he was heard to say.
Then the captain decided that going to the game was too cheap so he
decided to make it more expensive by adding a new tax. He said the
indexation of the price on petrol was not a tax. It is. And it’s a blow
to the box, insulting to the crowd’s intelligence. It’s a tax on those
least able to afford it. Note: Big companies and miners are exempt.
And to use a sneaky and deceptive means of instigating a new rule was
like being run out without facing a ball. But it is what you would
expect from such a negative leader. Caught out on this one I think.
One of the problems with Team Australia is its public relations with
all the players intent on imposing their own view on the state of play.
Take these for example: First drop Cormann calls the opposing captain an
economic girlie man; and wicketkeeper Joe Hockey’s suggestion that
Labor should pass the budget to fund their war effort was ludicrous in
the extreme. He should be relegated to 12th man.
The Captain reckons that “Coal is good for humanity” which has
nothing to do with cricket. But the reality is demand for coal in the
developed world is declining, and the developing world is turning as
fast as it can to other sources of power. Could the words “COAL IS GOOD
FOR HUMANITY” be the most naively ignorant words ever spoken by an
Australian leader?
I know we have the reputation of being the best sledges in the world but the captain needs to set a better example.
Then he described the Australian National University’s decision to
divest from certain fossil fuel companies as a “stupid decision”.
Former Liberal leader John Hewson said the Prime Minister’s remarks “might have some substance if he had an energy policy”.
Yes,Team Australia captain Abbott reminds me of a lower order batsman
who has been hit with a bouncer while not wearing a helmet. Concussion
set in and when he recovered he realised that there are real known facts
in the world and that truth does matter.
Talk about negative batting. But any wonder, a captain who bats at 10 isn’t a cricketer’s arsehole.
Then using a term from another game the captain plans to “shirtfront”
the Russian President Vladimir Putin. Once a thug, always a thug? I
hope he wears his speedos to keep the protector in place otherwise a low
blow from Putin might see things hanging loose. Or he might feel like
he’s copped one in the nuts from Malcolm Marshall.
Whilst the Murdoch press seem to always be on the leader’s side.
Messer’s Jones and Bolt have been stumped well out of their crease over
comments about the death of one of Australia’s finest players in Gough
Whitlam.
People like Bolt and Jones who write and comment outrageously on the
basis of payment for controversy will eventually pass on as Gough did.
They will be quickly forgotten but he will go down in the annals of
Australian history as a decent, sanguine, passionate and sagacious Prime
Minister who made an enormous contribution to Australian society.
Something they could never aspire to do.
But the Murdoch press continue to give Team Australia their support.
Even trying to have Senator Peris caught in slips. I know they don’t
like the government having women in the team but these accusations are a
bit wide of the crease.
Honestly, the publication of the Nova Peris emails confirms that
Murdoch’s evil is not just confined to England. I’m wondering what the
Lords are thinking about all this.
It was refreshing, however, during the lunch break, to hear one of
the fairer minded players in Team Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, say that
Murdoch had overstepped the crease and too many short balls was not in
the best interests of the game. Just a pity we can’t appeal to the third
umpire. Appallingly bad sportsmanship.
Reminds me of something Merve Hugh’s said to a spectator at fine leg
at the G after dropping a catch. Fkn hopeless. But who knows, perhaps
Malcolm was just grandstanding.
So let’s take a look at the current state of play. The captain of
Team Australia is batting on a deteriorating wicket, all be it with a
defensive and negative straight bat. The opposing captain is trying to
put a positive spin on his leadership but he has been no-balled a few
times for bowling wide of the crease. Perhaps he should consider
bringing on the quicks for a few overs given Abbott seems to be stumped
for ideas at the moment.
That’s not quite true. It’s just that his words don’t have enough
swing. It seems he is continuously being caught behind. On current form
it’s difficult seeing him making a score, or at least one worthy of
remembrance.
During the condolences speeches for Gough Whitlam when speaker after
speaker in Parliament spoke of the legacy that Prime Ministers leave
behind I could not help but look at the expression on Tony Abbott’s
face.
He looks like he is just batting with the breeze, taking advantage of
the privileges of office without any clear narrative about how the game
should play out. A friend of mine suggested he needs a manager because
he has been handling himself too long. Another suggested he should just
declare his innings closed and hand over to someone with more political
nouse for the finer points of the game. And with all these rumours about
dual citizenship perhaps he is captain the wrong team and should be
playing for the Poms.
For an old purest like me, ”It’s simply not cricket.”
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