The PM has presented his 25-point battle plan for the new Parliament to ponder. Only his plan contains 23 old measures that didn’t pass muster the first, second or even the third time round.
Some of the ‘new’ policy measures are up to three years old.
Federal MPs returned to Canberra yesterday, with the PM immediately trying to increase pressure on them to sign off on legislations which include a $6.5 billion omnibus savings bill, company tax cuts, three industrial relations bills and a change to media ownership laws that would see the abolition of the 75 per cent audience reach rule.
Over the coming days, Federal MPs will be sworn in, Coalition MPs will select a speaker, choose committee chairs and maybe find some time to discuss the ever-controversial superannuation reform package that so desperately needs addressing. After calling a double dissolution, this new Parliament is being touted as a kind of ‘reset’ for the Government.
However, this new 25-point plan, a plan that contains 23 Abbott-era measures, is even more evidence that Mr Turnbull’s second-term agenda is as flimsy as his first. Fairfax Media reported on the weekend, that even members of his own party are privately sniggering amongst themselves, making jokes about how difficult it would be to have the job of PM speech writer.
“It would be an exercise in writer’s block,” said one Liberal MP. “Can you imagine it? You’d get five minutes in and be back in his office. Is that all, Malcolm?”
Of the 25 measures, two are new: one involves Victoria’s Country Fire Authority dispute and the other is the omnibus savings plan. The remaining 23 have been hanging around the traps for quite some time.
The bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission has been around for almost three years. The registered organisation bill has been around for well over two years. The rest range in age from a few months to more than a year.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has ridiculed the PM’s ‘battle plan’, calling it a “new political phenomena” and smartly emphasising the fact that there is no mention of the NBN, advanced manufacturing, local jobs, Medicare or climate change.
Many are blaming the PM’s lack of substance on the Coalition’s shell-shock over the close count in Election 2016. In the meantime, we can only hope to see some example of Mr Turnbull’s Government of ‘innovation’. But it seems he’s content to fight old battles …
Read more at The Australian
Read more at The Daily Telegraph
What do you think of the PM’s 25-point battle plan? How do you feel about Malcolm Turnbull now? Isn’t presenting the same old measures and expecting a different result the very definition of insanity?
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