This Peter Slipper business for the last few days has been a bit of a joke. It's a scandal for sure, but should he resign?
It's all a bit messy, what with Andrew Wilkie out there trying to get even for the betrayal, and let's not forget the spectre of Tony Abbott as PM on the horizon. If he resigns, then surely it puts an early election on the agenda for the government and of course the chances of the ALP wining that are miniscule.
John Birmingham had this snarky paragraph today:
Allow me to exaggerate. The Gillard government is doing itself more damage than Abbott could ever hope to hand them. I'm not talking specifically about the Peter Slipper fiasco here. I'm talking about everything. Pretty much every decision they have made, every action they have taken since they scraped back into power last time, or arguably since they cut down Kevin Rudd, has been calculated to lower not just the standing of the government of the day, but the standing of the party for a generation. Hmm, I know that was exaggeration, and yet it didn't feel like it.
That pretty much sums up how we're feeling out here in voter land.
If the point of forming government with Andrew Wilkie led to the pokies legislation which they then side-stepped with placing Peter Slipper in the Speaker's chair, then surely all this nonsense is merely a function of a hung Parliament. Somehow I think the electorate is going to demand an election if Peter Slipper is made to resign. It's all so precarious for Julia Gillard.
Gen Y Anger In The SMH?
I've seen all this before in Japan where demographics screwed over Ge-X and they're in a right mess over there. Jessica Irvine has written this thing today - I imagine because the infeasibility of the numbers is hitting home for her, as it hits most others - and it has this tidbit in it worth quoting:
The phenomenon of children resisting the sale of the family home to unlock funds for a parent's retirement, so that the children can inherit the wealth tax-free - otherwise known as the ''nailing granny to the floor'' phenomenon - must also be addressed, possibly through an inheritance tax on housing.
It is true that many young people stand to inherit great wealth in the form of housing. But they'll do so not because of their labours, or their ability to reinvest it productively, but pure dumb luck as to who their parents are.
It is one of those demographic questions that nobody is addressing. If all this wealth is locked up in housing and a good deal of it belongs to the old, then surely there will be more and more of this 'nailing granny to the floor' phenomenon that takes place.
The question is how the aging Baby Boomers will accept the changes to legislation that eases them out of their big empty nests. I imagine with a big 'no fucking way' at the ballot box; which means we can probably chalk up the future to more of this kind of 'nailing granny to the floor' thing. It's the new way of sharing the wealth around across generations.
The post-Bubble is going to be drawn out and traumatic. The slow de-leverage model being carried out by the RBA may end up being just another way to die, only, it will be by a thousand cuts rather than one big stab to the heart.
Bad Press Is Better Than No Press
Kazakhstan has finally admitted the Borat sensation was good for their tourism.
Seems like they finally got the joke.
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