"why else would he bother." - for the same reason that most high achievers and those with high self opinions and ambitions for power and glory. If MT never went into politics he would one day die and that would be it - a multi millionaire that most of us would never have heard of, or will have forgotten about if we had. He will now live on in History. His enemies will denigrate his name, while his friends will laude him.
You rise as far as your incompetence and courage and self belief will let you. I really believe that TA was an over achiever - if he had a more probing media pre-2013 he would never have had his picture in the hallway of PMs. If he hadn't faced a the hugely popular Rudd he would never have been leader of the opposition because Rudd had just smashed 3 Lib leaders (Howard, Nelson, Turnbull) in a very short time, and those Libs still in Parliament were not willing to sacrifice their careers at that stage becoming victim #4 - "Tones is an old boxer; let him take a few upper cuts while we sit here and wait for Kevin to trip up" may have been the idea.
Well he is a boxer and he kept throwing haymakers hoping some would stick and a couple did - stop boatsandthetaxandtheothertax. He kept throwing this limited combination and not one media agency asked him to EXPLAIN his ideas (except the ABC, so like a true believer in open Govt he hardly went back to Q+A and 7.30 ever again.)
Murdoch and 2GB were willing allies in this to such an extent that a survey found that more Australians were disappointed in their economy which was AAA-growing-low unemployment-low debt-low deficit (LNP have blown out the last 2 but no longer mention “budget emergency” or “fiscal cliff” – and come to think of it, neither does Murdoch or the shock jocks – Why, when it is now much worse?) than the people of Spain who had suffered so badly they were one of the PIGS ready to default as a nation. How can that be explained?
How can a nation that calmly went through the GFC and had a performing economy the envy of Europe, Japan and Nth America have such a large group of depressed people? Easy when you realise that every day the nation woke up to gloom and doom – the great bulk of which was fabricated to such an extent that when there was no evidence of a crisis the Tele would Photoshop an image for the front page that became a substitute for debate.
The rest is history – TA had nothing outside of slogans, broken promises and hypocrisy. His final speech was more of the same, blaming everyone else except his own limitations. He even had a dig at the media – what a .......(you put in your own description.)
TA’s name will live in History now; and there are those who will laude him.
The same with MT. Failing to become the first president of Aust, the next best thing is to become the 29th PM. He has risen as far as his ambitions, confidence and ability can take him in Australia. He has not done it for money – he already has enough and can make more outside of parliament. He is not doing it for the good of mankind - his climb up the rich list involves quite a bit of harm to others.
This is simply another tick-off-another-item from the bucket list. The goal has been achieved. All that is left is the major worry - which is not to do good - but to avoid making a goose of himself so that the history books do not speak badly of him. To do that he does not have to do any good – he just has to GIVE the appearance of doing good.
TA had to pay off Australia’s biggest debt – the debt he owed Murdoch. That a people untouched by the GFC could believe that they were becoming Greece belies the standard of our Education system; but it does explain human nature. The economy was sinking under TA – he found a new punch from an old and well worn book – fear (this time - of terror). That helped him for a little while when a crisis appeared he would say “Look! There’s some terror!”. That gave him a hit in the polls (those polls that he trashed in that deplorable final speech which summed up his complete lack of qualities to lead a nation) until no one believed him anymore despite the best efforts of his media supporters.
Enter MT. Well this bloke, who was going to quit politics after his defeat by TA for opposition leader – quit his lofty goal of helping mankind? Nah – he knew that the top job would never be his. Mr Howard talked him around to stay on – I would love to know what buttons Mr Howard pushed to have MT change his mind? (I really believe it was – “Look! That bloke is a dunce and will not last 2 years in the job. You can take it all then.” Well, TA lasted longer than 2 years – and he got the top job before MT – but essentially JH was correct (if my guess is correct).
MT could not be a replica of TA – there is no purpose in that. He built himself up as someone who could appeal to the centre in the hope of pinching enough votes from the Greens and the ALP to be seen as a force. His time has come and he will use that image in the way our success in the GFC was used – that is, black WILL become white. MT has already promised to follow TA’s policies to keep the right wing happy and to win Murdoch and the shock jocks over. That is, he is not a centrists or a Labor-lite. He will appear to be. He did not make $140 million helping others. He made some of it by destroying (then) soon to be UNESCO listed forests (but he will say he is an environmentalist).His giving the water portfolio to the Nats(which underlines his real uncaring attitude to the environment) shows how far he will go to keep the top job. He crossed the floor to vote for an ETS with Labor, but howled down their Carbon tax – simply because the tax went back to the people; while carbon credits are traded like any commodity which makes much money for merchant bankers.
He will move our economy further to the right because that is his background – a successful background that he will use to convince the soon to become working poor that there life is wonderful. He will have many friends to help him in this deception – TA’s old media mates.
He is partly on the right/good side of Murdoch by his castrating of the NBN. What else will he have to do? Easy; just do what TA was doing but sell it in a better manner. Brandis was interviewed this morning and he made four references to MT as a “good salesman”. That is, we have the same awful sandwich, just in different wrapping paper!
What is MT’s reason for becoming PM? Because he wants to and because he can (and has).
