leak work warning from 24.7 rudd, page-3

PM has the wobbles according to Neil Mitchell.........

Lustre deserts pressured PM
Neil Mitchell

May 29, 2008 12:00am

WATCH Kevin Rudd closely. He has a pinched, thin-lipped air about him when he is under pressure and the questions are hurting.

It's the look of a man who loathes not being in control, and it has been there regularly recently - visual proof that the post-election glow has faded and the Prime Minister is rattled.

Forget the opinion polls that say he is more popular than rain in the Mallee, they lag behind the public.

For once in their self-centred lives Cate Blanchett and her elitist mates are right: after a series of blunders, some sloppy politics and ridiculously poor decisions, our Prime Minister is going backwards at a rate that would alarm his advisers if he had any real opposition.

Traditionally this country allows a new leader time to become comfortable, but that time has expired and much must be done to reclaim the goodwill squandered.

His first bad mistake was to underestimate massively the grey-haired stampede that was inevitable after he effectively ignored pensioners in the budget.

Any prime minister whose policies bring hundreds of semi-dressed elderly people to the steps of Flinders St station has achieved something memorable, but not constructive.

He even messed up the symbolism here by appointing actor Noelene Brown ambassador for the ageing and paying her $54,000 a year to promote him.

That income is beyond the comprehension of the average pensioner, something they will happily point out to Noelene, whether she asks or not.

The second bad mistake was the dodgy decision on "alcopops".

Waving his moral authority, a weapon we will see increasingly, Mr Rudd said this was about health policy, sobering up kids.

It was really a tax swipe of $3.4 billion, a decision that would hit tradesman having two drinks a night more than 18-year-olds boozing themselves senseless.

Rudd-blue number three was a ripper - that comment last week that he really couldn't do any more about anything that even whiffed of being a problem. Was he giving up after only six months?

Of course not, but it was a blindingly stupid thing to say.

Fourth was the mess over petrol prices. Do these politicians just not understand?

It hurts to tip nearly $100 into a tank just to live a normal life, and it hurts more when your government's strategy to cut prices has all the credibility of an oil company crying poor.

Last year Mr Rudd promised FuelWatch would change the world.

Now, even he agrees the impact on prices will be marginal and his own Martin Ferguson says prices will increase.

It got even sillier when the PM tried a dodgy exercise in spin control by having ministers suggest the GST may be removed from the fuel excise.

It was an idea, not policy, and it is at least 18 months off.

Meanwhile, how do we survive?

And how is it moral to continue this tax on a tax?

The honest decision would be to stop ripping so much tax out of increased prices, freeze the excise and GST at a total of 50 cents a litre, and ease the rate of increase.

There are more examples of Rudd unravelled: his ideas summit was to cost very little, but is nudging $2 million; his Bali jaunt to sign Kyoto was needlessly indulgent; and the new tax "policy" on luxury cars may be reviewed.

His staff has been accused of bullying the media, and he has the stain of pork barrels on his hands in Gippsland.

The Prime Minister has the wobbles.

Little wonder the lips are tight and the cheeks pinched as he scribbles at the bench in Parliament while Brendan Nelson's theatrical anger becomes more believable.

Then there's the bad news.

Mr Rudd, it will get worse.

Petrol will reach $2 a litre and the world will change.

Food prices will increase further, and the aviation industry must find new ways to survive.

Interest rates will rise again, it won't be possible to blame the previous government, and the unions will start a catch-up march that will loosen the roots of the Labor movement.

In fact the only good news for Kevin Rudd came when Cate Blanchett and a bunch of barely known "artists" took after him for describing sultry naked photographs of children as "revolting".

His comment was perhaps an over-reaction but it was the first time he had captured the public mood for months.

And although he may have shed a few of his very best new friends, it is a good look for a politician who wants to be popular to be savaged by a group of self-serving elitists who think the real world is a coffee shop in Fitzroy and an economic crisis only bites when the million-dollar grants dry up and decent chardonnay breaks $20 a bottle.