Mungo MacCallum (Dec'd)

Recent articles by Mungo MacCallum (Dec'd)

MUNGO MacCALLUM. This is not the way it was meant to be.

In a singularly petulant and graceless speech in the early hours after election night, Malcolm Turnbull said he thought he would be returned to government. His surly but defiant supporters those of them who had not already gone home snarled agreement. And for what it is worth, I concur: my fearless prediction is that the coalition will end up with between 76 to 78 seats in the House of Representatives, a thin but decisive majority. But this is not the way it was meant to be, and it is definitely notas the commentators, the editorialists and...

MUNGO MacCALLUM. Trust and Distrust.

So at long last, next weekend, the voters get to choose, not that its much of a choice: which putative prime minister do they least distrust? The least few days of the campaign of degenerated into a screaming match between dodgy scare stories, a barrage of negativity which can only erode what little faith the punters have retained in the political process.

MUNGO MacCALLUM. A treaty with indigenous Australians.

The idea of a country negotiating a treaty with its indigenous inhabitants is hardly novel. Three of our closest friends and allies (New Zealand, Canada and the United States) have all done so successfully, and none of their nations fallen into terminal division and chaos. And of course even in Australia, a treaty has been under discussion for nearly a century. Aboriginal elders have talked about it since at least the sesquicentenary of settlement in 1938, and it was seriously mooted a generation later when the great public servant, Dr H C (Nugget) Coombs proposed what he called...

MUNGO MacCALLUM. A jaded slogan: economic plan for jobs and growth.

Malcolm Turnbulls supporters have been praising him for keeping on his message, which at least has the virtue of simplicity: my government has a national economic plan for jobs and growth. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, and this is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know, as John Keats more elegantly put it.

MUNGO McCALLUM. Malcolm Turnbull and NBN leaks.

Malcolm Turnbull is all very holy about the independence of the Federal Police following last weeks raid on ALP offices and homes over embarrassing (to him) NBN leaks. Why, the government had absolutely nothing to do with the cops, the Prime Minister asserted virtuously. Bill Shorten should be ashamed of even thinking such a thing. Well, perhaps, in 2016. But there was a time when Turnbull knows very well that the government of which he was a minister leant on the AFP, and leant very hard indeed.

MUNGO MacCALLUM: Rituals of irrelevance and distraction.

So we have at last reached a marker along the long trek to the election. The Pre-election economic and fiscal outlook (PEFO) was announced at the end of the second week, which is supposed to mean just where we and our political masters see the state of the nation. PEFO was, like all its predecessors, determinedly optimistic: there are problems, sure, but we can expect things to get better. Nothing to see, folks. But for once there is a serious caveat: it just might not work out exactly as the Treasury and Finance Department hope. And if it...

MUNGO MacCALLUM: Tax - in the eye of the beholder.

The dementors of Newscorps couldnt believe their luck. When the hapless Duncan Storrer rose to ask why rich people were to receive tax cuts while the poor, like himself, did not, the man ticked all the boxes. He was obviously a victim, and presumably a whinger. And he was not only an invited guest of the one-eyed leftist ABC, but of its most unholy program of all Q and A. And unsurprisingly, its gullible audience proclaimed him a hero. The man was born to be destroyed.

Mungo MacCallum. Turnbull/Morrison mantra: jobs and growth.

Our economic plan for jobs and growth jobs and growthjobs and growth jobs and growth sobs of mirth Hobsons Choice blobs and froth .. The trouble with endlessly repeating slogans is that they become meaningless babble. Just what the Turnbull/Morrison mantra will sound like in another eight weeks beggars the imagination. And while were at it, the transition away from the mining boom is bad enough, but its ugly and illiterate derivative, transitioning the economy, is downright horrible, guaranteed to drive the sensitive listener mad within a fortnight. But the irritating terminology...

Mungo MacCallum. So that was the week that wasnt.

We were promised drama and suspense, the start of a massive showdown in the senate over the Building and Construction Commission bill, a clash of egos leaving us wondering how and when it would end. And we were hoping for some action in the House of Representatives, too the session might be rudely truncated, but both government and opposition would set the pre-election scene by belting each other with hyperbole over the atrocities of the unions and the banks respectively and there might also have been some discussion of Arthur Sinodinos and his role in Liberal Party...

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