Tuesday 6 March 2018

Has Bill Shorten got a bad rap over Adani?

Bill Shorten has copped a lot of criticism over saying one thing to miners and another to voters in the Batman electorate.
Is this true. Everything I have read or seen has Shorten saying he only supported Adani if it stacked up financially. He put that caveat on when speaking to miners some time ago,

He is now saying he is against Adani because everything in the mean time has shown it not to be viable.
Indeed since his 'supportive' statement in Queensland Adani has tried and not found anyone to finance the project. Moreover if it were hoping for government handouts to get the project through that is now dashed.
Shorten has also said he would honour any contracts previous Government have entered into if his party wins the next election. 

Perhaps Journalists simply have not read what he has said over time.

It is somewhat ironic that the greatest criticism that could be directed at Shorten is that he is over-promising ( and will thus under-deliver when in Government.

In this he is imitating Tony Abbott. It could well be like Abbott he does not have a great understanding of what confronts Australia. Again like Abbott he is under-estimating how much the electorate takes into account the implied promises he is making.

If either of the above is correct then again like Abbott he will be Leader for a short time and out political class will take a huge hit. People make take to voting against major parties in the lower house!

Unlike Abbott however Shorten does not have a history that could lead people to easily forecast he would make a poor PM.
At this stage he has been a 'lucky' politician and he has used that luck. That is no bad thing however what worries me is his lack of years as a politician. Being in politics is no different to any other job. you need to be in it for a while to understand it properly.

We shall see because all the portents are showing a change of government at the next election

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