Can Angus Taylor fix it and credentialised mediocrity

There is a good piece in today’s AFR by John Kehoe. It’s titled:

The economy has a problem. Can Angus Taylor fix it?

Here’s the simple answer to the question - NO.

If you you would like a more nuance answer, here it is - HELL NO.

I am still angry having been forced to write my piece on Angus earlier this week. It was titled What a Disappointment. I remain in a high state of disappointment.

I know it is the height of arrogance to quote oneself so please indulge me. This is what I felt having read Taylor’s oped, also in the AFR.

Sniff sniff. Do you smell it? I certainly do.

It’s the pungent odour that wafts off the big government statist. That governments and their hangers on are the central planners and central movers in the economy.

What about productivity gains from a massive reduction in the state? From reduced regulation, reduced taxes, reduced spending, reduced bureaucracy?

But back to Kehoe’s column. This is what he wrote:

Taylor and Auld are both past winners of the University of Sydney medal in economics. Like Hawke, Taylor was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in the UK, where he completed a master’s degree in economics.

Auld is Sally Auld - JBWere’s chief investment officer.

This is from Taylor’s biography on the parliament house web site:

Qualifications and occupation before entering Federal Parliament

• BEc (University of Sydney).

• LLB (University of Sydney).

• MPhil(Econ) (University of Oxford).

• Rhodes Scholar.

• Partner at McKinsey and Co. from 1994 to 2001.

• Co-founder, shareholder and adviser of Farm Partnerships Australia and Growth Farms Australia from 1998.

• Programme Director at Rabobank's Farm Leadership Programmes from 1998.

• Director at Port Jackson Partners from 2002.

• Co-founder and Director of Eastern Australia Irrigation from 2007.

This, dear friends, when overlaid against his achievements over 11 years in parliament, including several years as a minister, is called credentialised mediocrity.

Never having met him, I am sure Angus is a charming fellow, probably smart in his way. You can’t achieve pre-parliamentily what he has by being the standard political careerist hack. But frankly, he has been a dud. A hack in a different way.

This is why I write so frequently about him. He should be better. I expect him to be better. Australia needs him to be better. But he’s not. He’s not up for it. And this saddens and depresses me as a supporter and a stakeholder in his and the broader Liberal Party mediocrity.

I used the term Low Altitude Flyer in my last piece. This was the expression Paul Keating used to describe No Ticker Costello, the journo knocker overer. Well, what an apt description for Angus.

Does Angus diagnose the problem? Yes. Australia’s problem is experiencing a massive governmental asphyxiation of the supply side.

His proposed solution? Slogans.

Returning to the stupid 23.9% government to GDP target. Yawn.

Why 23.9%? Why not 23.8%? Why not 22.4% as achieved by the team of Keating of Walsh. But more importantly HOW?

Unwinding some of Labor’s workplace changes for small business. Why just small business? Why not all business? Why not return the bulk of industrial relations to the states where it belongs and resided before the desiccated coconut abused the Corporations Power in the constitution to centralise it.

Targeted divestiture powers to promote competition in supermarkets. Yeah. That’s a big supply side thing. Nothing about a MASSIVE divestiture of government reducing the bloat and waste in Canberra.

I could go on ad nauseum, but to do so would make me even further nauseous.

And the worst of his best. Yes. He has diagnosed the problem (supply side) but he can’t seem to convince people. Not his party colleagues. Not his leader. Not his constituents.

Giving speeches to friendly audiences is easy. Make the case to those who disagree. Convince them.

It’s the consultant in him.

Write the fancy report. Hand it over to the paying client. Leave the room and leave the problem and risk of selling and executing to the client.

Credentialised mediocrity.

He’s in the wrong business. He should just get out of the way. Retire. Go back to the farm.

Maybe, somewhere in the dross of the parliamentary Liberal Party, someone may be able to come along and do the actual job of politics. Convincing people who don’t agree with you to join with you.

Australia is in a HUGE mess. A commonwealth-state, bipartisan mess.

It’s not gonna get better under a Liberal-National government populated by the Angues. The decline might just be a bit slower. Just a bit.

Doomed. We are doomed.