American journalist and social critic Henry Louis Mencken once wrote that "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong". But were Mencken alive today he might instead have written that for every complex public policy problem, there is an idiotic solution proposed by Andrew Bragg that will make things worse. Yes. Senator Andrew Bragg, LNP Spokesman for Self Promotion.
It seems that Braggs’ approach to public policy is as follows:
Step 1 - find an issue with broad public interest.
Step 2 - Write a media release or article, shoving your name and face into the spotlight.
Step 3 - Reverse engineer a ridiculous, simple sounding but unimplementable proposal that will fit into the release or article that will get the populist juices flowing but will actually make matters worse.
Step 4 - Rinse and repeat blaming others for not implementing policy idiocy so to get his name and face in the media again.
Let’s be honest here. Senator Bragg is stupid but not an idiot. He knows exactly what he is doing.
His latest contribution - in the Daily Telegraph - to allow superannuation savings to be used for housing. This off back of his earlier looney idea of getting the Future Fund to be the default superfund for punters. Why not just say it right out Senator. Let’s nationalise superannuation. Oh and some extra regulation for Australia’s financial services sector.
Like many of his Liberal Party colleagues, Senator Bragg is not sufficiently courageous to say that compulsory superannuation is an anathema to a civil and liberal society. No. Let’s play around the edges and propose policies that a Labor government or opposition would never, never support - and that a Liberal government would not have the guts to implement.
Bragg’s bright ideas:
Allow superannuation savings to be used for a house deposit. Genius. Just genius. With no additional supply, this is like pouring kero onto a house price inflation fire.
Allow superannuation savings to be used to offset mortgage balances for mortgage interest calculation. Ding ding ding. Just get the RBA to increase interest rates to nullify this benefit but to punish all other mortgagees.
This para from Bragg, smack in the middle of his article, gives the game away:
Unless we tilt the scales in favour of first-home home buyers, we are bound to promote the status quo.
Such rhetorical genius. Unless we change things, they will stay the same. Genius.
But here’s the rub. To tilt the scales in favour of first-home buyers, you need to tilt the scales away from some other group. Who is that group that will be made worse off at the expense of first-home buyers Senator? You know who, but do you have the courage to say it.
Chances are remote.
Andrew Bragg is stupid to not realize that what he is proposing will only make his solution idiotic.