Palmer for talk, Liberal Democrats for action

Some years ago, I was talking to the senior mine geologist about the drilling program when a winder driver asked about a problem she had and wanted to know whether she should talk to the general manager or the underground one.  

The geologist replied, “If you want something done see the underground manager, if you just want to talk about it, the general manager is just the man for it.”

This pretty much equates to the difference between the Liberal Democrats and Palmer.

Palmer is blowing off a bit of froth today about his chances of becoming prime minister if Tony Abbott calls a double dissolution: 

… Mr Palmer has predicted a bold, new direction for Australian politics where his party has a majority in the lower house and he is prime minister. 

The mining magnate has dared Prime Minister Tony Abbott to call a double dissolution election if he cannot pass the budget and says the Palmer United Party will run in every lower house seat and can claim victory.  

“Our members think there should be an election straight away,” Mr Palmer told Fairfax Media.  “They are ready and standing by.” … 

… Asked to explain precisely how he could become prime minister, Mr Palmer predicted that his party could take votes from the Coalition and added: “I think we can get the votes we need to make Australia better.'' 

“I think there will be a new change in the dynamic of Australian politics. In the lower house we will be going out to win it.''  Mr Palmer predicted the PUP could also claim 24 to 30 seats in the Senate. …

If voters want to be sold a pup, then Clive is just their man; he even has the right party name for it.  PUP is a policy free zone; the policy section of their website lists four or five one sentence generic positions that mean as close to nothing as Palmer can get them.

If you want to know more, he refers you to a ‘policy document’ which is actually a long series of press releases, some of them contradictory, and giving no detail of any proposed actions.

PUP mirrors Clive Palmer.  Clive is mainly famous for picking and losing fights, and travelling around the nation bitching about everything going on.  This is fine as far as politics go, but sooner or later, you have to come out with meaningful solutions.

The Liberal Democrats on the other hand feature a full section of detailed policies on pretty much every aspect of matters covered by politics.  Nothing is hidden; there are no surprises if the party is elected.  It is all out in the open.

Nobody knows what Palmer would do if PUP got up.  We all know what he complains about, but there are no solutions offered; his appeal is restricted to low information voters who want to make a protest, assuming that it will all be OK.

Palmer has spent the past week howling to the moon about the budget, saying he will block it, complaining about every aspect of it, but has not had the courage of his convictions (if any) to come up with an alternative. 

The Liberal Democrats on the other hand released a full and detailed budget a day prior to Abbott.  In fact, we were the only party to do so.  It may not appeal to everyone but everyone detests the LNP one.

We all have to step into the big unknown at some stage, but voting for Palmer is a step too far.