Out of her depth Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer appeared on the Sunday political television programme ‘Insiders’ where she was interviewed by veteran journalist Barrie Cassidy. The interview has been characterised as a ‘train-wreck’ of an interview1, and this is pretty close to the mark.
Despite the government calling a Royal Commission into the banking and financial services industry, O’Dwyer had previously argued strongly that there was no need for such a Royal Commission2. However, during the interview with Barrie Cassidy, at no point would she admit that the government was wrong to stall on calling it, despite being asked at least 5 times. She also failed to answer five other questions about her past opposition to the enquiry1.
The Herald-Sun is a right wing Murdoch tabloid, so for their right wing nut job columnist, Andrew Bolt, to state that a minister of the government was involved in a train-wreck of an interview, makes it clear that it was a complete shambles. Despite my antipathy towards Andrew Bolt for his stupidity (he doesn’t even understand climate science), he said one thing which was true, and that was: “O’Dwyer should realise that an apology angers voters much less than does repeatedly denying the bleeding obvious”1. This is so bleeding obvious itself, it makes you wonder who was advising O’Dwyer to go heavy on the obfuscation and denial.
Unfortunately, obfuscation and denial are a matter of course for the Coalition2 and is, I suspect, one reason for the decline in their reputation as anything like a competent government. They might be able to get away with being directionless, but when they make blunders they should simply admit it. As former premier of New South Wales, Neville Wran is reputed to have said: “In the event it is necessary to eat a shit sandwich, then make sure you cut it yourself, because then you can slice the bread nice and thick”3. If the government were to do this for all their stuff-ups, they’d need a lot of bread.
Sources
- http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/kelly-odwyer-has-a-trainwreck/news-story/d4ba7a64239aabaf389e6b7216202c51
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/shoplifting-with-the-big-boys/
- https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/gideon-haigh/suddenly-nobody-is-in-charge-of-crickets-powerhouse/news-story/a0b77421b64d0571595e6453e1bfebe6
