Ben Cousins’ drug problem

November 9, 2007, 5:01pm, 304 views,  Leave a Comment

Channel Nine has reported that fallen West Coast Eagles star Ben Cousins was rushed to hospital in Los Angeles last week after a five-day cocaine binge.

Cousins was reportedly admitted to the Little Company of Mary hospital, in the suburb of Torrens, and remained there for two days before being discharged on Friday, November 2.

It was during his son’s stay in hospital that Ben’s dad Bryan Cousins told reporters Ben wasn’t missing, as reports had claimed, but was “receiving treatment at an appropriate facility”.

What continues to amaze me about this ongoing saga is that nobody accepts any responsibility. Not Ben, his family, his club or the AFL.

Cousins is entitled to some privacy, but he is also a public figure who has fallen from grace. The club betrayed him and the sport by returning him to the fold before he was rehabilitated. The AFL should be accountable for this mess.

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Boring campaign

November 8, 2007, 8:42pm, 254 views,  Leave a Comment

Can the election campaign get any more boring? The party machines and media seem more interested in gaffes than policies. The candidates want to avoid them and the media want to record them.

The ministerial stoushes at the National Press Club have been reported on the basis of who made what stumble, rather than what they said.

Is this the media’s fault, or is it a deliberate tactic by the parties? A bit of both, I think. The parties want to control the message that’s delivered and therefore contrive to avoid impromptu opportunities.

The media knows spin from substance and tries to avoid being ensnared in the game, with limited success.

Labor, in particular, is trying to avoid making any stupid mistakes. The longer the campaign lacks spark though, the more I suspect it favors the government.

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Democrats wither

November 5, 2007, 4:49pm, 277 views,  Leave a Comment

The Australian Democrats are facing a wipe-out at the November 24, 2007 election. Maybe they’ll save a seat in South Australia, but it’s looking grim.

Politics has changed since Don Chipp founded the party in 1977. The Labor and Liberal parties have moved more towards the centre for starters.

The Democrats found a niche in the loony left, withstood a challenge from the Nuclear Disarmament Party, but haven’t survived the emergence of the Greens.

Maybe that’s why battling Senator Andrew Bartlett attacked Family First for daring to favor Pauline Hanson over him in a preference deal.

Preference swaps are part pragmatism and part principle. It’s hard to fault Family First on either count in relation to that decision.

Parties that criticise others over preferences are either jilted lovers or hypocrites.

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This weekend’s promises

November 4, 2007, 1:52pm, 281 views,  Leave a Comment

The parties have had a break from cloning each other to make some feel-good announcements this week. There was nothing stunning about them and they are unlikely to sway many votes.

Labor revealed a plan to create tax breaks for first home buyers. The $500 million pledge is designed to address the problem of housing affordability.

It’s little more than a symbolic gesture really, and will only help at the margins of what is a growing malaise. As I mentioned previously, major surgery is needed if the government is to intervene constructively.

The Coalition’s announcement was a $10 billion “transport plan”. This is focused on road and rail improvements in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Although welcome “news” it isn’t really news in the sense that $23 billion for the Auslink program was announced in the May budget. Both parties are just in the process of saying how they will spend that money.

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What happened to brand Liberal?

November 2, 2007, 5:57pm, 237 views,  Leave a Comment

There are suggestions the Liberal Party brand is on the nose across Australia. Candidate marketing is unusually focused on the candidates themselves in electorates held by sitting members.

I received a letter from my Liberal MHR this week which made no mention of his party affiliation. The letter came on generic letterhead bearing the Australian Coat of Arms with an attractive ochre-colored sidebar and a picture of the MP.

That’s probably a smart move in Western Australia where the state party has tarnished the Liberals’ reputation, not to mention the poor poll results federally.

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