Stupidity of Abbott and Hockey

The paid parental leave debacle now consuming an otherwise soft and friction-free budget, is testament to the stubbornness of ageing white men and to the durability of their ideas, even really bad ones.

When the all-male Expenditure Review Committee members huffed their scornful reproach and conspired to nail greedy mothers involved in welfare "fraud", as Hockey readily agreed it was, it eluded their lofty wisdom that (a) this was egregious nonsense (b) their policy shift contradicted a core value to which the Prime Minister - no less - was thoroughly welded, and (c) some of their own wives had taken maternity leave from their employers, and the basic federal government scheme of $11,500 over 18 weeks. Oops.

The stupidity of Abbott and Hockey now paring back entitlements are too numerous to list, but include that right up until months ago, they had wanted to pay $75,000 for six months to wealthier mothers – non means-tested. It was Abbott's "signature" policy remember – specifically confected to fix his "women problem". How's that looking now? Hockey had been its next most enthusiastic proponent. Both had argued it was an employment entitlement akin to annual leave and thus an inalienable right. Once a bitter opponent of paid parental leave (over my dead body) Abbott became unstoppable - a born-again zealot intent on staring down colleagues after foisting it on them without consultation.  

Now he's changed again. New mothers seeking way less than his extravagant scheme would have paid out, are morally, if not legally crook, and their employers, scammers if they offer back-to-work incentive bonuses for their valued employees.

Bill Shorten nailed the hypocrisy when he said Labor had legislated a minimum entitlement, and the Coalition had now made it the new maximum.

Surely the abiding lesson for the Abbott government from the 2014 cascade, is that if you are going to back down from harsh or ill-conceived ideas, do it quickly. 

Why mess about for a year defending the indefensible if in the end you're going to retreat anyway? Why weather sustained public opprobrium as well as the embarrassment of the backdown?

Privately, Liberal MPs mostly know where this is headed. And they know the compound damage of 2014 came from their leaders' refusal to dump the GP-copayment, the pension cuts, the defence pay cut, the higher education research grant cut, changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, and others, long after they had become politically untenable.

That's the lesson of 2014. Bad arguments don't become more convincing through repetition. Quite the opposite.

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