Well, it’s day two of Morrison’s Australia, and the takes continue to roll in. Crikey readers responded to Bernard Keane (who has been working overtime to interrogate every angle of Libspill tumult) as he looked at the steps we may see Morrison take to stave off Labor’s ascent, and at the winners and losers of the new government front bench. Elsewhere, readers had something to add to Guy Rundle’s question of Peter Dutton’s true intentions, arguing that the conservatives’ real nature is not hard to decipher.

On Morrison’s competitiveness  

TheRabidHamster writes: Nothing about an energy policy then? Nothing on emissions reductions? The transition of the economy away from fossil fuels and toward new technology? Or perhaps looking at an increase in Newstart? Nothing on attempting to make home ownership possible for anyone who’s parents aren’t multi-millionaires? Have I traveled through a worm hole and ended up at the Financial review?

Marcus Hicks writes:  You claim the Liberals have a “great story to tell” on jobs. Sorry Bernard, but I don’t buy it. Yes, unemployment finally hit 5.3% for the first time since this mob took government. However, you forgot to mention that labour force participation dropped by 0.2% during that same period, which more than accounts for this small drop in the official unemployment rate. You also conveniently ignore the fact that trend unemployment is still tracking closer to 5.5-5.6%, the ongoing high levels of underemployment or the fact that they cannot point to a single policy to account for the current unemployment rates (unless you count the uber-dodgy work for the dole and “internship” schemes — which were more about hiding unemployment than reducing it). Indeed, the bulk of their actions to date have been to destroy employment, particularly in the manufacturing sector.

<Laurie Patton writes: Actually, there’s seven: Recognise the reputational damage from the dud NBN Abbott forced on Turnbull and do a deal with Labor to fix the mess. We need a bipartisan rethink and an agreed plan to build a 21st Century broadband network. The NBN won’t be finished until everyone has reliable and fast Internet access. When you include the time it will take to rip out and replace the inferior FTTN connections, and the expense, it will actually have taken longer to build the thing and cost more than had we stuck with the original model. Along the way millions of Australian have been subjected to second rate Internet access. 

Daniel Morphett writes: How about a spill tax? If there’s a party room spill, everyone in favour of it would be up for $20,000, $50,000 maybe?

On the winners and losers of the new cabinet

Dog’s Breakfast writes: Julie Bishop looked good in comparison with possibly the worst cabinet/ministry since the last one (and before that, since the war). If not for so much incompetence around her I doubt she would stack up so well. Foreign affairs, while ostensibly important, doesn’t actually require much other than a love of travel and being shunted around various locations. A highly competent foreign affairs minister could do something substantial, if they were lucky and international climes were conducive. Mostly though they achieve not very much and can only do damage to our reputation. International niceness is the key asset, and the ability to shake hands with people you’d rather see dead. Other than that, it’s a great place to put people who can’t manage hard policy at home.

Peter Burnett writes: I’m not sure about the oft-repeated line that the Turnbull coup was driven by personal hatred, not policy. From my armchair, it looks like the putsch successfully derailed yet another attempt to do something about climate change. Duttonistas such as Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly, Jim Molan and Eric Abetz have long advocated ditching any serious climate action and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Last week, Gina’s favourite ex-minister Barnaby Joyce said: “People in the Kmart, people in the local pub, they don’t care about the Paris agreement.”

In July, Abbott said “It’s the emissions obsession that’s at the heart of our power crisis and it’s this that has to end for our problems to ease.” Even without Dutton as PM, the carbon capture of the government is now confirmed. We have the elevation of a Prime Minister who once brought a lump of coal into the Parliament. We also have an Energy Minister who describes a belief in anthropogenic climate change as “the new climate religion.” Methinks job well done by the miners and their minions.

On Dutton’s true nature

Xoanon writes: Agreed regarding the inability of the press gallery to actually write anything substantial. However, I think the philosophy of Dutton, Abbott etc is pretty obvious. They can’t bear the idea of the world changing and conservative middle-aged white blokes like them not being in total control; so they will do anything, take up any inconsistent position, hurt anyone they deem necessary, to try to retain their power. And they do need to be called out for that.

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