Pixelated Semantics

Semantic Stunts

According to Man of Steel explaining "the philosophy of the Liberal Party" is different to "explaining a new government policy" - as if the Liberals are somehow disconnected from being the current government, or their philosophy is quarantined from actual policies and decisions. Hence no need to pay back taxpayer's money used for current advertising that is found to be political, and the consequent labelling of the Labour intention as a "stunt". The attempted disconnection between policy and philosophy is a semantic stunt, like the government's penchant for answering different questions to those they were asked. For example, on accusations of hiding information on Abu Grahib abuse, the government's retort was to insist that no Australians were involved, despite that not being the assertion made by the questioner. The perception that our security services produce "intelligence assessments the Government wants to hear" is also played down, at the expense of the repution of messengers bringing information contrary to government policy, and in defiance of evidence of "systematic distortion" of facts in relation to WMD, refugees, East Timor, Bali, and many other critical electoral issues. Repackaging policies and announcements is also popular, for example, last week's schools funding "initiative" and the conditions attached were originally announced in March, the government has simply repackaged them to appear new, adding the flagpole condition as a populist addon.

Update: parents who have been mistakenly overpaid the $600 family payment have been informed by the government that they can keep their "unexpected windfalls". Labor reasonably asserts this is "a pre-election bribe" - an email to Centrelink staff shows "normal debt recovery procedures do not apply" to overpayments, in stark contrast to the often harrowing treatment of overpayed claimants. Perhaps a measure of Liberal panic over electoral prospects, that openly peddling influence to "battlers" is allowed to stand. And Media Watch's thorough examination of government advertising - or rather the lack of regulation and definition of "political" advertising - further amplifies the concerns over government conduct.

The language of deception: Man of Steel's attempted electoral bribery is confirmed by the announcement that those overpaid for Family Welfare will be "encouraged" to repay, not ordered, as previous recipients were. Thus the PM is presented as being concerned for the apparent inequity, while not actually undertaking concrete measures to ensure the "fair-go" ethic he has previously championed is acted on.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 12:00 pm ::