Juvenile speculation

The Age carried a front-page report today claiming that the first cracks are appearing among the independent and Greens members who have decided to support a minority Labor Government.

Perhaps the silliest claim in this article is the that opposition could pursue a legislative agenda on issues such as mental health, the repeal of Queensland's wild rivers laws and tax.  This would a be a truly unworkable situation, and ignores the historical fact that governments tend to poach good policy from oppositions.  I think this is yet another attempt to undermine the Greens in the public square, given the frame put around some remarks of Bob Brown in the article.

Why is it that we are still stuck with news-as-sports-commentary?  The nature of the new parliament is that no political party will be able to claim absolute paternity on any good that comes out of it.  The nature of politics is determined by the players, and they have collectively decided to change fair chunks of the rules.  This doesn't seem to have seeped through to the good journos of The Age quite yet.

Dismal efforts like this demonstrate precisely what is wrong with the coverage and commentary of the last seven weeks or so, which was simply an amplification of what's been amiss more generally in political coverage for some time.  It is a chicken-and-egg situation, given the sort of stranglehold the previous two governments exerted on the information available to journalists; the marketing-based approach of the Rudd years was just the most extreme expression of this tendency.

The speculative content of First Cracks is just appalling, and so uninformed by any sense of how governments actually operate as to look like a year 7 essay -- full of nice touches of research, but lacking in serious analytical content.  In short, it is just juvenile speculation.

If this is a sign of how The Age intends to treat its readers, then I for one will be taking a book to read with my morning coffee instead of opting for the paper.  I don't think I could handle the headaches The Australian brings on these days.