GrodsCorp

Dr Brendan not quite a man of the people

Thursday 3 April 2008, 7:33 pm

The Editor

Categories: Politics

Tags: banks, BrendanNelson, InterestRates, LiberalParty, ListeningTour, populism

Dr Brendan Nelson yesterday took a quick break from his Magical Listening Tour to give a speech at a wbankers’ lunch in Sydney. During the listening tour he tried really hard to show how connected he was to your average middle Australian.

…one lady I gave a hand to get some petrol into her car who put $30 in, was saying “gee, I really hope petrol comes down soon. I’ve got to buy groceries; we’ve got other commitments with the house and interest rates and so on”.

[…]

…sole parents with two or three kids, elderly people on fixed incomes, retirees, mothers that have got three kids to feed… [are] really battling with their grocery prices.

And then at the bankers lunch the good doctor showed how disconnected he was to your average middle Australian.

He said that while it was tough for families to lose their homes, it was also hard on the people evicting them.

“Anyone who doesn’t think it’s equally a significant experience to those who are the lenders misunderstands the nature of what you do and how you do it,” he told the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

He went on to attack those who criticised banks: “It’s easy for some people in public life to engage in cheap populism and criticise lenders.”

The Opposition Leader even appeared to defend banks that raised their interest rates higher than the official rate, as the Commonwealth has been condemned for doing.

“The strength of the financial services sector and our banking sector in particular is absolutely essential to our stability, notwithstanding the argy-bargy over what individual banks may do from time to time,” he said.

“Whatever people think about banks making a profit, there’s one thing that’s worse and that’s banks making a loss.”

And how easy it would be for the big four banks — with annual profits around the $4 billion mark — to inadvertently slide from the black to the red side of the ledger. Australians’ hearts are bleeding for the poor banks.

Dr Brendan’s dig at those who criticise banks’ rate rises above the official rate for being cheap populists is especially hilarious. This is the man who has been engaging in the worst kind of cheap populism during his listening tour in a vain attempt to show that he feels the pain of middle Australians, when in actual fact he seems to feel the “pain” of uber-profitable corporations much more keenly.

13 Comments

brokenleftleg (Thursday 3 April 2008, 8:14 pm) #

Yeah Brendan. Banks are made up of people too. Nice people who give the Liberal Party shitloads of bribes, sorry, campaign donations.
pludian (Thursday 3 April 2008, 8:20 pm) #

And the Liberal Party say that progressives are elitist?
Zombie Mao (Thursday 3 April 2008, 8:46 pm) #

Hey, fairs fair.

It’s a battle for Bank executives to earn more than a measly seven figure sum. House prices are going up ya know.
John Surname (Thursday 3 April 2008, 10:37 pm) #

You’ve become a real bastard since your accident, Ed.
Damian (Thursday 3 April 2008, 10:40 pm) #

Disgraceful. Fuck him.
John Surname (Thursday 3 April 2008, 10:41 pm) #

You used to be all about the banks.
Almost Always Wrong (Friday 4 April 2008, 12:16 am) #

You should get Ant drunk and tell him to find and sink his knee into the good doctor. it’d be another in a long line of satisfying crunches. i mean, this is supposed to be our alternative government, they told me. how the bloke who; looks more at home on the monkey bars and flying foxes of suburban australia, tells us “yeah yeah it must be hard having to explain to your kids why its fun to sleep in the car for the next few weeks, but think of the people who own the flat! poor, poor, fair minded good natured slumlords, kicking you out for you being a deadbeat and putting food before rent, tubby.” can claim to be my alternative choice which a straight face deserves the firing squad. except instead of one person having the real bullet, all of them would have 5, all the people who have been evicted because of the intrest rate rises and the insane inflation, there’d be a few thousand of them raring to go. they could have a race as to who can get the first shot off.

Liberals sicken me.
EC (Friday 4 April 2008, 6:29 am) #

When are they getting Forehead Man off the streets? Some of us are scared to go to the supermarket.
steve (Friday 4 April 2008, 7:56 am) #

EC, some of us are getting scared to go near a bank in case we get held up.
jeremy (Friday 4 April 2008, 10:30 am) #

i’d like to encourage brendan to continue with this excellent line of argument. More! More! The australian public deserves to know more about how much the liberal party loves big banks.
keri (Friday 4 April 2008, 12:54 pm) #

Having actually worked for a bank and seeing what happens when a bank decides to foreclose, I can tell you now that I’ve never seen a decent financial institution (When are people going to learn - STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THE BIG FOUR) that made money on a foreclosure. There are always costs you can’t get back.

Get thee to a Credit Union, people. The only way the banks are going to learn to stop ripping you off is if you STOP LETTING THEM.
Mikey (Friday 4 April 2008, 7:00 pm) #

Won’t someone think of the banking profits?!
joe2 (Saturday 5 April 2008, 4:52 pm) #

Because i constantly need to share…..
http://bp1.blogger.com/_NvnTfg2lIaI/R_bsGxSGwvI/AAAAAAAAAP0/md6wj0P1Xss/s1600-h/nelson+bumbles.jpg