On the NBN farce

Will writes: Re. “NBN farce the result of a neoliberal absurdity” (Tuesday)

“But blaming Labor won’t cut it politically for Turnbull.”

Oh, I think it will. Most people – including swing voters in the all-important marginal seats – are neither tech savvy nor policy savvy enough to parse all the competing Coalition and Labor claims here. Just as with the energy market failure, the Coalition is simply deploying a self-serving smokescreen to abrogate any responsibility for its own 4-year direct contribution to these disasters, and training a media spotlight on Labor’s originary role in every and all such neoliberal misadventures.

And it’ll likely work, because Labor’s guilty as sin on account of Keating (with the best of intentions, I still believe) delivered us into the trap of neoliberalism. Which is why BK’s conclusion that Turnbull is “a conservative leader hoisted by his own neoliberal petard” is delusional. He’s hoisting Labor, with good prospects of success, because that petard is firstly theirs. The electorate won’t likely forget, nor forgive, that the NBN was a neoliberal Labor baby.

On “peak Q&A”

Gwen Clark writes: Re. “Razer: we finally reached peak Q&A” (Tuesday)

I can’t watch Q&A because of the number of times it has aired unopposed transphobic comment. Apparently Magda did OK, which is nice, but the airing of outright prejudice as debate is far too much for me. Watching this train wreck of a program masquerading as debate is akin to torture.