About

Marius - politics

Just before the last election he won in 2004, I interviewed John Howard in the NewsRadio studio.

Interviewing the then Prime Minister was, it may surprise some to learn, always quite a pleasure. He was a man who believed in his political case and enjoyed putting it.

He was happy in the reasonably robust tradition of Australian political interviews. Politicians are not by and large liars, but they deal in a particular form of the truth.

It is the truth of the salesman, the truth of the advocate.

That involves accentuating their positives, eliminating the negatives and not messing with subtleties in between.

Within those constraints, there was plenty of scope for useful dialogue with John Howard in contrast with some less generous, or less confident, practitioners who see an interview only as an exercise in avoiding traps and saying nothing.

Around the half way mark in the half hour, pre-election chat, I used NewsRadio’s standing as the parliamentary network to climb on a small hobby horse of mine by suggesting to the PM, that, in keeping with Question Time practice perhaps he would like to ask himself the next question.

Dorothy Dixers are an absurdity to anyone outside the political process and many within: why should the government ask itself questions?

How can anyone defend the distinctly Stalinist practice of having a humble backbencher rise to read from a crushed note held in his palsied hand a question urging the Prime Minister or a Minister to explain the sheer greatness of their latest achievement?

John Howard couldn’t see that as a problem. The system seemed to work pretty well to him through more than three decades in the House, particularly the happy years in government, when the rules are all rigged your way.

There have always been calls to reform Question Time, to make it a genuine exercise in getting answers from ministers. Those calls generally end with a resigned shrug and a dismissive: “Well it was never any better.”

But in fact, there is clear evidence that Question Time is getting worse. The debased tradition of ministers ducking questions continues and the former Labor MP, Barry Cohen, has pointed to another significant change for the worse.

Writing in The Spectator, Mr Cohen pulled together some figures to show that 40 years ago the Opposition leader, say Whitlam, might ask a couple of questions and his Deputy one - and the PM field a couple from his own side.

At that time, there was plenty of scope for individual backbenchers to put their own questions. Now the leaders have grabbed all the territory for themselves.

Another, quite important, sign of the centralisation of power in the political process.

Question Time has never had more urgent need for reform, as fewer and fewer politicians take longer and longer to say less and less.

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Mark - Breakfast EP

What drives stockmarkets?

It’s a question which we try to answer each morning on ABC NewsRadio Breakfast, when we rake over the coals from the international markets and preview the day ahead in Australia.

We’ll bring you the latest economic data and numbers with help from our good friends Rob Henderson, Dave de Garis and Spiros Papadopoulos at NAB and James Shugg at Westpac in London.

Despite their expert analysis — and they’d be the first to admit this — a lot of trying to divine what’s driving market sentiment is pure guesswork.

For example, this morning CNN and the BBC were — initially — breathless in their pronouncements about the impact the decision of the Reserve Bank in Australia — the first developed economy to ratchet up interest rates in anticipation of an economic turnaround - was having on global stockmarkets.

“A Kangaroo Bounce!” exclaimed CNN’s Richard Quest on “Quest Means Business” to explain the rally in the Dow.

It was a similar story in London.

“That’s a VERY positive sign!” said Melissa Bayer from UK stockbrokers Charles-Stanley on the BBC as the FTSE soared two and a quarter percent.

The BBC was also trumpeting the RBA decision here as driving market sentiment in New York….until their well-informed New York Business correspondent Michelle Fleury pointed to a lower US dollar.

That made American exporters excited at the prospect of flogging more goods overseas at cheaper prices.

Why was the US dollar lower?

Because of an unsourced report in London’s Independent newspaper - quickly denied by the way - that oil-rich Gulf states no longer want to price oil in US dollars.

So what drives markets?

Let’s be blunt:

We’re trying to explain greed here.

Me suspects it’s more like the last-minute rush you see at a TAB when the price on a supposed “good thing” starts to plunge….and everyone rushes to get aboard — even at short odds — so they’re not left out.

In the case of markets, it’s a two way rush, though.

It’s also the rush to get out the door when the TAB catches on fire.