ANDREW CARSWELL: Are Aussie politicians on Santa’s naughty or nice list this year? Let’s judge
![The Aussie politicians who’ve been naughty or nice this year](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/498a3ea41360a47a145b4cabb97dbfa8b20e9f47-16x9-x31y0w3150h1772.jpg?imwidth=810)
Tis the season to be j … udgmental.
Sometimes it’s just easier. Especially this week.
Caught between the final death rattle of the working year, and the promise of blissful summer rest, passing judgment is our current coping mechanism. A necessary outlet for our collective fatigue. We are all just pooped. Patience is thin, so nobody is spared our wrath.
Sign up to The Nightly's newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.Which is a good time to ask a loaded question. How have our political leaders performed this year?
Sure, we don’t feel very jolly about our politics. The two words rarely work well together, unless you’re Barnaby Joyce after a few frothies.
But politics has been the bane of our existence this year.
When we wanted relief from the spiralling cost of living, we got empty platitudes. When we wanted common sense on energy policy to stave off a disaster, we got ideological warfare. When we wanted leadership to foster unity in the face of unprecedented anti-Semitism, we got weakness that only entrenched division.
So we judge.
Which brings us back to the season at hand, and an enduring Christmas theme that makes judgmentalism sound somewhat festive, and therefore permissible.
Naughty and nice.
Jim Chalmers (Naughty)
![Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/5e148310bb36d271e781b39ba3a2f54511c5d58c.jpg?imwidth=810)
You probably don’t need reminding, given the ailing condition of the Australian economy and the Federal Budget. But Dr Jim Chalmers is not a doctor of economics, but political science. True statement.
It hasn’t been a good year for big Jim. Despite the fact he is the Government’s best communicator and sharpest tongue.
Having started the year as the heir apparent, Jim’s credentials have been diminished by his mishandling of the cost-of-living crisis, his inability to drive productivity gains, his allergy to reform, and his failure to show spending restraint.
Under Dr Chalmers, Australian households have suffered the worst decline in living standards since the 1950s, our GDP per capita has fallen for seven consecutive quarters, and we are near the bottom of the OECD in terms of real wage growth. And now budget deficits for the foreseeable future. Thumbs down.
Peter Malinauskas (nice)
![South Australia's Premier Peter Malinauskas.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/a7c2d1a3d012c773ee92d0ce60741ec576ffc518.jpg?imwidth=810)
Swoon!
This guy even makes conservatives blush. He toys with the emotions of even the most hardened right wingers. He won’t admit it, but one dares think even Alex Antic has a man crush.
“Mali” has voters of all stripes and colours in the palm of his hands, gifting him unenviable longevity as the Premier of South Australia.
Why? I mean look at him. OK, if you aren’t as superficial as most, then maybe it’s the commonsense politics and policy approach he has employed, as not only a great advocate for a State whose economy has long trailed Burkina Faso in terms of dynamism, but a leader not afraid to put his State before party loyalty.
Nuclear power? You betcha. A gas-powered recovery? Absolutely. Stealing business from fellow Labor States? Watch me.
Which raises a pertinent question. Why the hell isn’t this guy our prime minister?
The Victorian Government (naughty)
![Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/c8ad2103d239e63dad4fc3b40c8b206a98c6b295.jpg?imwidth=810)
Just when you thought Dan Andrews took Victoria to absolute rock bottom, incoming Premier Jacinta Allan gets the jack hammer out.
The highest taxes in the country, the highest unemployment in the country, a State debt approaching $270 billion, companies packing up and moving interstate. Victoria is teetering on the edge of being a failed State.
Allan has not only failed to right the ship, she’s steered it closer to the rocks. In the most galling abdication of leadership, she has failed to rein in Australia’s most dangerous energy minister — Lily D’Ambrosio, not Chris Bowen — who is waging a damaging jihad against households and businesses reliant on gas. Definition of hypocrisy? Mandating a switch from gas to electric heating under the guise of emissions reduction, without recognising the energy grid will remain dependent on brown coal for at least another decade. Less gas equals higher emissions. Duh.
Michelle Rowland (nice)
![Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/15752402f20dcb35553fde288558f6deb3bf9986.jpg?imwidth=810)
And all the parents of young teens say amen.
It may not be the purest policy mechanism, or is it without unintended consequences, but a social media ban for those under-16 is a chance to press pause on what parents view as a runaway social experiment.
Add this policy intervention with a renewed war on social media companies who are stealing content from cash-strapped media outlets, and Rowland has had a decent year. If we ignore the misstep on the misinformation Bill.
Tanya Plibersek (naughty)
![Minister for Environment Tanya Plibersek.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/db9cba876090c287364e556ee866ac778beb1cdd.jpg?imwidth=810)
Tried to inflict draconian environmental laws on Australian industry, knocked back a gold mine tailings dam on a questionable Indigenous premise, now on a warpath to kill off the Tasmanian salmon industry.
Why? To fend off the Greens in her inner-city seat. Regional jobs don’t matter, apparently.
Chris Minns (nice)
![NSW Premier Chris Minns.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/595425168fe59e40daafe55e411cda3d29e54323.jpg?imwidth=810)
See Peter Malinauskus, minus a foot and a half.
When Australia needed leadership to crush the insidious rise of anti-Semitism, Minns stood up. Not only with his strong words, but genuine action.
He didn’t equivocate.
Anthony Albanese
![Anthony Albanese.](https://images.thenightly.com.au/publication/C-17110153/bf4f6383b8d7b59d304971899220240e4faa58ee.jpg?imwidth=810)
Tried to play nice to everyone. But ended up in everyone’s naughty corner.