Trusted voice waits in the wings
Paul Sheehan
Writing a column is a constant battle between writing about what is important and what is diverting. The tension between the two is obvious, no more so than this week, when I want to write about tax (important), but have been distracted by a frumpy, unemployed, middle-aged virgin (diverting). What reconciles the chasm between the two, between tax policy and Susan Boyle (the frumpy, unemployed, middle-aged virgin) is the phenomenon known as the wisdom of crowds.

The wisdom of crowds has been supremely evident during the past week since 4000 people in a concert hall in Glasgow began shifting in their seats as a frumpy, jowly, middle-aged woman stalked onto the stage and told the judges her dream was to be a professional singer and her role model was Elaine Paige. A ripple of discomfort and incredulity ran through the auditorium, and the judging panel, as the woman, Susan Boyle, nominated her song, I Dream A Dream from Les Miserables.

Earlier, Ms Boyle had been shown on the big screen eating a sandwich backstage, and telling judges she was unemployed, lived alone with her cat, Pebbles, had never been married, in fact, had never been kissed.

She sang in a church choir in a village of West Lothian, near Edinburgh, where she has lived alone in her childhood home since the death of her 91-year-old mother two years ago.

As she was about to sing there was collective hush as if 4000 people were about to watch a slow-motion social train wreck. By the time Ms Boyle had finished her song, the judges had been rendered irrelevant .

The audience was on its feet for a cheering, standing ovation. The rest is internet history. On YouTube, various videos featuring the performance have been viewed more than 34 million times around the world. It's gone global.

I recommend any reader with access to the internet, who has not seen these videos, to visit YouTube, search "Susan Boyle", and click on the video with the largest number of viewers (the wisdom of crowds) because that is the one which shows the whole saga, from backstage sandwich to stunned judges. It will make your day.
It is also the latest example of the great and daily upswelling of democracy made possible by the communications revolution which has obliterated the old limitations between those who direct and those who are directed, between those who inform and those who are informed. The will of the people is finding more expression in multiplicities of new ways.

I have been wondering about the will of the people aged 35 and under, generations X, Y and presumably Z. I've been thinking about them a great deal, because I believe we may be witnessing one of the greatest acts of generational selfishness in our history, where one generation, the baby boomers, inflicts higher debt and taxes on the following generations to make its own life more comfortable.

The man who will impose decades of debt and higher taxes on the young is the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who is taking us into uncharted territory. What he promised in the pursuit of power and what he is doing in the exercise of power bear only a passing resemblance. Rudd may turn out to be a great prime minister. I hope so. Because we will all be better off if the bets he is making turn out to be winners. But his bets are large and they are many. And it is not all about the global financial freeze he suddenly inherited.

After just 17 months in power, Rudd has committed Australia to more spending, in real terms, than even Gough Whitlam's three tumultuous years as prime minister. It took 11 years for the last government to pay off a $96 billion federal debt and build a $20 million budget surplus. It took Rudd 16 months to spend the surplus and return Australia to levels of debt and deficit comparable to those Labor had created when it lost office 13 years ago. Rudd's response to the global financial freeze has been a policy U-turn that is grandiose in scale.

The latest grand plan, a $43 billion broadband network, may produce a world class communications platform, but it can never produce an adequate commercial return on investment. It will also destroy tens of billions in the market value of Telstra. By my count, there are at least a dozen projects involving at least $1 billion in unproductive spending. The proposed federal budget deficits will have to be paid for by higher borrowing and higher taxes. Government spending is rising much faster than the rate of inflation or gross national product growth.
The most telling comment I heard last week came from Peter Costello, when I called to ask if he was going to stay and fight the next election. He described the level and the manner of government spending as "scarifying". That tells me, short of a public announcement, he will renominate for his seat when nominations are called in a month or two.

This is significant. Rudd is politically unassailable, and will win the next election, because he is still fresh and the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, is flatlining in the opinion polls. But after the next election, after generations X, Y and Z have begun to realise the magnitude of the debt and taxes Rudd is leaving them, the electorate will at least want the option of a federal fire extinguisher. It cannot be Turnbull (merchant banker) or Joe Hockey (buffoon). It can be the federal treasurer who built the $90 billion firewall that has protected Australia from worse harm. Peter Costello: in case of emergency, break glass.