Kennett: “We have been leaderless for the past 10 years”.

FORMER Victorian premier Jeff Kennett has accused Australia’s politicians of lacking vision, saying the nation had been “leaderless” for a decade.

Mr Kennett appeared on ABC’s Lateline program on Wednesday and said he was concerned that a lot of politicians were being “governed” by the polls instead of a long-term plan for the future.

The outspoken Liberal Party elder argued federal governments should be allowed to serve for four years, rather than the current maximum three-year term.

“Three years does not give them enough time to introduce the reforms that are necessary and then hope to rebuild their standing in the community,” he said.

Mr Kennett had been asked on the current affairs show to discuss NSW Premier Mike Baird’s proposal to increase the rate of GST from 10 to 15 per cent in order to pay for the rising costs of healthcare.

This idea was lambasted by Mr Kennett as “profoundly wrong”. He said an increase to the GST or Medicare levy would alleviate any pressure for the states to engage in other reforms, and was unlikely to be a long-term fix for funding shortfalls.

“You remove the incentive to continue reform and you put in a bastardised form of tax reform which in three years time will already be seen to be obsolete,” he said.

Lack of vision

The Abbott government’s recently-released agricultural white paper was used by Mr Kennett as an example of an absence of political vision.

“There wasn’t a simple statement … that started the white paper about what the objective was,” he said.

“My objective might have been ‘I want Australian agriculture and processing manufacturing to be able to feed a billion people by 2050’.

“We have an agricultural white paper that’s not a clear KPI [key performance indicator]. There is no vision. But that’s where Australia has been now for 10 years. We have been leaderless.”

source:.theland.com.au