Watching Obama’s acceptance speech (transcript) I was struck by how close Rudd (who also ran on fresh ideas and fresh thinking) and Obama are in policy ideas:
On climate change, Obama said:
As president, as president, I will tap our natural gas reserves,
invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness
nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the
fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.
With the notable exception of nuclear energy, this is close to what the Rudd government is doing.
On education:
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every
child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to
compete in the global economy.I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new
teachers, and pay them higher salaries, and give them more support. And
in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability.
A bit like Rudd’s education revolution – more money with higher standards and the same economic rationale.
On a complete overhaul of government programs:
But I will also go through the federal budget line by line, eliminating
programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better
and cost less, because we cannot meet 21st-century challenges with a
20th-century bureaucracy.
Rudd’s government is promising to do this, having started in its first Budget.
On mutual obligation:
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility, that’s the essence
of America’s promise. And just as we keep our promise to the next
generation here at home, so must we keep America’s promise abroad.
Of course, this one was also the cornerstone of Howard’s approach and has been endorsed by Rudd.
Perhaps it all means that political agendas throughout the anglophone world are pretty similar.
