“No wonder Albo gave Tanya Plibersek the job of overseeing the environment. He apparently figured that, when desperate, you look for the cleverest woman to camouflage the dilemma,” writes “The Gadfly” columnist ROBERT MACKLIN.

THERE’S nothing quite like a good old-fashioned dilemma to get the grey matter twirling. 

Any glance around the world will produce more than a single cerebellum can handle. But three have such sharp horns they’ve kept prodding me all week. Perhaps a problem shared is a problem halved, so here goes.

The federal government finds the first so blatant they’re afraid to express it publicly: The Morrison gang left the place in such a woeful state that enormous funding on health, education, the NDIS, aged care, childcare and especially the transition to renewable energy is needed right now. Yet since they promised not to raise taxes (or even repeal the ridiculous stage-three cuts), the only way to pay for them is through the bonanza of coal and gas exports. 

And with interest rates on the pandemic deficit blowing out the budget bottom line, the mining industry promises even more income from the 140 or so new developments awaiting government approval. No wonder Albo gave Tanya Plibersek the job of overseeing the environment while deciding yea or nay to the new mines. He apparently figured that, when desperate, you look for the cleverest and most appealing woman to camouflage the dilemma.

The second also involves a woman of high intelligence and appealing mien. Across the Pacific, US President Joe Biden is getting ready to announce his run for a second four-year term in 2024, which would make him 86 by the time he bids a mandatory farewell. So age is a big factor for the voters. Joe’s supporters in government have been very aware of this, so they’ve deliberately kept his relatively young and attractive vice-president Kamala Harris in the shadows. 

While this has allowed Joe to bask in a cleverly controlled limelight, it has undermined the V-P’s profile so that virtually no one sees her as his natural successor; and other viable presidential candidates among the Democrats have stayed mum.

If Joe stumbles (or worse), Kamala could be fatally handicapped in a race with Trump or one of his scary camp followers such as Ron DeSantis, simply because of her loyalty to Joe and his team of White House manipulators. Sharp horns indeed.

The third is of a very different order, and it’s been a long time coming. I remember as a wide-eyed youth in the office of Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen, engaging in an all-out campaign for decentralisation of the Australian population. 

At the time, the move from country to city was gathering pace and McEwen proposed a new Australian Industry Development Corporation that would assist industries to establish in the regions. It was fiercely opposed by Treasurer Billy McMahon and while the boss got it approved by the Gorton cabinet, when he retired it simply faded away.

However, in recent years, the NBN, for all its faults, has combined with a new generation of progressive farmers – and the mad prices of city property – to rejuvenate many of the small towns of the inland. 

As the superb ABC series “Back Roads” has revealed, communities across the nation are not only growing and welcoming migrants from Asia and elsewhere, they’re finding life so much more satisfying and engaging. The tree change is happening.

But here’s the other horn, and I guess it takes us back to the first example.

Climate change is producing floods, fires, heatwaves and droughts in prospect, with the power to undermine the entire process. Yet there’s no funding to fix it, unless, well, you know what…

Maybe the government should share the dilemma publicly. This might not solve it, but at least they’d show they’re fair dinkum and perhaps even open to suggestion.

robert@robertmacklin.com