It’s been a tenet of political commentary over the last couple of years that while our politics has been chaotic by historical standards, it hasn’t reached the depths of idiocy and malignancy we’ve seen in Trump, Brexit and the rise of far right in Europe. Well, Australia’s circus parade of ego, stupidity and malice is now in world-class chaos, strongly placed to “podium” and with a real chance of going for gold.
Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi.
Never has there been a newly minted prime minister with less credibility than Scott Morrison. Elevation to the prime ministership has exposed his hollowness; he is a figure who has stepped straight from an ’80s lawnmower ad, bereft of policy on the economy, on energy, on wages, on climate change — but most of all, bereft of authority. His colleagues and former colleagues are not even according him the respect due the office; instead, they’re blithely carrying on their own wars with no regard for either the government or the electorate.
Can you fathom the hypocrisy of Malcolm Turnbull, in his Central Park West eyrie, suddenly finding the courage to do what he wouldn’t when prime minister, and go after Peter Dutton? Two weeks ago Turnbull voted against referring Dutton to the High Court, but once out of politics, he’s on Whatsapp urging his erstwhile colleagues to do exactly that.
Not to be outdone, Julie Bishop, who hasn’t yet left the building, had a crack at Dutton yesterday as well, carefully throwing out terms like “clarity” and reserving her right to cross the floor on his referral, and for good measure suggesting that some other colleagues might have engaged in “illegal” behaviour.
Not that the reactionaries took this lying down. Barnaby Joyce lashed out at Turnbull. The Abbott camp at Sky frothed at the mouth even more than usual. Dutton himself said little, presumably preoccupied with how to top this week’s parliamentary privilege-abusing smear of former friend and colleague Roman Quaedvlieg. Earlier this week, I called this mob a government of mates. But once you stop being a mate, boy do the gloves come off. In Canberra at the moment, there’s nothing so ex as an ex-mate.
After offering unprompted legal advice on Dutton, Turnbull got down to the business of backing former ambassador Dave Sharma in his former seat of Wentworth, in the face of prime ministerial support for Katherine O’Regan on the basis that the Liberals needed their branches, not quotas, to preselect more women. It’s a measure of how little authority Morrison has that O’Regan barely managed 20 votes and was knocked out early on. If anything, Morrison’s backing might have harmed her.
Labor of course can’t believe its luck. It was just a couple of months ago that the by-elections were about to be lost and Bill Shorten was on the verge of being dumped. Now Labor is stable, united, focused on policy, etc. Labor would prefer that we forgot it subjected us to three years of this kind of shitshow itself. And policy? Policy like the Trans Pacific Partnership, which Labor has been raising serious concerns about for years, right up until last month, but which this week it agreed to wave through, despite the dearth of any actual benefits.
And then there’s its complicity in the cover-up of a serious crime by ASIS, a cover-up that includes the prosecution of two men who have served their country with honour and distinction, on which Labor is stonily silent while the Liberals try to railroad them, out of public gaze. Labor’s role in this colossal farce is no walk-on part.
Meanwhile the financial services royal commission spent the week examining how utterly contemptuous of its clients the Australian life insurance industry is.
This is the industry that for years has produced earnest reports showing how “under-insured” Australians are, all the while running boiler rooms to flog rubbish policies to people it regarded as easy marks, including people with developmental disabilities, and then using definitional chicanery to refuse to pay deserving claimants. The alleged regulator ASIC was even more MIA on insurance than it was on banking, if that’s possible. It’s the greatest regulatory failure in Australia for decades, revealed while politicians played silly buggers under the big top in Canberra.
Voters are dead right to be fed up with the lot of them.
Speaking of Dave Sharma, will be fascinating to see how Mark Knight draws him?
You mean the pinstripe suit thing?
Yes, exaggerated stripes of course.
He’s also sorta Jewish, so….
Sharma is of Indian descent. Frydenberg is Jewish.
When you say sorta….you mean from the waste up?
If so then I’d only draw his knees.
The comedy of the Sharma Show was Scummo (after the curtain was brought down on that skit) telling us all how Dave was far and away the best candidate?
With timing being everything :-
a) What did that (not say) about the calibre of those women that ran against Dave?
b) Is his Muppet Show having trouble attracting “good women”?
Yes, Klewso. Also, no surprise that Sharma-a man who I doubt has done an honest day of work in his life-immediately went on to attack the teaching profession, by spreading all the usual lies about how many hours they work.
Really tells you whose side Sharma is on, & it sure ain’t the side of ordinary working people.
“It was just a couple of months ago that the by-elections were about to be lost and Bill Shorten was on the verge of being dumped.”
That appears to have been a media fantasy, predicated on the idea that Turnbull was going to turn things around.
“Labor would prefer that we forgot it subjected us to three years of this kind of shitshow itself.”
Not nearly this bad.
And in that period the Labor government managed to actually govern.
“And policy? Policy like the Trans Pacific Partnership, which Labor has been raising serious concerns about for years, right up until last month, but which this week it agreed to wave through, despite the dearth of any actual benefits.”
Have they actually?
Why bother with reality when you are Bernard Keane?
I’m starting to suspect that 90% of the point of Bernard Keane articles is to pump up how much above the fray and more clever he is than everyone else.
Yep, Bernard seems to have a poor grasp on recent history. Gillard’s government was one of the most productive in Australian Political history, & oversaw the best post-GFC economic figures…..even whilst staring down the world’s most obstructionist opposition & fending off the Ruddites within her own party.
Agree 10+
>suggesting that some other colleagues might have engaged in “illegal” behaviour
I see that the Libs, like the Catholic Church, deal in-house with potentially illegal behaviour.
“A figure who has stepped straight from an ’80s lawnmower ad”. Love it.
I used to challenge people who said all pollies are all as bad as each other. I still think the Greens punch above their weight in terms of policy / ideology consistency but the Libs and Labor clearly fall into the crap equivalence category now.
The last time the bloke from the burbs was behind a Victor in his shorts and thongs, if ever, was when Victor mowers were a thing. He’s a shill and should be out in front of a market stall spruiking have a bloody look at this, take one home for the misses, just out of date. Instead he’s running the country; howz that.
Awaiting moderation please explain mods
If, God save us, the Greens were ever to be in a position to Govern, you’d find them quickly join the ALP in terms of political expediency.
Until that happens, the best role the Greens can play is to apply pressure to the ALP on matters of environmental and social policy.
Will no one rid us of a Pentecostal priest?
“….. pest”?
.. or even pestilential prig.
“…..pissant”?