For an outfit mired in sleaze and corruption like the Morrison government, the scandals are usually about the wasting of taxpayer money or a minister trying to look after their own and their family’s commercial interests.
But the corruption at the heart of this government now threatens something much worse: the stability of the financial system.
It shouldn’t be any surprise that this comes from the National Party, the great rorters and grifters of Australian politics, who also have an eye for wild statements about the financial system.
After all, it was Barnaby Joyce, during his brief but hilarious stint as the Coalition’s finance spokesman, who claimed that Australia might default because of Labor’s deficits. At that stage, our net debt was around $45 billion. Now it’s heading for $700 billion this year, but strangely Barnaby hasn’t renewed his warning that the bailiffs are about to come knocking.
Yesterday, in response to ANZ’s announcement of an investment policy focus on transition to renewables, including a move away from coal by 2030, Agriculture Minister David “live export” Littleproud declared “the Nationals will review every policy lever at the federal government’s disposal — including the availability of deposit guarantees — to protect Australian farmers from these sorts of arbitrary boardroom ideological agendas.”
Littleproud spent 17 years with the ANZ’s Melbourne rival, the National Australia Bank.
This wasn’t Barnaby talking in opposition, as in 2010. This was a senior Nationals minister warning that banks that didn’t toe the Coalition’s climate denialist line faced an unlimited regulatory threat and could be abandoned by the government in the (unlikely) event they got into trouble.
Australia guarantees deposits in authorised deposit-taking institutions up to $250,000. Is the man who can’t control the abuse of animals in the live sheep and cattle trades now claiming to be able to tell the Reserve Bank, APRA and Treasury what to do when it comes to the stability of the financial system?
There was silence in response to Littleproud’s threat from Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, so we have to assume Littleproud wasn’t speaking out of turn but reflects that the government’s policy is now to threaten the foundations of Australia’s financial system as part of its lunatic war against science and coming generations.
What’s this got to do with the corruption that runs sewer-like through this government?
As we pointed out earlier this week, Mark Vaile, the former Nationals leader and chair of ailing Whitehaven Coal, demanded that the government force banks to invest in coal mining, specifically by using taxpayer guarantees. Whitehaven is a large political donor, exclusively to the Coalition — just under $125,000 between 2013 and 2019.
Now Littleproud is doing exactly what Vaile asked for. For donors and Nationals mates, ask, and you shall receive. As it turns out, 120 grand and change can buy you the destabilisation of the entire financial system.
And just to illustrate that the Coalition isn’t the only side of politics corrupted by its donors, Labor is endorsing the government’s economically and scientifically illiterate embrace of gas at the behest of opponents of climate action in the CFMEU’s mining and energy division and the right-aligned Australian Workers’ Union. Australia now has bipartisan stupidity for an energy policy.
Amazing what a toxic mix of climate denialism and corruption can do.
What do you make of Littleproud’s comments? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say column.
“to protect Australian farmers from these sorts of arbitrary boardroom ideological agendas” – so Littleproud has belled the cat – the Nationals are the party of miners, property developers and big agribusiness. Representing your archetypal family farmer ? LOL
I wonder why the Murdoch press aren’t painting the LNP as a bunch of commies for all their intervention in private business.
Rupert – on the Advisory Board of Genie Oil & Gas (with Cheney).
I happened by ‘The Bidness’ on the ABC last night, right as The Caravan was being interviewed, about the exact same subject. The whole show struck me as it has Keane and Dyer above – threatening the Bank Deposit Guarantee? Spectacularly stupid.
But, The Caravan didn’t stop there. When asked about the ramifications of the ‘big 3’, China, Sth Korea and Japan, all announcing decarbonisation plans, with dates, The Caravan chose Japan to accuse of telling porkies, and literally scoffed at their announcement.
Truly spectacular display. If the interview hadn’t been cut short, it would have been Fukushima meltdown spectacular.
Lord knows why he chose Japan, a fellow member of ‘The Quad’.
Still, we’ve already peed orf our biggest trading partner, why not No 2?
I can foresee many, many ‘leave requests’ flooding DFAT, as we speak.
And what gives with this “transmogrification(?)” of miners to “farmers” – for the sake of a Littleproud factoid? “One gets more sympathy than the other can milk”?
Yeah, I noticed that sleight of hand too klewso.
“I wonder why the Murdoch press aren’t painting the LNP as a bunch of commies for all their intervention in private business.”
That’s because they are protected by the impenetrable shield of Kleptocratic Krony Kapitalism, the dominant doctrine of our deadly decline.
“I wonder why the Murdoch press aren’t painting the LNP as a bunch of commies for all their intervention in private business.”
Replying to my own, I’m thinking Morrison as Fidel, Joshy as Gorby (the bald pate) and Barnaby as Mao.
And the Gestapotato as Beria with Pezzullo as… Eichmann? Goebbels?
The stench coming from Canberra (and elsewhere) makes me gag. Keep writing BK – hopefully the message will start getting through to even the most comatose voter
I’ve long since given up hope of a rational climate change response from the coalition.
The combination of donor addiction, post-political sinecures, ideology and sheer bone-headedness (looking at you Craig Kelly) appears insurmountable.
But when a bunch of union troglodytes and their mate Joel Fitzgibbon are able to convince the other mob to wave the white flag things are seriously grim.
Australia will eventually come to the party as the rest of the world ceases using thermal coal-and more immediately as punitive tariffs placed on our other exports make the whole fossil fuel fiasco unsustainable.
There will be much kicking and screaming along the way but the arc of history will have the final say.
Anything to support their donors (and hence their line of donations) – including trying to make banks waste their/our money.
It beggars belief, the lengths of abandonment (of their own central raison dêtre) to which the Coalition of free market dogmatists – “Australia’s Best National Economic Managers(?)” – will go to protect their donors’ profits : and “To hell with fiduciary responsibility”.
3 times I had to “log in” (while I was already in) to get that posted…. WTF gives?
Hazardous guess but I would say that it is the Google robot sniffing because the publication uses (unwisely) goggle transports.
No such issues with Linux because, I suspect, development work, at Google, is done on Linux.
I tried to log in from that “Read the whole issue” link but when I got to the opening site, it would neither let me Log in (the red writing bit) or Sign in at the top of the page. When I say wouldn’t let me – I mean I entered my email and password and clicked Sign In in the red box at the bottom and the page did nothing – absolutely nothing, as though I hadn’t pressed the button. If you ring to complain there is a message saying to email. Crikey Customer Care is Cactus.
“Remember me”? …. Have they got a goldfish “minding the gate”?
A while back I offered Cky a sizable small sum for one years membership, just to help out their CF through c-19 ( independent media & all ). There was no reply back whatsoever and 3 days later I was moderated into oblivion. The lights are on but nobody izza home.
Same same. The business model seems to be: many subscribers who are kinda Left, and who will read absurdity short articles that would be comprehended by a good Yr10 class with a cherry or two at (real) Yr12 standard every week or so. Something appropriating 1st year occurs monthly.
I, for one, have made any number of IT suggestions (upload of pdf and jpgs to a adatabase) that have gone nowhere.
My subscription is due, if it wasn’t for Grundle’s Obits, I am thinking of giving it up. I too have had a few innocuous comments blown into hyperspace recently.
More widely, after almost 60 years full engagement with our political processes, I think my time will now be better spent planting trees. I feel it is all can usefully contribute any more.
I’m in two minds over Rundle. He seems to have a fair grasp of Australian history and similarly for his own back yard (Andrewsville) yet fearfully infirm in regard to 18th and 19th century politics and literature with the exception of the USA in regard to politics but less so history. I have pointed out on numerous occasions that his attempted connections don’t actually match.
With the exception of one or two posts (one to a uninformed girl scrawling silly fantasies of propaganda over Middle East economics and of one country in particular) the posts of mine that have disappeared have been directed to articles by Rundle.
There are about a dozen or so subscribers who do have something to offer accompanied with bursts of originally (more than what can be said for the staff – by and large) which justifies my dollar per week. However, I do understand your sentiments.
Trees : yes – a sense of the long term there (in comparison to electorally oriented Western politics).
The best time to plant a turnip is in the Spring.
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.
Candide summed it up well – “we must cultivate our gardens”.
Recently retired, STH, sort of, probably, and I’m intrigued watching my interests in the political process wane. Had too much of it perhaps, and bored a bit reading experts and armchair critics missing the point, and missing the point about missing the point. The indefatigable trolls are wearing thin.
Doing some hard yakka and planting trees and shrubs so much more appealing now after 40 years at a desk job.
Welcome to the financial industry security guards. It’s a very accurate description in more ways than one. Protect the open theft right up the Royal Commission driveway.
It only takes one look and utterance from this political misfit to see and hear how much out of his depth this pathetic little creature is, Little proud by name and very little to be proud of by culture or character, a 10 acre farmer with a 5 acre brain and a 1 acre political future come election time, like the National party as a whole and Joel Fitzgibbon from Labor as another example just filling in time waiting for a political pasture waiting to be put out in.