There are few things Scott Morrison does better than obsessive secrecy, smug condescension and national gaslighting, though righteous hypocrisy is undoubtedly one.
In answer to the robodebt royal commission’s withering indictment of him last week, this embarrassing melange of narcissism and naff sought predictable sanctuary in his labyrinth of lies and denial, recasting himself as nothing more than the jealous guardian of taxpayer funds.
The policy rationale undergirding the (malevolent and illegal) scheme, he insisted, was well-intentioned and honourable, turning on a desire to “prevent billions of dollars in overpayment of welfare benefits” in the “interests of taxpayers”. Or so said his rambling monologue from Italy.
Bearing in mind the budget savings originally envisaged under the policy were not “billions”, as claimed, but more precisely $1.7 billion — and even that figure was revealed as gross nonsense — it becomes almost possible to quantify the scope and weight of this particular variant of Morrison deceit.
This, after all, is the man whose government allowed profitable businesses and entities to retain some $40 billion in JobKeeper overpayments. The same man who presided over various self-serving, multibillion-dollar rorts, such as the urban congestion fund, who breezily billed taxpayers some $185 million for a photo opportunity on Christmas Island before the 2019 election, and who as prime minister spent a combined $11,000 of taxpayer funds jetting off to Lachlan Murdoch’s Christmas party and visiting his family during lockdown on Father’s Day. This list has no ending.
His cynicism, from this vantage point, is boundless; his distortion of reality, obscene.
And yet, the moral wreckage that is Morrison’s time in Parliament, including the interminable denouement before us, continues to debase both the country and his party. Rather than recognising Morrison for the mendacious reprobate he is and insisting on his resignation, the Coalition appears intent on reducing his political accountability for one of the most disgraceful scandals in Australian history to a chimera.
Within hours of the royal commission report’s release on Friday, for instance, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton once again cast doubt on the integrity of the inquiry, flatly accusing Government Services Minister Bill Shorten of having “politicised” robodebt from “day one”.
It didn’t matter that facts, as ever, weren’t on Dutton’s side. He sounded a warning against the “glee” he claimed to discern in the Albanese government, calling Shorten a “political animal”. He declared he would on no terms call on Morrison to resign, pointing to the dangers of a “trial by media”.
And though “sorry to those people adversely affected” by robodebt, he championed himself as the defender of due process, the “presumption of innocence” and the wrongly accused, claiming Morrison had “refuted” the findings of the royal commission.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud echoed this sentiment, telling Channel 9 that Morrison “won the election fair and square”, pointing out the commission hadn’t recommended that implicated ministers resign.
None of this burgeoning moral indignation, of course, was or is particularly genuine — it echoes little more than the usual deflection that has come to characterise the Coalition when confronted with scandal from the vasty deep. But it was nevertheless crass and grossly insensitive.
No one caught in rododebt’s web of cruelty, for instance, was afforded a semblance of procedural fairness, with the onus reversed and retrospectively placed on recipients, who were provided with little to nothing in the way of information to assist them in disproving the unlawful debt.
Nor were these 430,000 people given easy and automatic access — as were Morrison and his former ministers during the royal commission — to taxpayer-funded lawyers to defend their position. And still less were they spared the spectre of “trial by media”, as then-human services minister Alan Tudge’s ugly and undisguised campaign of intimidation against various robodebt victims attests.
On the contrary, the scheme summoned all of the might and malice possible of a government intent on introducing new depths to the unconcealed disdain with which it held the “undeserving poor”, meeting its mission with deadly precision.
It should never be forgotten in this connection that between July 2016 and October 2018, more than 2000 people died after receiving a robodebt letter, with many such letters emblazoned with the logo of not only Centrelink but the federal police and warnings of imprisonment. Even allowing for the fact correlation doesn’t prove causation, it’s notable that one-fifth of those were under the age of 35.
Some of the families of these deceased, it later emerged, were themselves harangued for the same unlawful debts, and many thousands more who fell victim to the lawlessness of robodebt became indelibly marked by the trauma wrought by the relentless pursuit of debt collectors, the spectre of jail and what they called a “gross betrayal” by government.
Notwithstanding these veritable truths, Dutton would now have us believe the four-and-a-half-year scheme ended at the first hint of trouble. “When the problems were brought to the attention of the government at the time,” he told reporters on Saturday, “the program was stopped.”
What’s fascinating about this particular lie is its audacity. It’s witless, easily disproved by reference to the thousands of media reports on the scheme beginning late 2016, the well-publicised nature of some of the suicides, and various Senate inquiries.
There were also repeated warnings from organisations such as the Australian Council of Social Service and the Commonwealth Public Sector Union, not to mention the hundreds of first-tier rulings levelled against the government in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). The fact the government repeatedly chose not to appeal these rulings, in what former AAT member Terry Carney told ABC Radio National was an outrageous “gaming by government” of the tribunal to avoid public scrutiny, reveals at best suspicion and at worst knowledge as to the scheme’s unlawfulness and a desire to conceal it.
But in a nod to his morally emaciated state, Morrison says none of this is his fault. Putting aside his rejection of all the adverse findings against him, he bizarrely felt it noteworthy the commission’s conclusions as to his conduct were — on his reading — confined to his “role as minister for social services”, which he served for nine months between December 2014 and September 2015.
The difficulty with this minimalist position, of course, is it ignores the enduring quality of the central finding against him — namely that he misled cabinet, having failed to make the “obvious inquiry” as to why the lawfulness of retrospective income-averaging would suddenly not require legislative change after being told by public servants that it did.
Plainly enough, it runs contrary to common sense to suppose his complicity in the illegal scheme ends at the point at which he becomes treasurer or prime minister. If anything, it deepens it, given the seniority of those positions.
But untroubled as ever by ethical considerations and constraints, Morrison’s venture into unreality didn’t stop there. On his reckoning, the twin notions as found by the commission, that his divisive and heavy-handed anti-welfare rhetoric contributed to “easy populism” and a “certain atmosphere in which any proposal responsive to his request would be developed”, were false.
To agree with the commission, he says, would be to arrive at the perverse conclusion that the basic conventions upon which responsible government rests failed the nation. Never mind that’s precisely what the commission found.
All of which brings us to a noteworthy address Morrison delivered at the Institute of Public Administration in 2019 on the role of accountability in our democracy, the true significance of which he said lies “only [with] those who have put their name on the ballot”.
“I know you [public servants] might feel sometimes that you are absolutely right in what you are suggesting,” he said, “but I can tell you when it is you that is facing the public and must look your constituents in the eye, it gives you a unique perspective … That is why under our system of government it must be ministers who set the policy direction.”
The true irony of the current moment, of course, is that Morrison has since flipped this insistence, reverting to the convention of ministerial reliance on frank and fearless advice but not the convention of resigning in the face of scandal.
To some extent, his lies and shameless norm-torching persist out of habit. But in large part they continue because his own party sees collective respect for facts in this post-truth age as malleable — something that bears political exploitation. Partisan advantage, on this equation, mandates loyalty to Morrison, with no room left for old-fashioned ideas such as the public interest.
And though the full cost of this Faustian bargain is unclear, there can be little doubt that within its limits lie damaging outcomes for the health of our democracy, including, not least, the spectre of a repeat scandal like robodebt.
In the words of David Littleproud this week: “The intent [of robodebt] was right.” It was only its “execution” which “was poor”. Or so he claims.
Has the Coalition normalised a certain kind of parliamentary process? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
It is blindingly obvious that there is no-one in the ranks of the LNP who has any vestige of shame………….
…….faced with such a categorical finding of utter dereliction of not only duty, but basic humanity, any member of the LNP with even a trace of honour should feel obliged to resign from Parliament in atonement for the evil committed in their name.
And don’t forget that the Liberal Party in 2018 decided Morrison would make a better PM than would Dutton. If that doesn’t send shivers down your spine, nothing would.
I’m surprised nobody in Labor takes a minute to remind everyone of this from time to time.
We will see just how much notice is taken of all of this by the electors of Fadden. Swing, Change or Status quo. You spin the bottle!
And the punters of Cook. No doubt they’ll forgive the LNP and vote them back in when this narcissist resigns, with full honours.
The image of the duoploy as seen in the live fest media opportunity and gag fest stariing Paiyyyyyne and Handsome Maaaaaarles … alive and working on the 178 billion nuc sub deal
Deflection to intentions is very rarely genuine. Such is fuelled by a fundamental defensiveness. That is why they cannot or will not allow themselves to apologise or show remorse. Methinks of the cantankerous John Howard and his inability to utter the word Sorry. And why was that? Because he bore a mentality, personal history, and fragile commitment to his Suburban Lawyer approach. He learnt early to be small-minded, and led the country and our culture into the same. These shockingly bad Ministers that the Robodebt Royal Commission has outed are reflections on He-who-they-model themselves on. If you want to see what any individual really believes, then look at what they practically do. Here, no shame, no apology, but obfuscation and seeking to double-down on past wrongs reveals their meagre, stoney and inhuman hearts.
The ability to feel shame is either excised from Coalition politicians as part of their appointment, or preferably was never there to begin with.
The 3rd last attorney General did apologise although it seemed for political reasons and his days as a politician were numbered.
I think you’ll find he apologised for getting caught………………
The Coalition parties have been relentlessly undermining accountability for years now. (So have their counterparts in the USA and UK.) They operate on the basis that ‘whatever it takes’ is fair enough, winning is all that matters. They have established that if you never own up and never make any admission there are no consequences for lying and cheating, breaking the rules, ignoring the conventions. Even breaking the law has, apparently, no consequences.
Labor has not gone so far down the same path but has certainly not had much to say about it. Occasionally Labor, or someone in Labor, will attack the Coalition about some particular example — Shorten has been good on the subject of Robodebt — but Labor never joins the dots. The overall impression is that Labor does not care much more than the Coalition about the deep structural damage being done to this ‘representative democracy’ by the impunity and arrogance of the guilty, the grifters, the liars and rorters. The implications go far beyond just the horrifying prospect of another Robodebt scandal. The whole basis on which Australians support and participate in this system is being eroded, and our major political parties don’t care. They talk a lot about ‘democracy’ but they don’t believe in it and they do nothing to protect it. Accountability should not be an optional extra. It is fundamental.
Which leads to the question … If they refuse to take responsibility, should the courts step in?
There’s not much the courts can do. A lot of this, such as parliamentary conventions, is outside of any enforcement by the legal system anyway. Where there are relevant laws, the courts can only do something when a credible case is presented. When nobody is willing to even investigate (for example, when allegations involve ministers the AFP can always be relied on to find nothing after a cursory glance) the courts cannot act. The basic issue is that parliamentary democracy requires more than mere adherence to the laws. Look how many Coalition ministers in the midst of various scandals kept repeating, ‘No laws were broken’. Mostly they were, for once, telling the truth. The system depends on elected representatives and ministers acting in good faith; that is, they need to actually be ‘honourable’ members who take responsibility for their actions and respect the need to answer for their mistakes and be accountable for their misdeeds, or it all falls apart. If our representatives continue to mock and defy these conventions we need to replace this whole broken system.
Hopefully. And then the biggest branch in the party will be the Goulburn SuperMax Branch.
The people should step in.
We’ve been given the template – community independent candidates, who act on community issues, not party ideology. We just have to vote for them.
If we want (in sufficient numbers) the the ALP and LNP will never govern again.
vote Greens
Vote Greens? The new NO party? Tell ‘em they’re dreamin….
If memory serves me correctly it was in the Howard era that ministers stopped resigning after stuffing up one way or another. Before that resignations were regular events in both parties. Sometimes the reasons for resignation/demotion were quite trivial but we’ve come a hell of a long way down since then.
Howard trashed his own Ministerial Standards when first of his Ministers were rolled very early in his first term.
I hope, that when the Media get over their long term infatuation with all things LNP, someone will write about the enormous damage Howard did to Australia and the Body Politic, right from when he became PM Fraser’s Treasurer. And include what it has cost Australian over the decades.
I fully agree with you.
When Ros Kelly (ALP) was found to have been responsible (in the early 90s) for mishandling sports grants, she resigned from her post and then Parliament. Bridget McKenzie’s more recent resignation for similar reasons lasted barely long enough for her seat in Cabinet to cool off.
Then there was Mick Young and Paddington Bear.
We sincerely hope so
If they were politically bias
very conservative a lotta these people are view precedent but not much is in many judgements bout accountability and accessibilty – action versus conservative, slow decision making – wheres equitable access ? Labor need to do radical fixing of the holes that Liberal National ripoed from our once red taped and accountable govts once was controlled by
Well said.
both sides are the same – have you forgotten corrupt Wran NSW government.
How does that mean Labor is the same as the Coalition? You have completely abandoned any sense of proportion. I said Labor has ‘not gone so far down the same path’. How can you really say they have, when the Coalition continues to flatly deny it has done anything wrong and stands with its worst perpetrators even when independent investigations of the highest quality and authority have reported in detail with abundant evidence what they did wrong?
However as Albo has stated it was the technical illegality which he has issue with – This is cause Neo lib labor do lazy middle men deals with shonk operators in the NDIA , Job Middlemen corporations , ” charity volunteer corporate with unpaid indentured women on jobseeker forced to mutually obligate their careers / lives/ identity to serve Lowe’s productivity and “outcomes” – driven by the feudal industrial data model
Cynicism is a weak response to the corrupt in both – But sorry to simply equate the mess the LNP and the lives destroyed as simply forgiven due to a neutralizing the ” theyre all the same” stock paradigm .. Nup
It probably doesn’t make a huge difference but I do wonder whether these attacks on democracy are as a result of indifference or are they a deliberate attempt to dismantle western style democracy.
It just seems too coordinated to be an accident. We see the same tactics and quite specific attempts to undermine democracy including voter suppression and coordinated attempts to dismantle the separation of powers.
We see this across the world in the US, Britain, Italy, Hungary, Israel and here, to follow what’s already occurred in places like Russia. In fact Russia seems to be a model that many of these groups are following.
Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, many of these groups were unconcerned about Russian interference, and some countries have continued to support Russia such as Netanyahu who has maintained close ties with Putin post-invasion and of course Fox News!
Modern Russia is the inspiration not a threat to these people – it’s an oligarchy where a small group control all the wealth.
Many of these groups are also connected to fossil fuels and are prepared to burn down the world for their personal enrichment.
This is 21st century fascism. It’s not as overtly authoritarian as 20th century but it doesn’t need to be because we’ve got reality tv to distract the masses, and can maintain division without wars through mass disinformation and culture war campaigns us by the internet and big data.
This isn’t some conspiracy theory. We all know about Cambridge Analytics and Russian interference, but the biggest issue is the disinformation and tactics used by these groups is virtually indistinguishable.
The only conspiracy theory part really is whether it is all some conspiracy. This is usually where conspiracy theories fall down but like I said at the beginning it probably doesn’t matter whether it’s by accident or on purpose. And besides for a long time groups have been influenced by each other e.g. traditional left and right wing parties.
Thats not a fantasist paranoia – we arent all suddenly depressed and anxious for zero ; it was so before the lab virus ; its driven by a nefarious world order ; google is a corporation with billions of controks at its disposal ; look at industrial data estate and tge iwners and selkers in health, insurance, property ( WSP) … No you are spot in its designed this way ; now they are in tHE ARTS / jobs look to tge corporates raiding publically held resources moving real charity work aside and even monetizing and data collecting in the volunteering spaces getting rid of real people with ethical principles – seek are using that as in in to collect ; who the hell are” lunkedIn” why trust em they dont give us their private bona fides ? Gullible
sic ; billions of levers at its disposal, the winners and sellers of healthcare infrastructure- no you are spot on; its designed this way to accrue modelled data into pre- formatted data modelled to meet cerysin oucomes to aid predetermined objectives and business aims – google it or use a neutral commons sesrch engibe till its sold off to smaller coterie in ownership at top
There’s a lot of truth in that. I’m not inclined to believe in a conspiracy in the simplistic fashion of a particular group of masterminds who get together in a secret location to plot their way to world domination. It’s more that a considerable number of individuals with sufficient wealth and power have all concluded they would be better off if they did not have to put up with a functioning representative democracy, the rule of law and paying taxes. They have found ways to get enough control over their country’s political system through political donations and control of the media to achieve their aims.
These individuals are not all carefully planning and coordinating their actions in a grand centralised conspiracy. They don’t have to. Some of them are connected with others, sometimes some of them act in concert, but it can be quite informal. All they do is follow their self-interest, no doubt often learning from and inspired by each other’s examples what works best, with no concern about the consequences for anyone else, and the rest follows.
It has, perhaps, always been like this. Certainly it takes a lot of effort to preserve even a half-decent system of government from those who don’t see why they shgould put up with it. G.K. Chesterton’s extraordinary novel The Man Who Was Sunday was written in 1908, another time of extraordinary inequality, globalisation and concentrations of wealth. In one chapter a group of four detectives led by Syme, who are investigating a great anarchist conspiracy led by the mysterious ‘Sunday’, sees an armed mob of working men approaching them. Syme cries out,
“They can’t be running the real world in that way. Surely not many working men are anarchists, and surely if they were, mere mobs could not beat modern armies and police.”
“Mere mobs!” repeated his new friend with a snort of scorn. “So you talk about mobs and the working classes as if they were the question. You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all. Aristocrats were always anarchists, as
you can see from the barons’ wars.”
“As a lecture on English history for the little ones,” said Syme, “this is all very nice; but I have not yet grasped its application.”
“Its application is,” said his informant, “that most of old Sunday’s right-hand men are South African and American millionaires. That is why he has got hold of all the communications; and that is why the last four champions of the anti-anarchist police force are running through a wood like rabbits.”
“Millionaires I can understand,” said Syme thoughtfully, “they are nearly all mad. But getting hold of a few wicked old gentlemen with hobbies is one thing; getting hold of great Christian nations is another.
Pretty sure that you meant “The Man Who Was Thursday” in 1908 when there was a lot of dystopian despair in that blithe but blighted Edwardian Summer – see also E M Forster’s “The Machine Stops” at year later in 1909.
Nothing new about hubris and civilisational ennui – Ecclesiates 1:8-12,
Yes, my error, the title is as you say. There are quite a few books from around that time, early the 20th C, addressing the direction society was taking as capitalism ran riot, such as
Thomas Pikkety’s Capital presents abundant evidence that the cure for all that Gilded Age inequality was the two World Wars, which destroyed an enormous amount of capital and obliged governments to tax the rest at rates that mostly prevented the extreme concentrations of wealth. The consequence was that, in the developed modern world, in the period from 1945 to about 1980 wealth was more equitably distributed than ever before and the general population’s standard of living advanced rapidly. Then the wealthy struck back, and they are now getting their revenge on the common rabble. Whether a third world war would help turn the tide again is unfortunately open to doubt.
Nice citation of Ecclesiastes.
I might get that book and thank you for expressing this reality in a way that I can relate to.
The media has become the arbitrator of truth and justice yet it runs on a profit motive and politicians are beholden to those with profit motive that own it and also either aspire to or have great wealth.
And so true that it is the poor that have reason for democracy , as you well know in Australia we have watched neoliberalism sell most of the publicly owned facilities and services , stopped free education by forcing a profit motive and dominate information outlets. ..
Just so you don’t get too much of a misleading impression from the quoted paragraphs, I should say the book is an explicitly Christian allegory. It is also very weird and entertaining. The BBC made it into a superb 13 part audio book read by Geoffrey Palmer, who did a truly excellent rendering of each character with a distinct and appropriate voice. A tour de force by the actor.
Ok thanks, my tolerance for Christian allegory goes in fits and bursts . Religion is the home of emotive manipulation and the occasional deep truth for mine..combine that with PT Barnum and we have our modern media .
Thanks for that reference.
There’s a different sense to the anarchy now.
Back then a business man still needed a semi-ordered society to trade in goods. That’s why 20th century fascists were obsessed with order.
Nowadays the stock market and financial services are increasingly removed from the real economy. If you’re a hedge fund you often benefit from chaos e.g. see Greece during the GFC.
Also the wealthy used to have some connection to society. They needed a police and infrastructure. But nowadays you can live on a super yacht.
Finally there are some industries which are facing their end game especially fossil fuels. We’re moving passed even Monbiot’s polluter’s paradox – where the more a corporation pollutes the more it spends on donations and lobbying to prevent regulation. As climate change gets worse governments will be forced to act. So right now we’re just seeing attempts to shut down government altogether. This is what is happening in the US.
The problem is we’re looking for old school fascism with big, made up ideologies and uniforms. But 21st century fascism probably looks to 20th century fascism, like most things in the 21st century look to the 20th including fewer uniforms.
Indeed there is no need for conspiracy when confluence of interests align.
Maldinis’ point that there is learning from what works elsewhere (without need to collude in word or speech) is also pertinent.
Love the quote: ‘The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all’.
From a political-science/behavioral perspective, it fascinates me what it is that motivates the lieutenants and sheriffs of the real lord-commanders to do their work. My working hypothesis is that it taps the same vein of human weakness that has others join cults, and is related to the animal hierarchy of the pack.
We live in a world dominated by who controls the information outlets and who pays for reaching out to the masses and how we then fit into their profit motive.
Conservatives will always attack democracy. It’s what they do.
https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/agre/conservatism.html
Well since the majority of people, especially in Australia, are probably conservative (see every election since Whitlam was overthrown seemingly with general acceptance) I don’t think it’s really going to help the fight if we just call every bogeyman a conservative.
As someone else pointed out these people aren’t even conservatives, they’re anarchists. Since when do conservatives attack security agencies and try and overthrow elections?
Conservatism is particular behaviours and beliefs. Read the link.
Holy cr*p. They’re the polar opposites of anarchists. Anarchists are about as far from authoritarian dictators as you can get.
Conservatives will attack anyone who doesn’t do what they consider the right thing because they perceive non-conformance as evil, and support -or especially advocacy – of non-conformance an existential threat to themselves. This leads to them wanting to make everyone else also what they consider the right thing, which inevitably leads to them forcing everyone else to do what they consider the right thing when they have the ability to do so.
Totallly well put
The difficulty in shaming Morrison over, well, anything is that he believes he is God’s chosen one. Therefore, whatever he does is God’s will & he can’t be responsible for anything that goes wrong because, as it’s God’s will, whatever happens must be intended by God. Thus it’s all perfect. Neat huh?
But surely he would accept as God’s will if he found himself in prison for a substantial part of the rest of his life.
And oerhaps some of the other religious zealots in his party would take that as a sign of where God’s will is heading and perhaps repent of their malignant deeds.
Nope. They would find a way to rationalise it and continue doing what they have always done.
Ever heard of martyrdom? I’m sure he’d be happy to go down as the brave “Christian” warrior who was unfairly persecuted for his stand on principle. Quite what that principle is, I can’t quite fathom
The only martyr is julian Assange- Morrison does not act like Jesus ( thats a meadure of a good Christian – kindness in your actions and words ; so lets drop the bible bashing antgonism and do the man)
Utter rubbish. Just because he tries that shoddy trick doesn’t mean he believes it. He’s a trickster, nothing more, who’ll use any trick in the book, or many that are not, in his effort to shed blame, yes even to using God; that’s how low he will go.
like thise other fringe orthodoxies – its all his appropriation of an opposie man – jesus served the poor and sacraficed his life – a story about loving and sgaring others pain and joy – not taking from and lying – Beware false prophets
Yes, most Crikey subscribers and educated Australians have known for decades that the LNP (apart from Brigit Arthur and a handful of others) is a home for the greediest and nastiest grubs in the land. But our joy in the exposing of their collective failings does nothing for the chances that this type of vindictive governing will fade away and be replaced by a more compassionate society led by a decent Government. From the cold-blooded murderer Roberts-Smith to the Robodebt tragedy, any chance of any consequences for any of these monsters is disappearing faster than a hair down a plughole. That’s because the ALP pollies are only slightly less horrible than the LNP, and their own preservational instincts and actions mean that the criminals named in the sealed Robodebt folder will never be publicly named, and Ben R-S will surely win his appeal. Just like the monster Pell. And why will this transpire? Because our rulers know that the majority of Aussies are racist, have an attention span of thirty seconds, see first Australians as no-hopers and believe every non-white migrant is a potential terrorist.
William H, it is not that bad! The young people are going to shake this country up – a lot. They are pretty pissed off we ruined their planet and they will have their day in the sun.
Given how fast the planet is heating up, and how slow we’re doing anything about it there is no doubt they’ll have their day(s) in the sun.
so true and the pifs at our troughs know this and are scared if uprising so the bars on the big data industrial estate are putting us into silos and concentrating on control – maybe thats the reason for pandemic snd drug comos ies controlling movement via apps
No they won’t – they will do as their phones and artificial intelligence tells them to do and those with the most likes will be their spokesperson
heard of the young libs ? So myopic .. so trite – I love Max Taylor Green but i love Gough and iold white Bernie and thr suffragettes too and thise who marched in anti nuclear marches and see apathy and ignorant easy talking points bout women but tge gross sexism is everywhere eve via young women towards seasoned sisters
Where’s your evidence that ALP is only slightly less horrible than LNP?
It’s too easy to just “both-sides” these things.
The Morrison govt is being exposed for all manner of recordbreaking atrocities, managing to even eclipse the shocking Abbott govt, which in turn out-scandaled Howard.
Meanwhile Labor is creating the NDIS, the NBN, instituting paid parental leave and trying valiantly to fight climate change.
Come on now.
“Trying valiantly to fight climate change” is a bit of a reach. By approving new fossil fuel projects?
We are talking about a period of decades, in which there have been multiple carbon-pricing schemes, imploring the Coalition to produce a national energy plan, upgrading the transmission lines, constant support for renewables and the IPCC, instituting a zero-carbon date into law, and incessantly calling the Coalition out for wilful ignorance of climate change. No comparison.
The only time Labor do anything meaningful about climate change is when the Greens force them to.
The rest of the time it’s performative, at best.
Whatever policies they’ve had in the past, Labor clearly has no will to reign in the big emitters today – when it’s become more urgent than ever, which sort of hoists them on Rudd’s petard about the greatest moral challenge of our time…
They are clearly failing that challenge, hard. And besides, the number of times they’ve voted with the vile LNP over the last twenty years should see them as rejected as the LNP.
The clueless numpties who automatically defend the coalition with allduhsame are half right. Neither party deserves our votes. I’d suggest parties themselves are a large part of what ails our democracy.
totally to my disnay as once adored em – now all i have is Andrew wilkie Tasmania snator and most Of the greens – i like some Teals but afteid theyre liberal light with a bit of environnental policies akin to the Gps who defend theie multitinational healthcare employer corporation agsinst medicare rorts
When your own side is deep in its own merde, its best to spread the manure.
That way you can criticise what you find distaste without bending what little ethos you have.
by stitching up cozy, neutered deals like the CPRS with the Coalition where possible (not counting on mad wreckers like Abbott and Dutton) and rubbishing the Greens at every opportunity for wanting them to do better than their comfortable mediocrity?
I do not accept Aussies are that way ; lots of corruption in all races and creeds – its due to the fact power has been held in the industrialized West that its black and white ; lots more millionsires in India and China and lots of corruption in Africa too ; and the ageism is getting boring too – women are being indentured into sgrd care middke men pockets – the owners are multinational s of all hues
Wow. Maeve for Prime Minister. I don’t know why so many people are soft peddling on Morrison and his appalling activities. It is a relief to see someone not holding back.
Parliament needs a clean out. This utter debacle should provide the impetus for it but it seems no-one can be bothered. The new Government is in a position to do it but isn’t. Some ministers and the PM need a fire lit under them.
I’d recommend a vigorous application of the rough end of a pineapple…………………
Albo and the ALP leadership team are too busy swanning around the world telling China off for being… well, being China, and cosying up to NATO and US war hawks to be bothered too much about local stuff. After nine years in opposition, you’d think they would have spent some time on developing policies instead of recycling LibNat ones on climate
action, foreign policy and USUKA.I gather we don’t get out much and read even less. 😉
Parliament needs a clean out.
It sure does. But a quick read of articles on the likely outcome of the tomorrow’s by-election in the seat of Farrer makes for dispiriting reading. The electorate is likely to replace former minister Stuart Robert with another from the same political side.
Nooooo! Please Nooooo!
Qld- dumb Fascism one decade ; same same the 3
sic same same the next 3
bizarre if that occurs ! dumb dumb dumb
And sure enough – that’s what happened.
It is staggering how many people are blithely unaware of these evil deeds….unless someone they know is directly affected, they just have no idea. Commercial TV has really dumbed down large swathes of the population.
I thing there are less people watching commercial TV and Less reading all that is breathtaking sensational in the tabloids.
We had an amazing three page scoop here in Perth about the sad situation of the Forrests break-up. The trouble is the Editors think we want to read this gossip. I for one don’t and didn’t. put the paper back on the counter. sorry to all the legit stories and local advertisers.
I could find no mention in SMH about the expose of US far-right religious influence and writing of the misinformation and lies for the NO case, and although having 3 articles on the same subject, GA didn’t allow comments.
It’s unconscionable that leading media, supposedly ‘news’ outlets can censor us in such ways.
why we need to sack ABC orogramming dirrctor and reinstate aN OLD BBC model
(sic )programming; an