Politicians like to boast they have a memory longer than a goldfish — apparently only three seconds — but I beg to differ.
Let’s start with Scott Morrison’s ill-timed visit to the footy on Saturday.
Eight months on from the Hawaii debacle and we thought the prime minister had well and truly learned his lesson on the optics of cavorting in a crisis.
It was only last Friday he fronted the media to announce he would be off for a couple of days this week to join the family outside Sydney, but assured us that just because he wasn’t in front of a camera didn’t mean he wasn’t monitoring the Victorian lockdown as “we’re all Melburnians now”.
Fair enough.
But he must have forgotten his “ich bin ein Melburnian” moment by the next day when he was photographed at an NRL game — sans family, mask and strict social distancing — sporting a stubby and swirling a scarf.
Even The Australian ran a critical column by Caroline Overington: “It was not a good look” and was “a dumb thing to do”.
That column obviously slipped through the keeper and was soon replaced with another staunchly defending him.
Speaking of replacements and short memories at News, what about the untimely tweet of chair Michael Miller on Monday touting for “a dozen news-hungry reporters” to “embed” in regional communities for its new digital push?
He seems to have forgotten only two months ago News axed hundreds of regional titles and jobs. He must have also forgotten that a dozen seasoned journos had just been made redundant at The Australian flagship — his tweet came as Paul Maley and others were taking to Twitter about their departure.
Presumably they were not hungry enough — literally — as we assume News will replace its experienced older and more expensive journos with cheaper ones.
Back to the pollies and New South Wales Premier Goldfish Gladys hasn’t learned that in a coronacrisis you should never say never.
Despite Berejiklian’s snideness about other premiers keeping borders closed and insisting she would never impose one between NSW and Victoria, she was forced into a U-turn.
Then she hit the airwaves on Wednesday declaring NSW would absolutely not impose lockdowns because all that uncertainly would affect confidence.
How long do we give that?
Usually Berejikilian is not averse to a bit of uncertainty and inconsistency. There are the many bad U-turns and the occasional good one — her last-minute reversal on the Powerhouse Museum move.
Pity she didn’t change her mind sooner on tearing down a perfectly good Sydney stadium to build a white elephant that won’t be in demand so much these days.
But U-turn of the week goes to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson finally banning Huawei, which he is blaming on the pandemic not his previous mistake. Though doctors now think COVID does affect a victim’s memory.
Pollies probably think they can have short memories because the voters do too.
As for goldfish, scientists now believe their recall can last a few months rather than a few seconds — which is significantly longer than most politicians.
The Western Australian situation is much the same.
The Barnett Liberal government of yesteryear successfully drove the WA economy into the ground in the processes of pandering to corporate and other vested interests: It has taken a Labor team to extricate the State from the mess.
At the commencement of this pandemic the Liberals, now in opposition, did everything possible – with the aid of the commercial media – to limit the government’s actions which they undertook to try to limit the effects of an as yet not understood, but very contagious virus.
Closing the WA border was described as dictatorial and repressive.
The leader of the Liberal opposition, Liza Harvey, has finally condescended to admit that the measures taken have been successful, but has made no apology to the people of the State for stridently resisting them until very recently.
A population depleted by sickness, terrified of a disease which can lead to death and/or serious chronic illness cannot keep an economy operating adequately, but I still hear the rusted-on reactionaries proclaiming the superior financial management of conservative governments while the evidence, nationally and intrastate is staring them in their faces.
Who, in the name of all that is logical and rational would be proposing to support “…job readiness training…” when the likelihood of there actually being any jobs at all is under a very dark cloud of uncertainty?
The Federal “Best financial managers” it seems and there are just too many people who refuse to recall their limitless ability to destroy the country’s wellbeing for the sake of their own, and their associates, positions of wealth and privilege.
“The Western Australian situation is much the same.
The Barnett Liberal government of yesteryear successfully drove the WA economy into the ground in the processes of pandering to corporate and other vested interests:”
Not this time, Rolly. In fact a pack of bullsh-t.
Nobodies a fan of Barney, but what crippled the WA Libs at that time were purely economical bad timing including the crash in the price of iron ore and Barny’s very costly attempt to down-size and merge the very powerful local government councils.
The rest of your rant is unnecessary and excessive scare mongering.
cannot see the problem you have with the PM attending a footy match unless of course you are a member of the hate Morrison club of which many in your profession are…….wake up and take a balanced view of the job Morrison has done during this crisis ….I would suggest you are out of step with the majority of Australians views on this matter………..irrespective of political leanings at least give him some respect instead of putting him down at ever opportunity
Scotty-from-marketing was sufficiently astute at the beginning of this pandemic to realise that he was totally out of his depth and desperately needed wiser minds to guide him; hence the “National Cabinet.”
But even then, he has been attempting to convince State governments to relax their measures and open borders; even in the face of evidence that a large portion of the general population is incapable of taking informed advice and to comply with fact based instruction.
Leaders must set good examples to minimise this communal stupidity which is where the PM failed miserably – again.
Perhaps Mellum, but many of us think that Morrison is a scheming opportunist, low on ethics, and prone to very poor leadership unless goaded along by sensible state premiers.
Also a control freak with a tin ear, and very reluctant to apologise about any mistakes.
Aww, funny how you lot didn’t resile from hating Gillard……for literally NO REASON….yet now you get so easily triggered by people rightly criticising #scottyfrommarketing. The problem we have with him attending a football match is (a) he wasn’t practising social distancing, thus acting as a bad example & (b) was looking like he was being lazy at a time when Australia needs national leadership (which has been thin on the ground Federally-it has come almost entirely from the States), (c) this marks his 4th holiday in less than 2 years, in spite of his ludicrously high salary, at a time when many people are unable to take any time off work for fear of losing their jobs, (d) he seems to spend more time at leisure events than he does actually attending parliament-which is NOT a good look. BTW, where is your evidence that they are out of step with the majority of Australians? Care to provide any or are you just taking News Corpse at face value?
” I -= the majority of Australians “. It takes only one, to claim be an everybody/everyone .There’s always one in every crowd. If you could round up that quiet silent majority, you end up, at best, with a noisy vocal minority. The bloke is the worst PM in living memory. But, as they(lol) arse about say, ‘Cometh the times ,cometh the man’.
Ps..What a goldfish …How could i forget L’Abbott the mad monk of Nutterdom ,when speaking of worst..
Mr Hook – I think we’d all like to forget Abbott.
Abbott and Morrison aren’t my favourites either but Howard had a much longer time in which to do harm and did a lot more. His successors are just following in his footsteps in their own humble way.
Perhaps you also need reminding, Mellum, of the broader context behind the anger about #Scottyfrommarketing attending the footy this past weekend. Remember that this is the bloke who delayed an end to non-essential Mass Gatherings by 2 full days (the weekend) just so he could attend one last football match…..& he even encouraged the rest of Australia to do the same. He was eventually disabused of this idea by wiser folks, but that poor decision could have resulted in a massive outbreak relatively early on. Now seeing him at the football, yet again, flouting the very measures his CMO is telling people to abide by, reveals someone more interested in football than in the well-being of the Australian population.
as long as pollies throw money at constituents at election time(which they invariably do) then aussies can’t remember anything past yesterday.
I think the Boris U-turn on Huawei is US inspired. First, Boris wants a free trade agreement with the US and would like to most favoured. It will be helpful if Boris joins the US in trying to cut off trade with China, especially where it is leading the world.
Second, the US has cut off chip supply to Huawei, so that it’s gear down the track will have China made and designed chips. UK security cannot be as sure of those chips as it can be with Intel. Finally, China thinks that tit-for-tat diplomacy is good for showing others that China is not to be trifled with. The UK will want to make itself least vulnerable to retaliation from China. Why the Chinese government would help the US foster hostile relations with China is a mystery to me. The US has selfish reasons for wanting to be the western world’s dominant power, so why oblige?
Do pollies realise how ridiculous they look while spinning to the media. Like Gladys reversing the Powerhouse Museum decision or ScoMo claiming there have been no cuts to the ABC’s budget. Fools nobody – better to be honest about if they can remember how.