For almost a decade now, we have had governance unbefitting the times. When a government has governed without due regard to what is best for the nation and its people, there is only one course of action. Change it, and when you do, you change society.

The peoples of all the nations of the world increasingly seem to be having less to say about their destiny.

Extreme totalitarian right-wing governments worldwide have held sway over people and their democracies for far too long and at a time when what is needed most is a caring application of governance for the collective, not just for those at the top.

Despite the news served up to us by a media intent on backing a conservative point of view, the fact is that this country faces enormous problems. Not insurmountable but serious nonetheless. Well, severe enough to suggest that this would be a good election to lose.

But of course, one’s desire to win must include an acceptance that you take the good with the bad. And in Labor’s case, it must take on some unprecedented demands on government.

I cannot remember a time when the demands on government have been so abundant. You can only get so many slices from a cake; however, it is time to change when some portions far outweigh others and favour the rich and privileged.

Corporate tax evasion, large subsidies to fossil fuel companies, and an array of privileges for the rich take an enormous slice of the pie. Only a Labor government can make the necessary changes. Over the past decade, the Coalition became so trapped in the longevity of sameness that they couldn’t see other ways of doing things. Of course, climate change is the most outstanding example of how an inability to adapt to change can be an unmitigated disaster.

Everyone knows the authentic challenges facing us, but negativity didn’t build the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Snowy Mountain Scheme, or other Australian achievements.

What is needed is a leader with a passion for change. And might I add, with a government ready to back him up with explained policies.

Of course, the most significant change required is how we think.

Good government is about making and implementing decisions that serve the common good. That gives security to the people it governs. It follows the rule of law and is truthful about its intentions.

I contend that Labor is the only party that can bring about the social change necessary to restore and carry our democracy into a bountiful future both economically and socially.

The balance of this piece is derived from an article I wrote in 2020 about “social engineering”. You will note that I will now use the term “social change” instead of “social engineering.” Other parts I have changed to bring it into the times. It is essential, though, concerning this election.

Labor must find a means of making its citizens participatory in the function of government.

It should be inclusive, equitable and supportive of the people’s right to know. By equity, I mean the people have a right to a fair reward for the fruits of their labour.

And above all, it should be answerable to the people.

What is Social Change?

Social Change is a means by which you bring your ideas and principles relative to your party’s philosophy both up to date and in service of the common good.

Sometimes, however, it is politically expedient to forgo your beliefs when specific policies become entrenched in the country’s way of life. NDIS and national health are but two that are against conservative ideology but are firmly entrenched in our society.

It is when a political party seeks to use selective deceptive, manipulative and insidious psychological techniques to implement change in the attitudes of the masses that it is wrong.

Suppose you look at our society when Tony Abbott came to power and compare it with today. In that case, you could not deny that it is less accessible, FOIs are more difficult to procure, press freedoms have declined, we are more open to corruption, and government intervention in our daily lives has increased.

Older folk are treated abysmally, as are women generally. The treatment of asylum seekers and our indigenous folk have gotten worse.

Our economic attitude toward the wealthy, be they corporate or individual, has resulted in the rich getting increased handouts and subsidies.

Critics labelled Abbott’s social changes planted in the 2014 budget as the most draconian ever. Cuts to services such as welfare, education and health copped most of the budget pain.

It also slashed billions in funding from international aid, health and education. Alongside cuts to family benefits, all were designed to change the societal structures of how we live.

My problem with the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments is that they all embarked on a program ideologically targeted at changing the way we think, and for all the wrong reasons.

Think climate change, for instance, and the worldwide pandemic at its conclusion (if ever) will bring about the need for social and economic change. Demands for wage rises for first responders will be central to these changes. We have yet to hear about this in both parties’ campaigns so far.

Conservatives will seek to create crises even when none exists to counter these changes.

The Chinese will be at fault for everything. Even our sports results will be said to be rigged by them.

Create an illusion of disaster, and people will believe that perception is, in fact, reality. (Covid-19 and climate change aside, of course.)

Appeal to the base instincts of ordinary people and the racists.

A have/have not form of serfdom runs through the Morrison government’s work.

The disparagement of science (Covid-19 excepted) has been peculiar to the three governments.

In communications, we have a concerted attempt to eliminate the reasoned voice of opposing views. The dual attack on the ABC by the Murdoch empire and the government attempts to stifle debate.

When a government condemns a perceived bias of one outlet without acknowledging the prejudice of another, it is practising social engineering. Not social change.

Lying, of course, is the social engineers’ most effective tool. Throughout his career, Tony Abbott used it most effectively.

Malcolm Turnbull was hypocritical on climate change, and Morrison has taken lying to another level.

Another tool of social engineering is secrecy, and the conservative governments have displayed a propensity for it. It’s called “lying by omission.”

We also see social engineering in communication policy. The best NBN is now effectively only for those who can afford it. They have become information-rich, and those who cannot have become information poor.

All of these things contribute to how we think, act and feel. By manipulating society into thinking that the entire realm and ownership of knowledge is found in one ideology, one individual or cohort of individuals is a form of social change.

By influencing society into believing that if the rich become more prosperous, their lot will advance at the same rate, conservatives see their social engineering as a success.

As I said initially, all forms of government, corporations, institutions, religious groups, and even the advertising industry practice social engineering. Still, when you use social change to better society, the result is different.

Conservatives seek power through social engineering, whilst those on the left use social change for a better society.

Saturday, April 30

1 Whatever it was, the week’s rest seems to have done wonders for Anthony Albanese. His performance at last Saturday morning’s press conference was as good as l has seen from him. And it must be said that other members of the leadership group who accompanied him gave equally passionate performances.

And it has to be said that having shadow ministers backing the leader was impressive. A cohesive team will always beat a group of individuals.

With another debate scheduled for next Sunday, at 8.30 pm at Nine’s Sydney studios, l expect a fiery confrontation.

Sunday, May 1

2 But prior to that, the Labor Party’s Campaign Launch in Western Australia was a spectacular success. Jason Clare is proving to be a winner as the media front man with a unique grasp of policy combined with an astonishing capacity for wit.

The usual luminaries of past Labor Prime Ministers Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating were in attendance, as were the Western Australian premier, witty Mark McGowan, and the newly elected South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas.

In 2013, Albanese was the deputy Prime Minister, and Labor faced a self-inflicted defeat. Back then, he floundered, struggling to contain his emotions. On Sunday, Albanese brimmed with a different emotion, proud of his party of which he was now the Leader, daring to hope beyond hope that he was a winner.

The Opposition Leader said that after the challenges of the past three years, be it floods, fires, or the pandemic – Australians had “earned a better future“.

Labor promised reduced medication costs, a rollout of new charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, and a focus on improving pay equity for women via the Fair Work Act.

The decision to reduce the cost of drugs on the PBS by $12.50 means the maximum price for medicines for millions of Australians would be $30.

A shared equity scheme to improve housing affordability for low and middle-income earners that had been announced earlier was met with rapturous applause.

Albanese also said his government would use “all the tools in our power to close the gender pay gap“.

The most applause was reserved for statements about Australians deserving a government that would shape the future. All in all, Albanese gave a direct account of the current political situation and how it can do a better job.

Every Australian should ask whether Australia needs a campaigner or a leader. Do we need a bullshit artist or a leader? A corrupt Prime Minister or a leader without baggage? A perverted liar or a leader?

Albo as he is known, claimed that Australians had “worked out” Scott Morrison. A claim that I wholeheartedly support.

“Australians understand we can’t bet our future on three more years of a prime minister who looks at every challenge facing our country and says that’s not my job…

For a decade now, the Liberals and Nationals have treated governing as an inconvenience and public money as a political slush fund.”

I will not run from responsibility or treat every crisis as a chance to blame someone else.

I will show up, I will step up, I will bring people together. I will lead with integrity and treat you with respect.”

Of course, it was full of symbolic messages and not a lot of policy which was part of the Labor plan to allow Morrison nothing to get his mouth into.

Monday, May 2

3 The Australian’s headlines in response to Labor’s launch (paywalled).

Albanese’s Labor is rhetoric-rich, policy-poor

There has never been a Labor launch like this. Powerful rhetoric and symbolism to conceal the most modest policy offering from federal Labor at any election in the past 50 years.

Plenty of ideas but no grand plan in low-key launch

Anthony Albanese has vowed to change Australia by doing very little different. This is the fundamental contradiction in Labor’s case for change.

4 Here is one I nearly missed. It was in The Australian of all places (paywalled) “Peter Dutton flies under the radar in drone deal”:

“Peter Dutton gave the green light days before the election for the purchase – without an open tender process – of ­reconnaissance drones used by China and Russia.”

5 With just 17 days to go, Morrison has made up little ground. The latest Newspoll courtesy of The Poll Bludger shows that Labor leads the Coalition 53/47:

“Labor’s lead is steady at 53-47, with Labor up a point on the primary vote to 38% and the Coalition steady at 36%. One Nation has gained two points to 5% now that it is offered as a response option in every seat where it is fielding candidates, which is to say all but two of them compared with a little more than a third at the 2019 election, while the United Australia Party is steady on 4%. The report is silent on the Green’s primary vote, but the full results should be up reasonably shortly. (UPDATE: The Greens are steady at 11%). The poll also found that 56% believed it was time for a change of government, with 44% favouring the alternative response that the Coalition deserved to be returned.”

“Also out today from the Age/Herald is the second Resolve Strategic poll for the campaign, which finds the Coalition down two on 33% and Labor steady on 34%.”

“Resolve Strategic does not provide a two-party preferred result (though the Age/Herald report fills the gaps), but these numbers suggest around 54-46 in favour of Labor using flows from the 2019 election.”

The Essential Poll shows that:

“… while primary support is flatlining, Labor retains a lead over the Coalition of 49% to 45% on a two-party preferred ‘plus’ measure.”

The polls have recently done better in predicting state elections. Let’s hope that the corrections they have made to how they collect data have been a success. That being said there are still many people who remain undecided or who have dropped out altogether.

6 Latest betting from Sportsbet has Labor at $1.44 and the Coalition at $2.72. Ladbrokes are offering $1.80 for Labor and $2.00 for the Coalition. The latter seems a bit out of whack.

7 The economy is being run by a minister who may very well lose his seat, but the message is; “We are best to manage the economy”. A contradiction in terms? Go figure.

Wednesday 4 May

8 When I first saw this breathtaking list, I thought it was just another of those lists that show the government for what they are.

Nothing more than corrupt rorters. I got to number 200, thinking that would talk about the duration of the Morrison Government. How mistaken I was. The list covers the period from Abbott to Morrison. It is published by The Saturday Paper (compiled by Matthew Davis) and is titled “Achievements of the Coalition government” it lists some 1011 of them. The worst part is that they are all authentic. I’m hoping this link will get me a free subscription.

1 Today, I would like to draw your attention to a campaign press conference the Prime Minister gave at around 10 am April 27, in which he was asked a question about taxes.

Now I must confess that my objectivity these days suffers when I listen to him. I have written much about his lying (and his proven guilt of lying) that I’m trying to pick out the pieces of truth when I listen to him now.

He had previously said that taxes would not rise under his government. This, of course, is an absurdity because:

“… the Low-Middle Income Tax Offset, LMITO, was boosted to a maximum of $1,500, but it has not been extended beyond this financial year.

In his Federal Budget speech, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said low to middle-income .

The increase is estimated to benefit more than 10 million income earners and applies to those earning incomes up to $126,000.economy

However, unlike what the rumour mill suggested, the LMITO – in place from 2018-to 19 – will not be extended past this financial year.

Harrison Ashbury at Savings.com reported that “Mark Chapman, director of H&R Block’s tax communications, said this is effectively a tax hike in disguise.”

Next year, the “low and middle-income tax offset” disappears completely – meaning that people earning up to $126,000 will see a tax rise of up to $1,080,” Mr Chapman said. A return to the Government of $14.8 billion. Not bad, said tricky dicky.

It’s hard to see how that will do anything to help cost of living pressures over the medium and long term.

Worse, just as most Australians will see this tax rise, the wealthiest Australians will be anticipating a tax cut of up to $9,075 in 2024-25.”

Meaning that, in effect, the Prime Minister was telling a lie. The question asked of the Prime Minister was a good one, but unfortunately, it wasn’t followed up by other journos, and that’s what they are supposed to do. Either they are too inexperienced, unresearched or just dumb.

https://twitter.com/vanOnselenP/status/1519252556949909505

Scott Morrison then said that Labor would implement a carbon tax by stealth within the Carbon Credits Scheme, which is bullshit, but you can’t stop him. Again, the journalists couldn’t find a question. Tony Abbott implemented the CCS they refer to.

Yet again, he put Matt Canavan in his place. Still, no one raised the possibility of history repeating itself in the case of a hung parliament and a group of National MPs threatening to cross the floor or bring the Government down if they didn’t like specific climate legislation.

And to prove that they are still deniers of the highest order, the Liberal candidate for the Melbourne seat of Macnamara Colleen Harkin reckons that describing global warming as a climate emergency is akin to child abuse.

2 The inflation rate came in at 5.1% – the highest in twenty years. This will guarantee that prices will rise further, and interest rates will follow. It also puts paid to a lot of Government economics forecasts.

Greg Jericho in The Guardian put this slant on it:

“The latest inflation figures showing a 5.1% increase in prices over the past 12 months mean three things: the budget figures are already wrong, an interest rate rise next week is very likely, and last, workers have seen their real wages absolutely smashed.

It is not unusual for budget figures to be wrong, but to be wrong after just one month takes some doing.”

With China shutting down and testing many of its citizens because of another Covid outbreak, sales of our commodities will obviously fall, resulting in a significant revenue decline.

Frydenberg is busily trying to save his backside, so the defence of the Governments’ economic performance will fall on a lying Prime Minister.

At 5.1 per cent, Morrison is right to point out that inflation is worse elsewhere. And the Treasurer, when he gets a word in, is correct to blame the war in Ukraine and COVID supply constraints. But these comparisons are unlikely to appease communities faced with colossal cost of living expenses. Especially the lower-paid cohorts.

As sure as night follows day, we will be consumed over the next few days with debate about who the best economic managers are.

Of course, the Reserve Bank, at the same time, will be thinking about not when but by how much interest rates will rise.

Blaming international events won’t cut it. Keeping wages low for so long has led to this inevitable result as it has in the US.

Some quick thoughts:

3 Albo cannot afford to let go of an opportunity to attack Morrison’s style of blaming others, telling lies and degrading our democratic institutions.

4 Anyone who thinks that Morrison’s comment about he and Jen being blessed that they didn’t have kids with disabilities wasn’t part of his characteristics should read the book by Sean Kelly titled “The Game.”

5 The Coalition’s latest scare campaign over Labor’s climate policy highlights the real mess surrounding adequate planning for a shift towards renewables. Half of the experts cited say they were misquoted.

6 A second leader’s debate has been proposed for Sunday, May 8, in the 60 Minutes timeslot. That timeslot would ensure a vast audience. Labor is awaiting the outcome of Albanese’s bout of Covid before committing.

That’s all for now.

1 If you didn’t know an election was on and campaigning had been in progress for a few weeks, then you could be excused for not remembering that yes, the election is on the twenty-first of May.

So mundane has been the campaigning that you would think we were having a debate about what side of the street we should walk rather than the future of our nation.

My thoughts, as usual, are drawn to who is telling the most truth because it is better to be comforted with fact than controlled by lies. For some reason, I find it essential to the voting process. When I talk to people about this election and mention Scott Morrison’s lying, I’m often surprised at how many men forgive him because “they all do it.” Imagine what sort of a society we would have if all we did was lie to each other.

The opposite is that women hold him in such low esteem that they could cost him the election.

When the two leaders commenced their campaigns, who would have envisaged that the three most significant issues after nearly three weeks of campaigning would be Albo’s senior moment, a female candidate’s views on gender and the Solomon Islands’ relationship with China?

In the absence of Anthony Albanese, a fantastic opportunity exists to showcase some of Labor’s pre-eminent media performers. Jason Clare is stepping up to the plate as the media spokesperson, and Jim Chalmers, with his ever-present smile, seems to have a handle on any subject.

Unlike the Coalition, at least Labor is putting on an upbeat show, whereas Morrison, Dutton, Joyce and Taylor seem to be negatively defending everything. Taylor has been caught out again presenting dodgy figures, as this headline points out in The New Daily fact check: “Angus Taylor was caught in a dodgy climate scare campaign.”

And as for the warmonger, Dutton. really, what does one say? He hasn’t got a brain in his head or a diplomatic bone in his body. He is anticipating a war with China and wants us prepared. These scare campaigns do nothing more than treat us with contempt. Meanwhile, they increase the size of their army by the size of ours every year.

A message for union members and supporters on scare campaigns, disinformation and lies during the election campaign #auspol pic.twitter.com/zMdYYuMufM

— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) February 21, 2022

2 While watching the dawn service and at the same time fiddling on my iPad, I came across a piece from Crikey that I had saved in my “to read” file. It caught my attention because I don’t subscribe to it, and it’s not often one finds an entire article without subscribing.

The headline read; “The Liberal Party wants us to ‘look at the facts’. But just whose facts?”

Of nine claims in the Liberals’ new ad campaign, one is correct, two are deceptive, and six are barefaced lies.

The piece is written by Alan Austin, who will be familiar to some readers. In essence, it was a put down of Scott Morrison’s claims that:

i) ‘Australia’s recovery is leading the world.’

But claiming Australia is still a leader on this metric is quite false.

ii) “Through the pandemic, we’ve had fewer deaths … than almost any advanced country”

A more valid comparison, I would argue, is with advanced nations far from those countries and using current figures.

iii) “Less debt than almost any advanced country.”

Twenty-nine advanced economies now have less debt than Australia.

iv) “And more jobs growth than almost any advanced country”

The Liberal graph again compares Australia with seven non-comparable nations and ignores the advanced economies beating Australia. These include Norway, which improved employment by 3.11%, Argentina by 3.3%, Cyprus 3.7%, Israel 4.1%, New Zealand 4.3%, the Netherlands 4.5%, Denmark 5.3% and Malta by 5.9%.

v) “The Liberal government is building a stronger economy.’ ‘… With lower taxes.”

This would make Donald Trump blush. Last month’s budget papers showed that from 1969 onwards tax to GDP has been much higher under the Liberals. The highest-taxing administration was John Howard’s. Morrison’s was second highest.

vi) Lower unemployment

Yes, the headline jobless rate is lower. But you could argue that is due to migration shifting into reverse, to thousands of “workers” on one hour or zero hours a month, and to the blow-out in the public service – not a strong economy.

vii) “More apprentices.”

Apprenticeship numbers have recovered slightly in the past year, but from a low base. Relative to population, apprentices in 2017 and 2018 were the lowest in two decades.

viii) “More funding for health and other essential services.”

This claim is correct. But that’s due to higher population and the larger budget relative to 2013, not sound management.

(In regards to point iii you might want to read Alan Austin’s Worst debt blow-out in the developed world refutes Coalition claims of economic competence published recently on The AIMN.

2 Last Sunday, the LNP gave a guilt-edged guarantee that taxes overall wouldn’t rise above 23% of GDP. At the moment, they are on 27%. The highest ever taxing Government is the current one, and the highest after them is John Howard’s. Labor has never reached 27%.

3 The Kevin Rudd Facebook page report into Murdoch bias finds that 90% of their articles so far are favoured towards the Coalition.

At this stage, the respective campaigns of both parties are being dominated by scare campaigns. Labor is scaring pensioners to death over the Government’s welfare card, and the Government is more than a little upset. Having said that, Morrison is running around like a headless chook saying all sorts of negative things about Albo and who can forget his scare campaigns about Shorten’s negative gearing and franking credits.

Labor has conceded that all this negativity does work and that there is no point in being as pure as snow. A pity, but that’s the truth of the matter.

Pensions, the NDIS, Medicare, open borders, Chinese Reds under Labor beds, frightening, isn’t it?

But that’s the way the game is played.

1 Currently, we find the two aspirants for the position of Prime Minister talking about “stopping the boats” of a pastime. A fight won and is now strewn amongst the rocks of many islands in Australia’s political history book.

What Australians want is vision. They want a leader who can illustrate Australia’s future in 20, 30, and 50 years. This, of course, includes cleaning up the current mess.

I began writing this entry for my diary in the early hours of Tuesday, 19 April 2022. I was somewhat downcast until I saw the latest Newspoll results. They showed that Labor’s vote had held up despite Albo’s blunder on the first day. 53/47 said, The Poll Bludger. I thought it might collapse under the weight of frivolous reporting by the Murdoch press. Morgan followed up with 55/45 to Labor, and Essential has Labor just in front.

2 On News24, Morrison was still going on about boat turnbacks, offshore detention, third-country resettlement, and how Labor’s policy differed from the Coalition’s. A factcheck quickly settled that in Labour’s favour.

“For better or worse, Labor has agreed with the Coalition that nobody who came by boat since 2013 will be resettled in Australia. There is bipartisan support for boat turnback’s, offshore detention and third-country resettlement.”

3 A little later on, I found a reinvigorated Anthony Albanese. He looked like he had had a blood transfusion; such was his demeanour. He was spruiking Labor’s climate and energy policy into the future. He was talking about the future, about electric cars and their manufacture.

But talking about the future and its endless possibilities is just talk without the means of enabling it. This means restoring trust in our body politic. It must be a priority for a new government.

4 Restoring our democratic processes:

Albo must advocate for many changes. Take the high moral ground. Not everything will be able to be done at once. Labor will need to win by a margin that ensures two terms leading into a third.

I am drawing on a post titled; I was right back then, and I’m right now, which I wrote in 2017 for the following suggestions.

There is no doubt that the Australian political system needs repair, but it is not beyond it. Albanese needs to advance ways of opening our democracy to new ways of doing politics: ways that engage those who have been in a political malaise to feel part of the decision-making process again.

How about fixed four-year terms with a set date? Genuine reform of question time with an independent Speaker.

Albanese needs to promote the principle of transparency enthusiastically, advocating things like no advertising in the final month of an election campaign, and parties should submit all costings in the same time frame.

The people are sick to death of dog-eat-dog politics, of politicians who cannot think outside their yearnings for power at all costs.

Labor has never been better placed to win a contest of ideas. It must vigorously argue the case for action against growing inequality. Instead of pretending it is a Socialist party, be one.

Present national interest policy in common good terms. Create a willingness for bipartisan decisions when the common good reason demands it. Allow the House to accept the kudos of such extraordinary co-operation.

Never in the history of this nation have we been overflowing with such riches, but at the same time, those seeking our capital have never been as numerous.

We need to exercise our fairness, reason, compassion, and logic when determining what is affordable now and into the future.

We must talk about what is best for individuals, couples, families, employees, the arts, charitable institutions, groups, employers, retirees, welfare recipients, the aged, the infirmed, and decide how this cake of wealth is divided and how it is grown into the future.

Albanese needs to convince people of the need for a genuinely collective representative democracy that involves the people and encourages us to be creative, imaginative and exciting.

In a future world dependent on innovation and ideas, the government will be determined by those with a better grasp of the common good and not the pursuit of power for power’s sake.

5 And folks, that’s where I will have to end my diary for today. Alas, I have come down with a bout of Shingles, which has bedded me with fatigue. I would have liked to have said more, particularly about the debate. However, I can recommend Katharine Murphy’s analysis in The Guardian.

Until next time.

Diary entry 29: Saturday, April 20 2022

1 If a reputable fact-checker corrects a blatant attempt to pull the wool over the public, it could reasonably be a “gotcha moment”. The culprit has been found out telling a lie, lying by omission, gilding the lily, or simply trying to cloud the issue. “Gotcha”

Following are seven examples from AAP Factcheck of what could be called “gotcha” moments. Most fact-checked examples refute a wrong, then published and quickly forgotten, particularly by a media predisposed to self-interest or straight-out propaganda.

The culprit has achieved its purpose of misleading the public. This is not to say that Labor doesn’t also do it to a lesser extent. However, the overwhelming culprits are the Prime Minister and his ministers.

i) The claim. The Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic saved 40,000 Australian lives.

AAP Fact check verdict.

Misleading. Experts say Australia’s low death rate is due to a mixture of state and federal government policy and non-government factors.

Read more here.

To claim that you have saved 40,000 lives while at the same time your mishandling of the ordering of vaccines probably cost some is shameful.

ii) The Claim. No trees have been planted toward the coalition Government’s 2018 target of one billion new trees by 2030.

AAP Fact Check verdict. Mostly True. Around 4300 hectares of trees have been planted since 2018, equivalent to only around one per cent of the 2030 goal.

A Labor claim that proved to be a gotcha one.

iii) The Claim. Minister Dan Tehan Claimed that the Australian economy is performing better than any other country after COVID-19.

AAP Fact Check verdict. False. Australia has had a strong recovery from the pandemic, but several other countries have performed better on key indicators.

Such lies are told regularly. I shall go on:

iv) The Claim. The Prime Minister has claimed that Australia has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by around 20 per cent – more than the US, Japan, Canada, and New Zealand.

AAP Fact Check verdict. Mixture. Australia likely reduced net emissions by more than all except the United States between 2005 and 2020; however, Australia was the worst performer when comparing gross emissions.

Lying by omission.

v) The Claim. The Morrison government cut climate spending by 35 per cent in the 2022 federal budget.

AAP Fact Check verdict. Mostly True. Budget papers show a 35 per cent decline in funding for climate programs over four years, although this doesn’t necessarily account for all spending by government agencies.

vi) The Claim. The Government insists that Labor will introduce a death tax.

ABC/RMIT fact check verdict. Death taxes or an inheritance tax are not part of Labor’s current official policy platform — nor were they in the lead-up to the 2019 election. While senior Labor figures Mr Albanese and Mr Leigh may have historically indicated support for an inheritance tax in their non-parliamentary roles, both have since indicated they no longer support such a policy.

Talk about the masters of the scare!

vii) The Claim. Defence Minister Peter Dutton has claimed that Labor cut billions of dollars from the defence budget when it was last in Government.

ABC/RMIT fact check verdict. Misleading. Labor cut defence spending in two years while in office, but overall real-term spending went up while in Government.

2 The Prime Minister is facing an uphill battle to convince the electorate that he is serious about a corruption commission. Trying to present an argument that it won’t happen because Labor cannot bring itself to support his policy is a friendless argument.

3 Another observation of the first week of campaigning is that the standard of media reporting is deplorable. Of course, we have come to expect it from the Murdoch tabloids whose bias seems to have no end but is this the best we can hope for. Scott Morrison, it has to be said, is an excellent campaigner but can they at least balance that against the destruction of our democracy over the past 10 years.

But when on day one, news anchors are asking their travelling correspondents whether or not Albanese had just lost the campaign, I’m afraid they leave me somewhat breathless.

4 “The first campaign poll shows the scars of Labor’s troubled first week but still suggests they lead on two-party preferred.” Read more at The Poll Bludger.

5 On Insiders last Sunday, Marise Payne refused to endorse Katherine Deves for Tony Abbott’s former seat of Warringah. There was a time when people with views like hers were immediately dis-endorsed. But then she was personally picked by Scott.

Marise Payne also refused to enlighten us as to why Rachel Miller, a staffer in Alan Tudge’s office, is to receive over half a million dollars plus expenses after having an affair with him. And, of course, he remains in the Ministry. We are entitled to know.

6 Let’s hope that this week we will see the campaigning move to some policy debate about things that matter instead of following some immature gotcha moment of little importance.

We have to change the government to one that is indeed a representative democracy that reflects the community’s views.

I could just go on repeating all those reasons for voting this government out, recounting their dishonesty, nit-picking the Canberra gossip, cataloguing dishonesties and incompetence’s – ceaselessly doing what I have been doing and losing readers because of my passion.

But I would implore our readers to think of the future and marry science, technology, and economics to best reflect a community with a compassionate heart.

A couple of months back, a Facebook reader wrote:

“Lately, John, you’re thinking has run into a brick wall that others have built. The significant issues are not parochial, not country or city, urban or rural; they are dire ubiquitous problems that are universally threatening.”

Alas, that is true. I must redouble my efforts not to just condemn the wrongs of this vile government but to point out the possibilities the future holds for a government intent on serving the people and not themselves.

Diary entry 28: Saturday, April 16 2022

1 What can one say or do when the leader of the party you support makes such a complete fool of himself so early in an election campaign. All you can do is remind those you come into contact with that, unlike his opponent, he has apologised. Then you can add this suggestion: The wrong answer to a simple question or a perverted liar. You choose.

Ask those you talk to make a choice. Put those of an opposite view on the spot with another ‘gotcha’ question.

Tuesday, April 12. The Murdoch media is captivated with headlines like this in The Australian: ‘Vague promises’: Is Albanese up to job, Libs ask? (Paywalled).

“Josh Frydenberg and Simon Birmingham have seized on Anthony Albanese’s unemployment stumble to argue that the Labor Party doesn’t understand the economy.”

Anyway, let’s not dwell on it except that it was not what one would expect for a man of Albo’s experience.

2 As reported in last Tuesday’s The Australian, last year the Coalition cut bulk billing for psychiatry consultations funded through Medicare. Labor plans to reverse the decision. And so they should. It is vital for the treatment of mental health.

3 I, like many others, have been wondering since December just how the Prime Minister managed to save 40,000 lives during the pandemic. Well, a factcheck by The Guardian puts some light on the subject.

As opposed to Albo forgetting figures, the Prime Minister readerly embellishes them with ease or in this case, he conveniently left out the 2022 figures. Oh, and he didn’t factor in how many more lives might have been saved had he placed the vaccine orders on time.

The factcheck went on to say that:

“Morrison’s figure is accurate but it obscures Australia’s more recent Covid deaths. Australia’s health outcomes during Covid were excellent, but it’s not a commonwealth government success story, it’s a federal one.”

4 On the same day as Albanese’s stumble:

“… the Prime Minister says Tudge is still a cabinet minister, despite the fact that he does not sits in cabinet, collect a ministerial wage nor exercises ministerial powers.”

Just how he arrived at this would baffle even our finest minds.

What is even more outrageous is that after having an affair with a staffer, Rachelle Miller, an investigation found Tudge “had not breached any ministerial standards.” He retains a position in the cabinet, and the lady in question walks away with a cool half-million dollars plus expenses being paid for with our taxes. But the Prime Minister says Tudge is still a cabinet minister. If Tudge had not breached any standards, why is she being paid such a considerable sum, and who authorised it. Can someone answer, please?

5 Queensland MP George Christensen, who quit the LNP earlier in the month, has now decided to join the Red Head and stand for One Nation in the Federal Election (and receive $105,000 for his efforts). He cannot win at number three on the ticket, but it would entitle him to fill his pockets.

Important to note on George Christensen, because he’s contesting IF he loses he will get a taxpayer-funded payout of six-months of salary – equivalent to $105,000 💰. If he’d just quit he wouldn’t get this… pic.twitter.com/7pXyLf2AD6

— Lanai Scarr (@lanai_scarr) April 13, 2022

Mr Christensen told 7 National News that:

“In 2022, the Liberal National Party – as an extension of the Liberal Party – seems anything but conservative and thus it is no longer my party.”

6 On Tuesday evening’s news reports, Morrison was characterised as a gloating immature man who had just had his first victory over his brother playing marbles. The worst aspects of Morrison’s personality have driven him to one catastrophe after another.

His stubbornness leads to a failure to react positively when a crisis occurs. His leadership fails, and he doubles down. This leads him to blame others for his mistakes and take no accountability.

Wanting to have everything his way leads him to politicise everything. He puts politics above people to wedge issues that shouldn’t be. He allows ministers to remain in his cabinet who he should have sacked.

His lack of empathy is well known. Therefore, his leadership is poorer, so he comes over as arrogant and ruthless. That wouldn’t matter, except it all gets in the way of good governance.

7 The Murdoch media will be going for gotchas like there’s nothing else to do:

From the Murdoch mob:

‘Anthony Albanese has left many stunned by his comments on people smugglers this morning, with his claims branded “very dangerous”.’

I read on, for a brief moment.

Who claimed it? Peter Dutton.
Where? On 2GB.

Please spare us. #ThisisNotJournalism

— Michael Taylor 🇦🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🖤💛❤️ (@AusIndiMedia) April 14, 2022

(The “many stunned” referred to in the article were none other than Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison. Pathetic, isn’t it?)

That’s all for now. Remember, it’s not a race.

Diary entry #26: Saturday, April 9 2022

1 It’s hard enough without all the criticism.

By the time this piece is posted, we may know the date of the 47th Australian Federal election. At that time, the Prime Minister’s power to do any more damage to our democracy, at least for the time being, will have been taken away.

Assuming it is Saturday, May 21, it will determine who governs our nation for the following three years. Clearly, for almost a decade now, the leaders of both Conservative parties and their acolytes of cruelness, dishonesty, corruption and self-interest haven’t governed for the nation’s good.

Scott Morrison is carrying so much lead in his saddle leading up to the election that you would think it is a handicap race.

Unquestionably, they have been the worst government in our history. (How many times have I said that?)

Accordingly, the polls show Labor well ahead of the Government:

“… the latest fortnightly Newspoll has Labor’s two-party lead narrowing from 55-45 to 54-46, from primary votes of Coalition 36% (up one), Labor 38% (down three) and Greens 10% (up two), with One Nation and the United Australia Party both steady on 3%.

We also have the first Ipsos poll for the Financial Review, as foreshadowed in the previous post, which has Labor’s two-party lead at 55-45.

Also, out on Wednesday:

“… was a new poll from Roy Morgan, which usually reports fortnightly but seems to have made an exception for a budget week, finds Labor recovering much of what it lost in last week’s poll, it’s two-party preferred having progressed over three polls from 58-42 to 55.5-44.5 to 57-43 in the latest result.”

Another survey conducted by The Resolve Political Monitor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by research company Resolve Strategic showed that Labor was going into the election campaign in “pole position”. Its primary vote results produced a clear lead for the party in two-party terms.

The bookies have Labor at $1.33, and the Coalition is on $3.10.

Now that the election campaigns of both parties have started, it is time for the people of Australia to wake up from their political hibernation and be serious about this election. It well may be the most important one they will ever vote in.

2 Journalists who work for Rupert Murdoch must find a place in their personal journalistic ethics to incorporate fairness into the words they write. That is, of course, if they have any. Other journalists must also lift their game and not be lazy.

3 An announcement of the date had to be delayed because the Liberal Party needed to sort out some preselection issues with candidates unwanted by the local branches. So severe that Scott took them to court (using taxpayer funds) to sort out his own mess.

On Wednesday, April 6, in The Guardian, Mostafa Rachana reported that New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet labelled the NSW Liberal preselection saga a ‘debacle’ and an ‘abject failure’.

Yet another example of Morrison not being able to manage his own party. Pathetic governance.

4 It was a strange ending to the 46th Australian Parliament with a budget delivered traditionally with the usual critiques from economic journalists, the Opposition and others. It was also timed to fit into the timing of an election, and its purpose was clear. Please give us your vote, and here are five hundred dollars with our compliments – the valedictory speeches – some worthy and others worthless – were heard from those who were not returning.

5 Then, on the tenth hour of that evening, the Senate Chamber erupted; a horrific payout echoed its way up and down the multitude of scandal-filled hallways with the words of Liberal Senator Fierravanti-Wells stopping at the Prime Minister’s door.

She joined a long list of parliamentarians and others critical of the prime minister’s character. The numbers that have spoken negatively regarding the man’s character are compelling.

The Senator concluded that he wasn’t a very nice man, among other unmentionable things. He has been called a liar by many, including Emmanuel Macron. His deputy, Barnaby Joyce said he was a hypocrite and a liar. The former NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian (allegedly) called him a horrible person. Jacquie Lambie and Pauline Hanson both called him an intimidating bully.

Michael Keenan – a former ministerial colleague of Morrison – (allegedly) called him a complete psycho. Another cabinet colleague described him as a fraud. Former MP Julia Banks said he was a “menacing controlling wallpaper“.

In Women’s Agenda, Madaline Hislop said that Katherine Cusak, the outgoing NSW Liberal, has joined a growing chorus of female politicians who have accused Scott Morrison of bullying. She also said that:

“… he had ‘ruined’ the Liberal party and that she would not vote for him or the party at the federal election.”

And on top of all that, David Crowe, in an article for the SMH, tells us that:

“Two men involved in a hard-fought Liberal preselection battle have signed written testimony that Scott Morrison warned people about the “Lebanese background” of his opponent in a crucial ballot to decide a safe federal seat, helping him win a bitter contest to enter Parliament more than a decade before he became Prime Minister.”

5 To say the least, trying to win an election carrying that sort of baggage plus the weight of his Christian hypocrisy will be burdensome.

Yet Scott Morrison robotically goes about his business like a talking machine, committed to rattling off one lie after another. There is no correction from the right-wing press, be it our carbon emissions reductions figures, the Great Barrier Reef, the budget or just questions in general.

6 Yet more scandal.

The well-informed ABC and its journalists found a tidy sum of $18 million (plus $4 million annually) hidden in the bowels of the budget for the Australian Future Leaders Foundation Limited Program. Have you ever heard of them? No, nor have I. Apparently, they have no staff or office. I’m confident they will follow up on this one.

7 And a blast from the past Barnaby Joyce scandal.

Did you know that when Barnaby Joyce was appointed drought envoy a couple of years ago he received $675,000 in expenses for the nine months he was in the job and was allocated two staff members at the cost of about $200,000? He never wrote a report, instead angrily claiming he sent “an awful lot” of correspondence to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, including by text message.

Oh dear, what a cesspool of corruption we have become.

8 What an awful look is all these government appointments are. They look like they are running scared and trying to prop up a tired and out of date conservative philosophy – jobs for the boys and girls.

9 The recently released United Nations Climate Report used what can only be ‘called last chance’ language:

“Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) is beyond reach. In the scenarios assessed, limiting warming to around 1.5°C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030; at the same time, methane would also need to be reduced by about a third. “

We are at a crossroads.

Also on this subject, Lisa Cox of The Guardian reports that “the Morrison government has been accused of sitting on a significant report card on the state of Australia’s environment.” It was received in December but hasn’t been released because of all the “bad news” it contains.

“Labor, the Greens, the independent MP Zali Steggall, environment groups and scientists have called on the government to release the Australia State of the Environment report before the election in May. Produced by scientists and compiled every five years, it was last reported in 2016.”

Environment minister, Susan Ley, has had it since December.

Meanwhile on the other side of the political fence:

“As part of its climate change commitment, a Labor government would seek to co-host a UN COP meeting with Pacific Island nations.”

10 I repeat:

Make your vote count: The importance of this election is such that it will determine our future for better or for worse.

Election diary No. 24: Saturday, 2, April 2022.

Before I even begin to comment on this year’s budget, I must point out that I am not an economist. In reality, I have no training in finance whatsoever.

Having said that, let me say this: Most goodies are handed out to maximise the “vote for us” value during the upcoming campaign. Even Blind Freddy could explain why this is a short-term formula for winning an election.

Wages are stagnant with consumer prices steadily rising; the Coalition’s election gift to voters is cash for Australia’s low-and middle-income earners. It is a blatant attempt to buy their votes. Will it buy them enough? Well, that’s anyone’s guess.

I have picked up over many years of more than an average interest in politics and a lifetime in marketing the ability to read the spin of politics. After all, we, the voters, pass judgment on a budget’s worthiness. Therefore, our opinions are the most consequential.

As the Treasurer was reading his speech, I was with a glass of red in one hand and the volume control in the other, asking myself all the relevant questions pertaining to a national budget. It was not by coincidence that the handouts all happen during the election.

What is its intention, how forward-looking is it? Does it look after our most vulnerable? How does it address the health of its people or the condition of our infrastructure and our education? Does it endeavour to make right our inequality? These are the sort of questions a layperson like myself asks.

Indeed, many questions are asked of a budget. However, they are always constrained by the politics of the day and the proximity of an election.

As a layperson, l see this budget as driven by the requirements of an election that is just around the corner, nothing more, nothing less. Politics takes precedence over everything.

It seeks to succeed by addressing the immediacy of our society’s cost of living problems. To this end, it is wholly devoted. But all the gifts our Government offers have a use-by date and will expire in six months. There is no longevity. No thought for the future. No climate change crisis. In fact, every agency dealing with the climate had its funding cut.

In Katharine Murphy’s article in The Guardian; “At this gravest of times the Coalition has served up an election budget designed simply to keep itself in power” she reported that:

“With wages stagnant and consumer prices on the march, the Coalition’s primary pre-election gift to voters is cash for Australia’s low-and-middle income earners.

As well as cash, the government will cut the fuel excise in half in the hope a price cut at the bowser isn’t swallowed immediately by another adverse shift in the global oil price or an interest rate rise between now and September, when the excise is supposed to revert to its full rate.”

Don’t hold your breath.

Anthony Albanese has commented that supporting climate change has not won them an election (paywalled). Just when people have been sufficiently aroused to take it seriously. What a shame it would be if he walked away from it now.

And am I to seriously believe that in the next 20 years, when the whole world is driving electric cars, Australia will have to import them with all our manufacturing knowledge? This budget failed to give them a mention.

What will eventually happen when electric vehicles eliminate the petrol excise altogether. What will replace this massive source of Government revenue?

The words ‘childcare’ and ‘aged care’ hardly ever get a mention, but a wage rise so often predicted, but it never actually happens. Also ignored are those front-line workers who put their lives on the line during the pandemic.

It is a budget based on hope. The hope is that China will continue to pay the top price for our iron ore and coal commodities and that our wheat will continue to bring in record prices.

The politics of survival and the retention of power have taken over this budget, and it is about nothing else.

Remember those historic levels of debt that Abbott and Morrison threw at Labor? Now the shoe is on the other foot.

The way this budget seeks to give cash handouts in exchange for people’s votes is typical of this Government.

In fact, the value of the pension is likely to diminish over the next few years as the cost of living rises. The periodical increases are measured against movements in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whereas previously, they counted them against a set of articles related to pensioner’s actual costs.

The much-muted low unemployment figure is only because immigration stopped during the pandemic. Unemployment will rise when it resumes.

The Coalition government plans to spend $10bn on 120 projects not recommended by Infrastructure Australia. In fact, a closer analysis by Sarah Martin of The Guardian reveals that:

“… of the 144 projects being funded by the Government in Tuesday’s budget shows that just 21 are included on Infrastructure Australia’s current list of priority projects, accounting for $5.7bn of the approximate $16bn in new funding. The analysis also shows that of the $6.4bn that is allocated to projects within a single electorate, more than half – $3.4bn – is directed to marginal seats.”

If we were to forget Josh Frydenberg’s dour introduction to this year’s budget, “Tonight, as we gather, war rages in Europe,” you would miss any plan for the future and instead find one for the next six months. After that, it’s all about hope.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has outdone himself yet again to prove how out of touch he is. This time telling renters to just buy a house if they can’t afford soaring rent prices. Anyway, just to cap off its silliness, Morrison finally did it! We didn’t think it was possible, friends, but here we are.

Then at the end of play, Tammy Wolffs tweeted:

People who earn up to $126,000 per year will get $420 back in their tax, while people who rely on government payments will only get $250. Because the more you earn, the more government support you need? 🙄#Budget2022 #auspol

— Tammy (@TammyWolffs) March 29, 2022

Election diary No. 23: Wednesday, 30, March 2022.

The Coalition simply have a plan to keep wages low. It’s in their DNA.

All those who think that wages are long overdue to rise are certainly out of step with former Finance Minister Mathias Corman.

What follows was first published in The Conversation on March 18, 2019

.@David_Speers: Do you agree flexibility in wages and keeping wages at a modest level is a deliberate feature of our economic architecture? @lindareynoldswa: No absolutely not. For Bill Shorten to even suggest that…

DS: I'm quoting Mathias Cormann.https://t.co/aYBwbeRGPk pic.twitter.com/SSKF51zw06

— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) March 10, 2019

At the time, John Quiggin, writing in The Conversation reported that:

“The long debate over the causes of wage stagnation took an unexpected turn last week when Finance Minister Matthias Cormann described (downward) flexibility in the rate of wage growth as ‘a deliberate design feature of our economic architecture’.

It was a position that was endorsed in a flurry of confusion 16 seconds after it had been rejected by Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds.

Cormann had said policies aimed at pushing wages up could cause ‘massive spikes in unemployment’.

The ease with which Reynolds was trapped into at first rejecting and then accepting what her ministerial colleague had said flowed from the fact that Cormann had broken one of the standing conventions of politics in Australia, and for that matter, the English-speaking world.

For more than forty years, both the architecture of labour market regulation and the discretionary choices of governments have been designed with the precise objective of holding wages down.”

Cormann had spilt the beans in 2017. Had no one taken any notice? Why all of a sudden is there this frenzy about low wages now that it had clashed with high inflation and the rising cost of living.

“In a nation with a history of strong trade unions, decades of full employment, and the boundless faith in the future forged by the 1960s, wages grew faster than prices as both spiralled upwards.

By the time rising unemployment began to bite, and inflation slowed down, the wage share of national income had risen to an unprecedented 62%.”

Now with trade unions, all but KOd:

“… reining in this ‘real wage overhang‘ became the central obsession of macroeconomic policy since.”

Since then, policies designed to hold back wages have been a feature of conservative economic policy. It is not something that has just recently come to everyone’s attention.

In the election year, 2019, Bill Shorten argued for a restoration of penalty rates, a review of feminised industries that typically paid less, and a clampdown on wage theft. He declared the upcoming federal election a “referendum on wages“.

Shorten also wanted the minimum wage to be higher and believed the enterprise bargaining system should be overhauled.

An article on SBS at the time noted that the:

“Prime Minister Scott Morrison now argues Labor won’t be able to improve wages while taxing Australians more and that wage growth will come quicker as economic growth ramps up.”

Senator Cormann said if Mr Shorten wanted to mandate a particular wage level, he would be removing necessary flexibility in the system.

He will force more Australians onto the unemployment queues,” he said.

Labor workplace relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor said Senator Cormann’s comments showed the coalition didn’t have specific policies designed to grow wages and reduce inequality.

Journalists of Australia, please wake up and do your job.

2 Seeking asylum? Which country has shown the most compassion? The one who had the heart to accept them or the one who couldn’t find the heart?

3 Insider blows the whistle on Angus Taylor’s greenhouse gas reduction schemes:

“An enviro market without integrity isn’t an enviro market… It’s a rort.

“Its little more than a wealth transfer. Think about it as welfare payments for the undeserving.”

Taylor might be praying for that far away miracle that allows him to breathe the free air we all do.

An insider has blown the whistle on the integrity of the Federal Govt's carbon markets. His criticism has an all-too-familiar ring.

"This is little more than a wealth transfer. People can think about it as welfare payments for the undeserving." #auspol https://t.co/D5woaxdzzk

— Jo Dyer (@instanterudite) March 23, 2022

4 The words that exit his lying lips are just like all the others.

“I haven’t been to Hillsong in 15 years.” Lies, continuous lies. There are many videos to show that he visited in 2019.

Image from Junkee

5 To think that a Minister should have to threaten to quit his job to get a fair go in the budget is somewhat alarming, but that is precisely what happened to the Veterans Affairs Minister Andrew Gee. He was on the brink of offering his resignation from the cabinet following an enormous blue over department funding days out from the federal budget.

6 The Budget Papers for 21/22 were released last night, and of course, I have had little or no time to peruse its guts, although I expect it was one totality aimed at winning an election and nothing else.

7 Those on the left of politics have endured yet another three years of conservative government. During this period and the other terms that amount to almost a decade, I have nearly exhausted myself writing about this period. I expect an election to be called later this week.

I have described it as the worst duration of governance we have endured in the 60 plus years I have followed politics. Now we are called yet again to vote for the party we think will take us, following a disastrous pandemic and a decade of catastrophes, into a new future.

We have a choice, or do we? On the one hand, we have a government that has governed abysmally over a long period. Do we retain them despite their appalling record? A proven liar of little trust leads them. On the other hand, we could choose a party that is led by a politician who carries little baggage but without charisma. In my judgement, Albanese is a man suited to the times able to fix the many wrongs that Morrison and others have made.

But the campaigns of these two men are ahead of them. We are in Morrison’s case charged with looking at his record of the past and judging what he offers for the future.

The same goes for the more ‘unknown’ Anthony Albanese, but I’m prepared to say that he is far, far more trustworthy than the incumbent Scott Morrison.

I hope that the Australian people will this time take more significant care in selecting which party governs for the next three years. It well may be the most important election this country has ever faced.

Election diary No. 22: Saturday, 26, March 2022.

1 Known to me for most of my early life as The Country Party, was born on 22 January 1920, when nine members of Parliament, elected in December 1919, decided to support the objectives of the Australian Farmers’ Federal Organisation as an independent political party.

Wikipedia tells us that:

“… the Nationals (or the ‘Nats’) is an Australian political party. Traditionally representing graziers, farmers, (questionable) and regional voters generally, it began as the Australian Country Party (ACP) in 1920 at a federal level. It later adopted the name National Country Party in 1975, before taking its current name in 1982.”

Without it, the conservatives could not rule. They are the junior party in the Coalition; the National Party in the main votes for Liberal party policy. Generally, they do as the Liberals do, and on significant issues like the NBN and climate change vote with the government. Rarely do they represent their constituency. They are pro-mining rather than pro-farming.

In a previous post on this subject I wrote that in my time of following national politics, they have been subservient to the Liberal leader. Now and then, they made a bit of noise, but the old slow-talking fuddy-duddies have, like their coalition partners, stayed in the world of yesteryear listening to Dad and Dave.

Unlike the National Farmers Federation, they are unrepresentative of modern, highly technical, IT savvy farmers who left Dad and Dave to contemplate the past. At the same time, they got on with surviving in a vastly different landscape.

Then came a loud-mouthed, water-stealing buffoon – Barnaby Joyce – who didn’t care who he offended so long as everyone heard what he had to say.

After some time, buffoon Joyce was replaced with the buffoon McCormack, and after a period in which buffoon two accomplished nothing, they returned to buffoon one.

Yes, the current leader of the National Party is:

“… Barnaby Joyce. He was re-elected leader following three years of Michael McCormack. The deputy leader of the Nationals, since 4 February 2020, is David Littleproud, representing the Queensland electorate of Maranoa. Littleproud is the first Deputy Leader from the electorate (Maranoa) and the fifth member of the party to become Deputy Leader representing a Queensland electorate.”

But where are they now, and what is their future? To say the organisation is old-fashioned would be an understatement. Seeing a bit of female representation at meetings would be highly unlikely.

But the ageing male-dominated party has to ask itself just who it represents and, with an ever-declining vote, just what its future might be.

In recent years they have been plagued with scandals.

“At the 2016 double dissolution election, under the leadership of Barnaby Joyce, the party secured 4.6% of the vote and 16 seats. In 2018, reports emerged that the National Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce expected a child with his former communications staffer Vikki Campion. Joyce resigned after revelations that he had been engaged in an extramarital affair. Later in the same year, it was revealed that the NSW National party and its youth wing, the Young Nationals, had been infiltrated by neo-Nazis, with more than 30 members being investigated for alleged links to neo-Nazism. Leader McCormack denounced the infiltration, and several suspected neo-Nazis were expelled from the party and its youth wing.”

Like their senior party, the Liberals, they have a brand crisis. What and who do they represent? They certainly don’t mirror the image of the modern-day farmer. Certainly not the ones I see on television talking like scientists who know a bit about climate change.

But first, they have to overcome the outback Ocker image portrayed by men like Barnaby Joyce. It will only achieve this with a reappraisal of who they represent, Mining companies or small businesses and farmers.

It still hasn’t dealt with the accusations made against Barnaby Joyce by former WA Rural Women of the Year Catherine Marriott.

It is believed that there were even more complaints against Joyce. And WA leader Mia Davies, who expressed no confidence in Joyce, is still trying to overcome a party backlash because of her intervention.

Now, those like me believe her intervention was part of a conspiracy to get rid of Joyce to give then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull a louder voice. I know it goes back a bit, but it’s still their DNA.

WA Nationals have never been represented in our National Parliament, nor have SA, TAS or the ACT. Even their name is unrepresentative of who they are. It is all a farce when you consider that they have 16 members in the House of Representatives with half the vote of the Greens, who have one.

The downfall of Joyce the first time stands as a stark reminder that the Prime Minister couldn’t sack him as a minister because, at the time, he had signed a grubby piece of paper declaring himself a hypocrite for giving into Joyce on policies that he once so firmly believed in.

Like their senior partner, the Nationals have very few people with any talent. Well, by that, I mean talent for effective governance. They even had one member in George Christensen who became known as the ‘Member for Manilla‘ because he spent most of his time overseas for apparently seeking a wife (and at the taxpayer’s expense, I believe).

The old Country Party is just hanging onto power by the crack of a stock whip on a cold morning. Many in the country are angry that their party never represented them with a fast NBN connection. Many farmers feel let down by Nationals who have supported mining before agriculture. Not to mention their belief in a changing climate while the organisation they belonged to didn’t.

Over the years, it has often been muted that the two parties split. Maybe they should give it some more serious thought.

The Greens at the last election received 1.4 million primary votes, representing 10.2 per cent of the country for one seat.

Conversely, the Nationals received 624,555 (4.6 per cent), delivering 16 seats in the House of Representatives.

2 On Tuesday, the budget will be delivered by the Treasurer. I expect it to be a high spending attempt to buy victory at the next election. The Prime Minister will then likely meet with the Governor-General to announce an election date.

Election diary No. 21: Wednesday, 23, March 2022.

1 In what can only be described as a stunning victory, the South Australian Labor Party has taken the state after one term of conservative government. No doubt the Prime Minister will scream “state issues,” but I suspect, and with good reason, that brands Liberal/National are on the nose throughout the country, with the possible exception of Queensland.

Writing on the ABCs web page Stacy Pestrin and Sara Garcia reported that: premier-elect Peter Malinauskas:

“… thanked South Australians and said the significance of the privilege and the size of responsibility was not lost on him.

“I think sometimes on election nights when governments change hands, that the successful party can confuse the elation of electoral success with an inflated sense of achievement,” he said.

“Naturally, people of South Australia and Labor are right to feel satisfied tonight.”

“But true satisfaction for us comes in realising our ambition, ideal of delivering a fairer, better society and more opportunity for those who need it most.”

Refreshing words from the new premier. Words that reflect (I suspect) the current mood across the nation. As is usually the case, federal politicians of the same ilk will shout; “no reflection on us, it was all about state issues.”

I respectfully suggest that isn’t true. It’s the brands Liberal/National that are on the nose. Lying, false promises, no accountability, little transparency, and the assassination of our democracy by the ultra-right have all come together, at this time in our history, to wrongly reward those who have and forgotten those who have not. The people are sick of the political practice of the day, be it state or Federal.

A very satisfying result for those of us who like a little bit of humanity in our government,

2 Let me make this very clear: Lying by omission is lying. Just as bad as unadulterated lying. Take employment number, for example. Sure, unemployment is at record lows. Why? Think about this:

“The level of employment is around 2.2% below what would have been expected, but the key thing to remember is that the unemployment rate is a percentage (the ABC’s Gareth Hutchens has some funky videos explaining this).

It is related to the number of people in the labour force – and one of the big changes since the pandemic is the absence of migration has meant the pool of working age people has barely grown at all.

When you have a labour force that isn’t growing, employment doesn’t need to grow as fast for unemployment to fall. Unemployment with a four front and centre looks impressive, but it doesn’t tell the truth. It doesn’t, for example, mean a better community or economy. It just means you are lying by omission.

3 Good to see my old friend Alan Austin writing an article for The AIMN. Alan is an Australian freelance journalist now living near Nîmes in the South of France. His interests are the news media, religious affairs and economic and social issues which impact the disadvantaged. Hope to read more of your authoritative work, Alan.

4 Like most deaths in professions associated with stress and anxiety, they are usually sudden and have a semblance of unreality. Senator Kimberley Kitching’s was no different. It has been the occasion for some pretty shoddy politicking within the Labor Party and some additional shit-stirring by the Australian media. Guy Rundle raised eyebrows when he wrote in Crikey that:

“The sudden and sad death of Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching has been the occasion for a pretty extraordinary display of politicking within the Labor Party, and the usual gormless amnesia in the mainstream media.

Kitching, 52, in a high-pressure job, taking medication for a thyroid problem, died of a heart attack between meetings in the interminable process of selecting Labor’s Victoria Senate list.

From the moment her death was announced, her allies in the subsection of the right were framing it as the product of ‘bullying’ by other factions who had been trying to remove her from the Senate list and had earlier excluded her from the tactics committee.”

lt is sacrosanct in the Labor Party that everyone support whatever decision is reached regardless of one’s personal view. I suggest there may have been a problem in that respect.

Her funeral was last Monday. May she rest in peace.

5 On the one hand, we have a government who was found shamelessly guilty of pork-barrelling over a long period. On the other, an opposition that has offered millions in pledges, with no evidence, and it is yet to be proven it was doing the same thing. It is, therefore, a bit rich for some in the media to suggest that both parties are as bad as one another.

Sure, any Labor proposals should be scrutinised as much as any other parties but to suggest that both entities are as guilty as each other when one has not been in government for nearly a decade is a bit rich.

6 We are but weeks away from an election being called. The reality, however, is that based on the flurry of photo ops from Scott Morrison it has already started.

7 Here is another lie by omission: Morrison tells us that Australia is performing well when it comes to reducing our emissions. He says we only emit 1.2 of the world’s emissions, so we are not of much help. Have you ever thought about the size of the total emissions collectively of those countries with around 1.2 % emissions?

Well, Peter Hannan writing for the SMH, reported:

“That doesn’t sound like a lot but, as the Australia Institute’s Tom Swann notes, if all the countries polluting less than Australia were taken together, they would account for 30 per cent of global emissions, or more than China’s 27 per cent share. China, the US, the EU and India emit about 60 per cent of the world’s total – and they all need to take action to cut back – but the emissions of the rest also matter.”

This week the left-leaning Australia Institute thinktank will launch a new television campaign accusing the government of using “dodgy carbon credits” and calling the Coalition’s net-zero by 2050 plan a “fraud.”

Companies are set to spend $1 billion on renewable energy projects this year as the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy increases.

If Labor wins the next federal election, the probability is that they will be given the green light to spend more.