Like many other Australians, I am an avid sports fan. I competed for as long as possible, and when my body could no longer perform to my satisfaction, I turned to a daily routine of running, lap swimming or walking, to keep fit. Why do I tell you this? I like to think that I paid due respect to my opponents, who generally returned the favour.
Presently I am in awe of the respect shown by our Olympians to their sport, coaches and families. It all seems to come so naturally and enthusiastically and has been an inspiration to us all. In the same way, it is a pity our government couldn’t show us the same respect and inspire us into an uncertain post COVID-19 future.
Now, let us look at the lack of respect the government shows toward us. They represent us but use lies to do so. And in doing so, they show us no respect.
1 So much for truth and transparency when the former Attorney-General Christian Porter can have redacted evidence from his dropped defamation case against the ABC scrubbed from the public record.
Nine and News Corp (forget their motive) have been asking for the documents to be made public, but Justice Jayne Jagot ordered that the documents be ditched from court files.
There is no longer any excuse for the Prime Minister to set up an independent inquiry into Porter’s fitness for office. That might show us some respect.
Porter’s seat of Pearce lost some safe Liberal ground in a recent distribution and is now under threat from Labor.
2 Talking about redistributions, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Victorian and Western Australian changes are now complete. It seems that those skilled in these matters agree that the Liberals have lost one seat; the former seat of Stirling in WA has been abolished. The ALP has gained one; the newly created safe Labor seat of Hawke.
These same analysts agree that no seat has notionally changed hands as a result of the boundary changes.
3 Writing for The Saturday Paper last weekend John Hewson described our Prime Minister in these terms:
“He has accepted Barnaby Joyce back with no conditions – indeed, let him start to dictate climate and other policy. He has failed to deal effectively with claims of rape, bullying and harassment in Parliament House; has normalised pork-barrelling, corruption and wasteful expenditure; denies responsibility; is quick to blame others; and ignores the need for reform in response to the great social challenges of Indigenous recognition, child- and aged-care, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, mental illness and domestic violence.”
I have written in the same manner myself, and he is spot on, and Joyce is but one of many who has little respect for the electorate.
4 Morrison never seems to take charge when things are going wrong. He disappears then reappears to take the credit when things go right. He is gifted in thinking that he can make things better first for himself and secondly for you with the use of dishonesty.
We were in the front of the queue when the reality was, we were at the back of the pack. “This isn’t a race,” he said. How wrong he was. It is a race, and we are realising the price of his failure.
What sort of man would deliberately buy a lessor quality (AstraZeneca) vaccine after being offered 40 million doses of the higher quality Pfizer? Now we are paying the price for his stupidity with not enough vaccines to avoid lockdowns.
5 Whatever happened to those reports from Morrison’s chief of staff Phil Gaetjens? Morrison is still undecided as to whether he will release them publicly. I’m assuming that, like their ICAC proposal, they will let them lapse into the file of “no time left” before the election.
Like the Sports Rorts report that has never been published, a summary found there were “significant shortcomings” in the way McKenzie decided on the grant. But he also found that (Lord save me) how the minister’s office approved funds for different projects was not unduly influenced by reference to “marginal” or “targeted” electorates.
Where is the respect?
6 In the time I have spent writing for The AIMN, hardly a day has passed without the Government framing emissions reduction with all the negativity of Tony Abbott.
Writing for The Guardian, Katherine Murphy reported that:
“On Tuesday, the group Beyond Zero Emissions released a report based on economic analysis from ACIL Allen. This work found that establishing renewable energy industrial precincts in two Australian regions would create 45,000 new jobs and generate revenue of $13bn a year by 2032. The two regions the report identified were the Hunter in New South Wales and Gladstone in central Queensland. If you follow politics closely, you’ll know these regions will be heavily contested at the next federal election.
In the world envisaged by this report, dedicated renewable energy zones would support energy-intensive businesses during the transition to low emissions. I might need to repeat that sentence because the Coalition has spent more than a decade telling Australians that renewables and heavy industry are fundamentally incompatible.”
Over to you, Scotty. And show some respect.
7 The Prime Minister has apologised and accepted responsibility for the slow vaccine rollout.
“I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to achieve the marks that we had hoped for at the beginning of this year,” the PM said on Thursday.
“I take responsibility for the vaccination program. I also take responsibility for the challenges we’ve had.”
Does that pass as an apology? What do you think?
8 Speaking of apologies, I posted this on Facebook last week and received some criticism from those deemed to be unsuitable for the Astra vaccine:
WORDS THAT MAKE YOU THINK.
Isn’t it rather odd that the people who refuse an AstraZeneca jab are the same cohort who vote for the LNP? (70 and over)
It was insensitive to those who, for whatever reason, are unable to take the vaccine, and for that, I apologise.
9 Alarm bells ring when I turn on my computer to read this headline in The Guardian: “Coalition to spend $19,000 send Tony Abbott on trade mission to India.”
Where is the respect in that?
10 Back in the time of Sports Rorts while in caretaker mode or, to be more precise, in the fortnight between 27 March and 11 April 2019, the Government announced 70 appointments to boards, statutory bodies and tribunals, and diplomatic postings. One in five of the people appointed to government bodies in that fortnight had links to the Liberal or National parties.
11 Did you know that Australia doesn’t have a comprehensive formal parliamentary set of rules governing the behaviour of our MPs.
Yes, where is the respect?
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My thought for the day
The danger in looking back is that we lose the will to go forward.
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