Well, for a few months it was easy to send up this government. You only had to repeat what they said and exaggerate it slightly, or, in many cases, just juxtapose it beside something else that they were saying. Tony criticising the Opposition for having no alternatives, for example.
But lately, there is no way to actually exaggerate their position. Look at this recent offering from Christopher Pyne:
“Mr Pyne said he had no “ideological opposition” to collecting debts from the estates of former students who died still owing money to the government’s student loan scheme.”
Now, perhaps the Liberals are concerned that – like the long term unemployed – people will hit the jackpot by dying before they’ve paid off their HECS debt. (One edition of The Herald-Sun this morning had the headline “Dole Jackpot” on the front page. It then proceeded to tell us that there were many lucky people who’d been on unemployment benefits for over ten years. Lucky bastards. Obviously, they should be given a job immediately, but strangely firms are reluctant to hire people who’ve been out work that long. In a later edition, the front page had a photo of Rolf Harris with the caption, “I DIDN’T DO IT!” Which struck me as a rather strange headline when he’s been accused of multiple offences. Not as strange, however, as the fact that he performed a section of “Jake The Peg” while giving evidence. Of all his songs, I would have thought that singing, “I’m Jake the Peg with the extra leg” would be the last you’d bring out in a trial like that. I’M NOT MAKING THAT BIT UP. However, I am tempted to add the fiction that under cross examination, he was forced to perform “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” without his wobble board.)
But back to Mr Pyne. If HECS only kicks in when you earn over a certain amount, one wonders how much he expected dead people to earn in any given year? Or is there some “Work for The Dead” scheme in the offing.
And I thought the most ridiculous thing I’d hear today was the shifting of a few million from the Royal Commission on Child Abuse to the Royal Commission on the Home Insulation Scheme.
I’m embedding a poll from the Abbott Government’s first 50 days just for nostalgia for the good old days when many people thought they were merely evil, instead of mean, stupid and incompetent.
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