Actions, not words, Bill
The Australian Government has reached yet another low point. And not just Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his freedom-hating Cabinet. Bill Shorten, while holding the position of Leader of the Opposition, has repeatedly and consistently failed to do anything of the sort, leaving the ALP complicit in yet another embarrassment to the nation.
Opposition – noun – ‘resistance or dissent, expressed in action or argument. A contrast or antithesis’.
There isn’t much in Shorten’s recent actions or arguments on matters of national security or asylum seeker policy that fits that definition. Where there is a mild attempt at resistance or dissent, it is quickly over-shadowed by full support and endorsement of whatever nasty piece of legislation Abbott and his team of reprobates have conjured up.
Actions speak louder than words.
And in this respect, Shorten has demonstrated exactly what the Australian Labor Party stands for. In much the same way Abbott supporters seek to excuse his horrible policies and laws by quoting unsubstantiated claims of success proclaimed by the Murdoch media, Labor supporters point to the vilification Shorten will receive from the same if he actually opposed something.
As if this matters.
There is something unsettling about the Opposition making feeble protestations against freedom-infringing laws, before supporting them in full; seen most recently with the ALP’s endorsement of data retention and site-blocking. It takes on a sinister note when those laws don’t just infringe on basic freedoms, but endorse human rights abuse and torture.
We now see the clearest indication yet that the ALP is not prepared to challenge the Government when it really matters.
Of course the ALP will readily stand up for the rights of Australians to free healthcare and education. It will stand up against the trashing of workplace rights. But when it comes to national security and immigration, Bill Shorten is right there beside Abbott.
And why?
Shorten knows siding with Abbott to kill off universal healthcare, education and workers’ rights will be the end of the ALP.
However, destroying civil liberties under the guise of ‘fighting terrorism’? Bring it on. And supporting a regime condemned by the UN for torturing asylum seekers? Shorten now gives it a massive tick.
Naturally, the ALP wafts around a few words to appease the humane and compassionate members of the ALP who have condemned the treatment of men, women and children in detention. It makes pathetic excuses about policy positions and not endorsing the manner in which the off-shore facilities are run. All the while pledging support for legislation which authorises the expenditure of tax payer money on off-shore detention in the face of a High Court challenge.
This was the ALP’s chance to stand up for basic human rights. This was Shorten’s chance to unequivocally condemn Australia’s treatment of refugees fleeing persecution and genocide.
Yet with Abbott and Brandis a little nervous when challenged on the legality of the off-shore facilities, Shorten is right there beside Abbott.
In a totally expected, yet disappointing motion passed by the ALP caucus on Wednesday, 24 June 2015, the ALP endorsed the Migration Amendment (Regional Processing Arrangements) Bill 2015.
The motion included that support for the amendments was ‘on the basis that the legislation solely goes to enabling payments, enabling the fact of regional offshore processing and that the legislation does not change or in any way expand the current situation/policies/extent of regional offshore processing.’
Really?
The ALP knows exactly what is happening in the current situation and the human rights abuses being perpetuated under the current policies. Would it have been so difficult to only support the amendments on the proviso that all children and babies were returned to Australian territory with their families? Or provide support conditional on the Government acting on the recommendations of the Moss Review and the Australian Human Rights Commission Forgotten Children Report? Clearly too difficult: Shorten may have set himself up for a mean cartoon and subject line in the mainstream media.
The motion finished with, ‘Nor does the federal parliamentary Labor party in any way condone the manner in which the current federal government is running offshore processing’.
Of course the ALP doesn’t condone it. Apart from rushing to support legislation which ensures the whole regime is lawful. And previously supporting legislation making it unlawful for doctors, counsellors and other professionals to expose inhumane conditions and report sexual abuse and violence.
Where a person says one thing, and does another, it is the actions that show the true intentions. And not only has the ALP agreed to support the emergency legislation with no meaningful conditions, it has clearly shown that only certain people matter. Its another sign of solidarity with the Abbott Government on a matter of anything remotely contentious.
Shorten effectively states that if a person seeks asylum by boat, they do not deserve a safe haven that is actually safe.
Abbott has appealed to the lowest common denominator with his asylum seeker and border protection policies. And Shorten, too afraid to upset the misinformed masses, would rather support a torturous regime than expose the Coalition’s policy for the farce it is. Off-shore detention has not stopped the boats. It has not stopped desperate people seeking ways to get to Australia, or New Zealand, or any other place that has ratified the Refugee Convention. While no boats have been reported as successfully reaching Australian territory, hundreds of people have died at the hands of people smugglers in Thailand and Malaysia.
And Shorten has obligingly agreed to back the Government.
Abbott and Shorten bring shame to Australia. The humane treatment of asylum seekers should not be politicised. And the torture of asylum seekers should not receive bipartisan support from a cruel Government and an opposition so weak it cannot stand up for the most vulnerable of people. There is no place for institutionalised abuse of people asking for help.
It is time Bill Shorten showed leadership. And demonstrated that leadership with actions that matter.
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kathysutherland2013
Return to home pageIt’s time to tell Shorten, loud and clear, that delivering Liberal-lite won’t win him any votes. If you want to vote Evil, then Abbott will beat Shorten every time, not necessarily by much but ….. If ‘almost’ the same thing is on offer, why not vote for the ‘best’?
It ain’t the ALP of old.
Paul, it sure ain’t. It’s enough to make me burn my “It’s time” T-shirt!
The lesser of two evils… is STILL evil…
WE NO LONGER HAVE AN OPPOSITION WHICH CAN BE SUPPORTED BY THE PEOPLE WHO WANT ABBOTT OUT!
Here are Shorten’s actual words: “I didn’t even wait ten seconds …” to come on side with Abbott’s putrid call to pass legislation to block High Court oversight of detainees treatment. No time for considered and measured reflection now, when Turd Abbott engenders fear. Fascism and cruelty in action. Shorten, you are craven and spineless, get out of our way.
Best article I have read this year.Why after 42yrs I will never vote Lab.again.Tell you what,if I was still young and wild it would be easy to turn after listening to what society think is real.This country has lost the plot,psychologically the other side won already.
I’ve said this before however, I’d like to repeat.
Bill Shorten reminds me of the martians in Mars Attacks. “Wait, we are your friends.”
I dislike the man and always have. His current antics do not surprise me at all. Both Tony and Bill are disgraceful and spineless opportunists without a conscience.
How they sleep at night I don’t know. Having no conscience, perhaps they recharge or regenerate.
“It is time Bill Shorten showed leadership.”
Too late for that.
He’s already been defined- and long since lost whatever shot he had at controlling the narrative.
The only way this is going to resolve itself with any semblance of a good outcome (and even Labor stalwarts should know this) is to find him some half face saving way out. Or ironically, to have him pilloried and found corrupt.
The bottom line is what we’ve got here is what Americans call a post turtle.
I cry in my soup as I burn my old ALP literature.
The ship has rolled over as the Captain smiles like a nervous child.
this conclusion of shorten was obvious from his silence in 2013 when abbutt and murdoch screamed debt crisis whilst giving $10 billion to a bank spending 40 billion for planes that, arguably, will be 10s of billions over budget and so delayed as to be obsolete before it is delivered and joining the greens to double labor’s debt.
Please, if there are any laborites with influence, point out the disaster, should these men get control of the senate.
All my bleating and exhortation has just got me ‘unfriended’
By the way I could have written something similar it simply reflects my feelings for some time.
The word cowards comes to mind.
Trouble is the ALP took action when they first started mandatory indefinite prisons without the rule of law, the right to appeal the prison or any other human rights. And they have wilfully defended it ever since.
If you had listened to the Parliamentary debate you would have heard Andrew Wilkie. He was the sole member to offer support for the rule of law, humanity and concern for the refugee and vote with his conscience.
Please step down Mr Shorten and give this once great country a chance to show it still has a heart.
John Roskam’s best man.
A red tie on a grey/blue suit.
A mealy mouth wafting weasel words in whining tone.
A lapdog adding it’s yip-yap to the rabid barks and snarls at the back fence.
A muttered ‘yes’ to political secrecy and social repression, a brayed ‘no’ to any ICAC.
A factional player of brown-bag games and swapped favours.
A straw dummy with large painted target for stereotypical sledges.
A fast track to another term of Tony.
Unelectable.
Eva.
What a brilliantly well observed article!
You have nailed every point, fear and frightening truth about what our so called government has become.
Shorten is nothing but a spineless, pissweak, simian buffoon wannabe who will rubber stamp anything Chimp Ears suggests, in order to garner some presumed relevance. But in doing so, Shorten has dealt the ALP out of ANY election contention.
Just wait.
Abbott will call an election during the break, and all Mogadon Bill can do is weep into his shandy.
What a joke.
Betrayed. No other word for it. Until we dismantle the party system which encourages this brutal kind of groupthink, there is only the Greens left for those who have a conscience. It’s not just Shorten. They are all complicit in this. Scum.
Ian P.
Actually… I think it takes a lot of courage remain in lockstep with the douchebags in this government…
Thanks Eva Cripps for this article. You capture my disgust at Bill Shorten and his pathetic political advisors perfectly.
Please send this article directly to Bill Shorten’s office. You can put my name with it as endorsing your words.
Maybe that might waken up Shorten out of his stupour, so he provides Australia for the interim (until we have a proportional government made up of the Greens and progressive parties) with some sort of opposition to that dribbling, rabid monster Abbott and his ugly LNP government before we totally lose what is precious about Australia.
Thank you for this article. My feeling exactly. The difference between the LMP (and I use this deliberately) and the current Labor so called opposition is less that a cigarette paper thickness. Both parties are so far right wing, there is no room on the scale to the right. Labor has moved far, far, far, far away from its caring for people, that I doubt it can be re-elected by thinking people.
But therein lies the rub. So many voters are asleep at the wheel, drugged, not thinking, that the next election is almost a foregone conclusion. Most voters are sheeples, led around by the Murdoch press, and not thinking.
Abbott calling Shorten a liar is like the pot calling the kettle black. Remember the “no cuts to ABC, SBS, health, education, pensions”? Why is the MSM not hammering him on that? The ABC has been effectively neutered now as if it does dare to present both sides of debate, is accused of bias, and threatened with more funding cuts.
I am in despair of this direction this country is taking, and wish I had the means to leave to find a better place. Beam me up Scotty!
Bill Shorten is not the problem. The problem is that the ALP is now controlled by the factional leaders who believe you have to achieve power and keep power “whatever it takes”. There is no room for ideology or ideas in this scenario.Pragmatism may be all;l very well in some circumstances, but not when it means trashing Australia’s reputation, rejecting the calls for mercy from the persecuted who seek refuge and sucking up to the likes of Abbott.
put out more flag
Thank you Eva for this article which was begging to be written.
Bill Shorten is doing his best to ensure that Australia has no alternative but to return the Abbott squad to office.
Good one, Bill – sleeping well? Of course you are.
Unsettling indeed. I’ve had a sick feeling these past few days during which insult after insult has been visited on Labor voters. We’re screwed.
@ Susan Craven: I understand The Right faction has lost control of Labor for the first time since the 70s. Perhaps there is a glimmer of hope?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/labor-powerbrokers-lose-control-with-reform-back-on-the-agenda-20150617-ghqeiy.html
Hopefully, with the National Conference coming up soon, and with a president from the left faction, that they might resolve to move back to the left.
It’s frightening to think what the libs will do to this country if they get returned at the next election. If the choice is between liberal and liberal-lite, then most people would choose the former.
If there was a real choice, however, most people would vote this current mob out – into oblivion!
Here here for this article! Thank you for speaking my exact frustrations and despair.
It’s interesting to note that the worst PM we have ever had coincides with the worst OL we have ever had.
If there ever was a federal ICAC ,i have no doubt Bland Shitbag would be indicted for conspiracy to allow TA and the LNP to stay in power.
Bland is either a LNP plant in the so called Labor party ,or he is getting a kickback from the LNP.
These 2 look way to chummy in this photo and are both good mates with IPA grub Roskam.
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/national/ruckus-in-the-house-delays-abbotts-day-one-agenda-20131113-iyvw8
Shitbag is a social climber as can be seen by his first marriage to an LNP members daughter and his second marriage to the governor-generals daughter.
He is best mates with that filthy grub John Roskam from the IPA as well and has been since their school days together.
I also know a retired teacher who told me Bill’s brother got accepted into Xavier college on merit and BS was not.
When mummy dearest found out ,she went into the principals office and stamped her feet and said if little dumb as dog shit Billy couldn’t go as well then his brother Robert wouldn’t be going either.
I loathe the LNP and everything they stand for but i reserve a special type of hatred for the party that delivered Abbott the 2013 election with their internal bickering , and gave us that weak sack of donkey shit OL who helps them stay there.
Thanks Damo451 it’s all there isn’t it.What chance does this nation really have,I promise within 3yrs.we will have the worse recession we ever had.Abbott will be gone and by then we will be all but servers to the scrap leavers.
Do you understand right and left wing.Shorten is from extreme RIGHT and RW Union.The Left is what we were proud of.Please don’t refer Shorten as Left Wing,it’s insulting to many of us who once believed.
Damo451
Great post mate!
I can’t stand him either.
Damo451,
you’ve hit the nail on the head, as far as I’m concerned too.
I loathe the LNP also because of their harsh, nasty discrimination against anybody they perceive is lesser than themselves while wiping the arses of those they aspire to copy.
While loathing these ugly specimens, I’m appalled that Labor whom I once believed worked to protect us from them – but now only aspire to be like them (while pretending to be different), I hold back on loathing them, but I’m severely disappointed and this is just as potent in my book.
I have a theory. “Bland Shitbag” stays sweet with Rabid and the other LNP leeches coz he wants a cushy job when he’s ejected out of Labor!
@ doctorrob54 – I know that. That’s why I think there might be a glimmer of hope. What’s your point?