I have enjoyed an enormously lucky life. It has not been without traumas, but, at 85, I am ashamed that I am so comfortably off when so many are denied any pleasure or joy in life.

My then husband’s career brought us to Australia, to Darwin in the NT, just over 50 years ago on 1/1/71. I am still here.

Within my first 6 months, I knew I was born to live in the tropics, and I have no desire to leave, even though I am fully aware that climate change will increase the frequency and severity of severe weather events.

Having been here for Cyclone Tracy, and remembering how, in its wake, the city looked as though it had been bombed, I have no illusions about what we might look forward to.

Along with many of my generation, I was late in coming to a realisation that mankind’s actions needed to be re-directed if our grandchildren’s children are going to have a habitable world.

Extra free time in retirement has enabled me to understand the science – and the sordid venality of those who put profits before people.

I grew up in a Christian household and country, and have no quarrel with an ethical system which asks us to do as we would be done by.

But our so-called democracy does not share those values.

To see a need to help others is to be scorned as a so-called leftie.

We have statistics praising the billionaires and their assets, but less well advertised are our poor and under-privileged.

Even less well advertised is how badly we treat them.

Hardly surprising then, particularly in Australia, is the refusal by so many of a vaccination designed to protect lives. After all, given how little the current government really cares about the poor and their needs, who would think they were genuinely trying to help?

The COP26 has just ended – badly.

Australia is a developed country which has contributed more than most, on a per capita basis, to the emissions which are – ever more rapidly – destroying the world as we have known it.

Yet we are one of several, totally selfishly governed, countries which are demanding to be able to continue to mine, sell or burn coal – source of one of the most damaging greenhouse gases.

In fact all fossil fuels should be left in the ground until we have stabilised the greenhouse gas situation.

In fairness to some countries, their leaders lack the power to legislate necessary changes, despite their certainty that they are vitally important.

I do not believe in causing harm and loss to others, but I deeply sympathise with those who feel driven to violence in their disgust with governments which refuse to acknowledge the fact of climate change and its dangers.

Since 5/02/20, when COVID-19 really reared it head, I have sat outside the NT Parliament House every Wednesday afternoon for 2 hours ( I have missed a few through rain and health issues) to remind anyone who stops to chat of the urgency of action on climate change.

I shall continue doing so until all Australian governments have recognised that failing to take action is dooming our descendants to a world which will be increasingly destructive of life as we have known it.

Many Australians – probably more than 50% – would largely share my view.

Sadly we have elected politicians, a majority of whom do not.

We have an election coming soon.

There is only one issue of importance.

Are the candidates prepared to take serious and appropriate action on climate change?

We still have time – just – to change the future.

Another 3 years of Coalition government will be pretty certain to seal an unfortunate fate for life on Earth.

I do not trust Labor, either, although I think their actions will be less damaging than those of the Coalition.

And please remember that the Coalition, with help from Clive Palmer, has already made it crystal clear that they will happily lie and distort the truth if it helps them discourage people from voting for the ALP.

So please use your preferences with extraordinary care!

Our best outcome would be a sufficient number of climate conscious independents on the cross bench!

This next election will be more important than many people realise.

Clearly, the people elected by the Australian people to govern them are either stupid or insane.

If I read the science correctly, we need to be well on the way to reducing our greenhouse gas pollution by 50% by 2030 – NOT 2050 – to have a real hope of bequeathing to our descendants a world in which they have a hope of enjoying life.

Have you been watching the ABC program ‘Fires’?

It is not fiction.

And many of the people who lost everything in the 2020-21 fires are still waiting for real help.

We cannot fight climate change unless we change.

We have been failing to do so for too many decades, and now we are running out of time – fast!

In The New Daily, on 19/08/21, the following was recorded:

On Sunday, the Taliban swept into Afghanistan’s capital as the government collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

“The former Afghan president has left the nation,” the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council and a longtime rival of Ghani, Abdullah Abdullah, said in a video announcement on Facebook.

“He has left the nation in this state; [for that], God will hold him to account.”

Days earlier we had reports of a severe earthquake in Haiti, causing severe injuries and loss of life and now the people are enduring torrential storms.

Severe fires have caused damage in Greece, most recently in the Greek island of Evia, as reported by ABC News; Tom Joyne on 15/08/21:

All over the island, there is a white-hot anger over the government’s disorganised response to the fires, for which the country’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has apologised.

“The climate crisis – I’d like to use this term, and not climate change – the climate crisis is here, and it shows us everything needs to change” he said on Thursday, in his first news conference since the fires broke out.

“This is a common crisis for all of us.”

And this is just one of many fires occurring around the world.

Just what will it take for the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, to realise that the whole world is enduring disasters which we are all making worse than they might be, because of failure over the past 40 or 50 years to begin to rein in our wanton use of fossil fuels.

OK! So maybe the Afghanistan debacle is not a climate change disaster.

But the behaviour of our PM, in refusing to take urgent action to rescue those who helped our Australian forces over the past 20 years, knowing that the USA was pulling its forces out of Afghanistan, has now left hundreds at real risk.

His re-election in 2019 was off the back of lies about Labor’s policies and their consequences, aided by enormous financial support from Clive Palmer which helped the Coalition.

Sadly – because I believe that, in general, the Labor Party supports the workers, while the Coalition supports the wealthy – I have little faith in the ALP’s current policies. Many are being adopted in order, they hope, to have greater appeal, rather than because they are convinced that they represent good policy. We do NOT need to reduce taxes for the wealthy – in fact we need to increase them.

But the thought of Morrison winning the next election, and continuing to refuse to take action on global warming, to reduce emissions and generally clawing back money from the desperate while allowing big businesses to keep funds to which they are not entitled – I am glad I do not suffer from high blood pressure!

No country is doing enough to make a sufficient dent in undoing the damage which has followed, inevitably, from the Industrial Revolution.

Too many countries are claiming China is the villain and that taking action is wasted effort as long as China is pumping out emissions.

So we all continue behaving like idiots while China’s leader regards us as fools!

Our Prime Minister is incapable of planning.

This has been evidenced in many ways, not least of which has been his failure to procure a sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccine in a timely manner.

Add to that his support for the NSW Premier in her attempts to keep people happy, when her job is to keep them safe, so that the virus was able to happily multiply and create a disaster, and those who voted the Coalition back in deserve every criticism that we can hurl at them!

We need a consensus government, which forgets about bad-mouthing the politicians on the other side, and concentrates on ensuring that future generations will have a world they can live in.

The current world situation, with so many countries suffering from the pandemic, some suffering from drought affected crop losses, so many determined to make as much money as possible, with no thought for the consequences, and the desperate need to counter global warming – it is enough to drive us to desperation, which is the last thing we can afford to allow!

We have some excellent independents in the current Parliament – as well as some abysmal idiots.

Clearly those whom we have elected reflect the nature of our population – so we must make sure that we end up voting in the ones who support the vitally important policies.

Now that the pandemic has taken hold in some NSW First Nations communities, it is absolutely vital that we are led by someone who can make good and timely decisions instead of hiring consultants who fail to perform!

We have got to be out there, converting everyone to understand that party politics are what has created our present mess, and competent policy and law makers are desperately needed to get us out of it!

Now go and get them!

I am both a realist and an optimist, so I am not looking for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, rather trying to start a conversation about how we can ensure that future world conditions will be viable for our descendants.

Between the pandemic and global warming, the situation is not looking so rosy!

I was born in the UK, 3 years before WWII, so my awareness of the possibility of living under government dictates and restrictions is something I can take for granted. The rationing and restrictions experienced by the British – which were no doubt shared throughout Europe, but with the UK avoiding being occupied by enemy forces! – were way past those experienced in Australia. We could not even buy petrol for our own cars!

I was brought up in a non-Conformist Christian household, but am now an agnostic.

Despite BBC programs like the Father Brown series, the only part of the British Isles which is firmly Catholic is Eire, and Guy Fawkes ‘bonfire night’ is still enthusiastically celebrated!

The ethics taught by Jesus, as recorded in the Bible, were the basis of religion as I knew it, growing up, and the actual official church in the UK is the Church of England – which generally allows its Ministers to marry.

Because the UK was originally Catholic, and Henry VIII wanted a son, the resulting mish-mash of religions in the UK, as in the world, are many and varied.

At least the UK was enlightened enough, when it decided to use Australia as a convict colony, to ensure that the Australian government could not dictate a religious framework in its Constitution! And that was before Islam had become a major world religion.

So we have conflicts over religion, affecting internal and external relationships within and between countries.

We also have countries seeking to take over control of other countries, and – as currently in Myanmar – military juntas deposing elected leaders.

Looking at the mess that human beings are making of their own immediate environment, plus China and Russia seeking status by means of force and deception, I am left wondering whether the world really deserves to survive at all – let alone in peace!

And now we have a worldwide pandemic, with established nations looking after themselves first, and throwing the scraps to the undeveloped countries, all while we are recognising the effects of climate change, but keeping our heads in the sand when it comes to taking really serious steps to at least slow down global warming.

Do we deserve to survive?

We obviously would like to – but we equally obviously have not a clue how to persuade our nations that the wealthy nations need drastic changes in their lifestyles.

Everyone now seems to centre entertainment and convenience as the essentials of life.

Unselfishness is sneered at and acceptance of difference is also more obvious by its absence than its acceptance.

Discipline is essential for survival, and that, too, is despised.

As for our national leaders, the POTUS is trying to restore the USA from the damage done by his predecessor, whose legacy is a cohort determined to resist. The UK and Australia are among a group of nations where the electors have failed to understand what a leader should be. India’s resistance to religious tolerance, plus its size, is destroying itself, while China is travelling a dangerously authoritarian path.

I shall be long gone by the time the final outcome is resolved, but it will not be a good one unless and until people realise that acting for the common good is the only way to survive, sharing is good for everyone, helping other people is incredibly satisfying, and having all you need is much better than having all you want.

Now we need to take a good look at who we are electing to lead us!

And – more importantly – so is the future of our descendants.

The Coalition government is deaf to the pleas of those who understand the science, and who are asking for realistic action to reduce the risks associated with acknowledged global warming.

IMHO, anyone who votes the coalition government back into power is accepting responsibility for deaths and disasters affecting current and future life on earth.

Have the giants of the fossil fuel industries offered him a reward he feels he cannot refuse, or is he just both stubborn and stupid?

A quick examination of his past – and current – career is not inspiring.

He clearly lacks even a modest level of competence at planning and his highest priority is to avoid taking any actions which might cause his political allies to consider ousting him.

Every day there are new reports of global, climate-change linked, disasters.

He might be the Prime Minister of Australia, but Australia is only a small part of a world where all other developed nations are frantically trying to reduce their carbon emissions by moving away from fossil fuels.

Is our PM’s ego so overpowering that – like the Emperor who believed he was wearing magnificent robes when he was really naked – he does not realise how stupid he seems to those with far greater scientific knowledge than he possesses?

How can we accept his policies when every other developed nation is frantically trying to act to reduce the damage of climate change – and consequent global warming?

The only question that can be validly put is – have we already left it too late?

We do, fortunately, have State and Territory leaders who mainly understand the need for action – hence our progress in developing sources of renewable energy.

But more needs to be done, and faster, and the State/Territory actions need to be also those of the federation.

We need an EV industry.

We need to be building batteries.

We need to be prepared for more climate-change linked disasters – as well as for more pandemics!

We need a government which is not stupid and self-satisfied, but which expands CSIRO and stops being so smug and self-confident, by realising that we should be relying on expert knowledge to a far greater extent.

Clearly, our population is far from being well enough educated to recognise that our government is not using expert advice to our advantage.

Smart politics is not the answer to a world-threatening disaster!

WAKE UP!!!

Australia is unique in being a country, a continent and a former convict settlement.

At present, the latter part of our background seems to be the dominant feature.

Apart from officer’s wives, the earliest females to arrive here from England were largely from lower-class backgrounds – often prostitutes already – and were seldom treated well.

Existing First Nations women were also ill treated, and largely regarded as available to the first man to lay his hands on her, so that existing patriarchal attitudes were reinforced by settlers from convict and non-convict backgrounds alike.

I arrived in Australia from the UK on New Year’s Day 1971, when Joh Bjelke-Petersen was already entrenched as Premier of Queensland, and, whilst much of his biography in Wikipedia might not be 100% accurate, it is still politically enlightening!! Joh retained power through issues such as malapportionment which gave country areas influence to a greater extent than was justified by their proportion of the population.

In late 1986, two journalists, the ABC’s Chris Masters and The Courier-Mail‘s Phil Dickie, independently began investigating the extent of police and political corruption in Queensland and its links to the National Party state government.

This resulted in the Fitzgerald Inquiry and the last link will provide those, less well-informed about Joh’s period of corrupt government, with some clues as to why I raise this period of corruption in Queensland in an article about today’s pork barrelling!

The current situation with regard to the pandemic, and the immediate chaos in NSW, added to the PM’s distinctly different – and highly political – treatment of the health care processes in Victoria (highly critical) and NSW (golden standard – prior to now!) – are highly reminiscent of the political attitudes towards Joh’s antics in Queensland.

Just by way of explaining why I am so critical of the current sexist attitudes of Australia’s male politicians – in September 1954, having passed the necessary entrance exam, I started studying for a BSc (Special) Mathematics at what was then the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.

The main College building was adjacent to the Royal Albert Hall (as can be seen in this photograph – taken during its construction) where the graduation ceremonies were held.

Image from imperial.ac.uk

As the last link demonstrates, just before I enrolled, the student numbers there were about 1500, divided between the 3 foundation colleges (Royal School of Science, covering natural sciences – including mathematics), City and Guilds College (C&G) (covering all areas of engineering) and Royal School of Mines (covering mining, geology, earth sciences, etc).

During my time there, the student population was clearly, given the subject choices, predominantly male. I believe there was one female student in Mines, 3 in C&G and, in my year’s maths group, there were 6 among a total of 30 students. Total number of female students was about 150, and we were all treated with courtesy and respect!!

Now simply Imperial College, London, and issuing its own degrees, it ranks in the top 10 world universities, it has expanded significantly and now includes medicine among its specialist areas, and has been involved in the vaccine development for COVID-19.

So, as a young woman, I came from an ordinary, middle class family, I passed the 11+ exam, went to a government Secondary Grammar school, and, having passed IC’s own entrance exam, as well as gaining the necessary A Level results, I received a grant from my County Council to cover my university fees and travel expenses – I lived on the outskirts of West London and commuted to College via the London Underground.

Just to clarify – neither of my parents had qualified for university, both were/had been Civil Servants, my mother in particular saw education as really important for girls as well as boys, and insisted on supporting us to the full.

Enough of the personal, but remember, England’s history goes back much further in time than that of white men in Australia!

Few States in Australia have avoided scandals over pork barrelling, but now, as witnessed by a statement by Gladys Berejiklian, they have become the norm!

I am one of a no doubt diminishing number of voters who thought we elected our politicians to run the Territory, State or Country for the benefit of at least a majority of voters.

Naïve, aren’t we?

Disgusted, as well, at the openness with which our politicians rort the system for their own personal gain!

If I were 20 years younger, and prepared to renounce my British citizenship, I would stand for the Australian Parliament as an independent.

Those women, who have done so, successfully, in recent years are streets ahead of most of those supported by the Party machines.

They genuinely care about the needs of the average citizens.

PLEASE will someone tell Scott Morrison that ‘normal’ no longer applies to the life of the future.

Global warming IS the top priority.

Failure to take action to keep emissions down – to actually reduce them – guarantees destruction of our last toehold on normality.

Between politics, pandemics and pork barrelling, a ‘normal’ life is doomed!

I am ashamed to be Australian, and to have to admit that we have a government that refuses to see how the future of this planet depends on ALL wealthy nations – including Australia – planning effectively for global warming.

I am not a fool.

I have an honours science degree from Imperial College, London, plus an Australian law degree.

I believe the scientists.

I understand that we have an increasingly limited time in which we can make the changes necessary to ensure that our descendants will have a world which they can live in, and still have a reasonable level of comfort.

I lived in the UK through WWII, so I know that we can support rationing and restrictions and change generally – at least it will be easier when we are not suffering air raids and sea battles!

We have grown soft and complacent – and selfish.

Most of our population has sufficient resources and it would be easily possible to ensure that no one was below the poverty line.

We are destroying the habitats of multiple species and allowing the few to accumulate wealth – which buys them power – while watching the lives of millions in poorer countries being damaged beyond repair.

We must act to ensure that we elect politicians who will work, with leaders like the USA’s Joe Biden, to ensure that not only our own citizens, but the global population, can hope for a future.

We are at a decision point.

It is up to us all to make sure that we have governments prepared to make the right decisions.

We are running out of time, and electing governments like our present one will simply lead to irreversible damage.

I am no fan of the current Labor leadership, so they, too, need to think really hard about what they can do to ensure the global population really has a future.

What should have been our agenda since the 1980s, has now to be completed, properly, in less than a decade.

Get stuck in, folks.

It really is a matter of life and death!

The great advantage of having retired, is the time and opportunity it provides to see how things could be improved.

The first observation relates to the ability to compare progress – or otherwise – over time.

One unfortunate example is the very obvious increase in inequality.

I can remember, back in the UK in the 1950s and ’60s, that the top tax rate was 90%.

Should any modern government seek to raise tax rates to such a level nowadays, all hell would break loose!

Income tax has been justified – and fought – on a number of grounds, and many other taxes – including the GST in Australia – have been introduced to provide further revenue for government purposes.

Many taxes over time have been levied on particular groups – many of which have been bitterly fought as being ‘unfair’ to the groups most closely affected.

Conventional economics refers to capital and labour as the two forms of generating income, and the corporatised nature of many industries has, wrongly, provided an aura of humanity to corporate bodies.

Using money to make money is a perfectly valid activity, but there are associated risks of which the investor must be aware.

And those risks include the possibility of losing all the capital while – for those who, for example, indulge in trading in the futures market – may end up with considerable debts.

To put it bluntly, such forms of trading do, in reality, constitute a form of gambling, which can be dangerously addictive!

So – where is all this leading?

Why do we pay tax?

Primarily, to provide governments with funds to provide services for the public benefit.

On the face of it, that sounds like a good idea.

But that then depends on who benefits most from those services.

In general, Labor governments concentrate on helping those with the greatest needs, while the conservative forces prefer to ensure that their supporters are their greatest beneficiaries.

Few Australians would happily get rid of our government-funded health system – which was essentially introduced and supported by the Labor government.

All governments see provision of education as being an essential public service, but allowing private schools to exist – for the primary benefit of the wealthier portion of the population AND still providing assistance to those which are already well endowed – could (and I believe should) be regarded as a misdirection of public funds!

We have just experienced another, relatively lengthy, period with a conservative government.

We have also experienced a severely damaging pandemic.

The net result has been an alarming increase in inequality.

There are now many people whose ability to work is temporary or non-existent, whose hope for a better future is dwindling, and who are being actually damaged by government policies – which, wrongly, blame those individuals for failing to make the necessary efforts to improve their lives!

We are also living in very uncertain times.

All – except those determined to deny they could be wrong – are becoming aware that man-made climate change, global warming – call it what you will – is actually a factor with which we absolutely must take into account in our planning.

This means moving away as fast as possible from using fossil fuels – which in turn means completely re-thinking our whole system.

Many people need to be re-trained to take up employment in new areas, our whole power distribution system must be re-engineered to ensure that renewable energy provides power that can flow smoothly and Australia has got to become a manufacturer of goods rather than solely a provider of services.

Where are our electric vehicles?

Where are the re-charge facilities which they will need?

This requires a level of planning which, to judge from their performance during the pandemic, is beyond the capacity of the current Coalition government.

Within the next 12 months, we will have another General Election.

PLEASE do not be fooled into believing that the Prime Minister – whose face accompanies every announcement made by this government – is someone who is competent to lead us into a changed future.

He is as narcissistic as is Donald Trump – and equally devoid as Trump in understanding science and the need for method, planning, and evidence.

Think back to 2019. What policies did he take to the last election?

NONE!

He concentrated on telling untruths about the mess which Labor would make, while offering only tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the land!

Climate science is in the Coalition’s too-hard basket.

But without action in the immediate future, we will be spending our time relocating people inland to avoid rising oceans, coping with severe storms, droughts, and fires, and, generally, struggling to cope with continuing disasters.

I am actually an optimist!

I believe that Australia has the capacity to become a viable country.

But we need leaders who can actually visualise the road to a worthwhile future – not a selfish collection whose first interest is in courting support from the wealthy for their personal benefit!

Why do you think they are promoting gas?

Who were their consultants during the last year or more?

WAKE UP, AUSTRALIA!

There is no point in complaining at poor performance if you fail to offer some constructive advice.

I am aware that we are believed to live in a democratic society, and that the government we get is one which a majority has elected.

I am also aware that there is a wide range of opinion as to the extent to which the government should control/manage our lives via their decisions on the economy and laws in general.

No government will ever be universally embraced, but it should at least aim to provide as high a level as possible of both freedom and relevant control.

It is never going to satisfy all of us, all of the time, but it needs, in conjunction with the powers devolved to the states and territories, to have certain continuing guidelines.

Every human being has certain basic needs, and it should be the task of the government to do as much as possible to ensure those needs are met.

• We all require a home, with some degree of certainty that we will not be arbitrarily evicted.
• We all require assistance to maintain a reasonable state of health.
• We are all entitled to as extensive an education as our abilities and desires seek.
• We are all entitled to freedom of choice in a wide variety of areas, with the proviso that our freedom must not adversely impact on others.
• We all require help with transport at some stage in our lives and using renewable energy is the only way to go!

So – how are we fairing with the current government?

In too many regards – not so well!

Let’s just examine the points mentioned above and see if we can help:

Accommodation

Why are States/Territories selling off housing and not replacing it?

The population is growing and housing shortages push up prices, excluding too many from owning their own home.

Another factor is negative gearing, which allows people to use property as an investment tool, while keeping house prices out of the range of many. For one or two properties, fair enough, but housing becoming a major investment is not a good idea.

We need a (low) limit on the number of properties on which negative gearing claims can be allowed.

Health

We are the envy of giants like the USA for our Medicare.

Yes – it is true that there are long waits for elective surgery, but there are ways of gaming the system. I took out private health cover the year I turned 70, which reduced the additional cost for a new subscriber, and subsequently have had two hip replacements and a total reverse shoulder replacement (> $20,000 + each from the Health fund) plus a few other minor surgery items – and I then cancelled the private cover.

However, other factors controlling our health are many and include food, medications, work and our family structure.

Not all of these are necessarily as well considered as they could/should be.

Education

If people want to pay private school fees for their children’s education, that is their choice, but, since most of us pay taxes, which go in part to cover State/Territory costs of providing educational facilities, taxpayers should not be required to subsidise school fees for those who have made that choice.

Ideally, tertiary and TAFE education should be available to all, with a much less expensive HECS system than we currently have.

Research must be encouraged and universities should be assisted to form hubs which can develop the research outcomes.

Current treatment of universities is absolutely appalling. What are we, if we are not stimulating all who can add to our corporate knowledge and R & D?

Freedom of choice

This is where legislation comes in, and IMHO it should be limited to controlling anti-social behaviour.

Issues like abortion, contraception, LGBTIQ+ rights, etc, are ones where the individual should have the choice, preferably with minimal interventions and from the earliest age which seems reasonable.

Energy

The damage which developed nations have done to Earth and its resources has become very clear and will be from hard to impossible to reverse.

Long before this we should have been working on making much more efficient use of the massive availability in so much of the world of natural sources of energy.

Where are our factories making electric cars? Where are our electric cars???? Why are not new suburbs being built with provision for solar, and other renewable energy sources, to be used in providing and storing energy?

Why do we have an unreliable electricity network?

Why is greed allowed to damage so many lives?

And why are we not being good neighbours to those poorer countries which lack our resources?

Government does not stop at our borders, and our right to leave and return to our country of citizenship must not be taken away from us.

On the other hand, we have an obligation, as individuals, to not harm those with whom we share this world.

This is not being a ‘leftie’, a Greenie or some other derogatory epithet.

We as a country have enormous benefits which we need to share with others who lack our resources or expertise.

I am 85, retired, with a taxable income of $40,000 plus small contributions from my superannuation and the Age Pension.

I am no longer interested in travel, I donate to many organisations which share my views on social responsibilities and caring for others and I am so sad that we are having to endure poor government by people who really seem to have no worthwhile value systems.

I so hope that we choose better at the next election!

According to Wikipedia, Scott Morrison is descended from convict stock.

Now claiming to be a follower of the Hillsong cult, a close examination of his actions and beliefs makes it hard to see how he can even claim to be a Christian.

While, at this point, many might seek to explain the problems associated with Hillsong, which lead me to call it a cult, I want to stay with the reasons Australia will come to see Morrison as its worst ever Prime Minister.

A quick examination of the last budget, which his government has just delivered, makes it clear that the greatest beneficiaries are the already quite nicely settled, to the very well off, while those who are really struggling, are made to jump through the hoops, and go without.

OK – the Coalition is not Labor. But do they have to be downright cruel to people who have no hope of finding work through no fault of their own???

The history of Morrison’s accession to Parliament has already been well documented and includes reference to his strong tendency to get others to do the work.

One of the issues which Coalition parties seem to have problems with is regulation, and the current evidence of this is our present failure to have as many people vaccinated as would be necessary for us to begin considering overseas travel.

Morrison is inconsistent in ways that leave it easy to conclude that he does not properly test a policy before adapting it.

Corporations have been engaged to organise the vaccination plans, but who is over-sighting their progress – which, to date, has been very laggardly?

The inconsistencies associated with who can/cannot travel overseas are beyond puzzling!

For Australian citizens, stranded in India, and desperately trying not to succumb to the COVID-19 infection, being unable to come home, where the medical services are available and reliable, is a total slap in the face. Particularly when Australian cricketers are encountering few of the same problems.

And when it comes to decision making, the Coalition Cabinet has been kept behind closed doors, and decisions made, and the thinking which led to them, have been shrouded in secrecy, with no answers to legitimate questions having been allowed.

WHY???

And when it comes to secrecy – there must be few open-minded Australians who do not already know of the discredited actions by the Coalition government in Timor Leste – and the underhand way in which Bernard Collaery and his client, Witness K, have been treated.

In fact whistleblowers currently risk spending the rest of their time in prison, to judge from the treatment of Richard Boyle, whose trial has not yet been set aside.

Now – who is presiding over all this unsavoury mess?

A man who regularly changes his mind and his policies – or sticks blindly to them because he fears being criticised.

He is a very obstinate bully, who has his own personal photographer who regularly provides a source of pictures of Our Great Leader as a doctor, a dentist, a candlestick maker – in other words – a Hack of all trades – so sorry! – a Jack of all trades and fully skilled in none – except deception!

When Trump was still in power, Morrison saw himself in the other man – and is, indeed, alarmingly like Trump in many, mostly unpleasant, ways.

They are both blustering bullies, who act unreasonably, fail to provide answers to legitimate questions, favour their supporters while ignoring or vilifying those who question them, and generally refuse to listen to advice with which they disagree – not a wise move when it comes from experts!

Above all – I do not know what Morrison’s plans are for his retirement, but I am pretty sure that they are intended to provide him with continuing comfort in a land which will become degraded beyond recognition by the global warming which he refuses to accept as needing really urgent attention.

Perhaps – if his daughters have children he just might begin to question what he might have done better.

By then, it will almost certainly be too late.