Honour among thieves
Perhaps the extent to which members of the Coalition generally back each other up, establishes that there is truth in the proverb of ‘honour among thieves’, which dates back at least as far as Cicero.
Certainly, when it comes to the policies pursued by the current Coalition government and its treatment of the electorate, honour directed towards those who elected them is a non-existent component of their behaviour. To address our MPs as “Honourable Member” has become an oxymoron!
Unfortunately, few of our politicians in recent years have behaved with sufficient integrity to be in a position to criticise others really effectively. It is left to the people, for whose benefit the government is supposedly elected, to voice publicly their concerns at government corruption.
Scott Morrison took the Coalition to an election where he pranced around the country, in a one-man-band fashion, spreading a litany of lies about Labor’s election platform, while having over-sighted a significant vote-buying exercise which was probably in many regards illegal.
I wish everybody would take the trouble to look up this man’s career path. It is unsavoury, and highlights the level of incompetence and/or self-interest which has meant that he seems to have resigned early from every contract position he signed up to, before the proverbial hit the fan.
This run-down has been in the public arena for long enough without legal challenges, to substantiate it as accurate. Older sources, which flesh out the defamation of Michael Towke, cast even more doubt on Morrison’s integrity and moral compass.
Now, this power-hungry menace is approaching expert advice in a cherry-picking manner. He leads the world in declaring a pandemic in relation to COVID-19, while denying credence to the science which underpins efforts in most developed countries to take effective action on climate change.
On his watch, the management of the Murray Darling Basin has morphed from incompetence into corruption, leaving many rural communities desperate for water – while foreign companies fill their tankers with pure spring water to ship overseas – for profit!
The conflicts of interest for many Ministers are seldom as public as has been the relatively minor one of the former Sports Minister, and that was only used as an excuse to try to get the Sports funding rort off the agenda. Unfortunately for the Coalition, that effort has not been successful as the Senate inquiry continues.
Sadly, those responsible for the Australian Constitution saw their role as defining the Commonwealth Government’s role in the federation of existing states. They had the foresight to allow for the possibility of other states being formed, but – pre-WWI and the subsequent exponential growth of technology – they lacked the vision to foresee the way in which corruption might require attention.
Increasingly, elected governments seem to have put their needs ahead of ours!
Although they have recently modified it, they developed for themselves a superannuation scheme we could only dream about.
They ignore the fact that many of them will be able to find lucrative employment when they retire from Parliament, and the benefits heaped on the ones most likely to be well-rewarded, anyway – out of the pockets of many who can ill-afford it – are obscene.
Now corruption appears to be endemic – and looking at our current PM’s background – are we surprised?
And – yes – the Labor Party is far from lily-white, but the argument that someone else has committed a crime so that absolves me from repeating their efforts just does not wash!
At this time in the world’s history, we desperately need intelligent, honest, well thought out policies.
Are we likely to get them from a government which tore strips off Labor for the debt they accumulated – then went on to increase that debt to massive proportions?
Of course, the bush fires and the hit to trade from the COVID-19 epidemic/pandemic will ensure the promised surplus cannot be achieved. But even if it were, has anyone heard the government report how much annual interest they are paying on the national debt?
And our continuing concentration on financial issues is clouding our judgements on policy when it comes to global warming.
Apart from our blinkered Prime Minister, there is growing acceptance that anthropogenic climate change is a reality, that we have a limited time frame during which we can implement policies which will be effective in reducing the extent to which temperatures will increase, and that every day we fail to commence that action, the greater the likelihood of failing to achieve optimal outcomes.
And we have no Constitutional means of removing an incompetent government.
Can we afford to wait till the next election is due?
Support for people power is growing.
Once more – this is my 2020 New Year Resolution:
“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government.”
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13 comments
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Who would have believed that this nation could decline so fast and far politically? Vicious, vulgar, vomitous vermin infest the conservative forces here, drenched in the fantasy, fraud and filth of superstition, fellatio friendly with corporate crooks and cadaverous crims, ruined mentally with advertising lies and exaggerations, it’s hopeless expecting any decency and honesty from them. Filth.
Didn’t the Liberals set a precedent in 1975 by blocking supply? I’ve forgotten why that won’t work any more; was it that a subsequent Labor government passed a law that shut the door on that possibility or was it that Labor, still moaning about how unfair it was, promised, hand on heart, that they would never do such a low, “unconstitutional” act? I’m pretty sure it was the latter because I can remember thinking, “You bloody idiots”.
Whilst this lying, happy clapper, flat earth, would be PM is holding the reins we will NEVER get any decent policies through Parliament, any decent treatment for those hapless bastards in our detention centers, any lessening of the huge debt this f-cking COALition has now saddles Australia with–& they are “better money managers”, bullshit!–any proper & needed change to what they call their “climate change policies” (WTF??) & so this list just goes on! They just continue to blame Labor for al & every “thing” they can, with no consideration about how this bloody rabble has been trying to “manage” our economy etc, especially when it has been many years since Labor held the reins! Great article Rosemary!
Here’s another nasty story – accomplice of Angus Taylor orders employee to poison over 400 protected wedge tailed eagles but escapes prosecution.
https://dingo.news/voice/2019/11/14/john-auer-former-jam-land-director-masterminded-over-400-eagle-deaths/
I’m so angry I’d better not say any more !
“On his watch, the management of the Murray Darling Basin has morphed from incompetence into corruption, leaving many rural communities desperate for water – while foreign companies fill their tankers with pure spring water to ship overseas – for profit!”
That is the obvious bit of the scandal. The present “water market” has foreign owned multinational mining corporations buying MDB water rights at prices that Australian agricultural enterprises cannot compete with and remain financially viable.
The covert aim of this inept Smirkie Sacked from Marketing seems to be to turn Australia into a huge mining pit for the benefit of European and US corporations while Australian voters are left with a residual 100% importing economy like every other third world country in the OECD exporting raw materials to foreign ports for processing and manufacturing into goods purchased by Australian voters at multiples of the raw material price.
i feel so powerless against this canberra mob, the whole lot of them. i am forced to vote for the same corrupt candidates who are “controlled ” by their party agendas. Those agendas are cancerous to voters, great for deceptfull politics. Rorts / lies are almost a daily occurance. Promises are found to be hollow. Misappropriation of some funds has just surfaced, the defence of this is laughable. Some Independent candidates get to canberra on just a handful of votes, and quickly exhibit their lacking of community awareness, again they get succumbed into the canberra bubble and the lifestyle / perks that come with that. “representing” their electorate immediately gets diluted to a token gesture, as self interest drives them now. Politics is now a cesspit of evil, voters are treated with pure contempt. Never before have i felt genuine contempt for a PM of australia, this last few yrs, politics australia has slid to sewer levels and i despair for our future.
Re:
Actually there is a constitutional avenue to remove a government (irrespective of competency) as is evidenced by Kerr’s removal of Whitlam. As to the righteous of such action – whether an unelected official – representative of a foreign monarch – should ever repeat that outrage remains problematic. But not for me.
Re:
Probably not. But because there is no current, legislated mechanism to do otherwise and because there’s no movement in the political ranks to change that, then it looks like the next election is the only realistic option.
Yet, most seem to think we live in a democracy in which people decide. Provided such people don’t want to determine timing or issues to be voted on. Apart from that, then we have a functioning democracy.
Maybe Morrison should give up government for Lent.
‘Honour among thieves in this Coalition…’
You mean like ‘This is my Prime Minister.’ type of honour?
For a group of people who hate and loathe unions, more even than they hate ordinary people, the Coalition sticks together like the best of unions never has. And in this country, with its rancid media, they are comfortable in the belief that they won’t even ‘hang separatekly’.
I noted that yesterday’s The Drum had a Liberal spokeswoman on it, Madame Greiner, suggesting that Morrison’s brilliant response to the Coronavirus had resurrected him in the eyes of the public. She may well be right, because this ‘public’ can’t distinguish an anus from an ulna – it seems happy with anuses.
But I heard Morrison and Ardern on the radio yesterday, and only of them was a leader. The other was an anus, talking but nobody listening.
I heard, but I didn’t listen.
ADERN NOT KIDNAPPED BY AUSSIE POLITICAL ACTIVISTS
I am reliably advisers that there is no truth in the rumour that NZ Prime Minister, the Honourable Jacinda Arden MP, has been kidnapped by a group of activists known as “Australians for an Efficient Democratic Government”.
ASIO have been breaking down hotel doors across Sydney in their unsuccessful efforts to discover Ardern’ s location. NSW Police have the Highway Patrol on high alert for any suspicious people movers. The Australian Navy have been called in to patrol Sydney beaches. Duddo’s Home Security branch are dusting off their computers to track suspicious email traffic. And all this activity is happening on a weekend when every true Australian voter should be engaged in relaxing on the nearest beach with a beer in one hand and a bikini beauty in the other.
The activists claim that Adern attending Kirribilli House was just too good an opportunity to pass up to bring proper government back to Australia. Plans to substitute and export Smirkie Sacked from Marketing on the return flight to NZ are thought to be in hand so that Australia can benefit from at least a few hours of proper government practices.
@ Pagnol
I hadn’t noticed that he had actually started governing – at least, not for the benefit of this nation and its people.
We all should be getting beyond just criticising an obviously incompetent government
Probably many of us are adjusting our life style to reduce waste and pollution and minimise use of fossil fuels.
But we need to go further. We need to join every rally, challenge every politician who does not accept the need for action on climate change – indeed challenge workmates and neighbours who seem ill informed on the issue.