Insanity rules

Just how blind to reality are these people who currently strut the stage as elected Members of Parliament, selected to govern Australia?

Grieving relatives of those firefighters and other citizens who have died in the current devastating fires, plus all the farmers, business owners and residents whose homes, other property and businesses have gone up in flames, deserve much better than a few hundred dollars and prayers.

The world stared in dumb disbelief when Craig Kelly was interviewed on British Television, with his crude and ill-informed criticism of the incredibly well-qualified physicist, who knows more about accurate weather forecasting than Kelly will ever know about any subject under the sun.

The time delay between statements and response made it appear that the interviewers were talking over Kelly – which, to some extent they probably were, to try to interrupt the flow of uninformed nonsense he was spouting.

Most informed Australians would have cringed in utter shame at the stupidity and ignorance he portrayed.

In recent days there has been criticism of the way the Murdoch papers have been misreporting climate change issues on their front pages, and in seeking the above video, I came across this example!

Didn’t Murdoch recently state that his organisation had no climate deniers?

I feel that the Australian bush-fires have alerted many parts of the world to how dedicated we must be in taking action to tackle the Climate Emergency.

Handing out money, without rapidly and thoroughly assessing priorities in relation to recovery from the devastation, is a very poor look from a government which has always tried to brainwash us into believing that they are better managers of the economy than anyone else.

Whole industries like tourism have received an incredibly serious blow. Not only are beauty spots going to be a lot less attractive for a long time, but tourist accommodation, if it has not been destroyed, is not going to have visitors knocking on the doors in significant numbers, either!

Plus, so much agricultural land, already damaged because of water woes in the Murray Darlin Basin, has been devastated, while feed vital stocks have been devoured by flames.

We do not need a Royal Commission anything like as much as we need an ICAC, in order to investigate the extent to which Government Ministers have been derelict in their duty in consequence of political donations and lobbying from the coal and fossil fuels industries.

Back in April, when retired expert Fire Chiefs sought to warn of pending danger, because of the narrowing window of opportunity for preparation for the next fire season, our Prime Minister refused to meet with them.

What utter arrogance!

He has no grasp of his role. If a fire starts in NSW and travels across a mythical border into Victoria, who is responsible for it? And if fire crews can work across State borders, does that not indicate very clearly that the situation requires national coordination? And major assets like water-bombing planes should be available to all states at need.

The fact that such a high proportion of our firefighters are volunteers is utterly amazing, but to have a Prime Minister who says they do not require compensation payments because ‘they want to be out there’ is mind-blowingly gauche! They offer the country a level of service which Scott Morrison could never aspire to and our gratitude to them is as great as is our condemnation of his failings. I bet he claims every cent he can justify for expenses, despite his having a substantial income.

During the last election campaign, about the only Coalition member in evidence, here, there, and everywhere, was Scott Morrison, yet, when this dire crisis began, he was not only not in evidence, his office even refused to inform us where he was!

His promise to return as soon as possible, once he finally realised that he was in the wrong place, was immediately broken, because he could have been back at least 24 hours earlier.

Apart from Kelly’s woeful performance, few other Coalition members have made any appearance in public, just a few being dragged along on Morrison’s coattails while he rushes from here to there for photo ops in his usual seeking-the-limelight style!

Oh yes! The temporarily Acting Prime Minister did speak up once during the PM’s absence, but we are grateful it was only once!

Given his Ministry responsibilities, I think many are curious that Peter Dutton, a formerly eager aspirant for the post of PM, appears to have vanished into the ether. It appears the actual PM does not believe in an ‘all hands on deck’ approach, or maybe he just does not want to share the limelight.

They have had a much-shortened amount of sitting time this last 12 months and it would be good to see them all hard at work, seeking solutions through genuine debate. Sorry! Another pipe dream!

I was delighted, in a very unkind way, when the less than welcoming reception he received on visits to some devastated areas led to his rapid withdrawal to limit the unwelcome publicity which has gone viral.

As pointed out in references to his earlier career, he lacks staying power and when the going gets tough, he is off to new endeavours – only this time he is forced to take on a job he does not want and which, frankly, many of us believe he is not competent to do.

Instead of muttering about Royal Commissions, he should have already established a non-partisan Recovery Commission, stacked with all relevant experts from CSIRO, universities, business and industry and have already declared policy to cease all subsidies to fossil fuel companies and discontinue support for the development of new mines like Adani.

The other incredibly important issue needing urgent attention is water.

A Recovery Commission should already be discussing the viability of constructing desalination plants all around our shoreline, because not only are we running out of water, more importantly we are facing a future with seriously polluted water.

The massive destruction of animal and plant life has left the ground covered with soot and decaying bodies, which will necessarily pollute such water supplies which we do have.

To allow miners and frackers to operate using scarce water resources is criminal.

All of these issues need really urgent attention and one person cannot begin to cover all that is necessary.

Sorry, ScoMo – you need to share the glory and just maybe some really competent people could be allowed to pick up the threads! If you choose well, you might, eventually, deserve our thanks – but I am not holding my breath!

Once more – this is my Resolution:

“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government.”