It’s anything but normal governance from a bunch of incompetents

It must be said that this cohort of Liberal and National Party parliamentarians is the most leaderless, unethically rancid, and corrupt group the country has ever seen, and political historians will record it so.

To think that this bunch of rotten incompetents, who are arguably the most educated group ever assembled in Canberra with degrees from some of the finest institutions in the world, could be the dumbest, rottenest bunch ever, is oddly in itself, an explanation of the state of our politics.

Australian political historians will record that the period of governance of Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison has been an insult to the democracy they sought to function under.

They use expressions like “parallel universe”, and I’m assuming they mean it’s somewhere they can exist, and others cannot, a place where facts die, and truth is murdered. They call it the “Canberra bubble” where only the born to rule can gurgle their way through life.

What follows are words that in their own way seek to describe the dark corrupt years of 2013 to 2019.

In “Trumpish” fashion not a day passes without a scandal of sorts. The past weeks have been no exception. We now find that Australia is selling a weapons system to the world’s number one abuser of human rights.

Australian defense officials don’t know where or how or who will use weapons sold to Saudi Arabia. What a disgrace.

Give that a bit of thought!

Then we have the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea wanting an explanation about the Paladin Affair:

“The Papua New Guinea prime minister, Peter O’Neill, has requested a full briefing on the Paladin affair and said he would “welcome any investigation by Australian authorities”.

And the Minister denies any knowledge of the $500 million-dollar deal.

Pub test required, please.

The AFR reports that:

“Labor has written to the Auditor-General asking for an urgent review of $423 million worth of contracts to security firm, Paladin, in a closed tender.”

Not to be left out of a place as one of the many clowns in the circus Finance Minister Mathias Cormann takes his family for a holiday to Singapore.

Well yes, nothing wrong with that except that it was paid for by Liberal Party Treasurer Andrew Burnes within weeks of that company winning a $1 billion contract from Cormann’s department.

On top of that initial enquiries would suggest that most Coalition MPs enjoy the same privilege. Well, so it is alleged.

Helloworld, a listed company of which Mr Burnes is the chief executive, booked the flights for Senator Cormann, his wife and two children on the company’s “staff and family travel” account.

Michael Pascoe on twitter:

“The core truth about Paladin that should not be overlooked in all the “colourful” stuff – our Manus operation stank so much, no decent company would touch it” The New Daily

At the very least he is guilty of eating from the smorgasbord of political delights.

But wait, it doesn’t end there. Joe Hockey has a million smackaroos invested in the company. Now he couldn’t put a bit of weight behind the tender, couldn’t he?

I’m on a roll here. Remember during the 2016 election that the government was saying that 15,000 South Australians were first told the Australian content of the submarine build, the largest in the nation’s history, would be 90 per cent. Well now we find that the contract doesn’t include a minimum work guarantee for Australians.

Ethnically questionable, pub test or maybe first case for a National ICAC.

And on we roll. This from The Guardian:

“The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has approved the dumping of more than 1m tonnes of dredge spoil near the reef, using a loophole in federal laws that were supposed to protect the marine park.”

How would you be handling all of these scandals at once? Better still perhaps a Royal Commission into all things Liberal.

The government ministers Michaela Cash and Michael Keenan twice declined to be interviewed by federal police about the leaking of the dramatic 2017 raids on the Australian Workers Union’s offices.

Australian federal police officials also told a Senate estimates committee on Monday 17 February that they formed the view while investigating the leaks that evidence “may have been destroyed”.

The statements from police came as Cash’s former chief of staff Ben Davies told a court he had learned of the raids from the union regulator’s then media adviser Mark Lee while the pair made arrangements for Lee’s new job in Cash’s office.

The Australian Federal Police believed there was enough evidence to lay charges over the leak of the AWU police raid but were hamstrung by the lack of witness statements – including from government ministers.

Not to mention the $800,000 in legal costs that like confetti gets thrown around like there’s a wedding in the department everyday.

Katharine Murphy tweeted:

Cash says she provided a voluntary statement to the AFP. She says she sent them Hansard. The AFP said yesterday they got a letter from Cash, and the letter wasn’t a witness statement #estimates

And the latest polling puts them not out of reach of a winning position. Remarkable.

After almost 6 years in power the LNP has no Energy policy and is unlikely to take one to the next election. It has now had 11 positions on this matter, but the coal lovers still hold sway.

And the same goes for an Environmental policy. They have regurgitated Tony Abbott’s old policies.

”In terms of the environment I wonder what price the people of tomorrow will pay for the stupidity of today.”

They have succeeded in giving us a broadband network that by world standards is draconian. Worse even, than New Zealand’s.

It is doubted if the problem can be fixed so the value of the company will have to be written down. The Lord doesn’t even know how many billions that might cost the taxpayer.

And let’s not forget the $30 million given to Rupert Murdoch. The Minister himself cannot explain why.

Rolling along still, despite numerous enquiries the future of the Murray Darling river system remains in in doubt. Then there are even alleged accusations of stealing water against the former Deputy Prime Minister in Barnaby Joyce.

Serious charges, I should think.

Let’s talk about money

Any claim to being the better money manager has been given the flick with the revelation that two companies have been given close to $500 million each without so much as a tender taking place. The afore-mentioned Paladin being the latest.

Then of course there was that half a billion to that little company who likened their gift of half a billion dollars to winning Tattslotto. Again, no Tender Process. The board of this little Barrier Reef company were all mining executives.

“Never in the history of this nation have the rich and the privileged been so openly brazen.”

Simon Banks tweeted:

From Estimates this week, it is now clear the following people have actively misrepresented if not lied about the advice from our national security agencies: @ScottMorrisonMP @PeterDutton_MP @cporterwa @M_McCormackMP @michaeliacash When are they going to resign or be sacked?

Let me explain. Of all the scandals we are being confronted with this is the most outrageous:

“The rest of it is equally outrageous: ASIO chief Duncan Lewis pointed out in estimates last week The Australian Newspaper misrepresented the agency’s leaked advice on the medical evacuations bill, saying that “when reporting wrongly attributes advice from ASIO, or where our classified advice is leaked, it undermines all that we stand for”. Lewis said the leak did not come from ASIO. On the day of the leak, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said: “The agencies have told [Labor leader Bill Shorten] that this bill would be a disaster and it would restart the boats. Not true.”

In other words, they were lying through their rotten teeth.

“Lying in the media is wrong at any time however when they do it by deliberate omission it is even more so. Murdoch’s papers seem to do it with impunity.”

Unfortunately, I have reached my word limit and I haven’t even revealed the attempt to have the Speaker withhold information from the Parliament. The banks, or the frequent attacks on the ABC by this government. Even to the point of breaking the law in appointing Ita Buttrose as Chairperson.

I haven’t even revealed that Liberal MP Tim Wilson has been cleared of contempt by Speaker Tony Smith, but has been rebuked for his conduct.

Then of course there is the “jobs for the boys” scandal with Attorney General Christian Porter appointing one of his own ex-staffers to a plum job on the Administrative Appeals Tribunal just two months after the former adviser left his office.

This Government’s performance over its time in office has been like a daily shower of offensiveness raining down on society. Surely management or indeed, lack of it must mean something.

All of this just goes to prove how out of touch the LNP Government is when it comes to the mood and expectations of the people they serve. However, it is also most unusual to have gathered together in the one place at the one time such an astonishingly well-educated group who has not a clue on how to govern. All in all it stinks with the stench of privilege.