From the time of the oil shocks of the 70s, there’s been one consistent approach to the rhetoric of the Liberal Party: If Labor were in power when something happens, then it’s their fault but if the Liberals are in power, it’s also Labor’s fault… unless we can claim that it was obviously nothing to do with us and any suggestion from Labor is just playing politics with something that should be above politics… That’s the thing with Labor, they play politics, we don’t, we just get on with the job of finding some scapegoat and moving on in the hope that you’ll be upset that Labor dared to say anything when hindsight is easy from those people who warned us that this was likely to happen!
Anyway, I couldn’t help but notice that over the past week a couple of interesting things have happened with regard to the whole pandemic thing. First, there was the brouhaha about whether or not Kevin Rudd had any effect in the acceleration of the Pfizer rollout. While the front page of The Australian told us that millions of extra doses were here, they seemed to be using the word “here” in a way that I don’t find consistent with the dictionary definition, and it seems to me that what we have is another announcement that we’ve moved from the front of the queue to further up the queue and our improved place means that we’ll actually be getter more doses sooner than was scheduled even though they’re not really needed because, apparently, vaccines wouldn’t have prevented the Sydney lockdown or as some people call it, « the ban on browsing in shops that aren’t big Liberal donors »!
But putting aside whether Rudd was successful or not, and putting aside any suggestion that Rudd was trying to make himself seem like the country’s saviour. Put Kevin completely to one side and don’t even start with the “at least he tried” or anything. If we accept that Kevin didn’t achieve anything, what are we left with?
It seems that the current Prime Minister (Scott Morrison, in case you’ve forgotten) could make 55 phone calls trying to get Marty Corman a job, but when it comes to contacting Pfizer, “he doesn’t hold a phone, mate!”! Of course, the government can soon jump to action when there’s a genuine emergency. Look how quickly they responded when Kevin was getting a bit of thanks. How quickly they contacted Pfizer and got a spokesperson to tell everyone that Kevin had no role in contractual negotiations. Speed of light when something’s really important…
Of course, I know some of you can’t help but point out that there was never any suggestion that Kevin was involved in contracts. And some of you will be wondering how high up the spokesperson was. But leave all that and give credit where credit is due. When it comes to patting themselves on the back, the current mob of Liberals are gold standard.
All of which brings me to Joshie from the now-marginal seat of Kooyong and his performance on 7.30.
I’m going to begin by saying that the obvious way to deal with things is to establish clear guidelines before an event. If you haven’t done that because the unexpected happens then put in place rules or guidelines for what happens in the future. For example, if worker can take time off to go with their partner for their baby’s ultrasound because we have a family-friendly workplace, does that mean that another worker can take time off to get my partner pregnant? Obviously not, and unless the rules are clearly spelled out then you have all sorts of questions about what’s allowable and what’s not and if the boss’s partner is given time off to get his or her hair cut, then you’re going to have resentment, even if you do say that in the future you can all get you hair cut on company time.
Apparently, we’re all sick of Daniel Andrews’ whinging. Now, I know that not everyone stands with Dan, but I find it hard to imagine that even his worst critics would suggest that he’s spent the past year or so complaining. As far as playing politics goes, Andrews seems to have worked constructively with Scott Morrison which is nearly as amazing as seeing « Scott Morrison » and « work » in the same sentence. But no, pointing out that Victoria has had to fight for every cent while NSW is presented with heaps of extra funding is just « whinging ». Josh and his state Liberal mates have never been guilty of that. They’ve never complained because there was a lockdown then complained that the lockdown wasn’t quick enough. No, they’ve just been terribly constructive.
Josh went on to dismiss any criticism as “bots and Trots”! That’s the sort of witty rhyme that must go down a treat at Liberal functions but will annoy anyone who doesn’t think they’re a robot and doesn’t identify with the Trotskyists… And no, I don’t mean the Maoists and Stalinists!
But I guess that’s the way the right-wing works. Any criticism is just envy! Why, who hasn’t made a mistake and vaccinated 160 boys who just happened to have consent forms? The fact that it was a private school has nothing to do with it: You’re just starting class warfare. This is political correctness gone mad. Refusing to buy something because you don’t approve of the people who are behind it? Why, that’s cancel culture. Once everyone’s on an Indue card, we will decide who you purchase from and the circumstances in which you purchase!
Is it too far-fetched to suggest that in the near future, we’ll have some Liberal-friendly commentator saying that the current mess is all the fault of Labor for not winning the last election?
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