Morrison has poisoned the LNP well, possibly for generations
Even typing those words leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Will he attempt a come-back? Will his poisonous personality rear up out of the darkness? Or will he pull the pin on his parliamentary career, and move to the U.S., where nobody will know him, and he can make lots of money preaching to the terminally lost souls of the Trumpian world?
It is hard to put into words the dread that Morrison caused in many vulnerable Australians. There was something missing, something which suggested a break in the human connection between Morrison and the rest of us.
The single worst prime minister in our history, aided and abetted by the most aimless, and spineless collection of chancers and rent-seekers ever gathered. And yet he went close to setting up a government which was almost impossible to remove.
The power of the Murdoch press pack is still very much in evidence in Australia, but the rise of the independent media, and the very powerful effect of the twitter sphere, undermined what looked like a forever government.
Anthony Albanese’s day 1 failure to name the unemployment figure also gave rise to fears that Labor’s run would be sabotaged. The performance of the ABC and its political commentators was woeful, probably fuelled by the constant threats of funding cuts, and the intimidation by the Morrison ministry.
But failures in disaster management, naked vote-buying which favoured, as always, LNP electorates; the performance of electoral liabilities like Matt Canavan and George Christensen was a reminder of how low our democracy had fallen.
On any measure now the opposition will continue to be made up of the remnants of the shattered Liberal Party, and also by those in the National Party who escaped annihilation by the skin of their teeth, but are too stupid to know that their time must be nearly up.
Image from 2gb.com
Peter Dutton is so spectacularly unsuitable as a leader of anything, that it immediately forces one to cast around for something, anyone, to present an alternative government. Of course looking at Dutton’s performance since rising to the leadership could fill one with despair.
Instead of looking contrite and accepting the crushing verdict of the voters, his first words as opposition leader were to suggest that he would be ‘on hand’ to clean up Labor’s “inevitable mess” in 2025.
No sense of looking for redemption. No shame regarding his own failures, from his first days as a minister. No embarrassment regarding Australia’s fall from grace within the international community. No regrets about the fate of refugees, stranded and victimised by a series of contracted bullies, as Morrison allowed his cabinet to participate in some group cruelty.
Appointing Angus Taylor as the Treasury shadow serves to highlight the lack of able members to choose from. He has a proven difficulty with numbers, a la Clover Moore. He struggled to even pretend that he was committed to reducing carbon emissions.
He is vulnerable on questions of integrity. He has shown a chronic inability to meet deadlines when releasing data and commissioned reports. This all means that possibly the most important role in opposition is being filled by someone who will struggle, especially against such a polished performer as Jim Chalmers.
There was never any acknowledgement that the election was fought on climate action, fixing corruption and a demand for accountable and humane government. Every action the LNP took, from the botched pre-selections in New South Wales, to the last minute weaponisation of prejudice against trans-gender kids, to the excesses and cruelty of Robodebt, added up to a tone-deaf government which people did not just want gone, but one that many actually feared.
The only possible excuse for the conscious bastardry shown by the LNP through nine long years is that they were all struck with a group hysteria, in which they lost their minds, and their moral compasses, in the naked arrogance of never-ending power.
That is why so many in the community, with little or no interest in politics, finally woke up to the nasty excesses, the blame shifting and the outright theft, and mis-use of taxpayers’ funds.
How can we be expected to accept members of parliament with the obvious character flaws of some of the casualties of ‘the reckoning’? For such it was.
We woke up that the leader was from a religious cult, who only this year admitted, through a ‘sermon’ he gave at Margaret Court’s very own church, that he doesn’t believe in government, and thus does not believe in democracy.
As seems the case with the whole of the Pentecostal movement, it is their inability to understand the message of the New Testament which confuses us most.
Was Christ’s movement elitist, obsessed with money and material success, and a ‘closed door’ society? Could you be guaranteed a place in heaven, as long as you were baptised twice? The question must be asked: Do any of them actually read, and understand, the written word?
His beliefs are central to who he is, and they are incomprehensible. They have no connection to the Christianity most of us recognise, whether we believe or not.
The Prosperity Gospel is similarly impossible to reconcile with the ideas of Christ, who was apparently at pains to protect the meek from the powerful, and who espoused the virtue of spiritual grace above material wealth.
Morrison’s depiction of welfare as wrong-headed and immoral is further proof that he was always unsuitable for any position in government. He was, at the end of the day, unable to leave his self-affirming beliefs behind.
Even the Romans knew that at the least the people must be fed. Otherwise they will rise up, and the state will be consumed by revolution and turmoil. Morrison’s appearance at the Robodebt Royal Commission paid lip service to the notion of welfare, but he then had to be the ‘cop on the welfare beat’.
His playbook was spectacularly unsuited to Australian conditions. We are not a nation of religious bigots. We are not a nation of patriarchal misogynists. We are a nation which has always honoured the principles of fairness and justice before the law.
We have always believed that our representatives must act in a manner befitting their high status, and the rewards which accrue to politicians.
Morrison and his ‘vandals’ trashed the conventions, laying bare the lack of regulation and accountability, which had never been so nakedly exposed as it was by the behaviour of the LNP government.
If you are confronted by visions of Barnaby Joyce, apparently the worse for wear railing about whatever the issue of the day was, then Australia’s voters decided to disempower this collection of misfits, and to give the other team a go.
Anthony Albanese is not much of a speaker, and he can stumble on a simple answer, but he appears to be decent, caring, and competent. These qualities are in short supply, and especially on the opposition front bench.
Simon Birmingham is what I would call an old fashioned Liberal. He appears to be decent, caring, and competent. I expect that in the not too distant future, the LNP rump, following a couple more disastrous polls on Dutton and Ley, will decide the neo-liberal far right experiment has failed, and will attempt to reset the coalition.
Sadly the coalition parties have been stripped of talent, and so we could see a Labor government for years to come. That poses a series of future problems. A good government needs a good opposition. Morrison has pretty much made that impossible.
This article has been updated, to better reflect the writer’s current opinion.
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19 comments
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Cool Pete -
Sully of Tuross -
Hotspringer -
Phil Pryor -
Paul Smith -
Patricia -
Canguro -
Fred -
GL -
Clakka -
Pete Petrass -
Fred -
ajogrady -
Andy56 -
New England Cocky -
Michael Taylor -
andy56 -
Florence nee Fedup -
leefe
Return to home pageSimon Birmingham, and to a lesser extent, Bridget Archer, are two of the only half-decent Liberals. Potty Boy Dutton might have thought that he gave a great speech in Parliament, yesterday, and while his tribute to the police officers was good, that was the only good thing he did. The only good things Potty Boy Dutton has done in his career have been intervene to allow Tyrone Sevilla and his mother, Maria, to stay and intervene to stop the deportation of a Bangladeshi born doctor with an autistic daughter and while he voted No to Marriage Equality personally, he voted Yes in Parliament because his electorate did, unlike Tone The Botty.
Anthony Albanese may not be a great speaker, but he’s a million times the speaker Tone the Botty will ever be!
“Sadly the coalition parties have been stripped of talent, and so we could see a Labor government for years to come”
I am not saddened by the prospect of aLabor Government for years to come, in fact long may they retain Government.
As for the coalition parties being stripped of talent, again, I beg to differ, how can something that did nor happen be sad?
The Coalition had no talent to be stripped away, all were talking point only chancers looking after themselves and the interests of the elite generational wealthy few and Big Business.
Scummo poisoned the LNP well? Hail Scummo, blessed be his name, hallelujah!
There is no actual liberal party, just a dogshit “Liberal” party of conservative egofixated, selfish, careerist, mememe turds and tossers, tealeafs and troublemakers and TRASH. Coupled like postcoital dogs seeking egress, they are political perverts, raving rubbish, bent over touchy toes thinkofthemoney fronts for dirty devious corporate cash-in crooks and crapskulls, mostly FOREIGN. Ani…Meanwhile, Peter Duckafutton-Fukadutton has called a lady in high office “Mr. Speaker” constantly. Does this show his fixations on males, or authority figures, or Morrison from the rear, or WHAT?? What a glabrous ghastly goose…
It’s a good thing that articles like this have the facts and the tone of the era documented, because without it, when Moorhouse or Armstrong make the film, audiences in other parts of the world would say, they’ve just made all this stuff up. Good story – well, terrible bloody story, actually, but a ripping god damned yarn that couldn’t possibly be true.
“HotspringerDecember 16, 2022 at 7:13 pm
Scummo poisoned the LNP well? Hail Scummo, blessed be his name, hallelujah!”
Actually Howard poisoned the LNP well, Morrison just finished off the job with a higher concentration of poison of a variety that most Australians cannot countenance, religious bigotry, misogyny and an aversion to the truth, but he could not have done it without the work that Howard did in 11 years in government.
Phil Pryor, always a pleasure to read your unique assessment of this rabble of miscreant dimwitted egomaniacal misfits, one or two exceptions notwithstanding, now deservedly consigned to the Opposition benches. Long may they languor, and, god-willing, though I’m not optimistic, perhaps at some point yet to be arrived at, perhaps reflect on why their penchant for utter self-serving bastardry has brought them to this present state of disrepute and mockery for their lowly vulgar base capacity to prosecute what ought to be the highest of public offices this country offers.
S of T: While I largely agree with your viewpoint, “long may they retain Government” is not desirable. They are politicians and history shows that no matter their position on the political spectrum, problems arise once a party has been in power for more than 2 terms – they become too comfortable, open to corruption, full of self importance, etc. Pollies, like diapers, should be changed frequently, particularly when full of excrement.
What a whiny bloody old has-been!
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ruddock-challenges-labor-to-change-the-date-after-australia-day-ceremony-shift-20221216-p5c6wx.html
Nah Fred.
Can’t agree, although such cynicism has reasonable foundations. I’m with S of T.
Becoming “too comfortable, open to corruption, full of self importance” takes a special type of hound, the odour of which we all have become well attuned to over the terms of the last gubmint. The foreign carpetbaggers and fat cats, and RWNJs have blown their own cover, and with the MudRock’s leverage being cashed-out and the NACC instituted we can probably rely on the voter’s antennae for a generation.
Besides which, we know there’s no going back, and to face the headwinds, we’ll need determined hard work and consistency to give effect to the massive changes needed to transition to the new world.
It’s a race requiring steady as she goes, and restraint at the Toucan Club.
And one other thing needs to be done to the Coalition before ridding themselves of the political sludge (Dutton, Ley, Joyce, Taylor, etc)…………….they also need to rid themselves of the massive infestation of pentecostals.
Clakka: At least Labor is listening and doing something. NSW ICAC has investigated a significant number of people from both major parties and I expect this to be repeated by the NACC once it gets going, although the starting list will be dominated by LNP candidates.
As an aside, I wonder how long is the list of positive outcomes the LNP achieved during the previous 9 years of their rule and I’m not happy about Labor approving any new fossil fuel extraction applications.
Once you strip away the blatant ingrained insidious and systemic corruption, the obvious and absolutely consistent poor judgement, the culpable and dangerous incompetence, the continual deception and the constant distortion, the endless creations of laws and opportunities to suppress and stifle contrary debate, the flagrant sneaky and self serving promotion of religious faith at the expense of political integrity, the erroneous attempts to hamper voting, the anger and disgust generated by cutting and running leaving our Afghani comrades in arms to their fate, the crippling of living standards, the devious and unfettered betrayal of Australias sovereignty to the US, the culpable treachery in the ruination of good international trade and international relations, the trashing of Australias good international reputation, the shambolic and totally inept governance standards, the deceitful marketing spin and hypocritical sloganeering plus being a constant and continuous impediment to Australia and Australians reaching their true potential what does the L/ NP actually stand for? What is left? What is left is a snide, sneering, sniping, selfish, smug and contemptuous ideology that nurtures, coddles and promotes corrupt to the core thugs, swindlers, chiselers, fraudsters, shysters, cheats and con artists, solicitors of anonymous brown paper bag donations, pathetic debauched degenerates and perverted misogynistic misfits, pseudo Christian cult wack jobs, fanatical religious lunatics, QAnon advocates, cowardly saber rattling war mongering hawks, sadistic and selfish economic vandals, problamatic climate skeptic fundamentalists, environmental saboteurs and desecrators, first nations people apathetic Judases, handicappers to the handicapped, oppressors of the needy and the disadvantaged, enablers of the obscenely wealthy parasitic profiteers, drunken lecherous fornicators and provocateurs plus egotistical born to rule privilaged narcissistic sociopaths and psychopaths that are devoid of standards, principles, values, morals, ethics, honesty, and basic empathy always rorting, stealing, fiddling, fudging, obfuscating and basically out and out blatant lying while being protected by a maliciously biased, pathetic sycophantic and delusional media.
Influenced by professional predatory lobbyists whores and directed by crooked callous conservative think tanks whose shadowy underbelly of criminality makes Ned Kelly look like a gentleman. The L/NP not only do not represent most Australians but do not respect them.
Members of the L/NP are selfish corrupt cowardly sooks of, at best, average talent. They are defined by their privilage and family connections that explains their mediocrity. Merit and ability is always a secondary consideration when deceit and deception is considered meritorious and rat cunning and a Machiavellian character is considered ability.
The L/NP have managed to create a massive trust deficit not only domestically but internationally that has left Australias once good reputation in tatters and Australia is now bordering on pariah state status. “Private and confidential” is a misnomer to the L/NP. Diplomacy, critical thinking and cause and effect are foreign concepts to the L/NP. These failings will have or result in dire consequences and outcomes for Australia and Australians. In particular the L/NP believe that success is the ability to go from one total failure to another total failure with no loss of enthusiasm or any sign of a guilty conscience or any shame.The L/NP not only rewards lethargic sneaks, cheats and sly back stabbers but consider mediocrity as their gold standard.
The L/NP are an insult to equitable governance standards and egalitarian rule. The L/NP are not fit to hold any form of public office in a functioning, vibrant nation that is a cohesive humane society. Australia was built on the egalitarian theme of “a fair go” for all where “the greater good” is paramount to its fundamental beliefs. These values created strong and proud foundations that builds better futures for the many not just the few. These strong ethical values are an anomaly and an aberration to the L/NP. Somebody once said that Fascism comes wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
Enough is enough.
Australians dont need “can do” capitalism they need a “can do” government.
Nine years of the insanity, turmoil and malfeasance that masqueraded as governance by the L/NP has seen Australia become barely recognisable as the once great egalitarian nation it once was.
Australians have got to stop voting against there own best interests or they will forever be remembered as the people from the land of boiling frogs.
Lest we forget.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7141990/john-howards-legacy-lives-on-and-we-are-worse-for-it/
There is a lot of work to be done to bring australia up to standard, from fraudbank to centrelink incompetance. The liberals talked the big talk but ultimately failed because they believed their own bullshit.
Saying free market and small government worked until the inevitable shit hits the fan. Not having policies to deal with reality sure didnt help. Playing culture heros really set the tone for disasters like robodebt and fraudband.
Ideology blinded them to reality. Poor are poor because they want to be, the internet only needs 20mb/s download speeds to watch movies. How fucked in the head were they? Judging by duttons response, they havent learnt a thing. In thailand i have 1gb/s down load speed. Who’s the 3rd world country? In kilmore, the internet is unuseable. what a disgraceful legacy malcom.
I returned to collect my pension and i must say, centrelink is the arsehole of all paper work. I have been in in person 8 times and still, here i am 8 weeks in and its stalled. All over an application for the dole in 2012 when i was going through a divorce, and i didnt get anything because i part owned a house i couldnt eat.
So the online application that takes 15 min has stretched to over 8 weeks, and i am one of the lucky ones. Imaging if your english isnt up to it !
I understand the jewish trader response, but shit, i need food now , not when i am dead.
Anyway, i digress, designed to fail in its charted to help people, but its main goal to save the government money is in full swing. Christian by character, christian you shall know him by his deeds.
The liberals should be left to rot in their ideology, even two seats is a few too many.
Yes i am angry and pissed off that my country has all these riches yet has gone backwards.
A wonderful article supported by very thoughtful comments. Thank you all.
As a quiet country boy existing among the New England Nazional$ represented by Beetrooter, the adulterous, alcoholic, amoral, misogynist, I find it intriguing that the women of Tamworth NSW are prepared to accept these 19th century male attributes in the 21st century.
NEC, it’s us quiet country boys who can get rowdy the most.
Just reading the report on why the LIbs lost, by the libs. In summary, there are no recommendations on POLICY.
All the usual political spin but no policy recommendations. Like climate change , like pensions and super reforms, like infrustructure expenditures , like female friendly policies, like a whole host of initiatives . Just the same old tired excuses like target of 50% women but no urgency. Better messaging. FUCK ME, its policies that make no sense that lost my vote. If you want to return, start working on policies that arent ideologically driven.
Losing control of their brand is not the problem. Having the wrong brand is.
“We are not a nation of patriarchal misogynists.”
Both historical and current social analysis shows we are, although not as extreme as ScoMoFo and The Mad Monk.