No time for wusses
“I like fighting Tories, that’s what I do.” Anthony Albanese 2012.
In response to the electorate’s recent vote to continue drinking from the toilet the Tories have smugly rolled out the clichés – we should respect the umpire’s decision, they have a mandate and the people have spoken. Bollocks to that!
I will invoke the words of a great man, spoken after he was overthrown by a born-to-rule conspiracy – “maintain your rage.” After more than two decades of Tory torpor Gough Whitlam was enthusiastically elected to implement a progressive agenda, the execution of which may have been flawed in some respects but which nevertheless transformed Australia into a fairer, far more civil society – one that was anathema to the Randesque ideologues in the Liberal (sic) Party and their fellow travellers. They thought of Whitlam’s government as a short-term anomaly to be righted (pun intended) at the first opportunity.
44 years later, after six years of calamitous Tory incompetence and nastiness and following their campaign of lies and misinformation, there is no way I will accept this current claque as legitimate and I will not be nice to those who do.
“She already told me that she doesn’t have to be nice, so why do I? Because my mother raised me right? That’s why wolves always win. Because the rest of us mind our manners and get devoured for our efforts.”
– Sheryl J. Anderson, Killer Cocktail
To reflect Ms Anderson’s sentiments – fuck you, Fauxmo; and the donkeys you rode in on!
Many folk complain about the lack of civility in political discourse from the pollies, the pundits and the peripheral participants. Such folk should recall Tony Abbott during his stint as Leader of the Opposition. Celebrated by the Tories as the most successful ever LotO he slid into government through his junkyard dog tactics of deceit, negativity, invective, hypocrisy and lies.
Shoutyman Morrison enthusiastically embraced that low road. With nothing else to sell our marketing man took Kill Bill on a solo tour. Civility, mannners, respect? Phffft!
In contrast Bill Shorten tried the polite and measured approach during the election campaign, resisting the temptation to remind Australians of how that pineapple suppository got where it is. And look how well that magnanimity served him – straight back to Opposition.
Politics has always been a dirty game but the Liberal Party under Abbott drafted new rules of engagement – the gutter is their chosen battleground where decorum and decency are entirely superfluous.
Negotiating with despots
It’s not possible to negotiate with nutters or appease bullies, any concession is seen by the autocrats as a weakness to be exploited. Their zero-sum mindset has one winner – and it aint you or me.
Appeasement is surrender. It didn’t work for Neville Chamberlain and it sure didn’t work for Malcolm Turnbull whose obsequience to the Chief Despot Il Douche Dutton got him a shiv in the ribs. For bullies and tyrants to rule they must exploit fear; ethics and scrutiny are to be eliminated, and if there is one stand-out personification of the creeping evil of neo-fascism it is the potato-headed autocrat Peter Spud-Dutton. An empathy-free zone with all of the charisma of genital warts Spud is the best illustration of why playing nice has no part in our political discourse circa 2019.
Herr Kipfler and the Potato wedge
Spud is the best worst example for why progressives must not be conciliatory nor impersonal. His tools of trade are hate and fear, his tactics are the dog-whistle and the wedge. He has neither the wit nor the subtlety to carry it off unnoticed yet the Opposition decided that timidity was its best option for avoiding his blatant attempts at wedging. They waved through the draconian legislation that now clearly undermines our democracy and freedoms.
Dutton, as a result, got an increase in his electoral margin and has returned to his role as poster boy for the elated right-wing nut jobs now shaping the L/NP agenda. (Once that thin veneer of post-election gloss wears off Scotty you best be careful).
A compliant media gets bitten on the arse
For six years the L/NP dodged scrutiny with its “look, it’s Labor” dissembling and obfuscation – taking their behaviour as an Opposition into Government. A complacent and compliant media went along for the ride giving a free pass to a declining economy, corporate crime, a degraded environment and social disharmony.
The ABC was cowed into submission by constant attacks, becoming a timorous shadow of the once honourable organisation that held governments to account.
And in a truly ironic case of misplaced schadenfreude a journalist from the L/NP propaganda machine Newscorpse was raided by the Australian Federal Police Farce – the Gestapo of Spud’s private legion of spooks and door-breakers. The indignation of News’ L/NP groupies provided a level of grim lampoonery.
The goon squad trading as the AFP has all of the credibility of the Keystone Cops. A bought and paid for apparatus of the Lib surveillance state they somehow managed to lose the paperwork when “investigating” Michaelia Carcrash on the AWU raids tip-off. In raiding the ABC and a News journalists they are complying with standard practice – hounding sources of information that embarrass the conservative Government, intimidating potential whistle-blowers and keeping the L/NP free from scrutiny.
Dutton, ex-copper from Queensland, is resurrecting the Bjelke-Petersen-era police state cheered on by the Party nutters who’ve slipped through the crazy filter. Bullies are cowards and this platoon of poltroons is scared of accountability. Their incompetence and failures and their lack of courage is supplemented by their conviction that they have a right to rule and no obligation to serve.
A compliant and complicit mainstream media has gotten a loud wake-up call. Will they respond or will they hit the snooze button? Will a complacent public shrug this off? I’m betting they will and I will not be polite in calling out those of that kind of my acquaintance, and in less than courteous terms. This is a government for gormless dullards, the tremulous, the authoritarians, the weak of mind and dull of eye, the indifferent and the stupid.
It’s not my government. Fuck that!
This article was originally published on The Grumpy Geezer (www.geezerspot.com).
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31 comments
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Jackie Klees
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OPPOSE THE MAJOR PARTIES
Return to home pageWhat a great article, thank you! It echoes my sentiments exactly – I still support the view that LNP voters are stupid in the extreme, particularly in Queensland. I will not forgive them.
Enjoyed this different take on the raids…… Plain speaking!
Hear, hear, well said. Totally agree with everything you have said.
When will the Australian people wake up? When it is too late.
When will the ALP stop living in fear of being wedged and start doing their job as an effective opposition. We have these new laws primarily because the ALP was too cowardly to stand up for the Australian people and the media and future whistleblowers and say that this legislation was a step too far and was not warranted.
Don’t get me wrong, I voted labor, but I want to see a proper representative opposition, not one that constantly covers it backside in the hope that sometime down the line it will be voted into government.
The ALP took good policies to the election but they forgot to hammer the government for its complete lack of governance and totally ignored the lies that were being fed to an apathetic and ignorant populace.
They refused to get down in the gutter and slam the bullies. As we all know being nice and being right are two different things in politics, it might work in real life, but not really, but it does not work in politics. Treating bullies with nice words does nothing but encourage more bullying behaviour and now we see it, not three weeks into a re-elected LNP government they are successfully shutting down all opposition by their usual tactics of fear.
When people say that both major parties are the same, they are wrong, and they are right. In many areas the labor party is indistinguishable from the LNP as they both play politics with the lives and future of the Australian people instead of doing their job.
The media is now screaming bloody blue murder but they have themselves to blame, they did not call out this legislation that put them and their sources at risk when it was waved through parliament in 2018, they did not call out the lies and obfuscations that the LNP used to gain government in the May 2019 election. They sat on their fingers twiddling with their privates while the government ran circles around them and put them in this position.
Will they now come out and do what the fourth estate is supposed to do? inform and educate, no, they will double down and protect themselves and in doing so will protect this illegitimate government even more than they have to date.
I have no sympathy for the media, but I have great sympathy for the whistleblowers of the past who have been sold out by the media by their biased and unequal reportage and their inability to do what they are tasked to do.
I have sympathy for the Australian people as those who would be future whistleblowers will not put themselves at risk and call out governmental wrong doing and so we will all sink into the pit of fascism.
Media raids coinciding with D-Day commemorations with ScumMo in attendance – no doubt celebratiing his addional propsperity with an $11,000 pay rise at the same time as the lowest paid workers see their penalty rates abolished.
Disgust, scorn, derision – you bet. NOT my government!
And I presume I am not the only pensioner to get a letter advising that my pension is being reduced.
Well said GG, en erudite and apt extemporisation of views I wholeheartedly share. I am urging people, at every oppotunity, to remind members of the government they were elected on an edifice of lies and deceit — as you have outlined. We can do to this government what the people did to Sir John Kerr— hound him to oblivion.
Despite it all, when I think of Labor breakthroughs into office, the greats were strong, arrogant and all had a mission which I don’t see in this current crop. Labor has to be 1000 times better where as the Liberals can get into office with – well – Tony Abbott and the buffoons, supported by a well oiled media machine. Dug from somewhere there has to be strength and resolve that no matter what it takes, Labor is going to crash through. They need to believe in themselves and their mission. They can’t play it safe, they need to get really creative and aim for real social change – none of this tinkering with franking credits and mortgage investments, though these sorts of things play their part – something really imaginative to pull us out of this monolithic capitalist wringer which takes our wages, conditions and potential futures and extracts them for the wealthy.
The ALP could start by sacking the ton of media advisers they have employed and by getting a little gumption. This national security number has just started. I hope the knuckle grazers continue to put the frighteners on journalists and media organisations so that they in turn, are finally able to see the LNP for what they truly are and stop doing their bidding and their arse saving promotions for them.
Great summary by the way. A good read is one where I agree with everything – and I agree with everything. I don’t see that often enough.
Free and transparent media the great Australian neoliberal lie. They own it people and you are their surfs.
Good read, well done. They say it used to take three Queensland cops to make an arrest. One who could read, one who could write and one to keep the intellectuals in check. Dutton was neither. They used to keep him in Head Office, behind a Cash whiteboard with a pretend phone. If only he had stayed there.
HERE! HERE! NOT MY GOVERNMENT!!!
I agree with Stephen Tardrew. The media will keep doing what they are paid to do by their owners. You won’t get them on side.
If the ALP continue to be polite and nice, it won’t work. They also seem to have moved to the right, without any evidence that it was really the richer people who voted against them. Indeed, the evidence seems to indicate it was the blue collar workers who voted against Labor because of lies about jobs from Adani and terrible taxes to be levied.: Death Tax, Super Tax, Car Tax, Retiree Tax – all lies, but not countered sufficiently.
Spot on Stephen and totaram. Albo worries me already – He’s already publically bagged Labor about their election loss.Instead of keeping that behind closed doors,the media does enough rubbishing of Labor,Albo doesn’t need to add to it.He’s being a pandering suck up already to the media,who still will just bag him and Labor – It’s a stupid exercise,that rightfully won’t help Labor and make him look weak.
Plus,I fear Albo wants to be loved by everyone,and will end up pleasing very little.He’s even already talked about Labor possibly dumping their good policies from the election,rather than putting more effort in to defend them,and exposing the Coalition’s LIES about them.I sadly,don’t think Albo and Labor have it in them,they MUST and BETTER prove me wrong…. LABOR MUST FIGHT THE LIES FROM BOTH THE MSM & COALITION,NOT ROLL OVER….
@ WT, I think Albo was unanimously promoted by the media exactly for the reasons you state. He might be a good bloke to catch up with down at the pub but in terms of leading a political party-forget it. What happened to Plibersek & Bowen?
Labor has no leader as yet, rather an apologist bending his will to the media agenda. Instead of trusting media to inform the public, what if Labor were to use a single Twitter account (linked to a page of well-thought policy rebuttal to each LNP announcement) to push its case, point by point? At least that way Labor can short circuit the universe of nonsense analysis offered by ‘news outlets’. Problem is Labor would need to be honest and expose the real agenda of govt.
Well now, let’s think about this.
First I will continue to support Labor but I will also support the AWP.
And I will not be holding back in showing my disgust at anything Labor says which I see as crap.
Albo is one Labor Parliamentarian that I thought would be good for Labor as leader.
It is early days but actually, Albo has not got off to a good start.
Proctocracy.
Government by Arseholes
Should anyone doubt that the AFP are the L/NP’s gofers:
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/breathtaking-development-afp-drops-investigation-into-who-leaked-classified-medevac-advice-20190607-p51vir.html
GG,
From your link…
“Due to the limited prospects of identifying a suspect, it was not accepted for investigation. The AFP considers this matter finalised.”
Same excuse as they used to not prosecute anyone over the AWU raid.
“Commonwealth prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against anyone implicated in leaks to the media about raids on the Australian Workers Union (AWU).
Lawyers for the Australian Federal Police (AFP) told the Federal Court on Monday there was little chance of a successful prosecution.
“The AFP can confirm the CDPP has advised they will not be proceeding with a prosecution as there are no reasonable prospects of conviction,” a spokesperson for the AFP told the ABC.
“The AFP considers this investigation finalised.”
In that case, the guy had confessed to tipping off the media but the police can’t work out who did something wrong….apparently.
This smacks of a distraction more than anything else.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/breathtaking-development-afp-drops-investigation-into-who-leaked-classified-medevac-advice-20190607-p51vir.html
I don’t think the government expected to get the response they did for their pick to head the ABC. Ita Buttrose. Ita sounded like a clone of ‘ Che Guvara ‘ She may be turning left? Chance would be a fine thing.
Sadly Albo was the choice in 2013 but risky now.
Although, I thought he had a fair smack at dutton on sunrise??? But it should have been keneally hopefully she will clean up the thick thug. Albo should stick to scummo.
good one phil the boys may have made an error with ita????
Yvonne:
great image labor in politics is the equivalent of the woman in society. To get any recognition or equality she has to be a bloody sight better than the best man for the job.
Exactly how we feel. We are now in take no prisoners mode. If we lose “friends” over it – tough!
A lot of people voted NOT to have their penalty rates restored or protected, just as some voted against their own best interests in many other areas.
In three years those lost penalty rates will become “normal” and it would be risky to try and resurrect them as an electoral issue.
Likewise the option of casual workers migrating into full-time jobs didn’t matter to enough voters.
While more coal mining may create some extra jobs in the Galilee Basin, flooding a flat coal market with more coal will drive down the price and likely cause existing coal jobs in established areas to be cut.
How long before the promised surplus evaporates in a declining economy and who will get the blame?
It’s time to kiss all those policies and opportunities goodbye and move on. It’s a lesson for the ages.
As for Albo’s performance to date, Government hasn’t even begun yet so let’s wait for some serious debating before rushing to judgement.
Exactly. This is essentially a war, and wars – though we should be careful waging them – need tp be fought violently – without actual violence, in this case.
Great article and well overdue.So when do we start to kickarse. Labor has tried the conventional way of playing politics as usual and being gentlemen and nice ladies but with the complete and utter dominance of the MSM who are just mouthpieces and horn blowers for the conservatives, we need a whole new approach to being ‘nice guys’. For starters every time the government makes a claim, the opposition should take them to task loudly and with prejudice. Murdoch and the rest of the bastards in the media can scream and rant all they want, Labor needs to do their homework and come forearmed with facts and figures, which many posters here already do. A colleague of mine said he didn’t like Abbott but he understood when Abbott said that he was there to oppose. It might be self destructive at times but its the only thing these dickheads understand. Lets start now and keep the momentum going.
The ALP’s good policies go in the cupboard – until after an election win. The ALP resurrect their street smarts and hone the LNP’s weapons as a platform for their own strategies – and use them with maximum mongrel. The ALP shelve the moral high ground in the cupboard with their policies – for later. The ALP ARE in the know about what Liberal is doing what to who, with who, and when, and why – out them to every press scrum trying to change the subject. The ALP only make statements to the press, short, pointed ones – ignore questions, and send them packing with homework topics instead. The ALP choose a maximum of 3 campaign topics that hit LNP nerves and repeat, repeat, repeat. The ALP to maximise slogans. The ALP learn to snarl.
It’s not THEIR reputations I give shit about – it’s the entire country’s wellbeing that’s at stake. THAT’S the ALP I want to vote for.
Hi GG, whooaaaa don’t hold back. I’m with you all the way and then some. But the supposed “left” across the country but especially in the ALP, driven by their focus groups and idealogically-focused small-target strategy, have never been a match for the Right.
You nailed it….you can’t negotiate with Fascists. Let me repeat that….you can’t negotiate with Fascists! And the woodenspoon in the ALP goes to its leading proponent, sir Kim Beazley, the born-to-rule mandarin whose greatest career goal was to be ambassador to the USA. He was the big lever man of the ALP who ducked for cover whenever there was incoming fire from the Right. The Lying Rodent out-manouvred him at every opportunity. He played him like Nero and his lyre.
No amount of appeasement has satisfied the insatiable avarice of the Conservatives/Right. Instead of developing compelling and principled arguments over sequential election cycles, or at the very least, going for the jugular as an opposition party is supposed to do in our combative two-party Westminster system, the ALP chose bipartisanship and rolling over, especially on matters of national security. Oh yeah, sure, some minor amendments every now and then and, whenever possible, shooting down any sensible curtailments from the minor parties or independents. Bipartisanship is the Labor way!!! Well, that’s worked out a treat. One can only surmise that the ALP is actually in ideological agreement with the draconian control of the Australian population….pause to consider Nicola Roxon’s rule as Attorney-General and the internet laws!
And post May election 2019, Albo’s answer for the ALP is to lurch to the right! WTF….An alternative might have been to eat humble pie. Put aside the ALP tribalism and hubris. Forget about the two-party system and ruling as a majority government. The days of the duopoly are over. Look at similar democracies across the world. Northern European countries, Canada, Germany, Italy etc have coalitions. Sure, it makes governing more difficult because you have to negotiate!!!….oh wait, you have to govern on behalf of a broader swathe of people….for an illustration and insights go watch the excellent Danish drama, Borgen, on SBS On Demand…
There is a silver bullet cum elephant in the room option that would address some, if not most, of the issues the article raises. That is, a formal coalition of the ALP, Greens and progress minor parties /independents. The modern ALP is essentially a Centre-Right party. The Greens have become a Left-Centre party. Together they would represent a Left-Right spectrum with a predominantly Centre focus. Such a coalition would represent the broad swathe of middle and progressive Australia. It would enhance, if not outright guarantee, the ability to secure executive government, instead of being quasi-permanently in opposition. The Green’s Di Natale has countenanced such a proposal. Labor and, specifically, Albanese has periodically summarily dismissed the idea and scorned The Greens. Perhaps, in the post-election reflections, it’s time for a modern, inclusive Labor Party to tear down its tribalism and internal warring machinary to embrace a more inclusive and collegiate model of power-sharing that is not only more sustainable in the future but also for the challenges of the future, principle amongst which is the climate emergency. I hope that Albanese can shed his factional warrior persona and step forward as the Centrist statesman who creates a new narrative that speaks to the hearts and minds of the Australian people.
After all, take a leaf out of the LNP playbook.
‘….….for an illustration and insights go watch the excellent Danish drama, Borgen, on SBS On Demand…’
Indeed Claudio Pompili, an excellent show , why is it that only two parties matter in Oz? Both Labor and the Libs are rejecting even the Greens…
Young Greta from Sweden started talking about the CC, some youngsters here joined in…it became the IN-thing to be interested in….
The CC change was supposed to be the main issue for the elections…what happened…?
We watch it, Helvi..an excellent series…her husband was a bit of a wuzz dropping out of her life when things got tricky….don’t know what’s wong with men these days…they don’t have what it takes to hold a relationship with a good strong woman!
You gotta have balls!!!
‘ I hope that Albanese can shed his factional warrior persona and step forward as the Centrist statesman who creates a new narrative that speaks to the hearts and minds of the Australian people.’
Two chances of that Buckley’s and F.A. Albanese is going to have to do better than wax lyrically about his childhood growing up in Camperdown with a single mother. He has made his first monuental cock up already. Setka is a bum, but Albanese is in no position to put him on trial in the media. Albo’s latest outburst has made him look like an authoritarian head kicker. For mine we don’t know everything about the relationship between Albo and Setka. It is starting to look personal.
” Setka is a bum”…..so..evidently was Mother Theresa!….and John F. Kennedy…and I bet London to a brick Nelson Mandela also!…it’s just a case of having the right media people onside…Setka is a “head-kicker”…just the sort of person you want in your corner in a tight situation…as was that other troublesome union person Norm Gallagher..Pity there aren’t a few more of the like in Labor…
‘..so..evidently was Mother Theresa!….and John F. Kennedy…a”
I see you read Hichens as well.
Setka will scare people off, the Labor movement is more than one union. Yes Labor needs strong men, men who know their history about the struggle of the working class. But, above all they must be squeaky clean. The right will have a field day with characters like Setka.
The Aust Constitution says the Parliament of Australia must be ‘chosen by the people’. At law choosing and making a decision can only be valid and genuine if the information upon which the decision and choice was made are true and not false and misleading. Policians have construed the situation that only in politics is this principle ignored. That shows they are unaccountable swill