Monday 3 June 2019
I was watching the Governor General swearing in the new cabinet ministers and it occurred to me, given the rather frivolous nature of their demeanour, that Scott Morrison and his team have not shown the slightest hint of astonishment at being returned to power. It was as if the principal of them being “born to rule” had been put to the test and had come through with flying colours even if they had no appreciation of the fortuitous nature of their undeserved victory.
On the contrary, they have acted in a rather overly crass fashion without any admission that they had performed like mediocre buffoons for six years. Phrases like ”wake up call” might have been considered appropriate in the circumstances but like children who could not see the error of their ways, they said they needed to continue with the good works they had already started.
At the swearing-in event and on other occasions I have watched it was as if regardless of the circumstances the people had voted according to their better conscience anyway. Hubris at its worst. And on top of that to then claim a mandate on a victory of the narrowest of margins is the height of high-handedness and swagger.
Had they collectively opened their bushy eyebrows it might have occurred to them that this was an unconvincing victory and if the latest results are confirmed then after supplying a Speaker, close to the status quo will apply.
It’s problematic as to whether the public will realise that their unwillingness to accept change because of their indoctrination by the right has resulted in a great loss of benefits to ordinary folk.
Imagine if you will that you have just been appointed the CEO of a multi-national company that had for the past six years been performing badly. You have ploughed your way through the employment contracts of all the key personnel and found that they are overpaid, under-performing, and without a bloody brain among them. I’m referring of course to the current Australian government.
I started my research for this piece in the House of Representatives and because of the magnitude (much of which I have left out) of negative commentary, quickly found that a third piece would be necessary to say what I want to.
But the most dangerous aspect of this government as far as the public is concerned is the quality of Ministers the Prime Minister has appointed and of course MPs that fill the numbers. Granted, some are squeaky-clean upright MPs but others of the ilk of Craig Kelly have about as much talent for their job as a drunken captain in rough weather. Barnaby Joyce and George Christensen also show a reluctance to set an example for the community to feel good about their parliamentary representation. But they are just two of many.
Christensen spent 25 per cent of the year in the Philippines making whoopee with his girlfriend at the taxpayer’s expense.
Turning to Craig Kelly, he:
” … has been described as a climate sceptic. He was appointed chair of the backbench Environment and Energy Committee, giving advice to Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg. He has previously written that convict arrivals to Australia in the 18th century found the weather warmer than in recent years and has invited climate sceptics from the Institute of Public Affairs to present to the government prior to the Paris Agreement. Kelly has criticised renewable energy, saying that it causes higher electricity bills. He has furthermore stated that this could kill people who are afraid to turn on their heaters.”
And, he:
“… stated on his Facebook page that he would vote with his electorate in the marriage survey. In the conscience votes which sought to amend the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017, Kelly voted for all the amendments, none of which passed.”
“In February 2019, after Cardinal George Pell‘s conviction for child sexual abuse, Kelly posted a series of Facebook posts labelling the trial a “grave miscarriage of justice”, and the media a “lynch mob”.”
If at this stage you think that this is an attempt at naming and shaming then consider yourself 100 per cent correct. A sport’s coach will tell you that he or she is only as good as the players he has at his command.
Old-time political followers say that Bob Hawke’s first Cabinet was arguably the best ever. In Part 2 I’ll start taking a closer look at what could arguably be the worst.
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My thought for the day
Just because we are governed by clowns it doesn’t mean we have to laugh.
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Yes, that says it, a “Borne to Rule” belief that obviously excuses the lack of commonsense, sense of dedication to the better interests of the Australian voters and personal self-service that marks the current and previous the Lazy Nasty People misgovernment.
It could be that Labor was gamed and it was known about last August. The Blokes do look a bit like Crims. Or at best seedy night club bouncers.
From David Dunning (the Dunning/Kruger effect) . . . “He marvels as he recalls how he and grad student, Justin Kruger, decided to take a look at the people who were doing really poorly and we tested them on logic, grammar and humour. And what we discovered was that — after the tests and after they had seen the responses of other, more competent students — the people at the bottom wouldn’t revise their self-impression at all. They continued to over-estimate how well they had done.”
The theory explains how many incompetent people not only are confident that they are competent but, it also turns out, when they see real competence, their incompetence means they can’t recognise it.
I am inspired by Vikingduk’s reiteration of the D-K effect to conceive of a slightly different version of the same effect. While the actual D-K effect deals with the ability of people to rate their own competence in certain matters, we can have a similar effect where people fail to correctly rate the competence of OTHER people, because they themselves are incompetent or less competent. I propose to call this the “secondary” D-K effect.
If such an effect does exist, its logical consequences are not pretty. Simplifying greatly that there is a single quality called “competence”, by definition half the population is of less than the median competence. Since this half is unable to correctly assess the competence of candidates for election, they are likely to choose less competent people to represent them. Ergo our “democracy” has a serious problem.
I rest my case.
Right on John! How can any of us “normal thinking” people ever laugh at the calamity this election’s results have doomed us to, for the next 3 years! To think that so many politically ignorant so-called “voters” actually voted this right wing, flat earth, lying, incompetent, happy clapper mob back in is bloody disgusting. And so their brain numbing. torture will be foisted on every Australian is just too much to swallow. Having finally kicked out the bloody Rabbott, I thought that, maybe, the voters might have gained some sense & realised just how effing disastrous for ALL Australians it would be if this mob was to be re-elected, & it is! God help Australia, & I am not a religious person! As for the “quality” (sic) of this “new” mob of Cabinet Ministers, we will be a much poorer place after they get kicked out in 3 years time, & our economy (& myriad other things too} will be an absolute disaster!
I am alternately horrendously depressed or cautiously optimistic.
I feel horrible for wanting dire calamity to fall on some of the people who voted for this brunch if creeps, but maybe that’s the only way. Trouble is, the calamity will be visited equally on those who didn’t as well.
The country is in deep trouble.
God put them there.
Romans 13 Kerri?
The coalition victory is indeed unconvincing and shallow and their very demeanor betrays them. But they have one very powerful ‘ally’ Murdoch and the rest of the effing MSM and the talking heads on radio and TV and SKY, and as we have seen to our shock and disgust, that makes a very big but unfortunate difference. Add to that, the greed, stupidity and utter ignorance and indifference of many voters, and the result is there to see, three more years of intellectual and moral decline, while the rich gets richer, the poor grind their teeth in despair and the environment get buggered beyond repair. What more disasters await us.
This only applies to Coalition government- NEVER to ALP.
“It was a fundamental principle of the Gradgrind (MoScum & gang) philosophy that everything was to be paid for. Nobody was ever on any account to give anybody anything, or render anybody help without purchase. Gratitude was to be abolished, and the virtues springing from it were not to be. Every inch of the existence of mankind, from birth to death, was to be a bargain across a counter. And if we didn’t get to Heaven that way, it was not a politico-economical place, and we had no business there.”
― Charles Dickens, Hard Times
Smith…. I’d forgotten the power and the elegance with which Dickens observed and commented on contemporary life which is still applicable today. It certainly fits the selfish crass mentality of Scummo and his mob.
We live in the Age of Superficiality. Seemingly, a majority of the populace don’t want detail, can’t be bothered thinking too hard and are persuaded by repeated cliché and slogan. We’re very much short-term, what’s-in-it-for-us in making decisions at election time and when the small matter of the inhabitability of our continent/the planet finally hits the wall there’ll be much complaint that somebody should have done something.
This country was once quite progressive and, to a greater extent than now, reasonably altruistic. Those times are gone, sadly, and it’s all looking like a pretty grim prospect. Still, ‘Miracles’ Morrison will, no doubt, pray for us all and do f*ck all else.
At last, lord, a true statement:
“they said they needed to continue with the good works they had already started.”
That is exactly what the electorate gave gave them.Mo mandate for new policies but a clear a mandate for more of the same.
We, on this site, might think there has been effall good works over the last 6 years but their candidates got over 50% in 77 seats. Plus more than labor in several others.
It hurts but we have to suck it up and learn that our opinion means nothing when aired on the ABC or sites like this.
Albo and we must get to our idiot friends who voted for him we must LISTEN to them and if anyone here hasn’t friends who votes for scummo, phon or anning then the need to get some do that see reality.
It appears that the comments above are comments of despair, I understand, the fickle finger of fate (ignorance coupled with ignorance coupled with ignorance) won out in the end.
Did I leave out IGNORANCE.
So what can you and I do – bare in mind the Christopher remarked that elections are won on economics (aka, greed, greed and more greed) – I think he is right, governments are responsible for governing for all citizens actually (or at least are supposed to) and that means managing the economy, because the vast majority of decisions that governments make involve who does or doesn’t get money.
Parliament constantly pass laws that effect the economy.
So what can ‘you’ as an idividual do, you can learn from where your money comes from, and when you learn the truth, you can spread the word so that, at the next election the electorate will make decisions about their vote based on that new information.
NO I am not going to tell you I am going to ask you to do your own research.
Suffice to say that it is the ignorance of “wheremneycomesfrom” that makes the populous to vote against their own interests.
I read today that about 11% of voters only decided on the day which party was going to get their vote and the majority unfortunately chose the Coalition.
Well if in truth ‘we get the government we deserve’.
What indeed have I done so wrong?
Just how low will this country have to go before the general populace actually wakes up?