As I listened to Sue Boyce on the Drum telling us, in an exasperated “why can’t you understand” sort of tone, that we can’t have a price on carbon because it isn’t politically expedient, it really hit home to me that my family’s future is now in the hands of Cory Bernardi and George Christensen.
When faced with a majority of one and threats to cross the floor or form a new party, the beast Malcolm was grooming is now chewing off his leg.
This is entirely Turnbull’s own fault.
Malcolm obviously realised that, by knifing Tony Abbott, he had done the unthinkable and could not afford to further offend anybody so he spent his time appeasing the aggrieved dinosaurs, promising them that he too was really a dinosaur.
People who have previously been viewed by their own Coalition colleagues as fringe nutters now dictate crucial policy based on nothing more than their own chances of re-election. They falsely scared the electorate into thinking the carbon price would lead to disaster and now they are paying the price for their disinformation.
Barnaby has taken to calling it the Turnbull-Joyce government and is flexing his muscles despite the fact that his party represents a very small constituency. As if he would walk away from a coalition that gives him a totally disproportionate number of seats and a job he could never earn on merit.
Joyce, Bernardi and Christensen are people who colleagues from their own parties have described in the most derisory terms.
Mr Joyce has been accused by those within the Nationals of being a “grandstander”, of needing complex information in a small number of dot points and not putting in enough hard work. Others love him as a “retail politician” — able to cut through with one-liners. No-one has ever called him intelligent.
“Cory is deluded,” says a Liberal Party colleague. “He is one of the least effective or important members of the parliamentary team. Cory is a person without any intellect, without any base, and he should really never have risen above the position of branch president. His right-wing macho-man act is just his way of looking as though he stands for something.”
Liberal Senator Russell Broadbent even stood up in parliament to reject a “diatribe about the rise of Islam in this country” by fellow Coalition MP George Christensen back in September. “It’s time for us to rise above the politics of fear and division because our love of diversity, difference and freedom will endure,” he said.
Instead of reining in these buffoons, and the sniping from Abbott, Turnbull has turned to custard. The dire warnings of imminent disaster from climate scientists are nothing compared to the possiblity of the three amigos and the suppository of all wisdom being upset.
Ex-Captain Catastrophe says “We are the party of lower power prices and should let Labor be the party that artificially increases [electricity] prices under Greens pressure.”
This from the man whose party put electricity up by 10% when they introduced the GST. They could have classed power as an essential item and made it GST free but they chose not to.
This from the man who was a Minister in the Howard government who signed off on a deal to guarantee the network providers could recoup not only the full cost of the poles and wires they erected but a guaranteed 10% profit on top. That was a better return than any other investment was offering so they built poles and wires – lots of them – way more than we ever needed with falling demand. Network charges now account for 51 per cent of the average household bill. The actual energy you use makes up 20 per cent of your bill, and the price of the actual electrons you use has actually come down, following an energy glut produced by new wind and solar.
But Abbott and his band of bully boys wouldn’t understand any of that – they don’t ever look for the real causes, just for the best electoral pitch.
Turnbull has completely abandoned any pretence at doing what’s best for the country.
Sorry LGBTQI community, it isn’t politically expedient for you to marry.
Sorry Republicans, it isn’t politically expedient for you to have your own head of state.
Sorry first home buyers, it isn’t politically expedient to rein in the outrageous property tax concessions we give to investors that are keeping you from ever owning a home.
Sorry bank customers, it isn’t politically expedient to investigate the rorting by the banks.
Sorry citizens, it isn’t politically expedient to tackle corporate tax evasion.
Sorry environmentalists, it isn’t politically expedient to upset the fossil fuel barons.
Sorry kids, it isn’t politically expedient for you to have Safe Schools.
Sorry Aboriginal community, it wouldn’t be politically expedient to allow you self-determination.
Sorry Muslim community, it wouldn’t be politically expedient to accept you.
Sorry asylum seekers, it wouldn’t be politically expedient to stop torturing you.
Sorry world, it isn’t politically expedient to tackle climate change.
The only thing that matters is keeping the buffoons happy and no action will be taken unless it is ”Politically Expedient.” If the guys at the pub don’t like it, it ain’t happening.
