The more politicians lie to us, the more they think advertising replaces substantive debate, the more they rely on talking points rather than considered informed opinion, the more they use their position to reward their mates, the less relevant they become.
Scott Morrison can say until he is blue in the face that we will meet our emissions reduction targets but we can actually look up the facts for ourselves.
Tony Abbott can keep spinning on his arse doing the Paris hokey pokey – no-one is listening to him.
Matt Canavan and George Christensen can pray for more coal-fired power stations but no-one will put up the money.
Peter Dutton can cry wolf till he is hoarse but the citizens of Melbourne continue to enjoy its culinary delights.
The “better economic managers” myth is a persistent one but how long can they even hang onto that when we are in a per capita recession because of stagnant wage growth and increasing cost of living? I know company profits are high, but companies don’t vote.
How can we avoid cynicism when newly promoted and extra keen Linda Reynolds tells us that wage suppression is not a tool they are using to boost employment and that anyone who said so knows nothing about economics……until she was told it was a quote from her Finance Minister and not Bill Shorten as she at first thought. She went from he knows nothing to he’s absolutely right in the space of 16 seconds.
We still have politicians who think that our gender or sexuality is their business. As they moralise from on high about “ideal families”, we are subjected to seemingly never-ending scandals about their own tawdry behaviour.
As people on welfare are labelled leaners and bludgers, politicians fight tooth and nail to retain what they call ‘entitlements’ which roughly translates to having someone else pay for everything, hopefully for the rest of your life. Want to see a concert? A football game? A fashion show? You name it, here’s a free ticket for you and your family and here’s a jet to take you and a chauffeur to drive you because, as Barnaby reminded us when defending Bronwyn Bishop’s use of limos to go to the opera, they are often obliged to drink at these events.
We are expected to believe that it is refugees who are responsible for a lack of affordable housing, long hospital waiting lists, unemployment, and congestion on our roads. Nothing at all to do with the people who plan the infrastructure and set the immigration levels and the spending priorities. Nothing to do with the people who overstay on tourist and education visas or all those who arrive by plane and then seek asylum. Boats, drowning, Bill Shorten, soft borders…..someone pass me the talking points, I’ve forgotten what I am supposed to say about Christmas Island.
Trade unions are habitually attacked because we can’t have the workers having a voice about the value of their labour. Groups like GetUp! and Greenpeace are likewise vilified. They seem to fear ordinary people having a say.
But our children have had enough. Girls are fleeing the oppression in Saudi Arabia. Schoolchildren in America are fighting for gun laws. They are bemused by the intolerance of some adults to diversity. And around the world, children will march tomorrow to demand that we put the health of the planet before profit.
More power to their arm. Politics is not confined to the Canberra bubble boys much as you may have fought to keep it that way.
We are people hear us roar
In numbers too big to ignore
Cause we know too much to go back and pretend.
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