Over my working lifetime I have seen enormous changes in requirements regarding behaviour, record-keeping, governance and oversight at every organisation with which I have been involved.
Times change. We learn from our mistakes and grow better as a society.
At least that’s how it is supposed to work.
We have seen unions under scrutiny, with miscreants exposed, expelled and a few even prosecuted.
New governance requirements have been legislated and another oversight body with extensive powers established.
Whilst the messaging has been politically designed to imply that unions are bad, hopefully this shake-up will restore confidence in this crucial sector who are the collective voice of those who are not heard.
Far beyond the betrayal of a few union bosses on the take has been the horrific revelations from the Royal Commission into child sex abuse.
The Catholic Church has admitted to a failure of leadership and governance with catastrophic results. Their sins have been exposed and action demanded.
Yet when we come to our politicians, lying is expected as is rorting of expenses. Jobs for the boys and girls are a given. Freedom of information is at their discretion. They make their own rules and having a majority makes them answerable to no-one. They are completely devoid of responsibility for their actions.
There are so many examples of their dereliction of duty, climate change being one, but the only way they are held accountable is by an election so that is the only thing they focus on.
It is all about the advertising, the presentation, the wrapping.
It doesn’t matter that when we unwrap the present after the election that we’ve been given a steaming pile of shit. It’s too late.
And the bullshit continues because it isn’t about the truth or finding solutions – it’s all about the votes.
Which brings me to George Christensen.
George has decided to flex his tattoo of Our Lady (which some would consider blasphemous) and go on a crusade against political correctness – because no doubt that is what the sugar farmers and unemployed youth and families in his electorate want him to concentrate on.
George is scared of One Nation so he wants to call back the people who want to be offensive with impunity.
I am just wondering what more it is that people want to say.
After all, George has been getting away with being offensive his whole adult life.
Pauline Hanson is a Senator and she has said the most outrageous things about pretty much everyone.
How much more offensive can you be than Larry Pickering?
Is stopping sexual harassment political correctness gone mad too, or do we just want the right to offend people because of their ethnicity?
Donald Trump’s wife does a naked photo shoot handcuffed to a briefcase on his plane. He passes off saying that he can molest women and they love it as locker room talk. And he still gets elected President of the United States – with George and Pauline’s fawning approval I might add.
These Neanderthals want to take us backwards. They want us to forget all the lessons we have learned about equality, respect, self-worth, inclusion, opportunity and cohesion, so they can have the right to be offensive.
Great job George, Pauline and the doo wop chorus from the IPA in identifying the big issues. You concentrate on that and protecting us from marriage equality while the big kids tackle things like health, education, unemployment, domestic violence, climate change, infrastructure, foreign policy – that everyday humdrum stuff that has nothing to do with your campaign to be offensive while you impose your idea of ‘normal’ on the world.
We have seen what a lack of leadership, regulation and oversight allowed in unions and the church.
George and Pauline let off the leash any further, and unconstrained by any sort of national leadership, might be more than the nation could endure.
