By petermcc
Aussie politics has been pretty interesting of late, though I imagine some folk aren’t enjoying it as much as I am. That comes from not appreciating the subtlety of backroom deals and the forlorn hope that there will be a sudden outbreak of common sense where the good of the country coming first.
How long can you hold your breath?
As negative as that sounds, I believe things are on the improve but more about that later.
Overriding our own trials and tribulations is the spectre of the Donald Trump experiment which has entered high farce now that smart decisions are required instead of just “bitching about the Gov’mint”. It’s turned out that Donald is so gripped by Obamaphobia he can’t think straight and running the government was way more complex than he realised. (Who knew? Certainly not the self described King of Debt).
This throws a dark shadow across Aussie politics because when Donald gets his war with China, and he is going to need it for the Polls, our Economy goes straight down the toilet. With Donald’s America First, he won’t be interested in paying for the damage and sadly our current government is still so besotted with America that we will sign up for any lunacy that Trump imagines. It’s no shock that Hanson wants to be besties with Donald too, and in her case there appears to be no recognition of how damaging the Donald will be. At least the Libs have some trepidation.
But all is not lost.
One positive thing that Donald has achieved is exposing some Aussie pollies who celebrate brain-dead ideas. Populist rubbish that doesn’t stand up to clear thinking. Finding minorities and beating up on them for personal gain. It’s given these self-centred individuals an ill founded confidence that is rapidly fading as the full impact of their stupidity takes effect.
Like her last time around, Pauline is hitting the media at every opportunity and Pauline fatigue is building. This would not be a problem if she had any clear ideas about what she wants to achieve but she is a walking disaster area of contradictions. Just last weekend she proclaimed that Malcolm Turnbull was too bossy but Vladimir Putin was what Aussies want. Just think on that for a moment.
She also decided that playing the anti-vax card would be good for a few votes, seemingly unaware that quite a lot of older folk in her camp know what an iron lung looks like and remember how vaccinations made a huge difference to those requiring its use.
Consider yourself a “battler” and believed Pauline would stick up for your pay and conditions? Shame about that. Pauline votes Liberal 87% of the time which is not surprising when you realise she was too hard core for the Liberal party when it was a more centrist body of people. She is happy to take your vote but don’t expect support, or even respect. Apparently nearly half her support comes from notionally Labor voters. They must be starting to realise she might not be there for them.
Climate Change is another area where Pauline thought she could pull a few votes but that boat has sailed long ago. Apart from a few die hards, the country has mostly accepted the science and is requiring action. Even Malcolm is getting beaten up over the environment and he has a much more agreeable media presence.
It’s tempting to depict Pauline Hanson’s One Nation as similar to the ill-fated Palmer United party, but it’s way less sophisticated than that. Clive lost control quickly because those in his party wanted to make their own decisions but at least it was after the election that the wheels fell off. With PHON, Pauline tells us everyone has to do as she tells them because they represent her. Somehow representing the voters fell off the back of the truck long ago.
The upcoming WA State election is on this coming weekend and it is going to be one to watch. It sounds like support for PHON is already falling after the bizarre pro-Putin rubbish but WA is often hard to pick. They claim they like stability but who knows if that will turn their vote away from Pauline on polling day.
Whatever the outcome, when it comes to the Eastern States, hitching your wagon to a nutter like Trump, or an anti-Democracy chap like Vladimir, is really going to test voters loyalty. With Pauline not realising public appearances can be seriously damaging, I think we are looking at a repeat of Pauline’s last foray into Aussie politics where folk got sick of the thoughtlessness. It’s great fun to have a bitch, but when voters are looking for clever decisions, Pauline’s name is unlikely to be foremost in anyone’s mind.
This article was originally published on 1petermcc’s Blog.
Pauline, as liberal right, might consider joining Cory and Tony in a united “Egos R Us” party, run jointly by the IPA, Gina and cohorts and
several so called independent think tanks representing business and mining, backed assiduously by uncle rupert >sigh<
“From your lips to god’s ear … ” supposedly Jewish proverb …..
Pauline will have plenty of diehard voters – more so from the ranks of those who vote for the Libs against their own interests. She also is adamantly against welfare for single/working mothers. The hidden issue is “immigration” which really mostly means “muslim immigration” somehow is something so many people hate -irrationally – but just as the Jews were used as scapegoats for Hitler, Pauline is tapping into a deep vein of hatred in too many people. I suspect oodles of these prople have never actually known a muslim person – remember Pauline on Q&A genuinely surprised that her fellow panellist, sitting right next to her – Sam Dastyari – was a muslim. Shows how ignorant she is.
Yes i also think that people will be looking at a cheap populist like Trump and the total mess and chaos his Government is,and will stop and think about this before they cast their vote for this moron…. i hope.
“our current government is still so besotted with America that we will sign up for any lunacy ”
Ah yes … the clever country …
Our future is in the hands of the voter,they are the only ones that can save our country
Pauline has trusted the wrong people all her life.
She is just another politician using ignorance and fears
To keep herself in the headlines for a few more years
She’s changed her targets and honed her shtick
Appealing it seems to the angry and thick
Who is to blame for the reconstitution
Of this populist shrew with no real solution
Somehow I think it’s much more complex
Than a simple appeal to some racist rednecks
The fears that she taps are as old as mankind
Held in the darkest recess of the mind
Exploited by shysters for thousands of years
To garner support from gullible ears
Australia had come a very long way
From the days when white racists held the sway
From Menzies to Fraser and Whitlam to Keating
Saw the country progress and the racists retreating
When Howard was facing near certain dismissal
He developed the art of the racist dogwhistle
First there was Tampa and kids overboard
Then 9/11 ensured that he scored
Ever since then the cards been in play
Assylum seekers, Asians, Muslims the prey
An ugly, divisive, inhuman distraction
Fuelled along by the media’s attraction
And while this ugly game has been played
The stupid emboldened the enlightened dismayed
The rich have got richer the poor not a scrap
Laying more fertile ground for her populist crap
She’s in the game for the power and the money
as cunning as a rat in an outside dunny
Perhaps it’s a good thing she’s got enough rope
To show us that hate can’t win over hope
Yes, she has complete faith in her own judgement. And given her track record, she continues to make the same mistakes re listening to the wrong person.
“as cunning as a rat in an outside dunny” describes Pauline well.
” It sounds like support for PHON is already falling”. Oh, really? Couldn’t it just be that PHON supporters are lying to the pollsters? It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done that. Let’s see the WA election results Saturday night before we make that kind of judgment.
“It’s great fun to have a bitch”. Well, admittedly she’s not very nice, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a bitch.
Kaye Lee you’re probably on the money! The worst person pauline can trust is herself. Strange that she has implicit belief in her own infallibility!
She also attracts the wrong people. She is a fear monger so she attracts fear mongers.
@ Graeme – you are not losing your touch, spot on.
Pauline Hanson has that quality that right-wing politicians thrive on : she’ll tell you whatever you want to hear as long as you vote for her.
Classically, she tells WA voter that she will increase their take of the GST. This from a QLD Senator who will also tell Queensland voters that their state’s GST take will not be reduced………how will that work ?
You’re looking at an opportunist who will use whatever divisive, minority blaming will gather someone’s vote. She attacked Asians and Aboriginal people when she thought that would work for her. Now it doesn’t so she has put those on the back burner (without any change in the underlying bigotry) to attack Muslims. In doing this she is doing the work of ISIS/Daesh for them. They are telling impressionable young Muslims in the Western aligned countries, “There is no place for you here, these people hate you, you should get out.” And the One Notion founder is telling them the same thing.
Arthur Baker, eat your words. Pauline Clownhair Hanson has won no seats in WA, and some are attributing the Libs’ downfall there to Barnett swapping preferences with PHON.
I don’t know where people get the idea that Hanson is clever or cunning.
She just talks in cliches and whines like a caller to talk-back radio about things she “doesn’t like” but offers no solutions to anything beyond scapegoating others and promoting her ignorant and xenophobic views.
Real everyday issues like unemployment, housing, debt, health and education won’t magically be solved by banning burqas or mosques and she has no real policies in those areas..
Even one of her former associates admitted that she was “thick as a brick”.
She was initially a convenient stooge for the ambitions of ex-Abbott staffer and genuine racist David Oldfield and is now captive to her own ignorance and made even worse by the likes of other fellow crazies in her party.
She’s simply the political equivalent of Kim Kardashian and the creation of media interests and should have been forgotten even before she went “Dancing with the Stars”.
Even Clive Palmer had more common sense and look where he ended up.
Ta Stephanie Cornwallis, I thought that might be oblique enough to sneak by unnoticed. 😉
Hat tip Graeme Henchel. Dunno how you can do that. I’m flat out writing a limerick.
Pierre Wilkinson. Can you imagine the punch up over who gets to head the line up? Joint captains in a party with too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Jeeze it would be funny to watch though.
Kaye Lee, absolutely. She has the confidence of the truly ignorant. I just watched a clip from SBS where Pauline plays the perfect Liberal pollie by blaming everyone but herself. It looks like she picked up Sco Mo’s Press conference cheat sheet complete with blaming Labor.
It’s a bizarre performance when she somehow claimed success while blaming Labor for the outcome. http://bit.ly/2mBMXYc
I have a friend who insists Pauline is not a pollie. I have sent him the clip.