#SolidaritySunday
They say a week is a long time in politics. Australia has just proven three weeks is an eternity. Although the days of the Liberal government seem to quickly be coming to an end, it’s still a shameful fiasco which reminds us that we’re just pawns in Liberal power games. That is why this post is a call to arms, a call to action, a call to the collective: a call for Solidarity Sunday.
So, what has happened in the last three weeks?
In a car-crash we couldn’t look away from, we saw Turnbull, Morrison and Dutton kick, scratch, claw and bite their way through a Morrison-orchestrated mud-wrestle. The Liberal Party was satisfyingly smeared with mud in the process, which was the major up-side. The major downside, however, has been watching Morrison simultaneously flooding the airwaves with vomit-inducing puff-piece-PR, while simultaneously invoking the-stuff-of-nightmares culture wars.
The Daily Telegraph has been running the charm-offensive, with ‘middle-Australia’ daggy dad photo ops and Howard-like-lowest-common-denominator waste-of-time media stunts, starting off on drought-stricken farms, moving to less than impressed toddlers, and of course the obligatory rugby-tackle-macho-press-conference. At the same time, this apparently happy-go-lucky larrikin Aussie bloke, who promised his happy-clappy religion wouldn’t interfere with his politics, has been proving me right when I said he most certainly was not a moderate. He’s gone turbo-charged-bigot by encouraging Australians to bully bisexual and trans teenagers. He’s asked a secular nation to pray that it rains. He’s brought up religious freedom again, to remind us that he didn’t want gay marriage, and he is willing to legislate to allow gay people to be discriminated against. Oh, and while this is going on, he’s also plagiarising his predecessor’s obsession with trade union bashing by calling for the deregistration of the CFMMEU, over a naughty word in a tweet. Morrison is literally trolling Australia.
These are just some of the lowlights of an extraordinarily bad start to Morrison’s term as PM, which includes the sick joke of making Abbott a ‘Special Envoy’ to Indigenous People, appointing an anti-wind-farm loony as Energy Minister, saying he wants to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, and of course standing by while Dutton heaps scandal on top of visas-for-rich-mates scandal, with no end to the potato-head-who-misled-parliament in sight. Just when we thought the Turnbull government couldn’t get any worse, Morrison popped up to show us that things can always get worse, and that when we said we wanted to see the back of the wet-lettuce-leaf-inept-Turnbull, we should have been careful what we wished for.
While this has all been going on, there have of course been other reasons to group-hug, to pull together, to show bravery in the face of adversity, to stand our ground: the Murdoch unravelling.
Again, the fireworks were fun, the popcorn was buttery, and the tweet stream as distracting as it’s ever been, but still, we face an uphill battle. This unravelling started with Chris Ulhmann’s on-air rant about Murdoch and shock-jock friends influencing the Libspill. Then Bruce Guthrie, ex Murdoch-editor jumped in and told us what we already knew: that Murdoch uses his media empire to campaign against his political rivals. Then, just to be sure, Kevin Rudd said – yep – totally true, the Murdoch media is run as a political party and is a ‘cancer eating at the heart of democracy’.
Amazing, isn’t it, how Murdoch can campaign against Labor every single day for my entire life, and suddenly when he decides a Liberal PM has to go, he’s crossed a line! Well, at least we’re talking about this now, and it’s all out in the open, so I can stop being called a conspiracy theorist.
The bad news, of course, is that Labor still has to deal with the fact that whether Murdoch wants puppet Turnbull, Morrison, Dutton or Abbott in the driver’s seat of his political arm, he most definitely does not want Bill Shorten. Now that the dust has settled, Murdoch’s minions are back obediently carrying out the core-business of ‘Killing-Bill’. That’s why all us tweeps need to protect our country, protect our collective interest, to stand together like a wall of ‘we will not be fucked with by the Liberal-Murdochracy’.
We need to defend ourselves against the oncoming anti-Labor onslaught that the Murdoch-media will heap onto us as we head into the next election, and we need to do this like never before. This could be Murdoch’s last chance at influencing an Australian election, so let’s make it his most disappointing result ever. Let’s kick Scott Morrison and his Liberal accomplices so far from office, they will never have a chance at screwing over our beautiful country ever again.
Who’s with me? #SolidaritySunday
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susanai -
New England Cocky -
Andrew Smith -
Adrianne Haddow -
Kaye Lee -
Babyjewels -
Don Wilson -
Frank Smith -
Wun Farlung -
Susan -
Jaquix -
Pete Petrass -
paul walter -
Keith -
Diannaart
Return to home pageEasy to say ‘kick them out’, but not so easy to realise Australians have become a bunch of conservative cowards. The normal voter really does believe in the status quo! The normal voter is aging in the mind and is very scared of their future. Depressing but I think libs will scrape home! BTW the younger voter is the almost the same and they have the added pressure of no historical references!
Victoria, such straight from the shoulder commentary and from an articulate woman …. what WILL the “National$ prefer Adulterers” think???? Are you attempting to bully Morriscum into changing his personal behaviour???
Obviously there will be bullying and suppression of National$ ladies and the CWA will be banned ….. UNTIL “Women supporting Adulterers support National$” becomes the mantra and action for rural reform.
How many times do country ladies have to put up with Barnyard Joke and his ilk sexually harassing them with impunity??
It’s time!!! … to drag regional Australia into the 21st century, where our kids can get local jobs rather than re-locate to metropolitan cities, where communication services are equal across the nation, where government transport infrastructure is developed to world class in regional centres and maintained to the same standard.
It’s time!!! … to decentralise government jobs and create about 3.5 private sector jobs from that regular climate-free income from government.
Maybe the Libs themselves are mere pawns? They are neither able to develop grounded policies nor build a real constituency; becoming a hollowed out and owned version of the Republicans with only Nativist or corporate PR constructs as policy.
However, they have worked out ways of remaining in power and/or ensuring Labor cannot gain power or implement policy (for the nation). This includes media monopoly or oligopoly, dumbing down PS in favour of IPA, intimidating the ABC (which is quite capable of shooting itself in the foot aka 4 Corners platforming Bannon, who’s next Farage?) and anyone challenging a corporate and/or Nativist view of Australia.
Like middle Europe, Turkey, Russia, UK (Brexit) and US (Trump), Conservatives and/or Nativist understand the importance of regional electorates to gain and/or maintain power with ageing declining populations often dependent upon the state (benefits), versus younger, diverse and more educated urban electorates; a last gasp race against increasing diversity?
Excellent call to arms, Victoria. Bravo!
@ susannah. I am an ‘ageing in mind’ voter who is vey scared of a future led by a Liberal/ supposedly, Christian neo-liberal government. My friends are of the same ilk. My father who is far more ‘ageing in mind’ than I am voted for marriage equality, and can still see through the lies the Lib/Nats and the Murdoch press offer.
I think you need to cut ageing voters some slack. Not everybody has negatively geared investments to protect. Not everybody over the age of 40 supports a government that bows to the far right view of the world. Some of us even see taxation as the only way to provide services which the majority of younger Australians rely on for a decent life.
You are preaching to a generation which protested about a wealth of social and political injustice for most of their lives
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/51/01/1b/51011b981c524fb97a64596b2e54eba6.jpg
Well said, Victoria.
I think if you add the results of the Wagga Wagga (NSW State, true, but a warning of voter fatigue) to those of the Super Saturday by-elections (where doubtful S44 LNP MPs were deliberately withheld from High Court referrals and possible election contests), you can build a case that voters are finally recognising something is wrong.
The media (led by the Murdoch outlets but by no means restricted to them – day TV and Talk Radio are similar propaganda outlets despite having other owners at their helm) are only slowly recognising that government has broken down. Mostly they’re still apologists for the most appalling abuses of power. They are, as evening SKY has already found, feeling a backlash from action groups such as Getup! and Sleeping Giants. As they deserve.
It is time to end the media tyranny, with the public so clearly fed up with the betrayals.
It is time for Betty Windsor to heed the voices of her loyal subjects and dissolve this non-Government so a General Election can be held over the next month. Come on Betty, show these bullying male suits who is really in power.
I’m with you Victoria.
I’ll always stand by someone who isn’t afraid to speak out for facts, truth and fairness.
Remember when you tap away at your keyboard, not all conspiracies are just theories.
I just want an election!!
Very hard to predict whether swinging voters are sucked in by Morrison, or not. Wagga Wagga, while it had other factors at play, is definitely a warning sign. The Liberals are out of the running, after holding the seat for 61 years! Labor and independent are neck and neck and waiting on preferences to decide, very, very close. Next is WENTWORTH. Now thats shaping up very interesting. Labor has a very good candidate in Tim Murray, whose been given a good plug by Alex Turnbull, a friends of his. Liberals have picked Peter King again, who apparently said “Its my melancholy duty to stand…” so, if true, a certain lack of enthusiasm there. He’s the one Malcolm Turnbull beat way back. Alan Jones all puffed up with self-importance at being in the thick of the preselection process! Greens apparently have a good candidate. And one independent has started campaigning. Licia Heath. Polls say 50-50 as of a week or so ago. Could be “another Wagga” ? If they lose that, Morrisons Mob are hanging by a thread, with Dutton under seige.
A big problem these days is the voters who do not look at the national picture and focus only on their local picture. How on earth would someone like Joyce get voted in otherwise? Even though he goes to Canberra and totally screws them over when he is back home he is just one of the boys at the local pub and they continue to vote for him.
I have no idea how we get people to focus on national issues that affect the entire country and economy rather than who is your best drinking mate.
The prophets on ABC news also seemed to come awake at the implications of the Wagga byelection.
Thing is, both Berejiklian and Morrison have to call elections by next autumn, so there is a collision of interests in the wings. Maybe they will sacrifice NSW so the public can work off their annoyance a the LNP in general, so the feds can cut their losses?
I thoroughly recommend people watching the last National Press Club meeting of last Wednesday; it was about Parliamentary cancer. The theme was how can democracy be retrieved; it was titled: Rebooting Australian Democracy: Renewing Faith With Voters.
A few key points:
Politicians need a code of ethics.
There needs to be more women in Parliament.
Knocking out Prime Ministers on basis of ambition is disgusting behaviour seen in both Labor and Liberal Parties. My comment here is that the Liberals are slow learners. They should have realised that their leadership spill would go down like a lead balloon.
Shuffling of Ministers is unhealthy for Australians generally, as it takes some time to learn skills in new jobs.
The lying, cheating and bullying are totally unacceptable.
Entitlements should be dealt with in the same way as with other Public Servants.
Politicians need to provide information on a regular basis about what they have achieved to the electorate.
Currently, politicians are continually finding ways to ensure they remain in Parliament, with the needs of communities being neglected.
Questions should only be asked by Opposition members during Question Time.
In many areas politicians make decisions of a technical nature, hence former CEO of CSIRO suggested politicians need to do some preliminary education in statistics and STEM areas after being elected. Climate change would not be subsumed by discussion on energy prices if there was greater understanding of science.
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/national-press-club-address
Over two million voters did not make formal votes at the last election … very suggestive of the lack of trust in politicians.
When politicians treat each other in a shabby manner, it is no surprise that voters are treated poorly … particularly refugees; robo letters from Centrelink, NDIS stuff ups, cashless Welfare Cards, and attacks on Unions etc. Australian workers need Unions now more so than for many decades.
I’m with you Susan (September 9, 2018 at 12:30 pm)
I just want an election.
Where candidates present actual policies for the future; where climate change, sustainable technology, free education, a wholistic and public healthcare system, transport for public needs, are genuinely given prominent discussion and not derided by a bunch of ignorant fools who have no place in the gene pool let alone political office.
And no more religious grandstanding – declaring to a religion does not mean an ability to lead, understand technology or even care about the welfare of others.
I am beyond tolerance for our politicians, nor did I vote for any of ‘em.