I’m not much of a punter. I’ve ventured to the track a handful of times only to invariably put my money on horses that ran last. Truth is, I wouldn’t know a good horse from a bad one. I was more or less throwing away money on something that was never going to win.
A bit like the Abbott Government, in a way.
They too keep backing the wrong horse. They just can’t seem to pick a winner.
They thought they had a winner with the Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program with their little wager of at least $20 million on what was sure to see former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd shackled for life. It would win in a canter.
But no, they just threw their money away. Their red hot tip didn’t even make it to the finishing line.
So off they raced to get on the next big tip and plunged $80 million on the Royal Commission into Union Corruption which would see another former Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, hung out to dry thus rejoicing in the knowledge that the investment was duly worth every red cent.
Guess what? Julia Gillard was the wrong pick.
But wait! There was more! A huge bet such as $80 million deserved a return. They couldn’t, so far, nail a former Labor Prime Minister but at least they could easily put down the ‘current future’ Labor Prime Minister in Bill Shorten.
Guess what? Bill took it up to them.
What a magnificent stuff-up that’s turned out to be. $80 million thrown away. A total of $100 million has been wasted on two Royal Commissions.
And the latter, of course, has lost all credibility thanks to the Dyson Heydon affair.
The government keeps gambling with our money in search of a political winner. Finding the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 would give them a boost and they spent $100 million searching for it. We all know how excited Tony was about finding it. After all, he had earlier announced in Parliament that it had been found (yet continued to spend money looking for it – work that one out). Meanwhile, debris from the wreckage washed up on Reunion Island – more than a thousand kilometres from where Australia was looking.
That’s $200 million just on three ‘races’ the Abbott Government has wasted simply to win some political mileage.
I think they need stop going to the races. They too, don’t know a good horse from a bad one.
