The Coalition took very few policies to the last election – which left them plenty of space to use in vilifying the ALP’s long list of policies, using lies and misinterpretations as weapons.
And, to be honest, the ALP did a very poor job of explaining their really complex policies, correcting the lies and adjusting to valid criticism on the so-called ‘retirees’ tax’.
But one very personal undertaking by ScoMo was to tackle suicide.
True – he has put in train action relating to veterans, because there has been very effective – and necessary – lobbying from distressed relatives of family members of veterans. How well his plan will address the issue is another story, but he is still ignoring, for example, the high level of youth suicide, particularly in Aboriginal communities.
Throughout his ministerial career, whichever portfolio might have been his responsibility, one thing ScoMo has demonstrated, in spades, has been a total lack of compassion and empathy. Which reinforces the fact that his ‘religion’ is a cult, so clearly unrelated to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Bible, as to make it a perversion to call it Christianity.
But suicide in the general public is set to rise because of the despair that follows living through the cataclysmic events of recent months, particularly in the almost certain knowledge that they might just be the beginning of a sequence of similar events.
The government has over-emphasised the importance of the economy during its time in office, making unfounded claims as to its superiority over Labor in managing the finances, yet clearly without factoring into their planning the costs of dealing with disasters on the current scale.
They had been warned.
Yes – the efforts of volunteer firefighters have been incredible, and the funds donated by the community to go to those volunteer services’ needs, and to help the victims of the fires, has also been magnificent.
But why the bloody hell are we paying taxes – a horrifying amount of which disappears into politicians’ pockets – when those in charge forward plan so woefully?
They simply refuse to accept scientific evidence in an amazingly ignorant way.
I find it beyond puzzling that supposedly intelligent, educated people can accept the amazing advances in one specialist branch of science – medicine – while refusing to accept the results of rigorous research and modelling by climate scientists. Particularly when predictions, based on rigorous modelling and made decades ago, are proving to be spot on!
I appreciate that the fossil fuel lobby donate generously to party funds, but the government is elected for the benefit of the population not the political parties. Letting money persuade them to close their minds to important knowledge is criminal.
More than 30 years ago, in order to be a driving instructor in the Schools Driver Education program, I undertook a defensive driving course. We were taught that accidents do not happen, because the essence of safe driving is anticipation. What we refer to as ‘accidents’ are inevitable outcomes of failure to be observant, and to anticipate the possibility that other drivers will not behave as might normally be expected.
And that is a brilliant rule in life in general! Totally necessary when we are dealing with events over which we have limited control – as is the case with climate, when we have been warned that increasing adverse weather events are most certainly going to result because of increasing emissions from the use of fossil fuels.
The Coalition continues on the path of claiming, quite falsely, that its policies are adequate to meet the very minimal goals in emission reductions it has undertaken. Our emissions are not reducing fast enough to meet those goals and the fact the reports on those results are invariably late, and issued in ways that often escape attention, simply underlines the fact that the government is deliberately lying.
We have a Constitution which was written to define the particular areas of responsibility of the States and the Federal government, and it was written at a time when technology was in its infancy. It has no Human Rights provisions, and it has no clauses to enable action on corruption and malfeasance by governments while the means of challenging legislation through the High Court are cumbersome.
We are currently stuck with a lying, corrupt government. It refuses to act in our best interests – and when more than 50% of the population is crying out for action on climate change and yet the government refuses to listen, we have limited ways of forcing the government to act – or go!
In one or two periods in my life, I seriously considered suicide. I could not think of a fail-safe method which would ensure that I would not end up alive but disabled and I also realised how selfish such an act would be in my particular circumstances because of the people who would be affected.
But for an increasing number of people for whom the prospect of surviving in viable conditions seems totally remote, it is a different story. And we have a government which is oblivious to their extreme distress and desperate need.
If ScoMo was sincere about reducing suicide, he needs to appoint a national, non-partisan government which includes non-political experts in charge of relevant areas who accept the reality of the climate emergency and who will, as a matter of urgency, institute policies to step back from use and export of fossil fuels and work with like-minded governments to assist countries like India to significantly speed up emission reduction.
He won’t, of course. He has achieved his dream of supreme power over this country, is best mates with a similarly obnoxious leader in POTUS, and doesn’t give a fig about the fate of those affected by his selfish ignorance.
The result of the last election was not a miracle. It was an inevitable disaster in a country which struggles to accept truth.
It is beyond frustrating to know that, by letting off steam in order to reduce the pressure which I feel, whatever I write or say is not going to affect the actions of those who are destroying lives and livelihoods.
I still feel that if enough of us feel the same and are prepared to march, lobby, demonstrate through acts of civil disobedience and use every available method to make the politicians listen, we just might change minds. But – will it be in time?
Once more – this is my Resolution:
“I will do everything in my power to enable Australia to be restored to responsible government.”
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
[/textblock]
