Government approves Santos Barossa pipeline and sea dumping

The Australia Institute Media Release Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Department has approved a…

If The Jackboots Actually Fit …

By Jane Salmon If The Jackboots Actually Fit … Why Does Labor Keep…

Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza…

The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power…

How the supermarkets lost their way in Oz

By Callen Sorensen Karklis Many Australians are heard saying that they’re feeling the…

Purgatorial Torments: Assange and the UK High Court

What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to…

Why A Punch In The Face May Be…

Now I'm not one who believes in violence as a solution to…

Does God condone genocide?

By Bert Hetebry Stan Grant points out in his book The Queen is…

As Yemen enters tenth year of war, militarisation…

Oxfam Australia Media Release As Yemen enters its tenth year of war, its…

«
»
Facebook

This is Scott

By 2353NM

Scott tells us he is rather important and considering he is Prime Minister of Australia, he is probably correct to a large extent. Scott wants everyone to like him and when the election happens sometime in the next few months, Scott wants us all to dutifully go to the Polling Place and support the local Coalition candidate, because he leads the Coalition Government and has the best interests of Australia at heart. In Scott’s world view ‘Everything is awesome.’

The problem is that those few who aspire to a life of public service in Parliament (it was, and it could again be a noble profession) may observe that Scott is the at the pinnacle of that particular career path. When choosing a career, people are frequently told to observe those already at the higher echelons of the particular calling and emulate them. Emulating Scott is probably not a particularly good plan.

Scott became Prime Minister in 2018 when Peter Dutton challenged then current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the job. How Scott ended up in the Prime Minister’s Office is still somewhat of a mystery, with Scott telling anyone who asked the question that he didn’t challenge for the job despite winning the second time Dutton challenged Turnbull. While Dutton may have lost the challenge, does Scott really expect us to believe that a group of his colleagues just decided on a whim that he would make a good boss? Short of there being pixies with a political mindset being resident in Parliament House to spread ‘good vibes’, Scott must have put his hand up and ‘done the numbers’ at some point to charge past Turnbull and Dutton to claim the ‘prize’.

Scott voted over 20 times against a Royal Commission into the Banking and Finance sector which was set up when he was Treasurer. Then when he relented, he vetted a draft of the letter from the major banks the Government used as justification for an enquiry and potentially colluded with the major banks’ senior management on the terms of the enquiry. Scott’s Coalition Government has agreed to accept all the recommendations; notice there is nothing about implementation? As Jack Waterford wrote in The Canberra Times

he tries to accentuate the positive and the ultimate outcomes. He insists that even if he let the cock crow 22 times, he deserves the credit for ultimately giving in to demands for an inquiry. Sure, it was a bit late, but it was ultimately held and made recommendations the government pretends it has accepted, he and the government can be trusted to see them through.

Scott’s Coalition Government recently lost a legislative vote in the Federal Parliament allowing for slightly more humane treatment of refugees held in New Guinea and Nauru at the behest of the Australian Government. Rather than advise the Governor-General that his government has lost the confidence of the Parliament and an election should be called, like the last two Prime Ministers who suffered the same fate (in 1941 and 1929 – so it doesn’t happen often), Scott doubled down on a campaign suggesting that the ‘security risks’ inherent in bringing refugees to Australia for medical care will unleash the hounds, hordes of locusts, murderers, rapists and destruction unknown to mankind on our fair land (maybe a bit of exaggeration there, but you get the drift …). The reality is that the legislation Scott lost the vote on only affects those already in New Guinea or Nauru, who have been in Australian detention for a number of years. Scott’s government hasn’t done much to address the ‘security risks’ inherent in the 64,000 who the Immigration Department know have overstayed their visas, some for over 20 years while demonising a small group that didn’t use a 747 to ‘illegally’ enter the country. Overstaying your visa is illegal, unlike asking for asylum.

Toby Wright, writing for Nine media recently made a comparison between Mick Young, a Minister in the Hawke Government of the 1980’s and Scott’s Government. Young, who neglected to declare a stuffed Paddington Bear at Customs in 1984, was confronted with his crime and promptly stood down from the Ministry until investigations were concluded. Scott’s Government include Ministers that seem to be connected with a mindboggling litany of unethical actions; the current list includes Ministers Cash, Dutton, Cormann, Wilson and former Minister and current Ambassador Hockey. While some of the current scandals surrounding the government commenced before Scott became the Prime Minister, he is not blameless as resignations or ‘career breaks’ could have been requested or enforced while the facts were determined. Scott in contrast continues with his ‘Everything is Awesome’ routine.

Assuming for a second there are people that really do want to enter Parliament to represent their electorate rather than become one of the pigs in the trough, a piece of advice – Scott is not someone you should attempt to emulate; don’t be like Scott.

What do you think?

This article was originally published on The Political Sword

For Facebook users, The Political Sword has a Facebook page:
Putting politicians and commentators to the verbal sword

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!

Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.

You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969

Donate Button

10 comments

Login here Register here
  1. pierre wilkinson

    most assuredly, do not emulate the walking promo, ScoMo

  2. Ill fares the land

    This prize buffoon has all the hallmarks of idiocy that I have seen many times in the business world. I worked in professional firms for many years and in every one of them, there was at least one idiot who somehow got promoted beyond their level of ability. But when that promotion came, against the expectations of pretty much everyone, the promoted instantly came to see themselves as utterly deserving of their promotion. Their existing delusions about their intellect and ability (both typically lacking) were only amplified by their unearranted promotion.

    Invariably, the promotion was supported by the leading professional in the firm – none of whom had the smarts or insight to detect the flaws in the annointed one. These flaws were usually visible to everyone else – but rarely the decision makers. In one case, everyone other than the “owners” (I won’t call them leaders – they were bosses, not leaders) knew full well the annointed one was a fruitcake of no better than average ability, with a sizeable ability to suck up to his superiors, a massive ego that revealed itself in harrassment of female staff and a nasty streak that was given free reign against anyone who displayed more talent or knew him for who he really was (and still is as a matter of fact from what I hear).

    This is Morrison – aka Mr Shouty McScrunchyface. A numpty who is now convinced he got the job on merit. However much he proclaims he “fell into the job:”, his unshakeable belief is that he deserves it and is the best man to “lead” Australia. Pity he has zero leadership ability. Unhappily, he is a stupid PM for a stupid electorate and that resonates. Shorten is probably smarter, but he doesn’t really show that routinely – he seems a little clumsy when he speaks, lacking to some extent a fluid ability to verbalise ideas and that just lets conservatives believe that their man is the better PM, when his flaws and failings render him unsuitable for that role. .

  3. Kaye Lee

    Any list of “Ministers that seem to be connected with a mindboggling litany of unethical actions” must be headed by ProMo’s numbers man, Stuart Robert.

  4. Josephus

    ScoMo does not make undereducated people feel inadequate. He flatters them.

    As for me, today I got a letter from my nice State MP John Barilaro with a meaningless plastic card attached, which promised that if the Nationals won I would have $250 to spend on free buses or something. ‘Vote1 for Nationals’ it says. Comes pretty close to bribery methinks. I think prostitutes charge more? Guess the Nationals are pretty desperate after Beetroot’s totally unpunished shonky antics.

  5. 2353NM

    @Kaye Lee – bugger, forgot him!

  6. Kaye Lee

    He is eminently forgettable in any sort of achieving sense 2353NM. I can’t think of a single useful thing he has done. But the list of his transgressions runs to volumes. Irregardless of all indiscretions, ProMo chose to promote him to Assistant Treasurer.presumably because he is good at soliciting both financial and factional support.

  7. Graeme Henchel

    First we had a shameless thug
    who liked to wear blue ties
    A wrecker using slogans
    and simple sledgehammer lies

    He was an abject failure
    Like the dog who caught the car
    His only skill was in the chase
    nothing else in his repertoire

    Then we had the smooth lawyer
    urbane, witty and smart
    He promised conversation
    for sophistry was his art
    Behind his back his fingers crossed
    the other hand on his heart

    His tenure though was tortured
    by Faustian deals with foes
    Attempts to work with the right
    served to magnify his woes
    Weakness and his enemies
    saw the Fizza soon deposed

    Now it is the Adman’s go
    all stunts and thought balloons
    Lies and spin shouted out like
    Foghorn Leghorn of looney tunes

    Though a man with no talent
    but a smirk and vociferous voice
    Shouty’s rise was no surprise
    When a potato was the other choice

    But he won’t die wondering
    Every trick he’s sure to play
    Dogwhistling and Scare campaigns
    Right through till judgement day

    What a trio of dodgy duds
    We all have so endured
    Their only lasting legacy
    A massive defeat assured.

  8. Kyran

    “Scott tells us he is rather important and considering he is Prime Minister of Australia, he is probably correct to a large extent.”
    As ‘Ill fares the land’ points out, there is an odd, almost eerie, paradox at play. In my experience in the workplace, there is an almost universal loathing of the FIGJAM personality. It seems generally accepted that, if someone has to repeatedly and vociferously tell you how good they are, they are, invariably, not good for much – other than self promotion in the face of their miserable shortcomings.
    Mick Young, ‘who neglected to declare a stuffed Paddington Bear’, was a precursor to ‘the howard years’, when every semblance of what was decent was trashed. History will not be kind to that lying rodent.
    The irony is that there are so many good and decent people across this land who are active and engaged – who really want to effect change- choosing to act at every level of community (local, state and national) OTHER than parliament, gives an indication of how seriously this mob have devalued what little worth they may otherwise have had.
    Thank you 2353NM and commenters. Take care
    PS Mr Henchel, brilliant, as always. May poetry rise to the acclaim it once had.

  9. whatever

    Yes, indeed. A third-rate salaryman who can only keep mouthing the Mission Statement while the Company crumbles to dust around him.
    Rather like a compulsive gambler he just keeps on compounding lies with delusions, anything to buy more time.

  10. Aortic

    As Morrison contemplates his Ministerial colleagues depart the sinking ship he may well reiterate his pathetically failed tourism chant, ” where the bloody hell are you?”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 2 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Return to home page