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Tough guy Morrison only attacks the vulnerable

As Scott Morrison ramps up his new image as our strong protector, the only one with the “mettle” to save us from the evil that is knocking on our door, it is worth examining who this shouty Billy Bunter takes on in our defence.

Does he go after the big corporations and wealthy individuals who avoid paying tax and the lax rules that allow them to? No.

Does he protect the environment from those who put profit first? No.

Does he champion human rights and call out those who abuse them? No

Does he pursue and punish corruption? No.

Does he fight for self-determination for our First People? No.

Does he punish businesses that exploit their workers? No.

Does he insist on transparency and accountability in government? No.

Does he expect and enforce a higher standard of behaviour from his colleagues? No.

So who are the targets of this courageous crusader?

Traumatised asylum seekers are held hostage for years, with no options for the future, and vilified as rapists, pedophiles and murderers. We even refuse them the medical treatment that we freely give to actual criminals.

Migrants are blamed for everything – urban congestion, hospital waiting times, housing unaffordability, unemployment, crime.

People on welfare are labelled dole bludgers and leaners and pursued for old debts they don’t owe. Disability pensioners are forced to constantly jump through hoops to prove they haven’t recovered from being disabled and the unemployed are so busy trying to comply with the rules set by jobsearch that they don’t have the time or money to actually look for work.

The pathway forward suggested by the Uluru statement is rejected in favour of income management, tougher sentencing, more gaols and truancy officers.

Environmentalists are condemned as virtue-signalling job-destroying socialist dilettantes.

Children are told to stop being activists and to get back to school and leave politics to the adults – the adults who want to make tertiary education so prohibitively expensive as to be financially exclusive.

New mothers are labelled as ‘double dippers’ and have their maternity leave entitlements reduced.

Weekend workers have their penalty rates reduced because the weekend is just like any other day according to the politicians who turn up to work about 50 days a year and can fly their family to join them on the public purse.

Charities, NFPs and community support programs have their funding stripped while dubious organisations are gifted hundreds of millions in government contracts and grants with no competitive tender, oversight or evaluation.

Yeah Scott, you’re real tough – when you’re picking on the little guy.

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31 comments

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  1. New England Cocky

    Hmmm ….. I am reminded how the small Lilliputians defeated the big Gulliver….. by banding together ….. it seems appropriate in this Kaye Lee scenario.

    It’s time ….. again!!

  2. helvityni

    I pray for a protection from my protectors…

    Not so long ago Belgium managed very well without any Government, let’s try that…

    ( of course all the bad Belgians were sent or had gone overseas)

  3. Wayne Turner

    Great article.Shame it’s sadly that it all has to be pointed out.

    This alleged government is all about “Weapons Of Mass Distraction” and “Scapegoating” the less well off.Encouraging the majority to blame,and attack the less well off for this failing society.When it’s this government,and those that support them that are THE problem.

  4. John Ocallaghan

    Morrison is a coward and a bully and hides behind his faux Christianity uses his milky white Virginiated family just like the other coward Abbott did to help him win.

  5. terence mills

    The government is now ramping up another problem that they have created for themselves and in so doing Christian Porter this morning was tying himself in knots over medical evacuations, particularly from Manus Island. He was trying unconvincingly to blame the debacle on Labor.

    When the PNG Supreme Court determined that holding people without trial was unconstitutional under their laws, Dutton in an act of supreme hypocrisy said OK let’s open the gates at Manus detention centre and pretend that everybody is free and has the liberty to move around as they wish.

    But he created a problem for himself which he would happily blame on Labor (or anybody).

    If, one of these unfortunate people leave PNG (in this case for medical treatment in Australia) they have to have travel documents presumably issued by Australian authorities perhaps ironically by Helloworld plus a visa issued by PNG authorities to allow them to return. As they are not citizens of PNG and have no permanent residency in that country and as they can no longer be detained against their will on that island, it is most unlikely that they could obtain a visa to return.

    So these people, in other words, having left PNG technically and legally revert to Australian care and PNG have no further obligation towards them.

    Don’t be fooled, this is Dutton and Morrison’s mess !

  6. Kaye Lee

    Christian Porter deserves a whole article to himself. His behaviour as Attorney-General, supposedly the highest legal officer in the land, has been appalling. He has really ramped up the shouting and mocking lately and is deliberately colluding to subvert justice and good governance (not to mention human decency).

  7. Keith

    Thank you Kaye.

  8. terence mills

    NEC

    The analogy I heard the other day aptly describes the current situation.

    The question was asked of an opponent of the current government do you consider yourself in a David and Goliath struggle to which the answer was No, more like Don Quixote tilting at windmills but every now and then being clobbered by an aberrant sail

  9. Harry

    Whipping up fear and anxiety is about all the Coalition have in their sheer desperation to cling to power.
    As Kaye has outlined, they have very few positive policies to offer though they will try to bribe the ordinary wage earner with a few crumbs in the form of tax cuts that will mostly benefit higher income earners.

    Labor will hopefully counter this by raising the tax free threshold substantially as Julia Gillard did. There should be zero tax payable until incomes reach about $50,000 as advocated by the Real Democracy Party.

    See realdemocracyparty.net.au

  10. Arthur Tarry

    Yet still a good proportion of the electorate will vote for the conservative parties! Why? This, to me, is a core question. Do the policies and actions of the government actually appeal to a lot of people, or do they, the electorate, just not care as long as ‘me, myself and I’ are catered for.

  11. Graeme Henchel

    What is this Canberra bubble
    that Morrison talks about
    When ever he is in trouble
    He seems to bring it out

    Is it some ephemeral thing
    that quite suddenly appears
    To form a cone of silence
    that shields the public’s ears

    Is it a rhetorical ploy
    for scrutiny deflection
    Used as a dismissive device
    to avoid close inspection

    It is another stupid phrase
    with no substance or meaning
    an insult to our intelligence
    that’s deceitful and demeaning

    Yet, it’s use can be effective
    if journalists comply
    What is this Canberra bubble?
    Just another blatant lie

  12. Kaye Lee

    Arthur,

    “Yet still a good proportion of the electorate will vote for the conservative parties! Why? This, to me, is a core question. Do the policies and actions of the government actually appeal to a lot of people, or do they, the electorate, just not care as long as ‘me, myself and I’ are catered for.”

    I have thought a lot about this. Certainly part of it is the self-interest of the wealthy and the aspirations of those on the cusp. Part of it is old people scared of change. Part of it is young people who just follow what their parents have done. Part of it is country people who haven’t noticed that the Nationals stopped representing them long ago. Part of it is migrants and religious people with conservative social mores. Part of it is those who know nothing about politics and just believe what the shock jocks and tabloid media tell them. Part of it is the demonisation of progressive parties and the scare campaigns about “socialism” tapping into old fears about communism.

    NO-ONE who actually cares about the best interests of the people of this country (and the world) and who knows what has been going on could possibly vote for the current crop of conservatives.

    Self-interest, ignorance, misinformation, habit? That’s all I can come up with.

  13. flogga

    Kronomex – check the legislation … O’Dwyer was first elected in 2009 … no parliamentary pension for any federal pollie elected for the first time after 2004. She can get her super when she hits preservation age.

  14. helvityni

    Arthur, my poorest friend, a very working class woman friend from Manchester, votes Liberal…she somehow believes it transports her into a higher class/caste…

    Another friend asked me why I support Labor seeing I’m not poor…
    My answer to her: I want everybody to have enough….

  15. Barry Thompson.

    That’s what it is Kaye Lee-ignorance. They read the LNP biased rags, listen to parents or others they think are in the know and fail to think for themselves.
    To them, voting is an inconvenience. Most wouldn’t know if you were up them with an armful of barbed wire.
    I just hope their are enough around with the grey matter to vote this corrupt mob out.
    I feel a bit better now.

  16. Josephus

    In my experience yes, less educated working class people may vote against their own best interests by aping the wealthy- in their minds they have gone up in the world. Thatcher for example allowed some to sell or buy their council houses, thus creating in a stroke middle class people who voted for the Right. Here in Oz legacy racisms are nicely whipped up, partly in an attempt to somehow evade their suppressed guilt that their ancestors stole the land and killed those who resisted.
    I found a Parliamentary text recently setting out the truth about asylum seekers and the law (domestic and international) as opposed to the fascistic lies this government trots out. I am going to copy and paste that URL on slips to hand out at pre polling/elections. If anyone is interested in doing the same please say so, as I will then upload that URL on this site. No sane person can accuse the Parliament of being closet communists or bleeding hearts .

  17. Kaye Lee

    Another aspect of conservative control is how these supposed champions of free speech shut down any dissenting opinion or questioning or oversight.

    I have been blocked from many conservative politicians’ facebook pages. They don’t like factual debate. They don’t like truth revealed. They create the very echo chambers that Kelly O’Dwyer mentioned. They stir people up to suspect ‘others’ whoever those others may be – climate scientists, asylum seekers, unionists, Muslims, black kids.

    They want to be free to spread their hate and blame and misinformation but they most certainly don’t want others to spread the truth. Look at the rules barring people who work with refugees to speak out, or journalists to criticise policy (eg Emma Alberici and Nick Ross). Look at all the times we are told we cannot know because of “national security” or “commercial in confidence” or “public interest immunity” or because it might “harm relationships”. Look at all the attempts to block freedom of information requests. Look at how details of contracts disappear when questions are asked. Look at how they make themselves available to compliant interviewers but the ABC is “dead” to them – until they starve them into joining in on the compliance.

    In this country we have compulsory voting. It is therefore incumbent on the government and media to give us the real information so we can make informed decisions. Company directors face consequences if they mislead shareholders. So should politicians and media.

  18. Kronomex

    flogga,

    Thanks for the info. Aw, how sad for her, having to wait like the rest of the commoners. And, oops, it’s not Goldman Sachs but NAB.

    Can I go home now?

    Voting is sometimes multi-generational, “I vote for X because my parents vote for X, my grandparents, and so on all voted for X.” It seems to become almost a family tradition.

  19. RosemaryJ36

    Maybe the Labor Party needs to change its name. The People’s Party, The Equal Opportunity Party, The Social Inclusion Party – something that divorces it from a working class context and advertises it as supporting everyone who cares – without religious hang+ups!

  20. terence mills

    Julie Bishop took the opportunity to announce her retirement from politics today amid what is becoming known as Chumgate and the revelation that the Helloworld boss in arranging a meeting for his people in Washington said that Hockey Owes Me

    That summarizes this crime family that we call a government.

  21. Keith

    Terence

    Does Julie Bishop have family matters she wants to attend too? That’s the normal response isn’t it?

  22. Kronomex

    She’s jumping the sinking ship as it all explodes in a brown smelly mess in Scummo’s face. The 51-49 poll is well and truly starting to look like a tiny blip.

  23. helvityni

    They did not like her when they were electing a new leader after Turnbull; now, on leaving, she is the best politician in whole wide Oz…. what is she..???

  24. John Hermann

    If anything goes wrong with your unconscionable policies towards those who are suffering at your hands, it is comforting to know that you can always rely on the tried and trusted remedy of blaming the victims.

  25. paul walter

    Retiring Helvi. Retiring.

    Last week’s chook, this weeks feather duster.

    Consigned to Madame Tussauds.

  26. paul walter

    We need a Royal Commission, Kronomex.

  27. David Evans

    “Ol’, Huff and Puff”, the hollow man. Spot on Kaye Lee,, but no mention of the gutless wonder facing up to kelly, abbott, canavan taylor, and the support they are getting from murdoch? Can only assume that murdoch is pulling the strings yet again, only because he can, and because Shorten said thanks but no thanks to a murdoch dinner date? …Integrity?

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