Any pretence at transparent, accountable government has been abandoned. Evidence based policy making and expert advice are no longer necessary for the Coalition who seem to think they are there by God’s grace and are therefore beyond scrutiny let alone reproach.
Freedom of information has become a farce. The excuses for not providing information are ridiculous. The amount of time and money spent fighting court orders is contemptuous and wasteful. The length of time to comply when forced, and the material that is then redacted, makes the whole exercise futile.
The Coalition don’t need advice from anyone. Infrastructure Australia, Sports Australia, the Human Rights Commission, the panel who shortlists board appointments at the ABC, The Australia Council for the Arts – what would they know?
Surely they realise that infrastructure is most important where it might win you votes, sports grants are photo opps for aspiring or struggling candidates, the AHRC are soft on borders, the ABC is full of woke capital-city greenies, and what arts are there beside ballet and opera?
They got rid of the Australian National Preventive Health Agency and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. We don’t need forward planning when we have Special Envoys like Barnaby Joyce, Tony Abbott, Warren Entsch and Jim Molan on the ground telling it like it is to the boys in the bar.
Water management has morphed into a lucrative trade, as Angus Taylor can attest. Despite towns running out of water and farms turning into baked earth, we can always find plenty of water for mining and large cotton farms and plenty of money for non-existent flood water or land flow trapped by unnapproved earthworks.
Apparently we have something called the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR).
“AIDR is supported by its partners: the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, the Australian and New Zealand National Council for fire and emergency services (AFAC), the Australian Red Cross and the Bushfire & Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.”
One would have thought they would be front and centre during this crisis…except they are part of Peter Dutton’s mega-portfolio and Poida don’t need no stinkin’ advice from alarmists. Sick refugees invading our shores is by far the greatest risk to our nation.
Everybody, including the RBA, the Business Council and ACOSS have pleaded with the government to raise Newstart – to stimulate the economy, to help people get job ready, and to lift people out of abject poverty.
But that’s not the way of the party who will give a go to those that have a go.
Who cares if property tax concessions have skewed investment away from more productive enterprises and made housing unaffordable? Who cares if excess franking credit refunds result in companies paying no tax? If they didn’t give it to their shareholders they would be hiding it offshore anyway. Who cares if wages are stagnant, workers are exploited and their rights eroded? The only reason they have a job is because the Coalition gives their employer a helping hand.
Religious freedom and freedom of speech are extremely important to a government who has no clue how to govern. Except religious freedom seems to mean that religious people have the right to discriminate against anyone they don’t like and they are to be protected from anyone calling them out on it. Likewise, freedom of speech will be afforded to bigots but not to protesters or journalists.
The government has great respect for our First People – look, they even finally gave the portfolio to an Aboriginal man. But don’t think that means constitutional recognition, a voice to Parliament, self-determination, a treaty, changing the date of Australia Day, the right to manage your own financial affairs, or even to receive utilities or services. Being disadvantaged is a lifestyle choice.
The Auditor-General has written countless scathing reports about grants without due process, contracts without tender, a lack of value-for-money assessment, poor record-keeping, no follow-up appraisal, and a myriad of other concerning issues – so the government even gagged him when he produced a report they didn’t like about their huge cash splurge on military equipment.
But make no mistake – they are taking a methodical approach to screwing this country and they will make no apology for it!
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