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What sort of man so wants a job that he is willing to sacrifice a planet to keep it?

Dear Mr Turnbull,

It is my duty as an Australian, a citizen of the world, and a mother, to register my disgust for a man who has put personal ambition in front of principles.

Regardless of political affiliation, the nation breathed a sigh of relief when Tony Abbott was ousted but you should not take that as an expression of joy about your ascension.

Tony’s delivery was less than adequate but it was the policies that stunk so I suppose the people being polled were hoping your reasonable demeanour meant sense might return to policy making.

You plotted to become the leader of the Liberal Party. I was glad you did, but every day my relief lessens and my fears are confirmed that all they went for was the guy who could sell a lemon.

I know you signed an agreement that you would never put a price on carbon while you were leader. That was a completely irresponsible thing to do and not within your individual power to guarantee.

Then when you had to man up in front of the world, you quivered in front of Gina and her greedy dinosaurs.

You said that you would not lead a party that was not committed to action on climate change. You understand the chicaneries of the financial world. You are smart enough to recognise self-interest when you see it yet you are voting against phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, against the rest of the world and the advice of all credible bodies, at the behest of Gina’s Minerals Council.

This comes after we have heard how mining companies in Australia avoid paying any tax, and in fact often get tax refunds on their billions of dollars superprofits, by borrowing money at basically no interest and then lending it back to themselves at exorbitant interest rates so they can transfer profits to those well-known resource distribution points in Singapore and the Bermudas.

This was your chance to make a difference, to be a leader, but I see you are led just like Tony was.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you not only the successor to the Prime Ministership of Australia but an aspiring applicant for the Colossal Fossil award earned by his predecessor.

It was apparent from the outset that Tony had no idea what he was doing but you, Malcolm, are doing this with full understanding. Your actions are wilful, premeditated, and cowardly – and you know it. What sort of man so wants a job that he is willing to sacrifice a planet to keep it?

30 comments

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  1. Adrianne Haddow

    Why are we surprised that Millionaire Malcolm sold out the hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens who marched on Sunday for justice for our planet?
    His party doesn’t govern for ordinary Australians, we all knew that.
    He executes the will of the real rulers of Australia, Greedy Gina and her mining mates. They have it all but they still want more.

    I find it ironic that this is reported as a massive win for the farmers who will continue to receive fuel rebates, as will the mining companies, whose expansionist plans will eventually swallow up the remaining farming land in this country.

    The billions of dollars in subsidies that we pay for these robber barons to continue to rip us off are fiscally unsustainable, but the Libs/Nats are determined to ruin our country and the planet for them.

    It’s no longer feudalism but fueldalism.

  2. oldfart

    bloody well written article. This man is more dangerous than abbott, not because of his views, but because of his principles of convenience

  3. Loz

    Turnbull yearned to be PM. He lost the leadership vote by one to Abbott when they were in opposition and he was determined to get the leadership back whatever the cost to himself and to this country. Turnbull abandoned any principles he had when the LNP gained power. We won’t forget his hand in the destruction of the NBN, the change of heart on the credible Labour climate change policy, his allegiance to Abbott on the ABC. He gave a dodgy ten million grant to his friends before the 2007 election whilst he was still the environment minister. He has brought on board Mal Brough of the infamous Slipper affair.

  4. kathysutherland2013

    Brilliant article. When will the urgency of climate change overcome self-interest? Not while our leaders remain in thrall to the big polluters.

  5. Sen Nearly Ile

    Wow, Kaye, such a serious dose of bleeding heart dribble brings tears to the eyes. The copper man gave you all the evidence you needed to make these assertions and that was sept 2013.
    ‘mother’ thrown in to show the importance of gene pooling?
    Gina or her national minions in the parliament?
    He is ticking all the boxes needed to give the voters a chance to repeat their mistake and $800m in a speech that would have do justice to peter sellers ‘.
    “My friends, in the light of present-day developments, let me say right away, that I do not regard existing conditions lightly. On the contrary, I have always regarded them as subjects of the gravest responsibility, and shall ever continue to do so.

    Indeed I will even go further and state, quite categorically, that I’m more than sensible of the definition of the precise issues which are, at this very moment, concerning us all.

    We must build, but we must build surely!”

    $800million is a figure people can be comfortable with. Of course, it is meaningless but the paris party will be over and forgotten by xmas and the money absorbed by a few Andrew Dyers, a couple of friendly expansion in the public service and some judicious advertising campaigns with the ‘look what malc is doing’ themes

  6. gonemango

    I had hope that we might turn this Titanic Fossil Fueled Australian ship of fools/fuels around… But I am losing it… the lesson of the Titanic was that if they’d turned earlier and more gently, they may have avoided the worst of the impact with the iceberg… Do we have to wait until chunks of Antarctic ice or rising sea levels are impeding shipping and coastal communities near Sydney or Melbourne to learn that we should have turned the ship long beforehand?

  7. helvityni

    Brilliant Kaye, it was clear even before Abbott became PM, that he would never be a good one. At least it was crystal clear to me (to ape Abbott).
    I had hopes for Mal, now I’m more than disappointed as I realise it’s been all about him, of him fulfilling his dream…getting the top job.

  8. Daniel Boon

    references to the Titanic are misguided; the Titanic was an isolated incident, where the rest of the world observed, commented and was largely unaffected

    what the likes of those in the LLNP (Liberal Labor National Party) and affiliate corporate run politicians the world over have brought us to is Easter Island, but on a global scale. There is no other island.

    Just as the Japanese politicians (and their families and friends) cannot escape Fukushima, politicians in Australia are seemingly oblivious to the fact there is no Planet B, nowhere for them to run to … or for their children and their children’s children

  9. Terry2

    Did I hear right ?

    Australia has declined to sign a communique in Paris committing to phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.

    This subsidy to miners – and farmers but they are not affected by this communique – costs us around $5 billion a year and the argument seems to be that miners don’t use public roads so why should they pay a tax to fund road building and maintenance for roads that only the rest of us use.

    So, the theory behind taxation, according to this argument is that it’s a user pay system and, by implication it is saying that all fuel excise goes into road building and maintenance.

    It seems that multinational companies have a reservoir of dodgy arguments to justify not paying tax, don’t they.

  10. Adrianne Haddow

    When the Cayman Islands are underwater due to the rising sea levels that climate change will bring, will Malcolm’s millions go under as well? And Gina’s.
    I certainly hope so.

  11. Michael Peters

    Thanks again Kaye – “I’m a lucky, alright jack” mumbles tumbles obviously likes playing the fiddle more than putting the fire out – it is us who have to break out of the mold we have come to accept created incrementally, unnoticed by media and group think and start thinking for ourselves and listening to those who are denigrated under our current well honed propaganda media – our political system is designed for us to surrender the power of (1+1)^n in the 4 minutes it takes to vote every 3-4 years (at three levels) – the balance of the time it is in the hands of those we call our representatives who succeed in seducing us to vote for them and then use their “smarts” to ignore as they know they cannot, as a group, be brought to heel in the mean time – I live in Abbott country and my non-representative is effectively occupied under the current politician’s work-for-the-dole scheme – time to consciously and actively step back and relook at the system which has evolved not by accident but by design by those seeking our power – time to think about creating a system of greater transparency and accountability?

  12. Matthew Oborne

    Understanding the shambles of the NBN would give anyone an idea of Mr Turnbulls ideals.

    Tens of billions of dollars, media announcements that areas already have the NBN but upon checking they actually don’t

    a team laid fibre in a pipe containing copper phone cables in the nearest large town to me in 2013 the copper wire had to be replaced because it was so brittle it broke, the insulation came off and many homes were disconnected.

    They stopped the rollout in november 2013 in that area as they did in a lot of areas.

    Contractors had to fight to get paid for their work and businesses went bankrupt.

    I spoke to a contractor who explained he went bankrupt after NBNco not paying him for completed work.

    In my immediate area fixed wireless Broadband was being connected to fibre on november 10, 2013, it never happened.

    As a result the company providing the fixed wireless services actually sold the service to an unknown provider.

    with no service wireless internet in my area was abandoned.

    We actually lost the only reliable service in the area because of the new direction of the NBN.

    Many Billions of dollars are being spent, the targets are not going to be met because the government deliberately slowed the rollout.

    Now they are talking about 12 mbps speeds less than half what they promised.

    A man who many journalists have written fawning articles over, praising his intelligence, his demeanor yet one of the most important infrastructure projects this country has seen in many decades has descended into a farce.

    One article on Turnbull praised how he talks to us like adults. How is he talking to us like adults?

    Assuming an adult is a responsible person and doesnt hide important matters have we heard him come clean over some very sticky issues?

    He avoids the asylum seeker issue, he avoids the NBN issue, he avoids the issue of the economy, he avoids the issue of our supposidly all important debt, he avoids issues about Tony Abbott, he avoids talking about the budget that saw a collapse in Liberal Party support,

    The Adult is only quite frank about terrorism, and even then he isnt actually saying the government used it as a tool.

    Turnbull isnt saying the government used fear to try to get ahead in the polls, he isnt saying every issue was looked at to see if if could be politiciesd or even better used as a wedge, he isnt saying our freedoms have further been eroded because Abbott wanted more votes.

    Elizabeths article in the SMH proposed Turnbull could lead with intelligence, bringing us into an era where government enters a golden epoch.

    Elizabeths article was complete rubbish, the one issue Turnbull was hinting at was the over reaction to terror, that is the one issue he seems to be willing to be an adult about.

    Cabinet minsters have more control, but think about it, Turnbull is desperate to keep his image clean and what better way to do that than to let cabinet do his dirty work.

    Every move Barrie Cassidy says is positive any intelligent person can see as a shrewd move by Turnbull, not an altruistic one.

    No one challenges him on his contradictions.

    Worse still we are most likely stuck with him for this golden era of smooth talk and smoke and mirrors.

  13. Roswell

    Your title alone says it all, Kaye.

  14. diannaart

    Thanks Kaye, have been thinking along the same lines.

    Abbott can be (kind of) excused for being a tool of the neo-cons – although, collectively, we should continue to question how such an imbecile could achieve high office.

    But Turnbull? There are no excuses, the news that he had declined Australia from signing agreement to stop rebates to miners, just sits and festers – why FFS? They pay minimal taxes, outsource their workers and degrade and pollute…. As for farmers included in the great rebate – well just protect the farmers and f*ck the miners.

  15. Roswell

    Terry, can’t see it in the news. The top story on news.com via my phone is – you guessed it – ISIS. In other words Turnbull’s done something that’ll disappoint most Australians. Let’s hide it behind an ISIS story.

  16. Chris the Greatly Dismayed

    And ‘Denier’ Julie Bishop is no better. In the last part of her ABC AM interview she effectively ‘outs’ herself as a climate change denier by using the term ‘natural disaster(s)’ 7 or 8 times.
    http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4363114.htm
    This is not natural. It is entirely a human made problem. She is talking to the ‘deniers’ using their ‘secret handshake’ language use.

  17. John Hermann

    Well said, Kaye. And it is not only on this issue that Malcolm has proven to be duplicitous. We are dealing here with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Abbott did not bother to wear gloves (velvet or otherwise), so at least we knew immediately what we were dealing with.

  18. margcal

    Turnbull was only ever going to be Abbott with better manners.
    Or should I say ‘some’ manners since Abbott had none that I noticed.

    To answer the question, how many names do you want, Kaye?
    And to be fair, the question should be gender inclusive since Gina wants to keep her job which will also kill the planet.

  19. Stringybark

    BRAVO Kaye, Turn(coat)bull is only interested in $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  20. Wally

    In this age of professional or career politicians we have many who aspire to be PM but naturally talented leaders are lacking in both of the major parties. Selecting the person to lead the party is no longer about finding the best man (or woman) for the job, it is a decision on who will bolster ones own political ambitions the most. Times when honesty and integrity were key ingredients to even be considered for a ministerial position seem like folk law or fairy tales nowadays.

  21. RosemaryJ36

    We need to look towards what enabled Jeremy Corbyn to win the leadership of the British Labour party. It is the policies the person espouses, not their desire to lead or their popularity which are critical.

  22. Friday

    Wow rosemary, Corbyn??? You will be hoping for a Whitlam next! Jeremy is of that era and whilst abbott was dragging us back even further past corbyn’s fifes, drums and growing cabbages oops yes come to think of it time to ditch coleworth and barter a bit???
    Loved your ‘super profits’, Kaye, what a shame that got sidetracked by twiggy and gina in the west right up there with dumping Pratt for a hack.

  23. Janice Warne

    ” poor fella, my country!”

  24. Roswell

    Is Malcolm Turnbull a politician or a profiteer?

  25. diannaart

    @Roswell

    … definitely starts with “p” whatever he is…

  26. Kaye Lee

    A pretend pluralist pontificating platitudes to the plaudits of the public. A populist placed in a position of power purely due to polls – a more plausible peddler of the perpetual propaganda that profit is preferable to probity.

    (or a pretentious prick?)

  27. diannaart

    All of the above?

    You must have your super-inspirational jammies on today.

    😀

  28. Kaye Lee

    I actually have my “Wild about Moo” nightie on with a picture of a pink cow. Inspiration deserts me on a connection but I will ponder 😉

  29. babyjewels10

    Great article, said it all for me.

  30. Rod Upward

    Well said Kaye Lee.

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