Stupidity reigns in nation’s capital
THE major parties and their leaders come under tough but important scrutiny from the press.
But it is also important to remember that the people who come up with the nuttiest stuff — who really go off reservation — are more likely to belong to the more minor and fringe parties.
The sort of outfits you might be tempted to vote for as a protest or as a kind of frustrated tantrum but that probably won’t guarantee good and stable government.
This week there were two such incidents from the minor leagues that brought this point home.
Greens MP Adam Bandt was forced to apologise after calling new Liberal Senator and former Major General Jim Molan a “coward” and probable war criminal.
This seems to be part of a deliberate new outlandish and provocative strategy that saw Mr Bandt call Immigration Minister Peter Dutton a “terrorist”.
The other outbreak of nuttery came from Independent MP Cathy McGowan who flagged she would be willing to table a motion banning politicians having relationships with staffers.
The wowserish Victorian-era idea was motivated by the tumultuous personal life of Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, whose marriage breakdown and former staffer-turned-pregnant baby mama have been all over the papers this week.
Such a “Barnaby’s law” would be a terrible intrusion by the state into romantic matters concerning consenting adults.
Many relationships are formed in the workplace.
And our free society no longer has religious figures dictating what should occur in the bedrooms of consenting adults. Australians made their thoughts on that matter quite clear in last year’s gay marriage plebiscite.
Perhaps instead of slandering soldiers and regulating relationships, our MPs could turn their minds to creating policies to improve people’s lives.