‘Brain snap’ politics

WHAT the hell is happening to our politics?

Just as some tranquillity entered the turbulence of Canberra (though not much the leaking from disaffected Libs continues) and state politics has turned into a Spring St sandpit fight.

The seething outrage coming from the Labor Government over their deepening problems with the ‘red shirts affair’ is almost palpable.

They are particularly angry at being tipped in to the police and are acting like the Opposition has breached some sort of club rules over the matter. But this rage is making the Andrews’ Government have too many ‘brainsnap’ moments — that would never have happened had cooler heads prevailed. There are three in particular, all pretty recent.

Firstly the Deputy Premier’s own referral of claimed Opposition rorting to police in what was a patently obvious attempted return volley over the red shirts complaint — but with no detail of the rorting revealed publicly.

Second, Jacinta Allan being sent out to threaten to pull Sky from metro train station feeds on a shaky foundation of dud assumptions.

And perhaps the worst of all: this decision to table cabinet in confidence documents in an effort to embarrass Opposition Leader Matthew Guy.

Well, mission accomplished on the one hand — the documents seem to reveal Mr Guy wasting public money to save his own political career.

But at what cost? And who really ‘wins’?

A long held protocol that you allow governments some shade in which to lead now lies in tatters on the floor. Senior Government figures are uncomfortable with it.

The Andrews Government is starting to act unhinged.

Despite being in a potential election-winning position, it is jumping at shadows and acting as if Mr Guy runs a more effective Opposition than he actually does. And while the epithets of ‘grubs’ and ‘sook’ fly across the aisle Victorians wonder when the pollies will get down to working for them.