SCOMO GETS THE MESSAGE AND GETS GOING ON BIG ISSUES

IT was announced this week that farmers will receive $2 million in interest-free loans to help fight the drought. It’s the last big spend from the Prime Minister to help the people who are hurt most by the big dry.

Now I know that nothing will be enough for some, and of course these payments aren’t for everyone in regional Australia, but I think it’s getting too hard to complain that the government isn’t listening. In fact, I think it’s quite the opposite.

The very first thing Scott Morrison did when he became PM was go to the drought. He’s already made billions of dollars’ worth of decisions to fight the tough times and has served up big money for dams in some parts of the country.

I spoke to the PM for my Sky News show this week and he was quick to point out that if the drought remains this tough in two years, there’s a good chance they will extend the interest-free period.

I asked him “why not just give the money as grants or outright aid?” He said; “Farms aren’t charities, they are businesses and these loans are an investment in keeping properties alive until it rains and their owners are able to start paying it back.”

Anyone who says drought is simple to deal with isn’t telling the truth. There will always be more for government to do and some people will be on the wrong side of any criteria set up.

But believe me, this Prime Minister gets it and the help isn’t over yet.

Not by a long shot.

Thousands of forestry workers in Victoria face the sack after the most woke government in the country decided to ban logging in old growth forests. The announcement came totally out of the blue for nearly 2000 workers in

Gippsland and is being hailed by inner city types because it will save possum populations.

Of course, there are all these buzzwords making this decision seem far less harsh than it actually is. Words like “transition” and “phase out” flowed from the Premier. But all these poor workers heard was “you’re fired”.

When government swings an axe like this it never works out well. Think of the damage done when Gillard stopped live exports overnight or when the NSW Liberals wanted to kill off greyhound racing.

There is a real human cost to the warm inner glow that the ruling class feel when they make decisions like this.

Thousands of people don’t know how they’ll pay the bills, hundreds won’t know what job they can look for now, and so many towns will struggle to keep their main street busy with no workers to buy from the shops.

But that’s ok, as long as the possums are good.

First it was Turnbull’s bonking ban, now Queensland has a booze ban.

How can Annastacia Palaszczuk expect people to trust her government when she can’t trust her ministers with alcohol? This week, the Queensland Premier banned her minister from drinking at official events after reports of two rather strange incidents.

The first apparently involved a figure in the party’s left wing being escorted out of a sporting event. The other claims her deputy Premier took a lit candelabra out of the parliamentary dining room.

She denies it happened without the dining room staff’s approval, but it’s fair to wonder why anyone would need to go anywhere in parliament by candlelight?

Apparently, the Premier read the riot act to her ministers and has promised to sack anyone caught mucking up again. This sort of rubbish doesn’t happen when a government is focused and at the top of their game. This sort of messy stuff are the acts of people who have become too comfortable in the seat of power. They are prone to arrogance and for all the billions that will be promised between now and the 2020 election, normal people remember weeks like these.

Queenslanders have a very good BS meter and it’s beeping loudly about the current mob in charge.