THE PARTY’S OVER FOR DELUSIONAL LABOR LEADERS
Failure to instigate a royal commission into integrity crisis highlights just how out of touch with reality and arrogant our politicians have become in their bid to stay on top
ONE of the great truths about modern-day politicians is that they are only lying when their lips are moving.
It goes with the territory. The discipline of being part of a major party such as Labor and the LNP amplifies the deception. Step out of line and it’s purgatory. That means whatever the leader says, goes.
Nowhere do we see it so starkly demonstrated than with Queensland Labor. Integrity crisis? What integrity crisis? Ambulance ramping and chronic health underperformance? Pull the other leg.
Public service dysfunctionality? Please.
The art to being a good politician is not so much the lie, but the omission by design and the very clever trick of deflection.
If you say it over and over again, those pesky voters might just believe you. Even if it’s complete and utter rot.
Just recently, I wrote a story saying that the Labor Party in Queensland stacked the judiciary with its own left-leaning judges and magistrates. All political parties do it, so it was no big deal.
The real story came the next day when AttorneyGeneral Shannon Fentiman said every Labor judicial decision since 2016 had come from a short-list provided by expert panels.
This was not true. In 2017,
This government is an unmitigated disaster, the worst since Federation, and more dodgy than anything BjelkePetersen could even dream.
then attorney-general Yvette D’ath chose five magistrates from 20 short-listed, and appointed three of her own.
So they either inadvertently or purposely misled. Enter Treasurer Cameron Dick, who told the world that the stories were an attack on women in the judiciary.
It was not about gender, but integrity. The government said one thing and did exactly the opposite and Mr Dick, a former attorney-general, used the gender card.
Shameless rubbish. Now you have Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon in denial.
Ms Scanlon has a bright future within Labor. She has the backing of an electionwinning machine, the castiron discipline of the Left faction, her undoubted ability to stay on message, and the fact she is a cabinet minister at such a young age. Unquestionably, Premier material.
However, she has backed the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s ill-fated claim that warring senior public servants Nikola Stepanov and Rob Setter should get in a room with a mediator and sort out their differences.
Ms Stepanov has alleged bullying on the part of Mr Setter, who denies the allegation.
Ms Scanlon said: “That’s ultimately a way in which it can be sorted out. That is the proper course of action.’’
This breaks every human resource rule in the book. It is not the way to deal with a workplace bullying issue, and Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Scanlon should know better.
Second, Ms Scanlon talks glowingly of Queensland Labor’s transparency credentials, rejecting calls for a standing royal commission into its integrity woes.
Dismissing the outcry as “political mudslinging’’, she said: “We’re a government that wants to make sure we do everything in the public interest.’’
Mmmmm. Like conducting government business on private emails to escape scrutiny? Like changing annual reports by the state archivist that highlighted integrity issues?
Like allowing unions to influence government decision-making? Like providing health exemptions to wives and girlfriends of footy players while denying “ordinary’’ people the chance to see their loved ones?
The list is too long. Suffice to say Ms Scanlon’s comments are nonsensical, delusional and an affront to anybody who values their vote in Queensland.
This government is an unmitigated disaster, the worst since Federation, and more dodgy than anything Bjelke-petersen could even dream.
It has the might and power of a massive ministerial presssecretary unit, with recent claims that they are often used as part of the argy-bargy of political gunslinging.
It was Tony Fitzgerald, in his first report of 1989, that warned of the dangers of excessive media units.
It’s time voters had a long, hard look at the way their politicians do business.
It’s not pretty and we deserve so much better.