CARRYING ON LIKE A BUNCH OF SCHOOL KIDS
We often talk in the media about how governments lose their way, become sloppy and lazy, and start believing in their own invincibility
WHEN I was 10 years old, my Year 5 class took a trip to Canberra where we saw how money was made at the Royal Australian Mint, we inspected the war memorial and even visited the High Court, with all its pomp and ceremony.
Blue Poles, by Jackson Pollock, had just been hung in the National Gallery after being bought for an obscene amount back then of $1.3m. It’s now worth $300m. It was a nice painting but I didn’t understand all the fuss.
The highlight of the trip was undoubtedly a tour of Parliament House, the old parliament which had cedar floors and stairs, infused with stale cigar and pipe tobacco smoke.
It was so posh, so austere, so regal, so right for these mostly important men who were known as politicians.
As we watched Question Time, dressed in their dark suits and straight ties, they demanded respect and there was an almost evangelical feel to their long-winded, complex answers at the dispatch box.
It was a long forgotten era. Fast-forward to 2022 and take a look at the way our politicians behave now while in parliament.
Federal parliament has become a rabble, a reflection on how we have allowed our political class to become B-graders.
They become arrogant, out of touch and are so in awe of their own ability, they have love bites on their mirrors at home
But if you want to see real democracy at work (not), grab a coffee and hang out at state parliament during Question Time.
Order! Order! Fair dinkum, they carry on like school kids. We often talk in the media about how governments lose their way, become sloppy and lazy, and start believing in their own invincibility.
They become arrogant, out of touch and are so in awe of their own ability, they have love bites on their mirrors at home.
Welcome to the Palaszczuk government Class of 2022. This mob are so unjustifiably pleased with themselves it’s nauseating.
Health crisis? What health crisis? We opened a couple of country hospitals last week. Nothing to see here about ramping, despite Queensland having the worst ambulance ramping figures in Australia.
Then there’s the “let’s blame Scomo’’ line. Or the old chestnut of “let’s blame
Campbell Newman’’, despite the fact he hasn’t been in government for seven years.
Heaven help government ministers and their minders if Albo wins next Saturday. They’ll be blaming aliens from outer space if they can’t pin it on Scomo.
Then there’s the hubris and arrogance over integrity. Annastacia Palaszczuk won in 2015 by promising transparency and being an open book on corruption and integrity.
Yet this government has ministers who communicate privately on Cabinet matters, despite it being against the law.
They have Ministers who routinely take their instructions from union bosses, even allegedly supplying those unionists with confidential
Cabinet documents.
They have ministers who tell estimates hearings they don’t interfere with the day to day running of statutory bodies, yet evidence is consistently presented in parliament that they do.
When confronted with integrity woes, the Premier says there’s nothing to see, and she’ll just order another inquiry. Yes Minister, another inquiry to get it off the front pages of the newspapers.
This is a terrible, complacent, morally bankrupt government, run by the unions and Labor’s Left faction.
It is anti-free enterprise and is shackled by mediocrity. It is run by a dysfunctional public service that panders to Labor ideology, championed by the Ministry.
It is broke, with debt approaching $100bn, but it
spends like a drunken sailor because that can be paid on another day, by our grandchildren.
It is those grandchildren who go to university and get brainwashed by leftist teachers, who believe the cult known as the Labor-greens will save the planet, albeit they’ll shiver in winter and roast in summer because the cost of electricity will be an arm and a leg.
And to think next Saturday we will likely elect a Labor government to run the country. Ask any New Zealander how their darling Labor PM Jacinda Ardern is going? Why do you think so many come to the Gold Coast?
If you vote Labor in this country, you need an intervention. They are slowly but surely sending us to the poor house.