Opinion: Greed-driven politicians set a sorry example for millennials

WE INSTIL in our children the need to be honest in their dealings with others, so how do we explain to them that the people elected to serve them in high office are driven by greed and a sense of entitlement?

Former health minister Sussan Ley’s lack of anything resembling a moral compass is but the latest in a litany of tawdry revelations which suggest politicians are only in it for themselves.

MY stepson celebrated his 21st birthday this week which, as well as making me feel very old, caused me to wonder at the example being set for him by his elders.

As a 21-year-old male, you’re not inclined to seek the advice or opinions of anyone outside your circle of mates. For this I am grateful, because, if asked, I would have to implore him to ignore the values worn so shamelessly by the people he ought to respect.

How do you explain to a well-educated youth with limited life experience that the people elected to some of the most powerful positions in the land are driven by greed and a sense of entitlement?

What parent has not impressed upon their children in their earliest years the need to be honest in their dealings with others and to respect their property?

As they attain adulthood, how do these children reconcile these tenets with the actions of those who have sworn to serve them in high office?

How to explain that Federal Opposition frontbenchers Chris Bowen and Brendan O’Connor thought it acceptable to take their respective families with them to Darwin during the 2015 school holidays at a cost to the taxpayer of more than $23,000? They were there, of course, on business and it was all within “the rules”. Of course it was, but it was immoral.

In the three years to June last year, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten spent $123,114 on “family travel”.

Disgraced former Liberal health minister Sussan Ley’s lack of anything resembling a moral compass is but the latest in a litany of tawdry revelations which suggest that politicians are only in it for what they can get out of it – a failing that affects those of all political colours.

If my stepson waits at the station for the train that never comes and he asks me why, what do I tell him?

That the unions run Queensland Rail and that the Government does what the unions dictate because with their financial muscle, they control it?

Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has blamed everyone but Donald Trump for the railways debacle.

How do I explain to him that the Transport Minister has blamed everyone but Donald Trump for the railways debacle and refuses to do the honourable thing and resign?

“But surely” he may ask, “if you screw up you should shoulder the blame and not try and lie your way out of it? How can he get away with behaviour like that?”

If he asks, then I will have no answer other than to say that there are no honourable men or women in power with the guts to make it otherwise.

My stepson is about to launch into the next phase of his life within a political system run by party and trade union insiders who treat the people with contempt.

We can only hope that he and others of his cohort, with whom rests the future of the nation, will not be tainted by the venality and arrogance that surrounds them and to their own selves, be true.