Piers Akerman: Green-Labor progressives happy to jeopardise lives for their political agenda
Australians will be rolling the dice with their future if they back the flawed politics of Green-Labor, because selfish progressives are happy to jeopardise lives to promote items in their political agenda, writes Piers Akerman.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Self-proclaimed Green-Labor progressives are happy to sacrifice lives to promote items in their political agenda.
Whether it is blocking reliable coal-powered electricity generators, encouraging illegal immigrants to risk their lives in leaky boats or offering young partygoers the false hope that pill-testing will miraculously guarantee the safety of the illicit drugs they wish to use, the Left is nothing but lethal.
This is what being “woke” is really about, to use the dreadful terminology of the careless. It is about self, not about being selfless.
What a stark and compelling contrast to the two men honoured this Australia Day weekend as Australians of the Year.
Cave divers Craig Challen and Richard Harris, against the odds, showed leadership when hope was all but lost and rescued the team of 12 young Thai soccer players in a drama that played out before a global audience.
There were no finer ambassadors for the true Aussie spirit of can do than these men last year.
Labor, of course, would insist that there should have been a woman included, because it is the party of quotas not merit.
Its ferocious feminist lobby might even have ignored the incredible feat carried out by the duo because there were no girls in the team.
MORE FROM PIERS AKERMAN
VOTERS HAVE A REAL CHOICE AT FEDERAL ELECTION
PRICE PROVES HER WORTH AMONG HEADLINE GRABBERS
HARWIN’S CLIMATE VIRTUE SIGNALLING A RECIPE FOR DISASTER
But these two heroes celebrated life and put their lives on the line to save lives, not dud policies.
Recall the response to the tragic loss of more than 200 men and women and children at sea in 2011 of the deluded Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who remarked: “Tragedies happen, accidents happen.”
It was absolutely emblematic of the attitude of those elected by the inner-urban elites.
Fashionable virtue-signalling policies on issues like border control, inefficient and unreliable energy, and illegal drug use are all about attracting the votes of the young and misinformed, by politicians who would prefer the voting age (and the age of consent) be lowered to attract more ignorant voters to their banner before they have the maturity to make informed decisions.
What those on the Green-Left want more than anything is to make Australians feel guilty for living in a wonderful country because they feel uncomfortable enjoying the legacy created by past generations of hardworking Australians. To assuage that guilty feeling they want to punish current generations.
Cut their electricity for no valid reason, remove all border control restrictions so anyone who feels they should live in Australia would be able to do so — and if some die in the meantime, well, that’s not a huge problem.
The same goes for illicit drug usage because it is supported by Left-leaning voters who claim that restrictions on the opportunity to self-harm are an abuse of individual freedom.
Last week Senator Hanson-Young’s absurd thoughts on the lives lost at sea were matched in their thoughtlessness by the view of her state colleague, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who admitted taking the illegal drug MDMA since she was in her 20s.
Tellingly, the 48-year-old wouldn’t say whether she took the drug when she was working as an MP. “I have been prepared to admit I took drugs in my 20s and that continued into my adult life. I’m not willing to go down a line of inquiry into who, what, when, where, how for obvious reasons. I’m not going to go there,” she said.
To do so might bring into question whether she was entirely sober when supporting some of the crazier Green policies in state parliament.
Given the wacko positions of many of the Greens, it might be safer to plead that drugs influenced the votes rather than insanity.
Five people have died at music festivals in NSW in as many months, but health care workers say pill-testing would not necessarily have saved their lives.
The NSW and Victoria police commissioners strongly rejected pill testing in the lead-up to the Australia Day long weekend, when several musical festivals were scheduled to take place.
NSW Commissioner Mick Fuller nailed it when he said pill testing advocates “want to legalise drugs by stealth”, and his Victorian counterpart Graham Ashton said it would be unlikely to save lives.
Even Opposition leader Bill Shorten, who admits to having “done something” (smoked cannabis at university) is opposed to pill testing as a solution.
“You can’t. These are illicit drugs. They are wrong. People may think they are going to have fun, but they are actually very dangerous,” Mr Shorten said.
“I speak to the paramedics and the health experts, they say that you can’t just rely on pill testing because it can only pick up certain warning signs and not other warning signs.”
This weekend thousands of young people misled by the advocates of so-called recreational drug use will gamble their lives and ingest substances that could kill them.
There is no safe drug use, as NSW chief toxicologist Professor Andrew Dawson, who has intimate knowledge of the five fatalities, said.
In the heat of an Australian summer, drug-induced overheating increases the likelihood of death.
“Once your temperature starts going above about 41 degrees, you’re at a temperature where you start cooking an egg. So the proteins in the body start poaching and you get multiple organs shut down. And that’s actually what causes the death. Patients can very rapidly deteriorate,” he warned.
Drug testing trials risk encourage drug use, and because there is no safe drug use he would instead like to see more medical staff at festivals and greater early intervention through education campaigns.
Gosford Local Court magistrate Alex Mijovich, who last week dealt with the first six of 50 people stopped by police attempting to smuggle drugs into a music festival, realistically issued convictions and warned that they were “rolling the dice” with their lives by taking drugs.
When it comes to this year’s elections, Australians will be “rolling the dice” with their future if they back the flawed politics of Green-Labor.
Bond: It’s not Coles and Woolies’ fault you’re broke
Anthony Albanese would love you to think Coles and Woolies are behind your battered bank balance. Don’t fall for it, writes Caleb Bond.
Gin bottles leave Webb stranded on the rocks
In the latest bizarre twist, Police Commissioner Karen Webb said that she gave two bottles of gin to a PR company after she employed the same firm for media training when she was in the running for her top job.