Voters need to face reality or suffer the consequences
With the NSW election now less than two weeks away and the federal election just over two months out, voters appear to in a fog over the core issues. They shouldn’t be, Piers Akerman writes.
- ‘I know George Pell and that man cannot be guilty’
- Voters get sinking feeling they still can’t trust Labor
With the NSW election now less than two weeks away and the federal election just over two months out, voters appear to in a fog over the core issues.
They shouldn’t be. The crux of the Coalition-Labor/Green divide is hiding in plain sight.
While the Berejiklian Coalition government has allowed itself to be dragged into an unnecessary debate about one new stadium by professional Left/Green Labor activists, it has overall performed well and is well on the way to delivering overdue roads and hospitals that will ensure infrastructure is not neglected as it was under previous Labor governments.
The federal Coalition shows a similar lack of coherence in its argument for re-election though the employment figures are strong it, too, has made sound investments that will deliver real benefits, not the least being the Nancy Bird Walton Western Sydney airport.
Given Australia’s totally inconsequential contribution to global CO2 emissions, there should be little argument about ensuring we have reliable, affordable base load power but the hysteria of activists and the slavishness with which the ABC and the Nine Media group headline nonsensical apocalyptic claims by GetUp-supported figures such as Zali Steggall, who backs a completely lunatic economy-crippling 60 per cent reduction in emissions, guarantees endless discussion that only serves to obfuscate genuine debate.
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Ms Steggall has nothing to contribute to policy and is a puppet in the hands of those who wish to see the former prime minister Tony Abbott lose Warringah and the Coalition defeated.
Those in the media who give credence to such self-interested bodies as the Climate Institute should acknowledge that they are not government organisations and that they have rejected offers to debate the actual science with any of the scientists who disagree with the IPCC, which has had to revise its own demonstrably flawed data.
Border protection is another issue which gets obscured in the blizzard of emotive reporting emanating from the taxpayer-funded ABC and the former Fairfax stable.
Fact — there are now no children in immigration detention. Fact — under Labor and the Greens there were 50,000 illegal boat arrivals. Fact — there at least 1200 deaths at sea under the Green/Left government.
Fact — former Liberal PM John Howard stopped the boats. Fact — former Liberal PM Tony Abbott stopped the boats. Opposition leader Bill Shorten is at the mercy of the Left and the lethal trafficking in humans will be rebooted should Labor win the election.
The public apathy toward politics is understandable. The experiment with the Turnbull government was like a reality television show and the antics of the former Liberal Julia Banks and former foreign minister Julie Bishop are ensuring that this disastrous period in the Liberal Party’s history will not be forgotten while they still have the ability to strike out at their former colleagues.
Neither was a major contributor to domestic policy and they should have the grace to leave with a display of gratitude toward the party which provided their livelihoods and identity.
Away from the fairy floss of these characters and the hype and tripe of the climate debate, and the number of women in parliament, the real debate is waiting to be had.
The link to that debate was revealed in a decision delivered by Judge Egan in the Federal Circuit Court in a case brought by the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner against CFMEU delegate Peter Joseph D’Arcy and his union, the outlaw CFMEU.
Judge Egan found that D’Arcy had told a worker, Phillip Potter, that he and those waiting to begin work on a project would not be permitted to unless he joined the CFMEU and paid approximately $500 in union fees.
Mr Potter told D’Arcy he would only be on the job for a couple of days, adding: “So I’m basically coming up here to work for nothing.”
D’Arcy replied to Mr Potter: “Well, that’s just the way it is.”
Judge Egan noted the coercion and also noted the delegate’s indifference to the worker. The judge said neither D’Arcy or the union had shown any remorse nor had there been an apology. He fined D’Arcy $6480, 60 per cent of the maximum penalty and the union $48,600, or 90 per cent of the maximum.
Fact — under Labor and the Greens there were 50,000 illegal boat arrivals. Fact — there at least 1200 deaths at sea under the Green/Left government.
This was an errant display of naked union power properly called out and prosecuted under laws introduced by a past Labor government — laws which Mr Shorten has told his union backers that he will speedily repeal. Mr Shorten has form when it comes to selling out workers and empowering union officials. No one should forget his scandalous sellout of CleanEvent workers which cost 5000-odd lowly paid workers as much as $400 million in reduced conditions.
Former CleanEvent senior executive Steve Hunter told The Australian in 2015 the 1998 sweetheart agreement left workers far worse off and had been denied to CleanEvent’s rivals, placing them at a disadvantage.
In return, AWU-Victoria was able to artificially bolster membership giving it greater power. Mr Shorten has told unions he wants to run the country like a trade union but workers have deserted them with membership now less than 15 per cent of the total workforce.
The illegal activity by the CFMEU highlighted here is only part of the reason.
The electorate must wake up to the harsh realities — not dream about windmills and gender fluid Millennials. Or suffer very real consequences.
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