We’ve been betrayed by our pathetic political parties
THE Australian political class is now as lost as Burke and Wills and Ludwig Leichhardt. The current leaders of all parties represented in Canberra are absolutely woeful.
Opinion
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THE Australian political class is now as lost as Burke and Wills and Ludwig Leichhardt.
The current leaders of all parties represented in Canberra are absolutely woeful.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is weak and indecisive, Labor’s Bill Shorten is downright shifty and hypocritical beyond belief and the Greens leader Richard di Natale is an unabashed populist.
Governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove must be well aware of the profound disappointment and frustration felt by the populace but must await action from the prime minister before he can act.
Prudently, it would seem he is not about to add to the turmoil by calling on the reserve powers attached to his office to call for an election.
Malcolm “I’ve never had more fun” Turnbull seems so detached from the real world that some colleagues are wondering whether he is suffering from early onset dementia.
Shorten is as blind to the very real prospect that his side harbours probable dual nationals Justine Keay, Susan Lamb and Katy Gallacher.
The public is sick of this. The compromise position that Turnbull and Shorten have been discussing does nothing to dispel the view that there is one set of standards for politicians and another for the much put-upon public.
Like the Aboriginal activists who want to inflict an apartheid-like separate discussion and advisory chamber for themselves, like the aggressive anti-border security demonstrators who attacked former PM Tony Abbott’s sister Christine Foster on Friday night, like the mobs rallied by GetUp, like the violent and intolerant Yes campaigners and like the ACTU’s Sally McManus who is quite comfortable with union thugs breaking the law, they have lost touch with middle Australia.
Most Australians don’t want to think about politics — ever — but particularly as we approach Christmas.
The perception of government has slid so far down the scale since the Howard years that the public would probably be very happy not to have to endure another sitting of parliament until the middle of next year.
Australians used to be good at picking shonks. Now we send them to Canberra.
To a great degree, the calibre of candidate presented by all sides of politics is disgraceful. Branch stacking is rife, Labor is so indebted to the union movement that it cannot detach itself from historically corrupt unions like the CMFEU, the Liberal leadership has been inept and permitted lobbyists like NSW’s Michael Photios to run their preselections.
The cost of these failures has been wounding.
The actual process of government has been outsourced.
The electricity market — which gave us the cheapest and most reliable power supply just 10 years ago now provides the most expensive and unreliable energy in the world.
We used to value planning but now we launch into economy-destroying projects with no regard to cost and dismal management.
Labor has shackled the economy with the NBN, the NDIS and Gonski and the Turnbull government has added to the bill with submarines and frigates.
We’re being treated like a Third World country by the French
The Chief of Staff of the French navy, Admiral Christophe Prazuck told the defence committee of the National Assembly in July: “The first vessel will enter (French) service late, around 2020, instead of 2017. It’s not a scooter but a machine that is difficult to build and mistakes have been made that need to be identified, corrected and then made up for.”
Right, and if you think those corrections and delays and the huge cost increases will be the last, think again.
Our own submarine program — run by the hapless Defence Industry Minister Christopher “let me call GetUp” Pyne and the Defence Minister Marise Payne who seem oblivious to this latest setback — is inevitably going to suffer.
We’re being treated like a Third World country by the French who have a sad track record of doing this to their customers. We are naive, we didn’t perform the necessary due diligence and every argument of all those who said they preferred the French solution has been deflated and shown to be flawed.
Every other advanced western navy, take Norway, Israel, Singapore, South Korea, has been buying advanced subs at a third to a quarter at what our navy is budgeting and getting their subs quicker.
Surely Turnbull is author of his own misfortune
The budget blowout from this disaster will make the NBN look a church fete overrun.
We should be a smarter country, we used to be a smarter country.
Our Budgets now run to two or three times over what sensible countries spend and it is all politically driven.
This cannot continue. While there may be no appetite for leadership change in Canberra, there is a growing hunger in the community.
The concerted push by smug Pyne and his cronies to make the Liberals less conservative has been a disaster.
Some deluded commentators (are these delcoms?) say doing nothing is better than acting decisively and they blame Abbott for all of the government’s woes.
But surely Turnbull is author of his own misfortune, and now he should show that has a smidgen of courage and a shred of responsibility for the party he has done so much to destroy.
A circuit breaker is urgently needed and a return to decisive prudent leadership.