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‘Wind power for Warringah has a nice ring to it’

Your say on the Messiah from the Shire’s help from his friends, Albo’s contortions, and the left’s own goal.

Zany Zali Steggall: Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind. Picture: AAP
Zany Zali Steggall: Like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind. Picture: AAP

Welcome to the column where you provide the content. The Mocker channelled ScoMo this week in an imagined victory speech on how he got elected with a little help from his non-Coalition friends, from Bill Shorten to the Bandana Man, and from a tone-deaf GetUp to Zali Steggall, who would preside over a Warringah that would become a model for fighting climate change. Tim thought The Mocker’s call for a ban on gas-guzzling SUVs like Ms Steggall’s didn’t go far enough:

“Wind power for Warringah has a nice ring about it. The beaches and foreshore are a good place for the wind turbines as according to Ms Steggall they will be flooded by rising sea levels anyway.”

Nice, said Nancy:

“I was hoping for wind towers on the five golf courses, for Warringah, and of course, along the beach, Is that too much to ask?”

PatrickJD pitched:

“Those wind turbines would be wonderful hazards of the course. Sweeping turbine blades above a putting green would make for good sport.

Peter putted:

“You’d need to watch your balls, they could be blown away.”

Andy’s assessment:

“So many people, so out of touch, the lefty bubble so popped last weekend.”

SC was sad:

“It’s sure going to be a long, boring, irrelevant, lonely and ineffectual 3 years for Zany Climate Zali sitting there in the house of reps.”

Wacky race: ScoMo and the peeps who made it all possible.
Wacky race: ScoMo and the peeps who made it all possible.

Well played, said Paul:

“One is expected to win graciously, but that can wait until a big ‘We told you so’. Such a large conceptual disconnect between the elite left and the rest who compromise the ‘engine room’, heart and soul of this beloved Sunburnt Country.

“And the PM’s ‘God Bless Australia’ as the finale of his victory speech is etched forever as both an “I’m one of you’ statement to most of us and a verbal ‘poke your tongue out’ at those who are too intelligent to believe anything could be greater than them.”

Ian arced up:

“Next time the National Electricity Grid requires urgent load shedding, like when it is bitterly cold or stinking hot, can they turn off the divisions of Warringah and Melbourne first and longest!”

Mirth from MBA:

“I can’t stop laughing, what a bunch of absolute dropkicks! Australia dodged a massive bullet. The constant fawning over Jacinda by lefty women like Wilkinson is absolutely nauseating!

“She’s just another virtue signalling socialist. I’ll take ScoMo over her any day. As my hairdresser said yesterday, he’s like a dad, goofy but you can tell he has your interests at heart.”

Ginny gloated:

“Please add to this ‘roll of dishonour’ the following (in no particular order of merit): Bob Brown, Activist Fran Kelly, Robyn Williams of the science Show, Phillip Adams, Tim Flannery, and Ellen Fanning.”

Gareth goaded:

“All petrol stations to be closed in Warringah forthwith.”

Gorrilaz marketing: Windmill, windmill for the land, turn forever hand-in-hand.
Gorrilaz marketing: Windmill, windmill for the land, turn forever hand-in-hand.

Mike mooted:

“Not necessary. A carbon tax, with import duties applied to all fossil fuels carried in vehicles entering this little corner of Utopia, would do it. All power costs to be tripled so as to reflect the will of the people to save the planet; and may I suggest re-naming the electorate to Venezuela?”

Karen crowed:

“One of our neighbours, probably the biggest dropkicks in the street, had the music up and a little party happening, which started around 6.00pm Saturday night. These people always party until the early hours of the morning, but everything strangely went quiet by 9.00pm. Not the result the poor little petals were hoping to celebrate!”

Paul proffered:

“Don’s Party?”

Summing up, Stewart:

“For me the election was the triumph of the silent majority over petulant, aggressive, arrogant, sneering hypocrites that totally misread the feelings of people like myself, an employer now retired that worked for 40 years only to have career politicians and socialist commentators think it was acceptable to raid my super and redistribute it on their hair brained agendas.

“My great thanks go to Chris Bowen whose invaluable advice was ‘if you don’t like our policies don’t vote for us’.”

Do the Twist: I came, I saw, I contorted. Illustration by Eric Lobbecke
Do the Twist: I came, I saw, I contorted. Illustration by Eric Lobbecke

Anthony Albanese performed some political contortions to emerge poised to take over the Labor leadership, the reformed Tory fighter remodelled as a Hawke-style pro-growth, no-class-war figure. Noel said nay:

“Albanese has the perfect post-education work history for a Labor leader: University, research officer to a Labor politician, Assistant General Secretary NSW ALP, policy adviser to NSW Labor Premier, federal politician.

“No jobs outside the bubble. No small business experience. No experience in regional or rural centres. Just climbing the ladder and riding the gravy train. Drain the swamp.”

So true, said Sophie:

“This explains Labor lovers too — inner-city elites with no life outside this who sneer at people in regional Australia just like the ABC does. Where are the politicians with life experience?’

From John:

“As a blue collar coal miner, union member all my life, working night shift doing an extra overtime to put my kids through uni, why am I a bad person in the eyes of the Labor Party all of a sudden?”

Envy, vidi, vici: Class war’s over if you want it. Picture: John Feder
Envy, vidi, vici: Class war’s over if you want it. Picture: John Feder

Stuart said:

“Ex CFMEU member, I worked in pits in the Hunter, Wollongong and Bowen Basins. There is not a day that goes by that makes me think the Labor Party is there for me.”

Said Greg:

“ ‘The core of Labor’s agenda has been job creation’? Absolute rubbish, you and your coalition partners, the rabid Greens, have been actively preventing job creation in Queensland by blocking Adani.

“You have been intent on destroying small business with your tax agenda and penalty rates agenda. Your core agenda has been appealing to the inner city trendites and to hell with the workers of this country.”

Comment of the week to reasonable Rick’s reinterpretation and recipe for a reset:

“That is what they believe, regardless of lapses, just as the Libs believe they are superior economic managers, regardless of lapses like the Howard/Fraser recession of 1983 or Abbott’s failure to reign in the inherited deficit.

“I think what would be more accurate is to say that Labor is traditionally concerned about maintaining employment in unionised industries: unemployed and under-employed non-unionists get looked after by welfare but not by jobs.

“That was their flaw during the Hawke/Keating years, for example. If you are not part of the corporate scene — big business, govt, unions — they traditionally don’t have much interest.

“Rudd/Gillard/Rudd were a little better, I think, but still the tendency runs deep. If I were Labor, I would start by going hard to get a bipartisan electricity policy with the government. And then develop climate change policies on coping-side as much as the minimisation-side. “Win-win. I would push for a year of friendliness, to reset politics so that when disagreement happens, the volume matches the importance.”

The temerity, said Terry:

“Sure Albo, after probably 30 years on the extreme left and ‘fighting Tories’, all of a sudden you have seen the light and all has changed. Hang on, is that pigs I see flying above?”

Last word to Tom:

“Has Anthony shared the new message with Sally McManus?”

Miracle man: Daggy dad morphs into Messiah from the Shire. Illustration by Eric Lobbecke
Miracle man: Daggy dad morphs into Messiah from the Shire. Illustration by Eric Lobbecke

Janet Albrechtsen’s take on ScoMo’s miracle was that the left gave a leg up to its ideological adversary. Andrew assented:

“Morrison rises to the ranks of Liberal hero because he understands these quiet Australians better than his opponents. Spot on.”

Alan affirmed:

“What I like about this result is that I think Australia behaved differently to other nations. Faced with relentless pressure from Progressives and fringe left groups, Australians didn’t allow our politics to get to the situation many of the populace lost the plot and voted in an extreme antidote (i.e. Donald Trump, Brexit, or some Alt Right concoction). They just calmly steered the country back in direction with which they felt comfortable. Job done.”

Andrew asserted:

“Want know what lost Victoria? A recent series of idiotic ‘rallies’ staged in Melbourne which blocked up the daily life of normal citizens and scared the daylights out of many workers.

Thanks Sally, CFMEU, Get-Up, Whingeing Schoolies et al.”

Thanks from Terry & Kathy:

“Janet, spot on as usual. The term political divide is banded around but I think geographical divide is more accurate.

“Many of our inner city residents have very little understanding of what makes the rest of Australians tick. They are not at the coal face of the primary production of the food supply that they take for granted.

“They have no realistic understanding of the tyranny of distance that is imposed on outer suburb residents and regional families and businesses.

“Thus those outside the inner sanctum, the silent and invisible majority, on Saturday rose up and told the utopian brigade that they rejected their unrealistic policies.”

Busted ass: Bill Shorten runs wild with the Broncos in happier times. Picture: AAP
Busted ass: Bill Shorten runs wild with the Broncos in happier times. Picture: AAP

Jon expounded:

“Have spent some time pondering why the ALP lost. There are many denialist excuses in the Fairfax and ABC reporting today. I think it come down to the following key points.

“Echo chamber — telling your die hard supporters in the inner cities what they want to hear but ignoring the rest of Australia where jobs matter.

“Climate change — spending billions to counter climate change, yet not being able to quantify what potentially destroying our economy will actually achieve on a world scale when we are the only ones acting.

“Adani — Queensland clearly value jobs over theories of climate change. Even the CFMEU understood it and said the ALP should support the mine. Shorten telling Queensland miners one thing and inner city latte drinkers another was rocket fuel on a fire.

“Spend spend spend — The ALP came across as on a spending spree with taxpayers’ money. A clear message was sent that this was not a future government that believed in responsible economic management.

“Class war — Going after the rich, who were not rich but were normal people who had placed a few dollars aside for their retirement. Stupid.

“Retirement tax — What a great slogan. It was accurate and to the point.

“Shifty Shorten — Australia has not forgotten how he knifed everyone before him. They have not forgotten him knifing union members over union leader interests. He was a red rag to a bull. Throw in Clive Palmer and his attack ads and it was a perfect storm.

“Arrogance. The ‘stupid question’ and the ‘then vote for someone else’ comments were moronic and fed into other themes.

“ScoMo. He ran a disciplined campaign that focused on the sensible in the Coalition and highlighted the weak in the ALP campaign. He knew when to just ignore the constant undermining by Turnbull and to keep bringing the focus back on his own message. He ran a great military style IO campaign and can take full credit.”

Kon considered:

“As can be expected Labor are blaming all sorts of fringe factors for their failure, such as negative campaigning, Clive Palmer, and their policies being misunderstood.

“What they fail to address is that the policies were divisive, their language was condescending and bullying, as you don’t get people to buy into your climate change renewables agenda by calling them cave dwellers, nor do you take money away from self funded retirees and call them freeloaders for complaining.

“The fact that many of the faithful from the left don’t see the point, and feel aggrieved shows how out of touch they have become with mainstream Australia.”

Andrew added:

“Morrison’s amazing win over the toxic Zeitgeist and the media that perpetuates it was helped by a public sick of culture war warriors of left and right. The right may be crowing, but the reality is that they, as much as the left, need to open their eyes, climb out of their febrile media silos, and rediscover the real world of Scomo’s quiet Australians.”

Angry silent majority concluded:

“Bill found out the cost of his climate policy.”

Each Friday the cream of your views on the news rises and we honour the voices that made the debate great. To boost your chances of being featured, please be pertinent, pithy and preferably make a point. Solid arguments, original ideas, sparkling prose, rapier wit and rhetorical flourishes may count in your favour. Civility is essential. Comments may be edited for length.

Jason Gagliardi

Jason Gagliardi is the engagement editor and a columnist at The Australian, who got his start at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane. He was based for 25 years in Hong Kong and Bangkok. His work has been featured in publications including Time, the Sunday Telegraph Magazine (UK), Colors, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Harpers Bazaar and Roads & Kingdoms, and his travel writing won Best Asean Travel Article twice at the ASEANTA Awards.

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/wind-power-for-warringah-has-a-nice-ring-to-it/news-story/20d8581e98d71a4f2663384a9b51ce09