We were fooled into thinking there was a leaders' debate on last night but what we got were two cardboard cutouts of two obvious and painful liars pretending, not very well, that they were who and what they said they were.
We Australians deserve a lot better than that - and up until recently we had it. Julia Gillard and her very dedicated and talented team governing for all Australians and not for their own egos. Sigh. Election in September and I am going away in October for family matters but it will also be a huge relief to get away from the onslaught of lies and fairy floss. COME BACK JULIA. Please.
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Matt writes as below - he is an author and has his own blog. He has published many books and has done a lot of work on re-vegetation of sites that were going to desert..
Hi Bob, often read when I have a minute. Where as i agree with most everything you say, I don't know how you do it. It would make me too bitter. The bigger picture is we get the pollies we want, and the press give us the stories we want to hear. I no longer blame the pollies or the media. I blame us. We don't want leaders. We want to be lead. The reason politics is so bitter and petty right now is that as soon as politicians started paying too much attention to the opinion polls, we were doomed. It put us in charge. Take the abolition of slavery, it was an unpopular move, but the leaders at the time lead. Now look at boat people. Everybody knows the lies are lies. The pollies are like parents pandering to the spoilt child. Our moral compas is like that of a spoilt child. I remember, as a kid, getting a cross line, and hearing two Italian mummas speaking in Italian to each other. I shouted "Speak English, wog!" My mum asked me why I was shouting. When I told her, she told me: "Don't be so small. If you had to move to Italy to save us from poverty, even if you loived Italy, would you speak Italian to your old Aussie mates, or English? Would you ever miss your old home?" I felt shame, and knew what was right. She was prepared to be unpopular with me if I dissagreed. Because she was the boss. Because she cared. Because there were more important things that sucking up to my lowest, base opinions. My easy hate. To get that vote, today, politicians would suck up to that child. It breaks my heart. Mahatma Gandhi said: "The most effective form of protest is to lead by example." I try to do this, succeed sometimes, fail others. But, big picture, have no answers. Thanks for your blog. Its energy, positive nature, and conviction. I should be such a force for good in this world. Peter Reith must be doing it hard - well at least for an ex-Howard Minister who is no longer in the limelight.
He has the gall to appear on the SBS program "Go Back to Where You Came From" and feign surprise at the horrendous situations in war torn countries - meanwhile ex-Rose Tattoo rock and roller Angry Anderson, is angry about desperate people who are in fear of their lives and want a safe place for their families daring to come here. He is in training to be a future Peter Reith and run for the Liberals and send the bastards all back. When Catherine Deveney asks Reith how he could have done what he did in the Tampa affair he shrugs and basically says "Shit happens" rather than taking responsibility for his actions. Meanwhile, walking home from the letterbox today i came across three people at the local cafe discussing the cruel new Labor policy and the disgusting race to the bottom of the major political parties. Note with my vote Kevin/Tony they agreed. As soon as we admit that everybody who came to this country after 1788 was an illegal immigrant and that we stole the land that was inhabited by an ancient culture AND that many post second world war migrants have made a huge contribution to Australia's culture, economy and status in the world we can begin to deal with the issues of now. Immigrants want to contribute and work hard to establish their families in a new land. Welcome them. Fix the problems of our indigenous brothers and sisters and don't pretend it will be easy or quick. Finally use your voice on whichever platform to let your MP and Senator know that they are not speaking or voting for you and you will not vote for them until you see change. As the pollies are fond of saying we will have the only election that really matters soon where we get, in our increasingly American style presidential elections, not a choice between two different parties with carefully considered electoral platforms, but two presidential styled figures who are playing fast and loose with the truth and unconcerned with the human costs.
For the past three years we have watched Abbott smiling and glad handing around the country predicting gloom and doom from the very sensible legislation put through a minority government. Now we have the return of the super-sized ego Kevin 07 who after three years of working covertly for the fall of a Labor PM, leaking to his mates in the press, and constantly undermining an elected government without having the courage to own his actions now playing the worst sort of politics and using the most vulnerable people as his pawns to play a game of dirty chess. Yes it is back to the future. "I am just going to play with his head" he said about John Howard and he did. Now he's playing with Tony's head but the stake he is using is our conscience and mine is not up for sale. So how to vote come the election? Nothing will convince me to vote Liberal and a vote for the Greens is a vote for Labor in my electorate so what to do? The choice is between two parties led by two nasty obvious liars who will do anything and say anything to get into the Lodge. For a much more balanced and intelligent piece on the role of the media in bringing down a PM read this piece in the Conversation by Dennis Muller who has been an Age person and used to work with Irving Saulwick on the Saulwick polls. Isn't it amazing how the media that were baying for the downfall of Julia Gillard and wanting to replace her with St Kevin suddenly have pieces about her great legacy and how dysfunctional he was and possibly still is.
Meanwhile for something much more uplifting and sane Google for President Obama's climate change speech at Georgetown University. Direct, factual and impassioned. "we don't have time for the flat earthers". So much has happened in such a short time politically speaking with a back to Kevin07 while we are assured that he has learnt his lessons and will be a more collegiate leader this time around. Time will tell. If all that comes out of this mess is that some Labor seats are saved from the landslide many were expecting then will it have been worth it? Not for me.
I read an ex Age scribe in the Conversation today continuing to heap vitriol on Ms Gillard - where has Mr Carney been hiding and who does he think he is fooling? As I have written o n numerous occasions Julia Gillard was one of the best PMs seen in this country post WWII and I thank her for all she achieved and managed under very difficult circumstances. Even if she had control of both Houses the achievements would have been outstanding and memorable. Now it is up to each and every on of us to make sure the landmark achievements of her time at the head of government are not filtered off and discarded. Getup have a campaign going on the issue of carbon pricing and letting the MP's and Senators know where we stand. Unlike what we read in our media, the fact is that the majority of Australians want carbon to be priced and want our government to have a policy that addresses climate change. It is up to us to make sure that our reps know this and know that it will inform the way we vote and act. Rudd dropped carbon trading last time around and in two speeches extolling the contributions that Ms Gillard made didn't mention the passage of either the carbon pricing or the minerals and resources rental tax. This made me uneasy. Come on Kevin - if you want to stay there get it right and soon. Something I thought was impossible has just happened. Kevin Rudd, the evil schemer, has just toppled Julia Gillard for leadership of the Federal ALP. I can understand why MPs nervous about the coming election swapped sides but do they imagine for a moment that the leopard has changed his spots or that being part of a historically important Julia Gillard led government was worth tossing in at the prospect of losing power?
Apparently so. I am not going to sit back and judge from this distance. I am tremendously proud of Ms Gillard and and what she has achieved in difficult circumstances with the Murdoch press printing and disseminating hateful lies about her on a day and night basis. Even so I am now waiting to see what happens next. A lot of the present Cabinet have gone on the public record about Rudd and his falseness and the impossibility of working with him. Presumably Swan will step down as deputy but rather than worry about the detail of a dying party we now have the prospect of a term at least of the mad monk gloating from Canberra with his insistence on failed ideas and looking after the big end of town while letting the rest of us sink or swim. Today will go down as a sad sad day. Mark it down 26th of June 2013, a day where Darwinian politics triumphed and decency was cast aside. When I speak with mates it seems that most everybody has decided that a Rabbot government is inevitable.. Listening to Kevin Rudd the other day was heartening at least, but the government gets no traction for their unprecedented legislative program or for pulling Australia out of a certain recession/depression.
Meanwhile our media guides (even the ABC) allow the conservatives to keep going weith their constant negativity without a thought to a policy idea or a fact while the government members are not asked anything that might enlighten a viewer or listener. So will we get the government we deserve? There is still time for the truth to trump the awful lies we are being fed. When I started this site the aim was to write about books and to share opinions with readers and writers. With the advent of reality I have found myself writing more, and reading more, about the issue of the day, month and year; what we are doing to our planet and what the planet is doing to adjust.
The most curious response comes from those who willfully deny the reality that confronts all of us. And why? There are those, and many of them, who have just bought into the paid for denial put out by the many credible looking but not credible on close examination like the buffoon Monckton and our very own Professors Carter and Plymer neither of whom have relevant expertise. Ranged against these truly evil men are the 99% of climate scientists who are in heated agreement (pun intended) that what is obvious from all the scientific data is that the globe is warming faster than was thought by the IPCC even a few years ago and that we are now beyond tipping point and into the phase of coping strategies. In the case of the cynical political Right these are made up again of the don't get it (Joyce, Bernardi) and the short term opportunists (Abbot, Hockey). As there are now protocols following the various examples of war time atrocities in the 20th Century will we see an equivalent in the 21st Century for the crime of climate denial? Because that is what pretending that we are not on the edge of an abyss amounts to. And if you have political power or desire it then it is incumbent on you to be direct, honest and not self-serving (in the short term) to enable solutions. In the real world much is changing without governments and to a degree with governments. Residents and businesses are cutting their demand for electricity and changing the ways they do things like the lighting they employ and generally being more aware of their carbon footprints. Interestingly as the demand for electricity goes down the price goes up so what we are seeing is the paradox of less demand and more price gouging which in Australia is more fuel for the liars to blame carbon pricing as the driver for these increases. How much damage will need to be done to our lives, environment and being before some sense is brought to bear on this question? Our media must carry as big a responsibility as our nakedly ambitious and stupid politicians. Print, radio and TV push the line that there is an active debate with two sides - is climate change real? The perpetrators of this idea of "news" as entertainment should be the first in the dock or at least at the same time as the pollies. Then there are the self interested big polluters who not only don't care about the rest of us but also don't care for their own children and grandchildren. They want to own the Titanic but not travel on it. Sorry guys, not possible. Everybody is expecting an Abbot victory in September and the media have already anointed him - the old saying that a week is a long time in politics should remind us all that only in places like Fiji can be taken for given.
With the media going LibNat full time and full tilt it is up to us in the electronic media to show some balance. Elections are rarely lost in the part of the cycle we are in. Australia's economic indicators are among st the best in the world with unemployment low. The historically high dollar has hurt exports and the decline in mining revenues are factors but not ones that are credited by any of the chattering class. Meanwhile we have had one of the most productive governments in recent history with a slew of legislative and policy triumphs against a background of negativity, sleaze and possible corruption. The Slipper matter has a long way to go but has already implicated Mal Brough and it would be a massive act of will to not see Pyne and Abbott in the equation. While the government had delivered social programs like the dental and disability schemes, environmental programs like the mining resources tax and the carbon trading arrangements they have been opposed by not just a negative opposition but one that willfully spreads disinformation and mis-truths that are eagerly reported by a slavish press without comment or demurral. "Australia is going it alone" when in fact 5 billion people live in jurisdictions with carbon trading and the US would if President Obama could get it through the Republican House. What is lost in all of this is a discussion that is informed by science. Science that informs us of what is happening in the real world and not what can be spun from the offerings of vested interests or paid mouthpieces of the fossil fuel industry. Our media likes to debate the issue as if there are two sides with valid claims. News and information as entertainment not as a report on reality. The reality I find beyond the pale is one I hope will not come to pass. An Abbott government with all the destruction he promises in public let alone what he says he will do behind closed doors in promises to his wealthy mates. There is still time - a week can be a long time. |