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I get so much coming into my inbox from conservative online sites that I’ve little time left to read newspapers. Fortunate then it is that it took me only about fifteen minutes to read through the voluminous issue of the Weekend Australian. Silly me, I suppose, for buying it.
Gerard Henderson’s regular take down of the ABC is worthwhile; or is it? The ABC staff collective, as he rightly calls it, lives in a different universe to conservatives, a parallel dimension for sci-fi buffs.
You might think that they and their supporters (friends of the ABC) know that they are totally biased and cavalierly (Machiavellian-like even) go on regardless. Big mistake. They don’t know at all that they’re biased. In their alternate universe, they occupy centre ground. Henderson, unfortunately, is completely wasting his time. And, sadly, our time if we read him. Nothing new to be said. Nothing to be done that can be done. Consider this subhead: “After a bad start, Biden may yet be the leader the West needs for a new ‘cold war’”. Would you read an extremely long newspaper article that started that way? Of course not. An obvious nincompoop wrote it.
One item did catch my attention, as I flicked through the pages. This is a commentary by one Liam Mendes on the case of irate pensioner Ray Drury, who bailed up the Prime Minister. Apparently Ray was a bit rude. Even Albanese was moved to call for civility. I didn’t see the incident. But all of the news of it concerns the politics.
I have read that Morrison will continue to meet and greet. Good on him. No doubt Labor/Greens apparatchiks will try to embarrass him. Maybe too, the Libs will be able to dig up a couple of bright sparks to embarrass Albanese. Who cares? No one, really. It’s theatre.
What politicians might turn their minds to, and care about, is the circumstances in which Mr Drury finds himself. Obviously, I don’t know the facts and journalists of today show little curiosity in helping out. But this quote is attributed to Drury: “I get $200 from the Dust Disease Board. Centrelink then take that $200 out of my pension, so instead of getting a full pension, I’m getting a part pension.”
If this account is right, it’s monumentally unfair. How can someone be compensated as a result of contracting asbestosis and then effectively have that amount taken away by an offsetting reduction in his old-aged pension? On its face, it makes no sense. I would be as annoyed as Drury appears to be, were I put in that position.
I ask: What are politicians for? To look good on camera and manage confrontations with voters? Or are they put their to do their best to serve the interests of voters, all voters. Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Morrison and Albanese immediately called for a departmental inquiry into the circumstances outlined by Drury. And to add, if the circumstances are as he claims, that regulations would be introduced tout de suite to remedy the matter and backdate redress. Instead, it’s all about the politics.
I have long since developed a disregard for politician of all stripes. It’s probably something to do with the kind of people who will endlessly grease the right wheels (there is a less polite phrase) to get preselection for a winnable seat. Beyond that, the profession itself, like selling real estate or used cars, is corrupting. Groucho’s principles apply or, in many cases, it’s hard to detect the semblance of any guiding principles.
Has it got worse? I think it most definitely has. Simply compare the quality of political leadership in the 1980s and 1990s with what we have now.
So much for the first and second estates and the fourth estate. The third, the judiciary, is not nearly what it was either. Think of Justice Mordy Bromberg agreeing with a group of children that the minister for the environment has a duty of care in approving new mines to protect young people from climate change. Sensibly overturned by the Federal Court; but still, what nonsense is this from the bench? Think of Justices Anne Ferguson and Chris Maxwell condemning the innocent George Pell on charges which, for all practical purposes, he could not possibly have committed. Sensibly overturned again, this time unanimously by the High Court. But still, what nonsense to have to overturn.
I think I am back to my start and to the conservative wing of what has become known as the fifth estate. Soon that might be the only remaining bulwark against wokeness, the only remaining protector of freedom and common sense. It’s a tenuous hook for us to hang our hats and hopes on. A last chance saloon.
“Groucho’s principles apply or, in many cases, it’s hard to detect the semblance of any guiding principles.” Today’s proof – Morrison says Tudge remains a cabinet minister – but without the pay and no seat at cabinet meetings. Morrison adds that Tudge will be welcome at the cabinet table – but only after the election. So none of those wavering women’s votes go the wrong way. Meanwhile Rachelle Miller is apparently to have her dodgy claim to victimhood confirmed by a $500,000 pay-day from the taxpayer. Morrison claims neither knowledge of nor approval for this abomination.
>” … the conservative wing of what has become known as the fifth estate.” [Peter Smith, part comment above].
Whoever forms government in late May will proceed to censor the conservative wing of internet commentary. Both major political groups have told us so and they correctly perceive this as in their own best interests. To quote Salvatore B, all they would gain from not doing it is some small measure of self-respect.
Perhaps a stalemated Senate will make this difficult for them to legislate, but then all the other estates will weigh in for them.
And yes, the ABC is a parasitic non-parallel dimension that I class as fiction.
No. The dominant forces which control the ABC do not regard themselves as occupying “centre ground”.
They are fully conscious of their explicit ideology and associated aims of destroying the Australia that once had the prospect of being a productive, strong, abundant, sovereign Western nation.
Ditto the people who control the ALP, the Greens, and 80% of the public services (which includes the law and education systems) and 80% of the commercial media.
I stopped buying The Australian when, during the last US election, every scribe felt is was their duty to excoriated Trump and extol the dubious virtues of Biden.
Then Covid “vaccines” arrived and the uniform and simplistic message was “get jabbed, don’t complain, don’t think”.
A few hundred dollars extra a year to spend on more enjoyable pursuits.
Might be the only time i defend Morrison, a leader in name only, amiable but wind sniffing weakling dragged leftwards willingly it would seem, BUT, his reaction to the nasty old codger was streets ahead of Albogreasy’s woefully inept reaction to a polite and civilised voter, saying yes and no all at once. Hilarious really, to see what kind of PM we could end up with unable to think on his feet and his Porky pig voice. When we have to ask “Who is the real Albo” from a fawning spoonfeeding media, the hidden agenda is obvious. The thing is, labor /greens can send an endless line of single grievance plants to make Morrison look bad (i trust the libs won’t stoop to this but…) and get cheap sound bytes yet i would hope the average viewer sees through it but who knows these days where the “Project” is considered news. Re The Weekend Oz, Sheridan has fully imbibed the kool-aid and should find a suitable place at NRO in the US, so afflicted by TDS is he. What a fall from grace as he was a must read PT (Pre Trump).
The press is gunna love the undependents of the Holmes a Court harem.
If what the man who accosted the Prime Minister said is true, then it is indeed unfair that he loses part of one government payment due to receiving what I assume is another. Yet how is that more unfair than the fact that he receives a pension in the first place due to his–for whatever reason–having failed to provide for his old age, while those who have sacrificed and struggled to pay their own way receive no pension?
I may have opened a can of worms, here; but the old-age pension is nothing but socialism.
I’m with you , Rebekah , free money begets dependance , begets resentment . He sounds like a rusted on labor voter , trying to get ScoMo in a “Gotcha” moment , something they could do on any issue . Gutter politics , and I’m no fan of Morrison .
gareththomassport , how quickly did P Kelly and G Sheridan lurch leftward in the wake of Trump’s election !? Had to stop reading them the past few years . And when Grace Collier became Katrina Grace Kelly (In a solipsistic article) , she morphed into a Dan Andrews apologist where she was once a hammer to union nails . Strange days indeed .
Drury’s complaint reminds us of the destructive force that ‘social security’ is within a nation, and the way it has undermined human dignity with this grasping meanness over what we consider is owed to us.