I simply cannot let the last few days
of Australian politics go without making some kind of critique of some of the
combatants. While I have commented previously on many of the players it in worth
going over it again just to remind myself how we got into this situation.
It started with the
announcement on Tuesday that Rob Oakeshott
and Tony Windsor would stand down at the upcoming election. While Windsor told
a press conference that his health played a major part in his decision I can’t
help but feel that his electorate will feel a little cheated not having the
chance to “assess his performance” by their vote. Oakeshott was quite different
in the way he extoled his own performance over the last 3 years and to be
honest I found his self-justification of his actions staggering. In an article by
Paul Sheehan
in the SMH (http://www.smh.com.au/comment/what-a-load-of-oakeshott-20130626-2owev.html)
he called Oakeshott's statements a
“load of Oakeshott” and I kind of liked it. In his article he again pointed out
the staggering betrayal that both Windsor and Oakeshott delivered to their
electorates and the Australian people back in 2010.
In Oakeshott's electorate of Lyne, the primary vote of
the ALP and the Greens together was only about 17 % with a similar vote for the
Senate. In the wash up the Coalition won 45 % of the primary vote to Labor's 30
after preferences.
The combined ALP/Greens vote against them was the
second largest in the country and you know where the largest was? You guessed
it, in Tony Windsor's seat of New England. So despite their electorates clearly
voting for independents (conservatives) and not Labor and the Greens they both gave
their electorates and Australia a Labor government. The real slap in the face however to me is
the way these two men have stuck to labor despite every stuff up, every political
and policy disaster and every grubby scandal that came along they supported
them to the very end and even now it would seem they will stick to the party
that not only knifed a sitting Prime minister and leader in the back but have
done it twice in 3 years. Some may call their actions a great show of loyalty
and courage but I call their actions a denial of the truth based on their own
political failings and poor judgement.
Now to Mr K. Rudd, I wrote last week of the circumstances
of his removal over 3 years ago and how in a nut shell no one could stand him
and his failed policies and with his star falling in the eyes of the public
they got rid of him in a backroom deal using his own “trusted” colleagues. For 3
years this giant of virtue and righteousness has not only white-anted the prime
minister but was more than happy to almost bring his own part to their knees in
a indiscriminate, grubby clandestine war of sabotage where even his own supporters
were not safe from his treachery with many having to fall on their own sword
after the last failed coup attempt where he left them hung out to dry. In fact
after Wednesday night the trail of wrecked careers of some of Labor’s best and brightest
are scatted across parliament house as a result of this bitter conflict between
Rudd and his party with the stench of the labor dead sacrificed on the altar of Rudd filling
parliament house with the stench of death.
This brings me to those that are left the likes of
Shorten, Wong and Carr among others who categorically said they would not
support a Rudd return yet here we are on Thursday with them saying “well we
just changed our minds”. The hypocrisy of Carr on the ABC was mind blowing to
be honest after categorically ruling out shifting his support to Rudd and
working as part of a Rudd cabinet but then it is amazing how low some people
will stoop to keep their job and I would not be surprised that if they had to prostitute
themselves to keep their job they would, if they have not demonstrated that
already.
It seems to me that there is nothing this party will not do, there is no betrayal
too great and there is no disgraced
member of parliament that they would not support and no policy disaster
too great that they would not face reality. But it’s worse than that as there
is nothing that this party can do that would get the greens or any of the so
called independents to withdraw their support and set us free, what does that say about them?
This brings me to the sanctimonious Christine Milne and the Greens. Despite everything that
has gone on over the last 3 years, despite the scandal, the policy failures and
the debacle this government has been she said she will continue to support the
minority labor government, and why? So that Tony Abbott, not the liberal party
but Tony Abbot does not become prime minister. This coming from the woman who
has publicly stated numerous times and said at the national press club earlier
this year “Labor - by its actions -
who had effectively ended the alliance with her party”. Milne’s twisted sense of entitlement and lack of any credibility along
with her hatred of Abbott as a man now holds the rest of us hostage, tied to a
decaying corpse that was once the labor party with the support of Oakeshott and
Windsor and the other independents. Milne seems to have forgotten that we are
not voting for the individual and while you may not like Abbott we vote for the
party not the person and at this point in time it seems there is only one side
of politics that has a cohesive party and you certainly cannot say that of Labor.
But none of that matters just so long as those currently in power stay in power
and the rest of us, despite the poles, despite the obvious loathing, the scandals,
failed policy and 2 failed leaders, well we can all go to hell.
I can’t help but think of Nero who fiddled while
Rome burned when looking at all this. Well welcome back Rudd- All hail Caesar. Bring on the election.
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