Down & Dirty Downunder: Election 2022

"The Liberal Party has tended to avoid worrying the electorate with actual policies, focusing instead on proving the truth of the observation from H.L. Mencken to the effect that ‘the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.’ "

I stopped watching televised news after the 2019 federal election. I just use the TV screen to watch Netflix or DVDs now. For the 2022 election I have avoided most “news” reports about it and have just dabbled here and there on social media and independent online news sites. So much better for my blood pressure!

 

The PM enjoys wide support among toddlers

Even so, the level of puerile reporting and ceaseless government bullshit is exceeding even that of 2019. The fact that the odious prime minister Scott Morrison and the corrupt Liberal-National coalition are considered to have a chance of re-election after the last three years (not to mention the previous six!) is a mind-boggling phenomenon future historians and social scientists will puzzle over.

There is a litany of good reasons to ensure neither Morrison nor the LNP ever hold public office in any capacity ever again; including rapes, rent boys, and rorts totalling billions of dollars. But the main three events that loom large in my mind are (1) Morrison sneaking away for a Hawaiian holiday while firestorms ravaged Australia, (2) Morrison going to the footy when the pandemic struck, and (3) Morrison keeping flood victims at bay with a security cordon when he finally got off his fat arse to visit ruined Seymour for a photo opportunity.

To quote Sisonke Msimang, writing in The Guardian online: “Under the Coalition, Australia has been left behind on every defining issue of the millennium – from climate change to race relations to refugee rights and workers’ rights. The increasingly rightwing policies of the Liberal Party have facilitated a politics that is both small-minded and mean-spirited.”

Pity your children and grandchildren.

 

Australia’s “Liberal” Party really should change it’s name to something that actually reflects its nature. Nothing remotely liberal about it. The Rorting, Rooting, Obscurantist Party sounds about right to me.

I know I keep repeating myself but… here I go again: John Winston Howard is the toxic Petri dish that spawned the current cruel and corrupt shitshow. Without him there would never have been the blundering Abbott PM, the disappointing Turnbull PM, and the current deranged Morrison PM. And the lies that Howard so assiduously normalised have grown exponentially under his successors.

The LNP claim of “strong economic management” is arguably the most egregious of Coalition lies.

 The LNP are such strong economic managers that this year’s budget deficit is 2.5 times larger than any Labor deficit. Ever! Labor’s biggest deficit saw Australia through the Global Financial Crisis while maintaining the nation’s AAA credit rating. Out of urgent necessity, the Rudd ALP government that saved Australia from the GFC in 2008 incurred debt for good reason but under the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison governments that followed, that debt had more than doubled by 2019, even before Covid-19 hit us in Australia.

The LNP are such strong economic managers that they increased Australia’s debt from $257 billion to $978 billion over the last decade during longest global period of low interest rates and low inflation and high commodity prices. And now in 2022, with Morrison as Prime Minister, Joyce as Deputy PM and Frydenberg as Treasurer, Australia’s debt will exceed one trillion dollars and we will apparently remain in debt until 2060. Strong economic managers, my skinny white arse! The country is in dire straits.

Homelessness has skyrocketed but Australia is a wealthy First World country and could easily provide homes for everyone if the political will existed. The current LNP government has had nine years to do something positive about that and the housing crisis but only made matters worse. The Australian government does not even bother keeping a record of homeless deaths. In other words, the housing crisis, homlessness, and unemployment are government policies!

There is practically a decade of LNP mismanagement, incompetence, intransigence, secrecy, duplicity, cruelty, scandals and corruption on record, with Morrison’s reign flying the rort, root and run level right off the charts but most of the media bullhorns ignore it because they are controlled by LNP sympathisers and associates. As the 21 May poll draws nearer, it is pretty obvious the mainstream, corporate media outlets are all protecting Morrison and his mobsters. Until media laws are drastically changed the Australian Labor Party will continue to push snowballs uphill in a heatwave. For starters, the incoming Labor government should legislate the Murdoch media stranglehold out of existence.

Ah, yes, a LABOR federal government. If or when? If or when?

I have no faith in my fellow Aussies and I am no longer puzzled about how Hitler’s goons rose to power (yeah, yeah, I know the first person to mention Hitler loses the argument!). Maybe I’m getting too old for this shit. Australia has been on a remorseless downhill trajectory since 1975.

As for the Australian Electoral Commission that supposedly overseas elections, guess what? “The AEC cannot reject a nomination even if it contains a false declaration as to the eligibility of that person to stand for election”? How reassuring is that!

The Great Pretender

If the LNP scrapes back in again – with or without that deranged creep Morrison at the helm – I may well ignore politics altogether and never vote again. Truth be told I think we’re all fucked, no matter what we do now. In its current form the LNP is not sustainable. Politics and the economy in their current forms are not sustainable. Australian society in its current form is not sustainable!

So anyway, I’m calling it. Morrison and the LNP are traitors. They do NOT have our best interests at heart. They do NOT care about the general public’s health and safety one iota. They are a drag on the entire nation. Essentially the LNP is just a crime cartel. I mean, where is the public outage? Almost a trillion dollars flushed down the dunny by the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison government in less than ten years and Australia has NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!

Worst prime minister, worst government. Ever. The waste, corruption and cruelty levels are unprecedented. And if an event isn’t orchestrated don’t expect Scotty from Bilgewater to show his face. His disdain for us plebs is all too clear.

On Anzac Day – that oddly sacred Aussie tradition – Defence Monster Dutton and PM Morrison demonstrated their disrespect, disinterest and contempt for those who served and perished in wars. Dutton with his shrill, hysterical warmongering, Morrison by playing with his phone during a dawn service. All their ‘patriotic’ posturing is just that: posturing, an act, a con job. During Easter, Morrison did the rounds at various Christian Orthodox venues looking pious. If there was no photographer present – the PM’s personal photographer – he would have stayed home and pretended to cook a curry instead. The man is an utter phony.

And let us not forget the pandemic. Yes, surprise, it is still rolling back and forth across the world, even though most people seem oblivious now that all precautions have been abandoned by government. Aged Care is still in crisis and lives are still at risk but hey! Let’s mingle! XE is the latest Covid variant to arrive in Australia: The World Health Organisation says that it appears to be more transmissible than earlier strains of the Coronavirus: “Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of around 10 per cent as compared to BA.2.”

Here in Australia the Covid death toll so far in 2022 is more than double that of the previous two years. Federal health data shows 4,547 people have died of Covid-19 in the past four months, compared with 2,239 over 2020 and 2021. Then there is the unspoken problem of those with “Long Covid”. In the UK apparently 1.7 million people now have it (2.7% of the population).

God’s Chosen One

That’s why I applied for a postal vote. There is no way on earth I will stand in a queue or mingle with my fellow Australians just yet. Now, let this sink in: my home state of New South Wales took 731 days to officially reach 1 million COVID-19 cases. To get from there to 2 million, it took just 75. The unofficial number might have reached that milestone even sooner. Governments have given up but I have not stopped my usual precautions of mask wearing, keeping at a distance and carrying hand sanitiser with me whenever I venture out in public. Few others seem to give a shite. Good luck with that.

The 2019 federal elections did me in. It took months for me to even glance at a headline again. I still don’t watch the “news” on TV. I don’t know any party whose policies I totally agree with. And my disillusionment with politics goes way back to 1975 when I realised my vote really did not really count for much because it could be overtuned at the whim of some numpty “representing” a far flung “head of state” in another country. These days I go for the least worst options. Generally, I vote AGAINST the worst. That’s my priority. Now more than ever.

The 2022 election is do-or-die time. The threat is clear. Another term of LNP mismanagement, grift and obscurantism and Australia will be well on its way to theocracy. Vote accordingly, folks!

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