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Wednesday May 22, 2013

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Neil Mitchell: Politicians are massively failing Australia

Posted by: Neil Mitchell | 12 October, 2012 - 8:56 AM
Parliament House

It has been a disgraceful week for leadership. This country is in trouble, and so is Victoria.

It is time for some home truths: the federal politicians are failing Australia – they are failing you. They are not government or opposing or analysing.

They are obsessed by trivia, they are massively hypocritical, they are – as a group – failing Australia. They are obsessed by the side show and ignoring the main game.

Yes, what Alan Jones said was appalling, but it did not deserve to obsess our country’s leaders.

Now, a comedian has told a sick, sexist joke about Tony Abbott and his staff at a union function at Parliament House. It’s claimed it was also offensive to his wife, Margie Abbott.

And that is obsessing them.

Wayne Swan is a hypocrite on this because Labor said Liberals should have walked out on Jones. But after the Abbott joke, Swan got up as a guest speaker for heaven’s sake.

Some in the media are failing you too. The Age has been obsessed by the Jones ugliness – they have reported the union ugliness on page nine. That is not even handed.

More home truths in government. Standards have gone. Morality has gone.

It is all about deals, point scoring, sniping, exaggerating and inventing. It’s not about leadership or what matters to the country.

Both sides are failing and they are playing games with our lives.

At a state level, home truths here, Ted Baillieu is weak. He is known as a decent man of principle, but one of his backbenchers has rorted public money and then arguably lied about it.

That is Geoff Shaw the member for Frankston. As we discussed yesterday, he has used his car and used public money to run his private business.

Staff have given detail of him telling them to use the public fuel card to run the car for private business, and then he denied it and arguably lied about it.

But he faces no action from his leader. Imagine if you rorted the cash till and then lied to the boss; you wouldn’t have a job and nor should you.

Ted Baillieu should have taken this bloke’s head off by now. But if he does, he could lose his majority of one, so he doesn’t.

No principles here, no morality here, no justice here. The whole problem underlying this disgrace in Australia and Victoria: knife-edge government.

It hasn’t led to better argument nor better scrutiny. It hasn’t led to more careful management and more receptive policy.

It has led to deals and made principles and decency irrelevant. It has led to a massive abuse of the process which is failing the voters.

We need elections and the sooner the better. In this sense, it doesn’t matter who wins, as long as they have a majority that lets them govern without this nonsense.

Politicians are failing Australia, that is the basic home truth. They are massively failing Australia.

Nobody stands for anything anymore. Decency and accountability is dead. The theatre is overwhelming the policy, self-interest is overwhelming leadership, and the people – you and , and what matters in our lives have been forgotten.

I would like to give them a list about what does matter in your life and what should they be doing for you. What are the issues that matter to you? What is the most important thing in your life that government should work on?

Is it unemployment after the figures went up yesterday? Is it the cost of living? Is it education? Or hospitals, which are going backwards in Victoria.

What should these people be doing and when do we get an election.

It has been a disgraceful week in Australia, disgusting really. And if we don’t get angry about it, they won’t get any better.

And one thing that should matter: money. The government keeps promising things it can’t pay for.

Former Labor heavy Graham Richardson in The Australian today is tipping a horror mini budget soon. He says the budget is blown out and he says the mini budget will be so tough.

It will make the debate over Gillard’s leadership irrelevant, because nobody will want to lead a party that isn’t finished. That is Graham Richardson, former number cruncher for Bob Hawke and others. He says it’s about to get really ugly.

LISTEN: Senator Stephen Conroy and Joe Hockey MP speak with Neil Mitchell:

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Blog comments Your Say

  • Willow # you are too right. Turnbullsh is the best asset the Labor party has.
    That guy would do anything really anything. That guy a PM? What! Ask Godwin Grech.

    Beatrice Wednesday 17 October, 2012 - 11:37 AM

  • As a female myself, as a young woman I worked in the dept.of air liquide,Melb the women, only 3 in the office were cliquey bitches to me cause I lived in Malvern, all 20 men were kind and decent. I left after 6 months. AUSSIE MEN beat the labour women hollow in niceness.

    niki Tuesday 16 October, 2012 - 1:06 PM

  • All you folk baying for the return of Malcolm Turnbull as Opposition Leader seem to have forgotten that he backed Juliar on her Carbon Tax. Malcolm should resign from the Libs, jump the fence and join Labor as his policies are more left than Conservative.

    Willow Tuesday 16 October, 2012 - 9:04 AM

  • 3AW - the womens station. All those men telling women what they need to know.

    JamesD Monday 15 October, 2012 - 9:27 AM

  • @Nicky Davis - How gullible can one be? Gillard is simply using this agenda to divert attention from her own demise. How can one possibly think that her backing of Slipper - one who clearly detests women and Thomson - one who clearly sexually exploits women, to be standing up for women.

    The scum bag is Gillard who is deliberately playing the gender card to deceive.

    Gillard needs to start telling like it is rather than "keep telling it like it is". She is an habitual liar.

    Please give women the respect they deserve rather than the BS that Gillard spins and is utterly contemptuous.

    Jake Sunday 14 October, 2012 - 8:15 PM

  • I couldn't agree with you more Neil well said.

    mandy Sunday 14 October, 2012 - 8:00 PM

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