The week that was: cyclones, simple answers to complex problems, insensitivity, diplomacy, integrity, humour, and much more.
One of my most fervent critics, known for his sharp wit and keen eye for detail, has urged me to craft a series of “This is the week that was.” These short missives, which gained significant traction during the last election cycle, are rich in commentary and ripe for satire. They offer him ample opportunity to unleash his mockery and revel in my missteps. Good luck with that, Wam.
So here is one, but don’t expect them every week.
1 Why must we enshrine the right to abuse each other in law in the name of free speech? Or conversely, ‘What do they want to say that they can’t say now?‘ The free speech extenders, a group advocating for broader interpretations of free speech, are at it again.
2 I was thinking about Trump during the week.
“While many might find Trump an object of ridicule, it’s striking how he has never uttered a single remark that could be considered wry, witty, or remotely amusing – not even once. I’m not exaggerating; I mean this in the most literal sense: he’s never offered a glimpse of humor, not a single instance throughout his public life. This absence of levity is deeply unsettling to us Aussies sensibility, where humor is almost a defining trait of humanity. He seems utterly oblivious to the essence of a joke; to him, humour translates merely into crude remarks, ill-informed jabs, and casual displays of meanness.”
3 The big talk for the week was Cyclone Alfred and the date of the Election necessitating a March 25 Budget. Given the time, it won’t be a full-on statement, but you can bet a 300-dollar energy cost of the living discount, a proposed government subsidy to offset rising energy costs. Will Dutton support it? Not much choice, but that is all he is doing. Following Labor when they don’t have any alternatives of their own.
4 The best article for the week goes to former Liberal leader John Hewson for the Saturday Paper. The first paragraph reads:
“Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been waxing eloquent about his strategy to reclaim seats lost in the last Election and to prevent the loss of more. Yet he has consistently failed to address any Coalition policy failings behind those losses – principally the integrity issues in Government, gender equality and the need for urgent and substantive climate action.”
5 The Government is still refusing to say how it would seek to cut 36,000 Australian Public Service workers. Senior Coalition MPs have given conflicting answers. That’s about as surprising as the sun rising in the east.
Dutton suggested some cuts could come from the health and education departments. (I told you so) He again committed to not sacking “frontline” workers, following his proposal last week to cut all public servants Labor has employed since coming to office and use the savings to pay for Medicare boosts. (Labor has already budgeted for this)
6 The WA Election could best be described as Boringly vanilla, but Labor might have something in it for the big Election. They retained three traditional blue-ribbon Liberal seats.
7 How can one man hold the planet’s future in his hands while the remaining leaders kowtow to him? JL
8 It turned into a heaven storm from cyclone Alfred, or was it, Albert? Would Albanese receive any kudos for his decisive action? The answer is yes, but it would be hard to define. But his action in separating the politics certainly was a sincere one. Would Dutton have done the same? Doubtful. Probably a beach in Hawaii.
9 Is Albo strong enough with Trump? No, just diplomatic?
10 Never out of the news, Middle East: Overnight, Israel’s Government announced it was cutting off electricity to residents of Gaza. Seriously, hate spreads like rust.
11 Defence accident. Saturday, March 8, 32 involved, 13 seriously hurt. They were on their way to help flood victims and now need help themselves.
12 WORDS THAT MAKE YOU THINK:
The policies put forth by the LNP have faced significant criticism for being alarmingly vague and devoid of concrete financial plans. It raises an important question: how could anyone consider casting their vote for a party that offers scant ideas, reveals little about their potential implementation, and lacks clarity on their timelines and costs? Voters are left in the dark, waiting until after the election to unveil any real details, all while the party seems to wield a wealth of information that is conspicuously absent from public discourse.
13 Sir Keir Starmer confirmed his country’s support for ANKUS in a phone call to our Prime Minister. You need peace to send peace-making troops – that’s the simple answer. There are no boots on the ground for Peter.
14 And Peter Dutton was accused of secretly jetting out of Queensland last week to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser at billionaire Justin Hemmes’ harbourside mansion during the Cyclone. The same Justin Hemmes of hospitality giant Merivale fame who recently settled a massive underpayment class action for $18 million. Dutton was in Brisbane on Tuesday morning, giving a press conference at Queensland’s emergency services HQ in Kedron about Cyclone Alfred.
But he then left to catch a flight to Sydney before giving interviews on Brisbane’s 4BC radio on Wednesday morning about how he was preparing the family farm.
15 Dutton is so thin on policy and detail that he has started eating wafers without the ice cream. JL
16 The polls. The Australian (Firewall) Monday, March: “Whoever forms government on these numbers probably isn’t going to form the following one unless there is a hidden brilliance that the rest of the country is unaware of.” Anyway, Newspoll has the Coalition with a 51–49 lead.
17 Tweet of the week:
If all a journalist can report is what “Peter Dutton says … ” – without any scrutiny – then they’re not doing their job. Neither are they doing anyone any favours, except for Peter Dutton.
18 Remember the caravan that was the subject of a terrorist threat? Police have declared it a hoax, which now shows Dutton in a terrible security light after he politicised the whole event, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. On Tuesday, slammed the opposition leader for making “reckless” statements about the plot, which included that it would have “been the most catastrophic terrorist attack in our country’s history.”
19 Trump rejects Australian exclusion on tariffs. It’s not significant in terms of money, but he will be judged harshly in public opinion. Some retaliation is required. At least Turnbull has the intestinal fortune to stand up to him. Then Albo does the same:
“Friends need to act in a way that reinforces to our respective populations that we are friends… This is not a friendly act.”
l could not agree more.
At some time in the human narrative… in our history, man declared himself superior to women. It must have been an accident or at least gross stupidity. But that’s men for you.
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Trump is a perverted poxheaded political pustule, but Dutton admires this shitty personality defect. Albanese remains a hollow and floating object, perhaps awaiting those missing vertebra. Where do we go from here? Fat Clive is a preposterous prick and Pauling Broom-Jockey remains below a termite's todger in stature. Farr Canal. And.., look around this tired, distorted, coerced, befouled world, of manipulators.