by PAUL COLLITS – WHATEVER else has happened this week past, there is one story above all others that has captured the attention of the disgruntled outsider class.
Forget about the now routine Trump assassination attempts, Hezbollah rockets raining down on Northern Israel and the latter having the temerity to return serve, Ukrainian interference in the US Presidential election, Penny Wong’s unhelpful interventions in foreign affairs or Albo’s misinformation bill.
- The Left gets especially engaged when a real Right-winger comes along in politics.
- It energises the base, generates the hatred on which the Left thrives.
- At long last, the deplorables have a statue to, well, deplore.
No, the story is all about a statue – of former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
The Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet must be experiencing multiple and excruciating buttock-clenching episodes, following this dispatch:
“A bronze statue of former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to be immortalised outside government offices near Treasury Gardens in central Melbourne. This honour is reserved for premiers who have served more than 3000 days in office, a rule introduced by former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.”
While the process is underway, details regarding the statue’s cost and precise location remain unclear.
A spokesperson from the government confirmed that the Department of Premier and Cabinet has been tasked with preparing a brief for the statue, but no further information has been disclosed.
The memes have already begun. One features a bronze, mangled car and an equally mangled pushbike. A suitable contribution from Johannes Leak cannot be far off.
I imagine the following internet searches to be particularly popular right about now, or at least when the work of art is complete and on display:
- Does spray paint stick to bronze?
- Does Bunnings sell spray cans?
- How much is a Virgin flight to Melbourne?
- Does a circular saw cut through bronze?
- Is there a bronze sculptor available whose expertise is big ears?
- Will the statue include a walking stick after the two-step fall and back injury?
- Would a bronze mask add further to the cost of the work to Vic taxpayers?
- Will the statue have 24- hour protection from VicPol?
Daniel Andrews’ crimes are clear enough, and don’t really need reciting again here.
The Epoch Times, however, provided some background on Andrews’ record, even affording him some “achievements”.
His time in office was characterised by both notable achievements and significant controversies, making him a polarising figure in Victorian politics.
Achievements? Well, let’s hear them.
During his nearly nine years in office, Andrews initiated numerous initiatives that reshaped Victoria, most notably through the ambitious “Big Build” infrastructure projects.
These included the development of the Metro Tunnel, the North East Link and the removal of dozens of level crossings, all aimed at enhancing the State’s transport system and boosting economic growth.
He also implemented significant reforms in rental laws, legalised medicinal cannabis and decriminalised sex work, demonstrating a commitment to social progress.
Andrews’ government was also proactive in addressing mental health issues, launching programs like safe injection rooms and establishing exclusion zones for protests outside abortion clinics.
His administration prioritised Indigenous Australian treaties and compensation reform for victims of institutional child sexual abuse, signalling a dedication to social justice.
Where to start? Surely The Epoch Times writer was taking the piss. It reads like a Premier and Cabinet press release. Oh, sorry, perhaps it was.
Infrastructure projects? Well, that is what State governments are for. To build roads and railways and the like.
Just because some – like Bob Carr in NSW – haven’t, it doesn’t make those who do heroes.
In any case, the budget blowouts associated with the Victorian metro projects, of the order of many tens of billions of dollars, are the main reason that Victoria’s finances are now in the lavatory.
RUBBISH
Indigenous treaties? Didn’t two thirds of Australians, including a majority of Victorians, just recently vote to get rid of all this rubbish? How can you have a “treaty” with a group within the polity, anyway?
Compensation reform for victims of child sex abuse? Err, the author of that reform was one Cardinal George Pell, hounded into prison by the same Andrews, his political police and the fembots of the Victorian “justice” system.
Pell did just about all the heavy lifting to get rid of the scourge of Victorian (priestly) sex abuse of minors. The others just took the credit.
Safe injection rooms? Safe wouldn’t be my word. We are in the territory of oxymorons here.
Whatever you might say about the effectiveness of “war on drugs” policies – see also under “war on terror” – I wouldn’t think that throwing the car keys to the car thief, as providing legal spaces for drug addicts surely is, would provide a pathway to the eradication of drug related self-harm.
Exclusion zones for “safe” abortions? This stops people standing in the street near abortion killing fields with their rosary beads, praying for the unborn.
If one single life were saved as a result of that prayer and entreaty, it would have been worthwhile.
This piece of lawmaking is one of the most disgusting attempts at justifying and enabling the murder of the unborn that one could imagine.
No doubt Andrews – a Catholic – approves of abortion up to birth. As Gough Whitlam once said to an anti-abortion activist, “in your case, couldn’t we make it retrospective?”
Just like with abortions, Andrews apparently approves of maiming teenaged bicycle riders without proper compensatory justice.
Decriminalising sex work? Wow, now that is some achievement. Social progress? Should hookers be thrown in prison? I think not. But, really?
Medicinal cannabis? Nah, it just shows that the Garden State (as it once was) has gone to pot. Refer Alex Berenson (for example) on the massive and permanent harms of weed.
And these things were the achievements!
This all seeks to situate Andrews as some latter-day Don Dunstan. I still cannot imagine the Adelaide man who wore the pink shorts in parliament okaying the use of rubber bullets and mace in the streets against grandmothers who protested medical fascism.
In those Dunstan days, social progressives didn’t lock people up and force them to inject poison. One might even (almost) have respected politicians like that, then. Now, not so much.
The Victorian COVID heroine Monica Smit has opined:
“This statue won’t last long, that’s my prediction. I mean the guy is under investigation for running over a kid on a bike and not calling 000 straight away. What a hero!!! Not
“How insulting to actual heroes who deserve a statue.”
HEROES
Yes, there are other statues around the place. Mostly, in Australia, they are sporting champions. Like Shane Warne’s, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. And that of Reg Gasnier, the rugby league champion, in Sydney. Wally is immortalised in bronze outside Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Monica’s rule applies. Military heroes still survive in statue form. Rightly so.
No, rather than being “insulting and disrespectful” to Victorians, Andrews’ statue is a great opportunity for galvanising the troops and for an overthrow of the whole rotten Victorian State apparatus. It is, potentially, that exciting.
The Left gets especially engaged when a real Right-winger comes along in politics.
It energises the base, generates the hatred on which the Left thrives.
Margaret Thatcher’s arrival in Britain in the late 1970s meant that the Left came alive. They have had said as much.
Also see under Bibi in Israel. Malcolm Fraser. John Howard. Tony Abbott. The same might occur here, in reverse.
We live in the era of defacing statues. Captain Cook, Cecil Rhodes and the rest.
We are all expected just to say, ho-hum, when this occurs. Just exuberant Trots being exuberant Trots, as the Prime Minister might say.
Well, the Andrews erection might just ignite a civil statue war in the Victorian bronze age we are now entering.
At last, the deplorables have a statue to, well, deplore.PC
Oh! Paul, well done for your summation of the utterly appalling Daniel Andrews and his equally deplorable government hacks.
Now they are rubbing our noses in the resulting decaying mess.
Should we be surprised? I think not. This is typical of overblown government that is in no way in touch with mainstream Australians. Perhaps it would be more fitting to making the Andrews statue out of papier mache , or better still a piñata.
No insult to any sewers intended – even the contents of the sewers will be ‘trying to escape’ !
Reminder >
WHY YOU ARE NOT GETTING TRUTH FROM ANY MAINSTREAM MEDIA EMPIRES >
6 Companies Control 90% of What You Read, Watch and Hear. Here’s Why You Should Care.
Ever-mounting media consolidation has narrowed the perspectives the public is privy to. Ownership and funding of these corporations are riddled with conflicts of interest and Big Tech companies are outright censoring and demonetizing independent outlets.
15 April, 2022
“When most of the news is controlled by six corporations, and Internet traffic is controlled by five or six companies that privilege those companies under the auspices of fighting ‘fake news,’ you can lie with impunity. And worse, because we’re a fragmented audience, if I’m being lied to every single day by The Washington Post, I’m not going to turn on Fox or read The Wall Street Journal to hear I’m being lied to. I’m going to be in my little information bubble.”
As these media corporations continue to expand their power, they rake in ever-growing profits — which then translates to more political influence. Not only do owners of media giants contribute money directly to campaigns, but their outlets control the discourse around them. And the larger the conglomerate, the more easily and effectively they can lobby to kill regulations and pass laws that further their domination.
But this consolidation of power extends beyond just monopolies and mergers galore — compounding the issue are shared board members. All media corporations have a board of directors, which is responsible for making decisions that support the interests of stakeholders.
PLEASE READ FULL ARTICLE >
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/6-companies-control-90-percent-read-watch-hear-why-care/
I meant to include this one too – for all those people who think they are getting the truth from the mainstream media empires in Australia – you couldn’t be more wrong – the only thing you are getting from mainstream media empires, allegedly, is Fake News – THEY feed you what THEY want you to know. Please see this also >
WHY YOU ARE NOT GETTING TRUTH FROM ANY MAINSTREAM MEDIA EMPIRES >
“Who Owns the World?” A Small Group of Big Money
By Peter Koenig
Global Research, February 26, 2024
Who Owns the World” is the title of an extraordinary documentary, describing how Big-Big Money controls not only every aspect of your life, but has a stranglehold on every government, the political UN body, as well as every UN agency, and all industries and services of this globe.
These largest investors are BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
These same investment groups also control over 90% of the world’s major media.
Even Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is majority owned by BlackRock / Vanguard.
It is therefore no miracle that hardly any news penetrates the walls of secrecy about these major shareholders of every aspect of human life and life-related activities and businesses.
They control politicians, geopolitics and military deployments
It is a monopoly that can literally not be opposed by traditional means. They have also invented the “rules-based order” — overruling every international and national law at their will.
They know no limits, no ethics and adhere to no human or human rights standard. POWER is them.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/who-owns-world-small-group-big-money/5850681
Well written Paul!
There needs to be some sort of restriction in place about how much politicians can spend, and cost benefit analysis on any spending over a certain amount. It is just unconscionable that in recent years politicians can spend whatever they like and run a state or country into the ground.
Big ear’s statue doesn’t belong in the sewer, he does.
They can put the statue up, but to keep it up they’ll have to fence it top and sides with solid brick.
Who knows, even that might not be enough.