CYNICISM-20: The next outbreak is here.
Every day but Sunday, my farmer mate Ferdie walks into his paddocks for his 10-11 hours of hard work. And every day he thanks God that he’s not a cynic, or a politician.
Even though he lost one year’s crop to drought, one to bush fire smoke and was locked down for months, these are times, says Ferdie, to stay positive and know you’re safe because Australia’s leaders will be focussed 100 per cent on our best interests, on what’s important for Australia.
He reckons this is when you can rely on our leaders to be transparent, honest and willing to give us everything we need to know – a time when only one thing matters – protecting our country from Coronavirus.
CYNICAL
But, Ferdie says, the world is full of cynical people and politicians.
For example, one of his cynical mates erroneously believed that the Powerhouse Museum was only ever going to be moved to Parramatta so the State Government could flog off hundreds of millions of dollars of prime real estate in Pyrmont to build high-rise apartments which could be sold mainly to the Chinese. Then the Chinese apartment market dried up because of COVID.
By a fabulous coincidence, backbencher Don Harwin also needed something very popular to announce after his reinstatement as Minister for The-Faction-Supporting-Gladys. And the Don was just lucky when charges of breaching COVID-19 restrictions were passed from an angry Police Commissioner to the DPP where they were subsequently and quickly dropped.
DUMB
But Ferdie doesn’t think cynically. He’s sure Don didn’t send the wrong message by going to Pearl Beach for a break – even if he didn’t appear to understand that COVID was still here when he stood too close to his Treasurer while announcing the Powerhouse backflip. Ferdie knows nobody could be that dumb.
Ferdie worries that cynics might look at Victoria and wonder why the Belts & Roads Initiative is no longer discussed, or the branch stacking, or soon (with a bit of luck) the appointment of security companies with bonking skills and little training.
Ferdie knows there must have been a very good reason why the man he calls Premier Goofy decided not to use the free, superbly trained and available Federal ADF personnel and instead hired a few randy bouncers from presumably unionised firms.
MOSCOW
And it’s only a coincidence, surely, that media attention has moved from the corruption and stupidity of the Labor Government in Victoria to the plight of those poor sods jammed into the high-rise tower developments modelled so lovingly on the 1940s suburbs of Moscow. Ferdie guesses that this distraction just happens to be a good thing for a Premier.
For a minute or two Ferdie did think it a bit odd that one day after a Victorian shut down hundreds of people could land at Sydney Airport from Melbourne without even having their licences checked to see if they were from one of the 36 suburban hotspots. But he figures that must have been a simple oversight and we can all make mistakes.
Ferdie believes important information should, at times, be confidential. Politicians believe that members of the public, whether in Victoria or Australia-wide, don’t need to know the detail of Belt & Roads. Sometimes you have to keep ‘em in the dark in case learning the details could worry them, small points like who will own what and how national security might be affected.
ANGRY
Ferdie’s not a cynic so he welcomed Premiers in both NSW and Victoria calling for immediate enquiries into the Ruby Princess and everything that’s gone wrong in Victoria since Goofy took over.
He thinks it might be smart to have two enquiries going in NSW in case one doesn’t take long enough to let people get over their anger. And the good thing about an enquiry is that nobody will be found guilty of anything. Ferdie’s mate says enquiries are just to let politicians and bureaucrats avoid having to answer questions now – questions the answers to which would have them pilloried.
But Ferdie doesn’t understand this political stuff. It’s a bit too complex for a simple farmer. Then again, Ferdie may not be a cynic but sometimes there is so much going on that it makes a simple man shake his head … corruption, faceless men with unfettered power, stupid decisions made for political reasons, cover-ups.
Ferdie’s not a cynic, but he is a Quiet Australian. He is angry and he’s going to stay angry.PC
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: Past, present and future NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin celebrates his splendid “luck”. (courtesy Channel 7)
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Ferdie is the sort of Australian I love the best! A vitally important section of our Australian backbone.
I just hope he is happily gaining access to enough cheap water for his fields. What has happened in this area is a criminal outrage; faceless fat cats owning Australia’s water!
I also hope Ferdie’s wonderful acres are not blighted by those monstrous wind turbines; it would be tempting to profit from their erection!
We must all hark back to that childhood tale of the three little pigs. Think how misguided the straw and sticks piggies were; cue in the very unreliable, spasmodic and oft-renewable wind-turbines and solar-panels. We know how wise the third little pig proved to be; he used his noggin and invested in solid brick.
So should our Government be building solid, reliable HELE coal-fired power stations to electrify our Nation for stable, solid economic growth and progress – the greatest part of the strong backbone supporting us well into the future!
Don Harwin was working from home at Pearl beach and had been doing so for a number of weeks
He travelled to work at parliament and went to his city apartment rather than a hotel
WTF the police commissioner was unrepentant and had the hide to criticise the courts
He should have been charged with contempt
Brian, you use the term “working from home” quite loosely. According to news reports he was shacked up at Pearl Beach with another woman’s husband. A woman who had thought her husband was stuck overseas due to travel restrictions. PS. I have a bridge for sale.
An insightful and accurate article which effectively reflects what many NSW Liberals opine and feel. It is perhaps time for that majority of members who voted for democratic reform of the NSW Division in 2018 to reactivate and push the factions (and their Young Liberal collaborators), which corrupted and defeated the reform process in favour of self interest, back into impotent cabals.
Neil Flett’s cynical observations on the manipulation by politicians of events to suit their own agenda, is subscribed by a single unwavering belief: the quiet Australian is stupid. So stupid that he/she cannot interpret events for what they are and will thus swallow hook line and sinker, the politicians’ fabricated explanation which whitewashes their faux pas and incompetence.
In Victoria Chairman Andrews bans golf, yet allows mass protest gatherings. He refuses ADF assistance to help deal with covid 19, but employs bonking but otherwise untrained security guards to monitor hotel isolation. The bumbling premier came down too hard and too late, but has the hide to blame the populace for the current 6 week lockdown of Melbourne.
He has also used the covid 19 scare not only to cover the incompetence of his government in relation to the pandemic that has been successfully controlled by all other States and territories, to divert attention away from the branch stacking corruption of the Victorian Labor Party and the potential threat to the financial viability of Victoria specifically and the security of Australia generally, by signing up to the Chinese belts and Roads Initiative.
In NSW the backflip on the location of the Powerhouse Museum, is presented as a good news story benefitting both the City of Sydney and Parramatta, rather than a huge blunder. A more acceptable explanation would be to say: “we are a democratic government, we listened to the overwhelming sentiment of the people and will reverse our decision”.
The government could not bring itself to admit its error. Why? because the people of NSW are stupid. Spin them a line and they will accept that the backflip had nothing to do with financial viability or bolstering the image of a disgraced Minister.
There is only one politician in recent times who had the perspicacity to understand that the quiet Australian is not stupid. I regret he is not a Liberal.
Peter Beatty won the unwinnable Qld election in 2014, by trusting the intelligence of the Quiet Australian to see through political spin and say: “we stuffed up, but we will do better next time.”
Sadly the majority of Australians forget and forgive these terrible decisions by our elected leaders.
A great article exposing the deception, smoke and mirrors employed by many politicians and especially the Marxist “Dan Andrews”. About time the “silent Australians” spoke up more and joined political parties so that this circus can be stopped.
It’s such a shame to see Ms Berejiklian go the same way as NSW’s only other lady premier, Kristina Keneally … both destroyed by “over-ambitious” men.
When will these faceless men realise the real damage they do to the politician’s brand? When will parties move to smash the factions? Start by laying it all out for the voters…who controls who, who chooses who runs. Only then will be be able to move against these cowards.
Poor Gladys. She honestly believes that the manipulative sneak Don Harwin is propping her up. But in reality he’s destroying her government right in front of a fed-up public. Either she’s too dim to know it or too weak to stop it.
It’s funny, but it’s not. It doesn’t take long before all politicians make political choices over what’s best for Australia.