Month: June 2021

Yes Judith Morrison (“A most galling rising”, The Age , 29/6), or is it a lowering?  Australian federal politics has lowered the bar yet again and even the best limbo dancer will struggle to slide under.  But imagine if Lucy Turnbull was the Prime Minister.  They say that behind every successful man is a smart woman.  Her husband Malcolm was the best Liberal leader during my time.  What a partnership that could be.  And even I would be able to limbo under the bar!

(and some of my friends ‘would love to see that’!)

The success of our tackling the pandemic from day 1 was down to the State Premiers, all of them, while the Federal government played politics.  The vaccine rollout was the Federal government’s responsibility and they have failed  miserably.  Now Covid has raised its ugly head again and things look grim.  But very little is coming out of Canberra.  Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Greg Hunt were very vocal in their criticism of Victoria during the big lockdown and at the same time praising New South Wales’s gold standard.  But now that New South Wales is in the hotseat, their silence is deafening.  We deserve better than this.  Canberra shouldn’t be playing politics with human lives.

There are many reasons why people suffer from mental health issues. As well as helping people cope with their issues, we need to look at the causes and see how they can be addressed.  In discussions I have had with numerous people including a doctor, one potential cause in the future, if not now, is advertising.  It seems we can’t do anything today without advertising poking its ugly head into our brains.  We are constantly bombarded with ads whenever we watch anything on television, especially sport.  Post-game press conferences the same. We ring a company and get a recorded message saying the call is important etc and then we have to listen to a constant barrage of advertising for several minutes.  Reading articles online is a pain as they constantly dance about the page, mainly to distract you so you see the ads.  Harvey Norman started its current ad campaign with full page ads that could be removed and thrown out.  They woke up to that and are placing full page ads so that the reverse side of the page is not an ad but articles such as sport. The advertising companies need to take some responsibility before it becomes more serious.  If I can get annoyed when making a phone call to the point that I want to throw the phone across the room – that’s a serious issue for me and I am sure that I am not that unique to be alone.  And I have no doubt that the advertising companies are looking at further ways to expand how they bombard us with ads.  Time to act now.

Thomas Jefferson once said that the government you elect is the government you deserve.  I can accept that if we had a meaningful choice of candidates to choose from but we rarely do.  Looking back over the past 25 years, if asked who I would have voted for if asked to vote for who should be Prime Minister, the only candidate would have been Malcolm Turnbull, but he was continually obstructed by Tony Abbott, and then knifed in the back by Scott Morrison, the last candidates I would have voted for.  Why is it that people who could be desirable political leaders that we could be proud of, don’t put their hands up?

I can understand why the po-faced Peter Dutton would never change his stance on refugees but we have a Prime Minister who claims he is a Christian. He is seen being a ‘happy clapper’ at his Horizon Church and seems to believe that God actually listens to him. He even wanted his pastor to accompany him to America when he went over to meet Donald Trump. I never did understand why. Scott Morrison has also recently admitted that he lays his hands on people in a religious manner. If he is so committed to his Christianity, then I suggest he reads the Bible where he will find many references to how we should treat one another. The fact that he is insistent that the Biloela family must stay in detention and will never be allowed to live in Australia, tells me that he is a total fraud. And this man is our Prime Minister.

The ABC’s role is to present the news in as equitable a way as possible.  This isn’t always easy.  From time to time it has to hold the Federal and State governments to account.  This is their obligation to the public.  Whether the governments are Liberal or Labor is irrelevant.  The ABC mustn’t and shouldn’t show bias and I think it does a pretty good job most of the time.  But it seems Michael Kroger doesn’t think so and he wants Ita Buttrose’s head.  He has in his career dished out the dirt when it suited him but obviously takes offence when it has his Liberal party in its sights.  Sadly, I think the day will come when a Liberal coalition government in Canberra will sell off the ABC and then we will have another rag controlled by a powerful newspaper magnate.  I hope I will have reached my ‘use-by date’ before that happens.

The ABC’s role is to present the news in as equitable a way as possible.  This isn’t always easy.  From time to time it has to hold the Federal and State governments to account.  This is their obligation to the public.  Whether the governments are Liberal or Labor is irrelevant.  The ABC mustn’t and shouldn’t show bias and I think it does a pretty good job most of the time.  But it seems Michael Kroger doesn’t think so and he wants Ita Buttrose’s head.  He has in his career dished out the dirt when it suited him but obviously takes offence when it has his Liberal party in its sights.  Sadly, I think the day will come when a Liberal coalition government in Canberra will sell off the ABC and then we will have another rag controlled by a powerful newspaper magnate.  I hope I will have reached my ‘use-by date’ before that happens.

I have watched with considerable interest how the Federal and State governments have behaved during this pandemic and I feel that one of the casualties is loyalty.  It used to be the case whenever there was a clash between Federal and State governments, that senior politicians would remain faithful to their State and electorate.  But neither Joshua Frydenberg nor Greg Hunt are showing their support for Victoria.  I suspect that Frydenberg is cosying up to the Prime Minister because he seems to be, at the moment, the heir apparent when Scott Morrison decides to step down.  I won’t complain if he is ever the Prime Minister because it’s about time we had a Victorian in the job.  But he mustn’t forget what John Howard did to Peter Costello.  Howard was never going to hand over to Costello because Costello is a Victorian.  I doubt very much that Scott Morrison will hand over to Frydenberg for the same reason.

Both my wife and I received phone calls this morning alerting us that Anglesea was a hotspot and that we mustn’t go out not even to buy a take-away coffee.  It’s strange that people in their 50s and 60s seem to think that their doddery parents don’t know how to look after themselves.  But fair to say that we felt exactly the same way when we were their age!  We thought we knew everything then but only now do we realise that we didn’t – but we do know a lot more now.  We are, of course, grateful that our children care about us.  And we did buy our takeaway coffee – after all, it hasn’t made much of a dint in their inheritance.

I concur with all the letter writers who are asking “have we learned nothing from the previous lockdowns?”.  We are battling a pandemic that has the potential to kill millions of people across the globe.  To date we have done a fantastic job despite the incessant carping from various people and organisations.  Of course there have been mistakes and always will be but I wonder how much better we would have done if everybody had followed the advice of the health professionals.  Wear a mask properly, use the QR codes etc even if it you don’t think you should.  Remember – if the Covid gets you, you’re a lot time looking at the lid (of the coffin).