Posted on 26 June 2009 by Will O' in Politics
The Australian Liberal Party has rarely been a political entity worthy of respect, but The Howard Years (1996-2007) appear to have brought it into terminal disrepute. A year and a half after John Howard’s disgraceful demise, both as Prime Minister and Member for Bennelong, it is clear the legacy of Howard’s malfeasance still infects the party.
They cannot abide being in opposition. How could they? This is the Born to Rule Party. Tory Toffs and lower caste right wing larvals long ago put aside their innate revulsion for one another to become a grab bag Coalition to further the interests of the big end of town. To ensure this wealth creation of the few it was a logical step to eliminate as far as possible any interfering human rights. This later became a sport with asylum seekers.
It must have been hard for the likes of Alexander Downer to rub shoulders with a Wilson Tuckey or a Bill Heffernan.
Now, with the final farewell performance of the Smirking Jerk, Peter Costello, the only representative of the Higher Born is Malcolm Turnbull. And look at what a dill he has become. Who knows what kind a leader he might have been had the Howard Virus not continued to quarantine the ethical standards of those still in Parliament.
If I’m not mistaken, Turnbull used to be a liberal. But the Liberal Party is Conservative; they just don’t have the courage to correct that glaring error. A political party that calls itself Liberal but is in fact ultra conservative is a good indication of its schizoid state.
At the beginning of his leadership, Turnbull found himself trying to convince a rabble of Howard loyalists that the party must change. Now, with the OzCar disaster, it is clear that his integrity has been gutted. A shadow of his former self, all we see and hear now is a stentorian bully, a patrician whose features are getting sleezier by the day. Soon his ravaged visage will be indistinguishable from Heffernan’s.
And any day now, Turnbull will become yet another failed leader swinging in the breeze. Who is left? Joe Hockey? Also damaged by OzCar. Tony Abbott? He should get out of politics. Andrew Robb? Another nasty, but perhaps their only hope.
As an opposition, the Coalition’s one and only goal is to bring down the government. It has no other purpose than to be obstructionist. Its opportunism is on display every day in every way.
Imagine how vastly improved the governance of Australia would be if a broader version of the Greens were the opposition. Instead we have this wheyfaced pantheon of ferals whose self-interest places the well being of Australia dead last in a miserable list of grubby priorities.
Australia desperately needs an effective opposition. The Coalition has forfeited that right.
I had hopes that Turnbull would be the man who could make the Liberals liberals once again, but it looks like he’s a goner. I am, however, interested to see who will attempt to wrest control away from him. Joe Hockey, the hefty hectoring bully with a comically high-pitched voice? That bat-eared Mesozoic reptile Tony Abbott? Or maybe it will be someone with a superficially modern outlook, like that rude little twit Christopher Pyne.
Guess it turns out our hopes for Turnbull were wishful thinking. We grasp at straws when trying to find someone with ethics or vision in the Illiberal Party. Petro Georgiu fits the bill NOW, but back in the days when he ran Kennett’s campaign, he was pure rotter. We can all change, I guess.
Love your takes on Abbott and Hockey. Latter looks just like my barber. Reason why I’m letting my hair grow long.
And the victor was that creature from the primordial ooze, Abbott. Oh yes, question time is going to be fun now!
Haven’t had so much fun since The Weasel lost Bennelong. A riveting week, with Tony Abbott’s “victory” the Schadenfreudian dream come true. The John Howard Party (or is it the Australian Insane Party?) now firmly stands by the belief, as espoused by Nick Minchin on Four Corners, that “for the extreme left [Climate Change Science] provides the opportunity to do what they’ve always wanted to do, to sort of de-industrialise the western world.” Laugh? I thought I’d die. But let’s face it, Little Johnny only came up with an ETS scheme at the last election because the polls told him so. That’s why it’s so easy for the reactionary remnants to scuttle it now.
And how about Barnaby Joyce? The blotchy-faced replacement of witchy-faced Pauline Hanson is every bit as inauthentic as she was. Watching him filibuster mindlessly in the Senate yesterday it appeared his ill-made head was going to explode any moment. Except for his featureless voice, he could have been mistaken for some raving small-town wannabe in Bavaria back in the Thirties.
What a team! Expect their combined verbal death squads to strike fear into hearts of the willfully ignorant. Let’s hope this is the last ride of the Psychologically Disturbed Right.
PS. Sorry I’ve been absent on subjects like this. But I think it’s permanent. No longer have the energy.
Don’t worry about it Will O’, I’ve lost a lot of interest as well. Without Howard I think our minds have been freed up for other things.
Abbott’s front bench is hilarious. In addition to your selections, I draw attention to that Thatcherite creature Dr Sharman Stone. I met Dr Stone when she was Minister for Workplace Participation when she came up to my hometown to address the clients of the disability employment consultancy I was at. I was astonished by her complete lack of compassion. She had absolutely no idea about the jobseeking needs of disabled people, and actually called us lazy and said there was no excuse for our unemployment in a growing workforce. As you can imagine, she encountered a lot of hostility from the audience, which included people with some serious disabilities who were trying to do the right thing and find a job. Simply disgusting behaviour on her part, and it says a lot that Abbott’s quite happy to have specimens like her in his circle.
Some of the rubbish coming out of Sharman Stone about the recent boat people was so appalling that I’m gobsmacked Abbott got rid of her. Now he’s stupidly compared Copenhagen to the Munich agreement (see below), but maybe that was simply projection, since his front bench looks like they could have easily sat at Wannsee. Robert Dean calls for separate parties, citing the takeover of conservatives at the moment Peacock lost to Howard. The John Howard Party anyone? Lindy Edwards traces the infiltration of conservatives back to Deakin in 1909. Be sure to read the comments following the Crikey article. At least now every ratbag right wing xenophobic racist has one party to vote for instead of a bunch. And Pauline can once again run as a Liberal.
Abbott defends Munich comparison
Crikey: Abbott brings back the dead in reshuffle
Robert Dean: Liberals have betrayed the Menzies dream
Lindy Edwards: Libs broad church threatens to become a chasm