Abbott on the verge


Out in the gutter with all the other trash…

Out in the gutter with all the other trash…

The Coalition, led by Tony Abbott, is on the verge of regaining power after the worst six years of government in Australia’s Federal history.

The Rudd-Gillard-Rudd-again experiment proved to be the most untrustworthy, incompetent and arrogant administration one could conceivably imagine. Broken promises, failed policies, epic waste, smear, lies and corruption lay strewn in its wake. Labor’s shabby deal with the Greens in 2010 was bought with a promise of urgent action on climate change, which gave Australia the most pointless emissions tax on the planet.

Producing barely 1.5% of global emissions, Australia has always been a bit-part in the fairytale theatrics of global climate action, and Labor’s tax was supposed to reduce that tiny figure by a paltry 5%, all at a cost of billions of dollars to the Australian economy. And what effect would it have on the climate? Nothing. Well, as close to nothing as one could get, something like a twenty-thousandth of a degree Celsius.

But that didn’t matter, because the Greens are ideologically blind to harsh decisions and realities, putting their fluffy, feel-good pet causes above the quality of life of ordinary Australians. Labor tied itself to this party of nut-jobs and extremists, and with luck, by the end of today, they will have paid the ultimate price for having done so.

I look forward to seeing the end of the carbon [dioxide] tax, the ETS, the abolition of the Climate Commission and with it, the disappearance of Tim Flannery, Will Steffen, and all the other climate rent-seekers suckling on the public teat for the past six years.

But no matter how much you may agree or disagree with Labor’s policies, it has been the style of government that has shamed Labor most. Their currency has been utter incompetence, personal smear and abuse. Gillard’s misogyny rant went viral – surprise, surprise, given what a hot-bed of Lefties social media has become – and Abbott was portrayed as an unreconstructed bully and a thug. The approach failed miserably, as people have realised that it is not Abbott but Kevin Rudd that has the sociopathic tendencies.

Also, the Left’s ever-present totalitarian instincts, always bubbling away just under the surface, were almost given free rein when the truly frightening Finkelstein report was released, which advocated a government-appointed watchdog to “regulate” news media (i.e. muzzle any criticism of the government and shackle the Murdoch “hate media”). Whither free speech in our so-called democracy? Thankfully, it never made it, but boy, was it close.

Their standards in public life have also been reprehensible, with the Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper affairs sullying the reputation of the Australian parliament. The recent ICAC investigations have demonstrated the level of corruption and back-scratching that went on within New South Wales Labor when it was in power. Cannot imagine that Federal Labor is much different.

If all the polls are even vaguely correct, the delinquent adolescents who have been playing at running our country for the last six years will be punished severely, and the adults will once again form the government of Australia.

Reform of the ABC long overdue


Leans to the Left

Always leaning to the Left

This blog has frequently exposed the barely-concealed left-wing bias of our publicly funded broadcaster, the ABC. As Gerard Henderson points out regularly on his must-read Media Watch Dog, there isn’t a single conservative presenter or editor on any mainstream current affairs programme, earning the corporation’s acronym the alternative interpretation of “Anything but Conservatives”.

In their stead we have had to suffer “Red” Kerry O’Brien (whose “old leather bag” visage will be gracing the ABC’s election coverage tomorrow, naturally), Tony Jones (adding another lefty voice to the already skewed Q&A panel every week), Fran Kelly (activist presenter of Radio National’s Breakfast show), News Radio’s political editor and resident Lefty, Marius Benson, Jonathan Green (editor of the Drum, which is banged repeatedly for Labor/Green causes) and Mark Scott himself – wilfully blind to the “groupthink” that is endemic in his organisation – to name but a few.

Then we have all the climate change alarmists, like Dr Karl, Robyn Williams, Adam Spencer, Bernie Hobbs, Tony Jones again, all the Catalyst team etc., 95% of the contributors on the online site, extremists like Clive Hamilton, Stephan Lewandowsky etc, and the list goes on.

It is galling that taxes paid by all Australians go towards funding that Lefty/Green echo-chamber, which caters for a small urban elite, staffed with inner-city Ultimo types who couldn’t run a chook raffle. Privately owned media organisations stand or fall on their output, witness the enduring success of News Corp, and the rapid decline of Fairfax, as it too panders to the latte-sipping, sandal-wearing intelligentsia, and in the process ignores the vast majority of Australians. The Age astonishingly endorses Labor for the election tomorrow – as one commentator pointed out, after asylum disasters, NBN, massive debt, waste, dysfunctional leadership, knifings, in-fighting, Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper, what would it take for them not to endorse Labor?

But the ABC is paid for by all of us, and it should be representative of the views of all Australians, not just a mouthpiece for the Left. It is probable that a Coalition government will be elected tomorrow, sweeping away six years of Labor incompetence. Yet you wouldn’t believe it listening to the ABC this morning, with the majority of stories either puff pieces for Rudd and Labor, or criticism of the Coalition and Abbott. Maybe they realise that the clock is ticking, time is running out, so they have to make the most of it, like the last gasp of the Roman Empire.

It’s time for the ABC to be subjected to significant reform. Balance must be restored in current affairs broadcasting, and the ABC must fully reflect the diversity of Australian opinion. Whether this is by some form of privatisation or otherwise, the population have switched off in droves, with Sky taking over as the de facto national broadcaster.

When the ABC isn’t trusted to run the election debates, something is seriously wrong. Let’s hope Tony Abbott and the Coalition will start to fix it.