Just when you expect Australia's political leadership could not get worse, this week things were nearing "catastrophic" category after the revelation of another rort - how a $24 million sports grant built a new function centre and car park for the Penrith Panthers (one of the most affluent licenced sports clubs in the nation).
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The federal Liberal Party has descended to the lowest depths of parliamentary behaviour (and greed), in company with its junior partner the National Party - who despite protestations to the contrary, is in urgent need of reviewing its survival plan.
Last Friday, thankfully, the trio of journalism's shining lights nationally in this nation - the ABC, Melbourne's The Saturday Paper and The Sydney Morning Herald - revealed what the latter's chief political correspondent David Crowe described as: "The ritual disclosure of political donations this week suggested the major political parties collected about $420 million last year including almost $90 million spent by Clive Palmer on his vainglorious quest for power."
As Australians truly concerned about where our governments are taking us would know, Palmer's candidates didn't win a single seat. But they did stop the ALP winning enough to govern in its own right. The residue was left to govern daily since May 18 last year without a single example of leadership or common sense.
A strong contributing reason for this, as Crowe wrote is: "A shady major party donation system ... this is Third World transparency in a First World democracy." Worse, wrote Crowe, the system is going backwards, even though it is easily fixed but it won't be under this mob ... because it keeps them in government. Hang the future for the average Australian taxpayer, whose money contributes to this shady major party "donation" system.
Ian Chubb has declared himself "depressed with the state of Australia's democracy and politicians treating us like mugs". For the record, Chubb is a former vice-chancellor of Australian National University and was the federal government's chief scientist. He has, over the years, been quoted in this column. Especially in regards to education, which on the ABC's Q and A this week, gained notice for its falling standards under Coalition governments.
Professor Chubb also blasted the lack of action about falsified documents by cabinet minister Angus Taylor and many other issues. So far as the ongoing leadership of this country is concerned, Chubb dealt with seven PMs and 35-40 ministers in various guises and various levels of competence. If you think the good professor was just having a private whinge, then you would be wrong - he was, in fact, addressing a Senate hearing about democracy last Friday. This is what he told the hearing: Australians want valued and principled leadership. "Straight, honest, open, persuasive, insightful, smart, intelligent (leadership) but instead we're treated like mugs by self-interested politicians".
Politicians like Victorian Liberal Kevin Andrews, who wants an 11th term in the Parliament and is garnering support from self-servers like John Howard and Tony Abbott plus their supporters.
The current elected government doesn't seem to care.
So, where does the hoi polloi and middle class Australia go now? It is 45 years this year since opposition Coalition senators (some appointed, not elected) - who couldn't abide not being on the government benches - urged their leader Malcolm Fraser to convince Governor-General Sir John Kerr that the man who appointed him, PM Gough Whitlam, had to be sacked.
Although the ALP had just been re-elected and had initiated, historians later wrote, "unparalleled reform". A fresh election was called. Kerr was variously advised by the then Chief Justice, Sir Garfield Barwick, once a Liberal MP, and influenced by Fraser. The dismissal was described as the most dramatic political event since federation.
As current political leadership events have been referred to this column as the worst since that time, is it not unreasonable to suggest the current G-G, the former chief of the nation's defence forces, General David Hurley, and NSW Governor, together with the current chief justice of the High Court Susan Kiefel, might - at the persuasion of enough MPs who care - persuade them to prorogue parliament and appoint an administrator for a period of say three-to-six months before issuing writs for a fresh election.
Almost 231 years ago, the French people took matters into their own hands. All we ask for, as Chubb inferred, is honest, fair, sensible and equitable political and democratic administration.
The current elected government doesn't seem to care.
- This is the first of a three-part review.