Australian Democracy at a Tipping Point

Guest Author Uncategorized

Today’s Guest Poster is Paul G. Dellit, from The Australian Independent Media Network. It is a good summary much of what many us have been thinking and saying for a long time.

(Image Credit: Otiose94)

Well, we may well have reached the tipping point between genuine democracy in Australia and the beginnings of creeping fascism. You may think this to be one of those ‘shock-horror’ attention-grabbing opening sentences. It is. And I also believe it to be an unalloyed statement of the danger we now face.

History is littered with hindsight surprise that those with power and those who might have opposed those with power didn’t take action to avoid an obviously looming disaster. Of course, the ‘loomingness’ of disasters is often not appreciated by its contemporaries. It would be naïve to expect otherwise. Couldn’t they see that the South Sea Bubble would burst? Couldn’t they see that a grossly overheated investment market populated with stocks that were either massively overvalued or worthless would result in ever-widening ripples of market failures and a worldwide Great Depression. Couldn’t they see you don’t fix Depressions by reducing the size of economies. Obviously they couldn’t see any of those things. And with the dawning optimism of a new century, they couldn’t even remember them, or if they could, they were playing that ‘main chance’ game of ‘I’ll make what I can make out of this and bugger all of the rest of them who lose the lot’.

Prime Minister Abbott and his acolytes, Ministers Dutton and Morrison, propose the passing of a law that would create a precedent for the end of the rule of law in this country. It would invest a Minister with the powers of policeman, judge and jury to act upon an untested suspicion of guilt to deprive an Australian of his/her citizenship. Following current LNP practice, the reasons for stripping someone of their citizenship would be deemed secret for security reasons. So this Ministerial power would be exercised covertly and absolutely beyond judicial or other form of independent review. The Minister would be required to form his suspicions on the basis of the intelligence provided to him. The name Dr. Haneef immediately springs to mind. But even if our security organisations and the foreign security organisations with whom they trade information were as infallible as our PM believes the Pope to be, and even if they had no self-interested agendas, the Minister invested with this power could exercise it to suit his own ends – say, just before an election – to manufacture a terrorist scare and then appear to be the ‘man of the hour’ who restores our peace of mind (coincidentally winning the votes of a few more undecided Alan Jones listeners to save his marginal seat).

The proponents of changing Australia from a common law country, based upon the separation of powers, to rule by ministerial fiat, as their proposal would enable through the precedent it would establish, argue that they are honourable men who would exercise their new powers dispassionately, wisely, and in the public interest. Of course, this is irrelevant. Laws are not made to fit the character of current holders of high office. They are intended to safeguard against, as far as possible, abuse by those who are partisan, stupid, and prone to act in their own self-interest.

The proposed new law deliberately excludes those safeguards.

Consequently, we need some way of ensuring that the current and all subsequent Ministers, thus empowered, will ensure the intelligence they receive is impeccable, and will interpret that intelligence dispassionately, wisely, and in the public interest.

So let’s run an eye over the proponents of the new law, just for starters.

Malcolm Fraser considered Tony Abbott to be perhaps the most dangerous politician in Australian history. You may have thought that a little hyperbolic. I did. There can be little doubt that our current Prime Minister is the least equipped for high office since Sir William McMahon. And the record also shows that Prime Minister Abbott was able to pass through one of Australia’s finest schools and one of England’s finest universities untouched by exposure to academic research methods, the principles of logic and dispassionate evaluation, the values-free acquisition of knowledge, and even by the evidence that compassion and empathy are fundamental to social cohesion. It is apparent that his academic success is based upon often uncomprehended rote learning, the way he learned and then recited his Catechism as a small child. These are flaws in the makeup of the man that speak to his lack of intelligence and general incompetence.

But as we began to see in the run up to the most recent election, and as more information about Tony Abbott’s past was revealed, we began to understand that Malcolm Fraser’s assessment of him was, if anything, an understatement. We began to see his pathological need to win, we read of his violence against a woman when he lost, we observed his relentless, dishonest, misogynistic attacks upon Julia Gillard as part of his strategy to win office, we heard the litany of lies he told to win office, and the lies he has told about lying and about anything else to suit his purpose, after he had won office.

How could we ever contemplate granting power without safeguards to a person with such a pathological need to win, to get his own way, and to retain power regardless of the consequences for anyone else? Can we imagine Peter Dutton having the stomach to independently exercise his discretion against the wishes of Tony Abbott? It wouldn’t matter if he did. Tony Abbott has the Captain’s right to sack him and bestow that office upon himself if he needed to to get his own way. And can we imagine Scott Morrison doing anything that would compromise his leadership ambitions? Smug self-satisfaction was his only reaction to the human tragedy unfolding daily as the result of the exercise of his Ministerial discretion?

It was some small relief to know that the more intelligent members of Cabinet objected to the extreme Abbott proposal that second generation Australians could be stripped of their citizenship based on nothing more than a Minister’s suspicion, as we have said, covertly exercised and beyond judicial or other independent review.

But now, two thirds of the LNP Back Bench have signed a letter in support of the proposed Abbott law. They may be distinguished as a group for being considered not good enough to serve on the most incompetent Front Bench since Federation, but they may just give Tony the support he needs to make another ‘Captain’s Call’.

If Prime Minister Abbott does cross this Rubicon, so will Australia and God help Australian democracy when Ministers of any stripe use the precedent set by this law to expand its operation into other aspects of our lives to suit their own personal ends.

600 thoughts on “Australian Democracy at a Tipping Point”

  2. Another MP said he was intrigued by Mr Abbott’s description of his own lecture to the frontbench the previous evening as cabinet’s “come to Jesus moment”.

    Asked what the Prime Minister had meant, the MP said Mr Abbott had been attempting to say the cabinet was given an ultimatum, “You’re either on the team or you ain’t.”
    Serve all the bastards right who voted for the idiot!

  4. No, this is not a joke

    Australian politicians have been told they can view the current confidential negotiating text for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, but only if they agree not to divulge anything they see for four years, despite expectations the deal could be finalised within months.

    As 10 years of highly secret negotiations over the 12-nation trade and investment pact draw to a close and the US Congress debates whether to grant president Barack Obama fast-track authority, MPs and senators were briefed on the deal Monday night by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade assistant secretary Elizabeth Ward and other officials.

    http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/02/australian-mps-allowed-to-see-top-secret-trade-deal-text-on-condition-of-confidentiality#comments

  5. So…it would appear that Abbott is now totally in charge of that “broad Church” ; the LNP. !
    One wonders what some of the old school like Mesma and Turnbull think on the idea that everyone now has to answer to the authoritarian/totalatarian “BOSS”?

  7. The next step for the idiot is to have the whole ministry out on a healthy jog to get them all fit…just like Mussolini did!

  9. jaycee423

    Funny you should mention Mussolini. A picture of The Oaf this morning brought just that name to mind.

    Sadly the full pic no longer available but you’ll get the idea.

  11. I don’t think Wyatt Roy looks 18. I think he looks older than his 25 years. Here’s a recent photo –

    Or are we talking about his mental age?

  16. Il Duce was seen as a international joke also…as a matter of fact, many Italians used to have reportoir of jokes about him!

  17. haven;t heard a thing about Credlin or Margie lately??…looks like the MSM. is still keeping the rumour-gate secure!

  18. When you have a total goof-ball and raving lunatic alpha-male like that bastard roaming the corridors of power, all sorts of scandals would be happening..it’s a given…we’ve all seen the behaviour of those types…they can’t stop themselves..Yet…not a word..no reports..not a whif of scandal…someone’s covering his arse…and I don’t mean Pyne!…the rumour mills that were so well “informed” in the Rudd/Gillard years, seem to have stopped grinding!
    Now, why is that?
    Crawling arse-licking MSM. bastards!!

  19. Credlin was at the Gallipoli services with Abbott – someone let a photo slip through. Not sure why she thought three white feathers were a good idea.

  21. Mr Abbott. You say it’s good for housing prices in Sydney to continue to rise. So, by how much per year should they rise? Should this be indefinite? Would it be a good thing or would it lead to a precarious situation? What would it do with respect to people first entering the housing market?
    The man is an economic simpleton!

  24. Not sure why she thought three white feathers were a good idea.

    Good point – there’s been far more policy backflips than that.

  27. Can I just mention how amazed I was at the MSM being shocked that Bill Shorten was to quote them- ‘ playing politics’ and him a politician- what did they expect tiddlywinks?

    As for the LIbs who so called ‘support marriage equality’ why were they not in the house- to hear Bill Shorten they support their own interests above all else whatever they tell their communities.

  29. Marriage equality? I’ve never been so but am sick of politicians squabbling about it.

    There’s other stuff to get on with.

  30. CTar1

    Yep , just pass it and get on with it, it’ll take al of ‘a minute’ to get it done. The battle has been lost for those on Capt. No’s side. Saw a news piece earlier and even in the US young Republican supporters are supportive of SSM.

  31. I heard Concertina F-W on the radio a few minutes ago. Yeah right, she’s really into community harmony or whatever silly stuff she’s supposed to be promoting.

  32. kk

    [just pass it and get on with it]

    Yep. I’m well in favour of the “Dave” flick pass on this.

  33. In case you missed this – the government has cut funding for kids with metabolic disorder. These kids require special food. Sussan Ley (and by association, Tony Abbott), who has no medical training, no qualifications in nutrition and NFI, thinks they can exist on rice milk and cornflour instead of the special formula that keeps them alive.

    She said the Metabolic Dietary Disorders Association’s dietary handbook said that supermarket items such as cornflour and rice milk could be used in place of products such as wheat flour and dairy milk by people with protein disorders

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/health-cut-to-cause-hardship-for-sufferers-of-genetic-disorder-20150525-gh938z.html

    I just don’t know where to start on all the idiocities in that claim.

    More information –
    http://www.goulburnpost.com.au/story/3110149/hughs-budget-blow/

    Ms Ley and her government have also decided that people with type 2 diabetes won’t have unlimited access to glucose test strips any more. No doubt Ms Ley has some sort of useless substitute in mind there, too. This short-sighted ‘saving’ will mean more has to be spent on subsidised tests and, if the worst happens, on more hospital care and medical intervention.
    http://www.startsatsixty.com.au/living/do-you-agree-with-the-changes-to-the-pbs

    Here’s hoping none of this gets past the senate.

  34. Fiona

    The botch Concertina Feralranter-Wells was earlier speaking about a possible withdrawal from the UN treaty re not making people stateless.

  35. Kaffeeklatscher,

    concertina f-w should be careful what she wishes for – both her parents were migrants from Italy . . .

  36. kaffeeklatscher,

    The concertina din’t say one way or the other.

    It must be a fly it up the pole and see who salutes thing.

  37. This little black duck

    It’s just some red meat for their 2GB demographic. I’m sure they have no intention of doing it but the drongos will lap it up.

  38. Good grief! La concertina is only 55.

    I’ve always thought of her as an old harridan.

  39. re Tony and his “‘Come to Jesus moment’ comment. Those commies at Forbes are nae too impressed with it , well them and many others.

    ‘Come To Jesus Moment’ Is The Most Annoying Business Expression On Earth

    Forbes recently hosted its second-annual Jargon Madness competition. The tourney-style bracket featured 32 of corporate America’s most insufferable expressions, and readers voted for the worst of the bunch.

    This year’s winner: Come To Jesus Moment—as in, “If Joe doesn’t improve his productivity, he and I are going to have a Come To Jesus Moment.”

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2013/04/03/come-to-jesus-moment-is-the-most-annoying-business-expression-on-earth/

  42. Leone,

    If we never see another column from Tony Wright, we will know what has happened.

    The only question will be: was it a helicopter or a sub?

  43. My nomination for most annoying political expression is ‘inside the beltway’, also used in that cabinet meeting by The Idiot. I suppose he was trying to sound cool and politically ‘with it’. He failed.

    It is a specifically American term, referring to Washington DC and parts of Maryland and Virginia which lie inside Interstate 495, the real ‘Beltway’. It has nothing to do with Canberra, the environs of Parliament House, the Canberra Press Gallery or anything else Australian.

    I am so, so sick of American jargon being flung around by our politicians, business persons and journalists without any of them actually understanding what they are talking about.

  44. Marriage equality? I’ve never been so but am sick of politicians squabbling about it.

    It wasn’t that long ago that couples in de facto relationships were discriminated against because they weren’t married, but are now given roughly equal status. Why shouldn’t same-sex couples that want to be married be given the same recognition?

    Penny Wong summed it up beautifully in 2012 (the bolded section is doing the rounds of social media; I think the context is worth including too):

    Marriage does not need to be ‘walled off’ from some Australians in order to preserve its worth. Because at the heart of marriage is the love of and commitment to another. This promise – the vow of marriage – does not discriminate, and nor should our laws.

    To those who oppose marriage equality, I say: You do not need to legitimise your relationship by undermining mine. You do not need to tell me and the thousands of other same-sex couples that our relationships are less worthy, less valid, or less important.

    We know the worth of our relationships, and we will not allow them to be diminished in this debate. And we do not accept them being diminished by the law.

    http://www.pennywong.com.au/opinion-pieces/in-time-we-will-succeed/

  45. Jaeger

    Ah “de facto” marriages. Thank you for reminding us of that. Lordy they were indeed looked down upon not that long ago . I’d forgotten about that.

  46. This comment from pollbiudger that really cracked me up.

    WeWantPaul
    Posted Tuesday, June 2, 2015 at 3:10 pm | PERMALINK
    Their ABC repeats all the ridiculous lies of the PM.

    I’m going outside to make a guillotine.

  47. We had a visit from a bloke from our electricity supplier. Under the Energy Efficiency Improvement Scheme he replaced 20 of our light globes with, mostly, LED ones. Free of charge. Took him two hours to look at everything and replace where beneficial.

    They estimate that, over their lifetime they will reduce carbon emissions by 11.8395 tons.

    The program was started in the ACT in 2012. And it wasn’t by a Liberal government.

  48. Guillotine?

    Trouble is that we need so many and need to find lots of Places de la Concorde.

  49. This little black duck

    “Under the Energy Efficiency Improvement Scheme he replaced 20 of our light globes with, mostly, LED ones. Free of charge”
    .
    Bloody hell you CanBrans have a sweet deal. Good stuff.

  50. tlbd

    Here in Vic, we’ve had at least two lots call and do similar stuff. The first lot replaced light globes, the second lot put power saver stuff on the tv and computer. Mind you, when my monitor wouldn’t turn on I tried everything, then called our magic computer man. Turns out our so called power saver had carked it, so in the bin it went.

    Talking of our magic computer man, he rang this morning to say Razz’ laptop was basically ratshit. Luckily he had a second hand one, which we promptly bought off him for $200. It has windows 8, but he has fixed it so it looks like a normal windows. We are busy downloading and bookmarking favourite sites.

    Tomorrow, after visit to Drs, will try and find free cell and things like that.

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