Australia has a new leader

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

As cold waters to a thirsty soul,
So is good news from a far country
- Proverbs 25:25

(6/2022) The result of the May 21 election was a surprise to no one here, and heralds the beginning of a new style of leadership. The nearest analogy to this was the removal of Donald Trump, except that our version had nothing but ego: no guts, no brains and no responsibility.

So, thumbnail of the worst politician to have ever lived: Grew up in Hillsong, that happy-Clappy Pentecostal perversion. Went into advertising and scheming, went into politics, and became minister for communications. At the election in 2019, no one expected his party, the conservatives, to have a chance – the economy was a mess, was fighting among itself as the far right tried to rid itself on the moderates. And, with the help of his Hillsong friends, managed to appoint himself as candidate for prime-minster.

Enter the opposition, the Labor party, which you do not have, but is the same as the English system. The odds on them winning were heavily in their favour – but guess what? They lost. They lost because they have too many idealists in the ranks who believed coal was the enemy of everyone, so went to the coal-mining areas and said, in so many words, ‘you are wrong.’ That is all it took, and the resultant loss led to three years of total incompetence.

Now to 2022.

Scott Morrison, the PM, was not going to win, the result was going to be a labor win.

But no, they will form a government with much less than 50% of the vote.

To explain: Australia is one of only sixteen countries where compulsory voting is in place, which means you have to vote or get fined – and be sneered at. (As an aside, we believe that to be a democracy, when every citizen has to be represented, then they must vote. It is not a matter of choice.) As well, we are not stuck with having just two parties, which in theory, you do as well but in practice do not.

One of our progressive philanthropists, ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, knew that the major parties were disconnected from the majority, so poured money into recruiting suitable people who could stand as independents. Locals who could talk to the locals, intelligent people who could get their message across.

The result? The conservatives lost some 12% of the vote, or some 12 seats. Labor lost 3%, which is certainly not enough, but the independents, who became known as ‘teals’, and the greens, have won a whopping 12 seats, and their preferences, (you do have preferential voting, don’t you?) have gone to Labor.

Joy throughout the land.

Our buffoonish ex leader celebrated by playing the banjo, and the latest corruption index, which in 2020 was at 10 for Great Britain, Canada (the lower the better – Norway and New Zealand at 2 or 3) saw us drop to 11 last near and probably to 13 or 14 this year due to the billions ‘gifted’ the PM and his mates from coal, oil, gas and the jailed but huge Argentinian group who not only runs most of the meat packing here, but now the aquaculture section as well.

Now the even better news.

The new PM, Anthony Albanese, is a younger version of Joe Biden – smart, quiet, to the point, astute. Sworn in on Monday, he’s off the QUAD meeting in Japan, with his two most senior ministers.

There is so much to fix back here - they are going to be very busy - but there is one thing that is intractable. The economy. Australia sells Iron ore and coal the China, we buy most other things from them.

We cannot do without them, and our livelihood depends on them. (YUK!)

We have always believed, (what a strange word – belief is what you hope for) that we could balance our need for China with our loyalty and reliance on the U.S. But that is a myth: unless China actually attacks us, we are on our own. Over the years we have lost our manufacturing industry, exporting primary products – but here’s the thing: China only has to experience a down turn in manufacturing and we are against the wall.

But here comes Anthony. A cabinet composed of highly educated, competent and honest (yes, all right, is any politician entirely honest?) that is preparing to undo some of the damage wrought by the former PM. Things like public housing, the health system, overseas aid.

And that is perhaps the most serious oof all. The conservative government, in power for 12 years, had reduced funding for overseas aid, even promising the Solomons more while giving less. So, they go to the Chinese and we may well finish up with a Chinese naval base at our backdoor.

I was involved in this last election, locally heading a group known as ‘Get UP’ - which you don’t have – but one that researches the background and performances of every candidate.

All the people doing similar things agreed that the result would be just what it is.

So were are heading into a new phase.

How are things with you?

Let’s not go into Ukraine, the Taliban, or any other once hot topics, just let me hear you rejoice along with us.

Now a note about the Greens: They have made significant inroads into their numbers in parliament, but how many countries are trying to reduce green-house gas emissions? Just 16.

Western Europe, Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Every other country don’t care, India are building more coal fired plants, and whether they know it or not, they are right. Because the tipping point, that point when things can never be brought back occurred thirty years ago. Much better to spend the billions that have been sunk into ‘gas-reduction’ being used to help fix the effects of climate change: Levees, relocations to higher ground and so on.