All the bullshit starts again tomorrow, this time for an election year. Bannerman really can’t wait! he’s on tenter-hooks just craving the Newsradio broadcasts of the House and the Senate. Sad isn’t it? Maybe so, but if more Australian voters took note of what happened in their Parliament, the country might not be subject to such arrogant, ignorant governments.
As displayed by the sittings page of the Parliament website, we get three – count ’em before they get away! – three days of sitting this week. Both houses even. Impressive. Next week we get four days of the House of Reps, Senate being engaged in estimates hearings, then a week off. For them. Then a whole four days the following week – Feb 26 to Mar 1. These buggers never actually ‘work’ a whole lot for their stupendous stipends. At least it seems that way. The life of a pollie is just a tad busier than we who elect them might consider. But then, we pay them well, so they ought to bloody-well put out, eh?
So, what can we look forward to in this year of a pending, and extremely important election? Well, it’s already begun. Bannerman notes a distinct about face by the PM on the issues of climate change and water. It seems that John Howard is now the country’s – if not the globe’s – saviour from global warming. He’s embraced it, don’t you know! If Little Johnny Howler can embrace the unembraceable, you’d think that his disciples could as well. There’s just no convincing some though. Even when you have a weight of evidence to support the case, they’ll deliberately wear blindfolds. There’s simply no chance for some, is there. C’est la vie.
There’s water. Some might like to align water with drought with climate change with terrorism and ‘illegal’ immigrants. Your Bannerman doesn’t link any with either. Certainly, this nation has difficulties with water, especially right now while the southern half of the continent is experiencing a severe lack of seasonal rain. There’s nothing new about that. It’s actually seasonal to miss out on seasonal rain. The seasons are simply much broader. Bannerman knows this well. He’s lived where it’s dry and where crops are grown when rain falls. When it doesn’t, nothing much happens. Just as the economy in this country, despite what politicians would have us believe, is degrading because of the dry.
Little Johnny Howler is out to make water a primary wedge issue for this Parliamentary sitting, make no mistakes about that fact. His grandstanding in South Australia last week is simply the opening act of a long-running play. He plays the hero. The states of our federation play the villain. We, the collective electorate, play the defenceless widow about to be deprived of water for her brood if the nasty states don’t accede to LJH’s demands. And if the villain doesn’t buckle, LJH will enact constitutional law and take over water administration from the states anyway. That’s federation, dear reader. The new federation. Not the old, tired, boring, Menzies-style of federation, oh no. It’s the new, post-Menzies style of Howardian federation. Where the federal government have control over everything there is to have control over. Unless of course, the states need to be brought into line over some issue or other. Then they’ll be allowed to have control over whatever the issue happens to be, so that the Howardian federal style of government in Canberra can point its finger and lay blame.
Make no mistakes, reader, nothing which has occurred since January 1 this year has any bearing whatsoever on the resolving of Australia’s water problems, or acceptance of climate change as a reality along with all of its implications. Nor has anything of substance occurred in connection with Workchoices, or David Hicks or ensuring that QANTAS remains Australian. All of those issues are in today’s news, reader. All on the plate, just begging for Parliamentary consumption. The Hicks issue alone has the potential to sink this government. But the Teflon Tories just shrug this stuff right off. Oh yes, all care…….on the surface. Dig a little deeper though and you’ll find the pure essence of no responsibility.
Bannerman eagerly awaits the resumption of federal Parliament. At the very least, the activities of our elected representatives should be entertaining.