Howdy dear availees...going to do 2 cut-'n'-copy posts today 'cos I agree with what these two folk have to say, and in this first post, the author has previously been definably pro-LNP, and hence the title of this post...I've included the direct link to the full article 'cos there are several links in said article to news coverage related to the subject matter...(I love the comparison to Married At First Sight and the cavalcade of 'neck-tattooed idiots' who routinely gaslight the women involved-Ed)...yeah, I don't watch it myself, but I was aware of Twitter-chatter about a particularly toxic man and his appalling treatment of his 'partner', and recently signed and shared a petition that was calling for the producers, Channel 9, to act to protect the female participants...(rather than exploit them for 'train-wreck ratings'?-Ed)...exactly...
I also fully support Christine Holgate, the former CEO of Australia Post, who was hounded out of her position by Scott 'Scummo' Morrison...(who actually told her to quit/leave on the floor of Parliament, after a hyperbolic diatribe about her apparently outrageous and unacceptable behaviour-Ed)...you saw it then?...(we all saw it, he was all piss and vinegar about how "She.Can.Go."-Ed)...and Ms Holgate did 'quit', but it was only after being thusly publicly abused and humiliated, and for what turns-out to be 'not an actual problem', and certainly not unlawful/illegal...and now Scummo's gone the full-unit Uber-Gaslight by completely denying that he played any part in Ms Holgate's departure/sacking...it's just the latest in a relentless litany of gaslighting denials by Scummo and/or the LNP...(there's some discussion down our way, that Scummo has finally lost his marbles having spent so long in the fictional gas-lighting realm-Ed)...is that right?...(indeed, it's said that he's the Pharoah-Ed)...the Pharoah?...(yeah, the King of Denial-Ed)...oh dear gourd...(and that he's been residing there so long that he's fully immigrated and no long even occasionally visits the reality the rest of us all occupy-Ed)... you get that impression don't you?...
Anyhoos, here's the link and the trimmed-down copy of the article...remember, this is just a very brief review of only some of the litany of scurrilous and openly corrupt dealings of the criminal cabal we also call the LNP...***
MPs a protected species floating high above a rising tide of accountability
Jacqueline Maley
Columnist and senior journalistThe reality TV show Married At First Sight is currently enjoying (if that is the word) its eighth season. The show is notorious for its fighting, toxic relationships and gaslighting – a form of psychological manipulation where one person forces the other to question their perception of reality. The show has occasional success in matching people who make it through the televised emotional torture to emerge as an intact couple.
I cannot be snooty or morally superior about the show – after all, it pays my wages (indirectly, as it is broadcast on Nine, the publisher of this masthead). I also watch it, as a kind of bubblegum brain-break from the news cycle and grind of working life. So do many of my friends.
Married At First Sight can be a bubblegum brain-break from the news cycle and grind of working life.
But it does strike me as more than passing strange that at the moment we are having a national conversation about respect for women, the nation is gripped by a show which depicts disrespect for women by the monstrous jerks they are often matched with.
Sometimes, flicking between current affairs and “reality” TV, one feels the news cycle has collapsed in upon itself, as though there is little distinction between what is news and what is served up for entertainment, and no firm line between where consequences end and causation begins.
I had that feeling this week as the Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared to blatantly gaslight the former Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate, telling reporters that she “decided to leave Australia Post. That is just a matter of record”.
Illustration: Reg LynchCredit:
Holgate left her job at Australia Post after Morrison publicly shamed her on the floor of Parliament for giving four senior employees bonuses in the form of Cartier watches worth $12,000 in total (the employees had clinched a $66 million deal).
The Canberra press gallery was briefed on how personally outraged the PM was about this Marie Antoinette-esque profligacy. The PM was “appalled and shocked”, he said.
He sputtered with indignation as he thundered in the House in October last year: “We are the shareholders of Australia Post on behalf of the Australian people ... [Holgate] has been instructed to stand aside. If she doesn’t wish to do that, she can go.”
As The Australian reported at the time: “There are expectations within the government Ms Holgate will not return.”
Fast forward a few months, fold in a harrowing news cycle of abuse and harassment of women in the political sphere, and the PM’s agency in Holgate’s departure seems greatly diminished.
Holgate was not pushed, certainly not sacked, according to Morrison. She decided to leave. It is gaslighting more masterful than any man sporting a neck tattoo could manage on MAFS.
In fact the PM’s Holgate comments were a rare moment of proactivity from a Prime Minister who has been mostly reactive during his time as leader.
He was reactive during the bushfires crisis, during sports rorts, and during the recent rolling catastrophe of disrespect for women that has overtaken the political news cycle.
By contrast the government’s reactivity to the pandemic was effective and swift, notwithstanding the current issues with the vaccine rollout.
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But reactivity is not leadership, and neither is shutting things down and avoiding consequences.
Here is a random list of the ministers and government members who have committed various transgressions and who have suffered few consequences for them: Stuart Robert, who had to resign from Malcolm Turnbull’s cabinet for breaching ministerial standards (in an affair involving Chinese mining deal and the gift of a Rolex watch).
In 2018, Robert had to repay about $38,000 in home internet bills he charged taxpayers for. He was one of the ministers who oversaw the government’s unlawful Robodebt scheme, he incorrectly blamed a cyberattack for a Centrelink internet outage (when he was the responsible minister) and he is now in charge of contentious reforms to the NDIS.
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In 2020 Angus Taylor’s office sent a fraudulent document to The Daily Telegraph to stitch up a phoney story on Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore. Taylor knew the information was wrong almost immediately but did nothing to correct it until Moore complained. He has never properly answered questions about the affair.
Senator Bridget McKenzie took the fall for sports rorts after she failed to disclose membership of two gun clubs that benefited from the grants program. More than 100 emails were exchanged between Senator McKenzie’s office and the Prime Minister’s office about the program, but the PM denied there was political interference in the assessment process.
LNP MP George Christensen was the subject of a warning from the Australian Federal Police after his visits to red light districts in the Philippines. Christensen took at least 28 trips, spending about 300 days in the Philippines over a four year period to 2018. The AFP worried he could be vulnerable to blackmail.
Alan Tudge had an affair with a staff member, as did Barnaby Joyce.
In 2017 Sussan Ley resigned from the ministry over an expenses scandal, after it was revealed she had travelled to the Gold Coast on taxpayer funds, and had purchased a property while there. She refused to make her travel diaries public.
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Liberal-turned-Independent MP Craig Kelly defended and protected a senior aide accused of a pattern of harassment of very young women. Queensland MP Andrew Laming is accused of harassing female constituents, both online and in person.
All of these people have kept their jobs as parliamentarians. Some of them were cycled out of the ministry for a while only to be cycled back in.
Morrison talks about a Canberra bubble, but when it comes to consequences and accountability, Parliament seems more like an ark, floating on a colossal tide, protecting its species.
It’s yet another example of how disconnected politics has become from reality – because out here in the real world, call-out culture, new standards of corporate accountability and the zeitgeist are breaking consequences over the heads of all kinds of people, every day.
Twitter: @JacquelineMaley
***So there we go...and onto the next post about Scummo's new 'strategy' to ignore women and try to appeal directly to men...(you mean continue to ignore women-Ed)...sure, fair enough...anyhoos, see you laters for that and further posts...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...
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