What’s surprising is the lack of imagination portrayed in the document. One would assume that the government hires the best spin doctors available, but it appears that even they are unable to polish the turd that is the current economic and social situation in Australia. Perhaps the government feels that it needn’t waste its energy on such trivialities given that we are some time away from the next election, or perhaps they feel that the same tired phrases will continue to keep the general populace happy, a population that they clearly assume to be intellectually inept.

 

The key talking points, or topics that the LNP Government expects to be confronted with include:

 

- A stable economy
- Support for drought affected farmers
- Water infrastructure
- ACCC bank enquiry
- Welfare
- Assange
- Mandatory jail time for child sex offenders
- Northeastern Syria

 

The brief kicks off with one of the LNP’s favourite catchphrases - “a stable economy”. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious. Point 1 is a quote from the main man Scott Morrison: “From our government you have seen certainty, you have seen stability. You’ve seen a plan, and a plan that we took to the Australian people, a plan that we put in our Budget, a plan that foresaw the challenges that Australia was going to face, and a Government that’s just steadfastly getting on with implementing the plan.”

 

Has anyone reading this come across economic certainty, stability, or a plan? If so, please return to Parliament House as its owner misses it greatly.

Such phrases have been trumpeted since Malcolm Turnbull’s first election campaign (and decades prior). To continue this narrative whilst the country is in economic free-fall is the height of arrogance.

 

Support for drought affected farmers is the usual roll-out of current governmental “accomplishments” and committees, bureaucratic head nodding at its finest. Nowhere in the list of fainthearted measures is the climate crisis mentioned.

 

Water infrastructure is accompanied by a similar list of good intentions and funding announcements. The Murray River and the state of South Australia is not mentioned at all.

 

King sycophant Josh Frydenberg has pounded the table and demanded an ACCC enquiry into the banks not passing on the full interest rates. No matter what the outcome of this show investigation, do they really think that we believe that it will make any difference to the average worker? Debt is going nowhere as the reserve labour army continues to grow, wages remain stagnant, and the cost of living increases by the day. It would be fair to assume that a good majority of the population is aware that the banks and the government are connected at the hip, even if they are unable to articulate the reasons for this. Very few will buy this nonsense.

 

The topic of welfare doesn’t break with tradition either, fudged numbers, stereotypes and lies fill out this section of the document. Every sleight of hand trick is used to make it look like they’ve built up a bold new workforce that will take the country into a new era of prosperity whilst ignoring the damning figures that show the opposite to be true. The cashless welfare card and drug testing are given the thumbs up in order to curb welfare spending and to “get people into a job” (the cost of these policies somehow didn’t make it onto the list). They also forgot to mention the yawning chasm between the amount of unemployed and available jobs. But it’s OK, they've got some television hack on board to sell their feeble propaganda.

 

Expatriate Julian Assange is mentioned with the solemn words: “it is important to remember that Australia cannot intervene in the legal processes of another country.” Hypocrisy at its highest level.

If anything, it’s been the Australian government’s policy to insert itself into workings of other countries as much as possible, whether the country in question is aware of it or not. Especially when natural resources are involved, and if the U.S war machine asks us to jump, we reply “how high?” That is, if the lives of our children had not already been offered in a pre-emptive act of Imperial brown-nosing.

 

Of course, this would not be a bourgeois document without a splash of opportunistic populism. Here it’s seen in the topic of child sexual abuse. This is nothing more than a chance to say what Labor, (who have not been in government since 2013) haven’t done. Essentially, they are using the horrific issue of child sexual abuse to score points against their political and ideological stable mates.

 

Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish held territory in Syria is mentioned in vague phrasing where the reader would quite easily see that what should have been said could be saved to one line: “we’re waiting to be told what to do and how to do it from the boss”.

 

What we can deduct from all of this is that the government is either fresh out of spin, fresh out of ideas, or morally bankrupt. My money is on a mixture of all three.

 

With revolutionary spot fires breaking out all over the globe and people taking to the streets at home, the Australian government couldn’t be more disconnected from the people it pretends to represent. It seems that it’s answer to the society’s woes is to close its eyes and hum ‘God Save The Queen’ whilst it’s people are expected to lie back and think of England.

 

This is a government with no opposition and no one to take it to task. Those eyeing them off from across the parliamentary floor are only different when it comes to tie colour. Albanese has proven to be more lacklustre than Shorten, quite an achievement in itself. Labor’s answer is to talk about free trade deals, vacillate between various actions on Newstart and generally to keep working on the disenfranchising of its former supporter base. Labor is only being kept alive by the “rusted ons” who cheer for them as if they were running onto the sporting field, regardless of the line-up.

 

The contradictions in Parliament House are becoming more apparent with each tick of the clock. Now is the time to immerse ourselves into the community, talk to people about what’s going on and the associated causes.

 

The people don’t need a new party running Coward’s Castle, they need a new system, and that system must have its base in the working class and fellow exploited classes.

 

(1) https://twitter.com/BrettMasonNews