An ode to Scott Morrison, prime minister of Australia
Scott Morrison Statesman and prime minister of Australia representing our proud nation in Fiji
Now is not the time to talk about how climate change has contributed to the catastrophic bushfires in Australia. Now is not the time to discuss the drought. Now is not the time to evoke the fact that the greatest river system on the world’s largest island has dried up three years earlier than it otherwise would have due to mismanagement. Now is not the time.
Now is not the time to mention that in 2006, the Australia Institute warned our government that by 2020, we would be facing severe threat of bushfires. Now is not the time to question why 23 fire chiefs, who lobbied the government for months trying to explain about the looming bushfire risk were denied access to the prime minister, while mining companies met with an open door. Now is not the time to reconsider the staggering $4.7 TRILLION per year that the taxpayers of the world fork out to subsidise fossil fuels. Now is not the time to wonder why fires are burning in forests that have stayed wet for millions of years. No, now is clearly not the time.
Now is not the time to get in a tizz about the plastic rubbish that is choking the oceans so much that by 2050, there will be more of it in there than fish. Now is not the time to obsess about the toxic effects of 144 000 chemicals which human beings produce. Now is not the time to brood about the haze of poison smog which blankets much of our precious planet. Now is manifestly not the time.
Now is not the time to question the policies which allow foreign corporations to buy up all the groundwater in Australia. Now is not the time to stop giving overseas mining companies access to unlimited water. Now is not the time to ask whether it really is a good idea to have multinationals open up water bottling plants which deplete the local resource and produce nothing but plastic bottles. Why would we do that now?
Now is not the time to worry that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are stripping essential nutrients out of our food. Now is not the time to be paranoid about how intensive farming has rendered bacteria immune to antibiotics. Now is certainly not the time to mention that in New South Wales alone we are clearing 27 000 hectares of native vegetation every year. Now is demonstrably not the time.
Now is not the time to change your trousers just because you leaked a little urine and are representing our proud nation in another country, Mr Morrison.
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TAKING REFUGE
After a hectic few months back in the Northern Rivers, I am enjoying the quiet life across The Ditch in the “Castle of Clear Light” overlooking picturesque Corsair bay.
Corsair Bay
LIKE THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
There is something comforting about Kiwi society that breeds nostalgia for an Australia that I once knew, and can now barely recognise back home. Twenty-seven years ago, I was a footloose traveller with a European partner and the dream of settling in a place where our children could thrive in clean, healthy environment within a supportive and caring society. Although we had options throughout the EU, the Rainbow Region of Northern New South Wales was a no-brainer. Conservation battles had been won, the climate was kind (no 39 degree days in spring), and if things went downhill financially, we could always find government support without being treated like a criminal.
On my recent visit, it seemed like every time I looked at the news, I witnessed some new atrocity against our society, our well-being, and the very land which supplies all of our daily needs. These crimes are committed by our own governments and the corporations which fill the troughs from which their political snouts guzzle.
I find it incomprehensible that at this late stage of ecological collapse, our government is not only selling us out to mining billionaires and water thieves, but threatening to jail anybody who has the temerity to speak out about it; journalists, whistle-blowers and activists alike. It is a dark day when even the Murdoch press are protesting against the secrecy and obfuscation of the bungling lackeys that they themselves installed.
They say that Nero played the violin while Rome burned. In Australia, our cack-handed, self-serving so-called leaders are bulldozing coal onto the fire while criminalising the fire brigade.
Scientists have laid out a plan to mitigate the damage to our climate and planet by good old fashioned methods of locking the carbon back into the soil at a cost of $300 billion. That’s what we spend on the military every two months.
The New Zealand prime minister recently brought down her wellbeing budget saying; “Nobody wants to live in a country where, despite a strong economy, families are homeless, where our environment is being rapidly degraded and people with mental health issues do not receive the support they need.” Amen, crack a tube….(to my non-Australian friends, this means open a beer!)
DO AUSTRALIANS STILL BELIEVE IN GIVING EVERYONE A FAIR GO?
Have Australian people got meaner along with the government policies over the past couple of decades? When I was an apprentice in the 80s, I used to attend protests. The guys with whom I worked thought it was a bit strange but they didn’t hate me for it. Nowadays, I see vile vitriol and death threats being spewed out against protestors, even children, by apparently ordinary people. What is going on? Why would a hefty percentage of Australians feel so angry about children appealing for a less polluted world?
Comments of a Facebook post highlighting police brutality against Extinction Rebellion protestors in Brisbane. There were over 10 000 comments, most of them like these.
THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN
It seems as though our divisivemajoritarian two party political system has fanned the winds of hatred, empowered the amoral, and set our country on a catastrophic course of self-destruction. The politicians who succeed in this system are the wreckers ascend the ladder by tearing down those around them, including enemies in their own parties.
I find it instructive to note that New Zealand, like the Scandinavian countries, has a multi-party system of governance. To succeed in this paradigm, leaders need the skills to empathise with and unite disparate groups. In Australia, it is the scum of Machiavellian ideologues, whose only skill is to undermine and vilify, that rises to the top of the swamp. It is no coincidence that the five Nordic countries, all governed by consensus democracyrate in the top ten globally for happiness.
EVANGELICAL FANATIC
Remember, we voted in a prime minister who doesn’t believe that human activity could possibly effect the climate, but does believe that Noah built a boat by hand when he was 600 years old, and saved every species of animal in the whole world. Except unicorns of course. Such a bummer about the unicorns.
