Crikey readers took the chance to air some grievances about Scott Morrison’s already dire approach to climate policy (i.e. not having one), as pointed out by Bernard Keane yesterday. Elsewhere, there was much to say about Labor’s failure to show up on the issue of Witness K and Bernard Collaery, with more than a few comments bordering on the conspiratorial.
Also, apologies to readers whose comments on the website have been awaiting moderation for longer than usual. The issue is now resolved.
On Morrison’s failure on climate policy
BeenAround writes: With 57-59% of Australians supportive of action on climate change and a managed transition to renewable energy sources, this farcical policy vacuum should be enough, on its own, to damn the LNP to oblivion at the next election. But remembering that over 50% of Australians ignorantly supported miners in respect of the Mining Resource Rent Tax (i.e. taxing the extraction of resources owned collectively by Australian society) who knows what will happen.
Vanise Alstergren writes: Frequently, people suggest the future will see Australians divided into dire conservatives (Scott Morrison et al) and the remnants of neo-Liberalism. A more productive division would be the atheists versus the hard right-wing antediluvian blind moles (Eric Abetz, Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott, Kervin Andrews, Cory Bernardi and all the religious right.) How dare these clods live high on the hog on the taxpayer’s expense. These morons are taking our money while laughing at us. When will the electorate do something about these self-serving denialists?
On Labor’s failure on Witness K
Jimbo from Logan writes: Yeah, I’m pretty sure there are now barely any politicians who aren’t apologists for the intelligence agencies. Giving them powers they don’t need; giving them powers they didn’t ask for; this continual whittling away at people’s rights. The intelligence folks must have some awesome kompromat.
John Richardson writes: I would contend that it is the fact that the Liberal and National parties have never had any principles, coupled with the Labor Party’s readiness to abandon its own, that makes it so difficult for the electorate to tell them apart these days and explains why an increasing number of Australians won’t support either of them. I would also argue that Labor’s abandonment of principle is all the more significant for the electorate, simply by virtue of the fact that it used to stand for something, whereas the LNP has never stood for anything other than naked self-interest.
The deafening silence of Shorten and his Labor Party in the face of the government’s persecution of Bernard Collaery & Witness K is evidence enough of their cynical opportunism, abandonment of principle & a betrayal of the Australian people.
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Barnino writes: Had Labor remained the party of social justice, had they continued to have significant grass-roots democracy, had they genuinely cared about the environment (remember the greatest moral challenge of our times) — that’s three of The Greens’ four pillars — there would be no Greens party at all. Were the majority of our fellow citizens even cursorily interested in the catastrophic outcomes of unbridled, selfish materialism, we would have a Greens government. So we can hold the despairing hope of victory for Mr Hollow Man over Mr Religious Suburban Man at the next election, while working to hold Labor to account for all the ways in which they are not what they pretend to be.