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wŕōƷ īşưƐ ƆƐſëƐĕīƷ ĶƆ ǕīIJƐ ĈōƖć The Byron Shire Echo Volume 33 #31 • January 9, 2019
ĎſƖī ōĕĈƐƖſĕ ćƷ ëŕ ĶīŕşſëŔƖƆ The NSW deputy premier John Barilaro (Nationals), it must be said, appears to be a terrible parent. And that’s apart from being an atrocious political actor. Imagine having his nasty, bigoted narrow world views thrust upon you. It’s bad enough he votes on laws that diminish human rights and his party contributes to an unstable atmosphere. In the case of drugs, he forced an awkward conversation onto SMH readers last week to try and demonise those who support pill testing. It was a pious, posturing, moralising ugly piece of work that ignored the evidence that harm minimisation comes from decriminalisation. Essentially his attitude appears to be that dead young people are the price we pay for an endless unaccountable drug war. Barilaro took the extraordinary position of assuming he is an authority on morals without establishing any. So let’s all ask the obvious – what evidence points to fewer deaths from drugs – decriminalisation or being ‘tough on drugs’? Ask Portugal. In 2015 the Washington Post reported that following relaxing drug laws, ‘HIV infections and drug-related deaths decreased, while the dramatic rise in use feared by some has failed to materialise.’ Pill testing is reducing deaths in the UK and has been a success in Europe for decades. Regarding softer drugs, Canada become the first G6 nation to legalise recreational cannabis in 2018. States in the US that have decriminalised cannabis are seeing their economies booming. Thailand is set to be the first southeast Asian nation to legalise medicinal cannabis, according to Newsweek recently. Yet in Australia, we are led by the likes of Barilaro, who consider themselves a ‘tough love parent’. Don’t we instead need empathetic parents who provide sound guidance based on evidence? Barilaro’s comments are reflective of a cookie-cutter life, with all the rainbow hues of a beige envelope and off-cream wallpaper. It’s unclear if Barilaro has ever done drugs, but let’s just presume not. Yet he certainly needs something to make him more interesting and compassionate. NSW residents surely need more self-examination and more depth from their elected leaders. Good thing there’s an election looming in March! The local Nationals representative who wants to be elected here – Ben Franklin – supports this out-of-touch garbage. His government is terrible. Not all drugs are the same. Some are good. Alcohol and tobacco are sanctioned drugs that kill way more than every other drug combined. Young kids can see this blatant hypocrisy while these ‘adults’ pretend otherwise. Tyrants like Barilaro are only interested in maintaining the huge unaccountable budgets for police drug operations. Barilaro’s thinking is so sick that he is against measures that have been proven to prevent deaths. Barilaro wants to keep funding an unwinnable drug war and doesn’t care about young people’s lives. This chump and his fellow circus monkeys must, must, MUST be voted out on March 23. Hans Lovejoy, editor
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here was none of that nambypamby nonsense about taking a cup of kindness for the sake of auld lang syne, or anyone else for that matter. Scott Morrison went straight on the attack to welcome 2019. ‘My job – our government’s job – is to prepare Australia for any opportunity and eventuality,’ he bellowed. ‘It’s to grab the year by the scruff of its neck and make it a winner for all of us.’ And if the year does not behave itself, presumably the prime minister will wrestle it to the ground and stamp on its testicles. Many Australians – indeed, many of his own supporters – would have preferred something less confrontational – perhaps a new year’s resolution to be less aggressive and shouty. This is not going to happen immediately – to calm down now would be to tarnish his brand, undermine the authenticity he has so painstakingly contrived. But as ScoMo the marketeer knows, brands can be altered and renewed, and authenticity need not be frozen in stone. His own career is a fine example of pragmatism that frequently lapses into opportunism. He says he is not part of any faction, which may be true – but only to the extent that he embraces all of them. On one memorable occasion he dined at separate celebratory diners on the same night, first with the conservatives and then with the moderates. It proved that he was not an ideologue, crowed his clique, calling it a plus. But it could also be seen as evidence that he does not really believe in anything much, which would be a decided minus. These days he presents as a devout Pentecostalist, but he was raised a in the more austere atmosphere of Presbyterianism. And he is always ready to find a loophole: ‘The bible is not a policy handbook,’ he avers, although that is precisely how the religious right warriors in his party room sought to portray it during the same-sex-marriage debate, and their subsequent demands to allow church law to override secular laws when it suits them. But in any case, if his bible is not a political handbook, what is it? A text
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to be addressed on Sundays and relinquished during the working week? Or does our prime minister practise some kind of Orwellian doublethink, in which he has no qualms about brutalising asylum seekers at the same time he claims to follow the teachings of Jesus? We don’t know, of course, because Morrison will not tell us – he says his religion is private, a matter for himself and his god. Fair enough, but in that case why does he parade it so energetically? Just good promotion, perhaps.
Morrison will continue to make his presence felt in the premier state, even if his state colleagues would prefer he didn’t. Mungo MacCallum And even ScoMo’s devotion to his football team, the Cronulla Sharks, is relatively short lived – he only became a fan when he moved into the shire ten years ago, so will presumably switch allegiances to a new local club if he moves again. And this being the case, a makeover to a less combative style should be relatively painless. But even if he planned one – and there is no sign that he does – his party is prepared for the ultimate fight-club spectacle he has foreshadowed, having no real alternative. Well, most of them: the NSW state government, facing a crucial election in less than three months, has already made it clear that it wants as little as possible to do with the Morrison plans for an all-in brawl – the premier Gladys Berejiklian has enough problems to contend with. She can do without an incursion of federal Liberals, the ones who demolished her Victorian counterparts after the federal minister Kelly O’Dwyer lamented, ‘They think we are a bunch of homophobic, anti-women, climatechange deniers.’ And given that there are enough in the mad right to make the charge not only plausible but an existential threat to the survival of her embattled government, Berejiklian will fence as many of them away from the
hustings as possible. But she can hardly black ban her NSW-based prime minister; she can ask him to go away, but even if ScoMo were willing to go into hiding, his troops are not, and they would regard such restraint as cowardice, even desertion – the sort of treachery Malcolm Turnbull (Boo! Hiss!) committed during the Wentworth by-election. So Morrison will continue to make his presence felt in the premier state, even if his state colleagues would prefer he didn’t. And to prove the point, he made a ceremonial appearance at the Sydney test match, where his team was facing a demoralising defeat – and the cricket was pretty depressing too. He had exhorted drought-stricken farmers to pray for rain; perhaps he gave the same advice to the Australian batsmen. But apart from that, ScoMo was his determinedly cheerful self, resplendent in the obligatory pink cap. And, never one to let a chance go by, he kicked in $27 million for the McGrath Foundation – you couldn’t call that pork barrelling, just feelgood campaigning. He was applauded, until he glazed the eyes of his audience with yet another turgid dissertation about the wonder of a strong economy. And there will be plenty of those to come, along with many less legitimate handouts. But a certain amount of restraint, even diffidence, may not be a bad idea. It is still more than a month until Morrison has to face the minimalist parliament he cannot avoid. He is worried about the risks associated with minority government, of course, but the long break just might assuage the punters appalled by the raucous nude mud wrestle at the end of last year. If they do not see too much of their leader, they may forgive and forget his bad captain’s calls, his rejection of expert advice, his confected ferocity, even his shoutiness. They may be prepared to give him a second chance. It’s a long shot but it must be worth a try – nothing else seems to be helping. So for Scott John Morrison, the message for the election year should be simple: chill out. Dial down the belligerence, bluster, bravado, and bullshit. And for the rest of us, have a happy – or at least a less crappy – new year.
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