Travelling backwards… Abbott’s year of “achievement”
It’s been a punishingly busy year for the coalition. With so many pressing items on their to do list, like:
Dismantling medicare, cutting foreign aid, reducing real wages,
slashing funding to the ABC and SBS, destroying the NBN, raising the
retirement age, gutting the CSIRO, cutting child care staff subsidies,
axing secular social workers in public schools in favor of chaplains,
trashing the renewable energy sector, spending billions breaching
international law with our treatment of refugees, stripping away our
right to privacy, granting immunity from prosecution to ASIO officers,
unwinding the same sex marriage laws in the ACT, ushering in ISDR clauses
in the South Korean, Chinese and Japanese free trade agreements,
blowing holes in the budget with the repeal of the carbon and mining
taxes, investing in a shiny new war and handing an unsolicited
multi-billion dollar gift to the reserve bank… it’s just been go go go
for the Abbott government.
Given the cracking pace of their legislative achievements it’s quite amazing they have had the time to (among other things):
Axe the Climate Commission, cull the sharks, fast track the
destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, open up the Galilee Basin, scrap
the Australian Animals Welfare Advisory Committee, scrap the
Commonwealth Firearms Advisory Council, scrap the International Legal
Services Advisory Council, scrap the High Speed Rail Advisory Group,
scrap the Maritime Workforce Development Forum, scrap the Advisory Panel
on Positive Ageing, scrap the Insurance Reform Advisory Group, scrap
the National Housing Supply Council, and as a special last minute
present for Christmas, scrap the funding to homeless and housing groups!
Admittedly the government will need a bit more time to “sell” the
obvious merits of some of their policies to the ignorant cross-benchers
and whiny leaners in the broader electorate, but never fear, with a few
more tax payer funded “public education” campaigns we will all no doubt
be clamoring for Hobbitt (yes, that is a Hockey Abbott couple contraction)
to dish out their lavish Paid Parental Leave to high earning mums to
be, ensure our universities are properly reserved for those with a
fiscal pedigree, and to finally pull the trigger on those pesky
unemployed youth who are currently cowering in their cross-hairs.
But it hasn’t all gone Abbott’s way! And while we may lament that some of the government’s noblest ambitions, (such as their push to de-list Tasmania’s world heritage forests or secure our right to engage in hate speech),
have been thwarted by forces beyond their control, at least the
coalition government have had the guts to stand up to those lefty green
nutters and try!
None the less I think we can feel relieved that the government hasn’t made any significant move to stem corporate tax evasion, (in fact they have pro-actively stood in the way of international co-operation on that issue).
Nor has Abbot been swayed by all that hysterical feminist white noise,
managing to keep the number of women in cabinet down below 10% in his
Christmas reshuffle. (Golly gee, if I had known it would be this fabulous under the Coalition I would have voted for them!)
As the first full year of the Abbott government draws to a close,
comedy and tragedy stroll hand in hand through our political landscape
into 2015, a future as yet unknown. If all goes according to the play
book Abbott and his team have two more years to weave their special
magic over the nation, but who knows? Maybe we can look forward to some
PLEASANT surprises in the New Year!
Happy Holidays
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