You would have thought it would be at least mildly damaging to the Abbott government, if not just a bit embarrassing, that one of their colleagues has leaked a memo outlining their plans to wedge Labor on national security policy. After spending an inordinate amount of effort trying to convince voters that Abbott rates national security policy as a priority above all else because it really is an important area of public policy (it isn’t), you would think it might be a bigger news story for the public to find out that, in fact the Abbott government’s obsession with national security policy is nothing more than a political game. A game to make Labor look bad. A ‘tactic’ designed to ‘wedge’ Labor, to make Labor look ‘soft on terrorism’. A scheme to get Abbott re-elected. Nothing to do with the safety of Australians. But this is not a rational world that we live in and we do not have a rational media who would make this story a rational one for their audience to understand. Instead, the release of this memo was yet another ‘nothing to see here, move along, the Abbott government can do whatever they like without being framed as completely ridiculous’ moment and we’re all meant to just go about our lives as if nothing has happened.
Well I for one won’t just go on. I will call out the ridiculousness when I see it and I will question how a supposably mature and well-educated electorate of Australian voters are so keen to fall for Abbott’s bullshit on national security. Because, according to a recent poll, the one thing Australians are most anxious about is the threat of ISIS. Seriously. In a country threated by climate change, with unemployment at record highs, with whole industries dying out, with house prices in some cities far out of reach of middle-income earners, with huge cuts to education and health spending, with threats to social security and aged pensions and with a government so catastrophically inept and dysfunctional that we’re a daily embarrassment, and a danger to our international community, Australians are most scared of a handful of idiotic lunatics who inexplicably leave the comfort of their homes in Australia to fight with fanatics in a country most Australians can’t find on a map? Seriously? When people wake up every day, do they really worry more about the ISIS ‘death cult’ bogey-man-under-the-bed than they do keeping their job and feeding, clothing, educating and caring for their family? Seriously? So Abbott’s game is working. Australians are falling for his wedging of Labor hook line and sinker. Or is it by hook or by crook? Wake up Australia! The joke is on you!
Today Abbott took the ‘we will wedge Labor on national security policy’ directive further into the immature game-playing realm or absurdity today by saying that since Labor, quite reasonably and to my relief, are refusing to help give Minister-Potato-Head-Dutton ministerial control of taking away the Australian citizenship of people accused (but not proved by a court of law) of fighting alongside terrorists, that Labor are ‘rolling out the red carpet to terrorists’. Labor has said they will support legislation that removes the Australian citizenship of people with dual-citizenship if a court of law finds them guilty of supporting terrorism. You know, like when anyone commits a crime in this first-world-country we live in and are given, as an inalienable right, the right to be tried in a court of a law and to be considered innocent until proven guilty. But this centuries-old-approach-to-the-rule-of-law is evidence of Labor being ‘soft’ apparently, according to the wedge-brigade. Even though Abbott has been told his plan, which was so opposed by his own cabinet members that it was the topic of the most detailed cabinet leak the country has ever seen, is likely un-constitutional (in other words won’t happen unless Abbott changes the constitution, in other words won’t happen), he is determined to keep going with it. Because he’s trying to give Labor a wedgie. It’s all about polls you see. While he’s scaring people, he’s winning. That’s a sad fact. He actually does win when he’s scaring people and part of his plan to scare people is to tell them that the courts are no longer going to keep Australians safe. It’s now up to Peter Dutton to keep us safe. That’s scary!
But do you know what really is scary? Apart from the ease in which Abbott can play these games, aided by a compliant media who never call him out. Apart from the fact that Australians are all too willing to participate in the ISIS-is-under-your-bed-BOO!-charade. And apart from the fact that while Abbott’s playing these games, he’s not running the country and addressing real problems facing millions of Australians, and in most cases is making our lives harder instead. No, what scares me most is that Abbott’s game will be successful and he will convince a gullible-all-too-ready-to-be-conned electorate that even though he’s quite clearly the most inept human being Australia has ever had the misfortune of calling Prime Minister, that his own political game playing ‘war on terror’ makes him a ‘safer bet’ than Labor at the next, possibly quite soon to occur, election. This really is scary enough to keep me up at night.
Media Inequality 
Unfortunately, Victoria, I think that the vast majority of the electorate really are gullible – and pathetically, are not in the slightest concerned. The LNP knows this and plays on it. Dumb and dumber – that’s where we are heading as a country. I despair!
The scumbag media is as putrid as Abbott and his psycho misfits. They are destroying our Australia and our democracy. Keep up your great work Victoria.
I get around and speak to quite a few people in the course of my day, and you can only be impressed with the level of gullibility, ignorance and apathy among the voters. And, even more, the pride many actually take in it.
Those of us with both hands on the wheel, and at least one eye open, may have to wait a little longer for our grand utopian vision of an averagely competent government, with some sensible policies, that believes in, and abides by, the rule of law.
[…] Giving wedgies on national security policy → […]
[…] While you use national security as your play thing, we can see what you’re trying to do. Your leaked memo made that very clear. And when I compare you, the petty, vindictive, creepy flea, to the likes of […]
[…] While you use national security as your play thing, we can see what you’re trying to do. Your leaked memo made that very clear. And when I compare you, the petty, vindictive, creepy flea, to the likes of […]
I’m amazed that more Australians than ever have tertiary education and are school leavers, yet there seem to be so many gullible people who fall for the modern day version of the old ‘Reds under the bed’ line.
My real concern is that many of the supposed laws which Abbott is creating to deal with the so called ‘terrorist threat’ are not just for dealing with terrorists. The terrorism threat talk is just a smoke screen for what Abbott & Co really intend these laws to be used for.
If you have a look at their recent history for legislation I think it is evident that they are laying the framework for a state in which they can more aggressively target citizens who challenge their political authority, by creating laws such as the following:
– Collecting our meta-data (including not just computer transactions, but phone data recording where we are at any given time) and allow police and government agencies to be able to trawl through it without restraint.
– Passing legislation which allows for ASIO officers to break laws and be immune to prosecution as part of ‘secret operations’ whatever that is meant to mean. Also, if anyone publishes that a ‘secret operation’ occurred they can be jailed even for suspecting, but not knowing that the secret operation occurred. This legislation goes further by jailing those who re-publish it in social media or elsewhere. This type of legislation is very concerning to say the least!
– Stripping people of dual citizenship for criminal offences. Note, that it’s not just people who are terrorists or people who are outside of Australia fighting for ISIS. It’s much more vague, it allows for offences as minor as damaging Commonwealth property.
I also hear today that the government is attempting to find ways to strip citizenship off of sole citizens. However did this country come to this point?! We’re all potentially ‘probational’ Australians. I hope that this ends up being unconstitutional and never goes before parliament.
All of these laws are supposedly to make Australians more ‘safe’. But the fine print reveals that the government can start to use them in less than transparent ways, or start to arbitrarily target citizens they don’t agree with for their own political purposes.
My feeling is that if they win the battle of belting the Muslim minority up they will be emboldened by that victory and start to slowly modify their rhetoric to attempt to target other perceived enemies of the current administration such as environmentalists, rights activists and others. The terrorist threat rhetoric changes to the “eco-terrorist threat”. Those standing up for civil liberties become “Un-Australian for not standing up for the safety and security of the community at large”, etc, etc.
They’re already attacking the ABC to attempt it to shut up. If Auntie kowtows, then when this mob really get going with their arsenal of nasty new laws, the supportive Murdoch media will let them get away with it with very little analysis or criticism.
I really hope that Australia has a much brighter future from this really dark period in our history at the moment. I want for my child to grow up in the same free, educated and prosperous society that I have grown up in as well. At least social media and the broader internet is giving people a voice and allowing for discussion and debate that was never present even a short decade ago. I hope before then next election all the sheeple will wake up from their slumber and see Captain Rabbit and his motley crew for what they really are.