One Nation’s lifetime
president summed up in ten sentences
The Saturday Paper Editorial excerpt, 2 June 2018:
Despite what she says,
Hanson is a politician. She’s just not a very good one. Burston’s defection is
the end of her balance of power in this senate. The relief at this is great.
To see One Nation break
apart again is to be reminded of the brokenness of racism. Hers is a dried-out
vision of Australia, mean and unimaginative. It is a pleasure to see it fail.
It is like watching a dirt clod give in to rain.
Hers is a country of
racist privilege, of conspiracy theories and clapped-out ideology. It is a
godsend to see it founder.
Hanson arrived in this
parliament with a party of Brits and car thieves. Scandal has claimed member
after member. Those who are left, she cannot hold together. And it is good.
Barnaby Joyce’s
death is announced
The Australian via outline.com, 1 June 2018:
The implosion of Barnaby
Joyce — personally and professionally — in and of itself risks bringing down
the Turnbull government. In fact, it puts the political potency of the
Coalition at risk well beyond the Turnbull era.
The man once described
by former prime minister Tony Abbott as Australia’s best retail politician has
become a dead weight around the necks of his Liberal and Nationals colleagues.
The way Joyce has
conducted himself generally, the contradictions in his calls for privacy versus
selling his story to the highest bidder and some of the specifics (for example,
blaming his partner for taking the cash or earlier suggesting the child might
not even be his) have put Joyce’s retail days behind him. We’re not supposed to
talk about this now that he’s on personal leave but not dwelling on it is
perhaps the more realistic refrain.
There is no coming back
politically from the way Joyce’s soap opera has played out in public. Anyone in
the Nationals hoping for a return of the man who helped the party retain all
its seats at the 2016 election, even picking one up from the Liberals, and
saving the Turnbull government in the process are kidding themselves. Not now,
not ever.
If the best interests of
the Nationals are the only thing to consider, Joyce will quietly announce his
intention not to contest the next election. He may yet do that. Let’s hope it
doesn’t involve another paid interview.
Michaelia the Screecher
in a nut shell
The
Canberra Times,
1 June 2018:
The Liberal Party's
loudest voice speaking up in defence of all the wrong things, while taking zero
responsibility for what happens in her office. Who could possibly forget the
way she dragged the Leader of the Opposition's female staffers through the
sleaze earlier this year? Now she's been subpoenaed
to appear before the Federal Court, which is examining last year's raids on
the Australian Workers' Union. She's been moaning that it's all a union plot while
appearing to forget the Federal Court doesn't get bullied into doing anything.
Liberal MP for almost 17
years and Federal Minister for over 4 years, Greg Hunt, reveals skills acquired
as former Captain of Australian Universities Debating Team
Brisbane
Times, 31 May
2018:
“He relocated his chair,
pointing towards me and said 'you need to f***ing get over it, you need to
f***ing make Senator Scullion your best friend'," Alderman Miller told ABC
TV.
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