On a Downer

Sometimes it is difficult to know if some of what appears to be right wing nutjobbery is what it seems to be. Every now and again, I have a fleeting suspicion that some of it may be satire¹, as some of the statements made seem to be too much like equine ordure to have been uttered with any degree of seriousness. Alexander Downer, the last in the line of the Downer dynasty to occupy a seat in parliament (assuming daughter Georgina flops in Mayo again at the next election), has written an opinion piece in the Financial Review². This article is one of those for which it is difficult to determine its intent: whether it is supposed to be serious commentary or satire.

Downer starts with the aphorism that ‘the public get the politicians they deserve’. He then proceeds to blame the electorate for being wrong; for making “governance harder, not easier”. Ironically, Downer then selects “our old friend climate change” as an example of how this has gone wrong². I say ‘ironic’ because his daughter, Georgina, apparently does not ‘believe’ the climate science³. However, Downer has completely missed the point by stating that it is due to the public wanting action on climate change, but are unwilling to pay higher electricity prices. The problem with the lack of action on climate change is not due to any confusion in the electorate. It is solely due to the idiotic climate change deniers in the Liberal and National parties who refuse to even countenance action on climate change⁴.

Downer then whines about how the public is never happy with prime ministers, by going through the polls’ and, presumably, the public’s disenchantment with all recent occupants of the office. From there, he jumps to disabusing readers of the value of electing independents by, in one case, asking how Rebekha Sharkie, who thrashed Georgina in the Mayo by-election, would manage the roll-out of 5G. That is a bad example to choose, given the NBN fiasco engineered by the Coalition. Then, hilariously, Downer states that “if disillusion with Liberal and Labor keeps growing, you’ll end up with something a lot worse: a coalition of chaos”². This is accompanied by a link to a story bemoaning the prime ministerial musical chairs⁵. Whether this pun was intended by Downer is unclear (he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed), but one thing is certain, we already do have a Coalition of chaos, a Liberal and National one.

Sources

1. http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/tom-switzer-satirist/
2. https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/dear-voters-australias-political-chaos-is-your-fault-20180923-h15qm1
3. http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/georgina-downer-blocks-policy-questions/
4. http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/climate-change-deniers-in-parliament/
5. https://www.afr.com/news/canberras-political-chaos-deterring-multinational-investment-in-australia-20180911-h157mq