The incredibly vacant and entitled Tony Abbott has been fined $500 dollars for not wearing a mask. A random law-abiding beachgoer grabbed her phone and took several photographs of Abbott when he was out and about maskless in Manly. Of course, he complained that he was “well within the law, reasonably interpreted”. Abbott, in all his magnanimity said he would not challenge the fine because it would waste police time1. How gracious of him, given that his pension is almost $300,000 per annum2.
Of course, Abbott was disturbed and “never thought dobbing and snitching was part of the Australian character”1. It is funny that he didn’t realise this when, in 2015, he set aside $1 million for a new hotline that urges members of the public to dob in drug dealers3. Earlier this year, the Morrison government decided to establish a hotline for employers to dob in unemployed Australians who refuse job offers4. So, dobbing only seems to be a problem when it is a Liberal being dobbed in.
To cap off Abbott’s idiocy, he followed all his self-pity and resentment with: “I think as soon as we can leave this health police state mindset behind us, the better for everyone”1. This is the same sort of drivel spat out by the verminous Nationals MP George Christensen in his infamous, lunatic speech to parliament and for which he was censured. He said: “Our posturing politicians [and] the sensationalist media elite and the dictatorial medical bureaucrats need to recognise these facts and stop spreading fear”. He added that “we have to accept” that, like the flu, people will die from COVID-19 but “what we should never accept is the systematic removal of our freedoms based on zero-risk health advice from a bunch of unelected medical bureaucrats. Open society back up! Restore our freedoms! End this madness!”5
It almost goes without saying that Christensen was lying when he said masks and lockdowns don’t work. There are numerous peer-reviewed studies which show that masks are effective in reducing the spread of Covid-19, some from as long as 18 months ago6-8. Italian researchers concluded that lockdowns were effective in reducing the number of new cases in the countries that implemented them, when compared with countries that did not”. Another research paper studied the varying levels of lockdown in Italy and found that less rigid lockdowns did not decrease mobility enough to stop a Covid-19 outbreak, while a tighter lockdown led to a decrease in mobility enough to bring down transmission quickly such that the epidemic could not be sustained5. New Zealand and Victoria learnt this lesson but New South Wales did not.
To get this sort of drivel from Tony Abbott is unsurprising as he is not the sharpest tool in the shed, and attaching himself to the ‘unelected experts’ bandwagon driven people of the ilk of George Christensen is something he has done before9. It is this idiocy I have previously railed against in noting that “it was unelected experts who detected and analysed the Covid-19 virus, and determined that it was a coronavirus like that which caused the SARS pandemic. It was unelected experts who sequenced the genome of the various strains of the virus to help track the origins of outbreaks”10. Indeed, it is unelected experts around the world who have developed the several vaccines which likely will be shown to have saved many millions of lives, and it is unelected experts who have worked out how to manufacture them in huge quantities, and it is unelected experts who will inject it into anyone who wants it. Conversely, it was unelected and elected non-experts who stated that this disease was no worse than the seasonal flu, or that masks and lockdowns don’t work.
One thing of which you can be sure, and that is Tony Abbott will have been fully vaccinated with a vaccine developed, manufactured and injected by those unelected experts. He feels entitled and if a few hundreds or thousands of people die, he won’t care; at least he won’t have to wear a mask.
Sources
- https://www.news.com.au/national/tony-abbott-fined-500-after-being-photographed-in-manly-without-a-mask/news-story/f930ff761312c90c1c4c38d73b3aef77
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/30/tony-abbott-gets-100000-raise-on-backbenchers-salary-now-hes-a-retired-pm
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/16/dob-in-a-dealer-tony-abbott-announces-hotline-to-combat-ice
- https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/23/hotline-to-dob-in-unemployed-australians-who-reject-job-offers-blasted-by-business-welfare-groups
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-13/coronacheck-george-christensen-speech-parliament-lockdown-masks/100372200
- https://blotreport.com/2020/04/05/face-masks/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/06/28/latest-on-coronavirus-transmission/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/07/07/airborne-transmission/
- https://twitter.com/albericie/status/1283603401553571840
- https://blotreport.com/2020/09/15/unelected-experts/
If I didn’t know better, I would think that the duo of malignant narcissistic mediocrities (Abbott and Morrison), were born Siamese twins and then separated via the brilliance of “unelected” doctors. However, one was born at a time when many free services were available under responsible government, and Morrison born much later. What a boon for Abbott to have got a proper university education free of fees. This privileged north shore brat Tony Abbott, at every stage of his ugly career as a political pugilist, loudmouth and rank misogynist, has shown himself completely unfit for public office. It’s entirely within credibility that he would think himself way above obeying the NSW health orders, as displayed in his comments to the press on the weekend. Classic smart-arse nonsense from one who was patently the least deserving, stupidest PM we have had since the sad Billy MacMahon in the early seventies. Tony Abysmal should just retire to the obscurity he deserves and close his large gob, while also following basic instructions during this lethal pandemic affecting NSW. He has no useful contribution to make, and in fact he never did, over the past thirty years.
Russell,
No argument from me. He is simply an oxygen thief.
What, the neocons didn’t have a taxpayer funded “Dob In A User” hotline? The hypocrisy of high flyer drug users, previously known as “cokeheads” (and there are plenty of them in all walks of life) AND those who turn a bind eye (including politicians) while condemning and prosecuting suppliers – is breathtaking.
Speaking of the hypocritical, homophobic, misogynistic and anticlima(c)tic Mad Monk though….
He was appointed by the profligate (with taxpayer funds) UK Conservatives as a “trade advisor” not long ago. Based on what experience and capability we’ll never know, unless they desperately wanted something wrecked**, in which case he’s their man. One of the gobsmacking statements justifying Abbott’s engagement – by international trade secretary Liz Truss – was that advisors were a diverse group of people who shared Britain’s belief in free enterprise, democracy (remember this country still has first past the post voting) and (I kid you not) “high standards” and “rules-based trade”. Nobody to the left of Genghis would accuse Abbott of high standards, just as nobody who follows Boris Johnson’s Brexit actions would suggest his government has any understanding of rules-based trade. As was predicted (but vigorously denied by Johnson) prior to the Brexit vote, UK trade has plummeted in recent months, and not just because of Brexit-induced loss of trade. They now don’t have enough lorry drivers! Seems incompetence over there starts at the top and rolls right through, which in part explains why they have one of the highest covid mortality rates in Europe. Sadly it seems the sacrifices and community spirit of WWII generations is now a very distant memory. Beautiful country, too many “country members” (see Gough’s quip).
** https://www.evatt.org.au/post/lord-abbott-the-wrecker
Jon,
Yes, I remember! Abbott has been a failure at everything he has tried. Many may say that he succeeded at being an opposition leader, if your only criterion is that he became PM. Partly destroying this nation in the process with simple-minded denialism demonstrates that he is profoundly incompetent.
Let’s be fair. Abbott has been very successful, at being a total failure.
Warren,
Good point. He failed as an apprentice priest, as a journalist, as a husband, as a father, as a boyfriend, as an opposition leader, as a prime minister, and generally as a member of the species.
Kudos to that beachgoer for calling him out. These Liberal politicians (both current and former) think they are better than us. Politicians (both current and former) are driven on pure ideology rather than actual evidence. An example of this is when Herr Dutton called everyone oposed to the Assistance and Access Bill supporters of terrorists and pedophiles.
Glenn,
They are all the same. Soon, in the runup to the election, whenever that is, the threat level from terrorists will climb, there will be more money handouts (already started with pensioners).
Further to Jon’s pertinent comments above, If one wants to know more about why “Little” Britain (especially) is in the mess it finds itself these days, I fully recommend you read “The end of Homo Economicus” (Verso publications) by left-leaning academic Peter Fleming. This writer gives a tonne of stark evidence for how pursuit of purist right-wing ideology during the whole Thatcher to Gordon Brown era ( – still alive among die-hards who can’t see that Friedmanite – Ayn Randish thinking causes mayhem) has nearly ruined not only the Brit economy, but its education system and cohesion of civil society.
The book offers example after example of government sponsored/encouraged ill-advised privatisation, asset stripping gone amok and poor economic judgement. For a period of thirty-plus years, including those of the pernicious so-called “New Labour” leader Tony Blair, rigid ideology on the extreme right of politics brought a nation to its knees and unravelled the social contract that once kept Britain civilised and relatively strong economically. “The end of Homo Economicus” simply pours sulphuric acid onto neoliberalism. It describes how class-based interests across British government and corporations, got together to literally loot the commons for short-term profit. Fleming utterly opposes the way Anglo-sphere nations like Australia, UK, NZ and Canada have been monetising every aspect of our lives, only to end up with badly fractured societies of have-lots and have-nots, such as has not been seen since the Gilded Age.
Russell,
That sounds like my kind of book. I wish you’d have told me about it a few days ago, before I ordered 5 books to add to my stack. The same thing has happened in Australia; we have been screwed by economic fundamentalists. In Australia, it has currently taken on a religious slant, with the takeover of the Liberal Party by religious nutters.
oh come on you lot, fair suck of the saveloy ….. isn’t it common knowledge that mouth breathers are prone to expiration from mask wearing due to the choking hazard from inhalation?
Clive,
Chortle!