For a bunch of tough guys – Tony, Mathias, Smokin Joe et al – it hasn't be a very manly year. Lots of puffy chests, but not of the Arnie variety — more your drooping man-boob kind.
There is a question mark hanging over this government and the question is — just how stupid is it?
They have taken a proud nation and, within a blink of Mandrake’s eye, magically transformed it into a Richie Rich comic.
Or manga.
The primary job of any government is to safeguard its citizens. Our government plans to do this by outsourcing our primary safeguards.
Japanese subs to patrol our sea lanes, the bloated JSF to control our airspace.
You just know Miranda Devine and the Bolt Boy think this is a sound, economically rational way to go.
They are children. Naïve infants, who have no comprehension of what happens when the shit hits the fan.
Under this Government we have fallen to 11th spot of the Global Corruption Index.
Why? Because there is more corruption.
Australia drops out of top 10 list of countries free of political corruption. Call for fed ICAC http://t.co/ntCBReeAAa
— Barry Tucker (@btckr) December 4, 2014
If there was a national ICAC to expose the truth, we’d rank a few places lower still. Corruption permeates all levels of Government, local, state and federal, yet there is no clearly expressed will to rid us of this scourge.
So, when we combine massive defence expenditure and high-level corruption, what do you think is going to happen?
It’s not good.
Only few weeks ago, the Russians sailed into the Coral Sea and hung off the Queensland coast. Our subs could not track the flotilla because their only base is in WA and it’s a long way away, what with the price of diesel and everything.
Ironically, the role of monitoring the Russian surface fleet fell to anti-submarine warship HMAS Parramatta, which apparently had enough fuel to make it to the Sunshine Coast.
Fortunately, the Australian submarine base, Fleet Base West, aka HMAS Stirling, is not too far from Balthazar restaurant in Perth because that’s where our Minister for Canoes chooses to work through the defence budget one $150 bottle of wine at a time.
'To our regular customers, Balthazar has become a trusted place of celebration.'
I'd love #David'Canoe'Johnston to shout me out for dinner if this is typical. Disgraceful. http://t.co/7bueeKCLSs pic.twitter.com/kJxmMG2y2n
— Colin James (@ColinJamesTiser) December 4, 2014
That’s when he’s not at Adelaide Casino knocking back martinis and scoffing lobster rolls.
It was News Ltd who broke the story of Johnson’s profligacy with the defence budget — when News Ltd turn on you, you know it’s curtains.
Just how toxic things have become in the Dept of Deefence was clearly shown when retired General Jim Molan, described by former Labor Defence Minister Stephen Smith as a partisan Liberal Party activist, spat the dummy in September and walked out on his well-paid gig as Johnson’s strategic policy advisor.
The Australian noted senior Tory philosopher Andrew Bolt had observed Major-General Molan appeared to be
“... narrowing (his) criticism down to the Minister, David Johnston."
Molan said his job was ‘not feasible’. Maybe he just didn’t like the wine.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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"David Johnston defends his spending on travel and entertainment after leaks " http://t.co/0QDLFqjVqt #auspol pic.twitter.com/KSNSzteBSa
— Lenny Seigal (@AuxiliaryEgo) December 5, 2014
Push the boat out, make a rhetorical flourish and buy an original @JohnGrahamArt car'toon http://t.co/zFJRSnVky4 pic.twitter.com/0ggelMxImr
— IndependentAustralia (@independentaus) December 1, 2014
