Just how much slush do you reckon is going to wash around the Coalition’s so-called National Coordination COVID-19 Commission?
'Amid calls for new investment in clean energy to cut greenhouse gas emissions and revive the economy, the Government's given the task of leading the recovery to a committee that's overweight with business leaders from fossil fuel industries, and gas in particular.'
It is brutally evident that, much like birds in a Hitchcock movie, masses of spivs are preening their flight feathers, readying themselves for a terrifying assault on Australia’s fragile environment to line their own – and others’ – already luxurious nests.
This is going to be a mates' rort of staggering proportions.
There are a lot of approaches Australia could take to emerge from the COVID-19 problem a better place.
Certainly, Australia is awash with economic problems — high unemployment, battered production capabilities, smashed asset values and a looming surplus of exports are just the start.
As you would expect, the Morrison Government eschewed any sensible approaches to these problems, like rebooting manufacturing to set the country up for efficient, long-term solutions, which would enable us to contribute to global attempts to slow climate change while boosting levels of meaningful employment.
Instead, the Coalition wants to unleash the dogs of destruction, just to make sure no other generation of Australians has anywhere near the opportunity this lot of privileged elitists has enjoyed.
Once fracked and drilled, that land – our children’s land – will be rendered useless. Destroyed.
Why are they doing this?
Money.
Lots of it.
Greed, bribes, backhanders and sly winks will ensure the brown paper bags – or Cayman Island cupboards – are nice and plump for all the abusers of our long-term well-being to jam their porky little mitts into.
This is exactly why we need an empowered Federal ICAC and that is exactly the reason IA is proposing the formation of a new Australian political party to be named — Federal ICAC Now (FIN).
A Federal ICAC won’t stop all the malfeasance but it could put a fair-sized dent in it.
Also, it would be great to have a few senators in the House whose focus is on corruption detection and prevention.
The next half-senate election, when the term of those elected in 2016 expires, can be held as early as 7 August 2021 but must be held by 30 June 2022.
Before the election, and especially in the last months leading up to the big event a registered FIN party would have a presence alerting voters to the issues. At the election, the above-the-line party might just have a chance.
A previous IA article floated the idea of FIN and asked readers if they would be willing to join such a party.
We didn’t get the 500 needed to lodge the papers tomorrow, but the response was pretty jolly good and the sentiments expressed indicate a lot of people had the same idea.
After the dust had settled from that article, we wrote to those who expressed support:
Thank you so much for your positive response to our idea for the formation of the Federal ICAC Now (FIN) party.
Reader feedback has been strong and has encouraged our further pursuit of this objective.
We are also grateful for the many helpful offers of practical assistance.
While initial membership indications are still a long way short of the requisite number of 500 to form a party, we are now optimistic this number can be reached.
Dave Donovan and I, along with others, are now developing a draft constitution for the new party and we will send this to you on completion.
The party will be driven by members via an on-line platform which will enable members to present and discuss issues as well as vet and select candidates.
There will be National Steering Committee to take care of day to-day issues but, apart from that, party decisions will be made by members.
We see membership fees for the first 500 members as modest, say $20, just enough to cover the set-up technology costs.
This fee would be waived for pensioners or those who tell us they simply can’t afford it. The important thing is to form the party.
You will be regularly updated on progress.
Once again, thank-you for your response.
Go FIN!
If we can pencil you in, please let us know.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Email contact@federalicacnow.org now and express your ideas and/or interest.
Investigations editor Ross Jones is a licensed private enquiry agent and the author of 'Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia's Speaker'. You can follow Ross on Twitter @RPZJones.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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