Will the same old narcissistic Coalition fools rule us again?
Governments are made up of members of parliament duly elected by the people. All have different personalities and characteristics. The word "honourable" is used to describe their political importance.
The British king granted this honour at the time of the first sitting of Australian Parliament. God only knows what he was thinking.
It is said of America that when it’s economy catches a cold we get the flu and in m,any respects, it is true. Not just of economics, but also of politics, religion, trust, morality, truth and society in general. It could be argued that the “Americanisation” of Australia is complete.
What is the common thread that runs through the aforementioned? “Narcissism.“ The rise of narcissism and the demise of compassion illustrate the state of the world today.
We have inherited the very worst of American culture and its politics: excessive “love of self”.
Traits of a narcissistic personality include:
- lack of empathy;
- exaggerated sense of self-importance;
- feelings of entitlement;
- selfishness in relationships;
- enviousness and suspicion of other people's motivations; and
- a need for excessive praise and attention.
These traits wash through our society insinuating themselves on every part of it. Our leadership, children, institutions, sport, celebrity and the rich and privileged. However, let's focus on our politicians. Specifically those of the current Coalition Government, in the context of the possibility of it being returned to power at the next election.
Looking at the state of politics in both the U.S. and Australia, including the leadership, many would agree that these six traits of narcissistic personality are evident.
Australian politics has turned into a circus, but it’s no laughing matter. It has no grace, no flair, no style, no emotion, no wit, no poetry, no truth, no transparency and, most of all, it has no trust because narcissism has imposed itself on the Government.
Think Trump for a moment. The most powerful man in the world. A man who sees himself as a “very stable genius”.
The U.S. President has an exaggerated sense of self-importance. The six traits fit the President perfectly.
Now let's look at a few "honourable" Coalition MPs to see if any share these narcissistic traits with the President of the USA:
- Member for Hughes Craig Kelly is part of the informal conservative right-wing faction inside the Liberal Party and believes fossil fuels protect us.
- Member for New England and Former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was said to be the "best retail politician" in the country but his performance proved otherwise.
- Member for Dawson George Christensen is a champion of the far right and has openly attended and addressed neo-Nazi rallies. He is also against same-sex marriage and sex education.
- Assistant Treasurer Stuart Robert is an evangelical Christian and friend of the Prime Minister, known for his excessive expenses claims and sense of entitlement.
- The AMA labelled Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton the worst health minister ever when he was in charge of Health. He has ongoing Liberal leadership ambitions and his latest attack on former PM Turnbull shows just how dumb he is.
- Former PM Tony Abbott is a resilient backstabber who continues to undermine his own Party.
- Former Member for Mallee Andrew Broad – a married assistant minister to Deputy Prime Minister McCormack and vocal opponent of same-sex marriage on "sanctity of marriage" grounds – was forced to resign from Parliament late in 2018 after the Sugar Baby website sexting scandal.
- Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack published an article in his local newspaper expressing his hatred of gays. Apparently, he had also known about the Broad issue for months.
- Current Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, as Energy and Environment Minister, continued the misinformation of former Environment Minister Greg Hunt about reaching our Kyoto targets.
- Minister for Health Greg Hunt (see above) as Environment Minister, instigated water "reform" policies that have led to the current Menindee disaster.
- Deputy Nationals Leader Senator Bridget McKenzie thinks Australia Day is all about Captain Cook.
- Leader of the House and Defence Minister Christopher Pyne is a general underachiever, whose $50 billion submarine building program is already tipped to be over budget and late.
- Communications Minister Mitch Fifield cannot remember why he gave $30 million dollars to Rupert Murdoch.
- Minister for Small and Family Business, Skills and Vocational Education Michaelia Cash misled Senate Estimates previously by saying her office had no role in alerting the media about the AWU raids, which was shown to be false.
- Resources Minister Matthew Canavan told students protesting against inaction on climate change:
"The best thing you'll learn about going to a protest is how to join the dole queue. Because that's what your future life will look like, up in a line asking for a handout, not actually taking charge for your life and getting a real job."
- Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations Kelly O'Dwyer said in an interview on ABC Insiders that Labor's idea of a banking royal commission had been "a stunt", but then said, "there is no question we got it right in establishing the Royal Commission".
- Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson said of Minister for Energy Angus Taylor:
"He is well versed on the subject of energy and should be ashamed of the nonsense he spreads."
- Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Simon Birmingham's Catholicism got the better of him when he took $100 million from independent schools to give to Catholic schools.
- At an interlocutory hearing in the WA Supreme Court for the test cases involving Wittenoo miners, Member for Curtin and former Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop (then Julie Gillon) asked the court:
"...why workers should be entitled to jump court queues just because they were dying."
- Environment Minister Melissa Price is best known for an exchange in a Canberra restaurant where she was overheard telling Pacific leader and former President of Kiribati, Anote Tong,
"I know why you're here. It's for the cash. For the Pacific it's always about the cash."
- Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population Alan Tudge, when Minister for Human Services, oversaw the robo-debt fiasco, in which hundreds of thousands of people continue to receive unlawful demands to repay money to the Government.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison is an evangelical Pentecostal and climate denier who wears his faith on his sleeve and took a lump of coal into Parliament. Apparently, he knew about the Broad Sugar Baby scandal for months prior.
Ask yourself three questions ahead of the next election:
- Have these people, individually, done enough to warrant another term?
- Do all, or any, have some of the aforementioned narcissistic traits mentioned?
- Collectively, as a Government, do they deserve another term?
You can follow John Lord on Twitter @saint13333.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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