It’s been three weeks now since the nation decided to re-elect the Coalition and allow Scott Morrison to steer us through the next three years.
So, how have things being going since Australia made this surprising choice? Well, not so good really. As Scott Morrison swans around London visiting the Queen, armed with the biography of a horse, Independent Australia describes nine national disasters just since the election.
1. ECONOMY TANKS
Before the election, Scott Morrison and his team told Australians they were great money-managers and the economy was going gang-busters. The truth seems a little different after the election.
First, with the Reserve Bank cutting the cash rate to a record low 1.25% this week because of a slowdown in household consumption. In 2012, when the RBA cut interest rates under the Labor Government, then shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said:
“They’re not cutting interest rates because the economy is doing well. Interest rates are being cut to 50-year lows because the economy is struggling.”
That interest rate was double what it is now.
Then we had the Fair Work Commission raise the minimum wage by just 3% — the lowest amount in years and less than inflation. With household consumption likely to decline even further after this decision and some analysts predicting a 0.5% cash rate in coming years, the RBA is running out of magic bullets.
Today, we saw the Australian economy had grown just 0.4% in the first quarter of 2019 and just 1.8% over the year to March 31. That's the slowest pace of GDP growth since September 2009, when Australia was recovering from the GFC. Good job, Scott.
2. SECURITY STATE RUNS RAMPANT
The Coalition has been bringing in increasingly draconian security state and surveillance legislation since it came to power in 2013 — something even remarked upon by the U.N. last year. Since the election, the Australian Federal Police, a division of Peter Dutton’s Home Affairs Department, has launched a series of raids on journalists homes and offices under official secrets legislation. These have included Annika Smethurst from News Corp, Ben Fordham from radio station 2GB and, today, ABC headquarters over the 2017 Afghan Files stories.
The Coalition Government is working up a suppression trifecta:
— Rex Patrick (@Senator_Patrick) June 4, 2019
1) Obstructing #FOI - all access requests
2) Persecuting whistleblowers - #witnessK & @Richard_D_Boyle
3) Using police to intimidate journalists - @annikasmethurst https://t.co/m2BIkjVE6P
3. ABC EMASCULATED
After today’s raid and news of impending jobs cuts, morale at the ABC must be pretty low. Especially after news came out that ABC management had directed journalists to spike a May 25 story on Adani following complaints from mega-coalminer. Even lower after the Coalition’s chair Ita Buttrose went on ABC radio to declare the ABC was “potentially biased” against the Government in its election coverage. This, despite no less than 68 independent reviews having rejected any claims of bias in the public broadcaster’s content.
4. NEWS CORP KNIFES OPPOSITION AND AXES STAFF
Despite its journalists having followed the corporate mandate to attack Bill Shorten frenziedly during the election campaign to the letter, News Corp have decided to cut 55 editorial staff across all mastheads. Despite, the Murdoch mob have continued attacking the Opposition, rather than holding the Government to account, in the aftermath of the election. That’s loyalty, for you!
5. ANGUS MISSES EMISSIONS DEADLINE
Re-elected despite being embroiled in the #Watergate corruption scandal, Energy Minister Angus Taylor has found himself in hot water again. This time, it is over his Department not releasing the December 2018 national greenhouse emissions data before the Senate set deadline of 31 May. The suspicion must be that the figures are even worse than we thought and that we definitely won’t meet our Paris targets. Best to keep that news until after the election, ’eh Angus?
6. BARNABY AND OTHER COALITION LNPS IN NUCLEAR WAR
But don’t worry about emissions, because Barnaby Joyce and a bunch of Queensland LNP MPs have decided to launch a campaign for a nuclear-powered Australia. We’re sure Barnaby won’t mind if the first power station is at Armidale and the waste dump at Tamworth.
7. THE INDIAN JOB
Speaking of Queensland LNP MPs, arguably the basis of their electoral success was built on stoking anti-Labor sentiment because of the alleged anti-Adani position. It’s all about jobs, they cried! Then we found out that the Adani coal-mine will be virtually completely automated, such that only 100 direct ongoing jobs will be created. We’re pretty sure there are more than 100 jobs in tourism on the Great Barrier Reef.
COAL-ition needs to stop treating northern Queensland unemployed with contempt and come clean on the likely job numbers from a proposed fully automated coal operation. #auspol #StopAdani #LibsLieAlways pic.twitter.com/pTM4zqP2sy
— Mark David (@mdavidcartoons) June 4, 2019
8. STARTING THE BOATS
Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton pride themselves on stopping the boats. So how come six boats full of refugees are sailing here right now from Sri Lanka? Oops! Some unkind people are saying they might be ones ordered before the election when it was thought Labor would be getting in? Surely not!
9. NO TAX CUTS FOR YOU!
Remember how we were all going to get cut cuts this financial year? Well, that’s just not going to happen. Seems that because of the date chosen for the election, those cuts can’t possibly come through until after the next financial year. What’s worse, Scott Morrison knew all about this before the election. That’s right, he lied. The Coalition lying, who would have believed it, ’eh?
This is only half the story! The other part of this editorial may be read in the IA members only area. It takes less a minute to subscribe to IA and costs as little as $5 a month, or $50 a year — a small sum for superb journalism and lots of extras.
You can follow managing editor Dave Donovan on Twitter @davrosz. Follow Independent Australia on Twitter at @independentaus and on Facebook HERE.
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
