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Trying in vain to reimagine Tony Abbott

By Lyn Bender - posted Wednesday, 11 September 2013


The defeated ALP and the minor senate parties should immediately pass this legislation: because I/we the new government have a clear mandate. As Chris Bowen has retorted, the ALP "now has a mandate to oppose".

So I just don't see it; the new respectful Tony. I see the old haranguer, and blunderer albeit somewhat tempered in his delivery. But Abbott has been let off the hook largely because we had swallowed the message and polls declared he was unstoppable. The coalition has claimed that the previous government was ruining us all through the carbon tax. Even though The Economist rated the Rudd government as a better economic bet.

Abbot has relentlessly without any conscience, Christian or otherwise, falsely branded a price on carbon as a terrible impost on ordinary Australians. Something that would bring ruin on us all. Conversely in repealing it, his job is largely done and we are all saved. His links to the scurrilous IPA climate denier institute are widely publicized. Nothing new here.

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When he says I will keep my promise and his first task is to organize , carefully and plan fully and methodically his dismantling of a price on carbon, this is not keeping a promise to the people.

Is this really a nod and wink to buddies who would stand to gain from this policy: the backers of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Otherwise he is in no hurry to actually convene Parliament. Nothing much, ,to see or talk about here. This is not government for and by the people of Australia.

Since becoming PM Elect, Tony Abbot has affirmed his commitment to these promises, [or threats]. Ending the carbon price, stopping the boats and ending the mining tax, while giving carte blanche to mining interest, reducing Foreign Aid  by $4.5 billion…oh and building a few roads. We are to remain inequitably rich and very mean. This injustice should enrage us writes Jason Childs.

Meanwhile no mention is being made of that faux policy, Direct Action on Climate, just of the dismantling of environmental protection and of withdrawing support for renewable energy by dismantling the successful clean energy fund.

There is no compassion for the pain and plight of refugees. No mention of caring for their life or limb.

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Just saving money, that hitherto has been expended on cruel policies.

I cannot find a "New Tony Great Leader" here. A great leader would heed the warnings of experts about our climate emergency. A great leader would care about the vulnerable and respect their human rights. Even a merely good enough leader would be aware of his responsibility to future generations, as caretaker not plunderer of the planet. Another great leader Martin Luther King warned us of the need to keep awake. And this is as true for our current looming climate catastrophe as it has ever been.

Abbott has declared that the Government has changed and is now open for business. What he means is the old last century early industrialized business. But their day is rapidly passing. Coal in the ground will eventually have no value above it. We have to divest from this old order if we are to survive as a species.

Peak oil is alive and well and costing the earth. It is doomed . It is last century.

A Churchill for our times would recognize the emergency, fight for our survival and prepare and set us up with renewables and infrastructure for the necessary new order.

Unfortunately we who care and are awake to what the science is telling us can only maintain the rage and work damn hard, towards limiting the damage of this tired old inept and immoral leadership.

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About the Author

Lyn Bender is a psychologist in private practice. She is a former manager of Lifeline Melbourne and is working on her first novel.

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