Politics is a dirty word

Channel Seven has plumbed the depths of reality television shows with its Barnaby Bonking Bonanza scheduled for Sunday night. It’s hard to believe that anyone will watch it it(but no doubt they will with the brain-dead tuning in.). P,T. Barnham’s comment that ‘No-one ever lost a dollar underestimating the taste of the American public is just as accurate for Australia. For the network it will probably be $150,000 well spent on a sitting politician who deserves to be reviled rather than rewarded.

In Australia, politicians are regarded as one of the lowest forms of life – and recent events in Canberra demonstrate that our version of democracy isn’t working. In my opinion, the basic problem is political parties – they should be banned. Politicians owe more allegiance to their parties than to the people who elected them. The citizenship saga was totally mishandled. Those politicians who were found by the High Court not to be eligible to sit in Parliament were never properly elected so there was no need for costly by elections – the seats should have been given to whoever came second in the Federal election. Then the dual citizens (once they satisfied the High Court ruling) would have had the opportunity to stand at the next Federal election Instead taxpayers were slugged for a series of unnecessary by elections – mainly in a desperate effort to shore up a floundering government. So much for democratic processes. As for Barnaby Joyce, voters in New England must be feeling like co...

Barnaby Joyce has been an embarassment as Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and he’s been the worst Minister for Agriculture since Ken Wriedt in the Whitlam Government. Joyce bears some responsibility for overseeing the theft of billions of litres of water in the Murray-Darling scandal. Thankfully the High Court ruling on his dual citizenship status gives voters in the seat of New England a chance to consign this political hack to the scrapheap. Tony Windsor has said he won’t be standing, so it will be a matter of picking any candidate whose name is not Barnaby Joyce.