The Liberal Party really have learnt how to tear apart a good foundation haven’t they? The once solidified, unbreakable, unbeatable political unit, united behind their geek in glasses, now seem a shambolic mess, unable to work out who they should be deifying.

One third of the party seem to be in agreement with current management, the second third are still sad because their beloved leader got his arse kicked in 2007 and they haven’t noticed that things have changed since then; and the remainder are chasing monkeys on bikes in circles somewhere in the depths of Parliament House.

Eleven years I had to suffer the reign of that little weasel, who I already despised after his term as Treasurer for Fraser. That said, I do appreciate the positives of that reign of terror. Which means that, YES, all you Howard-Lovers can stop pointing out to me the financial prosperity and huge budget surpluses, because most of you don’t remember that it was Costello and Treasury who provided most of that; and by the way, do you remember that Recession in the 80’s that everyone blamed on the Labour government? Yeh it happened because of Howard’s mismanagement in Treasury during the late 70’s, early 80’s.

Which brings me to the present......again......I hope. Excuse me for shouting for a moment but WHY THE FUCK ARE WE HAVING ANOTHER BOAT PEOPLE SAGA, FUELLED BY MIND NUMBING MEDIA AND ARSEHOLES IN PARLIAMENT NO MATTER WHAT SIDE OF THE HOUSE THEY ARE ON?

Luke’s already dealt with Iron Bar Tuckey so I’m not going to go there. I’d just like to address the people of Australia. This is a country founded on immigration, a country that would be worth approximately three Italian Lira and a packet of Juicy Fruit if it wasn’t for those families who packed up their entire lives and traversed the oceans to make a new life in a hopefully better place.

Setting aside, for the moment, the complications of who gets to come to Australia and how they get here, can we at the very least all agree that refugees SHOULD and MUST be welcomed? Have we become so hard-hearted in the last decade that we don’t have any empathy for those people that are attempting to escape severe political and religious persecution? In the last three days I’ve had the combination of Tony Abbot spewing out fifteen minutes of Howard love and refugee hate on morning television, two people that have my email address sending me a bigoted email about Australian culture stating if I don’t forward it on I’m not a proper Australian; and another friend trying to compare his situation (which is pretty horrendous but not life threatening) with those of our current crop of ‘boat people’.

I’m waiting, with baited breath, for the words ‘Children Overboard’ to be screamed out by an over-enthusiastic Opposition backbencher in an attempt to bring back just a little of the Howardist backbone. I’ll give the man enough credit to admit he fought the fight and didn’t back down. He lied to and cheated the Australian public but at least he had the balls to stand up and defend his stance. What I don’t like is the Australia he has left behind.

Due to a decade of, in my opinion, intolerance, this nation, that was once heralded worldwide as a nation of opportunity, is now perceived as bigoted and racist. We are all being tarred with a brush that the vast majority of us don’t deserve. The vocal minority who are seen to be speaking for all of us need to do more to learn about other cultures. We don’t have a racism problem, we have an ignorance problem, and it gives me the galloping shits..

 

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