Divided Opinions
The New Politics analysis of the 2019 year in Australian politics.
Eddy Jokovich and David Lewis, 338 pages. Released 2020
Available to purchase through Amazon Australia:
The New Politics analysis of the 2019 year in Australian politics.
Eddy Jokovich and David Lewis, 338 pages. Released 2020
Available to purchase through Amazon Australia:
In 1969, a Union Oil drilling platform ten kilometres off the coast of Santa Barbara, a small tourist town in California, had a drilling hole blow-out and, over the next ten days, eight million litres of oil sludge spilt into the ocean, most of it landing on nearby beaches.
In January this year, Scott Morrison said environmental
legislation to protect native species was one of his government’s top
priorities, and said “we already introduced and passed legislation through the
Senate actually dealing with that very issue, we’ve been taking action on that”.
A minor problem though: no such legislation existed, nor was there any
legislative schedule to remotely support this claim. Morrison just lied.
Scott Morrison has been to Washington and back, and a State Dinner was held in his honour.
The
political landscape after the May 2019 federal election is becoming clearer,
with all sides of politics starting to develop their strategies and navigate a
pathway towards the next election, due in 2022. There are a wide range of new
faces and new voices we’ll have to get used to and the key talking points and
battle lines are being pushed forward by these new characters and new players
in the Government and Labor Opposition.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to know whether governments are genuinely interested in the agendas they push forward, or whether there are issues played out in the background resulting in other ulterior motivations. And, as part of this process, covering up some of their misadventures and mismanagement of political issues.
We are very impressed to hear there is a new part of the political lexicon: unfunded empathy.
Whose side are you on?
In an instant, it’s both an aggressive and
divisive question, demanding a choice between the favourable and the
unfavourable, the good and the bad. Whose side? Your side or mine? Black or
white? Haves or have nots? Rich or poor? Hard working or lazy? Left or right?
Democracy is being held hostage by the adversarial nature of party politics. The people deserve better and a democracy upgrade is long overdue. Is democracy broken?
Surprised by their surprise 2019 election victory, the Liberal-National Party is searching for an agenda to implement over the next term of Parliament, and trying to