When Anthony Albanese came into power last May, he promised a new style of politics that was more collaborative and he also promised integrity. Well if this is the new style of politics that is more collaborative and has integrity, then as a country, we have truly been led down the garden path because this week in Federal Parliament was nothing short of disgusting. We pay these people to govern and instead what we got this week was something that you had to see to believe.
Following allegations last week about the Brittany Higgins payout and possible ALP involvement, the Liberal Party took the decision to go the low road and attack Labor on that. They didn't get too far on that front in the House of Representatives following the most extraordinary ruling from Speaker Milton Dick.
Dick basically ruled that ANY questions about the Higgins payout would straight away be ruled out of order. Granted, the Speaker has the right to make rulings applying the Standing Orders as he sees fit but to basically rule questions on a certain topic as out of order because it might be uncomfortable for the government, that was nothing short of egregious. Speakers in Australia are normally partisan and come from the party that won government. To think we had the Speakership of Bronwyn Bishop (Liberal) who was seen as the most biased speaker ever and then we had that effort from Milton Dick this week. I mean, really?
With the attack in the House of Representatives blocked, it went instead to the Senate where the Liberal Party elected to target Katy Gallagher given she admitted IN HER OWN WORDS to misleading the Senate. All of this was going to plan until a massive roadblock came in the form of Liberal Senator David Van who was put up by the Liberal Party to talk on this topic. Suddenly Lidia Thorpe interjected labelling Senator Van a perpetrator and all hell broke loose. Thorpe was ordered to withdraw the "unparliamentary" remark which she did but then promised she would have more to say the next day. As she got up to leave, Senator Pauline Hanson said something to Thorpe which led to the response of "F**k Off Pauline."
Suddenly the attack on Gallagher backfired as guns turned towards Senator Van. He denied the allegations naturally and Thorpe made her statement the next day. By then though it was too late for Senator Van as a second allegation had come through which was from Former Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker accusing Van of groping her twice at a function. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton pragmatically decided to boot Senator Van from the Liberal Party Room which was the correct decision. Since that decision another allegation was made against Senator Van though as yet, details for that one aren't clear. Senator Van resigned from the Liberal Party to sit on the Crossbench, near Lidia Thorpe but let's be honest, Senator Van needs to resign from the Parliament ASAP and all allegations need to be investigated.
Meanwhile, what about Katy Gallagher? Well, essentially she got let off the hook although reports suggested that by Thursday she was in tears at the constant attacks. I don't deny for a single second that the constant pressure must have gotten to her and no politician deserves such a horrible grilling. The fact she withstood it, says a lot about her strength of character and I do give respect for that. This though is the same Katy Gallagher who admitted IN HER OWN WORDS to lying to the Senate and the same Katy Gallagher who was accused along with two other Labor Senators of bullying Former Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching. When you put it in that context, it's a bit rich of her to cry foul when she lied to the Senate and was accused of bullying (no investigation funnily enough).
At the start, I wrote about how Albanese promised a new politics that was more collaborative and promised integrity. Unfortunately, I am sad to report that absolutely got trashed by the announcement that the government had miraculously found $2b of money to start trying to fix our housing shortage. According to a Labor insider, they decided to cut the Greens' negotiator Max Chandler-Mather MP out because "we are not negotiating with student politicians."
Let's not forget, that supposed "student politician" forced Labor to come to the table with some seed money to start to fix a rapidly increasing crisis.
So with one statement, Labor has decided that they are going to be selectively collaborative and claim credit for something that never would've happened without pressure applied to them. It seems to me that the Federal Labor Party would do well to not attend the Daniel Andrews School of Inclusivity because unfortunately there, they will learn the wrong lessons.
Whatever way you look at it, sex, sleaze, scandal and hypocrisy have dominated this week's Federal Parliament and it's not good enough. Australians deserve better than this trash!
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