FEATHER DUSTER TIME

They say a week’s a long time in politics. Well, sometimes a day is. And yesterday proves it. Peter Costello. The Great Contender, the perennial bridesmaid, finally quit and the Liberals will now face two by-elections with the departures of a former Deputy Leader in Costello and a former leader, Brendan Nelson. Labor is considering not even standing a candidate in the Costello seat of Higgins. Which is a disgrace.

There are some party faithful even in a Blue Ribbon seat like this one. What are they supposed to do?  Under our stupid, undemocratic system, if they don’t vote they get fined. You can’t even use the legitimate excuse that ‘my party didn’t bother to stand a candidate’.

Also yesterday Uncle Joe Hockey started playing hockey sticks with the Liberal Party leadership. Getting cutesy about colleagues who have talked to him about rolling Malcolm Turnbull.

Hard to believe that Turnbull is in such a parlous condition after only a year in the job with popularity figures as low as his hapless predecessor. Hard to believe that he has carbon footprints all over his heads from where he is being kicked to death by his own party over the ETS.  Rudd doesn’t even have to pull on his boots.

The issue is becoming so bogged down that the government has got the electorate believing the Opposition is the enemy.

Personally, I still believe that most people, away from Canberra, think we should wait until after Copenhagen (or Carbonhagen) before making a decision that will affect all our futures.

As the departing Costello writes in The Age today: The shape of our scheme will not affect what happens at Copenhagen. What happens in Copenhagen will determine the shape of our scheme.’

 More simply:  The cock crows because the sun rises. The sun does not rise because the cock crows.

And speaking of cocks and feather dusters. The Australian Democrats are no more. They say they are but it’s over.  The Democrats only member of Parliament still standing anywhere was  David Winderlich in the South Australian Upper House. He’s quit and will serve as an independent.

It’s 32 years since Don Chipp formed a party for disgruntled Liberals and promised to ‘keep the bastards honest’. Over the years the party lurched left and right until Cheryl Kernot jumped into bed with Labor. Literally.

And today it’s over. As I said… a day can be a long time in politics.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009