Yep, it indulges itself yet again.
In the midst of a global pandemic, despite the Federal Governments massive failings in quarantine and vaccination response, the junior party in the coalition indulges itself with a bit of navel gazing and brings on a leadership spill, replacing the "Wally from Wagga" with the "Bonking Beetroot".
This action, whilst saying a lot about politicians priorities also shows up what a complete dearth of talent inhabits the current National Party parliamentary team.
Is the Beetroot the best they can come up with out of 21 members in the Parliament?
A quick look at some of the more high profile National party members is instructive.
- Matt "Black Coal Matters" Caravan - avid climate denier, need I say any more?
- Bridget "Bang Bang" McKenzie -sacked organiser of the "Sports Rorts " scandal.
- George "the member for Manilla" Christensen, so named because he spent approximately 300 days in the Phillipines between 2014 and 2018, another climate denier.
- Keith Pitt -minister for resources who doesn't know that power from Big Batteries like the Tesla one in Sth Australia is instantly "dispatchable".
- Michael McCormack who couldn't name one single government policy that had advantaged farmers over miners. (see approx 5mins 40 secs into this interview https://twitter.com/theprojecttv/status/1103224523678146560 )
By now you should be getting the picture.
One of the few that make any sense is Darren Chester but he wasn't considered and isn't exactly Barnabys cup of tea.
So lets look at the Beetroot.
Back in 2006 as a member of "Jackboot" Johnnie Howards government he opposed the free provision of Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents the spread of human papilloma virus (HPV) which is responsible for cervical cancer. His reasoning was it may make young women more "promiscuous".
In a breathtaking act of hypocrisy, Barnaby, ( a "devout" Catholic) went on to oppose the same sex marriage proposal citing support for traditional family values ( He was married with 4 daughters) while at the same time having a bit on the side with one of his staff members.
A sexual harassment claim by by a high profile rural advocate in 2018 has never been been resolved although denied by Barnaby.
And who can forget the use of $80 million of taxpayers money to buy almost non-existent floodplain water from a company set up in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands by his mate, the minister for "rising" emissions, Angus "Watergate" Taylor?
This man is not fit to be in the Australian parliament let alone our Prime Minister when Scotty from Marketing takes off on one of his overseas holidays.
The Nationals get less than 5% of the national vote and have 21 members across both houses. (The Greens, in contrast get approx 10% of the vote and only have 10 parliamentarians).
The National Party wield a disproportionate amount of influence in Australian politics and do the work of their mining masters instead of advocating for the people they purport to represent- you, the people of rural Australia.
It is high time the National Party was consigned to the rubbish bin of history.
