John Roskam from the Institute of Public Affairs highlights the failures of the fourth estate to hold our politicians (and other institutions) to account.
Last week I received a third campaign email from South Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. I have no idea why, but she has decided to put me on her Senate re-election contact list.
Over successive weeks, I have been given an extraordinary insight into the falsehoods and fear-mongering peddled by the Greens to their adoring flock…and a few ring-ins like myself. It’s clear they refuse to let the facts get in the way of their opinion.
Of course the alarmism revolves around her desperate desire to retain her spot in the Senate. To do so, she needs to whip her supporters into a frenzy of outrage at the perpetual injustice that could be unleashed on the nation by the terrible conservatives; in the hope they will proselytise and give money.
Her first email claim was that if she doesn’t win then Tony Abbott and Cory Bernardi will end up controlling the federal parliament. I let her know by return email how thrilled I was to be elevated to Greens public enemy number two. Unfortunately, like many other South Australian constituents, I didn’t receive a response.
The second email arrived a few days later. It was based around a similar theme that Tony Abbott is a threat to Australian democracy. She even quotes former PM Malcolm Fraser to help make her point.
Senator Hanson-Young then rails against the Coalition idea that we should have days of parliament devoted to repealing the myriad of laws and regulations imposed by the current Labor/Greens alliance. She conveniently forgets that the Rudd/Gillard/Greens governments promised to repeal a regulation for every one they introduced. Like most of what the current alliance said, this promise didn’t come to pass. In fact, they’ve added an astonishing 21,000 new regulations since coming to power.
That’s a lot of red and green tape. Common sense would suggest some of it is unnecessary – but not the Greens Senator for SA.
The missive concludes with a plea for money to allow for the broadcast of the Sarah Hanson-Young television commercial in “prime time slots”. An underlined demand for $50,000 to be raised in the next 48 hours would help tell voters “how to stop Tony Abbott taking total control” and help in “protecting our parliament”.
As interesting as these two e-letters are, it was the most recent one that captured my attention the most.
It begins with a claim that only the Greens can be trusted to stand up for a “more caring Australia”. Eerily, this reminded me of Sarah Hanson-Young’s response when an illegal entry vessel was lost as sea along with more than 100 lives. The ‘caring’ Senator could only muster a cursory “Tragedies happen. Accidents happen” for the cameras while trying to spin to the fourth estate how the Greens’ boat people policies are ‘humane’. It should be regarded as one of the most callous political comments by any politician in this country.
However, it was the statement that the Greens can’t rely on corporate donations from ‘the likes of Gina Rinehart’ that really made me sit up and take notice. Yes, the words are factual. I am almost positive that Mrs Rinehart will never give a donation to the Greens. However, ‘the likes’ of Graeme Wood do. In fact, multi-millionaire Wood is responsible for the largest ever political donation in the history of Australian politics – a massive $1.6 million given to the Greens. How quickly one forgets such generosity when one is a Green and not concerned with accuracy or being held to account.
Of course, inconsistency and hypocrisy are habitual norms for the Greens party. They have always twisted and distorted words to further their own agenda. The results of that agenda have been on display in the past three years.
The government has been green-roaded into introducing a pernicious carbon tax, losing control of our borders and spending well beyond the contents of the Treasury. Our nation simply cannot afford to have the Greens party holding the balance of power in the Senate. They offer a radical agenda of social engineering, fiscal ineptitude and falsehoods.
I find it amazing that the Greens Senator from South Australia claims these failures as virtues, but when did they ever allow the facts to get in the way of their opinion?
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
