The appalling leadership of Australia

By Keith Thomas Davis

Perhaps, finally, we have hit the point in Australia where the attitudes of our past are seen to be the undeniable scourers of our future.

We have a moribund political class. A grouping of people who came in too late with too little. We have a tranche of people who are well paid to lead our nation, yet, when the embers fly, and the lives are lost, and the homes explode, and the people, the very people, grasp for breath, the putative leaders of this nation feed us political ideology and butt-saving efforts to protect their own tenure in the soft seats of our political institutions in Canberra.

We, as a people, deserve better than this.

No longer is it ok to excuse the inaction on climate change from a Prime Minister who is held to ransom by the proud deniers within his own party of mindless and dangerous conservatism, by the small minds who are so disconnected from science, from truth, and from global agreeance on the peril that this planet faces. The fires that are currently scouring us need to change this nation.

Here we are, as a people, in a period where the shit really hits the fan, faced with the fact that you, as volunteers, are truly the only ones who can be relied upon. You were the deliverers of hay, and food, and water. Our politicians were well informed prior to this fire season, they were told about what was likely to come, yet they sat on their comfortable arses and played ideological games.

I will never forget the vision of a young Australian woman who had been through so much and who simply hoped that the leader of this nation would ask her – ‘how are you?’ – yet all the man could do was force her into an unwelcome handshake and then turn his back on her. It was the most appalling example of what is wrong with the leadership of this nation.

The fires have scoured us. That is undeniable. All of us have felt it. Our front-line people on the hoses are incredible human beings. Our State leaders, our local government leaders, our emergency personnel, are all incredible people.

Our federal leaders came late to the situation, while our country burnt they thought that holidays in Hawaii and Bali were more important to them than the welfare of us, the people. Appalling!