[Peetwo]

A declaration of independents, from America

BARNABY JOYCE



Barnaby Joyce is isolating in a Washington hotel room afer catching Covid.

11:00PM DECEMBER 10, 2021
202 COMMENTS
I have a little time on my hands. That break I sought has arrived as I peer out onto a Washington street, in splendid isolation, from my hotel room. They say it is a very nice hotel and maybe in the future I might come back and check, but all I want now is to check out and head home.

I can hear the frogs and the crickets in the background while I talk to Vikki on the phone as she sits on our front veranda and it is beginning to sound a lot like Christmas, in Australia. But I am stuck, ordered, to stay here. That is the edict of Covid.

The clock is ticking towards Christmas morning without the boys and the presents and the joy. In this vague netherworld of my hotel room is a jet-lagged confusion of neither night nor day, healthy nor sick, it is one of the best-fitted-out cells in the best address in Washington in the land of the free.

How did I catch this? Everyone in my travelling party appears to be clear which is incredibly fortunate. From my observation, if social distancing has any veracity to it then the whole of England should be coming down with Covid. They were packed shoulder to shoulder, fingers in a fist. They were cued up going into the shops, bouncing off each other inside and queued up again as they paid for their presents before leaving to then move to the next shop and repeat.

It is as if things have moved on for England and Covid gets a nod but no longer the royal treatment.

So when you have a possible spare week or two in a hotel room what do you do? Apart from growing older and stultifying your mind with 60 channels of inane “look at me mummy I am on TV” shows, you can play online scrabble with Vikki back in Danglemah; that carves out an hour or two. Shower and breakfast, there is another couple of hours. Answer messages and emails, another two or so hours booked. That leaves 18 hours in 8x8m including the bathroom. Yes, I have already stepped it out.

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I have decided that I will dedicate my spare time and requisite skills to a subject on which even here in Washington I would more than hold my own – Australian federal politics and the coming election.

This election is going to be very close and very tough and both sides agree on that – as they will surprisingly agree on a range of things – as Labor will endeavour to make it a referendum on a change of the curtains without ever really offering any details on the alternative drapes. They have come close before and this time the caucus is the Shoosh Farm where no one is to give any details on what the farm does nor how it intends to operate if given the reins in the future.

The Coalition will insist people compare the two blocks of politics that are the only alternative to running the country: Nationals and Liberals with likely support from other conservative minor parties; or Labor and Greens with left-leaning Independents.

The Governor-General will insist that the numbers are there for stable government, so support will be sought to get an agreement that takes the Liberals and Nationals or Labor and Greens to the magic 76 out of 151 seats in the House of Representatives. You as the elector have an absolute right, and that is to know as to which group the person you vote for will support come the time to get to 76.

There is another hypothetical choice to 76 and that is 151 independents, aka chaos. Instead of having the party elect the leader who becomes the prime minister prior to the election, have 151 people all vote for the prime minister after the election then they could go on and elect every senior frontbench position – treasurer, defence, trade, agriculture, infrastructure. A lucky dip government – how wonderful, a thing of beauty, a rock in perilous times guided by the whims of 151 random electrons. Then we could all elect an opposition to hold the first group to account and so we would still have a vague reason for question time and debates on current affairs programs.

Yes, you know where I am getting to. Independents can say what they may but if we all did what they want, our nation would fall because government would be inoperable. If they are honest and say where they are aligned then quite obviously they are not independent, they are aligned. If they say they are independent then they must answer which party would they support if theirs is the vote that takes one or the other to 76 members in the House of Representatives. If they abhor that inquiry, then they must explain how does government work without blocks of votes standing behind alternate policies, otherwise known as political parties.

If parties are an evil, then what is the alternative for Australian foreign policy out my window here in Washington? How do we sign agreements, defend ourselves, come to any conclusion as to what our position is on any matter without the unselfish proposition that politicians must bind and stick in politics so as to give stability, credibility and strength as to who we are?

Voices for (insert whatever you think works today) plays on the view that the complexity of politics in a time of Taiwan and China can be managed with an online poll. Voices For ignores Complexities Of. To be quite blunt, it is simpleton, selfish politics that screams ‘It is all about me, right here, right now’.

I would not be surprised if there is a channel dedicated to it on the TV here in my room.

Barnaby Joyce is Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister.

Hmm...



Ref: GA Inquiry witnesses rating - From Gold Star (chocfrog) to WOFTAM?? & HANSARD

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