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By Les Scammell, November 29, 2009 5:37 pm

The Australian Liberal Party are rapidly going into melt down – a fairly typical scenario in Australian politics after the party in power loses at a general election. The role of leader really is a poisonous chalice especially when the defeat was as heavy as it was. In most cases, the losing party goes through a number of leaders, and often a number of losing elections, before finally finding some stability and really making a difference.

I am not sure what drives politicians to take on the leadership role in this situations. Perhaps it’s an over-inflated opinion of their own leadership skills, sometimes they are the last man standing when no one else wants the role.

The problem with the Liberal party at present is that they don’t want to be led. The only person strong enough to really bring some order to the party has left. Malcolm Turnbull has the strength of character but not the interpersonal skills. He seems to tend to rile people rather than unite them. Tony Abbot has no credibility and Kevin Andrews even less. That leaves Joe Hockey.

It would be interesting to see Hockey as Liberal leader. Australian’s may remember Joe Hockey and Kevin Rudd playing off against one another several years ago with regular appearances on a popular morning TV show. They also took part in one of our most arduous and meaningful walks – the Kokoda Trail. I am sure they build a little mate-ship in that exercise.

Becoming leader of the Liberals in this current environment is a recipe for political suicide. If the party doesn’t stand 100% behind whomever they appoint leader – the party will continue to slide. There is a real risk that, come the next election, the Liberal party are no longer the number two party in Australia – they could be at best number three – perhaps even worse.

The problem for the Liberal party is very simple – if Joe Hockey doesn’t want the top job – and I don’t blame him one bit if he refused it right now, then who is going to lead them?

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By Les Scammell, November 28, 2009 12:41 pm

It’s a sad day in politics when politicians start using Twitter and Facebook to help them make decisions. That is the case in Australia at present as one major political party goes into total melt down. Australia only has two major political parties, the ALP and the Liberal party. The ALP currently holds power and it seems will continue to do so for quite some time – at least until the Liberal party can get their act together.

Joe Hockey, a probable candidate to take over as leader of the party at some time in the near future, is now using Twitter and Facebook get feedback on climate change issues – specifically a bill before parliament that will bring in a carbon credit system together with a carbon emission reduction goal. This legislation has torn the Liberal party apart – hence Joe Hockey’s use of social media.

He has been a staunch supporter of current leader Malcolm Turnbull and the his efforts to broker a deal related to the new legislation. He is now trying to find an out for this support and is using Twitter and Facebook to help him. At the end of the day he will say that public support is not behind Malcolm Turnbull or the government so he is going to reverse his stance.

That’s pretty weak. First, Twitter and Facebook are not representative of the Australian population. Second, unless someone actually counts every response, we only have his word for the end results, and finally, people use situations like this to gain an advantage. I would love to know how many new followers he received over the last few days and how many of them offered the advice he wants to hear.

This is politics and we all know how two faced they can all be. Tony Abbott was one of the biggest supporters of this legislation a couple of months ago. In fact he was quite up front in promoting it and urging the Liberal party leadership to support it. Guess what, when things got tough he was the first to jump ship and swap sides – and then throw his hat into the ring for the job of party leader.

Am I cynical – you bet. This hasn’t nothing to do with the environment the new legislation – this has just been the issue used to create a disturbance in the party room to force the removal of Malcolm Turnbull. He is his own worst enemy. He is too aloof, too much of a control freak, and just not likable enough to get away with it like Kevin Rudd does (he is also a control freak).

As for Joe Hockey – surely he is not a political suicide freak. Anyone who takes on the leadership job now is on a hiding to nothing. The Liberals will get badly mauled at the next election – only a year away now. If I was Joe, I would step away and let Abbott take the job. Let him take the bruises, and, like every other losing party leader, lose his job after the next election. Then he can step in and rebuild the broken party. Turnbull needs to do a Howard. Howard lost the job of opposition leader and sat back and let everyone else do the hard work. When the time was right he stepped back into the limelight and the rest is history.

Where to know for the Liberals. I guess they will all be heading to Twitter and Facebook to find out who the public wants to see as leader. They may as well – they can’t make a decent decision themselves!

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By Les Scammell, November 17, 2009 12:17 am

As an Australian I am always proud of our achievements. We are a nation that has done well when you consider our size and our population. We have a very proud cricket, rugby league and union and now soccer history. We excel at swimming, surfing, sailing and many other water based sports. Our athletic ability has not been as prolific as our swimmers, but then given the temperature extremes, swimming is always going to take preference over running.

We have a great history when it comes to authors, actors, singers, and yes, even scientist. There are many inventions used around the world that started their life here in Australia.

So yes – we have a very proud history.

And yet, as we talk proudly of our history – we also have a past that is less proud. Certainly a history that we try to ignore, try to forget and try to suppress. I am not talking about our convict heritage either – for some reason we are even proud of that.

No – we have a sad history of first, suppressing the indigenous peoples of this land. Not only suppress, we took their children from their families, took their land, and too a degree, took their dignity. Our Prime Minister took steps to rectify this with a public apology to the indigenous peoples – an act that previous Governments had refused to do.

Today – another chapter in our sad past was addressed. This again dealt with children – children who have been labeled the ‘forgotten Australians’. Who are they? They are many. Many people in Australia did not know that, following World War II, up to 8,000 children where removed from England and brought to Australia – many were told they were orphans when it was not the case. These children where placed in the hands of various church organizations that were supposed to care for them.

At the same time there were as many as 500,000 Australian children placed into care, often due to poverty. These children were abused in many ways – sexually, emotionally and physically. Our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said it all in these words today:

the nation was sorry for their physical suffering, emotional starvation and the cold absence of love and tenderness during their forced care.

My personal hope is that, as we put this past behind us, that, in the future, no child should ever be subject to lies, abuse or a lack of basic care, love and affection like the ‘forgotten Australians’ were.

I add my total support to the Australian Government and the apology given – I hope my fellow Australians do as well.

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By Les Scammell, November 11, 2009 7:33 pm

The Mary Valley – in the region I call home, today welcomed the news that every feared would go against them – the blocking of the Traveston Dam. If you know this region, and the people in it, the Mary Valley is one of the most fertile and scenic regions in South East Queensland. The creation of a dam and the flooding of this area would have been a travesty – and a sad waste of land.

That Peter Garrett, former frontman for Midnight Oil and now Federal Minister for the Environment, had the foresight to stand up to the Queensland Government and knock the proposal on the head speaks volumes – especially since they are from the same political party.

I cannot help but think that privately, Anna Bligh, the Queensland Premier, is somewhat relieved to see this decision. The original decision was made by her predecessor although he was acting on her strong advice but as time has gone on, the whole proposal has started to look too ambitious. The Government’s own Auditor found over 1000 issues that needed addressing.

What now for Queensland and their future water needs? That of course is the next question. What now for Gympie and the Mary Valley? That too will be interesting to see. So many lives have been devastated by the original decision. Homes have been forcibly bought by the government with some already demolished.

For myself, I had mixed feelings about the dam. I didn’t like the idea of flooding what is fertile land, nor did I like the idea of forcing people from their homes. If we had to have a dam, I also saw the benefits particularly for construction workers now and, down the track, for tourism.

Now it’s time to rebuild. For those families affected by the threat of a dam, I hope they can now start to rebuild their lives.