So Senator Sam Dastyari quits. Big deal. Good riddance.
Why did he resign?
Not for you. Not for me. Not for “we, the people”. Not for Australia. Not for ethical reasons. Not because he was ashamed of what he did. Not because it was the right thing to do. Not even for the sake of our relationship with China.
He resigned for the sake of the Party — to “spare the Party any further distraction”.
I’m so sick of the damn lies we are force-fed like a poisoned pâté de foie gross by politicians. White lies. Black lies. Soft lies. Big lies. Small lies. Licorice allsorts lies. Lies about lies. They are lords of the lies.
So sick of the deceit, the corruption, the spin, the counter spin, the strategies, the counter strategies, the deviousness, the subterfuge, the conniving, the conning, the duplicitous and unconscionable misconduct. The malfeasance. The small lie, oft repeated, is then presented as the great truth.
So sick of the constant denials. Even in the face of indisputable and irrefutable facts.
So sick of the rorts, the self-serving money grubbing and grabbing and pocketing.
Sick of their business opportunity personal advancement touting, spruiking and cultivating whilst in office so that when politicians retire, resign or get sacked, as well as their lucrative and ill-gotten superannuation and pensions that we people subsidise and underwrite, they are then able to embark on a new-phase business career — invariably whoring cabinet and political secrets and accumulated intelligence, gathered in public office, to new paymasters and sometimes new countries.
It is as if entering politics is a mere apprenticeship for second-life high-flying mega-buck corporate gigs and directorships.
I’m sick of the lack of transparency of political parties. Sick of political donations, sick of the funnelling of monies through secret and other agencies, foundations, clubs, back channels and paper bags, gifts and gratuities. Sick of the buying of political influence, confluence and effluence.
Sick of the buying of access to rub the shoulders and egos of the political elite when constituents are lucky to get a personal response from their local members, other than a dismissive, thank you for your email, blah blah, now bugger off and don’t bother me again, computer-generated rebuff.
Sick of the fawning, sick of the yawning chasm between big business, big pharma, the big banks, the top end of town compared with the nouveau poor, the old poor and the geriatric poor.
Sick of multinationals not paying tax. Sick of secret offshore money banks in Panama and elsewhere. Sick of how the body politic treats our veterans, our pensioners, our disabled, our disadvantaged, our Indigenous, our non-Indigenous, the rest of us.
Sick of how they treat our sick. Sick of the political slavery and indenturing to mining companies. Sick of the awarding of lucrative contracts to notorious and corrupt foreign and local corporations. Sick of the subcontracting out of our conscience, responsibilities and morality to shonky thugs, government officials and politicians. Sick of how we have treated asylum seekers under successive governments.
Sick of our politicians selling out Australia in various ways on various days. Sick of the Dastyaris, the Mark Arbibs and the Andrew Robbs.
I’m so sick of the contempt shown by politicians towards we people. The outrageous and continuing dual nationality farce is but one proof of that. They will get away with what they can. They will abscond with our votes and stockpile them only to replenish their personal wealth and stealth as if they were the bitcoins of political currency.
They think we are stupid and don’t care about Australia, the world and our precious and injured environment and that we don’t talk with one another, or care for one another or love one another.
They think that we are asleep to their misdemeanours and manoeuvres, their horsetrading, their indecent preferences awarded to mutual enemies in electoral one-night stands that are beginning to result in collateral damage for the old parties in particular.
Sick of the muck of it all. The mud-slinging. Sick of how parliaments have become Palaces of the Narcissi. How they wallow in their own self-centred importance. How they self-congratulated themselves in misappropriating the same-sex marriage vote from the people, to award it to themselves and history.
Dastyari claims he “always acted with integrity”. What rot. Pass me a sick bag, please.