,
8 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
We have a neoliberal consensus in Australia. Both governing parties want low taxes, privatisation, restricted govt services, user-pays, and a tax and transfer system that rewards capital.
The two major parties differ mostly in who they hate. The Libs hate trade unions and immigrants. The ALP hates trade union _members_ and unemployed people (traditional party of workers never had anything to offer people who don’t work). Both hate refugees and disabled people.
Every three years we have a good natured campaigns with nothing at stake to choose which merry band of neoliberal sociopaths we want to run the government. It hasn’t mattered who’s won at any point in my adult life.
No matter who wins, public servants will be sacked, govt services will be cut, benefits to underprivileged people will be slashed, privatised industries will monopolise and price-hike, and more of our tax responsibility will be shifted on to poor people. Always. Guaranteed.
That’s the kind of country, the kind of PEOPLE, we are.
We have nice genteel election campaigns where all the winning MPs can reach across the aisle afterwards and exchange invitations to each others’ dinner parties because they are fundamentally aligned. There is no significant agreement, other than who they hate.
It also helps that they’re all sociopaths, and one of the attributes of sociopathy is a remarkable talent to fake charm. Works on voters as well as opposing MPs, too.
Summary: ALP is voting for tax cuts and supporting religious freedom legislation that attacks gay people and setting up concentration camps where refugees self-immolate BECAUSE THOSE ARE EXACTLY THE KINDS OF THINGS THEY BELIEVE IN. Expecting them to change is idiotic. Stop it.
