Thread by @David_Ritter

As we face more devastating east-coast floods, much of the commentary on the government’s abandonment of impacted communities has focused on @ScottMorrisonMP’s character & obsession with image management.
I reckon there's more going on - a deliberate wrecking agenda 🧵#auspol

A decade or so ago, US commentator Tom Frank coined the idea of ‘wrecking crew’ politicians who - perversely - deliberately or recklessly seek to govern badly in order to advance an extreme ideological agenda: tcfrank.com/product/the-wr…

As @crikey_news correspondent-at-large Guy Rundle has noted, Scott Morrison has pioneered his own version of destructive ‘wrecking crew’ politics in Australia: crikey.com.au/2021/12/02/cri…

As Rundle says ‘wrecking crew’ government seeks to govern so badly, per the interests of those governed, that the very machinery of such government is so damaged that it cannot be restored’: crikey.com.au/2020/05/15/sco…

The aim of ‘wrecking crew’ politics is that the whole idea of government is damaged and discredited. People stop believing in the power of government to do helpful things - and may even stop believing in the whole idea of the public good.

Disasters offer particularly rich potential for unscrupulous ‘wrecking crew’ politicians. As Naomi Klein pointed out years ago, disasters are an opportunity to push through extreme agendas that would be unthinkable at any other time: naomiklein.org/the-shock-doct…

It was deliberately bad (or willfully blind) governing for Scott Morrison’s government to abjectly ignore numerous warnings about the likelihood of floods and storms:

https://twitter.com/David_Ritter/status/1501671464327839747?s=20&t=mKx8yYHXBoduhmlpW-LpFA

Then, when the killer storms and floods arrived, the Morrison government was hopelessly slow to react despite having the specific legislative powers to do so. Here is @SquigglyRick’s detailed account: thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/…

But if the implicit ideological aim was to wreck the reputation of government, then the failed response may have succeeded on those terms. According to @JennaPrice people have drawn the conclusion that ‘the cavalry won’t be coming’: smh.com.au/environment/cl…

Poll findings also support the proposition that people’s confidence in government has been shaken in the wake of the floods: theguardian.com/australia-news…

… as both mainstream and social media are (very appropriately) full of confronting descriptions and pictures of people who have been failed by government services:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

Morrison also softened people up to reduce expectations of how much help could be expected, stating that ‘there can never be enough support in natural disasters’: newcastleherald.com.au/story/7650630/…

The truth is that the level of support available for disaster response depends on political decisions. Even within existing budgets, billions spent on fossil fuel subsidies for example could be allocated to emergency services and community resilience: reneweconomy.com.au/perverse-austr…

It is also really important to remember all this is occurring against a background of decades of neoliberal policies that shifted risk away from corporations and cut-down government, and on to people and communities. This has been euphemistically called ‘shared responsibility’.

The result of ‘shared responsibility’ is that the trauma of natural disasters becomes ‘compounded by confusion, inaction, political blame games and a lack of resources’ with ‘individuals and vulnerable communities left to pick up the pieces’: theconversation.com/governments-lo…

So what are the aims behind the deliberate incompetence of wrecking crew politics? It is grim. Defining a ‘new normal’. Breaking the idea of shared public goods. Slashing services. Privatisation. Militarisation. Fossil fuel extraction just keeps on going. Here’s some more detail:

First, wrecking crew politics drives an agenda of cuts in government services. The logic is as government services fail, people cease to value them, so politicians feel able to cut them; rather than expanded, supported & properly funded services that enable effectiveness.

If the government is seen to be unreliable, then those who can afford to do so will hire private protection and private rescue services. This is already commonplace in the USA: theguardian.com/us-news/2019/n…

OTOH those who cannot afford private services would be left to over-stretched charities. Peter Dutton had an idiot’s caricature version of this, when initiated his ‘GoFundMe’ to support flood survivors: theguardian.com/australia-news…

This all facilitates privatisation, as weakened government services become ripe to be sold off - with guaranteed public income streams to private providers. And of course, if privatisation happens, the aim then becomes profit making - not the delivery of effective public services

Forcing a de-facto tiered system then feeds a vicious cycle, further corroding principles of universality, the public good, and obscuring the truth that everyone benefits from greater equality: theguardian.com/books/2010/feb…

There are plenty of extreme ideologues who would also like to fully privatise emergency services. From other contexts we know that Morrison thinks that ‘welfare must become a good deal for investors – for private investors’. probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/06/p…

Second, one area of government that Morrison does want to expand is the military, and with it, the militarisation of Australian life. After the 2019-20 fires Morrison warned us to ‘prepare for a new normal’ of ‘the defence force moving in’: pm.gov.au/media/intervie…

… And so in the wake of the floods, we saw a proposed massive expansion - not in climate adaptation, strengthening communities, or slashing emissions - but military expenditure: aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/10…

Third, every disaster is used to attack the significance of laws and regulations in keeping people safe. The floods were no exception: pm.gov.au/media/more-sup…

Fourth, implicit in wrecking crew politics is that nothing must interrupt profitability for fossil fuel corporations. Killer floods follow killer fires, but Morrison says the burning of the coal, gas & oil driving climate disaster must go on: theguardian.com/australia-news…

Last night’s Morrison govt #Budget22 only further entrenched this, responding to the countless scientific warnings of the need for action and lived experience of stacked climate disasters, by cutting climate spending:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

In summary - to quote the great @thejuicemedia - the wrecking crew prefers the ‘get fucken used to it policy for dealing with climate disasters’:

https://twitter.com/thejuicemedia/status/1504557040647094293?s=20&t=-ffxVA0rz7V_jrbsAmxRfg

I’m sickened by wrecking crew politicians abandoning people to disaster.
Together we can reject the wrecking crew agenda.
Australia can slash emissions at emergency speed and scale, and create a safety net for every citizen facing climate damage.
Nobody left behind. #auspol