Sunday, March 22

There's been a lot said about Malcolm Fraset in recent days following his deaths but I was particularly impressed with the comments by Alan Ramsay.  Here's an extract:

Whatever you thought of his politics and his seminal role in the vice regal dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government almost 40 years ago, John Malcolm Fraser was, above all else, a genuine liberal in the best sense of the word. Thus he goes to his grave appalled, surely, by the oafs, boofheads and lesser ninnies that not only control the Liberal Party and conservative politics in this country these days, but take their disgrace to the summit of running Australia too.

How could it have come to this, J.M. Fraser must have wondered, constantly, in more recent years, as political behaviour, state and federal, from top to bottom, in our parliaments and out, and right across the three major parties in our democracy, became uglier, greedier, less inclusive, less civil, less caring, more irresponsible, more ill-mannered, more shrill, more ratbag, and wholly more venal, indeed blighted in any and every way you care to look at what is happening to national political life in this country?

He speaks for those of us who were proud to vote for the likes of Menzies, Fraser and even Gorton but can't bring ourselves to support the current rabble who have hijacked the Liberal Party and trashed all it once stood for. I'm sure there are many who, like me, feel that none of the parties represent my values.  There's a crying need in Australia for a new direction - politicians who have the vision and the courage to bring our country into the future without pandering to sectional interests, whether it be mining magnates, or unions.

The Queen of Hearts had it right.  'Off with their heads!'