Thus Spake Mungo: Peak crazy

It took just a month after the election for the miraculous Morrison mob to dial back up to peak crazy.

And unsurprisingly the paranoid megalomania was enunciated by the elected dictator, Peter Dutton.

His omnipotence has been challenged by the insurrectionists of the Federal Court, in particular the subversive Judge Mordecai Bromberg (a sinister name if there ever was one – bet he’s a boat person himself, or at least the descendant).

Bromberg clarified the effect of the medivac legislation of last year, declaring that evacuations from the detention centres did not need personal appearances of the doctors involved – relevant files would be sufficient.

This was no more than accepted medical practice, as any doctor could have confirmed and many in fact did. But in Dutton’s twisted worldview it amounted to deliberate treason. Some doctors were gaming the system, he ranted, bringing people of bad character to our pristine shores simply because they could.

And the boat people themselves, illegal by definition (at least his) were complicit, inventing stories of rape in order to escape. Dutton provided no evidence, no examples. But he knew.

Anarchy, chaos, the end of Australia as we know it

And Bromberg’s treacherous decision would open the floodgates, unleashing flotillas of eager people smugglers keen to drown their clients, presumably before they could be raped on their way to evacuation to the mainland. Anarchy, chaos, the end of Australia as we know it. Whyalla wipe out, $100 legs of lamb, sledgehammers and wrecking balls on the economy, robbing pensioners  and death taxes.

The trouble is, as sane observers have noted, that this is precisely what Dutton predicted when the medivac legislation was first passed. The teeming hordes would arrive —  Christmas Island had to be reopened at the privilege price of $185 million to accommodate them. Welcome to the party – except no one came, and Christmas Island was quietly closed again after the photo-shoot.

Nauru and Manus

And of course every asylum seeker on Nauru and Manus would be automatically medivacced by the corrupt medicos determined to destroy national security — except that they weren’t. Just 22 have arrived, with eight on the list – rather less than those who were being brought to Australia under the old system, and a tiny handful compared to those who regularly come by plane and are apparently regarded as model citizens while awaiting processing.

But such tedious and oft-repeated facts do not worry Dutton – he knows the Bromberg decision is incredibly dangerous. Why, ten of those knocked back before last week’s looming catastrophe may well be able to appeal. He can count them on every grimy claw of his withered talons.

And these, presumably, are the ones he warned who would clog up the hospital queues, preventing real Australian with sprains and head colds from receiving the treatment they deserve. The crest of the immense wave which will overwhelm our fragile commonwealth.

Dutton retains an irrevocable veto over evacuations

Of course, even under the lethal legislation, Dutton retains an irrevocable veto over evacuations. He tells us it does not apply to bad character, and we have to believe him – he apparently waved through a couple of well-documented mass murdering war criminals who had been transhipped from the United States. But it certainly applies to national security, and given that Dutton considers that in regard to just about everything he does not like, it should hardly be an onerous task to invoke it.

 But in Dutton’s febrile imagination the risk is much wider. Why, there are some 7,100,000 of the dispossessed around the world seeking shelter. And all of them will flock to the lure of ScoMo’s promise of Australia, drawn by the irresistible lure of tax cuts for those earning $180,000 a year in 2025. Trust him – he knows.