Parliament in Canberra is in the midst of another interminable break, but it’s been a big week in politics, with the departures from public life of Dan Andrews and Mike Pezzullo, Warren Mundine and Noel Pearson crossing swords at the National Press Club, and the tabling of the epic Disability Royal Commission Report.
Over in the UK, temporary Prime Minister Rishi ‘Stop the Boats’ Sunak is continuing to copy the very worst political ideas to emerge from Australia, with disastrous results. The exact slogan used by Tony Abbott to get himself elected in 2013 is now adorning the front of Mr Sunak’s lecterns in the UK, following the Tory dictum, if in doubt, push down.
As his country disintegrates, post-Boris and post-Brexit, Rishi Sunak has decided the best way to garner popular support is to attack vulnerable people from beyond the sea who can’t vote, look different, and have no money to employ parliamentary lobbyists. As was the case here, forcing refugees to return to danger or imprisoning them is in direct defiance of the UK’s international legal obligations.
Boats not going anywhere
Mr Sunak and his Home Secretary Suella Braverman have even brought back the colonial-era prison hulk concept, forcing some asylum seekers into high density barges, such as the Bibby Stockholm, an idea which has since run into problems with a legionella outbreak, local protests, and safety concerns from fire authorities.
It’s no accident that the Conservative Party is copying Australia, considering Tory strategist Sir Lynton Crosby was the federal director of the Australian Liberals during the Howard era, and his Port Macquarie-born protégé Isaac Levido was an advisor to both Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison. The toxic legacy of Australia’s stop the boats policies (multiple deaths, torture, and more than $10 billion paid by taxpayers) have been ignored. Then as now, all that seems to matter is the short term political reward.
On top of this, Rishi Sunak has just undone the baby steps of his predecessors at 10 Downing Street in terms of responding to the climate emergency. Isaac Levido is reportedly behind the recent abandonment of the UK government’s climate commitments, along with propping up the gas industry, and the announcement of ‘no new taxes on flying or eating meat’ (which no one was proposing anyway, sensible as it sounds).
Despite his many faults, Boris Johnson knew enough of the science of climate change to understand the particular peril to the UK should the Gulf Stream stop behaving the way it’s done for thousands of years. Linked to climate change, this current is already slowing, with increasingly dangerous weather extremes predicted if the situation gets worse. But science is now as unfashionable at Westminster as strange hair.
Cheers from the bunyip aristocracy
While the Liberals love to say it doesn’t matter what Australia does, globally, particularly in terms of anything positive, like exporting less coal, it’s clear that the worst of our ideas are contagious, and vice versa.
Rishi Sunak’s recent politicking was publicly greeted by Alexander Downer as something wonderful which the Australian Liberal Party should ‘study’ and presumably emulate, completing the idiotic right wing echo chamber from one side of the world to the other.
Despite this endorsement, polls suggest Rishi Sunak has little hope of remaining in office after the next UK general election, which isn’t surprising considering even his own party preferred the disastrous Liz Truss. With this in mind, Mr Sunak appears intent on using his remaining time in the top job to enrich his ultra-wealthy mates, at whatever cost.
Speaking of ultra-wealthy mates, in what was either the final decision of an ailing Rupert Murdoch or the first of son Lachlan, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has just been elevated from podcast host and part-time firefighter to board member of Fox Corporation, pending the agreement of shareholders.
It’s hard to say what London-born Mr Abbott could possibly bring to the Fox table, apart from more negativity, but at least Rishi Sunak must be happy to see his mentor on the rise again.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
Long ago, he did work experience in Parliament House with Mungo MacCallum.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
