The federal opposition reached a new level of dysfunction last week, with the departure of wannabe-leader and vintage gas guzzler enthusiast Andrew Hastie from the shadow cabinet to the backbench, where he can join Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in creating as much trouble for Sussan Ley as they wish, without fear of censure.
Hastie said he decided to quit as Shadow Minister for Home Affairs after receiving a letter from his leader saying he wouldn’t be involved in developing the Coalition’s new immigration policy.
‘Out of respect for Sussan’s leadership, I am resigning from the front bench… Sussan deserves to lead unencumbered by interventions from shadow cabinet colleagues’.
Mr Hastie then said he wouldn’t be challenging for the leadership any time soon, which if history is anything to go by, means the exact opposite.
In recent weeks ex-military officer Hastie has described his colleagues as ‘nameless cowards’ and ‘muppets’, following criticism of his latest social media videos calling for the return of the car industry to Australia, something which was seen off by his predecessors in the Coalition, and sounds a lot like Albo’s Made in Australia plan, but with a ’70s twist. Unfortunately, regardless of the enormous amounts of money ploughed into similar schemes in the past, the country has emerged with very little, ultimately, to show for it.
While Ley has mostly stayed above the mud pie tossing within her ranks so far, Deputy Opposition Leader Ted O’Brien has attempted to dignify the insults being thrown back and forth as a ‘battle of ideas’.
So, which ideas are winning?
Since Sussan Ley accepted the poisoned chalice of Liberal Party leadership in May, there has been no public result of Pru Howard and Nick Minchin’s much vaunted policy review.
Earlier this year Ley said her priorities included energy and emissions reduction, increased defence spending, tackling the ‘national shame’ of domestic violence, protecting young children from social media and digital technology, and presenting a credible alternative agenda to Australians.
In practice, a rump of disaffected nutcases have attempted to drag the Coalition further in the direction of policies which were soundly rejected by the electorate last time round, and Ley herself has made a number of silly statements, including that she would de-recognise Palestine if she had the chance, and saying nuclear energy was ‘very important for the future’.
Herself an immigrant, she failed to apologise on the Liberal Party’s behalf for Jacinta Price’s unfactual attacks on Indian migrants, and is now wrestling with calls from within her ranks to attack immigration levels, regardless of the fact that these levels are already dropping, that new Australians pay more tax than they draw welfare, and that immigrants are needed to do many jobs that keep Australia functioning.
Albo on a roll, shocker from National Press Club
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had a good week, with the signing of a defence agreement with Papua New Guinea seen as shoring up Australia’s interests to the north, the beginning of Labor’s new first home buyer scheme (three months early), and preparations for his forthcoming meeting with Donald Trump, in which we will find out if he has the negotiating smarts to save the PBS, hopefully without handing over the farm, as the United States continues its accelerating slide into clownish autocracy.
Meanwhile the Pulitzer-Prize winning and widely respected US journalist Chris Hedges’ appearance at the National Press Club of Australia on 20 October has been cancelled, despite the club’s claim to be ‘a vigorous champion of media freedom’.
A former war correspondent for the New York Times, Mr Hedges has documented the murder of at least 278 journalists by the Israeli Defence Force, along with numerous other atrocities.
On Substack, he said his talk in Canberra was going to focus on the ‘amplification of Israeli lies by the press, which most reporters know are lies, betraying Palestinian colleagues who are slandered, targeted and killed by Israel. But, perhaps inadvertently proving my point, the chief executive of the press club, Maurice Reilly, cancelled the event’.
The NPC is currently facing an outcry for replacing Mr Hedges with the Israeli ambassador to Australia, Lieutenant Colonel Amir Maimon, who spent 14 years in the IDF, ‘in the interests of balancing out our program’.
As Chris Hedges eloquently put it, ‘No doubt, the corporate sponsors and wealthy donors of the press club are pleased. No doubt, the club is able to slither away from its journalistic integrity. No doubt, it is spared the attacks that would come from allowing me to speak. But please, have the decency to remove the word “press” from your club.’
If the National Press Club refuses to reinstate Mr Hedges, all Australian journalists will need to consider whether they can remain involved with this organisation.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
You can find more of his writing at Patreon and Gumroad.
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. 
