The Loser's promise'

Following in full is the editorial in this week's "The Saturday Paper", titled as above

"On the playground, it is the final and most pathetic offer. It is the bargain of the uninvited schoolboy, the boy who gets carsick and smells of mandarin skins, made when there is nothing really to give. I'll be your best friend.

On Wednesday, this needy figure addressed the Minerals Council of Australia. Later he posted a video of it to his social media accounts. He added synthetic horns and swelling strings. A Dutton coalition government ' he said will be the best friend that the mining and resources sector in Australia ever have."

"Peter Dutton repeated the lie that without mining the country has nothing. He mentioned his own time as defence minister and said that limiting fossil fuel projects put the country at risk. He said fossil fuels paid for the NDIS, the military, for roads, rail, bridges and infrastructure. Without fossil fuels, he said " there is no prospect for our economy to survive and to prosper, let alone being able to invest in those necessary areas."

"Duttons promise is to defund the Environmental Defenders office.He has clearly given up on meeting any targets. he wants more mines approved, more gas projects. He would halve the processing time. Third parties- by which he means environmental and Indigenous groups - would lose their capacity to contest approvals. Industrial relations provisions would be wound back. The minister would have greater say.

"I want to see more excavators digging...more gas flowing and more trucks moving" he said, sounding like an unshuttered Onc-ler. "And that requires removing those regulatory roadblocks which have needlessly inhibited projects coming online until years after they should have started.

He railed against subsidies. Of course not the billions spent each year on fuel tax rebates. He said Labor wanted "union mates to rule over the mining sector" He talked about a carbon price and how Julia Gillard "broke her promise." He said that investors were spooked, there had been a "flight of capital out of Australia".

He acknowledged that the companies in the room had been in and out of his office. He thought this was a good thing. He said Labor was no longer the workers' party: it was in the thrall of activists and unions and terrified of losing votes to the Greens. " So lets be under no misapprehension" he said."The government is putting partisan interests and political survival ahead of our national interest."

The problem for the country is that Dutton doesn't believe he will win the next election. He doesn't need to. His project now is all about damage. He doesn't care about what that means for the future. His indifference makes him dangerous.

Dutton is content to ignore the majority of Australians, living in cities and concerned about climate change, and push the government into minority with a campaign focused wholly on the regions and the suburban fringes. After a term of that, of policymaking dependent on the cross bench, he believes he just might win. He has perfected the losers promise: I'll be your best friend.//

All of the aforesaid is so true, yet alarming. If we the voters have to decide in the next election, which party to choose, readers of this editorial will almost certainly not support the coalition. While this would be a good outcome, the Labor party has not covered itself in glory. The fact that they in government, have approved significant numbers of fossil fuel and coal operations despite knowing that none of these are in the interest of mankind. The UN Secretary general has clearly stated the fact that climate change is the greatest threat to nations of the world.

The editorial comments on the lies Peter Dutton expresses,both in and out of parliament on so many subjects. He is Australia's Donald Trump. It is imperative that he and his coalition do not return to government. The Movement for better Gvernment (MBG) will in time, enable Australia to become the worlds first true democracy, when every electorate selects their own candidates for parliament, unencumbered with Party political, vested and self interests.