Want to know what makes a group of Coalition Senators all stand up and applaud?

Sorry, there is no punchline here as sadly this isn’t a joke.

I’m also not referring to scrapping of the Carbon Tax or Scott Morrison ordering the further mental torture of Tamil women and children by holding them indefinitely at sea through our now disgraced Navy.

What got the Liberals and National up and clapping was the maiden speech of new Senator James McGrath of the Liberal Party.

James McGrath is the Queensland campaign director who was sacked for being the organiser and architect of political scandal in Queensland which was to pay a disgruntled former Labor staffer for dirt on sitting Labor MP’s.

Prior to that McGrath worked as an aide to London’s Conservative Lord Mayor Boris Johnson before being sacked for making a racist comment to a journalist regarding African-Caribbean people. Johnson’s decision to sack McGrath was praised by the current British PM David Cameron.

So what did James McGrath, a man previously sacked by two conservative governments for gutter tactics and racism have to say that was so appealing to the Liberal and National Party Senators?

Some of his key points were:

• Abolishing the Federal Health and Education Departments.
• Defending people rights to make homophobic comments
• The immediate selling off of the ABC’s youth radio network Triple J
• The privatisation of the ABC if it doesn’t shift its views to those on the right
• Support for the proposed changes to the Racial Vilification Act so that racists can preach hate without fear of persecution
• Taking the GST exclusions off things like fresh food and medicine so that the cost of remaining healthy skyrockets along with grocery prices.
• Increasing the GST to 15%

I will leave aside his efforts to stick up for the homophobes as I think we all know what they say about those who “protest too much”…

James McGrath’s maiden speech should be viewed as a wake-up call to any swinging voters, regional National Party voters or even any of the “Little L” Liberal voters.

To those who seek a higher cost of living with a 50% increase to the GST and a lower standard of public health and education, I’d suggest voting Liberal.

To those in rural areas who rely on the ABC both radio and television broadcasts to stay informed who would like to see the ABC privatised so the non-profitable service can in their community can be culled, keep up with the National Party voting.

However most alarming is that James McGrath in his speech has now publicly stated that he supports the wholesale breaking of election promises made by his own Party.

The Liberal Party promised no cuts to education, and no cuts to the ABC. They also promised no changes to the GST rate.

His perception of left-wing bias within the ABC is easily understood. After all anybody whose views are as far to the right as his are sees virtually every other view as being “lefty”.

Currently the ABC has Mark Scott as its Managing Director. Mark Scott was a formerly a senior staffer within Nick Greiner’s Liberal Government in NSW. He is hardly a “Lefty” and thus far I am of the view that he is doing a great job at achieving balance.

McGrath would clearly like someone running the ABC that was a little more “centred” in his mind. Perhaps Cory Bernardi or Pauline Hanson?

It is also worth noting that James McGrath is a former Deputy Director of the Liberal Party, quite a senior role.

I think that someone who has come from such a senior role within a political party endorsing and promoting the wholesale breaking of so many election promises is astounding. Particularly given that he was part of the executive approval process of the promises and policies he seeks to break.

This should ring alarm bells all across the nation and we should make sure everyone who votes is made aware of it.

If this is how much respect the Liberal Party have for their supporters then I feel sorry for those true believers the Party has out there who are blissfully unaware the Party they support is happy to treat them with such utter contempt.

The reaction of Coalition MP’s should have been disgust and anger on behalf of every member of the public that this man has deceived with the policies and promises he helped signed off on and now seeks to ensure are broken.

Instead his speech was met with jubilation.

A celebration that a Political Party can lie its way into power and then achieve little more than broken promises.

My celebration will come the day James McGrath is sacked.

Once again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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