Compare and contrast Tony Abbott's genuine care for our defence force people with the man who would have been PM
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Latham self-destructs
Sadly, Mark Latham still can’t stop himself from self-destructing. Today he’s made it clear, once again, why he was not worthy of holding any political office in this country. He’s proven it in his column in the Australian Financial Review.
I’ve posted a blog entry earlier today about the first half of his column – on snouts in the trough.
Here’s the disgraceful bit in the last few paragraphs.
He’s talking about his former mate Joel Fitzgibbon and how he’ll be better off out of the defence minister portfolio.
Latham says, 'I have always assumed the gushing, out-of-proportion praise (for our defence forces) could come only from those who have never met our soldiers and experienced first-hand their limited intelligence and primeval interests in life.'
'Surely the worst job in Australian politics is to be the minister for defence. Anything, even the most tedious and loathsome of public duties, would be better than knocking around with the meatheads of the Australian Defence Force.'
What a disgrace. What the hell is wrong with this bloke?
ENDS - here's the earlier post from that day.
Mark Latham
Remember the movie To Catch a Thief?
John Robie is a one-time cat burglar, now reformed and living a blameless life. When a fresh set of burglaries rocks the Riviera all bearing the hallmark of Robie's own robberies, he is the natural suspect. Robie sets out to catch the new burglar himself, mainly to prove his innocence. The title of the movie is derived from the proverb "Set a thief to catch a thief".
Mark Latham once led the Parliamentary Labor Party. Now his main public activity is to deliver a weekly essay on politics in the Australian Financial Review newspaper. I think it’s amongst the best political commentary in the country.
Latham’s columns have the ring of unadorned truth about them. He’s probably settling a few scores publicly - but his stuff is nonetheless compelling.
His effort today in the AFR explains a lot about him and other politicians.
I’ll quote a bit of it.
"When I worked for Gough Whitlam in the 1980s he explained to me that one of the purposes of his office was to 'milk the system' - that is, to make the most of his publicly funded entitlements as a former prime minister, of which there were many.
"Regrettably, milking the system has become a regular part of Labor’s culture. Long gone are the frugal living conditions and working-class values of John Curtin and Ben Chifley. Labor Party prime minsters are now multi-millionaires who accept gifts from used car salesmen. Labor talks a lot about working families but most of its MPs are working hard on the high life. Their favoured form of infrastructure is the gravy train.
Latham asks "why else would members of the executive government with high salaries and generous entitlements fail to purchase their own vehicles, accommodation, sport-tickets and other entertainment tidbits, and instead, rely on handouts from the corporate sector?"
As Latham makes clear - Labor has lost its way. The Labor Party of old was a party of working people who looked out for each other. It’s been perverted by power and sound-byte politics to suit modern mass media.
No wonder we lose faith in our leaders.