Guest Post: Vikki Campion – Let our PM be human


Attacking ScoMo for visiting his kids sets a new low for Labor

Are we talking out of our backside when we talk about mental health or are we fair dinkum? When a father — in this case the Prime Minister of Australia — follows the state-prescribed health orders to return home to see his kids, Labor attacks because they argue other fathers cannot.

It’s a hollow argument designed to score points and division over an issue that is already at flashpoint for ordinary Australians.

Based on Labor’s logic, all politicians must do as those in the most impoverished situation because some others are going through it.

I hope deputy opposition leader Richard Marles, who inflamed the commentariat over the PM’s trip home, doesn’t like Comcars because many in Australia can’t afford a taxi.

And if the ALP was serious about being at one with the common man, let’s lose free phones, flights, laptops, iPads and staff while we are at it.

The Covid exemption rules politicians follow as they go between Canberra and their homes are no walk in the park.

Half of the Queensland cohort got stuck in the ACT for five weeks, others could not go anywhere but inside their hotel rooms or office and NT Senator Sam McMahon had to end that in quarantine camp.

And in a Parliament where 151 were paid, 111 were not present, and only 20 video-linked in.

There is someone always in worse circumstances so where does it end?

The government plane that flew LNP Queenslanders home also flew Labor MPs — because no other flights were available.

The response to Scott Morrison’s trip home is a disturbing sign of the times and stands in stark contrast to the more gracious tactics of PMs past.

There was no outcry when PM Billy Hughes spent three days rowing on the Thames before World War 1 ended. In July 1945, when British PM Winston Churchill went on holiday to France two months before World War II ended, the news reported that “in order that his rest may be as complete as possible, the Prime Minister’s whereabouts will not be made public”.

When PM Alfred Deakin, in 1907, was told to rest for nervous exhaustion, the opposition leader Mr J.C. Watson, said that in the event of Mr Deakin having to take a few weeks holiday, nothing like an “adverse move against the Ministry would be taken”. When PM Joseph Lyons had a trip to Tasmania in 1933, he returned “much stouter, and decidedly more cheerful,” the then Canberra bubble proclaimed. Now he would be body shamed. In the turmoil of depression, in 1930, PM James Scullin had a break, the bubble reported he “swam, sunbaked, and read for hours in a deck chair, and sometimes went for long walks at sunset”. When Nationals leader Doug Anthony was acting PM from Brunswick Heads barefoot at the beach with his family, it was endearing. And as deputy over 12 years, he acted as PM on more than 25 occasions, added up, maybe more than any “real” prime minister at the time, his staff claimed. Then there was “tourist” PM Gough Whitlam, who went on a five-and-a-half week trip as the country grappled with inflation and record unemployment. The 14-nation tour was his 12th trip overseas since he came to power 23 months before.

Then PM Malcolm Fraser was dubbed “first-class Fraser” because of his affinity for leather seats and a fleet of Cadillacs on call. What’s changed during that time? If anything, the mobile phone vibrating on the family dining table ensures that work is still there even if one is at home.

And the issue diagnosed as “nervous exhaustion” in 1907 by Deakin’s doctors has greater relevance now. As our country has grown and developed, empathy, logic and fairness have eroded.

The itchy disconnect here is that many MPs were in Canberra because Labor smashed the government when it delayed sittings earlier in the year due to state-imposed Covid restrictions and that the majority of both sides stayed home.

At one division, Marle’s Labor, which holds 69 seats, had just 13 members in the chamber. For the Fair Rights at Work Sex Discrimination amendments — the biggest issue of the year, of 151 members, 111 did not appear for the division. In the Senate, it was down to 12 to 12, with the majority of the minor parties staying home. Most who did go were paired, which reduces the autonomy of politicians to that of the party line.

I want a PM who has to deal with his wife handing him his kids. I want a ministry that has to deal with toddlers and children and pre-teens and elderly parents. I want politicians’ partners to say “over to you”. Maybe Mr Marles doesn’t remember his partner climbing the wall, saying: “Where are you?”

Just writing this, my kids have smashed six eggs over the carpet, one poured honey over his brother, and I’m not in a frame of mind to hear the ALP tell me I don’t need respite as well. It’s easier for politicians if they do stay in Canberra, like staying too late at the pub. But not for me or any other FIFO mum.


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Arky
September 11, 2021 2:52 pm

OK. Fine. He can visit his kids when:
Every father can visit their children.
That’s called LEADERSHIP.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 2:52 pm

If the PM wants my sympathy, he can “go to the back of the queue”.

He’ll know what I mean, and probably you do too.

Arky
September 11, 2021 2:54 pm

I hope deputy opposition leader Richard Marles, who inflamed the commentariat over the PM’s trip home, doesn’t like Comcars because many in Australia can’t afford a taxi.

.
NO no no no. NO.
Richard Marles isn’t supporting legislation and emergency acts which stop you buying and using a car.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 2:59 pm

Just when things can’t get any worse (well, they can but I don’t want to contemplate the details just now on account of my mental health) a politician’s missus is lecturing me about being “fair” to…politicians.

A word in your shell-like. Head below the parapet. Stay there until we can all travel.

Arky
September 11, 2021 3:01 pm

The Covid exemption rules politicians follow as they go between Canberra and their homes are no walk in the park.

..
Ohhh. Boo hoo hoo.

Arky
September 11, 2021 3:03 pm

For the Fair Rights at Work Sex Discrimination amendments — the biggest issue of the year

..
What planet are you people on?

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
September 11, 2021 3:03 pm

I’m supposed to be sympathetic about about lowy dog filthy bastard politicians?
My gast is flabbered.
Kiss my arse..
Campion has a dog in the fight and is no longer to be trusted.
And expects us to walk around bleating “four legs good, two legs better”.
Snouts in troughs. Time to bring home the bacon.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 3:09 pm

Just writing this, my kids have smashed six eggs over the carpet, one poured honey over his brother, and I’m not in a frame of mind to hear the ALP tell me I don’t need respite as well. It’s easier for politicians if they do stay in Canberra, like staying too late at the pub. But not for me or any other FIFO mum.

Play with them Vicki. Step away from the typewriter. They crave your attention.

Writing bird cage liner can wait. Tomorrow both of those dear little chums will be different people and you won’t have played with today’s iteration nearly enough.*

*Advice from a grannie of six and mother of three who hasn’t seen any of her family for six months.

CrazyOldRanga
CrazyOldRanga
September 11, 2021 3:16 pm

The least self aware thing that I have read in a LONG time. Wow, just wow.

rosie
rosie
September 11, 2021 3:27 pm

Didn’t read the article but did read the comments.
Lol.
I wrote to my local pm who I know has a preschooler to tell him, among other things, that expecting people to work from home with children that age is both stupid and dangerous.
Doing it because you want to?

parde
September 11, 2021 3:41 pm

oh dear! just put the money in the bank! most people cannot pay their rent.poor polititians my heart bleeds.But remember “WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 4:11 pm

You know Vikki, I usually agree with a lot of what you write…but this piece has left me cold…freezing cold. Normally I would not give a rat’s arse about Morrison travelling to Sydney to see his wife and daughters but last Sunday night I watched television and I saw heart wrenching pictures of families on each side of the QLD and NSW border crying, hugging and passing presents, whilst a policeman walked up and down to check that there were no border violations…..in scenes reminiscent of the Berlin Wall and the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

So I’ll keep it simple Vikki…

1. As far as I’m concerned either everyone can go to work or no one can.
2. As far as I’m concerned either everyone can cross the border to Queensland or no one can.
3. As far as I’m concerned either everyone can fly, bus, train, tram, bicycle or walk from one city to another to see their kids or no one can.
4. As far as I’m concerned either everyone can fly overseas or no one can.

After all Vikki, I do recall Morrison yapping on last year about how “we’re all in this together“?

But we’re not are we? So I’ll reserve my sympathy for the families forcibly separated, for the mothers and fathers and the grandmothers and grandfathers who’ve been unable to see their children and grandchildren for months.

Pass it on to your other half…and if he had any sense and I’m not sure he does anymore he’d pass it onto other Nats and Liberals.

Lastly Morrison can eff off…..zero sympathy from me…..ZERO.

rosie
rosie
September 11, 2021 4:38 pm

Calli
I know you chat and face time as I do but I also get lots of little videos that I can replay when my heart hurts.
Little girl has started walking.

Bar Beach Swimmer
September 11, 2021 4:38 pm

There are many stories of families separated, businesses gone bust, people not being able to go to work and kids not at school. I heartily agree with every comment under that tripe.

This is the same person who continues to insist that citizens must get vaccinated. If he wants to see his family he can call an end to what’s happening. No sympathy.

Barry
Barry
September 11, 2021 4:42 pm

Scomo is complicit in fucking two years out of my remaining 20 on this earth.

He has fucked my sons grade 9 & 10 school years. He has fucked the last two sporting seasons for my son as well.

If he’s so happy to fuck other people’s lives, then how the fuck am I supposed to be sorry if he gets criticized for placing himself outside the principles that he forces on the rest of us.

Fuck Scomo and Fuck you Cardi.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
September 11, 2021 4:46 pm

Yet another politician and family for whom the laws only selectively apply.
Many of the examples listed above are so far removed from Covid lockdown as experienced by our “ruling class” that it’s not funny.
The wholesale slaughter of Brits and existential defence of England during WWI and II were scenarios much, much worse than the Covid experience. Comparing the needs of Churchill and Hughes after years of tragedy, loss and round the clock work to the political scrambling of the PM and Premiers in 2020/21 is a false equivalence.

I suppose Vikki is also supportive of KK’s new gig where she gets to break Public Health Orders just because she is a politician.
Senator Kristina Keneally may be allowed to campaign in the Covid hotspot of Fairfield, in Sydney’s south west, on Saturday under some exceptions to the public health order for politicians. (The Oz)

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 4:48 pm

Little girl has started walking.

Bother! No emojis! ?

That question mark is a party popper.

Roger
Roger
September 11, 2021 4:52 pm

If Scott Morrison would like to spend more time with his family perhaps he should get out of politics?

It’s a reason often given for doing so.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 4:55 pm

“Senator Kristina Keneally may be allowed to campaign in the Covid hotspot of Fairfield, in Sydney’s south west, on Saturday under some exceptions to the public health order for politicians. (The Oz)”

And will Skank Keneally be wearing a mask the whole time she’s campaigning because if she isn’t she should be reported to the police and fined like Abbott.

Oh and as for the word “human”……I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…..actually I’ll just be enraged….

1. Where’s the humanity in vaccine passports?
2. Where’s humanity in keeping family and friends apart?
3. Where’s the humanity in allowing small and medium sized businesses to go to the wall?
4. Where’s the humanity in the incessant double standards we’ve been subjected to……..all okay if progressives protest the death of a sleazy thug in America but not all okay if men, women and children hit the streets to protest the forced shutdown of your business.

I could go on….but you get the gist….the whole putrid maggot filled political and media class in this country can fuck off.

Excuse the language everyone…I’m angry, very angry and reading has this made me angrier.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 5:01 pm

Why do I keep hearing a whisper from Le Petit Trianon…

“let them eat cake”?

WolfmanOz
WolfmanOz
September 11, 2021 5:06 pm

Brilliant and incisive comments Cassie of Sydney – Bravo !

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
September 11, 2021 5:07 pm

I reiterate.
Pollies should be followed 24/7 by a constable whos job it is to charge them, or anyone connected to them with offences the moment they are committed.

Because only that will see the mongs in charge step back and say ‘I think we dont need that law after all”.

Until pollies and their families suffer they can afford to insulate themselves from the consequences of their actions.

Dont like it?
Well guess what, there are a couple of thousand dickheads on plush leather seats federal/state who can change that, not the general public anymore.
We dont matter.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 5:10 pm

A reason why the comments on this thread are so angry and frustrated, and it’s a very simple one…

The Federal Government is Conservative. The NSW state government is Conservative. I type that in bold because you need to pay attention. To echo the Qantas pilot’s words, “Captain, you must listen!”.

You have betrayed us. You seem to think you have been kind. You have not. You have been cruel in the worst possible way. We, who voted for you, are not like Labor voters. We will remember and we will not vote for you under any circumstances after what you have done to us.

The only sense I can make of the response to a tiny (by world standards) outbreak of Covid is that you know this and cruelty is our punishment.

Or…and blink if it’s so…you have been offered an elemental choice. Lead or silver.

Muddy
Muddy
September 11, 2021 5:11 pm

I find the use of the stand-alone noun (human) in this title sentence to be so vague it is almost meaningless. Being a cynical person, I conclude this ambiguity is intentional, thus I find the intent disingenuous.

Where is the preceding adjective? What type of human should we be permitting our Prime Minister to be?

If the author were referring to the species classification use of ‘human’ – homo electus – perhaps she might have stated so? In that case, there would appear little argument against the plea.

I suspect, however, that our author was using the term in an attempt to solicit empathy: ‘He’s human, just like us.’ Oh dear. That’s a bad reading of the audience.

Homo erectus is capable of embracing so many personality characteristics, however, that simply using the noun ‘human’ without a preceding adjective – ‘fragile, anxious, confident, reckless, passionate, etc.’ – is either laziness, or an attempt to propagandise, depending upon the context.

* I see I’ve taken too long to write this, and Cassie has beat me to it, so I’ll cut it short. This actually works out well, as I’m having much trouble spelling the syllables emanating from my vocal chords.

Lee
Lee
September 11, 2021 5:13 pm

You might have a point, Vikki, especially about the usual Labor/left double standards, but I have zero sympathy for a piss-weak arsehole of a PM who is prepared to trample all over our human rights, and folds up like a concertina before the state premiers, instead of using every weapon in his arsenal (including the Constitution) to curb the wannabe dictators.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
September 11, 2021 5:20 pm

A cut and paste from the Open Thread which seems appropriate to Morrison’s double standards:

“It does not matter who you are, whatever station you have in life, there are orders,” Mr Hazzard said.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 5:21 pm

If the PM wants my sympathy, he can “go to the back of the queue”.

Times 1000.
This is why they all run dead on making all the exemptions (work, travel, quarantine) public.
There would be a real insurrection if it was.

Lee
Lee
September 11, 2021 5:21 pm

As far as I am concerned, the sense of betrayal for what is happening in this country is even greater, because it is all happening under a supposedly Liberal PM, not a Labor one.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 5:21 pm

“You have betrayed us.”

Well said Calli.

We conservatives, we Liberals, we Nationals, we right of centre voters, we libertarians….

WE WILL NOT FORGET

WE WILL NOT FORGIVE

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 5:23 pm

One day, every single exemption will be made public.
Either voluntarily.
Or via an Wikileaks style situation.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 5:23 pm

Never forget what they have taken from us.

Roger
Roger
September 11, 2021 5:25 pm

I was reading a report in The Age today – yeah, I know – that sought opinions from three epidemiologists on what Andrews should do to curb Victoria’s present outbreak.

All three agreed – strict lockdowns to prohibit movement were necessary. The only difference was whether it should run for 7 or 14 days. One even suggested supermarkets should be closed in specific LGAs. I swear, with these types we’re never far away from welding doors shut.

Andrews, meanwhile, in possession of the polling and focus group returns, is desperate for Sutton to come up with the recently commissioned “roadmap out of lockdowns” plan. Someone in the government is even leaking against Sutton because his lack of progress is hurting them electorally.

Pass the popcorn, will you?

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 5:30 pm

“This is why they all run dead on making all the exemptions (work, travel, quarantine) public.
There would be a real insurrection if it was.”

Quite so…as I wrote on another thread a few days ago….certain celebrities are permitted to jet across the globe, such as Nicole Kidman (who flew to HK a few weeks ago). So when these same celebrities return to Australia, do you think they quarantine in small stuffy hotel rooms or in their palatial homes?

That grotesque and ugly redheaded midget B-grade actress who thinks she’s funny and who is married to that sanctimonious pontificating hypocritical comedian who once played Borat and who badgered Facebook to ban Trump is filming a television production in Ashfield.

You couldn’t make this up.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 5:35 pm

“As far as I am concerned, the sense of betrayal for what is happening in this country is even greater, because it is all happening under a supposedly Liberal PM, not a Labor one.”

Correct….the final nail and I mean the final nail in the coffin for me ever voting Liberal again was how here in NSW so called Liberal politicians described the protestors in Sydney’s CBD six weeks ago……they described, without flinching, men, women and children from western and south-western Sydney as “boofheads” and “selfish”. I wanted to be sick when I heard what they said about ordinary Australians seeing their livelihoods destroyed.

So this is what I want…I look forward to seeing the Liberal and National parties destroyed….obliterated…annihilated.

Roger
Roger
September 11, 2021 5:37 pm

I can feel your anger from 800 kms away, calli.

Righteous!

——-

And I’m quite serious about Morrison getting out of politics.

It’s generally no place for people with young families.

It should be the preserve of people who have made their mark in life in some honest field of endeavour and acquired some wisdom along the way, not to mention common sesne and an understanding of how our society works and the principles it is based on.

The miseducated young people in their 20s and 30s who are lining up for pre-selection for both Liberal & Labor have little to offer the country.

shatterzzz
September 11, 2021 5:47 pm

I have 8 grandkids and haven’t seen any of them for between 6 & 12 months (different states) and because I’ve no plans to get vaxxed I’m sure it’s gonna be a lot longer .. Three of the grandees live in Danistan and one of those (10) is/was a very promising soccer player .. he hasn’t been able to play with other kids for over 12 months now so I’m fairly sure at 10 his luv of the game may not be what it was but only time will tell.
Also, I live in one of GLADYS hotspot lockdown LGA’s, Fairfield, my youngest daughter lives in Blacktown 15kms away but because of GLADYS rules she was afraid to drive over in case she got stopped .. FFS! .. Ended up I (73) hopped on my bike and rode over to her place, instead cos GLADYS rules don’t impress me one iota ..
I’ve never had much of an opinion of BRADBURY’s tin-eared efforts but last Sunday’s well & truly trashed it!
I standz wiv CLIVE, CRAIG or PAULINE from now on ………!

rosie
rosie
September 11, 2021 6:04 pm

If it were really a pandemic there would be no exemptions.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 6:13 pm

The real question is, how many times has Vikki benefited from exemptions?

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 6:18 pm

Back when Cardi was a candidate in last years state election, he would regularly post on the old Sinc Cat about his campaigning.
I kept at him about making the travel, work, quarantine exemptions part of his campaign.
He would never even engage on the topic.
Considering that & considering Vikki’s tripe today, one can deduce the family unit were beneficiaries.

Any candidate that runs dead on making the exemptions public benefited from them.
I wonder if Clive & Craig will run dead of it.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 11, 2021 6:19 pm

Dead on it.
Not dead of it.

Suelyn
Suelyn
September 11, 2021 6:23 pm

So many of the others here have said exactly what needs to be said, so I’ll only add an observation or two.

Vikki, you talk about people in “worse circumstances”, but for almost all things there are ways for people to work towards changing those circumstances. Except this – because these “circumstances” are draconian, arbitrary rules and regulations inflicted upon the Australian population, with “exemptions” for the rich and famous. Those sports players and their partners can frisk between states with minimal hassle, the tv shows and movies can bring people in from around the world, but the regular people have no choices. The bureaucrats decide what is “essential”, everyone else can watch their hopes and dreams burn to ashes… while the massive multinationals achieve ever larger obscene profits. Either this is a crisis and there should be no exemptions, or everyone should be treated alike.

And no, vaccination won’t change this, even if every Australian from birth is immediately vaccinated, Covid will still spread, will still kill.

I have never felt so violated and in despair as I do now, watching what is happening in the world, knowing that all these abominations being done in the name of “saving people” will not rid the world of Covid, and likely will cause a far greater toll of death, as people faced with no hope, die – from suicides, from preventable health issues left untreated, from reactions to the “vaccines”, from simply the malevolence being encouraged against the non-vaccinated by “leaders”, and from all the other causes that could have been prevented had it not been for this overreach and obsession with Covid and the number of “cases”.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 6:27 pm

“Attacking ScoMo for visiting his kids sets a new low for Labor”

I remember how back in February of this year Scummo and the Liberals sided with Labor to censure and muzzle Craig Kelly.

I remember how back in February of this year Scummo and the Liberals sided with Labor to censure and muzzle George Christensen.

And the coup de grace…..I remember how in February 2020, in the Australian senate, the Liberals and the Nats sided with Labor and the Greens to censure an Australian woman for her free speech.

Don’t talk to me about “new lows”.

MatrixTransform
September 11, 2021 6:45 pm

ouch!
comments harsh but fair

We just had the business partner over and yes he stayed too long so his wife (who I have taken to calling the Chief Health Officer) was texting and prompting and directing from a distance.

After he left my missus was truly ranting about all these difficulties and look, I open The Cat and find this glorious thread.

It aint fiction either.

Still, I say well done Vikki for tackling a very prickly topic right now.
Your intent may have been misjudged … but then again maybe not.

🙂

Just writing this, my kids have smashed six eggs over the carpet, one poured honey over his brother, and I’m not in a frame of mind to hear the ALP tell me I don’t need respite as well.

What you probably need is brioche … let them eat French Toast

egg_
egg_
September 11, 2021 6:50 pm

If the PM wants my sympathy, he can “go to the back of the queue”.

The Bananabies are part of the elite.

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
September 11, 2021 7:07 pm

Had a mate die in Hospital today. No family or friends the whole time he was in. From seeing at least weekly to not seeing him for months.
Won’t be allowed to his funeral.
These people aren’t human. They are inhumane traitorous treacherous hypocrites with a hubristic sense of entitlement.
I’ve wiped stuff of my shoe with more humanity than those stinking politicians and their bellicose bullying Kommisars of Statzpolizi.

Eyrie
Eyrie
September 11, 2021 7:09 pm

Just totally burned your credibility on the internet, Vicki.

Can we not have this stupid bitch’s musing on any of the Cats please?

Bar Beach Swimmer
September 11, 2021 7:10 pm

I have not sympathy for any politician and Vicki trying to point out that they’re only human and need their family is beyond the pale.

I’m with Calli on the Federal and State “Conservatives” in power and with Cassie on never voting for them ever again. Scummo better get out of politics, from what I can see there’s no miracles for him this time ’round.

Arky
September 11, 2021 7:15 pm

This has to be the worst online self immolation since this guy:
Vietnamese monk on fire.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 7:16 pm

“Can we not have this stupid bitch’s musing on any of the Cats please?”

Nasty and totally unwarranted.

Many of us like and value Vikki’s contributions…..and there’s nothing wrong with her being challenged on her contribution above.

Bar Beach Swimmer
September 11, 2021 7:17 pm

Miss Anthropistsays:
September 11, 2021 at 7:07 pm

Miss A., I’m sorry that your friend had to experience that dreadful lack of humanity during his last months and days.
kind regards,
BBS

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 7:19 pm

“Miss Anthropistsays:
September 11, 2021 at 7:07 pm”

I’m sorry to hear this Miss A…..it’s disgraceful…and I read that Skank Keneally is going to be given a dispensation to campaign in Fairfield. Words fail me.

I now know how revolutions begin.

calli
calli
September 11, 2021 7:25 pm

Many of us like and value Vikki’s contributions…..and there’s nothing wrong with her being challenged on her contribution above.

Correct. There is something warm and loveable about Vikki. And I like her.

A piece like this gives me an insight into the political “bubble”, where any hardship is seen as unique and all privileges are seen as earned. This is not true. Certainly not true for the people they serve, for serve them they do. We are their paymasters after all, not the other way around.

Figures
Figures
September 11, 2021 7:48 pm

ScoMo introduced No Jab No Pay and Berejiklian gave NSW No Jab No Play.

Bodily autonomy and families mean nothing to these people.

Who the hell cares if ScoMo can see his kids? He doesn’t love them they just make a photo op. Nobody who cares about children or families would do what he’s done.

caveman
caveman
September 11, 2021 7:48 pm

“Let our PM be human”
And are we not?

rosie
rosie
September 11, 2021 7:51 pm

Really figures, that’s your take?

132andBush
132andBush
September 11, 2021 8:03 pm

Just writing this, my kids have smashed six eggs over the carpet, one poured honey over his brother, and I’m not in a frame of mind to hear the ALP tell me I don’t need respite as well.

Cry me a bloody river!

My best friend has, not that long ago, had to contend with a daughters attempted suicide. A culmination to being shut down and away from school and social interactions. Yes there are other issues in play but another lockdown was the fulcrum being moved too far to one side of a precariously balanced psychological see-saw.
My friend would gladly rip out every carpet in the house if all she had to deal with was a few broken eggs and some honey!

The pediatrician treating says there’s a +60% increase in mental problems since the start of this shit.

What others above have said, particularly Calli and Cassi.

Never again voting Lib or Nat. Ever.

132andBush
132andBush
September 11, 2021 8:05 pm

He doesn’t love them they just make a photo op

Piss off you idiot!!

Muddy
Muddy
September 11, 2021 8:16 pm

I would not have used Eyrie’s language, but I would suggest that Vicki’s post shows she does not read much of the broader commentary on here (on any of the Cats, past or present). Had she done so, she would have picked up on the mood and adjusted her writing.

Miss Anthropist.
Words almost fail me. The example of your friend is the one thing above all else that has shocked and stunned me for such a period. This callous lack of compassion is more representative of animals than human beings. Might we next simply discard our unwanted on anthills, or leave them, broken-limbed, for the vultures?

I cannot recall words or phrases strong enough to adequately express my bewilderment. I’ve had a slightly cynical outlook on some aspects of life for a few years now, but the past 18 or so months have shattered my perception of humanity as a superior species.

rosie
rosie
September 11, 2021 8:24 pm

This was published in the daily telegraph and placed here as well.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 11, 2021 8:40 pm

Cassie @ 4:11pm

+?

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 11, 2021 8:41 pm

Wow site doesn’t like infinity symbol…

Take 2. Cassie, plus infinity…

Miss Anthropist
Miss Anthropist
September 11, 2021 8:43 pm

Thanks for the condolences guys.
Sometimes I feel like immolating myself outside bullshit castle inMacquarie Street.
Just think about it. I’d rather hang round and give people the shits.

Cardimona
Cardimona
September 11, 2021 8:44 pm

I kept at him about making the travel, work, quarantine exemptions part of his campaign.
He would never even engage on the topic.

FTB, my campaign was a last-minute under-funded, one-man-show exercise borne of frustration, and I would have got back to you had the time been available.
Please allow me assure you I most certainly did campaign vigorously on travel, work, quarantine exemptions – but it’s hard to get the message out when the media blocks everything that counters the “official” narrative.

By way of example of message-blocking, here’s an editorial from Friday by Cairns Post editor Ms j. Spilsbury, followed by my response to her, which won’t get printed.

From the Editor: Why I got the Covid jab

We’ve spent our lives getting vaccinated to ward off disease and influenza. Then when a pandemic hits, we’re suddenly reluctant, writes Jennifer Spilsbury – but now is the time to act.

ON Thursday I received my second Pfizer jab.

It was quick and painless – but better than that, it will be effective.

While I respect the right for individuals to make up their own mind I appeal for everyone to seek guidance from their GP if in any doubt, or other credible sources and not some ignoramus on social media.

There has been a lot of hesitancy and largely because of cynicism.

How could they develop a vaccine so quickly and it be safe?

Researchers around the world have been working hard to develop vaccines from the start of the pandemic and all involved collaborated to speed up the process.

Our region and our country depend on you getting Covid vaccinated.

Why did I get the jab?

I did it for my parents who are in their 80s and so that they can enjoy the valuable years ahead uninhibited.

I did it for the vulnerable in our community.

I did it for my neighbours, my mates and my loving husband.

And I did it for my daughter and everyone else’s child so that we can hand over a healthy economy and the promise of a better future.

Somewhere along the line we’ve complicated all of this; and politicised it too.

We’ve spent our lives getting vaccinated to ward off disease and influenza. Then when a pandemic hits, we go: “Ah, nah, no thanks, mate.” What the?

It was ridiculous that I was invited to register for the jab in June but couldn’t book an appointment and then told to wait until contacted again.

I’d still be waiting for that invite if I hadn’t persisted. And why people have to travel to the extremes of our city to get a Queensland Health vax is beyond me.

But finally things are speeding up and this weekend if you’ve been putting off getting a vax or couldn’t get an appointment, you can act.

Book or walk in to the Cairns Convention Centre and be a Covid hero.

Even if your job, business or life has been unaffected through all this, do a selfless deed and let others be as lucky as you.

**

The Editor
The Cairns Post

Editor Spilsbury, in your op-ed “Why I got the Covid jab” (10/09), you wrote, “While I respect the right for individuals to make up their own mind I appeal for everyone to seek guidance from their GP if in any doubt, or other credible sources and not some ignoramus on social media.”

Were you aware that the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has banned your GP from expressing their misgivings about the vaccines?

I sent you a letter to the editor about it on August 18, complete with the link to the AHPRA advisory.
AHPRA will prosecute any Australian health practitioner who “counter(s) public health campaigns or messaging, such as the Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Policy.”

As your GP’s regulator, AHPRA is a “credible source and not some ignoramus on social media.”
Some of the world’s most-qualified medical experts would say you were wrong on five other points, too, but your ill-advised assurance that GPs can speak honestly really requires correction.

(160 words)

Oh, and I drove to Cairns and joined the anti-deathjabbers holding placards.

Figures
Figures
September 11, 2021 8:44 pm

Oh sorry Rosie. I bow to your greater wisdom and foresight on this. You thought No Jab No Pay were the greatest policies in Australia’s history because freedom – especially bodily autonomy and parental rights – mean nothing to you and not once did you think that it might set a horrific precedent.

I can’t believe you have the nerve to question me.

I called this as a civilization ending event the moment the very first restriction was placed on travel. You were telling everybody that granting the government the power to shut the economy down would never ever be abused by our glorious leaders.

Just amazing.

I know lots of parents whose children have suffered horrific injuries but they *still* worship vaccines and consider it a point of honour that they risk their child’s life by continuing to vaccinate them.

They love the state more than their own children. And so does ScoMo.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
September 11, 2021 8:49 pm

Typical News Corp. I see Bananaby struggled to get his mask on during the week. Pissed again?

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
September 11, 2021 8:53 pm

Good Evening Vikki

I enjoy your writings and find some of your insights to the Canberra mindset useful if sometimes bewildering, however, on this point, as you may have realised by reading the comments above. This was a swing and a miss.

But i do have to thank you, you have put me in a position that i never thought i would be in. So please allow me to explain.

Many people here know that i am an expat living in Japan, i have met and had dinner with people here and on the old iteration of the Cat. I am a FIFO worker (Building/Civil/Marine) primarily in pacific rim work and SE Asia.

My Australian citizenship was something i have always valued, but no longer. What i have seen in the last 2 years from the outside looking in horrifies me, this is not the country i knew as a boy nor is it the place where my children spent their years as toddlers and youths. It is not the place where my wife could spend her working and private life free from the formalities that exist in Japan but could unleash her inner bogan with a joy that was delightful to see.

I should thank you i suppose, you have given me the motivation to renounce my citizenship, something i never thought i would do, as being Australian defined who i was overseas. Becoming a Japanese citizen is a very difficult process (google it to find out how difficult it is), but what you write and the sense of entitlement that goes with it leaves me gobsmacked.

Australia is effectively a Gulag, run at the whim of insane premiers and the lackwit CHO’s who’s raison detre seems to be bedwetting and victimhood. The mere fact that the federal political class obviated their duty to the Australian people to these state based swine and their petty tyrants in waiting in both the bureaucracy and policing is a disgrace.

Australia may no longer be my home, but sadly, being an Australian is no longer what i wish to be.

God damn this government to hell, you have failed.

My best to your family

Arky
September 11, 2021 8:57 pm

That’s about as powerful a self immolation as you can get.
You’ve driven an Australian to renounce his citizenship.

Cassie of Sydney
September 11, 2021 8:59 pm

“Carpe Jugulumsays:
September 11, 2021 at 8:53 pm”

Thank you, I wish I could like your comment 1000 times.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
September 11, 2021 9:19 pm

Arky says:
September 11, 2021 at 8:57 pm
That’s about as powerful a self immolation as you can get.
You’ve driven an Australian to renounce his citizenship.
____________________________________
I was going to do it after my mother had passed, (many years in the future I hope) but I haven’t seen her since dads funeral 2.5 years ago and I somehow doubt I will see her again anytime soon.
Australia is finished, it’s not my home anymore, it’s not who I want to be anymore, I find that very sad.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 11, 2021 9:24 pm

Australia is finished, it’s not my home anymore, it’s not who I want to be anymore, I find that very sad.

I’m just left with the feeling that it’s the culmination of a slow process that began with Gough Whitlam.

Muddy
Muddy
September 11, 2021 9:24 pm

Carpe’s words need to be in a post of their own.
With his permission, can you do that please Arky?

Miltonf
Miltonf
September 11, 2021 9:26 pm

Obnoxious.

JC
JC
September 11, 2021 9:42 pm

I’m just left with the feeling that it’s the culmination of a slow process that began with Gough Whitlam.

Of course.

Muddy
Muddy
September 11, 2021 9:43 pm

Who cares if one more light goes out in the sky of a million stars;
it flickers, flickers, flickers.
Who cares when someone’s time runs out if a moment is all we are,
or quicker, quicker.
Who cares if one more light goes out,
Well… I do.

(Linkin Park – One More Light).

For those who have been callously discarded,
not famous enough to warrant compassion.

Twostix
Twostix
September 11, 2021 9:46 pm

Millions of people right now are feeling completely trapped and staring down the barrel of either violating their own deeply held beliefs at the point of a gun to feed their children or total financial and social destruction.

The disconnect in the words written here – between the political class waltzing around on jets and carefree raising of kids having normal parenting moments, and the existential dread they have created in the people they are now lording over is as great as any time in the aristocratic times.

Muddy
Muddy
September 11, 2021 10:12 pm

I’m ready to join a militia.
If only we had one.
Restraint is drip, drip, dripping away.
(And I consider myself one of the lucky ones).

Bushkid
Bushkid
September 11, 2021 10:21 pm

For Vicki:

You need to print out all the comments from this post, and shove them under Barnaby’s nose and make him read every last word.

It really is time for him and all the other “special” people to realise that they are not helping anyone, nor are they engendering trust at all. They are creating division, causing hardship, financial ruin, ruined health, pain, distress, despair, hopelessness, suicide in a vast number of people. This is turning to more than anger now too, it is turning to rage.

While our anger and rage can be directed to the ballot box, and the only things lost for the “special” people will be their prestige, their position, their cushy jobs that WE pay them to do; Barnaby and his mates must remember that there are real people suffering dreadful hardship and distress.

And all of this is over a virus with a survival rate of 99+% for those who do rate as a “positive” case from a dodgy PCR test run at excessive replications. If you listen to the media you’d think merely passing someone in the street was a literal death sentence. In fact, didn’t some politician or CHO say that in one of their interminable appearances? The psy-op is working so well!

Then we have state and federal governments literally blackmailing people to get the still-EXPERIMENTAL jabs or lose their jobs and be excluded from ordinary life. Where the hell do they get off demanding people take part in a medical experiment or “suffer the consequences”?

And now the TGA has banned the use of safe drugs that have proved to be very effective in multiple settings around the world! What sort of people ban literally life-saving drugs in favour of an experimental jab that is known to cause multiple problems including death? Ask your Barnaby that one!

Arky
September 11, 2021 10:26 pm

Muddysays:
September 11, 2021 at 9:24 pm
Carpe’s words need to be in a post of their own.
With his permission, can you do that please Arky?

..
I will if Carpe says he wats them up.

Arky
September 11, 2021 10:27 pm

wants

132andBush
132andBush
September 11, 2021 10:42 pm

Ask your Barnaby that one!

Barnaby doesn’t give a shit.

Bushkid
Bushkid
September 11, 2021 11:39 pm

132andBush says:
September 11, 2021 at 10:42 pm
Ask your Barnaby that one!
Barnaby doesn’t give a shit.

So it would appear. Nor do the rest of that ugly cabal that calls itself our federal government. Nor do any of the state premiers etc.

So the question arises: Why should we give a shit about them? Really.

FlyingPigs
FlyingPigs
September 12, 2021 12:09 am

LNP are Who?

Vikki… this is a bullshit post.

talk to folk on QLD/NSW border or VIC/NSW.

It is supposed to be our country!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DozxKv-B47I

FlyingPigs
FlyingPigs
September 12, 2021 12:14 am

Vikki

Your husband has farked it….

Give US$10 million to me and I will take your jab.

FlyingPigs
FlyingPigs
September 12, 2021 1:10 am

Vikki

It is easy being a Fabian/Communist in a free country

Try being free in A Fabian/Communist country!

https://freedomaustralia.freeforums.net/

FlyingPigs
FlyingPigs
September 12, 2021 1:15 am

Interesting that the scum have banned the swastika yet no one bans the 1500 years of Islamic atrocities on Christendom!

Texas Jack
Texas Jack
September 12, 2021 5:48 am

Leaving aside honeyed kids, perhaps we should be thankful that as the authoritarians attempt to devise ways to stifle freedom they’ve mostly become stuck in confusion, hoist on their own COVID-petard given the challenge of investing in so many imbecilic rules and exemptions, let alone having to justify the lunacy. Like the flight of Palaszczuk’s NRL wags, Morrison’s Father’s Day jaunt simply hoists him further upon his own cowardly acceptance of authoritarian controls, lockdowns and border closures.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
September 12, 2021 7:03 am

I will if Carpe says he wats them up.
***********************
I don’t mind if you do, it’s seems appropriate if somewhat depressing.

struth
struth
September 12, 2021 7:50 am

Vicki, that is so disgusting that after the first few lines, I read no more.
You are too close to this because of Barnaby.

How dare you grizzle about Sco Mo.
He is a traitor and a criminal and in a just world he would be put up against a wall and shot.
He has put himself and the ncabinet above the constitution, the rule of law, and caused misery and death to millions.
And the person you share a bed with, in his acquiescence to all this, is complicit and also a traitor and a criminal.
Please, I will hear no more from you.
You are not worthy of your dad’s spit.

Arky
September 12, 2021 8:38 am

I think, like Cassie, the point can be better made without the personal abuse.

Boambee John
Boambee John
September 12, 2021 8:55 am

FlyingPigssays:
September 12, 2021 at 1:15 am
Interesting that the scum have banned the swastika yet no one bans the 1500 years of Islamic atrocities on Christendom!

Nor do they ban the Hammer and Sickle. But many millions more were murdered under that symbol than under the Swastika.

Ban them all, or ban none.

MatrixTransform
September 12, 2021 9:45 am

An Epitaph:

even the undertaker nodded and it was the doctor that said it,

that he died from the bullet but, we all knowed it were the sheriff

Rabz
September 12, 2021 10:03 am

Morristeen is a disgrace, a quisling and a fat disgusting staggeringly stupid hypocrite.

Were he to have a mysterious fatal accident, I would be with champagne and lots of it.

In any just world such creatures would not exist.

egg_
egg_
September 12, 2021 10:23 am

Australia is effectively a Gulag, run at the whim of insane premiers and the lackwit CHO’s who’s raison detre seems to be bedwetting and victimhood. The mere fact that the federal political class obviated their duty to the Australian people to these state based swine and their petty tyrants in waiting in both the bureaucracy and policing is a disgrace.

Since Scummo lost his mojo over the Christmas bushfires he’s hidden behind the National Cabinet, CHOs and medical/political activists, in particular Kate Ahmad, who was reportedly “terrified” of Rona.

Andrews obviously could see Scummo’s lack of mettle.

Scummo must be the gift that keeps on giving to Labor.

egg_
egg_
September 12, 2021 10:30 am

One even suggested supermarkets should be closed in specific LGAs. I swear, with these types we’re never far away from welding doors shut.

Not their suburb, ‘course, prolly a Fat Pizza/Housos suburb full of swarthies.

Roger
Roger
September 12, 2021 10:31 am

Scummo must be the gift that keeps on giving to Labor.

Along with Josh Frydenberg, who holds the purse strings.

Last week he was on Twitter attempting to make political capital out of how much the Commonwealth had gifted Victoria during the latest lockdown.

Makka
Makka
September 12, 2021 10:47 am

You have betrayed us.

Long ago, but now moreso than ever. Keeping US imprisoned so that THEY can cover their arses (“I’m only following CHO advice”) is not only betrayal, it’s clearly rank cowardice.

Betrayal and cowardice – two perfect descriptors of this modern shitfest LNP.

Vicki, you and your part have lost us. You lot walked away to feather your own craven nest. The loathing rising from this thread is palpable. I sincerely hope you feel it and pass it on.

egg_
egg_
September 12, 2021 10:59 am

Keeping US imprisoned

When mine wukkas are “working from home”, you know the Couf is a joke and an impost on the Economy.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 12, 2021 11:02 am

Carpe, last night very powerful. My thoughts too and I am imprisoned here. Glad I an not the only one having the same feelings. If I didn’t have medical problems that would set my insurance sky high I’d be looking for work overseas again. Mate was telling me PNG has had an exodus of Aussie mine workers and reckons plenty of jobs going atm.

Old bloke
Old bloke
September 12, 2021 12:38 pm

Carpe, there are lots of Australians who share your views. Many would leave Australia permanently and seek political refuge elsewhere in the world if they could leave.

The unvaxxed are denied rights that even the Jews in Germany had in the 1930s, they were still allowed to leave the country right up to when the war started. We are not allowed to leave, God only knows what they plan for us.

I’m a sixth generation Australian, my father fought in the Pacific War in the 1940s, both of my grandfathers rode the gun carriages through France and Belgium in WWI, I am glad that none of them lived to see what happened to the country they fought for.

It is sad, so very sad, to see what these politicians have done to us. I hold them all in contempt.

Eyrie
Eyrie
September 12, 2021 2:10 pm

We’ll let Scummo be human when he demonstrates he’s got a spine. Last I heard humans were vertebrates.

I see some here are still unwilling to get into the gutter to fight the enemy where they are. A common failing. Time to read your Alinsky again:
“Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Vicki just proved she is on the side of the enemy which isn’t all that surprising.

JC
JC
September 12, 2021 2:25 pm

Eyrie says:
September 11, 2021 at 7:09 pm

Just totally burned your credibility on the internet, Vicki.

Can we not have this stupid bitch’s musing on any of the Cats please?

Oh look, the embittered little chihuahua is trying to organize the seating again without being asked. FMD.

Annie
Annie
September 12, 2021 2:25 pm

Sorry Vicki, you got it wrong here. I am disgusted that Scott M thinks he can do what we can’t. I really despise those who say “we are all in this together”. We most definitely are not. I haven’t been able to travel to see my 99 year old mother for 2 years now, my siblings, my overseas and interstate sons, grandsons and great grandson; the latter now 1 year old and we have yet to meet. I have 2 offspring with grandchildren within our state I can’t see. You worry about a few broken eggs and some dripped honey; well, get the violins out!

JC
JC
September 12, 2021 2:50 pm

Seriously, Eyrie, you’re a nasty, fraudulent turd. Doing a science degree doesn’t make you an engineer and flogging farming equipment doesn’t make you an engineering consultant. What a fraud you are. Instead of demanding others getting the boot, you ought for being a fraud. No better than Adonis and the Rones. A troika of frauds.

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
September 12, 2021 2:59 pm

Sorry Vikki, you are way off the reservation on this one. Sure, Labor are all loathsome, opportunistic scum, we know that.

But the PM being excused from the same restrictions he imposes and/or facilitates on the rest of us is OK, because ‘what about the mental health impact on HIS kids?’ FFS what about the rest of us?!

The learning here for ScoMo should have been that these restrictions are corrosive to the mental health of everyone’s kids and been the catalyst for ending this farrago. But no, he thought it would be a better idea to seek special privileges for himself and his family.

Appalling judgement and optics.

Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Border Closure

This post exhibits a stupefyingly inaccurate reading of the room.

Cardimona
Cardimona
September 12, 2021 5:32 pm

I can always tell when Vikki is writing a column that I would roast; she doesn’t send me a sneak preview.

After I’d sent the column to Dover, I discussed it with her.

I said, in part, “ScoMo is a very big part of the problem.
He’s the keystone of our nation’s troubles because he’s; a) funding them, and, b) enabling them by failing to defend the Constitution.
He deserves no sympathy and the criticism he got was royally deserved.
He’s a traitor and globalist xvnt of the first order.
Covid Nuremberg now.”

She replied that she’s an opinion columnist and is entitled to express unpopular opinions, and that she was trying to highlight how hollow the attacks on ScoMao were given the historical precedents and that Labor would be doing exactly the same if they were on the government benches.

I told her, again, that this is a much bigger issue than what ScoMoron did on taxpayers’ money that ordinary people are not allowed to do.
It’s about the now obvious fact that we are not in a pandemic – so none of the draconianism is even remotely justified.

At Friday’s protest at the mass vax hub in Cairns it tore my heart out watching the sheeple wander in to take a shot with an incredibly bad safety record on the basis of blind trust in a political class that has sold them out by, at best, failing to do even the bare minimum due diligence.

We’re not in Kansas any more, Dorothy.
The political paradigm that we knew has gone.
The UNiparty facilitated the move away from Westminster standards.
No rational Australian owes any loyalty to the established parties.
IMHO, the best thing BJ could do is ignore the old-paradigm constraints on his capacity to speak his mind.
Even if the present political players were offered the choice of silver or lead by the globalists, the only patriotic action is to say “Fvck you, globalist swine” and send some lead the other way.

As the comments have unfolded I have recommended to her that she has BJ read them.
I doubt he will as I’m told he usually has the phone glued to his ear.

Arky
September 12, 2021 6:05 pm

Cardimonasays:
September 12, 2021 at 5:32 pm

..
was this posted in the Australian originally?
How did the comments pan out under the original post Cardi?

Cardimona
Cardimona
September 12, 2021 6:21 pm

At the Daily Telegraph, Arky.
258 comments when I looked just now – very similar tone to here.
ScumMo’s popularity is in the toilet.
Here (probably paywalled) – https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/vikki-campion-labors-unfair-attack-on-pm-for-seeing-his-kids/news-story/5e2b681ba88aaa007f93be196a6bca3f

Cardimona
Cardimona
September 12, 2021 6:46 pm

ScoMo should’ve done the trip in an electric car.
Then he would be above criticism because he was saving the environment.

Muddy
Muddy
September 12, 2021 7:05 pm

Cardimona says:
September 12, 2021 at 5:32 pm

…I’m told he usually has the phone glued to his ear.

There’s a Zen poem about this:

Homo electus,
cellphone glued to an ear.
Eyes, nose, mouth, tongue
evolve to the same side of the head.
Leaning heavily on one direction,
Homo electus topples onto
a passing peasant; All is well.
The peasant sleeps, electus reaps
compensation. Life continues
as a children’s book.

Muddy
Muddy
September 12, 2021 7:06 pm

Leaning heavily IN, not ON…

  1. As Chip Bok observed this morning. Luigi Mangione simply expresses the global left’s infatuation with godlessness and mass murder as…

  2. If only more of our politicians were of the Kevin Andrews calibre https://x.com/HonTonyAbbott/status/1867736608457601495?t=LtXMDtzuxNcXqEfAnG6rEw&s=19

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