It’s been a blessedly quiet few days but it’s over, from The Guardian:
Barnaby Joyce has unloaded on his Liberal colleagues in Canberra, saying constant infighting is driving disaffected voters to One Nation, and branding a renewed internal debate about marriage equality as divisive and unhelpful.
The deputy prime minister and Nationals leader told Guardian Australia that many voters were now of the view that the government was a “philosophers’ club” rather than a group of people concerned with improving living standards and jobs.
Joyce said a renewed debate within the Coalition about marriage equality would aggravate voters even more, and the government needed to stick by its policy of putting the legalisation of same-sex marriage to a plebiscite.
He said voters would be furious if they were not given a say on an issue that remained divisive in some communities.
…“You are arguing about Menzies’ view on conservatism, you are having a debate about international agreements and renewable energy targets which, I in Smith Street Jonesville, don’t get, and now, the last thing needed to solve all this is talking about changing the definition of marriage.
“[The Liberal party] needs to concentrate on things that actually matter.
“In north Queensland, they have 20% unemployment. You know the only thing they want to hear? How you are going to get them a job. You know what they want to hear in regional areas? How you are going to invest in infrastructure, like inland rail.”
He said people in regional areas were watching the antics in Canberra with incomprehension. “They look at political candidates and say ‘have you ever actually lived, mate? Do you know what it’s like to not have any money in your wallet? Do you know what it’s like to think, shit, I’m want a life with dignity and I’m on the pension, and I can’t actually afford food, so how do I do this and keep my dignity in this town?’”
Joyce said that raising the legalisation of same-sex marriage in that “febrile” climate was like a red rag to a bull.
…“People wonder why One Nation is becoming so powerful, they think, ‘isn’t this crazy’ – but you did it.”
Note that I explicitly support gay marriage but in the hierarchy of national policy priority I agree with Barnaby.
Moreover, I’ll note that the issue that is really upsetting voters about having no say, the one that is most driving folks into the arms of One Nation, is mass immigration in a time of falling living standards.
There are two distractions from critical national interest debates here not one.
