LayBore

Getting media coverage is difficult enough when competing against an AFL grand final , brawling construction workers and a warming planet . Getting good media coverage is impossible, even on the journalistic left . Our party has been authorised by the Marquis de Tabloid to put coal miners in the federal parliament. The party has been authorised by a trade union credit card to keep coal miners happy, at least until a coal mine kills them. The party has also been authorised by an overcrowded hospital emergency department , with or without the authority of the CFMMEU or a Liberal ex-minister . Building hospitals creates jobs. Providing healthcare workers for hospitals costs money. Keeping jobs in coal seats keeps those seats out of Coalition hands, at least in theory. Putting policies in place to encourage Australians to do harvest work on farms is another matter entirely. Our activities are authorised by high-vis big blokes in hard hats , or at least the vaccinated ones willing to wo

Getting money for election campaigns has long been big business in Australia, with or without a trip to the supermarket or casino . The Coalition gets more money from big business and rich blokes than we do, so we don't want them to outdo us, even when one product or another kills the public. Buying elections in Australia doesn't come cheap .  And nor does buying public policies in your favour.

You may be aware that political parachutes , like journalistic ones , tend to have a divisive influence on the ground , and possibly even in the air, and on air. Political factions often behave like packs of journalists .  They may even form decisive pacts from time to time, particularly through the power of groupthink . In politics, as in journalism, groupthink is often mistaken for democracy. The social conservatives in our party mostly acquired their beliefs as children.  They have not yet grown out of them.  A Roman Catholic priest continues to have a stranglehold over their mindset. The ethnic diversity enclaves of our party either need our financial assistance or we need theirs.  We do not usually need their political assistance except at the ballot box in marginal electorates. We can only give them financial assistance when we have political power. Even then, we expect them to be grateful for any government assistance we are willing and able to give them. There are already plen

Coal is still as important to our mates as it is to the Coalition mates .   Collusion causes confusion, as does coalusion and other illusions. Our mates and the Coalition blokes want to keep some things the same as they were in the 19th century . Keeping the system going, even with plenty of official investigations over nearly a decade , means our mates get good jobs and/or get rich, unlike the Coalition mates who want to stay rich and get richer. He who must be Obeid is above the law, like all real mates in Australia.