The circus that is parliament in NSW yesterday wasted time debating a motion about whether major parties should preference a minor party, and in the process exposed the hypocrisy of the Minns Government over gun laws.
The motion itself wasn’t about gun laws, yet gun laws — specifically, the Minns Government’s farcical pre-Christmas firearms laws — were one of the roots it grew from.
Basically, Labor politicians thought it was better to debate cross-party support for One Nation than it was to focus on things that matter to the population. After all, it’s ultimately the population who decides whether or not to support One Nation or any other party.
I won’t get into party politics here. Let’s look what was said by Labor MP Jason Li, who put the motion to parliament.
At one point, he said: “Find a community, make it the problem and tell anxious people that their neighbour is the cause of their hardship,” adding, “That is not leadership.”
Li might have been referring to the shooting community, particularly those enthusiasts who own more than four firearms and live in the city as other people’s neighbours. I agree, it is not leadership, but it’s exactly what Labor did to firearms owners.
I also agree with this quote: “Leadership is not pointing across the street at someone … and saying, ‘There’s your enemy’.” Li was talking about someone “who speaks a different language” but what about those who just enjoy a different cultural lifestyle? Like law-abiding hunters?
Later, Li said his motion was partly about “standards, scrutiny, and transparency”. Did we get anything of the kind when he and his Labor colleagues rammed through those rushed, ill-conceived and unnecessary gun laws before Christmas — laws that were clearly aimed in part at diverting attention away from the failures of government, policing and intelligence services who had it in their power to have thwarted the Bondi terrorist attack?
Li criticised “base politics … for the sake of our own self interest” but that is exactly what I see when I look at the Minns Government’s post-Bondi gun laws and everything its representatives have said since.
Just hours earlier in parliament, Police Minister Yasmine Catley had been boasting about the Gun Safety Alliance supporting her party’s gun laws and claiming, “changing these laws means watering them down” when challenged about their flaws.
One of the most sensible observations during the debate came a from a Green, Jenny Leong, who said one way to prevent people from voting for political extremes was by “ensuring that people’s lives are better and easier and they feel like those in government, in the major political parties and indeed in Parliament are working in their interests.”
NSW Labor is not working in shooters’ interests, and all for its own self-interest. I don’t think the Liberals will work in our interests despite their current posturing. We have half a chance with the Nationals, and frankly I don’t think we’d do any better with One Nation; the cynic in me looks at the past records of both and sees self-interest in their new-found support for us.
That leaves the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers as the one guaranteed party of support for us, though I’d like to think the Libertarians can be counted on, too.
My point in all this is that the words and actions of politicians and their parties will betray them. It’s not just in NSW, it’s in all states and federally.
I want certainty before I decide where to place my vote and who to send my preferences to. It’s easy to rule out supporting Labor but I need to see real resolve and hear concrete promises from the rest before I vote.
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