They say that Christmas comes but once a year, but we all know that isn’t true. If you’re a public servant or an Australian Federal Police Officer it seemingly comes every day. However, the rest of us shouldn’t become despondent because this year Father Christmas might come twice. We have all heard the bickerings among our political elite regarding surcharges, reconstruction levies and the fate of our cousins in Queensland … or is it the fate of the Chinese Economy we’re worried about, what with a lack of coking coal and all that. For you and me, it doesn’t matter if it’s Queensland or China that concerns the Prime Minister, because either way it’s coming out of our pockets. Me thinks this is a case of the ALP robbing middle Australia to pay the rich!
However, there is a potential light at the end of the deluge tunnel and the lantern is being held by Australian Federal Police arch enemy number one, Mr Julian Moti. Today’s edition of the Solomon Star is running a story titled Moti: Australia needs RAMSI aid. All those home loan borrowers from RAMS needn’t worry; Mr Moti is referring to the AUD250, 000,000.00 which the Australian Government (insert you and me for Australian Government) has committed to spend every year on its RAMSI operations. Let me think about this for a minute. Prime Minister Gillard wants AUD5,600,000,000.00 from you and me so Australia can continue selling Queensland coking coal to China. This is not an insignificant burden on middle Australia coming on top of rising interest rates, higher insurance premiums and pending tax hikes to pay for Labor’s school hall and insulation debacles.
Thanks to Mr Moti’s generous and neighbourly attitude towards middle Australia, an alternative to the hip pocket nerve has been floated, all that is required is for Australia to wind back its neo-colonial aspirations in the Pacific. The real beauty of this suggestion is that it is a rare and genuine win/win situation! Our neighbours in the Pacific get to rid themselves of an unwanted Australian export – corruption – aka RAMSI; we the Australian tax payer save AUD250, 000,000.00 a year which the Prime Minister can use to shore up the Chinese economy via the Queensland coking coal industry. Alas, there is one loser, the environment – sorry Senator Brown but you can’t have everything.
While some of you may be a tad cynical regarding Mr Moti’s motivation in wanting to rid the Pacific of RAMSI, given the persecution that he has been subjected to by Australia, because of his opposition to Australian ‘intervention’ into the sovereign affairs of the Solomon Islands, I don’t see it that way. Neighbours should help each other in times of crises. Surely the damage done to the Chinese economy, resulting from the Queensland floods represents a crisis for us all, or at least the commodity traders at Macquarie Bank.
In the words of Mr Moti:
“Melanesians now have the opportunity to demonstrate that we have learned well from our Australian benefactors to practise selflessness, compassion, charity and thrift to promote ‘good neighbourhood’ in our climatically-imperiled region.”
As an Aboriginal Australian, I would like to add my voice to that of our neighbours in advocating the practise of selflessness, compassion, charity and thrift in our climatically-imperiled region. For all of you RAMSI supporters out there remember that Australia’s human rights record is nothing to boast about, in fact it is absolutely appalling. If I were the Prime Minister instead of grandstanding and drawing attention to Australia’s less than enviable human rights record, I would be covering my head in shame lest China or India present us with a please explain.