My Dearest Lord
Native wildflowers at Bookham cemetery, NSW. Courtesy ABC.
"Our sense of time involves our ability to separate cause and effect, means and end. The baby, again, the animal, they don’t see the difference between what they do now and what will happen because of it. They can’t make a pulley, or a promise. We can. Seeing the difference between now and not now, we can make the connection. And there morality enters in. Responsibility. To say that a good end will follow from a bad means is just like saying that if I pull a rope on this pulley it will lift the weight on that one. To break a promise is to deny the reality of the past; therefore it is to deny the hope of a real future. If time and reason are functions of each other, if we are creatures of time, then we had better know it, and try to make the best of it. To act responsibly."
Ursula Le Guin.
If there was ever a tide that came to be, a lying leader, a corrupt polity, and out-of-touch bureaucracy; it was all laid out in the black treacle floods which leached across the sky; and across this time, this moment in time.
He burst onto the scene. He crept through the dark pages. We were assured our wishes would be fulfilled; but they always lied. If all war was deception, this lay somewhere underneath, in the detritus of the soul; the dishonesty, that's what got to him the most.
There was no use being angry about any of it. Nobody cared. The soldiers took up camp on the valley floor opposite. He gazed across a realm that had already vanished.
The dishonesty of it, that's what got him; how they lied so readily, were so easily misled, how unfortunate they were, how these crisp and crucial times weighed in upon themselves, how none of it laid sense before them, how the spirits moved before abandoning even themselves, how blindly ignorant the populace, how precious the moment, how ignorant the blind acceptance of their fates.
Sometimes his mind just ran in cheap headlines, The Man Who Destroyed Australia Wants Your Vote.
The creeping, lets say galloping authoritarianism of the country grew ever more perilous every day; endangering the fates, and the few who cared, those who cared.
The Prime Minister was claiming to have saved 40,000 lives during the pandemic, an arrogant, stupid and preposterous claim at best; a country which lay in ruins, whose national debt had been multiplied several times over, a country which could not be free, not anymore.
They lied so easily; that's what got him, as if it mattered not, as long as the people were ignorant enough to believe.
An election was about to be called. Most likely today.
It was a ritualistic sham in a sham democracy; the country which had seen grandmothers pepper sprayed on the street, military on the streets, helicopters flying overhead. They were waiting with brickbats, as the saying went, but where else to park your vote?
All the efforts of Reignite Democracy and all the other counter movements would come to nought, he believed, in a two-party preferred system which had been disastrous for any true representation of the sentiments of the populace.
We soared overhead. We were indifferent. These human rituals.
The army gathered in the valley.
That lone sentinel, investigating whether he was still alive, as he knew now, their child, their children, the military dick wads who performed their scorn and couldn't wait for the end of their shifts, those arrogant useless fools who cluttered the ether and didn't believe a word of what they themselves were forced to say; a mind reader, a gossip, a collapsed polity, all of these things soared into a terrible destiny; these brief lifespans barely a moment.
Fireflies.
He entered the magic arbour. He climbed a hill and could see beyond.
The media with which he had filled his life would now be filled with jousting politicians, false claims, counter claims, promises that would never be fulfilled as they garnished their own pockets; they would finish plundering the public purse and a new lot of brigands would come to play havoc with the lives of ordinary people; those they neglected at their very great peril.
They weren't angry. They only cared about one thing. A delicate thread.
He was there to serve, amid the detritus of the race, the culture.
The country he had known was lost.
The parade of affections or affectations was gone; and in its place would rise the great towers of the future, the soaring triumphs of architecture and science; and in here, somewhere, they would never forget.
Seer to seer. Voice to voice. One historical moment entwined with another.
What we do today depends very much on what we did yesterday, went the old rehab folk wisdom; and what we do here today, what this country is doing here today; is based on a bed of lies.
But he would not lie down.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has released a minute-long social media advertisement, acknowledging "things are tough", and providing the clearest sign yet the election will be called on Sunday.
Key points:
Scott Morrison's advertisement makes mention of "setbacks" during his time as Prime Minister, listing bushfires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic
Labor released an advertisement making mention of Anthony Albanese's economics degree and time as infrastructure minister
Both leaders spent the day in Sydney, with only Mr Albanese appearing before the media
Despite a commanding lead in most opinion polls, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has declared himself the "underdog" entering the election race.
Mr Morrison laid low on Saturday, doing no media appearances, offering only the new advertisement that touched on the looming campaign.
In an attempt to frame the campaign on his terms, Mr Morrison acknowledged "setbacks" over recent years, but suggested voters to stick with what they know.
"You always have setbacks. You always have imperfect information …" he said.
"There's drought, there's floods, there's fire, there's pandemic, there is now war.
"We're dealing with a world that has never been more unstable since the time of the Second World War."
The Prime Minister's handling of the bushfires, floods and pandemic have underpinned numerous political attacks from Labor over recent years.
Mr Morrison spent the day in Sydney, and would have to travel back to Canberra tomorrow to visit the Governor-General and call the election.
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Scott Morrison takes credit for saving 40,000 lives from Covid in social media pitch for re-election
Anthony Albanese says Labor the underdog and prime minister treating the election as a ‘game’
Guardian staff and AAP
Sat 9 Apr 2022 17.39 AEST
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has taken the credit for saving the lives of 40,000 Australians from Covid-19 in a social media pitch for re-election.
Morrison on Saturday released an atmospheric video titled “Scott Morrison: Why I love Australia”, attempting to cast himself as a safe pair of hands in uncertain times. He is expected to call the federal election on on Sunday.
In the video, Morrison points to the natural disasters that have hit the country, the unstable global environment and the risks facing Australia’s economy.
“You always have setbacks. You always have imperfect information. I mean, things are tough,” he tells the camera.
“Forty-thousand people are alive today because of the way we managed the pandemic, 700,000 people still have jobs and countless numbers of business that would have been destroyed.
“This is why, as we go into this next election, what’s firing me up - we’re actually in a really strong position.”
The prime minister recalls a senior-year trade school he visited in Brisbane where half the class indicated they wanted to start their own business.
“How good’s that? That’s why I love Australia,” Morrison says.
However, the video fails to address when the prime minister will actually call the election, with the Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, accusing Morrison of treating it as a “game” earlier on Saturday.
There are only two Saturdays left for an election to be held, 14 May or 21 May, and any delays this weekend would mean MPs would need to return to Canberra next week.
Albanese said that made it likely the election would be called this weekend because Morrison didn’t want to face the “scrutiny” of a sitting parliament.
“This prime minister last year gave up on governing and said he was campaigning,” Albanese said on Saturday.
The Labor leader said Morrison was delaying the election to allow the use of taxpayer funds to spruik government spending and appoint mates to government boards.