Rule By Love Or Rule By Fear

The whole thing was botched from the very beginning. 

He was in stasis. 

Running competing screens took the energy out of everything. 

There was everything to run for now, everything to be lost. We were circumventing a surveillance device which should never have been implemented in the first place. Experimental fields. 

In those shallows and shadows, in the far reaches where different oceans lapped on different shores, well, they were here now. Even the birds flying overhead were the subject of a kind of ravishing fascination. Curiosity. Pleasure. 

If there was to be an interface it would be on their own terms. 

They were bunking into a "new" house, or so it seemed, as he banished or sorted out the house spirits, as he flew way overhead and could hear those distant cries, as he relived moments of history in brief, dramatic flashes, as he begged not for forgiveness but understanding, between the garbage and the flowers, screaming out for love now, a wing flapping overhead, a spaceport, yesterday's spaceport, still there in some surreal, uncanny way. 

Yes, they came at turning points in history. 

And yes, this country was on the turn. 

Devastated by ridiculous politicians and hopeless malfunction; the latest being the government was now funding flights within Australia. All a madness. As mad as funding renovations on houses, if you were wealthy enough to own a house. 

Or pouring money onto the underclasses to be promptly squandered on ice. 

It was all a madness. 

These turning points; they took time. In one sense, they had plenty of time. In another, it would all be over in a second. The Dickens thing, the best of times, the worst of times. We were going to gather in strength, we were going to come in such vast numbers, we were going to change the very nature of the fabric of everything, including the population's understanding of the world they inhabited. 

All was afoot, all was in flux, all was in a state of change. 

He would breathe deep and free. He would offer no solution. 

They had made their own nest. Sadly. For many who did not deserve it would suffer from their leaders' folly. 

That was that. They crawled into the bushes, they wept in the trees, they completed a cosmic circle. 

And Australia?

The Australia that was now understood, that was already lost. 

Fools paradise. An early grave. A failure even to grasp the most basic elements of good governance. 

All would pay, all would suffer, for this terrible folly.

HEADLINES: 

Several countries pause use of AstraZeneca vaccine to investigate blood clots

Denmark, Norway and Iceland suspend jabs while Italy and other countries hold off one batch.

Flight risk
The government’s new airfare subsidy may be yet another ticket to scandal

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaking at a press conference this morning. Image via ABC NewsThe Morrison government has a well-established knack for weathering scandals, using a particularly well-worn strategy: putting its head down and waiting for the media caravan to move on. Scott Morrison clearly hopes this will be the case with the rape allegations against Attorney-General Christian Porter, with the prime minister praying he can outlast calls for an independent inquiry by incessantly repeating the phrase “rule of law” – and perhaps adding the distraction of a cheap flight or two. It remains to be seen whether Morrison is right, but he may soon have extra scandals on his hands, in the form of questions about the destinations of half-price flights the government is offering and a second look into acting leader of the house Peter Dutton’s grant allocations. Fortunately for the PM, he’s well-practised at juggling them by now. Independent senator Rex Patrick certainly doesn’t think Morrison’s tried-and-true formula will work on the Porter allegations, warning this morning on the ABC that the saga will become an “albatross around his government’s neck” unless action is taken. Patrick seemed unconvinced by the prime minister’s “rule of law” claims, noting that this was not about a criminal offence but about ensuring Porter is fit to hold high office, and suggested calling in former public servant Dr Vivienne Thom, who investigated the conduct of former High Court judge Dyson Heydon. (The key crossbencher added that it would be “impossible” to make progress on IR reforms until Porter returns from leave.)

Morrison may have been hoping that this morning’s announcement of half-price flights to 13 tourism-dependent regions – complete with novelty “Sydney to Australia” plane ticket – would cause a distraction, and sure enough the subsidy dominated headlines. The $1.2 billion plan – intended to offset the impending end to JobKeeper – will cover half of nearly 800,000 airfares to the Gold Coast, Cairns, the Whitsundays region, the Sunshine Coast, Lasseter region (including Uluru), Alice Springs, Launceston, Devonport, Burnie, Broome, Avalon, Merimbula and Kangaroo Island, encouraging Australians to travel again (and encouraging premiers to keep their borders open).  But as the ABC was quick to note last night, “many of the initial destinations included in the program are in marginal or winnable electorates for the government” (eight are in marginal seats, while four are in safe Coalition electorates). The government insists the program is targeted at those locations that are most dependent on JobKeeper and aviation, but many in the sector say the scheme targets areas that are already expecting a healthy upcoming tourist season, while others miss out. Western Australia’s Tourism Council chief executive Evan Hall has slammed the list, saying it targets marginal seats and leaves Western Australia in the cold. “They have treated the economic impact on the tourism industry as a political problem,” he told the ABC. Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick says it’s “bizarre” that the initiative doesn’t discount flights for people travelling within their own state, while Victoria is also unhappy, with just one destination on the list – the only one located in a safe Labor seat.

Pork-barrelled or not, tourism groups and unions say the half-price airfares simply won’t be enough to save the hundreds of thousands of jobs that remain in peril. ‘Isn’t going to help at all’: Coalition’s airline bailout blasted

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has blasted the federal government’s $1.2 billion travel boost, saying it offers nothing for hotel and tourism operators.“This isn’t a tourism package. It is a selective aviation package,” Mr Albanese said.The Morrison government is offering 800,000 discounted airline tickets as well as loans for struggling tourism operators, designed to ease the pain when JobKeeper wage subsidies end on March 28.The major airlines have lauded the half-price return flights to more than a dozen regional tourism destinations.An estimated 800,000 government-subsidised tickets will be offered over the scheme’s duration, which includes the Easter and winter school holidays.Return flights to eligible locations will be discounted by half from April 1-July 31. Qantas said it expected to discount up to 32,000 seats a week under the scheme.