Will Keys,
On the 21st of May 2022, Australian citizens went to the polls to elect the 47th Parliament in a general election. All of the 151 lower house seats were up for grabs. 40 out of 76 upper house seats were open for the Senate. Voting in Australia is compulsory, and 17,228,900 registered voters (74.4%) of the electorate voted.
In the House of Representatives, the lower house, where the Government must achieve a majority of votes in order to govern, the Australian Labor Party (“ALP”) won 76 seats. The coalition of the Liberal Party and National Party (“LNP”) won 60 seats. The Greens and independents won the remaining seats.
The Socialist Labor Party of Australia, led by Anthony Norman Albanese, born on 2nd March 1963 in Sydney, was sworn in on 23rd May 2022 and is the 31st Prime Minister. He is the first Italian Australian to become prime minister. He is a political progressive and sees global-warming as a major challenge to be addressed.
Inter alia, what distinguishes the 2022 Australian general election? It was the role played by Simon Holmes a Court, the son of the late Michael Robert Hamilton Holmes a Court. Robert died in 1990, aged 53 years. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but raised in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
He moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he graduated with a bachelor of laws in 1965. He became a Perth WA solicitor and barrister. He went on to make a fortune in mergers and acquisitions, share trading and mining. He had a talent for spotting good business opportunities, and he became known as “the Great Acquirer”. He was also Australia’s first billionaire; quite an achievement. The fortune Robert made devolved upon his surviving widow and four children. As mentioned, Simon was one of the four children.
Simon Holmes a Court took an active interest in renewable energy and was elected chairman of the community-owned wind farm, Hepburn Wind, in Central Victoria. He has been involved in initiatives to do with climate change; the Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University, the Smart Energy Council and the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network.
Simon was a member of the Liberal Party in Melbourne. He was also a supporter of MP Josh Frydenberg, the Federal Treasurer and member for Kooyong. Simon supported the Kooyong Climate 200 fundraising initiative.
Unfortunately, Frydenberg was instrumental in having Simon expelled from the Party after he wrote an op-ed in the Guardian Australia supporting the closure of AGL’s coal-fired Liddell power station. As you may imagine, and the author can testify, the recently defeated Liberal Party is thin-skinned when it comes to pre-selections and other suggested corruptions. The relationship between Simon and the Federal Liberal Party quickly went south, and all manner of insults and defamations were traded.
Simon sought to take his revenge on the Liberal Party and on Josh Frydengerg in particular. Being wealthy he financed six candidates, all women and called the ‘Teals’, after the colour. With solid financial backing and professional help, the six Teals stood in the seats researched for them in the recent 2022 general election. They wanted for nothing, and the professionals covered the field of political science. The election took place, and all six candidates won their seats. Unfortunately, Kooyong was one of those seats, and so Australian Treasurer and MP Josh Frydenberg lost his place in parliament.
The One Nation Party led by Pauline Hanson fared badly and Hanson lost her place in the Senate. The other right-wing Party was the United Australia Party financed by billionaire Clive Palmer. The UAP didn’t win a single seat.
The other interesting development is the entry of David Pocock into the political arena. David arrived in Australia with his family as a teenager after they had been forcefully evicted from their farm in Zimbabwe because they were white. He went on to become famous as a gutsy rugby-union flanker and captained the Wallabies. David, with financial support from Simon Holmes a Court, stood for a senate seat in the Australian Capital Territory, and won.
The political platform that the six female Teal candidates and David Pocock campaigned upon was ostensibly : Climate Change, Integrity, and Gender Equality. There are reliable reports that Pocock refused to tie the knot with his fiancé until the Australian government legislated concerning gay marriage and transgender issues.
I have asked myself, why are these two first-generation Australians and the progeny of Southern African conservative values taking on and pushing such intangible, ‘progressive’ philosophies?’ It was then that I reminded myself, my own four Australian-born progeny, all highly qualified professionals, would likely have voted for the Teals and David Pocock.
The fact is the world has changed in so many ways, a new generation dominates the Australian political landscape and is in control of the future. They have learned different lessons in life compared to me and most of my generation. I think they are wrong about a lot of things, but maybe they’re right; I can only hope so.
By Will Keys
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I find it difficult to comprehend. He was a great rugby player, and us folks still living in Zimbabwe were very proud of that fact that he hailed from here. That old North Country expression comes to mind – ‘there’s nowt so queer as folk’. Excuse the pun! I find this liberal leftist woke extremist nonsense sad. Happily we don’t see much of it here.
Greetings Phill. I agree. We hope you are right.
Australia has its own quiet man on environmental degradation “since that boat stopped in Table Bay in about 1787 and collected some merino sheep and Afrkaaner cattle.” Australia as a continent that had never had a cow or a sheep was given an ecological baptism of fire in 1788. The science on land degradation in Africa was even well observed by Jan Smuts over 80 years ago. If we can leave the politics out of it and open our minds to change – Walter Jehne ex CSIRO and a director of Regenerate Earth has done some very informative you tubes on soil health. This is not about Albo, Scomo, or Mugabe, or LGBT’s – it is about the soil that grows the food that we eat. I think it is worth a look. Walter Jehne – Regnerate Earth.
A very well written article and Will’s conclusion is sadly right. Australasia forms part of the first world and views formed in 2nd world Southern Africa especially in the period 1950 to the eighties hold no relevance to the current generation in power. Time will tell whose views will be proven to be scientifically right, but a lot of tax payers money will go down rabbit holes in the interim.
Greeting Bob. You are spot on
As a Rhodesian born and bred, I was really disappointed in Pocock and wrote and told him so. I vaguely followed his antics during the Super 15 rugby franchise a few years ago and decided he was a “Social Justice” twat. This was during the Israel Folau saga when he posted that liars, adulterers, murderers, kweers etc were all going to Hell. Of course the noisy1.2% LGBTGESTAPO++++++ threw a hissy fit and Folau was banned from playing rugby. He did eventually win his case and was awarded a few million dollars settlement.
This is when I noticed what a twat Pockock was. During one game between Pockock’s team (the Brumbies) and the NSW Waratahs, Pockock threw a hissy fit when Potgieter (a South African) from NSW jokingly called a Brumbies player a kweer (or something like that) and Pockock reported it to the ref. Potgieter was red carded and banned from rugby.
Pockock also used to superglue himself to mining machinery in the “climate change” protests and also refused to get married til kweer “marriage” was legalised. So I have no time for him.
He came to Australia as a teenager and was obviously brainwashed by his Marxist teachers which wouldn’t happen to a normal kid growing up in Rhodesia.
Very sorry to hear this.
Hi Phil+Scarrold, we are phenotypical of our time. Hopefully, we are decently moderate and fair across the board. We are not anti-gay per se, but maintain that marriage is a religious covenant. Transgender issues are not on the radar. Climate change, if real, must be implemented by China, India and the USA before we in Australia should consider. Australia donated 460 million dollars to the Clinton Foundation, both Liberal and Labor, I personally spoke to Tony Abbott, ex Prime Minister, and he confirmed the millions was donated but not the exact number. So, Australia does have a integrity issue.
Agree whole heartedly. I knew Davids parents from School days and farming neighbours and I cringe at the thought of this new breed, but hey, Ausies have always been different, I mean since Howard who I liked somewhat, which Aus political leader has servived the test of political time. Can I say so but all been a bunch of wankers and perv’s. They made voting compulsory because nobody would vote otherwise. Democracy at its best.
Very fair and accurate analysis.