BY ASHLEY GEELAN
The problem Australia has today with the fuel crisis isn’t just the crisis itself, it’s that politicians who engage in ‘political spin’, blatant lying and stand on television conducting pressers with some ‘nodding heads’ nodding in agreement behind them, that citizens don’t believe them.
Just like parents of young children know, as they teach their children about lying and the consequences of lying, if that child has lied in the past, a parent then often questions if their child(ren) are lying to them. It’s the same with politicians.
The convicted felon, rapist, alleged pedophile, and President of the United States consistently lies around the clock, all day, every day. No one in the world, nor sensible Americans, believes one word he says. Because he’s lied in the past, and that has been proven.
So when the Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, comes out on national TV for a ‘presser’ and says “Don’t panic. Fuel supplies are secure,” no one believes him, and everyone races out to get petrol and buy jerry cans.
Farmers, the backbone of Australia’s economy from paddock to plate, as soon as they heard Bowen say “Don’t panic,” well, farmers didn’t believe him, and they panicked.
The panic in rural areas is understandable, given that regional service stations are often few and far between. Many small towns have no service station at all, so that increases demand at service stations in the nearby regional towns that do have service stations.
Australia is the most diesel-reliant economy in the world. Without diesel to fuel the tractors and transport goods and produce from the regions, farmers can’t get their goods from their paddocks to our food plates in the cities.
If politicians told the truth, were prepared to ‘break party lines or rules’ even if the public didn’t like the truth, and politicians didn’t engage in political spin and got rid of their party members nodding their heads in agreement on camera, then people might believe what politicians say.
Until that happens, whenever a politician goes on TV and says, “Don’t panic, everything’s fine,” no one believes them. Everyone panics.
The ultimate cause of panic buying is politicians lying. The public always assumes politicians are lying or “spinning shit” and until politicians start telling the truth, no one will believe them anyway.
As a journalist, I have always assumed that any local councillor, state or federal politician is lying to me until I can prove otherwise. That’s a reporter’s starting point. Is this politician lying? If they aren’t, let’s gather the info to prove they are telling the truth. But the first assumption in journalism is that politicians are lying to you.
As the late John Pilger said: “Always look for the truth from the ground up, rarely from the top down … “
Politicians, of all sides and stripes, created this problem. It’s up to them to fix it.
The Truth Is Out There.
