The Dangers of Egoism

Drunk on ego & power. It’s what is driving our egotistical state Labor premiers of Australia into turning their own states into fortress-like prisons, causing callously cruel decisions to be made at the heartless expense of innocent Australian’s and outright refusal to safely open their borders and economy in the way other states like NSW have.

It’s a tragedy for our federation and it’s wearing out everyday Australian’s who are watching this almighty car crash unfold but with real-life consequences.

In Victoria, it’s a public health catastrophe that’s been steamrolling into a George Orwell 1984-like authoritarian nightmare, with Premier Andrews previously implementing a potentially illegal curfew alongside a second lockdown which has turned Melbourne into ghost towns. And now it’s been revealed (through the Counsel assisting the Hotel Quarantine Inquiry Chair), that the botched hotel quarantine scheme in Victoria is responsible for the 760+ deaths (now at a grim total of 800) and over 18,000 infectious cases which has plunged Victoria into a second economy destroying lockdown, with kids on antidepressants and potential rise of mental health, suicides and other tragedies such as family/domestic violence.

It was never in doubt that the botched #HotelQuarantine disaster sparked the second #COVID19 wave in Victoria w/the virus being let out into the community. Andrews & Co are now culpable for all of this disastrous pandemic tragedy. #springst #auspol.https://t.co/Cp6Bh51y71

— Marcus Foo (@FooeyFromPerth) September 28, 2020

But it gets even worse, like a horrifying car crash, the $6 million dollar hotel quarantine inquiry has exposed a conga line of Victorian public servants and cabinet Ministers blinking like patients with early on-set dementia and/or are suffering from amnesia. With each of them saying that they don’t know who was responsible for the disastrous hotel quarantine scheme, and who signed off allowing private security companies to manage the hotel quarantine scheme. And as each day passes, the number of unknowns grew as they were taking Victorians for mugs. But when Premier Daniel Andrews got grilled, he selfishly threw his Health Minister (Jenny Mikakos) under the bus by casting blame that she was accountable for the program.

And her resignation has caused Labor MP’s to kick up a stink within the party, as the way her career came to a crushing end caused some to turn against him with one anonymous Minister telling the Herald Sun, “It has put a lot of people on edge“, with another one saying, “He is a tyrant. He is a dictator with a capital D.I.C.K“.

Not happy Dan. Some MPs “unsettled” by @JennyMikakos departure https://t.co/oc8pUnaJsX

— Alex White (@alexwhitelive) September 27, 2020

And as the hotel quarantine inquiry continues, it became clear that nobody was going to own up over the program and neither was the Premier, but eventually it was revealed that (the former) Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Graham Ashton didn’t want Victorian Police to manage the hotel quarantine scheme, and thanks to SkyNews Australia’s host Peta Credlin, it’s been further uncovered that there was a (& these are her words) “hastily convened discussion” (right before PM Morrison announced the national cabinet agreement on mandatory hotel quarantine for returning travellers) between three senior Victorian Government individuals.

And these three individuals were Lisa Neville, the Victorian Police Minister, Graham Ashton and Andrew Crisp (Victoria’s Emergency Management Chief) which led to the decision to use private security companies to manage the program, but not the Victorian Police (despite other sates using their own state police force & the ADF to guard the hotels).

And guess what? It gets even worse, as Peta Credlin has been told, that the “Victorian government didn’t want to use the defence force because it would look like they had failed on hotel quarantine.” And “that they didn’t like the optics of the Morrison Government bailing them out.“

But why did (as in the ADF managing the hotels in Victoria) not occur? Well on Wednesday the 24th of June 2020, the Emergency Management Chief of Victoria, Andrew Crisp had formally sought up to 850 defence force personnels to step in and to take over the hotel quarantine scheme. And then immediately, Canberra confirmed his request with the Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds declaring in a press release that 850 were on the way to Victoria. And on the 25th of June 2020, Reynolds declared it on Neil Mitchell 3AW that they were mobilising ADF personnel in response to a request from the Victorian Government due to skyrocketing infections, thanks to the virus being leaked out to the community due to incompetent security companies and bouncers.

And in the hotel quarantine inquiry, Police Minister Lisa Neville said that she was “cranky” over the ADF personnel set to arrive in Victoria but tragically, Neville intervened and guess what? On the Thursday, 25th June 2020 (after Defence Minister Linda Reynolds had announced it on 3AW), Emergency Management Chief of Victoria, Andrew Crisp told Canberra (in a humiliating backdown) that the ADF personnel request has been withdrawn.

And it’s because of that, that Victoria spiralled into an inevitable second wave caused by a Government who couldn’t swallow their pride. A Minister who thought she knew better and a Premier who was full of egoism.

And speaking of private security companies, it’s well known that within this particular industry, there are numerous well-known problems and scandals in which there already was an inquiry being conducted into it, but then this very scandal-ridden system was put in charge by the Andrews Government to manage the hotel quarantine scheme. And at the inquiry, Counsel Rachel Ellyard went on to list the well known issues of the industry from literacy and numeracy problems to poor training, problems with language, underpayment of wages and sham contracting.

But it gets even worse, as the inquiry was heard that the security company guards (who were contracted to manage the hotel quarantine) were given diversity and equity training and not in infection control, despite being contracted to manage the scheme.

Mr Ashford told the inquiry he had completed a one-hour lesson on how to use the COVID-19 app and a course on diversity and inclusion. “No other training or ­induction was given prior to commencing this first shift or subsequently,” he said.

“There was no training in infection control and I had no prior training from my previous roles.”

From the Australian, Coronavirus Australia: Hotel quarantine guards given diversity training, not infection control.

And if you thought that wasn’t terrible enough, it turns out the security companies who were handed Government contracts without a formal tender process as well.

So thanks to sheer incompetence and arrogance coupled with a government and state bureaucracy too high on their own prideful farts, it led to a complete botched hotel quarantine scheme that saw infections escape the hotels (primarily from Stamford Plaza and Rydges on Swanston hotels) that saw the tragic deaths of now 800 Victorian’s and over 18,000 infectious cases.

Had the Victorian Government swallowed their pride from the start, Victorians wouldn’t be suffering in a police state like nightmare and a lame duck Premier leading a rotten government filled with disastrous scandals and a public administration disaster that would’ve seen any CEO or company sack, investigated, trialled and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But unfortunately, Victoria is led by a government whose leader is a selfish and politically craven individual with no integrity, no credibility and who is a authoritarian loving wannabe dictator who wouldn’t care whom he throws under the bus, as long as he can save his own political skin. Having only been talented in manipulating and using the power machine of the Labor party to get to the top by garnering and controlling power, Daniel Andrews, the Premier of Victoria thus fails to properly deal with crises and to avoid damaging disasters and scandals, but when they occur, he successfully spins and uses whatever he has at his disposition to avoid being held accountable and taking responsibilities and if there’s anyone he can use as a sacrificial lamb, then he will use them. In the end, he views people as expendables.

A power hungry megalomaniac he is, it’s no wonder Victoria is in all sorts of troubles that it is now.

Thus the danger of egoism.

But it hasn’t just infected the entire Victorian State Government, rather it’s also has infected their Queensland counterpart as well and probably to a more ruthlessly heartless extent.

By harsh border closures, Annastacia Palaszczuk thought she could keep Queensland & Queenslanders safe by kicking out the Coronavirus, which would benefit her and her government politically (especially since there’s an upcoming state election in October). However, thanks to prideful arrogance and being consumed by the belief that she had the state election all sewn up (a’la doing a Bill Shorten), the imperious Premier of Queensland and her Govt would soon make a series of shockingly cruel decisions that would see a backlash against their heartlessness.

Thanks to the ludicrous border restrictions, the Queensland Government denied a women who was recovering from brain surgery to quarantine in the Sunshine state as well as denying a pregnant mother with twins from going to hospital in Queensland which led to the tragic death of one of her unborn twin babies. They also heartlessly and callously denied a young women from attending to her deceased father’s funeral but then backed down after an emotional intervention from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, but she was forced to wear PPE, a face helmet and was carted and treated around like she was infectious (despite coming from COVID-free Canberra).

All the while, the same state government hypocritically allowed 400 AFL officials into luxurious quarantine as well as Tom Hanks to shoot a film in Queensland but denied innocent Australians from crossing the border on valid reasons. And to make it even worse, the supposed Chief Health Officer of Queensland said that her decision were solely on the grounds that they could bring money into the state, despite needing to have based it on medical grounds.

And to make the whole farcical scenario even worse, the imperious Premier of Queensland bizarrely declared that it was the Chief Health Officer who made the decisions (in an attempt to distance herself away from it and therefore making it seem like Dr Jeannette Young, the CHO of Queensland as being the actual Premier and not Palaszczuk herself).

But as the backlash grew, heartless Palasczcuk attempted to make the issue about herself by playing the victim card, declaring that she too lost a loved one during the pandemic in an attempt to gain sympathy from voters but it didn’t wash. And as she was singing her opera coupled with the crocodile tears, it was revealed that whilst having a hoarse voice all week, she toured regional Queensland and attended a funeral at the same time. All the while she had denied innocent Australians from doing the same thing.

It was horrific enough that such cruel decisions were being made, yet the Premier of Queensland decided that she was the victim of the entire mess despite having also been a thorough hypocrite.

Had she not been wholly fixated on the upcoming October 31st state election in Queensland, she probably wouldn’t have allowed such heartless decisions to go ahead. But thanks to her unbridled egoism, Palasczcuk was full of haughty pride and believed that nothing could go wrong, yet blinded by selfish ego and power, she was consumed by the the polls and favouritism amongst Queensland voters and took it all for granted before blowing it all away. And thus she *accidentally* revealed her callous heartlessness and her true character, which isn’t surprising given that her government was also the same state government that viewed an unborn baby as something that can be killed.

The dangers of egoism.

Up next is the similarly egotistical state Premier of Western Australia whose unbridled arrogance and weapons grade stupidity is proving to be a continuing embarrassment for everyday sandgropers.

As in response to calls to lift WA’s harsh borders, Premier McGowan explicitly said that those who are calling for the borders to be opened are saying it for ” very self-interested reasons, because we have high incomes and we have people that are more use to travelling and therefore have more tourist go from West Australia to the east.“ Therefore using the argument of economic protectionism to try and prevent getting the harsh border to be lifted, even though it was originally in place on grounds of health advice. It’s ridiculous and it reveals his arrogance as well. Meanwhile, he continues to needlessly keep families apart and prevents tourists from other states and territories from visiting Western Australia as the state remains shut and also prevents Western Australians from being able to travel and to spend in other places.

He’s blatantly out of control. Wanting to explicitly control the travelling and spending habits of Western Australians, as if he’s the self-decreed King. It’s clear that the community favouritism and love of him (that have translated into polls) have gone to his head and his true character is being revealed.

While all eyes were on the hapless Andrews and the Victorian disaster, WA has been ruled by an immensely arrogant protectionist. Clennell is right: this guy has lost it pic.twitter.com/dxNSBO2LIO

— The Security Guy (@thesecurityguy1) October 1, 2020

And to make it worse, McGowan became a renegade in being deadset against lifting WA’s borders to COVID safe states and territories by Christmas of this year, therefore detaching WA from the rest of the nation despite Australia being a federation. All the while, he attacks eastern state commentators who criticise his harsh border stance, despite the likes of SkyNews Australia political editor, Andrew Clennell having come from Western Australia himself and had graduated from a Perth based university as well.

But as if that wasn’t enough, now he is threatening to sue mining billionaire Clive Palmer for defamation on several counts as Palmer is suing the WA Government over their harsh border restriction which he claims is unconstitutional.

Therefore, he’s using taxpayers money to satiate his hurt ego and to try and settle a score with Clive Palmer which is a completely ridiculous use of taxpayers money and it reveals that McGowan only cares about his ego than anything else.

So economic protectionism and nursing one’s ego seems to be what McGowan cares about no matter how damaging WA’s harsh border is and it’s disappointing to see the federal Government allow McGowan to continue on with this border charade as well as it is equally disappointing to see mining giant BHP back this move as well.

All because McGowan is drunk on ego and power and wouldn’t swallow his pride and do the selfless thing (as others like NSW’s Gladys Berejiklian has, with not killing her economy or shutting down her state’s border but keeping them open whilst successfully managing and curbing the virus), because to McGowan, it’s all about it politically and electorally benefiting him and his Government’s chances of being reelected at the next state election and unfortunately, they may have successfully hoodwinked Western Australians into following their plan.

To McGowan, he doesn’t care about doing the intelligent and selfless thing, it’s about politics and the upcoming state election. And instead of it being made solely on health advice, McGowan is going down the economic protectionist path whilst wanting to control the habits of his own resident (god forbid he takes any idea from Daniel Andrews on what he’s done to Victorians and their liberties). Which is why Chris Rodwell (WA Chamber of Commerce & Industry CEO) was right to say this regarding WA’s border restrictions removal:

The West Australian business community expects that decisions regarding the removal of border restrictions will be made solely on health advice, not on the basis of economic protectionism. pic.twitter.com/jnifAVOIQx

— Chris Rodwell (@CCI_CEO) October 1, 2020

And so with this kind of response, it reveals the parochial attitude of the WA Labor McGowan Government who can’t seem to be able to see that other states are sensibly reopening their economy, borders whilst reuniting families, restoring mental health and most importantly, reopening small and family sized businesses as well.

But instead of seeing all of that occurring elsewhere in Australia, the WA Government seem to continue what they’re doing and thus hurting not the state economy but since it’s suiting them politically, they’re not gonna back down and join the rest of the nation in opening by Christmas, therefore families and loved ones will be kept apart all to satisfy a selfish and egotist Premier who only cares about his chances of reelection at the next state election in early 2021.

It’s politicalisation and selfishness at it’s brazen worst and the residents of WA are the prisoners of an interstate fortress brought on by the state Labor government and kept enforced by Mark McGowan.

Thus the dangers of egoism.

So whether it’s in Victoria with an authoritarian tinpot madman or in Queensland where there’s the imperious heartless Premier or in WA where they’re suffering under a selfish egotist, they’re making the case themselves as to why state governments were a mistake. Driven by unbridled egoism, egotistical selfishness, haughty arrogance, callous heartlessness and sheer incompetence, these three modern day Labor party leaders openly reveal that they don’t stand for anything and are politically hungry craven politicians. Gone were the days when Labor leaders were fighters of the working class and putting Australia first, now they’ve been sadly replaced by politicians driven solely by pure selfishness, power, politics and ego who’ll stoop to nothing to continue to hold onto the reigns of power.

It’s an absolute tragedy and it confirms that Australia needs an urgent reformation of our federation. It’s also time for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to disband the national cabinet and to crush the parochial attitude and mindset of our stubborn Labor state governments because this is unacceptable and wrong. Everyday Australians deserve better, not this kind of rubbish where it’s all to benefit the ego and the political chances of Labor leaders. It’s disgraceful and immoral.

Australia deserves better than egoism ruling us into the ground.

Marcus Foo is a young Australian Conservative from Perth, Western Australia. He offers his perspective on Twitter, Instagram, Parler and his personal blog where this article originally appeared.