The weak and ineffectual Shorten has no sway over most of his caucus and the trouncing he got yesterday in trying to wrap himself in the "I love the armed forces" was seen for what it was, a leader who cannot command his own troops:
IT is a rare political creature who is able to prosper in the ranks of their party while sinking ever further into the mire of public contumely and contempt.
Yet Stephen Conroy, Labor’s deputy Senate leader, sits among the human and policy wreckage he has wrought, surveying the national landscape for another inglorious hit.
Again, Senator Conroy has gone over the top. Instead of whacking a factional enemy, slandering a Coalition opponent in parliament or attacking News Corp Australia via the apparatus of state, Labor’s Victorian overlord has tried to sully the reputation of one of the nation’s most-respected soldiers, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell.
At a Senate estimates hearing on Tuesday evening, Labor’s defence spokesman launched a cowardly attack, alleging that the head of the Abbott government’s Operation Sovereign Borders initiative to combat people-smuggling was involved in a “political cover-up”.
In the knowing words of his mentor Robert Ray, Senator Conroy is a “factional Dalek”. In a 2006 speech, the former senator noted the rise of a “Stasi element” in the ALP: “A whole production line of soulless apparatchiks has emerged: highly proficient and professional, but with no Labor soul; control freaks with tunnel vision; ruthless leakers in their self-interest; individuals who would rather the party lose an election than that they lose their place in the pecking order.”
Certainly Senator Conroy has ruthlessly pursued his career in the byzantine world of ALP patronage and payback; his fractious alliance with Bill Shorten in Victoria sees the so-called “Short-Cons” controlling preselections and the feeble spoils of opposition.
Since being shoehorned into the Senate to fill a vacancy in 1996, it is nigh impossible to credit him with a single original contribution to the national debate, his party’s rejuvenation or a greater cause than his own promotion.
Oh, there was the removal of a stray prime minister or two. That Senator Conroy has an odd relationship with language, reality and proper policy has been apparent for some time.
As communications minister in the Rudd-Gillard government, he claimed he was so powerful he could force telco bosses to wear red underpants on their heads in the contest for digital spectrum. It’s curious that someone who sees conspiracies at play and calls for openness now was so instrumental in trying to muzzle a free press - in particular, The Australian’s parent company - through an ill-conceived media inquiry.
Remember his lame-brained internet filter? Set-top boxes, anyone?
Senator Conroy’s fiscal and policy notoriety, however, is secure in the National Broadband Network debacle: no cost-benefit plan, a seemingly bottomless taxpayer money pit, a botched and tardy rollout, all juiced up by the vanity of a tech-evangelist minister with a penchant for covering up bad news.
On Senator Conroy’s watch, secrecy ruled the NBN, Australia’s largest infrastructure boondoggle. Almost $7 billion in public funds have been ploughed into the NBN to complete a mere 3 per cent of the rollout, while the signature “Gigabit Nation” service does not have a single end-user customer. Then there’s the $350 million satellite
Senator Conroy purchased to provide super-fast broadband for the bush. How’s that working out? Not well.
Mr Shorten’s woeful performance in parliament yesterday proves he is not up to bringing his errant colleague into line. By refusing to apologise to General Campbell, Senator Conroy has shown himself unfit to be the alternative defence minister. In seeking to make a grubby political point in an obscure forum that now resembles a Roman blood arena, he has trashed a fine military tradition and all serving men and women. He’ll squirm and squawk like a wounded animal because he can’t handle this simple truth: Senator Conroy, you’ve outlived your welcome.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/editorials/labors-brazen-attack-dog-finds-himself-in-the-gut...
