‘Canberra should forget Joyce’s affair and get on with running the country’

So Barnaby Joyce got caught philandering did he? So what? Let’s face it, he is far from being the first politician, magnate, church leader or union official to have partaken in ‘a little of what you fancy’ and I’m sure he won’t be the last.

In fact, I sincerely believe that the necessity of having a mistress, or whatever else you want to call her, is inherent in the genetic make-up of most leaders, whether they’re in politics, business or any other form of control over others. You only have to look around our own, recent Australian history, to see some prime examples of the breed.

Take for instance Bob Hawke, who is still, after about 20 years, together with his ‘new’ partner, or cardboard millionaire Richard Pratt, who even remembered his mistress and lovechild in his will when he died. I could think of plenty more! There’s hardly a week that goes by without us hearing some lurid new story regarding a sportsman, politician, boss, and even the occasional church leader, involved with someone of the opposite sex.

If you cast your eyes over the less recent history of the world, you find that a man wasn’t really considered to be a man until he had enjoyed a mistress or three, and the royals are by no means above the sport either: Nell Gwynne springs immediately to mind, from the days of King Charles II, the man who she ‘went with’ for many years.

Then there was Edward VII, late in the 19th and early-20th centuries, famous as a playboy while he was the Prince of Wales. He had many mistresses, a lot of them after his marriage to Alexandra of Denmark. Even Prince Edward, at present about sixth in line to the throne, has a certain reputation where the ladies are concerned.

The saddest thing of all is not the philandering, to change the subject slightly, but the way our delightful politicians eagerly grasp hold of any excuse to avoid getting on with the job of running what used to be a wonderful country (though I have a few doubts about that now).

The present fracas surrounding Joyce is just the most recent example of disturbances to take place in the house, which cause the business of getting Australia going to be delayed, or even worse to grind to a halt altogether. Before that there was the ‘dual citizenship saga’, the ‘same sex marriage mess’ and the ‘speaker stoush’, all causing considerable waste of time and all costing taxpayers millions of dollars with nothing to show for it at the end of the day.

In fact, one begins to think Australia is being ruled by a team of idiots — men and women — who have failed to grow up, and love to spend their time figuratively throwing paper darts at each other. While poor old Australia burns because nothing is being done about the prices and reliability of power, or climate change, (no one in government seems to really know if that one is even happening!), or the influx to too many or too few immigrants, or what to do with the Murray/Darling Basin. Again, the ors could go on forever!

I wish Barnaby Joyce well in the new life he has choses — it is, after all his business, not ours, and while I feel sympathy for the family he is at present breaking up, you can’t help feeling that there must be some underlying cause, for the dreadful situation to have risen in the first place. It’s something I doubt we shall ever really get to the bottom of.

Do you think the Government is delaying ‘getting on the with job’ as this writer suggests? What would you like the Government to focus its attention on?

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