Nick Minchin
Former Oz Senator Exposes Gillard Government Inept Charade
by staff report via reg - National Times Saturday, Oct 20 2012, 9:45pm
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With the advantage of an insider removed from active politics, former conservative Senator, Nick Minchin, spoke freely and accurately (for once) when he referred to the $25m cost of obtaining a TEMPORARY seat on the UN Security Council as, "disgusting!" He also highlighted that Oz has all the influence of a neutered bull or toothless tiger in influencing the decisions of permanent members on the Council.
Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, is looking rather silly at the moment; his feeble attempts to beat up the 'importance' of Australia's temporary and ineffectual role have just been perforated. But politics today is all charade and showmanship; elected politicians are ALL puppets in servitude to UNREPRESENTATIVE plutocrats, so Minchin's accurate accusations are a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
It's a sorry state of affairs in Oz politics in general when both major parties are completely servile to Banker and Corporate interests. Yes, indeed, the beer swilling, wine imbibing useless Oz masses come a very poor fifth down the line of concern -- politics today has degenerated into pure deception (carbon tax) and appearance and the PASSIVE masses deserve EVERYTHING they get from their lucklustre, unrepresentative, incompetent parliamentarians.
Report from the National Times follows:
Minchin says UN seat win 'disgusting'
Former Liberal senator Nick Minchin has labelled Australia's successful bid for a seat on the United Nations security council as "disgusting".
Mr Minchin said the lobbying process, which cost about $25 million, was a waste of money because Australia's spot was a temporary one.
"We will have no influence because all the decisions are made by the permanent members of the UN security council," he told Network Ten's the Bolt Report program on Sunday.
"I think it's frankly disgusting that we've spent this money, this time and this effort to pursue something that I think compromises our aid program and potentially compromises our foreign affairs positions."
Australia was on Friday named a non-permanent member to the 15-country council at the UN headquarters in New York.
The federal government has said it's a massive diplomatic win for a middle-ranking power like Australia, with Foreign Minister Bob Carr calling it an endorsement of Australia's good global citizenship.
Mr Minchin, who was a cabinet minister in the Howard government, maintains it is a bad outcome.
"And now we've got Bob Carr prancing around the world saying he's going to solve the Syrian civil war," he said.
"What about our backyard? We've got lots of problems in the Pacific we should be focusing on."
Australia's bid for a two-year term on the security council beginning on January 1 was begun by former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd.
The council's permanent members, which have veto rights, are the US, UK, China, Russia and France.
© 2012 Fairfax Media
