July 1, 2025
The Write Direction: Feeding the political trough

The Write Direction: Feeding the political trough

CYNICS of our political system might suggest the whole game looks like feeding time at a piggery.

It is essential to make sure there are enough buckets of slops for all to enjoy.

That is probably a bit tough, but it is often the way the public views this political feeding frenzy.

When governments are elected after winning the vote, their leader selects his favoured few for the top jobs.

However in order to stop the noisy grunters from upsetting the others, they need to provide more feed in a safe location in order to keep their troops focused on the job at hand.

The losers, called the opposition, then select their team to directly oppose the winners.

The top jobs meet in what is called “the cabinet”.

Those selected are generally the ones who have shown loyalty to the person elected as party leader in the past.

They get the big jobs with the highest pay and prestige, and we are told they have the best talent to govern our nation.

We then have the opposition party selecting a “shadow cabinet” which this year totals some 23 members.

To keep the remainder of the porkers happy, they have added an “outer ministry” of seven players.

But wait, there are more roles to be filled.

So, we now have “shadow assistant” positions numbering another 12 members, all receiving increased money and staff for taking on these roles.

Now they have some 42 positions filled by their piglets, all of whom are in the opposition pens.

Yes, there were those who missed out.

Six existing members failed to be elected plus another seven who were dumped from their positions, as no doubt they failed to show support or loyalty to their elected leader.

We also have 10 independents, one Green, Bob Katter and one Centre Alliance member.

The government has 94 members and the coalition opposition has 43 on their team.

Hopefully they can all work to achieve a happy piggery which delivers productive outcomes for the benefit of our nation.

I think that is called bringing home the bacon.

By John BLACKBOURN

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