(Any similarity to the state of play in Australian politics is just some really weird coincidence.)
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The Goats were elected to govern the Australia Paddock some time ago after the Donkeys kept spitting and biting and kicking each other and crapping all over their own sleeping pads.
The first job the Goats did was to fix up the fences to stop all the outsiders from wandering willy nilly into our home Paddock whenever they felt like it.
After that was done the Goats discovered to their horror that the grass in the home Paddock was being eaten at a faster rate than it was growing.
In fact there was bugger-all grass left at all because the Donkeys (and another lot of Goats before them) had been so consumed with digging big holes and selling dirt out of the paddock to the Pandas in another field that they never noticed the disappearing grass.
When the Pandas decided they didn’t want any more of our dirt, the Goats panicked and immediately rushed into the silo to get some seed to start planting more grass. Lo and behold they discovered that the silo was empty and all it contained was a heap of bloated old Donkeys and Goats burping from overindulgence and three hundred corpulent foreign squirrels who’d been permitted to feed off the granary without ever having to contribute to it.
The Goats then decided it was time for all the animals in the Australia Paddock to start contributing more to it’s upkeep. This idea failed to pass the ultimate test of statesmanship and responsible governance; The Popularity Poll.
It was also knocked on the head by one big fat Independent Wombat who had already single-handedly dug up much of the home Paddock and eaten it out of house and home.
A few green parrots camouflaged in the branches of the Parliament Tree also made some meaningless chirps and warbles but they soon went back to filling their bellies with perkberries.
Eventually the ruling Goats became obsessed with their popularity slump so they started spitting and biting and kicking each other, as well as crapping all over their own sleeping pads, and …………….
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So where are all the wise owls when we so desperately need them?
They’ve been relegated to a patch of remnant habitat in the back corner of the Paddock. The environment created by the Donkeys and the Goats is unsuitable for their survival.
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The Bucket 
That’s the most concise summary of recent events I’ve seen. Thanks.
Thank you Mike. The more things change the more they remain the same.
Old Goats and Asses …. I think those are pretty much the political types all over the globe.
Occasionally out of the mediocrity there rises a statesman…..but not recently in this country.
Does that make Abbott the head Billy Goar Gaff? Love the line about the Popularity Poll being the ultimate test of good statesmenship and responsible Government. Don’t tell me those Polls are written and conducted by the Horses whose views are never biased?
They’re all a disgrace. They don’t have the courage and strength of character required for leadership. Every damn policy decision seems to need a popularity poll before and after it’s made.
I have a theory that Abbott and Hockey are using Malcolm Turnbull as a smokescreen to the budget debate, like the flag and republic debates are used to send us off the scent. Send in the galahs!
I think you’re right FD. None of them have a vision for Australia which extends beyond the next election.
Your parable could very well apply to South Africa, GOF. When I read your title, I immediately thought “Damn politicians again.”
I suspect your politicians face considerably greater social issues than we have in Australia but unless there is a cricket tour in South Africa we receive very little news about your country.
You really don’t want to know what’s going on with the politicians in our country. They’re too busy feathering their own nests to work properly on the social issues here. 😦
Sadly it seems to be the same all over the world.
Politics seem to be the same everywhere.
We had a Prime Minister two decades ago who made difficult decisions for Australia’s long-term future at the expense of his own popularity. Since then we’ve been governed by (in the words of that PM) “unrepresentative swill” on both sides of politics.
Yes. Politics is a worldwide epidemic. Politicks.
Snowy is going to kill me for this but ‘Party’ politics has a lot to answer for. Any leadership system where independent thought and moral conviction is traded for popularity is seriously flawed. I don’t know the answer to the problem, but considering the present mess I’d be happy to have Snowy as our Benevolent Dictator.
That’s the most accurate and succinct political anlysis I’ve read in years! 🙂 Interesting to read the comments above where it appears that, no matter what corner of the globe, all the scumbags are the same. In Europe we’ve had years of them ignoring people’s concerns to the extent that, in desperation, many voters have been manipulated into voting for hard-right parties. The future is not looking bright at all.
Normally I don’t write about politics Lane but the standard of representation and parliamentary debate in Australia has reached rock bottom. Fortunately there are still a few colourful Independent politicians (including Bob Katter who represents me) who are not afraid to speak their truth and truly do everything they can for their constituents.
I agree with you about the future. Party politics has become so corrupt and corrupting that I can understand a backlash in the direction of fringe representatives. (Australia has a Senator representing the ‘Motoring Party’ whose knowledge about anything else in the world is apparently fairly close to zero.)
A number of years back we used to have The Official Monster Raving Loony Party led by Screaming Lord Such. It’s a shame Lord Such died as the party was a much better candidate for protest votes than a bunch of hard-right scumbags. And at least he was honest about his crazy policies. They just try to pretend theirs are sensible.
Apologies for my previous typo renaming you. 🙂 Thanks for reminding me of Screaming Lord Such. We have a lot of nutters who appear on ballot papers but none of them ever seem to get much publicity. Pity, we could use some levity during election campaigns.
No need to apologise for the typo! I make mistakes all the tmie.
“We have a lot of nutters who appear on ballot papers but none of them ever seem to get much publicity.”
Ah, we have a very different system here. The nutters not only get publicity, they get elected too.
I just love the antics of some members of your House of Lords. 🙂
That sounds like it would smell wonderful.
Any similarity to the state of play in Australian politics is just some really weird coincidence
HAAA! SNORT.
Tragedy of the Commons, with goats and wombats.
The stench of politics, it would seem, pervades most countries. Sad really that the world doesn’t have more Mandelas.