In the recent federal election which witnessed an upsurge in anti-government feeling which saw Teal candidates take over major conservative seats, the major issues were integrity vs corruption and the demand for a sane response to climate warming.
It resulted in the removal from the parliament of the Treasurer and many Coalition members.
The Prime Minister became a backbencher and the new Opposition Leader, Peter Dutton, looked set to take it into oblivion.
When the former PM, preaching at Margaret Court’s Pentecostal church in Perth, declared his lack of faith in government and the United Nations, there was a dropping of jaws across Australia.
Government under Morrison had dealt kindly with Margaret Court’s church.
During COVID, the WA Margaret Court Pentecostal church which declared that the blood of Jesus would protect parishioners from the deadly virus, still got more than $500,000 in Jobkeeper, plus a $50,000 Federal Government cash flow boost. [Independent Australia, 21 July 2022]
The Morrison government appointed its people to many key positions.
The Grattan Institute “A better process for public appointments” Report No. 2022-09, July 2022, drew attention to what is going on.
“Across all federal government appointees, 7 per cent have a direct political connection. This figure rises to 21 per cent among those positions that are well paid, prestigious, and/or powerful. For the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), an important body that makes rulings on government decisions, the figure is 22 per cent after a significant rise in recent appointments with political connections.”
“This is not just a federal government or a Coalition phenomenon. Our analysis shows political appointments are also common at state level. Federal and state governments ignore and subvert good process.”
The Grattan Institute suggests an independent body should be responsible for such appointments.
Also of interest was the focus Scott Morrison put on the question of anxiety in his 50 minute sermon.
“All of this anxiousness, all of this anxiety … all of this feeling about the bills that are pouring in, all of this feeling about the anxiety, and then the oil of God, the ointment of God, comes on this situation and releases you, if you will have it, and receive His gift,” he said.
Succumbing to anxiety was “Satan’s plan”, he said. [The Age, 18 July 2022]
No notion of accountability or seeking justice. All will be smoothed over.
Over a thousand years ago Ibn Hazm in Muslim Spain dealt with the question of anxiety too. He was a literalist but did not try to create division based on religion.
In Pursuit of Virtue, paragraph 79 he wrote :”Put your trust in a pious man, even if the religion that he practices is a different one from your own.”
In answer to the question as to how to deal with anxiety, he concluded: “You should therefore understand that there is only one objective to strive for, it is to dispel anxiety; and only one path leads to this, and that is the service of the most high God. Everything else is misguided and absurd.”
What does this entail?
Ibn Hazm was very clear: “Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your Creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel.” [In Pursuit of Virtue]
How different are the world views of this long dead scholar and our immediate past political leader.
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