A drawer full of extra money
Some of us think small. Days that are planned on the basis of what we did the day before. Long term plans that are carbon copies of what others have done, before us. We’re the ordinary folk. But, once in a while, the extraordinary thinkers are revealed, and it carries a degree of “scary”.
After listening to Rex, this afternoon, I’ve decided to record what I find so extraordinary about the current senate debacle. Let the record show: extraordinary can be very, very good. It can also be very, very bad. And I think we’re there, collectively. When the decision was made, and I can’t pretend to know how it came about without much more study, there was an intention to provide a non-partisan group to reconsider legislation that was of doubtful quality. People from all regions of the nation, appointed rather than elected, able to consider ideas without fear of job loss.
And along the way, that ideal was subtly altered. Now, we have one branch of government appointing its own referees. We have allowed the senate to reflect partisan colours, and we have allowed them to collect impressive salaries and expenditures as a reward for something that used to be done for its own (virtuous) sake.
The current “noise” comes from senate appointments that no longer reflect regional representation. A slippery precedent; next time around, we might find the customer group from Saturday morning at a Fort Mac Timmie’s called to “higher duty”. They, too, come from different regions, originally. And they might well be partisan enough to support the views of a very regional prime minister.
The quote “Follow the money” also has to be considered. Has anyone else noted that “Senator Mike” has not repaid the extra $90K? Someone else sent in a cheque, but his bank account (or sock drawer) has an impressive stack of twenties in the bottom.
