The Prime Minister has jumped on the latest distraction from the government's woes. The big problem is he's not actually prepared to confront the biggest area of concern.
As we head into one of our most significant cultural celebrations, there is time to give thanks for abundant blessings and to reflect on the year past and contemplate the year ahead.
It’s fair to say the first thought that popped into my head was ‘where has the year gone?’ It seems to have flashed by (my children tell me that’s because I am getting old!).
Politically, so much has happened and yet little seems to have changed. We had the Seinfeld election that delivered even more Senate crossbenchers than previously. Some legislative reforms were hard won, but our national debt continues to increase at an alarming rate.
Our education standards continue to fall, our economy is idling and governments across the nation continue to think more rules and regulations will fix the problems created by previous ones.
The latest polls show a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the major political parties and concern about what lies ahead.
Internationally, the people found their voice and confounded the political establishment with support for Brexit and Trump. The world began to wake up to the dangers of uncontrolled migration and the true agenda behind the alarmist climate movement.
As to the year ahead, who really knows what to expect?
The best guess is more of the same. Governments across the globe will look for ways to raise taxes because they refuse to control spending.
We’ll probably have a war on cash, which is also a war on your privacy, as a means of raising revenue. Affordable and reliable power generation could be the biggest political battlefront as the major parties desperately seek to ‘reconnect’ with the disenfranchised.
We will have to wait and see if it works or whether the erosion of faith has gone too far for the current system to be restored.
This will be my last Dose of Common Sense for 2016. I’ll be spending some time with my family in the coming weeks to reflect, be thankful and to plan the year ahead. I’ll be back in touch late January 2017.
Your support is the inspiration that keeps me speaking up for common sense and working to advance our nation. For that I am grateful and I am determined to repay that faith in even greater measure in the New Year.
From my family to yours, may the joy and love and peace of Christmas be with you all.
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
