Monique Ryan has joined Simon Holmes a Court and Zoe Daniel in claiming that Australia already has a hung parliament. This line is not being challenged in the media.
If, like in the Iraq War, the Liberal MPs being hunted by the teal independents could be turned into playing cards, Josh Frydenberg is ace of spades. If defeated in Kooyong by Monique Ryan, he would be the first federal treasurer to lose his seat in 90 years.
But he and Ryan haven’t gone head to head. Ryan wants Frydenberg to join the continuing forums where she has faced off against Labor and Greens candidates. Ryan won’t debate Frydenberg on Channel Nine. There’s an on again, off again confrontation on Sky News. Both candidates have their reasons. It’s getting boring.
Like some other Teals being questioned on who they would support in the event of a hung parliament, Ryan peddles the effective but false line that we already have one. ‘’The Liberal Party government is a minority government being held to ransom by Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan,’’ Ryan told the ABC today.
This echoes false statements by Climate 200 funder Simon Holmes a Court and Goldstein candidate Zoe Daniel. None of these people, we are assured, is co-ordinating their campaigns.
The media fail to challenge this sly notion that the National Party, even while controlling the Liberals, is no more than a random bunch of MPs propping up the Liberals. In reality the Nationals are the Liberals’ formal partner in a coalition and have been for all but a few months since World War II. The line being peddled by these non-aligned candidates lacks, shall we say, integrity.
Mark Sawyer is a journalist with extensive experience in print and digital media in Sydney, Melbourne and rural Australia.