BEN HARVEY: Even the biggest losers of 2024 deserve a little victory
I’ve crowned the very best and the worst from throughout this year.
Andrew Giles
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.It wouldn’t be a Labor government without an immigration bin fire and Andrew came to the portfolio with matches.
He lost control of the dozens of foreign criminals who were freed from jail after the High Court ruled indefinite detention was cruel and unusual punishment (like listening to an Andrew Giles press conference).
Fatima Payman
The WA senator who was completely anonymous until she crossed the floor to vote with the Greens on a motion accusing Israel of genocide is no longer a Labor MP.
Fatima spent a chunk of 2024 spending a chunk of our money on a “listening tour” of her electorate, where she no doubt heard from the “love it or leave it” punters who didn’t realise who they were voting for when they numbered above the line in 2022.
The Left
Trump-loathing social progressives proved that as well as having bad aim (eight shots and only one ear lobe to show for it?) they had bad political intuition, having failed to get the hint that voters aren’t responding to being yelled at about climate change and transgender politics.
Wayne Swan
We thought Wayne had reached rock bottom when he helped craft the pink batts program when he was treasurer.
Turns out he had a shovel.
In 2024, the relevance-deprived former pollie concentrated so much on attacking Michele Bullock for doing her job that he didn’t realise the superannuation fund he chairs, Cbus, was denying insurance payouts to the hard-working people Wayne professed to champion as a Labor MP.
The CFMEU
When construction union officials weren’t cashing cheques given to them by Cbus, they were recruiting bikies and gangsters to make industrial offers which builders could not refuse.
The subsequent deregistration of the CFMEU showed that its officials, like outlaw motorcycle gangs, are one percenters (in maths, English and whatever other subjects they took in their last year of school, which was probably grade nine).
Kevin Rudd
Australia’s ambassador to the US tried to bleach the internet of disparaging posts he made about Donald Trump but clearly ran out of White King.
Tanya Plibersek
The Federal Environment Minister’s inclusion comes courtesy of her Nature Positive laws, which sought to ensure the environment was left better off after industry raped and pillaged the countryside.
Nobody knew how Tanya was going to achieve this lofty aim (ordering BHP to fill its open-cut mines with potting mix perhaps?), but it wasn’t going to come from a proposed 40km/h speed limit in the Pilbara, which (believe it or not) was considered at one point.
The Environmental Defenders Office
The Government-funded EDO didn’t let facts get in the way of a good story when it blocked Santos’ Barossa gas project — the report used to stymie the development was a work of fiction of which Enid Blyton would be proud.
Santos was able to press ahead, which means governments can continue using oil and gas taxes and royalties to bankroll the EDO’s mission to shut down the oil and gas industry.
Sigh.
Richard White
While Mineral Resources founder Chris Ellison was sprung with his hand in the cookie jar, the creator of Wisetech had his mitts on other treats.
The major shareholder and chief executive of the logistics and software giant was forced out of his own boardroom after offering business advice (with benefits) to young women.
