The "Silence of the Lambs"

Where is the ALP Backbench?

The Desert Rat compliments ALP backbencher Ben Wyatt MLA for his public statement backing The West Australian, the Law Society and the Bar Association's call for contempt of parliament charges to be heard in the Supreme Court.

This follows his recent call for the Carpenter Government to immediately stop using the death traps (commonly known as prisoner transport vehicles) to transport (mainly Aboriginal) prisoners from remote areas over long distances in extremely hot conditions without water and adequate stops.

Wyatt's public comment on the death of Aboriginal Elder Ian Ward earned him a rebuke from lightweight government enforcer Kieran Murphy who the Desert Rat thinks should have been charged under Section 55 of the Criminal Code for threatening a Member of Parliament. The Corruption and Crime Commission will demonstrate its ethical bankruptcy and grovelling fealty to their masters by not taking any action.

Where are the other backbench members of the Australian Labor Party? The public has not heard a peep out of them although Grumpy Jack would suggest a few sexual squeals have been heard in the corridors of power. Forget the speak easy good life of the spiritually bankrupt, the Desert Rat would like to hear them speak-up and speak-out occasionally.

The truth is that they are all shit-scared of their pre-selections and those who control the numbers – particularly the self-appointed Emperor of Western Australia. Hence the eerie silence of these apologies for Labor politicians.

The silence of the lambs is eerie as even those who will get the mutton chop such a Sheila Mills MLC still think they will get a reprieve as they are being led away like lambs to the slaughter - if they keep quiet.

The Labor Party is now a shadow of itself. The internal tensions which were often the strength, are smothered. There is no oxygen in the Australian Labor Party. It is led by a cut-lunch politician Alan Carpenter who has no history or understanding of the ethos of the party and the Socialist Left have complete hegemony and Jim McGinty controls the Socialist Left.

The ALP backbenchers (Wyatt excepted) hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil. Are they all on Prozac?