Show trial time

Tony Abbott ordered cabinet documents to go to royal commission | World news | theguardian.com

Have I complained before about the vindictive, abuse of political power that's inherent in the Abbott government's Royal Commission into the "pink batts" scheme.

This inquiry is a farce.  We know what happened politically - insufficient heed was paid to warnings that better regulation of installers would be wise before a heap of money being made available to anyone who set up an installation business. The circumstances of each individual death were the subject of enquiries already.  Nothing more is to be learnt about them.

There is nothing to be gained from this inquiry.  No government in the next 30 years is going to forget what happened with the pink batts scheme, and it is a disingenuous attempt to cause political pain to Labor, made even more pointless by the fact the main people involved at the time have all left politics.  As with communist countries, though, the urge for renunciation and "show trials" of previous leaders seems to strike Tony Abbott as a good idea.

Of course families of the deceased will welcome it - the desire to ventilate all possible blame for a relative's accidental death is strong and lasts for years and years, especially with parents.   But a wise government does not seek to accommodate this essentially emotional reaction.

In fact, let's face it - Lefties love to call out right wingers as "fascists" and this is normally over the top and silly. But with the Abbott government, with its embrace of militarism as a solution to a civil problem, and its preparedness to hold show trials into previous government leaders, it actually is the closest look to a fascist  government we have ever had.