Drain the swamp, Australian edition

Trump did it in Washington. Musk is doing it in Silicon Valley. It’s our turn to take on the bureaucratic beast devouring Australia!

QUICK READ, THE ARICLE IN DOT POINT FORM.

• Bureaucratic Waste and Hypocrisy: While normal Australians struggle with the cost of living crisis, bureaucrats continue to waste public money on extravagances like $20,000 desks, lavish ceremonies, and unnecessary programs.

• Major Party Failure: Both Labor and Liberal governments share a culture of fiscal irresponsibility, with no meaningful distinction between them when it comes to wasting taxpayer money.

• Broken Promises from PM Albanese: Prime Minister Albanese’s pledges of transparency and fiscal restraint are contrasted with extravagant spending on failed initiatives like the Voice referendum and over a billion dollars for the woke ABC.

• Call for Accountability and Reform: Senator Babet highlights President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to “drain the swamp” as examples of confronting bureaucratic excess, suggesting Australia needs similar disruption, even proposing a Department of Government Efficiency.

• Political Call to Action: The piece concludes with a rallying cry for Australians to reject the entrenched two party system, demand real reform, and back disruptive alternatives to save Australia.

Isn’t it amazing how the cost of living crisis seems to affect everybody apart from our bureaucrats…

While the Australian people are struggling to pay their bills, there seems to be more than enough money for bureaucrats to order hand-crafted desks costing tens of thousands of dollars.

And what do our bureaucrats do with a $20,000 desk? They put it in storage!

I wish I was joking. But that little story, revealed in the news not long ago, is just the latest example of government excess.

And here’s the scary part. We are now so accustomed to government waste that people aren’t even surprised anymore.

That desk was commissioned under a Liberal government, and it was put into storage under the Albanese government. Liberal, Labor – they’re both the same.

Your money, Monopoly money – neither of them can tell the difference anymore.

Prime Minister Albanese came to office promising fiscal responsibility while splurging $450 million of your money on a referendum that we all knew would fail.

The PM promised that he would deliver a more transparent and kinder government, I am yet to see it.

Is it any wonder the public service plays fast and loose with our tax dollars when those at the top spend like a drunken sailor? The only difference between these bureaucrats and a drunken sailor is that they never sober up.

The government pumps more than a billion dollars a year into the ABC despite the fact it is losing viewers.

The government finds $600 million down the back of the couch to fund a football team in Port Moresby.

And, to add insult to injury, government approved departments spent a lazy $450,000 on Welcome to Country ceremonies over the past two years.

But like I said, none of this is a surprise. It barely raises an eyebrow anymore. We have become so accustomed to our money being wasted that we are only surprised when it is not.

Trump won in a landslide by promising to ‘drain the swamp’ and to cut excess spending in the public service, and to his credit he has done just that.

Within a month of taking office he put Elon Musk in charge of DOGE, to root out the waste, and the results were astonishing.

We’ve been astonished not only by the scale of waste but by the visceral reaction from bureaucrats upset that suddenly their use of public money is being scrutinised.

Their fury at being asked to explain their spending only goes to show how public servants in the US had come to believe it was their money they were spending, rather than the public’s.

I have no doubt the same attitude exists here in Australia.

We desperately need a Department of Government Efficiency. But would you trust anyone in the major parties to run it?

The Coalition was in power for nine years, during that time they expanded rather than reduced the size of government. We know by experience that the Liberals are no different from Labor.

Leader of the Liberal Party Sussan Ley. I nearly died of cringe looking at this picture.

If the Coalition eventually wins the election, and if they are given the task of cracking down on government waste, we may see some improvement around the edges, but the results will be marginal. After all, why would they investigate themselves and reveal the waste that they were equally responsible for?

For real change, we need a disruptor. That’s what Trump has done. That’s what Elon Musk has provided. That’s the only way meaningful change will ever occur.

And that is our challenge at the next federal election. More of the same won’t cut it. We must continue to challenge the status quo and to push back against what we are told is and is not possible.

Make no mistake, if we keep voting for either Labor or Liberal then absolutely nothing will change

We have a long way to go, but together we can save Australia.

Senator Ralph Babet, Senator for Victoria, United Australia Party.