Adam Marshall called it out this week when the state member for Northern Tablelands described the present situation in Canberra as "toxic".
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That's a start, I guess, even to recognise that Australia has a serious problem at the peak of our national government.
But what can be done about it? Surely, that's the most important thing, because many people in the country are suffering -- from crippling debt, rising cost of living, unemployment and declining services. And all those people need a helping hand from Canberra, not a backhander across the face.
Mr Marshall's solution is to stay away from Canberra. Well, he might be able to do that but we can't. We're stuck with the toxic mess in our capital city.
Coincidentally, the federal member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, was explaining to a Four Corners interviewer that the chaos in Canberra last week arose from the simple fact that Parliament House is full of politicians – all ego, ambition and power, as he described it -- with the clear inference being that you can only expect the worst from such people. And, therefore, that's what you got.
When I saw that interview I was not only gobsmacked by Mr Joyce's cynicism, but also by his complete lack of interest in doing anything about the toxicity poisoning our national life.
So, at a time when even a Nationals' state member can recognise the crisis in Canberra, yet only wants to steer well clear of it himself, Barnaby Joyce complacently accepts that such behaviour is par for the course.
It might be par for the course in Barnaby's toxic opinion, but it's not par for the course in mine.
I ask: Is there anybody out there willing to put cynicism and self-interest aside and stand up for the mass of Australians, 25 million ordinary people, who look to their national government for leadership, not a toxic swamp?