It’s been a long time coming, but yesterday I think our politicians hit the bottom of the barrel – but they somehow seem always to be able to head further south.

The ABC reported an outraged Peter Reith and ran a clip of him being interviewed wherein he said that he was encouraged to run for the leadership of the Liberal party by none other than Tony Abbott – only to have Abbot abandon him and lose the contest by one vote.  The TV footage of Tony smarmingly showing his voting paper to whatever his name is who was the incumbent (recumbent) showed naked skullduggery as far as I can see.  Reith was ropable and embarrassed to the max.  Ouch !  Poor diddums.

So to get square, Pete threatened to talk up Workchoices 2 – guaranteed to lose Tony the unlosable election coming.  Nice.  Party solidarity.

The sad thing is that there was no surprise here.  I for one have come to expect no less than lying, cheating and whatever-it-takes to gain and hold power behaviour from Tony and his team. I described the lower primate as “a shit sandwich” – and got away with it in the olden days of Unleashed.  The other half of the quip was that it didn’t matter how Tony changed the bread – the exterior appearance –  the contents always stayed the same.

Worse than that, it’s the state of play for Labor as well.  Kevin had his little snit with the proposed anniversary of “when I was knifed – a sitting PM assassinated” party, put on hold on advice from large men in dark glasses.

I have seen some serious political shit go down in my 40 years as a NSW voter.  For a while I put my trade union son political beliefs into gear, joined the ALP, went to branch meetings (despite the risk of actual physical harm), voted on resolutions that went no effing where, handed out how to vote cards at election times and did my share of scrutineering.  I had the dubious pleasure of seeing their woman (Dawn Fraser) do our man (Peter Crawford) like a dinner.  It was a salutary lesson.  Peter was a one parliament parliamentarian.  So, it turns out was Dawn.  She was and is a much loved local identity and a trusted NRMA board member.  Both took their defeats on the chin and retired gracefully.  Not a  sore loser in sight.

But those were the days when people who ran for office actually believed in something other than their own self-interest and the headlong rush to grab power at any cost.

Stephanie Dowrick wrote in her 2004 Book ” Free Thinking” a few hundred words on public and private lying – and the corrosive effect of both.  She talked about how it has become the norm and that bare-faced lying or as we have come to know it “offering non-core promises” hardly raises an eyebrow.  Children Overboard, Reith’s mobile phone, No GST and the latest “No carbon tax” fiasco and reversal after reversal of policy as a matter of expediency if the polls even threatened to head south  are all de rigeur today.

But not for me.  I have had it with the big parties.  I just don’t know about the Greens or the independents.  I was imagining a day when parties become banned and that all elected representatives have to be independent.  Did I hear a wail of “that way NOTHING would ever get through the parliament” ?  Are you reaching for your favourite Steve Fielding non-sequitur or some pure and simple Bob Katter madness ?  OK, you win.

Maybe a party-free every vote-is-a-conscience vote still is a better approach than the useless abuse and character assassinations that we see so often filling up our governments’ sitting time.  It’s a disgrace.  I’ve had enough.  Time for Ten Gallon Bob and the rest to do us all a favour, take their hats and head off into the sunset.