In the week the nation was celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the High Court’s historic Mabo native title decision, the Leader of the National Party Warren Truss went into the Parliament and asserted:

“Labor is fond of boasting that there is $500 billion worth of projects in the pipeline.  Yes, they are in the pipeline and they are stuck there.  The pipeline is choked.  It is blocked up by government red tape and green tape and black tape and it needs a good decent flush out.”

HANSARD – 31 MAY 2012

 Less than two hours earlier Tony Abbott had been at the very same dispatch box reassuring Indigenous Australians and the wider community that:

 “I rise to join the Prime Minister in acknowledging the 20^th anniversary of the Mabo decision, which really created native title in Australia.  I also acknowledge that it was not universally welcomed at the time, but it is now seen by everyone, including former critics, as a very important milestone in the recognition of the first Australians.”

HANSARD – 31 MAY 2012

Once again, the Federal Coalition was trying to have it both ways.  Is there no convention, tradition, institution or national occasion that they won’t play politics with – or worse still, trash in their naked pursuit of power?