The law is straightforward. If you denigrate or demean the work of a Royal Commission, or indeed a Royal Commissioner, you risk being slapped behind bars. Not that it will ever occur, but the legal reality is that a bevy of Labor and Greens politicians, a thuggery (this journal prides itself on its original collective nouns) of union officials and a motley claque of Fairfax, ABC and other journalists, deserve to be cooling their heels in the not-too-distant-future at Her Majesty’s pleasure – or at least slapped with a hefty fine. Never before has a Royal Commissioner faced such denigration on such a flimsy premise.

The farce of the last few weeks, in which those under scrutiny by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption (that’d be a fair chunk of the entire mob), have sought to bully, harass and intimidate Dyson Heydon QC into stepping down because of his ‘apprehended bias’, is an appropriate metaphor for the crippled state of our nation’s public political discourse. Time and again, frivolous distractions from the serious issues facing our nation are pounced upon by the leftist media (and its deformed twin, ‘social’ media) like rabid dogs tearing apart a helpless kitten.

Let’s just add them up. While matters such as the state of our economy, the economic turbulence in China, the collapse of Greece, the global outlook for our minerals and exports, the turmoil throughout Europe as asylum seekers flee the hellish nightmare of Islamist wars, and other such issues should be troubling our minds, the majority of this nation’s media and many of its politicians have concentrated their efforts (and therefore the nation’s attention) on such inane frivolities as Bronwyn Bishop’s helicopter ride, Adam Goodes being booed, Dyson Heydon’s non-speech, twitter-induced hysteria about people being randomly stopped in Melbourne’s streets to show their visas, the tiresome faux rage over gay marriage, indigenous recognition, phony and implausible renewable energy targets, and now the push for a republic (see Flint and Davis in this issue). Throw in Senator Dastyari’s disingenuous stoush over how multinational corporations can structure themselves to best maximise their profits, as well as the Luddite union-funded advertising campaign attacking the China Free Trade deal and thereby threatening untold numbers of jobs and potential enterprises, and we really have become the Dopey Country.

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe far away from the twitter threads the Abbott government attempts to get on with completing the tasks it was elected to do; namely to get our budget back in order, to stimulate growth and to create real (as opposed to taxpayer-funded) employment opportunities. The boats have stopped. Tick. The carbon and mining taxes are gone. Tick.

Ultimately, people get the governments they deserve. The risk for Australia is that we have become addicted to the relentless adrenaline-rush of our fatuous, confected media and social-media driven sense of outrage and alarm. John Howard was correct when he pinpointed ‘relaxed and comfortable’ as worthy goals. Little did he realise back then just how agitated and anxious we were capable of becoming. ‘Distraught and distracted’ would appear to be the new, self-inflicted national mood.

Sunshine state?

Where the likes of Bob Carr like to froth about the ‘Jewish Lobby’, the truth is that Labor are increasingly being seduced by the Anti-Israel Lobby. (It goes without saying that the Greens threw in their lot with this mob ages ago). In doing so, they are prostrating themselves before the false god of a unilaterally recognised Palestinian ‘state’.

This week, Queensland Labor joined the fray, passing a resolution to immediately recognise a Palestinian state without appropriate guarantees. Vice-president Wendy Turner mischievously cited the ‘persecution’ of the Palestinians. To her credit, Tanya Plibersek rejected the call.

As was argued in last week’s issue, recognition of Palestine without a peace treaty with Israel will see an Islamist entity on the West Bank (one already exists in Gaza) condemning Palestinians to lives of poverty and terror. It’s bad enough that Palestinians have to suffer the job losses caused by the BDS movement – this week, France’s Veolia pulled out of Israel – without having to look forward to life under a group of Islamofascists. Is this really what Queenslanders want?