One of the most irritating sights on the television news is that of a politician holding a shovel, possibly filling a sandbag during a flood, or shifting rubble after a mudslide. It is equally irritating to see politicians shifting rubble after a bushfire or even touring a bushfire region. We all know when we watch […]

One of the most irritating sights on the television news is that of a politician holding a shovel, possibly filling a sandbag during a flood, or shifting rubble after a mudslide. It is equally irritating to see politicians shifting rubble after a bushfire or even touring a bushfire region. We all know when we watch these broadcasts that the politician has the shovel in hand for nothing more than a few minutes. Few if any of them are actually doing any work. They are just doing a grab for the camera. How cynical! We all know that when they tour the bushfire regions, there is nothing they can really learn that their advisors couldn’t tell them, there is nothing that they can see that they can do anything about and there are very few issues they can solve, that they could not solve back in their offices. It is all…