For­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has crit­i­cised the cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion’s han­dling of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, de­scrib­ing the gov­ern­ment’s crime plan as a rolling “state of emer­gency” based on “pub­lic ma­nip­u­la­tions”. Dr Row­ley not­ed that those now in pow­er once mocked his ef­forts to treat vi­o­lent crime as a pub­lic health is­sue.

“Id­iots and the crim­i­nal­ly charged are in gov­ern­ment,” Dr Row­ley wrote in a so­cial me­dia post, adding that sev­er­al gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials “bring noth­ing good to the ta­ble ex­cept ha­tred and bias”. He ar­gued that lead­er­ship is now viewed as an “en­ti­tle­ment” used to pro­tect cor­rupt prac­tices.

“This then be­comes the coun­try, as hope shriv­els and faith in the fu­ture is lost. When that hap­pens, the qual­i­ty of life for the whole pop­u­la­tion di­min­ish­es,” Dr Row­ley said.