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Bridget McKenzie Calls Transport Chief an ‘Inner-City Lefty’—Because Insults Solve Everything" The Characters: Enter Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, a politician who never met a culture war she didn’t want to escalate. Best known for the Sports Rorts scandal (where funding mysteriously favored Coalition seats—oops), McKenzie has now set her sights on the transport sector.

Her latest target? The head of Infrastructure Australia, Adam Copp, whom she has labeled an “inner-city lefty.” Because, obviously, running a transport agency requires a specific political leaning. The Incident: During a heated Senate hearing, McKenzie went full attack mode on Copp, suggesting he was too “inner-city” to understand the transport needs of rural and regional Australia.

That’s right—because understanding how roads work is clearly a political issue now. She also took issue with Infrastructure Australia’s new direction, claiming it was leaning too much toward sustainability and emissions reduction. How dare they try to future-proof the country! The Context: Australia’s transport infrastructure is a mess.

Cities are clogged, rural areas lack proper investment, and let’s not even start on public transport funding. The government has been pushing for smarter, greener infrastructure projects, but that doesn’t sit well with McKenzie, who appears to believe wind turbines personally insult her. Instead of, say, offering solutions, she went for the classic political move: calling people names.

The Latest: McKenzie’s comments have been met with widespread eye-rolls, with critics pointing out that maybe, just maybe, transport decisions should be based on expertise rather than someone’s perceived political leanings. Copp, for his part, didn’t take the bait, because when someone calls you a “lefty” for trying to improve transport, the best response is probably just...

building better roads anyway.