Shorter Julie Bishop: Oh, you poor dear children, isn’t it terrible that political activists have hijacked your Rock Eisteddfod with anti-war messages when I know how much nicer everything would be if you performed something cheery?
Julie Bishop’s idea of a good Rock Eistedfodd entry.
Image Credit: digital manipulation by Gummo Trotsky
In the same article we also have a blurt from the NSW Opposition Spokesman for Tut-tutting How Free Expression Embarrasses Democratic Governments. Shorter Andrew Stoner isn’t required, as he is hoists himself on his own petard quite pithily:
“To be sending this overtly left-wing political message during the APEC meeting, is not only unwise, frankly it can be embarrassing for us as Australians,” he said.
Stoner went further: demanding that Iemma should just step in and cancel a performance involving thousands of schoolchildren from dozens of schools and that has been scheduled for this date since last year, just because George Bush has decided to arrive in Australia a few days early.
I’m a first-time Rocka parent this year, not from Davidson High School, but I can tell you that our school heaved a sigh of relief initially that the NSW Grand Final would not clash with the APEC meeting when the APEC meeting was first announced. The groans when we heard Bush was arriving early were heartfelt – was it going to affect us getting to the venue on time? Yes, probably, on a day when our kids are already going to be up before sparrows fart to pack up props, sets and costumes, then do a day of dress rehearsal before the evening performance, and then go back to school and unpack the trucks, finishing after midnight.
Nobody, absolutely nobody, wanted this performance to happen when Bush/APEC was in town. But if it were cancelled as Stoner suggests, when the hell is it going to be rescheduled to? How much extra rehearsal and disruption of already jampacked school schedules is it going to involve?
As to Bishop’s nonsense, with her doggedly repeated soundbite during her interview with Virginia Trioli this morning that the show was “meant to be” about promoting a healthy, drug-free lifestyle and that she was “concerned” that politics was being dragged into it, I’ve rarely heard a more infantilising piece of codswallop. She is totally buying into the common but strange idea that somehow kids become blank slates as soon as they put a school uniform on, and that anything they express as students must have come from a teacher rather than from themselves synthesising their interactions with family, friends and other cultural influences as well as their schooling. Doesn’t the Minister’s confidence in your integration of your education give you warm fuzzies, kids?
Her suggestion that this school has a particularly strong political agenda (implying that it’s tied to the teachers involved in Rocka) indicates that she doesn’t actually watch the Rock Eisteddfod entries if she thinks that politics and war have only ever been touched by this one school this year and in 2004: many people rang into Trioli’s show to discuss previous entries showcasing Hiroshima, Nazis, WWI, Vietnam etc. This year our school’s piece has a political theme about environmentalism. Last year the piece was an adaptation of a feelgood heartwarmer Hollywood classic. Previous years have been as varied as possible, with politics featuring every three or four years because politics is topical. Our school doesn’t do politics every year, and neither does any other school, because no school wants to be the school that the judges think “oh no, here we go again with the same old thing” about.
A Davidson High parent rang and told Trioli that before the show was decided upon all the teachers and parents were consulted because of the furore about the previous show, and encouraged to fully discuss the issue. The school body voted to go ahead: this is not a case of a rogue teacher imposing his views upon captive drama students. A student even rang Trioli to attest that the prime Rocka teacher has been very careful to distinguish between the politics of the piece and the students forming their own political views independently of the performance, and that she actually felt that the chance to discuss how that separation of work from politics is possible was a valuable lesson all on its own for someone like her who didn’t fully support the politics of the piece. Someone else rang in to complain that as a lifelong Liberal voter she was tired of being told that disagreeing about anything with the current government made her “overtly left wing”.
I don’t have a snappy finish to this post. I’m too vexed.
[...] crossposted [...]
I had to turn off the radio while I was listening to Bishop in the car this morning. In a mixture of anger and embarrassment that Bishop is the Federal Minister for Education, I was frightened that I would be the cause of a road accident.
The interview was actually a classic of the genre, with Trioli for once asking all the right questions, and at one stage being told by Bishop in the sternest of tones “Don’t tell me what I’m thinking’.
I wish there was a transcript. She is an embarrassment of the highest order.
The current right wing view on this is the same one we knew and loved in those old Mickey Rooney movies, “Hey kids, lets put on a show” all happy talk and no intrusion of the real world as we know it. It’s like some imagined 1950′s dreamland for them with no intrusion of modern realities into their world view.
I’ve just hosted a couple of 18 year olds from the UK just about to enter Uni, and let me say that thank heavens that their sarcasm meters are finely tuned for this kind of political buffoonery, and any buffonery, including that of teachers and parents and their friends.
The kids are fine and they will think for themselves anyway no matter what Bishop and her ilk may like to impress upon them.
So the values of democracy are to be denied to Australian students when George Bush, allegedly an exemplar of promoting such values world wide, is in town. Hmmm.
Does anyone know where I can get a new irony meter? Bishop and Stoner have broken mine.
Julie Bishop should get a Green Card & work as a fill in for Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly….she’s got finger-pointing, making mind numbingly stupid comments, and diversionary tactics down to an art form.
Nicely put & appropriately passionate tig tog…luv the pic…:)
How DARE kids have — gasp — an OPINION!
Bishop’s kid-disrespectin’ is infuriating.
Top post, tigtog. Good to see some righteous anger!
I don’t get the idea that it’s horrendous that kids might have political views – this from the same government that bemoans the dearth of knowledge about Australian history and politics. And I think it’s patronising to suggest that teachers implant those views. Their real complaint is that teachers aren’t a bunch of Howard supporters in cardigans implanting approved views!
Make sure no-one shows Bishop the classic Busby Berkeley choreographed Hollywood musical “Golddiggers of 33″, with it’s opening number – Ginger Rogers singing “We’re in the money” dressed in a gold* coin costume at the height of the great depression. Oh dear, those Hollywood leftists** and their frothy, but topical, light escapist entertainment! She’d blow a gasket!
* I assume it’s gold, after all, it’s a B&W movie.
** The sort of thing that McCarthy wanted to root out.
Now that’d be a routine. Rommel’s Ghost and the Atomic Nazis meet Ho Chi Minh. Cue the kids on stage, entering through some helicopter blades to the sound of Wagner, or maybe the Doors.
‘K’n awesome.
pretty good name for a band, right there.
I love watching the Rock Eisteddfod. It’s excellent entertainment value with all the unintended hilarity of white, white girls dressing up as geisha with accompanying gong music, and the obligatory boys’ school Nazi and/or ANZAC routine. The first time I made Mr Vane watch it (not being from ’round these parts) he thought it was the Best Thing Ever.
And Julie Bishop’s opinion seems to be similar to Downer’s: any teenager with leftist sympathies is being brainwashed by teachers and/or union officials. (Because we all know teenagers are nature’s conservatives.)
I teach a primary school class of grade five and six students. I like to think that I show no bias whatsoever during our (frequent) political discussions and I can assure you that my kids’ political opinions are strong and reasoned enough without my help.
Some years ago one school here in Adelaide did Roger Water “Another Brick in the Wall” using the Berlin wall as the motif.
That was “OK” I guess.
So … an “anti-war” theme in a Rock Eistedford is an “overtly left-wing political message”?
WTF happened while I was asleep?
Did the kids send an invitation to the White House, maybe?
They should’ve.
If only there was a female equivalent of Wilson Tuckey! Now there is a left wing assault on good sense ,if you have ever seen it!?! Telling Howard he should retire! And although the other Bishop isnt Left-wing I always thought she had a bit of spunk. Which leads me too,the fifteen year-old gay from near Woollongong,you dont think this stirred a hornets nest for being in the SMH? And on the radio primary school principals feel overwhelmed by responsibilities..I can attest to that..in N.S.W. at least, because of a brother who works for the Dept. The government has passed all the hard bucks to School Staff,and just dont encourage them to go for a walk together when the whole school is disturbed. Instead School Principals heading for the shrink for a head change is ,well, over governed malaise. My brother whose readings at times have been major headshrinks ,philosophers,even Napoleon Hill, finds it a bit disturbing himself sometimes,and a smarter handyman-gardener-general assistant etc. they will not find on the Education payroll. I think teachers and Principals are victims of the meritorious Academic streams they invariably belong to. Add the bean-counter requirements,and well!? And the very unpopular Geo.W. Bush is still beyond criticism akin to and similar from people more well to do than a school..according to the dictates of a Julie Bishop.
Not sure I see what the fuss is here. Sounds to me like the system at large is working splendidly, and the kids will learn a valuable lesson for their adult lives: political speech never exists in a vacuum.
Look at it this way. Some kids at a rock show decide they’re going to use the show as a platform for their (quite literally) adolescent anti-war message, and then their political opponents quite unsurprisingly smack back at them with whatever tools and cat’s-paws they have at their disposal. It all sounds quaintly like something sort of familiar… oh yeah, politics.
If you want to make a political statement, you can’t expect your opposites to forfeit the right of response. Congratulations, boys and girls: you’re now officially enrolled in UCLA (the University on the Corner of Lexington Avenue). See y’all at the voting booths in a few years time, and good onya.
Like Burt Reynolds said in that movie about the safecrackers, We learn by doing. What’s the problem?
btw, “Rommel’s Ghost and the Atomic Nazis meet Ho Chi Minh.” As names for rock bands go, you can also splice it to get Nazis Meet Ho. Like Lou Reed said in a slightly different context, The possibilities are endless…
Obviously Ms Bishop hasn’t considered the likely response from said patronised minors.
Anyone tried being patronising with an adolescent recently? You’d have to have a death wish.
You’re missing the fact, j_p_z, that the context for the “political statement” being made by the kids is a high school competition. It’s not as if they’re protesting on Macquarie St. They’re not trying to start a debate with Ministers or George W. Bush.
“the context for the â??political statementâ?? being made by the kids is a high school competition. Itâ??s not as if theyâ??re protesting on Macquarie St. Theyâ??re not trying to start a debate with Ministers or George W. Bush.”
Mark, I can’t see how that makes any difference. I reckon someone like, say, Anna Akhmatova woulda been roundly exasperated if someone dismissed her context as “only” poetry. The kids made a political statement, and they attracted more political flak than they bargained for; I think they should relish the engagement, not shrink from it, or complain. Are they demanding the ancient right of adolescents everywhere, never to have your pronouncements contradicted or belittled? If so, they will remain adolescents. The way to becoming a grownup is to study the fight, and participate keenly, not curl into a ball over it.
Just registered it!
Heaven forbid that GW Bush should arrive in Australia to find out that not all Australians agree with his WOT.
JPZ, you’re missing the point entirely. They haven’t performed it yet – the free exchange of ideas you claim to laud is being stifled by attempts to have the performance put off until your Dear Leader has left our shores.
Presumably they’re worried he can’t defend himself politically against a high-school dance class?
j_p_z; the point is that the minister has plenty of form on this issue. I am sure the kids can defend themselves just fine, the issue is the quality of the Minister and just what the Federal Government’s actual education policy agenda actually is.
As the NSW education minister Della-Bosca says;
Morris Iemma Puts the Head Prefect in her place
“I think she can take a leaf out of George Bush’s book,” he said.
“I’ve seen George Bush many times on television and I’ve heard him say that he believes in people’s free speech.
“I don’t think George Bush would want any intervention by a state or Commonwealth minister that would curtail the right of those students to make their point.”
Brilliant! What a wedgie!
Thanks for that Frank.
j_p_z, I agree with others that you’re missing the point. I’m sure the students expected their piece to be controversial and to be criticised, and were ready for that. What they didn’t expect in a democracy is for there to be calls for their performance to be censored in the name of not offending “the Leader of the Free World”.
Certainly parents like me didn’t expect the Federal Education Minister to tell us that politics is not meant to be part of our offspring’s schooling.
I meant to add: thanks for the Iemma quote, Frank. Sometimes he does get it right.
“Presumably they’re worried he can’t defend himself politically against a high-school dance class?”
I think that worry would be entirely justified. Now that Rove’s gone, maybe George can hire Jennifer Beals to defend him from the evil leg-warmers of Teh Left.
“attempts to have the performance put off until your Dear Leader has left our shores.”
Well that’s just utterly zany. But then again, so much the better, from the kids’ POV! I’d say. Now they have a great chance to make the government look ridiculous as it cowers and runs away from a pop-gun. The possibility to make the government’s war policies look ridiculous by simple association (George Bush’s sensitive ears can’t bear a teenage rock show! Now there’s a gift from the gods) should be pounced on: after all, it was their original point, right? This is what I mean, man. Education is where you find it.
What is this, a band name competition?
She would rather they all became members of the Bishop Youth
Well I have to admit I didn’t understand before that there were actually threats to shut the show down (!?!). So now, my two big questions are:
1. Does the threat of censorship have any actual credibility here, or is it just more posturing?, and
2. Man, where the hell is P.J. Soles when you need her? This sounds like a second-act complication straight out of “Rock and Roll High School”!
Let me see if I got this straight. Principal Frumplemeyer is conspiring with Minister Snidely to shut down the big rock show on homecoming weekend, out of fear that it might ruin the official visit from President Stiffington.
Well, clearly there’s only one thing to do: some misfit kid who looks a little bit like Tom Hulce needs to hone his leadership skills, get all the kids and the Ramones together, and hold the show right across the street at Old Man Bierbelley’s used-car dealership (special guest appearance: Rodney Dangerfield) using his crappy old Chevys as a makeshift stage, and blaring their big anti-war rock song through his broken-down old P.A. system; then all hell breaks loose just as President Stiffington is about to cut the ceremonial ribbon for the unveiling of the new equestrian statue at snooty Pricedale Academy. (It turns out Rodney D. and the Prez went to boarding school together back in the day, and Rodney secretly relishes this chance to settle an old grudge.) Meanwhile Tom Hulce gets the girl, somehow a bunch of pigs, horses and chimpanzees escape, and a fat crazy kid from the stoner dormitory manages to drive a stolen tank right into the middle of Minister Snidely’s private zoo! And then at the end, P.J. takes her top off with her back to the camera, while a bunch of teenage boys get cross-eyed and faint.
Don’t you people know how to do *anything*?
Margaret Thatcher on steroids, Madam Defarge or a cross between Lucretia Borgia and a Prussian Sergeant Major. Let’s not forget the Bishop form when it comes to schoolchildren wearing hijabs.
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1448343.htm
Freedom of expression as defined in that statement is clearly not one of Bishop’s strong points, and the allusion to facism is apt when applied to her.
Her definition of “freedom” appears consistently to be that of censorship and squashing of all dissent to her own ideas. This nauseating virago screeches that everybody different or in dissent has an “agenda” against her and her ilk.
Scumbaggery and political filth of the highest order: take a bow Bronwyn, the attempted hijacker is you.
One of mine in the spaminator tigtog.
Peter Kemp, you’ve got the wrong Bishop, I think. The Muslim comments were made by Bronwyn, not Julie.
Ah, never mind, I didn’t refresh before I posted!
oh wah wah wah, big international embarrassment because kids happen to perform an act that has a negative take on Bush. Seriously.
The idea is to get a topical script that will get a lot of attention. Clearly this has been a success. Just because the students are performing a good, attention-grabbing script doesnâ??t mean itâ??s their personal opinion. Thatâ??s why itâ??s called â??performingâ??. Clearly some rightwingers donâ??t understand this concept.
The ABC news made the point that it’s tame compared to the way Bush is mocked every night on America TV talk shows.
You’re quite right Harriet, my mistake so the facism can be shared between them.
(I think with the 2 of them what we have is a division called a Bishopric.)
JPZ, I like your thinking. But it needs a few extras:
1. A garage scene where the tinkerers w/ angle grinders and tig welders turn on Larry’s brother’s cousin’s prized new car for the big showdown.
2. The S1W borrowed from a Public Enemy concert, alternatively, the Illinois Nazis from the Blues Brothers or the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse from Raising Arizona.
3. Someone getting thrown into some kind of pond, lake, river, bathtub, or other body of water.
4. Toga.
5. Toga!
6. TOGA!
My god, I knew that eventually John Della-Bosca would make a worthwhile contribution to public discussion.
It’s a terrific point though when you think about it – Howard’s lousy mob has been the collective ministry-for-putting-shit-on-public-schools. And since about 70% of kids go to public schools, it’s maybe one more reason why so many people have had it up to here with the condescending elitist pricks.
Nice post tigtog, you gave voice to sentiments I felt but couldn’t find a way to articulate.
Oh and thank goodness that Techno version of Carmen isn’t heard these days.
And this wikiipedia entry illustrates why The Head Prefect hates Pulic Schools.
And wasn’t even born in WA the traitor.
Liam, I’m pretty sure that the manicured grounds of snooty Pricedale Academy are positively brimming with wells, swimming pools, jacuzzis, koi ponds, and other improbable bodies of water that various stuffed-shirts can keep falling and/or getting thrown into, especially once the monkeys escape and go on a rampage. Why exactly they were keeping that many monkeys on-site at a private boarding school has not been carefully explained, however. Maybe it has something to do with the eccentric will of Pricedale’s original founder, Nathaniel Jonas Pricedale, portrayed in a 19th-century flashback by Norman Fell in a peruke.
I particularly like the idea of borrowing the tedious fascist S1Ws for a cameo duet with the Ramones. (or, if you really meant Chuck’s actual car, it was the 98-O, but that works, too.) In an amusing reversal of the tiresome scene where the Funky Soul Brotha (or Sista) teaches the uptight honkies how to Get On Down, I think it would be funny if Johnny Ramone taught the S1Ws how to mellow out and chill. Then they all do a soothing acoustic-guitar version of “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” in four-part harmony, and then Dee Dee joins Chuck and Flavor Flav onstage at the used-car lot for a multicultural rendition of “You’re Gonna Get Yours” while Rodney Dangerfield splits his pants trying to break-dance and drink a can of Schlitz at the same time.
Problem solved! What were we talking about again?
For mine it’d be Beck’s Mexico, but then that’s just me and my -sigh- generation. I’m breaking out my copy of Gangland for the emergent Culture Wars thread (you’ll know what I mean, and forgive me, Mark and Rob). Take it away, grungiste:
j_p_z , you gotta understand. Orstraylia is full of forelock tuggers and hand-wringing indecisives and scaredy cats. More so these days. Even the children, man.
Message to Frank Calabrese: I’m in Perth and if you’re down Fremantle way I’d like to meet and say hi. LP has my permission to pass on my email address, so I guess ask Mark.
Don’t get too excited. It’s the blogosphere mate.
Oh fuck it, let’s go the whole hog here.
How about a musicial pisstake of musicals called “The Deciders”.
A suggested songlist.
Those Folks Are Gonna Hear From Us.
Fuq Iraq.
Let Me Distract You.
45 Minutes.
Stuff Happens.
Bring It On.
Dead Dead Dead Deadenders.
Purple Fingers.
There Is A Light At The End Of The Tunnel.
The Surge.
Let Me Distract You (Reprise).
“Today a land war in central Asia, tomorrow…a land war in central Asia.”
CHristine: I’ve sent an email to Mark re your request
Now back to the topic at hand – I wonder if any of this years schools are using Midnight Oil songs in their soundtracks ? If so, the Head Prefect would be crying the ALP are secretly recruiting members.
Nooooooo …..
Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia!
Oh and here are the pictures of the piece which has offended the Head Prefect, and most likely Superintendent
ChalmersBush“SKINNER”BISHOPPPPPPPPP !!!Damn Frank, judging from those pics, those kid are putting on a very biased and ill-mannered show… with great style and very professional values.
I reckon there could be at least one potential Jim Sharman and Nell Campbell lurking among those spotty enthuastic adolescents – who could well go on to do far more for our balance of payments and international cred than any Clayton Utz fixer turned RoboMinister.
You ever met Julie Bishop in person? I have several times now and it is really like CSIRO’s Skunk Works were black funded to create a Stepford Minister. I am not kidding. In conversation, there is a three to five second pause before everything she says, when you can hear the valves and relays switching on and clicking over, and then her response is spooled out word perfect, without an um or an ar, and completely free of any original content.
It’s not just me who feels this way. Everyone from journos to pollies and their fixers and minders across party lines say she gives them the creeps too. Or as an old mate of mine who’s now a Liberal Party press sec once told me “she makes Tracy Flick look like Denise Drysdale.”
“I reckon there could be at least one potential Jim Sharman and Nell Campbell lurking among those spotty enthuastic adolescents…”
I dunno, it all looked frightfully more like Peter Schumann country to me. (GRIMACES)
Hey, look everybody! It’s the San Francisco Mime Troupe! And –gee whiz!– look who’s with them, our old pals the Bread and Puppet Theatre, with their brand spanking new glittering revue, “Genocide Is Bad”! What luck! But, oh… you know what, damn, I just remembered, I have an appointment today to have all my teeth pulled. And Dr. Leatherface would be so inconvenienced if I was late. Another day for sure, though, mmkay?
What would Vsevolod Meyerhold do
If he was here right now?
I’m sure he’d kick an ass or two,
That’s what Vsevolod Meyerhold’d do.
I think Bishop’s doing the kids a favour.
How can amateur theatricals possibly compete with a troupe of “world leaders” prancing about in Australia’s nation costume of budgie smugglers and Aussie Flag Towel Capes? The kids would be blown off the boards. They’re just not ready for prime time weirdness.
Heh. I’m sure a few forced readings in Room 101 will have you watching Big Brother with respect and love, PC. Take it away,
DavisO’Brien:(That’s in the intro, p(xv) of my Allen & Unwin 1997 edition). The Youngish Turk was ahead of his time, a potential snarky blog commenter at the same time anticipating a need and demonstrating the required sense of disingenuous sanctimony.
How many fingers do you see, four or five?
I’ll put together a house band. Donnie R and the Known Unknowns?
How about:
Bin there, done that: Battle of Tora Bora (The Musical)
or
Seven Bin Ladens for Seven Bushes
Two things with Bishop.
Firstly, these people are not to be underestimated. If they get their way we’ll all be living in the sort of information void that historians like to conjecture Victorian England as having been like( table cloths to cover the legs of the table to stop bad thoughts, sort of thing ).
And they ARE getting there. Amanda Meade in the OZ was bemoaning the latest win for the yuppies in chief at the ABC, in shutting down the ABC documentaries division and opined on the likelihood of children’s programs being next.
Bishop is churlish because of the news out of massive price hikes in uni degrees on her watch and because her appalling Partridge Family-era fashion tastes have been exposed by Gillard.
“Long and lanky; thin and cranky” as my ol’ mum used to say.
But don’t fail to realise that this sort of nastiness is all that’s needed to radicalise students. I know from personal experience, from being berated a commo in an unprovoked classroom attack by a teacher during the Vietnam war era.
Long live teh chairman mao!
Long live teh trots!
Here is the Head Prefect inAction at a local Primary School in her Electorate where she is handing over a
Barrel of PorkSeed Funding.Invited to speak, the federal Education Minister took the microphone off its stand at the podium and strode across to her audience of children.
“My name is Julie Bishop,” she said.
“If I say, ‘Good morning girls and boys, what would you say back?’
“Every time I come here I am so impressed by how well behaved everyone is.
“Look at you all, sitting up, backs straight.”
Oh and before she Entered Parlaiment, she did a stint on 6PR in Perth as a Talkback host (mainly light fluff) with Former ABC Perth Presenter and PR Guru Gerry Gannon.
Wow. I think I had Julie Bishop for year 5 primary. *Shudders*