You can really understand the force of the phrase âpolitical tragicâ? when you reflect on how many Australians would have wanted to spend the weekend before Christmas reading Glenn Milneâs thoughts on the Rudd cabinet, or the weekend before New Yearsâ Eve reading Kevin Donnellyâs latest effusions on the grave threats to educational standards. That is, of course, no reflection on these two fine gentlemen of the press. No doubt the fault, if fault there is, lies with the country, not with these eminent writers.
So, just as Stephen Conroy was probably hoping to do with his net nanny state announcement, summer holiday torpor provides a convenient opportunity for the news dump.
The political skills of the Liberal Party may be a tad frayed, but are probably still robust enough to realise that dumping on your former Dear Leader and washing your dirty linen in public is unedifying for, well, the public. So it was the holiday season, when the news cycle stops riding so fast, that saw just about every man who used to be in Cabinet (though not Malcolm Turnbullâs dog) open up to certain favoured journos and provide their very own âfirst draft of historyâ? (and naturally Paul Kelly was one of the magic circle). In this instance, on the APEC leadership shenanigans.
Even though some of us are required to read this stuff over the vacation by vocation or avocation, I may have lost count of the former Ministers whose version of the story made it into ponderous multi page articles. But certainly Alexander Downer, Peter Costello, Mal Brough, Malcolm Turnbull and Andrew Robb all got their narrative written up. There may be more â I was on holidays. As Geoff Robinson remarked on a recent thread, itâs enough to make you admire poor old Tony Abbott for actually still having some loyalty to the former PM.
One such story, by Pamela Williams in the Fin on December 21st, might be dubbed the âparty machine versionâ? of the tale. Featuring a liberal dose of revelations about how Brian Loughnane was frustrated by the Howard family and the new Captain Wacky himself, it also dwelled at great length on how Andrew Robb was the only Minister brave enough to keep pushing Howard to stand down after all others had given up the ghost.
In order to believe this, you need to believe that installing Costello would have made some difference, but itâs quite intriguing to note that Robb apparently failed in his selfless quest to save his party because the party room was reassured by a correction in Newspoll, whose previous 59% Labor 2PP figure had prompted all the conniptions in the first place.
Throughout election year 07, Dennis Shanahan in particular was at great pains to reinforce the theme that Newspoll was the be all and end all of the political barometer. Although anyone with an ounce of statistical nouse could have told Liberal MPs that the two poll results in question were statistical noise, it seems that Newspoll, whose authorised interpreters were perceived as spinning wildly in favour of the Coalition for most of the year, was in fact the nail in the coffin for the âreplace Howardâ? push. So, if you believe Andrew Robb that a switch to Costello would have won the election, you can only conclude that it was Newspoll wot lost it.
The Shanahanigans regarding Newspoll were always the most consistently amusing part of the election coverage.
The highlight of which was the attempt to use the worm during the live debate coverage. I do think the Chaser boys managed a reasonable amount of amusement, even if the laughs were served up on a silver platter by the politicians themselves.
Sophie Mirabella is also busy dumping on former Prime Ministers… but she’s busy dumping on attacking Malcolm Fraser for saying nice things about Mao Zedong…in the immediate aftermath of his death in 1976.
I await Brendan Nelson’s forthright condemnation of Suharto’s numerous crimes immediately after his death.
Did Sophie make it on to the front bench?
Nope. She’s a shadow Parliamentary Secretary for local government.
Even Bronwyn Bishop – who is highly unlikely to be around for another Liberal federal government – has been given a shadow junior ministry in front of her.
I read somewhere Bronwyn was instrumental in shifting some numbers away from Turnbull – which explains that. Perhaps Mirabella might refocus her energies on backroom stuff and leave the op/ed pages alone?
“She’s a shadow Parliamentary Secretary for local government.”
Which is a position not to be underestimated in Liberal ranks, the cuning mynx.
Thats comes with a hotline straight to the epicentre of Liberal power – C. Newman of Brisbane!
Those Newmans are making a comeback Lefty E?
http://exhippie.com/files/Alfred-3.gif
Howard must be devastated that Sophie was so, so unkind in the Party Room. Talk about a ‘thankless child’.
BTW what’s with this ‘nouse’ as in ‘statistical nouse’?
Should it be spelt “nous”? Buggered if I know. Suggestions welcome.
Spelt nouse pronounced nowse with ya normal- best cXntry in the world- nasal twang wpd, i reckon.
According to young Soph, the Liberal party was ‘held hostage’ to John Howard….which I suppose explains their lack of protest leading up to the campaign, they were all bound, gagged and kept in dark cupboards until someone (Andrew Robb?) bravely rescued them all post election.
The reason they are only speaking out now is that, having undergone counselling post release, they are finally emerging from their Stockholm syndrome.
You have to admire her bravery in attacking a retired PM who hasn’t been in power for 20 years. Let alone the political acumen she shows – I mean, Malcolm Fraser’s comments were bound to mean further swings to Rudd next election.
Has she ever said anything about local government?
Is that the Sophie formerly known as Panopolous?
One and the same.
I think her shtick might be 25 years too late. Still, even Howard – the original Mr. 18 Percent. Why Does This Man Even Bother?- was right when he said “the times will suit me.” Scary thought, really.
Can anyone give me a link to what Sophie said about Howard? I must have missed it. Its interesting because my understanding is that she was always of the Anyone But Costello view, at least until Turnbull came along, whose preselection she passionately opposed, so either she has changed her views, or she was hoping that if Howard went Abbott or Nelson would take over, which no one thought likely at the time.
Isn’t it spelt ‘noice‘?
Heh!
feral sparrowhawk this is for you…
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/frasers-flawed-world-view-a-study-in-hypocrisy/2008/01/05/1198950123905.html
…please eat her all up. On second thoughts..
sorry wrong link there feral
I actually sat in a (highly tedious) six hour long NUS executive meeting with Sophie P (as was) in 1988 at Melbourne Uni. One way to relieve the tedium was to observe her antics. She came across back then as quite manic and quite nutzoid. Of course, she may be a changed woman for all I know.
Hard work is Sophie P, now Sophie M ,for sure, Mark.
I could not find a link to any cruel things she might have said about our ex-pms “retirement by the voters” as The American Enterprise Institute ,delicately, preferred to call it. berengaria, what is the source for her ‘held hostage’ comments?
As a wind up to last years election make sure all hear Radio Nationals broadcast of
The Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf Revue “Beware of the Dogma.”
“Join Australia’s finest satirical vivisectionists as they take on the sacred cows with no more than a blunt knife, a piano and a few used bandages. Hear John Howard raving in his final days at the Kirribilli bunker. Listen to Kevin Rudd as he struggles to set up camp with an inexperienced scout troop, and witness Mona, antipodean daughter of plenty, confronting her demons in the Greek tragedy ‘Prosperity’s Child’.”
It goes for an almost an hour and is quite brilliant.
http://www.abc.net.au/cgi-bin/common/player_launch.pl?s=rn/summer&d=rn/summer/2007/audio&r=sts_09012008_2856.ram&w=sts_09012008_28M.asx&t=Monday%2009%20January%202008&p=1
Hope this link works.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/a-postmortem-but-with-scalpels-or-knives/2007/12/12/1197135558300.html
Third book in the Scott Morrow trilogy now out!
The long awaited final book in the Scott Morrow adventure series by Australian author Christopher J. Holcroft is now available online.
A Rite Of Passage is available at http://www.buybooksontheweb.com/product.aspx?ISBN=0-7414-5938-8
In the book, Scott Morrow and his Venturer Unit organise a scuba dive and a special ceremony to welcome a new Scout into the Unit at a picturesque seaside setting.
Calm is shattered when a vicious war between two motor cycle gangs erupts at the dive site. Scott and his fellow Venturers are forced to answer questions of courage when the lives of a group of Girl Guides are threatened: Will they stand and be counted when their own lives could be at dire risk? Will they stand at all?
A Rite Of Passage is a novel showcasing the determination of teenagers who become young men when fate steps in.
A Rite of Pasage was written specifically for boys aged 11-18 to encourage them to readand enjoy the great outdoors.
Christopher
Now if you’d written a book about a group of Girl Guides led by a girl called who, surprisingly, is not called Scott who beats the living shit out of two vicious motorcycle gangs who threaten the lives of a bunch of scuba diving venturers in wetsuits, shattering calm once and for all – then and only then -I might be interested.
But no.
Call me a little paranoid, but it’s never about girls not called Scott is it?
I mean, have you ever met a girl guide?
Have you seen their fire thing?
And those freaky ditties?
Come. On. If the biscuits don’t do it by attrition, those songs have been know to wipe out entire suburbs.
We know who can flatten two motorcycle gangs and it won’t be boys in flippers.
There is fiction and then there is lol baby lol, dude.
There are Venturers venturing and Guides guiding and the key question is:
“Will they stand at all?”
From what I know of Venturers, they will certainly stand up.
Well that’s uncanny.
I’d just been working on my novella; a confronting story about two groups of vintage motorcycle enthusiasts celebrating the anniversary of the closure of the British bike factory with a weekend ride to the coast.
When they get to the beach they’re set upon by a vicious organised gang of teenage beach thugs set on defending their waves and girls—their property and turf—with the acquiescence of the bigoted local press and inflammatory talkback.
The groups of motorcylists, united only by their dedication to obscure motorbikes c.1965-1975, are forced to answer deep abiding questions. What’s wrong with today’s youth? Who is taking responsibility for their moral development? Is the coast a universal democratic space, or a liminal battlefield of competing interests? Would you use mineral or synthetic oil in a rebuilt 650 twin? And who’s got the fucking sparkplug puller?
“Is the coast a universal democratic space, or a liminal battlefield of competing interests?”
I’m littorally fascinated.
Oh what? – are we writing autobiographies are we? Well now here:
A woman who likes to dress like Bonnie Tyler in Total Eclipse of the Heart uses her appalling supernatural witchly powers which never ever work on a blog that consistently ignores her capacity for thread desctruction cause she’s really bad at it, and like, turn around bright eyes, is driven to her knees by an inhumane university system which seems intent on getting a PhD out of her when she’s had a few things to do. Travelling to the United Nations to lodge a protest on behalf of doctoral candidate type witches against such inhumane action, she comes across a supervisor who, like, is kind of cool. Will this unlikely connection between two worlds change the outcome of global warming? Probably not. Still, what will happen when Michael Jackson rising from the dead in a burqa deconstructs the whole argument of whether or not burqa wearing will destroy us all, and leaves people looking kind of embarrassed?
The Rites of the LP Witch Project is a novel showcasing the determination of one average witch to test her mettle in the liminal space of the liminal space, rolling silkworms down the aisle and getting herself ‘made’ in Avalon in the process, when a fading, well let’s say – dead – pop star in a skirt who STILL has problems steps in to change all that.
Don’t miss it.
It would have to have 666 pages, that witchly autobiography
Wise-witch, huh? This ain’t like the middle ages, where you hex someone from a mile away. You gotta get up close, like this, and bada-bing! You blow their brains out all over that nice black cloak.
Appalling, beardo. You’ve crossed a line there.
casey
you have once again used your powers for good: thread restoration!