Cate Blanchett has been tapped to select the participants for the Creative Australia bit of the 2020 summit, part of a steering committee including luminaries such as Tim Costello. And News Ltd honcho John Hartigan. Well that should ensure that the coverage remains laudatory.
What I don’t get is this.
Professor Davis told The Age the committee members had been drawn from their worlds not just for their expertise but also for their networks, so they were well placed to advise on those who should be invited to the summit. The choice of former Coalition ministers was designed to get as broad a range of people as possible.
“They will have a key hand in deciding who will be there,” Professor Davis said. Tim Fischer had already come up with “name after name”.
Bully for him. Or for all of us. But how does this mesh in with the nomination process? – and nominations were supposed to have closed. Is that just a sleight of hand while teh elite pick other members of their favoured “networks”? Or is the whole point about being in a network that Tim, Cate, John or whoever can now give you the headsup to get your nomination in since coincidentally, or maybe conveniently, the deadline has been extended?
What really annoys me , is that of the eleven people on the steering committee, there’s only one woman – Cate. Surely, there’s capable women at the top of the game that could be there as well.
So what will happen asd a result of the recommendations of this talkfest. As the response to the Garnaud Report clearly demonstrates – bugger all.
This promises to wildly exceed my expectations of stupid.
Cate Blanchett makes sense for inclusion — one of the topics for the kilotalk is Yartz and Culture. If anybody would be connected to Australia’s scene it would be her.
Also she’s beautiful and famous, which can’t hurt the publicity side of things.
What about an expert on living on welfare benefits as an exemplar on simple living,who has seen and lived through days and years, weeks and moons,second hand clothing charities as service and the dumping of such.. by ABC paid comedians now radio goofs, winters and different ice-cream flavours,shoe companies and thongs,and hosts of differing comparisons,like….. The value of money as spending power versus the Murdoch induced G.S.T. on books, the re-emergence of the nuke story and the accompanying speculator blighters and miner compensation requirers,the death of science alongside its promotion,the raising of the dead the.. pill poppers from the sixties..all done for the baby-boomers of now,no doubt to improve their memories of living in the sixties.The Presidential style of Prime Ministerships discussed in Newspapers and now a constant unacceptable reality.Cargo cult shakes the booty with the Personality cult,teenagers not thoughtful enough to be considered of opinion to influence election outcome to.. screaming supporters of the countdown.From the ring of confidence to the ring of mobile telephones and something to sell. All this and more than the prevailing requirement of government and government expert chosen as such to give up the functionality and what it can do ,of ones own mind and brain!?No implications in what I have typed just enough inferences to cause a series of words that can be summarised as you make me sick,through the five decades to this date!?[You.. isnt anyone at this site]
Fine i totally agree. The choice of just one woman, on the steering committee, is a big stuff up. In trying so hard to make it look bi-partisan, some goose forgot about gender balance.
Looks to me like our Kev is going to need to do some very smooth talking to get out of this one.
I agree Cate makes sense; she’s an artist of world standing. But, where are the other women?
How do you find out who the steering committee members are for each group? How else does one lobby for a spot?
I agree that a token woman is a very bad look in 2008. But I’ve noticed it seems to be specifically male, specifically conservative bloggers who are, in a knee-jerk way, viciously trashing the inclusion of Blanchett in this event and I’m very curious about just exactly what it is that’s bothering them.
Is it they think blondes are by definition stupid? (I’ve heard Blanchett speak, at length, on a major cultural occasion. She is very clever and very knowledgeable about the Yartz in Australia, and not only in cinema and drama but across the board — well-read, and knows the painters and the music.)
Is it that they think all women are stupid? Is it that they despise the Yartz and by extension Blanchett as a representative? Is it that they think film isn’t a serious medium (or a serious business — hah) and are ignorant of Blanchett’s distinguished stage career? What on earth is the story?
“The choice of just one woman, on the steering committee, is a big stuff up.”
It’s probably a strategy to be seen to be not “politically correct”. Never forget, Rudd is playing to both conservative and progressive audiences in everything he does.
Besides, Eva Cox http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23278206-2,00.html has got her knickers in a twist over it, and that’s always amusing to observe.
“conservative bloggers who are, in a knee-jerk way, viciously trashing the inclusion of Blanchett in this event”
They are doing this because they lust after the left wing and beautiful Blanchett, but know they can’t have her. This makes them very angry at her and those who have personal access (not necessarily sexual) to her. To make things worse, one of the people who do have access to her is the nerdy Kevin Rudd, who was the kid they used to beat up at school, and who is now lording it over them as Labor Prime Minister.
Spiros is probably on to something, given the nature of most RWDB bloggers. It also allows them to reinforce some sort of “luvvies” point (where is you know who?). It’s obvious that Blanchett is a bright person who deserves to be there on merit. And the gender balance is a problem.
What concerns me equally, though, is the intimation that the nominations process is probably a farce and it’s a gabfest for the “best and brightest” as selected by their mates.
I think Spiros is spot on. It’s about jealousy and sexual frustration. I remember reading a blog (this was a couple of years ago) where people were going on about how could she be married to such an “ugly” man.
Plus, she’s blonde, she’s an actress, it’s the arts – all theses things are spurned. It’s a weird psychology.
“(where is you know who?)”
School’s not out yet. Give it another hour or so.
Sheesh! Hasn’t Julia given him a computer at school yet?
Although I think he’d be more at home on the ‘How to talk about stuff you don’t know about’ thread.
You mean Greenslime?
Nah…it’s all academics’ war stories over there. So he can’t rave on about how the post-modern Leftie pushed him over near the canteen queue.
Ummm… Am I the only person in Australia who didn’t realize until just now that an Aussie woman won an Oscar last night?
I do read the news quite assiduously, even if I don’t follow the Entertainment section much, and it seems to me that Eva Orner is not getting the usual star treatment – why is that? Could it have something to do with the fact that the movie she co-produced was about US government torture, or could it be her post award comments:
“The current administration are a bunch of war criminals and they need to be stopped. People need to know what’s going on.”
Orner’s movie beat Michael Moore’s “Sicko” for the award. She had dinner with Moore and others after the ceremony. I doubt he would have been too upset by her triumph.
Some female business leaders lobby groups have got their knickers in a knot over only one sheilah being on the steering group. We should be alarmed by this attitide, however.
The chairwoman of Harris Farm Markets, Katherine Harris, says it is a lopsided board that will only be able to represent half of the population.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/02/26/2172724.htm
gandhi
I was stunned at media treatment of the Oscars. The nightly news programs led with ‘Cate Blanchett misses out on an Oscar as only one Australian gets a gong. Without even mentioning her name!’
“It’s probably a strategy to be seen to be not “politically correctâ€?. Never forget, Rudd is playing to both conservative and progressive audiences in everything he does.”
Gawd, Spiros and Kim i just hope we are not moving into ‘chauncy gardenising’ of Kevs every move. Eleven men and one one women is a definite stuff up. And nobody, except marginalised conservative bloggers, if PC has found them, would suggest that Cate Blanchett is not an appropriate choice; brains, attractive and likely to bring attention to the event.
To save the steering committee from becoming a stairing committee, they need to make a change and allow much more input from women, young and old, to balance the bloody thing out. And actually Spiros, Eva Cox would have been a very good choice, though these days she is more likely to be into the drawers rather than the knickers.
Spiros/Kim
It’s probably a strategy to be seen to be not “politically correct�. Never forget, Rudd is playing to both conservative and progressive audiences in everything he does.
Hmmm….these phantom “progressives” once more. Your comments reveal that you still have not grasped that Rudd is not one of you.
It’s a dumb move to be sure, joe2.
Makes me wonder about Glyn Davis too.
Jage, I preferred your Hermione nom de plume.
I think Eva didn’t get as much publicity because documentary never does and because she’s resident in the US. Everyone in the doco community here is really chuffed, though.
Google News shows more stories about Eva Orner started coming through about the same time I posted that comment #17, well after all the headline Oscars stuff was getting stale. I realise she is now US resident and keen to stay there, and I realise it’s a documentary, but WFT?
Kim and All:
Shock. Horror.
There is now a very very minor Counter-Summit. A very rough-and-ready unimportant alternative to the Great Event. No celebrities. No eminent persons. No movers-and-shakers. No world-renowned experts. Definitely NO style either. Women, pensioners, kids, shiftworkers, ex-prisoners, New Zealanders, seasonal workers, patients, all welcome.
http://countersummitaustralia2020.blogspot.com
Why not? What’s wrong with offering the wider general public a choice, even a manifestly imperfect one? There’s no law against it …. yet.
I’ve bookmarked it
sorcerer [27]:
Yeah. “Watch this space”. It’s aimed mainly at people in the Other Australia – especially those on the other side of the Digital Divide – but anyone at all can hop in, even if they are one of the thousand illustrious “Bed-&-Breakfasts”.
Everyone:
So Cate Blanchette didn’t get an Oscar this year. No worries. She is still one of the world’s all-time great actors; that hasn’t changed.
Crikey had no trouble rounding up a list of women who’d be excellent in the 2020 slots:
http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080227-Memo-to-Kevin-Rudd-a-list-of-pretty-handy-women-for-the-2020-summit.html
Also, this from Richard Farmer:
Besides, Eva Cox [link] has got her knickers in a twist over it, and that’s always amusing to observe.
I think that’s an incredibly mean-spirited remark. In saying that she felt angered and a little sick to her stomach in seeing the tokenism in the 11 representatives, she spoke for many of us. Not you, obviously. But you’re on the “winning” side, I suppose.
She sounded eminently reasonable to me and a large number of people, not all of them women, would have been saying “hear, hear”.
Well Julia has defended it. Perhaps she does not want any competition.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gillard-defends-womens-role-at-summit/2008/02/27/1203788410031.html
Also, don’t forget, non- anglo/Irish/white-Europeans only got one token person, as well. Even Richard Farmer in the above quote doesn’t even notice that.
Yes, a stuff up.
Pavlov’s Cat [9]
Agree. Cate Blanchette – because of her knowledge and apart from her celebrity status – is an excellent choice.
Helen [30]:
]
Agree with you too. [Is this my day to be agreeable>
Whatever the value of the Australia 2020 Summit, both Eva Cox and Helen Hughes [the economist] should be there. And, if they can get her back to Australia for the big weekend, Helen Dale [a.k.a. Demidenko]. Why not? This Summit is supposed to be about policies for the future, isn’t it?
Hear, hear!