You know when a government come up with something that just really stinks of “cooked up by a PR company”? To give him credit, our State Premier John Brumby took on board that the recent attacks on Indian students and workers in Melbourne really did have a racist component and didn’t try to take the “Racist? Who? Us? How dare you!” route. But. Come on. Wasn’t there anyone in the State PR machine to say “hang on a minute guys, I think this might cause widespread uncontrollable laughter, eyerolling and blowing of mighty raspberries from the people we are trying to impress with our Sincerity™?
A FORMER AFL footballer is the nation’s first “respect” minister after being appointed by the Victorian government to tackle the growing racism and alcohol fuelled violence problems in the state.
Premier John Brumby announced Justin Madden would be the minister for the “respect agenda” as part of his election year cabinet reshuffle following the shock resignation of embattled Transport Minister Lynne Kosky this week.
I mean… Madden! Not only does he come from the background of Australian Rules football – a milieu which is trying with limited success to shake off its reputation for a lack of respect when it comes to women and people of other races and cultures. He’s also the minister least likely to be associated with the word “respect” by the long suffering inhabitants of Victoria. He has a long history of showing respect to developers and money, and none to architecturally significant buildings, grasslands, coastal communities or the planning rules set up to make our city livable. This leaked email about setting up a false public consultation process for a development has shown just how much respect Madden and the Vic Government have for the people of his State and the iconic buildings and places which they love.
Really, I’m not under any illusion that the Victorian government has our best interests at heart – let alone those of international students – but you’d think with all the money from developers pouring into the party coffers, they’d be able to at least come up with a more sophisticated PR response to the problem.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T – Find out what it means, before you create a ministry of it. As someone said, “Don’t these people know how hard it is to do irony when they pull stunts like this?”
Crossposted
while i don’t wish to be picky you will find that the respect agenda has been a brumby policy for at least 18 months. and it is difficult to say madden has a long history of being pro development unless you consider three years to be a long time
Thanks Helen,
It’s instances like this that shine out in the rich comedic tapestry of Australian politics. All passion and irony spent?
S-A-R-C-A-S-M then…..
This from the State in which Don Watson hurls his barbs against sloppy statements and vacuous “managerialist” BS.
For every season
Spin, spin, spin
If Don Watson and his readers can’t innoculate us against this plague, where is our new, southern Karl Kraus? On the blogs?
For a truly smokin version of same check out this clip of Aretha at the US Tennis Open of all places. The band is a joy.
Presumably Brumby believes the Victorian electorate won’t care what this ex-footballer, since he’s an ex-footballer. (Though one has to admit that elsewhere, rock stars have not been the brightest persons in the political firmament. And, it seems we have a Prime Minister who has even less interest in the arts than John Howard did, if that’s possible. What’s that maxim about electing monkeys?
Thing is Paul, a great many people have been screaming blue murder about Justin Madden and the inappropriate developments going on in Victoria, but the Victorian electorate seems to be quite well sold on the notion that the Greens are a bunch of dirty f***ng hippies – an idea which Labor have done a lot to promulgate themselves. The Liberals? Apparently at O-week last week, the Melbourne University young Libs had a table with a picture of Howard at one end and Peter Costello at the other. That’ll give you an idea of the emerging talent in the Victorian Liberals. Therefore, Labor always seems to win by default.
Brumby admitted there was a problem? He’s been saying it’s as good as it has ever been, and he has “statistics” to prove it.
I think you’ll find it was the Opposition Leader who actually admitted there was a problem with racially-based violence in Melbourne. Then the Baillieu fan club (Vexnews and Bolt) used this as an excuse to bash “Red Ted”.
I think many posters on here would love to have a Liberal leader in their state or federally like Baillieu, so it may be time to get your facts straight.
The Respect Agenda: from the people that brought you ads for Victorian State Schools that actually cost the government more money the more effective the ads are.
Good on you Helen, this is a most interesting story. I was hoping someone would give this a swing because Madden and co have finally been caught, red handed, doing what some of us have always suspected.
Madden was obviously attempting to resurrect his tarnished reputation after giving the go ahead for the destruction of the art deco Lonsdale House for an ugly Myer development amongst many other dirty deals done dirt cheap.
http://images.theage.com.au/2009/04/09/467857/wr_Lonsdale-420×0.jpg
The proposed, hideous, Windsor Hotel plan was to be the fall guy, with the charming Justin to save the day. Now, since he has been sprung, it is back on the table and already receiving support from the ever creepy Mayor Doyle.
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/travel/iconic-hotel-windsors-new-designs/20090729-e0pg.html?selectedImage=4
Paul, it is interesting to note that while an ex-footballer, Madden is also a qualified architect which makes his poor planning decisions all the more disappointing.
I’m yet to hear a different complaint yet about a whole lifetime’s worth of state planning ministers. I’m sure it’s the same in every state. You’re in-between competing interests, and sometimes between self-competing interests.
i.e. Greens want an end to urban sprawl, and insist that higher density living is the answer. Until it looms, then Greens protest “developer-friendly” governments.
I’m definitely no supporter of this government, but Madden is far from representing the abusive, meat-head stereotype that footballers have in some circles.
If parents can’t teach respect, then I don’t hold much hope in governments doing so. I’d rather they teach fear – specifically fear of detection, fear of apprehension, and fear of punishment.
Forgive the Abominable Yet. PIMF.
Guess I been watching too much football and I got the wrong impression about these guys then.
It is unfair to tar Madden as a stereotypical footballer when his entire public career is a demonstration that he is the opposite of that stereotype.
His acts of omission and commission as minister constitute serious wrongs against the public interest.
I’m trying to imagine what a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Respect might do between trips to the water cooler and the biscuit barrel. But can’t.
At least the Ministry of Truth burned old newspapers. What can the Ministry of respect burn?
Colin Long from the Greens in this morning’s Age.
Criticise Madden performance as a Minister by all means. Also criticise Brumby’s feeble attempts in combating racism in Melbourne, but saying that Madden is inappropriate because he comes from a football culture is stereotypical. Yes there are ignorant racist people that play football (as the example outlined in the post) but that doesn’t mean that all footballers are like that, the same way that not all feminists are man hating separatists.
I would say that Australian Football as also had a good record in welcoming people from non English Speaking background. Even in the bad ol’ pre multicultural days of the 50′s and 60′s. And the AFL has been pretty active in discouraging racism and also to promote indigenous Australians in the game.
“What can the Ministry of respect burn?”
I guess it’s the “oldies” and young people who are, among those, to be burned by the manipulators, Katz. The Essendon Football Club, it appears, was also to be used by the Madden doctors of spin.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/madden-ditches-adviser-over-windsor-scandal-20100226-p97f.html
Guido, I agree with you about Aussie Rules and embracing those from other countries.
Leo Shanahan, however, does not.
http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/a-game-white-people-like-the-afls-west-sydney-problem/
Thanks for that Joe.
It appears that at Victoria’s Ministry of Respect they put advisers down the memory tubes.
Ministry of Respect???
Can we have the Ministry of Silly Walks also?
Ministry of Respect sounds a bit like the Ministry of Truth, Elise.
(Which, I suspect, is Katz’ point.)
I think it’s stupid to say that a former footballer must be judged as a racist, sexist pig – which is basically the conclusion you’re trying to promote.
The AFL has done more for multiculturalism in Melbourne than most institutions or government programs.
Ah, the Ministry of Respect which enforces the replacement of the disrespect of man by man and woman by woman by its opposite. Love it.
Is there any chance that Brumby might have tried to do something which did 2 things at once:
(a) signalled to the indian community and sympathetic supporters, that their gripes were being heard
(b) signalled to everyone else who thought it was a disproportionate overreaction, that the government wasn’t taking it all that seriously?
Wilful, you are wilfully misreading my post. I said he comes from a milieu which cultivates disrespect in all its forms, AND he himself has been disrespectful towards the citizens of the place for whom he’s elected to govern. Racism and sexism isn’t the whole of it. It’s also the more general disrespect-fulness in riding roughshod over others to get your own way, excercise your privilege or that of your privileged social group – a characteristic demonstrated in spades by the Victorian government and its planning decisions. I’m sorry if like so many people in Victoria you worship the AFL, but the truth is that many people, like myself, wouldn’t even want our kids doing Auskick because of the culture of violence and misogyny that has been oozing out over the last few years.
Madden hasn’t committed any crimes of the sexist or racist variety that I know of, as I’ve written, it’s his behaviour as a planning minister that reek of disrespect to the public. You may believe that perception is wrong. But he is the wrong person to be the public face of “Respect”, given that this is largely a symbolic exercise (that’s a whole other aspect I didn’t go into.)
Yes, Madden’s behaviour as Minister for Planning has been disrespectful of the community. But that has nothing to do with him being an ex AFL player. It’s due to the arrogance of the Labor Party which makes the AFL look like sweetness and light, at times. I can’t see the point of conflating the two.
I’m no huge AFL fan. I haven’t been to a match for years. It seems to me that at times it does reek of violence and misogyny. But I’m also aware, for instance, of the high regard in which its held by many indigenous organisations, for its support of indigenous players and communities. Self- interested, course. But if only other industries could be similarly self-interested.