Cross-posted from Still Life With Cat.
Listening to first Tony Windsor and then Rob Oakeshott deliver their verdicts in this afternoon’s press conference was a really interesting experience. I was driving home, so heard it on the radio rather than watching the teeve, of which I’m now glad, because I gather from various online commentary thus far that the media pack behaved like a bunch of hyenas: restless, noisy and disrespectful. And like them, and like, I’m sure, the rest of the country, I spent the first two or three minutes of Tony Windsor’s speech champing at the bit thinking Oh for God’s sake get on with it already.
Then it dawned on me slowly that this really was a fairly historic moment in the history of Australian parliamentary democracy; it deserved its little bit of theatre. More, the Independents deserved to be allowed to explain themselves in detail — not least because they know they will be carved up by the Murdoch-dominated press and filleted by their own electorates.
Windsor probably drew the long straw; speaking first, he had the luxury of being able to announce his decision halfway through his speech, knowing the press and the country would have no choice but to keep listening. It was harder for Oakeshott, who knew that the minute he announced his decision they would all stop listening to him and he therefore had no real choice but to leave it till the end. Which was, anyway, the only possible choice, given the degree of theatre the occasion deserved and got.
In terms of one’s own personal development (and the more I see of certain people in their 70s and 80s, the more determined I become never to abandon the effort to be Better), what I found very educational was my own childish impatience for instant gratification. As Windsor got into his stride, I began to ask myself exactly why I just wanted him to hurry up, when what he was saying was actually content-rich and very interesting. I seemed to myself to be a toddler squalling for her dummy. I began to be a bit ashamed, and switched to Mindfulness mode.
Which stood me in good stead when it came to Oakeshott, who set Mindfulness a bit of a test. But I don’t know why a certain sort of commentator (on the Crikey liveblog, for a start) is whingeing about there being no substance to his speech. There appeared to me to be plenty.
My dad will be ropeable about this result, but then he is permanently ropeable about everything these days, so it would be hard to tell. It saddens me that I won’t be able to make him see the single biggest miracle in all this, grounded in the fact that as time rolls itself out, things happen that you could never have seen coming, and sometimes they are things that change the shape of what you thought were life certainties.
Via him, I come from a family that farmed barley, wheat and sheep on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula for four generations, and lived on that farm myself till I was twelve. I was very moved by Tony Windsor’s clear statement that the two things he thought would benefit rural and regional Australia most were advances with broadband and climate-change policy, because I could imagine the people I went to primary school with, and their children and grandchildren, living in that landscape I know so well, having the benefit — not just with regard to business, but also with regard to education and health — of the NBN, and living in a country not in denial about climate conditions under which they will be among the first to suffer ruinously.
Climate change and the internet are two things that my father’s generation – indeed, my generation — could never in a million years have seen coming. Action on both issues is currently down to the (comparatively speaking) progressives, who are, historically, anathema to the bush. But they are what will help to save it, if anything can, and Windsor and Oakeshott have had the vision to see that and the courage to act on it.
Thanks for posting Kim, Ms Cat is always worth reading.
Good one Kim. All the independents have interesting ideas that are worth listening to and building on. We were certainly long overdue for a challenge to the “way we do things” based on the city influence in the major parties.
@2 – Sorry, John D, I forgot to change the author field to “Guest Poster” – the author is actually Pavlov’s Cat.
Next time the same journos publish one of their boilerplate pieces bemoaning the terrible effect of Twitter and Facebook on our ability to focus and digest meatier information, do remind them of the fact that they found a 17-minute talk at a critical juncture too much to handle.
As I listened to Windsor and Oakeshott lay out their reasons for their decision I thought that they had to lay out their reasoning while the fourth estate were listening because for all their previous experience in Parliament they were invisible until they held the balance and they will be invisible again after their decision was declared.
I hope that the government gets the opportunity to act on climate change so that we can invest in power generation to avoid brown-outs and black outs that the climate change decision vacuum has spawned.
I prefer to hope for the future than be frightened by the Liberal fortress Asutralia bunker mentality.
I would like the main stream media to stop spouting the LIEberal lies. Like why do they say that they won by 700,000 votes try 1006 votes but then 8 electorates are not counted in the 2 party preferred votes. Why are they allowed to howl about home insulation deaths, why don’t we hear about the construction work place deaths caused by Howards IR laws and the persistence of the ABCC – yes I know it lowers construction costs, but it kills workers too.
@4 – Indeed, Helen, some of the journos on Twitter were the most egregious offenders.
All this blathering about “Oakeshott wanting his fifteen minutes of fame” – it’s as if only the decision is important, not the reasoning behind it.
Speaking of which – I heard the whole thing described as “two weeks of indecision” by Virginia Trioli. It’s actually a decision process.
It’s obvious from the post, of course, but for the purposes of exactitude can I just reiterate that it was initially posted on my blog on Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the press conference.
@7 – Sorry, Dr Cat, I should have clarified that.
“I heard the whole thing described as “two weeks of indecision” by Virginia Trioli. It’s actually a decision process.”
And of course these same coalition mouthpieces would be telling us what a marvellously democratic and mature decision making process had been undertaken if the independents had chosen the coalition.
Yeah thanks for that PC.
I became impatient with Oakeshott and really only appreciated the difficulty of their position and why the explanation RO gave was necessary when I read Tim Dunlop and your effort at ‘the other place’.
These guys really were betweem a rock and a hard place weren’t they?
What Helen @ #4 said – except she was being far too generous and forbearing.
News Ltd’s top cocky John Hartigan’s missus’ bleating pretty much sums up the pillow talk corporate message.
To use that phrase “a new paradigm” (a term which I find a bit naff and meaningless), think it needs to be applied to journos more than to the pollies.
Excellent post. I do hope the media give Oakeshott and Windsor a break for a while though and let their celebrity status have a holiday. Every single MP in the lower house in theory has the same ultimate power they have and it would be nice to hear other viewpoints.
Great post. Indeed it is reflective of our Twitter-speed political world that people considered themselves “held hostage” (SMH).
What the journos have done to Windsor and Oakehott since completely justifies them taking their time, I reckon.
It’s also not exactly as if Oakeshott’s vote was in any doubt from the minute Windsor said “ALP”.
I was quite amazed how people who had been waiting for over a week for the situation to be resolved were complaining about waiting for an extra 15 minutes!
Additionally, the stupidity (and I mean that in this sense) of the journalists in being totally oblivious to the need for the Independents to make a case to their own electorate and the Australian public in general was quite revealing.
I wanted to listen to the speeches again as I had been distracted the first time round. But the reaction of my workmates to my desire to hear why Mssrs Oakshott and Windor had decided the way they did was of derision.
These workmates have been amongst the first to grumble that ‘teh pollies’ weren’t doing the right thing, yet when politicians DO try to do the right thing … the pollies are suddenly loosers?
Colour me confused!
What’s disappointing is that the slimy hit pieces on Oakeshott and Windsor aren’t only coming from the carping neo-con shills of the Murdoch press. This article from the SMH totally blew away in terms of its nastiness and reads like a screed from Liberal Party headquarters
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/behind-the-nice-bloke-facade-is-just-another-wily-politician-20100908-1519k.html
Then again the quality of journalism at the SMH has gone so markedly downhill over the past decade that I’m not surprised
What surprised me about both their speeches was that neither of them spoke about the Coalition’s $7-11 billion black hole as a reason for choosing to go with the ALP. I would have thought this would have been a significant factor in their decision. I also have to say that Katter looks like a real jerk in choosing to go with the Tories.
… and the koverage of Katter’s decision on ABC 24 went on for %$#*#@ ages. (And just an audio with a static pic of the Hatted One – thank the deity of your choice for small mercies) Oakshott’s explanation paled into insignificance timewise.
The BobKat certainly had “Maverick Katter” on a tight leash on Tuesday and let “Mad Katter” run wild. What a spineless git he turned out to be.
silkworm, that stood out like a sore thumb for me too. It was disappointing, as it would have mitigated the charges from the press that they selfishly held the country to ransom, and that the Coalition was, in fact, the real deserver of their votes.
Instead (donning a cynical hat I don’t particularly want to wear – and I don’t necessarily agree with this, or think it holds up, btw), it can be construed all they wanted was a look at the books – as per anyone negotiating.
As well, there’s so much complaint about politicians always being on message reading from their script. Yet when pollies allow real personality to show through and speak with their own voices they’re derided. These independents are going to cop so much shit.
Since the rest of the media has seen success nearly achieved by The Australian and the others in the Murdoch stable, we can expect a much greater spread of the same deceitful style and outright lies within other media who have at least attempted to play a straight bat. Who checks on their “sources”. Certainly as far as I can see they are never asked, even though we all know how evasive the answer would be.
I don’t know how many times Labor Governments in Australia have to have pointed out to them the necessity to front journalists and demand answers from them, rather than submitting meekly and seemingly guiltily to the spin coming from the journos. After all, they invented spin.
Thankyou Ms. Cat for this post. The treatment of the duly elected government including the independents in today’s press really does further embarrass them. Rather than analysing any of the issues raised in the speeches of Oakeshott or Windsor, they’ve decended into (predictable) hysteria about cracks showing and creaky edifices. Perhaps they’ve been watching Barnaby Joyce p*ssed on Lateline too often?
The challenge remains with the blogosphere, who delivered the most informative commentary on the whole election, to proceed with discussion of the issues. And that does include media ownership and partisan reporting.
A splendid piece Dr Cat. And I know how you can identify with the country perceptions displayed by both. Me too. I was raised in Gawler in the 50s when it was a country town, and though I’ve had most of my adult life in Adelaide and Sydney, I’ve been the last 20 years in Warrnambool.
Windsor cut straight through for me. His reasoning was clear-cut. His courage and integrity stood out. He saw the issues very clearly and articulated them better than Labor had.
Oakeshott had the tougher gig and as a younger man went to some trouble to explain how he got there. It was long, but he had to do it that way. I liked his reference to country high schools, and afterwards wondered how long it was since I’d heard ANY politician refer to them.
They were more gracious to the coalition than they needed to be after the Black Hole fiasco, but it was an historic occasion, they were independents, and they were showing proper respect.
It’s a great pity that wasn’t reciprocated by either the media or the coalition spokespeople. Gillard at least was respectful of Bob Katter’s decision to go the other way.
Thanks for that Quigley article reference, Malcolm, though I had the same trouble getting through her long-winded ignorant tripe as she seemingly had listening to Oakeshott. Is she the right-wing nutter replacement for Devine?
Yeah.
With regards to Oakeshott holding us in suspense, I was impatient too – if reasonably confident once Windsor had made his announcement which way he’d ultimately go.
But I didn’t blame him one iota for giving the speech he did – even if thinking occasionally he could have used a bit more time to prepare it!
This was his best chance to look the entire nation in the eyes and explain clearly what his reasoning was. And that’s important – for him, for his electorate, and for the nation. And if he’d put “I will be supporting Labor” anywhere in his speech other than right at the end, the cameras would have cut away immediately.
It is always good to read a feline byline.
I thought the indies put some thought into their presentation, thereby shaming the the main party politicians over recent months, who have been defined by the concept, “slapdash”.
Think Abbott’s arrogant refusal to clarify policy or produce costings, simply because it was Abbott said so and we should therefore think no further on it.
But Gillard did more damage to herself that anything Abbott could have dreamed of, in relation to her, with her thought-bubble announcement of the Timor L’Easte solution prior to receiving sufficent indications from the East Timorese that this was agreeable to East Timor.
Watching the sobriety of the politicians of other parties tonight, we see the tone for the new times derived of the conduct of the indies yesterday.
Yeah the speeches of both Oakeshott and Windsor were the ant’s pants. I was proud of them both. Even the cynical mob at work lounged/huddled round the alpha male’s pc to watch, revel in and applaud their fabulous show.
Nicely observed, PC.