Our weekly (mostly) look at media spin tactics: let’s dissect the PR and propaganda that aims to blow one’s own horn, bury one’s errors, resurrect the shambling zombie corpses of well-flogged deceased equines, and ooh look! A Big Distracting Thing!
Please note – this thread’s just for the analysis of media manoeuvres and their intended effects – discussion of other aspects of issues of interest belongs elsewhere.
(If you’re not sure whether there’s been a recent discussion on your particular topic of interest, please check our archive page to search by topic and see a quick list of the 50 most recent posts. Your comment may be more relevant on a recent roundtable, or maybe the latest Open Thread.)
See any of the coverage on Rudd post Q and A. There’s just too much to list.
Tssk,
Anything but talk about policy, I suppose. If the media were to concentrate more on policy – you know, that component of politics that actually affects real people in their day-to-day lives – the dynamics of the political contest would shift dramatically.
If the parties were to stand or fall on the merits (or otherwise) of their policies, the Coalition would go into freefall.
So, to keep the Coalition on life support – and the political contest “close” and “exciting” – the media shun talk of policy and dwell instead on the shallow, the inconsequential, gossip and trivia.
It is a form of spin to airbrush over the Coalition’s policy deficits, to effectively keep the public in the dark and distracted from those issues that directly concern them.
… And while talking about media spin promulgated on behalf of the conservative side of politics, if I may take the opportunity to inform readers …
If you want to help push the ABC to return to its charter, please vote and comment on the petition.
http://suggest.getup.org.au/forums/60819-campaign-ideas/suggestions/1684971-petition-for-abc-to-return-to-its-charter
I had the opportunity to sit down with a few blokes on a landcare project and over smoko the question of environment, climate and inevitably spin came up. I say inevitably as we had varying views on the home insulation program or ‘pink bats scheme’ as some label it. Interestingly, those who had installed insulation in their own homes, either using a contractor or doing it themselves, were eminently satisfied with the outcome and with the government cost-subsidy they received and there were no dissenting comments from those who had actually particiapted in the scheme. So, why is this scheme held up as an example of waste and bungling; was it the fact that there were a few dodgy contractors employing some poor and perhaps fraudulent work practices and even worse workplace safety practices or was it the government’s administration (didn’t they limit their involvement to providing the subsidy when the work was done). Or was it more to do with uncontested spin by the opposition and certain newspapers. Was it money wasted or was it, in fact, a sensible use of taxpayer funds for a sound environmental outcome or was the whole project doomed from outset by political and media spin; any thoughts?
Wantok, I live in a very cold part of Australia. Lots of people around town got their rooves insulated under the scheme, and they ain’t complaining.
Meanwhile, I find it incredible that the culture of sexual harrassment and intimidation exposed (yet again) at ADFA is being spun as a problem for the government (as in – Defence Minister “at loggerheads” with the Department) — when the Defence Minister seems to be the one acting with probity and alacrity on moving to have the whole shebang investigated.
FFS, why isn’t this being reported as a problem for, you know, the people carrying out the sexual harrassment, and the higher-ups who didn’t do enough to prevent it??
Because its a Labor Defence Minister. not a Coalition one?
And how interesting is the spin being employed at The Australian on the phone hacking scandal?
You mean you’ve failed to find any mention of it in this august paper of record?
Not sure if this has been covered at LP before, but I don’t get this spin about a “Carbon DIOXIDE Tax” that I’ve been seeing from the denialist commentariat. It seems to be associated with the CO2 is plant food meme, but I really don’t understand why they think that emphasising the O2 component would be rhetorically effective.
I mean, it’s not as if there is a groundswell of grassroots warm and fuzzies about “Carbon DIOXIDE” to which they might appeal, is there? Maybe they think it sounds scientific… buggered if I know, but whenever I read someone babbling on about Carbon DIOXIDE, my initial reaction is ‘boofhead’.
Agree with the ‘pink bats’ spin. Add to that the ‘school halls’ fiasco meme that is dragged out constantly by news limited. Have not heard too many school principals complaining about new facilities built in record time, nor any coalition member talking down new infrastructure in schools (public or private) in their electorates. A new library at my sons primary school is a great addition to the learning space as is the new gymnasium down the road at the very expensive single gender school too.
On the other hand, unemployment down again, interest rates possibly heading that way, what will it take for this government to sell that in the media? Kind of defeats the we are broke and in deficit bs being pedalled by the opposition/media.
Executive director of The Australia Defence Association, Neil James, must win points for this…
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3187572.htm
Separation of military and government?…been insulted. Got that. They should just take over, then. They have the tanks.
I see Chris Kenny is appearing on QandA tonight. Following the 2007 election the Adelaide Advertiser had CK as a weekly columnist for ~a year before he took up his post as Malcolm Turnbull’s chief-of-staff. This meant that we in Adelaide had the dubious pleasure of Dolly Downer as a columnist on the Monday and his former chief-of-staff on the Wednesday. However most people would have struggled to realize this as Chris Kenny’s byline was “Chris Kenny has worked in politics at both a state and federal level”. Apparently management at the AA didn’t think it important enough to let their readers know that this highly partisan columnist had recently been Lord Downer’s chief-of-staff. Of course when he left to take up the position of Malcolm Turnbull’s chief-of-staff readers were not informed of this either.
Good set of observations folks [dunno about the word 'good' maybe perceptive or significant or some such is better than implying that the spin is a 'good' thing].
Anyhows with reference to my favourite journalist Chris Kenny I will never, repeat never, forget his role in the Kumurang, aka Hindmarsh Island, affair.
It’s amazing how once these memes become established, they turn into facts, and even the ALP accept them, partly because they are always on the defensive.
So now it’s become an established fact that Rudd is an embittered FM, who is challenging Gillard for the top job. When nobody in the ALP is prepared to go on the attack, to sound as though they actually believe in something, the cede the ground to an unprincipled opposition and their media lackeys.
Regarding the ADFA sex scandal. My take is a little different and more skeptical. There is more to this than meets the eye, and my very strong suspicion is that the young lady in question went to the media precisely because she knew she was already in serious trouble following being charged for offences relating to alcohol use, AWOL and while those charges were being processed, committing fraternization. Having sex on service property while still a trainee is a serious chargeable offence under the Defence Force Discipline Act – and yes I am aware that despite this, plenty of it still goes on
The fact that another cadet (not her) told the ADFA hierarchy that this had happened let the cat out of the bag, and she had to do something to protect herself from the fallout. The trouble is that her actions have cost her, the other 7 stupid bozos that did it and the Commandant of ADFA their Military careers. So far that is – there may yet be others. Whether you agree with it or not, the rest of the Cadet body and staff at ADFA will be royally pissed off at her for going to the media. If she hadn’t done that they would have been very sympathetic. Not now I’m afraid. So any possibility of a service career has now evaporated. You dont survive at ADFA or the wider military without a peer group.
So far the media have spun this as the girl being a “victim” and there being a systemic cultural problem with the ADF and Smith has bought into this. However, it actually looks like he shot his mouth off before the ADF Investigations Service investigation was even complete and as a result has compromised the possibility of gaining any convictions. I wonder if he has continued this line and lined up Bruce Kafer as a scapegoat top continue the smokescreen and prevent scrutiny of his own actions? The ADF Investigations Service (ADFIS) is the ADFs own internal police force and would have been called in to investigate something like this as a matter of course – thats how the ADF ensures that investigations are independent of the unit involved and how they determine whether civilian charges as well as military charges should be laid.
I’ve been an ADF member for 25 years and been a student at and served at a number of military training establishments, and I’m pretty sure that I have seen most of the things that trainees are capable of (its a lot and some of it would make your hair stand on end) but I have never encountered anything worse than the things I saw as a student living at a Residential College at a civilian university (the same one Mark B. went to).
This story is deplorable, but these guys have been in the ADF for about 10 weeks. If they have a poor attitude to women, they brought it with them, they didn’t get it from the military. I bet they went to a private all-boys school.
Michael, would you soldier with any of them? I wouldn’t.
For spin, I would say 14, above, is a most extraordinary attempt. Too bad about this little gem of a Freudian slip, though..
Well done Michael. You just proved the culture of the ADF is just as bad as it seems.
Very unlikely they’ll be given the chance. Plus, you never get to choose who is in the trench with you, thats why we train the way we do.
Joe2, life is like that, most workplaces share this reality.
Oh and Joe, thanks for reading and taking the time to think about what I said.
Well, yes, Michael @ 17, but I’d rather be in a trench with people I could trust.
joe2 @ 16, military culture is like that, more than any other working environment. You have to be able to rely on your peers, or people die.
David, so would I, but like so many things, you have to trust people until they demonstrate that you cant. Just like everywhere else in life. The ADF in that way is very much like so many other workplaces, its just that the stakes are pretty high (people’s lives). Hence we train hard and deliberately expose people to serious stress to both educate and test.
You have to wonder about the character of men who would secretly watch a colleague having sex in the room next door- you’d have to wonder about the character of a man who set up a camera or allowed someone to secretly set up a camera to video him having sex with a partner who was not aware of that happening.
But, as Michael@14 points out, this is not so much a matter of ADF culture as a commentary on the people involved.
@10
I always thought the military was under the control of the govt? You know, so they couldn’t go off and run their own wars or logging operations and the like. I think I prefer having a military that is part of the bureaucracy. And Neil James is getting more and more erratic as he gets older. He’s starting to sound like a petulant Bruce Ruxton.
I presume there is still such a thing as an honour code in the officer corps. If so, it would appear all the students involved, including the girl, have breached that honour code, haven’t they.
The point has been made by the two military professionals on this thread. The ADF is the only job in Auatralia, except possibly the police, where you sometimes go out to work in the morning, knowing, repeat knowing, you may be dead by evening. That’s the job.
Therefore trust and honour are absolute requirements, unlike any other profession.
Or am I being too old-fashioned?
Patrickb,
I think the military are actually under the control of the Governor-General as Commander-in-chief. Maybe some-one could clarify this.
Paul, its the Governor General in counsel with the National Security Committee of Cabinet – effectively the PM and Defence Minister. The PM and Minister (or just the PM if you’re John Howard) decide to commit the ADF to something, the GG signs the order.
@14
I don’t agree with most of what you’ve said there although I do agree that the perpetrators brought their culture with them. Unfortunately this is supposed to be an elite institution and I would have thought that screening of candidates would have been very thorough. It looks like it wasn’t and isn’t and I think that the head of the institution has to take some responsibility for this failure to properly monitor his wards. And you have to admit that the conduct on the Success doesn’t do much for your case.
And I think you choice of language here:
“There is more to this than meets the eye, and my very strong suspicion is that the young lady in question”
is verballing of the worst kind. I think there are a number of feminist writers here who would find that sentence at best moronically archaic and at worst grossly offensive, I know I do.
@26,
Yes, Neil James is going off la-la land with talk of separation of powers, perhaps he was thinking of the High Court?
Paul, you’re right about the honour thing. As a Soldier, as an Officer and Commander and as a Human being I’m really pissed off at all of them. So many of us spend our whole life (its not just a job) trying to be worthy of the legacy we have inherited from our forebears and earning the respect and trust of the people we command. Stuff like this comes along which just makes all of that harder.
If this story is true (I dont know if thats actually been confirmed yet) they’re all germs and should be thrown out. But (and its a mighty important “but”) only after they have been through due process and been accorded absolute procedural fairness (which I admit, may allow them to stay – it might turn out yet that no one is guilty of anything).
My concern is that Smith and the media want to throw concepts like due process, justice, fairness and judgments based on facts resulting from an investigation, out the window. Thats not doing anybody any favours in the long run.
Patrick, are you suggesting that she isnt a “young lady”? She is female and 18, I think my statement is accurate on that basis.
Feminist writers are entitled to see what they like in what I have written, but they aren’t really my audience. They may well object to my very existence – they are entitled to that too. I’m just stating what I see, feel and smell. I smell a rat. Pretty extensive experience in Military training establishments and also civilian educational settings has taught me that the entirety of the facts are rarely known. This is especially the case when people rush to judgement as they appear to have done here.
Yes it created a sound environmental outcome and yes it was politically doomed.
Anything more complex than repainting the Lodge is pretty much politically doomed in this age of The Drum & The Bolt Report.
@30,
I would have thought that she was a colleague and a peer.
I don’t really think that your sense of smell makes any different with regard to the substantive matter. AS I said you are failing to recognise this incident as one among many and the the ADF obviously isn’t capable of dealing with these problems on it’s own. And I’m not sure how claiming experience of these places helps your case. Are you saying, that in your experience, that all reports of sexual or other harassment are fabrications designed to conceal some other misdemeanor?
She is not formally a colleague or peer until she completes her training and receives her Commission from the GG on Graduation. Just as a Lawyer or Doctor isn’t formally a member of the profession until they complete their course of training and are recognized by the professional body. Naturally however she is entitled to be treated with respect and educated appropriately to assume the responsibilities her chosen career will demand of her. Having said that, as part of their training we do often treat our officer trainees as colleagues and peers (and expect them to conduct themselves as such – which is the underlying problem here) because in a few short years they will serve alongside us. But, again as part of their training, they have to pass the tests and that means that they are often treated as students.
I have many peers and colleagues who are young women, I also have many who are young men, also older men and older women (I’m an older man myself). Being a colleague and peer does not disqualify someones underlying humanity.
DINR,15, exactly my thought early today. With a
“mate” like that, you’d be better off taking you chances with the enemy.
As they said on 730 Report tonight, of all those involved, only the young girl has been jumped on yet. Far more sinned against than sinning, I’d suggest and the rotten [redacted] repsonsible ought to be doing pushups for the rest of his life for such a miserable, nasty betrayal.
Patrick, we’re probably going to disagree about a lot of things here and I have to protect myself so I’m going to end this shortly. My point is that the media have gone for the easy sensationalist headline and in these cases, there is usually (I’m tempted to say always, but I cant prove that) a lot more that is not publicly revealed than is. Even following a public inquiry, the ADF, bless its cotton socks will very properly not reveal information to the press about individual members and their conduct and foibles. Particularly in cases like this. So the story that gets told is invariably one sided, and inherently lacks balance. You dont have to believe me, but I know that to be the case. I’m not going to offer proof, for obvious reasons. If this does end up in court, (and I think I hope it does, but it will be bad for everyone involved) we will find out the whole truth – and thats the only chance we will get.
I have bought into this discussion because my Minister (whom I used to respect) has sold out his department and all of us in uniform by failing to wait and ask the right questions, while throwing an officer and an institution, to the wolves. Its pretty hard to respect your boss when he does that. But worse, he has actually lied about what happened. Kafer was widely criticized, particularly by the minister for continuing discipline charges on other issues. But it turns out (check todays OO)he only did this after offering the complainant the choice of putting them aside until the air had cleared. She decided to go ahead with them. See what I mean? Facts start to emerge after the initial sound and fury dies down, but damage is already done. Smith should have waited.
My responses here will give you an idea of my own feelings about the whole issue. I wish the issue had never got into the media – the complainant would have still had a career (and might have learned a valuable lesson), the 7 morons would have been punished and thrown out of the ADF, Bruce Kafer would have got on with running ADFA. Instead 9 people have lost their careers and nothing may yet be achieved. People mutter darkly about an underlying cultural problem with the ADF, well I’m in it and I remain to be convinced that we’re that much different to everywhere else and I have seen both sides. I welcome the reviews, but I think I already know what they will say. Probably the same thing as the last 10 reviews. But I have to ask: if its such a problem why don’t I hear more complaints from the many people I work with? Maybe, just maybe its not as bad as we keep getting told and these really are isolated incidents occurring at about the same rate as in general society? Most people I know wouldn’t stay if it was as bad as many on the outside seem to think. What I see every day is a bunch of highly trained, dedicated and professional people of both sexes doing their best to do their jobs and look after the people they care about at work and at home – just like the rest of society.
I do wish a few more would vote green though.
Btw, Monday night can be a strange night. 7 30 Report sparkled for the first time this year. They must have watched Pilger the night before and been shamed into action.
Media Watch again seemed flat, but the preceding
Australian Story, a show later panned on MW for previous flaccidity, had an uncompromising story about a whistelblower ground exceeding small by the system in WA, in a tale of epic span that included yet more sickening violence from WA police, captured on film, along with some shrewd observations from well known journo Carmel Egan, as well as planty oflies from authority figures.
QA, an earnest effort but Wong and What’sis face shadow something or other for the libs, had all the charisma of stomach pumps.
The lot were unhelpful, as usual, in explaining why we have to have a welfare bashing budget when there seems so much prosperity about, at least as alluded to by Wespac CEO Gail Kelly on Business Latteline later.
WHY, btw, was someone as discredited as to ethics as Chris Kenny on QA; they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel when they resort to recruiting someone like that.
Sorry previous, Wendy Egan, not Carmel
Egan, Freudian slip.
@14:
Well Michael, I can put your mind at rest. You see, I know the facts of the matter, and your suspicions about the young lady are totally without foundation. I’m sorry I can’t go into any more detail, but I’ve already risked compromising some fine upstanding people. I will say no more.
Michael, as I see it the basic problem with your position is that you think she shouldn’t have blown the whistle because of how other people who aren’t involved treat it. That is a cultural problem. Within ADFA. A cultural problem within ADFA…that is what the Minister is investigating.
That is the entire problem — victims of sexual violence often find that a crap-ton of trouble descends if and when they have the temerity to state that they have been assaulted.
Do you even see the problem? Anybody who is a victim of sexual violence should be able to blow the whistle without facing further adverse effects, much less people looking askance at their actions and character. We are miles away from that being the norm in our culture. So, in one sense, yes it’s a bigger issue than ADFA but in another sense — isn’t ADFA about producing leaders?
Sexual violence remains endemic in our society because a lot of people just don’t see it as a serious crime and hold victims of it to different (and ever-shifting) standards and hold victims responsible and punish victims when they speak out. It is cultural problem inside ADFA and outside it, Michael.
Given the many conversations on these pages about the state of the media in this country, I am a little sad to see the credibility given to media reports on the “ADF SEX SCANDAL”.
Should I now expect people here to jump and shout when the media ‘reveals’ “ALP SEX/FINANCIAL SCANDAL”?
This is trial by media of the classic kind. Lovely media frenzy. I’d break out the popcorn except for the fact that this whole thing could cruel the careers of most involved (including the Minister, if it can be spun that way by the Australian) if handled wrongly, and could be a revolutionary step forward for women in the ADF if handled correctly.
What are the chances of it being handled correctly if it is covered by the present media scrum with an ‘ADF sex scandal’ mentality?
@37
Michael, I read most of what you wrote and again it appears to be special pleading rather than an attempt to address the substantive issues. This statement “Instead 9 people have lost their careers and nothing may yet be achieved” has preempted the inquiries that the minister and the ADF chief announced yesterday. Rather than emotional condemnations of the minister perhaps you should be working from within your institution to assist him in bringing abut the change that is so sorely needed.
Michael @14:
What evidence do you have of women in the ADF being “sympathetically” treated after deciding to keep their complaints “in house”?
The sorry history of women in the ADF proves the opposite.
Lazily, the media have dubbed this event a “sex scandal”. In fact, it is just one of the many ugly faces of bullying, a pathology that has blighted the lives of countless cadets for generations. Where was the cadet who stood up during the Skype show and say, “This is wrong. This transmission must not take place, we must not watch it and the victim should be warned immediately.” The answer is that there was not a single voyeur present with sufficient moral fibre and leadership grit to say these words.
As DI(nr) hinted upthread, these cadets appear to be incapable of making a slightly courageous decision while sitting on a bed. What chance of a courageous decision while under enemy fire?
These fellows are being trained at considerable public expense to make such decisions. We taxpayers are being cheated. Why isn’t the media exposing this waste of money and endangerment of Australian national interests?
Surely the woman and her partner were both “committing fraternization”. Or is this one of the areas in which the culture of the ADF is toxic?
The Australian Defence Association seems to be the ‘go to’ outfit for comment on all matters military. Neil James seems to have been their ‘spokesman’ forever. Apart from putting out a publication called ‘The Digger’ what do readers know about it? Is it a kinda union for service people? I would listen to Mr James attentively….until I heard him repeatedly refer to ‘the lass’ at the centre of the current dispute. How old is this guy? He should get out more.
Sure, fratenization cuts both ways, Sue, but I wouls suggest the male fraternizer has a lot more to worry about at the moment than a regulation breach that would gain a minor penalty, ie fraternisation. (I don’t know how seriously the armed forces take fraternisation between officers, so that’s speculative.)
The guy involved, I’d reckon is at the least facing serious military discipline. I’m not sure if what he did is an offence under ACT law. It certainly is in NSW.
Besides at the Defence Academy, I’m sure the purpose of the no fraternisation rule is to stop of whole bunch of 18 to 21 year olds, regardless of gender, being distracted from their training and studies by following their natural hormonal inclination at that age to root like rats. Emotional entanglements are probably not viewed as good for either discipline or morale, especially when they go cactus, as the vast majority of university relationships tend to do some time over the three years study, in my observation. this is the armed forces, you know. Different world, different standards, different attitude, in fact, whatever is necessary to lessen the possibility of officers and rank and file being able to function in battle. Nothing more, nothing less.
Correction – improve the ability of officers and rank and file to survive in battle.
Not according to Michael’s comment @ 14 where it sounded like she was “committing fraternization” in isolation, which was my point, it sounded like more of the same bizarre logic that saw the woman in question being told she should think about the men whose careers she was ruining blah de blah. I agree he certainly does have more to worry about, because he has committed an illegal act.
And yet he is still there because they ‘do not jump to conclusions’ apparently. I hope that they are just ammassing the evidence they need to get rid of him or hoping that he will go himself before they take action. If not there really is something rotten in ADFA.
Re the Australian Defence Force Association – I don’t know if it is true, but I have heard that it is just Neil James.
Oh, so all the cadets send round videos of each other having sex in a spirit of mockery of one of the participants, do they? Happens on a turn and turn about basis, does it? No? What a pathetic piece of spin.
“Oh, so all the cadets send round videos of each other having sex in a spirit of mockery of one of the participants, do they?”
Yes, that is the “peer group” Michael mentions @14.
(Also for David Irving@20..get it now?)
They are still at the Academy, according to one report, at the request of the Federal Police, because it makes it easier for the police investigation.
Present training traditions in the Armed forces go back to about the 1640s as I understand. So I figure the armed forces have a pretty good idea of what is required to majke effective combatants and effective officers.
For both those men and women who join the armed forces and can’t take it, tough! get out of the kitchen.
If one has to chose between nearly 400 years of tradition in the Army and Navy and nearly 100 years of knowledge in the Air Force, and touchy-feely late 20th Century/early 21st century ideology, I know which I’d rather rely on for the defence of my country.
PB @ 54. And your point is? I hope you’re not saying what I think you are.
pablo @ 46, the ADA actually did start life as a sort-of union for Defence personnel (bearing in mind that an actual union would be mutinous). It got going in about 1980, from memory, at a time when Defence was reviewing military pay and conditions. My salary went from adequate to pretty fucking good.
Dunno if it’s just Neil James, Mindy, but he’s been the spokesmouth from the start.
joe2, I always got it. I was making an observation, not a statement of approval.
“Feminist writers are entitled to see what they like in what I have written, but they aren’t really my audience”
Why aren’t feminist writers your audience?
Yes, of course we want apes with no self-control or sense of respect for anyone who is vaguely “other” defending our country, i.e. supporting the US in one or other of its occupations. That’s why Allied troops are so hugely popular with civilian populations they are “protecting” (cough).
The apologists for the ADF aren’t really worried by this. They see women reading about this kind of thing and being discouraged from joining the ADF. They know that life in the military depends on the peer group, secondly that they’ll never be accepted by the peer group because that group is relentlessly bromosocial; ergo, they’ll be set up to fail every time. thus, the annoying Other are kept out of the ranks – mission accomplished.
“They” after second sentence, second para, = women wanting to joint the ADF, not the ADF apologists mentioned in first sentence. Bad writing.
Gobsmacked @54…
…in the 1640s?
…if the drill sergeants have 350 years of experience and good memories?
…if they can muzzle-load and fire a musket in under a minute?
So…what are you getting at here…shit happens??
Any minute now, I’m expecting someone to come out with ‘You want the truth…YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!’
My point is a distinction needs to be made between military training, and a bunch of kids acting like louts and hoons in a university college – any university college, not just ADFA, if my college experience is any indication.
Part of military training is the absolute necessity for military personnel to learn discipline and subordination. The Army/Navy/Air Force is not a democracy; it is not a workplace; it is a specialised way of life dedicated to killing people who threaten one’s country, at the risk of being killed oneself. If army regulations are broken or, worse, as seems to be the case here, and certainly would be the case in NSW, then the offenders need to receive the necessary punishment after a court-martial, or if a criminal offence is determined, after a civil trial.
I imagine all that will happen to the girl is she’ll be docked a few day’s wages. The guys should be expelled, regardless of any civil outcome. But that, I guess, is up to their court-martial.
Helen — it’s almost like you read Neil James’ mind with that Other-y witch-y mind-reading powah you female types possess
I’d just like to know why feminist writers aren’t his audience.
Actually, Mercurius, I came close to busting out a Jack Nicholson quote (or that other, earlier one, about being protected by rough men).
I wouldn’t have lasted for more than 5 minutes in an Infantry battalion, btw – I spent most of my time in the army making maps and things.
@ Casey – I’m guessing because he knows that we’d call him on his crap?
@ Helen – some commenters on this issue (not necessarily this blog) seem to forget that a large part of the ADFs work is peacekeeping where it is important to respect people and their culture and not rape them and stuff.
I’m not sure what Neil James would do with the women SOE who worked behind enemy lines in WW2 (and were chosen because they were women.)Its not as if its absolutely new.
There’s the famous story of Molly Pitcher [?] in the late 18C who is supposed to have caught a cannonball with her bare hands (in one variant, not true – it would have taken her arms off) and there was a long tradition of soldier’s wives assisting artillery units on the battlefield apparently.
If they have the physical and intellectual capacity, there’s no reason why women officers shouldn’t serve in the front line. Presumably today’s rank-and-file would not be disconcerted.
Dunno — maybe the ADF has an escape-clause in its duty to defend all Australians — except for the feminist writers?
I might as well buy into this and get me hidden bitten off. If responses get too rough, I’ll just back away.
Casey,
The Armed Forces is still a hierarchical organisation based on subordination and rank. Even when it was almost all male it was an unequal organisation, partly because of the way battles are run.
This masculine, hierarchic, super-disciplined structure would be the antithesis of the inclusive, equalising etc etc philosophy of feminism, no?
And here is where, if I’m going to get into trouble, I’m going to get into trouble. Feminism is irrelevant to the armed forces because ithe armed forces could not function effectively if they were run along feminist principles, because such principles are opposed to the armed forces purpose, which is, primarily, war.
[Waits for hordes to scream crap, etc.]
Feminism is also opposed to denying people employment in their chosen profession according to gender. I’m sure many feminists would like to phase out hierarchy and dominance, but your argument would exclude women from most corporate workplaces, as well.
“If one has to chose between nearly 400 years of tradition in the Army and Navy and nearly 100 years of knowledge in the Air Force, and touchy-feely late 20th Century/early 21st century ideology, I know which I’d rather rely on for the defence of my country.”
You echo the sentiments of Cardinal Pell with regard to the catholic church. And what a wonderfully misogynistic, bigoted, repressed and deluded organisation that is. Your position is just as ridiculous as his. He does it in a frock to add, you know, gravitas.
@ Paul Burns – if a woman, and lots do, wishes to serve in the ADF I wish her all the best and only ask that she be given the same opportunities as her male counterparts. That means passing the same physical and psych tests as well and putting up with crap from Officers – as long as it is the same crap everyone else gets not special crap based on her gender. There is a good reason why many fail and only a few suceed at getting into elite corps. But as long as everyone is treated equally then I have no issue with it.
“The Army/Navy/Air Force is not a democracy; it is not a workplace; it is a specialised way of life dedicated to killing people who threaten one’s country, at the risk of being killed oneself.”
No it isn’t, it’s the procurement arm of the international arms industry. This is the modern, post WW2 military we’re talking about, not the armies of the English Civil War.
Crap [on cue].
C’mon Paul, as an historian you know that the primary function of armies is not to defend their country [comment # 54] so why say such?
And its not just the military that is “hierarchical organisation based on subordination and rank. Even when it was almost all male it was an unequal organisation”, that description applies to our society as a whole.
Our society incorporates sexism to the point of misogyny,classism, rank/status/hierachy, inequalies of various sorts and a whole stack of other undesirable features.
Should we approve of such, tolerate such, or attempt to change for the better?
Rhetorical question.
And particularly so for you I presume.
Based on the little I understand of your politicl beliefs and actions why attempt to condone inequlities and injustices?
That ain’t you.
My previous comment, #74, was addressed to Paul Burns, others intervened whilst typing occurred.
hannah’s mum is typing on the other computer.
She asks me “Why does my spell checker tell me ‘webmaster’ is one word but ‘web mistress’ is two words?”
Dunno.
There is a connection to this thread.
Mindy @ 51 – the ADA seems reasonably legit. Interestingly Natasha Stott Despoja is on the board so I wonder if she’ll have anything to say.
http://www.ada.asn.au/board_directors.htm
The ADA brouhaha has certainly got the Carbon Tax off the front pages. Now, that’s some fine spinning.
Two cents worth: front line active service for women will make conscription so very much harder in the future because the potential catchment will be both men and women. I say this on the grounds that it will, after this, be impossible to run conscription on a gendered basis. Unintended consequences.
hannah’s dad,
there are several things going on here.
1. A bunch of college kids aged about 18 behaving in the gross and dtupid way college kids sometimes do.
2. These kids happen to be in the ADFA, but they could just as easily be at any uni college in Oz, unless college life has changed a great deal in the past 20 odd years.
3. These kids are in the military. Their lives are run according to a series of rules and regulations that are inapplicable outside the armed forces.
4. All of them presumably knowingly broke one or more of those military regulations and all of them are going to be disciplined in some way for it, within the oeganisation, and perhaps outside it.Deservedly so.
5. Conclusion. Criticising this behaviour from anything more than a military perspective – eg all of them breached the officers’ code of honour – which presumably they have been told about – is pointless and irrelevant because for the behaviour tp be assessed and stopped it has to be dealt with withuin the militsry culture yo be effective.
6. Or maybe my mind is addled from years of studying military history. But I can’t help being totally sympathetic to the defence force’s plight here. Just thank God they caught the irresponsible little shits early, and not after they graduated. (I excrept the girl here, but I don’t think she should have gone to the press. She should have had the matter dealt with internally, which I’m sure it would have been.)
Conscription hasn’t been a goer in Australia for nearly 40 years, akn. Governments recognise it’s political suicide, and professional soldiers don’t like the idea at all.
“She should have had the matter dealt with internally, which I’m sure it would have been.”
Paul, it is precisely because it was not being dealt with properly that she went to the media in the first place.
Sorry Paul we cannot exempt the military, or any other sector of our society, churches, unions, corporations for example, from the total context of the society.
So what goes on in the military or the other sectors, is the business of the society as a whole.
It aint that special.
Your numbers 2 and 3 therefore do not gel.
You can’t have members of our society exempt from the rules of that society in one sector when they are not so elsewhere.
This:” gross and stupid way college kids sometimes do” is not excused just because it happens in the military,
“rules and regulations that are inapplicable outside the armed forces.” does not apply, these people are subject to societal rules.
They do not get a free pass.
These rules are still under the responsibility of the general society, if it were not so then the military has the right/privilege to decide how it wishes to behave without reference to the rest of the society and that leaves all sorts of potential dangers on the agenda.
Political assassination for just one example, military dictatorships for another.
And if the military can claim such privilege then so can other sectors.
Church for example, and yes they have in the past and still do today and that is unacceptable.
Sexual abuse within the church is, or at least should be, within the responsibility of the general society, the church should not be exempt.
So not only can we criticise this alleged behaviour from a non-military perspective [and that gives the feminists a valid input] we are in fact obligated to do so.
Sorry mate I think yopu have the wrong end on this one.
Fantastic de-rail by Michael @ 14 et seq.
Spotlight the spin?
Anyone?
I see that spinmeister Dullard herself has now re-surfaced to keep things moving forward.
Yep, Grigory M., classic, as I said so @16.
Today, it’s a Green win, turned into ‘a sad moment for Pauline on the comeback trail’. But I did find reporting of facts without spin, in one case. How did they do it?
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/greens-win-a-victory-for-nsw-20110412-1dc2j.html
@84
You obviously didn’t pick up the Neil James/ADA references. Exemplary spin I would have thought. Now I wonder what you’d like to talk about GM (a nods as good as a wink to a blind bat eh, eh)?
Apparently the “Australian” is affronted at the 580 pages of workplace safety regulation.
This was the same outlet that did not see a problem with over 1200 pages of Workchoices regs.
So 1200 pages is ok if makes workers worse off, but 1200 pages is not ok if it makes workers better off. Well, we all knew where the Oz stands. It is just that we can now put a metric to the spin.
That was 580 pages if it makes the workers better off.
Patrickb, true, Neil is a Warne for sure. Jon Faine had the chance to ask him, today, about the separation of powers that Smith had supposedly breached but didn’t.
I just wonder what he would come up with if called on this.
This bloke just seems to get an armchair ride by media.
@86 Patrickb
Nudge nudge, wink wink …. say n’ more. Heh .. haven’t watched Monty Python for a while.
Actually, having commented at 78 and 84 I have nothing else in mind Patrickb.
“I have nothing else in mind”
Literally or figuratively?
Snap. I knew you would. Heh.
We’ve recently had reports of US soldiers killing Afghans “for sport”, and while I’m not aware of any such reports of Australian soldiers, we have had reports of them mocking Afghans with racist language. These are the people they are supposed to be protecting – at least, that’s what the pro-war spin would have you believe.
” series of rules and regulations that are inapplicable outside the armed forces” = “anything goes”.
I don’t know how much credence to give reports in the Australian, but it seems investgations were under way into the Skype affair at ADFA, and the girl jumped the gun by going to the press. I don’t know about today’s army etc, but, historically defence bureaucracies are notoriousaly slow to get moving, so perhaps she should’ve been a bit mnore patient.
Back on ‘spin’ and my growing disbelief at the ABC hyping of their Sunday Monday blockbuster on Ita Buttrose and the Cleo mag story. Such a huge deal that other programming has been dropped for this bit of history…male centrefolds et cetera. I knew women journos who helped make up their ‘ground breaking stories’. Now the spin on great acting may be well placed but the subject just doesn’t cut it for me.
Now we discover a truly toxic culture of humiliating gay members of the ADF.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/gayhate-campaign-in-army-left-unpunished-20110412-1dcph.html
It seems only certain sorts of white, straight blokes are welcome there.
PB, yes the ADF are notoriously slow at investigating such claims: in the hope they’ll go away the claimant will be harrassed into not following through. Congratulations to the young woman for having guts to stand up for herself and not internalise her own humiliation, as some here are claiming she should have done.
I spoke to my brother yesterday (25 years in the Navy, followed by 10 years in the DoD) and he’s appalled by this and thinks the young woman completely did the right thing here.
@94, criticising the way the victim goes about obtaining justice — my God PB, are your trying to play apologist bingo?
Former Cadet demands end to Academy cover ups. That’s what happens when it is dealt with internally PB. That’s why she went to the media. She is on leave, the little gobshite who did this and his mates are still at the academy. Doesn’t sound like much is happening.
“so perhaps she should’ve been a bit mnore patient.”
Yes, yes, we would all do different things in hindsight. Take you. In hindsight, you would never have said that, that way you would have got out with your skin still attached to your flesh. Well then, there’s still time after all. We are still in the now. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want no trouble Paul and I do have a heart. Get out while you can. That way you and hindsight will be one big happy family.
What sort of people are attracted to the ADF as a career, I wonder? I mean, you basically become a subcontract killer for the US military; Blackwater with nicer badges, if you ask me. I think it’s well past time that the spin the military gets is put under the spotlight.
Bob Ellis disengenuously joins the spin about the ADFA shocker.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/56470.html
Ellis is a bit obscure these days,an historical footnote. If he was trying to get noticed, it seems to have worked.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/this_is_not_the_way_to_prove_women_are_tough_enough_for_combat/
Are these two strange bedfellows, or do they deserve each other.
“historically defence bureaucracies are notoriousaly slow to get moving, so perhaps she should’ve been a bit mnore patient.”
Why not suggest that the “notoriously slow” bureacracy should respond more efficiently end expedite such important matters rather than that the victim should exercise more patience?
I just threw up in my mouth a little. What a surprise two middle class white men can’t see the problem. Bob Ellis even pulls out the old chestnut – maybe she consented and then regretted it. I was waiting for this. Yep Bob she’s such a fucking good actress that she actually practised throwing up so that when the inquiry panel told her about the incident she was ready. FFS.
Well, yours truly for starters, when I was much younger and fitter – naval officer training. It was only when I was undergoing the test battery, after passing the medical and IQ/psyche tests, that I found out I’m colour-blind, and was disqualified! Got it from my father, for whom it had slipped his mind to tell me, damn, blast!
Just think, if your eyes hadn’t been dodgy, you could today be a naval officer, a by-election away from ‘Stopping the Boats’ at the behest of Tony Abbott and Alan Jones.
Though I am more than delighted that Stephen Smith’s massive slewdg-hammer on the Defence Forces has completely lost Tony Abbott the initiative in the political agenda, at least for now. Who want;s to worry about a carbon-tax protest when you can have a sex scandal. And not just a sex scandal, but one, if its managed well enough will keep Abbott off the front pages for months, make the Government look good, and lay all the blame on our armed forces.
Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan where our boys and girls are risking their lives and you wouldn’t see a feminist for dust …
Scott, people join the army (etc) for a range of reasons. In my case, it was economic conscription, but I found I enjoyed being a cartographer. It’s rarely for the motives you’re imputing to all of us.
http://www.rawa.org/rawa.html
Rawa, and the Australian women [and occasional dog lover] who actively support them, would be very surprised to know that there are no feminists in Afghanistan.
a feminist non-indigenous to Afghanistan of the kind currently sledging off at the ADF, for dust.
I’m getting utterly bored with this so I’m going to drop out of the debate. Skin still intact.
I guess you’re getting bored by the debate, because it’s making you send very foolish and without any arguments, Paul.
“a feminist non-indigenous to Afghanistan of the kind currently sledging off at the ADF, for dust.”
How would you possibly know? There are women serving there and some of them might be the most horrible of creatures – A FEMINIST!!!
You and Bob Ellis can go off and have a quiet whinge in the corner.
Well indeed. It’s too late to say I’m sorry Paul. How should You know. Why should you care? Please don’t bother trying to find him, he’s not thereeeeeee.
but you are really. Reading every word.
There you go again. Running off into the distance after promising never to get involved in these debates cause they bore you and you don’t care. Off you go then, muttering all the while like a pale shade of Bolta about “our boys and girls” (they are over 18 no? or do they have ken dolls too) fighting the fight, who no one feminist done care about them. Anyway, when there is the CARBON TAX and that’s important not a sex scandal (sexual violation is the term btw) cause the woman shoulda waited given how slow the AFDA is she shoulda waited more. But congratulations to the Govt for cynically using the AFDA sexual violation thing to get Abbott off the pages. Could be they are doing the right thing, but let’s put that down to cynical politics.
Go buy yourself a loofah Paul. You can’t see the missing bits on your back.
Wow, I have a busy few days and all of a sudden everybody’s debating issues in the spin thread instead of analysing media tactics.
Take it to the Salon thread if there’s no on-topic thread please. This is not an open thread.
loofah
Sorry tigtog.
Thanks Paul N. You reminded me I need to buy a loofah.
Er, cough, back to the topic of spin.
I’ve just finished watching Combert at the Press Club and he, IMO. performed very well by stating clearly that AGW exists and what we as Australians should [moral and economic imperative] do about it and, in that process, giving at least 2 gaurentees.
One that 50% of the money raised would go to households as compensation and secondly that the thrust would be directed at low-middle income households including pensioners.
The programme stopped and ABCTV News had a report 1 second later that this was a “Sales Pitch”.
Negative spin?
No, hannah’s dad, I don’t think the ABC could ever be accused of spinning negatively for the government. Look at all the negative coalition stories and articles that they produce.
Oh, OK adrian, I suppose that is pretty obvious given the ABC’s lefty bias.
Silly of me to contemplate otherwise.
Meanwhile Channel 7 reckons ‘only’ ‘some’ people will get the climate ‘tax’ household compo and then ‘only’ for the first year and “then after that who knows?” with an instant fade to Abbott saying “You cannot believe what this government says” [it always amuses me when Tony talks about honesty].
116.
Adrian?
rofl, really..
Yes, I have great faith in the absolute impartiality and integrity of the ABC Board and management. Just because Mark Scott used to be/still is a member of the Liberal Party means nothing. He’s only the Managing Director.
And only a strictly impartial, verging on lefty news organisation would employ Chris Ulhman to take over from Red Kerry. I mean, one lefty replacing another…
Sorry, tigtog. (Shuffles, looks at feet.) We’re like children when we aren’t supervised by an adult …
Guys I suspect Paul just got tired of arguing logic against people who are unwilling to examine their own prejudices. I reached this point the other day myself. I work full time in the ADF and I just got tired of people who are clearly uninformed and often with an axe to grind sledging it off, generalizing about its culture and denigrating people who work very hard and do their best. It just seemed a little pointless and juvenile in the end.
Cheers everyone.
Some people commenting here have been incorrectly calling the brand new 7.30(show), the The 7.30 Report.
It’s like comparing flat lemonade to the finest champagne.
What an insult to the previous, compelling and unique program.
Ok, I’m getting to the spin part.
I think it’s disgraceful that Chris Ulhmann resorts to lying to push his agenda. He told Julia Gillard that Rudd said on QandA that she urged him to kill the ETS completely.
We all watched the show and Rudd did not name her, nor imply it was her at all. We all knew this stuff anyway…
Cannot believe Ulhmann is that shameless. Boring show anyway. Really miss Kerry O’Brien’s quiet but deadly interviews.
MP, Red Kezza was better on In Gordon Street Tonight than Uhlmann will ever be.
Oh, and tonight in 7:30 guess what? A journalist interviewing another journalist. Again.
Michael @ 122,
That’s about it. I also had a book on 18C Nova Scotia to struggle through thjat I wanted to get back to, which I was reading most of yesterday.
So, you see, Casey, I was too busy to lurk/
On spin, somehow I thought the Luna Park face behind Uhlmann was appropriately stupid.
And like the rest of you I lament yje absence of Kerry O’Brien.
I’ve also quite surprosed myself how much I like that Girdon Street show. It the second time I’ve watched it, and I might make it a regular thing. (Anyone of those people on Gordon Street would be better than Uhlman on 7.30.
Sunrise this morning had a great take on welfare queens. It showed the proportion of your tax spent on welfare. What I took away from that is “if welfare is slashed I could have $4000 more a year in my pocket!!”
I’d like to congratulate Tony on getting the Liberal party’s welfare reforms on the table.
re: @126 I would like to congratulate successive governments since the early-1990s on having divested themselves of any skerrick of responsibility for employment; and for having successfully devolved all blame, accountability and responsibility for unemployment onto the jobless.
Pontius Pilate would be proud of you.
What used to be called the ‘Commonwealth Employment Service‘ is now a punitive sorting-and-sifting mechanism designed to ensure that no politician will ever be held responsible for the level of joblessness in their electorate, and that people without jobs can be safely condemned, ignored or vilified depending on the whims of the more fortunate.
The best part is, this has come about with the willing collusion and co-option of the public, thanks to years of spin that makes us feel more comfortable seeing our taxes spent on sending roughnecks to Afghanistan, and submarines that don’t work, instead of welfare for people who need it.
Not to mention non-means tested welfare. So the middle class and the rich are quite fine for kickbacks to fund their flat screen or trip to Bali but get all upset on those scroungers without work wasting their money on rent and food. The cads! The bounders! The leeches!
Still with this and the “Greens are unAustralian” speech at least the PM is preparing the country culture wise for life after Abbott. When the handover happens sometime this year most of us won’t see the difference.
I expect any moment to open the paper to see a full-colour photo of Gillard on the plucking line, elbows-deep in chicken feathers and chicken poo, wearing a fluorescent-yellow work vest and a luminous orange hard-hat, talking about the ‘dignity’ of work!
Why is Gillard being such a hideous right wing turkey on welfare? There!s practically full employment FFS.
Another example of the ALPs totally dud, repeatedly failed strategy of pitching policy at people who will never vote for them.
I can just imagine this in the Budget – after three months on Newstart Allowance the unemployed will have to accept placement as school chaplains in order to continue to receive their benefit.
That’s some nice spin of your own you got going there Michael @122.
Well said Mecurius – and please, nobody mention corporate welfare because such a thing does not exist in Australia.
tssk is right – the coalition could barely be worse than this mob. Gillard is truly a lowest common denominator politician. Thank god for focus groups, because without them she’s have no idea what to believe in, apart from the ‘dignity of work’.
And if you lack that dignity it’s your own bloody fault.
I can feel a rap lyric bubbling up inside me:
The PM’s a coward
Who imitates Howard
And loves beating up on the disempowered
Suggestions welcome…
Michael at 124 and others…
So it’s not just me???
Do other’s miss the old show too?
The 7.30 (show) leaves a lot to be desired, and I desire Red Kerry. (no, yuk, not in that way).
7.30′s journalists interviewing journalists format, along with its fancy, wider studio setting makes 7.30 ‘blend in’ with all the other ABC-24 news programs.
People are not GLUED to the TV, we may be doing other things while watching TV, and I for one cannot distinguish whether I’m watching Leigh Sales on 7.30 or whether I’m watching Afternoon Live, or The Drum, or even the news.
Like I said The 7.30 Report with Kerry O’Brien was unique. You looked forward to it, and part of what made it unique was the man himself.
…At least under Howard the policy framework was based on mutual obligation…
Thats exactly why they’re doing a crack down on unemployed/disability. Trying to avoid inflationary pressures resulting from a shortage of employees.
But “full employment” no longer means full employment in the true sense of the word. It means the “non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment” which is believed/asserted to be about 5 per cent.
Emendment time
The PM’s a coward
Who imitates Howard
beats up the disempowered
She’s the rich man’s pawn
Before dusk and before dawn
There’s never a glitch
about helping the rich
She loves angst and fear
And sheds more than a tear
for those who hate others
our sisters and brothers
from so far away …
and though god’s in the bin
gay marriage is sin
greens are disloyal
we never toil
for family or country
or nought but ourselves.
When comes the day
that she’s swept away
Who will dare say
I’d rather her stay?
Yo, MC Fran!
Check out the roundup from http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/04/14/trollday-welfare-bashing/#more-9743
Can any local economists please explain to me the whole idea that we need to pay people at the bottom to motivate them to work while paying people at the top more to work?
Because to me it looks like a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich.
Because the same twits are getting the same rubbish out of their focus groups that they always have.
Seriously, my guess is that behind all this rhetoric is a bunch of money about to be spent on assisting those currently out of the labour force back into it. Which is, actually a good thing. But, for whatever reason, the best way to sell it is “getting tough on the unemployed”.
tssk: on the upside, the carbon tax looks like it’s going to be a not insubstantial transfer of money from the rich to the poor.
The Carbon Dioxide tax is not going to happen. We’ll see a revisit of the “ya gonna get whacked” ad campaign and the ALP will turn to rubber.
The ALP cannot ‘turn to rubber’ because it is now accepted fact that the only reason for Rudd’s slide in the popularity stakes was the ‘backflip’ on the ETS.
This was not necessarily the case, but it now has the status of accepted fact. It is getting increasingly easy for the spin manufacturers to turn any drivel into an accepted fact now that the these spin masters and journalists are generally at one on most issues.
So in the dumb country we are increasingly denied alternative voices – just about everything is framed in an increasingly narrow window that suits the moneyed elite.
I too have been bitten by the doggerel dog – sorry TT
—-
The PM wants us up at five –
Thank No-One In Particular
That we’re alive
To face a new day, work and strive
‘Til we retire at eighty-five.
Opinion polls,
They give a jolt,
So nick some policies from Andrew Bolt,
Just random thoughts to fill the void –
A crackdown on the unemployed:
“There’s dignity in office jobs
and coal mine pits and and truckie-stops
and being the chicken-sexers’ boss,
If you don’t see it, you must be snobs!
“If we can’t sell you on the myth
That work brings freedom
Who’ll go down the pit?
We need to keep you busy bees
Or you might get up off your knees.
“So with a hi and with a ho
It’s off to Centrelink you go
To fill out forms and read the boards
Share in the bounteous rewards
Of all that opportunity
To join in your community
If you won’t do it, golly-gee
You’re letting down the whole country!
“It’s high time that you pulled your weight,
To drag your carcass is your fate –
Your highest purpose on this Earth,
The reason mother gave you birth.
“Set your alarms
For five to five:
Set two, to be
On the safe side, to be
Or not to be late for work
Time’s ticking by
You mustn’t shirk
Get up before
You hear the beep
Get up before
You go to sleep
Get up
And flock together
Bleat like me
You’ll be top of the heap!”
Mercurius
“Set your alarms
For five to five:
Set two, to be
On the safe side, to be
Or not to be late for work
…..”
Do I recognize homage to “‘arvey Aspinall’s Alarm Clock”?
Sadly not, however the cadences of John Updike’s “V.B. Nimble, V.B. Quick” were racing through my head.
Gillard’s quote from Curtin is a serious misrepresentation. If my memory of the history is correct Curtin had just introduced the 1942 [?] Manpower Act. the purpose of the Manpower Act was to put everyone in the country not in the armed services to work on war-related work. We were facing a massive shortage of weapons, armaments, planes, tanks, etc etc and they sand there components had to be made at home until such times as we could get arms and equipment from the US on Lend-lease. (we were the only allied country that made a credit/profit out of Lend-lease btw.) The Manpowetr act was controversial, and Curtin had to sell it and he sold it by upping on the fear of invasion. When unemployment benefits were intorduced in I think 1945, there werte two people in the whole of SAustralia unemployed. (Cf Hasluck’s official history on the war on the home front.)
This woman is either ignorant of Labor history, or wilfully misrepresenting it.
All the above is off the top of my head, but I think its brioadly right.
Today’s big story is obviously the Wilkie ordering cadets to perform a Nazi salute when he was a senior cadet at ADFA furore.
To me this smacks of somebody scraping the absolute dregs of the smear barrel – I’m remembering times during my youth I “ordered” other youths to salute and say Heil Hitler and they complied. I’ve also complied when others in my peer group have “ordered” me to do the same. It was considered a gesture of irony/sarcasm at the time.
Apparently the writers/directors of one episode of Fawlty Towers ordered John Cleese to do this once. The episode is fairly well-known, but where are the protests?
On a more serious note, this reminds us that the meaning of texts is not reducible to its ostensible content or form, much as that is a useful guide. The meaning of text is shaped, aptly enough by context. A n@zi uniform in a film called Springtime for H|tler in The Producers is not the same thing as one sighted at the Nuremberg rallies in the 1930s.
I don’t know the full context of these suggestions about Wilkie in 1983, but one salient piece of context is surely the culture of the defence forces and the meaning of masculine solidarity within them. How a 22-year-old in the forces in 1983 ought to have worked out what would have seemed apt in 2011 seems hard to specify. It seems now that people alleging bastardisation in 1971 are now emerging.
Had I thought Duntroon was an apt place to be in 1983 (at the age of 25), and had I been capable of being admitted, perhaps I’d not have thought such conduct bizarre or troubling. I would have thought such conduct troubling then as an outsider, but then, I was a communist and saw the officer core as a hardened part of the coercive arm of the bourgeois state — much like the cops. At the time, I’d have assumed that a part of inuring the corp members against the community they would be required to repress lay precisely in such dehumanising activity. My position today, though more nuanced, isn’t greatly different.