Barnaby Joyce won the Insiders Political Personality of the year award today.
BARRIE CASSIDY: Take a look at your monitor there, Senator, and you will see, Insiders political personality of the year 2005, Senator Barnaby Joyce. You must be very excited?
SENATOR BARNABY JOYCE: Looks awfully like a poisoned chalice, Barrie. And my earpiece has just fallen out. It looks awfully like a poisoned chalice. I thank you very much for making my life exceedingly difficult for the last week of Parliament.
BARRIE CASSIDY: At what stage of the year did you think you had it in the bag?
SENATOR BARNABY JOYCE: As of about five minutes ago, Barrie! I’m sure the Prime Minister will invite me round for a cup of tea and a good flogging.
MATT PRICE: Having saved Christmas, Barnaby…
SENATOR BARNABY JOYCE: Having saved Christmas, that’s right!
MATT PRICE: …what’s next?
SENATOR BARNABY JOYCE: We’ll go out and find other obscure days through the year which we need to save………..
So, which Australian would LP readers pick as their political personality of the year and why?
I am going to avoid your question by asking another one.
Is Insiders subsided by News Limited or do reporters from other media organisations generally avoid it (or perhaps are not asked to participate?)? Watching a lovefest between Barrie Cassidy, John Howard, Piers Akerman and Malcolm Farr is the perfect way to curdle a sunny Sunday morning repast.
Yeah, especially Akerman, he should be banned from any media appearance for this statement in a recent column, it was on the impending hanging of Nguyen Tuong Van. They shame themselves by sitting in the same room with him.
Anyway, lest we derail the intention of this post, my political personality of the year is Malcolm in the middle…Turnbull that is. The man who will shoot right up the middle to an early Prime Ministership.
Why? Too smart by half and too much money. It’s the grease of politics.
I suspect they winch Piers in to polarise and controversialise – coz people get off on that stuff – and judging by the preceding two comments, it’s working a treat. Malcolm Farr standing in for Paul Kelly lacked a certain gravitas. Noddy pretending to be Big Ears.
Barnaby is up there and actually surprised with a nice line in self-deprecating, half-sharp humour this morning. Whatever you think of him, Howard has to be up there as well as he continues to dominate the political landscape. Greg Combet has had an excellent year, so has Bill Shorten and Julia Gillard continues to impress. Penny Wong is a comer and Stephen Smith did well during the Workplace Relations debate.
For the Libs, Malcolm Turnbull and George Brandis stand-out as does Petro Georgiou.
It may be parochial of me but Morris Iemma also makes my list. When he took over from Carr he was a
tongue-tied, bumbler with the aspect of a petrified rabbit. He’s almost suave these days.
But my first prize goes to the Murdered Chihuahua member of the Queensland parliament for upholding the good name of Cooloolla Shire as the home of the classic Australian nutjob.
Ron, you might have noticed Virginia Trioli – she was the one up the other end of the couch from Matt Price. Also, If you were a regular watcher you’d remember regular appearances by David Marr, Mike Seccombe etc – you’ll see lots of other non-News panelists on the Insiders website. And far from love-fest, I thought Cassidy/Howard today was pretty fiesty.
Political Personality of the Year? Shane Knuth, new Member for Charters Towers in QLD. Dumber than a box of hammers.
A well deserved winner this year but wil probably disappear from the lanscape now.
Petro Georgiou, for showing compassion from within a party devoid of a soul.
One person who probably deserves to be mentioned is Malcolm Fraser. At one time he would have been the Labor Party’s enemy number one. Now he is one of the only people, with a strong political profile, who is speaking up for human rights and the rule of law. His speech last week was excellent. He reminds us of what Australian politics was like, once upon a time, and this gives some hope that we can regain our liberal democracy. He puts Howard’s Liberal Party to shame, and unfortunately also what passes itself off as the Labor Party these days.
I agreed with the list on Insiders, and Malcolm Turnbull is there with his foot holding open the door. I think that with Malcolm Turnbull, he is still in a honeymoon period. We will see his potential to be leader once he hits some rough weather, and we can all see how he handles it. Politics is not the same as business.
Depressingly I cannot think of anyone to nominate.
I was thinking the other day that if I had to join a political party right now I don’t think I could do it. I have enough trouble voting these days. With each election I move further and further towards simply voting backwards (starting with the candidate that I dislike the most and moving up from there). The saddest part is that, as much as a despise him, Howard wouldn’t even come last (if I were to live in Bennelong)…
I’d like to hear more about why people are talking so positively about Julia Gillard though. Maybe someone could write a post on her?
What is it with Tonys and hammers?
Never watched Insiders. In my world Sunday morning only has relevance as the bit after Saturday night.
I want a Penny Wong calendar for xmas or a Mary Kostakidis one. Li Li Chin is great but too small and skinny.
“Dumb as a box of hammers” is a long-established American colloquialism. The revelation of which should ensure it’s immediate disappearance from the daily currency of Larvatus Prodeo. I don’t know about the Tony connection except that Italian guys from New Jersey who frequently utilise hammers for illegal purposes seem to often answer to Tony.
AKA ‘dumb as a bag of hammers’ or ‘dumb as a box of rocks’, both of which are more fun to say IMHO.
I second the nomination of M Fraser, if only because of his rock-solid stance on race and human rights even at his worst.
Julia Gillard showed extraordinary political nous and tact in navigating the protracted Latham implosion. She’s articulate, intelligent, sane, upfront about her beliefs and affiliations, civil and non-abusive — which makes a nice change in the current climate.
given that you are both blind and tonedeaf you don’t need a calendar FXH.
Keep your George formy one from 1942
Homer – you sad old proddy.
Thick as two short planks.
A kangaroo short in the top paddock.
A Stubbie short of a six pack.
A dozen short of a slab.
Lights on upstairs but nobody home.
Silly question.
C.L., why does that not surprise me? Not that I’m knocking your choice!
I’m with CL hubba hubba.
CL doesn’t suffer from blindness like FXH
Greg Combet.
For kicking three different kinds of shit out of the ‘WorkChoices’ package, and for living the ‘Buddy Holly’ principle: if you’re going to wear glasses, make sure they’re noticeable.
It has to be Barnaby – I agree with the insiders on this one.
Greg Combet is definitely the thinking woman’s crumpet. And you forgot to mention Liam, he deserves still more applause for carrying the day against Hardie Industries.
I’m also going to give a gong to Petro Georgiou. He looks like he could walk out of Parliament into a role in The Sopranos, and has the most incredible voice, plus swoonworthy principles (for a Liberal).
we have political personalities? since when?
Not Latham? He’s the only one who seems to be prepared to trash the system as it deserves – inside or out.
Kwaaaahh, CL. Thank god for raunch culture!
John Howard is miles ahead. By the end of this sitting he will have brought about major legislative changes that have been talked about for decades. Barnaby Joyce may have tinkered at the edges but he wasn’t the architect. The bleeding hearts are screaming blue murder and the end of the world as we know it. The political risks being taken are huge, as demonstrated by the current polling. If Howard and the Coalition win the next election Howard will have been a greater PM than Menzies. If Beazely retains the ALP Leadership and wins the next election he will not only be Lazarus with a triple by pass but also walk on water to the true believers.
I’ve hardly ever seen insiders as I’m never awake that time on Sunday morning – I’m usually still sleeping after getting home a few hours earlier…
Think I’ve seen it once.