The reshuffle has been announced, and Amanda Vanstone isn’t in the new ministry.
Mr Howard thanked Senator Vanstone, who has had numerous problems in her immigration portfolio, for her service as a minister since the election of the coalition government in 1996.
“She’s a very colourful person who has worked very hard and in a very committed fashion in the various portfolios that she’s held,” he told reporters.
“She’s made a wonderful contribution to the government and Australia.”
Mr Howard hinted she may be in line for a diplomatic posting, saying she “retains an enthusiasm for future public service”.
So as with former public servants who’ve performed poorly in Immigration, Vanstone gets her golden handshake.
Her replacement? Kevin Andrews.
In other words, now we’re going to get tedious legalistic defences of government stuff ups and unfeeling lack of compassion but without the bluster and the “colour”.
Update: Best commentary so far from comicstriphero.
For ‘colourful’ read ‘can and often does polish off a bottle or two of nice red by herself over dinner’.
Well, if nobody else will do so here, Amanda Vanstone, I salute you. You’ve been the best minister in the Government, with daylight second.
So much for Andrew Robb being propelled into Cabinet, eh?
Chris Pyne shuffled sideways into another assistant minister role, with movement creating the impression of progress.
The euphemism for sacking Gary Hardgrave was hilarious.
Let me just repeat what I said on another thread: Goodbye you worthless cold-hearted sack of shit! May you rot in hell.
Department for Toeing the Line and Dressing in the Australian Flag.
Thanks once again, OBL, you bastard.
Australia would be a much better place if an Act of Parliament was passsed to delete the idiotic word “multiculturalism” from all legislation. This dropping it from DIMIA is an excellent and wise move to be applauded. As is the dumping of the 2 bottle screamer!
Well, she was definitely more colourful than a certain predecessor I could mention (and I use the term advisedly).
*cough* undead spawn of Satan *cough*
Just as heartless, but somehow she had more blood.
The blood is the life!
Just sayin…
I don’t much like the government policies she was charged with implementing, but Vanstone is incredibly smart and had more compassion in her little finger than most of the people populating the government’s front benches. Shabby treatment, I say.
I just hope she’ll take the chance to jump ship and finally do something worthwhile with all that talent and humour…
I admire you’re faith in her, Anna, but what makes you so glowing about her specifically? She always struck me as run of the mill unpleasant.
I was going to say ‘and the intelliegence’ but Anna beat me to it. Given what else is available, I agree that Vanstone is a loss by comparison. But hey, she’s a woman and a smart (if misguided) one. Can’t have that; off with her head.
Greenfield, it is (was) DIMA (pronounced DIMMER); DIMIA was a previous incarnation. Do try to keep up. And if you don’t understand what ‘multicultural’ means, as you clearly don’t, then it’s smarter not to talk about it.
Now, of course, it’s DIC. And I assume they will proceed to wave it, along with the flag.
‘Intelliegence’ = media smarts.
(Did you spot my deliberate mistake?)
I’m quite interested in the elevation of Nigel Scullion to minister for community services. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he has no ministerial or parliamentary-secretary experience, has only been in parliament for five years and has a professional background as a fisherman and a board member in various seafood industry bodies. He has a quite limited experience on parliamentary committees concerned with indigenous affairs but apart from that… I can’t see it.
He does, however, have a hot mo and probably a can-do attitude as the only Country Liberal MP.
Is this an indication that the Government is about to extend its hostile takeover of indigenous communities? Is it a proactive step towards actually improving indigenous health etc? It is a mystery.
She was a waste in that role. She is quite a hoot if you have ever met her. Sharp as a tack and great fun. AND she got their on merit, rather than relying on some affirmative action quota!
She’d be an excellent Media Watch hostess with the mostest.
eh? How does being a woman come into play this year and not last year?
Speaking of Gary Hardgrave being ex, Andrew Robb being in…
Here’s the good oil about Auatrlia’s educational future..
http://www.alp.org.au/download/070123_dp_education_revolution.pdf
Enjoy.
Sincerely, Good To Be With You
Vanstone had to go – after all, she has no kids, etc.
I see Campbell got shafted for not toeing the climate denialist line slavishly enough.
Im starting to think Rudd can win. Housing affordability kills the interest rate line. Suspect it will come down to a retirement and childcare auction.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to be that literal or that specific; it was just a general observation. I don’t think dumping a woman from one’s front bench is a smart move, much less an admirable one, unless she has been a disaster, and that’s certainly not the unanimous view on Vanstone from either side of politics, or from the long-suffering public.
More thoughts on the chronic re-re-re-labelling of the department in question.
Vanstone nostalgia…
Sigh, has it come to this?
Joe Hockey is now the minister for Lying About Workchoices.
That’s the biggest news in this shuffle. I noticefrom his website that Joe’s a cricket-loving chap from North Sydney, whose tabby cat writes a blog.
Howard desperately needed someone more sympathetic in that portfolio than Kevin Andrews.
John, youâre an example of someone that has failed to integrate into modern multicultural society. You obviously still adhere to values of the past and continue to cling to a bigoted sense of nationhood.
The problem has always been the likes of you, Bolt, Howard, Blainey etc not our multicultural society. Youâre the only ones complaining about our multi-culture, a good 75%-80% of the population is perfectly at ease with our multicultural society. Itâs the bigoted far-right making all the noise. They are the ones that have created a distorted picture of the country particularly through the Murdoch press. Theyâve been given a disproportionate amount of column space, to air their bigotry, and that has created a false impression that the majority have a problem with multiculturalism. Of course, this is not grounded in any sense of reality and in no way reflects the relationships different kinds of people have with each other throughout the community.
John, you are an unqualified bigot and so is every other conservative rat bag that attacks our multi-culture.
Though I’m glad that Andrew Robb wasn’t promoted to Immigration but I’m annoyed about dumping of multiculturalism. There are multicultural issues that do not relate to citizenship.
I wonder if this also means they’ll be getting rid of the minister for Multicultural Affairs (who is a National who doesn’t do anything) and killing off any funding to projects related to anything that isn’t “integration” aka assimilation. At the moment, they’re already not funding anything that mentions the word racism in it and sending back the application form. Probably will be including anything with the word multiculturalism now as well.
I also wonder what Labor will do and whether they would reinstate it or not, having stated that they’re committed to multiculturalism.
In John’s case, judging by his contributions thus far, I’d say his qualifications are of the highest order.
And now that DIMA is DIC, whenever I have cause to ring a senior manager at DIC I will have to restrain myself from calling him/her dic head or other similarly peurile names, if only to relieve the boredom.
And god knows it has reached a sad stage when we regard the incompetent, lying and heartless Vanstone with affection.
Apparently so. I’m as shocked as you are.
I see that George ‘The Lying Rodent Detector’ Brandis has been given Arts. He’ll get those Nazi Greenies out of their garrets and into the trenches, where they belong.
The Rodent doesn’t do things without a good reason. My guess is that Vanstone, who has shown herself to be lazy and incompetent, even by rodentine standards, and has become, according to latest Liberal Party polling, an electorate liability – no worse sin in the Rodent book than that – now with the Ruddster muscling up and all. There is nothing a like high-profile blood-letting to sharpen up the team.
The only danger is that, vengefully, she might start to snipe at the government from the shadows of the back bench. Thus the offer of a posting to Kazakhstan. Or Bosnia Hertzegovina.
The irony is of course that she is being sacked (apart from her lack of work ethic) for doing the Rodent’s dirty work.
Are you listening and watching Ruddock? You are next! The Rodent is swabbing the decks.
Ah, I love it. Time to break open a scotch.
Update: Best commentary so far from comicstriphero.
Crack that discount bottle of Teacher’s, Sir Henry, and ring the bell sucka, cause school’s in. Vanstone was neither lazy nor incompetent: she did the perfect job required of her in Immigration after Ruddock, which was to remove the portfolio from the news, and she did it in style, waxing sarcastic and mocking in the press and on the national electronic media until even those sniggering green-pen communists at the 7.30 Report felt ashamed. Whinge about ABC bias? Not Vanstone, she just went on camera and stuck it up them. In a just world she’d be a leadership contender.
A woman after my own black heart. I hope that when she’s done in Parliament she gets to kick back with a big strong bourbon-and-branch somewhere in DC, in a diplomatic post senior enough to humiliate the other half-arsed political appointments.
Multiculturalism is just food in this country. It divides the country and creates differences instead of uniting the people. We’ve never been a multicultural society – multiracial, yes, multicultural, no. Australian first, ethnicity second.
Out of many, one.
Do you think they’re trying out the Sunrise factor in IR, to see if it works as well with Hockey as it seems to have with Rudd?
Good To Be With You,
are you a real avatar LOL. C’mon, you’re actually getting paid to post this link aren’t you?
As a dear friend said regarding Verandah, never trust a woman with pockets in her skirt
It isn’t faith, wbb. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like what she did while in the Ministry, but I also don’t vote Liberal so that’s hardly surprising.
But disagreeing with her actions as Minister, and much of her politics, doesn’t change the fact that she is smarter than most of them, as well as being very funny. She was nasty, yes, but then again, the policies of her government were nasty too. And the fact that the PM does support the policies she had the job of enacting means she’d be justified in being a little pissed off.
Her speeches on RU486, stem cells and cloning were brilliant, and I do hope that her demotion gives her a chance to focus on these sorts of issues, perhaps joining forces with some of the other backbench liberal Liberals who’ve been giving Howard a hard time the last few years. In other words, putting her talents to good use, rather than using them as a force for evil.
Rod Kemp had the New Media Arts and Comuunity Cultural Development boards of the Australia Council abolished, I wonder if George Brandis, who has tried to ban books, might have an agenda for the literature Board too?
Oh yairs… If she’s so hot, why did Johnny give her the flick? Most people (judging by the comments here and elsewhere) think it was time to lighten the load in the boat.
Devil baby, tee-hee, you’re such a bungling, crude, amateur spin doctor.
From Workplace Relations to Immigration, Andrews is having a dream run for a present-day “Liberal”.
What better career path for someone who gets a woody reminding the little guy that the “Australian” government intends to keep them down and “in their place”.
Unfortunately for you, 75%-80% of the country doesn’t feel divided, it’s only the bigoted peanuts, like you, that have a disdain for all cultures other then their own that object to our multi-culture.
Yes, you are a racist.
With the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations and the Department of Environment and Water Resources having the same acronym: DEWR, there is a simple way of differentiating them.
Wet DEWR and Dry DEWR
Delio seems to have started on the hard stuff earlier in the day.
mark says:
The best performing ministry in the LN/P gov has been immigration and [what ever its called nowadays] affairs. Of course this makes it the worst in the perennially leaking eyes of the Wets.
When the Wets ruled the alien intake roost we had people like Habib and Al-Hilaly walking in with a free pass with predictable consequences in social (dis-)integration. Ten years ago most of the populus was anti-immigration. The ethnic revolution inevitably led to a nativist reaction. Hence Hanson and Cronulla.
The spectacle of the Wets ruining alien intake policy with multicultural nonsense, ethnic lobbies and assylum-seeker rorts and then carping at the odd and inevitable stuff-up in remedy is a case study in the art of straining at gnats and swallowing camels.
The coalition has totally turned public opinion around on immigration around by attracting a better class and repelling the worse class. The NESB ratio is higher than ever, but on economic, rather than ethnic, grounds.
In the process the Wets have experienced one long Waterloo as their various headless chickens have come home to roost. The Wet rump now resides in its birthplace, nestled in the privileged bosom of the small “l” liberal Liberals.
Oh, and multiculturalism is dead as a dodo. Good riddance to a bad idea.
Ursula The Sea Witch (from The Little Mermaid cartoon flick)and Amanda Vanstone; could never view one without seeing the other.
So another loyal Howard functionary becomes a bit too much lead in the saddlebag for the good of the party going forward. So they had to let her go. Nothing personal. See ya later, Mandy. No doubt many refugee, deeply touched by Vanstone’s neo-humanitarianism will shed a silent tear on this evening of her demotion.
Exit The Dragon; Enter The Eunuch.
Everyone:
Perhaps Howard is going to allow a sort of an election to break out after all – I ‘ll believe it when I see it; my guess is that we will cop a few theatrical and perpetual “iminent terrorist threats and security emergencies” instead. Cynical? I wonder why.
If there really truly is a little bit of election way away on the horizon then I can understand Howard wanting to get rid of Vanstone; despite her terrible public image, she does have the ability to replace Howard in the top job – pace SirHenryCasingbroke – (whether Australia then would be a nicer place to live is another question).
Getting rid of Vanstone could also be a ploy to attract the Lefty vote. What???? Leftists voting Liberal???? Yeah, Howard’s a rat but, well, look, he did get rid of Vanstone, didn’t he ….. and he promises to change his policies to make them more Compassionate And Caring too ….. Yeah, I’ll have to vote Liberal, I suppose.
Tomorrow’s headline.
The ‘ar*e’ gets another one. Both redundant.
Something I posted somewhere the average political blogger would rather not be seen…
Is that right about bus drivers? I’m a public transport person so I get lots of buses – and a lot of BCC bus drivers wear anti-workchoices buttons.
Wholesale sales tax, ATSIC and the Dreamtime and now multiculturalism all dead. Is there anything left for leftys? Oh that’s right, more bloody money for education and the noodle nation. Like a broken record.
Agree Alex on the bus about Andrews. He might have been a hard worker and diligent in his job, but unfortunately the presentation was woeful. Definitely a demotion. Hockey for IR is the interesting one. Boy will Jovial Joe be a foil to Gillard. His manner may make her seem harsh and shrewish by comparison. She’ll have to watch the message doesn’t get lost in that.
Observa:
Of course there is, heaps of it.
Howard’s quasi-Socialist economy. Environmental policies that would delight J I Stalin himself. Housing and employment policies that emulate Soviet satellites of the ‘Fifties. Human rights practices inspired by the USSR.
Are Comrade Howard’s glorious achievements Lefty enough for you ?
And don’t forget the cultural commissar work of Comrade Alston
Probably more perception than reality: the committed RBTU members are more concerned about keeping their jobs and not getting a busload of mouthy nimrods, while the Tory drivers seem to have plenty of time to blame everything wrong on the ‘elites’ (or, in Melbourne, Andrew Bolt’s ‘Axis of Evil’: the ALP, the ABC and The Age).
That said, maybe it’s a different culture on the council buses: in all-private Melbourne, you’d be lucky to get much political insight out of drivers, and those who do tend to come across all Gloria Parrot.
“in all-private Melbourne, you’d be lucky to get much political insight out of drivers”
However tram drivers seem a lot more cool, open-minded, relaxed and thoughtful. Maybe it’s the fact they trundle in long clear straight lines all day with a PA at their disposal and are members of an ancient Australian guild. Or maybe the knowledge nothing can run them off the road except one of their brethren.
On Amanda, she’s certainly good company to share a bottle of wine with. Very likeable (so long as you didn’t cross her, when like many impulsive people she showed another side). And I always liked her open contempt for “the boys” – ie certain more conservative members of Cabinet.
But as a minister – well, “lazy and incompetent” is unfortunately absolutely correct. I’ve seen how she operates – or rather fails to – from the inside. She made good copy for the Press Gallery but it’s no accident that on policy issues she could make no headway against the boys. She never bothered to learn her job.
“She made good copy for the Press Gallery but it’s no accident that on policy issues she could make no headway against the boys”
Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
but she never made no headway even when she was makin’ good copy…
Amanda,Amanda,Amanda,my beloved Amanda,she always reminded me how beautiful horses are,cos last time i saw an arse like hers it was pulling a plow.So she is off to the back bench,is this before of after the head carpenters report?Good riddance.
There was a hint, if she was quoted correctly in the fishwraps, that she will now feel less constrained to speak her mind. Go on, Mandy, let it flow, baybeeee!!!
SirHenryCasingbroke:
And Madam/Mister Chairman, I second Sir Henry’s motion …..
All those in favour say ‘Aye!’
Derrida Derider:
Aw, you’ve ruined my illusion …. as an ordinary member of the public, I had the idea she was a capable minister who was spindoctered by her boss into copping all the sh*t whenever it hit the fan so that he always looked perfectly clean and Teflon(c)-coated.
b.t.w. Have heard she knows Chinese. Does this mean only she can eat with chopsticks without splattering other guests …. or can she actually carry on a conversation and look at a newspaper in Chinese? Just wondering.
A chopstick sharpened for poking in the eye could be considered a weapon.
derrida derider
I agree you about Mandy being good company. I cannot judge her as a Minister as I’ve never really been close enough to the halls of power to understand close up what is “lazy and incompetent,” or what “brilliant” means in the ministerial context.
I imagine it is fair to say she inherited two departmental dog’s breakfast’s (is that too many apostrophes) in Education and DIMIA. Do you think she had ample opportunity during her tenure to have more substantial improvements?
Graham Bell, if I recall correctly, when the Chinese premier addressed parliament in Canberra in Mandarin, neither Amanda Vanstone nor Kevin Rudd required the speech translation headphones.
Dog’s breakfasts. No apostrophe on breakfasts as it is a plural. But a better construction would be:
“she inherited a dog’s breakfast in each of the departments she took over.”
Sir Henry
Thank you m’lord. I imagine that is what Greenfield sans cracking hangover would have written.
Sounds like an oxymoron Greenfield, dear boy.