Turkey Feathers Ruffled?

Posted on March 4, 2012 by patriciawa

Julia Gillard’s cabinet reshuffle,
Was the wildest of media shows.
Like pigs, their snouts sniffing for truffles,
Journos found all sorts of things to expose.

Or like jackals who lurk in the jungle,
And our own outback dog,  the dingo,
If they sighted a mis-step or bungle
The news hounds were on to her.  “Bingo!”

Headline hunting,  they pushed and they scuffled,
Yet she remained calm and composed.
Now they are turkeys,  feathers all ruffled.
Their payback will be poisonous prose.

Tony Abbott is flexing his muscles;
Big and bulging near bursting his clothes.
In the House bitchy Bishop bustles
To move one more of their damned SSOs.

Amid all this clamorous kerfuffle,
The name Gillard so much on the nose,
Bob Carr partners her soft shoe shuffle
As she smiles,  looking sweet as a rose.

NOTES:      I’ve been more angry with the media than usual this week, which is saying something!   After her decisive win in the leadership spill  last Monday the Canberra press gallery have not been damning her with faint praise,  but trying to drown her in it.   With the Senate vacancy which occurred with the surprise resignation later that day of Mark Abib there would need to be a cabinet re-shuffle to fill both that vacancy and the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs.  The media speculation about the decisions the Prime Minister could or should make in choosing her new cabinet reached fever pitch.  In spite of her calm reassurance that she would make an announcement within a few days and her legitimate reluctance to share her ideas prematurely about potential moves and candidates they harassed her and her ministers at every opportunity.   Worse,  they chased leaks and rumors,  invented stories about offers made and then withdrawn,  conjectured about  would-be appointees and imagined the frustrated ambitions of others likely to be disappointed.

Notorious among all these was the saga of Bob Carr,  former Premier of New South Wales, who was rumored to have been offered the Senate vacancy and the role of Minister of Foreign Affairs,  only to have them withdrawn after pressure from Julia Gillard’s cabinet colleagues and/or ALP faceless men,  all of which the Prime Minister denied.  She was accused of lying.   There followed a storm of criticism of her ineptness,  questioning her honesty,  her  judgement and her leadership capacity.  It all culminated in a shrill denunciation by the Opposition and yet another failed SSO proposal in an attempt to move a motion of No Confidence in the government.   All of which Julia Gillard ignored or swatted away as if nuisance flies.   On Friday after all the kerfuffle she dropped the bombshell announcement of Bob Carr’s appointment as Foreign Affairs Minister once he was confirmed to fill the Senate vacancy.  Barry Cassidy  describes it well.

The sight of Julia Gillard walking into that news conference with Bob Carr in tow was hard to beat for political jaw droppers.The media, encouraged by public and private comments from within the Government, had moved on from the prospect of the former NSW premier ever becoming foreign minister.

What followed Mark Arbib’s resignation up to Julia Gillard’s announcement of her cabinet changes is outlined by James Higgins in his Politics Project.  I don’t disagree with his outline of events as they unfolded.   I part company with him in believing that the Prime Minister was not reacting ad hoc  to situations as they arose,  but rather was in control of what happened,  almost directing events throughout the week.  She knew the candidate she wanted and ultimately she appointed him.   I think she enjoyed watching the Opposition make fools of themselves in the House of Representatives.  Though no doubt she would have preferred not to have had all that negative media coverage I think she relished every minute of turning the tables on those journalists at her press conference.

Not that any of them ate their words.   How the press stumbled and got this story so terribly wrong and then tried to prove that somehow they had been right all along,  is covered in delicious detail by Ad Astra in the Political Sword.   It was reading his critique of all the bunglings  and self justification of the Canberra press gallery which had me thinking “What turkeys!” and deciding to write this pome which started out as a comment in a few lines on that thread.  I’ve modifed  and expanded it a bit in an effort to bring out what turkeys the press gallery are!    Others obviously agreed.    I’ve included their comments here too.

Julia Gillard’s cabinet reshuffle,
Was one of the best media shows.
Like pigs, their snouts sniffing for truffles,
Journos found all sorts of things to expose.

Tony Abbott was flexing his muscles;
They were bulging near bursting his clothes.
Up his Deputy bitchily bustles
To put one more of their cursed SSOs.

So, with all that clamorous kerfuffle,
The name Gillard so much on the nose,
How did she manage that soft shoe shuffle
To emerge smelling sweet as a rose?

COMMENTS:

Ad Astra,     04/03/12,     Superbly delicious, or should I say aromatic?

janice,     04/03/12,    As Ad astra said “superbly delicious” pome.   What a cache of brilliance you now have in your pome collection.

jane,     04/03/12, Patricia, bit harsh on turkeys, don’t you think?  lol

Catching up,     05/03/12,  Patricia, my experiences of turkeys as a child is that they puff up and make much noise, none which seems to have any point.   The other is that they are very easy to get going.   A chuckle or two from a young child was all that was needed to have them going in unison.    I do not know if they meant to put fear in one, but thankfully if this was the case,  they failed dismally.

Yes,  seeing the Opposition and media as turkeys is not hard to do.    Once again spot on.

AT,     05/03/12,   patriciawa – your doggerel rates! : )

Gravel,     06/03/12,     Well done again Patricia, you have nailed the last week so neatly and so well. It is great the blogosphere is now outright laughing at the journalists and their stupidity. None of them seem to have any shame though. I look forward to maybe reading one of your pome’s about Swanny this week. He has come out breathing fire like a dragon, it has made my heart smile for him, after all the horrible things that have been written and said about him.

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Has Speaker Slipper A Strategy For A Surfeit of SSOs?

Posted on February 29, 2012 by patriciawa

Reformer? Or snake in the grass?
Watch Peter Slipper kicking ass,
And doing it with gravitas.
In Oz speak that means ‘bit o’ class.’

It isn’t just the way he’s dressed
In long black gown and fancy vest.
What has onlookers most impressed
Is the end of uproar and unrest.

Members are no longer hostage
To shouts, insults, bad language.
More legislation now has carriage.
That’s not something to disparage.

The Chamber fills no more with cries
Of outraged members screaming,  “Lies!”
Simply saying,  “You fantasize.”
Does not shock.  Nor does,  “Porky pies!”

What of time-wasting SSO’s
Used by Abbott against his foes?
Some forty two so far of those.
More still?  Only God,  or Slipper,  knows!

Will Prissie Pyne,  when censured,  use
‘Time Out’ to find the Members’ loos,
Fearing the Speaker may refuse
To let him rise to make more POOs?

For Liberals he’s a mystery.
Slipper?  Reformer?  A Tory,
Now handing Labor victory,
To be praised one day by history?

Acknowledgement:  That delightful cartoon is by Chadwick in the Global Mail.

Explanatory Note:   An SSO is a motion for the Suspension of Standing Orders!  A POO is a Point of Order!

NOTES:   Today’s uproar in the House of Representatives with yet another defeated motion for Suspension of Standing Orders from Tony Abbott  has prompted me write this pome about the 27th Speaker in the Australian House of Representatives.

Peter Slipper’s accession to the Speakership was a controversial one, the result of a brilliant play by the Prime Minister.    Apart from its impact on the balance of numbers in our hung Parliament it promises huge changes in that House as he brings it back from the chaos wrought by his own party,  the Coalition,  as a strategy to bring down the government.   Lenore Taylor discusses the likely impact of Slipper’s appointment as Speaker on Tony Abbott’s war of attrition against Julia Gillard.   I love the baleful look on Abbott’s face in the picture there of Slipper being dragged in the traditional Westminster ceremony to the Speaker’s Chair.

I’m pretty sure that Slipper,  smarting though he may be from his treatment by the Liberals,  has no conscious intention to support the Labor Party.  I think he’s fascinated by the idea of himself in the role of Speaker and determined to make a very good job of it.  He seems to me more perfectionist,  even vain,  than vengeful.  Be that as it may,  I wonder how much more of an asset than one more precious vote the Prime Minister anticipated her new Speaker in the Lower House might be.

There’s a good overview of Australia’s history of parliamentary pomp and ceremony by Mike Seccombe in the Global Mail and the likely impact of the new speaker and his love of it all.

POST SCRIPT on 01//03    Maybe I should modify my title in which I had tried to use alliteration.   The answer to my question is that Speaker Slipper does not, as yet have a strategy for dealing with a surfeit of SSOs.   As I watch Question Time in the House of Representatives Julie Bishop is moving an almost incoherent motion for yet another (43rd?. 44th?) Suspension of Standing Orders with an outline of every one of Julia Gillard’s supposed lies, accusing her of being ‘silly and slippery and slimy and shifty’.

At one point she asks  ‘Do we have to have any more this?’  followed by Poo Pyne, seconding her with an equally crazy argument, entirely irrelevant to the government of this country.  These people are bonkers! Fabricating a scandal around something the Prime Minister may or may not have said or done in trying to form a new cabinet!   As Pyne says,   ‘The Australian people deserve better than this!’      They sure do!

I am beginning to suspect entrapment here. This really makes the Opposition look insanely obsessed by a non-issue and quite unable to deal with real matters of policy.   Is it possible that these futile SSOs give the government a chance to point out their irrelevancy and to outline their own substantial initiatives about which the Opposition should be questioning them.

NB – POST POST SCRIPT!  And a very important one too!     Ashgebranious has written today, 15/03/12,  about the cost to the taxpayer of  these non-essential SSOs and the incalculable cost to members of the public who come to our  parliament for business reasons and must waste time kicking their heels waiting for debate to resume.

COMMENTS:

Casablanca,    01/03/12,    Patricia WA,    I see that you have celebrated your inclusion into Pandora with another excellent pome.     QT under Slipper has been transformed and I expect that it may start to rate in Glenn Dyer’s daily TV List in Crikey.

Gravel,     01/03/12,    Another brilliant post Patricia,  and again congratulations for being included in the National Archives,  an achievement very well deserved and not before time.

jane,     01/03/12patriciawa, love the pome.   I had an inkling that Slipper might be the very one to sink the Slipper into the appalling behaviour rampant in the Lower house at QT. On the occasions when he stood in for Harry Jenkins, he took control of the house in no uncertain terms.

Roswell,     01/03/12,    Another gem Patricia

Miglo,     01/03/12,    Roswell summed it up in one suitable word, Patricia.

Sue,    01/03/12,     Thank you patriciawa you have made my day.

Pip,   01/03/12,    patricia, good work on your pome :smile:

Catching up,    01/03/12,    Congratulations, keep up the good work.  Political verse is a worthy and old tradition. Look where nursery rhymes come from.  It is a skill that has disappeared in our modern age.  Where would the Bulletin have been without Lawson, one of the best.   It is time that this skill sat once again beside that of the cartoonist.   

Michael,     03/03/12,     thanks Patricia – leaving another smile on my dial

                             

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Will Ruddy’s Face Be Red?

Posted on February 25, 2012 by patriciawa

After the vote and all’s been said
Will Ruddy’s face be truly red?
Will Canberra Labor heave a sigh?
Such relief!  Surely now he will be told?
He is done for! He’s been rolled!
This really is the very last  “Goodbye!”

Will journos there no longer dread,
When all the world’s tucked up in bed,
If he’s awake and wants to vent his spleen,
They’ll be called out with all the press
To hear another long address
On the evils of the ALP machine?

“We are gathered here today….
So I can have my say….
On how badly I was done by…..
I wasn’t given all my dues….
And no one listened to my views….
While Julia Gillard gave me the evil eye!”

So, no more pressers at midnight
While Kev’s about to board a flight
And he tries to keep them pacified
Or maybe earn a bit of glory
By feeding them a story
Which he cautions them is classified.

No more having then to go
And harass the chiefs of ASIO
Whose agents really knew him.
With their mates in DFAT
They’d have loved to join the brass hats
In Defence and find some way to screw him!

Will copious tears of joy be shed
By many a Departmental Head
And every leftie politician
Who has come to hate his guts?
Yes!   Then  deal with the other one who’s nuts –
The Leader of the Opposition!

–
NOTES: The only way I can deal with my outrage at the treachery of Kevin Rudd who threatens the future of the Australian Labor Party is to make fun of him. I started to join the conversation on the political blogs today, but was soon worn out by my anger. It was easier to write these few verses.

Kevin Rudd has resigned from his position as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and from a press conference in the United States has taken centre stage in Canberra. With the ultimate in hubris, he has declared himself the only man who can win the next election and save the Australian Labor Party, indeed save the country! At last, I think our media who know what a traitor he has been to the ALP, his Prime Minister and the government to which he has sworn allegiance, are beginning to ask some serious questions.

For me the obvious and most important questions are, “How can a dysfunctional and untrustworthy human being take over leadership of a party where he is largely loathed by most of his colleagues? How can a man who, while Minister for Foreign Affairs, is constantly leaking information to journalists, be responsible for the security of our country?

Julia Gillard, as Deputy when he was Prime Minister, did a mighty job holding the Labor government together in spite of Rudd’s failings as a leader, which was why he was finally deposed as tactfully and expeditiously as possible. Efforts have been made to protect his reputation and to give him due respect with the position of Foreign Minister. But he has never accepted his demotion and has been tirelessly undermining the fragile Labor government which might have been stronger had it not been for his sabotage and leakings during the 2010 election campaign.

He complains of the faceless men, the faction leaders and union officials who with Julia Gillard organised the coup against him. In my view those faceless men could not have made themselves more visible as they played their part in the events of June 23rd, 2010. Yes, Bill Shorten and Paul Howes are union men, but then so are many Labor politicians, like Bob Hawke! Julia Gillard’s long experience as an advocate for organised Labor is now a plus for all working people.

As our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard has done phenomenal work and achieved far more by way of real reforms and legislation passed in two years of a hung Parliament than many majority governments. Listen to the overwhelming praise she has earned from her Cabinet and Caucus colleagues and the real loyalty she still has from them. The Independents, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor are not Labor men but both are of sound judgement. They know that Julia Gillard is the Prime Minister this country needs. As does Bob Brown, leader of the Greens.

COMMENTS:

Gravel,    27/02/12,   Patrica, your words have again for the 100th time echoed my thoughts and feeling. You do it so well, thank you for all your effort.

Mary,    26/02/12,       There was another lady with red hair once in another time and realm, she fought battles , within her court and held back envaders, from other lands, trail blazer of her time, elizabeth thefirst,   The prime minister is a lady of courage and generousof spirit and time, so many wonderful policies for the ordina ry folk.does not bow to others does what she thinks is right governs this nation for the good of all its people not just the few,     There seems to be jealousy around her, and dislike, is it because she is the first lady pm , who knows only those who wish her harm know why ,they do so. Her face radiats with love, and understanding, i feel she actualy feel geuinly y sorry for those that seek to harm her, she will prevail, god bless our pm julia gillard our very first lady pm, julia gillard the immigrants daughter from wales.

Catching Up,     25/02/12,     “And every lefty politician”    He was so overwhelmed when one come out on his side today, that is his good mate, Albo.  Patricia do you ever wonder whether you are writing fiction or facts. Alice in Wonderland has nothing on what is going on at this time.     Maybe we will all wake up, and find we have been having a nightmare.

billie,     25/02/12,     I firmly believe Rudd is unfit to govern Australia after his heart operation and the persistent rumours about his traitorous leaking of cabinet-in-confidence conversations plus Laurie Oakes and Professor John Mendoza innuendos about his mental stability.     The hint of mental instability rules one unfit for the post of Australian Prime Minister in my book

Casablanca,     25/02/12m      Well done. Don’t get mad, get poetic!

My Say,     25/02/12,        thank you patricia, for your poem

Sue,     24/02/12,   (Re earlier Title – Why Ain’t Rudd Dead?)  That’ s because he is a zombie and why the press was talking about the stake thru the heart.   and like all those horror movies he will jump up and grab you down.   For the “innocent” backbenches like in any scary movie, you DO NOT walk down that darkened hallway, for that is where evil lurks.

Victoria,    24/02/12   Great poem.   Although I reckon Rudd is more nutty than Abbott at the moment!!

foreverjanice,   24/02/12,    Good pome, PatriciaWA.  The lying, cheating, traitorous and vile little man has betrayed his party.

Miglo,    24/02/12,   Great pome, Patricia. You’re a special talent.

Catching up,     24/02/12, “Maybe because they did not explain why at the time. It is prudent to remember most of the accusations of an incompetent government comes from incidents of that time. Ber=waste Insulation-deaths waste waste and debt. Mr. Rudd was unable to defend his actions at the time.

Maybe because they did not find Probably motivated by the right reasons — of not wanting to make it messier or humiliate Kevin or do any of those sort of things — that’s actually left a question mark over Julia Gillard’s leadership,” Attorney General Nicola Roxon, a Gillard supporter, said yesterday. “In the long run we would have done better to discuss those issues at the time.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-23/gillard-rudd-rift-toughens-labor-s-task-to-sell-australia-on-another-term.html

Pip, 24/02/12,  The Federal Government’s cadre of Labor Ministers most involved with the technology portfolio have emerged as strong backers of Julia Gillard in the Prime Minister’s tussle with rival Kevin Rudd which erupted last night following Rudd’s resignation as Foreign Minister.

Speaking on ABC Radio’s AM program this morning, 24/02/12, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy accused Rudd of perpetuating “a complete and utter fraud” on the Australian Labor Party over the mandatory pre-commitment technology for poker machines which the Gillard Government had been attempting to implement with the support of independent MP Andrew Wilkie.

Conroy accused Rudd’s camp of meeting with industry lobby group Clubs Australia on the issue. “Kevin Rudd’s supporters were walking around caucus saying look, dump Wilkie, I’ll make this go away…………….The Australian public needs to know what’s been going on here.”

Asked whether his statements were borne out of an attempt to protect his own status, Conroy said his efforts were aimed at “protecting the Gillard Government’s reform program — including the carbon tax, the disabilities insurance scheme, and the National Broadband Network policy.”     The NBN, of course, being central to Conroy’s own portfolio.

Stories of Mr. Rudd’s numerous examples of leaking to the press have convinced me that he is not the man to lead the Labor Party.   He leaked against his own Party during the 2010 election campaign and that, to me, is unforgivable.

Mr, Rudd was the man who blinked on the ETS after Tony Abbott became the Opposition Leader, whereas Julia Gillard went to the 2010 election and announced in her Climate Change Speech that she wanted to put a Price on Carbon followed by an Emissions Trading Scheme, back then known as the CPRS.

We now have the Price on Carbon which is to be followed by an Emissions Trading Scheme.
To the shame of the Opposition and the Press Gallery she has been pilloried for this because, they say, she lied.    Add to this Mr.Laurie Oakes, apparently one of the four journalists who were taken into Mr. Rudd’s “confidence”,  insisting that PM Gillard call the carbon price a “carbon tax”.

Shame on all of them! They are all expected to barrack for the Coalition and they’ve done their job very well and they’re not fussy about whether they are truthful or not.

The Minority Government has achieved so much reforming legislation and thanks to Kevin Rudd who must be fondly imagining that the Press will alow him to win, Tony Abbott is in an even stronger position without having to explain himself or his non existent policies.
Like you patricia, I’m very angry with him.

Pip,   23/02/12,   I meant to add on the credit side for Mr. Rudd, he increased the pensions for the most vulnerable people in our country, he was in charge when the GFC was dealt with, he apologised to the Stolen Generation among other things.   If, however, it is true that he white anted  Prime Minister Gillard and her government during an election campaign, he’s lost me.

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We Are In Her Hands

Posted on February 19, 2012 by patriciawa

I think it’s very sinister
That newspaper reporters wield
Power to trap a Prime Minister
In their cunningly laid minefield.**

Of course she must answer questions,
But surely any argument
From the people,  their suggestions,
Should be heard in our Parliament?

That’s what our constitution says.
Kings granted that right long ago.
But orders seem to come these days
From stars of TV and radio.

If our politicians mumble
A response,  or have ‘accidents’
With snares set to make them stumble,
They’re criticised.   “No confidence!”

These ‘judges’ were not elected,
So whence comes their authority?
They’ve none.  They’re employed,  selected
By a wealthy minority.

We’re ruled by a plutocracy
Of mining and media magnates!
They control our democracy
And one press baron dominates.

Tales of ambition and revenge
Are spun,   maybe to lift his sales,
But with this leadership challenge
To make sure our government fails.

**The Moir Cartoon,  “Gillard Media Traps”  of Thurdsay, February 16th, 2012,  is from his SMH gallery,  depicting Julia Gillard in a minefield laid by the media!  She is tip-toeing along very skilfully and taking great care of Australia which she is cradling in her arms!   I found it very inspiring.   Since I linked to that I’ve asked permission from Alan Moir to include the cartoon itself here.   He has very kindly granted it as shown in comments below.

NOTES:  These verses were also inspired by an emotional and strong posting by Ian on Crikey’s Pollbludger yesterday.    I quote it here in full without further comment. 

On the surface this may be about Rudd and Gillard. On the surface it may be about the insipidly, talentless journalists in this country. But it’s not. This is about the exercise of raw neo-conservative power. That the neo-cons have pretty much come out and admitted that they intend to bring down this Govt. speaks volumes.

This goes deeper than the present Govt. This goes to core value that all Australians should hold as sacred….” my vote is important.” These neo-cons want to buy the governance of Australia as cheaply as they can. Why wouldn’t they. They already own the media. They already own the minerals. They nearly had the entire workforce on contract. Nothing better than a workforce of pricetakers other than pricesetters….and wont that becoming back in a hurry if they win.

The faces of the neo-cons, Rinehart, Murdoch and their ilk are bad enough. The ones who control the strings, these faceless men, are the danger.

So, yes TDT, I believe that there is a conspiracy to try and seize control of the Australian democratic process. I also believe that the plotters, and you are right…they are evil, want Julia Gillard gone because from what I can see, the only people in the way of these neo-cons is Julia Gillard and her front bench.

It may possibly be about politics, polls and shit scared backbenchers. It may all be about Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. I think this is a fight for the nations soul…..and I think the Prime Minister knows it.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2012/02/13/newspoll-55-45-to-coalition-3/comment-page-151/#comments      7525

COMMENTS:

Ad Astra,     20/02/12,     Thank you for your insightful poem.   The danger of rule by the mining and media moguls is ever present.

Catching up,   20/02/12,    Patricia, once again you have captured the mood wonderfully.

Catching up,   20/02/12,      Ian has managed to say it much clearer than I have been trying to.  This is not a battle between Mr. Rudd and Ms. Gillard. It is a war about who controls our parliament.  If Mr. Abbott thinks it is just about Labor, he has rocks in his head.   This is a battle and war this PM has to win.

Patriciawa,     20/02/12,    I think a lot of people would agree with you Cu!  And I think she willl!  I was interested and heartened to read that Andrew Elder thinks she will win the election!  He  also had scathing things to say about the media this week whom he describes ‘oxygen thieves’ deliberately robbing the government of air and the chance to publicise really important reforms like the means testing of the health rebate.

Catey,     20/02/12,     Patricia your poem inspired by Moir’s cartoon was one of your best.  Much appreciated.

Patriciawa,     20/02/12,     Thanks, Catey, I will treasure your comment.  I particularly liked that cartoon because it suggested to me that Moir does understand that our Prime Minister truly cares for Australia and is having to protect it from the harm the media are doing it in an effort to destroy her.

Talk Turkey,     21/02/12,    Patricia,  I just have to smile at this line! SmileKings granted that right long ago.Yeah only because The People fought and died and at last topped one and forced the Monarchy to give people some rights!    And hereditary wealth and class-based privilege still rule supreme
 
Patriciawa,     21/02/12,       Poetic license!   Doesn’t make me any less of a republican.
 
Ian,    21/02/2,    Thank you!
 
Alan Moir,   22/02/12,     Hello Patricia,   enjoyed your pomes.     Permission is granted and the cartoon attached.   No fee.     Regards,   Alan Moir.
 
Patriciawa,   22/02/12,   Wow!   What a compliment!
 
Catching up,     22/02/12,     Yes Patricia it is a compliment.   It also shows that not all believe we are idiots.
 
Gravel,     23/02/12,     Patricia, what a joy to come back into blogger land and have your latest pome to read. That cartoon is brilliant, I can see why you were inspired. Thank you for posting what Ian wrote. He is quite right. I feel like saying Julia is fighting the whole world, that is how it seems to me, and she is giving her all, and doing a very good job of it.
 
 
 
 
 
 


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Chance Is A Fine Thing. Opportunity Is Better

Posted on February 12, 2012 by patriciawa

Another time,  another place,
Or if they’d been a different race,
This girl-child’s father and her mother
Had no constraint to smother
Her,  or have to run and hide
While waiting for a ride
To hope,  across an open sea.

Their littlest one,  weak in her chest,
Was able still to pass the test
For passage to Australia.
No risk there of failure –
An ideal migrant family!

That child is grown and powerful now.
I’m sure she stops to ponder how
It happened, and what would have become
Of her if,  not a ten pound Pom,
She’d been instead a refugee.

Not surprising then or sinister
She’s become  our Prime Minister
Determined not to leave to chance
Her life’s clear mission;  to advance
Australians to fair and equal opportunity.

NOTES:

Are you in any doubt about what drives our Prime Minister, or what she is trying to achieve?  I’m not!   I’m pretty clear in my mind that Julia Gillard’s legislative program of reform is about a fair go  for as many of her fellow citizens as possible, and not just a priveleged few.   A fair go for me means access to an opportunity for the good life for anyone willing and able to grasp it,  and support for those who through age or disability can not.

I think she’s been taught those values by her parents who appreciated the opportunities they and their children have had,  including perhaps that ten pound passage from the United Kingdom to Australia.  Back then in the UK,  little Julia was a weak chested toddler,  needing warm clean air if she was to get well.   She grew up in South Australia to become a healthy and happy young woman who had the advantage of a good state school education which enabled her to attend University and become a lawyer.  In that profession she chose to specialise in industrial law,  working as an advocate for unions struggling for better pay and conditions for working class people,  already showing her concern for others.

You can read about her brilliant career in law and politics right up to today if you don’t already know it,  but Wiki’s account, objective and lucid though it is,  doesn’t tell you about her motivation,  her mission and her vision for our country.  Which brings me to the most unfair of the many unfair criticisms thrown at our Prime Minister.   She is often accused in our main stream media of lacking vision and having no overarching narrative to tell  (or do they mean sell?)  to the Australian people about what she and her government hope and plan for their country’s future.

Even Paul Keating is said to have criticised her for the lack of that narrative in a 7.30 Report interview.   Well,  that’s what the media said he said!  Read the transcript and you’ll find that he carefully demurred from criticising Prime Minister Gillard’s performance,  but he did discuss the need for all political leaders to get a “storyline running – but it’s gotta be real. It can’t be made up. It can’t be done by the pollsters. It’s gotta be your story….”

I admire Paul Keating but I  agree with Peter Brent, in his Mumble Blog, that Paul’s own  ‘narrative’  seems only to have become clear in retrospect!   Although a great reformer he was PM for just five years, winning only one election  and, like Julia Gillard, he too became very unpopular because ground breaking reform is hard for some people to accept.

Like Keating,  Julia Gillard is bringing in some tough reforms but she does have a narrative,  and her party’s agenda should should be widely known within that narrative.   I can see that it’s about achieving and maintaining equal opportunity wherever possible, not just leaving people to find their own way,  hoping for good luck.  It’s about organising a fair go for everyone,  not leaving it all to chance.  It’s about creating employment through innovation in industry and working with business and unions to improve conditions.  Or like supporting the recent claims for equal pay in the not for profit sector where women like her own mother have given a lifetime of service to the disadvantaged and disabled,  often for low wages and long working hours with little recognition.  It’s also about opportunities to train to become qualified for existing jobs and being ready for  employment in yet to be created jobs in the new economy which will develop as we move into our clean energy future.  That’s where the unfairly maligned carbon tax will make a contribution to improving life for everyone, not just the wealthy few.  At the same time it’s about helping those who through the chance of an accident or from birth have disabilities which prevent them from working outside the home get the kind of help they need for as fulfilling a life as possible.

The big ticket items in Julia Gillard’s reform agenda like health and education,  even the NBN,  are all about creating more opportunities for an improved quality of life for more people.  In remote areas better communications via the NBN for doctors and nursing staff in rural hospitals mean that opportunities for training and for modern medical treatments will be greatly enhanced.   I see the income from the mining tax,  now so fiercely resisted by mining magnates,  who can well afford it from their vast profits,  being used to fund increased superannuation for many working people and for building nationwide infrastructure.    In the same way the so-called Carbon Tax will be paid by huge industrial polluters to discourage further deterioration in the earth’s atmosphere to the benefit of all the world’s people,  present and future generations.  Another plus of this price on carbon paid by big polluters will be its funding of tax concessions to large numbers of lower paid workers in Australia.

My little pome above tries to encapsulate what I feel could well be in Julia Gillard’s mind, driving her to work for equality of opportunity in this country to which she had the good fortune to come almost fifty years ago.   It was chance,  you might say a stroke of luck,  that she contracted  bronchopneumonia as a child and caused her parents to emigrate here for her health’s sake.  They were just the kind of family the Australian government of the day wanted.   Some of you reading this will ask why she doesn’t want to give the same opportunity she had to all refugees, asylum seekers and the boat people of today.

I think she would like to,  but she has to achieve a lasting and practical solution to this controversial problem.   Julia Gillard’s forte is in negotiation and reaching compromise and consensus in issues of social conflict.  In this case, however,  there seem to be irreconcilable differences between the extremes of libertarians who want to open our borders up freely to asylum seekers and the xenophobic conservatives of the Coalition who want to return to the tight border control policies of John Howard.

The attempt to achieve off-shore processing by negotiation with our Asia Pacific neighbor, Malaysia,  has been ruled illegal by our Supreme Court.  Meanwhile she leads a government which has increased its refugee intake very substantially and is resisting Opposition pressure to re-introduce harsh Temporary Protection Visas.  She won’t give in to popular clamor about the increased number of leaky boat arrivals which may or may not be caused by her ‘softer’ policies.  Her newer bridging visas and community detention for family groups are far more  humane than John Howard’s policies which Tony Abbott wants to restore.

She has made what I think is a genuine effort to get Tony Abbott and the Opposition to cooperate in finding a bi-partisan policy for border protection and is continuing to work with the UNHCR and with countries in our region like Indonesia, East Timor and Malaysia to find an offshore solution to people smuggling through the Bali Process.  The offer to accept even higher numbers of refugees who have long been waiting for resettlement is, I think, more than just a bargaining chip in negotiations with our over-burdened neighbors.  This  suggests to me that she has grappled with the practical and ethical  issues here and wants to solve a problem which has assumed obsessive levels in the Australian psyche.  I’m sure that privately she also wants to follow her heart.

Opinion polls aside,  it hardly seems humane to allow an exploitative and cruel trade to flourish and leave to chance or fate decisions about who should reach our shores. People smuggling causes the deaths of so many desperate people, among them many innocent children.  I think our Prime Minister, along with her Minister for Immigration,  genuinely wants to bring an end to people smuggling.  She also wants to offer an opportunity for a better life to many more of the unhappy souls whom chance has left languishing in refugee camps for decades.

Julia Gillard knows the difference between chance and opportunity.

COMMENTS:

Pip,     15/02/12,   Great post patricia.

The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, is visiting Australia and joins us to discuss the issues facing asylum seekers in Australia and around the world.   7.30 transcript.   http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3429799.htm

If you look at numbers, about 6,000 people came to Australia last year, but to Italy and Malta, 58,000; to Yemen, 100,000. So this is a global problem, in which the numbers in Australia are still relatively small and that is why we believe that this debate has sometimes been inflated out of proportion with the reality of the problem in itself and that there is – there should be a scope for a calm and rational approach to these questions in a way that could meet the protection requirements of people.

Patriciawa,    15/02/12     Thanks, Pip.   You’re so right about the small numbers who try to reach here as asylum seekers  compared with elsewhere in the world.   The ocean around us is of course the big barrier,  which is what helps the people smuggling trade to flourish in those leaky boats, and leaves it to chance to decide their fate.  I’ve slightly tweaked my comment on that.   Thanks again.

Pip,       24/02/12,    Patricia, your point that
“She is often accused in our main stream media of lacking vision and having no overarching narrative to tell (or do they mean sell?) to the Australian people about what she and her government hope and plan for their country’s future”  highlights the fact that the Press Gallery won’t allow PM Gillard’s narrative any oxygen!

Patriciawa,      23/06/14,     Nowhere on ‘polliepomes’  have I mentioned former PM Julia Gillard’s great new job offer by a UN agency earlier this year, which gave me the chance to air this pome again  at Cafe Whispers   http://cafewhispers.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/julia-gillards-new-job/.    You can read all about it over at the Cafe.

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Shoeless in Canberra.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by patriciawa

What a hullabaloo!
Dame Julia lost her shoe,
But Abbott lost the media edge
And wondered what to do.

Ignoring all the hullabaloo,
Julia took back her shoe,
Then got on with governing,
Which made poor Tony spew.

“I’ll make a hullabaloo!
I’ll demand a police review.
I’ll attack her credibility.”
That’s what he thought he’d do .

“It was just a hullabaloo.
There’s nothing more that we can do
To help you,  Mr. Abbott, sir,”
Report back the boys in blue.

Then what a hullabaloo!
The hissie fit he threw!
“AFP conspiracy!” he yelled
A shakeup’s overdue!”

“Don’t give me hullabaloo!
One shoe!  I really needed two!
You bastards should’ve let me through!
I’d ‘ve grabbed the pair,  stepped into them!
Shoo-in for PM  without a bloody coup!”

Tony Abbott After Those Shoes!

NOTES:      This spoof on the nursery rhyme ‘Cockadoodledoo!   My Dame Has Lost Her Shoe’ came into my head as I read Lyn’s Links at the Political Sword which resumed today January 30, 2012.   Her range of chosen articles were  absorbing,  as always,  but particularly so today were those about the Australia Day fracas,  described by some as a riot when the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Tony Abbott, were baled up behind glass windowed walls in a restaurant a stone’s throw from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy by hundreds of Aborigines.

They had been enraged by reports of comments made by Tony Abbott earler in the day.  Much has been written on subsequent events.   The main facts are that Julia Gillard’s security man advised her to leave for her personal safety.  She agreed while urging him to make sure that the Leader of the Opposition was safe too.  The PM and Tony Abbott were hustled  away through the angry crowd to the safety of a government car and back to the Lodge, during the course of which she tripped and lost a shoe.  Earlier TV camera footage in the restaurant subsequently revealed the Prime Minister to be a calm and compassionate leader.

Mr. Abbott didn’t come out of it too well until much began to be  made of a so-called leak of his whereabouts by one of the PM’s Press officers who subsequently was forced to resign.    I was surprised to find some Aboriginal leaders and lefties agreeing that this was a major gaffe.   While in that same post, author James Higgins,  gives full credit to Julia Gillard for her cool head and concern for others she displayed in the crisis,  he agreed with other commentators that Abbott’s comments about the Tent Embassy,  though insensitive were not inflammatory, racist or intended to do harm.  NB, a week after this,    Jonathon Holmes on Media Watch  is similarly kind to Abbott, concluding in what might be that man’s own words, “Shit Happens!” after making it very clear that reports what the LOTO actually said had been distorted  by AAP and  mainstream news broadcasts well before the ALP press office became involved.

I disagree with James Higgins and Jonathon Holmes.   I do think Abbott’s comments were subliminally racist and maliciously intended.   My own view is that Australia Day for Abbott began as he had planned with a Dorothy Dixer about the tent embassy and his seemingly statesmanlike and ‘objective’ response about it being time to move on.    SkyNews and other media almost immediately ran an explosive story about his saying that the tent embassy should be moved.   Published nationally these stories could, and probably were meant to be seen by or drawn to the attention of anyone attending the Invasion Day Rally.   They probably were seen well before the PM’s Press Officer, Tony Hodges, spoke to his contact there, Kim Sattler.

These early nationally broadcast news stories have been forgotten in the subsequent hullabaloo about leaks and breaches of security, threatening the life and limb of the PM and LOTO.  Why?   Abbott did not look unduly alarmed or surprised by that crowd hammering on those glass windows.  What must have surprised him was the PM’s reaction,  her concern for his own safety and how her instructions to security had him caught up in the subsequent rushed departure,  hustled along by police.   Only since Julia Gillard began to get such good media coverage with the live TV  footage showing her calm in crisis and her capacity to think of others has there been the hysterical beat-up about security and the need for an enquiry.   The  exaggerated speculation about Julia Gillard’s conspiring with her Press Office and even police to discredit Tony Abbott makes one suspect his rationality.  But then he is the Mad Monk,  made ever more crazy by his ambition to be Prime Minister.

As well I think it’s Tony Abbott’s style to dog whistle ever so subtly with malicious intent on aboriginal issues,  create whatever mayhem will win him headlines and with the help of his media mates pour heaps on the government and the PM.   Which is what he has done now by having George Brandis demand a police enquiry into who knew what and when in this major security breach,  i.e. letting someone know where Tony Abbott was having lunch and giving a speech!   How hysterical is all this hyperbole can be seen by anyone who looks at TV footage of those events and asks how can the movements of the PM and LOTO be state secrets on Australia Day.

Alex Schlotzer confirmed my views about Abbott’s racist dog whistling by referring to Tony Abbott’s lack of concern for the Aboriginal cause about which he protests so much being evident in his comments about the tent embassy leading to the Australia Day mayhem and his expressed reservations about the proposed referendum on their inclusion in the Constitution.

I think my Cockadoodledoo pome is too soft on Tony Abbott.   Hullabaloo?   Bullshit is probably a better description, but it’s not easy to maintain that rhyme!

PS   Many thanks to Talk Turkey at The Political Sword for his help with editing this final version of the pome.    Many of his inspired variations suggested on January 31. 2012, at  03:41 are incorporated here.

COMMENTS:

Lyn,    30/01/12,    Patricia thankyou so much.  What an honour it is to provide information to someone so appreciative, you are an inspiration to everyone around you.
You are gifted with wise thoughts, wise words and a very very wise mind.    I love your pome, hullabaloo! how apt.  Abbott started a hullabaloo to cover up for his words at the Opera House and he has just kept going building and building a Mount Everest hullabaloo.

Talk Turkey,     30/01/12,    Patricia Pometricia said,    TT, any comments or ideas for a title would be appreciated    I think I’ll do your bidding in a separate post. Because I’m looking forward to you as dessert! Smile    Well a latenight snack then!   (Which he did, and brilliantly, soon after midnight on 31/01/12 03:41 to great effect as shown above in my notes – pw)

Miglo,    31/01/12,    Thank you, Patricia. I’m sure you’ve cheered us all up with your pome.

Paul,    31/01/12,     Looks great!    The boys would like it!

Bree Blakeman,     01/12/13,     a hullabaloo indeed! And what a great Poem!

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Tony Abbott’s Preferred Australia Day Award Winner

Posted on January 26, 2012 by patriciawa

If Tony Abbott could have had his way
On this very important national day
He’d have had top honors set apart
For a special lady, Gina Rinehart.

The Big Australian, he’d choose that name!
That’s no snide comment on her outsize frame.
This woman’s fortune is so gigantic
It makes men mad and sycophantic.

The Right in Oz have great respect for size
Of companies and wealth, which leftist eyes
Would find ugly, distasteful and obscene,
Particularly that of the Iron Ore Queen.

That’s why our Leader of the Opposition,
Has made it his job as a politician,
To do all he can to preserve Gina’s wealth
Even at the cost of the nation’s health.

Mining taxes levied on her and friends
Must go. Their prosperity far transcends
Pensions for malingerers and shirkers
Who now retired are no longer workers!

Not like the Big Australian and her mates,
Clive and Twiggy, real miners! They’re not magnates!
Why should they toil all day, near break their backs,
Then pay both Mining and a Carbon Tax!

That’s why Abbott wants us to join with him
To fight for Gina in his battle grim.
He thinks this woman’s cause deserves our votes.
It’s even weightier than turning back boats!

NOTES:     How appropriate is this picture by Colin Murty of Australia’s richest person talking with Opposition leader Tony Abbott at a Perth luncheon for this update on an earlier pomeI wrote about Gina Rinehart.   This latest version  was inspired by the Australia Day inaugural post by Hillbilly Skeleton, formerly Feral Skeleton of the Political Sword, at her new site in which she referred to Abbott’s preferred candidate for Australian of the Year.   It’s an interesting article about how powerful a grip mining magnates like Gina Rinehart and others too have on Tony Abbott and the Coalition.   She links to a very interesting article by Jane Cadzow which gives one a chilling insight into how dangerous it could be for Australia if Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, owing his victory to the money and influence of this very determined and controlling woman.

Rinehart’s recent substantial investments in media interests also give one an understanding of the overwhelming bias of the Australian media against this Labor government and its Prime Minister.  I’ve often been appalled at how badly the MSM treat anything constructive about them while at the same failing to print anything critical of the Opposition, particularly about the very gaffe prone Abbott.   Even Fairfax and the ABC have joined the Murdoch News Ltd line, so that the one third of independent reporting and commenting one might expect from our media just isn’t there.

Reading this material about Gina Rinehart’s influence on Tony Abbott and his party’s direction I began to see how her vast wealth, is impacting on our media too, even that not directly controlled by Rupert Murdoch.  lt explains the almost universal and vicious media determination to destroy the reputations of the PM and other Labor politicians while protecting those of Abbott and his Coalition colleagues.    An example of this is the coverage  of today’s Invasion Day protest where the ABC reportage gives the impression that Aboriginal anger was directed at Julia Gillard, when in fact it was Tony Abbott’s careless remarks which had incited the riot.

Rinehart’s active participation in the 2010 demonstrations against Kevin Rudd’s first attempt to bring in a tax on the super profits of mining companies was undoubtedly a factor in his downfall.  Who will forgot those images of her wearing her gleaming pearls with Twiggy Forrest up on the back of a ute,  urging on the crowd and joining their chorus of “Axe The Tax!”    What a contrast in her modest demeanour recently meeting the Queen.   Could her Majesty have guessed that she was meeting the world’s richest woman,  soon to be the world’s richest individual?     No wonder Tony Abbott wants to keep her friendship and support!    I marvel at Prime Minister Julia Gillards continued sang-froid as every day she responds to the media attacks in what is indeed a grim war.

COMMENTS:

Hillbilly Skeleton,     26/01/12,   Your verse sparkles like a diamond. Thank you so much for posting this pome on my blog, as it is so pertinent to the topic I have spoken about.

Talk Turkey,     29/01/12,         Patricia WA I omitted my acknowledgement of your pome January 26.       Double-rhymed, hope everybody realises, it’s so much harder doing that but I love it.

But this is the line about BIG Gina – And men –  That hangs in the air:

This woman’s fortune is so gigantic
It makes men mad and sycophantic.

‘Tis true! I sighed . . .
Still, it can’t be applied
On the other side
Of the gender divide! Smile

Only joking, I do know what you mean. I am firmly in favour of the impersonal masculine in such applications as, “Each climber must carry his own swag” where that covers ems and efs, and I am in favour of ships and other such expensive beautiful objects of our regard as feminine . . . and whales too obviously . . . as in Th’ar she Blows!   . . . which brings us back to Big Gina . . . Smile !      Oops Bad Turkey. Poor Gina!      She probably has a a hormone  imbalance,  nothing to do with gluttony.

Miglo,    03/02/12,     You’re a very talented lady, there is no doubt.

Pip,     04/02/12,     Another great effort,  Patricia

Wixxy,     08/02/12,       Patricia, you rhyme like you are a rapper……..

And dump on Abbott like he’s in a crapper.
I hope you keep writing this stuff,
Cos I for one, just can’t get enough                     Great post :-)

Patriciawa,    08/02/12        Thanks,   Wixxy.   I love your own sense of humor.    My favorite post of yours was that one about a week in the life of the Coalition shown in pictures with  captions.

Sean O’Shannessy,    29/08/13,     Do U reckon “The #PhonyTony Blues” could be LNP anthem for this election? Share if U think it should http://snd.sc/13SGjiC

The Phony Tony Blues
(To the tune of “Summertime Blues”)

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No Stress or Strine at this Test for Julia!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by patriciawa

Last year they said that Julia was to blame;
If she’d been there we’d have won the Ashes.
Those commentators! They’re all the same,
Looking for bad news and headline splashes.

This year should be good for the PM’s name.
There she was,  smiling and in the pink,
When Clarke made history in our national game.
Has any journo paused to stop and think?

Where was Tony Abbott?   He’d want to claim
To be like Howard,  the cricket tragic,
Something obviously denied that dame.
He’d want photo ops,  to share the magic.

But he was out of state,  out of the frame,
Far from his home town and the SCG,
Driving a giant rig to win acclaim,
Well planned, he’d thought, for great publicity.

How desperately this man was seeking fame
With a stunt to show him high behind the wheel!
Then the PM attends a cricket game
Where fortune smiles on her – and plants its seal.

NOTES:       I swear John Birmingham was more than half serious on his blog this time last year when Australia lost the Ashes at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when he claimed that it was all Julia Gillard’s fault.   She should have been there!   Her preference for the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2011 where Jane McGrath Day was in its third year broke a long tradition of Australian Prime Ministers attending test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with this particular one being the decider which returned the Ashes to the Poms.

Birmingham had tongue in cheek of course, but it was not the last in a long litany of complaints about Julia Gillard’s person quite apart from her policies and her political capacity.  A major issue at that time was her accent, a broad Australian one!    I suspect that Labor and Coalition politics aside, the silly season meant that journalists seized on the chance to discuss the Prime Minister’s many imagined failings and to promote the imagined virtues of Action Man, Tony Abbott.   I enjoyed writing about these at the time, particularly Julia’s strong strine accent, and Abbott’s phoney claims to being a cricket tragic.

Mr. Rabbit’s just not worth the time.
Send him off! Back into his hutch.
Let’s hear “Howzat!’ and “Play the gayme!”
Called by Julia.   She’s got the winning touch.

It’s great this year that by being faithful to Jane McGrath’s memory and consistent in her loyalties the Prime Minister is in the right place at the right time and displaying the deft touch she has in managing her government which has seen her survive successfully so far for all the negative media coverage of her and her party, and the crazy commentary and undue focus on Tony Abbott’s endless stunts.   This last one falling particularly flat.

COMMENTS:

Min,    06/01/12,     Very nice picture of Julia today resplendant in a hot pink chapeau.   http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2012/01/06/1226237/848017-gillard.jpg

Actually..on thinking about it, technically it’s a fedora..good rhyming word there :)

Pip,    06/01/12,    Min, the “pink day” is now a regular feature at the SGC Test match, in aid of the McGrath Foundation which raises funds to provide carers for breast cancer sufferers.   There were burly blokes with pink beards, hats, various outfits, all in pink :smile:

Nice pome patricia, Abbott ‘out of state, out of frame’, gee that sounds good, should happen more often.

WHY exactly does he need to have a ‘combination’ licence, and is that a full truck licence.
WHY does he need to get a truckies licence at all when he could be working in is own electorate for a change.
Maybe he’s in the wrong job :grin:

Catching up,     06/01/12,

Where was Tony during the break. Spending time obtaining a licence to drive a truck. Why, so he could perform better stunts. That is in his eyes.Would his time been better spent study much of what the PM has done in the last twelve months and be better informed when interviewed.Maybe he should have spent some time reading. But then this man who drives trucks, does not need to know more.  Stunts, the bigger and more outlandish is all one needs to drive the government of Australia After all one does not need to know the nuts and bolts of what one is going to dismantle. All one needs to know is that Labor introduced the bills, and that alone makes them bad.   While one is at it, they may as well dismantle everything the previous Labor government did. Fair Work being on top of the list.    It is true, Mr. Abbott would say, that the voters did not know what they where doing at the last two electionsMr. Abbott would say, it is time for those born to rule be returned to the fold.     Yes, the most important thing that Mr. Abbott could do with his spare time was to get a truck licence.   Maybe he will need it for his career change that is surely on the horizon or just over the hill.   Where was Tony during the break. Spending time obtaining a licence to drive a truck.    Why, so he could perform better stunts. That is in his eyes.   Would his time been better spent study much of what the PM has done in the last twelve months and be better informed when interviewed.  Maybe he should have spent some time reading.

Very good, Patricia. You seem to do better with every effort.

lyn,     06/01/12,     you have chosen a beautiful picture of Julia Patricia:-         Cheers SmileSmileSmile

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Tony Abbott’s Christmas Song

Posted on December 21, 2011 by patriciawa

Next weekend in Canberra,
So all the papers say,
Tony Abbott, Rupert’s boy,
Will work on Christmas Day!

Journalists and cameramen,
Dare not disobey.
They must record his every word,
And just for normal pay.

Hark how all the media sing!
A man at last!    Hooray!
That’s how PMs in Oz should be!
At work on Christmas Day!

Recorders hum and mobiles ring.
The shock jocks yack away.
This is how a leader’s born!
What master power play!

And where will Julia Gillard be?
Where else but in SA,
Spending time with her mum and dad,
At home on Christmas Day.

She’s written her instructions down.
It’s there in her “Out” tray.
Whatever Tony Abbott asks,
As usual, say “OK!”

She’s long gone, having set the scene
For Tony’s shadow play,
When News Ltd’s messiah
Appears on Christmas Day.

Bells ring out and children sing,
Awaiting Santa’s sleigh.
Before sun’s up they’re out of bed
And on the beach to play.

Headlines shout and emails ping!
Who’s reading what they say?
That Man will be known for evermore
For spoiling Christmas day!

NOTES:     This spoof on the old English carol, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, was inspired by an exchange of  comments on Larvatus Prodeo between Tigtog and Joe2 about Tony Abbott’s willingness to work on Christmas Day to find a solution to the current Asylum Seeker impasse.    There has been  much derision from the Left about Abbott’s sincerity since letters were published showing how Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,  and her Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen,  had been seeking meetings with him  for some time, even before the tragedy off the coast of Indonesia on August 19th.   He is now insisting that though he is willing to work on Christmas Day he still needs a firm proposal he can consider before then!   

There’s plenty of discussion in the media and the blogosphere about a likely compromise now that both sides of politics are being pressured by public opinion.  I found this little exchange at Larvatus Prodeo somehow encapsulated the stand-off between the two sides.    Joe2 suggested that Julia Gillard should call Tony Abbott’s bluff and test the idea from jumpy  that Abbott’s offer was more sincere coming from a religious man to the atheist Julia Gillard.     Tigtog responded……….

Talk about spin, jumpy. December 25th is a secular family holiday as much (if not more) than a religious holiday, so atheists (and believers of non-Christian faiths) enjoy a day spent with their friends and families at least as much as the Christians enjoy the religious celebration. Why would the PM want to intrude on the nation’s family holiday by foisting herself on the daily news (unless something otherwise notable occurs on the day)?

I rather liked the idea that barring another tragedy in this monsoon season, which God forbid, Tony Abbott might be shooting himself in the foot by refusing to talk to the government except on  Christmas Day, and now  only to Julia Gillard and only about Nauru…….etc.

COMMENTS

Feral Skeleton,    21/12/11,    Just magnificent! It’s one that should be sent to the likes of Laura Tingle and her Carollers to sing! Laughing

Catching up,    21/12/11,    Patricia, I believe that is your best effort.    Mr Abbott thinks himself so smart for thinking up a Christmas day stunt. My advice for a child demanding attention, ignore him.  If he’s genuine, he will take the gag off his shadow minister, Mr. Morrison and let him meet Mr. Bowen tomorrow or Friday.   Leave Christmas day alone.

Roswell,     21/12/11,   Bravo Patricia.    I’m certain there’ll be a Christmas Day photo of Tony Abbott somewhere in the media.    Some poor cameraman will have to give up lunch with his family because the boss will want a vote scoring photo of Abbott.

George,    21/12/11,     PatriciaWA! Excellent!

kezza2,    21/12/11,     I was wondering where that was heading, quite frankly.
But super ending. Loved it.

victoria,     21/12/11,   PatriciaWA,    Very entertaining. :)   Let us hope that Abbott gets the judo chop, so we dont have a spoilt 2012!!!

smithe,    21/12/11m    Hola Blodgers.  Been in and out of here for a while, but just wanted to add my Christmas best wishes to all Bludgers………………….BTW, Good job on the Abbott Chrissie card, George.    And Patricia, that spoof on Hark the Herald Angels Sing was a corker. One of the best satires I’ve seen in recent months. Good work the both of you…………………………………

gravel,     21/12/11,   Patricia, just popped in here to wish you a great Christmas and New Year, and what did I find but this great pome. I loved the ending, says it all for me. Take care and look forward to more pome’s next year.

billie,     21/12/11,     Superb!    as usual.

lyn,     22/12/11,     Hi Patricia  Your Pome is superb, it has it’s own unique jingle, I am humming it now.  Love your piece of opinion at the bottom .  Well done Patricia, Oh! yes and your imbedded links, brilliant,  see how clever you really are.    Thankyou very much for your many genuine informative posts on TPS throughout 2011.  They are appreciated by us all.   You brighten up the page with you little rose covered Tacker.  

Here is a copy of the tweet I posted for you this morning:  lynlinkingLyn LinkingTony Abbotts Christmas Song Patricia wa    So all the papers say Tony Abbott Rupert’s boy Will work on Christmas Day    https://polliepomes.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/mrabbotts-christmas-card-and-song/ sharing

Ted,     27/12/11,     Loved your pome – you are so verbally adept!

   
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Oz Oracle, Possum Comitatus, Declares Miracle.

Posted on December 11, 2011 by patriciawa

As Possum Comitatus
Fifteen months ago alerted us
The Great Unhinging was begun.
No surprises for anyone.

We saw the embittered right
With all their moneyed might
And influence in the media
Generating mass hysteria.

The call for counter-revolution
Against pricing of pollution
Was one of many desperate means
To discredit Labor, attack the Greens.

Character assassinations,
Civil unrest, demonstrations,
Talk back radio jocks all jeering
Egged on by Abbott’s sloganeering.

Yet somehow common sense availed.
Wise heads like Windsor have prevailed.
The Greens and others on the left
Worked with Gillard, wise and deft.

They saved the future of the nation,
Even added to its reputation
As a people quite exceptional ,
Whose achievements are sensational.

With health and wealth now counted awesome,
It’s time to heed the prophet, Possum,
To put away our woes and whinging,
Time to end the great unhinging.

It’s time to leave our fearful dreaming,
Embrace real life with riches gleaming.
Our own Oz Oracle has spake.
Miraculous Australia Felix is awake.

NOTES:

I wrote a first version of this pome as Possum Comitatus – Cassandra Downunder in July, 2011, because I was impressed by how so much of the what Possum had predicted in his article about the Great Unhinging had in fact occurred.   The Opposition  with a lot of help from main stream media, particularly News Ltd. publications and TV stations managed to create an impression of instability and turmoil in the Gillard minority government, generating a sense of crisis and encouraging unease and discontent throughout the country.  

The reality was in fact quite different.   The government proved remarkably stable, passed a great a deal of significant legislation, particularly the pricing of carbon to be paid for by big polluters and a minerals and resources tax levied on the huge super-profits of major mining companies.   Incorporated into both of these were structural reforms of the taxation system and more generous superannuation arrangements. These and other major economic reforms have impacted positively on an already healthy Australian economy at a time when most of the developed world is in the doldrums,  particularly in Europe and the United States, teetering on the brink of depression much of the time.    We are indeed the Lucky Country and Possum thinks that we Australians should acknowledge our good fortune, how exceptional we are. 

Everything he writes about Australian Exceptionalism on his blog is backed up by graphs and tables.  He shows how Australian wealth at all levels of society is on average much higher than elsewhere in the world.  So, he asks, isn’t it time for we Australians to stop pretending to be so ordinary and to acknowledge

“our exceptional results and what has actually caused them. Maybe a little pride in our achievements, a recognition of our triumphs, a grasp of where we indeed sit in a global context – if for no other reason than to crystalise out exactly what it is that we need to solve next, free from the noise of the drum bangers and their oxygen thieving ways when it comes to what passes for our national public debate.”

I agree with him. It’s time to for less unhinging. Time for more self congratulation on

1. Being the wealthiest nation in the world with 75.5% of our adult population making it into the global top 10%.

2. Our economy having grown faster than most other developed countries.

3. Our household incomes having grown faster than anywhere in the world. That includes our poor having a rate of income growth greater than the rich anywhere else in the world, with the highest minimum wages in the world.

4. Our national debt is the third lowest in the world.

5. Our taxation level is the 6th lowest in the OECD.

6. We are ranked 2nd on the United Nations Human Development Index.

I wrote about how unimpressed Australians were, how little it was reported, when  it was  announced in a United Nations Report late last year that we were second only to Norway in terms of health and well being, educational services and general standard of living….the second best country in the world to live in!   No one seemed to want to hear the good news then, nor throughout 2011.   Perhaps  Possum’s good news will fare better.  It certainly is time for us to stop our whingeing and acknowledge that we are living the best of all possible lives in Australia Felix, the Lucky Country!

COMMENTS:

Feral Skeleton,      11/12/11, PatriciaWA, You have sent a copy of your Possum pome to the esteemed Possum Comitatus themselves, haven’t you?

Casablanca,      11/12/11 Patricia WA, Thank you for your reminder of the September 2010 article ‘The Great Unhinging’ by Possum and alerting us to his latest one, ‘Australian Exceptionalism’. I have just re-read the earlier one and read the second one. His first one was spot on and his second one right on the money.
I am delighted yet again by your poetry. You have distilled both of Possum’s articles so rhythmically well. I agree with FS that you should send it to Possum.

jane,     12/12/11,     Like the pome, PatriciaWA.    Don’t worry about the typos, call it poetic license. lol

Casablanca,    12/12/11,     Your newly worked stanzas look great. There will be no further ‘whinging’ from me about typos! You were very gracious about my editorial comments. I was torn between letting them go through to the keeper but as they will be in cyberspace forever, as part of your wonderful poetic contribution to political comment, I acted.          Jane –  ‘license’ is that poetic or just the US spelling! lol

victoria,      13/12/11,      Patricia WA @ 1999, fabulous!

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