Thursday 27 March 2014
Friday, March 28, 2014: Something big and shiny in front of their dirty laundry...
Ceremonial days, all pomp and decadence, and covered widely despite everyone knowing exactly what would happen. 17 degrees with the threat of rain hovering over us. I wish I'd stayed in bed.
The heart of Canberra is rarely bereft of dignitaries, and today is no exception. The royal procession is being filmed by all sundry, multiple angles in the event that someone might miss something - a risk being somehow nullified by the fact that nothing of interest will happen. It's all very dour.
What this pageantry, the ascension of Sir Peter, does achieve is an even sharper focus on Knights and Dames and status. This was initially frustrating for the Labor Party, keen as they were to exploit Sinodinos and Brandis, until Michael Williamson and Craig Thomson reminded both parties of the benefit of having something big and shiny in front of their dirty laundry.
Politics can be excellent for the strategy, but for all the hurly-burly that we've seen this week, what we're really witnessing is the closest thing to piece that Federal Politics is capable of. Two parties who are happy to feed the media scraps while they work out what to do next.
In the news...
Former Defence Chief Peter Hurley has been sworn in as Governor-General, replacing Bill Shorten's mother in law Quentin Bryce.
Scott Morrison has again felt the cruel wrath of a hostile senate as they again scuttled his TPV plan yesterday.
HSU guy Michael Williamson has been jailed for at least 5 years for fraud.
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014: Newly legislated as the laughless capital of Australia...
I suppose I owe you a bit of background. The Canberra Press Gallery is a veritable circus of hacks and drunks and madmen. The things you read and the shining faces of TV, they're the end product of any number of lackeys who pull the show together. People with full press credentials, access to the halls of power without the profile of the stars. I am one of them, here on assignment with an unnamed mainstream media performer - who has asked only to be referred to as Falcon. This is my story:
There are inherent risks to hiring George Brandis, the largest being that he is, for the most part, an insufferable baboon of a man with an often startling ability to say the wrong thing at the worst time. Having a man of such demeanor in your party at all, let alone quite a senior part of it, generally means a lot of meetings with subjects like 'crisis' and 'contingency'.
When I woke up this morning, simultaneously sweating and shivering at thought of another day in what has been newly legislated as the laughless capital of Australia, and reflected on where exactly we were. Brandis had essentially defended our right to be nasty people (which is lucky considering what this town is doing to my usual good nature), and Arthur Sinodinos stood down after feathering his nest with some tasty tasty Obeid dollars. It should be a bloodbath...
Instead, as the Falcon so delicately explained, the media cycle turned. What he means by this I never quite understood, because the cycle doesn't just turn that quickly - it must have been pushed. In this case, it was attached to a power drill and spun mercilessly - a deft tap with a sledgehammer knocked Sinodinos and Brandis to the backpage, and left us all - the ALP included - talking about Knights and Dames and whether or not laughing is Parliamentary.
And you can't blame the media for letting them off the hook. The Falcon explains this to me every time I grill him on ethics. - 'I couldn't not write about Knights and Dames, the boss would kill me, even the ALP are talking about it.' - and he's got a point. The ALP let them off the hook, and they've been doing it for years....
There are inherent risks to hiring George Brandis, the largest being that he is, for the most part, an insufferable baboon of a man with an often startling ability to say the wrong thing at the worst time. Having a man of such demeanor in your party at all, let alone quite a senior part of it, generally means a lot of meetings with subjects like 'crisis' and 'contingency'.
When I woke up this morning, simultaneously sweating and shivering at thought of another day in what has been newly legislated as the laughless capital of Australia, and reflected on where exactly we were. Brandis had essentially defended our right to be nasty people (which is lucky considering what this town is doing to my usual good nature), and Arthur Sinodinos stood down after feathering his nest with some tasty tasty Obeid dollars. It should be a bloodbath...
Instead, as the Falcon so delicately explained, the media cycle turned. What he means by this I never quite understood, because the cycle doesn't just turn that quickly - it must have been pushed. In this case, it was attached to a power drill and spun mercilessly - a deft tap with a sledgehammer knocked Sinodinos and Brandis to the backpage, and left us all - the ALP included - talking about Knights and Dames and whether or not laughing is Parliamentary.
And you can't blame the media for letting them off the hook. The Falcon explains this to me every time I grill him on ethics. - 'I couldn't not write about Knights and Dames, the boss would kill me, even the ALP are talking about it.' - and he's got a point. The ALP let them off the hook, and they've been doing it for years....
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