TWO very different personalities dominated this past week – Tony Abbott’s white-haired girl, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, and the AFL dark avenger, former Australian of the Year, Adam Goodes.
Ms Bishop’s overweening sense of entitlement so enraged Australians that less than 20 per cent wanted her to remain in her cushy job.
Robert Macklin.
So, too, with Adam Goodes. Where was the prime ministerial leadership on an issue that he says is dear to his heart? He’d promised to spend his first week as PM with an Aboriginal community. And while that didn’t quite work out he still claimed to be on the side of the angels. His failure to immediately condemn the dark angels of our humanity was unworthy of the office. And when he did speak he just burbled
SEX also reared its pretty head as Senators Penny Wong and Cory Bernardi went at it over same-sex marriage at the Press Club. Neither broke new ground, but it did highlight the crazy resolution from the ALP Conference. Labor decided on a “conscience” vote in this parliament but a binding one from 2019, even if they win government next year. Go
IT was almost as illogical as the other sex issue: female MPs. They agreed on a 50 per cent “quota” by 2025. A female delegate responded to a patronising male after the vote was taken: “Well,” she said, “I’m glad you’re glad we’ll get equality in another 10 years.”
Fair cop.
THE tow-back-the-boats issue spilled over to the SBS series “Go Back Where You Came From” with predictable results – once exposed to the plight of real-life refugees, most of the hardliners changed their tune. Unfortunately, the pro-refugee folk stayed obdurate that the perilous sea journey remained an option. But all agreed that our current 14,000 quota was too low. Hard to argue with that.
ANOTHER low was reached at Edgbaston with a bewildering collapse twice over by the Australian batsmen in the Third Test. Everyone knows the English use a different ball that swings more and they have softer wickets that bounce less. Yet our young guns under captain Michael Clarke played like they were at the WACA. Time “Pup” folded his tent.
BACK home our own young political gun, Labor’s Yvette Berry finally made a public ripple. Since her elevation to the ministry in January she’s been the Invisible Woman.
Yet she’s not only the Minister for Community Services, but also Housing, Multicultural Affairs, Women, Assisting the Chief Minister on Social Inclusion and Equality and – wait for it – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Affairs. So, did she break her silence with a slashing broadside supporting Adam Goodes?
Nope. Instead, she declared gifts received in office including an $80 pearl jewellery box, a “pineapple yellow” ukulele, an “Introduction to Islamic Studies” and a two-kilogram bag of Saudi dates.
Fair dinkum…
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