I have come to the conclusion, not hard I know, that Tony Abbott is functionally incapable of allowing Julia Gillard to have a good day out and about in the public doing her job as Prime Minister. He must find a way to rain on her parade.
On Australia Day he called a Press Conference after his ostentatious He-Man display of swimming in Sydney Harbour, to blow the dog whistle with respect to Asylum Seekers, as I have outlined previously, and to attempt to mimic his mentor, John Howard's ability to be deliberately ambiguous in his provocations. In this instance as it related to the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.
Abbott's use of the term 'move on', when talking about it could be construed in the metaphorical sense to allude to the sentiment that, the issues which led to the creation of the Tent Embassy were very different to the environment around it today, so maybe the need for it was questionable & the perception was that we have all 'moved on' from then well and truly.
Though, not only metaphorically but a literal interpretation could see people take away the idea that he meant that the Aboriginal Tent Embassy should now be physically 'moved on' from it's home near Parliament House. As the Wikipedia article on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy states, a couple of Coalition governments have attempted to have it 'moved on' but have failed. Also a number of arson attacks have failed to succeed in 'moving it on' from the lawns of Old Parliament House:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy
This Assimilationist sentiment is still held by a sizeable number of Coalition MPs in this country. The 'I am, you are, we all are Australian' mindset. Which is playing out on the Menzies House blog via their petition to get people to sign up to their conclusion that the Tent Embassy should be taken down. To which I might add that if it had been overwhelmingly successful, I'm sure that, as leader of the Conservative forces in this country, he would have used the weight of numbers to force the issue a bit more in public.
So, where this all has left us is that on Australia Day Tony Abbott detonated a couple of verbal incendiary devices, and waited patiently to see whether either of them would blow up in the government's face.
As no one else except me appears to have cottoned on to the Asylum Seeker drowning in the ocean=who cares? but Bronzed Aussie Surf Life Savers saving the lives of Aussies who have drowned=the most important thing on Earth, Abbott dog whistle, it fell to an inexperienced staffer in the PM's media office to take the Aboriginal Tent Embassy bait, and run with it when Abbott came to Canberra. Much to the PM's chagrine, I imagine, as she would much rather have had Tony Abbott's verbal hand grenades fizzle out in Sydney. I think the fact that she made a point of saying in her Saturday Press Conference that she was absolutely unaware of Tony Hodges' calls to a member of UnionsACT, Kim Sattler, who was at the Tent Embassy Commemoration ceremony, wherein he informed her of Tony Abbott's presence at The Lobby restaurant, leads me to safely say that, had she known what he was going to do, she would have stopped it. For the simple reason of not giving Tony Abbott any more oxygen over the issue, and because, as she said, she didn't want that issue bleeding into and all over the medal ceremony.
Now that it has, the media have got their storm in a Lobby teacup, Abbott has succeeded in bringing back to centre stage all the most offensive imagery that the electorate associates with Indigenous Australian Activism and the most extreme ends of their political agenda, during the period that the Prime Minister had hoped for rational discussion around Australia's kitchen tables with respect to the upcoming referenda associated with recognition of Indigenous Australians in the body of the Australian Constitution.
And John Singleton, Ray Hadley and Tony Abbott have again conspired to hijack the political agenda away from the Prime Minister, due to the naive actions of a young and overenthusiastic staffer. Sigh.
On Australia Day he called a Press Conference after his ostentatious He-Man display of swimming in Sydney Harbour, to blow the dog whistle with respect to Asylum Seekers, as I have outlined previously, and to attempt to mimic his mentor, John Howard's ability to be deliberately ambiguous in his provocations. In this instance as it related to the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra.
Abbott's use of the term 'move on', when talking about it could be construed in the metaphorical sense to allude to the sentiment that, the issues which led to the creation of the Tent Embassy were very different to the environment around it today, so maybe the need for it was questionable & the perception was that we have all 'moved on' from then well and truly.
Though, not only metaphorically but a literal interpretation could see people take away the idea that he meant that the Aboriginal Tent Embassy should now be physically 'moved on' from it's home near Parliament House. As the Wikipedia article on the Aboriginal Tent Embassy states, a couple of Coalition governments have attempted to have it 'moved on' but have failed. Also a number of arson attacks have failed to succeed in 'moving it on' from the lawns of Old Parliament House:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Tent_Embassy
This Assimilationist sentiment is still held by a sizeable number of Coalition MPs in this country. The 'I am, you are, we all are Australian' mindset. Which is playing out on the Menzies House blog via their petition to get people to sign up to their conclusion that the Tent Embassy should be taken down. To which I might add that if it had been overwhelmingly successful, I'm sure that, as leader of the Conservative forces in this country, he would have used the weight of numbers to force the issue a bit more in public.
So, where this all has left us is that on Australia Day Tony Abbott detonated a couple of verbal incendiary devices, and waited patiently to see whether either of them would blow up in the government's face.
As no one else except me appears to have cottoned on to the Asylum Seeker drowning in the ocean=who cares? but Bronzed Aussie Surf Life Savers saving the lives of Aussies who have drowned=the most important thing on Earth, Abbott dog whistle, it fell to an inexperienced staffer in the PM's media office to take the Aboriginal Tent Embassy bait, and run with it when Abbott came to Canberra. Much to the PM's chagrine, I imagine, as she would much rather have had Tony Abbott's verbal hand grenades fizzle out in Sydney. I think the fact that she made a point of saying in her Saturday Press Conference that she was absolutely unaware of Tony Hodges' calls to a member of UnionsACT, Kim Sattler, who was at the Tent Embassy Commemoration ceremony, wherein he informed her of Tony Abbott's presence at The Lobby restaurant, leads me to safely say that, had she known what he was going to do, she would have stopped it. For the simple reason of not giving Tony Abbott any more oxygen over the issue, and because, as she said, she didn't want that issue bleeding into and all over the medal ceremony.
Now that it has, the media have got their storm in a Lobby teacup, Abbott has succeeded in bringing back to centre stage all the most offensive imagery that the electorate associates with Indigenous Australian Activism and the most extreme ends of their political agenda, during the period that the Prime Minister had hoped for rational discussion around Australia's kitchen tables with respect to the upcoming referenda associated with recognition of Indigenous Australians in the body of the Australian Constitution.
And John Singleton, Ray Hadley and Tony Abbott have again conspired to hijack the political agenda away from the Prime Minister, due to the naive actions of a young and overenthusiastic staffer. Sigh.
Very well said FS. The most lucid evaluation of recent events that I have read. Nicely slotting into that scenario is the idea that Abbott was fed a Dorothy Dixer with the Tent Embassy question. I can't think of a single reason why a journalist, whilst in Sydney, would choose to ask a question on that subject at that time.
ReplyDeleteNormanK,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the compliment. What I wonder about is why the media are prepared to entertain a political party whose sole modus operandi appears to be to create public mischief for the government of the day, every day...Then I realise that most of the media have the same 'job description', and are working hand-in-glove with Abbott and his cronies, it seems, and it makes sense. Sadly.
NormanK,
ReplyDeleteThe word going around is that the question about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was a Dorothy Dixer fed to Abbott on the day to get the ball rolling. It may have been that it was a question given by his office to an agreeable journalist, or a junior woodchuck media functionary from his office, pretty much the equivalent of Tony Hodges, but on their side, who blended in with the press pack and then fed him the line of questioning.
Frankly, I wouldn't put anything beyond the Forces of Darkness in the Coalition.
Hmm, I think I better get this Time/Date stamp thing organised better. :)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like Norman K got up very early in the morning to read the blog. ;)