Monthly Archives: March 2013

It’s Time! or It’s Over!

11 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Australian Politics, WA Politics

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The weekend election in WA has brought the fate of federal Labor into sharp focus. Although the swing in the primary vote against Mark McGowan’s State ALP team was a little over 2%, with the collapse in the Greens vote, the 2-party preferred swing of almost 7%, produced a bitter result for Labor.

Various pollsters have put the Gillard ‘drag’ effect, on the ALP in the West, at between 1.5 and 2 percent. This accounts for almost all the primary loss for McGowan’s WA Labor team. The retirement of the iconic, Bob Brown has undoubtedly caused some of the drop in the Greens vote. But when the third party vote collapses as has recent support for the Greens, it suggests that sharp differences have brought voters back to a choice between ‘Black and White’. The Greens generally provide a reliable stream of preferences to Labor. But, with most of the slumped Greens primary vote leaking to the Coalition, this is bad news for Labor.

Defence Minister, Stephen Smith
Defence Minister, Stephen Smith

Defence Minister, Stephen Smith conceded on the weekend that federal Labor had caused a “drag” on McGowan’s chances. The always colourful, former WA Labor planning minister Alannah MacTiernan went further, saying the party faced an “absolute massacre” in the federal election and called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to resign. On Monday, she told ABC news that she believed the result for federal Labor could be even worse than that suffered by McGowan in WA, such was the animosity towards the Prime Minister that she heard in the electorate. “It’s pretty simple and it’s pretty brutal,” Ms MacTiernan said. “They’re saying they don’t like Julia Gillard, they don’t believe her”, she added. “The overwhelming reportage from the doorstop, from the shopping centres, was that people were saying, in Labor heartland, they were saying ‘ok we’ll vote for you guys but no way are we voting for federal Labor and Julia Gillard‘. And if we do not take note of this there is going to be an absolute massacre in the federal election.”

While Ms. MacTiernan can often be relied on to shoot from the hip, she voices an opinion that is haboured by many alarmed Labor members and supporters.

The Prime Minister’s caravan tour to Rooty Hill and western Sydney last week, looked like a stunt, walked like a stunt and was a stunt. About all that came from it were traffic stop opportunities which showcased Ms Gillard’s makeover, with her stylish new eye-wear and suits, and a clumsy attempt at worker solidarity with her attack on 457 visas. Whether her points about the exploitation of 457 visas have any validity, is another issue. The fact is, her handling of the issue was terrible. You know the Prime Minister is in dangerous territory when the Xenophobic Pauline Hanson supports her. And the optics of Gillard’s own British media adviser, John McTernan, working here with a 457 visa, standing in back while she stumped for the employment of ‘Australian workers before foreigners’, smacked of hypocricy.

Respected as Ms. Gillard might be within Caucus, there’s no escaping the reality that she’s not believed as authentic in the electorate. Neither is she perceived as a strong leader with a personality that engages. Her lack in these areas, is not compensated by gravitas, authority or perceived strength. In short, the recent sartorial style change is not enough to begin to change the public narrative that has been set in concrete for the last two years.

Tanya Plibersek-sm
Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek

It might only be my opinion, but I think last year’s boost for Gillard as preferred prime minister, was more an ‘antidote to Tony Abbott‘ response, than any warming to Julia Gillard. In contrast, Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, always a star on Q&A (ABC), looks and sounds like the genuine article with a warm personality, a sense of humour and a relaxed, authoritative, competent and compassionate style.

I would not normally counsel a panicked reaction to an election loss or the recent diabolical poll numbers, but in this case, the window of opportunity to change the leader and staunch the bloodbath that will ensue in September, is closing. The next two sitting weeks are the last, the members of the federal Labor caucus will be together, before leaving Canberra until the Budget in May. By that time, the noise of the Budget and its aftermath, will make it difficult for a new prime minister to find any air. As well, the short lead in to September makes it strategically unthinkable to wait that long.

I think the current poll-driven, reactive politics that eschews thoughtful policy and rejects an ideologically infused theory of government, is eroding public support for democracy as well as party membership. I also think the poll-driven dumping of Kevin Rudd in 2010 and Ted Baillieu last week were a symptom of a political system suffering from ‘Anxiety and High Blood Pressure’. And while my call for Julia Gillard to resign might seem to fall into this trend, it is however, rooted in a very long-held belief that she cannot lead the federal ALP to victory. The figures don’t yet show it, but I’m fearful that the looming, but wholly avoidable, disaster for Labor will rival the sad tsunami that hit my hero Gough Whitlam in 1975.

The change must be made by Julia. She can either lead Labor to a humiliating and catastrophic defeat or she can do the right and gracious thing and resign and give her party a chance to recover before September. Caucus members in vulnerable seats, which now even include Defence Minister Stephen Smith (Perth), need to urge the PM to act before it’s too late. This next two weeks is the last real opportunity that exists to make the change and give Labor Caucus members any hope.

If Kevin Rudd hadn’t challenged last year, the obvious choice for transition would be clear as he’s still the most popular politician in Australia. However, It is the most high-risk, high-return option. His 2012 leadership tilt, was an extremely bloody event that provided the Opposition campaign boffins with a Chocolate Box Selection of damaging quotes and footage with which to attack him if he were prime minister.

That leaves the affable Bill Shorten or the telegenic and honest but introverted, Stephen Smith. Defence Minister, Smith might lack a little in charisma but he is eminently authentic and has a reflective, thoughtful style which might be welcomed by an electorate tired of the hyped drama surrounding the humourless, Gillard and the one-dimensional ‘Red Speedo Brawler’, Tony Abbott.

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Bill Shorten
Workplace Relations Minister, Bill Shorten

Employment and Workplace Relations Minister, Bill Shorten, another star of Q&A, has an easy ‘Let’s sit down and have a chat’ style that draws you in. His disarmingly quick wit and self-deprecation don’t do him any harm either. He also projects an honest, straight taking manner that contrasts with the Prime Minister. These are all traits the brittle Julia Gillard could use in spades.

Last week’s bloodless coup that saw Ted Baillieu resign as Victorian Premier, adds yet another leadership change story, that should make a federal Labor transition seem a lot more routine than it would have, even just a week ago. As well, it further robs Abbott of the argument that leadership coups are a Labor phenomenon.

Trying to tough it out is not an option; the negative narrative that is attached to Julia Gillard is too strong, sustained and concrete for that. And, make no mistake, Tony Abbott is loathed by as many people as Julia, women in particular. I know many conservative women who openly talk of spoiling their ballot rather than vote for that ‘awful man’. That Labor is as high as 32% on the primary vote, is as much a reflection of the passion of the dislike for Tony Abbott. A ‘Someone-who-isn’t-Tony’ could lead the Opposition and drive the Gillard government even lower in the polls.

Only a circuit breaker that forces the media, the public and the Opposition to find a new field of battle, will give federal Labor any hope of fighting back and maybe even saving itself and Australia from Tony Abbott.

The federal Labor Caucus needs to act now!

Will Julia see the writing on the wall and resign now or will she desperately hang on, and the day after the election, lamely try to explain why the Labor Party lost 30 seats?

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Shiny Objects, Beat Tube Map:

10 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by in Australian Politics, WA Politics

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Well it seems Colin Barnett has won the ‘Boom State’ election which pitted his grandiose vision of shiny objects against Mark McGowan’s (well really Ken Travers’) Tube Map. Largely missing from the campaign menu, were the usual Cost of Living issues and the focus on service delivery like Health, Law and Order, Power, Housing and Education.

Labor Leader Mark McGowan, leapt out of the blocks early with his pre-emptive ‘Metronet’ campaign launch in January, stealing the spotlight and seemingly irritating Premier Barnett who became ‘Grumpy Colin’ for about a week. This clear air allowed Labor to establish Metronet as the iconic policy for the first part of the campaign. This left Barnett’s team scrambling in a desperate ‘me too’ catch-up phase with its own hurried Airport Rail Line pledge. The downside for McGowan in pitching early with Metronet, was that his campaign peaked early and got distracted by costing arguments.

Without a major second phase focus for Labor to pivot to, their campaign only simmered towards the end.

McGowan’s attempt to turn what should have been a secondary issue into a major winner, the ‘A Vote for Barnett is a Vote for Buswell’ suggestion, came in too late to have any impact. The seeds for that proposition should have been germinating in elector’s minds, long before the start of the campaign. Instead, it came off as a bit desperate in the eyes of many. The question raised, though, is a valid one and if better handled, this issue could have worked for Labor. Instead it was overshadowed by the seemingly hysterical optics of the protagonists.

If Colin Barnett were to complete this term as leader, he would be at least 67 before he could contemplate a succession transition. While that’s not exactly doddering by today’s standard, it would nevertheless make him the 3rd oldest of the state’s past 29 premiers. As well, previous leaders were a sprightly 54 years old, on average, when they left office. With a front-bench pretty slim on talent, other than the ever-present Troy ‘Chair Sniffer’ Buswell, is it any wonder that the harbinger of a Buswell succession looms in 2014. At least the cartoonists will be ecstatic.

Of course, the ALP were at a huge disadvantage coming into the campaign because the electorate had been primed with the Barnett Government’s $2million ‘Bigger Picture’ advertising blitz. This tax-payer funded promotion, featured the shiny vote-sweetening projects, his spending frenzy was bringing to Perth, as well as the much needed hospital projects begun under the previous Carpenter Labor Government. During his election coverage on the ABC, even host Kerry O’Brien seemed incredulous that our State Government was spending $1bn on the Burswood Stadium.

The large state-wide swing against Labor resulted in the loss of at least 6 seats, with 2 more still in doubt. The most surprising result might be the huge 7.9% swing (after distribution of preferences) against former minister, Michelle Roberts who is in a struggle to retain Midland. Of the many Labor members who lost their seat, perhaps the most poignant was John Hyde, the popular member for Perth. Hyde, first elected in 2001, seems to have drowned in the sea of money splashed by the government on expensive inner city projects like Elizabeth Quay and the Burswood Stadium.

With the swing fluctuating wildly, some southern ALP members bucked the trend with small gains. Opposition Leader, Mark McGowan and Deputy Leader, Roger Cook performed strongly with small swings to them. And Labor veteran Peter Watson (Albany) has again proved his fighting value, defending a miserly 83 vote margin from the 2008 election. He might yet pull off the most unlikely win in this otherwise horror election for Labor.

For the geeks:
Check out this bit of ‘Town of Vincent News’ nostalgia, featuring: John Hyde; Deputy Premier, Kim Hames; and former Labor minister, Bob Kucera, who unsuccessfully attempted to resurrect his career in the seat of Mt Lawley.
• Town of Vincent News, March 2001 [pdf]

Will Barnett keep his promises this time or will they get dumped like the “Rail line to Ellenbrook” promise from the last election?

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Why Obama can’t do a deal with Congress:

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in International Politics

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House of Representatives Speaker, John Boehner seems to be quite an amiable fellow (and certainly sensitive, judging from his frequent tears). He also has a hell of a job with the lunatic fringe comprising 1 in 3 of his caucus. This makes his task of leading his party and the House through a legislative program very difficult. House Democrat Leader, Nancy Pelosi’s got it easy by comparison… Her liberal wing (the left of the party, Jay Rockefeller, Barbara Boxer etc) is only 1 in 10.

Speaker Boehner can’t get anything reasonable through his present caucus with such a large chunk of his members (Tea Party and fanatical Ron Paul-like libertarians) locked into uncompromising, fantasy positions that prevent him reaching any compromise with President Obama and/or Congressional Democrats.

It must have been humiliating for Boehner to handball the new year ‘Fiscal Cliff’ temporary fix to Senate Democrat Majority Leader, Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, knowing that his only chance of getting a deal was a tacit alliance between a small rump of Republicans and the overwhelming majority of Democrats when the fix came back to the House from the Senate.
Unfortunatley for him, this inability to make deals and legislate, renders his hold on the Speakership pretty shaky.

The parties (in particular the GOP) are now so entrenched in their own version of the Battle of Flanders, that even a Christmas Truce would be impossible because anyone venturing out of the trench with a hint of Christmas goodwill towards the enemy would be cut down with a hail of bullets from his own side (Tea Party Primaries and the enemy of reasonable, Grover Norquist).

So, I can’t see any ‘big deals’ being done between President Obama and the Congressional G.O.P., in the near future, unless it’s done by Boehner using the deflection device to the Senate, outlined above.

I think that’s one of the main reasons why Obama has adopted the long-term ‘Theodore Roosevelt’ strategy of taking his message out on the road and through ‘Oganizing for Action’ (which is still filling my in-box) instead of going the traditional ‘Lyndon Johnson’ legislative route. I think Obama knows that the possibility of doing ‘Johnson’ type deals in this Congress is nill. Instead, Obama is hoping to discredit the Tea Party and Norquist from outside, by slowly changing the current ‘Deficit Hawk’ media narrative and moving the conversation back to the middle and away from the current ‘slash government spending and burn the economy’ political orthodoxy that seems prevalent in the USA (and which has resulted in a triple-dip recession in one country where it was unleashed, the UK under Cameron). It was this continuing campaign strategy that President Theodore Roosevelt adopted, at the turn of the last century, to fundamentally change the way Americans saw corporate regulation and the promotion of the interests of the average citizen instead of powerful political and wealthy elites.

Encouragingly, talk of the need for investment in the future (education, R&D, infrastructure etc) coupled with revenue increases – eliminating some industry subsidies (corn, oil etc), closing some tax  loop-holes for the rich, and means-testing safety net welfare for the wealthy (Social Security and Medicare payments) – and long-term deficit reduction (instead of the Sequester’s ‘Shock and Awe’), is already beginning to gain traction.

That the Sequester is a very blunt, indiscriminate instrument that is going to cause a shock to the US and World Economy, is almost beyond question. And, In the short term, there’s not much that can be hoped to wind it back. Obama’s strategy of continuing the ‘fairness’ tour campaigning, banging on about Republican’s protecting generous tax loop-holes for the rich while demanding cuts in programs benefiting the poor and middle-class, might just provide enough media cover to force a narrative change.

So, although a chorus of commentators, including the New York Times’ David Brooks, are urging Obama to quit his campaigning and get back to deal-making and governing, I think Obama is doing precisely what he needs to do to win the long game. He’s not thinking of the next 10 minutes (like Congress, commentators and the media), he’s thinking of the next 10 years and a possible seachange in America. I hope he succeeds.

Gee that boy can prattle on…. Enough!

Check out Nobel Economics Prize-winner, Paul Krugman’s New York Times Column and his piece on the Sequester:
• Sequester of Fools by Paul Krugman
(NYT, 22 Feb. 2013)

For the geeks:
* Although Theodore Roosevelt was a successful president, his long-term legacy was tarnished by his successors who ensured he was the last of the progressive Republican Presidents. From Taft on, the GOP became the ‘cut government’ conservative party of the rich and powerful and the hitherto generally conservative Democrats became the progressive party under the presidency of the husband of Theodore Roosevelt’s niece, Eleanor Roosevelt.
* Yes indeed folks, Franklin Roosevelt was a distant cousin of Eleanor, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1918 launched her career as the most powerful political spouse in American History, before or since, with the possible exception of Edith Wilson, who in late 1919 effectively and secretly assumed the Presidency after Woodrow’s catastrophic stroke.

Is there any hope that Congress can get anything done on issues like immigration, gun slaughter, the budget, the sequester?

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Washington’s Political Sclerosis:

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in International Politics

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I was reading a recent Washington Post report about the redoubtable Sth. Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham’s threat to ‘put a hold’ on the confirmation of nominees, Secretary of Defence, Chuck Hagel and CIA Chief, John Brennan. At first glance, I wondered… Are you a right-wing lunatic hiding beneath a relatively moderate Republican skin?… But then I remembered that the competition, these days, isn’t between Republicans and Democrats at elections but within the parties at Primaries; meaning that Graham was pitching to the rabid base to shore up his position against a primary attack. The new reality is, the enemy within is more dangerous than the foe across the aisle.

How has this anomaly of the democratic process arisen that has made compromise between parties, impossible and government, sclerotic?
In the 2012 elections, 85% of House seats and 60% of Senate races, were considered Safe (a winning margin of at least 10%). In the past, staking a claim to these prized pieces of Congressional real estate could give the holder a job for life. Many incumbents took the opportunity to grow fat and comfortable while many others took the relative safety of their position to carve out meaningful and illustrious legislative careers. Until the recent past, ‘lunatic fringe’ primary challenges were rarely successful but with the rise of the rabid right-wing Tea Party within the G.O.P., that all changed. The threat from this intractable faction has led previously rational Republican legislative negotiators to behave like cornered Rottweilers. That coupled with the ludicrous 60% Senate vote (close to that often required to change a national constitution elsewhere in the world) now needed to enact simple legislation; and national government, in any meaningful sense, has ceased to exist in the USA.

It is grievously frustrating to see the lurch from crisis to crisis of Congress’ own design. The members don’t seem chastened by the flirtation with recession, in last quarter 2012, said to be the result of uncertainty generated by Congressional brinkmanship over the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ or the sledgehammer surgery applied to the US economy by the ‘Sequester’ as a result of Congressional failure to act last month.

Republican House members and Senators seem only to be concerned, like Senator Graham, with potential Primary challenges from Tea Party fanatics. And why need they care how low the esteem of the G.O.P in Congress sinks in the eyes of electors, when the only threat to their Congressional survival lies within their own ranks.

Until the threat of a party losing a seat becomes greater than a Primary loss, this sorry state appears destined to continue. In Australia, seat (district) boundaries and redistricting is established by an independent Federal Commission rather than the incumbent majority party in each State. With the Republicans in the ascendancy in ‘State engineered redistricting’ in recent years, the electoral map greatly favours the G.O.P. I noted with interest that at the November election, Democrats won millions more votes than Republicans but 33 fewer seats; a product of majority party redistricting, the Texas Perry-mander etc.

I remember looking at gerrymandering in my political science classes at university and discussing it as a quaint relic of the 19th century ‘rotten borough’ era in England and 1812 Massachusetts (where the term originated). But then I became interested in modern USA politics… Such a glaring and catastrophic democratic flaw would be an amusing subject of harmless banter if the country in question was Chad but when manufactured crises in the Congress of the USA, such as the 2011 ‘Debt Ceiling’ and the recent ‘Fiscal Cliff’, and ‘Sequester’, can cause the US credit-rating to be downgraded and other financial ripples around the world then it becomes a worry for the rest of us.

I just watched Casino Jack and the United States of Money, a documentary about Jack Abramoff and the way he allegedly bought the Republican Party. It was horrifying.

Read New York Times Columnist, Sam Wang’s piece on the 2012 Election:
• The Great Gerrymander of 2012 by Sam Wang
(NYT, 3 Feb. 2013)

I can see China with its booming economy, looking on with envy at the remarkable excercise of democracy in the USA, with its sensible Senate rules that prevent anything getting done. Will any other American organisation adopt the requirment of a 60% vote in favour of any action or would they just laugh? Would any democratic institution anywhere in the world, outside the USA, ever adopt a 60% rule to get anything done? Will the Congressional gerrymander ever be exposed and fixed?

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Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” Bill

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in International Politics, Religion

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In Uganda, it’s already illegal to be gay. But some government officials — with support from American evangelicals — want to take government sanctioned homophobia a step further. They’ve proposed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that would, among other things, institute the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” for repeat offenders. This bill was forced off the agenda in 2011 following an international outcry against Uganda but this year it’s back.

If Uganda passes this disgusting legislation, it will represent an irredeemable stain on the beautiful country of my birth and confirm it as one of the ugliest places on Earth, deserving of pariah status.

Is there hope for real progress on human rights in much of Africa while regimes can hide behind religious dogma and repressive culture?

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Choose your Religion

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Religion

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The only thing I’d gripe about this chart is that Buddhists don’t need to believe in gods to be practitioners but they are free to do so if they wish. And yes, many Mormons do wear magical underwear.

Thanks to:
• The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (Official)

I can see you laughing at the Mormons and their magical underwear but can you see them laughing at a chalice containing wine that magically turns into the blood of Jesus?

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A Vote for Barnett is a Vote for Buswell:

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Australian Politics, WA Politics

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The news is quickening… It’s looking more and more like a chair sniffer for Premier in 2014. Remember, in 2008 Colin Barnett was about to announce his retirement from parliament when he was persuaded to stay and take the Liberal leadership, following the revelations about then leader Buswell’s disgusting behaviour towards women. The only reason, I can see, for Barnett keeping and then subsequently reinstating Buswell to Treasurer, must have been a deal to inure and rehabilitate him in readiness for a handover in 2014. With his record of inappropriate behaviour towards women (that has made news overseas, much like Silvio Berlusconi), and cheating on his wife with his public and sordid affair with Adele Carles, why else would you keep such a liability and lightening rod in such a high profile position.
It’s screaming out at us… It’s going to happen.

Premier Buswell has a noisy ring to it, doesn’t it?

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Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012 HBO) – A film about child sexual abuse that everyone should see.

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Film, Religion

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Just got through watching the award-winning HBO documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, looking at sexual abuse of children. The film examines the abuse of power in the Catholic Church system via the story of four men who fought to expose the priest, Father Lawrence Murphy who abused them during the mid 1960s. Fr. Murphy taught at the St. John School for the Deaf in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from 1950 until 1974 when he was moved to St. Anne’s Church, Boulder Junction in the north of Wisconsin, following repeated allegations from students and a priest, Fr. Walsh, who visited the school in 1963. However, Murphy was not removed from contact with children and continued to abuse boys in Boulder Junction and other parishes, schools, and a juvenile correction facility, for the next 24 years. During his time at the St. John School, Murphy was believed to have molested as many as 200 boys.

The film peels back the layers of secrecy, obfuscation and deception that characterised the church’s response to allegations in this case and that of another charismatic priest in Ireland, Fr. Tony Walsh, a member of the popular “The Singing Priests”, who was revealed as Ireland’s most notorious pedophile in 2010. However, it was also revealed that the church had been aware of his activities for more than 20 years but took no practical action to protect children. What the film-makers reveal is that, far from these cases being isolated, there are thousands of similar stories all over the world, and that secrecy and cover-up has been the policy of the church for centuries.

There have been several good films that have exposed this issue in recent years, including Deliver Us From Evil (2006) and Twist of Faith (2004).
Perhaps what’s different about this film, is that the film-makers follow each case through the upward hierarchy of the Church before pointing the finger directly at then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who in 2001 took over responsibility for the personal review of all child sexual abuse cases involving Catholic clergy, world-wide. In 2005, he became Pope Benedict XVI. Now I think I have a clearer idea of one of the main reasons why he had to resign his office. Prominent human rights lawyer Sir Geoffrey Robertson QC, says it could be argued that the man’s degree of negligence over the child abuse scandals “involves him in a crime against humanity”.

World renowned film reviewer, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote a very personal review, saying, “To someone who was raised and educated in the Catholic school system, as I was, a film like this inspires shock and outrage.” He also wrote that the film “is calm and steady, founded largely on the testimony of Murphy’s victims.”

I came away after seeing this with such a feeling of outrage that I think it’s time to call the Catholic Church what it is, a systematically evil organisation. There are a lot of good people trying to do good work in the name of this church but I think the stench of the management of this global corporation has infected them all. If this were any other non-religious organisation, the leadership would probably be in prison and the business would almost certainly have been forced into liquidation. Imagine the good that would come from the distribution of the sale of the hundreds of billions in assets, owned by this extraordinarily wealthy exemplar for the man who walked in a simple cloth and owned nothing, Jesus (I think people might be shocked by the staggering quantity of properties, you didn’t know were owned and rented out by the Roman Catholic Church and its various holding trusts world-wide).

At the very least, the church needs to stop the legal stonewalling of the kind that rendered the recent Irish Child Abuse Commission, so ineffectual that not a single criminal priest was charged as a result.

It’s one thing for a secular corporation to use every legal and P.R. tactic they can, in an adversarial legal system, to delay or avoid justice; that’s expected of such amoral entities. However, for The Roman Catholic Church to use such amoral tactics in support of accused clergy, flies in the face of their avowed moral role in society. The Church needs to accept that the welfare of victims of sex-abuse by clergy, comes before that of the perpetrators, and that they are liable for compensation that is going to cost tens of billions. If authorities need a non-confrontational model for the adjudication and distribution of settlements to victims, perhaps they could look at the Danish Public Health Service Complaints Board for inspiration.

The people who protected these criminal clergy, like Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law (who resigned in 2002, after church documents were revealed which suggested he had covered up sexual abuse committed by priests in his archdiocese) need to be ‘hung out to dry’ when their heinous actions are exposed, rather than promoted to palaces in the Vatican as was Law.

Church records also need to be opened to allow for the discovery of criminal priests and brothers so they can be prosecuted, giving victims some justice and closure.

It’s time to end this!

I’d welcome your comments on this very tough subject.

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My Favourite Directors:

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Film

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Who are my favourite directors?
Stanley-Kubrick-smFor me, the first is Stanley Kubrick… I’m in awe of his body of work. I’ve seen 11 of his 12 features and three of them I revisit every couple of years: Barry Lyndon (1975, a sublimely beautifully framed, clinical and evenly paced wonder); A Clockwork Orange (1971, a film to which I introduced an unsuspecting friend in 1991, at a 20th anniversary screening… He came out reeling); and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, a film that still intrigues and perplexes me). My least favourite was the last, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), but I’d still gladly sit through any of the 11 again.

David-Lean-smEqual second: David Lean. His great films were outnumbered by his ordinary, but in 2 films: Lawrence of Arabia (1962, my all-time favourite film) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), there are such memorable scenes that they elevate him near the top. Add to that, his wonderful adaptation of Charles Dickens novel, Great Expectations (1946) and his final film, A Passage to India (1984, which famed critic, Roger Ebert described as “one of the greatest screen adaptations I have ever seen”), and it’s easy to see why Lean is a favourite.

Martin-Scorsese-smEqual second: Martin Scorsese. Taxi Driver (1976, I love the noir feel and the tension); Raging Bull (1980, a master class in film-making);
The King of Comedy (1983, a playful and very effective role reversal for Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis); Goodfellas (1990, the ultimate gangster film); The Departed (2006, don’t laugh… for me, Jack Nicholson’s chilling performance is brilliant).

Ask me in 10 years and I reckon one of them might be replaced, possibly by the Coen Brothers or Christopher Nolan or Quentin Tarantino. I’m really looking forward to what those guys come up with.

Alfred-Hitchcock-smNow I feel guilty for leaving out Alfred Hitchcock. After all, he did give us The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934 and his own 1956 Hollywood remake); Rebecca (1940); Notorious (1946); Rear Window (1954); Vertigo (1958); North by Northwest (1959, my fav. Hitch movie); Psycho (1960); The Birds (1963); and Marnie (1964). I think the problem with Hitch. for me, is that many of these great films have dated quite badly, with the possible exception of North by Northwest and Psycho and that has detracted from my enjoyment of his movies.

This has been totally self-indulgent and enjoyable.

Well, they’re my favourites, who are yours?

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Australian Politics Posts Index:

06 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Aus Pol. Posts Index

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Labor Shocker!
:: Posted 18 May 2019, by ::
Labor Shocker!
I’m bloody angry because this was the most important election in our lifetime and you wouldn’t have bloody known it. The Labor party didn’t hammer that home. This was the election that Labor should never have even come close to losing and if they do, and I think they have, they’ve got some very serious soul searching to do and some serious arsekicking to do.

This was the worst Labor campaign I’ve seen in 25 years…

Continue reading →
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Vote For A Future!
:: Posted 18 May 2019, by ::
Vote For A Future
I firmly believe that there are many Liberal MPs who will be privately relieved if a Shorten Labor government is elected. I believe that many of them would be glad to be rid of the albatross of Abbott’s legacy of Climate Change denial; energy policy civil wars; denigration of people on income support; attacks on wage earners via cruel cuts to penalty rates; barely concealed racism; and unsustainable welfare subsidies for the relatively wealthy, like Negative Gearing and Franking Credits.

If I hadn’t heard a Liberal senator say something akin to that to me 40 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it possible. My friend the Liberal senator, provided me with the proof that politicians quite often say one thing while firmly believing the opposite.

Help relieve the tortured souls of fair minded Liberal MPs who have a social conscience and are not Peter Dutton, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and their like, and…

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Vale Bob Hawke
:: Posted 17 May 2019, by ::
Bob hawke
Yesterday, Australia lost one of its giants, Bob Hawke, our country’s 23rd prime minister. He served in that office from 1983 to 1991, an eight year span that enchanted, at times transfixed, and ultimately transformed this country.

It’s hard in 2019 to convey how omnipresent Bob Hawke was in the life of Australia from the late 1960s right through to the 1990s. No one before or since has had such a profound impact on this country. In 1970 he was the most popular and respected person in the country and by 1984 he had also become the most popular prime minister in history with sustained approval at an astonishing 75%. No one has come close since.

I don’t have any great insight into his life but I would like to relate my brief impression of him…

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Australia Days…
:: Posted 11 January 2017, by ::
My Aussie Flag
I know that there is significant and understandable disquiet with the current Australia Day, January 26, a celebration day that might feel like it’s been around forever but hasn’t…
Of course indigenous Australians are reminded every year that their country (or rather, the colony of New South Wales) was annexed by Governor Arthur Phillip for Britain on that colonisation date….

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Let the Bloodbath Begin!
:: Posted 31 January 2015, by ::
Campbell Newman
Question to Jane Prentice, federal Liberal member for Ryan (in Queensland): “Is Tony Abbott the man to lead the Liberals to the next federal election?”
Her answer: “Well that’s the discussion, isn’t it. We need to look at where we’re going…”

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Tony’s Night of the Long Knives Beckons
:: Posted 30 January 2015, by ::
Julie Bishop
A certain foreign minister recently dined with the svengali of Australian politics, Rupert Murdoch. Why is that significant? Because, Murdoch doesn’t do these things just to be ‘sociable‘….

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Vale Gough Whitlam
:: Posted 21 October 2014, by ::
Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam was the giant of Australian life who I admired the most. More than that, for a short period of 4 years (1981-85), he allowed me to be his friend. He must have known I was in awe of him (which, don’t worry his large ego didn’t mind) but he had a knack of making me feel his equal even though he was 40 years older than I and so far ahead of my fledgling 24 year-old knowledge. Even though our conversations were very eclectic, ranging across politics, history, art, music, the cosmos and our lives, he allowed me to feel that I wasn’t out of my depth except when he’d occasionally pepper his sentences with classical Greek and Latin which would remind me just how broad the gulf really was.

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Run Mr. Rabbit!
:: Posted 26 June 2013, by ::
Tony Abbott
Tony Abbott’s body language at tonight’s press conference (where unusually, he answered questions) suggested that he’s worried that he’s got a fight on his hands. I think he hoped some of the independents would desert Labor by supporting a no-confidence motion tomorrow to hasten the election and bring forward his Liberal Party’s resumption of their ‘right to rule’.

It seems the cat’s out of the bag… he knows he doesn’t have the numbers.

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Frack the Frackers!
:: Posted 31 May 2013, by ::

Letterman telling it like it is.
Yea, I know… where was I…
I remember when Gasland came out and it was said by industry types in Australia, that coal seam gas would be extracted in a different and much safer way than that depicted in the film. Well guess what, that was just spin…
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:: Posted in Australian Politics | Gotta Life | International Politics |

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Clive Palmer’s a Funny Bloke:
:: Posted 14 May 2013, by ::
Clive Palmer
I know Clive Palmer’s new/resurrected United Australia Party (UAP) (now Palmer United Party) is a joke but it worries me that a couple of people in Australia might buy his TV ad. line, that both the Liberal Party and Labor Party are “all run by lobbyists”…

… his self-financed Palmer United Party is in fact just such a lobby group serving the interests of only one person…
Clive Palmer…

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More on Same-Sex Marriage and the Church:
:: Posted 10 April 2013, by ::

Image It seems that my last post has generated a bit of heat on Facebook with comments suggesting that in 1967, when the bulk of churches stood against interracial marriage, they were simply reflecting a society with similar attitudes. The argument follows that the churches are doing the same now…
Jeffrey John, the Anglican dean of St Albans in the UK, recently accused the church of pursuing a “morally contemptible” policy on same-sex marriage…
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:: Posted in Australian Politics | International Politics | Religion |
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The Last Civil Right?
Same Sex Marriage:
:: Posted 08 April 2013, by ::

Image It seems that the last great Civil Rights issue is in the balance and once again, just like they did with interracial marriage in 1967, the churches stand on the side of prejudice (with a very few exceptions like the 1 million strong, United Church of Christ).

So while great strides have been made in recent decades to recognize the civil rights of the LGBT communities, there still exists one glaring inequality that defines them and their life partnerships as inferior and somehow frivolous: Marriage inequality…
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:: Posted in Australian Politics | International Politics | Religion |
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The Leaderless, Leadership Spill:
:: Posted 22 March 2013, by ::

Simon Crean-sm Yesterday’s farce of a leadership challenge, did nothing to resolve the issue. The push by Regional Australia Minister, and stalwart Gillard supporter, Simon Crean to bring the issue to a head, would only have succeeded had the Prime Minister resigned. Clearly, his discussion with Julia Gillard, the night before he moved, was the proverbial tap on the shoulder from a loyal and respected colleague that tells a leader, the time is up. Julia is not a leader, it seems, who will go quietly into the night, with her dignity intact. She is a leader who appears ready to defend her castle until every bit of it, the Labor Party included, is destroyed…
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Time to Go, Julia!
:: Posted 20 March 2013, by ::
With the level of backgrounding seemingly exploding in Canberra at the moment, you’d think that the move must be on to replace Julia Gillard. The trouble is, the Prime Minister must also surely know, that a leadership challenge now would be absolutely fatal for Labor’s electoral chances and to force her colleagues into that position would be unforgivable…
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Who Said This about Climate Change?
:: Posted 13 March 2013, by ::
“First, let’s get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind, let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage, is all going to cost money.”…
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It’s Time! or It’s Over!
:: Posted 11 March 2013, by ::
The weekend election in WA has brought the fate of federal Labor into sharp focus. Although the swing in the primary vote against Mark McGowan’s State ALP team was a little over 2%, with the collapse in the Green vote, the 2-party preferred swing of almost 7%, produced a bitter result for Labor…
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:: Posted in Australian Politics | WA Politics ≈ Leave a comment ::

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Shiny Objects, Beat Tube Map:
:: Posted 10 March 2013, by ::
Well it seems Colin Barnett has won the ‘Boom State’ election which pitted his grandiose vision of shiny objects against Mark McGowan’s (well really Ken Travers’) Tube Map…
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A Vote for Barnett is a Vote for Buswell:
:: Posted 07 March 2013, by ::
The news is quickening… It’s looking more and more like a chair sniffer for Premier in 2014…
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:: Posted in Australian Politics | WA Politics ≈ Leave a comment ::

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