Menzies House

General George Patton – McTernan’s alter ego?

Bertel Torsten in Canberra

Even the best political spin-doctors have their bad days.

Whatever else you might think about Hitler’s fabulously titled Minister for National Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr Josef Goebbels, he was a consummate master of the dark art.

In 1941 when the war from his perspective was going quite nicely, came the shattering news that the Deputy Fuehrer Rudolf Hess had secretly flown to the UK on a lunatic mission to try and broker a peace deal.

The acknowledged spin doctor of his era went into a complete meltdown, fled to his country residence and went into a massive sulk. Begged by his offsider for guidance on what to say, Goebbels shouted down the phone, “Say whatever you please. I don’t know what to advise you. There are situations which even the best propagandist in the world cannot cope with.” Then he hung up and went to bed.

Labor is blue – through and through

By Perkin-Warbeck

Come September when we spring into Spring, we will all be able to give due honour, respect and love for somebody very important in our lives.

Naturally I refer to Father’s Day, the very first Sunday in September. After all, there’s no other event in September requiring us to show deference to, or respect for, any other sort of so-called authority figure.

In my case, it has been a good few years since my dear old dad went to his maker but I still make a point of thinking kindly thoughts about him on that special day. There was a time when I would give a lot of thought to an appropriate gift and, invariably, I would select a beautiful and tasteful tie. Quite a few were, I recall, blue.

The watery grave that Labor dug

Writers of political weeklies can’t possibly be topical given the rapid change in Labor’s pandemonium as the noose of electoral execution tightens by the day, if not hour.

Political chess moves of Rudd, Shorten and Tony Sheldon seem unlikely to cause any stay of the hangman’s scaffold. A two-party-preferred result according to surveys, have remained rather stable for more than a year. Any re-arrangement of deck chairs might save a handful of seats but won’t affect the outcome. To put it nicely—Labor is stuffed—in a manner unprecedented.

For the past 18 months voter concern about the nation’s porous borders has been marching toward top billing. And now, with the latest drowning of more than 50 off Western Australia’s coast, any hope and all spin Labor might use to camouflage reality perished with that craft and those poor souls on it.

Is it me or is it my blue tie?

According to Anne Summers, Women should be aware Abbott's blue-tie brigade, we (does that include or exclude men?) should all be aware of men in blue ties. Come election time, September 14, we (does that still include or exclude men?) should vote for a woman simply because a woman can make sure we have more women in our Federal Parliament. You’ve got to love affirmative action.

Summers warns us that if we do not vote for a female PM just because she is female then “Australia will go from having one of the highest representations of women in government in the democratic world to a very ordinary presence when compared with similar countries.” Make sense? Sure it does!

All women are equal but some are more equal than others

By Perkin-Warbeck

I bet you didn’t know that there are WOMEN and then there are women.

I have this on the highest possible authority – Emily’s List, no less – which proclaims in the preamble on its website, “A woman candidate, to be satisfactory, must be a ‘feminist’ in the best sense of the word…she should believe absolutely in the equality of status, liberty and opportunity between a man and a woman. A woman candidate that is shaky on this matter, or not sufficiently imbued with its importance to be able to speak convincingly on the matter, will do the movement towards establishing women in Parliament far more harm than good.”

Emily’s List is the ALP affirmative action crowd, the official sisterhood, comprising Labor women who presumably pass the “satisfactory” test. Prime Minister Gillard is a proud member.

A woman’s take on Gillard

Melissa McElroy, political advisor.

And didn’t Prime Minister Julia Gillard have a fine old time rallying the sisterhood at the Sydney launch of Women for Gillard when she told the wildly enthusiastic, hand-clapping, feet-stomping crowd of around one hundred women that an Abbott Coalition Government would see women “once again banished from the centre of Australia’s political life.”

There are, incidentally, more than 2.3 million women in Sydney but, hell, its quality that matters, not quantity.

I’m not sure if the adoring crowd broke into the traditional Labor hymn Solidarity Forever – I suspect they didn’t given its rather too masculine antecedents and it was written by a man after all – so, perhaps, Cyndi Lauper’s feminist anthem Girls Just Want To Have Fun would have been far more appropriate. Oops, that was written by a man as well.

Anyhow, Julia was really in her element proving yet again how wonderfully inclusive her attitudes are.

Shorten - Australia's Maxwell Smart?

Included in a stack of released WikiLeaks cables was an account of Bill Shorten's meeting with US Consul-General Thurston. This report was made public in August 2011 in various publications including the Australian Financial Review.

It is to be wondered if Shorten's union mates know of that meeting and what was said? It looks like Bill's ambition for greatness is again being played out in his so far commitment to support Gillard. "Sorry Julia, they made me dump you." GC.Ed.@L.

Mr Shorten met with the US Consul-General in Melbourne Michael Thurston in June 2009.

Campaign Diary - Is Australia ready for a Brian Harradine 'of the 21st Century'?

After returning recently from a trip to Tasmania, I suddenly started wondering if Australia is ready for another Brian Harradine writes Assistant Managing Editor, Tim Humphries

It was an inauspicious arrival. Yours truly, the proverbial Queensland parochial disembarking from the plane with my state of origin scarf, ready for an Antarctic blast. Suddenly I clap eyes on a security beagle as it sniffed its way through the assembled throng making sure the main landers hadn't surreptitiously attempted to bring fruit and other contraband to the apple isle. 

What proceeded from this point was ten days of non-stop touring and photo taking, note taking, speaking to Tasmanians and getting a handle on the candidate Peter Madden and his 'Family First' focus. As a volunteer this process was intriguing.