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Australia/NZ/Pacific Politics - Vyoos

Family's Fielding fluffs his fiscal

September 9th 2009 02:51

Mary Whitehouse: at least she could spell

Australian Senator Steve Fielding is apparently taking, as his yardstick for political performance, the career of former American vice-president Dan Quayle. Fielding is paying particular attention to Quayle's inability to spell.

The Australian is a member of the Family First Party, which is, in its own words, "the only party that has as its top priority the well being (sic) of Australian families and the success of small businesses". According to their web page, they also believe, "Australia should be the best country in the world".

So, to hell with everyone else and do you think the portrait of Mary Whitehouse would look better over the mantlepiece?

The noun well-being should, of course, be hyphenated or one word, not two, and this brings us back to Senator Fielding and his language flaws. He has had an ongoing problem, when offering opinions on economic matters, in confusing the words fiscal and physical. "Physical policy" has become something of a catchphrase for the good Senator, and good journalists are giving him every opportunity to repeat the malapropism.

This week, however, he went a step further along the Quayle trail. Dan famously couldn't spell potato. Fielding decided to mangle the word fiscal even more than he has by proving that, not only does he not know how to use it, he doesn't know how to spell it.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, he was asked about his regular mispronunciation of fiscal. "I'll make it quite clear," Senator Fielding replied, "fiscal: F-I-S-K-A-L."

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia/NZ/Pacific, Journalism, Language, Politics

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Pauline Hanson is back

March 2nd 2009 19:53

Pauline Hanson

When I heard, three minutes ago, that Pauline Hanson and Warwick Capper are likely to contest the seat of Beaudesert in the Queensland state election on March 21, I thought, "Best take two aspirin and go back to bed."

My second thought was, how best to describe this to a visitor to Australia, one of those underprivileged people who have grown up without the benefit of exposure to the glittering lives of these two extraordinary Australians?

Let's start with an introduction.

Pauline Lee Hanson (née Seccombe). Born May 27, 1954. Raised in the Brisbane suburb of Woolloongabba. Father owned a fish and chip shop. Left school at the age of 15. Worked in a variety of unskilled jobs. Accumulated several rental properties. Became independently wealthy.

Hanson then entered politics. She became an independent councillor with the City of Ipswich, and then won endorsement as the Liberal Party's candidate for the national seat of Oxley for the March 1996 Federal election. Oxley was the safest Labor seat in Queensland, but Hanson found a way to change everything. Just before the election, she told a newspaper that she believed special government assistance for indigenous Australians should be scrapped.

Just how calculated it was, we will never know, although no-one can deny that Hanson went on to make a luminous, if brief, political career out of bigotry. The initial comments to the newspaper led to her being dropped by the Liberal Party (but too late for this to be noted on the ballot papers), led to her winning the support of every redneck yokel who had ever nursed a grievance against Aboriginals, and led to her romping home in the election with 54 per cent of the vote.

So Pauline Hanson entered Federal Parliament, where she was not allowed to sit with the Liberals. And she delivered a maiden speech which dwarfed anything she had done before in terms of shock and outrage. In essence, Pauline Hanson wanted the government to stop allowing Asians to migrate to Australia.

It made international headlines, as did the tide of support which Hanson garnered for her views. While much of Australia watched in shock, Hanson became a powerful political figure, and in April 1997 founded the One Nation party.

On August 20, 2003, Hanson was convicted of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. There were stories of political pressure from on high to ensure a conviction and to guarantee that Hanson never again entered politics. On November 6, 2003, the Queensland Court of Appeal overturned the guilty verdict and rebuked many politicians, including then Prime Minister John Howard, for "observations" which demonstrated "a fundamental misunderstanding of the Rule of Law...[and] an attempt to influence the judicial...process".

Hanson's message was essentially a white Australia policy, but it received such widespread support that debate continues to rage in Australia, in the halls of acadaemia, in legislatures, and around dinner tables. She polarised the country like few have ever done, but in doing so brought into the open a racist attitude which had clearly been underestimated. She was hailed or hated, with little in between. In 2006, she was named by the The Bulletin magazine as one of the 100 most influential Australians of all time

And now she's back.

Warwick Capper. Born June 12, 1963. An Australian rules football legend. Played briefly for the Brisbane Bears before moving to the bright lights of Sydney. Wearing skin-tight shorts, he kicked 388 goals in 123 games from 1983-1991, including 103 goals in 1987 season. Flamboyant on and off field personality. Remembered for world's most extravagant mullet hairstyle.

Since retiring from football, Capper has worked as a council road worker and Amway agent, and tried his hand at multi-level marketing and pornography.

Capper says he will swap his BMW for a Hummer if he wins the election. Says he knows a bit about the Beaudesert area because "I went there once - a fair few Aborigines and very multicultural out there." Suggests, "We could have a bit of a cook-off between me and Pauline. She's got the fish shop and I'm about to open a coffee shop called Warwick Cappuccino".

Capper has yet to nominate formally. Nominations close today, March 3. We don't seriously expect his hat to land in the ring, because one final piece of information we discovered is that Capper and Hanson have the same publicist, "celebrity agent" Max Markson.

Capper's flirtation with politics, therefore, appears to be a self-serving stunt.

Hanson's may also be described as self-serving, but unfortunately it's no stunt.
news.com.au, en.wikipedia.org, goldcoast.com.au, theage.com.au

Warwick Capper

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia, Politics

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Rudd welcomes failure of his internet censorship scheme

February 26th 2009 21:39

The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is closeted with spin doctors this morning planning responses to media questions he will inevitably face later today about his failure to implement an internet censorship scheme.

The scheme, which has been touted for several months as a way of saving Australians from gambling, pornography and other internet evils, has effectively been scuttled by parliamentary numbers following removal of support yesterday by independent Senator Nick Xenophon.

We would like to offer some some tips for Mr Rudd's positive spin response strategy. Try this, Kev:

"The whole idea was in fact an exercise to promote debate on censorship, and this we have achieved with flying colours.

"We are delighted that, in not proceeding with a filtering plan which could have been easily bypassed, which would have blocked legitimate sites and which would doubtlessly have fallen short of capturing all of the nasty content available online, we can avoid slowing the internet for all Australians.

"We are now happy to return to citizens of the country the responsibility of making decisions for themselves. Yes, due to not proceeding with the censorship proposal, we have increased freedom for all Aussies.

"I ask them to use it wisely. If you don't, we will know, or at least we will know if I can get approval for a plan to put listening devices inside the toilet cisterns of every home in the country. Someone get me two large body guards and some private time with Nick Xenophon.

"Meanwhile, God bless you all and God bless America. Wait, I think that should say Australia."
smh.com.au

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia, Politics

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