Wall St was down 94 overnight, its biggest fall in a month, while the local market is down 66.
Sorry Day reveals brilliance and bastardry
|
There was sheer genius in Kevin Rudd’s address to the parliament yesterday where he apologised to the stolen generation. There was soaring rhetoric, colloquialisms and even a (rather highbrow) joke. The bureaucrat emerged from time to time, but Rudd’s logic could not be faulted:
The parliament apologised yesterday, but more has happened. Kevin Rudd has sought to end partisanship in indigenous affairs with his “war cabinet” proposal. Brendan Nelson took his hand. Most meaningful of all, however, has been his commitment to give us all, as citizens of Australia, the chance to play our part and realise what he called “the unfulfilled spirit of the 1967 referendum” and to vote at some stage in a referendum to provide for “constitutional recognition of the first Australians”. Morality and clever politics rarely come together. Yesterday Kevin Rudd ensured that they did. That is what makes the behaviour of his staffers Lachlan Harris and Tim Gleason so entirely contemptible. Yesterday, Kevin Rudd sought to unite Australia. Harris and Gleason played puerile politics. Their boss then played the public servant when he told the parliament that his chief of staff – not him – had “counselled” them, using the public service weasel word. Rudd made a tough decision saying sorry. If he is serious about bringing Australians together, sacking Harris and Gleason shouldn’t be tough at all. |
|
|
14 Comments
No one here has said it’s ok for coalition politicians such as Wilson Tuckey and Chris Pearce to express disrespect. I’m sure most coalition voters would be disappointed with their behaviour as well as with the behaviour of the Rudd staffers.
Does Christian Kerr claim that no staffers in Howard’s government were ever rude to the opposition? Nelson’s speech deserved more contempt than mere back-turning.
For Labour to sack the staffers as called for by the Liberals, to be balanced and fair, would also require the sacking of Wilson Tuckey and his group that boycotted the apology, as for Mr Howard, expulsion from the Liberal party would seem a fair rebuke
The brilliance was Rudd’s speech, the bastardry was Nelson’s.
Wonder what that right-wing WA Liberal Party stooge Papafilis made of Tuckey and Pearce yesterday? Now, imagine what he would say if a Labor MP turned his back, say, on the Queen! Stay in WA, Tony, where your bile belongs.
Since when does the punishment not have to fit the crime? So what if a few of those many who chose, for whatever reason, to turn their backs happen to be associated through employment with some party or other? Let’s return to the main story.
I agree with Angela: what Harris and Gleason did is certainly not a sacking offence. As if sacking them would in any way “bring together” the Minchins, Tuckeys and Pearces of the so-called Coalition.
He should sack them for turning their back on Nelson’s antics? Get real!
Exactly. They , along with the slow hand clappers, trashed what could have been ‘the moment’ . With Rudd’s great speech and Nelson’s convoluted sort-of agreement, it could have been the moment. But no. Just more of the same. Another opportunity lost.
Is it any wonder people turned their backs when the rubbish started to flow from Brendan, he started ok then had to resort to the party line. What a mean spirited bunch of losers.
It seems that for some folks its ok for coalition politicians such as Wilson Tuckey and Chris Pearce to express disrespect but not the young staffers of the PM. Calling for their sacking displays bias. They have apologised. Tuckey and Pearce have not.
Christine Kerr is correct-counselling is a weasel word. Tuckey and Pearce are what they are-no one expected more (less is never a surprise). Harris and Pearce should go; they failed to recognise Rudd was asking for bi-partisanship-not more of the same.
Sacking is a bit rough, however, ironicly they should say sorry to uncle brendon. I gathered that Wilson Tuckey had been banned from the house incase his head exploded and words fell out.
Yes, Kevin Rudd sought to unite Australians behind Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, but “puerile politics” were not introduced into yesterday’s proceedings by Harris and Gleason. That dishonour belongs to Brendan Nelson and his self-defeating attempt to have two bob each way - a half-hearted ‘Sorry’ for one section of the electorate and his party (the small ‘l’ bit) and a ‘press the old buttons that work with the ignorant’: (‘hopeless abos’, ‘tough, enterprising pioneers’, ‘great warrior diggers’, etc.,) for the remnant of the right that has dominated the last decade. Unfortunately for the nation, Nelson wasn’t able to put party politics aside and rise to the occasion which was about Sorry Business, not quibbling.
Harris and Gleason, along with Barry Jones and the many thousands of others who turned their backs on Nelson’s attempts to degrade the occasion and vilify all indigenous Australians with his gratuitious descriptions of offences allegedly comitted by some, should