For instance, I used to wait until some form of inspiration struck me down before jotting down my thoughts with it usually being something that got me riled up or annoyed before I'd contemplate posting. With a busy life outside Nah Seriously, these moments didn't come around as often as I liked last year so I'm trying to be more regular (insert toilet humour here) while also being a little more light-hearted and light-on in terms of content.
Well, that's the plan anyway. Let's see how we go. So herein is my first post for the year. The EDM Extract from the week that was.
================
First up we have the Tony Abbott / Peta Credlin puff piece from News Ltd papers last Sunday. For those that missed it, here it is, but the gist of it is really about an interview with Abbott's Chief of Staff, Credlin, in which she denies Abbott has a problem with women and he's really a raving mad feminist because he let her put her IVF drugs in his office fridge. Offered to burn her bra for her as well I heard.
As a bit of PR, it certainly worked with top billing in a number of Sunday News Ltd tabloids with accompanying photos and highlighted quotes. One thing that a lot of people wouldn't have known as they read the article over their weet bix and vegemite toast though, is that Credlin's husband, and a big player in her IVF quest you'd imagine, is Mr Brian Loughnane, Liberal Party Director and the man who will run Abbott's 2013 campaign for Prime Minister.
Yep, big news then and something that just demanded a two-page spread across a lot of our Sunday papers - people on Tony Abbott's payroll support him. Ground breaking stuff that. And not even the really important issue raised - the appalling lack of adequate fridge facilities in Parliament House.
Next it's the heat and all this bloody heat. The whole country has been smashed with a massive heatwave from Alice Springs to Tasmania to Weipa and even as I type there's little end in sight with Birdsville expected to hit the 50 degree mark over the next couple of days. Records have been tumbling on a daily basis both nationally and locally with the first eight days of 2013 making it into the Top 20 hottest days recorded in Australia in terms of average maximum temperature.
On Monday, the average maximum daily temperature record for Australia was broken at 40.33°C. The previous record, 40.17°C on 21 December 1972, had stood for 40 years. The average maximum daily temperature on Tuesday was a close third at 40.11°C. The number of consecutive days where the national average maximum daily temperature exceeded 39°C was also broken this week - seven days, almost doubling the previous record of four in 1973.
It's the late monsoon apparently as the cause as there's just no damn moisture in the air to bring some relief. I'd do a raindance but last time I did that roughly two years today it didn't stop for weeks.
And of course all that heat has brought us plenty of bushfires with hundreds raging across Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Now I don't mean to turn this into a Tony-fest but hey, his actions just damn well make it that. I'm referring of course to the issue of Abbott attending one of the bushfires near Nowra in southern NSW as a Rural Fire Volunteer and the controversy that followed.
Basically, Federal Minister Brendan O'Connor copped plenty for calling it a stunt on twitter and there's been calls for his resignation because of it. But I gotta say I agree. By all means Tony, fulfil your volunteer duties and strap on the fire boots and helmet. It is admirable that you remain a Rural Fire Volunteer being such a busy man and you cut short your holidays to help out. But the minute your staff (Credlin and Loughnane again) put out a media release asking news agencies to attend and interview you and film you while you sat in a truck, well then sir, it did become a 'stunt' and should be called as such.
Getting more local for you Queenslanders out there, we had the return of the Captain of Ship, Arts and IT Minister Ros Bates after two months sick leave followed by a few weeks annual leave. There had been some other leave taken earlier in the year which means the Minister has been on some form of leave for a quarter of her tenure as a Minister. All of which has occurred as controversy surrounds the appointment of her son by the suspended Transport and Main Roads Director-General, Michael Caltabiano, meaning she's been able to avoid any questioning in Parliament and by the media.
While I'm not for a second claiming any bogus-ness in relation to her fall and ill health, it's certainly nice leave if you can get it. No-one else would get two months sick leave before they'd been in a job a year so the eye-raising and tut tuts are a little justified. And before you think that's it, came the news that Caltabiano himself will have earned $130,000 while suspended from duties awaiting investigation by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee. Garden leave is the new black apparently. Only in Queensland they say.
And finally came the news that Lance Armstong is due to go on Oprah Winfrey next week. No other news about the interview just yet but it's hard to see Armstrong actually admitting too much with all sorts of legal questions remaining and sponsors threatening to sue. But then again, the man has never done things by the book so it will be interesting to see what comes out of it and whether a mea culpa is coming our way.
Who knows, but I'll leave you with a tweet from Fairfax Sports Writer Richard Hinds that sums it all up for mine.
Richard Hinds
Oprah asks "tough" question. Lance confesses. Lance cries. Oprah forgives. Audience goes nuts. "Yellow jerseys under your seats!"
No comments:
Post a Comment