Ok, it’s a terrible pun. Some might even call it blasphemous…
I’m sure Victorian Upper House Liberal, Bernie Finn, would. Bernie Finn, you see, announced that he found the whole idea that the Victorian Upper House sitting on Good Friday just plain wrong and he couldn’t do it. And no, not because he wasn’t getting penalty rates, because it was “blasphemous”. Bernie told us that he didn’t even celebrate his birthday if it fell on Good Friday.
Now, for those familiar with Mr Finn, there is a strong argument that there is no cause to celebrate his birth no matter which day of the year it falls. However, that would be nasty and I’ve made it a rule never to be nasty on Easter Saturday… Unless, of course, that doesn’t suit me, and I can just change my mind.
Anyway, Labor offered Mr Finn a “pair”. By that I don’t mean that they were suggesting that he grow some. They were agreeing to a long-standing arrangement where, if a member of one party can’t vote for a legitimate reason, then the other party has one of their own refrain from voting.
He was joined by another Liberal MP, Craig Ondarchie, who also indicated that his religious beliefs prevented him from staying. Labor agreed and allowed two of their MPs to go home also. Although when I use the word, “also” I mean, in theory, because, as with my rule never to be nasty on Easter Saturday, their religious beliefs didn’t prevent them from hiding in their offices and when the time came for the vote on the CFA, they sprang out of hiding, leaving Labor the Easter bunnies.
Ha, good one. I mean, don’t Labor know tomorrow is April Fools Day? Ok, the joke was a bit early but it’s not like a real lie. Silly Labor. Thinking just because someone was a fine upstanding Christian that they wouldn’t be prepared to lie about something as unimportant as their religious beliefs. Or joke. That’s it. It’s all an elaborate joke. Like my joke about the Liberals making Jesus a little cross. No harm done. It’s not like breaking one of the ten commandments and bearing false witness because, well, “false witness” is about something that has happened, so lying about what you’re going to to is all good with big guy upstairs.
Besides, Parliament shouldn’t be sitting on Good Friday anyway. And, and… the legislation is all wrong and we don’t like it. And, and… Labor wouldn’t give a pair to one of our Upper House MPs who’s sick. Labor claim that they haven’t been asked about a pair for her yet, but they should have given her one before they were asked because she’s really sick. No, this is not another April Fool’s Day joke. To suggest that this could be another lie is outrageous. How low can Labor sink?
No, this wasn’t cheating like the Australian Cricket Team. This wasn’t even Labor cheated when they used staffers to help with the election campaign. This was cheating like when Federal Liberals raised funds through Parakeelia, the Liberal Party-owned company that billed taxpayers for computer services, which wasn’t cheating at all but a legitimate rort because we got away with it and nobody seems to care…
No, this was all just fine and dandy. As Opposition Leader, Matty “The Family” Guy tweeted:
“Am so proud of my Upper House colleagues and the MPs who stood up for our CFA today and defeated the Andrews Govt plan to smash it up. The Liberal Nationals will always stand up for volunteers against this bully of a Premier.”
Yes, that’s right. It’s a day to be proud. Wonder if he’ll tweet after the election: “Am so proud of my colleagues who stood up for our mates and told lies in order to defeat Labor because we don’t care what the truth is so long as we win the vote!”
Or is that a little too obvious a subtext.
The similarity with the Australian cricket team is that it was a deliberate plan thought up by the leadership team. The difference is that, whilst the cricketers are devastated by their mistake in judgement and have apologised profusely and sincerely and have copped disproportionately harsh punishment, the Liberals are proud of trashing the long-standing trust in the pairing system.
“shadow Attorney-General John Pesutto claimed the bill’s defeat a victory, saying a “leadership group” had hatched the plan.”
Is this an example of the good faith religious people show when granted exemptions? Philip Ruddock should take note.
Religion is the world’s greatest con job, closely followed by teaching the peasants to vote for their masters, both of which are master strokes! Kaye, Steve Smith is not devastated he has hopped on a plane to go on an overseas holiday to meet up with his girlfriend, how the other half live!
I don’t understand how this plot could work, surely when the two turned up to vote they should have been ejected! Is it because the “pairing ” is a convention rather than a rule? This cheating should be called what it is. I am disgusted.
I’d rather Labor politicians trust and do the right thing, as they did, than have them use whatever fraudulent or foul means that they can, in the way that seems to be the norm on the Conservative side of politics.
However, as Patrice commented, how could this vote be legal, given the pairing? Surely the vote was improper and should be void and have to be retaken? If not and the ‘pairing’ is just convention, then one finds it hard to imagine that a pairing will ever be agreed to again, by any Party.
townsvilleblog, a tad unfair on Smith whose life, which seems to be pretty much about cricket, has been blown apart by his own actions. Going away doesn’t mean he wasn’t devastate. When we had a personal tragedy we just wanted to get away – however the pain and devastation weren’t left behind.
Based on the comments of Patrice and nonsibicunctis, this could turn out to be a good example of shooting oneself in the foot. I think Labor would have a case for having the bill recalled.
Umghh, I am very confused. I have always thought that the “pairs” system was a convention rather than a rule. It appears that the Vic Libs have broken that convention (and misused religious beliefs to do it). But then I read in John Lord’s article today that in our Federal Parliament:
“The vote in the Senate was 30/30 as two One Nation Senators failed to turn up. Cormann then called for another vote as the two Senators (Burston & Georgiou) had since entered the Senate.”
So, the Federal Senate are allowed to take more than one vote on a Bill. So, what would have prevented Victorian Labor from rounding up their “dudded” pairs and calling for another vote?
Or, perhaps we are just warming up for April Fool’s Day!
OlWomBat, I”m with you here, just because Smith can afford to go overseas, does not mean he’s not devastated..
Seen on the sign outside one of the churches:
1 cross +
3 nails =
4 given
I did not think that ‘four given’ = ‘forgiven’…
Next time they request pairs they should be offered au pairs. They seem to like those. Agree, it was a dog act
Rossleigh. I do not mind your attempts to make humorous comments about a Christian’s beliefs, but it is tedious when mocking a Christian occasion that you call Holy Saturday, Easter Saturday.
Easter starts on Easter Sunday, which is the start of Easter Week.
Easter Saturday comes at the end of Easter Week.
The week before Easter Week is Holy Week and today is Holy Saturday.
Go for your life with your humorous attempts to deride Christian beliefs and traditions….it has been done by experts for over 2000 years and we are used to it.
It really does prove that the Liberals and their National parasites will DO ANYTHING to get their way. There is little doubt that the convention of pairing is now over. The Liberals are the ones who will come to regret their actions, not because they know they were wrong, but because they will fail to get what they want in the future.
Thanks, Noel, for your permission to mock and further clarification about Easter Saturday. I, like Bernie Sinn, shall make the necessary amendments to what I wrote. I guess you are also writing to the two Liberals giving them permission to mock Christian beliefs with their behaviour by lying about their inability to stay on Good Friday.
Maybe I’ll wait till Easter Saturday to do it.
I will never forgive the men of church for what they have done to our innocent children..
I will also not forgive our Immigration minister for his inhumane treatment of asylum seekers…beached whales get treated more humanely…
As a pagan I remained appalled, insulted and offended while Christians continue to use the fertility festival of Eostre to promote a torture symbol, drinking the torture victim’s blood and eating his body.
… and then Christian call pagans barbarians (no wonder they soften it all with bunnies and choccie eggs – which they stole from the pagans!)
Christianity set a pattern for the ensuing 2000 years of infiltrating other cultures, stamping on the bits that didn’t suit them and inserting their own beliefs – wasps do something similar to spiders and I know a few First Nation people who feel like they’ve been wasped.
Too harsh?
Noel,
In you rush to defend your beliefs, you have perhaps missed the point of the article? What do you think of people lying by using their Christian beliefs to gain political advantage? It hardly makes the rest of us respect their Christian beliefs when they are so blatantly used and discarded at will.
I am with you Kaye, mock away, this was a low political act and deserves derision
Happy April Fools Day everybody, the failed politician has arisen and all your sins have been forgiven (and, no, I’m talk’n Jesus…not Tony)…Glory Be! ..the 30th poll (which, surely, has the money lenders worried)…oh, did I mention Happy April Fools Day…everybody 😆 May the pagan bunny bounce you’re way👅😏
Rossleigh and Kaye Lee when I first responded I was not aware of the liberals’ abject treachery over the pairing issue. They make the Australian cricket team look like a group of golden hearted Boy Scouts. Further proof that the conservatives are always happy to trash parliamentary convention while hypocritically claiming higher moral ground. eg threatening to block Supply on three occasions and not replacing Labor senators with labor voting senators. In this instance they seem to be following the principles of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus with a kiss.
In this case those devious Victorian Liberals returned the favour of pairing with an act of bastardry.
Regarding Holy Saturday not being Easter Saturday. A couple of months ago I noted that my 2018 Collins Diary indicated that Easter Saturday was on March 31 and not on April 7 where it should be, seven days after Easter started on Easter Sunday, April 1.
I e-mailed the publishers of Collins’ Diary pointing out their error. Within an hour I received a reply from some responsible responder informing that Collin’s Diaries referenced all Australian public holidays from the appropriate website of the Department of home Affairs. They sent me a link to this website and it is true. The Department of Home Affairs lists Easter Saturday as the public holiday falling between Good Friday and Easter Sunday…when, of course Easter actually starts. Since when has Holy Saturday, or Easter Saturday, for that matter, been a public holiday? Never, ever!
I wrote to the minister responsible, one Peter Dutton, informing him of his department’s error. I got a swift reply from another responsible responder informing me that my message had been received but as the minister received a lot of mail and I may not receive an answer. Just like, two months after the event, I have never received an answer from Collins’ Diaries publishers when I replied to their dismissive missive by saying that just because the Australian Government had got it wrong, that was no reason for Collins to do likewise.
I refrained from using my sainted mother’s retort to my frail excuse that my misdeed had been because my friend had done it you.
“If your friend jumped into the fire, would you do it, too?”
So, now that that is all cleared up I up, i hope you both keep up your wonderful efforts in showing up the conservatives as narrow, self centred, privileged people who never hesitate to sneak lower than a snake’s belly maintaining those privileges.