Not your average Aussie

June 25, 2020
Written by: Michael Taylor
71 Replies

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Julia Gillard becoming Australia’s first female Prime Minister. As an ‘insider’ (she was my boss) I can attest that she spent her time as Prime Minister – and as a Minister before that – working tirelessly for a better Australia, but more importantly, for the average Aussie.

Thus it was disheartening, disappointing and frustrating to see the picture of Julia Gillard painted by the Murdoch media and an opposition led by Tony Abbott. It was pure cruelty.

Two articles I wrote for the now defunct Cafe Whispers blog; Not your average Aussie and The shout heard ’round the world reflected her mistreatment. I would like to share those articles with you.

Not your average Aussie

In saying that ‘loudmouth mining magnates shouldn’t dominate public debate more than a nurse or a childcare worker’, Julia Gillard is telling Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer that they are just average Australians. And in doing so she has shown that she herself is not an average Australian. She is better.

In her two years as Prime Minister, despite her red hair, long nose, big bum, Welsh accent, toxic government, battles with faceless men, unmarried status, daily media attacks, daily leadership speculation, bad polls, hatred inspired by the shock jocks, hatred inspired by Tony Abbott, witnessing the denigration of Parliament by the Opposition, countless cries that she should be kicked to death or tossed overboard, and despite placards littering the countryside that she’s a bitch, despite the money coming in from big business funding campaigns aimed at destroying her and the countless lies that condemn her – she has stood firm in the face of this onslaught. And in standing firm, to me, she is standing tall.

As far as having guts goes, she is better than the average Australian.

She stands by what she believes in and in two years her position hasn’t changed. She believes that something is happening to the climate and she wants to do something about it. She hasn’t ignored the overwhelming evidence from the climate scientists that something bad is happening and nor has she mocked the messengers. She’s listened. She’s learned. And she wants to do something about it. She will not change her stand to please big business or anybody else for that matter. Her heart is with the country, not the few that wish to destroy it or those politicians who prefer to brown-nose the likes of Gina or Clive.

As far as sticking to her beliefs and wanting to make this a better country, she is better than the average Australian.

That, briefly, is my opinion.

In Tony Abbott we have a politician who does not have any of the qualities I’ve mentioned that stand Julia Gillard out from the crowd. To me, he is worse than the average Australian. There is not one belief he will stand by (except that he can stop the boats) but I won’t go into that. I’m sure you lot will.

The shout heard ’round the world

Julia Gillard might have stopped shouting at Tony Abbott but her words reverberated around the world.

Hence this post is not about the speech by Julia Gillard or about the man it was directed to, but briefly on the impact of it.

By now most of you would have digested some of the more celebrated responses – including those linked above – so I won’t cover old ground, however, one is worth mentioning; not for Julia Gillard’s stand against misogamy but for her often overlooked performances as a gutsy politician. The New Yorker wants performances like that to enter into American politics. They write:

So why is this among the most-shared videos [the Julia Gillard attack on Tony Abbott] by my American friends today? Purely as political theatre, it’s great fun. Americans used to flipping past the droning on in empty chambers that passes for legislative debate in this country are always taken in by the rowdiness of parliamentary skirmish. It could also be that the political dynamic depicted in the clip parallels the situation in the States: a chief executive who is a “first” took power after a long period of control from the right of center, and whose signature policy achievements have at times been overshadowed by personal vitriol. Or perhaps it’s that we are right now in one of the rare periods every four years where the American political process provides actual face-to-face debate between the leaders of the two parties. After his performance last week, supporters of President Obama, watching Gillard cut through the disingenuousness and feigned moral outrage of her opponent to call him out for his own personal prejudice, hypocrisy, and aversion to facts, might be wishing their man would take a lesson from Australia.

Similarities between our two political theatres abound. Julia Gillard has found a way to evolve from it.

But her attack on misogamy has attracted more responses than her parliamentary grunt. And oh how the responses differ. In one corner we have the international media, the social media and social analysts supporting her speech while in the other corner sits the Australian mainstream media going alone in its condemnation.

Yet in the Australian media all we hear about are the opinions of the Australian media. Elsewhere it is news. Here they are purely opinions.

To hear the praise coming from Australians one has to read an overseas newspaper. For example, the Irish Times provided a better and more balanced appraisal of Julia Gillard’s speech than that dished up locally. Where, in the Australian media, will you read such honesty as this?:

When Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, told the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, this week that if he wanted to know what misogyny looked like he should pick up a mirror, it was seen by many women as a defining moment for feminism in the country.

“I almost had shivers down my spine,” said Sara Charlesworth, an associate professor at the University of South Australia. “I was so relieved that she had actually named what was happening. She was so angry, so coherent and able to register that enough is enough.”

It was the first time an Australian leader – and possibly any world leader – had delivered such a forthright attack on misogyny in public life.

Prof Barbara Pini, who teaches gender studies at Griffith University in Queensland, said it was a watershed moment. “It’s incredibly significant to have a prime minister powerfully state that she has experienced sexism and even more powerfully state that she will refuse to ignore it any longer,” Pini said.

“That the sexism which is so deeply embedded in the Australian body politic was named may give some women licence to express and seek to counter the sexism they have experienced in their working lives.”

According to the Australian Human Rights Commission, one in five Australian women has experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. A recent study by Monash University in Melbourne showed that 57 per cent of women who worked in the media had experienced sexual harassment. It said women were badly under-represented in top levels of media management, holding 10 per cent of positions, compared with an international average of 27 per cent.

The report’s author, Louise North, said her findings might go some way to explaining why much of Australia’s mainstream media concluded that Gillard’s speech was a political disaster. “PM will rue yet another bad call,” said one comment piece.

“Gillard’s judgment was flawed. All she achieved was a serious loss of credibility,” said another.

That response was in stark contrast to much of the commentary in social media and conversations between women around the country, which were alive with praise for the prime minister’s stance.

“Leader writers are generally white, middle-aged men and they have no perception of gender bias,” North said. “They don’t want to acknowledge that it happens within their newsrooms and they certainly wouldn’t be open to challenging some of those positions and changing the public discourse either.

Tim Dunlop, in his fabulous article on The Drum, The gatekeepers of news have lost their keys takes up the fight against the Australian media – one of the few in the media to do so – as he tackles the local bias:

The authority of the media – it’s ability to shape and frame events and then present them to us as “the” news – was built upon its privileged access to information and the ability to control distribution.

Collecting, collating, packaging and transmitting information – “news” – was expensive and thus the preserve of a small number of big companies, and we were pretty much bound by the choices they made.

But those days are gone. That model is a relic, though it still dominates the way the mainstream media goes about its business, and provides the template for how journalists think about their role as reporters.

When you have the likes of Michelle Grattan, Peter Hartcher, Peter van Onselen (paywalled), Jennifer Hewett (paywalled), Geoff Kitney, Phillip Coorey, and Dennis Shanahan (paywalled) all spouting essentially the same line in attacking the Prime Minister – a line at odds with the many people’s own interpretation of events – people wonder what the point of such journalism is.

It bewilders me that our mainstream media is taking such a vociferous and concerted stand against public and international opinion. The impact of the speech is lost on them. One could be forgiven for thinking they have an agenda. Regardless of how much they condemn the Prime Minister, the world isn’t listening.

And finally …

Here I am with the ‘boss.’

It must have been a Friday as I was dressed casually, as Canberra public servants tended to do on that glorious last day of the week. Adding to the embarrassment I forget to take my reading glasses off! Maybe, just maybe … I was a tad excited.

Before becoming PM Ms Gillard was my Minister in the Rudd Government, a position she took over after Labor’s 2007 election victory. Prior to that, my Minister was Joe Hockey. What a breath of fresh air she was after Joe Hockey!

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Keitha GranvilleJune 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm

What the hell has happened to the Labor party now? Where is there a Julia? Someone in the party with guts, determination, principles, ideals, and policies to back them up. We have a bunch of vote chasing no-hopers. JG and PK must be crying themselves to sleep. Good thing Bob is no longer with us, he would be mortified.

Kate AhearneJune 25, 2020 at 4:01 pm

Thanks for highlighting the anniversary, Michael. I’ll read these at my leisure. Good on you. We get what we deserve, and if we don’t fight hard enough for it, we just don’t deserve it.

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 4:03 pm

She was a wonderful boss, Kate. And a wonderful Prime Minister.

Jack CadeJune 25, 2020 at 4:05 pm

I was an admirer of Julia, and I thought her spell as PM, with a couple of sensible independents, was excellent. She did, however, show poor judgment at times. But dealing with the vile Abbott and the shameless Speaker, she must have wondered if it was worth it.
Right now the ALP is, for me, pretty much leaderless. It’s best performer is in the senate, but her gender, ethnicity, and marital choices are against her ever being the PM and leader this country needs. Nobody currently in the Reps appeals. Except maybe Dreyfuss
One of my favourite words is ‘bleak’, but I don’t know why. However, it aptly describes this country’s political future…

AndreasJune 25, 2020 at 4:18 pm

As it appeared: When JG was speaking off script like in the world-famous mysoginy beratement of abbott she was all class.
When she, on script, called Julian Assange a criminal against all evidence and abondened him, she obeyed her US masters and lost all credibility with me.

Kate AhearneJune 25, 2020 at 4:37 pm

Andreas, I’ve been deeply doubtful about Assange all along. I realise that very big guns have been brought to bear against him, but there are big guns defending him, too. Why, for instance, did he release information against Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election that Donald Trump won? But nothing at all powerful about Trump? OK, he mightn’t have had any particular information against Trump – He could only work with the leaks he had, right? But 2 questions arise – Why didn’t he have leaks about Trump? And in their absence, why did he release ‘information’ that would assist one presidential candidate – Trump – and disadvantage the other? Didn’t he consider how dreadful it would be to help Trump into the presidency?

EdJune 25, 2020 at 4:44 pm

Oh yeah rulin class julia from Wales a real aussie

Up until now the Australian government has had a very hands off approach to Assange’s plight. Early on there were nonsensical utterances by then prime minister Julia Gillard that Assange had committed offences under Australian law in publishing documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions by the US and its allies in the aftermath of 9/11.

And oh yeah rulin class julia

But Ms Gillard won’t back away from the decision.

“I’m going to stand up for it as a decision of the government I led,” Ms Gillard said during an interview in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

“It was always going to be controversial”.

In January, tens of thousands of single mothers, many working part time, were shifted off parenting payments and onto the unemployment benefit, Newstart, leaving many between $60 and $100 a week worse off.

The decision was to save taxpayers $728 million over four years.

Intellectual disgrace stares from Julia’s face . . .

leefeJune 25, 2020 at 4:48 pm

I love watching Abbott’s face in that clip. He starts laughing and sneering at her, but that doesn’t last long. He really doesn’t appreciate being held to account by a woman, does he?

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 4:58 pm

leefe, I must add that I was not impressed by the looks on Julie Bishop’s face.

PhilJune 25, 2020 at 4:59 pm

Gillard oh please. Is this is the same Gillard that stuck it to the ‘ Single Mother’s ‘ The same Labor party Gillard was a member of who made my wife wait another year for her old age pension. The same Labor party that put the old age pension up to 67. The same Gillard that voted down although it didn’t succeed, a pay rise for old age pensioners??????? Of course being an x lawyer, I guess you would be fully aware of how easy it would be to lay bricks or do a concrete slab or dig a trench for some plumbing, when you’re 67. This bastadry from an Australian Labor Party, you can’t make it up.

Gillard carve it up how you like, is responsible for Morrison. She and her Ego shafted Rudd. What was it, oh yes who could forget, he had a dip in the poll numbers and she went in for the kill. And where are all her partners in the coup now? Rudd imho would have walked the next election if, he had been allowed to continue. The rank and file members of the Labor party abandoned it in droves, because of where it was headed. I was one of them. As was commented on by Andreas the less said about Julian Assange and Gillard the better, less I have a stroke thinking about it. As for Hawke oh please…….. Who could forget the accord where workers went backwards? Read Pilger’s ‘ A secret Country ‘ There you’ll find the true character of the legend in his own mind Bob Hawke. Or read Tom Uren’s biography about Hawke. These people who are put up on pedestals explains much.

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:02 pm

Phil, it was Howard who put the age pension up to 67. (That was the policy area I was working in. We hated Howard down to the marrow in his bones.)

PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:11 pm

Well my sources tells me it was Wayne Swan. If I am wrong so be it.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/hard-labor-pension-age-rises-to-67-20090513-b24v.html

https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/campaign/a-short-history-of-the-age-pension-section

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:13 pm

It’s things like this that would really piss us off:

We were working on a policy that would benefit students in remote areas who were receiving Youth Allowance. Once it got to the Lower House it was knocked back by the Abbott led Opposition.

As quick as a flash Abbott ran to the Murdoch media to complain that Gillard was doing nothing for students in remote areas who were receiving Youth Allowance. The next day it’d be all over the papers.

Stuff like that happened time after time, and the hearts of us policy Ninjas would just sink. On top of that, the money wasted was immeasurable.

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm

Oops, my error, Phil. It was the female age pension age that Howard raised incrementally.

Either that or the whisky has been a bit vicious towards my brain cells.

Possibly the latter. 😉

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:20 pm

Boy have I got some stories about Howard and Hockey. I am, of course, forbidden from revealing them.

They might come out under the 30-year rule. Only 16 years left to wait. ☹️

EdJune 25, 2020 at 5:21 pm

But Ms Gillard won’t back away from the decision.

“I’m going to stand up for it as a decision of the government I led,” Ms Gillard said during an interview in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

“It was always going to be controversial”.

The decision was to save taxpayers $728 million over four years.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been left floundering after she labelled the actions of the WikiLeaks ‘illegal’, but couldn’t say how.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/gillard-red-faced-after-calling-wikileaks-illegal

Nope not your average Aussie just a typical RULIN CLASS FAKE!!! FROM WALES

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:26 pm

Phil/Ed,

There were a number of decisions or policies I bitterly disagreed with. The Single Mother’s one tops the list.

PS: I didn’t even see that one coming. Those payments were administered by a different department.

PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:27 pm

I know shit about Howard but I wont get you sued.

He was a great cricket player you know. He would be hard pressed to hit a bull in the arse with a handful of wheat.

New England CockyJune 25, 2020 at 5:31 pm

@Phil: Uhm ….. as I remember the occasion, Gillard was set up to be Prime Minister by Mark Arbib, a fawning pawn of the US consulate and likely traitor to Australia. His departure from politics resulted in a job with Crown Casinos.

The loss of both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard under the merciless attacks by the neo-libertarian COALition, MSM and mindless shock jocks showed the fear held by those parties that Australin voters would get a better deal from Labor than from the Liarbral Nazional$ parties.

Re The Accord; agreed. Labor sold out the working classes with the superannuation dream that the COALition and bankers are now attempting to plunder for their own profits. Smart workers have superannuation held by industry based entities that have been shown to pay better dividends than commercial funds.

GraemeJune 25, 2020 at 5:33 pm

Seems that to be a leader of the ALP these days, one needs permission from the US. Senator Arbib got the clearance for Julia. It was probably Hawke who set up the need for permission from the US. Her comments about Assange were disgusting, sure he’d spilt the beans about Arbib getting the all clear for her ascendancy, but it wasn’t personal.
As to what Kate Ahearn wrote above, Hillary had called for Assange to be killed. Self preservation is not a terrible idea.
As to blaming Assange for Trump being elected, why not blame Hillary for what she got exposed for, or better, blame the Democrats for not selecting Bernie.
It’s a tricky job being an Australian PM, having to pretend to be working for the national interest, whilse being beholden to the US.

Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:36 pm

Phil, we need to sit down together and have a good ol’ chin wag about Howard. Might be an idea if we could borrow Maxwell Smart’s ‘Cone of Silence.’

PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:39 pm

‘ There were a number of decisions or policies I bitterly disagreed with. The Single Mother’s one tops the list.’

Indeed. For mine the party did not represent my or my family’s Aspirations Ugh that word, Howard again. It put the Labor party on the nose. Btw my friends like myself are all Socialists, Gillard, Hawke, Keating were all opportunists imho. The damage the single mother issue did to the party I was a member of for nearly forty years, will probably be never fully appreciated. If their brief is not to improve the lot of the working class, the sick, the poor etc, then what are they for? I don’t want a duopoly with both of the main parties being controlled by corporate interests. The Labor party had better get their thumb out and start listening to its supporters otherwise we will be in opposition forever. Albanese is not going to lead us into the promised land.

AndreasJune 25, 2020 at 5:39 pm

Kate@4.37: If the administrator will allow it (this line is about JG, not JA): in your questions you have provided the answer yourself. The man can only publish what he’s got. It made no difference to the 2016 election outcome with one aspect: DT (with his many faults) at least hasn’t started any new wars during his first term, whereas if HC had won we few survivors would be living in caves by now.

Julian Assange has been abandoned by all AUS governments since Gillard on US behest for publishing US War Crimes.. This is abandonment is particularly despicable from the current Morrison government, which went out of its way to intervene on behalf of an Australian jailed in China and a permanent resident Kuwaiti soccer player, but would not lift a finger for JA because of US demands.

Currently JA is held without charge for the last 14 months in a British Max Sec Jail, with failing health, under a judicial system geared to see him rot to extinction. It is called British Justice.

PhilJune 25, 2020 at 7:41 pm

‘ @Phil: Uhm ….. as I remember the occasion, Gillard was set up to be Prime Minister by Mark Arbib, a fawning pawn of the US consulate and likely traitor to Australia. His departure from politics resulted in a job with Crown Casinos.’

How she was installed now matters not. She was there and big mistakes were made and they’re repeating the process trying to bat on with Albanese. Btw Albanese is probably a nice bloke to have a beer with but, being nice doesn’t win elections. Keating love him or loath him, would have this current mob of social misfits pissing themselves with fear and us pissing ourselves and laughing our tits off, watching him destroy them with his acerbic style and wit. Btw I don’t believe for a nano second Keating gives flying f@#% about the working class either, but when he wins he brings on people that do. I firmly believe if Labor blows the next election it will be up to the Greens to take the fight to the enemy and that is not how Albanese sees them. They are laughing at him in the parliament and it is going right over his head. Anyone on this forum would have Albanese on toast in a debate.

paul walterJune 25, 2020 at 10:45 pm

How much worse, what has followed.

And still the idiots vote the rightists back in!

I just wish the Greens and ALP, between them, could have got their shit together over a carbon tax and also that Labor could have waited till after the 2010 election to oust Kevin Rudd, if his health was failing and this was impacting on his performance.

As with the Whitlam years, we had a real opportunity to do great things and somehow blew it. Maybe Keating also, not calling an election when he had the trigger, when Downer was still opposition leader back in 94.

Off to bed now, had a big tooth pulled today and can’t think of more to say just now.

Just read Ed’s comment and agree, but will read Michael’s reply later.

wamJune 25, 2020 at 11:34 pm

I was an observer at a conference in canberra where gillard and the rabbott were to speak. Gillard arrived on time, acknowledged the leaders and thanked the delegates then spoke on the conference topic eloquently and knowledgeably and then took questions.
The rabbott rolled in late gave an election speech and left before his allotted time with no questions.
The comparison was headshakingly awful. It left me no doubt why windsor and oakschutt chose her for PM
When he said the “suppository of all wisdom” It the statement of the century in that hs wisdom was pure wet farts.
The meanest nastiest jibe for gillard came from heffernan, another indoctrinated catholic full of bile for ‘gay’ and for women outside gender jobs.
Sadly after rising above the shit and conquering enormous enemies(including the ABC imagine at home with smirko) she was stabbed by a sneaky vicious blackmailing lawyer who knew the loonies had nothing to fear from the rabbott and nothing to lose by forcing an election gave the rabbott the cat o’nine tails with which to flog her and he lashed her every day stripped to the waste in the papers, on the radio and on every channel lead by leigh. She was so chastened by her ‘have you read the report’ (the rabbott never risk his faith by reading reports by himself his staff tell him what he needs to know) that her interviews were bi partisan either ‘would you like me to nod whilst you talk?’ or ‘have you stopped lying about the surplus?’
ps Phil the pension age to 67 was 2009? That was rudd?
pps
To me her clay feet came when she didn’t follow up with the rabbott shaming and her slimy tribunal which not only obviates the any ability to vote but also hides the process from the public.
Despite these flaws and, because I put the single mums episode into the same box as franking ie unexplained, I consider her the best PM of my era.

PhilJune 26, 2020 at 2:39 am

ps Phil the pension age to 67 was 2009? That was rudd?

Have a sleep and have another look.

KerriJune 26, 2020 at 3:51 am

Julia, like Barack Obama, conducted herself, above pretty much every PM after her, with dignity never stooping to the crass vitriol that passes for right wing political discourse.

Andrew SmithJune 26, 2020 at 4:51 am

‘Yet in the Australian media all we hear about are the opinions of the Australian media. Elsewhere it is news. Here they are purely opinions.’

Some way explained that our clubby Australian journalists and media, using those terms loosely, see their role as ‘insularising Australian from the outside world’, yet one would add, most Australian journalists only seem to know about the US or UK……

wamJune 26, 2020 at 8:36 am

Good one, phil,
too esoteric for me:
Had a sleep, a swim and my pills, phil and “The Labor Government introduced measures in 2009 to increase the pension…” so it still seems like rudd as boobby didn’t go with the rabbott till december 2009 but I don’t like the lemon so it might be fake???
ps
beauty Andrew people like speers sales are concentrating on their questions and half listening to the answers before questions to illicit the required answer they are harpoons wandering around smelling bicycle seats and when they find one that smells right the exclaim ‘har’.

Dave G.June 26, 2020 at 11:32 am

For me the grubbiest thing Julia had to put up with was the endless innuendo in relation to the renovation of that house in Melbourne.She fronted up at that press conference and told them fire away,they did until they ran out of questions and bile.Still the next day the Murdoch rags said “there are still questions to be answered”.Grubby,grubby,grubby.

Michael TaylorJune 26, 2020 at 11:59 am

Dave, you can add the grubby innuendo about her partner, whose name escapes me. He was a hairdresser, so therefore – according to the grubs – he was gay.

AlcJune 26, 2020 at 1:43 pm

Dignity and empathy are two words that come to mind regarding Julia. Agree with previous comment, apart from maybe Whitlam, she is the best I’ve seen and I have seen them all since Menzies.

Brad BlackJune 26, 2020 at 2:09 pm

I almost didn’t read this article!
Not because I disagreed for what its beginning implied, but because it’s depressing to think of where this country could be if she had been given a decent go. We could have been like NZ! Instead we have climate denial, buggered river systems, corruption, a mainstream media further concentrated towards extreme right wing ideology, bigotry, economic illiteracy …
I’m glad I read it though. Julia’s legacy should be remembered.

PhilJune 26, 2020 at 8:08 pm

A take on Gillard that agrees with me.

https://theconversation.com/the-political-tragedy-of-julia-gillard-15588

Michael TaylorJune 26, 2020 at 8:28 pm

Who in their right mind would agree with you, Phil? 😳

😜

Jack CadeJune 26, 2020 at 8:34 pm

Phil

That is a beautiful, clear analysis of a very unpleasant time for the ALP and the country. As a deputy, Gillard was terrific. As PM, her poor judgment was fatal.

PhilJune 26, 2020 at 10:18 pm

Who in their right mind would agree with you, Phil? 😳

😜 Someone in their left mind mayhaps 🙂

AlcJune 26, 2020 at 10:40 pm

And she was an ATHEIST! How that would have for up the noses of the Abbots! Pynes and Abetzs of the world. Now replaced by the happy clappers. Separation of church and state anyone. Getting more like merica every day.

PhilJune 26, 2020 at 10:52 pm

Jack Cade.

Indeed. There are plenty of opinions on Gillard. For mine the left call what you like, has to make up it’s mind, we can’t run with the Hare’s and the Hounds anymore. Being pragmatic and negotiating with the representatives of the ruling class, should be over. We know what they are, we know that they want, to wind the clock back to the Master Serf relationship era. When some on the left I know accused the current government of being a mob of fascists I laughed, I am no longer laughing. The police can now come for you in the night and whisk you away to one of their star chambers and wreck you and your families life. As a case in point look, at Assange. He will die or disappear off the radar into some shit hole in the US. My monies on him having his death certificate signed died of, Covid – 19. Anyone who doesn’t fear the Morrison government, has had very sheltered existence.

ZathrasJune 27, 2020 at 1:56 am

Gillard was doomed right from the start with the relentless media pile-on, the howling shock-jocks and the vicious Abbott approach yet somehow managed to get significant legislation passed with a very tight majority.

Indeed that controversial Single Mothers decision was so appalling that the following Liberal Government just couldn’t bring themselves to overturn it. How disappointing, and economically the country has been sliding downhill ever since.

Compare Gillard with those that followed. She was a classier act when in power and a much better behaved ex-PM than her successors.

BrozzaJune 30, 2020 at 9:03 pm

Kate Ahearne – I can’t say why Assange didn’t go after gump with the same vigour as killary, but perhaps he just went after the greater (by a long shot) of two evils.
Also, I believe Assange was on killary’s ‘hit list’, along with, amongst many others, Russia, against who she publicly stated that she’d ‘push the button’ and start WW3.
(I just wish I could remember where I saw that and provide the link)

Kate AhearneJune 30, 2020 at 9:12 pm

Brozza, I wish you could, too. That’d be something to see. As for Clinton being ‘the greater (by a long shot) of two evils’, she’d have to be the devil incarnate!

george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 9:08 am

Euripides:
I hate a citizen who is slow to help his city, quick to cause her harm, who’s got his eyes wide open to anything that helps himself but completely shut when it comes to helping the city.

Aeschylus:
It’s a better idea not to rear a lion in a city but if you do, you better obey his every whim.

(Aristophanes, “The Frogs”)

george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 9:15 am

Julia was not cool, as they say in the vernacular. Not for the common folks, especially those caught in the snares of the americans.
Assange is in the most brutal snares imaginable because of her love for those thugs: “Oh, you Americans! You can do anything!” she drooled and did what “honest” Johnny did when he had gone over there!
“Israel deserves (can’t remember the exact word) protection!”
“I would not vote for the equal marriage rights for the gays because my mother is a conservative christian…”
I could go on but these three quotes are enough to show us her true character!
Not one to deify or lionise, or make a hero of.
Jacinda Adern, on the other hand…

Michael TaylorJuly 4, 2020 at 1:27 pm

George, I admit to being very disappointed in her condemnation of Julian Assange.

leefeJuly 4, 2020 at 3:43 pm

Oh wow, Julia Gillard wasn’t perfect, and must thus be pilloried.
If only all male politicians were held to the same standard . . .

George TheodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 8:33 pm

She should be totally and severely pilloried because her imperfections were abject, studied and morally abhorrent.
And yes, other politicians behaved in a similar and worse fashion. That they are males and not females like her is utterly irrelevant.
It’s sickening to shift the debate from her shameful behaviour to a gender bias issue.
Assange is dying in a putrid jail cell, something she vociferously defended.
And THAT’S your Julia!

george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 8:50 pm

My father used to tell me often, “always watch number 2. S/he and number 1 have made a deal and number 1 will almost always renege.” This, Sophocles showed happens almost invariably. Read his Antigone. The two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other for this very reason. Eteocles would not give the throne of Thebes to his brother when his turn came.
Aeschylus worked on the same myth with his Seven Against Thebes.
Watch what number 2 says and does!

PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 12:11 am

Should I live to be 150 yrs old I will never understand the adulation for the fakes like Julia Gillard. Her brief in the Australian Labor Party was to improve the lot of the working class, she failed at this miserably. And yes, I am sick to death of people jumping on the band wagon because of her gender. It is true, the politicians that live and breath to be the PM. of this country, have big Ego’s. She took liberties with hers. She cost the Labor party a possible twenty year tenure in government. Yes Rudd was a nerd, if he had worked in a shearing shed, he would have no doubt ended up in a bale of wool destined for the Japanese wool mills. But, he was a winner. Gillard used a dip in the polls to knife him in company with the other members of the coup and where are they all now? The ” True Believers ” my fat lefty arse.

But the best for last, Julian Assange. What Gillard and her obsequious followers let happen to Assange is a scandal that can only be compared to the sacking of Gough Whitlam and the attitude at the time of Bob Hawke the then leader of the ACTU who could and should have brought this country, to its knees. I had him sussed from the get go.; as did Tom Uren the housing minister in the Whitlam government. Tom having paid the price most of the bums in our current parliament would never have experienced. Being a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi during WW2. He told Hawke to his face what he thought of him and Hawke did SFA. The ‘ Hard Man ‘ of Australian politics, was a powder puff.

The by election in Eden Monaro today had better have rung some bells in a party I was a member of for forty years, not that you’ll read this Albo but if you do, sling your hook. You aint got it. Give someone else the Guernsey before these toe rags call an early election.

EgalitarianJuly 5, 2020 at 3:57 am

Julia made the mistake of not taking a harder line on the boats coming.She got slaughtered on this issue.

george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 9:16 am

And you call yourself, what? Egalitarian?
Bu Zeus, talk about false advertising!

Very well said, Phil! Agree with your every syllable. I was with the party for nearly thirty and stood as a candidate (State) twice. Wouldn’t wipe my arse with their policies.

george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 10:12 am

Alc. the atheist bit was bullshit. It jumped up and showed its ugly head when Julia, our PM refused to grand gays equal rights to marriage BECAUSE her mum was a conservative Christian!
Don’t listen to their words, watch their deeds!
She did bugger all that was of any value to the common folk and a lot that hurt them.
Just another thug.
Empathy and sympathy and dignity and – oh Paleez!
She had more in common with Hilary and Elen Digeneres, (sp?) than she did with us.

Kate AhearneJuly 5, 2020 at 10:49 am

George, I can’t resist telling you how glad I am that you stood twice, and were twice unsuccessful.

Jack CadeJuly 5, 2020 at 1:37 pm

Talking about ‘Your average Aussie’, do any of you have an inkling of what particular cherry has been dangled in front of the square-headed, unblinking automaton who has decided to pull the plug at year’s end, after years of fuqing up
our national finances?
He is not ‘your average Aussie’ is he Lizzie, not your average Aussie is he, eh?
Kinnel, you’d hope not, wouldn’t you!?

Joe CarliJuly 5, 2020 at 2:29 pm

I had nothing against Gillard that I couldn’t level against any number of previous Labor ministers.. I would have liked to have seen at least two terms of a woman at the top to soften-up the hard-arse alpha males in the LNP….hated Rudd for his Christianity and “Church gate” pressers…but I was very dissapointed when Gillard accepted a “honourary doctorate” from Adelaide Uni’ recently….on that subject, I posted this on Twitter..;

Oh Julia, why need for the cap & gown,
Why tempted with their glittering prizes?
You’ve come too far from Consciousness of Kind,
To be judged in THEIR class court of Assizes.
You were bourne from us; the working classes,
Tell them shove their bling up their collective arses!

And today I see Penny Wong giving a panegyric to effing Cormann!!??….Christ!…we send these Labor people to Canberra to kick/not lick arse!….remember that Fawlty Towers episode with the “break your bottom” line..: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIVGX-IkVy8

george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 2:42 pm

Ah well, Kate Ahearne!
What can I say?
You follow the gender, I follow the brain.
Look where we are since her because people followed her gender! Lots of things are hidden under a gender and behind a pretty face, most of which are dire. One needs to be like the goddess of Justice: Listen blindfolded. Listen and then watch the deeds.
The rest, as Verlaine said, “et tout le reste est littérature.”

I thought she was great as a number 2 and couldn’t wait till she got to be No 1.
Then the truth about her brain emerged and had Abbott not been so deplorable, she wouldn’t have got the support of Windsor and Oakshot.

And that’s why we’re now having to deal with Morrison and Dutton and a whole lot of scumbags. THAT’S WHY!
Your “follow the gender” is what fascist Fukuyama calls, “Identity politics”.

PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 2:44 pm

” Very well said, Phil! Agree with your every syllable. I was with the party for nearly thirty and stood as a candidate (State) twice. Wouldn’t wipe my arse with their policies.”

Cheers my man.

Like you no doubt, I know heaps of ” True Believers ” that are pissed off about the Gillard years. Her pièce de résistance was when she stuck it to the single mothers and voted against the pay rise for pensioners. The pay rise was approved by the caucus no thanks to Gillard. When they put the pension age up to 67 My wife of 48 years who is a little younger than I had to wait another 12 months to get her old age pension. I along with some of my friends, nearly fainted over this policy. My neighbor who lost her husband when she was 62 had the indignity of being put on ‘ New Start ‘ A bloody scandal. This from the supposed friends of the working class. And now all the apologists for it, are coming out making every excuse for Gillard under the sun. The best one for the changes was our financial position. They had every opportunity to make the fat cats in our society cough up their fair share and they did nothing. Besides this, the printing presses will be working overtime to pay for the useless load of missiles they have just ordered. We are awash with money fresh off the printing press.

So as I tap this out Labor has won Eden Monaro with preferences. It should have been the biggest and easiest election win for Labor since they dropped anchor in Botany Bay in 1788. I am listening to Albanese now being polite about the Belgium Bungler WOW! He hasn’t got a clue. My biggest fear now is Labor will win the next election and take the can for the biggest depression coming down the pike the world will have ever seen. Interesting months ahead.

PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 2:52 pm

” And today I see Penny Wong giving a panegyric to effing Cormann!!??….Christ!…we send these Labor people to Canberra to kick/not lick arse!….remember that Fawlty Towers episode with the “break your bottom” line..:”

Did ya hear Albo waxing lyrically about the Belgian Bungler?

Being a bit flippant these bums get me thinking about the Nazi’s after they lost the war and murdered millions gong up to the high rollers in the Nazi party and asking them to enjoy their retirement.

All this lovey dovey bollocks with the enemy and that’s what they are, is nauseating.

What was it George Carlin RIP. said ” It’s a big club and we aint in it “

Joe CarliJuly 5, 2020 at 3:13 pm

Trouble is, Phil…the Labor side of The House is going through a kind of “principled behaviour” semester, where they believe the voters are sick of conflict and abuse and are hungering for a party with principles…and will vote for such…But hey!…..look at last Fed’ election…: Hanson..a dumb, racist bastard…she gets back in with an increased majority…Katter..a raving lunatic..he gets back in, no worries…Dutton..an absolute C#NT!…gets back in with an increased majority…and Christensen…a..a…help me out here, someone!!….a bloke who would pay a Manilla club manager just for the pleasure of licking the pole those dancers swivelled their crotch around after a twelve-hour shift on a hot, sweaty Saturday night!!…HE gets back in with an increased majority!!…WTF??…
So..no..s,s,sorry, people…”nice” doesn’t get politics…nice gets crucified…what we need is a touch of mongrel with steel-caps….but hey..I’ve been saying this on here for years….to no avail..

PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 3:33 pm

Joe Carli

Agree with all of that. You said it all.

As I said before what worries me now is Labor actually winning. The cynic in me tells me the mob of babbling baboons masquerading as a government, will get their mates in the media (That’s all of them) to now promote Albanese as the best thing since sliced bread. They can then sit on the back bench laughing at Labor, trying to sought out the mess they have left and deal with the depression that will be arriving soon. I predict an early election, these bastards know what’s coming.

Keating would have had the members you mentioned begging for mercy.

I see a shit storm coming down on us, it has already started in the US. If there is a God? Help us.

Matters NotJuly 5, 2020 at 4:04 pm

Yes, there’s lots of hagiographical posts here.and not only about Gillard – even Rudd gets an honourable mention. Sorry – neither were saints. Gillard was responsible for naplan but only in the sense that she was the Education Minister at the time of its development and therefore was nominally in charge. Fact is – at that stage – Rudd was driving the policy bus and Gillard was but a mere passenger and out of her depth in some key areas such as education – with no understanding of the ‘debate’.

So Gillard wears the blame for much when in fact she was not the prime decision-maker. Later of course – when she became Prime Minister – she assumed control but then she was too late because her colors had been nailed to the mast.

Rudd was really bright – which was both his strength and his weakness – eventually leading to his downfall. In a debate, he could tower above all. So much so, he operated as a guru who knew everything. Listening for him was a waste of his very valuable time. Why listen when he, personally, knew everything. That Labor elected him Leader caused much amusement among those who had worked with him – including most of his Queensland Labor colleagues. But desperate times lead to desperate decisions. (This does not mean he should have been dismissed the way he was. That was stupidity – because he was still popular (among the vast majority who didn’t really know him) and might have led Labor to a re-election.) Such is life.

Jack CadeJuly 5, 2020 at 4:16 pm

Joe Carli

Australians have NEVER considered principles when voting. The Menzies era was topped off with a ‘request’ from Vietnam that Australia join in their fight for freedom, when the ‘request’ was actually from the old Ace draft dodger himself to be allowed to send Aussie teenagers to fight alongside Uncle Sam ( ask a few Aussies who were conscripted what ‘fighting alongside Uncle Sam’s brave boys’ was really like.)
The we got the Betty Battenberg/CIA/Fraser era. Full of principles…
Which morphed into the Howard ‘principled’ era.
Then Abbott…
Then Turnbull…
Then Morrison…
Not a frigging principle in sight for more than half a century.
And the electorate was fully aware of what a nest of arseholes the coalition actually is. They didn’t just creep up on us, did they?
It is possible to conclude, unpleasant as the thought is, that ‘they’ are actually what ‘we’ are.

Michael TaylorJuly 5, 2020 at 4:44 pm

I’m delighted that nobody has mentioned what a horrible shot it is of me. 😁

george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm

All this and not once do I see the word “misogyny” – or have I missed it?

george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 5:15 pm

I’d love to see Kirsti McBain in a Fed seat. I have quite a good feeling about her. I think she’s probably a reasonably strong and better Laborite than all the women currently in the party.
Not sure why I think this. Perhaps because she choked back a tear or two in her interview last night.
Shows humaneness, something extremely rare in this modern (neo-) Labor party.

Michael TaylorJuly 5, 2020 at 5:21 pm

George, the reason your comments are being put in moderation is because there’s a typo in your email address, so the system thinks you’re a first-time commenter.

George TheodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 6:17 pm

Profuse apologies, Michael.Posting with iphone and without goggles!
Back home now and well replenished with grand daughters’ deliciousness!
And thus a lot calmer!

Kate AhearneJuly 5, 2020 at 8:03 pm

Thank you, George for supplying the word, ‘misogyny’. I can’t thank you enough.

georgetheodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 8:11 pm

You’re most welcome, Kate. I know a lot of people love this word. I’d hate to think they’ve been deprived of the chance to see it or to use it.
Happy misandry.

PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 10:26 pm

Ah misogyny what a word. I am always reminded of a joke that’s always a hoot at the Country Women’s Association. About Mysogyny.

Two women were hanging out the washing one day and they started to talk to each other over the back fence.

Mary says to Milly ” Tell me Milly our husbands do the same job make the same money you have everything and I have nothing. What’s your secret? Milly says ” it’s easy, just charge your husband a fee every time he wants to have sex.” ” Wow says Mary I’ll try that.”

Later that day Charlie gets home from work settles down to his pie and chips grabs a tube out the fridge and sits and watches TV.

Charlie now feeling a bit amorous says to Mary. .” Let’s go up stairs and have a naughty.” ” Mary says that will be a dollar (Mary is cheap) Charlie looks in his pocket and can only find 20 cents. Mary again says” No that will be a dollar.”

Charlie says” look can I just play with it for twenty cents? ” Mary relents and says ” O.K.”

About half an hour later Mary says to Charlie “Are you coming to bed. ” Charlie says, ” I told you I don’t have a dollar only twenty cents ”

Mary says to Charlie ” That’s OK Charlie I’ll lend you the other eighty cents.”

I blame John Wayne.

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Keitha GranvilleJune 25, 2020 at 3:53 pm

What the hell has happened to the Labor party now? Where is there a Julia? Someone in the party with guts, determination, principles, ideals, and policies to back them up. We have a bunch of vote chasing no-hopers. JG and PK must be crying themselves to sleep. Good thing Bob is no longer with us, he would be mortified.
Kate AhearneJune 25, 2020 at 4:01 pm

Thanks for highlighting the anniversary, Michael. I’ll read these at my leisure. Good on you. We get what we deserve, and if we don’t fight hard enough for it, we just don’t deserve it.
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 4:03 pm

She was a wonderful boss, Kate. And a wonderful Prime Minister.
Jack CadeJune 25, 2020 at 4:05 pm

I was an admirer of Julia, and I thought her spell as PM, with a couple of sensible independents, was excellent. She did, however, show poor judgment at times. But dealing with the vile Abbott and the shameless Speaker, she must have wondered if it was worth it.
Right now the ALP is, for me, pretty much leaderless. It’s best performer is in the senate, but her gender, ethnicity, and marital choices are against her ever being the PM and leader this country needs. Nobody currently in the Reps appeals. Except maybe Dreyfuss
One of my favourite words is ‘bleak’, but I don’t know why. However, it aptly describes this country’s political future…
AndreasJune 25, 2020 at 4:18 pm

As it appeared: When JG was speaking off script like in the world-famous mysoginy beratement of abbott she was all class.
When she, on script, called Julian Assange a criminal against all evidence and abondened him, she obeyed her US masters and lost all credibility with me.
Kate AhearneJune 25, 2020 at 4:37 pm

Andreas, I’ve been deeply doubtful about Assange all along. I realise that very big guns have been brought to bear against him, but there are big guns defending him, too. Why, for instance, did he release information against Hillary Clinton in the lead-up to the election that Donald Trump won? But nothing at all powerful about Trump? OK, he mightn’t have had any particular information against Trump – He could only work with the leaks he had, right? But 2 questions arise – Why didn’t he have leaks about Trump? And in their absence, why did he release ‘information’ that would assist one presidential candidate – Trump – and disadvantage the other? Didn’t he consider how dreadful it would be to help Trump into the presidency?
EdJune 25, 2020 at 4:44 pm

Oh yeah rulin class julia from Wales a real aussie

Up until now the Australian government has had a very hands off approach to Assange’s plight. Early on there were nonsensical utterances by then prime minister Julia Gillard that Assange had committed offences under Australian law in publishing documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions by the US and its allies in the aftermath of 9/11.

And oh yeah rulin class julia

But Ms Gillard won’t back away from the decision.

“I’m going to stand up for it as a decision of the government I led,” Ms Gillard said during an interview in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

“It was always going to be controversial”.

In January, tens of thousands of single mothers, many working part time, were shifted off parenting payments and onto the unemployment benefit, Newstart, leaving many between $60 and $100 a week worse off.

The decision was to save taxpayers $728 million over four years.

Intellectual disgrace stares from Julia’s face . . .
leefeJune 25, 2020 at 4:48 pm

I love watching Abbott’s face in that clip. He starts laughing and sneering at her, but that doesn’t last long. He really doesn’t appreciate being held to account by a woman, does he?
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 4:58 pm

leefe, I must add that I was not impressed by the looks on Julie Bishop’s face.
PhilJune 25, 2020 at 4:59 pm

Gillard oh please. Is this is the same Gillard that stuck it to the ‘ Single Mother’s ‘ The same Labor party Gillard was a member of who made my wife wait another year for her old age pension. The same Labor party that put the old age pension up to 67. The same Gillard that voted down although it didn’t succeed, a pay rise for old age pensioners??????? Of course being an x lawyer, I guess you would be fully aware of how easy it would be to lay bricks or do a concrete slab or dig a trench for some plumbing, when you’re 67. This bastadry from an Australian Labor Party, you can’t make it up.

Gillard carve it up how you like, is responsible for Morrison. She and her Ego shafted Rudd. What was it, oh yes who could forget, he had a dip in the poll numbers and she went in for the kill. And where are all her partners in the coup now? Rudd imho would have walked the next election if, he had been allowed to continue. The rank and file members of the Labor party abandoned it in droves, because of where it was headed. I was one of them. As was commented on by Andreas the less said about Julian Assange and Gillard the better, less I have a stroke thinking about it. As for Hawke oh please…….. Who could forget the accord where workers went backwards? Read Pilger’s ‘ A secret Country ‘ There you’ll find the true character of the legend in his own mind Bob Hawke. Or read Tom Uren’s biography about Hawke. These people who are put up on pedestals explains much.
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:02 pm

Phil, it was Howard who put the age pension up to 67. (That was the policy area I was working in. We hated Howard down to the marrow in his bones.)
PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:11 pm

Well my sources tells me it was Wayne Swan. If I am wrong so be it.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/hard-labor-pension-age-rises-to-67-20090513-b24v.html

https://nationalseniors.com.au/news/campaign/a-short-history-of-the-age-pension-section
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:13 pm

It’s things like this that would really piss us off:

We were working on a policy that would benefit students in remote areas who were receiving Youth Allowance. Once it got to the Lower House it was knocked back by the Abbott led Opposition.

As quick as a flash Abbott ran to the Murdoch media to complain that Gillard was doing nothing for students in remote areas who were receiving Youth Allowance. The next day it’d be all over the papers.

Stuff like that happened time after time, and the hearts of us policy Ninjas would just sink. On top of that, the money wasted was immeasurable.
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:17 pm

Oops, my error, Phil. It was the female age pension age that Howard raised incrementally.

Either that or the whisky has been a bit vicious towards my brain cells.

Possibly the latter. 😉
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:20 pm

Boy have I got some stories about Howard and Hockey. I am, of course, forbidden from revealing them.

They might come out under the 30-year rule. Only 16 years left to wait. ☹️
EdJune 25, 2020 at 5:21 pm

But Ms Gillard won’t back away from the decision.

“I’m going to stand up for it as a decision of the government I led,” Ms Gillard said during an interview in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

“It was always going to be controversial”.

In January, tens of thousands of single mothers, many working part time, were shifted off parenting payments and onto the unemployment benefit, Newstart, leaving many between $60 and $100 a week worse off.

The decision was to save taxpayers $728 million over four years.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has been left floundering after she labelled the actions of the WikiLeaks ‘illegal’, but couldn’t say how.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/gillard-red-faced-after-calling-wikileaks-illegal

Nope not your average Aussie just a typical RULIN CLASS FAKE!!! FROM WALES
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:26 pm

Phil/Ed,

There were a number of decisions or policies I bitterly disagreed with. The Single Mother’s one tops the list.

PS: I didn’t even see that one coming. Those payments were administered by a different department.
PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:27 pm

I know shit about Howard but I wont get you sued.

He was a great cricket player you know. He would be hard pressed to hit a bull in the arse with a handful of wheat.
New England CockyJune 25, 2020 at 5:31 pm

@Phil: Uhm ….. as I remember the occasion, Gillard was set up to be Prime Minister by Mark Arbib, a fawning pawn of the US consulate and likely traitor to Australia. His departure from politics resulted in a job with Crown Casinos.

The loss of both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard under the merciless attacks by the neo-libertarian COALition, MSM and mindless shock jocks showed the fear held by those parties that Australin voters would get a better deal from Labor than from the Liarbral Nazional$ parties.

Re The Accord; agreed. Labor sold out the working classes with the superannuation dream that the COALition and bankers are now attempting to plunder for their own profits. Smart workers have superannuation held by industry based entities that have been shown to pay better dividends than commercial funds.
GraemeJune 25, 2020 at 5:33 pm

Seems that to be a leader of the ALP these days, one needs permission from the US. Senator Arbib got the clearance for Julia. It was probably Hawke who set up the need for permission from the US. Her comments about Assange were disgusting, sure he’d spilt the beans about Arbib getting the all clear for her ascendancy, but it wasn’t personal.
As to what Kate Ahearn wrote above, Hillary had called for Assange to be killed. Self preservation is not a terrible idea.
As to blaming Assange for Trump being elected, why not blame Hillary for what she got exposed for, or better, blame the Democrats for not selecting Bernie.
It’s a tricky job being an Australian PM, having to pretend to be working for the national interest, whilse being beholden to the US.
Michael TaylorJune 25, 2020 at 5:36 pm

Phil, we need to sit down together and have a good ol’ chin wag about Howard. Might be an idea if we could borrow Maxwell Smart’s ‘Cone of Silence.’
PhilJune 25, 2020 at 5:39 pm

‘ There were a number of decisions or policies I bitterly disagreed with. The Single Mother’s one tops the list.’

Indeed. For mine the party did not represent my or my family’s Aspirations Ugh that word, Howard again. It put the Labor party on the nose. Btw my friends like myself are all Socialists, Gillard, Hawke, Keating were all opportunists imho. The damage the single mother issue did to the party I was a member of for nearly forty years, will probably be never fully appreciated. If their brief is not to improve the lot of the working class, the sick, the poor etc, then what are they for? I don’t want a duopoly with both of the main parties being controlled by corporate interests. The Labor party had better get their thumb out and start listening to its supporters otherwise we will be in opposition forever. Albanese is not going to lead us into the promised land.
AndreasJune 25, 2020 at 5:39 pm

Kate@4.37: If the administrator will allow it (this line is about JG, not JA): in your questions you have provided the answer yourself. The man can only publish what he’s got. It made no difference to the 2016 election outcome with one aspect: DT (with his many faults) at least hasn’t started any new wars during his first term, whereas if HC had won we few survivors would be living in caves by now.

Julian Assange has been abandoned by all AUS governments since Gillard on US behest for publishing US War Crimes.. This is abandonment is particularly despicable from the current Morrison government, which went out of its way to intervene on behalf of an Australian jailed in China and a permanent resident Kuwaiti soccer player, but would not lift a finger for JA because of US demands.

Currently JA is held without charge for the last 14 months in a British Max Sec Jail, with failing health, under a judicial system geared to see him rot to extinction. It is called British Justice.
PhilJune 25, 2020 at 7:41 pm

‘ @Phil: Uhm ….. as I remember the occasion, Gillard was set up to be Prime Minister by Mark Arbib, a fawning pawn of the US consulate and likely traitor to Australia. His departure from politics resulted in a job with Crown Casinos.’

How she was installed now matters not. She was there and big mistakes were made and they’re repeating the process trying to bat on with Albanese. Btw Albanese is probably a nice bloke to have a beer with but, being nice doesn’t win elections. Keating love him or loath him, would have this current mob of social misfits pissing themselves with fear and us pissing ourselves and laughing our tits off, watching him destroy them with his acerbic style and wit. Btw I don’t believe for a nano second Keating gives flying f@#% about the working class either, but when he wins he brings on people that do. I firmly believe if Labor blows the next election it will be up to the Greens to take the fight to the enemy and that is not how Albanese sees them. They are laughing at him in the parliament and it is going right over his head. Anyone on this forum would have Albanese on toast in a debate.
paul walterJune 25, 2020 at 10:45 pm

How much worse, what has followed.

And still the idiots vote the rightists back in!

I just wish the Greens and ALP, between them, could have got their shit together over a carbon tax and also that Labor could have waited till after the 2010 election to oust Kevin Rudd, if his health was failing and this was impacting on his performance.

As with the Whitlam years, we had a real opportunity to do great things and somehow blew it. Maybe Keating also, not calling an election when he had the trigger, when Downer was still opposition leader back in 94.

Off to bed now, had a big tooth pulled today and can’t think of more to say just now.

Just read Ed’s comment and agree, but will read Michael’s reply later.
wamJune 25, 2020 at 11:34 pm

I was an observer at a conference in canberra where gillard and the rabbott were to speak. Gillard arrived on time, acknowledged the leaders and thanked the delegates then spoke on the conference topic eloquently and knowledgeably and then took questions.
The rabbott rolled in late gave an election speech and left before his allotted time with no questions.
The comparison was headshakingly awful. It left me no doubt why windsor and oakschutt chose her for PM
When he said the “suppository of all wisdom” It the statement of the century in that hs wisdom was pure wet farts.
The meanest nastiest jibe for gillard came from heffernan, another indoctrinated catholic full of bile for ‘gay’ and for women outside gender jobs.
Sadly after rising above the shit and conquering enormous enemies(including the ABC imagine at home with smirko) she was stabbed by a sneaky vicious blackmailing lawyer who knew the loonies had nothing to fear from the rabbott and nothing to lose by forcing an election gave the rabbott the cat o’nine tails with which to flog her and he lashed her every day stripped to the waste in the papers, on the radio and on every channel lead by leigh. She was so chastened by her ‘have you read the report’ (the rabbott never risk his faith by reading reports by himself his staff tell him what he needs to know) that her interviews were bi partisan either ‘would you like me to nod whilst you talk?’ or ‘have you stopped lying about the surplus?’
ps Phil the pension age to 67 was 2009? That was rudd?
pps
To me her clay feet came when she didn’t follow up with the rabbott shaming and her slimy tribunal which not only obviates the any ability to vote but also hides the process from the public.
Despite these flaws and, because I put the single mums episode into the same box as franking ie unexplained, I consider her the best PM of my era.
PhilJune 26, 2020 at 2:39 am

ps Phil the pension age to 67 was 2009? That was rudd?

Have a sleep and have another look.
KerriJune 26, 2020 at 3:51 am

Julia, like Barack Obama, conducted herself, above pretty much every PM after her, with dignity never stooping to the crass vitriol that passes for right wing political discourse.
Andrew SmithJune 26, 2020 at 4:51 am

‘Yet in the Australian media all we hear about are the opinions of the Australian media. Elsewhere it is news. Here they are purely opinions.’

Some way explained that our clubby Australian journalists and media, using those terms loosely, see their role as ‘insularising Australian from the outside world’, yet one would add, most Australian journalists only seem to know about the US or UK……
wamJune 26, 2020 at 8:36 am

Good one, phil,
too esoteric for me:
Had a sleep, a swim and my pills, phil and “The Labor Government introduced measures in 2009 to increase the pension…” so it still seems like rudd as boobby didn’t go with the rabbott till december 2009 but I don’t like the lemon so it might be fake???
ps
beauty Andrew people like speers sales are concentrating on their questions and half listening to the answers before questions to illicit the required answer they are harpoons wandering around smelling bicycle seats and when they find one that smells right the exclaim ‘har’.
Dave G.June 26, 2020 at 11:32 am

For me the grubbiest thing Julia had to put up with was the endless innuendo in relation to the renovation of that house in Melbourne.She fronted up at that press conference and told them fire away,they did until they ran out of questions and bile.Still the next day the Murdoch rags said “there are still questions to be answered”.Grubby,grubby,grubby.
Michael TaylorJune 26, 2020 at 11:59 am

Dave, you can add the grubby innuendo about her partner, whose name escapes me. He was a hairdresser, so therefore – according to the grubs – he was gay.
AlcJune 26, 2020 at 1:43 pm

Dignity and empathy are two words that come to mind regarding Julia. Agree with previous comment, apart from maybe Whitlam, she is the best I’ve seen and I have seen them all since Menzies.
Brad BlackJune 26, 2020 at 2:09 pm

I almost didn’t read this article!
Not because I disagreed for what its beginning implied, but because it’s depressing to think of where this country could be if she had been given a decent go. We could have been like NZ! Instead we have climate denial, buggered river systems, corruption, a mainstream media further concentrated towards extreme right wing ideology, bigotry, economic illiteracy …
I’m glad I read it though. Julia’s legacy should be remembered.
PhilJune 26, 2020 at 8:08 pm

A take on Gillard that agrees with me.

https://theconversation.com/the-political-tragedy-of-julia-gillard-15588
Michael TaylorJune 26, 2020 at 8:28 pm

Who in their right mind would agree with you, Phil? 😳

😜
Jack CadeJune 26, 2020 at 8:34 pm

Phil

That is a beautiful, clear analysis of a very unpleasant time for the ALP and the country. As a deputy, Gillard was terrific. As PM, her poor judgment was fatal.
PhilJune 26, 2020 at 10:18 pm

Who in their right mind would agree with you, Phil? 😳

😜 Someone in their left mind mayhaps 🙂
AlcJune 26, 2020 at 10:40 pm

And she was an ATHEIST! How that would have for up the noses of the Abbots! Pynes and Abetzs of the world. Now replaced by the happy clappers. Separation of church and state anyone. Getting more like merica every day.
PhilJune 26, 2020 at 10:52 pm

Jack Cade.

Indeed. There are plenty of opinions on Gillard. For mine the left call what you like, has to make up it’s mind, we can’t run with the Hare’s and the Hounds anymore. Being pragmatic and negotiating with the representatives of the ruling class, should be over. We know what they are, we know that they want, to wind the clock back to the Master Serf relationship era. When some on the left I know accused the current government of being a mob of fascists I laughed, I am no longer laughing. The police can now come for you in the night and whisk you away to one of their star chambers and wreck you and your families life. As a case in point look, at Assange. He will die or disappear off the radar into some shit hole in the US. My monies on him having his death certificate signed died of, Covid – 19. Anyone who doesn’t fear the Morrison government, has had very sheltered existence.
ZathrasJune 27, 2020 at 1:56 am

Gillard was doomed right from the start with the relentless media pile-on, the howling shock-jocks and the vicious Abbott approach yet somehow managed to get significant legislation passed with a very tight majority.

Indeed that controversial Single Mothers decision was so appalling that the following Liberal Government just couldn’t bring themselves to overturn it. How disappointing, and economically the country has been sliding downhill ever since.

Compare Gillard with those that followed. She was a classier act when in power and a much better behaved ex-PM than her successors.
BrozzaJune 30, 2020 at 9:03 pm

Kate Ahearne – I can’t say why Assange didn’t go after gump with the same vigour as killary, but perhaps he just went after the greater (by a long shot) of two evils.
Also, I believe Assange was on killary’s ‘hit list’, along with, amongst many others, Russia, against who she publicly stated that she’d ‘push the button’ and start WW3.
(I just wish I could remember where I saw that and provide the link)
Kate AhearneJune 30, 2020 at 9:12 pm

Brozza, I wish you could, too. That’d be something to see. As for Clinton being ‘the greater (by a long shot) of two evils’, she’d have to be the devil incarnate!
george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 9:08 am

Euripides:
I hate a citizen who is slow to help his city, quick to cause her harm, who’s got his eyes wide open to anything that helps himself but completely shut when it comes to helping the city.

Aeschylus:
It’s a better idea not to rear a lion in a city but if you do, you better obey his every whim.

(Aristophanes, “The Frogs”)
george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 9:15 am

Julia was not cool, as they say in the vernacular. Not for the common folks, especially those caught in the snares of the americans.
Assange is in the most brutal snares imaginable because of her love for those thugs: “Oh, you Americans! You can do anything!” she drooled and did what “honest” Johnny did when he had gone over there!
“Israel deserves (can’t remember the exact word) protection!”
“I would not vote for the equal marriage rights for the gays because my mother is a conservative christian…”
I could go on but these three quotes are enough to show us her true character!
Not one to deify or lionise, or make a hero of.
Jacinda Adern, on the other hand…
Michael TaylorJuly 4, 2020 at 1:27 pm

George, I admit to being very disappointed in her condemnation of Julian Assange.
leefeJuly 4, 2020 at 3:43 pm

Oh wow, Julia Gillard wasn’t perfect, and must thus be pilloried.
If only all male politicians were held to the same standard . . .
George TheodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 8:33 pm

She should be totally and severely pilloried because her imperfections were abject, studied and morally abhorrent.
And yes, other politicians behaved in a similar and worse fashion. That they are males and not females like her is utterly irrelevant.
It’s sickening to shift the debate from her shameful behaviour to a gender bias issue.
Assange is dying in a putrid jail cell, something she vociferously defended.
And THAT’S your Julia!
george theodoridisJuly 4, 2020 at 8:50 pm

My father used to tell me often, “always watch number 2. S/he and number 1 have made a deal and number 1 will almost always renege.” This, Sophocles showed happens almost invariably. Read his Antigone. The two brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles kill each other for this very reason. Eteocles would not give the throne of Thebes to his brother when his turn came.
Aeschylus worked on the same myth with his Seven Against Thebes.
Watch what number 2 says and does!
PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 12:11 am

Should I live to be 150 yrs old I will never understand the adulation for the fakes like Julia Gillard. Her brief in the Australian Labor Party was to improve the lot of the working class, she failed at this miserably. And yes, I am sick to death of people jumping on the band wagon because of her gender. It is true, the politicians that live and breath to be the PM. of this country, have big Ego’s. She took liberties with hers. She cost the Labor party a possible twenty year tenure in government. Yes Rudd was a nerd, if he had worked in a shearing shed, he would have no doubt ended up in a bale of wool destined for the Japanese wool mills. But, he was a winner. Gillard used a dip in the polls to knife him in company with the other members of the coup and where are they all now? The ” True Believers ” my fat lefty arse.

But the best for last, Julian Assange. What Gillard and her obsequious followers let happen to Assange is a scandal that can only be compared to the sacking of Gough Whitlam and the attitude at the time of Bob Hawke the then leader of the ACTU who could and should have brought this country, to its knees. I had him sussed from the get go.; as did Tom Uren the housing minister in the Whitlam government. Tom having paid the price most of the bums in our current parliament would never have experienced. Being a prisoner of the Japanese in Changi during WW2. He told Hawke to his face what he thought of him and Hawke did SFA. The ‘ Hard Man ‘ of Australian politics, was a powder puff.

The by election in Eden Monaro today had better have rung some bells in a party I was a member of for forty years, not that you’ll read this Albo but if you do, sling your hook. You aint got it. Give someone else the Guernsey before these toe rags call an early election.
EgalitarianJuly 5, 2020 at 3:57 am

Julia made the mistake of not taking a harder line on the boats coming.She got slaughtered on this issue.
george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 9:16 am

And you call yourself, what? Egalitarian?
Bu Zeus, talk about false advertising!

Very well said, Phil! Agree with your every syllable. I was with the party for nearly thirty and stood as a candidate (State) twice. Wouldn’t wipe my arse with their policies.
george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 10:12 am

Alc. the atheist bit was bullshit. It jumped up and showed its ugly head when Julia, our PM refused to grand gays equal rights to marriage BECAUSE her mum was a conservative Christian!
Don’t listen to their words, watch their deeds!
She did bugger all that was of any value to the common folk and a lot that hurt them.
Just another thug.
Empathy and sympathy and dignity and – oh Paleez!
She had more in common with Hilary and Elen Digeneres, (sp?) than she did with us.
Kate AhearneJuly 5, 2020 at 10:49 am

George, I can’t resist telling you how glad I am that you stood twice, and were twice unsuccessful.
Jack CadeJuly 5, 2020 at 1:37 pm

Talking about ‘Your average Aussie’, do any of you have an inkling of what particular cherry has been dangled in front of the square-headed, unblinking automaton who has decided to pull the plug at year’s end, after years of fuqing up
our national finances?
He is not ‘your average Aussie’ is he Lizzie, not your average Aussie is he, eh?
Kinnel, you’d hope not, wouldn’t you!?
Joe CarliJuly 5, 2020 at 2:29 pm

I had nothing against Gillard that I couldn’t level against any number of previous Labor ministers.. I would have liked to have seen at least two terms of a woman at the top to soften-up the hard-arse alpha males in the LNP….hated Rudd for his Christianity and “Church gate” pressers…but I was very dissapointed when Gillard accepted a “honourary doctorate” from Adelaide Uni’ recently….on that subject, I posted this on Twitter..;

Oh Julia, why need for the cap & gown,
Why tempted with their glittering prizes?
You’ve come too far from Consciousness of Kind,
To be judged in THEIR class court of Assizes.
You were bourne from us; the working classes,
Tell them shove their bling up their collective arses!

And today I see Penny Wong giving a panegyric to effing Cormann!!??….Christ!…we send these Labor people to Canberra to kick/not lick arse!….remember that Fawlty Towers episode with the “break your bottom” line..: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIVGX-IkVy8
george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 2:42 pm

Ah well, Kate Ahearne!
What can I say?
You follow the gender, I follow the brain.
Look where we are since her because people followed her gender! Lots of things are hidden under a gender and behind a pretty face, most of which are dire. One needs to be like the goddess of Justice: Listen blindfolded. Listen and then watch the deeds.
The rest, as Verlaine said, “et tout le reste est littérature.”

I thought she was great as a number 2 and couldn’t wait till she got to be No 1.
Then the truth about her brain emerged and had Abbott not been so deplorable, she wouldn’t have got the support of Windsor and Oakshot.

And that’s why we’re now having to deal with Morrison and Dutton and a whole lot of scumbags. THAT’S WHY!
Your “follow the gender” is what fascist Fukuyama calls, “Identity politics”.
PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 2:44 pm

” Very well said, Phil! Agree with your every syllable. I was with the party for nearly thirty and stood as a candidate (State) twice. Wouldn’t wipe my arse with their policies.”

Cheers my man.

Like you no doubt, I know heaps of ” True Believers ” that are pissed off about the Gillard years. Her pièce de résistance was when she stuck it to the single mothers and voted against the pay rise for pensioners. The pay rise was approved by the caucus no thanks to Gillard. When they put the pension age up to 67 My wife of 48 years who is a little younger than I had to wait another 12 months to get her old age pension. I along with some of my friends, nearly fainted over this policy. My neighbor who lost her husband when she was 62 had the indignity of being put on ‘ New Start ‘ A bloody scandal. This from the supposed friends of the working class. And now all the apologists for it, are coming out making every excuse for Gillard under the sun. The best one for the changes was our financial position. They had every opportunity to make the fat cats in our society cough up their fair share and they did nothing. Besides this, the printing presses will be working overtime to pay for the useless load of missiles they have just ordered. We are awash with money fresh off the printing press.

So as I tap this out Labor has won Eden Monaro with preferences. It should have been the biggest and easiest election win for Labor since they dropped anchor in Botany Bay in 1788. I am listening to Albanese now being polite about the Belgium Bungler WOW! He hasn’t got a clue. My biggest fear now is Labor will win the next election and take the can for the biggest depression coming down the pike the world will have ever seen. Interesting months ahead.
PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 2:52 pm

” And today I see Penny Wong giving a panegyric to effing Cormann!!??….Christ!…we send these Labor people to Canberra to kick/not lick arse!….remember that Fawlty Towers episode with the “break your bottom” line..:”

Did ya hear Albo waxing lyrically about the Belgian Bungler?

Being a bit flippant these bums get me thinking about the Nazi’s after they lost the war and murdered millions gong up to the high rollers in the Nazi party and asking them to enjoy their retirement.

All this lovey dovey bollocks with the enemy and that’s what they are, is nauseating.

What was it George Carlin RIP. said ” It’s a big club and we aint in it “
Joe CarliJuly 5, 2020 at 3:13 pm

Trouble is, Phil…the Labor side of The House is going through a kind of “principled behaviour” semester, where they believe the voters are sick of conflict and abuse and are hungering for a party with principles…and will vote for such…But hey!…..look at last Fed’ election…: Hanson..a dumb, racist bastard…she gets back in with an increased majority…Katter..a raving lunatic..he gets back in, no worries…Dutton..an absolute C#NT!…gets back in with an increased majority…and Christensen…a..a…help me out here, someone!!….a bloke who would pay a Manilla club manager just for the pleasure of licking the pole those dancers swivelled their crotch around after a twelve-hour shift on a hot, sweaty Saturday night!!…HE gets back in with an increased majority!!…WTF??…
So..no..s,s,sorry, people…”nice” doesn’t get politics…nice gets crucified…what we need is a touch of mongrel with steel-caps….but hey..I’ve been saying this on here for years….to no avail..
PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 3:33 pm

Joe Carli

Agree with all of that. You said it all.

As I said before what worries me now is Labor actually winning. The cynic in me tells me the mob of babbling baboons masquerading as a government, will get their mates in the media (That’s all of them) to now promote Albanese as the best thing since sliced bread. They can then sit on the back bench laughing at Labor, trying to sought out the mess they have left and deal with the depression that will be arriving soon. I predict an early election, these bastards know what’s coming.

Keating would have had the members you mentioned begging for mercy.

I see a shit storm coming down on us, it has already started in the US. If there is a God? Help us.
Matters NotJuly 5, 2020 at 4:04 pm

Yes, there’s lots of hagiographical posts here.and not only about Gillard – even Rudd gets an honourable mention. Sorry – neither were saints. Gillard was responsible for naplan but only in the sense that she was the Education Minister at the time of its development and therefore was nominally in charge. Fact is – at that stage – Rudd was driving the policy bus and Gillard was but a mere passenger and out of her depth in some key areas such as education – with no understanding of the ‘debate’.

So Gillard wears the blame for much when in fact she was not the prime decision-maker. Later of course – when she became Prime Minister – she assumed control but then she was too late because her colors had been nailed to the mast.

Rudd was really bright – which was both his strength and his weakness – eventually leading to his downfall. In a debate, he could tower above all. So much so, he operated as a guru who knew everything. Listening for him was a waste of his very valuable time. Why listen when he, personally, knew everything. That Labor elected him Leader caused much amusement among those who had worked with him – including most of his Queensland Labor colleagues. But desperate times lead to desperate decisions. (This does not mean he should have been dismissed the way he was. That was stupidity – because he was still popular (among the vast majority who didn’t really know him) and might have led Labor to a re-election.) Such is life.
Jack CadeJuly 5, 2020 at 4:16 pm

Joe Carli

Australians have NEVER considered principles when voting. The Menzies era was topped off with a ‘request’ from Vietnam that Australia join in their fight for freedom, when the ‘request’ was actually from the old Ace draft dodger himself to be allowed to send Aussie teenagers to fight alongside Uncle Sam ( ask a few Aussies who were conscripted what ‘fighting alongside Uncle Sam’s brave boys’ was really like.)
The we got the Betty Battenberg/CIA/Fraser era. Full of principles…
Which morphed into the Howard ‘principled’ era.
Then Abbott…
Then Turnbull…
Then Morrison…
Not a frigging principle in sight for more than half a century.
And the electorate was fully aware of what a nest of arseholes the coalition actually is. They didn’t just creep up on us, did they?
It is possible to conclude, unpleasant as the thought is, that ‘they’ are actually what ‘we’ are.
Michael TaylorJuly 5, 2020 at 4:44 pm

I’m delighted that nobody has mentioned what a horrible shot it is of me. 😁
george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 5:01 pm

All this and not once do I see the word “misogyny” – or have I missed it?
george theodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 5:15 pm

I’d love to see Kirsti McBain in a Fed seat. I have quite a good feeling about her. I think she’s probably a reasonably strong and better Laborite than all the women currently in the party.
Not sure why I think this. Perhaps because she choked back a tear or two in her interview last night.
Shows humaneness, something extremely rare in this modern (neo-) Labor party.
Michael TaylorJuly 5, 2020 at 5:21 pm

George, the reason your comments are being put in moderation is because there’s a typo in your email address, so the system thinks you’re a first-time commenter.
George TheodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 6:17 pm

Profuse apologies, Michael.Posting with iphone and without goggles!
Back home now and well replenished with grand daughters’ deliciousness!
And thus a lot calmer!
Kate AhearneJuly 5, 2020 at 8:03 pm

Thank you, George for supplying the word, ‘misogyny’. I can’t thank you enough.
georgetheodoridisJuly 5, 2020 at 8:11 pm

You’re most welcome, Kate. I know a lot of people love this word. I’d hate to think they’ve been deprived of the chance to see it or to use it.
Happy misandry.
PhilJuly 5, 2020 at 10:26 pm

Ah misogyny what a word. I am always reminded of a joke that’s always a hoot at the Country Women’s Association. About Mysogyny.

Two women were hanging out the washing one day and they started to talk to each other over the back fence.

Mary says to Milly ” Tell me Milly our husbands do the same job make the same money you have everything and I have nothing. What’s your secret? Milly says ” it’s easy, just charge your husband a fee every time he wants to have sex.” ” Wow says Mary I’ll try that.”

Later that day Charlie gets home from work settles down to his pie and chips grabs a tube out the fridge and sits and watches TV.

Charlie now feeling a bit amorous says to Mary. .” Let’s go up stairs and have a naughty.” ” Mary says that will be a dollar (Mary is cheap) Charlie looks in his pocket and can only find 20 cents. Mary again says” No that will be a dollar.”

Charlie says” look can I just play with it for twenty cents? ” Mary relents and says ” O.K.”

About half an hour later Mary says to Charlie “Are you coming to bed. ” Charlie says, ” I told you I don’t have a dollar only twenty cents ”

Mary says to Charlie ” That’s OK Charlie I’ll lend you the other eighty cents.”

I blame John Wayne.

.

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