So, who’s the boofhead, actually?

December 5, 2021
Written by: George Theodoridis
69 Replies

While it may be fair for us, the hoi polloi, to address insults to our politicians because they are unequal to our expectations, it is not so, for those politicians to do the same to each other.

We have heard the insult “boofhead” from the leader of the Opposition, Mr Anthony Albanese. It’s not pretty, it’s not clever, it’s not professional, it’s not parliamentary and it’s certainly not an utterance that should come out of the mouth of a mature man. It is puerile and it is a sign of someone who is neither intellectually nor psychologically ready to be a leader of anything, let alone of a Democratic Parliament that may govern a country. It is ungoverned speech.

It is an utterance more fitting to Trump, am erstwhile leader of another country, geographically if not effectively, far, far away. But no, this utterance has been made here, in Australia by Mr Anthony Albanese, the head of the ALP, one of the major political parties, the Opposition, in fact; and Oppositions, to my way of thinking, are far more important than the prevailing Party or, as it happens here, the Coalition of two parties who presently occupy the throne of Government. The Oppositions is there to prevent the Government from behaving too outrageously anti-democratically, too oppressively, too unwisely or by being too steeped in corruption; and to state alternative, humanitarian and just policies. Shouting childish insults at their opponents is not part of their job description, as it neither is in any workplace of a civilised nation, where the consequences could be severe.

Yet this insulting outburst has been applauded, praised and repeatedly discussed on social, as well as main media as if it is something that enhances the character trait of Mr Albanese, current head of the ALP, the expectant winners of the coming elections. Expectant, at least by the rusted-on devotees of the ALP and of those whose devotion pivoted from an adherence to conservative values to a fierce need to shed themselves of the liars, the sexual predators, the bullies and the misogynists who litter so much the “broad church” of the LNP that it has become nothing less than a moral sewer.

The word “character” is a Greek word, going back to ancient times and its meaning is to “etch into” not cut through the surface, to draw a deep line. A Greek today would recognise the word χαράζω (charazo) the verb for slicing a line into the body of something, in this case, the soul. When Martin Luther King Jr made his “I have a dream” speech, he used the phrase “the contents of the character” with which he meant “by the cut of a man’s soul.”
What we do and what we say are etched into our soul and make up our soul, our character.

And so we now see the cut of Mr Albanese’s soul and we sense that it does not make for an impressive candidate for leadership.

Aristotle, Plato’s young student, said two profound things regarding this matter: Man is by Nature, a political being and Just because a man is good, it doesn’t mean he is a good citizen, both reminding us that by Nature we are social beings, needing each other to grow well and that we have a duty to our country, to the collective a duty which far outweighs that to our singular self. We are all, whether we like or nor, members of a polis, a country.

And, had Plato been alive today, he too would shake his head and point his bony finger at Mr Albanese with great anger. “You are not a philosopher,” I hear him say, “so you can’t be a king of a country!”

Mr Albanese would make these two great men -men who put down the foundations of Western civilisation- very angry. Aristotle was the discoverer of logic (the mathematical way of constructing a syllogism) and Plato was a committed researcher into what makes a Kallipolis, a perfect, an ideal, a just city.

After his kiddy tantrum these two wise men would do everything in their power to stop our Albo (how easily it rhymes with Scomo!) from getting anywhere near a position of influence. They would hound him like Aristophanes hounded the likes of Cleon and Cleophon on his satirical stage.

What Albo has done with his “boofhead” immature ejaculation is to send us the message that the Parliament is nothing more than a kiddies’ sandpit -something which we, the demos had long suspected- and so we should expect that nothing of any value would emerge out of those corridors of corruption, and that Albo is no better than a thoughtless, heartless and bereft of any care for us, Scomo. Further, we should not think that the ALP is any different to -let alone better than- the LNP and its appendages, Pauline’s ON, Craig Kelly’s UAP, Katter’s AP, Palmer’s PUP and the rest of the motley binful of moral detritus.

Henceforth, we should expect more of the same:

Dutton: You’re the boofhead!

Albo: No, you’re the boofhead!

Dutton: You’re the boofhead!

Albo: No, you’re the boofhead!

The rest of the parliamentarians (shouting): Boofhead, boofhead, boofhead!

And, during the campaign, the LNP will doubtless be pointing the finger at photoshopped photos of Albo, shouting accusations of baby tantrums, the most excruciatingly nauseating image of which would be that of Pauline Hanson, shrieking as is her wont, “The Alp is nothing but a group of babies shouting insults from their cot! They are nothing but babies having tantrum after tantrum coz they can’t win! The Alp has lost the plot, if not its brain!”

Excruciatingly nauseating stuff!

And if we know anything about the ALP, we know that they are experts at losing the unlosable elections!

I weep at the profound and phosphorescent exhibition of idiocy, corruption, ineptitude, unwillingness to shed the “donors,” characteristics that mark our politicians now rampant in our parliament. No matter which side of the bench you scan with your eyes, this Parliament is fast sliding into the pits of putrefying sewer particles.

It would be worthwhile for our politicians to ask themselves what Homer had almighty, cloud-gathering Zeus say to the flashing-eyed goddess Athena, “O, my dear child! What a word has escaped the barrier of your teeth?” (Odyssey, 1. 60)

Obviously Mr Albanese’ teeth do not form an adequately strong barrier when it comes to unwise words.

Boofhead?

Can you point at anyone in that place who is not?

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Garry BatesDecember 5, 2021 at 7:41 pm

He got called Boofhead because he was acting like a boofhead. You are reading far too much into it.

Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 7:50 pm

Personally, I think it will work in Albo’s favour.

There are some Labor voters out there who have been waiting for him to show some grunt, and now he has.

But having said that, I wouldn’t tolerate it in my workplace. Yes, it makes me sound a bit of a hypocrite, but sometimes bullies need to be stood up to.

Kaye LeeDecember 5, 2021 at 7:55 pm

This is my favourite exchange between Dutton and Albo. Look at the grin on Dutton as he gets up to answer the Dixxer.

George TheodoridisDecember 5, 2021 at 8:03 pm

I agree on a number of fronts, Michael but the truth of the matter -as I see it- of course is that exemplary action should be seen as a virtue and applauded and a meager and diminishing action should be seen as unvirtuous and be condemned. You might well be right about this outburst seen by the voters as a sign that Albo is awake and not as we have suspected until now, either lazy or asleep or muzzled by ideological wars in the party room.

There is nothing redeeming about this lot of fake politicians and true corruptors of Democracy!

It would be interesting to know what’s going on in the people’s mind. One suspects that the people are so disgusted by the supreme paradigm of boofheadedness, Scomo that they are fully prepared to vote him out, no matter what the ALP does. I’d hate to believe though that the common aussie, values in politicians insults more than humane policies.
We shall see.

George TheodoridisDecember 5, 2021 at 8:04 pm

It’s certainly a pleasurable sight, Kaye but it does give me the guilts! I feel a bit vindictive enjoying it.

Cool PeteDecember 5, 2021 at 8:05 pm

Well, Hanson can’t point the finger at Anthony Albanese, because the leader of her party in the NSW Legislative Council accused John Howard of, quote, “an arse-licking effort” with George W. Bush. And let’s not forget that Botty, with his nonsense, wouldn’t confer the respect to Julia Gillard that she deserved. And let’s not forget that Botty, in 1998, called then Labor Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, quote, “a sanctimonious windbag,” which saw his removed from the House.
Let us not forget WHO Anthony Albanese called “Boofhead”. A politician who is on record as saying that, “Parliament is a hindrance to good government.” A politician whom Judge Geoffrey Flick warned, in the case of an Iranian asylum seeker, that he was not above the rule of law and that he was not above being sent to prison for contempt of court. Rather than doing the just thing, he sent him back into detention at the last minute. We are talking a politician who, in the case of the Muruguppan Family, is happy to say, “Oh, but at every stage…” but when he is overruled by the AAT, or the court, goes off into a sulk. We are talking about a man who referred to a female journalist with misogynistic and foul language, in a text intended for Jamie Briggs, but was inadvertently sent to that journalist. And, three days before Botty was voted out of the leadership (he wasn’t, as some on the Right, argue, “knifed”, according to conventions, he was asked to stand aside for a leadership ballot, and Turnbull won it) he joked about rising sea levels and was caught on camera, and Botty laughed about it.
AND, let’s not forget, he called Adam Bandt “an enemy of the state.” Now, I don’t care if he withdrew, it was wrong.
I know you say that you shouldn’t go down to someone’s level, or when they go low, you go high, BUT, let’s not forget this. Anybody with an IQ higher than a dead pine needle would have seen through Botty’s scare campaign about pensioners shivering in their homes and subsisting on tinned cat food due to a carbon tax that wasn’t! A critical thinker would have asked, “Does the ATO handle this?” “No.” But Botty won.
AND, I know they all do it, BUT, let’s not forget that this was the same “Boofhead” who, on the day that women protested outside Parliament, and when Scomo said that in some countries, the police shoot demonstrators, stood up, when an important speech about women’s safety was being made, and moved that the member no longer be heard.
What was that “Boofhead” trying to do on Tuesday? While Scomo was carrying on with some irrelevant nonsense, Anthony Albanese stood up on a Point Of Order, and “Boofhead” tried to silence him! Albanese was right with his Point of Order.
So, you can understand the frustration behind calling him “Boofhead” in a Parliament which has had a Speaker who was there for the government not for the Parliament (bishop). Let us hope that instead of tarnishing Labor, it shows that Albanese has the fight to take up to someone who would be a dictator if they had the chance!

Baby JewelsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:05 pm

Just as an aside, three of the four women on those benches behind Dutton are no longer with that party.

Baby JewelsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:06 pm

And will Boofhead sue?

Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:15 pm

All governmental spokesmen are just puppets!

Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:18 pm

When will we low IQ bunch of low intelligence fcktards ever manage to make a statement?!!

Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:22 pm

All low IQ idiots are required to surrender here tonight! Yeh, like F#ck, does anyone really give a F#ck?!

Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:24 pm

Sorry, but I’m fed up with ongoing bullshit!!

Murray MaxwellDecember 5, 2021 at 8:45 pm

I think it is you George Theodoridis that is the real BOOFHED here if you think Albo was not totally JUSTIFIED in calling Peter ” Boofhead ” Dutton a Boofhead LOOK AT THE CONTEXT with which he called him a ” BOOFHEAD ” in that specific moment it was ABSOLUTLY JUSTIFIED !!!!! and it WORKED !!!!! that’s why we are ALL talking about it WELL DONE ALBO !!!! And it was nothing like Trump you don’t seem to be paying attention so pull your head in George you are just embarrassing yourself !!!!!

Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 8:58 pm

Baby Jewels, it seems ironic that the person throwing in the Dorothy Dixxer was none other than Julia Banks.

Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 9:10 pm

Murray, you are quite entitled to disagree with the message – as have many here, including myself – but throwing insults to the messenger is generally poor form.

WilliambtmDecember 5, 2021 at 9:58 pm

The current leadership are not positioned to schittcan the opposition.
After all, they steal a lot of their opposition’s proposed policies as they are bereft of this same.

One must look back to a Prime Minister to the lies that often fell from the lips of that most treacherous Prime Minister, J W Howard.
I distinctly recall how Howard had told the media that were present on that occasion, “one of my proudest moments was halting the East Timor massacre.”
Howard was not aware the truth was already out there.
Both Howard and Downer held made a secret pact with the USA (who were clandestinely providing all the weapons and ammo to Indonesia’s military and militiamen) to take out the remaining indigenous persons remaining alive and fearful.)
The 3rd conspirator was General Waranto of Indonesia.

These three countries were acting in a conspiracy unknown to the media in Australia; however, his lying claim about his proudest action as an Australian Prime Minister was halting the massacre in East Timor. Not so, Johnny Howard, you had nothing to do with it.

However, John Howard and his crooked mate, Alexander Downer, had nothing to do with the cessation of the Indonesian massacre,
The quest for the massacre was to rid the entire population from within East Timor.

The massacre was essential for Indonesia to claim the soon to be a de-populated realm of East Timor to add East Timor as an extension to Indonesia’s territory.
Johnny Howard and his mate were in the above-mentioned secret pact to enable full access to the Greater Sunrise and Troubador undersea oil and gas resources for Woodside Petroleum, ConocoPhilips, and BP petroleum being the leading players.

By wiping out the Population of East Timor, there was no other possible claimant, certainly not by that small country to both the two oil and gas fields other than the three nominated significant players.

The truth needs to be d3elivered to the people of Australia.

Howard no longer claims his lying self halted the cessation of the massacres in East Timor.

Kaye LeeDecember 5, 2021 at 10:51 pm

Speaking of boofheads, Nationals Senator Sam McMahon tried to punch out the Nationals federal director Jonathan Hawkes at their Christmas party.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/senator-sam-mcmahon-allegedly-tried-to-punch-nationals-federal-director-in-canberra-pub/news-story/e7833a4d854d41a6a79f4da7c8ed511c

Andrew J. SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 12:50 am

Also related to LP promotion, apparently other evening at Lido Cinema in Hawthorn in/next to the Kooyong electorate of Frydenberg, a Lib promo with him central was screened, to all round audience boos…… and he has allegedly blocked anyone sharing via his Twitter handle….

Then again probably not his prime constituency in the seat of Kooyong, but shows the thin skinned reactions LNP MPs have to public criticism (from normal punters) while encouraging the think tanks’ and media ‘libertarian’ pretence of freedom of speech, freedom to denigrate etc.; gives away the game that it is more about kicking down to preserve power and influence…. autocracy.

wamDecember 6, 2021 at 12:53 am

Pretty words but drivel george, Boofhead is a good old australian polite word for today’s @%^^@ wit. Would you prefer: kierkegaard to martensen “My opponent is a glob of snot.” or nietzsche to kant That most deformed concept-cripple of all time.” ps sorry Kaye “Nationals Senator Sam McMahon” She is from the NT and is a member of the country liberals. They were the country liberal party CLP but that brand got trashed last time they were in office ergo a name change. She sits with the nationals rather than the liberals. Indeed her predecessor(a pom who flew home to london to drop his british citizen status to avoid the dual citizen saga) was deputy leader of the nats.

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 1:02 am

Geprge,

Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, and that’s what Albo did. Good for him!

Your sanctimonious article does you no credit at all.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 1:21 am

So, Wam, we prefer insult chucking to civil debate.
Now i understand why this country moves one step forward snd five back!
And i have a feeling that all ghe steps forward that this country will ever see were taken already.
By someone with a mind and a heart, called Gough, some 47 years ago.
It was all a game of boofheadery and bastardy since then.

I also love the word “boofhead” but i wouldn’t use it as an insult nor as a show of bravery.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 1:26 am

As i see it. Australia 2021 is identical to Australia 1971.
Why is that?

John HannaDecember 6, 2021 at 6:48 am

Dear George, I with many other here feel your message is way out of kilter with the magnitude of the aspersion. Dutton is NOT a respected figure and calling him boofhead is the equivalent of pelting him with marshmallows or flogging him with a feather. This is a man who delights in schadenfreude. Your article is full of self righteous (and faux) indignation that our erstwhile leader should stoop to such depths. May I remind you of the esteem to which Paul Keating is still held by some (and I am one) for his ability as he said to stick a post it note on the foreheads of the opposition, boofhead is mild compared to the epithets most of us hurl at the television.
You need to get with the times, at least in this country (so far) we don’t shoot one another.

KathrynDecember 6, 2021 at 7:13 am

George Theodoridis, WHERE THE HELL have YOU been over the last eight deplorable years of non-stop corruption, outrageous skirt-lifting misogyny, internationally condemned callous inhumanity and ongoing offensively smug arrogance metered out by the contemptuous, totally depraved Abbott and Morrison regimes, eh?

Instead of having the intestinal fortitude to justifiably criticise and condemn the absolute WORST government in living memory, you come out with this pathetic, puerile attack against Albanese for understandably calling that totally corrupt, malignant and callously inhumane political psychopath, Peter Dutton, a Boofhead!! WOW, easy to see to which appalling pack of political parasites YOUR political views are aligned! Instead of savaging the morally bankrupt bible-thumping hypocrites and signed-up members of the paedophile-supporting Hillsong Cultists that hog the cabinet of the LNP, you come out with this ridiculous piece on Albanese’s impromptu “Boofhead” comment to one of the most despicable and corrupt political parasites in the worst, most ineffective and corrupt government in living memory!

The FACT is that the huge majority of Australians are now thoroughly nauseated and outraged by the unspeakable level of blatant and relentless self-serving corruption, the non-stop lies, dishonesty and self-promoting, self-congratulatory political “stunts” churned out by a government SO corrupt, SO callously inhumane and SO deplorably misogynistic that they have now stooped down to a level of criminal depravity that can no longer be tolerated!

“Boofhead” is the LEAST one can describe a man as totally cruel and self-serving as Dutton! Here is a man who has acquired (for himself) a personal net worth of more than $300 MILLION yet REFUSES to disclose from where – and how – he managed to attain such a huge and dodgy level of wealth on a politician’s salary. Here is a wretched pack of political sociopaths in the LNP who have enriched and empowered THEMSELVES at the expense of others! Not a day goes passed that we are not confronted by some shocking act of corruption, some contemptuous verbal attack on the most vulnerable people in our society, some despicable act of indescribable misogyny committed by the smirking, arrogant, self-serving grubs in a government that has a level of stratospheric sense of entitlement coupled with a nauseating level of hypocrisy! Here is an appalling regime who’s lack of democracy borders on fascism, who’s sneering self-assuredness is so entrenched that they now believe that THEY are way, way above the laws they set down for everyone ELSE yet all YOU can come out with is this weak, last minute critique of our ALP Opposition Leader for calling out Dutton as a “Boofhead” when Dutton, up to his neck in corruption and macho entitlement, so rudely interrupted Albanese whilst Albo had the floor! WOW!

Theodoridis, as you can see from the comments on this page, YOUR deplorable, sanctimonious opinion is NOT shared and makes YOU just another whining, moaning, dysfunctional and totally deluded LNP-defending supporter who has chosen to keep your head firmly entrenched in the sand whilst Morrison and his rampaging pack of political psychopaths go on and on destroying, annihilating and defunding EVERYTHING Australians cherish! Now, I will join the rest of the majority of intelligent, compassionate and foresightful Australians who are so thoroughly sick and tired of listening to deluded LNP supporters waffle on and on trying to justify the depravity of a government that has so completely lost its way, we will tell YOU what most of us believe Dutton should have done: SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

SHAME ON YOU!! Your LNP-supporting drivel has received the condemnation it deserves!

Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 8:07 am

Anthony Albanese described Barnaby Joyce as “the whoopee cushion of Australian politics” in parliament and together with the Boofhead comment it goes into the official Hansard record to assist and perhaps amuse future generations in their understanding of the quality of coalition politicians in our parliament.

Of course Spudley won’t sue as free speech on the floor or parliament is absolute and not actionable in defamation. Apart from which, truth is a complete defence in defamation.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:13 am

I love all this outrage at my “sanctimony!”
And i’d love to see what you would say or, indeed do if it was Dutton who called Albo this charming little epithet. Boofhead.
Or, if everyone in that place stopped debate on significant issues and, instead, spent the whole question time shouting charming little insults to each other!
Not that it is any different now!
But i can see you’ve learnt from that Insult Theatre and have adopted it yourselves. Most of you anyhow.
No need for a sensible, civil discussion that could bear fruit. Just pelt the messenger with idiotic insults. Very fructiferous stuff. Very intelligent. Very.., no, i won’t mention that one.

But i’m waiting.

Enormous thanks Ted!

Henry RodriguesDecember 6, 2021 at 8:23 am

I prefer dickhead to boofhead. Its so much more accurate, floral and inflammatory.

No sanctimonius slippery words, no regrets, but joy at being able to call out a bastard.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:47 am

I love the way you put it Terence. You’d make a stunning lawyer -or are you one already?
All I’m trying to say -and I wonder if those so fervently outraged, read the whole piece- is that Parliament would be more effective, efficient and useful if the chucking of insults was put aside and the respectful exchange of good arguments was more the norm. I loved Keatings insults when they happened but I was young then. Young and as much a larrikin as he was. As a member of the ALP for many years and a candidate for two elections (State) I met Keating and many others quite a few times. He insulted Hewson most gravely. His insults are very cutting (Who can forget the “coz I wanna do you slowly” quip?) But he got the others angry and they threw Hewson out to replace him with the foul lineage that we have now.
Keating was chucked out himself.
I’m not saying that it was his insults that got him and the ALP out of of Parliament but, well, apart from the cross-stabbing of Rudd and Julia we had bugger all chance at the wheel.

I am criticising a culture and yes, Albo too, because he is perpetuating, instead of showing that he is above the kinda-sandpit show. He should promote the gravitas that this ultimate, if not quintessential body of governance deserves and not jump into the sewer that it has become with such great relish.

I do hope -beyond hope- that the Libs and the rest of their tentacles -great tentacles like Palmer, for example- don’t use it through their campaign because it would create a whole lot of very effective slogans, from the man (and men and women) of the slogan industry.

Your own insults here, don’t convince me at all, that it won’t happen or that the insults would work in the ALP favour. The history of Australian voting shows that it is a silly, religiously conservative electorate and it takes an enormous amount of effort for anyone minutely leaning to the left, to win Govn’t.

This should be the unlosable election for the ALP but it will take a minor mistake by them to lose it again.

Try to concentrate on the issue and not on the man -there’s a good chap and lady!

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:48 am

Henry, I think “dickhead” is next and it will probably be uttered by Tanya!

Henry RodriguesDecember 6, 2021 at 9:03 am

It would be appropriate that Tanya bell the cat.

For someone with a heart of stone and the instincts of a predator, the dickhead would wear it like a feather in his cap.

Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 9:06 am

George,

The mistake you are making, in my opinion, is to pretend that Question Time is about civil debate of contending ideas. It has never been such and especially since the cameras started rolling..

A senate committee was formed to advise on how to clean it up. The recommendations were worse than limp lettuce.

If I had to endure the puerile time-wasting dished up each day in QT, I would be saying a lot worse than boofhead.

QT is theatre time for strutting males. Senate estimates is much more interesting.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 9:10 am

Ted, hilarious. Shakespeare learned much from Socrates, as did I. I lecture Greek Philosophy at the U3A (Uni of the third age) and Soc, Plato and Aristotle brings tears (of bliss) to their eyes.
We could learn much from Plato’s allegory of the cave, a metaphor for the echo chambers we create for ourselves and live happily within them.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 9:28 am

Quite so Kaye. QT is not about debate, or anything of any political use but I do hope that this very expensive piece of Theatre of Insults was a theatre, much like the operating theatre of a surgeon where ideas are examined meticulously and tumours, like Dutton, Scomo and the rest, were removed.

I have not said anywhere that the LNP are anything but a horde of savages and that I’d prefer them to continue holding the now rancid reins of govn’t. I just hope that the ALP doesn’t start playing their game.

Voting in this country looks and feels very much like barracking for a footy team. No matter how badly they play, their devotees will continue barracking for them, screaming insults at the “other” team. Voting of course is nothing of the sort and Political Parties should not think they are in a footy ground kicking balls around. They are paid lucratively to work hard to produce an fair and happy society.

I’m not overly impressed by the result of their efforts.
I have stopped lionising politicians of any description a very long time ago. Few get the tick of approval from me: Jacinda Adern, Wilkes, one or two others do. Very few deserve that tick, in my opinion.

Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 9:53 am

For some people, political allegiance is eternal and no criticism will be entertained.

However, for many of us, it isn’t about political parties and their petty games.. It’s about social justice and tolerance and environmental protection and being good global citizens. That many of us feel similarly about these issues does not equate to living in an echo chamber or barracking for a football team – it’s common human decency. That we therefore unite in condemning our current government is not only understandable, it would be negligent not to add our voice.

We don’t have time to sweat the small stuff.

Politics be damned. it’s an impediment.

Labor has done well with their climate change plan. As this is our greatest threat, that is a great start policy wise. With everyone calling for a Federal ICAC, I’m not sure constant attacks on the NSW ICAC so they can run Glad is such a great idea for the Coalition.

Regardless of the merits and failings of individuals, the Labor Party are a better team collectively with Independents and Greens to keep them moving.

RoswellDecember 6, 2021 at 10:00 am

And i’d love to see what you would say or, indeed do if it was Dutton who called Albo this charming little epithet. Boofhead.

George, that’s a fair call but we’ve had it up to our necks with Dutton’s bile in or out of the House.

We’re also sick of him stifling debate in the House.

Yes, I would have been disgusted if he had called Albo a boofhead because Albo hasn’t been asking for it. In my opinion, Dutton has.

He’s a boofhead.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 10:09 am

Well said, Kaye.
A valid outrage at Dutton, Rosswell.

Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 10:16 am

The absolute futility and hypocrisy of Question Time became painfully apparent when Liberal politician Rowan Ramsey rose to ask a Dorothy Dixer that he had been given but then conceded that he had asked the wrong question of the wrong minister.

Ramsey – Liberal MP for the South Australian seat of Gray – could be severely challenged come the election should a retired drover’s dog aspire to federal politics !

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/08/25/rowan-ramsey-wrong-question-mp/

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 10:22 am

George,

Could you please point me to the piece you wrote about the couple of LNPers who interrupted Jacqui Lambie by making dog noises? I haven’t been able to find it. Could you give us a link?

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 10:36 am

Kate, why should I do that?
To point out that they all do it? That they are all ill mannered barbarians? Is that an excuse to keep nurturing that culture?

Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 10:44 am

Kate

Is this what you are looking for ?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-01/scott-morrison-disappointed-senator-growling-jacqui-lambie/100663842

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:01 am

George,

On the same day that the ‘boofhead’ remark was made by Albo to the richly deserving Boofhead, dog noises and growling were heard in the Senate, aimed at a female senator, Jacqui Lambie, who was on her feet at the time, speaking sensibly and without doing anything to provoke the incident. (Unlike Boofhead, who seems to provoke people every time he opens his mouth.)

I’m wondering why, given the two incidents, you decided to go to town on Albo, who had been richly provoked, and not on the senators involved in the disgusting heckling of Jacqui Lambie. And mind you, that particular day was the very day that the Jenkins report into parliamentary workplace culture and the treatment of women in Parliament House was released. (One of the senators concerned, David Van, did apologise later, although he denied that he had made growling or dog noises.)

So, what I really want to know is, why Albo and not Van and his mate?

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:06 am

Thanks, Terence.

No, I was actually looking for the piece that George wrote on the disgusting behaviour towards Jacqui Lambie. But it seems that he didn’t write any such piece. He seems to have thought that going after Albo for calling a boofhead a boofhead was somehow much more important.

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:17 am

And George,

The earliest responses to your post mysteriously disappeared, including one of mine, in which I pointed out, amongst other things, that you have a little problem with this bit: ‘… during the campaign, the LNP will doubtless be pointing the finger at photoshopped photos of Albo, shouting accusations of baby tantrums, the most excruciatingly nauseating image of which would be that of Pauline Hanson, shrieking as is her want,..’

You need ‘wont’, not ‘want’. A typo, probly?

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 11:18 am

Kate, because I knew very well -I was certain- that you and others will mention those incidents!

The winner of a battle is s/he who thinks rather than reacts without thinking. One who stays calm, collected and circumspect rather than one who says the first thing that comes to his/her mind.
I have not been asleep all these years -since ’75- and have seen what goes on in Parliament. I want it, the country needs it, to improve. To become a centre of accomplishment rather than an angry kindergarten!
Albo’s “boofhead” outrage is part and parcel of that culture that spawns the sort of behaviour you’ve mentioned.

I want it stopped.
I could go on discussing Plato’s forms and ideals but I won’t though I do suggest people look them up in his “Republic.”

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 11:20 am

Kate Ahearne, thanks. I didn’t notice. Probably autocorrect or, as you say, a typo. Thanks.
No idea why posts disappeared!

guestDecember 6, 2021 at 11:53 am

George,

you were rather wound up here in this post. Please forgive me for noticing a couple of things.

Early on you say that the “broad church of the LNP is a moral sewer”; then “parliament is fast sliding into the pits of putrefying sewer particles”; and later you refer to “the LNP and its appendages … and the rest of the moral detritus”.

Perhaps such metaphors are much more sophisicated than “boofhead”, but “boofhead” serves its purpose. Could Albanese perhaps have used “dummkopf” to demonstrate linguistic skill?

You speak on behalf of Plato saying to Albanese, “You are not a philosopher so you can’t be king of a country”. In fact, of course, there has never been a perfect philosopher king ruling over a perfect polis.

Finally you say: “Boofhead? Can you point to anyone in that place who is not?”

At least Albanese called only one person a boofhead.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 12:28 pm

Thanks, guest.
It is one thing for me (or you) to insult politicians but quite another for lushly paid politicians to spend their time insulting one another, instead of doing what’s in the pages of their job description.

I do not take back my views on what is going on in those chambers and corridors. These are not fora of civility, conscience and moral labour. They are, indeed as I have described them.

What difference does the fact that Albo called only one boofhead by that name? Would you prefer him to have insulted many more of them?

Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 12:34 pm

George,

Disappointing that you chose not to answer my question, and I struggled to make any sense of what you did write in response. Anyhow, I just don’t think I can stand any more. Time to stick the kettle on.

StephengbDecember 6, 2021 at 12:41 pm

Mr Theodoridis, Sir,

I am at a complete loss as to why a self asserted intellectual man of some advanced years experience would actually choose to write an article that appears to denounce Anthone Albanese (Albo) for what I saw as a slip of the tounge toward a man who was attempting to silence him.

It is not as if Albo was uttering some dastardly expletive or even a reprehensible insult, calling someone a boofhead, in Australia, is rarely taken as an insult, but more often than not, taken as a merely gentle reminder that the person is acting rather stupdly, and should desist before they make a total fool of themselves.

To me your article seems a pointless exercise, unless your sole intent was to garner some outrage from Lefty’s.

For me you have made a “boofhead” of yourself (an Australian term of endearment).

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 12:49 pm

Sorry Kate. To which question have I not responded?

guestDecember 6, 2021 at 12:57 pm

George, you ask: “Would you prefer him to have insulted many more of them?”

No need for Albo to do that, George – but you have insulted all of Parliament!

See post from Stephengb @12:41

Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 1:27 pm

Listening to Chris Bowen at the National Press Club……

His speech was great but Labor are hopeless in their response to the Betaloo Basin. They MUST get a better line on that.

leefeDecember 6, 2021 at 4:15 pm

George:

I’d be more impressed with your excoriation of Albo if it had been preceded by equally damning criticism of the far more unparlimentarian behaviour of assorted LNP pollies.

Frankly, yes, good on him. Dutton had no right to carry on the way he was, and Albanese had every right to tell him to pull his head in. Using everyday Aussie language to do it would be, whether calculated or not, to his electoral advantage. It was a far more genuine “ordinary Aussie bloke” moment than any of ScoMoFo’s orchestrated photo-ops.

Mike SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 6:26 pm

George, really?
In this totally f’d up parliament this is of concern to you?
Wow, sticks & stones brother.
I would have been a lot more malevolent than this mild timid response to a bully on the other side who spends most of his time moving that the ‘member no longer be heard’.
I have been following Parliament for 60 years and this would rate as tantamount to a slap across the face with a daisy.
The word sanctimonious springs to my mind in your leaping to defend the ‘civility’ of the ‘peoples House’.
Frankly I find your musings flabbergasting.

George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 7:11 pm

Thanks, Mike.
So you suggest that a more combatant response from Albo would be better? That exhibition of Abbott chest fronting would fix what you call “f’d up parliament?”

If nothing else, your observation is interesting but highly common.
In all those 60 years of observing this “f’d up parliament?” has it never occurred to you that perhaps, this absurd show should stop and the boys and girls should start doing some decent work, focussed on what this country needs, not what they, themselves want in their avarice and gluttony for power? Did you never wish to Christ that this parliament became a place of peaceful contemplation and synergy?

I watched it, also, not much less than you and every time I watched I was astonished at the goings on in there and how these goings on continued unabated and unregulated. I despaired for this country, now my country. Totally despaired and, for a while, I thought I’d try to do something about it. I joined the ALP, became the chairman of a substantial branch, stood as a candidate in the State elections twice, worked as hard as I could for as long as life allowed me to do so. I met many politicians, both State and Federal and debated issues with them.
And I despaired more. This was because almost every politician, in confidence, spoke as you do now, exhibiting the same disdain and contempt for that place, a place that is the core of our Governance. A place that is now occupied by corrupt, self seeking thugs and thieves, obscenely paid and obscenely grinding their snouts in the public trough.

No, I don’t think more shirt fronting will change the behaviour of that Sodom and Gomorrah but thanks, for your contribution.

Mike SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 8:05 pm

I hear you George, I have given up my expectations of such things.
Whilst populated by spivs, crooks & rorters protecting their racketeering this has sadly become the norm.
At least in Killens’ day the to & fro was cleverly done.
I don’t blame the Conservatives exclusively as PJK made it an art form.
During my working life I use to show groups of school children through HoRs & Senate at Q Time, I was always sadly embarrassed by the appalling behaviour we witnessed.
Whilst I appreciate your input sadly I feel you may be in the ‘Don Quixote’ mode.
Good luck.

corvusboreusDecember 7, 2021 at 5:57 pm

Brave words George.
I definitely agree that governance would be improved by more articulate debate and less gooning for the gallery.
The departure of former speaker Smith and elevation of Wallace as replacement has definitely reset proceedings back to it’s former depths of vapid cacophony.
To quote our emboozened deputy PM, “I like this guy more than the last one (hurk hurk)”.

I would add that I would prefer Albanese boldly articulating widely popular policies than making superficial remark on the dutton things cranial shape.
He could start by ditching the fuzzy ALP wording around an ‘integrity commission’ (or ‘honesty-encouragement body’) and pick up the baton for a ‘federal anti-corruption commission’.

I prefer plain speech to empty sledges.

George TheodoridisDecember 7, 2021 at 9:04 pm

Corvusborreus, i agree with your every syllable. Plain and sincere, respectful speech wins hearts and minds; insults and threats, guffaws and puerile gestures, grunts and inarticulate mouth farts win nothing. No one wins anything with that barbaric, savage stuff. Your observation about Smith is spot on. I can’t see him coping with that sort of buffoonish behaviour and i would not be at all surprised if he is right now thinking if he should leave the LNP altogether. “We” have forgotten what the Parliament is all about. We have forgotten what sacred work is supposed to be done in that room. I am an atheist but the story of Jesus throwing out the money men from his church is a powerful symbol of what is going on in our political church. Defilers, polluters and self interested exploiters have entered it and taken it over for their own amusement. The cleaning up begins with the language and the genuine respect for those who pay their salaries, for each other and for the venue. Policies, should be discussed, debated and explained in plain language. Personal insults, if they see necessary, should be used in pubs and private places. The Speaker should insist! The Speaker should not be a “boofhead”! The Speaker should allow no boofhead in that temple of Democracy.

A joy to have read your response.

corvusboreusDecember 8, 2021 at 8:14 pm

George,
On effective but substantial speaking,

Many (myself included) would consider Ms Gillard’s ‘misogyny speech’ as pretty much the best example of surgical political invective delivered in any national parliament this century.
Admittedly, the mad monk braying about sexism was pretty soft clay, but she worked it beautifully.

Had she taken the lazy path and called ‘honourable’ Abbott a ‘sexist pig’ it would have amounted to little more than a throwaway sledge.
However, she chose to use the best of her rhetorical knowledge to hold up a clear mirror upon the hypocritical vapidity in Abbotts posturing by succinctly and systematically cataloguing some of the most blatant of his consistent displays of ‘sexist piggery’, one evidential example after another.
Her statement was so poetic in it’s structural logic that I have heard it seamlessly delivered as alternative lyric to G Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’ (To a ukelele accompaniment, no less: worth looking up on ‘yewchoob’).

I also reckon her “don’t print crap” response to a press club question about media responsibility was utterly priceless.

By comparison, P Keating’s “coz I wanna do you slowly” sounds like the words of a sadistic creep.

Kaye LeeDecember 8, 2021 at 8:33 pm

Anne Summers for the ABC, 10 October 2012

Most Canberra journalists stood virtually shoulder to shoulder in this morning’s newspapers to condemn the Prime Minister for the same speech. Gillard’s words were condemned as “desperate” (Michelle Grattan), “completely over the top” (Jennifer Hewett), “flawed” (Peter Hartcher), and “defending the indefensible” (Dennis Shanahan) … In the 24 hours since the speech was delivered, a clear polarisation has emerged between the mainstream media, particularly print, and a very large body of online opinion that has applauded the anti-misogyny contents of the speech and welcomed Gillard’s return to her former debating finesse.

Jonathan Holmes for Media Watch, October 2012

The gallery, almost to a man and woman, focused on the hypocrisy, as they saw it, of Julia Gillard attacking Tony Abbott for sexism while defending Peter Slipper. It was an analysis that many outside Canberra utterly rejected. For women especially, the speech wasn’t about a couple of grubby texts, it was about their own life experience.

Julia Gillard on the ABC, 16 September 2018:

There was a time where I was a little resentful that all those years in politics, and all of that work, and everything we did … that all of it apparently came down to one moment in time, one speech. But I’m reconciled with it now and I understand that when people are writing things about me – including writing my obituary, hopefully in many years to come – that it’s going to feature in there.

I miss her.

Michael TaylorDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Kaye, way back I wrote about Julia’s misogyny speech in respect to it winning fans around the world while attracting condemnation from the local press:

The shout heard ’round the world

Gosh. Was it that long ago!

George TheodoridisDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

I remember well that speech and the exciting, sweet fire it lit in my belly. Finally, i thought some emotion articulated elegantly. But then i remember three other speeches of hers: 1) Assange is guilty! 2) oh, you Americans can do anything (in cooing tones) and 3) Israel needs to defend itself! I remember her also explaining that she wouldn’t support gay marriages because her mother was a religious conservative. And a whole lot of other things that left a very, very butter taste in my mouth. Yes, the misogyny speech was a welcome change to the jungle grunts like “boofhead”, made ceaselessly in that place but it takes more than elegant rhetoric to make for a decent parliament.

The local press gallery was very wrong about her misogyny speech but i don’t miss her!

Kate AhearneDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Kaye,

Me, too. And thanks for the info about those (mostly surprising) people who came out against Gillard’s speech. I had no recollection of that.

Kaye LeeDecember 8, 2021 at 10:14 pm

What a great article Michael. Those journalists get so caught up in the latest scandal of the day that they fail to even remotely see the big picture – the relief that women felt that finally SOMEONE was saying it.

Regarding same sex marriage, regardless of Gillard’s views, she allowed a vote in parliament and allowed Labor a conscience vote – unlike the Coalition who were instructed to vote no. It was defeated by 98 votes to 42.

When I think of Gillard’s legacy I think of paid parental leave, the NDIS, the NBN, carbon pricing, mining superprofits tax, tripling the tax free threshold, an attempt at needs based funding for education…..and so much more.

There were certainly disappointments but, for me, the good far outweighed the bad.

Michael TaylorDecember 8, 2021 at 11:06 pm

Thank you, Kaye. I forgot all about it until your comment above.

Kate AhearneDecember 9, 2021 at 12:11 am

Fantastic video, Kaye.

Terrific article, Michael.

About Julia… She didn’t have to be perfect any more than any of us does. She didn’t have to believe exactly the same things as we did on every issue, and she didn’t always have to get it ‘right’ to have been one of the finest and most effective prime ministers we have ever had. I agree with Kaye – the good far outweighed the bad

George TheodoridisDecember 9, 2021 at 9:11 am

Kate, let us allow each other our list of priorities.

Terence MillsDecember 9, 2021 at 9:35 am

Barnaby Joyce has contracted COVID on an overseas trip, Barnaby says :

Very frustrated that I will be locked up in a room for 10 days, but that’s part of the process. We arrived here from England, I chose to get a test and tested positive and all my colleagues tested negative, the luck of the draw I suppose.

Barnaby said he will be watching the cricket from Washington DC.

The meetings that had been arranged for him will be conducted in his absence, probably by Vikki.

IsheepelDecember 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

Terence – Barnaby, a targeted individual, targeted by covid.
Bad covid, leave our unvaccinated pollies alone to score own goals.

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Garry BatesDecember 5, 2021 at 7:41 pm

He got called Boofhead because he was acting like a boofhead. You are reading far too much into it.
Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 7:50 pm

Personally, I think it will work in Albo’s favour.

There are some Labor voters out there who have been waiting for him to show some grunt, and now he has.

But having said that, I wouldn’t tolerate it in my workplace. Yes, it makes me sound a bit of a hypocrite, but sometimes bullies need to be stood up to.
Kaye LeeDecember 5, 2021 at 7:55 pm

This is my favourite exchange between Dutton and Albo. Look at the grin on Dutton as he gets up to answer the Dixxer.
George TheodoridisDecember 5, 2021 at 8:03 pm

I agree on a number of fronts, Michael but the truth of the matter -as I see it- of course is that exemplary action should be seen as a virtue and applauded and a meager and diminishing action should be seen as unvirtuous and be condemned. You might well be right about this outburst seen by the voters as a sign that Albo is awake and not as we have suspected until now, either lazy or asleep or muzzled by ideological wars in the party room.

There is nothing redeeming about this lot of fake politicians and true corruptors of Democracy!

It would be interesting to know what’s going on in the people’s mind. One suspects that the people are so disgusted by the supreme paradigm of boofheadedness, Scomo that they are fully prepared to vote him out, no matter what the ALP does. I’d hate to believe though that the common aussie, values in politicians insults more than humane policies.
We shall see.
George TheodoridisDecember 5, 2021 at 8:04 pm

It’s certainly a pleasurable sight, Kaye but it does give me the guilts! I feel a bit vindictive enjoying it.
Cool PeteDecember 5, 2021 at 8:05 pm

Well, Hanson can’t point the finger at Anthony Albanese, because the leader of her party in the NSW Legislative Council accused John Howard of, quote, “an arse-licking effort” with George W. Bush. And let’s not forget that Botty, with his nonsense, wouldn’t confer the respect to Julia Gillard that she deserved. And let’s not forget that Botty, in 1998, called then Labor Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, quote, “a sanctimonious windbag,” which saw his removed from the House.
Let us not forget WHO Anthony Albanese called “Boofhead”. A politician who is on record as saying that, “Parliament is a hindrance to good government.” A politician whom Judge Geoffrey Flick warned, in the case of an Iranian asylum seeker, that he was not above the rule of law and that he was not above being sent to prison for contempt of court. Rather than doing the just thing, he sent him back into detention at the last minute. We are talking a politician who, in the case of the Muruguppan Family, is happy to say, “Oh, but at every stage…” but when he is overruled by the AAT, or the court, goes off into a sulk. We are talking about a man who referred to a female journalist with misogynistic and foul language, in a text intended for Jamie Briggs, but was inadvertently sent to that journalist. And, three days before Botty was voted out of the leadership (he wasn’t, as some on the Right, argue, “knifed”, according to conventions, he was asked to stand aside for a leadership ballot, and Turnbull won it) he joked about rising sea levels and was caught on camera, and Botty laughed about it.
AND, let’s not forget, he called Adam Bandt “an enemy of the state.” Now, I don’t care if he withdrew, it was wrong.
I know you say that you shouldn’t go down to someone’s level, or when they go low, you go high, BUT, let’s not forget this. Anybody with an IQ higher than a dead pine needle would have seen through Botty’s scare campaign about pensioners shivering in their homes and subsisting on tinned cat food due to a carbon tax that wasn’t! A critical thinker would have asked, “Does the ATO handle this?” “No.” But Botty won.
AND, I know they all do it, BUT, let’s not forget that this was the same “Boofhead” who, on the day that women protested outside Parliament, and when Scomo said that in some countries, the police shoot demonstrators, stood up, when an important speech about women’s safety was being made, and moved that the member no longer be heard.
What was that “Boofhead” trying to do on Tuesday? While Scomo was carrying on with some irrelevant nonsense, Anthony Albanese stood up on a Point Of Order, and “Boofhead” tried to silence him! Albanese was right with his Point of Order.
So, you can understand the frustration behind calling him “Boofhead” in a Parliament which has had a Speaker who was there for the government not for the Parliament (bishop). Let us hope that instead of tarnishing Labor, it shows that Albanese has the fight to take up to someone who would be a dictator if they had the chance!
Baby JewelsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:05 pm

Just as an aside, three of the four women on those benches behind Dutton are no longer with that party.
Baby JewelsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:06 pm

And will Boofhead sue?
Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:15 pm

All governmental spokesmen are just puppets!
Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:18 pm

When will we low IQ bunch of low intelligence fcktards ever manage to make a statement?!!
Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:22 pm

All low IQ idiots are required to surrender here tonight! Yeh, like F#ck, does anyone really give a F#ck?!
Mark ShieldsDecember 5, 2021 at 8:24 pm

Sorry, but I’m fed up with ongoing bullshit!!
Murray MaxwellDecember 5, 2021 at 8:45 pm

I think it is you George Theodoridis that is the real BOOFHED here if you think Albo was not totally JUSTIFIED in calling Peter ” Boofhead ” Dutton a Boofhead LOOK AT THE CONTEXT with which he called him a ” BOOFHEAD ” in that specific moment it was ABSOLUTLY JUSTIFIED !!!!! and it WORKED !!!!! that’s why we are ALL talking about it WELL DONE ALBO !!!! And it was nothing like Trump you don’t seem to be paying attention so pull your head in George you are just embarrassing yourself !!!!!
Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 8:58 pm

Baby Jewels, it seems ironic that the person throwing in the Dorothy Dixxer was none other than Julia Banks.
Michael TaylorDecember 5, 2021 at 9:10 pm

Murray, you are quite entitled to disagree with the message – as have many here, including myself – but throwing insults to the messenger is generally poor form.
WilliambtmDecember 5, 2021 at 9:58 pm

The current leadership are not positioned to schittcan the opposition.
After all, they steal a lot of their opposition’s proposed policies as they are bereft of this same.

One must look back to a Prime Minister to the lies that often fell from the lips of that most treacherous Prime Minister, J W Howard.
I distinctly recall how Howard had told the media that were present on that occasion, “one of my proudest moments was halting the East Timor massacre.”
Howard was not aware the truth was already out there.
Both Howard and Downer held made a secret pact with the USA (who were clandestinely providing all the weapons and ammo to Indonesia’s military and militiamen) to take out the remaining indigenous persons remaining alive and fearful.)
The 3rd conspirator was General Waranto of Indonesia.

These three countries were acting in a conspiracy unknown to the media in Australia; however, his lying claim about his proudest action as an Australian Prime Minister was halting the massacre in East Timor. Not so, Johnny Howard, you had nothing to do with it.

However, John Howard and his crooked mate, Alexander Downer, had nothing to do with the cessation of the Indonesian massacre,
The quest for the massacre was to rid the entire population from within East Timor.

The massacre was essential for Indonesia to claim the soon to be a de-populated realm of East Timor to add East Timor as an extension to Indonesia’s territory.
Johnny Howard and his mate were in the above-mentioned secret pact to enable full access to the Greater Sunrise and Troubador undersea oil and gas resources for Woodside Petroleum, ConocoPhilips, and BP petroleum being the leading players.

By wiping out the Population of East Timor, there was no other possible claimant, certainly not by that small country to both the two oil and gas fields other than the three nominated significant players.

The truth needs to be d3elivered to the people of Australia.

Howard no longer claims his lying self halted the cessation of the massacres in East Timor.
Kaye LeeDecember 5, 2021 at 10:51 pm

Speaking of boofheads, Nationals Senator Sam McMahon tried to punch out the Nationals federal director Jonathan Hawkes at their Christmas party.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/senator-sam-mcmahon-allegedly-tried-to-punch-nationals-federal-director-in-canberra-pub/news-story/e7833a4d854d41a6a79f4da7c8ed511c
Andrew J. SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 12:50 am

Also related to LP promotion, apparently other evening at Lido Cinema in Hawthorn in/next to the Kooyong electorate of Frydenberg, a Lib promo with him central was screened, to all round audience boos…… and he has allegedly blocked anyone sharing via his Twitter handle….

Then again probably not his prime constituency in the seat of Kooyong, but shows the thin skinned reactions LNP MPs have to public criticism (from normal punters) while encouraging the think tanks’ and media ‘libertarian’ pretence of freedom of speech, freedom to denigrate etc.; gives away the game that it is more about kicking down to preserve power and influence…. autocracy.
wamDecember 6, 2021 at 12:53 am

Pretty words but drivel george, Boofhead is a good old australian polite word for today’s @%^^@ wit. Would you prefer: kierkegaard to martensen “My opponent is a glob of snot.” or nietzsche to kant That most deformed concept-cripple of all time.” ps sorry Kaye “Nationals Senator Sam McMahon” She is from the NT and is a member of the country liberals. They were the country liberal party CLP but that brand got trashed last time they were in office ergo a name change. She sits with the nationals rather than the liberals. Indeed her predecessor(a pom who flew home to london to drop his british citizen status to avoid the dual citizen saga) was deputy leader of the nats.
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 1:02 am

Geprge,

Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, and that’s what Albo did. Good for him!

Your sanctimonious article does you no credit at all.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 1:21 am

So, Wam, we prefer insult chucking to civil debate.
Now i understand why this country moves one step forward snd five back!
And i have a feeling that all ghe steps forward that this country will ever see were taken already.
By someone with a mind and a heart, called Gough, some 47 years ago.
It was all a game of boofheadery and bastardy since then.

I also love the word “boofhead” but i wouldn’t use it as an insult nor as a show of bravery.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 1:26 am

As i see it. Australia 2021 is identical to Australia 1971.
Why is that?
John HannaDecember 6, 2021 at 6:48 am

Dear George, I with many other here feel your message is way out of kilter with the magnitude of the aspersion. Dutton is NOT a respected figure and calling him boofhead is the equivalent of pelting him with marshmallows or flogging him with a feather. This is a man who delights in schadenfreude. Your article is full of self righteous (and faux) indignation that our erstwhile leader should stoop to such depths. May I remind you of the esteem to which Paul Keating is still held by some (and I am one) for his ability as he said to stick a post it note on the foreheads of the opposition, boofhead is mild compared to the epithets most of us hurl at the television.
You need to get with the times, at least in this country (so far) we don’t shoot one another.
KathrynDecember 6, 2021 at 7:13 am

George Theodoridis, WHERE THE HELL have YOU been over the last eight deplorable years of non-stop corruption, outrageous skirt-lifting misogyny, internationally condemned callous inhumanity and ongoing offensively smug arrogance metered out by the contemptuous, totally depraved Abbott and Morrison regimes, eh?

Instead of having the intestinal fortitude to justifiably criticise and condemn the absolute WORST government in living memory, you come out with this pathetic, puerile attack against Albanese for understandably calling that totally corrupt, malignant and callously inhumane political psychopath, Peter Dutton, a Boofhead!! WOW, easy to see to which appalling pack of political parasites YOUR political views are aligned! Instead of savaging the morally bankrupt bible-thumping hypocrites and signed-up members of the paedophile-supporting Hillsong Cultists that hog the cabinet of the LNP, you come out with this ridiculous piece on Albanese’s impromptu “Boofhead” comment to one of the most despicable and corrupt political parasites in the worst, most ineffective and corrupt government in living memory!

The FACT is that the huge majority of Australians are now thoroughly nauseated and outraged by the unspeakable level of blatant and relentless self-serving corruption, the non-stop lies, dishonesty and self-promoting, self-congratulatory political “stunts” churned out by a government SO corrupt, SO callously inhumane and SO deplorably misogynistic that they have now stooped down to a level of criminal depravity that can no longer be tolerated!

“Boofhead” is the LEAST one can describe a man as totally cruel and self-serving as Dutton! Here is a man who has acquired (for himself) a personal net worth of more than $300 MILLION yet REFUSES to disclose from where – and how – he managed to attain such a huge and dodgy level of wealth on a politician’s salary. Here is a wretched pack of political sociopaths in the LNP who have enriched and empowered THEMSELVES at the expense of others! Not a day goes passed that we are not confronted by some shocking act of corruption, some contemptuous verbal attack on the most vulnerable people in our society, some despicable act of indescribable misogyny committed by the smirking, arrogant, self-serving grubs in a government that has a level of stratospheric sense of entitlement coupled with a nauseating level of hypocrisy! Here is an appalling regime who’s lack of democracy borders on fascism, who’s sneering self-assuredness is so entrenched that they now believe that THEY are way, way above the laws they set down for everyone ELSE yet all YOU can come out with is this weak, last minute critique of our ALP Opposition Leader for calling out Dutton as a “Boofhead” when Dutton, up to his neck in corruption and macho entitlement, so rudely interrupted Albanese whilst Albo had the floor! WOW!

Theodoridis, as you can see from the comments on this page, YOUR deplorable, sanctimonious opinion is NOT shared and makes YOU just another whining, moaning, dysfunctional and totally deluded LNP-defending supporter who has chosen to keep your head firmly entrenched in the sand whilst Morrison and his rampaging pack of political psychopaths go on and on destroying, annihilating and defunding EVERYTHING Australians cherish! Now, I will join the rest of the majority of intelligent, compassionate and foresightful Australians who are so thoroughly sick and tired of listening to deluded LNP supporters waffle on and on trying to justify the depravity of a government that has so completely lost its way, we will tell YOU what most of us believe Dutton should have done: SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!

SHAME ON YOU!! Your LNP-supporting drivel has received the condemnation it deserves!
Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 8:07 am

Anthony Albanese described Barnaby Joyce as “the whoopee cushion of Australian politics” in parliament and together with the Boofhead comment it goes into the official Hansard record to assist and perhaps amuse future generations in their understanding of the quality of coalition politicians in our parliament.

Of course Spudley won’t sue as free speech on the floor or parliament is absolute and not actionable in defamation. Apart from which, truth is a complete defence in defamation.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:13 am

I love all this outrage at my “sanctimony!”
And i’d love to see what you would say or, indeed do if it was Dutton who called Albo this charming little epithet. Boofhead.
Or, if everyone in that place stopped debate on significant issues and, instead, spent the whole question time shouting charming little insults to each other!
Not that it is any different now!
But i can see you’ve learnt from that Insult Theatre and have adopted it yourselves. Most of you anyhow.
No need for a sensible, civil discussion that could bear fruit. Just pelt the messenger with idiotic insults. Very fructiferous stuff. Very intelligent. Very.., no, i won’t mention that one.

But i’m waiting.

Enormous thanks Ted!
Henry RodriguesDecember 6, 2021 at 8:23 am

I prefer dickhead to boofhead. Its so much more accurate, floral and inflammatory.

No sanctimonius slippery words, no regrets, but joy at being able to call out a bastard.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:47 am

I love the way you put it Terence. You’d make a stunning lawyer -or are you one already?
All I’m trying to say -and I wonder if those so fervently outraged, read the whole piece- is that Parliament would be more effective, efficient and useful if the chucking of insults was put aside and the respectful exchange of good arguments was more the norm. I loved Keatings insults when they happened but I was young then. Young and as much a larrikin as he was. As a member of the ALP for many years and a candidate for two elections (State) I met Keating and many others quite a few times. He insulted Hewson most gravely. His insults are very cutting (Who can forget the “coz I wanna do you slowly” quip?) But he got the others angry and they threw Hewson out to replace him with the foul lineage that we have now.
Keating was chucked out himself.
I’m not saying that it was his insults that got him and the ALP out of of Parliament but, well, apart from the cross-stabbing of Rudd and Julia we had bugger all chance at the wheel.

I am criticising a culture and yes, Albo too, because he is perpetuating, instead of showing that he is above the kinda-sandpit show. He should promote the gravitas that this ultimate, if not quintessential body of governance deserves and not jump into the sewer that it has become with such great relish.

I do hope -beyond hope- that the Libs and the rest of their tentacles -great tentacles like Palmer, for example- don’t use it through their campaign because it would create a whole lot of very effective slogans, from the man (and men and women) of the slogan industry.

Your own insults here, don’t convince me at all, that it won’t happen or that the insults would work in the ALP favour. The history of Australian voting shows that it is a silly, religiously conservative electorate and it takes an enormous amount of effort for anyone minutely leaning to the left, to win Govn’t.

This should be the unlosable election for the ALP but it will take a minor mistake by them to lose it again.

Try to concentrate on the issue and not on the man -there’s a good chap and lady!
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 8:48 am

Henry, I think “dickhead” is next and it will probably be uttered by Tanya!
Henry RodriguesDecember 6, 2021 at 9:03 am

It would be appropriate that Tanya bell the cat.

For someone with a heart of stone and the instincts of a predator, the dickhead would wear it like a feather in his cap.
Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 9:06 am

George,

The mistake you are making, in my opinion, is to pretend that Question Time is about civil debate of contending ideas. It has never been such and especially since the cameras started rolling..

A senate committee was formed to advise on how to clean it up. The recommendations were worse than limp lettuce.

If I had to endure the puerile time-wasting dished up each day in QT, I would be saying a lot worse than boofhead.

QT is theatre time for strutting males. Senate estimates is much more interesting.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 9:10 am

Ted, hilarious. Shakespeare learned much from Socrates, as did I. I lecture Greek Philosophy at the U3A (Uni of the third age) and Soc, Plato and Aristotle brings tears (of bliss) to their eyes.
We could learn much from Plato’s allegory of the cave, a metaphor for the echo chambers we create for ourselves and live happily within them.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 9:28 am

Quite so Kaye. QT is not about debate, or anything of any political use but I do hope that this very expensive piece of Theatre of Insults was a theatre, much like the operating theatre of a surgeon where ideas are examined meticulously and tumours, like Dutton, Scomo and the rest, were removed.

I have not said anywhere that the LNP are anything but a horde of savages and that I’d prefer them to continue holding the now rancid reins of govn’t. I just hope that the ALP doesn’t start playing their game.

Voting in this country looks and feels very much like barracking for a footy team. No matter how badly they play, their devotees will continue barracking for them, screaming insults at the “other” team. Voting of course is nothing of the sort and Political Parties should not think they are in a footy ground kicking balls around. They are paid lucratively to work hard to produce an fair and happy society.

I’m not overly impressed by the result of their efforts.
I have stopped lionising politicians of any description a very long time ago. Few get the tick of approval from me: Jacinda Adern, Wilkes, one or two others do. Very few deserve that tick, in my opinion.
Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 9:53 am

For some people, political allegiance is eternal and no criticism will be entertained.

However, for many of us, it isn’t about political parties and their petty games.. It’s about social justice and tolerance and environmental protection and being good global citizens. That many of us feel similarly about these issues does not equate to living in an echo chamber or barracking for a football team – it’s common human decency. That we therefore unite in condemning our current government is not only understandable, it would be negligent not to add our voice.

We don’t have time to sweat the small stuff.

Politics be damned. it’s an impediment.

Labor has done well with their climate change plan. As this is our greatest threat, that is a great start policy wise. With everyone calling for a Federal ICAC, I’m not sure constant attacks on the NSW ICAC so they can run Glad is such a great idea for the Coalition.

Regardless of the merits and failings of individuals, the Labor Party are a better team collectively with Independents and Greens to keep them moving.
RoswellDecember 6, 2021 at 10:00 am

And i’d love to see what you would say or, indeed do if it was Dutton who called Albo this charming little epithet. Boofhead.

George, that’s a fair call but we’ve had it up to our necks with Dutton’s bile in or out of the House.

We’re also sick of him stifling debate in the House.

Yes, I would have been disgusted if he had called Albo a boofhead because Albo hasn’t been asking for it. In my opinion, Dutton has.

He’s a boofhead.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 10:09 am

Well said, Kaye.
A valid outrage at Dutton, Rosswell.
Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 10:16 am

The absolute futility and hypocrisy of Question Time became painfully apparent when Liberal politician Rowan Ramsey rose to ask a Dorothy Dixer that he had been given but then conceded that he had asked the wrong question of the wrong minister.

Ramsey – Liberal MP for the South Australian seat of Gray – could be severely challenged come the election should a retired drover’s dog aspire to federal politics !

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/08/25/rowan-ramsey-wrong-question-mp/
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 10:22 am

George,

Could you please point me to the piece you wrote about the couple of LNPers who interrupted Jacqui Lambie by making dog noises? I haven’t been able to find it. Could you give us a link?
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 10:36 am

Kate, why should I do that?
To point out that they all do it? That they are all ill mannered barbarians? Is that an excuse to keep nurturing that culture?
Terence MillsDecember 6, 2021 at 10:44 am

Kate

Is this what you are looking for ?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-01/scott-morrison-disappointed-senator-growling-jacqui-lambie/100663842
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:01 am

George,

On the same day that the ‘boofhead’ remark was made by Albo to the richly deserving Boofhead, dog noises and growling were heard in the Senate, aimed at a female senator, Jacqui Lambie, who was on her feet at the time, speaking sensibly and without doing anything to provoke the incident. (Unlike Boofhead, who seems to provoke people every time he opens his mouth.)

I’m wondering why, given the two incidents, you decided to go to town on Albo, who had been richly provoked, and not on the senators involved in the disgusting heckling of Jacqui Lambie. And mind you, that particular day was the very day that the Jenkins report into parliamentary workplace culture and the treatment of women in Parliament House was released. (One of the senators concerned, David Van, did apologise later, although he denied that he had made growling or dog noises.)

So, what I really want to know is, why Albo and not Van and his mate?
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:06 am

Thanks, Terence.

No, I was actually looking for the piece that George wrote on the disgusting behaviour towards Jacqui Lambie. But it seems that he didn’t write any such piece. He seems to have thought that going after Albo for calling a boofhead a boofhead was somehow much more important.
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 11:17 am

And George,

The earliest responses to your post mysteriously disappeared, including one of mine, in which I pointed out, amongst other things, that you have a little problem with this bit: ‘… during the campaign, the LNP will doubtless be pointing the finger at photoshopped photos of Albo, shouting accusations of baby tantrums, the most excruciatingly nauseating image of which would be that of Pauline Hanson, shrieking as is her want,..’

You need ‘wont’, not ‘want’. A typo, probly?
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 11:18 am

Kate, because I knew very well -I was certain- that you and others will mention those incidents!

The winner of a battle is s/he who thinks rather than reacts without thinking. One who stays calm, collected and circumspect rather than one who says the first thing that comes to his/her mind.
I have not been asleep all these years -since ’75- and have seen what goes on in Parliament. I want it, the country needs it, to improve. To become a centre of accomplishment rather than an angry kindergarten!
Albo’s “boofhead” outrage is part and parcel of that culture that spawns the sort of behaviour you’ve mentioned.

I want it stopped.
I could go on discussing Plato’s forms and ideals but I won’t though I do suggest people look them up in his “Republic.”
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 11:20 am

Kate Ahearne, thanks. I didn’t notice. Probably autocorrect or, as you say, a typo. Thanks.
No idea why posts disappeared!
guestDecember 6, 2021 at 11:53 am

George,

you were rather wound up here in this post. Please forgive me for noticing a couple of things.

Early on you say that the “broad church of the LNP is a moral sewer”; then “parliament is fast sliding into the pits of putrefying sewer particles”; and later you refer to “the LNP and its appendages … and the rest of the moral detritus”.

Perhaps such metaphors are much more sophisicated than “boofhead”, but “boofhead” serves its purpose. Could Albanese perhaps have used “dummkopf” to demonstrate linguistic skill?

You speak on behalf of Plato saying to Albanese, “You are not a philosopher so you can’t be king of a country”. In fact, of course, there has never been a perfect philosopher king ruling over a perfect polis.

Finally you say: “Boofhead? Can you point to anyone in that place who is not?”

At least Albanese called only one person a boofhead.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 12:28 pm

Thanks, guest.
It is one thing for me (or you) to insult politicians but quite another for lushly paid politicians to spend their time insulting one another, instead of doing what’s in the pages of their job description.

I do not take back my views on what is going on in those chambers and corridors. These are not fora of civility, conscience and moral labour. They are, indeed as I have described them.

What difference does the fact that Albo called only one boofhead by that name? Would you prefer him to have insulted many more of them?
Kate AhearneDecember 6, 2021 at 12:34 pm

George,

Disappointing that you chose not to answer my question, and I struggled to make any sense of what you did write in response. Anyhow, I just don’t think I can stand any more. Time to stick the kettle on.
StephengbDecember 6, 2021 at 12:41 pm

Mr Theodoridis, Sir,

I am at a complete loss as to why a self asserted intellectual man of some advanced years experience would actually choose to write an article that appears to denounce Anthone Albanese (Albo) for what I saw as a slip of the tounge toward a man who was attempting to silence him.

It is not as if Albo was uttering some dastardly expletive or even a reprehensible insult, calling someone a boofhead, in Australia, is rarely taken as an insult, but more often than not, taken as a merely gentle reminder that the person is acting rather stupdly, and should desist before they make a total fool of themselves.

To me your article seems a pointless exercise, unless your sole intent was to garner some outrage from Lefty’s.

For me you have made a “boofhead” of yourself (an Australian term of endearment).
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 12:49 pm

Sorry Kate. To which question have I not responded?
guestDecember 6, 2021 at 12:57 pm

George, you ask: “Would you prefer him to have insulted many more of them?”

No need for Albo to do that, George – but you have insulted all of Parliament!

See post from Stephengb @12:41
Kaye LeeDecember 6, 2021 at 1:27 pm

Listening to Chris Bowen at the National Press Club……

His speech was great but Labor are hopeless in their response to the Betaloo Basin. They MUST get a better line on that.
leefeDecember 6, 2021 at 4:15 pm

George:

I’d be more impressed with your excoriation of Albo if it had been preceded by equally damning criticism of the far more unparlimentarian behaviour of assorted LNP pollies.

Frankly, yes, good on him. Dutton had no right to carry on the way he was, and Albanese had every right to tell him to pull his head in. Using everyday Aussie language to do it would be, whether calculated or not, to his electoral advantage. It was a far more genuine “ordinary Aussie bloke” moment than any of ScoMoFo’s orchestrated photo-ops.
Mike SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 6:26 pm

George, really?
In this totally f’d up parliament this is of concern to you?
Wow, sticks & stones brother.
I would have been a lot more malevolent than this mild timid response to a bully on the other side who spends most of his time moving that the ‘member no longer be heard’.
I have been following Parliament for 60 years and this would rate as tantamount to a slap across the face with a daisy.
The word sanctimonious springs to my mind in your leaping to defend the ‘civility’ of the ‘peoples House’.
Frankly I find your musings flabbergasting.
George TheodoridisDecember 6, 2021 at 7:11 pm

Thanks, Mike.
So you suggest that a more combatant response from Albo would be better? That exhibition of Abbott chest fronting would fix what you call “f’d up parliament?”

If nothing else, your observation is interesting but highly common.
In all those 60 years of observing this “f’d up parliament?” has it never occurred to you that perhaps, this absurd show should stop and the boys and girls should start doing some decent work, focussed on what this country needs, not what they, themselves want in their avarice and gluttony for power? Did you never wish to Christ that this parliament became a place of peaceful contemplation and synergy?

I watched it, also, not much less than you and every time I watched I was astonished at the goings on in there and how these goings on continued unabated and unregulated. I despaired for this country, now my country. Totally despaired and, for a while, I thought I’d try to do something about it. I joined the ALP, became the chairman of a substantial branch, stood as a candidate in the State elections twice, worked as hard as I could for as long as life allowed me to do so. I met many politicians, both State and Federal and debated issues with them.
And I despaired more. This was because almost every politician, in confidence, spoke as you do now, exhibiting the same disdain and contempt for that place, a place that is the core of our Governance. A place that is now occupied by corrupt, self seeking thugs and thieves, obscenely paid and obscenely grinding their snouts in the public trough.

No, I don’t think more shirt fronting will change the behaviour of that Sodom and Gomorrah but thanks, for your contribution.
Mike SmithDecember 6, 2021 at 8:05 pm

I hear you George, I have given up my expectations of such things.
Whilst populated by spivs, crooks & rorters protecting their racketeering this has sadly become the norm.
At least in Killens’ day the to & fro was cleverly done.
I don’t blame the Conservatives exclusively as PJK made it an art form.
During my working life I use to show groups of school children through HoRs & Senate at Q Time, I was always sadly embarrassed by the appalling behaviour we witnessed.
Whilst I appreciate your input sadly I feel you may be in the ‘Don Quixote’ mode.
Good luck.
corvusboreusDecember 7, 2021 at 5:57 pm

Brave words George.
I definitely agree that governance would be improved by more articulate debate and less gooning for the gallery.
The departure of former speaker Smith and elevation of Wallace as replacement has definitely reset proceedings back to it’s former depths of vapid cacophony.
To quote our emboozened deputy PM, “I like this guy more than the last one (hurk hurk)”.

I would add that I would prefer Albanese boldly articulating widely popular policies than making superficial remark on the dutton things cranial shape.
He could start by ditching the fuzzy ALP wording around an ‘integrity commission’ (or ‘honesty-encouragement body’) and pick up the baton for a ‘federal anti-corruption commission’.

I prefer plain speech to empty sledges.
George TheodoridisDecember 7, 2021 at 9:04 pm

Corvusborreus, i agree with your every syllable. Plain and sincere, respectful speech wins hearts and minds; insults and threats, guffaws and puerile gestures, grunts and inarticulate mouth farts win nothing. No one wins anything with that barbaric, savage stuff. Your observation about Smith is spot on. I can’t see him coping with that sort of buffoonish behaviour and i would not be at all surprised if he is right now thinking if he should leave the LNP altogether. “We” have forgotten what the Parliament is all about. We have forgotten what sacred work is supposed to be done in that room. I am an atheist but the story of Jesus throwing out the money men from his church is a powerful symbol of what is going on in our political church. Defilers, polluters and self interested exploiters have entered it and taken it over for their own amusement. The cleaning up begins with the language and the genuine respect for those who pay their salaries, for each other and for the venue. Policies, should be discussed, debated and explained in plain language. Personal insults, if they see necessary, should be used in pubs and private places. The Speaker should insist! The Speaker should not be a “boofhead”! The Speaker should allow no boofhead in that temple of Democracy.

A joy to have read your response.
corvusboreusDecember 8, 2021 at 8:14 pm

George,
On effective but substantial speaking,

Many (myself included) would consider Ms Gillard’s ‘misogyny speech’ as pretty much the best example of surgical political invective delivered in any national parliament this century.
Admittedly, the mad monk braying about sexism was pretty soft clay, but she worked it beautifully.

Had she taken the lazy path and called ‘honourable’ Abbott a ‘sexist pig’ it would have amounted to little more than a throwaway sledge.
However, she chose to use the best of her rhetorical knowledge to hold up a clear mirror upon the hypocritical vapidity in Abbotts posturing by succinctly and systematically cataloguing some of the most blatant of his consistent displays of ‘sexist piggery’, one evidential example after another.
Her statement was so poetic in it’s structural logic that I have heard it seamlessly delivered as alternative lyric to G Gaynor’s ‘I will survive’ (To a ukelele accompaniment, no less: worth looking up on ‘yewchoob’).

I also reckon her “don’t print crap” response to a press club question about media responsibility was utterly priceless.

By comparison, P Keating’s “coz I wanna do you slowly” sounds like the words of a sadistic creep.
Kaye LeeDecember 8, 2021 at 8:33 pm

Anne Summers for the ABC, 10 October 2012

Most Canberra journalists stood virtually shoulder to shoulder in this morning’s newspapers to condemn the Prime Minister for the same speech. Gillard’s words were condemned as “desperate” (Michelle Grattan), “completely over the top” (Jennifer Hewett), “flawed” (Peter Hartcher), and “defending the indefensible” (Dennis Shanahan) … In the 24 hours since the speech was delivered, a clear polarisation has emerged between the mainstream media, particularly print, and a very large body of online opinion that has applauded the anti-misogyny contents of the speech and welcomed Gillard’s return to her former debating finesse.

Jonathan Holmes for Media Watch, October 2012

The gallery, almost to a man and woman, focused on the hypocrisy, as they saw it, of Julia Gillard attacking Tony Abbott for sexism while defending Peter Slipper. It was an analysis that many outside Canberra utterly rejected. For women especially, the speech wasn’t about a couple of grubby texts, it was about their own life experience.

Julia Gillard on the ABC, 16 September 2018:

There was a time where I was a little resentful that all those years in politics, and all of that work, and everything we did … that all of it apparently came down to one moment in time, one speech. But I’m reconciled with it now and I understand that when people are writing things about me – including writing my obituary, hopefully in many years to come – that it’s going to feature in there.

I miss her.
Michael TaylorDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Kaye, way back I wrote about Julia’s misogyny speech in respect to it winning fans around the world while attracting condemnation from the local press:

The shout heard ’round the world

Gosh. Was it that long ago!
George TheodoridisDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

I remember well that speech and the exciting, sweet fire it lit in my belly. Finally, i thought some emotion articulated elegantly. But then i remember three other speeches of hers: 1) Assange is guilty! 2) oh, you Americans can do anything (in cooing tones) and 3) Israel needs to defend itself! I remember her also explaining that she wouldn’t support gay marriages because her mother was a religious conservative. And a whole lot of other things that left a very, very butter taste in my mouth. Yes, the misogyny speech was a welcome change to the jungle grunts like “boofhead”, made ceaselessly in that place but it takes more than elegant rhetoric to make for a decent parliament.

The local press gallery was very wrong about her misogyny speech but i don’t miss her!
Kate AhearneDecember 8, 2021 at 9:17 pm

Kaye,

Me, too. And thanks for the info about those (mostly surprising) people who came out against Gillard’s speech. I had no recollection of that.
Kaye LeeDecember 8, 2021 at 10:14 pm

What a great article Michael. Those journalists get so caught up in the latest scandal of the day that they fail to even remotely see the big picture – the relief that women felt that finally SOMEONE was saying it.

Regarding same sex marriage, regardless of Gillard’s views, she allowed a vote in parliament and allowed Labor a conscience vote – unlike the Coalition who were instructed to vote no. It was defeated by 98 votes to 42.

When I think of Gillard’s legacy I think of paid parental leave, the NDIS, the NBN, carbon pricing, mining superprofits tax, tripling the tax free threshold, an attempt at needs based funding for education…..and so much more.

There were certainly disappointments but, for me, the good far outweighed the bad.
Michael TaylorDecember 8, 2021 at 11:06 pm

Thank you, Kaye. I forgot all about it until your comment above.
Kate AhearneDecember 9, 2021 at 12:11 am

Fantastic video, Kaye.

Terrific article, Michael.

About Julia… She didn’t have to be perfect any more than any of us does. She didn’t have to believe exactly the same things as we did on every issue, and she didn’t always have to get it ‘right’ to have been one of the finest and most effective prime ministers we have ever had. I agree with Kaye – the good far outweighed the bad
George TheodoridisDecember 9, 2021 at 9:11 am

Kate, let us allow each other our list of priorities.
Terence MillsDecember 9, 2021 at 9:35 am

Barnaby Joyce has contracted COVID on an overseas trip, Barnaby says :

Very frustrated that I will be locked up in a room for 10 days, but that’s part of the process. We arrived here from England, I chose to get a test and tested positive and all my colleagues tested negative, the luck of the draw I suppose.

Barnaby said he will be watching the cricket from Washington DC.

The meetings that had been arranged for him will be conducted in his absence, probably by Vikki.
IsheepelDecember 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

Terence – Barnaby, a targeted individual, targeted by covid.
Bad covid, leave our unvaccinated pollies alone to score own goals.

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