Penny Wong’s hush-hush trip to Deniliquin
September 1st, 2009 at 03:31pm
I received an odd little press release from Penny Wong’s office a short time ago, advising me that Ms. Wong, minister for Global Warming (one wonders if “Minister for Hot Air” is apt, in that case) will be in Deniliquin tomorrow to meet with “local groups and stakeholders”. No details about the wheres and whens of it all, and seeing as she is visiting Deni and two other towns tomorrow, you’d think the whens and wheres would be rather important.
So I rang her office and found out that these meetings are all pre-arranged…they then mumbled something about a press briefing and an announcement at the Deni Info Centre at 11:35am. I’ve asked around here and the local paper…nobody knew that this was happening. I am the ONLY radio journalist in town, and if I hadn’t called Penny Wong’s office, I wouldn’t know that there is a press briefing tomorrow. You’d think that they were trying to keep it a secret or something.
2QN is just about to break this story now.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: General News
4 Comments
1. nbrettoner | September 1st, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Hi Samuel,
Gee mate, you must be doing something right!.
She showed no interest whatsoever (to my knowledge) after many repeated requests, to come to Deniliquin.
But now that your in town, look what’s happening!!!!.
Amazing!.
How do you do it?
2. Samuel | September 1st, 2009 at 4:20 pm
Ha ha…it’s bizarre. I’ve found one place which I think may be one of these “stakeholders” to which Ms. Wong’s minions referred in the press release. I suspect this, because they’re the only people so far to not act surprised when I asked them if they knew about her visit. They then stonewalled, referred me to the media rep who is “out” and offered to get them to call me back.
The Pastoral Times have been very vocal in trying to get Penny to town for a long time, and they were surprised when I rang them…the sad thing for them is that they only publish on Tuesdays and Fridays, so they have completely missed out. No doubt Penny will be on the front page on Friday, but I’m sure that if they had known, it would have been all over today’s front page.
I think Penny’s office know that the locals are furious with her, and have wanted the whole thing kept very quiet lest a lynch-mob turns up. I fully expect them to be horrified when their Media Monitors reports turn up.
3. nbrettoner | September 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hi Samuel,
It will be interesting to see if for ‘some inexplicable reason’ Ms Wong has had to cancel her clandestine dash to the political privatisations within the denizens of Deniliquin’s ‘under’ world.
When I lived in Deniliquin, the Police were well-equipped for such occasions. Opposite the Embassy Cinema was the old gaol, replete with an elevated platform & rope.
As a young PMG Telecom Trainee I worked out of the Carrier room behind the Post Office. You will note the old Carrier Room still stands & the rear lane access ran down the side of the gaol. On more than one occasion it was suggested that “we could hang him & no-one would know”, when the boss &/or Senior Techs were upset with me, for some minor mistake.
Such as the time one friday late afternoon I ran a temporary cable along the outside of the ‘other’ old cinema; the RAAF one trucked into town & plonked opposite the Police Station.
When I stapled it, the staples crushed through the insulation & caused about eleven short-circuits in a ten metre run.
On the Monday morning when I got to work, the Senior tech (I think it was Geoff Seely) was still livid with me. He was called back on the Friday night to fix my mess, I think I’d used up nearly all the cable, so he had to find & patch some of the shorts. He was not happy, I WANTED to die!.
4. nbrettoner | September 2nd, 2009 at 8:26 am
Of course the lesson from this was to check continuity etc, even if it is just after 5 o’clock on a Friday & your going away straight after work & you need to get the ‘ute back into the yard before they get tired of waiting for you & lock the gate.
Apologies for such a long sentence. For whom some people may well be overdue in receipt thereof.