Posts filed under 'Canberra Stories'
Just when you think sanity has prevailed, you find out that Weekend Magazine is a Saturday only show, so whilst Canberra is saved from Sydney real estate, we are not saved from Sydney Gardening, and considering we have two hours of Canberra gardening in the morning, 2CC could be the new home for horticultural experts. At least we know where to turn when the petunias start talking. On the other hand, why not have another two hour show on 2CC from midday to 2PM on Sunday, perhaps Kevin Woolfe talking about sport, not just the major sporting events, but the local games as well, or maybe Weekend Welshy…catchy title…
Glenn Wheeler is starting to sound pretty good, he seems to have settled in nicely, and is certainly happy at 2UE. I still miss George and Paul, but I guess the 2UE webstream is there if I need it. I’m very unhappy with 2UE for removing George Gibson from weekend New Day Australia and placing Stuart Bocking in his place…strange decision in my view.
On another note, when I turned on the Trading Post this afternoon, I just happened to turn it on at the time when John B1_B5 was on there…interesting coincidence if you ask me!
Samuel
November 13th, 2005 at 08:00pm
Oh boy, just when I thought some sanity had returned to my life, 2UE pull some strange changes out of a hat and make my 2CC listening odd.
It started when I turned on the radio this morning at around 12:30am before going to bed and noticed Stuart Bocking, after a bit of research I have discovered George is gone and Stuart has taken over the show (eek!). I reported back in June that Stuart was moving to middawns and leaving Lawsie’s show, which seems to have come true. Stuart only seems to be doing racing tips once a week for Lawsie now, which is a large pity in my view, he was always a welcome and fun addition to Lawsie’s show when he entered the studio out of the blue.
Thankfully 2CC haven’t lost their minds, and Weekend Magazine was back today, with Mike Frame running a mostly snappy and entertaining show, well done Mike! Thankfully Weekend Magazine is on 2CC to save us from Sydney realty and gardening.
As previously reported, Mike frame also ran the Trading Post and the Saturday morning show which used to be the domain of Kane Bond, who has left 2CC.
Glenn Wheeler (Apoligies for spelling his name with one N previously) seems to have settled in to his afternoon show and was pretty good today, although he (presumably at 2UE’s discretion) has launched a 5:30-6PM trading post…ye gods, this brings that dreaded program format repetition back to 2CC…saved from Sydney gardening…driven nuts by Sydney Buying, Swapping and Selling. 2UE management are collectively insane if they think getting listeners from Canberra, Sydney and wherever else Glenn is heard to all ring in and try and sell stuff to each other…yes 2UE, everyone wants to drive for three hours or more just to buy a table…
I suppose this means that I think 2CC should move local programming to the afternoon to avoid loony 2UE segments…but I doubt they will.
Samuel
November 12th, 2005 at 05:16pm
I stumbled across an unusual and interesting website last week about Australian buses, Bus Australia, something I found interesting is that they seem to know more about the ACTION fleet than ACTION do. Including the fact that some of the new green buses (which I’m not a fan of) were originally detined for King Bros, but for one reason or another were never delivered, and were probably really cheap for ACTION as a result. The site also shows some of the old ACTION buses (the models before the current oldest models…I loved those buses…also shows some of the old leyland buses), and shows some ex-ACTION buses being used elsewhere.
It actually shows just about every bus from everywhere in the country…and even some ferries…well worth a look.
Samuel
November 11th, 2005 at 12:26am
I think the 2CC Transmitter just died. During the 3PM news 2CC just disappeared from all of my radios, leaving static, which indicates a transmitter problem and not a studio fault. I am still able to pick up every other AM station, including 2CC’s sister station the next studio 2CA.
I’ve rung 2CC to inform them, I’m probably not the only one….I am however holding out hope that this is a problem which has only happened in my house…John B1_B5, can you recieve them?
Update: At 3:15 they have fixed it, starting with some music and then cutting to an ad break.
Samuel
November 10th, 2005 at 03:08pm
Over the weekend the ACT Government sent out a booklet to each and every household titled Emergencies And The National Capital: A Residents Guide.
Whilst it is an interesting effort by the government, it is unlikely that you will find anything of use in their quickly, instead you are told objectives, colours and the acts that “underpin” your evacuation.
The guide is clearly written by a public servant as it does lack clarity and plain english, favouring government speak and responsibility briefings. Among my favourite parts of the book are:
The ACT Evacuation Strategy is underpinned by the ACT Emergencies Act 2004 which allows Emergency Services to restrict movement to an area, or direct to people to leave an area due to unacceptable risks to life, property and the environment. The Strategy provides a flexible and adaptable approach to the management of evacuations that is not possible through the development of fixed plans. To achieve this the Strategy has the following components:
- The ACT Community Safety – Evacuation Policy;
- The ACT All Hazards Warning System; and
- A public information plan.
Oh goody, that clears that up!
Apparently part of our emergency planning is acknowleging that emergency services may not be able to immediately meet all individual and community needs.
Looks like the chief turnip won’t need to worry about being responsible next bushfire then!
The guide also outlines the colour coded “emergency event” system, namely “Blue: Possible Threat”, “Yellow: Likely Impact”, “Orange: Certain Impact” & “Red: Immediate Impact”. Only Orange and Red will attract an emergency siren being broadcast through local media outlets, and therefore only Orange and Red are going to wake up the usually automated radio and TV stations. This is interesting because the book does say that some people should evactuate during Yellow…but if our radio and TV stations are automated we aren’t going to know about Yellow…so much for advance warning.
Anyway, if you would like to read this rather odd publication for yourself, take a look at http://www.esb.act.gov.au/Emergencies_and_the_National_Capital_-_A_residents_guide.pdf but be careful, those government papragraphs may make your eyes glaze over.
Samuel
November 8th, 2005 at 03:17pm
Once again today was another odd day on 2CC. Weekend Magazine vanished into thin air, and listeners were subjected to the 2UE Sydney centric gardening show. Glen Wheeler seemed a bit more comfortable today but he still isn’t as entertaining as George Moore & Paul B. Kidd. Yesterday I started to think he had good taste in music, but he pulled a song right out of left field this afternoon that forced me to turn off the radio for a few minutes to avoid “sqealing and screeching with musical acompaniment”. If I wanted to hear that I would turn on an FM music station.
I am still very disappointed at the changes 2UE made to the schedule, and I’m not overly impressed with the absence of local programming between midday & 2pm which forced a Sydney gardening show through the Canberra airwaves. It is possible that Mike Frame had other commitments, but that gardening show was nowhere near as interesting as David Young’s Garden is.
Samuel
November 6th, 2005 at 09:24pm
Regular reader and commenter John B1_B5 informs me that somebody has stolen his bicycle.
A Reward of $100 is offered to anybody who can supply information regarding the person who stole this 1974 Raleigh Twenty bicycle from a garage in Wanniassa on Friday , November 4 , 2005.
UPDATE:John B1_B5 has provided some more information. This bike stands out from others because it’s smaller than a normal size bike, and has 20 inch wheels instead of the usual 26 inch wheels.
END UPDATE
Email your info to JOHN33805@HOTMAIL.COM
OR CALL 0402201643
If you have ANY information whatsoever, even if it turns out to be unhelpful, I urge you to contact John B1_B5 using the contact details above, even the smallest bit of information can help.
John, I hope you get the bike back soon.
Samuel
November 5th, 2005 at 03:44pm
Weekends on 2CC are now the realm of Mike Frame it would seem. The word is that Kane Bond is (eventually) leaving 2CC, and indeed there was an ad on radioinfo.com.au a few weeks back for the Drive show Producer position.
On the topic of weekends, 2CC seem to have handled the sudden 2UE change reasonably well. They have introduced a new “Weekend Magazine” program from Midday-2pm on Saturday and Sunday, presumably to avoid the sydney centric gardening and real estate shows…or segments of shows as they should be known. The first issue of Weekend Magazine went fairly well, although it did seem to struggle for callers in parts.
Mike didn’t seem entirely convinced that Weekend Magazine would survive through to next week, and I think he may be right if it continues in its current format. It has dawned on me that the thing which was missing from that show was interviews. I suppose that they might not have had time to arrange any interviews, but for goodness sakes, get somebody from the art gallery or the mueseum or the zoo or even the weather bureau on the phone, they will be able to enlighten us with information on happenings that we might not have otherwise know about. Maybe they could get somebody from one of the many local markets on the phone. There is so much that heppens in Canberra on the weekend that we never hear about on the radio, and this is 2CC’s chance to grace the airwaves with some of it.
However, the jury is still out on Glen Wheeler’s weekend afternoon show, which so far has not been as entertaining as George Moore and Paul B. Kidd’s afternoon show. It sounds like 2UE are trying to copy the 2GB afternoon formula of having various subject segments scattered throughout the show, which is strange considering that people in general chose George and Paul’s show over the 2GB show. I was very concerned when I turned the radio back on earlier to find that there was a discussion about mothballs and dining rooms between Glen and his guest, who I later found out was Monica Trapaga…I think. It is very concerning when you can listen to a conversation for 3 minutes and still not know what they are going on about.
To that extent, I really think 2CC can take weekends by storm if they move the local programming to the Midday-6pm slot and let George and Paul, who command an audience of their own in the same way John Laws does, take the morning slot. Having a show like the one George and Paul present in the morning will put 2CC in a much better position to tackle ABC Local Radio’s “Macca On Sunday” show, which is a very light conversational show, and bring a whole new level of interesting programming to afternoons.
Sure, keep running Weekend Magazine, even in that timetable I came up with yesterday, give it some interviews with local the people behind the places and events of Canberra, and let George and Paul sail the good ship of radio ratings in the morning.
On reflection I think that having Weekend Magazine at 2PM-4PM and the Travelling Fisherman and the Toyota Outback club at 4PM-5PM would work better than what I said yesterday.
I suppose it is just a matter of waiting and seeing what happens.
Samuel
November 5th, 2005 at 03:32pm
Mike Frame just announced that 2CC are staying with local programming this afternoon. I think he said they are doing that until 2pm, but I wasn’t listening properly so I can’t be sure. He certainly said there would be local programming on 2CC this afternoon though.
Samuel
November 5th, 2005 at 10:56am
A closer look at the Southern Cross Syndication website shows that the 2UE gardening show has also been removed from the product list, the remaining garden show is the 4BC Brisbane Garden show.
However, the 2UE garden show and real estate show haven’t disappeared, they have simply been moved into the Glen Wheeler Weekend Afternoon show, although nobody seems to know the times that they will be on. Surely this is madness, outside of Sydney, who really cares about Sydney garden conditions or the price of the house in a Sydney suburb based on a telephone description.
Up until now network stations have been able to avoid the Sydney garden show if they wanted to by simply running local programming during it, but now it is a segment of another show, meaning that if a station wants to avoid it, they are going to need to run SIX HOURS of local programming to avoid it and sound “normal”. It would sound very odd indeed if at, for example, 1:59pm Glen Wheeler was heard to say “After the news it’s time to do solve those gardening problems with Jennifer Stackhouse”, and then the 2PM news played, followed by some local “Hits from way-back-when” show until the 3PM news, which would be followed by a return to Glen Wheeler who could very easily have “Just one more garden caller for Jennifer.”
Apart from which, people love George Moore and Paul B. Kidd, and you hear other shows being flooded with “I’m so glad George and Paul are back” in the weeks leading up to their returne after the football season (incidentally, I’m baffled as to why 2UE don’t offer George and Paul during the football season as Macquarie’s 2GB have the football…although 2SM just got the rights to one game per week…another story, another time). The worst part about these changes is that they are too drastic and too early in the year for them to be temporary summer changes, apart from which, George and Paul were the summer afternoon syndication goldmine, so a change like this wouldn’t have been made on a temporary basis.
As for Canberra, this is surely the thin end of the wedge…I really think 2CC will suffer if they take Glen Wheeler in the afternoon, don’t get me wrong, Glen is an excellent host, but I just don’t think the people of Canberra really want to hear 2CC contradicting itself. Canberra’s local gardening expert, David Young, has criticised interstate garden shows on many occasions for just not being relevant in Canberra, how then do 2CC expect to retain credibility with the gardening community if they have David Young saying what I have already mentioned, followed by Jennifer Stackhouse with the “Sydney suburban garden hour”?
As I have already mentioned, people love George Moore and Paul B. Kidd, they are easy to listen to, and they are good fun. They will take a couple weeks to get used to mornings, but they will do it (I know I previously said moving them to mornings is a mistake, which it is…the entire schedule blender is a mistake, but they will adapt). The people of Canberra love George and Paul…so what to do? Well, here’s my plan which I think will save 2CC from a terrible disaster at the hands of 2UE programming.
Currently 2CC have local programming from 6am to midday on weekends, I suggest they change that. Lets have George and Paul from 6am to midday, followed by some local programming. At midday we could have The Trading Post for one hour, it works for two hours before midday, but I don’t think it would do the same after midday as people will start to lose interest in visiting unknown houses to buy stuff by then. At 1pm you could have David Young’s Garden for an hour or two depending on the day. After this, there are some things that could be done, perhaps a local talkback show on Saturday and the “Best Ofs” on Sunday, and then there are a few gaps to fill, so lets take a look at my draft schedule.
Saturday
- Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
- 6am: George and Paul (2UE)
- Midday: The Trading Post
- 1PM: David Young’s Garden
- 2PM: The Travelling Fisherman
- 3PM: Saturday Afternoon with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
- 5PM: The Best Of The John Laws Week
- 6PM: Mike Williams (2UE)
Sunday
- Midnight: George Gibson
- 6am: George and Paul
- Midday: The Trading Post
- 1PM: David Young’s Garden
- 2PM: Toyota Outback Club
- 3PM: Sunday Afternoon With (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
- 5PM: The Best Of The Mike Jeffreys Week
- 6PM: Mike Williams
I would be willing to bet that most 2CC listeners don’t even know that there is a “Best Of Mike Jeffreys” show early in the morning on Sunday (I think it’s Sunday) or that the Outback Club show or the Fishing show even exist. All of these shows deserve a higher prominence than what they currently get.
What I have drafted here would, in my view, bring 2CC extra listeners on the weekend. People would enjoy listening to George and Paul in the morning, and would most likely welcome the interesting and constantly changing afternoon lineup. I would suggest that the Saturday and Sunday Afternoon shows could be a mostly relaxed talkback program, with a special emphasis on the things which happen in and around Canberra on weekends, combine that with the usual Canberra based talkback formula and you would have a very good show.
This also brings up the question of news. I would suggest keeping the current system of bringing in a different weekday newsreader each day of the weekend for six hours, and supplement it with a dedicated weekend newsreader to take the other six hours, therefore providing localised news during the 6am-6pm period every day of the week.
Of course this wouldn’t work during the football season, so during the football season I would have a lineup as follows:
Saturday during football season
- Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
- 6am: The Travelling Fisherman
- 7am: David Young’s Garden
- 8am: The Best Of The John Laws Week
- 9am: Saturday Morning with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
- 10am: The Trading Post
- Midday: Football (2GB)
- 8PM: Mike Williams (2UE)
Sunday during football season
- Midnight: George Gibson (2UE)
- 6am: Toyota Outback Club
- 7am: David Young’s Garden
- 8am: The Best Of The Mike Jeffreys Week
- 9am: Sunday Morning with (Kane Bond? Mike Frame?)
- 10am: The Trading Post
- Midday: Football (2GB)
- 6PM: Mike Williams (2UE)
The trading post does seem to work quite well in a two hour timeslot during the morning. 2CC could probably get away with just one six hour newsreader on weekends, perhaps the dedicated weekend newsreader that I mentioned before.
Anyway, I think that this would enable 2CC to avoid the superbly avoid the Sydney centric garden and house shows whilst attracting new listeners with an exciting and interesting new lineup on weekends. It would also allow 2CC to continue the programming during the football season without affecting the football coverage.
Samuel
November 4th, 2005 at 11:17pm
As previously mentioned, I gave 2CC a birthday card for it’s 30th birthday. It was more of a birthday paper than a card, but it’s the thought that counts.
Anyway, I have gone to some length to reproduce the birthday card. You may have seen in various places that sell paper, paper with pre-printed backgrounds, I used a “scrollpaper” background and printed on top of that. This is what makes the reproduction tricky, I have had to copy the scrollpaper background into the birthday card document which means I had to scan in another piece of scrollpaper (I thought I had run out of it, but I found one) and then go about inserting it into the document.
Anyway, here is the birthday card which I presented to 2CC (and I believe is currently hanging on their notice board). Clicking on the picture will open the 861KB PDF file of it.
Samuel
November 2nd, 2005 at 03:33pm
Two weeks ago The Chronicle published a cut down version of my transport ideas in the letters to the editor section of the paper. In this weeks edition they have published a reply from another Canberra resident which I will share with you below. It is on page 24 of the Northside Chronicle but the page number may vary between edition.
Transport
Editor
I REFER to the letter ‘Public Transport’ (The Chronicle, October 18).
I could not agree more with the sentiments of your correspondent.
Unfortunately there is a negative mindset in regards to light rail in this territory. Inherent in this regard is the provincial mentality of our territory leaders that is akin to a type of colonial cringe. Small cities such as Canberra should have light rail. Many do in other parts of the world with considerable success.
There is sufficient evidence that light rail is far more efficient and user friendly than any busway will ever be. Busways will never encourage people to shift from their cars to this mode of public transport. Light rail/trams will. Once built, the busway has little chance of being converted to light rail. The authorities will never justify the expense. Look at what happened in Adelaide with OBahn.
The population increase in the Modbury Corridor which the OBahn serves more than justifies the conversion to light rail but it will not happen because successive South Australian governments lack the political will.
The same thing will happen here.
Finally, what has always been needed in Canberra is an intergrated transport infrastructure with the light rail as the core mode. The proposal for the construction of the busway is just another example of re-inventing the wheel. [Pun intended.]
KEVIN CONNOR
Kaleen
So there we have it, somebody who not only agrees with my sentiments, but also has some solid evidence from other areas to back up their own ideas. Well done Mr. Connor, the voice of reason speaks out!
(That being said, John B1_B5 was also able to back up the idea of trams with evidence from their implementation and de-implementation, and the public sentiments surrounding it.)
Samuel
November 2nd, 2005 at 02:10pm
Happy 30th Birthday 2CC.
Canberra’s Talk Radio 1206 2CC turned 30 at 7am. Originally a music station, it is now a talk radio station and they have been running a few promotions relating to their 30th birthday. They gave away a 1975 Holden Kingswood and are currently giving away $30,000 worth of home improvements.
(Click image to enlarge)
John Kerr wished 2CC a happy 30th birthday at quarter past midnight this morning as part of his daily birthday list and offered up a memory or two. I recorded it for your listening pleasure, and you can hear it by clicking here.
According to radio historian Wayne Mac, the first song played on 2CC was Pick Me Up by Canberra band The Ritz, and they were originally broadcasting from Bellenden St Gungahlin.
I remember when 2CC started turning to talk, and David Young’s Garden was on from 7am-8am on Saturdays and 7am-9am on Sundays. I was one of the regular callers to that show, although rarely talking about anything useful, I was usually the first caller through and David seemed to enjoy our conversations. I would often sit up in bed with a cup of coffee listening to David Young, and occasionally the trading post, which started at 8am on Saturdays (I think). I remember that the two hosts rotated each week and the callers were constantly calling them the wrong names. Of course I started listening to 2CC when it was still a music station, probably in 1990 or 1991.
Happy Birthday 2CC!
Samuel
October 31st, 2005 at 07:00am
It would appear that ACTION have launched a new dialect of mathematics which challenges conventional thinking on the subject. The advance copies of their new maths appears to contain the notion that swapping plus and minus signs provides more interesting results. ACTION have even launched at least one set of signs which use the new version of maths.
It would appear to me that this new dialect of mathematics is in line with ACTION management’s general policy of making things harder and more confusing, unlike most staff there who seem to try their hardest to make things work.
Samuel
October 21st, 2005 at 08:00pm
Apoligies for the very bad attempt at a pun in the title, but it seemed appropriate.
This afternoon my attention was drawn to the comments of Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman. Piers made some very interesting, and in my view correct, observations about the Leaky Stanhope Saga, which I have previously covered.
As I don’t know how long the link to the Daily Telegraph article will last for, I have mirrored Piers’ comments below. I have since emailed Piers with my views on the issue, and some little bits of information which Piers might be interested in when it comes to the rest of the Chief Turnip’s cabinet.
I also found it quite interesting that the John Laws web poll “Are the Howard Government’s proposed anti-terror laws too tough?” attracted the following result.
Yes 21%
No 79%
I’ll admit that the average John Laws listener is probably somewhat right-winged, but considering that the John Laws website is reported to have hundreds of thousands of visitors each day, it is probably a mostly fair representation of a cross section of the community, especially seeing as people are often referred to the polls by email with no knowledge of what discussions have taken place on the show.
Another fiddle by the Nero of Canberra
October 18, 2005
Piers Ackerman
SHOWING once again he is not the best man to have on your side in a firestorm, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, on whose watch Canberra burnt two summers ago, has abandoned all ethical and security considerations in an attempt to undermine the Federal Government’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation.
Having agreed with all other state and territory leaders to respect the confidentiality of the draft anti-terrorism bill while it was under discussion, Mr Stanhope, displaying all the maturity of a wet-behind-the-ears student activist, promptly published the content on his Toy Town government’s website, and, in so doing made himself out to be some sort of hero with the immature Left.
Responsible government requires responsible leadership – even more so with the world locked in combat against the most lethal forms of terrorism.
But not from the knee-jerk populist Mr Stanhope. The lessons taught by New York, Bali, Jakarta, Madrid and London have escaped the notice of this former Beazley political staffer.
If security matters cannot be discussed in confidentiality, there is little chance of ever meeting the terrorist threat.
Mr Stanhope, has, of course, a dismal record when it comes to protecting the malcontented public servants in his fiefdom.
When bushfires threatened the ACT in January, 2003, his administration rejected the concerned inquiries made by the NSW fire authorities and the subsequent firestorm that swept through Canberra’s suburbs destroyed more than 500 houses, killed four people and left others with serious burns.
Scandalously, this self-proclaimed man-of-the-people then attempted to shut down the coronial inquiry just as it began to raise questions which went to the heart of his administration’s failed decision-making process.
When later challenged about the ACT Government’s failure to recognise the gravity of the bushfire threat, he said famously: “I’m not a firefighter; I don’t have that experience.”
No, indeed. Nor is there any evidence that he is an expert on terrorism but he did say after being briefed by the heads of the security apparatus on the new anti-terror laws: “Faced with blunt advice from the head of ASIO, from the head of the Office of National Assessments and from the head of the Australian Federal Police that we do indeed face grave circumstances in Australia, it really isn’t possible for any head of government to turn away and to take some other advice or to make some personal judgment on how serious the situation is. The situation is serious.”
The meeting with the security chiefs, he said, “provided, I believe, a strong justification for a range of new laws”.
That was last month. Three weeks later, the populist politician has changed his tune dramatically, telling a meeting of Muslim leaders in Canberra last Friday: “Today I invite Canberra’s Muslims to see for themselves the draft legislation the Prime Minister has presented to the states and territories for their consideration.
“I do not wish to deceive you. The laws to which I have agreed are unpalatable laws. They are laws I never anticipated I would be called upon to consider.
“I believe it is wrong and counterproductive for us to keep insisting that this behaviour has no causal links to our invasion of Iraq. I also believe that the anxiety and dislocation felt by Muslims can no longer be seen in isolation from the West’s behaviour in relation to Palestine.”
Where Mr Stanhope’s newfound knowledge of terrorism comes from is a mystery.
Perhaps he is being briefed by Michael Costello, who also worked on Mr Beazley’s staff and is now the $400,000-a-year head of the ACT’s water and electricity utility.
Fanatical Islamist terrorists began targeting infidels or poor observers of the tenets of Islam long before the Iraqi conflict and without any reference to Middle Eastern political structure.
Previously, Mr Stanhope restrained his half-baked political activism to providing support for a juvenile staffer who stealthily crept around Canberra shopping areas in the dead of night creating stultifyingly stupid graffiti. Now he has brought his naive approach to bear on more serious affairs.
The contrast between the stupefying response of this arch poseur to the current global crisis and that of the 10 million or so brave Iraqis who defied suicidal murderers to register their acceptance of Iraq’s new constitution last weekend is absolutely breathtaking.
Their enthusiasm in the face of dreadful threats matched that of the millions of Africans a decade ago who queued for hours to vote for freedom from apartheid in South Africa after years of oppression.
Like the South Africans, Iraqis believe they can stand up to those who want to steal the keys of liberty and democracy.
How, given his absurd utterances, would Mr Stanhope and his fellow doomsayers expect Australia to respond to the threat of international terrorism against those he represents? With the same facile response he mustered before the bushfires two years ago or with more steel?
His unprincipled abrogation of his agreement to participate in confidential talks on a series of unexceptional proposals to deal with terrorism certainly does not inspire confidence in his understanding of the gravity of the situation the world now faces.
Nor do his views on Iraq and the Middle East indicate anything beyond arrant populism.
He has committed a serious breach of trust and it would be perfectly understandable should colleagues in the state and federal governments exclude him from future confidential talks and briefings.
Courtesy of dailytelegraph.com.au
Samuel
October 18th, 2005 at 08:59pm
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