| A Squiz at Australia's | Melbourne, Australia |
SCUM AT THE TOP | 16 April 1999 |
| Editor: Harold Hark | Volume 1 Number 9 |
The Silent Majority Is A Coward A disturbing letter in The Age reports three well dressed, pre-pubescent children wantonly kicking out the windows of Melbourne's Sandringham train. The writer was alone in the carriage with his 12 year old daughter and their two bicycles. He says, "Although it was not difficult to collar two of them, my calls for assistance were met by accusing stares from boarding passengers." There were "no transit police, no station staff, and no one at Flinders Street to help." He was forced to let them go. "Their triumph was complete, and their laughter and obscenities are still ringing in our ears." This is the tragic apathy we face from the so-called Silent Majority, that Mainstream within the community which can be counted on to respond only when their own interests are involved. Their apathy and subsequent malleability are well understood by the Coalition. In Victoria, we are being placed in danger by a public transport system purposely being run down until we stop using it altogether and get back in our cars to support City Link and the government-cozy petrol companies who regularly hike their prices on the weekends and at holidays. Worthy governments with social policies to protect the vulnerable may come and go, but the historical indifference of the Silent Majority to the vulnerable always remains the same. Though they attend church regularly and proudly, religion has been a consummate failure in moving them to be their brother's keeper. They not only refuse this exhortation, they want to know nothing of his plight, even when he lives next door. Today we see our leaders forging policy based on polling. And who are they polling? The same Silent Majority of selfish individuals who have never cared what happens to you or me or anyone else as long as they are secure. The same Mainstream that, because of it's misanthropic guilt, despises the displaced, the jobless, the single mother, the "dole bludger," and who looks accusingly at anyone who confronts them with their cowardice. The only time they can perhaps muster a semblance of compassion is during news updates, where they might shed a tear for the terrified refugees on their screens while mauling their bubble and squeak. But by the time the next morsel is swallowed the news is on to sport and from there its a night of sitcoms and tabula rasa. (Ed note: John Hammond, who was fatally stabbed on Anzac Day while coming to the aid of a woman who had just been robbed, belongs to that minority of the community called the Human Race.) HH WHERE'S ME TABLETS! Has Auntie Become A Toothless Old Hag? Gay Alcorn writes in the Saturday Age on the consequences of The 7:30 Report having become a Sydney based national program in 1996: the absence of state political reporting and the boon that has been for state governments. Gone are the days of Victorian local TV scrutiny of the Kennett Government (especially since Jill Singer left Today Tonight); in Tasmania the Franklin Dam project would likely have gone ahead if it were an issue today. Alcorn quotes former 7:30 Report host John Jost: the "central reason for having local current affairs programs ... is because we have state governments." Who are not being called to account on the medium most accessible to the people. Why? We wish to point to our candidate for culprit, Brian Johns. In response to the Coalition's war on the ABC and free speech, it is still not certain whose side he is on. Johns was given a vote of no confidence some years ago; it would appear that staff were wary of his allegiance and decision making. As outsiders, we are not privy to in-house opinions, but our feeling is that he is little more than a weak ManDirin trying to keep his job. Thanks to Johns and John Howard spruiker Donald MacDonald, the Coalition's task of doing a Slobbo on the national broadcaster has been made easier, and the Kennett Government is not being questioned. GS Not since Ronald Reagan has the world seen such a doof-brained head of state as our John Howard. Reagan was fond of catchy phrases for policies of social destruction, including "Star Wars", which threatened to turn the planet into a militarised enclave, and "Zero Tolerance", the policy with the potential to put sidewalk-spitters in the same cell as mass murderers. Here is a quote, out of context, from Susan Mitchell's article in The Australian on John Howard's recent adoption of the latter term. "For Howard to embrace the notion of zero tolerance as a blanket approach to anything of which he does not approve, or is politically too difficult, is damaging to our national image. He is largely responsible for how the world views Australia. Zero tolerance is responsible for what is happening in Kosovo. It is supporting Slobodan Milosevic as it supported Adolph Hitler." Like "efficiency," zero tolerance is a totalitarian ideal. GS Wallis And Warren Sitting In A Tree, Re-con-sid-er-i-n-g... Neil Warren, the PM's tax darling, has now condemned the GST compensation package to failure. He said, "First, the Government's compensation package is simply not adequate. Second, those groups who are neither taxpayers nor welfare recipients are largely forgotten. Third, the compensation package, while it may work in the short term, will fail in the long term." Within 24 hours, Stan Wallis, who led the inquiry into Australia's financial system and was a key figure for the government in considering its tax reform, said that he had "been guilty of focusing on the economic aspect of the reform agenda to the detriment of what I would describe as issues of fairness and equity in the community generally. We must find mechanisms in pursuing economic growth to deliver economic advantages to all sectors." The government dismissed both comments. (Based on an article by Jason Koutsoukis & Malcolm Maiden, The Age.) GS Is Our Whirling Duhbrain About To Spin Out Of Control? Jeff Kennett is everywhere, folks, giving us the benefit of his wisdom on just about every subject known to man. Why, he's even written his own Preamble! Though after it's cool reception, he just had to admit that it was actually written by one of his minions. Is all this manic activity Jeff's reaction to being beaten by The Australian, his only known defeat since coming to power in 1992? Jeffrey, oh Jeffrey, where did you go wrong? You could have been one hell of a leader, a truly great man. Instead you chose the homuncular world of business as your platform. The goals of business are so small, Jeffrey. Oh, I know you think they are a big deal, but they just aren't. The Casino, the Grand Prix, the Commonwealth Games, City Link, Grollo's erection, all that stuff is no more than an adolescent paper boy's dreams of bigger and better routes. They are merely big schemes in a little picture. While you could have gone down in Australian history as one of its greatest treasures, you are only going to be remembered for fin de siècle glitz, for building useless, self-aggrandising monuments to your can-do megalomania. Oh, yes, and you'll be remembered for dismantling the public education system, the hospital system, the public transport system, for refusing to let public servants and teachers speak freely, for kicking sand in the faces of weaklings. What a pity Victoria couldn't have produced a political Charles Atlas to put you in your place. It's all such a shame. You've got a good sense of humour, you're great with the wisecracks, and people just naturally think you're hot stuff. But what do you think of the people? You summed that up pretty well on your election night acceptance speech, when, in an apparent Freudian slip, you referred to Victorians as "victims". We know now, after six years of contemptuous bullying, that you meant exactly what you said. GS Melbourne's Public Transport Fiasco Goes To Court Sushi Das reports in The Age that the State Opposition is calling for transport users to go to court when fined for not having valid Metcards they have been unable to purchase. Metcard machines are often out of order and, on trams, do not accept notes. ALP transport spokesman, Peter Batchelor, said: "The Government has set up a system that, in effect, entraps people into breaking the law. I believe that is morally wrong" and "probably illegal. You can have circumstances ... where people can get on a tram with the intention of buying a ticket, have legal tender in their pocket and still be fined by the Kennett Government." The Public Transport Users' Association and some Government supporters have urged the reinstatement of conductors and guards at railway stations. GS is what happens when a nong like John Howard calls someone like Kim Beazley "yesterday's man." You start to laugh, but the comprehensive display of self-deluded ignorance instead brings forth a cascade of spew. GS |
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