Senator Andrew Bartlett
Sunday, July 24, 2005
 
versions of reality
I’ve attempted to have a few days break during the last week.

In the interests of getting away from the daily grind for a while and connecting with cultural pursuits, my office staff and I went to see a movie, a semi-regular event which we last did at the end of last year. Well, it wasn’t overly cultural, as they decided to see The Fantastic 4. Whilst one could say this highly successful movie is an analogy for the multi-talented foursome who now make up the Democrat Senate team, one also has to say it wasn’t that fab a movie – even though it did invoke some memories from when I watched the cartoon as a kid.

Having got into the spirit of withdrawing from reality, I ignored my email for two days and also went to see Sin City, which is interesting to watch although fairly unrelenting, and got the third instalment of Blade out to watch on DVD.

I did also have a go at watching the TV news versions of reality, which seemed to have regular stories on mutual pocket pissing between our Prime Minister and the leaders of the USA and the UK, followed by lots of stern sounding stuff about needing to upgrade Australia’s allegedly 19th century anti-terrorism laws and other utter nonsense. There are a few quaint old fashioned traditions I wouldn’t mind us keeping (what’s left of them anyway), like the separation of powers, the rule of law and a fair and free democracy, but they don’t seem to be relevant in this Orwellian ‘war’ we’re all being told we’re fighting.

There was also a quite odd column today by Glenn Milne. In it he states that “This (overseas) trip has cemented Howard as a more important international player than either of his predecessors, Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. Yet at home, there remain severe doubts among sections of the public and some commentators about whether this is a good thing or not. Partly this is driven by our national inferiority complex – an inability to grasp the fact that Australia is capable of punching above its middleweight status in global affairs.”

I find the notion that Australians are uncomfortable with the Prime Minister being an international player because of some alleged inferiority complex quite odd. I thought it was quite well established that we can often punch above our weight in global affairs and have done so in the past. That’s certainly not what bothers me about the Prime Minister’s status. I’m more concerned about what he is using that ‘punch’ to do and the fact that our punches are being thrown by someone whose main talents are deceit and divisiveness.

The London bombings have also been used an excuse for a renewed series of ferocious attacks on multiculturalism by many in the mainstream media, which is ironic at a time when the Department responsible for managing migration and multiculturalism has been shown to be incompetent to the core. The Prime Minister has always disliked multiculturalism and I’m sure he will take this chance to do even more damage to it than he has done over the past decade.

It’s all enough to make one want to go back to the fantasy world of the movies. Instead, tonight I’ll join in solidarity with the Prime Minister and watch The Ashes test at Lord’s (although I’ll be in my lounge-room in Brisbane and he’ll be at the ground in London).

Tomorrow, I have two days of Senate Committee hearings, which will make me once again look at how DIMIA engages with reality - always a strange and sometimes disturbing place to visit. Rather like Alice in Wonderland, where words mean whatever they want them to mean.

posted by Andrew Bartlett @ Sunday, July 24, 2005 Permalink
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