Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Well done, that woman!

Huzzah!

Honestly, would it kill some people to say "well done" to the Commonwealth Attorney-General, Nicola Roxon?

Through quiet negotiation, diplomacy and generally not being a dick, Ms Roxon has managed to get the Japanese authorities to agree to release the three dickheads whale freedom-fighters who jumped on that Japanese boat earlier this week.

Ms Roxon has proven herself to be one of the best performers in the Gillard Government - again.

I think large parts of the media and commentariat were gearing up for another extended rant about how the Gillard Government "can't get anything right". It must irk them beyond belief when the Gillard Government, in fact, gets it right.

And while I'm in ranting mode, the Shonan Maru No. 2* was not inside Australian territorial waters at the time of the boarding. It was in our economic zone, which is not the same thing at all.

* Which reminds me. Whatever happened to the Shonan Maru No. 1?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Y'know, I remember during the reshuffle, the media made this big song and dance about who had actually earned a promotion and which moves were about Gillard protecting her leadership and so forth; and then the only thing said about Plibersek and Roxon was that it put more women into cabinet. No discussion (that I saw) of their previous performance, or of their political allegiances, just this sort of uncomfortable, unspoken allegation of bare-arsed tokenism. Of course, Gillard didn't help matters when she adopted the tactic of deflecting questions about Rudd and Shorten by talking about how historic it was that we had our first female attorney general.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out how much that all irked me. Congrats to Roxon and I hope she and Plibersek both do bang up jobs.

Anonymous said...

it put more women into cabinet

Or (probably, more accurately) elevated the status of women in cabinet. Shit, you know what I'm talking about.

catlick said...

I'm just waiting for the "leadership catfight" headlines to appear.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Alex, Catlick,

The media generally did a pretty shit job about covering the reshuffle.

Roxon was a good Health Minister and I'm sure she'll be dammn good Attorney-General.

Mr E said...

ROXON COMES TO GRIPS WITH NIPS ON SHIPS - LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE?

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

You should have been a sub-editor, Mr E.

That's a cracker.

Anonymous said...

I second Ramon's sentiments, Mr E. Top-notch work.

...actually, while we're having a poke at the media, can anyone here tell me why we need blanket coverage of the goddamn Republican nomination process here in Australia? Do the yanks even care that much about this shit? It's making me crazy. It isn't even the goddamn election forchristsakes.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Because it's a Big Thing, Alex.

A Big Thing that's taking place in the US.

That makes it Newsworthy.

It doesn't have to make sense.

Mr E said...

That makes it Newsworthy.

Ramon, Deep in your heart, you must know that that just isn't true.

The endless cycle of "debates" is to politics as World Championship Wrestling is to competitive sport. Meaningless pablum pitched at an audience with the attention span of a nine year old to fill a 24 hour "news" cycle. Not news there and certainly not here.

It's just "fill". Why would a local station go the trouble and expense of employing real journos to develop real stories about real issues effecting their real audience, when it's so much easier to grab a story off the feed? It's all about padding out the spaces between the ads at the lowest possible cost per program minute.

You know this.

[/egg_sucking_lesson]

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Oh, I didn't say it was news, Mr E.

I said it was "newsworthy".

There is big difference.

Mr E said...

I've always thought that "newsworthy" to mean something along the lines of:
"Of sufficient interest or importance to the public to warrant reporting in the media."

Am I missing something crucial?

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Newsworthy in most news rooms means "something the CoS thinks we should give a run".

Mr E said...

Does SuperGlue work on shattered illusions?

catlick said...

Yes it does!
Smash the shattered illusions E. Then glue the detritus to a shape that suits your mathmatical inclination. Focus a light on it, rotate it to music and dance your cares away.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Newsrooms are ace places to work, consisting as they do of people mostly

Screaming,

Swearing and

Panicking

Anonymous said...

It's all about padding out the spaces between the ads at the lowest possible cost per program minute.

I'd honestly hoped there was something more noble and misguided behind it, Mr E; but given the quality of the coverage, what you say makes a lot of sense.

The endless cycle of "debates" is to politics as World Championship Wrestling is to competitive sport.

At least WCW had the decency to fold, I believe, after the whimsical foolishness gave way to unbearable tedium*. With Newt's big win, there's still no end in sight to this malarkey.

Newsrooms are ace places to work, consisting as they do of people mostly screaming, swearing and panicking

For some reason, Ramon, I can't really picture you doing any of those things. Except the middle one. Obviously.

*As I understand it, if you want quality pablum these days, you've gotta look either to Mexico or Japan.