Plucking heartstrings of political one-upmanship

THE sound of the instrumental now known as Duelling Banjos conjures up images of ruthless, toothless, inbred hillbillies from the creepy 1972 film Deliverance.

Now we have our own vision of Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd playing duelling versions of a compassionate chorus to a 14-year-old boy banged up in Bali for allegedly buying some marijuana on his way to or from a massage joint. Why the Prime Minister or the Foreign Minister of Australia is getting personally involved with a boy who allegedly engaged in seriously risky behaviour is no mystery. Music lovers would be aware that Duelling Banjos was originally called Feudin' Banjos when Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith composed the piece in 1955 and Gillard and Rudd are feudin'. The 14-year-old boy is being used as political cannon fodder in their fight for the prime ministership. Rudd has never accepted his political assassination and Gillard has never acted like a prime minister, despite intensive coaching from speech writers, political strategists and comics. It's not as if either strummer doesn't have enough challenges of great importance either, Gillard is still pushing her tax on everything through the parliament, she has her patches ready to apply to her busted Malaysian Solution and she has the ongoing nightmare of her electoral standing. Rudd, missing in action when the government killed the live export beef trade and absent from the Malaysian talks, is now available for book readings, tuck shop openings and presumably weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs. Rudd used to be smarter but his vaulting ambition has reduced him to this. That the Australian ambassador has been ordered to ride shotgun as well, just shows how misplaced this government's priorities become when political careers are in the balance. Our diplomats work overtime assisting Australians who fall foul of the law when they are abroad. But anyone who might claim to have been unaware of Bali's strict anti-drug laws given the Schapelle Corby soap opera and the tales of the convicted drug mules facing the death penalty should be regarded with scepticism. The impression these buffoons are giving to our Asian neighbours is one of complete incompetence. Should Rudd or Gillard feel an urgent need to call a youngster in trouble in the future, let alone the Aboriginal kids condemned to live in hopeless and dysfunctional remote communities, any of the missions helping street kids around the nation's cities or in the bush could find plenty of candidates for a ministerial hook-up. Should they take that opportunity, it is to be hoped that their call is a private one and not made for personal or party political purposes.