Backroom Baz: Senior bureaucrat’s email causes stir on International Women’s Day
It should have been a routine, feel-good email to staff on International Women’s Day. But one ham-fisted Victorian bureaucrat managed to cause a stir.
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Well, didn’t a senior bureaucrat cause a stir this week? It should have been a routine, feel good email to staff on International Women’s Day.
Said bureaucrat started strong, wishing all well on an important day to “acknowledge the women in our lives, our mums, grandmothers, wives, partners, sisters, daughters, grand daughters, aunties and friends … good on you to all those women who raise their kids with love and who work and contribute to society in so many ways – thank you!!!”
Big boss man should have stopped there. Because the line that followed caused quite the stir.
“International Men’s Day is on 19th November when I will also acknowledge the men in our lives,” he continued.
What’s that saying about digging up?
VALE KIMBERLEY KITCHING
Like the rest of the political world, Baz was shocked by the sudden death of Victorian senator Kimberley Kitching this week.
And like the many tributes from friends and colleagues on all sides of politics, Baz will remember Kimba as a relentless human rights campaigner, a Labor warrior, a fiercely passionate politician and a proud Australian.
Unquestionable integrity shines through only rarely in the political world, but Kitching had it in spades. Baz extends his deepest condolences to her husband, Andrew, her family, friends and colleagues. Vale.
NO LOVE IS LOST
Daniel Andrews became enemy number one for brides across the state for much of the past two years, with ongoing restrictions that scuppered wedding plans time and again.
Baz knows of some couples who postponed their happy day four times before finally saying I do. Still, it seems no love is lost.
At least that’s how it appeared when the Premier was spotted taking selfies with one happy couple who, fresh from church, were capturing memories of the happy day in Treasury Gardens.
The Premier was on the run, but appeared all too happy to oblige. Maybe it reminded him of his own happy day, 24 years ago. Silver anniversary coming up.
MOB PREPARING FOR LIFE AFTER POLITICS?
He’s only just been appointed back on the front bench, so former opposition leader Michael O’Brien’s absence from parliament was duly noted this week.
Spies tell Baz the new shadow Attorney-General was instead doing an Australian Institute of Company Directors course.
One wonders if MOB is preparing for a life post politics. As one observer noted, he’s certainly had some spare time up his sleeve until recently.
ONE-SIDED GAME
Clear out your diaries next week, Baz has just been alerted to the Game of the Century. Victoria’s Koorie Academy has staged a very worthy charity “all stars” basketball game and it has a Spring St-themed line up that is more one sided than a press release in an election year.
On the side of the Koorie academy are big names such as the most recent Bachelorette Brooke Blurton, Brisbane Lions premiership AFL legend Chris Johnson and NBL star Chris Patton.
But representing the Victorian All Stars is a group of politicians not exactly known for their sporting achievements, until now.
Ministers Shaune Leane and Gabrielle Williams will be assisting from the sidelines while their Cabinet colleagues Anthony Carbines and Ingrid Stitt hit the court.
They will also be backed by fellow Labor MPs Sonja Terpstra, Dustin Halse, Sheena Watt, Matt Fregon and Jackson Taylor, with some help from federal Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe and former basketball pros Andrew Parkinson and Chris Anstey.
While Baz is sure the side stacked with pollies will try their best, he won’t be betting on a close margin.
However anyone willing to get behind the great cause need only bring a gold coin donation and head to the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna South on March 20.
NO MORGAN FREEMAN
Member for Sandringham Brad Rowswell tried to bring a bit of Hollywood to his campaign efforts this week, albeit on a Spring St budget.
Rowswell holds the seat with a margin of just 0.65 per cent, after the Libs copped a whopping 6.69 per cent swing against them at the last election. So he knows every vote counts.
Which seems to be what’s behind his new cinema-style campaign ad. The ad is currently playing at Village Southland, before every movie in every session for the next four weeks.
It’s the booming voiceover work that will have people talking.
“I couldn’t afford Morgan Freeman, so I hired a voiceover artist impersonator. Times are tough!” Rowswell told Baz.
“The message is still important though: I love to help and I’m here to help locals. And it’s not just my razor thin margin that motivates me to do that!” Get the popcorn, the ad’s more entertaining than many new flicks.
DRUG COURT DEBACLE
Special events are few and far between in Melbourne’s court precinct. It’s usually doom and gloom. So the opening of a new court and fancy program was highly anticipated.
All until it had to be scrapped when Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes pulled out on Monday morning, to the annoyance, Baz is told, of many.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS FOR VIC PARTY
New political outfit the Victorians Party was formally registered by the Victorian Electoral Commission this week, meaning it is free to field candidates in all 88 lower house districts and eight upper house regions.
“Politicians of all sides have long stopped representing the people, many have never lived in their electorates, using the votes of the people as stepping stones for the benefit of their own political careers. Well, the community are telling us they have had enough of that and that it is time to boot the professional politicians out of Spring Street,” party co-founder Oscar Yildiz said.
Yildiz and co are convinced there is an appetite for change. Let’s see come November.
OVERHEARD
“She had a passion about Australia’s national interest and argued for it. She was respected by those on both sides or parliament. She was a parliamentarian in the truest sense.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the tragic death of Labor senator Kimberley Kitching.
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