Welcome to the column where you provide the content. This week The Mocker took aim at the recent converts to the cause of freedom of the press after the AFP raided the ABC; the same free speech warriors who not long ago wanted the press muzzled and hate speech (speech they hate) curbed, chief among their number journalist and Order of Australia recipient Jane Caro, Sarah Hanson-Young, Richard Di Natale, Patricia Karvelas and Wendy Harmer. Marching orders from Geoffrey M:
“The problem for many recipients of honours last Monday is that Caro’s honour diminishes theirs. Given Caro is a recipient, she devalues everyone else’s.”
Christopher contrasted and compared:
“Jane Caro and Diana are only contemporaries in that they were born as women. By all other benchmarks (Age — 4 years c’mon, status, wealth, global legacy, charitable contributions, and memorabilia sales) Jane is not Diana. My wife still remembers exactly where she was when Diana died, she does not even know who Jane Caro is.”
Peter pondered:
“Could someone explain why someone who denigrates this country get an Australian medal. There is something seriously wrong with this.”
Reject, said Roger:
“On what possible basis could Caro be honoured? On election night she showed not only how dishonourable she is, but her contempt for the Australian electorate. I can’t think of any commentary contribution she has ever made which has intellectual horsepower.
“That aside, well done Mocker for bringing some objectivity to the ‘media freedom’ issue instead of joining the shrill bandwagon. The number of journo’s who have shown any professionalism and detachment is minuscule: Mocker, Chris Kenny, Alan Jones and Janet Albrechtsen.”
OpinionatedJoe’s opinion:
“Your comment would have been moderated if we now had a Shorten government. I have found it not easy to find the committee who awards these things. Who are they?”
Cassandra’s contribution:
“Dear Mocker, thank you for exposing the never ending hypocrisy from the sanctimonious elites. Kind regards, Truculent Turd.......aka ordinary Australian.”
Jason joined in:
“It must be devastating for someone as important, influential and voluble as Jane Caro to know that until the last couple of days I’d never heard of her.”
Anne was angry:
“To be awarded a Queen’s Birthday honour and to accept it, Republican allegedly as she claims to be, not only confirms her rank hypocrisy but the total idiocy of this endless lists of awards for nonentities and non-achievers the OA has become.”
Ian was irked:
“Shame on you Mocker for having the temerity to question and call out our betters, who know absolutely what is best for us. How could anyone possibly doubt the wisdom and fair minded balance of all at “our” ABC, the mindblowing capabilities of Di Natale, SHY et al, and of course the deep pronouncements of that great prolific author Peter FitzSimons, he who always knows what is best for we poor plebs.
“As for Ms Caro, I defer, as I doubt I had ever heard of her till she told me I may be a turd! Confirmed why I fly SingAir and not Qantas. I am not good enough to share an airline with her towering genius.”
Turd, trilled Tim:
“Mocker — one rule for the Virtue Signaller and another for us Truculent Turds. Their blindness to their hypocrisy over press freedom is truly breath taking. They are free to criticise at will but we must be forever silent on the short comings of the left.”
Eric asserted:
“ ‘Truculent turds,’ are of independent mind and damn proud of it!”
Christine was cross:
“I will never watch The Dru m again with Jane Caro as guest. She has a foul mouth and us a hypocrite if the first order.”
Brad was brief:
“My policy is more concise. I never watch The Drum.”
Peter puffed:
“Jane Caro was judged more worthy ‘for significant service to the broadcast media as a journalist, social commentator and author,’ reads the citation. What a travesty.”
Meg was mystified:
“Odd sense of propriety when Jane Caro can call voters truculent turds and get given an AO, and poor Folau quotes the Bible and is fired. These socialists are always the first to line up for commendations, even though they don’t believe in them. She is the last person who should receive one.”
Who the hell, harrumphed Hamish:
“Since the election it has been very noticeable that the self proclaimed ‘intelligentsia’ and leftist inclined apologists are desperately in need of a safe space to vent their angst over the sheer temerity of us common turds to deny them the government they so rightly deserved.
“I’ve never seen so many knickers in a twist over their perceived injustice of it all. The ABC corridors must be a gloomy and disheartening space indeed as they all push themselves forward for a Q&A gig to prop up each others egos.”
Leslie spouted:
“SHY says ‘we have a right to know what the Govt is up to’. Yet when the free press out SHY (as part of the governance of our country) for using taxpayers’ money to go whale watching she was not a happy greenie. When the media collude with people illegally using classified information that may endanger our national security she wants to turn a blind eye.”
Last word to Lesley:
“Never fear, middle Australia. Ignore the left and they can scream as much as they like, it’s water off a ducks back. Middle Australia has a good deal of commonsense, something the left do not have in their gene pool. Thank god for the ballot box, puts them straight every time.”
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Scrutineers podcaster Alice Workman took the Strewth reins and also weighed in on the matter of honours, noting that ABC’s Leigh Sales was also among the Queen’s Birthday gong recipients, producing a bountiful barrage of tweets between Sales and journo Annabel Crabb. Peter was put in mind of a David Cameron quote:
“Too many tweets make a twat”.
Silent Majority was miffed:
“Why do very well paid, mediocre media people just doing their jobs receive these awards?
Tony Abbott, now that he is left parliament, should be at the top of the list for one of the higher awards, but image the steaming rage in parts of the media if that ever happens.”
Ian explained:
“I believe there is a convention ex-PMs are offered an AC after they leave parliament.
For Tony, probably next year as they awards list would have been locked away before he lost his seat. It wouldn’t surprise me if he turned it down. He’s always struck me as someone not particularly into self glory.”
Dee was indignant:
“It’s time these awards were stopped. They are essentially awards for success with a few awarded for their unpaid time expensive sacrifices for the benefit of others. As so many of the recipient’s have already succeeded in paid work why do we present further awards? Why does a person receive an award for being a success in movies, sport or business when all they did was work toward their own success and then add insult to injury award them further for more of the same?
“If we cannot separate out the working for oneself and succeeding from those that work/sacrifice for others we need to cancel the whole thing. At the moment it appears to be a Sir Humphrey Appleby GCB, KBE, MVO, MA gratuitous award.”
Lisle was livid:
“Can anyone tell me what Leigh Sales has ever done to achieve such an award? No wonder Annabel Crabb is wild”
David doubled down:
“The whole awards system must change. There are far too many awards. They should not be for people already well paid and awarded for doing their job. It should not be for elite sportspeople, TV personalities, entertainers, actors, politicians or public servants but for ordinary unsung people who do extraordinary unpaid for things for others, their community and their country. Also, perhaps they should only be issued on Australia Day each year.”
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Robert Gottliebsen wrote that it was time to dust off the Bradfield Project, the visionary bridge-builder’s far-sighted wheeze to turn Australia’s rivers inland, thus solving the drought and saving the Great Barrier Reef. Paul pointed out:
“David Marr before the 2013 federal election said that the boats could not be stopped. He was also one of the lefties who proclaimed that Shorten would win the recent federal election. I heard David Marr on Insiders saying that the Bradfield Plan wouldn’t work. This made me believe that we should look at the Bradfield Plan given that David Marr is always wrong.”
James x had an idea:
“Why not couple this with technology that was not available in Bradfield’s time? For example Gen III and Gen IV nuclear power. These are base load sources of power that produce no CO2 or ‘greenhouse’ gases. They are extremely safe and can consume some of the existing stored waste.
“Waste storage technology is now greatly advanced to the extent that materials can be stored in geologically stable facilities and RETRIEVED at a later date for disposal or use as technology and engineering advances occur. This could be used to pump water to the west when required for irrigation and ‘environmental flows’ in times of drought.”
Archimedes agreed:
“Anyone who has any knowledge, or even a glimpse, of the Northern Rivers systems would understand that reversal of a substantial volume of water to flow inland would have enormous benefits to the nation. Just do it!”
Frank was far-sighted and earns comment of the week:
“The Bradfield scheme is not unique in its concept. The Snowy River hydro is essentially based on the same principles. However there were and still are consequences. The once beautiful and iconic Snowy River was all but destroyed and it is only due to relatively recent remedial action that it has been partially returned to its former glory.
“The Russians have had a couple of investigations over the years into diverting water from the Ob river into the Aral Sea in an attempt to repair the damage done by Old King Cotton and other agricultural pursuits.
“Initially it was thought that diverting the huge amount of fresh water away from the Arctic might have adverse effects and cause a salinity change to the extent that the Gulf Stream would be affected, resulting in normally ice free ports becoming ice bound in winter. The plan subsequently did not go ahead.
“More recently however the plan has been revisited because there is some thinking that climate change might result in an increase of fresh water flowing into the Arctic with adverse effects on salinity. Again concern has been raised that the Gulf Stream may be affected.
The question therefore arises as to whether or not diverting significant amounts of fresh water from flowing into the Great Barrier Reef might inadvertently have detrimental effects on the Reef. However it is still a worthwhile exercise to investigate the feasibility of the plan.”
How good is hydro, said Stuart:
“More water storage and hydro (best form of currently practical renewable energy). The population of this great continent has increased by 10 million and we haven’t built one dam in that time. Unfortunately this visionary project being pigeonholed is why we are so far behind much of the western world.
“Even worse it will be opposed by the usual suspects as it may debunk their global warming/climate change scam gravy train. With so much unemployment among ex-service personal in Townsville and elsewhere this would be a Snowy Mountains type employment project of monumental proportions.”
R. Ambrose Raven poured cold water:
“So why aren’t you urging practical action for such a need now, without looking to fanciful and (RMIT ABC Fact Check) ‘pie in the sky’ grandiose schemes?
“We’ve had a Coalition government in office for six years now that boasts of ‘creating jobs’ —- so what has it done for ‘so much unemployment among ex-service personal in Townsville and elsewhere’?”
Andrew advanced:
“Bradfield did not connect the surplus Queensland waters to the Murray-Darling but since his plan was formulated, we have learned how to make pipes on site rather than transporting them vast distances. And we have developed much greater skills in tunnelling. We still have evaporation that must be tackled.
“Evaporation is not an issue I think. Evaporation along with transpiration from renewed vegetation growth will put more water in the atmosphere and should bring more rain with it. So overall a good thing I would imagine.
“As for feasibility. I am sure it is. Around Bendigo there is a race network built by convict labour — it takes water to farms and homes for hundreds of kilometres around the district (or used to — its mostly in disrepair today). It gently follows the contours of the land and was built with Roman-like precision with a gradual fall that allows water to move but not damage the channel system. It couldn’t be duplicated today and would be considered unfeasible. I fear the Bradfield Plan would be seen in the same light.
“It is an urgently needed scheme and one which would serve us infinitely better than renewable energy. The $40-50 billion in subsidies spent on that fiasco would have been better spent on Bradfield.”
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