Cuba catastrophe as Liberal MP’s bid to link Shorten to Castro blows up like CIA cigar
Dan Tehan takes us on a world trip. The junior minister on Sky News’s Sunday Agenda, yesterday:
I was in East Germany before the wall came down in 1989 and I saw what the misallocation of resources did to that country.
Bill Shorten doesn’t seem too worried by the government’s new line that he’s a communist secret agent. The Labor leader in WA, Saturday:
The tragedy of this farce is that instead of talking about energy prices, Australian jobs, Medicare, flatlining wages — all we get is they spend their time refighting the Cold War — they miss it — and talking about Double-O Shorten, international man of mystery.
If the Soviet Union doesn’t stick, maybe Cuba will? Tehan on Sky News, yesterday:
I’ve also seen it in Cuba when I was a diplomat; we’ve seen socialism there and people called it socialism in the sun ... that’s where we would head under a Shorten government.
Double O-Shorten in WA, Saturday:
Daniel Craig’s job is safe.
Talking of foreign adventures, Today Show fans will know all about the injury Nine Network anchor Lisa Wilkinson got on her winter hols in Italy. The morning-show star on Instagram, August 13:
The heavy fibreglass cast is off. A pretty skinny forearm and sore puffy wrist in a splint remains, but oh the relief!!!
Wilkinson told her readers how wonderful Italy’s medical system was in her regular online column for Fairfax’s HuffPost Australia, July 14:
... we are on our way to the large hospital at Salerno, where, again, our reception was stunning. No matter that the hospital in question looked like a tattered 1950s warehouse from Beirut ...
Wilkinson was a wee bit blunter when she spoke to The Daily Telegraph’s Sydney Confidential column, last Thursday:
I walked into the hospital and it was like walking into a building in Beirut.
But Wilkinson had assured her loyal fans that the Italian doctors were just darling. The Today host writing for HuffPost, July 14:
... within minutes I was in the hands of wonderful professionals, an orthopedic specialist whose care was touching, whose humanity shone through ...
She doesn’t think they’re so bella now. Wilkinson in Sydney Confidential, Thursday:
They need training desperately because they put a cast on that has basically strangled my arm so most of my issues now are shocking nerve damage.
Wilkinson on HuffPost, July 14:
Thanks to a reciprocal healthcare agreement between Australia and Italy, I didn’t have to pay a cent. “Va bene!” Go well. Kisses on both cheeks from both the specialist and the nurse ... Extraordinary.
She’s certainly changed her tune. Wilkinson speaking to Sydney Confidential, Thursday:
The Italian doctors didn’t charge me a cent, but God I wish they had because that would mean that money would be going into the Italian hospital system.
Was Wilkinson speaking to two different audiences? Or were those nice Italians just a little bit shonky? Chi lo sa (that’s Italian for “Who knows?”). HuffPost, July 14:
I couldn’t help but compare it to our experience in the USA ... it was the difference between running healthcare as a business, and providing it as a human right ... thank you Italy.