Borrower nor lender
Talk about timing! A day after Christian Porter poleaxed over mystery donations, the ABC has announced the air date of a documentary series looking into Australia’s billion-dollar political lobbying industry.
Heavy is the head
Before Porter kicked off another week of discontent, his West Australian Liberal colleague Andrew Hastie opted for another tragic piece of political performance – the 2021 Canning Shakespeare Competition. The Assistant Defence Minister took the opportunity to tread the boards himself, giving a stirring rendition of the Bishop of Carlisle’s monologue from Richard II (Act 4, scene 1). In the speech, Carlisle condemns Bolingbroke (who later becomes Henry IV) for capturing Richard, whom he considers the true king. If Bolingbroke takes the crown, Carlisle predicts generations will suffer as a consequence and the ground will be soaked in English blood. He’s promptly arrested on charges of high treason. Sounds a lot like the Killing Season in the Canberra Bubble™. “It’s a very tough political environment all across the world right now and minority voices particularly are critical and vital to healthy democracies,” Hastie explained of his choice to the crowd. “And it speaks to the universality of Shakespeare. We have love, grief, war, ambition, pain and so too voices of conscience.” Last year, Hastie selected Hamlet’s “Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I” soliloquy to reflect the unprecedented, once-in-a-century pandemic. A hearty Strewth congratulations to student TJ, who took home the top prize with a piece from As You Like It.
Thine own self be true
Fun fact! When Hastie asked Turnbull to launch the inaugural Shakespeare contest back in 2016, we’re reliably informed that the then prime minister launched into a word-perfect rendition of Coriolanus, white wine in hand.
To be or not to be
The former attorney-general won’t be on the backbench for long, according to the Acting Prime Minister. “He has had a bad day at the wicket,” Barnaby Joyce justified. “He has gone now, like so many of us in a period of our career, to the Corridor of the Nearly Dead that sits above the Comcars.” Joyce claimed he would “put money” on Porter winning back the seat of Pearce and believes he should be given “another chance” at a “senior position” in the Coalition.
All the world’s a stage
Another year, another Aussie snub at the Primetime Emmy Awards. So instead, let’s take a look at how Emmy winner Steve Buscemi ended up doing a shoey for our firefighters last year. The powerful NSW Fire Brigade Employees Union got in touch with the actor, after making a donation to his preferred non-profit Friends of Firefighters. The Boardwalk Empire star worked as a New York firey in the 1980s, and returned to volunteer at his former firehouse the day after the September 11 attacks. He was named an Honorary Battalion Chief in 2014. The FBEU asked Buscemi to record a fireside chat in honour of their 110th year and join its campaign for a pay rise. NSW public sector wages are capped at 2.5 per cent a year, but the government cut that to zero last year because of the pandemic, before the state industrial commission ultimately ruled on a 0.3 per cent bump. Buscemi – a union member who was once arrested while protesting the closure of firehouses – was more than happy to oblige and produced a 12-minute opus in December. In it, he channels his mob character from The Soprano and chastises NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. “0.3 per cent pay raise for firefighters? What? Come on man, come on, that’s crazy!” Buscemi said. “You can at least give them an 11 per cent pay raise like you do your government ministers. So come on and cough it up. And don’t you dare think about privatising the fire brigade. Do the right thing.” The 63-year-old signed off in solidarity by cracking a can of Fosters into his shoe and taking a sip, while joking he might add a spoonful of vegemite. The YouTube video, which had been viewed only a few thousands times, resurfaced on Sunday after it was picked up by website Pedestrian TV. Since it was filmed, things have taken a big twist in the NSW FBEU. Kogarah firefighter Shane Kennedy unseated former secretary Leighton Drury at the May elections, promising a more muscular “members-first” approach, including a 13 per cent pay rise push. By July, Kennedy was gone, with Martin Dixon acting as state secretary.
strewth@theaustralian.com.au
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Talk about timing! A day after Christian Porter poleaxed over mystery donations, the ABC has announced the air date of a two-part documentary series looking into Australia’s billion-dollar political lobbying industry. Big Deal premieres on the small screen from October 19, hosted by Bondi Hipster comedian Christiaan Van Vuuren and directed by Chaser man Craig Reucassel. The show promises to provide a “wake-up call” about the “frightening extent” to which money has infiltrated politics by asking experts: “Is Australia for sale?” In a press release, Van Vuuren is described as an “Everyday Aussie” … is that Aunty’s version of a Quiet Australian? On Big Deal’s talking heads list is past prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose pre-election $1.75m gift to the cash-strapped Liberal Party coffers was Australia’s biggest political donation in 2016-17. There’s also former Labor senator Sam Dastyari, who was forced to resign after he appeared to take a pro-China line, after interactions with donors, that contradicted his party’s talking points on the South China Sea. Dastyari warned Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo that authorities were potentially bugging his phone and allowed his property developer Yuhu to foot one of his legal bills. Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie will have a go (to get a go), hopefully with the Star Wars artwork she’s trying to sell for $2.5m as part of her fundraising efforts for the next campaign. Other usual suspects include Liberal MP Jason Falinski; outgoing Liberal Senate president Scott Ryan; Labor’s JobKeeper headkicker Andrew Leigh; Labor MP Linda Burney; independents Helen Haines and Zali Steggall; Nine journalist Kate McClymont; and Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy. Ironically, Van Vuuren’s attempt to save democracy and “create a better country for his children and fellow Australians” managed to raise quite a bit of coin itself. Screen Australia and Screen NSW provided principal production funding, with the Documentary Australia Foundation kicking in $75,000 and the Susan McKinnon Foundation $25,000. Before anyone gets their Senate estimates knickers in a knot, the ABC has informed Strewth that filming wrapped before the so-called blind trust hit the headlines last week and Porter has not been interviewed.