The steaks are high at Chinese diplomat’s speech
What was on the menu when Wang Xining fronted the National Press Club? Aussie beef, barley and wine, of course. Tasty and tariff-free!
There’s nothing rarer than a cut of food (fight) diplomacy.
China’s second most senior diplomat in Australia, Wang Xining, fronted the National Press Club on Wednesday for a speech and a grilling.
On the menu?
Aussie beef, barley and wine, of course.
Tasty AND tariff-free!
Wang was served a main of “ginger, shallot and chilli glazed Tajima wagyu rump (MB 6+); coriander and shallot pearl barley; baby Asian greens; Cognac, star anise and soy broth”.
Paired with the choice of a 2017 Mondiale Shiraz McLaren Vale (SA), 2018 Oatley Signature Series Chardonnay, Margaret River (WA), 2018 Young Poets Cabernet Sauvignon (NSW) or 2018 Johnny Q Sauvignon Blanc, Adelaide Hills (SA).
NPC CEO Maurice Reilly cooked up the well done culinary cabal.
Perhaps that’s why the deputy head of mission was not a-moo-sed during the Q&A, declaring Australia had hurt “the feelings of the Chinese people”?
“We’re not trying to get Hungry Jacks to serve Chinese dumplings,” Wang protested.
Letter rip
It’s a snail mail revolt!
Australia Post was forced to pulp 30,000 postcards that blamed individual mail men and women for delivery cuts.
“Hi, I’m your local postie!” the card, seen by Strewth, said.
“From now on, I’ll be delivering letters to your address every second day. That means I’ll visit on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week, the Tuesday and Thursday the following week.”
The reason “your local postie” gave?
“The coronavirus pandemic, which has seen letter volumes drop off while parcel volumes have gone through the roof. By delivering letters every second business day, more of us posties can spend time delivering Express Post and parcels, which along with PO Box mail will still be delivered every business day.”
When workers saw what they were being asking to drop in letterboxes, there was a flurry of furious emails to senior management.
Thousands of postcards were quietly locked away, then destroyed.
“How dare Australia Post put words in the mouths of our posties about slashing their jobs, making them be the face of something they are fundamentally philosophically opposed to,” one frustrated mail spy said. “It’s incompetence at best and deceitful at worst.”
It’s no surprise that Australia Post is trying to play down the blunder.
General manager of corporate affairs Michelle Skehan told Strewth the printing, pulping, redesign and reprinting cost only $100,000.
She claimed to have no knowledge of postie complaints and said the changes were due to a missing “call to action for the community to provide feedback”.
But we’ve seen one of the 100,000 new postcards … and not a single sentence is the same.
Electronic graffiti
A year out from the next federal election, federal Labor HQ is lining up its ducks for Team Albo.
A job advert circulated in the latest caucus bulletin calls for a cannon fodder candidate to lead the troops in the online trenches.
“The ALP national secretariat is seeing applications for the position of social media manager in the digital team,” the position description reads. “The successful applicant will be responsible for maintaining Labor’s online social media channels in support of the national secretariat’s digital strategy.”
Labor needs all the help it can get after the death tax fake news debacle of 2019.
Oh, and the accounting discrepancy of close to $1m in digital campaign finances, discovered the day former prime minister Bob Hawke died (48 hours before Australia went to the polls) that was curiously absent from Jay Weatherill and Craig Emerson’s “warts and all” review.
Frosty reception
Why did Mark Butler walk to work?
“Just as a contribution to climate action,” the opposition spokesman on climate change and energy said, as he shivered in the ACT’s minus degree weather.
Fellow Labor Lefters Terri Butler (no relation), Andrew Giles and Pat Conroy donned sneakers, beanies, scarfs and puffy jackets and strolled to Parliament House for Park it Day.
Why?
Butler (female) explained in a live Instagram video: “One of the great reasons is to try and do something about the fact that if you drive to work, you contribute to climate change”.
After donning sunglasses, she continued: “What should be on the agenda every day is climate action. Unfortunately, we’ve got a government who are climate deniers and (has) been really poor on climate action, so we need to hold them to account.
“What we really need to do is elect a new government so I’d love your help with that.”
Strewth’s can hazard a guess at how quartet will get to work on Thursday … in a gas-guzzling Comcar.
(insert segue here)
Here’s an excerpt from the CFMEU statement on why it’s withdrawn from the Left faction of the Queensland ALP.
“The leadership vacuum in the Left has seen a once-powerful voice for working Queenslander atrophy to the point where today it is little more than a creche for party hacks,” construction division secretary Michael Ravbar said.
“Quite simply, the so-called Left faction is now merely an impotent and self-serving echo chamber for a cabal of Peel Street elite who have totally lost touch with their working-class roots.”
To the manor born
As Butler and co strolled through the leafy suburb of Forrest, we wonder if they came across this million-dollar listing.
“Secure your own slice of local history, as this heritage-listed residence was the former home of former Commonwealth Auditor-General James Brophy (1889-1969),” Hayman Bros reality boasts of the four-bedroom, two-bath, two-car abode.
“Built around 1925, a classic streetscape with dual access driveway leading from Empire Circuit and Melbourne Avenue provides an elegant first impression.”
Peak Canberra.
Royal-tea
Forget China and climate change — does Labor senator Kimberley Kitching think the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should be stripped of their royal titles?
“I think no,” Kitching told the Bolt Report.
UK TV host Piers Morgan is leading the charge after Meghan Markle warned American voters “we all know what’s at stake this year”.
Kitching theorised: “We know Piers Morgan took Meghan Markle on a date many years ago and he thought there would be further dates and she essentially ghosted him.
“So maybe this is sort of unrequited love.
“It’s not the first time we’ve seen members of the royal family express opinions, including the Queen, when Scotland was going to devolve or had a referendum for independence.”
The divine Bette Midler was less frank in her response to Morgan: “Oh, f..k off.”
Meghan Markle has appeared on a live zoom chat for the When All Women Vote event #CouchParty pic.twitter.com/JLhTnZJJXw
— Goss.ie (@goss_ie) August 20, 2020
strewth@theaustralian.com.au
Libs should be-Ware what they say about JWH
Could things get any worse for the Liberals in Hughes? Well, strap in. Diary can reveal that Liberal candidate Jenny Ware once called John Winston Howard ‘out of touch’.
Believe in your selfie, Andrew
Kevin Rudd appears to have met his selfie match in Andrew Charlton.