In the fog of war, shit happens. On Mornings on ABC 702, Deborah Cameron happens

FORMER soldier and author Matthew Carr explains why expletives can be welcome words.

Carr with Deborah Cameron on ABC 702 on Tuesday:

CAMERON: Anybody who buys this book, be prepared. It doesn't pull any punches, there's a lot of strong language, especially in the start of it where you really grab people's attention with the way that you approach this. You didn't hold back.

Carr: I'm a soldier at the end of the day. I needed to write as I am. I've got a soldier's tongue at times, so right now I'm concentrating very hard to . . .

(Cameron laughs)

Carr: . . . to be quite articulate in this interview.

Cameron: You are a gentleman. Thank you very much for coming in Matthew. You don't "bleep" in publishing, but if you did there'd be a few, particularly at the beginning.

Deborah Cameron on ABC 702 yesterday:

THIS morning, the real Tony, and arguably the worst day of his political life, caught on camera. It makes you wonder about Mr Abbott's emotional side. First of all the way he reacted in Afghanistan and then yesterday what seemed to be a white hot rage at the reporter, even though Mr Abbott has apparently characterised it as a dignified silence. Do you think that Mr Abbott has a cold heart Peter?

Peter van Onselen: No, I don't think he has a cold heart. In Afghanistan he was talking to the colleagues of the trooper who had fallen, so he was not trying to make light of it.

Cameron: Michael, good morning.

Caller Michael: Yesterday you had a soldier on who used a phrase "a soldier's tongue" which you thought was quite amusing. You were really eating out of his hand. What I say in relation to the context of what Tony Abbott said is that it was a soldier's conversation using soldier's tongues. In other theatres of war when terrible things happen, after the event soldiers use loose language to laugh it off. I just don't think this is worth dignifying.

Neil James on ABC AM:

THE Australian theatre commander and the US province team commander have gone through at length and they've basically said, "Look, it's just one of these things that happens in war." To which Abbott replies, "Sometimes shit happens." To which John Cantwell, the then Australian theatre commander said immediately after the Abbott comment, "It certainly does." Now given that context, I honestly can't see how any Australian soldier or their families would think that Tony Abbott was somehow being insensitive about the death of an Australian digger.

Soldier's tongue. Tony Abbott talking to troops in Afghanistan:

IT'S really obvious that sometimes shit happens, doesn't it.

Ministerial tongue. Stephen Smith on ABC radio yesterday:

IN the terrible and difficult circumstances of the fog of war, often bad things happen.

Craig Emerson defends the flood levy on Sky News on Tuesday:

WELL, we're doing the right thing by Australia. We're certainly doing the right thing by Queenslanders. We think it's the right thing to do. It's no surprise that Tony Abbott, having been party to a government that put up six different levies, now says there are two types of levies; there are Liberal levies, which are good levies, and Labor levies, which are bad levies.

Emerson in parliament on June 3, 2004:

THE way the [Howard] government tries to disguise this is by arguing that particular taxes are not in fact taxes but levies, fees or charges; anything but a tax.

Members should look at Hansard to see the most humorous reference I can recall: the minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, trying to disguise the fact that the sugar levy was a tax, described it as "an opportunity to contribute". He wanted to provide all Australians with an opportunity to contribute to the sugar industry through a levy. That is just one of the tricks of this government: redefining the taxes they introduce as levies, fees, charges and "opportunities to contribute".

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