Strewth: Stuff-up happens

The Bananas in Pyjamas attended the NSW Labor conference but could not compete with the pure slapstick of Bill Shorten.

Among those attending the NSW Labor conference over the weekend were two people dressed as the Bananas in Pyjamas. Cheeringly, they went with the old-school look, when the Bananas’ eyes were friendly and completely black, rather than the unsettling look they’ve been cursed with more recently, their eyes manic with whites and irises. Yet even had one of those bananas peeled itself and dropped its gigantic yellow skin on the floor, it could not have competed with the pure slapstick of Bill Shorten’s words the other day when he tried to settle the kaleidoscope of views he has on business tax. It was one of the most top-notch exchanges at a press conference since that magical one in 2015 when then defence minister Kevin Andrews and Senate colleague Sean Edwards found themselves at odds over submarine tenders (“I haven’t got this wrong at all,” Edwards insisted, incorrectly). Behold this purest glory.

Journo: “Isn’t the sign of a strong leader … that when you stuff up you can just be honest and say, ‘I stuffed it up’? Why can’t you in plain language say you stuffed this up?”

Shorten: “I’ll tell you the sign of a strong leader. I promise I’ll come back and give you that question, but I’m going to move it around and share it around — Michael was next.”

We’re not confident this will ever be topped. But while we’re here, we salute Shorten’s compassion even in the midst of the storm. Whatever he was up against he was still thinking of others, not least his backbencher Ross Hart, who’s probably still convalescing from his instantly legendary radio interview last week. Said Shorten: “Poor old Ross.”

No one is safe!

Continuing with his (so far shaky) quest to avoid hyperbole, Malcolm Turnbull appeared to be reminding the nation of the timeless lessons of Martin Niemoller’s poem (“First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out …”). Take it away, PM: “There are thousands of businesses … thousands of people who look at Shorten’s bitter, envious, destructive assault on jobs and business and they say: ‘Well, he might be talking about Malcolm Turnbull today but he’s going to be coming after me next.’ ” So bear that in mind.

Apply Teflon

Credit where it’s due, but only where it’s due — a lesson demonstrated twice in one interview on the Today show the other day:

Host Georgie Gardner: “Did (Shorten) consult with you?”

Anthony Albanese: “Well, he made the decision and he has a right to do that as the leader. I’m not part of the leadership group.”

And once more for good measure.

Gardner: “Christopher, if you do do a deal with Pauline (Hanson) will you take her preferences at the by-elections?”

Christopher Pyne: “Look, that’s not a matter for me.”

Magic Mac

There are rumours that Coalition senator Ian Macdonald’s future in the upper house is far from assured. This is distressing on a number of levels, not least among them the sheer heft of his contribution to the Senate’s greatest hits. Who can forget his moving words when the gold travel pass for pollies was under threat, an emotional soliloquy in which Macca was the first (and so far last) to point out that the fine line between democracy and dictatorship was that very same gold travel pass. The speech was as heartfelt as it was wide-ranging. Admittedly there were bits where Macca and the historical record had a trial separation, but there was nothing he was afraid to touch. There was the overlap between his work ethic and the unavoidably finite nature of the human condition (“I’ll probably be carried out of here in a pine box”). There was sadness about pollies’ salaries. And there was this winning triple: “Perhaps Hitler and Stalin or Idi Amin had the right idea: do not bother about a parliament and you do not have to bother about those pesky parliamentarians at all.” This is all a very roundabout way of saying that here at Strewth we’re keeping our fingers crossed we don’t see the back of Macca any time soon.

Reach for the pie

On the NSW mid-north coast, state Roads Minister Melinda Pavey attended the opening of the Pacific Highway duplication at Warrell Creek. Accompanying her was former federal member for Cowper, Garry Nehl (g’day Garry!), who recounted he’d been told it was “pie in the sky” to think that part of the highway would ever be duplicated. He and Pavey marked the occasion by downing meat pies. Pavey’s verdict? “The pie tasted really good.”

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