Falling In Love With Australia (all over again)
So this morning Blue Gillard visited Aunty Quentin at Yarralumla to ask her if she thought it would be all right if she had an election on 21 August.
And as one watched the helicopter pictures, like a god from the skies toying with the mortals, one was shocked and delighted. The Prime Minister of Australia, the highest public official in the land, was driven to the meeting in an ordinary-looking family car, not even escorted by but trailed by a couple of guys who just seemed to be along for the ride in an ordinary-looking suburban people mover because they had nothing better to do at the time.
It was definitely a moment of circumstance but utterly lacking in pomp.
No roaring motor-cycle escort, no huge entourage of dummy, black, stretch limousines, no secret service agents with earpieces running along beside, no barriers or police to keep the public away, no police or security people in sight at all.
It was just so amazingly “get over yourself”, “no worries”, “she’ll be right”, “whatever”, “just off to see Aunty for a quick cuppa, back in a minute”.
But the gasp, the shock of recognition, came on her return from Government House when her white V8 stopped at a Give Way sign on the road back to Parliament House, to give right of way to ordinary Australian public road users going about their normal Saturday morning business – off to the kids’ soccer game or netball training, perhaps, or to the mall for a coffee and shopping with the girls. The PM was just another motorist going about her own Saturday morning business.
It doesn’t come much more relaxed, secure, unconcerned, ordinary, normal, egalitarian and egalitarian in spirit than this.
And at that moment Sir Roger fell in love all over again with this remarkable, extraordinary, wonderful country.
Technorati Tags: election, federal election, general election, house of representatives, Senate, half Senate, Gillard, Julia Gillard, PM, Prime Minister, Quentin Bryce, Governor General, GG, Yarralumla, egalitarian, politics, government, Australian politics, Australian government, political values, Australian political values, Australian values
Posted: July 17th, 2010 under Australian Politics, Australian Values, politics and government, values.
Comments: 7
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Comments
Comment from laird lang
Time: 17 July, 2010, 4:20 pm
And a remarkable, extraordinary, wonderful woman.
(No, not you Sir.R. in your size 10 ‘smirk’ ambitions . I knew you were leading up to no good,I can see it now, Julia this, Julia that.I’m a matteee of Julia. Oh dear.)
You’ll never see the Laird lower to such antics, and just because I’ve changed Patricia’s name to Julia is only because Julia (nee: Patricia) is having an identity crisis, she thought she was François Fournier and ate the bloody mail.Almost all.Of it.
I mean what rolls of the tongue better, ‘Julia, get away back you bastard’ or ‘François Fournier,get away back ,you bastard’.And Ion (nee: Jack ,her son) ,is happy enough to be on the Estate of the Laird of Glamorgan.
Comment from roger migently
Time: 18 July, 2010, 7:13 pm
No no no no no!!!! Awful woman. Awful Abbott too. Awful Greenies. No-one, no party, that a person in good conscience could possibly vote for. (Although, as Clive James told Sir Roger in London, in a previous, 1970s, life, “But I’d rather live here than the Soviet Union by a long way.”)
Comment from wanderer
Time: 19 July, 2010, 9:33 am
When was it anything but the least awful? Abbott is dangerous, beyond Howard. She will do him in. Enter Turnbull.
Comment from roger migently
Time: 19 July, 2010, 6:20 pm
Or Jolly Joe?
Comment from wanderer
Time: 19 July, 2010, 9:14 pm
J J ‘s a permanent lightweight I reckon, with or without Turnbull. I would think Turnbull decided to run (after initially saying he wasn’t) in the belief that Labor would win, Abbott would get the chop like all Liberal losers, and the prize would be his. Unless of course he was motivated by the good of the party and decided not to risk loosing Wentworth (a pretty diverse seat) to Labor – not bloody likely (speaking of London, and GBS, and cabs).
Comment from roger migently
Time: 19 July, 2010, 10:41 pm
Turnbull’s safe at $1.30 vs $3.00 (Greens $7). But do you think he can do a Lazarus? Would he have the credibility? I think they’ll keep the Monk on while they figure out what to do next. He’ll love it, being a martyr just like Howard. Sackcloth and ashes. And maybe a bit of flagellation. Oooohhhh!
Comment from wanderer
Time: 19 July, 2010, 11:09 pm
Sir R running a book? Put my money on Toffee T for leader of the opposition. And what about the Senate! Preferences done.
But now I’m having naughty thoughts about Mistress Julia and the Monk, and it’s bedtime.
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