Here in the Crikey bunker, we occasionally get praise from unexpected sources. We gratefully accepted, say, the support from former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd, neither of whom we have shied away from criticising, and Scott Morrison once said we were “absolutely incredible”. (At least we think that’s what he meant when he said we weren’t credible?)
Still, this one did land as a bit of a surprise.
In response to Dominic Kelly’s piece for us in March, “How did Australia’s conservative movement lose its way?”, Hancock Prospecting got in touch about the artwork, with a representative asking if it could “purchase a digital copy of the photo/cartoon” to “put on the office wall”.
Yes, that would be the Hancock Prospecting run by one Gina Rinehart, who features in the image and gets a solitary mention in the piece as a major source of funding behind the Institute of Public Affairs, a “vessel for pretending that Tony Abbott is still relevant”.
Alas, the graphic, which contains a bunch of photos we purchased from AAP, isn’t ours to sell, and it’s worth noting that our wonderful in-house designer Zennie is a long-time Greens member and was horrified at the thought.
And while the request is a testament to her fantastic work, it does raise a question: can the company run by Australia’s richest woman not afford its own graphic designer? Someone who could visually associate Rinehart with all those Liberal Party luminaries of the past 40 years, but in a way that doesn’t also partially credit her with funding the intellectual decay that has seen the party wiped from office in Australia’s mainland as efficiently as a spill from a kitchen counter?
Rinehart has $43 billion. Her daughters, via the extraordinary entrepreneurial insight of having been born, take up another three spots in the list of Australia’s nine female billionaires. Girlbosses, each and every one.
Still, times are tough, as Rinehart reminded a Queensland Resources Council function this week, what with governments’ “use of propaganda like ‘dirty mining’ and ‘evil mining’ ”. If you think she’s being melodramatic, look no further than the spittle-flecked chops of South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis who, eyes ablaze with anti-mining zeal, unleashed the following at the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association national conference on Monday:
Those people who are misinformed outside, who attempt to belittle or criticise this industry, do not understand the contribution you make … The South Australian government is at your disposal, we are here to help and we are here to offer you a pathway to the future.
… says South Australian Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis to the oil & gas industry, achieving the remarkable feat of making Matt Canavan look half-hearted about servile adoration of the fossil fuel industry. Once upon a time elected politicians would talk about things like ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people’ and be taken seriously. Now we know that such quaint notions have perished from the earth, and the natural resources of our states are plundered and taken overseas with almost no compensation, and the earth is burning even as the seas rise to take back the land, and the common people are not long for this world; but the fossil fuel corporations will command the obeisance of our elected leaders unto the end.
We really are cursed with nepo-billionaires. And pathetic, venal politicians.
Their parents were pretty malevolent, but the children are quite bizarre. In addition to malevolent.
This type of grovelling collusion is getting close to corruption; and its sickening!! Especially, to a long-term ALP member like myself!! Am I alone in feeling totally disappointed by our government that was elected with a feeling of hope and bringing about the changes that are so desperately needed? The weakness shown by Jim Charmers in the useless changes to the PRRT and these comments and those of Madeline King are just disgusting and pathetic!!
No, you are not alone, and I suspect there are many of us. We anticipated a Labor government and all we got was political operators. We were galvanized, or at least energized by the awfulness of Morrison and predecessors, but now, I feel a creeping malaise. The front bench appears to have plenty of talent, but is the leadership squashing it? FFS, what do they all think of AUKUS? In a column in the Melbourne Herald about sixty years ago Prof JDG Murdoch said, in an article about a stoush about blasphemy, “what the world needs is a messiah, and volunteers should be called for daily”. I knew Albo was not Whitlam or Keating, but I didn’t think he was a dud.
“We anticipated a Labor government and all we got was political operators” in a Centre -Right government.. subservient to the USA (AUKUS, the Quad) and indifferent to rising inequality and sea levels.
Alborrison? You thought he wasn’t a dud? Perhaps you didn’t listen to him pre-election? He and Labor are doing what they promised, exactly. Wishful thinking is one thing – completely ignoring what stares you in the face is another.
Parties are ultimately governed by donors and party interests. If you want representation in the national interest and your community’s interest, join those of us who support ethical independents wherever we see them.
Of course you are right! in the ACT Senator David Pocock fits your description. I will attend my next ALP meeting and air my many concerns. It could be my last!!!
The idea that you can change it from within is pure horsepoo, promulgated to get you in.
Love the use of Gettysburgh address to make your point. Brillinant
Rich people don’t pay money for something when they can get free from poor people.
The Crikey image is a wonderful collage of the puppet-mistress with her toys.
Your Zennie has done brilliant job of erasing the strings.
Multitalented as she is, there’s no National’s treasure that is Cousin Jethro to be seen. Maybe he fell off that finger as the camera clicked….
Something is rotten (or delusional) in the State of South Australia.
To think anybody in Australia can make nuclear submarines at any price little own affordable is a nation crippling joke.
And who helped shroud the mining/spying scandal in East Timor, none other than SA’s favorite Teflon tongued son, Alexander Downer.
Come on SA you have got so much better to offer.
Come on, they did elect Alex Antic… oh wait…
Apparently Gina has said Labour’s budget built off the back of the resource industry, which is somewhat true. Is there some irony here considering that her wealth is built off the back of resources?
The resources of which you speak would presumably be coal and irony?
Haha, wish I’d said (wrote) that
“Gina has said Labour’s budget [is] built off the back of the resource industry”
… of which every penny has them screaming foul, ‘We shall have leave this god-forsaken mining hating land’
and whose every imposition has them investing a million-fold in legal teams to challenge the constitutionality of it.
I am no expert in irony but this would appear to qualify.