Federal Government
BLAME GAMES: True conservatives don’t blame crime victims for the actions of criminal thugs
Australian politics has kicked off at its most spectacular, bizarre, vile and unjust this year with the outrageous antics of violent Tent Embassy rampagers and the carnage that ensued.
LAURIE CROAKS
The normally spot-on Laurie Oakes seemed to second-guess the PM’s security details decisions about how to respond to the situation of five-hundred angry people angrily banging on big glass windows.
The Labor Party’s sister party in Norway had a Young Labor camp where some 69 people were murdered, dozens more seriously injured.
A US Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot and narrowly avoided assassination. She’s suffered serious brain injury from which she is currently recovering incredibly well.
And while they don’t speak of these things publicly, Australian politicians of all persuasions receive all manner of threats and worse from various nutters. Fortunately, very few have ever acted on these.
That is the world we live in. That is the context in which those entrusted with the personal security of our leaders operate in. We ought to insist on their safety to the highest possible and practical standard.
When rioters threaten the security and safety of our leaders, even if it comes across to Laurie Oakes as a bit clumsy, we’re very grateful the brave folk responsible take their duties very seriously.
VICIOUS AUNTY
It got even uglier in one ABC report where it quoted an aboriginal activist claiming the PM was a ‘coward’ for accepting the advice of her security detail to get out of the venue the activists had attacked.
They didn’t only quote the unpleasant individual, they ran the word ‘coward’ above a picture of the PM being evacuated from the venue. Click here to see a screenshot of it.
This is intolerable and outrageous.
Who in their right mind thinks it’s cowardly to avoid a physical confrontation with 500 angry, demonstrably violent protesters? Maybe the quoted creep quoted was so blind with rage and fired up that he failed to comprehend the vile cowardice involved in forming a violent mob that attacks civilian targets. But the ABC yarn was written in the calm light of the following day. Their blind rage against the machine must come from inner-urban angst or a poor performing barista at their local hipster cafe.
THRILL-KILLING AND RITUALLY SACRIFICING A TWENTY-SOMETHING FOR NOTHING
And then the final element of the saga was probably the worst of all.
A decent young man in his twenties Tony Hodges who worked in the Prime Minister’s Office felt the need to resign for doing no more than telling someone – apparently at Unions ACT – that Tony Abbott would be attending a function.
We don’t know him personally but have heard he’s a quiet, risk-averse and upright chap whose last thought would have been to set-up a confrontation.
But it seems because he told someone who told someone who told someone that Tony Abbott would be at a public event and then a mob descended on the place that that is somehow his fault.
This is a nonsense so profound that it seems odd to be rebutting it.
When people are violent, we blame them, not the supposed ’causes’ or ‘provocations’ of their violence.
That is the correct position, one would think especially for conservatives.
Christopher Pyne’s position on this seemed to be that he was desperately keen to blame the Prime Minister or her staff for the actions of a few scumbags who – in our view at least – ought to be in a prison cell not in a Tent Embassy.
Those who initially tried to blame Tony Abbott’s words for the riotous actions of the violent were equally off-the-mark. Are there that many social-workers in Australia that we must almost instantly look for someone other than the wrong-doer to blame?
Pyne is one of those screechingly annoying wet-Liberal dilettantes from Adelaide who seems to struggle with the concept that criminals are responsible for crimes not societal ills and not victims of the crimes they perpetrate. Interestingly enough, the SA Liberals seem to campaign to the left against Labor on law and order, or at least tried to at the last election. Voters didn’t like it, just as we suspect they won’t in NSW, where they’re trying to govern that way.
Politics is a rough and tough business. And VEXNEWS is probably part of all that, for better or worse, a great scoop for us can sometimes involve personal suffering or embarrassment for the subjects of stories. So we acknowledge we can be part of the problem.
But we really struggle to accept that puffed-up Press Gallery know-alls have any business second-guessing Police on security questions. And we really struggle with any suggestion that a political leader acting on security advice is a ‘coward’. Anyone stepping up into public life is pretty brave in our view. Very brave indeed.
But a young bloke lost his job or unnecessarily gave it up all because somehow we have taught ourselves that it’s OK to blame anyone other than the perp for crimes. F*ck that.
In the circumstances where the PM personally ensured the Opposition Leader get out of the place safely, we think this ugly and mendacious thrill-kill of a twenty-something who meant no ill shows a degree of bastardry that will haunt Pyne’s reputation for some time.
Politics is – and should be – a vigorous contest but attempting to somehow link the PM with the violence unleashed on her and Abbott by self-destructive thugs and bullies is a new low. Hodges unlike most of the slick or rough staffers around the place is regarded by colleagues as a genuinely nice bloke and his targeting by the Libs deemed as akin to shooting Bambi.
Pyne can only hope he has no skeletons in his closet, from his undergraduate days or whenever.
We have seen this week that the contest of politics could perhaps benefit from being tempered by decency and common sense.
We were very impressed last year with the Leader of what Labor called the “No-alition” when he resisted the temptation to slam the government on their proposed increase in MP’s salaries. The situation with their pay had got rather absurd with a system calculated to disguise the real pay with an artificially low base salary topped up with every conceivable allowance and perk. It’s reform and increase in pay was long overdue and the fact that it came from an independent tribunal was not just procedurally valid but politically clever too. Only the persistently unprincipled hypocrite Greens opposed the measure (although not one of them has pledged not to accept the salary increase).
Tony Abbott has made his leadership from strident opposition of everything the government proposed, is the considered wisdom. But his decision to support Labor on the proposition that politicians ought not determine politicians’ pay is going to have a big impact on good governance in Australia.
We need more of that from Abbott, not less.
If he can survive internal rumblings, the polls show Abbott will become the PM at the next election. He’d do well to start now avoiding the politics of personal destruction we’ve seen this week and embracing more bi-partisanship where he can. At his best, Abbott can be a thoughtful and considered fellow, even a spiritual one. Many of his colleagues worry his views are too close to Labor, which is not something left-aligned media and politicians dwell on a lot. It’s an inconvenient truth, for them. Ominously for Labor, it means Abbott could be a formidably pragmatic and very politically effective PM.
Letting Pyne off the leash to hunt down and thrill-kill a twenty-something press secretary was not a good way to start the year or to continue the Coalition’s long march back to office that will see them almost certainly win in 2013. Pragmatic doesn’t mean cheap and sleazy.
It’s not just Tony Hodges that deserves better. We all do.
Discussion
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I can campaign to the left of labor with Chris Pyne. Alex promised me this was the only way to get into parliament.
There are way too many right wing boof-heads in the PM’s office.
Some occasional signs of talent perhaps, but way too many people who have no life experience beyond, or interests outside of, politics.
This results in bad decisions being made again and again, i.e. things that make good ‘strategy’ in the rarefied rooms of APH or 4TP, but that don’t stand up to scrutiny outside these buildings.
Bye bye TH, plenty more where you came from.
But you do not tell the full context of this toad’s message.
a. He told the rioters where Abbott was.
b. he lied about what Abbott said, in order to inflame and
c. He suggested that they might like to “liven him up a bit”.
Are you a relative of this “young man”?
Burn the aboriginie flag in front of their humpie embassy and see if you get out alive.
Burn the Australian flag outside the peoples Parliament and everyone looks on.
Australians are a tolerant or ignorant lot – you choose which.
Tim Hodges what a useless f…wit, time he moved to melbourne and got a job with the 20th man fund.
Nice troll CT. Hodges is neither a boofhead, nor of the right. He’s a decent, hard working bloke.
Rarefied rooms? That’s a master stroke, from a ginuwine master stroker.
He’s been sacrificed fighting the good fight while dilettantes hailing from 4TP I’ll grant you, run the asylum.
This move has been as widely welcomed as Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo in blue carpet land.
I too am finding it incomprehensible that Gillard’s staffer (Tony Hodges) is getting blamed.
Tony Hodges told a acquaintance where Tony Abbott was going to be with the PM later (Keep in mind, Tony Abbott’s whereabouts ARE NOT A STATE SECRET).
This acquaintance told somebody in the crowd of protesters and they descended upon Gillard and Abbott and harassed them.
And this is Tony Hodges’s fault?
Honestly, what utter rubbish.
The left all round are having a bad day.
How are the “left” having a bad day about this?
Anybody with a brain can see it’s a media beat up.
“is not something left-aligned media and politicians dwell on a lot”
____
Where is this mythical left-aligned media, by the ay? The ABC that labelled her “Coward”?
I don’t see any left-aligned media, only right-aligned. This is the biggest contributor to Labor’s headaches – zero supportive media.
Just ask Christian Kerr if you want to find out what skeletons Christopher Pyne is hiding in the closet.
I think the Australian people and the Indigenous have good reason to be angry at these pathetic politicians.
Gillard serves only the corporations / American Security fascists interest and clearly NOT the People’s Indigenous or other.
GET OUT GILLARD!! GET OUT ABBOT!!! You are both pathetic creatures that deserve what you get!! LAIRS PATHETIC LIARS!!!!!
I can’t believe that Abbot’s attendance at the function was meant too be a secret. All politicians love to be seen in public, and this was a very high-profile, feel-good affair. I’m sure that his office would have publicised his movements on Australia Day.
Tony Hodge may be everything you say he is, Andy, but one report yesterday quoted him as telling the protestors to get over to the restaurant where Abbott was ‘and liven it up’. Some of these twenty-somethings haven’t made the transition from student politics – but then again, neither has the PM.
@ heinrich
That wasn’t Tony Hodge, that was the third party he told.
This wouldn’t have happened if Josephine Alopecia Cafagna was in charge.
Burn the flag, burn it bright, burn it now.
i am so sick of those sanctimonious young turds from the ALP, they really are the lowest form of life, they’ve never worked in the real world, i’m not happy that knob Hodges got to resign, Gillard should have sacked him…be warned those that read these pages, esp you staffers of the ALP, politics is a “contact” sport, toughen the f__k up and know you are about to join the lines of the unemployed
Cant we just put them into a camp in an isolated area of the NT?
Bobalot – The Abos are leftie products of dysfunctional RC “families”. That why they are all called Pat, Mick and Mary. The former Gillard media clown as a Labour leftie. The fat sheila that the media clown spoke to was a union hack who then told her leftie mates at the humpy “embassy”.
Add to this the plagiarism of Albanesi after a leftie staffer wrote him a speech based on a Yankee film script. I could go on.
Pyne, the precious, permed, attack poodle of Abbott really is a pathetic little creature.
Pyne reminds me of one of those annoying little things that yip loudly and nip at ankles. The ones that you get an urge to launch over the nearest fence.
Time to roast my marshmellows on the flames of an aboriginie humpie embassy.
I’m dazzled that the debate has not turned in an obvious direction. Consider; prior to the riot, Abbott’s comments were moderate in the extreme, suggesting the Tent Embassy was less relevant than when it was founded. Here’s Abbott’s golden opportunity to harden his rhetoric. If he doesn’t, it will be a profound disappointment.
Personally, when I’ve visited the area, I’ve found the presence of such a primitive, smelly shanty in the Parliamentary Triangle an affront; an affront to the broader Aboriginal cause, and to civilisation itself. The thing should have been torn down and burned years ago. Why the ACT authorities have always had such a lazy tolerance to this rabble is beyond me.
Andrew, you are a laughable idiot!
Brother Abbott I am really quite exhausted after all those shenanigans with those young lads at morning song this morning.
How can Gillard be the victim when it was her office which started it?
And don’t say that this little twerp acted on his own initiative.
He has been identified as being with a senior Gillard staffer immediately before his action.
this staffer of course has got away with it by sacrificing Hodges [who will no doubt get a good job somewhere else at the public trough]
Abbott was at a function where dozens were invited to attend not to mention an entire media contingent.
Abbott’s attendance was supposed to be a state secret? Puh-lease!
I wish I was with Tony on Australia Day as I love been man handled by big security chaps.
When this was initially reported, there were 50 demonstrators outside the coffee shop. By the evening news, there were 200. Now, according to you, there were 500. Is this really a true figure, or is it being used for dramitic effect?
Great, another beat up!?!
To begin with, it was 100-200 protesters & how exactly do you classify ‘violent’? Banging on glass? Being ‘vocally ferocious’?
So far, none of the protesters have been charged with anything.
Love the references to Norway & Giffords as well, if you’d forgotten, both psychotic attackers supported the political right, whereas with the Tent Embassy protesters there were no guns or as suggested in a national newspaper cartoon, spears & beer cans (the embassy is a grog free zone, and probably only one).
PS. As to flag burning, well you don’t have to be non-Indigenous to disagree with that, do you? ;-P
Yikes, do you suppose the staffer or got-between(s) also spilled the beans on where Tony Abbott works?! But a much-needed reminder to all about security risks and mob mentality (no pun intended), including the lovely Laurie Oakes. Much better to have pushed Jules and Tones out of the joint when they did. Waiting any longer until the AFP really needed to flex its muscles on the crowd doesn’t bear thinking about. A very lucky escape for all, I reckon.
“At his best, Abbott can be a thoughtful and considered fellow, even a spiritual one.”
_____
Yeh, well, at our best each of us could be an Einstein. Pull the other one, Vex!
Flame…Flame….FLAME!!!
Hodges is a fuckwit who clearly lied to set Abbott up.
Or, at best, badly misjudged the integrity of whoever he spoke to.
Either way … the public purse has been relieved of the burden of carrying a five-star dickhead.
Hopefully some of those shooting up houses in Sydney can head on down to Canberra and unload an M16 into Humpytown.
Andrew Landeryou will burn for all eternity for his foul calumnies on me and Tony Abbott. Sickening blasphemy!
Hear hear.
The Australian Flag is a divisive rag I’ve often burnt, wiped my arse with or cleaned the dipstick from my foreign car with. Why are so many idiots so worried about a worthless old rag that means ‘zero’?
Thanks, “burn”, for providing the perspective if low life .
@burn the Aussie flag, for you yo say the flag is divisive you betray yourself as just another of the bigoted aborigines who believe the world owes them something because of nothing more than the colour of their skin. Time you grew up and relized this attitude only works in the socialist world of labor,OWS and Obama world. Tou are a disgrace.
As someone who has been a victim of such threats you sadly have to take them seriously even though they are a refection on on the person making the threats then the target of their abuse. You log them and report them to the authorities.
It is a bit like those sports fans who abuse or boo the opposing player to their supported candidate instead of applauding the achievements of all those engaged in the sport.
Burning flags, holding placard, shouting slogans and engaged in critical debate is one thing making threats or acts of violence and wanted vandalism and destruction as we had witnessed during the G20 in Melbourne is unacceptable and not Australian
Yeah Rob1696 – given Abbott’s MA from Oxford and the fact that he has authored three books – the evidence that he is a moronic f*#ktard is compelling.
Good grief there’s a deficit of intelligence here.
If some people from the PM’s office went out of their way to purposefully incite the rioters into action through deception and manipulation (which they clearly did) then a crime has been committed.
The crux of the issue is that Hodges lied about what Abbott had said (the usual boring motherhood statements about the embassy turned into “tear it down”) with the intention “tell everyone” of inciting the already agitated crowd into action “liven them up a bit”.
It’s a text book case of incitement.
It has nothing to do with him telling them where Abbott was.
Finally if it was all about Abbott why were the rioters screaming “Shame GILLARD shame”?
That’s the first big lie: that it was all about Abbott.
The second is that it’s about the PM’s office telling them where Abbott was, it’s not.
The third is that Hodges acted alone: Yet another “narrative” proven to be a lie this morning.
“Letting Pyne off the leash to hunt down and thrill-kill a twenty-something press secretary was not a good way to start the year….”
Hardly an honest retelling of events.
I guess we all have our pet hates.
Whilst not a fan of Pyne’s, blaming him for Hodges’ resignation makes less sense than blaming Hodge for causing the riotous behaviour.
Pyne just wants Hodges botty as we all know about what team bats for!
Hey …. is that you Julian?
It is you Julian Burnside QC posting as “Cardinal Pell” isn’t it?
If not, it is certainly someone familiar with your grubby work.
Why don’t you use your burning flag to wave goodbye to your precious Constitutional recognition.
Continuing a long proud cultural history of being LOSERS!!!!
I had some reservations about the Mark Liebler and Pat Dobson review of the constitution concerning aboriginals and was going to vote against it if a referendum occurs but after the national flag burning I will now be voting against it at any referendum on that alone.
The drunken Abos have damages their causes forever.
Remember that over 10 years ago drunken union and Abo thugs smashed up the glass doors of the Commonwealth Parliament. Former ALP MP and former ACTU hack Jenny George was there although she did not take part in the vandalism.
Burning the Australian Flag should be punishable by death.
What a load of shit the Australian Flag means nothing, stands for nothing and because of your comments I will have great joy in defacing then burning another one.
Well well well… Pyne is looking pretty roses now that more detail on Gillard’s staffers kcomes out each hour/day.
Perhaps a follow up piece, with an apology to Chris Pyne is in order :-)
Gillard and her team of filthy student politic amateurs have materially damaged democracy in this country with their shenanigans. It’s time they vacated the premises and let the adults back in charge.
Vex,how about some more investigate journo stuff, and out the Canberra ABC person (with close links to Gillard) who specifically requested that that question be asked of Abbott?
There’s a scoop there for the taking…
The Australian Flag is simply a motif. Death is a permanent, innappropriate punishment for burning it. What an idiotic comment posted just above.
Calling for the death of people should be punishable by death.
Calling for the calling for the death of people should be punishable by death.
Rumour, rumour everywhere….. Peter Reith WILL have a crack at the Senate in Victoria. Watch out. Bombs ahoy!!!!!
It was a boof head, ham fisted stunt by the hodges and had zero plus for gillard and all plusses for abbott. Shows the desperate lows gillard and labor have now sunk to in pulling a stunt like this. He got what he deserved, out of a sinking stinking mess. He is the lucky one. As for defending him, way off the mark on this one.
Tasmania got it right with their aboes.
Disagree Anon on one small point.
They missed Mansell’s forebears.
I think it is time to bring this whole sorry (copyright K Rudd) saga to an end.
Firstly, the accusation of invasion in 1788. I prefer to think of it as a benevolent takeover and, even if reparation was due, it has been paid many times over in the form of the dole, AbStudy, NewStart, whatever.
Secondly, what price do you put on the IP brought by European settlement which has vastly improved the lot of Indigenous Australians?
I think indigenous Australians owe non-indigenous Australians heaps.
If you have an embassy it implies you are a nation apart …. well good …. collect your own taxes and pay your own social security.
What’s that …. you gotta a deficit?
Tough!!!
Aboes can return living as they did pre-1788 in the desert centre anytime they wish. But they dont cuz that would mean an end to welfare, free housing and booze. Oh and that’d also like you know, have to do work.
We agree. Everyone should die, by death?
Dirty smelly creatures.
The 1967 referendum was a big big mistake.
Sigh … we used to keep them in their place.
Maybe we will again one day
What do they do at the humpie embassy. Do they issue passports or give consular advice after all they have had 40 years to organise it – No. All they do is sit around a lot drinking and whinging while people like Noel Pearson in Cape York is doing good work for the Abos. What a contrast between the Abo left in Canberra and the Abo right in Cape York. The Canberra Abos are living up to their organisations name “Abos Talking Shit In Canberra” (ATSIC)
***Pyne is one of those screechingly annoying wet-Liberal dilettantes from Adelaide***
Horse hockey, Andre. Pyne has had a road-to-Milparinka conversion, a la Brendan Nelson or Alexander Downer. He’s a very effective MP and conveys Opposition messages well, on talk radio.
***the Australian Flag is a divisive rag I’ve often burnt, wiped my arse with***
Welcome to Vex News, Mr Mighell!