Gerard Henderson both writes and is written about - the commentariat daily for Saturday 21 June

21-06-2014 henderson
  • The Henderson gigs – Gerard Henderson writing about other journalists, other journalists writing about Gerard Henderson, Gerard Henderson writing about other … and so on ad infinitum. Mike Seccombe knows how to play the game of sticking with the tried and true with this piece that confirms there’s nothing very innovative about The Saturday Paper.
  • Gerard himself in his weekend piece for The Australian gives an explanation of how ” ‘Occupied’ East Jerusalem stunt confuses fact and fiction” with the Lee Rhiannon’s Green-left line being the culprit because it only undermines the peace process. He notes: “Reports from the committee meeting have tended to run the line that Brandis changed Australia’s attitude to the Middle East peace process by describing some of the territories that Israel attained consequent upon the 1967 Six Day War as ‘dispute’ rather than ‘occupied’. In fact, Bishop had flagged the Coalition’s position on this matter in an interview with ABC Radio National Breakfast’s James Carleton on September 6 last year.”
  • Inaction in Iraq would be far too risky for the West Is Paul Kelly’s argument in The Oz but don’t expect to find out what the action should be. He concludes: “Obama has been trapped. His disengagement from Iraq came undone long before his watch was over. That is the reason he needs to refocus now on Iraq. This is Obama’s problem; he cannot use the excuse that it is all Bush’s fault since we have known since 2004 that Bush’s invasion was a mistake. Obama has got to find the capacity to exert real influence without fuelling the Jihadist frenzy.” Thanks for that sage advice, Paul.
  • And if Iraq does not give you enough to worry about, The Oz has more:
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  • Why the Kouk is plain wrong sees Henry Ergas give us yet another instalment of the “are we smoking more or fewer cigarettes” serial that has been The Australian’s crusade for the week. With my tobacco industry history I’m too scared to make a comment other than that all will be revealed over time as the excise duty figures are published.
  • In Lib Senators ponder disgraceful use of conscience vote Peter van Onselen takes to Coalition senators threatening to cross the floor on Abbott’s signature policy – the paid parental leave scheme.  It “represents a disgraceful misuse of the conservative right to exercise a conscience vote on issues even when party policy has been set”. – The Weekend Australian
  • An overlooked hero of reform – Laurie Oakes in the News Corp tabloids remembers the role of Bill Hayden as the Opposition Leader who did the hard yards that enabled the later reform years of Hawke and Keating. “Shorten needs to start demonstrating a similar approach to Hayden’s — and soon. … So far, Shorten is vulnerable to government claims that he sticks like glue to policies of the past. Hayden tackled party reform with the kind of courage that Labor could benefit from now, backing intervention in the Queensland branch — his home state — even though it meant falling out with good friends and facing intimidating abuse. And, often defying the factional heavies, Hayden shaped the frontbench that became the Hawke cabinet — one of the best Australia has seen.”
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  • Gadfly: Ashby pulls out - Diarist-at-large Richard Ackland flys about the nation for the Saturday thing. Should be read out of commiseration by every real and wannabe freelancer.
  • You can’t keep hiding the ugly truth – Andrew Wilkie writes in The Mercury of the “systemically cruel” live animal export trade. ” Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has given the green light to live export to Iran after a 40-year boycott. This while regulations are routinely ignored and any effective oversight of the industry is left to noble welfare organisation such as Animals Australia. This is a government content to treat animal cruelty as a growth industry even though the economics of the industry simply don’t add up.”
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  • Queensland voters deserve the truth on Labor’s big ideas “The party’s awesome majority of 78 seats will no doubt be reduced. However those rushing to administer last rites to the Newman Government are moving in haste. … Labor still has not released anything resembling a winning manifesto, and its hapless crew of seven members in Parliament often resemble goldfish tipped out of their bowl. If Labor has any big ideas voters deserve to hear them now.”

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  • New Senate, new force or rabble? – The Fairfax duo Deborah Snow and James Massola look at the new lineup. “Nick Xenophon, the independent senator from South Australia, is scrabbling for a metaphor to describe how the nation’s upper house will look from July 1. ‘If it were a painting,’ he says, ‘I don’t think it would be a landscape. I don’t think it would be a Picasso. I think the Senate will be more like Blue Poles.’ It’s an intriguing comparison. The famous painting by Jackson Pollock, which hangs in Canberra’s National Gallery a short walk from the Federal Parliament, is a sprawling, chaotic masterpiece governed by eight poles leaning at different angles across the paint-spattered canvas. … The PUP group is already picking off Abbott government measures it won’t support – paid parental leave, the fuel excise increase, the $7 GP co-payment, an increase in the pension age – though its support for the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes look more assured. In the longer term, government strategists believe the Palmer senators can be peeled away on individual pieces of legislation and privately question how long the colourful billionaire can hold his flock together. Coalition party bosses are also keenly aware that a double dissolution could well enhance, rather than decrease, the representation of micro-parties because all 12 senators from each state, not just six as in a regular election, would go to the polls.”
  • No lies in Parliament, just truth deficit disorders – Fairfax’s Tony Wright tackles the use and abuse of liar in the federal parliament.
  • Our politics needs to change. Here’s how Michael Gordon fails to live up the headline but has a good anecdote about the press gallery mid winter ball.
  • The contender. Ben Hills profiles Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews for Fairfax’s Good Weekend

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