Every once in a while something really good makes it through the fog of half-truths and media spin that passes for our daily news.
Today we learn that Alison Anderson and her two mates, Larisa Lee and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwuy, are joining Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party. They will take their seats in the NT Legislative Assembly as PUP representatives, and Clive reckons Alison will become our Chief Minister after the next election.
Do I hear some questioning the likelihood of a PUP and a King Brown coexisting peacefully? Surely if lions and lambs can lie down together in the Elysian Fields, pups and king browns can do the same in the NT.
Why is this good news? Simply because any circus worth its salt knows that periodically new acts are needed. Without them, public interest wanes, gate receipts decline and, left unattended long enough, bankruptcy and receivership loom.
Now, thanks to Obama moving into the Top End and Palmer setting up a tent in the Centre, we can look forward to at least a couple more good years of self-government in the NT. So go, you good thing.
Friday, April 19, 2024
The freedom of the press still furnishes that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide – Chicago Tribune.
This is a smart move by Alison Anderson et al. PUP doesn’t have many Indigenous policies so Alison will be able to flesh these out while retaining a good measure of independence. While having the support of a rapidly growing national party and the undoubted political nous of Clive, the three Indigenous members will be a major political force. This is well recognised of course, which is why Giles is so bitterly on the attack. The problem is that attacking Alison Anderson rarely works and usually backfires. What is needed is statesmanship and respect for a fighter for her people.
But this is THIS week, last week it was First Nations or something, before that the CLP, before that the Labor Party … next week?
But in all of them Alison has been 100% consistent, she is representing her people and will not compromise in order to so that. Alison doesn’t put political parties or politics above the Aboriginal people she defends.
The real failure in all of this is Adam Giles:
• As a leader, when there is conflict a leader should be equipped to listen fairly and act accordingly (even if he doesn’t like the staff / team member) and do it discretely – not leak to the media every five minutes like Adam is known to do since 2008.
• If a leader cannot do such, they should delegate to a deputy who can (Tollner, I believe has the skills to have worked it through. However: Adam’s immaturity would have assumed “that would make him look bad”).
• As a so-called indigenous man, Adam should know the issues better than most previous leaders. Therefore in a better position to have worked out the issues with the bush bloc.
• As the first so-called indigenous head of state he had a responsibility to exhaust every effort to work things through.
• Whether Adam or the next leader likes it or not indigenous issues are big, complex and here to stay, as Tony Abbott is well aware. Big complex issues take big complex characters – of which Giles is not.
The CLP has just over two years left, if they are serious about Government at a team, and as a party, the need to get the next leadership change right. With Clive Palmer’s resources now in the bush, coupled with Labor’s rejuvenation at a party level (seems to have gone unnoticed) the CLP are lining up for disaster at the polls to 2005 levels.
For the CLP diehards: don’t believe me? Granich secured the Blain seat for you, not Barrett. The bush gained you government, and polling of the Northern Suburbs in March showed 100% Labor. Where does that leave you? Wake up from lessons of the past and do not keep using bandaids of ignorance. Sort it or live with it.
Maurie and the muppets and Palmer and the puppets!