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The Forum > Article Comments > Do this generation's female journalists lack talent? > Comments

Do this generation's female journalists lack talent? : Comments

By Mark Christensen, published 13/5/2013

Loudly and proudly dismissing Barker as cheap and nefarious protects political interests, in this case gender equality, from cold, hard reality.

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At the end of the day, the only thing that should decide who does what job is merit!

There once was a Minister called Ros,
The Village Idiot is what she's known as,
Who just happened to be thick with Disaster,
The one called the General that is,
Her son she did place in a job,
For which he was neither eligible,
Nor qualified as we did find later,
When queried about his appointment;
The Idiot did claim he had merit;
However the merit this clown did possess,
Was being the son of a goose.

Actually the clown has just recently resigned & dropped out of sight, conveniently as it turns out because a CMC inquiry into the appointment is expected to produce a rather uncomlimentary report on nepotism by Newman / Seeney / Nicholls. This isn't by any means the only example of cushy / overpaid jobs for friends & family of LNP ministers, the General put one of his mates into a high level gubmunt position that its doubtful the appointee ever attended. Mind you that didn't stop him claiming quite a few hundred grand from the public purse. The Village Idiot went one better by appointing one of her cronies into another plum position despite the conflict of interest consequent to the person already consulting to the same entity. Pretty good getting TWO pay packets for doing the same job ?? Still one can't argue the 'merit' issue, any friend or associate of a minister obviously has that in spades !
Posted by praxidice, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 1:08:11 PM
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continued

All that aside, one can't ignore the husband of previous QLD premier GoAnna the Blight who just happened to score a certain well-overpaid gubmunt job, the contract pursuant to which just got renewed a day or two before the state election (hmmmm). Seems GoAnna & spouse expected General Disaster to sack his nibs & consequently incur a humungous 'breach of contract' penalty. As it transpired, the not-so-good General decided to retain said clown & engage him in UN-doing what he'd been pretending to do under the previous gubmunt. That didn't appear to sit well as he resigned shortly thereafter. Personally I would have been inclined to call his bluff and demand HE pay compensation for breech of contract however one can only assume that the General was glad to see the end of both GoAnna & spouse. Some galah in Medibank apparently offered her a job ... it her performance as premier is any indication, anyone with shares in Medibank would be well advised to sell up ASAP.
Posted by praxidice, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 1:08:48 PM
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praxidice, "(Ex-Premier Anna Bligh's) performance as premier is any indication, anyone with shares in Medibank would be well advised to sell up ASAP".

LOL, you are right and that would apply to so many of her colleagues. The Gillard government moved rapidly to appoint a number of ex-Bligh government heavies to federal government posts.

Who can forget too, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane 'Salaryanne' Atkinson's other than illustrious career as 'Chair' of ABC Learning 2000 to 2008?

Politicians. They have more front than a Council bus. You'd have to bury them head down so they don't still have a hand out.

Waiting to see the appointments on both sides after Sept '13. The left womyn's network Emily's List would be beavering away at fever pitch, but on a falling tide.
Posted by onthebeach, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 3:00:59 PM
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onthebeach I'd forgotten about the aptly named salaryanne, but then the list of Brisbane mayors included quite a few forgettable folk. I vaguely recall some poor bedraggled specimen who managed to get inundated when a water mains or something broke right beside him & he ended up looking more than a drowned rat than previously (wouldn't have thought it possible), then there was the failed priest Surley Jim who was unceremoniously turfed out of the church by the then pope for getting his rocks off with an anglican. I understand the conversation with the pontiff went something like 'surely you can find a good cattletick to mess with' and 'is it too much to ask that you at least exercise some discretion'. Seems the whole parish knew about Surley Jim & Mary whatever her name was. (I worked with her husband at one point)

Brisbane did have one decent honorable mayor, probably the only one ever to draw breath. Clem Jones did a lot for the city & never accepted a cent of his allocated salary. Mind you he was a successful developer (responsible for most of Carina / Carindale) and hardly in need of a dollar. That said, I'm not aware of even a hint of wrongdoing, even his opponents remember him as a 'good bloke. Incumbent Graham Quirk WAS also the best alderman one could hope for. Unfortunately he got caught up in the CanDo saga and learned far too many bad tricks for my liking. These days he's just another pro-development / pro big-business / if it grows, chop it down, if it moves, shoot it drone.
Posted by praxidice, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 3:25:22 PM
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Suseonline,

I am with you if you are talking about the lacklustre ability of some male sporting commentators. Save us all from those racing and punting language and references. Incredible to hear voters being referred to as 'punters' too.

However, none of that disturbs what has been said about the negative outcomes of affirmative action appointments of women in the media. It has been going on for many years though. Bring back merit, everywhere.
Posted by onthebeach, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 3:45:04 PM
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praxidice,

Clem Jones sewered Brisbane. That was an incredible achievement and went against entrenched interests.

I'd like to see more people with hard skills like engineering entering politics. The problem is that such people are not egocentric, self promoting machines like Salaryanne and Anna Bligh, and they are unlikely to survive pre-selection.

Just talking about ex-Premier Anna Bligh, do you remember Anna sooling her Qld Plod onto bare boobs she espired being 'flaunted' on high rise balconies in Main Beach, Surfers Paradise? That was when she was being driven around the track for the Gold Coast Indy. How the hell she could see them is a mystery (distance, building heights, balustrades etc), but many chuckled at the thought of those cops being diverted to locate the offending nipples. Meanwhile the Russina mafia, OMGs and other gangs involved in drugs bloomed on the glitter coast. But feminist Anna was concerned about bare boobies on the twenty-something floor a kilometre away.
Posted by onthebeach, Wednesday, 15 May 2013 4:17:16 PM
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