As one Press Gallery journalist said last night on hearing the Rudds were vacating the lodge and leaving the famous Jasper and Abby (cat and dog respectively) behind:
"It's always the pets that get it in the neck."
And so this is how it ends for one of the most famous prime ministerial pets this nation has ever had. After a period of upheaval for the duo over the last week or so, they are now being left behind "with friends" as the Rudd family try to move away from Canberra ghosts.
As Rudd put it in his statement:
"For those who have written to us extensively about Jasper and Abby, they . . . temporarily have gone to be with friends here in Canberra" - along with the chooks.
It's important to acknowledge therefore, at this historical moment that these were some of the finest pets to have ever graced the Lodge with their presence — to have ever scratched its furniture, weed on its carpet or drunk from its toilet bowls. And so as Rudd said "Thank You" to the Australian people, packed up the bags and headed to the sunnier and warmer state of Queensland, we, the Australian people, thank Jasper and Abby for their service.
Much has been written about their contribution, not least by Rudd himself who wrote a children's book with Rhys Muldoon: Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle. Wholesome material with barely a mention of any rats or their activities. No, this was simply following the adventures of a dog, a cat, and a party at the Lodge on Australia Day.
Crikey cartoonist, First Dog on the Moon, has also immortalised the furry pair on countless occasions. With Jasper, the cat, the more erratic and corrupt of the pair, most recently pictured defending the Lodge survivalist style with a battery of weapons while the calmer, more rational Abby looks on terrified.
Of course the Lodge's new owner, when or if she eventually moves in, has not yet declared whether there will be any first pets. We have not even confirmed whether Julia Gillard is a dog or a cat person yet - a fundamental question for the Australian voter come election time.
Jasper and Abby have been pioneers, fundamental to the rise in media presence of Australian first pets, and have given their roles a more presidential air. The US presidents have always celebrated their pets and embraced them as important parts of the first family. On a few occasions they have even saved their masters from media peril. I mean who doesn't look more human and amenable whilst cuddling a puppy?
Nixon in his "Checkers speech" famously defended some dubious activities by referring to his dog Checkers, who regardless of what anyone said, was an improper gift he intended to keep. This reference to his dog in fact created an outpouring of public support for the then Republican candidate and even contributed to him getting elected a few months later, clearly demonstrating the power of the first pet.
Obama's dog, Bo, even has its own high-tech blog, not unlike a certain Malcolm Turnbull who personally chronicles the adventures of Mellie, the Turnbulls' three-legged, one-eyed wonder pup in his dog blog.
There have been other pets in the Lodge at various stages (apparently Malcolm Fraser had a dog who he left behind with the butler at the end of his tenure). But never has there been a cat and a dog quite like Jasper and Abby. So as the Rudd dawn sets on Canberra, let's just take a moment to think of the smaller elements of this administration we're going to miss.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Missing voting virgins a bad sign
The Australian Greens have got some advice for voting virgins out there: don't waste your first time. Parodying Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's line, the Greens (creepily enough) are telling young voters that the first time is a precious gift not to be thrown away lightly. But the problem is young voters are not getting anywhere near the proverbial electoral bedsheets this year with nearly a million young voters not even enrolled. So why at this election are young people engaging in voting abstinence?
Only a few months away from picking up a burnt snag and casting a ballot at primary schools across this nation, the numbers for young enrolment are not great. In 2004, we had 82 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds enrolled, which went up in 2007 to 84 per cent. We're now at about 78 per cent with only a short time left before an election. This is a worry particulary as Howard's early deadline to enrol is still in place (although Labor is seeking to have this overturned), pointing to a poor enrolment number overall for the year.
If you think Abbott and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be having a hard time, spare a thought for the people in charge of getting eligible young voters enrolling to vote in this most unappealing election. Between the unexciting candidates and the lack of difference between parties, this is certainly no easy task. There are certainly enough campaigns encouraging young voters to enrol — the Greens, the staple Triple J's "Rock Enrol" and the Australian Electoral Commission's new campaign, "Famous People Vote too" — a new approach where the likes of comedian Dave Hughes and MTV present Ruby Rose present sometimes awkward YouTube videos encouraging the "yoof" to enrol and vote.
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Campaigns can count in young people's voting numbers. There were some amazing campaigns at the last US election, namely "Rock the Vote", which contributed greatly towards the record youth turnout. The notable exception being rapper P Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign, which oddly for a campaign that gave you the option of voting or death didn't go down so well in the electorate.
In 2010, things are going to be trickier, which is why presumably the AEC and the Greens' campaigns have tried to go with a new tack, something different to convince this demographic. The fact is, this year's election will be a flop by all accounts and even those 18-year-olds that may not pay any attention to politics, may not even know it's an election year, instinctively know an Abbott v Rudd election is going to be a dud.
Of course, there are lots of reasons that young people are traditionally unlikely to enrol — young people don't see the use of voting, they've got more important things going on at that stage in their lives, lack of technology in voting etc. But we can see that when young people do vote, it's in the more significant elections, ones that represent changes in direction for the country.
Young voters are in fact great indicators for watershed elections or when candidates are impressive. Conversely, when they are presented with elections saturated in the same old political rhetoric and lack of policy changes, the numbers go down and you know its going to be a snooze fest. Particularly when the candidates are difficult to relate to or . . . ahem, bad communicators, not to name any names here.
Of course, those already enrolled are stuck with having to vote for the lesser of two evils, but can you really blame young people for not wanting to get into the game and be forced to make such a choice?
A drop in youth enrolments is always a bad sign. Apart from making a difference to the overall result (back in 2007 the 18-24s contributed 6.9 points of the 52.7 per cent final result, but had those missing voters participated it would be more like 7.9 points). But it also means politicians have to try less, they are less innovative and their communication is poor.
Let's hope for their sake that young voters do buck the odds and enrol. It might be our last chance to make this election an interesting one.
Only a few months away from picking up a burnt snag and casting a ballot at primary schools across this nation, the numbers for young enrolment are not great. In 2004, we had 82 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds enrolled, which went up in 2007 to 84 per cent. We're now at about 78 per cent with only a short time left before an election. This is a worry particulary as Howard's early deadline to enrol is still in place (although Labor is seeking to have this overturned), pointing to a poor enrolment number overall for the year.
If you think Abbott and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will be having a hard time, spare a thought for the people in charge of getting eligible young voters enrolling to vote in this most unappealing election. Between the unexciting candidates and the lack of difference between parties, this is certainly no easy task. There are certainly enough campaigns encouraging young voters to enrol — the Greens, the staple Triple J's "Rock Enrol" and the Australian Electoral Commission's new campaign, "Famous People Vote too" — a new approach where the likes of comedian Dave Hughes and MTV present Ruby Rose present sometimes awkward YouTube videos encouraging the "yoof" to enrol and vote.
delayedAds.push(function(){
FD.addExternalReferralsAd($merge(FD.baseAd, {
id: "adspot-300x250-pos-3",
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aamsz : "300x250"
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,addSmall: true
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Campaigns can count in young people's voting numbers. There were some amazing campaigns at the last US election, namely "Rock the Vote", which contributed greatly towards the record youth turnout. The notable exception being rapper P Diddy's "Vote or Die" campaign, which oddly for a campaign that gave you the option of voting or death didn't go down so well in the electorate.
In 2010, things are going to be trickier, which is why presumably the AEC and the Greens' campaigns have tried to go with a new tack, something different to convince this demographic. The fact is, this year's election will be a flop by all accounts and even those 18-year-olds that may not pay any attention to politics, may not even know it's an election year, instinctively know an Abbott v Rudd election is going to be a dud.
Of course, there are lots of reasons that young people are traditionally unlikely to enrol — young people don't see the use of voting, they've got more important things going on at that stage in their lives, lack of technology in voting etc. But we can see that when young people do vote, it's in the more significant elections, ones that represent changes in direction for the country.
Young voters are in fact great indicators for watershed elections or when candidates are impressive. Conversely, when they are presented with elections saturated in the same old political rhetoric and lack of policy changes, the numbers go down and you know its going to be a snooze fest. Particularly when the candidates are difficult to relate to or . . . ahem, bad communicators, not to name any names here.
Of course, those already enrolled are stuck with having to vote for the lesser of two evils, but can you really blame young people for not wanting to get into the game and be forced to make such a choice?
A drop in youth enrolments is always a bad sign. Apart from making a difference to the overall result (back in 2007 the 18-24s contributed 6.9 points of the 52.7 per cent final result, but had those missing voters participated it would be more like 7.9 points). But it also means politicians have to try less, they are less innovative and their communication is poor.
Let's hope for their sake that young voters do buck the odds and enrol. It might be our last chance to make this election an interesting one.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
On Trial for Everything - is there any one defending Rudd?
Our PM has had that sauce bottle snatched away from him. Instead of giving him a fair shake of it, the public and media are currently beating him around the head with it. But many saw this coming, urging the guillotine of public opinion to drop. Things are so much simpler for the public now that we can blame everything on Rudd. But if we're going to try him for everything, we need to get a defence team together... which might be tricky. Before we look who's available to defend Rudd, let's put the PM in the dock for a minute and see who's currently wagging the finger. The progressive voter is angry about suspending protection for Afghani and Sri Lankan asylum seekers; mining is infuriated with the government's proposed RSPT; and the environmentalists are aggravated about the ETS back flip. Teachers, parents and students are annoyed that they haven't got their computers in schools yet. The talk back radio listeners are incensed about the insulation debacle and school halls costing a kajillion dollars a square foot. Internet users are worried about the impending internet filter and the pundits are crying hypocrisy over the change to political advertising rules, the very ones the government created. So the prosecution is looking healthy enough. The defence, on the other hand, is not looking so hot, in fact it's looking more like a flustered attorney, shuffling papers and throwing together an argument at the last minute. Indeed, it's very hard to find anyone in the public arena sticking up for the PM, but the Goanna has searched high and low and come up with the few voices that are defending Rudd. Annie O'Rourke, an ex-advisor to the PM, dove in front of a bullet and copped the blame for the PM on the charge of going to see celebrity Cate Blanchett instead of going to the funeral of Labor hero, John Button. She explained that on this particular accusation, Rudd was innocent, it was her fault with a scheduling mix up. In her article, she also defended his record on health, the economy and climate change, saying that "the man and his team deserve credit." Adding "Yes, he can be a pain in the butt. Yes, he can be a poor communicator. But he is human, he does have a heart, and he cares deeply for Australia."
Another commentator who recently defended Rudd (sort of) is controversial comedienne, Catherine Deveny who asked her readers in a recent column to "leave Kevin Rudd alone". So the record was terrible, the ETS was a flop and the education revolution a farce, but Deveny defends Rudd like one defends a kid getting beaten up for taking the bullies' iPods, sure he did something bad, but no need to go overboard. According to Deveny, it's the voters fault for asking too much and expecting promises to be met. "What do you want? A world where things get done? Where promises aren't broken? Where we have a guy in charge who doesn't look like a dentist, swear like a trooper, speak fluent Asian and have Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a people smuggler, as a spiritual mentor?" Clearly our expectations were too high to begin with. Josh Thomas, Gen Y expert (if there is such a thing) also joins the Rudd defence team in his article in The Age where he supports Rudd not because he is anything great, he feels "violently neutral" towards him in fact. But because things could be much worse - an Abbott government - which he argues is in no one's interests. He says he even want to "help Kevin become popular again", because he's young and "young people know how to be cool." So there are helpful suggestions for the beleaguered Rudd - break a bone (this makes primary school kids very popular), become a cheerleader or a quarterback or even a black face option, it did help "Hey Hey's ratings after all."This is our Rudd defence team, Thomas, Deveny and O'Rourke and (for the time being) his own Labor government. Not the best defence team in the world with not the best arguments to keep the prosecution at bay, although we have gotten him off that direct Button/Blanchett charge. Just another thousand odd accusations to get around and Rudd is home free. God help him
Another commentator who recently defended Rudd (sort of) is controversial comedienne, Catherine Deveny who asked her readers in a recent column to "leave Kevin Rudd alone". So the record was terrible, the ETS was a flop and the education revolution a farce, but Deveny defends Rudd like one defends a kid getting beaten up for taking the bullies' iPods, sure he did something bad, but no need to go overboard. According to Deveny, it's the voters fault for asking too much and expecting promises to be met. "What do you want? A world where things get done? Where promises aren't broken? Where we have a guy in charge who doesn't look like a dentist, swear like a trooper, speak fluent Asian and have Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a people smuggler, as a spiritual mentor?" Clearly our expectations were too high to begin with. Josh Thomas, Gen Y expert (if there is such a thing) also joins the Rudd defence team in his article in The Age where he supports Rudd not because he is anything great, he feels "violently neutral" towards him in fact. But because things could be much worse - an Abbott government - which he argues is in no one's interests. He says he even want to "help Kevin become popular again", because he's young and "young people know how to be cool." So there are helpful suggestions for the beleaguered Rudd - break a bone (this makes primary school kids very popular), become a cheerleader or a quarterback or even a black face option, it did help "Hey Hey's ratings after all."This is our Rudd defence team, Thomas, Deveny and O'Rourke and (for the time being) his own Labor government. Not the best defence team in the world with not the best arguments to keep the prosecution at bay, although we have gotten him off that direct Button/Blanchett charge. Just another thousand odd accusations to get around and Rudd is home free. God help him
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Dancing to Aunty's tune
Only five years after one of the most recognisable news themes was canned from the ABC news, the old piccolo trumpet fanfare is getting another lease on life. Pendulum, a drum and bass outfit from Perth, have remixed the tune, and ABC radio station Triple J has been bombarded with requests for it.
It seems to have struck a chord with people who grew up with the song as a feature of daily life. Who would have guessed that the next craze hitting the clubs and bars of this nation would be the intro music for a serious news program. Yes, public servant techno has arrived. Imagine, if you will, a club full of people pretending to be cool in front of each other, sipping, leaning, posing - all of sudden they drop the pretence. A song comes on and everyone puts on that "hey, I know this" face, throw their hands up in the air and get dancing. As a member of Pendulum told radio when the remix was released, it taps into something deep in the young Australian person's mind: "you can't get away from those horns, I think we woke up and went to sleep to them every night growing up."
The new song has prompted some strong reaction with some arguing that it should become our new national anthem. One journalist noting that it has even been adopted by the souped-up car, mullet parade who have been blaring it out their V8s.Remixing, of course, is a fine art. It can bomb or it can make something new, stamping a different sound on the original while keeping its fundamentals in place. And this is not even the first news theme to have been remixed. Comedian Bill Bailey did an amazing drum and bass re-interpretation of the BBC world news music. If you didn't know what to play at an apocalyptic rave, this would probably be your best bet. Peter Wall, one half of the team that composed the original ABC news theme, which lasted 20 years, said it was always one of the best things he and his fellow composer Tony Ansell ever wrote. Wall (who has the original arrangement as his ring tone) says he's "delighted" that this new remix of his work is reaching a whole new audience. Wall is also amazed at how much the 20-somethings are responding to the remix, saying that its probably so popular with this demographic because it’s been with them their whole lives, on loop - "it could be an elephant fart, and they would still love it . . . it's just so familiar". The current ABC theme, introduced in 2005 although similar, perhaps too similar, does not have the same impact as the original. Many at the time lamented its predecessor's passing, but perhaps this remix, spreading itself on the internet and in the dance music scene, promises a revival of sorts. The daughter of one of the composers is even considering a petition to get it back as the ABC news intro. The remix is now available on iTunes at about $1.69 a download, but with it freely available on YouTube and on other websites it probably won't generate much money. Wall laments this - "it's getting harder to make a living from music" which he says is "very, very sad." The situation now will make it harder for composers in particular to get into the industry. Danny Clayton, presenter for Channel V who has the pendulum version as his ring tone, recently played the remix in his DJ set. He said that he turned all the music off, and then let the iconic news tune play in. Initially "people were laughing and smiling" but when the beat dropped in the song "the entire room lit up, people went crazy, the room was electrified." According to Clayton, it's a shame that the original theme has been replaced with "a watered down version" which was much more ‘‘boring’’. Clayton is all for bringing the news theme back to the ABC, saying it would be "a pity to see a music like that disappear." And it is a great piece of music, couple that with some familiarity for a whole generation of people and you have a winning formula. Back in the Hunter Valley 20 years ago Wall's two-year-old son would always jump up and down when he heard the music on the TV around news time. It looks like people, now a similar age to Wall's grown up son, are still jumping around to it. It's clearly time to bring it back.
It seems to have struck a chord with people who grew up with the song as a feature of daily life. Who would have guessed that the next craze hitting the clubs and bars of this nation would be the intro music for a serious news program. Yes, public servant techno has arrived. Imagine, if you will, a club full of people pretending to be cool in front of each other, sipping, leaning, posing - all of sudden they drop the pretence. A song comes on and everyone puts on that "hey, I know this" face, throw their hands up in the air and get dancing. As a member of Pendulum told radio when the remix was released, it taps into something deep in the young Australian person's mind: "you can't get away from those horns, I think we woke up and went to sleep to them every night growing up."
The new song has prompted some strong reaction with some arguing that it should become our new national anthem. One journalist noting that it has even been adopted by the souped-up car, mullet parade who have been blaring it out their V8s.Remixing, of course, is a fine art. It can bomb or it can make something new, stamping a different sound on the original while keeping its fundamentals in place. And this is not even the first news theme to have been remixed. Comedian Bill Bailey did an amazing drum and bass re-interpretation of the BBC world news music. If you didn't know what to play at an apocalyptic rave, this would probably be your best bet. Peter Wall, one half of the team that composed the original ABC news theme, which lasted 20 years, said it was always one of the best things he and his fellow composer Tony Ansell ever wrote. Wall (who has the original arrangement as his ring tone) says he's "delighted" that this new remix of his work is reaching a whole new audience. Wall is also amazed at how much the 20-somethings are responding to the remix, saying that its probably so popular with this demographic because it’s been with them their whole lives, on loop - "it could be an elephant fart, and they would still love it . . . it's just so familiar". The current ABC theme, introduced in 2005 although similar, perhaps too similar, does not have the same impact as the original. Many at the time lamented its predecessor's passing, but perhaps this remix, spreading itself on the internet and in the dance music scene, promises a revival of sorts. The daughter of one of the composers is even considering a petition to get it back as the ABC news intro. The remix is now available on iTunes at about $1.69 a download, but with it freely available on YouTube and on other websites it probably won't generate much money. Wall laments this - "it's getting harder to make a living from music" which he says is "very, very sad." The situation now will make it harder for composers in particular to get into the industry. Danny Clayton, presenter for Channel V who has the pendulum version as his ring tone, recently played the remix in his DJ set. He said that he turned all the music off, and then let the iconic news tune play in. Initially "people were laughing and smiling" but when the beat dropped in the song "the entire room lit up, people went crazy, the room was electrified." According to Clayton, it's a shame that the original theme has been replaced with "a watered down version" which was much more ‘‘boring’’. Clayton is all for bringing the news theme back to the ABC, saying it would be "a pity to see a music like that disappear." And it is a great piece of music, couple that with some familiarity for a whole generation of people and you have a winning formula. Back in the Hunter Valley 20 years ago Wall's two-year-old son would always jump up and down when he heard the music on the TV around news time. It looks like people, now a similar age to Wall's grown up son, are still jumping around to it. It's clearly time to bring it back.
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