Saturday, October 29, 2011

In which politicians talk about Qantas and their metaphors give them away



Quoted in a report tonight:

Bob Brown: 'This lockout is also a sellout of the spirit of Australia.'

Tony Abbott: 'It is the responsibility of government to ensure ... that brand Australia is not damaged.'

Got that? Lapsed Presbyterian Bob Brown thinks Australia has a spirit. That devout Catholic, Tony Abbott, thinks it's a commodity.

5 comments:

Stephen L said...

True. But Bob is also making a pun on Qantas' old slogan. Abbott is not interested in the sore of nuance and layering of meaning that involves.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Ooh so he is, well spotted. That's even better. Telling them they have lost their identity as well as their soul. Love it. Whereas Abbott is just mindlessly buying in to the corporate greed über alles ethos that produced this mess in the first place.

Anonymous said...

Whatever the pollies opine, we will not be flying Qantas until someone give Alan Joyce the Right Royal Order of the Boot. Without compensation.

Before you jump to any conclusions, no member of this family has EVER been a member of a union.

Gae, in Callala Bay

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Gae, I have only one problem with unions and that's that every one I have ever been obliged to be a member of (student, public service, university staff -- what someone I used to know would call a very booj list) has been run and/or administered by bully-boys and thugs of both sexes. A union is a wonderful thing, but they need to keep working on their power structures.

paul walter said...

Yep. The difference is that one of these individuals has a soul and the other doesn't.