Changes rocked Australian politics last week. The Leader of the Opposition last Monday was Malcolm Turnbull until Liberal party colleagues voted for a change. Media pundits backed Joe Hockey and, much like the Melbourne Cup, the favourite was nowhere near the finish line.
The new leader of the Opposition is Tony Abbott – conservative, anti-Emissions Trading, anti-union and a practicing Catholic. While religion rarely matters in politics, for a Catholic head of party it may make a difference as Australia has socialised medicine with a broad offering in reproductive medicine.
In August I wrote a post, “Facing an Election? Take Your Shirt Off!” Abbott is a fitness enthusiast known to bicycle 60 kms on the weekend for fun. There is no shortage of photos in the newspapers featuring Tony dashing across the finish line after an ocean swim. Of course he’s wearing the Australian standard – budgie smugglers (aka Speedos). If you’re not up on Aussie slang, a budgie is a type of bird. Put the two words together and you’ll probably get a visual. No? Look at this made-up campaign poster from today’s The Australian.
Later in the week the State of New South Wales (home to Sydney) also forced a change. This time it was the leader of the sitting government. Premier Nathan Rees was dumped in favour of Christina Keneally. Amazingly Christine is originally from Ohio and is the first female Premier in NSW. She still has a Yankee twang.
And like me, she fell in love and married an Australian – and fell in love all over again with Australia. It’s rare you get to choose your nationality!
Keneally shares a famous last name with Australian author Tom Keneally – best known for “Schindler’s Ark” which later became Speilberg’s film “Schindler’s List”. Christine is married to Tom’s nephew and they have two bi-national sons (Aussie-Yanks like my son).
Sad for Keneally is the view she’s a puppet to factional elements within the Labor Party – which was summed up neatly in The Sun Herald this weekend in their cartoon by David Rowe. I like the Yankee dress, the demure pose – and the numerous wingtips under the bustle of her dress.
