WTF Greg Pearce?

Much merriment has been had over the weekend with Rebekah Brook’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry that British Prime Minister David Cameron was under the misapprehension that the textspeak “LOL” meant “Lots of Love”, not “Laugh out Loud”.

However, one might assume that not even Cameron would be gormless enough in PMQs to quote  anyone encumbered with the initials “WTF”. But such a personage was given the honour of a citation in Losers Lounge this past week.

In answer to a question on the impact of the Federal Budget on the Illawarra, the Government’s Mr Everywhere, Minister for Finance and Services, and Minister for the Illawarra, Greg Pearce, cited expressions of opinion regarding the Budget carried in the Illawarra Mercury:

The feeling of neglect in the region is captured in a letter to the editor entitled “Forgotten region”. WTF Nothing writes:

Thanks for nothing, Julia. Clearly it does not pay to be a safe Labor seat. Bring on the next election and lets boot Labor out.

(While he’s the first Minister in the long distinguished history of self government in NSW to utter “WTF” on to the parliamentary record, it will come as no surprise to keen observers of Losers Lounge that the honour of the first usage of “WTF” in Hansard by a Member of Parliament goes to The Hon. Peter Phelps, who managed the feat on the occasion of his very first speech.)

Pearce took the quote from the Illawarra Mercury’s “From the Web” in the print edition on 10 May, which had this:

Forgotten region

There is nothing for the Illawarra region.

After Julia Gillard came down here when BlueScope announced 1000 job loses and said how much she cared for us and that she would not forget us, the budget has nothing for us. Thanks for nothing, Julia. Clearly it does not pay to be a safe Labor seat. Bring on the next election and let’s boot Labor out.

WTF Nothing

The Illawarra Mercury lifted that from the comments page on an item “Budget 2012: Funding Scarce for Illawarra”, which appeared thus:

There is nothing for the illawarra region. After juliar gillard came down here when blue scope announced one thousand job loses and said how much she cared for us that she would not forget us . The budget has nothing for us . Thanks for nothing juliar. Clearly it does not pay to be a safe labour seat. Bring on the next election and lets boot these idiots out.

The author gave his name as “What TF. Nothing”.

For its print edition, the Mercury gave the comment quite a polish: removing the references to “Juliar”, correcting spellings and typos and replacing a reference to “these idiots” with “Labor” (although at this point in time they may quite possibly be accepted synonyms). And attributing the comment to “WTF Nothing”.

I expect Mr Pearce to be soon citing such eminent citizens as I P Freely and Amanda Hugnkiss in support of the cause.

The One Day of the Year

On 4 April 2012, one of the more shameful moments in the recent history of the Legislative Council took place on what should have been one of its most solemn occasions.

Nearly one third of the 16 speakers on a motion to commemorate ANZAC Day plagiarised material from easily accessible websites to pad out their contributions to the debate.

The One Day of the Year: Excerpts from Other Speeches

Extracted from “ANZAC Day” Debate, NSW, Parliamentary Debates Legislative Council, 4 April 2012, commencing p. 10593 and annotated as applicable

The One Day of the Year: Other Speeches by The Hon. Marie Ficarra MLC

The following is a selection from speeches in the Legislative Council where The Hon. Marie Ficarra has plagiarised other sources.

In the “Tribute to Nancy Wake” debate in the Legislative Council, on 26 August, Ficarra spoke at length.

On 8 August 2011, Arthur Sinodinos, as President of the NSW Division of the Liberal Party, released a statement on the passing of Nancy Wake (who had contested three elections for the Party in the post-war era).

The One Day of the Year: Speech by The Hon. Lynda Voltz MLC

Extracted from “ANZAC Day” Debate, NSW, Parliamentary Debates Legislative Council, 4 April 2012, commencing p. 10593 and annotated as applicable

The One Day of the Year: Speech by The Hon. Charlie Lynn MLC

Extracted from “ANZAC Day” Debate, NSW, Parliamentary Debates Legislative Council, 4 April 2012, commencing p. 10593 and annotated as applicable:

“War” on Cut and Paste?

Surely when a Parliamentary Secretary for Veterans Affairs, with a long record of military service, is called to speak on commemorative occasions, he could be relied on to string together a few suitable words of his own? Apparently not.

Over the past few years, Liberal Member of the Legislative Council, Charlie Lynn, has plagiarised articles and websites in making a series of Parliamentary speeches to mark significant military occasions and tributes. While he’s not alone in adopting these lax standards, the scale in conjunction with the nature of his responsibilities as a Parliamentary Secretary, are of concern.

Book Reviewing and Gender: My Stella Effort

One Saturday in January, enraged by yet another hack review from an all too prolific reviewer, I set about thinking about the freshness and vitality of our the book reviews in our Saturday broadsheets.

What gets reviewed; who gets reviewed; who reviews? Why does there seem so little variety in the books chosen? Why do the SMH and The Age share the same feature reviews? Why reprint reviews from the Guardian or the Telegraph? (Yes, I know “cost” is going to be an answer. But surely there’s a question of value and richness.)

So I had a look at the review pages of The Age, the SMH and the Weekend Australian for the months of December 2011 and January and February 2012.

My Stella Effort – End of Year Reviews and Previews

For the introduction to these posts, start here

The Weekend Australian gave over 7 pages over two weekends to their Best of 2011 nominations.

My Stella Effort – Short Reviews

For the introduction to these posts see here.

Here I collate the short reviews in the SMH and The Age. Each week there are four short reviews (usually with one highlighted as “Pick of the Week”).