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BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF DECENCY
The conservative invasion continues:
Fresh from appointing controversial historian Keith Windschuttle to the board of the ABC, the Federal Government yesterday revealed that The Australian’s Imre Salusinszky will chair the Australia Council’s literature board. Sydney Institute director Joe Gersh will become the council’s deputy chair.
Former Australia Council chairwoman Hilary McPhee attacked the appointments. “This Government is shameless; their ideological bent is so palpable,” she said.
But critic and cultural commentator Peter Craven said Dr Salusinszky “notwithstanding his deeply lunatic politics, is a man of considerable warmth with an intense feeling for the literature he likes”.
Reaction from the diversity crushers at Larvatus Prodeo:
* I note with disgust and rage, but not astonishment, that Imre Salusinszky is the new Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
* This is beyond the bounds of decency.
* Where’d I put that revolver of mine?
* Windshuttle, Salusinszky, Albrechtsen et al, are mere trained mules from the News Ltd/Quadrant stable ...
* The ALP should protest loudly about these appointments. There is great political mileage to be made here.
“notwithstanding his deeply lunatic politics, is a man of considerable warmth with an intense feeling for the literature he likes”.
Now if he can just get Mickey Spillane’s novels added to the English Lit syllabus…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 17 at 01:12 AM • permalinkDamn you, Achillea! You beat me to that line!!!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 01:19 AM • permalinkAs some kind of literatus, I welcome Imre’s appointment (even if, or especially because, he was on a Literature Board committee that halved my journal’s subsidy a long time ago). Larvatus Prodeo commentator `weathergirl’ says `Goodbye literary magazines (except Quadrant).’ Perhaps it will be hello literary magazines, goodbye marxisant academic adjuncts which publish a few poems.
If, for nothing else, doesn’t this just set the precedent that when/if the ALP is returned to power it can stack the ABC Board to its heart’s content! This might also be of interest http://weekbyweek7.blogspot.com/2006/06/howard-appoints-keith-windschuttle-to.html#links
Posted by WeekByWeek on 2006 06 17 at 01:26 AM • permalinkTim,
I guess you’ll be waiting by the phone then?
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 06 17 at 01:29 AM • permalinkIt’s natural that arts has been on the backburner, but the Australia Council, and the Literature Board in particular, have been strikingly unreformed after ten years of Coalition government. They are among the last relics at the federal level of government by apparat. I hope Imre can overcome institutional inertia better than the ABC board has.
The ALP should protest loudly about these appointments. There is great political mileage to be made here.
This is a great example of the problems of the left today. How many average punters are really concerned with the interests of the litterati or wankeratti.
Classic art or literature is not what the wankeratti decide. It’s the decision of the ordinary punter. Shakespeare was in it for the bucks (or florins or whatever it was back then.
I recall a Star Trek film where Kirk was explaining to Spock about profanity and referred to the works of Jaqueline Collins and similars authors. Spock then nodded and said “The Greats”.
Great art or literature is not the decision of the wankeratti so we should stop subsidising these puffed up clowns.
Posted by Lefty Wobbling Right on 2006 06 17 at 01:34 AM • permalinkAll this is not before time. The Libs should have started evening things up ten years ago. It was quite clear that people like Kerry O’Brien had no intention of doing the honourable thing and resigning after the defeat of the political party which they had worked so hard for lost at the general election.
Next item on reform list: education.
Posted by David McBryde on 2006 06 17 at 01:35 AM • permalinkUnbelievable! How could the Feds overlook that living national treasure, icon of the Australian film industry, beloved broadcaster and self-important name dropper, Phillip Adams and appoint that totally undeserving reffo blow in Imre Salusinszky to the Australia Council.
Its an absolute scandal, especially as the olive ranch is doing poorly these days thanks to Howard’s encouragement of global warming.
The Libs have at last realised that they get no brownie points for being nice to the cultural left, ABC especially. For 10 years they have tinkered, and been mocked for it.
The hysterical reaction: “Good God, not the aaaappointment of ssome cccCONSERVATIVES?!”
is all the proof we need of the bias, which of course, is imaginary.Are we actually going to see any changes? I doubt it. Corrupt, politicized beurocracies have a way of stonewalling and resisting managment. Look at the CIA and The American State Department.
If there is a wave of redundancies I’ll think maybe things will change, if not, not. They heed to hit the luvvies with a sledgehammer. Forget about being loved because they will always hate you, concentrate on making them fear you.
The ALP should protest loudly about these appointments. There is great political mileage to be made here.
Good lord. And these people wonder why they can’t win an election?
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 17 at 03:00 AM • permalinkThese appointments make no difference. The staff run the ABC.
“...notwithstanding his deeply lunatic politics, [Salusinszky] is a man of considerable warmth with an intense feeling for the literature he likes”.
Love that complacency. Drift to the right of centre and you are in the Siberia of the Soul - barely human at all. But notice it’s all about ‘warmth’ and ‘feeling’. Cue that compassionate head tilt.
It sure ain’t about thought - and as for feeling, this fellow seems to require from literature what others get out of puppies.
Onya Imre!
Chortle, if Imre had been one of them, the left would have been calling it a triumph of a diverse, multicultural society.
Its all about 8 years too late, the libs should have put a broom through these groups a long time ago.
Funny also how appointments such as Adams, P were never political ones.
16# - yes, the left is particularly assumptive of an appalling character of their ideological opposites. I remember a strongly left but also rather immature (yet extremely attractive) girl I dated some years ago. I remember her telling me once “I have one right-wing friend. But he’s really nice! He likes animals and everything!” Because right-wingers are usually nasty, maniacal vivisectionists, doncha know.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 17 at 03:25 AM • permalinkGustov_deleft writes:
Tim,
I guess you’ll be waiting by the phone then?
Goodness, that’s a brilliant idea! I would love to see Tim appointed to such a position! Imagine the fallout amongst the lefties if Tim was appointed to the Arts Council board or the ABC.
Please let it happen!
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 17 at 03:35 AM • permalinkCompletely pointless and probably counterproductive to attempt any “reform” of the ABC.
It’s quite clear that the ABC doesn’t influence the election results—if it did, the ALP would have won the last four federal elections!I think the money spent on the ABC is well worth it if it keeps all those thousands of airhead lefties off the streets—imagine if they were all out here in the real world trying to actually do real things.
Let Conservatives run the real world and let the airheads have their sheltered workshop.
They are not really doing any harm after all. In fact a lot of their raving and activism is so extreme that I’m sure they inadvertently drive many voters over to the conservative side of politics.Personally I welcome any move that undermines such instruments to officially sanction culture as the literature board, but it no less an act of gross hipocrisy that your former ABC running dog mate Salusinszky, champion of small government (or better still no government), should again be suckling from the public teat. That my tax dollars end up in his pockets is deeply irksome.
So what’s next? Will the bloghead be tapped to chair the Environmental Protection Authority? I feel sure that would ensure good governance.
Posted by Miranda Divide on 2006 06 17 at 04:45 AM • permalinkThis Government is shameless; their ideological bent is so palpable.
Those words fit the recent judicial stacking efforts of a certain state ALP government, as described in Andrew Bolt’s recent column.
Any ongoing commitment to public broadcasting has to be subject to reform, or at least replacing those presenters who persist in filling their shows with slanted comments, specially selected “experts” to interview, and interviewers who display obviously better treatment of some politicians than others. Kerry you all know. The AM team is particularly nasty whenever they interview government ministers. Fran on RN, or Crittenden sitting in, can be relied upon to be abysmal, as Crittended was this past week with Ruddock.Rob, that’s a very childish and unworthy comment at #22.
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 05:25 AM • permalink“Journalists in the 1940s, ‘50s and early ‘60s tended to believe they had a duty to buttress Americans’ faith in their leaders and their government. Journalists since Vietnam and Watergate have tended to believe that they have a duty to undermine such faith, especially when the wrong party is in office.”
and
“Vietnam and Watergate were arguably triumphs for honest reporting. But they were also defeats for America—and for millions of freedom-loving people in the world. They ushered in an era when the political opposition and much of the press have sought not just to defeat administrations but to delegitimize them.”
Michael Barone
WSJ Opinion JournalMiranda,
Your “suckling from the public teat” is straight from the RWDB phrasebook…Clearly you have been spending too much time reading Tim Blee-urgh.
Are you sure you are not moving to the dark side?
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 06 17 at 05:32 AM • permalinkPerhaps Rob Foote could be appointed to the ABC board?
Then the whole nation could be subjected to his projected guilt complex.
Posted by gustov_deleft on 2006 06 17 at 05:47 AM • permalinkNo probs, Rob.
Rob can no doubt look forward to the day when every Quadrant contributor is on the ABC Board. You know, for balance.
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 05:52 AM • permalinkThat’s right, Rob. We’ve got better things to do with our time, I’m sure. Can’t stand meetings personally.
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 06:11 AM • permalink“Windshuttle, Salusinszky, Albrechtsen et al, are mere trained mules from the News Ltd/Quadrant stable”.
I happen to have known Imre peronally for some 35 years. His has only two known lunatic traits: Believes Bob Dylan is the greatest poet of the last century, and that Hawthorn AFL football club will win another premiershop. Otherwise his politics are completly sane and the product of his own life experience. A trained mule? - this is a delusion.
Posted by The Young Contrarian on 2006 06 17 at 06:17 AM • permalinknotwithstanding his deeply lunatic politics
What a peculiar thing to say. There’s nothing that Imre S. hasn’t written that a reasonable person (ie, a conservative) wouldn’t regard as, well, perfectly reasonable and well-argued.
The best aspect of this great appointment is that once again Mr Howard has the Left on the verge of collective apoplexy.
Posted by walterplinge on 2006 06 17 at 06:33 AM • permalinkFormer Australia Council chairwoman Hilary McPhee attacked the appointments. “This Government is shameless; their ideological bent is so palpable,” as opposed to the clearly merit-based appointment of a polemic dingbat and marxist harridan like Ms McPhee; the hypocrisy of these grant siphons is hilarious. Certainly the action to curtail the profligracy and patronage endemic in luvviedom has been noticable by its absence- it’s just come out that taxpayers are being hosed to the tune of almost a million beer vouchers to inflict Aboriginal art on the Frogs (mind you, they deserve no better, but it would be cheaper and more fun to just feed the Renault-Roasters of Roissy some bad quality crank, and hand out matches).
This is a good start, but a small poo in a very deep pool- the mere fact that there still is an Australia Council, Film Finance Corporation etc confirms my theory that JWH & Co are about as much economic rationalist neo-cons as I’m Bob Brown’s bitch.#12 says:
>Sorry, but education is almost over… Outcomes-Based is coming in, ready or not. I await your expose’s!ready the lash!
I’m afraid #12 is in for a shock. That “outcomes-based” stuff will end up (as it did in the UK) as a gigantic waste of time and money, and the left will end up controlling it anyway.
Posted by Blithering Bunny on 2006 06 17 at 06:57 AM • permalinkGustov_deleft: time to enter the twenty-first century. People don’t “wait by the phone” anymore; they have cell phones, voice mail, and email.
Miranda: be still my beating heart! Is that the sound (well the sight) of another leftist seeing the light? Could this be the key to the puzzle of Miranda’s reduced venomous output, the sense that hisser heart isn’t in it anymore? Come on into the rightwing pool, Miranda, the water’s fine! PS: you misspelled “hypocrisy.”
By the way, I can’t believe you have a “literature board” at all. Sure, we have the NEA, but that body is widely regarded as a joke, good mostly for promoting the “art” of the mentally handicapped, whose favorite media are organic substances like poo and pee.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 06 17 at 07:50 AM • permalinkthe obvious solution is for the government sell off these institutions. no-one will be able to complain about stacking then.
Posted by drscroogemcduck on 2006 06 17 at 08:50 AM • permalinkYeah, I could just see a private company wanting the expertise of Albrechtsen and Windschuttle on its board. Shareholders would delight!
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 09:17 AM • permalinkGee Mark,
a succesful female able to juggle law, a family and a career in journalism, I’d have her, she obviously has a brain and some real experience.Now if she was an academic windbag, content to have a cushy job and mouth the right things she’d be somehow better?
If her politics was to the left, she’d be lionised.
Well, Nic, exercise your shareholder rights and nominate Albrechtsen for the board of a company that you have shares in. But I’m surprised you don’t think being an op/ed columnist is a cushy job. Gosh, 750 words a week for how many $ ?
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 09:39 AM • permalinkDivesity crushes cant spel windshuttle.
Posted by arrowhead ripper on 2006 06 17 at 09:51 AM • permalinkGosh, 750 words a week for how many $ ?
Probably a lot more than Webdiary pays.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 09:51 AM • permalinkThat my tax dollars end up in his pockets is deeply irksome.
You pay taxes, Miranda?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 09:53 AM • permalinkOh, and by the way, Miranda…..now you know how the right feels about supporting worthless crap artists and do nothing political appointees.
I sincerely hope Mr. Windschuttle makes a difference in the ABC. If it’s as bad as the NEA or NPR, it needs an enema badly. If nothing else, this appointment is pissing off the right people.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 09:58 AM • permalinkOh, and this gem just can’t be ignored:
So what’s next? Will the bloghead be tapped to chair the Environmental Protection Authority? I feel sure that would ensure good governance.
Nice strawman, Miranda. I’m so pleased to see that your rhetoric skills remain as dull as ever.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 10:01 AM • permalinkSo Mark, Albrechtsen is unfit to sit on the ABC board because she gets paid good money to write 750 words each week? Thats it?
What about Phillip Adams? Same stable of ‘mules’, similar output for what I would assume to be a similar amount of money, can I expect Phil’s place on Government boards to be met with equal criticism?
Easy fix if there’s no publicly-funded boards to provide comfy shares for flabby arses to polish, but that would be the end of civilisation, wouldn’t it MB?
I can hear the slavering from the chattering classes whenever Labor has a lift in the polls- it’s been a long time away from the trough (except for those tenured in academia of course) and if the unthinkable occurs and the electorate goes out on the piss and wakes up with Kim Beasley slobbering in their armpit it’s going to make one of Caligula’s bacchinales look like a Baptist tea dance.
I don’t think any of these organisations should be in public ownership to start with, but if they must the management boards might just as well be made up by people who don’t think someones tinned turds is a work of art, Phillip Adams is a journalist, Tim Flannery is an environmental scientist or that western civilisation is worse than being consumed by a giant hydatid. Even if it’s only to give the peanut gallery the shits.
99% of the Australian population don’t give a fuck who’s on these boards, even less what the organisations they chair actually do (fuck all as it happpens, except for the production of shit which can be achieved at much lower cost and much higher quality with a dose of gastro-enteritis); if every one of these useless edifces was charred off the face of the planet overnight, who’d notice except for the pratts who “work” there and the parasites who sponge off same?
No, Nic, I was pointing out that Ms Albrechtsen may have a “cushy job”. For the record, I have no time for Adams as a columnist. I’d prefer these appointments to be made on merit and with regard to the public interests that the boards are supposed to fulfil. I’m as much opposed to Labor hacks or superannuated leftist columnists filling them as the Liberal or rightwing equivalents.
Posted by mark_bahnisch on 2006 06 17 at 11:01 AM • permalinkIf, for nothing else, doesn’t this just set the precedent that when/if the ALP is returned to power it can stack the ABC Board to its heart’s content!
As opposed to?
Andrea — Nah, Miranda’s just been cutting down because the bastid fascist HoWARd gummint done cut her posting grant…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 06 17 at 11:02 AM • permalinkwe could have even more fun with these boards. shane warne on the censorship board, andrew olexander on the transport accident commission, boonie on whatever body promotes the responsible consumption of alcohol, pauline hanson on the multicultural commission, etc, etc.
btw maryanne fahey (aka kylie mole & an unfunny lefty midget) has been awarded a $10,000 grant to work up an idea for a tv series about some women who shared a house at uni & are doing so again in middle age. stand by for a politically correct ‘comedy’
Believes Bob Dylan is the greatest poet of the last century, and that Hawthorn AFL football club will win another premiershop.
Both would be worthy guidelines for the [Imre] Literature Board should adopt.
It would be a bit of fun to have Dylan out to address an Australian writers week on his views on left-wing fans.
On the matter of the AFL Hawks, it must be nearly 30 years since Morry Schwartz’s
Outback Press published Peter Knight’s a bit-to-early autobiography, “Knights In Muddy Armour”. Can’t remember if it was funded by the Lit Board, although most of their titles were at the time.Posted by Geoffrey MG on 2006 06 17 at 11:27 AM • permalinkI’d prefer these appointments to be made on merit and with regard to the public interests that the boards are supposed to fulfil.
“Public interest” is mostly politically driven, so “merit” can become mutually exclusive to “public interest”. Or maybe a “conflict of interest”, depending on the circumstancess (e.g., pandering to political beliefs).
Indeed, if “public interest” is at the heart of the matter, why should government have a hand in the arts at all? If the public isn’t interested enough to buy the art, it needs to die a deserved death. The artist in question can find other employment than suckling from the public teat.
[Yes, I deliberately used that phrase, folks, especially since Miranda seems to be seeing the light.]
There is no need to subsidize untalented hacks to fulfill their fantasies. And if some struggling artist feels their art must survive, find a day job. Or get a patron. Phat Phil and other rich lefties may have a few shekels to spare for starving artists. It’s been done before.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 06 17 at 11:27 AM • permalinkThere’s no way that this ‘issue’ will gain any mileage in the electorate, even if the ALP tries to push it. People would get stuck on Salusinszky’s last name, and wouldn’t bother with the rest (professor of literature, etc etc). It’s not that I’m saying people are stupid, it’s just that every detail of the story is boring, and only bears direct relevance to the very small minority of Australians who are writers.
Imre is definitely no extremist, though I’ve heard others talk about him this way a number of times. Diogenes has an interesting view of the type of left/right name-calling game going on here. I’m not sure what practical things Imre will be able to achieve, but he seems to have an excellent grasp of the economics of the Australian book industry, and maybe he will help to introduce a bit more competition into the Australian writing/publishing market and, in a wider sense, into the media industry. We’ll see. I’ll certainly be cheering him on.
Government has no business funding the arts. And the only “grants” it should distribute are those that finance the R&D necessary for the competent execution of its express duties. But since government seems intent on meddling in every conceivable human endeavor, let an adage coined in the Jacksonian era but as old as time rule: To the victor belong the spoils. Voters have elected the Howard government three times knowing full well the kind of appointments it would make. It’s even possible that they elected the Howard government three times because of the kind of appointments it would make. The perpetual liberal whining (on two continents) gives me a headache.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 06 17 at 01:14 PM • permalinkOk, in the short term, I do enjoy these appointments, necause they’re a political histamine to an already inflamed and howling left, and the more this group is goaded into displaying its impotence, the better..
HOWEVER
The so-called Liberals are simply hiring new madams to staff old brothels. Apologies to worthies like Salusinszky and Windschuttle who don’t deserve the slight, but unless they’re going in armed with bloody great axes, I don’t see why I should be impressed with their appointment to boards that are designed to serve the interests of the professional takers in our society.
Posted by James Waterton on 2006 06 17 at 05:22 PM • permalinkSigh, don’t you guys get it?
To the left, diversity of opinion means having both Trotskyites and Maoists on the same committee. Extreme diversity means sticking a Fabian on there too.
Posted by Chris Harper on 2006 06 17 at 05:52 PM • permalinkThe revolver is a worry. Given his history of physical threats against me, I suspect Adams.
Weathergirl says: “This is beyond the bounds of decency. Goodbye literary journals (except Quadrant). Goodbye funds to anything whiffing of dissent.”
Shoots cuffs of bottle green coat. Takes snuff box from waistcoat, inhales a pinch, sneezes violently, replaces bag wig which has slipped forward over eyes.
Sink me, but I believe Weathergirl’s forecast is a tad premature, damme if it isn’t. I should personally be grateful to anyone who removed the ominous prospect of more “whiffy” art, whether dissident or otherwise, but I daresay the same pampered scribblers will find a way to keep their snouts in the public trough. Stay, madam, I am not finished. What is truly beyond the bounds of decency is to toss sacks of gold at charlatans who fawn worshipfully over a roof slate supporting a pork chop bone. Nay, this is not literature, true, but it is part and parcel of the same Gresham’s law that operates in the subsidized art, or rather, artists’ market - the base shall drive out the good.
Yeah, I could just see a private company wanting the expertise of Albrechtsen and Windschuttle on its board. Shareholders would delight!
Problem solved then.
Posted by drscroogemcduck on 2006 06 17 at 11:18 PM • permalinkNic @ 53 you twat.
You don’t know / remember that Adams has been sucking off the public teat for over 20 years??
Ever listened to Radio National? Remember the Govt Ad Campaigns? Yarts Council??
Short memory, mate.
Also, Howard has been in Govt for over 10 years now. Don’t you think its a little late to accuse him of ‘stacking’ the ABC?? How do you account for the delay?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 06 18 at 01:07 AM • permalinkInsiders this day,Cassidy trumpeted that in 30 years holding Aunty’s hand he had never been interfered with by the Board..
The Bolt took it right up to them again,noting calmly the fact that they had “pulled up an extra chair on their left to seat the token Right winger”(himself or Piers) in an embarrassingly small,pathetic gesture…
Of course empty chatter revolved around John Howard’s perceived mistakes and failures,Asylum seekers and how unfairly treated they were and Gay marriage- Mischa Schubert passionately in favour (she was very dishevelled today,the gal’s really letting herself go)
Bolta made em all look stupid as usual..Well: I vote for The Greens at both state and federal levels but I read Quadrant every month. I don’t see the problem with Salusinszky getting involved in the Literature Board of the Australia Council. He’s at least a writer—and a good journalist—and intelligent to boot.
As for Keith Windshuttle, another denizen of the Quadrant pond, I personally don’t see why as Australians we need to apologise for something we didn’t do. I’m frankly fed up with Aboriginal Australians getting the dole, not going to school, and being unemployed chronically. Their problem is corruption and a lack of motivation: you can’t solve it by giving them more money. I work bloody hard and have a job where if I don’t perform I face dismissal. I pay my mortgage, pay child support, pay for everything. My life isn’t so easy. Why do they get all the attention? This most recent scandal involving child sexual assault is atrocious. And they won’t let journalists into their communities: it’s appalling.
Regards, Dean
Posted by Happy Antipodean on 2006 06 19 at 05:50 AM • permalink#6 Why GUSTY! ..Tim didn’t know you CARED..
#76 Two indigenous guys up in one day for attacking someone each didn’t know and for no apparent reason.
1ST guy applies axe to head of fast food outlet customer -causing him to lose an eye.
2nd guy king hits bystander in street looking at night club brawl..victim is now in an induced coma -suspected permanent catastrophic brain damage.
Both victims white males.Dean, your views are interesting, and sensible. You said you voted for the Greens?
Um ... why?
As far as I can tell, all the Greens have going for them is a symbolic commitment to the environment. What policies the Greens have in place in regards to Aboriginals seems to amount to little more than separatism, a commitment to continued welfare, ‘sympathy’ for their ‘plight’, ‘recognition’ of semi-fictional ‘land-rights’, and some vague idea that the current Australian Government should apologise to the Aborigines for past wrongs that may or may not have been committed by previous generations.
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*sniff ... sniff*
Is that eliminationist thinking I smell?