Thursday, September 19, 2013

And More Bros: Tony Abbott's Blokey New Cabinet




Did I just say something about bros and more bros? For The Drum, Annabel Crab takes a close look at the cabinet just announced by the new Australian PM (and former Catholic seminarian) Tony Abbott. Crab finds said cabinet, well, rather blokey:

It is 26 years since Tony Abbott left the seminary, but in many ways he takes it wherever he goes. 
How else to explain the battle between spirit and flesh upon which the new PM stubbornly embarks every day before dawn, as his constituents snooze unawares? 
Faced with the need to abandon the Lodge for serially-delayed repairs, he swiftly chose instead the monastic accommodation at the Australian Federal Police cadet headquarters. 
And today, Mr Abbott has announced his new Cabinet: Nineteen blokes and a Bishop. Perfect. 
To be fair, there are differences: Seminaries don't have women because of holy tradition. The first Abbott Cabinet is short on X-chromosomes because that's just how it panned out. 
("That's just how it panned out" is the traditionalists' defence of organisations that proudly appoint "only on merit" and find, time after time, that an astonishingly high proportion of the really excellent people also have willies.)

Nineteen blokes and a Bishop. That's just how it panned out--the traditionalists' defence of organisations that proudly appoint "only on merit" and find, time after time, that an astonishingly high proportion of the really excellent people also have willies.

Brilliant commentary. And maybe the human community needs to pan things out in some new and, oh, I don't know, inclusive and representative way if we expect the planet to survive? Just wondering.

The photograph of Mr. Abbott is from his Wikipedia biography.

No comments: