DO you remember the infamous gaffes George W Bush used to pull off with almost every speech he made?
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It’s quite possible to while away an hour watching his speech blunders on the internet, and this unfortunately is the thing most people will most remember him for.
That and his war on terror, well actually his inability to say the word terrorism properly.
Prime Minister Abbott is well on his way to George Double-Ya status it seems.
Sir Peter Cosgrove has just been appointed Governor General, a position I have no doubt he will do well in, and at his swearing in reception our prime minister paid him well deserved tribute.
Then he said, “As Sir Peter Cosgrove and Lady Lynne travel the length and breadth of our country, visiting all the places that aren’t important enough for prime ministers, you will affirm these two fundamental Australian characteristics: to give a fair go to others and to have a fair go yourself.”
In case you missed it “…places that aren’t important enough for prime ministers…”
The sheer arrogance of that statement is unbelievable. One would hope that is was just another hapless stuff up, and there is a speech writer somewhere getting a kick up the rear.
Although as recent history has shown us, Mr Abbott has form for this kind of remark.
He reminds me of Ron Burgundy from the Anchorman movie, who will read anything you put in front of him, anything.
What I believe this speech really shows us, is that the Prime Minister clearly doesn’t understand the level of power and respect the position of G-G holds and should garner.
Calling Sir Peter and the other G-Gs our “cheerleaders-in-chief” doesn’t say to me that Mr Abbott thinks he isn’t there for any other reason, than for show.
Somebody needs to remind him about Gough Whitlam.
Nobody remembers that he was in office when conscription ended, and important things like the Aboriginal land fund, legal aid and the national employment and training scheme were founded.
They just remember he got booted out by the G-G.
Is there anywhere in the country that is not important enough for our prime minister to tread?
To me this implies that Mr Abbott thinks he is more important than the G-G, and worse still it tells us what he really thinks of his voters.
I know that it is part of the G-G’s job description to travel and meet the people, especially those in need, why does the Prime Minister think he is excused from these places?
In March we saw thousands of Australians rally around the country, some one hundred thousand of them expressing their vote of no confidence in the Abbott Government.
I had a brief chat with Wynn Lawson from March in March Australia, who let me know the movement isn’t just a one off.
More rallies are planned for the coming August and they are in the process of streamlining their communication systems for better coordination of their nationwide activism.
If Mr Abbott thinks the voters haven’t noticed his attitude towards the people he is greatly mistaken.
While the rallies did not get much play in mainstream media, the number of people who showed up sends a very strong message.
One I hope our new G-G is paying close attention to.
To read the whole speech you can head to the PM’s website: http://www.pm.gov.au/media/2014-03-28/remarks-reception-following-swearing-26th-governor-general-australia-parliament.