Saturday, December 10, 2005

VSU: some utterly predictable predictions

(1) Family First Senator Steve Fielding will be discovered -- eventually -- to have done some kind of Harradinian deal with the Coalition, probably about the same product. Said deal will be revealed to have been kept under wraps (translation: lied about) because of the current backlash over the Harradine/RU486/Telstra deal and the shambolic shemozzle that Telstra has subsequently become. Yes, ladies, our health and wellbeing are bargaining chips.

(2) The first university services on which the sword will fall will be childcare, followed by anything to do with cultural activities (books, movies, music), followed by student counselling and student health.

(3) Sporting facilities, particularly for rowing, cricket and all football codes, will not be affected; here the daddies will willingly cough up. Furballs will be nothing to it.

Pavlov's Cat applauds Senator Joyce's actions, but thinks jokes about dead pets are in questionable taste.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard Mr Fielding on the radio this morning and decided that he was just plain DUMB. He kept on talking about students as though they were average members of the population with an average wage. That's the problem with these consensus people, who want to believe that they're giving equal weight to everyone's views ... they don't understand that the playing field isn't equal in the first place. ACOSS reported high levels of student poverty a couple of years ago. The only people who are going to be able to afford to go to Uni are those whose parents can afford to keep them home and hosed for a few more years. Anyway, preaching to the converted -- sorry!

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Wonder what his own educational background is ...

Anonymous said...

Here we go:

Steve was born in Melbourne. He grew up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne in a large family of 16 children. He currently lives in the city of Knox with his wife Susan and three children aged 15, 13 and 10.

He completed his Higher School Certificate at Merrilands High School and was offered a place at Melbourne University to study for a Bachelor of Engineering. After completing his Engineering Degree in 1983 he entered the corporate world of Hewlett-Packard.

He also did an MBA at Monash in 92, so not totally unaware...perhaps he chafed at having to pay fees. He's probably spent too long in the corporate world.

I do think there is something dangerous about how the Senate's vote can hang off one person's private cogitations (e.g. Harradine).

Btw, tried to use a catavar but you're blog wouldn't let me. Perhaps it's restricted to blogger users.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

That pic is in my Blogger profile and just magically pops up when I write comments anywhere -- so it's not registered as a gravatar or anything. I have less than no idea how this all works. The Gravatar Fairy?

Zoe said...

It's because you choose and identity and log in to blogger/blogspot to comment on one of their sites -this automatically connects to your blogger profile, including pic. If you leave your computer on, or you've already logged in once in that session, it will also be automatic.

And yes, Steve Fielding is a twit.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Thank you, Zoe. I became a blogger in order to get an education, and so far this is happening in spades.

Steve Fielding certainly seems to be behaving like a twit, though I fear it may be libel to say he actually is one and probably sedition as well. But I feel kind of sorry for him, being so publicly and so contemptuously (and contemptibly) used by the govt. Go Barnaby.

Zoe said...

Look, if I should be jailed for calling Fielding a twit that's a cross I'm prepared to bear.

And you do find out an awful lot of things blogging, don't you?