Mood:
party time!Topic: nsw govt
NSW political watchers know it's a pretty big dynamic here. Sometimes it takes alot of study to join all the dots resulting in the 130 coppers with convictions on the beat story today in the Sydney Daily Telegraph today:
So try this chronology:
1. Kevin Rudd's dad tragically dies from after effects of a car crash - driving under the influence like thousands of Australians tended to do in the 60ies and 70ies. Kev nurses a grudge for 40 years and not just on his own behalf but every victim of booze
2. PM Rudd announces campaign against binge drinking generally and 'alcopops' in particular. Teetotal NSW police commissioner Andrew Scipione echoes the theme as does every other non addicted Australian with still half a brain left to preserve, or career ambition to nurse
3. Just for fun SAM micro news site here starts collating the highly prominent and expensive full page alcohol industry adverts in the press (as pictured below), particularly but not just News Corp press like the Sydney Daily Telegraph
4. Della Bosca gets caught swearing at a News Corp journo for losing his license for excessive demerit points (for speeding) and suffers frighteningly negative PR featuring cartoon of a bicycle disappearing up his ample backside. We at SAM counter intuitively encourage big bad Della to make lemonade as it were by going the exercise option.
5. Spouse Belinda Neal gets caught applying traditional ALP Right emotional violence in the parliamentary chamber, then denying that she even mentioned "devil child" or whatever it was
6. Neal gets into a high profile fracas with endless 'he said, she said' innuendo, eventually dismissed by the coppers, but providing hectares (!) of News Corp (and other big media) press about 'fragile' (not) Belinda. Alcohol plays a significant role in the proceedings, consumed by her or served to juniors by the staff, or none of these, as you please.
7. Della meanwhile goes the exercise option with a vengeance - as suggested at point 4. Turns up with a new ministerial job some months later half the girth, after 'the smoking sword' as it were of Nathan Rees doing a good renditiion of Macbeth on the colleagues. It's a rough tough business this real politik to be sure, to be sure.
8. New Health Minister Della Bosca calls for a serious consideration of ban of alcohol advertising ... which just happens to be a significant income earner of the sworn enemies at Sydney Daily Telegraph, as well as being a worthy public policy idea. Teetotal Scipione echoes the concern as per 40K hospital alcohol related admissions a year as way out of control. Too right DB, too right. Hard to implement an advert ban but like smoking bans a sensible measure to curb the carnage out there.
9. Which all brings us to SDT running their front page blowtorch '130 cops with convictions on the beat' story today. Mostly minor convictions, some maybe quite serious, but out of a workforce of say 10,000 we have to ask, well derr? Is this the editorial/management at News Corp saying to NSW Govt and Police Commissioner to back off with a little real politik tickle up via bad PR? We do think so. It all just hangs together, plus the fact the NSW Police have been cutting off big media direct access to the police radio frequency with all those useful news leads.
In conclusion all we can say is: Keep going Scip, keep going Della Bosca, keep going Ruddster. We like it. And a ban on advertising booze will do more for the economy than alcohol advertising has ever done given the opportunity cost, injury rates, stupified afternoons after a liquid lunch etc. True alcoholic drinks in moderation can be mildly socially beneficial while cigarettes have pretty much no redeeming features but hey we still think it's the drug dealers versus the rest. Will it actually happen? Not this side of a Green Party Govt it won't.
Posted by editor
at 3:56 PM NZT
Updated: Monday, 29 September 2008 4:57 PM NZT
