Naked City: ABBOTTISMS WE CAN DO WITHOUT!
There’s an old saying “I’ve said it once, I’ve said it twice, I’ve said it a thousand times.” Tony Abbott has not only a habit of repeating whole sentences within an individual speech or media statement but hitting us with the same ‘impact’ words and phrases, time and time again. Let’s face it, it’s annoying, made even more so by his constant gesticulation.
Abbott’s habit of saying the same thing, multiple times might well relate to his earlier religious training. It’s widely believed that in the Bible, when God called a person or a city’s name twice, each occasion immediately was elevated to one of great biblical importance. For example, in the Old Testament, when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac, God called out to him, “Abraham! Abraham!” (cf. Genesis 22:11, KJV).
Biblical emphasis aside, it’s not the constant repetition within various speeches that really gets up our noses but the ad nauseam recurrence of a number of key catchwords and phrases. Whether these are selected and prompted by advisors such as Peta Credlin remains to be confirmed, but they definitely need to be rested or reinvented in the interests of a more positive tautology.
Here’s just a few of Tony’s verbal favourites we would love to see permanently retired:
“OPEN FOR BUSINESS”: This was a popular slogan at the beginning of Tony’s term as he courted trade opportunities from overseas. We have to ask however – were we ever ‘shut’? It’s a slight on every twenty four Convenience Store where the tireless staff work 365 days a year, Christmas and Good Friday included.
“TEAM AUSTRALIA”: An all embracing rally to nationalism, partly directed at minority groups such as Muslims to come and join the party. The hidden sub text being, if you don’t join the team you are probably playing for the other side. The unfortunate association of course is the savage 2004 movie “Team America” with its cast of super marionettes and patriotism gone berzerk.
“THE DEATH CULT”: As horrendous as Isis or Daesh might appear, the description “death cult” has too much of a tabloid ring to be taken seriously. And he keeps repeating it, and repeating it, and repeating it. We keep thinking of Heaven’s Gate and those all black Nikes or Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple in Guyana. Maybe a massive shipment of Kool-Aid to Iraq and Syria might do the trick.
“COLLEGIATE and COLLEGIAL”: Both words got a serious workout during the recent leadership manoeuvrings. The idea was to describe the working harmony within the ranks of the Coalition but many voters mistook them for two new brands of toothpaste.
“CAPTAIN’S CALL”: The dreaded knights and dames, it’s all my decision “Captain’s Call”. The question of course is, just which ‘captain’ are we referring to – Captain Pugwash, Captain Starlight (the notorious Australian cattle duffer), Captain Hook or Captain Kangaroo?. There are a lot of ‘captains” in the world and Tony needs to be more specific.
On an entirely different matter we were rather disappointed to see Guy Sebastian chosen as the Australian rep for Eurovision 2015. Nothing against Guy as such but we would love to have seen a more edgy ambassador from the land downunder. Last year’s winner, bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst, proved that the contest is now looking for the radical rather that the inevitable Euro-cheese. Bert Newton can still knock out a tune and does a great Demis Roussos impersonation, Chad Morgan is still going strong and even Nick Cave is not adverse to a bit of cabaret, especially if given the chance to appear in skin tight lycra. Australia the choice is yours!
