If asked to name a truly satisfying experience in a frustrating year, it’s hard to beat Julia Banks’s evisceration of Scummo on 7.30 this week. Like the corporate lawyer she is, Ms. Banks had prepared carefully for her interview with Laura Tingle. Where Christina Holgate confronted her accusers wearing white – symbolic of innocence and purity, Banks wore red, suggestive of anger and passion, while studiously keeping her cool.
She calmly ticked off the insults she had received at the hands of the PM and his cronies. Never once did she say “Scott” or “the Prime Minister” or “Scotty baby” – it was nothing but “Morrison” all the way. This made for a striking contrast with Scummo’s own method of first-naming those he wants to discredit, as if they’re special friends for whom he cares deeply. His heart went out to “Brittany”, after Jen explained to him that being raped in a parliamentary office is not a good thing. As for “Julia”, after he’d asked her to give him 24 hours – which he used to spread disinfomation about her – he held a press conference, where he announced:
What is important right now is Julia’s welfare. I know she is going to take a bit of time out between now and when the Parliament comes back. My first concern is for her welfare and wellbeing and she is taking the time to ensure that that is taken care of and she has my support fully in that. So what am I doing right now? I’m supporting Julia and reaching out to Julia and giving her every comfort and support for what has been a pretty torrid ordeal
In other words: “She’s only a poor, weak hysterical sheila, so give her a wide berth and don’t believe anything she tells you.”
As Banks pointed out, there is a pattern here: a thoroughly misogynistic one. She also noted the PM’s megalomania, his self-centredness and his appalling misunderstanding of “leadership”. Her best line, though, was that he was like some kind of “menacing controlling wallpaper” in the way he sought to dominate the party. I couldn’t help thinking of the arsenic-impregnated wallpaper that allegedly poisoned Napoleon in his final exile on St. Helena.
I hope the women of Australia were listening to this interview and reflecting on what it’s like to live in a country in which Scummo is the leader and Beetroot Barnaby is his deputy. How good is that?
It is, of course, entirely coincidental that in the same week the Banks interview was aired and the vaccination debacle went from bad to badder, Scummo is nowhere to be seen. One wonders how long he can hide under the bed at Kirribilli hoping the journos will forget about all the bad stuff he doesn’t want to discuss. I’m not sure the Wallabies’ narrow victory over France is the kind of sporting triumph that might get him talking again. Nevertheless, I shouldn’t complain as it’s a relief not having to look at his ugly mug on the box every night.
I’m told the art column is being held over again this weekend so once more I’m obliged to delay posting a piece on Hilma af Klint, as well as one on Richard Bell. As the holding pattern is expected to continue into next weekend I’ll eventually have three pieces to post. The movies are also going through a pretty bleak period so I’ve fallen back on the classics, writing about The Kid (1921), the first in an extended retrospective of Charlie Chaplin’s movies that will stretch into next year. Personally, I’ve always preferred Buster Keaton to Chaplin, but they were both giants of the silent screen.
That’s basically it for this week: one political rant and a classic film. I’m hoping for better times when COVID-19 is over or when we get a change of government, maybe some time within the next decade.