Category: General Musings

Typical of Bob Brown, ever there to stuff me around, he announces his retirement on the day I’m committed to go camping with the Kids thus denying me the ability to to applaud his gift to the nation in a timely manner. Mind you the weekend was better spent with kids and grand kids at Tewantin. A new experience for one daughter with her V8 Discovery as son and I nursed her through beach driving and the Freshwater track to Rainbow beach where we enjoyed lunch and lamented the encroachment of yuppies and the resultant demise of the old pub. She didn’t need much nursing but men’s egos being what they are, she obligingly paid homage to our 4 wheel driving skills. Another daughter arrived with two little girls, one only 2 odd weeks old. In the absence of the family matriarch (read galley slave) we decided to have dinner at the new Noosa North Shore pub. Flash as a rat with a gold tooth the pub is new and symptomatic of the march of the yuppies. A good night though, and should I live long enough, I will regale little Evie with stories of how she had a beer with her Granddad before she was three weeks old. We later gathered under my small canvas canopy as the rain drummed down and sorted out the problems of the world aided by beer, rum and white wine but as no one took notes the world will have to move on without our erudite solutions. The next morning, rum dissapated from my system and salt and sand washed from the Rangie at the car wash, I rolled down the highway and nearly run off the road when I heard Christine Milne saying she will seek to establish a new political support base among rural Australians and “progressive” businesses as part of an intensified campaign against the “vested interests” of the resource-based economy. Yeah, well good luck with that Christine. You need to be aware that your party are literally hated in the bush. Your strange ideas simply frighten people and any campaign against the “vested interests” of the resource-based economy will make it worse. The “vested interests” happen to be the Australian economy and all who depend on it for a high standard of living. The Earthians may have some momentary success with farmers who don’t want Coal Seam Gas anywhere near their properties but that will be about it. Try talking to the cattle live export industry, or at least whats left of it, about a new new political support base. I feel Bob Brown got out while the going was good and that new blood at the helm will only help reinforce the fact that these people are dangerous and the more Christine gets air time, and lets face it, the ABC will give her plenty; the more people will be frightened. All of which will simply benefit the nation overall as people’s wariness will end up being reflected at the polls. Still, they can do a lot of damage in the next eighteen months.