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Hugh Mackay, Advance Australia...Where?


It's aastonishing really; the furore in recent days over Australia's opposition leader Kevin Rudd's visit to a strip club in New York four years ago. Sleazy little fucker. Aren't all men? Can only saints and prudes become prime minister now? Can only the straightest, most conformist, blandest of accountant types aspire to public office? Our own dreams have subsided, our own voices of discontent gone for a million miles, and brutality in the region, that was what we avoided, going to bed early, staying out of the light.

Still haven't finished the Hunting column, still take measured time and measure out the days in working shifts. Above is a picture of Ian Purdie looking his debonair rock and roll self and me at the front of Parliament House, ready for the Lone Fathers conference where we gave a speach and he and Pete put on a performance. We were nervous, not sure of what would happen.

What happened was that the conference came and went; and nothing changed. We were patted on the head and ignored. Barry Williams managed to get all the politicians to speak, they all went away with a bee in their ear, fully aware that no one was happy. And they did nothing; retreating back into their comfortable offices where the bureaucrats tell them that black is white and that the men are a minor irritant in their great social schemes. They preside over a disaster; and they get away with it. And the men, cooperating in their own oppression, their dissident voices contained in jars aka conferences acknowledged and ignored. What matters is the ballot box. And they think there's more votes in bashing up on separated blokes than in listening to their concerns. The great socialist experiment continues; and this government has been entirely hopeless. The only thing that will be worse is the other side; and Kevin's stint in a nightclub, looking bookish and boyish in the headlight of the television cameras, will only boost his ratings. At least he apparently likes women; and women like men who like women; witness Bill Clinton.


THE BIGGER STORY:


Australians ready to forgive Rudd's lapse into strip club indiscretion
Kevin Rudd

(Justin Lloyd)

Kevin Rudd
Bernard Lagan in Sydney

Faced with headlines of the kind that have seen many a British politician clearing out their desks, Kevin Rudd, the Australian Labor leader, has simply played down his drunken visit to a New York strip club as the kind of mistake men make. Most Australians — including, surprisingly, his political rivals — seem to agree.

As Rudd insisted yesterday that he had never claimed to be “Captain Perfect”, commentators suggested that Australians were in a mood to forgive the Leader of the Opposition — tipped for electoral victory this year — his 2003 escapade. His case was bolstered by the helpful disclosures of some of his political opponents that they, too, were no strangers to strip clubs.

Mr Rudd’s big night out at the Scores strip club in Manhattan, at the invitation of the editor of the New York Post, has come back to embarrass him just as he appears poised to end the decade-long reign of Australia’s conservative Prime Minister, John Howard.

A general election is expected to be held in October and Mr Rudd, a studious 49-year-old former diplomat and father of three who has portrayed himself as a devout Christian with conventional views, has been leading opinion polls for most of the year.

Mr Rudd has adopted what is known in Australia as the footballers’ defence; he admits going to the club while on official visit to the UN’s New York headquarters but maintains he was so drunk that he had no recollection of what happened — although he has denied unsourced reports that he groped a stripper.

Australians ready to forgive Rudd's lapse into strip club indiscretion
Times Online, UK - 2 hours ago
Faced with headlines of the kind that have seen many a British politician clearing out their desks, Kevin Rudd, the Australian Labor leader, ...
MPs laugh off strip club visits as Rudd pain continues Stuff.co.nz
Rudd recalls big night out The Australian
Ejected? Most certainly not, Rudd declares Sydney Morning Herald
The Age - Melbourne Herald Sun
all 393 news articles »
Unions working on Rudd's choices
The Australian, Australia - 5 hours ago
THE union movement has launched a pre-emptive strike designed to stop Kevin Rudd weakening his pledge to roll back the Howard Government's workplace reforms ...
Folly of Kevin '03 steals the show from Kevin07 The Age
Hike hurts Howard's credentials The Australian
Ports takeover poll-driven - Rudd NEWS.com.au
The West Australian - The Australian
all 24 news articles »
Rudd on last chance
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 4 hours ago
Within hours of the story of prime ministerial hopeful Kevin Rudd's naughty night in New York hitting the streets, radio talkback was suggesting that, ...
Sister-in-law 'exotic dancer'
Advertiser Adelaide, Australia - 4 hours ago
KEVIN Rudd's sister-in-law yesterday admitted to her secret past as a stripper, saying it was a period of her life she regretted. Okhola Rudd, the wife of ...
Rudd's hanging on by a thread
NEWS.com.au, Australia - 1 hour ago
Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has yet to be discovered without his pants but sufficient snippets of the events which took place at a full-on New York ...
Rebel MP Harry Quick thrown out of ALP The Age
all 28 news articles »
Rudd pledges submarines
The Australian, Australia - 16 hours ago
In a joint statement Labor Leader Kevin Rudd and Opposition defence spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said a Labor government would aim to have work start on the ...
Parties pledge submarine work for SA Sydney Morning Herald
Labor pledges to build new subs in SA Sydney Morning Herald
all 23 news articles »
Rudd linked to another strip club on MySpace
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 4 hours ago
KEVIN Rudd's name has been linked to another strip club, in another embarrassing blunder for the Opposition Leader. Yesterday, Rudd was the top friend on ...

Ian Purdie and Peter van de Voorde from the DOTA team at Parliament House