THE PACK WAS HUNTING, THE ANGELS WERE AT PLAY.
JOHNNY WARANGULA TJUPURRULA
The pack was hunting, the Angels were at play.
For the Prime Minister it was all bad news.
His career in ruins. His prime ministership a failure.
He should have stayed a rich dude in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, swimming in his own milieu.
The media pack scented blood, and were worse than any mob attack.
Some sharks can smell blood at one drop per 10 billion, that's one drop in an Olympic sized swimming pool.
You didn't need that heightened sense of smell to see this death coming.
The beast was lassoed, falling, falling.
The baying of the dogs would never stop.
Not for a stumbling Prime Minister. Not for injured prey.
The press would always hunt in packs. They were the worst of the herd animals. For a self-centred man obsessed with selfies, that is the nation's leader taking endless photos of himself, it was a humiliating sight. Nobody told him not to throw Barnaby under a bus. Nobody told him not to take selfies. Politics at play. There was a lot of politics at play. The plots to unseat him were well advanced. Every old dog had young ones baying at their feat. Everyone had had enough.
Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) – Iraqi troops killed on Sunday 30 Islamic State (IS) militants while hiding inside a cave in western Mosul, the Turkish Anadolu Agency quoted an army official as saying.
“Upon accurate intelligence reports, Iraqi troops fired 27 missiles from a Stryker armored vehicle against a cave in Al-Ba’aj district, 150 km west of Mosul, leaving the cave completely destroyed,” Major Abbas Abdel Azim from the 20th brigade of the Iraqi army said.
“All 30 IS militants who were inside the cave were killed in the bombardment,” Abdel Azim pointed out, revealing that the cave is believed to be used as an explosives depot as a huge explosion was heard following the missile attack. Mohammed Ebraheem, Iraqui troops kill 30 Islamic State militants while hiding inside Mosul cave, Iraq News, 25 February, 2018.
Cruising for a bruising.
Their deaths were never easy, the leaders of the pack. They fought to get there. They fought to stay there. They fell in blood.
Elsewhere the Angels were at Play. Away from the debacle of Australian politics.
The Watchers on the Watch weren't always as hostile as he had first assumed.
He missed his friend the empath, but there were others in the mix.
Yesterday. Yesterday.
We haven't had a chance to catch up.
Huge background. Huge backdrop.
I was talking to Milo the other day. I was talking to Miley Cyrus.
There was always a security issue.
They're just ordinary people. Security guards always said that sort of thing.
They're just ordinary people; despite their millions, their fame, their fans. Nice as.
The common touch did wonders. In an instant the guards were loyal.
We can't afford a stuff up, not this time.
Out to sea, out to sea, the gulls were wheeling in a storm.
THE BIGGER STORY:
This week’s Grattan Institute report into housing affordability suggested that building an extra 50,000 homes per year would lower prices and “stem rising public anxiety about housing affordability”. But where would we build them?
The obvious answer is the city with the highest population growth, Melbourne, which has also taken The Economist‘s ‘Most Liveable City’ award for the past seven years running.
That’s easier said than done because some parts of the city are starting to feel quite unliveable, whatever The Economist says.
The city is in catch-up mode, trying to expand roads, rail, schools and hospitals to cater for population growth averaging 2.3 per cent a year for the past decade.
That means crawling queues of cars on the major roads, packed carriages and frequent disruptions on the rail network, and a productivity drag for a city struggling to get to school and work, or to deliver freight.
The Bureau of Statistics notes that over the past decade five of the 10 largest-growing areas in Australia were in Melbourne: “These were the outer western suburb of Tarneit (up by 28,800 people), inner city Melbourne (26,200) and the outer suburbs of Cranbourne East (22,600), Truganina (21,800) and Doreen (19,200).”
If Cher could turn back time, she probably wouldn’t have taken a selfie with Malcolm Turnbull at the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras this past weekend.
The pop kween has apologised after posing for a snapshot with the Aussie PM during Saturday night’s parade, following a Twitter outcry from the LGBTQI+ community.
Turnbull ignited the backlash after using his Mardi Gras appearance to seemingly give himself a pat on the back for the marriage equality vote.
“It was like the nation gave same-sex couples an enormous hug,” The PM said during the telecast. “It was a vote for equality, a vote for respect and what a huge vote it was.”
He then reiterated the point after posting his Cher selfie on Twitter: “Welcome to Sydney, Cher! [NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian], Lucy and I and all your fans thrilled to be with you at the 40th Mardi Gras & first since Australia achieved marriage equality.”
Needless to say, members of the LGBTQI+ community were quick to strike back: