Three thoughtful Kiwi commentators—well, they’re thoughtful compared to
these Australians—parse an imbecilic prime minister’s comments
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 19 November 2018
Jim Mora, James Elliott, Catherine Robertson, Caitlin Cherry
these Australians—parse an imbecilic prime minister’s comments
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 19 November 2018
Jim Mora, James Elliott, Catherine Robertson, Caitlin Cherry
Jim Mora—or his producer Caitlin Cherry—evidently thought it would be amusing to mark International Men’s Day by endorsing the Australian prime minister guffawing with the imbecilic hosts of a Murdoch-owned Gold Coast radio station at the suffering of Australia’s most famous dissident, and his leering comments about a woman pleading on behalf of that dissident. Note also that Mora speaks as if Julian Assange is the victim of Ecuador, and studiously avoids mentioning either the U.S. or U.K. regimes which are trying to destroy him.
JIM MORA: W-w-we’re about to talk about m-m-me-e-en, and to set the scene for talking about men, …[loudly inhales]…former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has grown close to Julian Assange from WikiLeaks over the years, [loudly inhales] and she appee-ealed on television to the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison to rescue hi-i-mmm—Assange—from the Ecuadorian Embassy, and have him able to call Australia home again after all these years. And then he replied, the Prime Minister replied, to Pamela Anderson. Here she IS, first of all.
Pamela Anderson: Defend your friend, and get Julian his passport back, and, and take him back to Australia and be proud of him. And throw him a parade when he gets home.
Scott Morrison: [amused snickering] Hynnnnn!
1029 Hot Tomato’s Emily Jade: Errrrr. You want to throw him a parade?[In the background: derisive guffaws from Flan and Christo.]
Scott Morrison: We-e-ell, it’s, heh heh, NO-O-O!
Flan, Emily Jade and Christo: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Scott Morrison: First of all, but second, I’ve had plenty of MATES who’ve asked me if they could be my special ENVOY to sort the issue OUT—
1029 Hot Tomato’s Christo: Yeaaah!
Scott Morrison: –ahhhm, with Pamela Anderson, but putting—
Christo: L.A.!
Emily Jade: Ha ha!
Scott Morrison: —putting that [guffawing] to one si-i-ide—
MORA: So she has called this response of hi-i-i-is [inhales loudly] “smutty and L-L-LEWWWDD.” Was it L-L-LEWD and smutty, or breezy annnnd blokeeeyyy? What do you think?
…uncomfortable silence….
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: Y-you’re making me answer this aren’t you James?
JAMES ELLIOTT: Ah, I was PAUSING here, James—
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: A ha ha ha!
MORA: No James is making you answer it.
JAMES ELLIOTT: No I’m HAPPY to go fir–, I’m happy to go first, I think it was—
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: No you go for it first!
JAMES ELLIOTT: I was hap–, I think that was definitely on the lewd and smutty end of the thing by innuendo. So, yes, he didn’t, that was unnecessary.
MORA: Unbecoming of a prime minister.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON:
JAMES ELLIOTT: Unbecoming of a prime minister.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: And it was purely disrespectful. Because it was demeaning her, and suggesting that she’s nothing but the sum of, you know, her, um, her appearances on T.V., et cetera, and it’s just—
MORA: And trivializing the issue she raised.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: Yeah, that she’s basically a pair of boobs, and not, with no brains. So, yeah, it is.
MORA: Okay. We use that example from [inhales audibly] Scott Morrison because many men do feel they are misunderstood in the modern era and it is International Men’s Day. [inhales audibly] Celebrating the positive value that men bring to the world, their families and communities. [inhales loudly] Do you think Western men—men in the Western world—have as secure a sense as they did once of their place in the world?
….Extended pause…
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: Does ANYONE?
JAMES ELLIOTT: Mmmm, yeah.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: I mean, yeah, interesting. I mean, the world changes all the time, the, the pace of change is, is, been EXTRAORDINARY over this century and last, a-a-a-and, ahhhmm, do, you know, who HAS a sense of their—, what even the boundaries of the world are going to BE? You know, we’re looking at Brexit, and European Unions, and Trump and China, and [chuckles] there’s no such THING as security! And I think, you know, Brexit was driven by a um, call for some sort of, a HANKERING for some sort of nostalgia for a simpler time, um, that time does not EXIST any more. And so we all have to—
MORA: So we’re all less secure, not just men.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: Yeah yeah. Exactly. Yeah.
….extended pause…
MORA: You’re thinking about it.
CATHERINE ROBERTSON: James is thinking about it!
JAMES ELLIOTT: Yeah I know. Ha ha ha ha! No I think you put it really well, Catherine, but, I belong to a music group at the moment, learning how to play in a band, and that’s morphed into a combination men’s group and band. Uh, we’ve found ourselves talking to each other about issues as men as much as ….
ad nauseam…
