(First posted 20 December 2014)

Amici, buona giornata,

I’ve often claimed not to be the author of the Musical Dispatches. They write themselves. So soon on the heels of the last Dispatch, let this be the Christmas edition. I simply could not ignore this little gem from Hansard:

Senator Nova Peris 26^th November 2014 Senate Inquiry into the sale of TIO:

Here in Canberra we have witnessed government MPs accuse their own Prime Minister of verbal gymnastics over his claims that he has kept his promise that there would be no cuts to the ABC or SBS. It would seem that Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles likes the way his mate Mr Abbott denies the truth. How is this for a quote: ‘We are not selling TIO. We are just transferring ownership.‘ That is actually what the chief minister said in response to suggestions he should not sell it. As Michael Gunner, a Territory Labor MP said yesterday, ‘Adam Giles isn’t going to the Christmas sales this year; he’s going to the Christmas transfers of ownership.’

We are quite accustomed to Transfers of Ownership here in Yuendumu.

On the coat-tails of the Intervention, ownership of “community residences” was transferred to Territory Housing (a Darwin based NT Government Agency). These houses were “given” to Yuendumu by a string of politicians. You know the sort of thing “I got you three houses, vote for me”. The money to build them came from such as ATSIC, ABTA etc. These houses were held on behalf of the community by the Yuendumu Community Government Council. They were deemed by consensus to be communally owned. I’m not denying that occasional arguments re occupancy rights erupted, but such were resolved locally without outside interference (or should I say intervention?). Rent (admittedly modest)was paid on these houses to the Yuendumu Council, which employed such as a plumber who with his Warlpiri offsider(s) would do repairs at a fraction of the cost of bringing in Alice Springs based contractors. Prompt repairs were never the norm in Yuendumu, but relying on outside contractors (as is now the case) has not sped up matters in the least. Rents have increased several fold.

Transfer of Ownership occurred when the Yuendumu Council Inc. was appropriated by the Central Desert Shire (since renamed the Democratic People’s Republic of….. no just kidding… they  changed their name to Central Desert Regional Council-CDRC). The head office of CDRC is in Alice Springs, which is not within the area covered by the CDRC. When I last checked the CDRC employed from 70-100 people at head office. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t include one Warlpiri person. In Yuendumu itself slow but  steady progress is being made to regain local “ownership” and participation in municipal functions. This process is much slower than the instant transfer of ownership that took place some years ago.

But hey! What are we complaining about? Transfer of ownership is nothing new. Transfer of ownership has been the norm throughout history and continues to be so.

Of particular relevance to the descendants of the original inhabitants of what is now Australia is the transfer of ownership that took place in 1788.

In 1788 the Union Jack was planted at Sydney Cove.

….and he’s taken just all that I had…

…. The first cut is the deepest…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK9eLe8EQps

When the Iron Curtain collapsed, a massive transfer of ownership took place from the Soviet Union to the Russian Mafia.

In Australia a massive transfer of ownership took place: Huge deposits of iron ore and coal owned by the Common-wealth (get it?) are now owned by the not so common few.

(a moot point, the huge deposits of iron and coal were included in the 1788 transfer of ownership unbeknown to the then protagonists)

I won’t spoil your Christmas dinner with more examples of transfer of ownership.

If you’ve been good I wish that Santa transfers lots of ownership to you.

…this toy is for you, now you have ownership,

You can share it but only if you want to,

You have the right to say, if someone can come and play with it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXsJWTKKOfs ****

Arrivederci al prossimo anno.
Avere un felice Natale

Franco

**** Warlpiri children are continually told to share…. Unprompted, Warlpiri children will offer you a bite of what they’re eating…. Greed in Warlpiri society exists but is frowned upon. Greedy people are not part of Team Warlpiri!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwcKwGS7OSQ

“Onya Trev”. Proudly wears his gong for “Conga Lining”

Trevor St Barker is our man of the moment. 

He pays one million for a crappy old coal fired power station, then lobbies the federal government for squillions of federal money to keep the rotten stinking thing going, 

And the Feds cant give him enough. Being a Liberal donor might have a lot to do with it. 

We haven’t seen this much lobbying since Wilberforce put the kibosh on Slavery. 

But Trev aint doing nothing wrong, it’s perfectly legal, It’s just thats the way the lump of coal crumbles… 

All ministers wooed by the inescapable allure of coal and Trev’s lobbying cannot help themselves.

Bit like stacking the abc with your mates, the appeals tribunal with your mates and ensuring that your mates look after you. 

That’s mate-ship, reciprocity. We know the public don’t get a look in.  But they’re not mates, they’re just public. the Hoi polloi, the proletariat, the ‘Sneetches without stars’. 

Still, being a donor has its downside, you have to visit Melissa Price, Often… 

Melissa is the Environment Minister you have when there’s an environmental catastrophe. 

The PRICE is RIGHT! A telly tubby short of the environment

You cant find her. 

But occasionally when Trev comes knocking , she peeks out, looks outside, checks there’s no one in the corridor and lets him in, 

We aint  privy to what goes on behind closed doors, but we can assume that Trev gets the royal treatment. What’s the royal treatment? You may ask. 

PM hides his stiffy with CLEAN COAL.

That’s the treatment you get when one of you mates visit. You arrange the Chesterfield in a cosy way by the fake marble- stone fireplace. You offer him something from the top shelf. And as you allow your mate to be wooed by coal, you gaze wistfully at the lumps of coal delicately arranged on the mantelpiece, above the door, and over the jacuzzi. The jacuzzi you may ask? Yes indeed in a particularly cosy relationship the jacuzzi is on offer to those members of the constituency who like to see their coal being cleaned. It also helps them get intimate with the minister. But like lawyer X, it pays to get intimate. That way you can bone up on all the facts.   It’s a worship of sorts, and when the coal emerges sanctified from its bath, you know that it has been proven, is clean, and it’s right. 

Vales Point Power Station. “Rent seeking for dummies”.

Trev wants to make damn sure that whatever silly short term insulting to the electorate policy the coalition comes up with is looking after his interests. And why shouldn’t he? It’s a free country, and besides, Trev would be he first to tell you he worked bloody hard to get in line. Yes thats the other side of the budget, the budget preference conga line.  It works on the  principle, if you’re poor, you’re at the back, and if you’re really quite well off, (like Trev), you get to choose whether its a Rhumba or a Cha Cha. Melissa likes the Cha Cha, more upbeat for her policy announcements, but we reckon with a fair hunch, Trev would prefer the Tango, it’s more passionate. Cos deep down passionate men prefer Coal. 

It’s the same passion that the Tories yearn for in Brexit. To know that poor people are punished, and theres no progress without breaking eggs and omlette’s on anything other than stinking hubris. They say money “makes the world go round”.  The logic is inescapable, and it’s also quite dizzying. 

So dizzying we want to get off.

Hand us a lump of Coal Trev…..