Bush Poetry named in Parliament

[Neville Briggs]

I was watching the Senate broadcast today and Senator George Brandis was criticised by an opposition member who demanded to know why Senator Brandis thought it was more important to be reading bush poetry than to pay attention during a Senate estimates.
committee.

Senator Brandis was filmed holding a book called Our Country - Classic Bush Poetry. You can see the clip on the smh site and hearing the Sir Humphrey Appleby impersonator next to Brandis I don't blame him for reading a book.

[Gary Harding]

Good for George.
He is of course notable for his brilliant effort in the field of Australian Poetry as Arts Minister with his recommending to the PM the awarding of $80,000 tax free to the infamous "A woman at 40 weeks gestation contemplates her undergarments."

Hardly covering himself in literary glory one may say.

If he is educating himself now on what constitutes decent and skillful Australian poetry as compared to absolute garbage, then that has to be commended!
He appears to be intelligent and in all kindness it is truly the fault of the person who put him in the Arts portfolio, a portfolio to which he is manifestly unsuited, that caused this embarrassing Award blunder.

I pointed out to him in correspondence which naturally was never acknowledged (I am but a peasant after all) that Traditional Australian Poetry (bush poetry) was where it was at for the vast majority of voters and not to be led along by the nose by self-interested academics and other people who claim to be "experts". I was hoping the word voters, if not poetry, might at least get his attention.

I don't think George and I get on too well after my little written diatribe on what constitutes real Australian poetry and that it was far removed from the panties of pregnant women.

My detailed and extensive list of recommendations as to where Arts money in the real traditional Australian poetry field should be best spent was no doubt used to supplement the toilet paper in his no doubt equally plush parliamentary offices. A pity.

Anyway if he has had second thoughts about what I said, as apparently he has, well all to his credit.

[Neville Briggs]

As Minister for The Yartz , I'm sure he does his best.

[Gary Harding]

Yeah Nev,
I may not sound it but I am laughing like heck... it has the trappings of a real pantomime...

The same dopey advisors that gave George that scandalous $80,00 poetry book with their blessing and said "run along and give it to Tony for his PM's Literary Award" are no doubt the ones that went to the parliamentary library, got the book Our Country, Classic Bush Poetry (their stock of bush poetry is probably limited) and said "George go and sit in the Estimates Hearings, hold it up and make sure the media can see the title so the public can appreciate how you would much rather be reading Banjo Paterson than listening to silly estimates". The Sydney Morning Herald certainly took the bait. A young inexperienced journo so it is understandable. To me George Brandis looks like an absolute FOOL sitting there holding up his little bush poetry book, as his minders no doubt insisted. I mean really.... maybe he would like to get some votes by joining the ABPA. I would let him in if he gave us a HUGE Fat Grant. That's the name of the poetry game in government these days it seems to me... $$Grants, mates and money.

I would like to see who actually "borrowed" the book and I bet it was not George personally!.

After all, he would much rather be reading $80,000 poetry books about pregnant ladies panties. He has proved that. haha

I mean it does have an enormously funny side when you see it in that context! I just laughed so much.

[Gary Harding]

Nev, the Opposition criticising George Brandis for reading Bush Poetry was all part of the planned publicity stunt, I suggest.

I have an interest in Bush Poetry on a macro scale. That is, at a government/political level.

The recent PM's Literary Award debacle revealed to me a significant amount of horrifying stuff through the flurry of correspondence that I embarked on and which I simply did not report on here. WHY? By and large the level of support for my complaint about a "poem", albeit modern,"A woman at 40 weeks gestation contemplates her undergarments" being rewarded with $80,000 tax free was very weak and disappointing and did not justify such feedback. Some even chose to try and defend it.

Really, this $80,000 is/was a symptom of the much larger problem, not the problem in itself.

In a nutshell my main complaint is about Canberra's concurrent lack of support for Traditional Poetry and disbursement of funds in the form of typically $40,000 personal grants to people claiming to be "poets". "Modern" poets invariably. The accountability. The money trail. The whole thing stinks to high heaven. Mates. The nod and wink network, a mutually supporting network/club of people with their noses in the trough. Nothing subtle about it either. Often hiding behind all sorts of high-sounding Councils and titles and websites. Phoney. And I really only opened the door a crack and the the stench was overwhelming. I could "see" things and thought.. "Hmmm what have we here..."

At ABPA we have people reaching in to their own pockets to pay for modest self published works in the traditional style.. balladry. Maybe some is brilliant and maybe some is indifferent... I don't know... but the love and enthusiasm for the craft is strong and undeniable and from such writing engendered by that enthusiasm comes the odd pearl of great writing that adds to the nation's treasury of work established by writers such as Lawson and Paterson.

George's minders may well have told him to grab this book of Bush Poetry and go out and do a publicity stunt cuddling up to it.... to show people how you love Bush Poetry. (Remember to hold it the right way up George, and make sure the cover is visible for the media.)

Something has caused this sudden, unusual and almost panic performance.. but that is another story, not for here.
I cannot help but be certain that what I have done in correspondence.. including chats with the Opposition spokespeople in the Arts and through PUP too... all of whom professed high standards of decorum and were outraged... has somehow caused this panic performance.

So George may well sit there putting on his act, but not a cent of money finds its way into the area of Bush/Traditional Poetry. No promotion of it whatsoever. It is totally sidelined by those in The Club in Canberra.

Anyway this is my own personal fight with Canberra... nothing to do with the ABPA as a group... the outcome of which I want to be a far better deal for Traditional Poetry and poets who write that way too. Support. Not the elimination of the "corruption"... you never beat that when money and grants are wafting around. Belt its head down and it only sneaks back when you are gone.

So Nev..... George's performance is funny, but leaves me cold. I doubt he has "seen the light".

[Stephen Whiteside]

I enjoyed the underpants poem, Gary. Horses for courses.

[Gary Harding]

Thanks Stephen.
If you enjoyed the "underpants poem".... well, great! glad to hear it.
"A woman at 40 weeks gestation.." .. if that is your scene.
I am really not into that kinda stuff... I'm pretty straight.
As I say yet again... my argument is with Canberra.
The huge money they dole out to their Mates.
At the end of the day, if you carefully read what I say, my objective is to see a re-direction of cash into the pockets of Bush Poets who might like to preserve their writing for posterity. That includes Societies such as your own. Not into the pockets of airy-fairy people who claim to be "poets".

May I suggest to you that it would be a far wiser move to support such a proposition than to oppose it.

I could name many poets here, male and female!!! Mitchell Library candidates.
I intend to press on with that noble cause, regardless of your opposition.
I wish you well with your panty-poems.

[warooa]

What's this underpants poem? Did I miss something?

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yep.

[Heather]

No