30 January 2012

So what is Kim Sattler's story?

| johnboy
Join the conversation
15

Unions ACT boss Kim Sattler is still refusing to take a bullet for Julia Gillard despite the PM’s best efforts to make her the fall guy for the unedifying spectacle on Australia Day.

Today in The Age Michelle Grattan is not giving up on the yarn:

Ms Sattler made several contradictory comments about the affair. She initially told The Canberra Times Mr Hodges had not spoken to her. She told News Ltd’s Sunday papers that Mr Hodges had spoken to her and said Mr Abbott had said the embassy should not exist. ”I do now accept that wasn’t what Tony Abbott said,” she added.

On Saturday she said Mr Hodges had quoted Mr Abbott as saying people should ”move on” from the tent embassy. Yesterday she claimed the News Ltd report that she had contradicted Ms Gillard was inaccurate. Mr Hodges ”told me what Tony Abbott had said – that people should ‘move on’ from the tent embassy”, she said yesterday. Ms Gillard said the two statements Ms Sattler had issued accorded with her own version of events.

One suspects we’ll all be very bored of the whole saga long before we come close to the truth. Although with the Terror reporting that an Angry Wilkie might support a motion of no confidence it would be quite a thing if Kim Sattler was responsible for bringing down a government.

Join the conversation

15
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest
Myles Peterson7:19 pm 30 Jan 12

“Wilkie’s a grenade waiting for someone to pull his pin, and Craig Thomson is the truckload of chook poo waiting to be dumped. And Kevin Rudd wants to drive the truck and pull the pin,” Skyring

gold

EvanJames said :

The people who rioted are the ONLY ones culpable for the riot. To shove the blame onto people saying something offensive or inflammatory is to let the rioters off the hook… what, are they children? How racist!

In an ideal world (ahem..), everyone would known they Gillard and Abbot were going to be there, what Abbot allegedly said, and instead of a riot there would have been demands for him to front the crowd and explain himself. But that might take more subtlety than party hacks can manage these days.

But it’s not an ideal world. The hacks knew what they were doing and obviously hoped to score points by it.

EvanJames said :

The people who rioted are the ONLY ones culpable for the riot. To shove the blame onto people saying something offensive or inflammatory is to let the rioters off the hook… what, are they children? How racist!

Well, of course the “rioters” should have acted within the law in a calm, dignified and restrained manner.

But, realistically, they were at the tent embassy to make a political statement, they were hungry for media attention, they were fired up and angry about all sorts of things, and Ms Sattler’s words were calculated to stir them up. Not only did she twist Abbott’s moderate words into something inflammatory, she told them he was only a few metres away.

Race or age doesn’t enter into it – if you got a bunch of old age pensioners boozed up and then told them that Julia Gillard was going to cut their pensions in half to pay for faster internet and she was right next door, well they’d be knocking on the windows with their walking sticks and hurling their Zimmer frames at the bodyguards before you could say “Cold Duck”.

Why should this Sattler woman, or indeed Abbott himself, be “to blame” for the riot? Abbott made a comment, as he’s entitled to do, it’s one enough of us make here far less politely.

The people who rioted are the ONLY ones culpable for the riot. To shove the blame onto people saying something offensive or inflammatory is to let the rioters off the hook… what, are they children? How racist!

The people who behaved in a menacing, abusive way, threatening people should be made accountable for what they did just as you or I would be: before law. People seem to be assuming that somehow, what they did was justified because someone told them that Abbott said something and was over in that glass restaurant, go git him. Who cares what Abbott said? Short of standing in their squatters camp and hurling rocks and saying rude things about their mothers, nothing excuses what they did.

bitzermaloney said :

Ever heard of Julia Ceasar?

Can I nominate that one for an award of some kind.

neanderthalsis3:14 pm 30 Jan 12

johnboy said :

bitzermaloney said :

Ever heard of Julia Ceasar? 2000+yrs on and politics has not changed one iota.

Well, we don’t murder our leaders so often.

You don’t need to get stabby in modern Labor to kill a leader.

bitzermaloney said :

Ever heard of Julia Ceasar? 2000+yrs on and politics has not changed one iota.

Well, we don’t murder our leaders so often.

bitzermaloney3:04 pm 30 Jan 12

Skyring said :

Give Julia her due, she wouldn’t deliberately set a bunch of angry protesters onto the glass-walled restaurant where she was having lunch with emergency services award winners.

I think there are a number of members of parliament on both side (as well as indenpendants & Greens) that would like to give “Julia her due”. Benefit of the doubt is not amonst it.

Ever heard of Julia Ceasar? 2000+yrs on and politics has not changed one iota.

neanderthalsis3:01 pm 30 Jan 12

Skyring said :

Give Julia her due, she wouldn’t deliberately set a bunch of angry protesters onto the glass-walled restaurant where she was having lunch with emergency services award winners.

Given that media mismanagement has been a highlight of the Gillard Government, with even good news stories looking bad, I would not be surprised if some grand scheme had been hatched at a higher level.

Skyring said :

And Kevin Rudd wants to drive the truck and pull the pin.

Does anyone else find it interesting that, of the Coaltion voters polled by Galaxy, 53% preferred Rudd, 21% Gillard, 26% uncommitted while the ALP voters were fairly evenly split (48%; 49%; 3% respectively)?

Duffbowl said :

…they are smelling blood and will quietly (okay, maybe not so quietly) poke at the events to see what unfolds.

Add the debacle onto the pile of similar events. Wilkie’s a grenade waiting for someone to pull his pin, and Craig Thomson is the truckload of chook poo waiting to be dumped. And Kevin Rudd wants to drive the truck and pull the pin.

Skyring said :

Tony Hodge and Kim Sattler clearly weren’t acting under orders from the PM. Give Julia her due, she wouldn’t deliberately set a bunch of angry protesters onto the glass-walled restaurant where she was having lunch with emergency services award winners.

This is the thinking of some folk I know at Menzies House. That said, they are smelling blood and will quietly (okay, maybe not so quietly) poke at the events to see what unfolds.

Wilkie must be one unhappy little vegemite after Julia dumped on his pokies plans. However, I cannot see Wilkie voting against Gillard in favour of Abbott without the direct involvement of the PM or a minister in her government in some serious misdeeding.

Tony Hodge and Kim Sattler clearly weren’t acting under orders from the PM. Give Julia her due, she wouldn’t deliberately set a bunch of angry protesters onto the glass-walled restaurant where she was having lunch with emergency services award winners.

Will Unions ACT Kim (not to be confused with much loved “Aussie Kim” Clijsters) be best remembered as Canberra’s version of the Shoe Bomber?

Ms Sattler has been trying for the last year or so to promote the concept of a “National Museum of Labour” and had managed to give it credibility by recruiting Senator John Faulkner as its patron. However, I don’t expect the embryo Canberra-based museum can expect any more support from Julia Gillard or the Federal Government in the light of what happened on Australia Day.

In fact, I suspect that we are much more likely to see Unions ACT Kim’s shrunken head going on display in a glass case in the near future than Julia’s glass slipper….

Heaven forbid a union heavyweight having any sway in influencing or bringing down a government.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.