Australian should bail out Greece, says Frank O’Shea, so they can continue to fight for the dream of paying no tax and retiring at 50.
Julia Gillard has been tardy in reacting to events locally and internationally.
Take Greece, for example. We are told that Melbourne is the second largest Greek city in the world and it contains Ms Gillard’s constituency. Now the poor Greeks, who only want to continue to be able to pay no tax and retire at 50, are being picked on by the rest of the world especially those awful Germans.
Australia should come to their help. It would require only a few percentage points increase in corporation tax on the Australian banks to create enough money to relieve them of their debt worries. It is true that this is not the first time that Greece has faced debt problems and even if they are slow learners, we can be assured that they will behave themselves in future.
What people don’t realise is the huge impact that Greek money has on the Australian economy. All those Greeks who retired at 50 came to this country and had their pension sent on here. And if there is one thing that the television series The Slap has shown us, it is what responsible, happy and moral citizens they are. If their pensions are discontinued or if they go back to the drachma, it may mean that Greeks in this country will have to leave their tastefully designed homes and move to the ordinary suburbs.
So, I say to Julia Gillard, give the Greeks – your own constituents – a break. It is surprising that Barnaby or Tony have not already got the campaign going and when they read this, they may well do so. There would be no trouble finding a nice short sound bite or slogan to remind people of how they are standing up for the small guy. “Save the Greeks” maybe or “Athens now. Melbourne tomorrow”.
But it is not just the Greek situation that has found Julia asleep.
As a woman, she should have been more sympathetic to Ms Kardashian when she came to this country. She could have done something to prevent her being attacked by the media. The poor girl made a mistake marrying someone who was too tall for her, quite understandable when you have only met him recently and you have only ever seen him sitting or lying down. And as soon as she landed in Australia the media were accusing her of just marrying for the money, something that no-one would ever do in this country.
If she took up the cause of Ms K, Julia would have no fear that Tony or Barnaby would interfere. As good Jesuit products, they have strong views on morality and would have no trouble fudging if they were asked for their opinions. As a world champion at not answering questions, Barnaby would have been in his element.
And what about Quade Cooper? At the World Cup, the New Zealanders were very rude to him — they booed on the few occasions when he was involved in the game. All because he is actually a New Zealander who had the temerity to move to Queensland and then wasn’t nice to one of their players. This kind of boorishness should have been stamped on; all it would have required was a phone call from Julia to her New Zealand counterpart with some threat about banning their apples or sending back Russell Crowe.
It’s surprising that Tony and Barnaby, products of a rugby education, have not taken up Quade Cooper’s cause. “All she has to do is take up the phone,” we hear Tony chanting all the time — he could have used it in this situation, also.
At least Julia did show some sympathy for the young boy who was brought to Bali by his parents to get him off drugs.
