New parliament a “triumph of democracy” - Declare leaders. ‘Aussie service personnel would be proud’.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) September 30, 2010 -- Canberra.

Australia currently has around 2,000 men and women risking their lives to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, and the opening two days of the new parliament have served as a powerful reminder of the importance and value of their mission, according to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

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New parliament a “triumph of democracy” - Declare leaders. ‘Aussie service personnel would be proud’.

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Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott made the comments in reply to questions from analysts at the nation’s leading democracy think tank, The Vote Smart Institute, at a gala lunch at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel following the second heated Question Time in as many days.

Asked to provide examples of their commitments to improving the quality of parliamentary debate the leaders both mentioned their respective parties’ performance across a range of issues that have marked the opening of the nation’s 43rd parliament.

Gillard also drew attention to her government’s early back flip on allowing a conscience vote on gay marriage as an example of the ALP’s rejuvenated commitment to what she calls “real politics for real people.”

Meanwhile Abbott said he was proud of the way Coalition members had used question time to attack Gillard’s plans for redecorating The Lodge.

Referring to Gillard’s plan to pave the sweeping driveway with pebble mix and cover the 90-year-old Georgian revival mansion with aluminium cladding, Abbott said his deputy’s claim that the Prime Minister and her partner Tim Mathieson were “spiritually and aesthetically barren” should go down as one of the most profound statements ever uttered in an Australian parliament.

“I think that ordinary Aussies, but especially our brave fighting men and women, would have been enlightened, uplifted, and hopefully inspired by being alerted to the fact that this heathen cow refused to take the oath of office on a bible but chose instead to take an affirmation on a swatch of curtain materials,” said Abbott.

Asked for her views Gillard said that her decision to instruct the manager of government business Anthony Albanese to use parliamentary privilege to circumvent a court order prohibiting public discussion of Abbott’s involvement in re-enactments of medieval witch burnings as a highlight of her political career so far.

"I know that all Aussies, especially our brave soldiers currently risking their lives, will be celebrating the fact that they now know the real Tony Abbott,” she told the lunchtime gathering of more than 200 paid lobbyists and senior journalists at the $500,000 taxpayer funded event.

The new parliamentary session was preceded by almost a month of political wrangling as the ALP and Coalition, both with 72 seats each, tried to win the support of independents with grandiose spending initiatives and promises of a new era of parliamentary democracy characterised by intelligent, informed and focused political debate.

And true to their word the new parliament had a spectacular opening that left moral philosophers and democracy experts around the world in awe and prompted the democracy scholar John Keane to refer to Australia as “the new Athens”.

The Chief Justice of the High Court, Robert French, launched the business of the new parliament on Tuesday with the traditional breaking of a bottle of champagne across the head of the Serjeant-at-Arms

Justice French was standing in for the Governor General Quentin Bryce who was had a prior engagement with her two schnauzers, Otto and Wilhelm, at a dog-grooming salon in nearby Manuka.

Parliamentary business commenced yesterday with a stirring speech by Gillard attacking the Opposition’s plan to replace the parliament house flagpole with a 150-meter luminous crucifix.

The Coalition countered by attending Question Time dressed as the 20th century Polish-born Marxist Rosa Luxemburg and waving large sausages in the air whenever Gillard rose to speak.

The only blot on the first two days of proceedings was a bungled attempt by the former member for O’Connor, Wilson Tuckey, to abseil from the media gallery onto the floor of the house.

Tuckey, who is till refusing to concede defeat, was in the gallery in his capacity as the new political correspondent for the Sporting Shooters Association.

At 2.30 this afternoon, half an hour into question time, the irascible 75-year-old removed his dentures and used a cross bow to shoot a guide rope across the chamber.

But he crashed heavily onto the government benches after the wheel attached to his harness became tangled in veteran journalist Michelle Grattan’s hair net.

Speaking by satellite phone from Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan while under Taliban bombardment, Captain Darryl Baldock of the 3rd Australian Infantry battalion said that he had earlier watched most of the first two days of the new parliament with his men and all had been inspired to continue risking their lives for democracy.

“How much better can it get?” he asked.

Photo: Aussie soldiers in Afghanistan pause from their duties to watch a telecast of the new parliament on their iPhones. “We are inspired by a fresh sense of purpose” said one.

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Afgnanistan     democracy     Governor General     iraq war     Julia Gillard     parliament     Tony Abbott     Wilson Tuckey