Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Luke Foley Gets the Koala Vote

You will of course remember my most recent post on NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley: NSW Labor: Out With the Old, In With the Same Old.

In it, I referred to Luke's namesake, Tom 'Fine Cut' Foley, the Queensland Labor Lands Minister who declared open season on koalas in the 1920s.

I'm pleased to see that Luke is an avid reader of MERC.

How else to explain his announcement on Monday that when he's elected Premier of NSW he'll establish Australia's first 'koala national park' on the NSW north coast?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luke Foley, or his handlers, clearly felt the need to differentiate himself from old 'Fine Cut' Foley.

The question now is just what kind of tobacco is Luke smoking now he has gone all tree and koala huggin' up Mullum' way?

It ain't 'Fine Cut', know what I mean.

MERC said...

Anonymous is wrong.

Luke Foley has NOT "gone all tree and koala huggin'" merely to differentiate himself from old Tom 'Fine Cut' Foley in the minds of voters. The voters, of course, will not have heard of 'Fine Cut' Foley, nor would they give a hoot if they had.

No, Luke Foley and his handlers are playing a far more subtle game here. He has the Greens in his sights, and he knows how to win them over: koalas and trees. To many Greens, koalas and trees trump Palestinians any day.

Some will remember that at the last NSW election, in 2011, the ABC included Foley, then a relatively unknown young Labor egghead, in its election night coverage.

I couldn't help but notice that he spent the entire night obsessing over the Sydney seat of Marrickville, worried sick that the pro-BDS Greens candidate, Fiona Byrne, would win this traditionally Labor seat. The nearby seat of Balmain, also under threat from a Greens candidate (but one not overtly supportive of the pro-Palestine BDS campaign), did not seem to interest him anywhere near as much as Marrickville.

Old Tom 'Fine Cut' Foley certainly earned his nickname. In light of Luke Foley's bizarre election night performance in 2011, and his subsequent sucking up to the Israel lobby, I propose that from now on Luke Foley be known as Luke 'Faux Pas' Foley.

What matters NOW to Luke 'Faux Pas' Foley is placating the Greens and angling for their preferences in crucial seats.

If all he has to do is hug a few koalas and trees along the way, the Greens will be putty in his hands, all will be forgiven, and preferences will flow.