Matters arising from David Marr's profile of Bill Shorten in this week's Good Weekend:
"To the commentators' surprise, Shorten won the set-piece debates [with Albanese] comfortably. His opponent had stinging one-liners, but Shorten found passion: 'If I was to be PM, I would like to be known as the PM for the powerless, for the disempowered, for people who don't have a voice in society'." (The man in the machine, 14/5/16)
So what is one to make of a man who sees himself as a PM for the wretched of the earth in Australia, but hearts the Lords of Creation who run roughshod over them in Palestine/Israel?
"Shorten engaged one of Australia's smartest layers, Leon Zwier of Arnold Bloch Leibler, who issued blunt denials in November 2013 after The Australian published the first, careful story about 'a senior Labor figure' accused of rape..."
Natch - Zwier was the late Dick Pratt's lawyer. Pratt, of course, owned cardboard giant Visy Industries, and was convicted and fined $36m for price-fixing in 2007. He was also a highly charitable man - particularly when it came to such worthy causes as Israel and LibLab. Shorten, as it happens, was a great friend of Pratt's, whom he extolled as a "Renaissance man" on the occasion of his death.
"[My mother] believed in merit... She taught me that merit is a legitimate human condition. That people should not be deified because of some ill-defined birth right or the wealth of an individual."
Why then does Shorten deify a mob of European colons who consider Palestine/Israel to be their exclusive birthright, or look up to wealthy individuals such as Dick Pratt?
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Bill Shorten boasted of his permanent invitation to sojourn at Dick Pratt's lavish New York apartment when passing through. I wonder why this cosy arrangement with the Zionist industrialist didn't attract the attention of the Royal Commission into Trade Unions? There was much scrutiny of building works allegedly completed on Julia Gillard's modest suburban home for example.
Pratt is the Godfather of Debbie Beale, Shorten's first wife, and held their engagement party at his mansion.
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