Quadrant Online: Christine Milne’s Mining Money
A short piece of mine just up at Quadrant Online.
The Greens leader detests coal, the people who dig it up, and their profits. So why doesn’t she take up that moral megaphone of hers and renounce the portion of her salary drawn from that and other iniquitous industries?
The supporting rough-and-ready calculations are available in pdf here.
Comments
Just for the sake of argument (and I would I would never, ever consider such a thing) let’s say that that just before the NSW election, I dummy up a Greens Party Press release. Easily done, you don’t even need to be a graphics pro or be able to compose copy in English nowadays (though I am, and can) to borrow their logo, copy their style and apply for a bogus domain name using the “NSW Greens†somewhere.
Then I announce that the candidate for Balmain has been dis-endorsed by local Greens because of associations with known criminals and “moral turpitude.â€
When a young journo from the local News Ltd paper and the gullible unpaid intern from Leichhardt Council’s own subsidised paper ring the mobile number provided (mine), I impersonate a well-known Leichhardt Greens Councillor and I confirm in broken, rambling and near incoherent staccato, the deception.
On the eve of the election, the story, which has no function other than an intention to damage, deceive and defraud, is published, read, and believed.
Discuss…
Do it. Then stand back for the tsunami of indignant moralising…gold.