msolga wrote:panzade wrote:How about explaining this one msolga..
I certainly will, panzade. Or maybe some other Oz person will, before me? But tonight (at around 8:30 pm) I'm not far from bed. A long, long day & I'm totally pooped! (almost at the dribbling stage!
) I shall return!
Sorry for not doing this earlier, panzade.
The Snowy Hydro scheme is considered a remarkable achievement here in Oz. It was built largely by post-war immigrants to Oz. A number of men died during the process of construction.) Recently 2 state governments & the federal government decided to sell their shares in it, without any proper consultation with the Australian people. There was a huge backlash from the public. ("Privatize water? Sell the Snowy ..? Ya gotta be kidding!"
) The Federal government caved in first (for a number of reasons, not just in response to public anger.) The prime minister took the heroic (?) public position of saving this "icon".
... which left the two Labor governments with egg on their faces (Labor governments are meant to have more scruples about these things. Besides, they'd already committed the anticipated millions of $$$$ in their budget proposals for the next year
..).
>>> Anyways .. the cartoon is a reference to Banjo Patterson's famous Oz poem,
The Man From Snowy River (iconic folk hero - see poem in the next post). He's portrayed as the hero who "saves" the Snowy. The villain is the NSW (Labor) premier, who lost well over $1 billion from his budget by thinking it was a done deal! Ha! ...and had to quickly withdraw any sale plans as well, along with the Victorian (Labor) premier.
Very embarrassing & humiliating! Which just goes to show: Labor politicians should be a lot more principled & astute about who they make sneaky deals with! :wink:
Now that's a damn sight more information than you'd bargained for, panzade! I hope you found that fascinating!
