A Brush With Fame

Part way through February my new school had its annual Staff Dedication Service and threw in an opening of the new facilities built with 'Julia money', for good measure.

The Dedication Service is a casual affair followed by a picnic/bbq most years and our Principal dresses for the occasion (below right), but this service was different. Who has spotted the tall, imposing figure in the crowd there?


Yes! It's our Federal Education Minister, the Honourable Peter Garrett!!

Now, for my American and UK friends who aren't in the know, I will provide a little additional information. View either of these instructive videos below to see the calibre of politicians we have making decisions in our country.







To be fair, no one said you had to be able to dance to be a politician, but I think for many of us, PG has not lived up to his early 'power and passion'. Having spent a good deal of his adult life making strident music about the hypocrisy and inaction of politicians, he has blundered his way through his first years in office like a first year Law student at the annual pub crawl. We all had such high hopes when we heard he was going into Federal politics; but let's face it, if you jump into the sewer you can't be surprised when you end up just as dirty as the next guy.

Having said all that, who was the groupie sitting in the second row snapping pictures?? Yes, it was this hypocrite here. Mea culpa.


His speech was not bad, apart from the frequent, and I mean frequent, references to exactly HOW much the government had spent here at our 'excellent' school; and afterwards, when he was given a tour of the facilities he was generous with his time and interactions, stopping to talk to each staff member responsible for one of the new areas. Our Principal was most impressed.

And no, even though we'd all threatened to do it at staff meeting, no one burst out with
"The time has come!
To say fair's fair!"
But I really would have liked a flim montage afterwards of all the parents in the audience singing their favourite line from an Oils song! That would have been very funny.