The POOL ROOM

[victor]

Gidday Merv, The vast majority of the public thinks the country is going in the wrong direction, and yet our governmental structure does not allow this to be easily changed. Real change would be better enacted by lining up Constitutional amendments to federalize education, outlaw abortion or whatever else strikes your fancy. But Australians can’t agree on these topics and so the government stays in the center and out of the line of fire as much as possible. Our two-party system has effectively ensured that change is not coming, no matter who sits in the Office.
If change is what the people want, and I hear this country’s government is subject to the will of the people, they should work on issues closer to home instead of expecting Gillard and Co to deliver a magic bullet that fixes all of their problems. Voting isn’t the end of civic responsibility — our governmental lackeys can only do so much.

[victor]

Kevin Rudd called Julia Gillard into his office one day and said, “Julia I
have a great idea! We are going to go all out to win the country voters.”
“Good idea Prime Minister, how will we go about it?” said Julia.
“Well,” said Rudd, “we’ll get ourselves one of those Driza Bone coats, some RM
Williams boots, a stick and an Akubra hat, oh and a Blue Cattle dog.
Then we’ll really look the part. We’ll go to a typical old outback country
pub, we’ll show we really enjoy the bush.”" Right ,”said Julia.
Days later, all kitted out and with the requisite Blue heeler, they set off
from Canberra in a westerly direction. Eventually they arrived at
just the place they were looking for and found a typical outback pub. Walked
in with the dog and up to the bar.”G,day mate,” said Rudd, to the bartender,
“two middies of your best beer.” “Good afternoon Prime Minister,” said the
bartender, “two middies of our best coming up”.

Gillard and Rudd stood leaning on the bar drinking their beer and chatting,
nodding now and again to those who came into the bar for a drink. The dog
lay quietly at their feet.All of a sudden, the door from the adjacent bar
opened and in came a grizzled old stockman, complete with stockwhip. He
walked up to the Cattle dog, lifted its tail with the whip and looked
underneath, shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the other bar. A few
moments later, in came another old stockman with his whip. He walked up to
the dog and, lifted it’s tail, looked underneath, scratched his head and
went back to the other bar. Over the course of the next hour or so another
four or five stockmen came in and, lifted the dogs tail and went away
looking puzzled.

Eventually, Rudd and Gillard could stand it no longer and called the Barman
over.”Tell me,” said Rudd, “why did all those old stockmen come in and look
under the dog’s tail like that? Is it an old outback custom?” “Strewth no!”
said the barman. “It’s just that someone went ‘n told ‘em there was a cattle
dog in this bar with two arseholes!”