Endplay

IF the booted Tony Hodges did only what the Prime Minister claims – contacted the oppressed in the expectation “a couple” of black faces would front the cameras to denounce his boss’ foe – what exactly did he do wrong and why was he fired? Skewering opponents is what politics is all about, and Hodges is – was – paid to sharpen knives and pass them out to this government’s eager accomplices and apologists in the gallery.

Lies being her stock in trade, Gillard’s non-explanation explanation at her Saturday afternoon press conference was suspect from the very instant that spigot of falsehood beneath the Pinocchio nose began to drip. Several hours later, Kim Sattler, directly contradicted the woman on behalf of whose office she sped to Humpytown with word of Tony Abbott’s incendiary racism.

That mad dash is what reporters should be seeking to have explained today. It is the only question, the hinge on which the door to the race riot’s disgrace swung open and the genesis of Team Gillard’s confident whispers in the immediate aftermath of her evactuation that ultimate blame could be pinned on none but Abbott.

That wasn’t true and Gillard’s paid liars knew it. Had it not been for Ray Hadley baring the truth on talkback radio -- is it any wonder luvvies hate the medium so? -- the strategy would by now be proceeding apace. Today’s papers would be larded with reflections on the Opposition leader’s divisive personality, his contempt for reconciliation, the intemperance of his rhetoric and, inevitably, how the riot was the predictable second chapter in the chronicle of incitement first opened at the carbon tax protests.

By Tuesday, tertiary slurs would have been slathered over news pages and opinion columns. Not just Aborigines, but women, refugees, trees and enlightened rationality itself would be presented as the targets in Abbott’s alleged crosshairs. Now the toadies are scrambling, frantic to find a narrative which re-channels the flow of commentary and reporting onto safer ground.

Sattler’s newly revealed Aboriginality, would that do the trick? The spinners must by now have considered it as an avenue of escape, perceiving the potential of a racial excuse and explanation for her cries of “Fire! Fire!” in Humptytown’s theatre of the absurd. The approach might have worked, but not now that Sattler has effectively said the Gillard version is a lie.

Could Gillard’s ink-stained urgers simple move on – that ever-popular phrase – forget the race riot and bang again the tired tropes of a nation divided and reconciliation bogged in the quagmire of conservative intolerance? Who knows, even now Larissa Behrendt may be tapping out just such a sermon.

Let them have their heads for now, indulge them to read only the signals in each other’s anxious eyes as they gather in the closed circle about the latest batch of crackers. This time it is a lie too far, although the gallery in its arrogance and isolation will not yet have noticed as much. They will lecture and scold and advance the pro forma rationales, but the Australia whose day was desecrated by the Prime Minister’s tawdry little tricks is unlikely to be moved.

Not this time, not after so many lies and liars.

UPDATE: Kim Sattler now claims to have been quoted inaccurately and has brought her version of events into line with Prime Minister Yabby. What a surprise!

Fascinating as this matter remains, it is a hot, glorious day in Melbourne and the beach beckons. Any comments received for the next hour or so will be put up. After that things will go quiet until later tonight.