Super-nerd, sanctimonious, workaholic - some of the less flattering words that have been used about our Prime Minister.
But today Kevin Rudd has been named a “serial killer” on a major US television network. A bit far?
CNBC anchor Erin Burnett made the call, saying the Prime Minister was responsible for “camelcide” in the Australian Outback.
Clearly the wackjobs at PETA are holding Ms Burnett’s kitten hostage. I can’t think of another reason why she would weigh into this particular issue in such an extraordinary way.
The photogenic TV host said: “there is a serial killer in Australia and we are going to put a picture up so we can see who it is.” A picture of Kevin Rudd then appeared over her shoulder as Burnett said “that would be the prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd.”
“He has launched air strikes - air strikes - against camels in the outback.”
It was quite a rant, that ended with Burnett saying “I hope they have this on in the morning in Australia.”
Ms Burnett should read a recent piece by Nicolas Rothwell in The Australian.
In No Country for old camels Rothwell describes the devastation the huge outback camel population, which is not native, has done to the landscape.
They maraud Aboriginal communities, trample fence lines, attack standpipes, destroy water tanks. They roam unchecked across the plateaus of the Western Desert, fanning out from creeks and riverbeds, creating a wasteland inside the wilderness, eradicating native plants, leaving nothing for the remnant wildlife. They are hardy and perfectly adapted to their new environment.
Already there are more than one million of them, running free; their number is doubling each decade and there is no prospect of any natural check to this expansion.All through the Gibson Desert the waterholes are filled with the bones and rotting carcasses of drowned camels; a camel skeleton even guards the edge of Ilpilli, one of the Centre’s key traditional sites. In today’s deserts and rangelands, it is camels that are the single all-dominating factor. They eat 80 per cent of the available feed. They shape the look and condition of the environment.
Efforts to develop a large-scale, well-managed camel industry, for live export or human or pet-meat consumption, have been no more than spasmodic; efforts towards systematic control by state agencies have hardly begun.
Rothwell goes on to describe in detail the efforts being made to bring the camel population under control.
Perhaps Ms Burnett, sitting pretty in her television studio half a world away, would prefer the camels completely destroy the Australian outback before dying out in their own horrible famine.
The Punch just got this statement from the office of Environment Minister Peter Garrett:
There are an estimated one million feral camels that devastate our native environment in central and northern Australia, destroying native plants and animal habitat causing an estimated $14 million in damage, including to fences, water troughs, bores, buildings and vegetation.
Feral camel numbers are estimated to double every nine years.Our $19 million commitment will put some serious money into getting those camel numbers back down in a project covering the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and will involve natural resource management groups, conservation bodies, the pastoral industry, research organisations and state and territory governments.
Ms Burnett needs her kitten back.
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