Cate Blanchett

I can’t find one Coalition MP or fellow traveller who came to the defence of Cate Blanchett when last May she took part in a TV advertisement supporting a price on carbon.

There were plenty who shredded the internationally successful Australian actress, making the point that among those disqualified from speaking on climate change were internationally successful Australian actresses.

None of these shredders were accused by others of instigating class warfare against Blanchett, said to be worth from $53 million to $55 million. None were dismissed as being driven by envy.

Continue reading "Classy targets cop it hardest in phony class wars" »

AND, action! A senior cabinet minister generally regarded as among the more effective, uses a major speech on Australia Day-eve to channel an American president without acknowledging it. Worse, it wasn’t even an actual president but a fictional one.

On the same day, a few hundred metres up the hill, the 2012 Australian of the year is unveiled as an A-list Hollywood actor, Geoffrey Rush. Rush, a gifted pretender with an expressive face, promptly weighs in to some of the more divisive political debates in this country hinting at the moral failure of both sides of politics to recognise the human courage of asylum seekers, the failure to progress gay marriage equality, and to deliver enough on climate change.

Later he defends his A-list compatriot Cate Blanchett who had been lambasted for taking part in an advertising campaign on carbon driven global warming. OK as movie plots go this is bit lame but it certainly seems fanciful enough. Besides, it has the advantage of being “based on a true story” and all that. It even has some real actors in it.

Continue reading "The saying goes, politics is showbusiness for ugly people" »

So the left-wing apologists from Get Up and the ACTU are now imploring us to just “say yes” to Labor’s Carbon Tax. 

They may as well have added “this won’t hurt a bit, honest” to their patronizing new advertisement.

I’ve often thought that the moral supremacists at Get Up occupied a very different Australia to the one in which I live.

Continue reading "A carbon price? Tell ‘em they’re dreaming" »

Not since the Federated Actors Guild launched a musical campaign against the AIDS virus in the movie Team America has a group of celebrities caused such a stink.

The decision of actors Cate Blanchett and Michael Caton to front advertisements supporting the Federal Government’s climate change policies has been denounced as a shocking act of impertinence by a pair of cashed-up lefties who have no right to enter the debate.

The attacks on the pair have been over the top and underscore the increasing shoutiness of modern discourse. On news and opinion websites (including the two I work for, The Punch and news.com.au) we have seen the usual procession of anonymous haters line the pair up over their supposedly unwelcome foray into publc policy arena.

Continue reading "Climate critics should play the ball not the (wo)man" »

Now we are means-testing people for the right to have an opinion in television commercials, it seems that only those who struggle with absolute penury can speak for Australians.

Everyone else is tainted by the bias of success and salaries.

Billionaires can’t complain about higher taxes on super-profits; screen stars can’t complain about pollution.

Continue reading "It’s a bit rich to gag the wealthy on carbon pricing" »

I like Cate’s economic thinking here:

She ... mentioned the loss of agricultural and tourism industry jobs, adding: “We have the ability to kick start the low carbon economies of the future right when we need to, and that’s now.”

Changing the traditional drivers of economic production is something that I reckon will be fundamental to bringing about serious reductions in carbon emissions across the economy. Agriculture and heavy industry cannot continue in their current form, but making anything happen is going to take enormous will from politicians and consumers, open-mindedness from workers on new opportunities from innovation, and also support from government for workers making a transition between jobs.

On the other hand, I can’t say I agree with Cate on this:

Continue reading "Cate Blanchett is right and wrong on climate change" »