A casual vacancy in the Victorian Legislative Council has now been filled. The replacement member for the Western Metropolitan Region in the upper house, union official Cesar Melhem, enters Victorian parliament….
Suddenly, everyone seems to be unloading about the state of federal-state relations and the problems of the Council of Australian Governments. COAG, where the prime minister, premiers and chief ministers…. While much of the commentary has focused on the domestic politics or the diplomacy of the bid, security…. Allegations that Australia is funding death squads in West Papua have brought the troubled province back to Australian attention.
Blanket denials by both Indonesian and Australian governments — standard…. Ex-foreign minister casts light on support for Israel — and his obsession with diet and the indignities of businesss class travel. The bitter fight became entwined in the leadership tensions that were reaching a crescendo at the time.
Or appears to involve. He describes how nine ministers spoke against Gillard when the issue was discussed by cabinet, and only two in favour of her position. She only changed her mind when she realised she was set to be overruled by the caucus - which would have ended her already tenuous hold on the leadership.
He also describes his rigorous personal regimen. Politics is never far away though. This is what he actually did: Nothing. He said nothing. He did nothing. He went to dinner. When the summit was over, the leaders preparing to depart, our hero had another chance to demonstrate his mastery.
The international media gathered for the press conference that is always held by the incoming chair country, in this case Australia. Here was a chance for Carr to contribute towards the G agenda for the year ahead, with ideas so compelling that the group would be sure to embrace them. What did Carr say? He cancelled the press conference and left St Petersburg without explanation.
He was mute. He had nothing to offer. No ideas, no words, not even a conga line. That anticlimax is not in his diary, but that was what happened in the real world. Yes, the real world, where he was just a discarded provincial leader who was called from retirement to be an unthreatening stopgap for a prime minister in crisis.
Julia Gillard asked Carr to step in as foreign affairs minister to fill the vacancy created by Kevin Rudd when he resigned to challenge Gillard.
Carr was plausible as a foreign affairs front man. In truth, he was only ever the acting minister for foreign affairs. And acting was as good as it got. Anticlimax is central to the Bob Carr story. All the great powers, the people, the institutions and the issues of the day are in place, and Carr enters the scene, but time after time he leaves without achieving anything. It is a non-event.
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