There he is, lying on the footpath. By all appearances, not well. Yes, it’s the perennially entertaining Barnaby Joyce, the eternal cowboy who wanted to alert us to the horrors of free vaccination against the human papillomavirus, the horrors of acting on climate change, the horrors of abortion, and the joys of two-family values.
And yet now, for the first time in forever, I feel sorry for him.
Like the rest of us, Barnaby Joyce doesn’t read the side-effects pamphlet accompanying medication.Credit: James Brickwood
He was filmed last week, lying on his back, swearing down the phone. A former deputy prime minister, Joyce claims to have been talking to his wife and former staffer Vikki Campion before he fell off a planter box and lay prostrate in his own profanities. Apparently he was cursing because he hurt himself. He’s also now explained he found himself in this predicament because he mixed alcohol and prescription drugs. I guess, like the rest of us, he doesn’t read the side effects pamphlet accompanying medication.
Parliamentarians and those who work with them need help and support because they are working in high-pressure environments and obviously have no other means of dealing with their stress other than getting munted. I don’t understand why grown adults haven’t found other ways to cope (running, meditating) but they haven’t. And I have a sneaking feeling they don’t want options.
The culture of machismo and booze-fuelled bravado puts us all at risk, but the culture also explains why the Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce, charged with implementing the sterling recommendations of the Jenkins Report, is utterly bogged down. Way too slow on implementation.
The report was drafted in response to myriad revelations about Parliament House culture (drinking culture, sexual assault, drinking culture, wanking on the desk at work, drinking culture, profligate hookups of powerful men with far less powerful women, drinking culture...). Recommendation number 28 pinged alcohol as a central concern – Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces need an alcohol policy. The former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins made that Cristal-clear.
Restrict availability to line up with work, health and safety obligations. Get harm minimisation ducks in order. Explain to these jokers, in words of one syllable, what the expectations are around the use of alcohol. Support those who’ve got a problem. Provide alcohol-free networking opportunities. Jenkins recommended providing further education. I have my doubts. There could not be one person elected to parliament not well-educated enough to know alcohol’s harms.
Maybe, instead, introduce the idea that it is possible to relax without being blind-drunk.
For the first time in forever, I feel sorry for Barnaby Joyce
22
11
13.02.2024
There he is, lying on the footpath. By all appearances, not well. Yes, it’s the perennially entertaining Barnaby Joyce, the eternal cowboy who wanted to alert us to the horrors of free vaccination against the human papillomavirus, the horrors of acting on climate change, the horrors of abortion, and the joys of two-family values.
And yet now, for the first time in forever, I feel sorry for him.
Like the rest of us, Barnaby Joyce doesn’t read the side-effects pamphlet accompanying medication.Credit: James Brickwood
He was filmed last week, lying on his back, swearing down the phone. A former deputy prime minister, Joyce claims to have been talking to his wife........
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